Madonna’s triumphant return to the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards contained many blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameos during her performance of “Danceteria.” One of those was her ex-boyfriend and music video co-star Tony Ward.
Ward & Madonna, 1990 (photo: Herb Ritts)
I had just recently revisited Ward’s cover photo & layout in the March, 1985 issue of In Touch For Men. (The featured John Waters interview will be posted at a later date). Credited by his full name, baby-faced Anthony Borden Ward was 21 years old when the issue hit the newsstands. He already had four years of modeling experience under his belt, working with photographer Herb Ritts and modeling for Calvin Klein. (Although his socks are not visible in the photos, they are credited to CK.)
Ward also appeared in promotional shots for In Touch later that year:
An outtake from the original photo shoot later appeared in the January, 1990 issue of In Touch.
Ward went on to appear in Madonna’s videos for “Cherish” (1989, directed by Herb Ritts), “Justify My Love”(1990) and “Erotica” (1992). He also appeared in Madonna’s 1992 book Sex. He starred in Bruce LaBruce’s movie Hustler White (1996), the 1998 documentary Sex/Life In L.A, and dozen other films and music videos.
Besides his work in front of the camera, Tony Ward is also a painter and photographer. He lives in Palm Springs, CA.
Ephemera: collectible printed or written items that were originally meant to be used for a short time and discarded.
I love the word. Would it surprise anyone to know that I have a file cabinet full of clippings on my favorite female singers & girl groups of the past… uh… century? Clearly, I do not find ephemera to be ephemeral.
What more can be said about dearly departed Dolly Parton? Plenty have eulogized her since her passing. Here I offer random tidbits from my Dolly Parton file along with a few paragraphs I contributed to an article in The Forest Hills Times / Queens Ledger.
First, we have some clippings from Billboard magazine in 1965. Monument records was promoting her latest single – a cover of Margo Sylvia & The Tuneweavers’ “Happy Happy Birthday Baby.” Produced by Ray Stevens, Dolly’s version peaked at #108 – bubbling under the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
Her follow-up single, Busy Signal did not chart.
Belgian 45 picture sleeve for Dolly Parton’s “Busy Signal” (1965)
In August 1982, the Mandate magazine featured an article on Dolly’s latest LP, Heartbreak Express:
Dolly featured in the July 1997 Out magazine cover feature:
Pulse magazine (2/2001)
Out magazine (11/2003)
Earlier this month, I recounted Dolly Parton’s 2016 show at Forest Hills Stadium for Michael Perlman’s article in the Forest Hills Times / Queens Ledger:
In January 1983, Armistead Maupin made the rounds of gay publications with interviews in both Mandate and Torso magazines. He was at a unique point in his life and career: Further Tales of the City, the third book in the series had just been released. Maupin mentions that he had been named as “executive story editor” for an HBO series adapting the first two Tales… books. Unfortunately, this did not come to fruition, and it would be another 10 years before the first book was filmed as a 6-part miniseries for Channel 4 (UK) & PBS (US)
Just a few pages before the Torso feature is an article titled “Gays And The Plague.” The name “AIDS” had not yet been coined and the cause of the “gay cancer” was still unknown. The epidemic would have a devastating effect on Maupin, the gay community, and the fictional characters of Barbary Lane.
“We come back to California from New York and reassure ourselves that it’s too noisy and too hot and too cold and too crowded and too dangerous but, in the long run, we sort of think… well, it could really be exciting.”
“I came out to my family during the course of the book. Michael’s letter to his parents was my letter to my parents.”
“I do not regard Tales of the City as a gay work. I regard it as a work written by a gay man that has gay characters in it and appeals to a lot of different kinds of people. I don’t want to preach to the choir.”
“When I quit the second book and said that I wasn’t going to do it anymore, that I was tired of it, I had a dream that Mrs. Madrigal came in and sat on the edge of the bed and sort of… shook my foot affectionately and said, ‘So, you’re leaving us, huh?'”
“I regard myself as enormously political because I reach more straight people than most gay people. That’s what gives me the most satisfaction in doing what I do. I like changing people’s minds.”
The Torso article below refers to another Maupin serial that is often overlooked: Jackie Old – a fictional piece about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis at age 70. Unfortunately, she did not live to see 70 and this series – 5-parts initially published in New West magazine – would not get an official release until 2014 as a Kindle novella. Even so, it is not included in his bibliographies.
“First of all, we do not all have good taste,” he smirks. “All of us think we have good taste – which is where it gets dangerous.”
“By and large I’m a pretty lazy guy. I procrastinate terribly… I sympathize with Fran Liebowitz enormously on that – we both have equal agonies facing the time clock.”
Armistead Maupin at home with Gregory Skraznas, 07/1982 (Photo by Steve Ringman/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
When Harper & Row began publicity for Further Tales of the City, the San Francisco Chronicle photographed Armistead smooching with his boyfriend. “They handled it the same as they would any other author celebrating his latest book. Would that have happened five years ago?”
“If I have a single message to get across in my writing it is that we all have to learn to know ourselves and have a sense of self pride in our own uniqueness as individuals… that’s something which always has to come from within – no matter who you are.”
In 2022, the ever-popular Chuck Howard was one of the first profiles in our Artist’s Muse series. While romantically involved with artists Bernard Perlin and then George Platt Lynes, Howard was a frequent subject of the art they created, along with their fellow artist friends and cohorts. He later went on to a successful career in the fashion industry as well as a restaurateur. The original post was updated as new photos and info became available. However, the volume of recently discovered photos and articles about dear Chuck warranted a new post highlighting this work, primarily by George Platt Lynes and the PaJaMa collective.
Charles Frank “Chuck” Howard was born in Cochran, Georgia on March 4, 1927. While in his teens, the family relocated to Leesburg, Florida where Chuck attended the local high school. A popular student, Chuck took part in many activities including theater, band, and Youth Council. An honor society member, Chuck was voted “Most Intellectual” when he graduated in 1944. He then joined the Naval Air Force and was a tail gunner through the end of World War II.
Rollins College, Winter Park, FL 1947
While stationed in Miami Beach, Chuck met New York artist Bernard Perlin through a mutual friend. Perlin would later recall, “He turned up one day in his little white uniform. He was the cutest thing you ever saw, and he was just, golly, he was sculpted. He was also one of those very rare people who had a thousand best friends. Everyone loved Chuck, and Chuck loved everybody.”
After being discharged in 1946, Howard attended Rollins College before studying fashion in France on the G.I. Bill. He then relocated to New York City to live with Perlin. “Our fling was charming and sweet, because Chuck was sweet and funny,” Perlin said, “It was very gratifying.”
In 1948, Perlin was offered a residency in Rome and threw himself a farewell party. It was there that Chuck was introduced to George Platt Lynes.
Four sketches of Chuck Howard by Bernard Perlin
George Platt Lynes self portrait with Chuck Howard, ca 1948
Chuck Howard and George Platt Lynes, ca 1950
“Another twenty-one-year-old has moved in on me bag and baggage, almost without being invited…” Lynes wrote in a letter to his friend, author Katherine Anne Porter.
Howard was viewed favorably by Lynes’ friends and was said to have a grounding effect on the photographer. The relationship lasted for just over two years.
Chuck Howard with Lynes’ dog, Bozo
Wilbur Pippin & Chuck Howard, (ca. 1950)
Chuck Howard with Jared French in his studio at 55 St. Luke’s Pl., NYC (ca. 1949)
Although Howard had previously posed as a model for several Bernard Perlin sketches, it was after his introduction to Lynes and his circle of friends that he became a favorite several artists. He posed for George Tooker, sculptor John LaFarge, Paul Cadmus, and Jared French, with whom he also had a physical relationship.
When Lynes’ nude photography became more widely exhibited decades after his death, photos of Chuck Howard were among the most celebrated. Howard downplayed the photos, describing his work modeling for Lynes as “primarily lighting tests.” Collectors disagree.
Chuck Howard also had a film career of sorts when he participated in Dr. Alfred Kinsey’s famous studies, performing sexual acts with poet Glenway Wescott in front of the researchers’ movie camera. Howard later remarked; “It wasn’t Hollywood.”
Lynes and Howard parted ways in January, 1951. “Chuck has decided to go off and live by himself;” Lynes wrote to his mother. “I shall miss him but I don’t disapprove… I’m afraid that my influence is too often all-pervading, all-inclusive.”
Chuck subsequently embarked on a “tempestuous affair” with hustler / model Ted Starkowski, as mentioned in his own Artist’s Muse profile. In the summer of 1951, the couple posed for a series of photographs shot by Paul Cadmus and credited to The PaJaMa collective. Taken in and around Carrington House on Fire Island, these photos capture a level of intimacy seldom seen among gay couples at that time. An increasing number of these photographs have surfaced in recent years and are among the most popular credited to PaJaMa.
Act II: Chuck Howard’s career in the fashion industry began to flourish in the late 1950’s when he sketched for several designers, including Bill Blass. He worked for David Crystal before moving on to Anne Klein’s Junior Sophisticates. In 1965, he joined Townley, working his way up to become chief designer and head of business operations. The company was then renamed Chuck Howard, Inc. His design style was noted for its sense of humor with sporty, colorful coats, tunics, pants, and jersey shirts.
Around this time, a Parsons student named Donna Karan began working for Howard and he eventually introduced her to Anne Klein.
After Klein’s death in 1974, Donna Karan succeeded her as designer for the Anne Klein studio. Chuck Howard then closed his company and became a designer and creative coordinator there, where he was responsible for several of its collections. He departed with fellow designer Peter Wrigley in 1976 to form their own company.
Chuck Howard (r) with his partner Ed Vaughan in their restaurant (1981)
Act III: In 1980, after his departure from the fashion industry, Chuck Howard opened his self-named restaurant on Restaurant Row. Assisting him in this next chapter was his partner Edward Vaughan. The couple rented a three story townhouse at 355 W 46th St and lived on the third floor above the restaurant.
Soon after opening, twenty-two-year-old Anthony Bourdain took over running the back of the house. He later recounted his time at the restaurant in the “Chef of The Future!” chapter of Kitchen Confidential, with Chuck and Edward referred to as “Tom and Fred.” He writes, “They were genuinely lovely, intelligent, warm-hearted and funny older guys who cooked well, had impeccable taste and were considered (rightly) to be wonderful, charming and entertaining hosts – naturals, it had been said, for the restaurant business, especially a restaurant in the heart of the theater district where they knew and were liked by so many.”
Newark Star Ledger, (12/15/1982)
New York Daily News, (1/15/81)
The restaurant was initially successful, although the Daily News review suggested that it wasn’t destined to last. Bourdain further describes the restaurant’s decline, with mounting costs and dwindling guests. “What I learned… was a sad lesson that has served me well in decades since: I learned to recognize failure. I saw, for the first time, how two beloved, funny and popular guys can end up less beloved, not so funny and much less popular after trying to do nothing more than what their friends told them they were good at.” Bourdain moved on to another restaurant, and by the end of 1982, Chuck Howard’s had closed.
The couple retired to the island of Saba in the Netherlands Antilles where they lived for several years before settling in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
On October 5, 2002, Chuck Howard died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 75 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was survived by his partner Edward Vaughan.
Chuck Howard, ca 1950 / 1997
Chuck Howard’s life had a similar trajectory as fellow Lynes paramour Randy Jack: A WWII military man who became an artists’ muse before moving on to the world of fashion and finally ending up as a restaurateur. In their twilight years, both also enjoyed a bit of recognition for the work they inspired in some of the great American artists of the 20th century.
Legendary gay porn star Al Parker holds the #1 spot in Boyculture’s totally unbiased, science-driven list of the top (ahem) 250 Greatest Gay Porn Stars In The History Of Civilization. We only know many of these performers through their film oeuvre and photo layouts, but Al Parker always had a lot to say. In interviews, he seemed to enjoy recounting his sexual exploits as a teenager attending Woodstock, his win on the game show Name That Tune, working behind the scenes on the film Can’t Stop The Music, and running Surge studios with his partner Steve Taylor.
Featured below are three interviews conducted through the 1980’s. The first is from New Years Eve, 1979 and appeared in Skinflicks magazine. At the time, Parker was three years into his adult film career and at the top of his game. Steve Taylor is on hand to offer comments as well. The second interview appeared in the October, 1984 issue of Mandate. Interview #3 is from the November, 1988 issue of Manshots, two years after Taylor had died of AIDS complications.
“Some people meet me, and seeing I’m completely different from my screen image, they may hate me, because I’m not what they want me to be. But I am what I am, and I hope we can have a satisfying moment based on that.”
“… the day Can’t Stop The Music started shooting in New York was also the day Inches opened here, and my face was on a poster that was plastered on every lampost in the city. No one on the crew, Nancy Walker or anyone, had any idea about the film or my being in it…”
“Steve and I are partners… lovers… everything… he’s just so wonderful. We’re starting this business very slowly, making sure we do everything right.”
“My father… happened to see my face on the cover of a gay magazine… needless to say he was quite surprised. He not only learned that I was a star, but he learned at the same time that I’m gay. It didn’t bother him in the least.”
“I see myself as a cult hero – which means an insolvent movie star. I think that everybody is responsible for his own orgasm – that is, his own destiny.”
Al Parker with long-term life partner (and sometime costar) Steve Taylor. Together they founded Surge Studios.
Al Parker was 40 years old when he died of complications from AIDS on August 17, 1992. A biography written by Roger Edmonson, Clone: The Life and Legacy of Al Parker Gay Superstar was published in 2000.
“Like an apparition of decadence and dissipation, she is an all too appropriate picture of innocence fallen prey to the evils and excesses of that most glamorous unholy trinity – drugs, sex and rock-and-roll.”
Marianne Faithfull’s debut LP (1965)
Depending on your calculations, Marianne Faithfull was entering the second or third act of her career when she was featured in the March, 1980 issue of After Dark magazine. The willowy chanteuse first achieved fame as part of the British Invasion with her 1964 hit “As Tears Go By,” a song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. She worked her way through the Rolling Stones – first with Brian Jones, then Richards and finally Jagger, to whom she was linked romantically through rest of the 1960’s.
Faithfull’s singing career waned as she transitioned into acting roles. She was a poster child for the swinging London set, and then a cautionary tale of its excesses. By the early 1970’s, her career had been eclipsed by a series of scandalous headlines detailing drug use, breakdowns, arrests, and then homelessness. She eventually kicked her heroin habit, although complete sobriety continued to be elusive. A foray into country music in 1976 was not well received.
In the beginning… Marianne Faithfull sings “As Tears Go By” (1964)
Then came the critical and commercial success of Broken English – her 1979 LP proved to be her definitive album. She emerged like a phoenix from the ashes of the 1970’s with a punk-infused declaration that she still had something to say. How she chose to say it – with explicit lyrics that got the album banned in several countries – certainly didn’t hurt her reputation as a rock and roll survivor.
The Guardian revisited the album in a 2013 review, with Alexis Petridis writing “…her husking vocals on Broken English seemed not merely ravaged, but imperious and defiant with it, a sensation heightened by the arrangements her rasp was set against… she sounded like she was telling someone to go fuck themselves even when she wasn’t.”
It doesn’t bode well that writer Brant Mewborn begins the After Dark feature with the observation, “Marianne Faithfull is nodding out.” She’s recovering from a car accident and exhausted from a European publicity tour. “Marianne seems overworked and over-sedated. She’s obviously not ready for an interview, and I’m definitely not ready to play interrogating nursemaid to a strung-out girl who may need to publicize her reemerging career but could use a bed even more.”
One can’t help but wonder if the reporter would have been as forthcoming if he was describing Mick Jagger or Keith Richards in such a state. But that holds true for most of the judgement hurled at Faithfull throughout her career.
She does pull it together though, and Mewborn later describes her as “surprisingly candid and coherent.”
It’s interesting to note that one of the quotes highlighted in the article is “I’m not a dyke, but I like to make love with young beautiful people. Whether they are boys or girls doesn’t make an awful lot of difference.” This is actually attributed to Faithfull in the lurid tell-all Up And Down With The Rolling Stones, a book purportedly written by the band’s drug dealer Tony Sanchez but ghost written by British music journalist John Blake. In any case, she does not confirm or deny the quote here.
Reporter Brant Mewborn went on to become a senior editor at Rolling Stone magazine. He was just 38 years old when he died in 1990. Marianne Faithfull passed away at age 78 in January, 2025.
Broken English is also the title of a new documentary about Marianne Faithfull. The film screened at the Venice Film Festival and will have a theatrical release in the UK later this month. Read more about it here.
Two other singers featured elsewhere in this issue of After Dark: Cindy Bullens and France Joli.
Although Bullens put out a dozen LPs throughout her career, she is probably best known for her contributions to the 1978 Grease motion picture soundtrack, singing “It’s Raining On Prom Night” and “Freddie My Love.”
Bullens came out as transgender in 2012 and is now known as Cidney. See a recent interview posted below:
A 2023 interview with Cidney Bullens:
France Joli had just turned 17 years old when this issue of After Dark hit the stands. She was still riding high on the strength of her debut LP and the disco hit “Come To Me.” Her performance the previous summer in the Fire Island Pines is the stuff of legend and previously covered here in New York City In Touch (1979).
I recently happened upon a very special and atypical issue of Mandate. The June 1988 edition of this skin magazine is the “N.Y. Gender F..k” issue. Although it contains 6 regular photo layouts of masculine models – including 3 Brazilian Kristen Bjorn models and the burly bear on the cover – there are also several articles devoted to drag performers such as Charles Busch and John Epperson. Elsewhere in the issue is an editorial on “Nellyphobia” (or “Nelliphobia,” depending on whether you go with the spelling on the cover or in the article). It’s not a scientific study, really.
As a whole, the drag/genderfuck theme was not quite the regular magazine filler one would expect. I am curious as to the reaction that it received at the time.
Today, the article “New York Redefines Drag” serves as a history lesson on the late 1980’s drag scene.
I was unfamiliar with Cutter Sharp / Razor Sharp / Ultra Sharp, so I asked a fellow lifetime queer New Yorker of a certain age. He recalled; “(Cutter) was out and about NYC in the late ’80s and early ’90s. He was on (local public access game show) Be My Guest with Sybil Bruncheon… and he appeared at Night Of A Thousand Gowns with the Imperial Court as Empress Razor Sharp. He held a seminar at the Gay & Lesbian Center on Drag Queen Enlightenment. He also did reports on GCN (Gay Cable Network) from The Monster, The Saint, The Pyramid, and other clubs.” I also learned that Cutter Sharp was known as a professional hair stylist and that his name appears on a 1994 panel of the AIDS quilt.
John Burke, aka Sybil Bruncheon, Charles Busch, and David Drake are interviewed in the article as well. The three are still active, all these years later. If you don’t know their work, Google ’em.
Next up is an interview with John Epperson – the legendary Lypsinka. Epperson is still going strong, 40 years into his career.
Mike Varady coined the term “Nelliphobia” and challenges it in an editorial piece about the shaming of feminine men. “We are supposed to avoid being a stereotype, which is any person who happens to have at least a glimmer of truth as far as being a gentle person, a nonfighter – something to be proud of – is concerned.”
While some of Varady’s conclusions and/or choices of phrase now seem dated, he was certainly hitting upon an issue not often discussed in gay skin magazines at that time: a push-back against gender conformity. “The notion that ‘We’re just like everyone else, except for…’ is foolish… and quite damaging to us.”
In his closing paragraphs, Varady admits that the piece is bound to be unpopular with readers, that he has created “a headache for the editors” with anticipated angry response letters. But he goes one step further:
“Who knows? Maybe someday we’ll even read an erotic story or have nude photos in Mandate in which a willowy queen is the sex object! Now that would really be destroying a stereotype!”
Even the music section of this issue is planted firmly in downtown genderfuck. The music documentary Mondo New York is featured with performances by Joey Arias, Dean Johnson and John Sex.
While doing research for my previous post about a 1990 tour of gay Greenwich Village, I found a December 1991 clipping from Bob Harrington’s “Bistro Bits” column tucked into my journal. Harrington’s column was a regular feature in the performing arts publication Back Stage. In pre-internet days, performers would buy this print weekly for the audition listings. “Bistro Bits” was a column highlighting the cabaret scene. It was here that the annual Bistro Awards began in 1985 – created by Harrington to honor excellence in cabaret .
Another prominent feature in Back Stage at the time were the obituaries. Every week there would be death notices for entertainment industry professionals – usually young men dying far too young of “undisclosed causes.” This was at the height of the AIDS crisis and the stigma surrounding it may be lost on those too young to remember. “AIDS complications” were seldom cited in obituaries and listing it as a cause of death could be considered slander. That said, some men began to request its inclusion in their eventual obit: a final act of defiance in a world that was dragging its feet to find a cure.
I mention this to give some context to the level of courage it took for Harrington to write this column.
East Meadow High School (1968)
Robert William Harrington was born on October 2, 1950 in Richmond Hill, Queens and grew up in East Meadow on Long Island. Harrington graduated from East Meadow High School in 1968. He was just a couple of years younger than both of my parents, who graduated from W.T. Clarke, East Meadow district’s other high school. He then went on to study at SUNY Oneonta, where he graduated in 1972.
SUNY Oneonta, NY (1972)
Harrington honed his writing skills while working as a bartender and became known as an expert on the cabaret scene. In 1982, he began writing a column for the Long Island monthly magazine NightLife. He continued writing for the publication when they moved to New York City in 1984 and also launched his “Bistro Bits” column in Back Stage. In 1986, he began contributing reviews for the New York Post, and was an occasional guest on Joe Franklin’s local television talk show.
Harrington was a driving force behind the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs and also very active with Hearts & Voices, an organization that brought music to AIDS patients.
A few months after his announcement in Back Stage, Harrington was quoted as saying; “I’ve gotten tons of letters from people who have survived five, ten years with AIDS. This is the ’90s. We don’t have to die, we’re gonna make it.”
Bob Harrington died on October 19, 1992. He was 42 years old and was survived by his mother and three brothers.
A tribute was held at Caroline’s on November 12, 1992. The show was hosted by Jamie deRoy with performances by Julie Halston, Nancy Lamott, Jim Caruso, Margaret Whiting and Karen Saunders. All proceeds went to Hearts & Voices.
Another tribute took place the following month:
New York Daily News (12/8/92)
The following year, The Bistro Awards named Rosemary Clooney as the first recipient of their highest honor: The Bob Harrington Lifetime Achievement Award.
New York Daily News (2/5/93)
Back Stage editor-in-chief Sherry Eaker spent several years compiling Harrington’s “Bistro Bits” columns into a book. The Cabaret Artist’s Handbook: Creating Your Own Act in Today’s Liveliest Theater Setting was published in 2000.
I was recently perusing (as one does) the June 1992 issue of Heat, a short-lived gay men’s magazine. Amongst the pictorials of cover boy Rob Cryston and fellow gay porn stars Karl Thomas and Sam Abdul is an article titled “The Life and Loves of Keith Haring” by Jack Ricardo.
Keith Haring, Untitled (1988)
Keith Haring photographed by Don Herron (1982)
Bill T. Jones painted by Keith Haring (1983)
Keith Haring photographed by Andy Warhol, Montauk (8/22/84)
Keith Haring photographed by Annie Leibovitz (1986)
This article was published just two years after Haring’s death. In 2019, Gil Vazquez became Executive Director of the Keith Haring Foundation, a role he held for 6 years.
Keith Haring photographed by Patrick McMullan, NYC (8/14/84)
The cover of the book George Platt Lynes Photographs 1931-1955 features this photo of Edward Lennox Bigelow, Dora Maxwell, and Johnathan Tichenor (ca. 1943)
I recently acquired a copy of the August 1982 issue of In Touch magazine, which featured the photos of George Platt Lynes. Although Platt Lynes died of cancer over 25 years earlier, this was the beginning of the publication of his male nude photographs, which have now become recognized as his most memorable work.
Just a few months before, Jack Woody and Twelvetrees Press had published George Platt Lynes Photographs 1931-1955, an oversized hardcover book with introductory texts by Glenway Wescott, George Balanchine, and Lincoln Kirstein. Someone wisely permitted In Touch to publish a handful of Platt Lynes’ male nude studies, introducing his work to a whole new generation of gay men. Many of these photos were previously unpublished.
The models in the photo above are Charles “Tex” Smutney and Charles “Buddy” Stanley, subjects of some of Lynes’ most memorable photographs. Of Smutney, David Leddick wrote “few of Platt Lynes’s subjects so perfectly embodied youth and innocence as did this athletic, fair-haired figure.”
The image comes from the 1941 “Bedroom Series” of 30 photographs featuring Tex and Buddy undressing and lying on a bed with a third model, Bradley Ball. (below)
The above photo of The Ritter Brothers (ca. 1934) is now part of the Metropolitan Museum collection.
The subject of two In Touch photos is Blanchard Kennedy, a frequent model for Platt Lynes in the late 1930’s.
The three photos above from In Touch are part of an early 1950’s series of images taken around the bed in Lynes’ studio (see below). The models are unidentified, although the blond is sometimes misidentified as Alexander Jensen Yow or Ralph Pomeroy, two subjects who were also photographed seperately in or around the same bed.
Left to right: Gordon Hansen, Jack Fontan, Dick Beard, Unidentified
The final full-page photograph of an unidentified model illustrates the timeless artistry of Platt Lynes’ work.
Also featured in this issue is a profile of Warhol photographer Christopher Makos, who, like Platt Lynes, blurred the line between artistic and homoerotic photography.
