Horse Guard set added to Archive

Royale Studio's Tom Manlick as a Horse Guard

As part of the work for setting up the gallery entry for 'Football Ballet' I have posted a new Index entry for the model Tom Manlick and a post at the Gallery covering his scandalous photo-set depicting a member of the Royal Horse Guard's Regiment semi-naked. Full details and link at his Index page.

I've also undated the Horse Guards Collection with two added entries

Royale's 'Joke' Names

 Confusion about model names abounds in vintage beefcake photos. Models often adopted pseudonyms for publication. Sometimes they used different names for different studios. Royale Studio seems to have had more than it's fair share of confusion.

Tibor Urgay and Brian Lamprill in 'Gym', April 1960

I relate elsewhere at this blog the confusion of Tibor Urgay's identity with the US Model Ray Andersen (see above) because they looked so alike. Brian Lamprill was also inexplicably given the name of another British model, Gerry Haywood (not Gerri!) in this caption. By the way, I love the idea that this image (actually from the Urgay v Lamprill set) was an impromptu session created by models 'waiting assignment'.

Trim 16 March 1960

Communication problems might be the explanation of this earlier mis-naming of Brian Lamprill as Brian Campbell in Trim magazine in  April1960. In the 60's contact between Royale in London and Trim in Washington DC with attendant clock differences was reliant on slow letters and unreliable phone lines. In the index of Trim Studio Quarterly No 26 he's called Brian Lamphill.

Vim Nov 1960

Poor Brian Lamprill was also tagged as Brian Lamphrille in Vim later the same year. This hardly seems like a simple mistake, a typo or misspelling. It's as if some wag deliberately turned the name into a suggestive pun. (Say it out loud if you don't get it!). It probably wasn't Vim's doing, they took themselves very seriously as a body building periodical. In fact, Royale seemed to make a regular practice of giving models 'joke' names.

The Cast of 'Navy Gash'

Lamprill was primarily a 'straight' body builder for Royale and able to use his real name (or at least his competition name) but Royale often using serving members of the armed forces for their racy, uniformed storyettes and they probably adopted false names which were often not particularly subtle. Thus the trio above from 'Navy Gash' were named (L to R) Ned Willy-gan, Percy* and Tom Hard-ing. (To be fair, Tom Harding could be a real name)

*Percy is a common UK euphemism for penis, (as in 'I'm off to point Percy at the porcelain').

I have also related elsewhere at this blog the confusion surrounding the names Ned Willigan and comedian Spike Millican in Navy Romeo Identities which I suspect is another jest by the people at Royale.

Royale seemed to pick a well-known, French surname (top left) at random to identify Yves Grangeat in this feature at Body Beautiful 9. Presumably they couldn't remember or couldn't pronounce his real name in their communications with the magazine. In fact Yves suffered a multitude of misnamings in his short career, see the Yves Grangeat Index Page.

In those days in the UK making fun of foreigner's names was perfectly normal and Tom Manlick's improbable, saucy 'moniker' was possibly derived from an original Central European name.

Peter George as 'Harold Andsbury' in Gym 3, Jun 59

Gym Magazine were complicit in dubbing Peter George as 'Harold Andsbury' in this feature. Abbreviating Harold to 'H' produces the name H.Ands-bury, highly suggestive of FF fetish. Coining sobriquets like this for other people was a popular pastime for certain gay men in those days and some were very good at it. It's more likely a jest about Peter's memorable backside rather than titillating information about his actual sex life. 

Stan Free giving a caning to a youth in' TEDS'

Renaming models was not confined to magazine appearances, Stan Free was called 'Barry Cutts' in the Royale Catalogue listing of 'TEDS' but I've not found that name used anywhere else. I've speculated that this is another joke  in his Solo Sets Post

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More casual mistakes crop up even in Royale's own catalogue - 

David Reid was called David Reed in the blurb for the Bullies storyette.

The Royal Tournament, Earls Court (updated)

Jan 2023 - Original Article

Aug 2024 - Updated with cross-reference to Royale Studio in Man Alive and an image of the venue.

Royal Tournament, Field Gun Race 1999

Royale Studio's catalogue description for the 'Navy Gash' storyette describes the models as being members of the 'Earl's Court, Chatham Gun Crew.' This identifies them as being (or having been) real sailors in the Royal Navy. It's a reference to 'The Royal Tournament', a military display which the UK military services used to put on annually at the Earls Court arena in South West London. It ran up until 1999 when it was halted on the grounds of cost, but is still revived occasionally for charity events.

The Royal Tournament featured displays from all three services - marching bands, army gymnastics, dog-handling skills and formation displays by motorcycle riders, cavalry and artillery regiments. One of the most popular events, was 'The Field Gun Race' (above) in which two Royal Navy crews, typically representing naval dockyards (such as Chatham, Portsmouth or Devonport) competed against each other to dismantle a cannon, ferry it across and through various obstacles and then reassemble it and fire it before their opponents could beat them to it. The image above features Portsmouth vs The Fleet Air Arm from the final Royal Tournament in 1999.   In Royale's day the Royal Tournament got a lengthy, Saturday night, peak time TV viewing slot, so Royale's models were minor celebrities as well as being real sailors.

The Gun Race and it's Royale connection

This contemporary article about the Gun Race in 'Man Alive' No 7 (Oct 1959) was illustrated with an image from Royale's 'DTS' photo-set and jokingly re-titled the event as the 'Royale Tournament' which has all the hallmarks of Basil Clavering' s bravado.

Read about Royale's use of real Servicemen

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The Gun Race was originally inspired by a heroic incident in the Boer War in which Navy crews transported guns from their ships across very difficult terrain to help relieve the siege of Ladysmith. There's a succinct explanation of the history of this event in Origins of the Gun Race. The Gun Race is still used as a Navy training exercise and I believe it featured in the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022.

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Earl's Court Exhibition Centre

In the 1950's, the Earl's Court Arena was one of the few spaces in the country capable of mounting large scale events like the Royal Tournament under cover before a seated audience. It could accommodate military vehicles and even stabling facilities for the horses (it was regularly used for indoor Show jumping events and for the 1948 Olympics). For the Royal Tournament it was also conveniently close to a number of barracks including Chelsea Barracks, home of the Queen's Guards. The building itself was also used for Exhibitions, Fairs (above) and Award ceremonies like The Brits. Unusually for a big arena it was very easy to get to being directly opposite the Earl's Court tube station. It had a striking 'Art Deco' frontage but was controversially demolished in 2017.