Life magazine archives

[PressPix]

Oh wow how did I not notice this thread before??

 

[dbd1830]

With the World Series getting underway, here are some highlights from Life Magazine taken during the Fall Classic.

Hank Greenberg and the Detroit Tigers, 1945

Karl Spooner and the Brooklyn Dodgers, 1955

Whitey Lockman and the 1954 New York Giants

Chicago Cubs, 1945

 

[chrisjason]

Another day at the Y.

 

[chrisjason]

Life and at least a half-moon.

 

[LaurenceReno]

This is the kind of nudity I remember in LIFE....some butts but never frontal that i remember.
I wish I could go back to make sure my memory was correct........or just wishful memory...

Up until the 1970s frontal nudity was prohibited in most publications - US Postal Regulations. Many magazines published male nudes, but the genitals were either covered with black bars, or airbrushed out to comply with the law. For some reason, male nudes from the back were always legal as far back as the early 1900s.

 

[LaurenceReno]

Another day at the Y.

 

[LaurenceReno]

This photo brings back memories of the Y in Ohio in the 1950s. I learned to swim at the Y and everyone was nude, including the instructors. No one thought anything of it. Sanitary standards were enforced - you had to take a nude shower before entering the pool - and the place was sparkling clean. Up until the mid-70s all Ys and health clubs were all-male, and nudity was common and considered normal.

 

[LaurenceReno]

In Canada which is quite far from Boston. Have you checked out your local Y? This was a big reason I joined my Y. Other corporate type gyms in the same city as my Y have the ultra modesty set up in the locker room which I detest. I like locker rooms where men can be men. My Y was recently remodelled, and they actually made the locker room more open by removing a wall of lockers that used to run down the centre of the locker room. They also kept the open shower. I would have quit if they switched to an ultra privacy set up. I warned them of this when I was asked to complete a survey about what I would like to see in the remodel. Based on the popularity of my Y, and despite the intense competition from other gyms in town, I don't think I'm the only guy that enjoys being naked with other dudes. My avatar says it all. In fact, my Y has gotten so busy they are opening a satellite location in the same city. Men need to be men, plain and simple.

Amen! - Modern gyms have becoming nothing more than singles bars or day-care centers. They even have rules stating that you must cover yourself with a towel at all times! Modern young men act like little old ladies when they shower and change clothes. Many gyms have separate showers with curtains! Ridiculous! Bring back the all-male clubs where men can be men without a lot of silly petty rules.

 

[LaurenceReno]

It happened before then. In the book "Coming Out Under Fire" the author, whose name I forget, showed that there was a tacit acceptance of gay men in the military in WWII, even two men in a relationship. The witch hunts started as the war was winding down and there wasn't the need for manpower. It only got worse during the McCarthey (sp?) witch hunts of the early 50's. Men had to be careful because there were these "perverts" who wanted to drag them into the gay world, where they'd never see their families again. When I was in school, we always showered after PE class. I talked to a man who was in high school in the 90's. Most guys didn't shower at school. They were afraid someone would look at them the way that they looked at women. It was a long process of increasing paranoia.
I also agree that Life Magazine would NEVER have published full frontal nudity. The pictures would be cropped so maybe you could see a butt but no cock. These pictures were taken by photographers and stored in their archives.

The Post Office prohibited materials with frontal nudity. If you notice carefully in some of the old LIFE mag pics the genitals have been carefully airbrushed to eliminate them.

 

[LaurenceReno]

I've always thought it was peculiar that in our society, women had to keep their breasts and nipples covered, because showing them would be arousing to men.

However, if a gay man can be aroused by the sight of a shirtless man, isn't that shirtless man just as arousing to a woman?

Yet, there is no taboo against shirtless men. Men can bare it all, but women have to be covered. Strange double standard.

In the 1930s and 1940s men had to keep their nipples covered on public beaches and public swimming pools - that's why they all wear those tank-top suits. Swimming at all-male clubs and pools was virtually always nude. On the basketball and racquetball courts all they wore was a jock strap. No one objected - it was just normal in those days.

 

[Latif88]

It’s so crazy this was allowed in such a conservative time, but would never happen today. I have such a crush on men from this era. They all seemed so rugged and manly. It feels like that’s slowly going away.

 

[Captain J]

In the 1930s and 1940s men had to keep their nipples covered on public beaches and public swimming pools - that's why they all wear those tank-top suits. Swimming at all-male clubs and pools was virtually always nude. On the basketball and racquetball courts all they wore was a jock strap. No one objected - it was just normal in those days.

What you've written about was a law that was enforce during the early 1920s and only in New York City. The reason for the law had to do with the fact that clothing fashions were created in New York City and the clothiers held substantial political influence. By the mid 1920s, the public was ignoring this law and the police did not try to enforce the law. By the late 1920s or early '30s the law was abolished. The reason I know this is because my grandfather was from New York State and his father who was a farmer was quite politically involved. In the 1910s my grandfather and his father would swim naked in the Hudson River after bringing to town some food grown on the farm for two or three grocery stores . It is by coincidence that many years ago my grandfather told me about this situation. I remember him telling me that he and his father went to the river to swim as they had often done before and after arriving they saw that the constables [the word he used] were telling the men who were swimming they had to leave. Two weeks later when my grandfather and his father returned to the river, they discovered that only a couple of the men were naked and all of the other men had on the type of swimsuit that covered the upper and lower body. He said they both started laughing because the suit looked like it should be worn by a woman. Interestingly enough, this law applied only to males who were adults. Males below adulthood age were allowed to continue swimming naked in the river.

 

[Captain J]

I was interrupted before finishing my last message immediately above this one. I had one more sentence to write when I was interrupted. In those days, adulthood began at age twenty-one.

 

[silvertriumph2]

I can member seeing family photos from the 1920s to early 1940s
that showed men (my grandfathers, father, uncles, older brother,
and cousins with undershirt type tops with their trunks. One photo,
taken in about 1939 or 1940, showed a sign at the changing area at
the "Tides Hotel and Bath Club" in N. Redington Beach, Fla. The sign
stated..."All Men Must Wear Bathing Tops at All Times."
My father said every beach or club had signs llke that at that time.
We use to laugh at it when viewing the album.

So it must have been a law in Georgia and Florida, also...not just in NY.

 

[Captain J]

I can member seeing family photos from the 1920s to early 1940s
that showed men (my grandfathers, father, uncles, older brother,
and cousins with undershirt type tops with their trunks. One photo,
taken in about 1939 or 1940, showed a sign at the changing area at
the "Tides Hotel and Bath Club" in N. Redington Beach, Fla. The sign
stated..."All Men Must Wear Bathing Tops at All Times."
My father said every beach or club had signs llke that at that time.
We use to laugh at it when viewing the album.

So it must have been a law in Georgia and Florida, also...not just in NY.

More likely, this was a rule of the individual Bath Club you mentioned. There are relatives on my mother's side of the family who are from Georgia. I have seen pictures of them dating back into the early 1930s. A few of those pictures show a lake front scene where two of my uncles were completely naked. One of my aunts who was dressed in a summer dress is also seen in the picture There were also unidentified people in the pictures. Some of those were males who were also naked and some were wearing swimming suits. All of the females shown were either in dresses or one piece swimming attire.

 

[eyes]

Postgame clubhouse, Dodgers vs Braves, 1956

View attachment 1056456

incredibly wonderful photo. beautiful bodies and pubic hair.

 

[dbd1830]

Former Bruins player Derek Sanderson is at the NHL game tonight in Boston. Here are some shots from his playing days, thanks to a Life Magazine photographer. (In a few of them we see that his father came to visit and brought him something from Canada.)

Derek Sanderson naked in the locker room

 

[223790]

Former Bruins player Derek Sanderson is at the NHL game tonight in Boston. Here are some shots from his playing days, thanks to a Life Magazine photographer. (In a few of them we see that his father came to visit and brought him something from Canada.)
View attachment 3600871
View attachment 3600891
View attachment 3600901 View attachment 3600911
Derek Sanderson naked in the locker room

I know that product (Bisto) well. I grew up eating it. I had no idea that it was exclusively Canadian.

Bisto Brown Gravy Mix 454 g - Campbell Company of Canada

 

[Toddster]

The 1944 American League champion St. Louis Browns. Several players and coaches, including Hal Epps, George McQuinn, Frank Mancuso, Mark Christman, and Don Gutteridge, are playful and naked in the postgame clubhouse and showers.
View attachment 1061508 View attachment 1061510
View attachment 1061511 View attachment 1061512

Back in the days when men were men.

 

[dbd1830]

This series of photos from WWII is amazing. The Allied soldiers have been fighting heroically in Northern Africa, but when they reach the ancient baths of Gafsa, they can be boys again. Showering, skinny dipping, diving, comfortably naked together. I've attached a few highlights and a link.

Gafsa - Google Arts & Culture