Royale's 'Joke' Names

How Royale Studio seemed to make a joke of their model's names 

Confusion about model names abounds in vintage beefcake photos. Understandably, gay men in general often adopted an alias for homosexual contacts in those troubled times to avoid blackmail and exposure. Bodybuilders who used their real names for formal competitions often adopted pseudonyms when posing for the less respectable beefcake studios and some even used different names for different studios. 

However, Royale Studio seems to have had more than it's fair share of confusion. They seem to have had a habit of mis-naming models particularly in dealings with beefcake publications. It's not clear if this stemmed from a degree of casualness, disorganisation or lack of professionalism or was a genuine device to protect the models.  

There is some evidence that Royale staff regarded correct naming as unimportant. The convoluted use of names in the Navy Romeo group of photo-sets is a good example and there's a testy underlining of the name Trefor in the catalogue description of ERTR-3, after spelling it as Trevor in ERTR-2. However, Royale also had a (queenly) habit of making a joke of names, cannibalising those of celebrities or misspelling model's proper names to create an innuendo.  

Simple Mistakes 

Some misnamings were probably simple mistakes, David Reid was called David Reed in the blurb for the Bullies storyette in Man Alive No 6.

 

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

The caption printed at the top of this photo contains two spectacular examples of misnaming. I relate elsewhere at this blog the confusion of Tibor Urgay's identity with the US Model Ray Andersen, which was because they looked very alike. This mistake was probably created by the US magazine rather than Royale, which would suggest they didn't supply any names with the photo. 

In this caption also, Brian Lamprill was inexplicably given the name of a completely different British model, Gerry Haywood (not Gerri!).

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'. The comment reflects the prevailing convention that body builders be depicted displaying their musculature, just as they would in a competition. 

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Trim 16 March 1960

Verbal communication problems might be the explanation of this earlier mis-naming of Brian Lamprill as Brian Campbell in Trim magazine in April 1960. In the 60s contact between Royale in London and Trim in Washington DC with attendant clock differences was reliant on slow letters and unreliable phone lines. 

 

 

Deliberate Innuendo 

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. This particular tag seems to have persisted, in the index of Trim Studio Quarterly No 26 he's called Brian Lamphill.

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 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 may have adopted false names to disguise their identities as servicemen. 

The Cast of 'Navy Gash'

The names given for the cast of 'Navy Gash' were not particularly subtle. (L to R) Ned Willy-gan, Percy and Tom Hard-ing. 

 

To be fair, Tom Harding could be a real name, but Percy is a common UK euphemism for penis, (as in 'I'm off to point Percy at the porcelain'). The absence of any surname suggests he preferred anonymity. The naming of the third cast member, Ned, goes beyond the simple innuendo seen here with other layers of joke naming later, which I have attempted to unravel in Navy Romeo Identities.

 

 

 

Tom Manlick's improbable, saucy 'moniker' may have been devised as a cover for his army background.  It was possibly derived from a Central European name.  

 

Picture from Manual No 80 (1966) 

 

 

(Left) 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 to be a jest about Peter's memorable backside rather than titillating information about his sex life. 

Terry Fury was also misnamed Harold, Harold Masters in his case. It was an interesting choice of words, given his role as a Military Policeman in one storyette. 

Terry also fell victim to the 'Ted' renaming trap in his only appearance in the Royale Catalogue. 'Ted' seems to crop up as a catch-all substitute for a model's proper name in several cases, see Miscellaneous Models.  

 

Non English Names 

 

In the 50's British people had far less dealings with foreign names than they do today, so joke misspellings and mispronunciations were commonplace, and not necessarily malicious in intent. In the gay community this merged into the widespread practice of anonymity. Tom Manlick's name may have been one such semi-admiring adaptation of a Central European real name. 

 

It was inevitable that honest spelling mistakes would also occur. The names of Royale model, Hans Jorge Heiner (link pending), are re-arranged and misspelt in numerous ways in different magazines.

 

I have a sneaking suspicion that Peter George man have had a non-English, real name because he's often paired with European models and his first solo sets were all given the model code PUN, not one based on his 'official' name.

Celebrity Substitution

Royale seemed to have randomly picked a well-known, French surname (top left) 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 this magazine. Inevitably, Yves suffered a multitude of other misnamings by English speakers in his short career for Royale, see the Yves Grangeat Index Page.

 

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Other 'celebrity examples' are Ted Richards (possibly a corruption of the pop star Cliff Richard), which was supplied to Man Alive 7 as the name of Ian McAllister from Bullies. 

 

In the same issue, Gordon Compton (possibly derived from cricketing legend, Dennis Compton) is given as the name of Ted (or Dennis?) from Navy Romeo and DTS. Must have been a bad memory day at the Royale Office.

Private Jokes?

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

Stan Free was called 'Barry Cutts' in the Royale Catalogue listing of 'TEDS' but I've not found that name used anywhere else and I can't decode the reference. It may be his real name, but I've speculated that this is another private joke in his Solo Sets Post .

Frank Harrod's name in 'The Hold Up' may have been an joking allusion to the famous, up-market, London store. There's no trace of him beyond this appearance, but he bears a striking resemblance to David Tompkins, who also had a career as a fashion model, hence the joke.