23 Plumber's Mate, (Jul '62)

Hussar - Plumber's Mate

 'Plumber's Mate' is a relatively unusual storyette in that it doesn't have a Military, Sporting or Biker theme. Instead, it features workmen, another icon of masculinity, but one that is largely neglected in the Royale/Hussar oeuvre. In this set plumbers working in a bathroom undress and get wet, something of a throwback to the early, Royale, 'wet' storyettes like Navy Romeo and Navy Gash.

We don't have any catalogue information about the set, just a reference to a 'playlet' called 'Plumber's Mate' in a Hussar advertisement in the July 1962 issue of Tomorrow's Man. I'm guessing it's this group of pictures. We don't know how many pictures there were in the full set, the Archive has 6. 

Plumber's Mate was shot 'on location' in a black bathroom, the same one Fred Collins uses in his second Footballer storyette (set FC2, ca Feb '59). It's also used for Tibor Urgay's shower scene (Oct '58) in set TIB4 (link pending, see Tibor Urgay). These connections suggest that the Plumber's Mate photographs may actually date from this earlier period rather than 1962. 

However, the casting throws a different light on the date. Out of the cast of 3, only Brian Morris has been presently identified by name. He was active for Royale and Scott of London around 1960-61, much later than the bathroom references above. Some pictures of him with 'workman' accessories were published under the Hussar brand in Sept 1961. 

If the black bathroom was in Basil's house, we can't be sure it was available after the Royale-Hussar split in 1960 (documented in the blog Timeline article). If the set pre-dates the split, the delayed publication date could be explained by the imagery, which shows naked men frolicking together under a shower. Some of the pictures are more overtly sexy than most of Royale's work, too. In any event, none appeared in the beefcake press until 1965. So Hussar may have a just claim to have published it first. 

 Brian Morris also appeared in another Hussar set with a member of the 'Plumber' cast 
(it was advertised in Apr '63 and tentatively named Bike Trio by me). 

Read Plumber's Mate

~

 (Interestingly, Etienne published a plumber picture in the June 1962 edition of Fizeek Art Quarterly, but I don't know if there's any connection, like the one established between Royale's Shanghai'ed Sailor and Etienne's 'Sailor Beware').