Toys

Boys like toys. Apparently, men do too—we just make them more expensive and give them more respectable names.

Some of these really are toys: rockets, oversized dice, a clown doll, billiard balls. Others stretch the category a bit, but I think they belong here. A fishing pole, telescope, binoculars or camera can be an adult man's toy just as easily as a rocket can be a kid's. We still play with things; the toys just get bigger and a little more “manly.”

1. Chris Yunker by Walter Kundzicz in the mid-1960s with a clown doll.

2. Dana Sumer by Walter Kundzicz holding a large pair of dice.

3. Lynn Hunic by Walter Kundzicz holding a toy rocket.  Notice the position of the toy and the double shadow. Hunic is often posed with props in his shots.

 

Sometimes the playfulness emphasizes how young a model looks, especially when he's paired with a child's toy, which isn't really my thing. I much prefer seeing that same sense of play brought out in a grown man. 

4. Ron Walker reclining on a pool table. Notice the 60s Scans watermark in the lower right corner.

5. Unidentified model (though one source sayid this is also Chris Yunker -- same as #1 above -- but, I have my doubts by the "mod" shag haircut) kneeling over a gester masque on the floor.  The position of the mask nose beneath him leans in the direction of sex toys, but I'm not going there.

6. Bill Douglass (featured in my Playgirl series and Ginger hair post) with a fishing pole...not technically a 'toy', but most men I know fish for leisure.

Bill Douglas goes fishing, Mike Williams and Brig Mandrell get telescopes—and Brig apparently decides his is a bugle. There's something charming about these carefully posed men being allowed to fool around a little.

7. Mike Williams by Bob Mizer in February 1955 in his studio on 11th St in L.A holding a telescope. This photo was taken during what archivists consider Mizer's "clean period" when he first built indoor studios in his compound and used more all white or black backdrops before moving into more elaborate sets.

8. Brig Mandrell in the same studio by Mizer holding the telescope like a horn.

And naturally, the photographers couldn't resist a visual joke. Lynn Hunic holds a toy rocket directly above his own “crotch rocket.” Steve York with binoculars could easily be our neighborhood Peeping Tom, while Guy Harding Moore turns a camera toward his own exposed crotch. Subtle? Not particularly. Fun? Absolutely.

9. Steve York by Nova Studios (Scott Masters aka Robert Walters and Jim Randall) in the early 1970s holding a pair of binoculars. Masters and Randall pioneered what was considered the "West Coast look" in that period through their choice of models who looked like surfers.

 

And yes, I'm ignoring the elephant in the room: sex toys. Physique photographers photographed those too, and the images are definitely out there. They're simply a little too risqué for this platform, so we'll leave that particular toy box closed.

10. Guy Harding Moore by Walter Kundzicz in a blue mock turtle neck (probably polyester) holding a camera toward himself.

Please leave thoughts, questions, corrections or additions in the comments. Thank you, bns