Royale's Merchandising of Clothing

One of the spin-offs that Royale tried to exploit was the sale of clothing seen in their photographs. Clavering's background in the cinema industry gave him an entrepreneurial flair and practical knowledge of marketing and merchandising.

Their first campaign was spearheaded by Fred Collins, "Royale's most popular model" in 1959. 

Fred's Shorts on Offer

 In Sept 1959 Man's World carried an image from Fred's 'Footballer' series in an advert offering The “Fred Collins, Elastic Waist, Continental Soccer Shorts” for 15/- a pair (or £0.75 today). The ad was selling the fantasy of course, not just a pair of shorts, but since various sizes were on offer, we may conclude that the shorts were not pre-worn! 

The 'Continental' attribution was quite exotic and sophisticated in the 1950s, pre-EU. It was a time when elastic was replacing drawstring shorts for Soccer (but not for the hurley-burley of Rugby). 

Notice also the 'Specially Styled' claim. With his ethnic background, it's likely that Clavering had connections in the 'Rag Trade'. We can only speculate about the nature of the 'special styling'. 
A tight fit perhaps

 

 The inclusion of Brian Morris (3)  and Mike Ridgeway (4) in this clothing 'brochure' suggests it must have been produced around 1960-1 when the Royale-Hussar transition had just begun. Model (5) may be Tibor Noszgay

The photograph of Fred Collins (2) is much earlier, of course, 1958.

Cliff Smith (1) had a legitimate career as a model for casual wear. Here he shows off a self-supporting "clip pouch". It was advertised in its own right in Man Alive 10 (Jun '60), below 

This ad enlarges the rather vague explanation of the mechanism in the brochure, but gives little idea of how the device is kept in place. Cliff's, rather forced, smile suggests it might involve clenched muscles. It did. Illustrations in other magazines showed it had a back piece, a rod that fitted, rather inelegantly, but not entirely uselessly, between the buttocks. 

 

 

Cliff Clenches

 Amazingly (or perhaps not so amazingly), these two images turned up in 'Drummer' in 1988, but the illustrations were so small that the novelty design of the pouch and it's erotic significance barely registered.

Fred's shorts were made of cotton, 'Sea Island', no less, but Cliff's pouch and the G-string advertised in pictures 3, 4, 5 of the brochure above were made of nylon, which was still regarded as desirable and luxurious. The 60s revolution in men's attitude to dress (pink shirts!) meant that it's exotic qualities could now be marketed to them. Its fit as an erotic garment in these images speaks for itself, and the moral climate had eased enough for them to be publishable. There are good examples of it in 'Tibor Urgay Outdoors' as well as in Brian Morris solo and Mike Ridgeway (pending). A very similar design can be seen in Scott of London's contemporary photos of Wally Grimme,

 

Royale Studio - Brian Morris

From an erotic point of view, this sleek, tight, form-fitting pouch design is a marked improvement on the early, loose 'pocket' style, which was the disappointing norm in beefcake imagery when Royale started up (e.g. Ian Oliver).  The original pouch was characterised by a top hem, through which the waist string passed, producing 'gather' like a simple curtain hanging. This design was not incapable of producing impressive results in the right hands (as it were) but often delivered far less.

 Royale also experimented with other styles. Some of Peter George's pouch images show a different self-contained, box-like design which is rigid and has no gather on the top hem, keeping its shape and guaranteeing generous bulk. It still had string supports, though. 
I've not yet found any attempt to market it.  

All these garments were priced at £1 (about £30 pounds in today's money). Customers may have imagined that the hunky models had actually worn the garments they purchased, but when the average wage was about £10 a week, a pound for a G-string (even a nylon one!) was not a cheap indulgence. 

£1 sounded so expensive in those days that expressing it as 20 shillings (20/-) was common practice. Indeed, even higher prices were often disguised this way, 21 shillings (a guinea) was regarded as a 'posh' price, and you might be asked to pay 25 or 30 shillings in some places.

 ~ 

I may add more clothing references here as I discover them.

Royale Catalogue (May 1958)

The only proper Royale Catalogue the Archive has discovered is the 1960 compilation of the 10 individual quarterly Lists which had been published up to that date. Many of the early sets had been deleted from the catalogue by that time and the first five lists had been condensed into a new List 'A', so information about those early years is incomplete.

However, in May 1958 (about 6 months after Royale's launch) the full page advertisement shown below was printed in 'Adonis' No 4 showing many of the models on their roster at that point.

 

Royale Advertisment in Adonis No 4 (May 1958)

It says a lot for Clavering's confidence and marketing knowledge that Royale were splashing out on full page ads so early in their existence. The catalogue price was 4 shillings, which is about £4 at today's prices.

There are 19 models named on these two pages as follows:

	Left-hand Sheet				Right-hand Sheet
Top Row	Don Avard	Don Avard		Don Avard	Artur Robin	Michael Bambin		Ricky Alboni
2nd Row	Terry Finch	Mohamed el Zole?		Ian Oliver	Mercer	Sandy MacCrea		Richard Robinson
3rd Row	David Trood		Pat Brooks		Muller		David Wales
4th Row	John Dawe?	Les White		Charles Kassapian(?)	Allan	Charles Kassapian		Lee

I am not confident of models named with a question mark

You can see some of the names more clearly in the original, unenhanced image

The man named 'Mercer' is not known from other sources (sadly), nor is 'Allan', nor 'Muller' (although his ship's wheel appears in a well-known picture of Mike Chisholm). There is another image of 'Lee' but the magazine did not give his full name. 

A separate source, also from May 1958, an advertisement in 'Tomorrow's Man', states that Royale had 30 models on their books at that point, so this ad identifies two thirds of their roster. The missing 11 probably included Tibor Urgay, John Skilling, Fred Collins, Ted Gutteridge, Frank Wheeler and Henri Barjac who are also associated with the early existence of Royale

 

Hussar Catalogue Reveals New Sets

Hussar Magazine advert in 'Champ Annual', early 1964

 I recently found this snippet of a Hussar Studio catalogue sheet buried in an advertisement in a beefcake magazine from early 1964. This would prove to be the final days of the Royale experiment, but you wouldn't think so from this magazine which contained several pages of Hussar images. It had probably been compiled some time in advance of the publication date, but by early 1964 Hussar had gone out of business completely.

The images shown here are too small to be significant additions to the Royale Archive Gallery in themselves, but they provide useful information about the later picture sets, of which very little is known. Hussar seems to have adopted a new, two letter referencing system by this point. In the 1960 Royale Catalogue, sets were generally identified with three or, occasionally, four-letter codes.

The first image, labelled BA8 is clearly from the Peter George 'bamboo poles' set, which first appeared under the short-lived 'Dolphin Photography' brand in 1961. The 'BA' notation suggests some connection with the puzzling BR-2 designation given to the Peter George Airman Spanking set. The distinctive fonts used on this sheet and the Airman Spanking thumbnail sheet are identical. The top row of pictures in the advert above tells us 'B' is not Peter George's 'own' code, which was PUN in the Royale days, but it does suggest they both belong to the 'Hussar Period' from mid-1960 to '64.

I have attempted to use AI enhancement techniques on these thumbnails, 

it brightens them up, but otherwise it's not very successful.

The second thumbnail image tagged 'BL1' is from a set showing Brian Lamprill dressed in a German WW2 helmet, belt and fetish-style pouch. This set may be related to the 'chain mail pouch' image of him featured at the mitchmen blog. In this picture it looks as if he is wearing a plain but very revealing, white posing pouch. The code here needs no explanation.

Images 3 & 4 both have the same BS prefix and it's possible to make out military uniforms and riding boots with flared knees (which were also featured in the 'chain mail pouch' post but worn there by Tom Manlick). In the first picture a Guardsman is presenting (or accepting) something with his partner, in the second he is on his knees apparently being undressed. These are almost certainly part of the 'Horse Guard's Batman' series (my title) which featured prominently in the Colville coloured collection (ref 5 in Sources). They called them 'The Queen's Guard' which is almost certainly not the original title, but what BS stands for, if anything, is a mystery (Batman Seduced?). 

(About military batmen)

The last thumbnail in the top row (reproduced above) looks like one of the biker rough-and-tumble Storyettes (or Playlets, as Hussar termed them) that often starred Cliff Smith. I haven't identified it yet. It looks like there's more compulsory undressing going on!

This first image from the second row of the thumbnail sheet features an American and a British sailor, but I don't think it's part of the Yankee and Limey series from 1958. That was a good-natured 'hands across the sea' encounter, whereas this appears to be a more dramatic confrontation with the RN sailor in formal headgear like a Shore Patrol MP being obliged to crouch before his American counterpart. Even fully dressed, this pose, with a crotch and face in close proximity, was pushing the boundaries of acceptability.  A couple of small images from this DS series (link pending) popped up in Hussar Studio ads of the time, but the Archive doesn't have any other images from it as yet. 

This image can be identified, it's from 'The Hold-Up' starring the popular Royale model Ron Wiltshire who for once gets his comeuppance after attempting to mug two sailors. The Archive has a good representative selection of images from this set.

Royale fans will instantly recognise the first of these two images, it was part of the Originals collection (ref 1) and is currently listed here in the Archive Gallery as one of the 'Sailors in the Rigging' groups, Set B) . It seems to show some sort of gambling going on, an impression reinforced by the discovery of this second image, SJ23, where it appears one of the sailors is being undressed by the others. 

In fact these pictures both belong to a set called 'Strip Jack Naked' for which I have recently unearthed 14 more images. Another (coloured) image from the Colville Collection previously languishing alone as Set F in the Rigging collection also belongs to this series and I have now amalgamated it into Set B, pending publication of the full group.

In this last image from the middle row we see a guard at the back dressed in riding breeches with the characteristic, light-coloured, inside-leg flash. He's possibly bare topped apart from a 'Sam Browne' belt over his shoulder. He seems to be supervising another man who is kneeling to some task dressed in dark top and shorts. 

This dark outfit looks very much like the fantasy, leather, Scout outfit from the Peter George 'Fascist Youth' set which dabbles (alarmingly to modern eyes) in pre-WW2, militaristic, youth grooming and leather fetish. This may or may not be Peter George wearing it again, but the Horse Guard at the back here is not the same leather-clad German soldier from that set. It's possibly a different set, an attempt to recycle the expensive leather 'Scout' kit in a (slightly) less controversial context. Presumably 'YT' means Youth Training.

Royale used the code SM2 for Sandy McCrea in 'Desert Seen'  way back in 1958.

Hussar did dig out some golden oldies, but this is equally likely to be a different model doing a solo set. The quiff and pole are suggestive of John Skilling's late work with Hussar.

I can't identify who else it might be just from the code letters.

Another example from the multiple 'Rigging' sets. In this one the subject looks as if he is wearing a short-sleeved shirt of some kind and full length trousers with gaiters. This picture might possibly be connected with 'Sailors in the Rigging', Set i, the model's build and packed pants do look comparable. The code SP does not tally with the initials of any Royale/Hussar model I know of, but it might simply represent 'Sailor Punishment' or even be a purely random code.

TU6 is probably a shot of Tibor Urgay, the unenhanced top image of this post gives a better facial match. His early sets were tagged by Royale as TI or TIB, but that was before another Tibor, Tibor Noszgay, joined the roster of models. In his early pictures Urgay's boyish looks belied an impressive manly physique which is very apparent here. 

It looks like he's wearing the 'chain mail pouch' celebrated in a mitchmen blog post, there's another muscular shot of him wearing it in that post. Incidentally, the other Tibor, Tibor Noszgay is also shown wearing it in the same post. It looks like that erotic costume can be confidently dated in this late period of Royale's existence. 

The Full Royale Catalogue for 1960

The British Photographers (BP) 'Originals' Collection is one of the foundations of this Archive. It included images of a number of catalogue sheets, some showing text descriptions of Royale sets, some showing photo thumbnails. Together these pages make up the January 1960 Royale catalogue. They are a valuable resource about what Royale did in it's early years.

The catalogue actually consists of 7 separate Lists issued by Royale between Oct 1957 and January 1960. In other words the entire existence of Royale up to 1960.

Each of these 7 lists consists of two elements:
A 'Key List' containing sample thumbnail images of each of the photo sets in the List
A 'Catalogue List' with text descriptions of each set and pricing information

Each picture 'Key List' has an exactly matching text 'Catalogue List' 
(which may consist of more than one page of text)

The original filenames assigned to the various 'Key List' and 'Catalogue List' images in the British Photographers collection are not much help in assembling the catalogue as they are not numbered in chronological sequence and the numbers of the thumbnail sheets (labelled Catalogue001 etc) and text sheets (labelled Brochure001 etc) don't cross-match  either. The article describes how the complete Catalogue was reassembled from these constituent elements. At the end of this article, it has been used to date each quarterly list and by implication the release date of the sets within it. 

Royale Key List 'A'
(click to enlarge)

List 'A' is the earliest as you might expect.
Key List 'A' shows 27 sample thumbnails with reference codes in the bottom corners.
These codes are used in the corresponding text list below.

.

Royale Catalogue List 'A', page 1
(click to enlarge)

This Catalogue List (headed simply as List 'A') has descriptions and prices of 15 of the photo sets on the Key, thumbnail page. It starts with set LLCK, which is the fifth thumbnail in the Key List, the reason for this is explained below. The list of text descriptions overflows onto a second image (below)

Royale Catalogue List 'A', page 2
(click to enlarge)

We know this second page is part of List A because the set codes match the images in Key List A directly above. The shortened length of this page is due to it having been cut off page 1. The old style, paper size used in 1960 (called foolscap) was larger than A4 and does not fit onto a modern scanner, so it's been split into two scans. You can just see traces of page 1 at the top edge matching the chopped text at the bottom of page 1.

Notice that the two sets that sit either side of the page change - 2-ERTR and 1-ERTR are in reverse numerical order. It's evidence of the editing that has taken place. List A is actually a compendium of selected sets from Royale's first five lists but because of cumulative editing and rearrangement it's sequence is not indicative of the original release sequence of those sets.

Thus, the thumbnails for the last two sets on this text page (ROC and DAD) seem to have overflowed back up to the top row of thumbnails in Key List A . This also tells us that the list has been edited at some point with unwanted sets removed to make way for the newer additions.

There's also a third text page for List A (below) with the last 2 sets on it - 2-TIFC and BOF.
The thumbnails for them have also been inserted into the top row of 'Key List A'.

Royale Catalogue List 'A', page 3 & List VI page 1
(click to enlarge)

The heading on this page tells us it was always a separate sheet of paper.

After List 'A' ends, the catalogue continues without break, to List VI.

The puzzling change in notation is because List 'A' was an extract of Lists I to V and replaced them.

Royale Key List 6
(click to enlarge)

This is the Key List of thumbnails for List 6 (or 'VI'). 

It's fairly obvious from the gaps that this sheet has also been edited.

Pre-computers, these thumbnail sheets would have been produced by physically attaching the individual pictures to a backing sheet and photographing the result. Adding and deleting was most easily done by removing or covering an unwanted thumbnail and pasting a new one into the vacant space. In this example it looks as if some have not been replaced.

Two of the sets depicted on this page - 2-RON (Ron Wiltshire) and 3-TIB (Tibor Urgay) - are not included in the List VI descriptions above. They are not on the next sheet either (Shown below). The explanation for this is that they have been withdrawn from sale, confirmation of this practice appears as a note at the top of Page 3 of list 7 (which is shown further on).

Royale Catalogue List EX3 and VII page 1
(click to enlarge)

This next list is headed 'EX3'. There is no continuation statement referencing a previous list so we know this is the start of a new list.
We also know EX3 comes next after List VI (6) because List VII (7) starts at the foot of the page.

'EX' appears to simply mean 'extra', i.e. a supplement to List VI

Each of the sets in these lists had it's own thumbnail set showing a miniature of all the pictures in that set. Customers could buy these and select the pictures that they wanted to buy as full size copies. Thus set FJSS which appears in List A at the start of this article had it's own detailed thumbnail sheet. It's actually labelled as EX2 FJSS on it, showing that it was part of an earlier 'Extras' list incorporated into List 'A', which presumably had an EX1 list in it as well. 

It's not clear why Royale decided to create a separate sequence of 'Extra' Lists.

Royale Key List EX3
(click to enlarge)

These are the thumbnails for 'List EX3'. It's an exact match with the text list above, but there are multiple thumbnails for some sets: '2-FC' (Fred Collins) in the top row has three, '3-IOL' (Ian Oliver) in the middle row has two and 'VC' (Vic Cane) in the bottom row has three.

Royale Key list 7 
(click to enlarge)

This is the Key List, thumbnail sheet for List 7. 

It begins with the two sets shown at the foot of the EX3 text List above: 

ANC (Andre Coel) and BIS (Bill Stevens).

This sheet does not look as if it's been altered at all and the continuation page of text 'List 7'

 flows in exactly the same sequence, beginning with 'BULLIES'

Royale Catalogue List VII (7), page 2
(click to enlarge)

The 'cash please' footnote on this page indicates that it was the foot of a physical page

but it's not the end of List VII

Royale Catalogue List VII (7), page 3
(click to enlarge)

The remainder of List VII (with helpful 'continued' title at the top) continues following exactly the same sequence as Key List 7

The entry for 1-ROW (Ron Wiltshire) references 1-RON, one of the descriptions missing from List VI.

The message at the top of the page explicitly confirms the practice of 'editing out' sets that are no longer available for one reason or another (e.g. stocks exhausted or not selling enough). It doesn't actually apply to this List VII, but explains the two missing descriptions in List VI. I haven't come across any other mismatch in this particular catalogue. 

List VIII originally started on this same sheet, you can just see (bottom left) traces of the heading where it has been cut off.

Royale Key List 8
(click to enlarge)

Key List 8 shows signs of serious editing with huge gaps in the top row.

The bottom row has been filled by putting in multiple thumbnails for two sets

Royale Catalogue List VIII (8), page 1
(click to enlarge)

These are is the corresponding List VIII text descriptions 

(with the top edge of the heading cropped off).

It has been (invisibly) edited to follow the same sequence as the Key List 8 just above.

There weren't any word processors then, so text documents had to be typed onto paper. Small numbers of copies (4 or 5) could be created simultaneously by putting 'carbon' paper (inked on one side) between multiple sheets but it was also possible to create masters which could be used to reproduce many more copies to send out to customers  using a process called cyclostyling. Changing them later required laborious re-typing or physically cutting and pasting them to create a new master. 

Royale Catalogue List VIII (8), page 2
(click to enlarge)

Page 2 completes List VIII

The set descriptions for storyettes are becoming more detailed and more sensational.

Royale Key List 9
(click to enlarge)

It's hard to tell if this Key List has been edited or not. You would expect the more recent lists towards the end of the catalogue to still be intact.

Notable entries: The Captive, Navy Gash

Royale List IX (9), page 1
(click to enlarge)

This is the first sheet of List IX and it's dated. Royale didn't seem to date every List, but it's possible to deduce their dates from those we know and the fixed quarterly interval between Lists (see below)

The heading contains full details of how to order photos. It's likely that this information would have been given on earlier lists originally, but over time become a casualty of the editing process. It's content is also quite likely to have changed with the passage of time. The warnings about frontal nudity reflect the pressure the authorities were applying. Royale's contemporary, John Barrington, was probably supplying frontal nudes at this time.

The set descriptions in List 9 follow the same sequence as the Key List 9 thumbnail sheet

Royale List IX (9), page 2
(click to enlarge)

This sheet has another footnote clarifying the ordering process with interesting examples of the pitfalls of mail ordering in an era when many customers would not have had telephones. Clavering was a wealthy man and probably had a phone but Royale never gave out a number. Some of the problems with these orders may have been the result of customers trying to avoid being identified should their paperwork fall into the wrong hands - the Police or potential blackmailers.

The number of orders that could not be fulfilled, 37, gives a clue that the number Royale were successfully dispatching must have been quite significant, in the hundreds.

Royale Key List 10
(click to enlarge)

List 10 is the last in this Catalogue

Notable enties - Navy Romeo, Peter George nudes.

Royale Catalogue List X (10) page 1
(click to enlarge)

Royale gives it's ordering information at the top of this list once again. Crucially it's dated and this time also includes the useful information that Lists come quarterly. This is the key to dating all the preceding lists VI-IX (6-9) back to the start of 1959. Scroll to the foot of the post to see the result.

Notice too how Royale are branching out into selling shorts (not used, or so it appears)

This List follows the sequence of the corresponding Key List 10 just above except that NARO and JBT are reversed, possibly to accommodate the two NARO thumbnails on the top line together.

Royale Catalogue List X (10) page 2

(click to enlarge)

The list continues in the same sequence as the Key List
another 'orphan' list from trimming foolscap size to modern A4

Royale Catalogue List X (10) page 3

(click to enlarge)

TABLE
DATED TABLE OF SUB-LISTS WITHIN 

THE JAN, 1960 CATALOGUE

The dating of sets 1-5 here is guesswork really but it does bring us back to the same Royale 'start date' identified in the Timeline for Royale Studio from magazine sources. The earliest advert for Royale which I have found is late 1957 (see same article). Presumably the October 57, List 1 was prepared anyway as a press release. It's existence implies Royale had been recruiting models and taking photographs of them even earlier, for at least 3 months going by their subsequent publication interval. Of course we know Clavering had been doing it as a hobby much earlier (ref 5, Colville).

You might also like to read  'How Royale Sold Their Pictures'

List	Source of Date	Date	Precision
10	Given at top of List	Jan 1960	Actual
9	Given at top of List	Oct 1959	Actual
8	Back step a quarter  (Royale's standard frequency - see List X page 1)	July 1959	Deduced
7	Back step a quarter	Apr 1959	Deduced
EX3	Date somewhere between List 6 and List 7 EX3 was an 'extra' list	Feb 1959?	Assumed
6	Back step a quarter from list 7	Jan 1959	Deduced
A	The date given at top of List A is only a date of revision, coinciding with the issue date of the whole Catalogue i.e. List 10.  'A' is a consolidation of Lists 1-5 so we can only date the sets listed as 1957-8 EX1 and EX2 were also in here somewhere	Dec 1959	Actual
5	Back step a quarter from List 6	Oct 1958	Notional
4	Back step a quarter	Jul 1958	Notional
3	Back step a quarter	Apr 1958	Notional
2	Back step a quarter	Jan 1958	Notional
1	Back step a quarter	Oct 1957	Notional