Royale's 'Joke' 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 for the slightly less respectable beefcake studios and even used different names for different studios. Royale's models may also have adopted professional model names to disguise their identities as servicemen. 

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. 'Ted' seems to crop up as a catch-all substitute for a model's proper name.   

Simple Mistakes 

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. 

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'.

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 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. In the index of Trim Studio Quarterly No 26 he's called Brian Lamphill.

 

 

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

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

 

 

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.

 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

The Cast of 'Navy Gash'

The names given for this cast from '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 a surname suggests he preferred anonymity. The name of the third cast member goes beyond this simple innuendo with layers of joke naming which I have attempted to unravel in Navy Romeo Identities.

 

 

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

Gym Magazine were also 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 sex life. 

 

 

Tom Manlick's improbable, saucy 'moniker' may have been designed as cover because of his army background. It was possibly derived from a Central European name.  Picture from Manual No 80 (1966)

 

Non English Names 

 

In the 50's British people had far less dealings with foreign names than they do today, so it was inevitable that honest spelling mistakes would occur. The names of Royale model, Hans Jorge Heiner (link pending), are re-arranged and mispelt in numerous ways in different magazines.

Celebrity Substitution

Royale seemed to have picked 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. Inevitably, Yves suffered a multitude of misnaming by English speakers in his short career, see the Yves Grangeat Index Page.

 

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Other 'celebrity examples' are Ted Richards (a corruption of 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 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 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 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.