You know, there's something quite delicious about beefcake that's at least 50 years old - if only because you know you're admiring or fantasising about a person who is now old and (at least traditionally) unattractive - or possibly even dead. If I was more alert and brain-engaged I'd now craft a metaphor referencing the light of long dead stars and the the transient nature of lust and infatuation, but it's late and I'm tired, so here are a few JPG's instead...
Brooding, Bad & BeautifulIt may not have been deliberate, but the homoerotic aspects of the
relationship between Plato (
Sal Mineo, left) and Jim Stark
(
James Dean) in
Rebel Without A Cause (1955)
are inescapable today. A couple of years ago I toyed with
the idea of reworking the plot of the film as a young adult novel,
with the working title
Rebel, that would bring the film's
queer subtext into the foreground, ending with Judy (Natalie Wood)
dying and the boys finally united, instead of Plato's tragic death,
as seen in the film. Hell, maybe one day I'll actually write it...
Homegrown beefcake: Errol Flynn My mum was so enamoured of Flynn, in particular
his star turn as Robin Hood in 1938's
The Advenures of
Robin Hood, that I was almost named Errol when I was born.
Thankfully she named me after Richard the Lionheart instead...
Me Tarzan, you RichardI wonder how many other adolescent boys started reading the books
of pulp author Edgar Rice Burroughs as a direct result of former
Olympic swimmer Johnny Weismuller's star role as
Tarzan?
Surely I can't have been the only one...?
Dr Frank-N-Furter was right
If you "want something visual that's
not
too abysmal, we could take
in an old
Steve Reeves movie."
Fury. Ed Fury.
This handsome gent used to appear in magazines which
celebrated the beauty of the male body. Dear me, no, not porn.
Physique magazines. All very healthy and above board.
Get your salacious mind out of the gutter and start looking at the stars.
