Pairing Up

Today we have a little post featuring movie stills and publicity photos of male stars in which, with a little imagination (and that's about how much we possess! Ha ha!), a different scenario might be envisioned than the one intended... In other words, they might be unintentionally suggestive. Or, perhaps, they are completely benign and we just have a dirty mind. Or maybe the men in them are just plain handsome so we feel like sharing!

Today's poster boys, Randolph Scott and Cary Grant were featured in a notorious series of photo spreads taken during their bachelorhood in which they were seen swimming together, working out in abbreviated shorts, dining elegantly together, lounging near one another and even cooking in the kitchen (with Cary in an apron and Randy wielding a phallic bunch of celery!)

You thought I was making that one up, didn't you...?  Nope.

All just speculation? Hiding in plain sight? Best/worst kept secret in Hollywood?

We may never know the truth about them, but it's been written that when Cary was pressured into marrying and leaving his and Randy's bachelor pad, he soon became despondent, attempted suicide and was soon divorced and back there again. And later in life, in the wake of their marriages and children, these two were reportedly seen holding hands under the table at lunch, which is either the saddest or the most touching thing about their long association with one another.

Here, we find Randolph Scott in an intense stare-down with John Wayne in Pittsburgh. They were meant to be squabbling over Marlene Dietrich, but she's nowhere to be seen in this shot. They could be having a romantic dinner...!

This one, with Scott and Lex Barker from Thunder Over the Plains, is even more suggestive. It could be a dance hold! (The link for Lex this time is to a page with several color Tarzan comic book covers at the end.)

The two brooding pusses in this shot are Richard Arlen and Buddy Rogers in Wings.

Check out the dreamy intensity of this portrait from the same pairing.

As this is a WWI war drama, there's an emotional ending for the young men...

...VERY emotional!

Arlen, by the way, was a very handsome young man. Sort of a Paul Newman for the 1930s (I always wish they'd have played father and son in a movie.) He's seen here with David Newell and Kay Francis in the four-cornered circus romance Dangerous Curves. (Clara Bow rounding out the quartet.)

But with some thoughtful cropping of Ms. Francis, and the gents' matching robes, this could be another sort of lover's quarrel!

My favorite silent-era actor is delectable George O'Brien, seen here looking as timeless as ever and elbow-to-elbow with another young actor. You may recognize him as one of the most heralded in all of cinema?  Spencer Tracy.

On the right in this twosome is Henry Wilcoxon, who while having a sort of sneering quality in his face, is an actor I nonetheless found strikingly handsome in his prime. He later became an assistant and frequent supporting actor in Cecil B. DeMille movies.

Hmmm... I wonder what costars and close personal friends Cesar Romero and Tyrone Power have spied and are discussing here.

Yes, I know they're fighting and not getting comfy, but it's sort of neat to see former Tarzans Johnny Weissmuller and Buster Crabbe working together (in Captive Girl.)

Even better is this one of the two, from another movie of theirs, Swamp Fire. Even out of their loincloths they seemed to find reasons to be shirtless on celluloid!

No, this isn't a pair. Or is it? With Mickey Rooney and Eddie Bracken fighting over who gets the biggest piece of delicious figure model Ed Fury! This was part of a publicity shoot for A Slight Case of Larceny (in which I don't believe Fury even appears!)

Another awesome photo shoot - some of which has appeared on this blog before - involves Tab Hunter and John Bromfield. Here Bromfield is demonstrating his rod for Hunter.

And here Bromfield is demonstrating his other rod for the readers! What a gorgeous man he was.

Now entering the Robert Wagner wing of today's post. He's seen here making his presence known to costar Jeffrey Hunter in A Kiss Before Dying.

And here he is making his presence known to Hunter again, during a photo shoot!

In this shot (from one of his 1950s war films, perhaps The Hunters?) Wagner and a buddy are enjoying an Asian spa together.

Poolside, he's getting his exercise in with a muscular partner...

...followed by some laps not in but around the pool!

Mechanic fantasy anyone? I don't know the handsome, bearded fella under the hood, but that's Rock Hudson giving the body a hearty buff.

Hollywood's first gay adoption? No... just Broken Arrow star John Lupton showing off his new baby daughter to costar Michael Ansara.

Skipping ahead to longtime friends Robert Redford and Paul Newman, costars of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting. For a while, there were murmurings about them costarring a third time in a film based upon "The Front Runner," all about a track coach who has a sexual relationship with his star runner! Newman, who'd bought the option, let it lapse when he ran into script (and casting plausibility) issues.

My Two Dads. In retrospect, they sorta look like the type of two dads we see more often these days!

Who knows what hairy stuff was going on in the woods with Joe Namath and his (unidentified) friend...? Gotta love the '70s and '80s when men could go shirtless (not to mention hairy) and few batted an eye.

The End!

Guard These with Your Life!

Ahh, Labor Day. That's a bittersweet holiday in The Underworld because although we always go off to an annual theatre convention that weekend, it also signals the end of swimming pool season as we know it. We can never wait for Memorial Day, when the pools in this area open, and get a bit down the closer Labor Day looms. So we're perking things up a little today with some photos of lifeguards! Some are famous, a few not. (And, yes, this is your webmaster, lolling by the pool with a fun summer read... one of my faithful readers who saw this picture in an e-mail mentioned ironically that there is more than one "summer place" depicted in it!  LOL I'm taking that as a personal compliment.)

The angle of the above picture has made me feel like I've got two ham hocks for legs and since I actually pride myself on possessing legs that are amongst my best features (a limited category to be sure!), I'm showing them at another, more flattering, angle!

Here is famed funnyman Buster Keaton as a lifeguard in a silent comedy short (Coney Island, 1917?) alongside Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle (in female drag.)

Another legendary comic, Eddie Cantor, cuts up on the lawn in lifeguard uniform.

Out of their Tarzan and Jane drag, we find Olympian Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan on the beach.

Here's another look at Weissmuller in his period swimwear.

We worship at the altar of Buster Crabbe and would almost have feigned drowning in order for him to come to the rescue!

Actor-turned Prez Ronald Reagan, nicknamed "Dutch," was an athletic youth and a lifeguard at that time.

These gents aren't famous, but how could I leave these brawny lads out of the line-up?

I'm only pretending that Gilbert Roland was a lifeguard this day, but, again, how could I leave him out? If you only know him from his later, weathered and painfully thin appearances, this portrait is a revelation.

During the making of 1920s-set Some Like It Hot (1959), Marilyn Monroe is watched over by a lifeguard in a period suit.

For many years, the lifeguards of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware have been posing for postcards. We live for the Ken doll (and G.I. Joe) looks of some of these guys. Over the years, more and more female lifeguards have joined the roster. There were only three at this time.

Back in the day, there wasn't a female guard in sight! (It's interesting to note, though, the presence of a black lifeguard in these earlier times, something that was absent for many years after.)

Look at all the tan beef (and furry before it became en vogue to shear and shave oneself to nil...)

Of course we cannot overlook the movie Lifeguard (1976), which featured a ton of Speedo-clad lifeguards engaged in an athletic competition.

The movie starred Sam Elliott and costarred Parker Stevenson, both seen here in their skimpy suits.

True, we aren't in love with their little swim caps, but we'll work around it!

I don't know if any lifeguard was ever as hunky as Mr. Elliott. You can see more shots from this movie by clicking on a previous Speedo tribute here.

Who can forget the day Princess Diana presented awards to a set of Australian lifeguards?

She seemed to be very pleased with the task at hand (and who could blame her?!)

Sometimes it's good to be the Princess...

I cannot imagine, however, meeting The Princess of Wales with white zinc oxide on my lips (or, as shown earlier above, nose...) I presume this was before they developed clear z.o.?

In the '70s and '80s, it was common for lifeguards to wear the famous Speedo, though such a thing is practically unheard of now.

Considering the subject matter, I guess I'm gonna have to feature some guys from Baywatch (1989-2001), a series I never watched, which starred David Hasselhoff.

The Hoff was cute in those early years, though, wasn't he? And for a while he was joined by Lifeguard star Parker Stevenson, though he took an early hike from the show.

Hasselhoff kept himself in terrific shape as the series wore on, but somehow he lost his easy, handsome looks and physique and became hard and severe-looking. (Is this what people find attractive? Maybe I'm just out of the loop...)

You'd never know it from this photo, but costar David Charvet is 6' tall and only 4" shorter than Hasselhoff.

Early castmate Billy Warlock.

Jason Brooks and his washboard abs.

Michael Bergin

My own personal fave from this bunch, David Chokachi.

The '80s kid in me has a hard time resisting the combination of blue eyes, blond hair and tan skin...

Surf's up!

Lastly, not from Baywatch, this is dreamy Dean Cain, more famous from Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993-1997.)

Which brings us to... The End!