01 Shanghaied Sailor (Jun'60)

Royale Studio - Shanghai'd Sailor

The plot of this set - namely the abduction and enslavement of a drunken sailor while on shore leave in foreign parts - bears a striking resemblance to Etienne's 'Sailor Beware', not least in the near-identical opening scene showing the Sailor reaching an advanced state of intoxication in a bar under the scheming gaze of the locals. Other similarities are described in the full Gallery article (link below). 

Images from Royale's storyette appeared as early as Jun 1960 in Man Alive No 10*, but the earliest dated reference I can find for Etienne's first interpretation of the story (he did two versions) is in Mars 17 (Jan'66), so it seems like Royale's story may have inspired Etienne's work. Indeed, that 1960 article actually uses the expression 'sailor beware'. However, Etienne's story differs in significant details (two sailors instead of one for example) and he takes it much further, detailing their lives as slaves after being sold with a steamy erotic conclusion that Royale could never have contemplated at that time in the UK. Royale's story seems to be set in the Caribbean (the Antigua Bar) as opposed to Etienne's fanciful, Arabian location and this gives the enslavement plot line a very different edge. 

The storyette stars Peter George as the sailor victim with Jack Shrimpton as the bartender and the notable West Indian body-builder Beresford Morris playing an opportunist slaver in a notable reversal of the historical roles in this region. A reversal which was then, and still is, full of illicit, erotic nuances. 

The Archive has 19 images from the set with no obvious, major gaps in continuity. The original set size is not known, but Royale's customary sizes of 24 and 36 would have left room for a glimpse of Peter's life as a slave. Painful no doubt.

Read Shanghai'd Sailor

*The two principal magazine sources of images for this set both use the title above, but I have found no Royale advertisements offering it for sale under that name. However, Royale did offer a set called 'Kidnap' in Tomorrow's Man (Jan 1961) and the Dolphin Photography off-shoot of Royale offered 'Kidnapped Sailor' in the same publication the following March. There are no images to clarify what these sets were, but it's quite possible they are one and the same story. It's an interesting example of the rivalry and one-upmanship that seems to have accompanied the Royale/Dolphin split. 

See 'Timeline' article para 60.9

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NOTE: The term 'to Shanghai someone' sounds like some wicked Oriental practice but in fact it was employed by British and American Captains to crew their vessels by abducting men and forcing them to work on their ships. See Shanghai'd blog post