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Frasier: The Gayest Show on TV, or the Most Homophobic?
In 1993, Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer), the stuffy, elitist psychiatrist who hung out at Cheers (1982-93), moved back to his hometown of Seattle, Washington, where he hosted his own radio program,...
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The Decline and Fall of Kaanga, Jungle King
Jungle Comics began in 1940, an imprint of the pulp Fiction House, with cover art featuring Ka'anga (or Kaänga), a Tarzan ripoff created by Alex Blum and drawn by John Celardo (who would go on to draw...
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A Fashion Photographer Tied to a Merry-go-round in his Underwear
David Anthony was a fashion photographer on Swinging Sixties Carnaby Street, who had a brief career as a singer, under the name "Charles Dickens." Apparently Mr. Dickens released three singles: "That's...
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The Top 10 Beefcake Attractions of McAllen, Texas
I spent a year -- actually about seven months -- in Hell-fer-Sartain, Texas. That was enough. I hated every minute of it, and during the 30+ years since, I have tried my best to never set foot in the...
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Les Darcy, the Australian Boxer and Folk Hero
In the U.S. we may not have heard of Les Darcy, but in Australia he's a national hero. His story has been told in books, magazines, and tv programs. A biography, The Ballad of Les Darcy, by Peter...
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Hello, Dolly!: The First Gay Diva
In 1964, Jerry Herman, the gay composer who gave us the anthem "I Am What I Am," and Michael Stewart, the gay playwright who gave us Bye, Bye Birdie, sat down to write a musical comedy adaption of The...
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The Civilian Conservation Corps: Depression-Era Beefcake
Picture it.1933: The heart of the Great Depression. 40% of the U.S. population is out of work. President Roosevelt, just inaugurated March 4th, promises a New Deal full of federal programs designed...
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The Best Week of TV Ever
December 5, 1966. You are in the first grade at Hansche Elementary School in Racine, Wisconsin. Two weeks ago you had your sixth birthday, so you are old enough to stay up until 9:00 pm, but too...
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More Tarzans on Stage
I've already done a post on Tarzan musicals, but summer playhouses, community theaters, little theaters, and high school and college drama departments keep coming up with more, cramming any hunk who...
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Even More Tarzans on Stage
I could look at stage Tarzans all day -- the biggest, most buffed hunks of small towns across the country stripped to a loincloth and paraded about for two hours. Ignore the heteronormative plot and...
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The Hager Twins: Picking and Grinning
What can you say about twin brothers who grew up in Chicago but claimed to be cowboys?Who were discovered working at Disneyland, and signed on by "pickin' and grinnin'" Buck Owens to 16 years of the...
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Can You Ever Get Tired of Tarzan Musical Beefcake?
Tired of Tarzans yet?I didn't think so.Here are a gaggle of loincloth-clad musclemen (more or less), gathered from high school and college drama departments, little theaters, children's theaters, and...
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One Life to Live
When I was a kid in the 1960s, my Mom watched several soap operas regularly. I saw an occasional snippet, when I was home sick or walking through the living room on the way to do something...
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The Bodybuilding Villages of India
In West Hollywood, everyone went to the gym. The dating game was very competitive, and if you had a partner, there were lots of guys eager to break you up. So you had to be in shape. We joked that...
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An Old Steve Reeves Movie
20 years before Arnold Schwarzenegger personalized the bodybuilder, a decade before William Smith brought bodybuilding Western heroes out of the closet, Steve Reeves became an icon for gay and straight...
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The Gay Erotic Postcards of Pops Pullum
Before people could take their own photos and post them on the internet, you had to get your beefcake through physique magazines. And before that, you bought postcards. There was a thriving business...
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Will Hutchins: Gay Best Friend of 1960s TV
Nobody makes my gaydar go off more than Will Hutchins (1930-). A blond-haired, blue-eyed pretty boy, he got his start in Hollywood with a parody Western, Sugarlips...um, I mean Sugarfoot (1957-61)....
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Searching for Beefcake in Northern Indiana
When I was growing up, we made two or three trips every year from Rock Island to my parents' hometown in Indiana: Interstate 80 east to Chicago, then State Highway 30 southeast past Valparaiso,...
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The Incredible Severns Grow Up
"The Incredible Severns" are featured in the March 10, 1947 issue of Life Magazine, brothers ranging in age from 4 to 21, all in show biz. Here Peter Stackpole photographs them demonstrating...
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Superman: You'll Believe a Man Can Fly
Superman first flew in 1938, and for the next 40 years he had comic books, movie serials, cartoons, and radio and tv series, but no feature films. Nor, for that matter, did any superhero except for...
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