23 Plumber's Mate, (Jul '62)

Hussar Studio's 1960's humorous, story about a trio of plumbers who get soaked while fixing a shower and have to strip to their underwear.

Hussar - Plumber's Mate

The Plot 

 'Plumber's Mate' is a relatively unusual Royale/Hussar story in that it doesn't fit their customary Military, Sporting or Biker themes. Instead, it features workmen, another icon of masculinity, but one that is largely neglected in the Royale/Hussar oeuvre. In this set plumbers working on a bathroom shower each in turn get wet and progressively strip to their underwear. It's a later set, but is something of a throwback to the early, Royale, 'wet' storyettes like Navy Romeo and Navy Gash.

 

Publication Date 

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'. We don't know how many pictures there were in the full set, the Archive has assembled 6 from various sources. 

The casting throws a slightly different light on the date. Out of the cast of 3, only Brian Morris has been presently identified by name, but he was active for Royale Studio and Scott of London during 1960-61, some pictures of him with (unrelated) 'workman' accessories were published under the Hussar brand in Sept 1961.  

 

The Setting 

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 might suggest that the Plumber's Mate photographs may originally date from the earlier, Royale Studio period, rather than 1962. 

The repeated use of this bathroom for Royale photographs has led to the assumption that it was located in Basil's house in Denbigh St. If this is correct, we can't be sure it was available for Hussar to use after the split from Royale Studio in 1960 (as documented in the Royale Studio blog, Timeline article para 60.5).Nevertheless Hussar has a just claim to have published Plumber's Mate first, in 1962. 

The delay in publication to 1962 could be explained by the imagery, which ends with naked men frolicking together under a shower. Some of the wet, clothed pictures are more overtly sexy than  Royale's usual imagery, too. In any event, none appeared in the beefcake press until 1965. 

 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). 

View the 'Plumber's Mate' photos

~ 

Footnote

 Interestingly, Etienne, the legendary gay artist, also published a picture of a plumber who soaks himself in the June 1962 edition of Fizeek Art Quarterly, at almost the same time as Plumber's Mate. There may be a shared, inspirational connection, like the one established between Royale Studio's Shanghai'ed Sailor and Etienne's 'Sailor Beware'.