Identifying the Navy Romeo, Navy Gash and DTS models

 Unravelling the Mystery of Who's Who in Royale Studio's, Iconic Trilogy of Sailor Storyettes

Navy Romeo 14,Part 1

Royale's trio of Sailor storyettes - Navy Romeo (parts 1 & 2), Navy Gash and the so-called 'DTS' photo-set are slightly neglected because they don't have any spanking content but they are an integral part of the foundations of the Royale Studio legend with the tailor-made, tight, white uniforms worn by the sailors setting out the 'Royale style' and the unusual plot-lines about service life that would be called bullying these days. However, a good deal of mystery and confusion surrounds the casting of these series. 

 

The Continuity of Navy Romeo 

Royale tell us in the description of Navy Romeo that the stars are Tom and Spike, the voyeurs and later the tormentors of Ted, their victim. Like other storyettes the appearance and build of the actors changes bewilderingly from one scene to another, but in particular in this series between Part 1 and Part 2. 

 

Unfortunately the quality of most of the surviving images is imperfect and we rarely see clear, close-up pictures of the men's faces. Despite their military pedigrees they don't have tattoos, which are normally a great aid to identification.  

 

So, for example, is the handsome Ted (seen far right in picture 14 of Part 1, at the top of this post) the same person as we see emerging from the car in picture 16 at the start of Part 2 below?  

 

 

Navy Romeo 16, Part 2 

Is Spike, also seen in picture 14, in the middle, the same, handsome Spike we just glimpse taunting Ted in the middle of picture 28 below?

Navy Romeo 28, Part 2 

Is he the same Spike we see later departing the scene in the middle of picture 36?  (shown below)

Navy Romeo 36, Part 2 

It's tempting to ask whether the men in Part 1 of Romeo actually the same as those in Part 2. Apart from the actors' appearances, there are are discontinuities in style and plot between the two parts that suggest they were not produced together. 

Sailor Al, who had credible sources, believed that Part 1 was originally called 'The Itch' and was about voyeurs who sabotaged Ted's night out by putting itching powder in his underpants. This is quite different to Royale's description of the combined set. 

Spike is wearing dark shoes in the Romeo, Part 1 pictures, e.g. 08, 14 and in the DTS thumbnail (i.e. in the studio shots). But he wears white shoes for the outside shots, in the DTS Garden trio and throughout Romeo Part 2. Obviously the studio and garden pictures would have been separate shoots, but this tiny discontinuity lends some credence to the theory that Parts 1 and 2 were originally separate stories. 

Verifying the Stars of the Navy Trilogy

TOM HARDING

Tom Harding in DTS03

Tom Harding presents the fewest ID problems. The only place he's fully named by Royale is in Navy Gash. In Navy Romeo he's just called Tom. He's not named at all in the DTS description, but Man Alive 07 published DTS 02 as part of an article about the Royal Tournament Gun Race and gave his name there as one of the three matelots. We can directly link the face to his name by referring to his solo set.

We see a lot of Tom's face in Navy Romeo Part 2 (pictures 17, 18, 32) and in DTS. It's clearly the same man as in Navy Gash. 

Identifying Tom in Romeo Part 1, however, is more difficult. The nearest we get to a decent shot of his face is a series of indistinct profiles (e.g. 03) in which he looks much more lean and youthful than the frontal images in DTS and NARO2. However, we can see his dark, curly hair and there is something of that lean look in the rear view of him seen in 19 from Romeo Part 2 (extreme left). There's no substantive reason to doubt Royale's naming.

see Tom Harding's career profile 

TED

Ted in DTS02

Ted doesn't appear in Navy Gash. He is named as the vain victim in the Navy Romeo description and we see him being pulled out of the car in Navy Romeo 16 and being manhandled in 17 and 18. 

Tying this man into Romeo Part 1 is problematic thanks to the lack of clear, full face shots. There are two glimpses of him where there is a fair amount of similarity, however - in picture 05 and in the mirror reflection in picture 02. 

Apart from this we have only fragmentary impressions to rely on. Ted's chunky build in picture 04 is a good match for his figure in No 34 in Part 2. His very different appearance in 14, which first triggered my doubts on this identification issue, actually pairs reasonably with well with the way he's glimpsed in No 31.

There isn't any difficulty connecting Ted to DTS. The man we see being pulled out of the car in Navy Romeo 16 and being manhandled in 17 and 18 is very plausibly the same man we see in the middle of  DTS02 (above).  

However there is another ID problem with Ted. In their Royal Tournament Article, Man Alive 7 identified the third man of this trio in DTS 02 as 'George Compton' not Ted.  I've not found a solo shoot for Ted, nor George Compton in the Royale Catalogues to cross-reference, despite his attractive muscular build. Nor is there any mention of him in other Royale sets and I've not come across them in the wider world of beefcake either.

 However, Gordon Compton sounds like one of Royale's infamous 'made-up' names, invented when the true one couldn't be remembered, was difficult to spell or just as a joke. Dennis Compton was a legendary cricketer in the 1950's and if Ted's real first name was Dennis the copy writer might well have wittily mis-described him this way. This is pure speculation, but would conveniently resolve the puzzle about the meaning of DTS, which becomes an abbreviation of the participant's names Dennis-Tom-Spike, Royale's usual format for photo-sets.

 I'm still wondering about his true identity.

SPIKE

Spike in DTS04

 

 The model called Ned Willigan in Navy Gash is pretty obviously the same man we see on the right in  DTS04 (above) and is a pretty good match for the man called Spike in Romeo, Part 2 pictures 17, 31 and 36.

 Spike's face appears different in picture 28 of Romeo. However, the distinctive hand-on-thigh pose he uses there is also seen in the 'gloating pictures' 31 and 32. It's also seen in DTS04 and is probably the best evidence we have for linking him into NARO Part 1 (via picture 14), because the facial evidence is scant.

The best facial shots of Spike in Part 1 of Navy Romeo are 09 and 14, but these are not very helpful in confirming him as Ned from DTS and Navy Gash. However, the eye and cheek area seen in the rear, three-quarter views in 03 and 04 could credibly be the same man we see in the gloating images of Navy Romeo Part 2. The tiny glimpse of his face reflected in the mirror in 08 is also unexpectedly persuasive, when seen in the original image.

The DTS04 picture gives us other circumstantial evidence for linking Spike into both Romeo Parts 1 and 2 – it's the tiny tear on his right thigh, which is also visible in both NARO 1 (10 ) and NARO 2 (21). Having said that, Spike is not the only man who wears these split trousers belonging to Royale.

 

THE REAL SPIKE MILLICAN

In the previous section, I ignored the anomaly of 'Spike' (in Navy Romeo vs 'Ned' Willigan in Navy Gash, because Spike is a common nickname. But I have pointed out elsewhere that Willigan sounds suspiciously like one of Royale's 'joke names' and that view is borne out by the Man Alive, Gun Race article referenced above, which put the cat amongst the pigeons by calling him Harry Millican!

 This confusion is quickly resolved by the Royale Catalogue which contains this entry......

 

The reference to Navy Romeo in the SPM description above, implies that 'Spike' is Spike Millican. This is a perfectly respectable familiarisation of Harry Millican because in 1959 there was a very well-known, zany comedian called Spike Milligan (famously one of 'The Goons'). His odd appearance and bizarre personality must inevitably led to some joking at the expense of any model with a similar name. It neatly explains away the suggestive Willigan tag too, but what about Ned? 

 

It may be that Ned (or Edward) really was one of Spike's names, but there's a possibility that this is just another Royale joke, because  there's some evidence that Ted (a variant of Ned and Ed) may have been a Royale catch-all when real names couldn't be remembered or spelt out for magazine editors. Thus, we've seen above that 'Gordon Compton' may have been dubbed Ted in Navy Romeo and another Ted, Ted Richards, mysteriously turns up in an article about 'Bullies' as an alternative name for the hard-to-spell Ian McAllister. (Richards was a common misnaming of Cliff Richard, the contemporary, rising Pop Star).

 

Royale Studios - Catalogue Thumbnail for set SPM

The visual evidence to link the Spike in SPM to Navy Romeo is less neat than that offered by the set description. In the thumbnail above, it's clearly the Navy Gash set behind him, but it's very hard to see this man as the boyish Spike from the closing scenes of NARO 2, although he does have the same tousled hair at the front and the same distinctive cleft chin. 

His gaunt look here may be attributable to the side lighting effect which hides his whole crotch area in shadow bar a suggestive 'ridge'. It may equally be related to Royale's wet trousers ritual, although, here, it looks almost as though he's just had a bucket of water tossed over him. A reprisal for his dousing of Ted in NARO 2 perhaps and his association with the crazy Spike Milligan leading to some extreme practical joking!

see Spike Millican's career profile  

Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed that the Navy Gash catalogue description is not error-free either, check the words on the shirt there against the photo.