When They Were Young

[TruthBTold]

Jules Léotard (1838-1870) was a French acrobatic performer and aerialist who developed the art of trapeze. He also invented the one-piece gym wear that now bears his name. After passing his law exams, he seemed destined to join the legal profession, but he began to experiment with trapeze bars, ropes and rings suspended over a swimming pool, and later joined the Cirque Napoleon.

 

The costume he invented was a one-piece knitted garment streamlined to suit the safety and agility concerns of trapeze performance. It also showed off his physique, impressed women and inspired the 1867 song by George Leybourne, The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze.

 

http://78.media.tumblr.com/be6696e627dc6ee5226cf17f92b60c23/tumblr_ozbzyqRIK31qfp1zto1_400.jpg http://www.palaceofvariety.co.uk/USERIMAGES/Leotard%201859%20to%201861(2).jpg http://www.palaceofvariety.co.uk/USERIMAGES/jules%20leotard%20colour(3).jpg

 

I can see why he "impressed" the women and many of the men, no doubt.

[Walker1]

Adrian Zmed starred with William Shatner in T.J Hooker in the 80s. A few of his young photos, followed by his current one.

[Moondance]

The Leyendecker brothers , born in Germany, seen here at ages 20 and 22 in Paris, 1896 ...

 

 

J.C. Leyendecker (March 23, 1874 – July 25, 1951) was the preeminent American illustrator of the early 20th century best known for his poster, book and advertising illustrations, the trade character known as The Arrow Collar Man, and his numerous covers for The Saturday Evening Post. Between 1896 and 1950, Leyendecker painted more than 400 magazine covers. For The Saturday Evening Post alone, he produced 322 covers in addition to many advertisement illustrations for its interior pages. No other artist, until the arrival of Norman Rockwell two decades later, was so solidly identified with one publication. Leyendecker has been credited with "virtually inventing the whole idea of modern magazine design." Biographers have speculated about Leyendecker's sexuality, often attributing the homoerotic aesthetic of his work to a homosexual identity. He excelled at depicting male homosocial spaces (locker rooms, clubhouses, tailoring shops) and extraordinarily handsome young men in suggestive poses or exchanging glances. Never married, he lived with another man, Charles Beach, for much of his adult life. Beach, the original model for the famous Arrow Collar Man, is assumed to have been his lover.

 

 

Frank Xavier Leyendecker (January 19, 1876 – April 18, 1924), was an American illustrator known for his stained glass work as well as his illustrations for posters magazines and advertisements. He worked with his brother in their studio, first in Chicago, then later in New York City and New Rochelle, NY. Leyendecker was suffering from depression and poor health due to drug addiction when he most likely committed suicide by morphine overdose at age 48.

 

 

Charles Beach, painted by J.C. Leyendecker ...

 

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/27/5c/74/275c74fa3df098e372095bc170a74e54.jpg

[Moondance]

In 1970, at age 22, Bobby Beausoleil (born 1947, now 70 years old) was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for the killing of musician and Manson Family friend Gary Hinman. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1972.

 

Born in Santa Barbara, California, the son of a milkman, Beausoleil met filmmaker Kenneth Anger when he was in his late teens and appears in Anger's film Lucifer Rising. He is also seen (as "Cupid") in the 1967 film Mondo Hollywood, a documentary about Los Angeles that also features Jay Sebring, one of the people killed by the Manson Family at the home of actress Sharon Tate in 1969.

 

In the early 1970s, Truman Capote interviewed Beausoleil at San Quentin State Prison, and later published the interview in the form of a short story, "Then It All Came Down," that was included in his book Music for Chameleons.

 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-js63mAToAmw/Ulf4WlaRApI/AAAAAAAAAX0/FsEE_KdOE2Q/s1600/Bobby1.jpg

[Moondance]

Randy Shilts (1951-1994) was a reporter for both The Advocate and The San Francisco Chronicle, and the author of The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (1982), And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic (1987) and Conduct Unbecoming: Lesbians and Gays in the U.S. Military from Vietnam to the Persian Gulf War (1993). At the time of his death from AIDS at age 42, he was planning a fourth book about homosexuality in the Roman Catholic Church. In this image, he is 29 (in 1980):

 

http://www.charlyfranklin.com/Charly_Franklin/Randy_Shilts_1980_files/RANDY-SHILTS-6-80-WEB.jpg

[Moondance]

James Best (born Jewel Guy, 1926-2015) was a television, film, character, voice and stage actor, as well as a writer, director, acting coach, artist, college professor and musician. One of the busiest actors in Hollywood, his career spanned seven decades. In his fifties, he played Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane in the television show The Dukes of Hazzard, but here he is years earlier:

 

And here, at age 27, on the set of Seminole (1953), playing the guitar with co-star Rock Hudson (age 28):

http://78.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsgcckgPA11qbqohko1_500.jpg

Edited March 5, 2018 by Moondance

[TruthBTold]

James Best (born Jewel Guy, 1926-2015) was a television, film, character, voice and stage actor, as well as a writer, director, acting coach, artist, college professor and musician. . . . . .

And here, at age 27, on the set of Seminole (1953), playing the guitar with co-star Rock Hudson (age 28):

http://78.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsgcckgPA11qbqohko1_500.jpg

 

Now this is a cute couple.

[Gvtire]

James Best (born Jewel Guy, 1926-2015) was a television, film, character, voice and stage actor, as well as a writer, director, acting coach, artist, college professor and musician. One of the busiest actors in Hollywood, his career spanned seven decades. In his fifties, he played Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane in the television show The Dukes of Hazzard, but here he is years earlier:

 

And here, at age 27, on the set of Seminole (1953), playing the guitar with co-star Rock Hudson (age 28):

http://78.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsgcckgPA11qbqohko1_500.jpg

His mother was sister to the Everly Brothers father

[Moondance]

British film and television actor Michael Billington (1941-2005) was screen-tested for the role of James Bond more than any other actor. (He appeared in 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me as Sergei Barsov, Agent Triple X's ill-fated lover.) But Billington, who died of cancer at 63, may be best remembered for playing Col. Paul Foster in 21 of 26 episodes of the single season of the 1970 British television science fiction series, UFO, about an alien invasion of Earth.

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FMMMEpPaa80/UxdYECdhwtI/AAAAAAAAYDA/m23mqzyF7YY/s1600/billington2.JPG

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-khcu8B7V-uo/UxdYId2zksI/AAAAAAAAYDM/AxgpCDAUOGY/s1600/UFO2.jpg

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5B64Pl1Ed0A/UxdYGvi2pXI/AAAAAAAAYDI/-JHjPhyMD7Q/s1600/MikeBillington3.jpg

 

http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/29200000/Michael-Billington-vintage-beefcake-29257378-640-487.jpg

[Moondance]

Charles Henri Ford (1908-2002) was an American poet, novelist, diarist, filmmaker, photographer and collage artist. He published more than a dozen collections of poetry, exhibited his artwork in Europe and the United States, edited the magazine Blues: A Bisexual Bimonthly beginning in 1929 and later the Surrealist magazine View.

 

With Parker Tyler, later a respected film critic, he co-authored The Young and Evil (1933), an experimental novel that Tyler later described as "the novel that beat the beat generation by a generation". In its only U.S. review, the novel was described as "the first candid, gloves-off account of more or less professional young homosexuals". It portrays a collection of young genderqueer artists as they write poems, have sex, move in and out of rented rooms and explore the speakeasies of Greenwich Village. Rejected by several American and British publishers, it was published in Paris. Officials in the U.K. and U.S. prevented shipments of the novel from reaching bookstores.

 

Charles Henri Ford was the brother of the actress Ruth Ford (1911-2009) and the partner of Russian artist Pavel Tchelitchew (1898-1957).

 

Here, in Paris, at age 25 (1933):

 

And here, at age 26 (1934), in a photograph by Carl Van Vechten:

 

At age 27 (1935), photographed by Henri Cartier-Bresson:

 

Pavel Tchelitchew and Charles Henri Ford (33) by Cecil Beaton, 1941

[TruthBTold]

Charles Henri Ford . . . .

Pavel Tchelitchew and Charles Henri Ford (33) by Cecil Beaton, 1941

 

You're somebody if you are photographed by Cecil Beaton and incredibly lucky.

[Moondance]

Oliver Messel (1904–1978) was an English artist and one of the foremost stage designers of the 20th century. He began as a portrait painter. Commissions for theatre work soon followed. He was the set designer for such Broadway shows as The Country Wife (1936), Romeo and Juliet (1951), and House of Flowers (1954), for which he won the Tony Award. In 1959 he was nominated for Tony Awards for both costume design and set design for Rashomon. He also designed sets and costumes for films, and was the production designer on Suddenly Last Summer (1959), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.

 

Messel came from a wealthy, well-connected family, and when his nephew, Antony Armstrong-Jones (Lord Snowdon) married HRH Princess Margaret, a long relationship with the British royals began. He designed Princess Margaret’s home on Mustique Island in The Grenadines, and "Point Lookout" a stone beach house on the northern tip of Mustique. In 1959, exhausted by a demanding theatre season and recurring arthritis, Messel retreated to Barbados. At 55, after three decades of dazzling audiences with his stage sets and costumes, the tropics seemed to inspire new energy and imagination, leading to another career in designing, building and transforming homes, as well as the furnishings for those homes.

 

http://www.vam.ac.uk/__data/assets/image/0012/170301/hdr-oliver-messel-updated-415.jpg

 

Here, on the right, at age 27 (1931) with Cecil Beaton and Elsie de Wolfe, in Cannes:

http://georgesnyder.org/images/CEO.jpg?a=72

 

Messel is shown here, on the left, with his one-time lover Peter Watson:

http://www.advocate.com/sites/advocate.com/files/05/watson_messelx633_0.jpg

 

Surrounded by masks at age 25 (1929) in a photograph by George Hoyningen-Huene. This was four years after Messel, at age 21, designed the masks for a London production of Diaghilev's ballet Zephyr et Flore (1925).

[TruthBTold]

Oliver Messel (1904–1978) was an English artist and one of the foremost stage designers of the 20th century. He began as a portrait painter. Commissions for theatre work soon followed. He was the set designer for such Broadway shows as The Country Wife (1936), Romeo and Juliet (1951), and House of Flowers (1954), for which he won the Tony Award. In 1959 he was nominated for Tony Awards for both costume design and set design for Rashomon. He also designed sets and costumes for films, and was the production designer on Suddenly Last Summer (1959), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.

Messel came from a wealthy, well-connected family, and when his nephew, Antony Armstrong-Jones (Lord Snowdon) married HRH Princess Margaret, a long relationship with the British royals began. He designed Princess Margaret’s home on Mustique Island in The Grenadines, and "Point Lookout" a stone beach house on the northern tip of Mustique. In 1959, exhausted by a demanding theatre season and recurring arthritis, Messel retreated to Barbados. At 55, after three decades of dazzling audiences with his stage sets and costumes, the tropics seemed to inspire new energy and imagination, leading to another career in designing, building and transforming homes, as well as the furnishings for those homes.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/__data/assets/image/0012/170301/hdr-oliver-messel-updated-415.jpg

 

Sounds like a really smart, talented and no one can dispute, handsome fella.

[+ poolboy48220]

Might be the usual Friday afternoon crazies, but I saw the title of this thread and somehow read it as "When they were very young". That's a thread that'd get closed down quick.

[body2body]

1972 Advocate ad for some theater on Santa Monica.....looks like 8163 SM Blvd???......

 

 

 

http://www.gayeroticvideoindex.com/images/Covers/2/video23222.jpg

Oh My God, This brings back memories- the "Frieda " in the film with Dakota, was a Drag Queen, and founder of G.G.R.C. (Gay Girls Riding Club). They produced the GGRC Ball which was held at the Hollywood Paladium every Halloween from the 60s until the mid 80s. Out of Drag, Frieda was a beloved bartender at "The Garden District". All About Alice was A film parody of All About Eve. They also made What Really Happened to Baby Jane, and A Roman Springs on Mrs. Stone. There used to be some clips from Baby Jane on YouTube. This is all from a bygone era in Gay History, when there was a real Gay subculture. Something that now is gone. The Paris theater was near Santa Monica Blvd and Vista next door to a Bar called "The Jaguar".

[Moondance]

Peter Arno (born Curtis Arnoux Peters, 1904-1968) was a cartoonist whose satirical drawings, particularly of New York café society, did much to establish The New Yorker magazine’s reputation for sophisticated humor.

 

After attending Yale, Arno was about to give up work as an illustrator and join a band when one of his cartoons was accepted by the New Yorker. His association with the magazine lasted until his death. “Our pathfinder artist,” editor Harold Ross called him, and he was equal in Ross’s eyes to James Thurber, E. B. White and Helen Hokinson in defining the magazine’s voice and style.

 

His cartoons dealing with the city's aristocracy became famous, and by 1931 Arno was the author of four cartoon books. Handsome and sophisticated, Arno played an active part in the world he satirized.

 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QMuDihPPyPA/RaJsAcaUuBI/AAAAAAAAAZU/eh5A28Wzo28/s1600/blog_arno.jpg http://media-3.web.britannica.com/eb-media/02/98302-004-0864ED92.jpg

 

Here, holding the baton:

[Moondance]

Sandy Koufax (born Sanford Braun--Koufax was his stepfather's name--in 1935, now 82 years old) pitched 12 seasons for the Dodgers (1955 to 1966) before arthritis in his left elbow ended his career prematurely at age 30.

 

An All-Star for six seasons, the National League's MVP in 1963, Koufax won three Cy Young Awards by unanimous vote--1963, 1965 and 1966--and won the NL Triple Crown for pitchers in those same three years by leading the league in wins, strikeouts and earned run average.

 

His decision not to pitch the first game of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur made headlines and was a source of pride in the Jewish community.

 

In 1972, at 36, Koufax became the youngest player ever elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

 

In May 2010, when he was included among a group of prominent Jewish Americans at the first White House reception to honor Jewish American Heritage Month, President Obama acknowledged the high esteem in which Koufax is held. "This is a pretty fancy ... pretty distinguished group," Obama said of the invited guests, which included members of the House and Senate, two justices of the Supreme Court, Olympic athletes, entrepreneurs, Rabbinical scholars, "and Sandy Koufax." The mention of his name brought the biggest cheer at the event.

 

At age 26 (1961):

http://cdn-s3.si.com/s3fs-public/images/1961-Sandy-Koufax-NLC_03651.jpg

 

At age 29 (1965) Koufax fires his fastball at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, California:

http://publicradio1.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/newscut/files/2015/10/AP_651011034.jpg

 

Koufax signing balls in an undated photograph by Lee Balterman:

 

At age 21 (1956):

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8Hna5GRyuuE/U_5by-jzNUI/AAAAAAAA2kI/WDnadw7DYDI/s1600/1956.JPG

[Moondance]

Roger Casement (1864-1916) was an Irish nationalist who worked for the British Foreign Office as a diplomat and later became a humanitarian activist, poet and Easter Rising leader. Described as the "father of twentieth-century human rights investigations," he was honored in 1905 for the Casement Report on the Congo and knighted in 1911 for his investigations of human rights abuses in Peru.

 

In Africa as a young man, Casement worked for commercial interests before joining the British Colonial Service. In 1891 he was appointed as a British consul, a profession he followed for more than 20 years. Influenced by the Boer War and his investigation into colonial atrocities against indigenous peoples, Casement grew to distrust imperialism. After retiring from consular service in 1913, he became more involved with Irish republicanism and other separatist movements. He then attempted, during World War I, to obtain German military aid for the Easter Rising, an armed insurrection during Easter Week 1916 that sought to gain Irish independence.

 

After his arrest, the British government circulated excerpts said to be from his private journals (known as the Black Diaries) detailing homosexual activities. Given prevailing views and existing laws, this material undermined support for clemency for Casement. He was convicted and executed for treason.

http://www.prisonersofeternity.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/casement-young.jpg

 

The picture to the right, above, shows Casement, on the right, with his friend Herbert Ward (British sculptor, illustrator, writer and African explorer) when they were young adventurers in the Congo in the late 1880s. Close friends for 30 years, Ward wrote of Casement in 1910,

 

"Imagine a tall, handsome man, of fine bearing; thin, mere muscle and bone, a sun-tanned face, blue eyes and black curly hair. A pure Irishman he is, with a captivating voice and singular charm of manner. A man of distinction and great refinement, high-minded and courteous, impulsive and poetical. Quixotic perhaps some would say, and with a certain truth, for few men have shown themselves so regardless of personal advancement."

 

Ward fell out with Casement when the latter traveled to Berlin at the start of World War I to solicit German help for the Easter Rising. Ward wrote, "the enormity of his action is beyond exaggeration. He is a traitor pure and simple ... I have made up my mind to turn him down forever." He fulfilled his threat, refusing to sign the petition for clemency organized in 1916 by Arthur Conan-Doyle after Casement was condemned to death.

[TruthBTold]

Roger Casement (1864-1916) was an Irish nationalist who worked for the British Foreign Office as a diplomat and later became a humanitarian activist, poet and Easter Rising leader. Described as the "father of twentieth-century human rights investigations," he was honored in 1905 for the Casement Report on the Congo and knighted in 1911 for his investigations of human rights abuses in Peru.

 

In Africa as a young man, Casement worked for commercial interests before joining the British Colonial Service. In 1891 he was appointed as a British consul, a profession he followed for more than 20 years. Influenced by the Boer War and his investigation into colonial atrocities against indigenous peoples, Casement grew to distrust imperialism. After retiring from consular service in 1913, he became more involved with Irish republicanism and other separatist movements. He then attempted, during World War I, to obtain German military aid for the Easter Rising, an armed insurrection during Easter Week 1916 that sought to gain Irish independence.

 

After his arrest, the British government circulated excerpts said to be from his private journals (known as the Black Diaries) detailing homosexual activities. Given prevailing views and existing laws, this material undermined support for clemency for Casement. He was convicted and executed for treason.

http://www.prisonersofeternity.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/casement-young.jpg

 

The picture to the right, above, shows Casement, on the right, with his friend Herbert Ward (British sculptor, illustrator, writer and African explorer) when they were young adventurers in the Congo in the late 1880s. Close friends for 30 years, Ward wrote of Casement in 1910,

 

"Imagine a tall, handsome man, of fine bearing; thin, mere muscle and bone, a sun-tanned face, blue eyes and black curly hair. A pure Irishman he is, with a captivating voice and singular charm of manner. A man of distinction and great refinement, high-minded and courteous, impulsive and poetical. Quixotic perhaps some would say, and with a certain truth, for few men have shown themselves so regardless of personal advancement."

 

Ward fell out with Casement when the latter traveled to Berlin at the start of World War I to solicit German help for the Easter Rising. Ward wrote, "the enormity of his action is beyond exaggeration. He is a traitor pure and simple ... I have made up my mind to turn him down forever." He fulfilled his threat, refusing to sign the petition for clemency organized in 1916 by Arthur Conan-Doyle after Casement was condemned to death.

 

 

Very sad.

[Moondance]

David Bowie (born David Robert Jones, 1947-2016), singer, songwriter, actor, with a career energized by innovation and reinvention, was a leading figure in popular music for five decades and one of the world's best-selling music artists. Here he is at age 18 (1965):

 

[TruthBTold]

David Bowie (born David Robert Jones, 1947-2016), singer, songwriter, actor, with a career energized by innovation and reinvention, was a leading figure in popular music for five decades and one of the world's best-selling music artists. Here he is at age 18 (1965):

 

 

Was he ever made a knight or some such so that he was Sir David Bowie? It is a shame if he was not.

[N13]

Was he ever made a knight or some such so that he was Sir David Bowie? It is a shame if he was not.

 

David Bowie had a long illustrious career ever since he first rose to fame in the late 1960s. Ever since then he has been celebrated for being an innovative artist whose passion for visual presentation rivaled that of his love for music. Bowie’s life was anything but ordinary and he often defied social norms and conventional ways of thinking and doing things. One of his most famous quotes, “I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring” perhaps best sums up his thoughts on life. It offers a revealing glimpse into his mindset and shows how he never planned or relied on going along with the grain.

 

Bowie’s individualistic way of thinking is what helped set him apart from the crowd and made him an iconic figure throughout the world. It famously came into play in 2000 when he turned down an offer of a CBE award from the Queen, Elizabeth II. She had extended to him the CBE, which stands for Commander of the Order of the British Empire, a title that is bestowed upon people who have made “a distinguished, innovative contribution to any area” of British life. Instead of happily taking the Queen up on her offer as most would have, he declined, explaining that “I seriously don’t know what it’s for.”

 

Three years later, in 2003, he again refused an award of recognition and what many view as an offer of a lifetime from the Queen. This time he was extended knighthood in recognition of his decades long, momentous, innovative, and highly lauded musical career. Knighthood is similar to the CBE award in that it’s given to those who have made a “major contribution” to British life that is “inspirational and significant.” What distinguishes and sets it apart is that being knighted carries with it much more precedence and weight, it’s a top honor in the UK. Bowie declined the rare award explaining that “I would never have any intention of accepting anything like that. It’s not what I spent my life working for.”

 

Not many people would turn down being recognized and knighted by the Queen, but Bowie did. In turn, he stayed true to himself and defied conventional norms once again by going against the traditional way of doing things. That’s just how he chose to live his life.

 

 

Read more at http://www.sun-gazing.com/david-bowie-turned-knighted-queen/#AWTY9LobxmdGmEbY.99

[+ poolboy48220]

Stephen Hawking turned down a knighthood too. http://www.toptenz.net/top-ten-people-who-declined-knighthood.php

[TruthBTold]

David Bowie had a long illustrious career ever since he first rose to fame in the late 1960s. Ever since then he has been celebrated for being an innovative artist whose passion for visual presentation rivaled that of his love for music. Bowie’s life was anything but ordinary and he often defied social norms and conventional ways of thinking and doing things. One of his most famous quotes, “I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring” perhaps best sums up his thoughts on life. It offers a revealing glimpse into his mindset and shows how he never planned or relied on going along with the grain. . . . .

Read more at http://www.sun-gazing.com/david-bowie-turned-knighted-queen/#AWTY9LobxmdGmEbY.99

 

He really was a rebel and way ahead of his time. Thanks

 

Two guys who are so sexy in such different ways. Too bad they weren't a couple.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G4jnaznUoQ

 

Just a couple of videos. Kinda makes me think of how much time has passed.

 

 

And this I've never seen but enjoyed.

[+ azdr0710]