The story behind the homoeroticism of "The Wild, Wild West"

S&M muscle queen ? More details please!

Everyone on datalounge knows Robert Conrad hired rough trase, r1. And by rough I mean ROUGH.

It's amazing how many gays of a certain age will name Conrad when asked what TV or movie star made them question their sexuality. He may have been an asshole, but he was unquestionably sex on a stick.

Deary Think you mean rough trade . That being said he was almost as gay as Liberace was.

Back in the day they didn't understand 'homoeroticism' so they simple put Robert Conrad in very tight clothes and let him do his thing. Anything to garner good ratings.

A TV male sex symbol in a more naïve time.

From the title of this thread I thought OP was going to tell us why. Truth in advertising, OP?

You really think I purposefully set out to mislead you, r7? Oh, go fuck yourself.

A bit of an overreaction dear.

OP = Robert Conrad (with anger issues)

Looks like an homage to Quaintance, r6.

Many of the tv westerns were about beefcack with all those Henry Willson characters and Wild, Wild West was meant to be tongue in cheek, so of course, it was homoerotic.

A gay man's dream.

This, Bewitched, Dark Shadows... being a young gayling must have been heaven from 64-70.

Not to mention Brian Kelly from Flipper, the three (four, actually) Barkley Boys on The Big Valley, etc.

Well, where [italic]is[/italic] "the story behind the homoeroticism of The Wild, Wild West," r8?

R14 To quote the great William Wordsworth : "Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive. But to be young was very heaven."

I remember an episode of Columbo where is appeared in a bathing suit in a scene with Peter Falk that seemed to last at least 15 minutes.

Roberts Conrad and Fuller (from “Laramie”) could have had an ass-off. Fuller’s cakes were just as luscious.

Speaking of Laramie, that show was the original Brokeback Mountain. Leads John Smith and Robert Fuller had off the charts chemistry (I’m convinced their characters were in love), and every episode featured Smith’s astounding VPL and Fuller’s great ass as they both always wore painted-on pants.

It might be possible, just a little itsy bitsy teensy weensy possible, that shirtless Robert was to attract female viewers.

On the other hand, these westerns and private-eye shows with the Henry Willson stars were basically guy shows. Women didn't watch Cheyenne no matter how good Clint Walker looked without a shirt.

Maybe Surfside 6 had some woman appeal, as there was usually a woman lead and a romance in each episode. But westerns are male territory. And The WW West was campy, too--grotesque, even, in the Miguelito Lovelace (sp?) episodes. Women don';t generally go for the grotesque--but gay men do. The whole Robert Conrad thing was gay, gay, gay--especially compared with the way he was used on Hawaiian Eye, which was never campy or grotesque. And he was never tied up for torture (or whatever), as on The WW West.

Based on the bulge, I think this would be pretty representative.

When I was a kid, I think I knew I was gay when I saw Conrad’s perfect ass in those tight pants, week after week. Full, beautiful butt cheeks that I waited for in every scene.

Even now, I’ll dvr a few episodes just to check out dat ass again. It’s as good as I remembered. He was sexy as fuck.

Batman and Robin spent a lot of time being tied up, too.

I remember when Robert Conrad appeared on the Mike Douglas Show and for some reason his wife assured the audience that her husband was all man!

There is a photo out there of a wardrobe malfunction where his pants split during a fight scene. Obviously, you just see jocky shorts. He wasn't going commando under those tight pants.

R27 HE was ALL MAN who liked other MEN!

I loved WWW as a kid and as stated Conrad tied up week after week was heaven. I only saw Laramie in reruns - I was too young to have seen the original run, but oh yeah it was totally a love story between two men. Opposites - blonde hair and calm Slim and dark haired overly emotional Jess. They shared a bedroom ! They adopted a little boy TOGETHER in the 1870's Wyoming. The show pulled an Aunt Harriet before even Batman did, adding housekeeper Daisy Cooper (lesbian Spring Byington) who looked after their little boy and mended the boys when they got shot. And for Conrad's being bound and gagged continuously on WWW, Fuller was tied up almost as much. One villain played by Jan Merlin roughly tied and gagged Fuller and seemed to be licking his lips as he contemplated what to do first with his captive.

If you watch some of those fight scenes now it's pretty clear that the ass in his pants was padded, you can almost see the stitching. At least some of the time.

It's interesting that there was not much fuss about Conrad's bod when he was almost 10 years younger and often appearing in a bathing suit in the series Hawaiian Eye. True, he was never tied up in that one, IIRC. He really looked so much hotter with a few years on him.

The homoerotic extended to how some of the villains [esp. Loveless] were obsessed with West and his looks. Loveless often commented on his handsomeness and perfection. I think it was supposed to be more due to jealousy due to his own physical short-comings, but there also seemed to be a bit of twisted admiration of an enemy he seemed to enjoy having as his captive.

Why are shows featuring male hotness considered homoerotic but shows featuring scantily clad women aren't. Isn't that sexist?

WWW was my first jack offs: drooling over his naked chest and fuckable rump.

His rough trade tricks were the legend of the time: he liked nasty nasty....

I just googled “Robert Conrad today”. He looks like Mike Pence !

Conrad always looked like a grown-up version of those young guys in the 50's and 60's small-formatted muscle mags. I wonder if he ever posed on one leg, leaning against a column?

[quote]Why are shows featuring male hotness considered homoerotic but shows featuring scantily clad women aren't. Isn't that sexist?

I do think homoerotic is sometimes over-used for instances when the man is simply objectified in a way that could appeal to both sexes. In the case of WWW and Laramie though, I think there were homoerotic elements, with the chemistry and playing house elements of the Laramie leads, and the villain's obsession with West often with him helpless and shirtless. I also think some of the ass shots of Conrad and Fuller, plus their frequent bondage adventures seemed more geared towards an admiring male than female.

Is the pic in R24 real or photoshop? Looks like it could be an on set prank or something.

Its photoshopped

Sadly, I watched the show enough to say that was a real episode. I believe he was captured by a blind, insane naval officer. He later ended up in a cage with a lightening rod attached during a storm. Spoiler alert - he escaped.

As colorful as a lot of the Batman villains were - some of those early season WWW villains were just as interesting, and often had more layers and were even sympathetic at times than what you saw on Batman.

Meant to attach this pic.

I’ve never seen the show; why was he always being captured and tortured? Wrong place wrong time?

Sorry - when I linked on the photoshopped question -- it brought me to the OP pic Yes, am guessing that the R24 is photoshopped. Although here is another real one from the episode that adds to the homoerotic content.

[quote]I’ve never seen the show; why was he always being captured and tortured? Wrong place wrong time?

It was a common thing for the late 50s and 60s. See, also, Batman, Man from Uncle, , and a number of westerns while it was not quite as common, but still had a captured hero or deputy a few times a season, like Connors on the Rifleman and one of the Barkley boys on Big Valley.

I too was a total WW addict -- the show didn't turn me gay, but it sure gave me my first fantasies. Never saw any man as handsome or who flaunted those looks as much as he did. So arrogant, so confident, so tough. Very few pretty boys were also action heroes.

Then I got to know his ex-wife a bit in Colorado. And, one of his daughters, in NYC. Not a pretty story. Bob came to Hollywood and being so incredibly good looking things came very easily to him -- he had affairs with stars left and right. Men and women. But... he had terrible anger issues. It effected his career and his personal life. His career would have been much better if directors and producers could stand to work with him-- but they couldn't because he was always itching for a fight. The rage was just right below the surface, all the time. That's why he ended up in all these terrible one season dramas, since they all had to be produced by him, and star him. That's why he turned down the few big offers he had, like the lead in The A Team. And in his personal life... well, he liked being fucked by blond boys, and then he liked to beat them up afterward -- or, if the boy was bigger than him (which was often the case) get beaten up. There's a great Rona Barrett story about that. And, he beat his wives as well. And, he was a terrible drinker -- he'd be fine until he got too much liquor in him, then he'd go nuts. Then, he'd sober up and apologize. The drink was also the reason for his many accidents, including one that killed another driver.

All in all, he may have been one of the handsomest men to hit Hollywood, and certainly had the best butt, but he was just a mess. He's still alive, but he's got to be tortured by memories of his life. When he's sober.

or R46, Daniel Craig’s James Bond

R22 Male toplessness on TV,film and soaps was definitely for the female demo. However many of the producers were gay. It was a nod and a wink to the gay audience as well.

^^you got it. Anyone here remember James Drury? Yowza!

R23: You're crazy the male beefcake was partly for the women viewers. Good example---just watch Lucille Ball fall over herself in the Lucy Show/Here'sLucy/Whatever episode with Clint Walker. The comic relief in these shows--often in the detective shows that recycled the same scripts, was from a woman like Connie Stevens or Diane McBain.

John Smith was only briefly married and remained lifelong friends with Robert Fuller, bt sadly died of cirrohsis (sp) of the liver. Sounds very gay. Fuller is still around and maintained longstanding friendships with other costars and has had two long marriages. I suspect he's straight.

I'm sorry r30, Bobby can't come to the phone. He's.....

[quote]He also wore the tightest pants in creations and the show featured ass shot after ass shot.

Wrong

It’s a well known fact that the ass of the pants that Robert Conrad wore in WWW were padded. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that he was one hot, sexy, masculine man!

I have an eldergay friend who says he had sex with Conrad. Not blond, but African American. What I don't get is why closeted, broken Conrad is a rabid Republican. Well, maybe it makes sense given how hypocritical they are. I mean, look at Miss Lindsey and Aaron Cockgobbler Schock.

Conrad gave Jan Michael Vincent one of his first starting roles in a late 60s western. Guess we know why. Jan also had a drinking problem.

I suspect poor John Smith (discovered by Henry Wilson) was closeted and that drove him to drink.

^Everyone knows Jan had a huge drinking problem, and was falling down drunk most of the time on the set!

He was closeted? The man had 8 children. He had to at least love pussy too.

The best villain after Dr. Loveless was Count Manzeppi, played by Victor Buono. The 2nd episode where the Count is after a toy chicken is very campy. I wished they had used the Count a bit more than just two episodes.

I support r54's allegation that Conrad's fanny was padded. You can actually see the stitching holding it up in some of the closeups in the fight sequences.

Beefing up a man's butt wasn't a thing in those days, and it still isn't. We've never heard of any other TV show doing this for its star, so why would The W W West do it? Wouldn't it have been risking industry ridicule if word had gotten out?

Every once in a great while, a guy has a really beautiful behind, round and firm, and since the show was outfitting Conrad in tight-fitting costumes, he ended up showing his. I'm not saying they absolutely couldn't pad his pants, but rather that it seems culturally unlikely.

And for all the talk of how wonderful his physique was, nowadays it would scarcely be noticed at all. The guy you see paddling the canoe shirtless in the opening title sequence of Hawaiian Eye is twice as big as Conrad. I always wondered if that fellow ever had any speaking parts.

When Conrad was supposed to take a big fall on some of the episodes they might have added some padding for his safety. However, my friend C. who had a three- month affair with Conrad back in the early 1970s says that the RC butt was real and it was spectacular.

Conrad's trousers were legendary among wardrobe people. He had one ordinary set. One set that was super tight for long shots that had little movement. One set with special gussets for fight scenes (this was pre Lycra remember.). I would not be surprised if he also had a padded set for stunts.

I was thinking he might have had some stunt pants with some padding. There are certainly some shots with him in very tight pants and the way the butt moves in them and the shifting of the shape where if it is padding, they did an excellent job.

How'd we get this far without a picture of the ass in question? Actually Google has very few examples available, surprisingly...

The first couple of years of WWW Conrad just worn pants, but then all of a sudden he start wearing leather chaps quite a bit in fight scenes. I always wondered if it was to save his wardrobe from damage or a nod to the leather community.

wardrobe malfunction

I loved the train.

His real name was Konrad Falkowski.

I hated the Artemus Gordon role, I just couldn't understand why the camera gave him an ounce of time when it could be showing us Robert Conrad.

I couldn't get over Frank Gorshin's bulge as The Riddler on Batman. More recently I read some other people couldn't get over it either, and in season two the tights were nixed for regular pants. Also, he had a huge crush on Robin.

They needed at least ONE actor on the show, R68.

Arte's disguises were almost as interesting to this gayling as Conrad's assets.

Was that his homage to Miss Betty Grable, r64?

The link is an interesting post about Robert Conrad's career and life, with pictures.

Well ya know, r69.......

Conrad looks like the cryptkeeper now, but you have to hand it to him to still be alive at 83 considering his heavy drinking.

[quote]I hated the Artemus Gordon role, I just couldn't understand why the camera gave him an ounce of time when it could be showing us Robert Conrad.

Sorry, I preferred Artemus Gordon to Robert Conrad. I would still rather have an Artemus Gorden over a Robert Conrad.

He and Jan-Michael Vincent would make quite the interesting couple now.

R24 Is that scene really from a 60s TV show?

R77,

Why, bless your heart.

You know, women in the 60's liked looking at hairy chested, good looking, well built shirtless men too. It wasn't necessarily meant to be homoerotic, although I'm sure the writers of the show probably knew that homosexuals would be turned on too.

what I find interesting is that WWW was cancelled due to the on screen violence. I never noticed it being that violent. Certainly my parents did not mind. I wonder if the real reason was that someone found it to be" too gay".

WWW wasa in syndication in the 80s, and I remember being mesmerized by Robert Conrad, his tight trousers, furry chest, and sweet butt. I knew him more from those "Battle of the Network Stars" and "BahBah Black Sheep" in the 70s, where he would wear a speedo but his WWII costumes were also tight-trousered.

Thanks for the mention of Robert Fuller in "Laramie." Will have to watch to see whether he got tied up and gagged as much as Robert Conrad! Found this picture of Fuller:

[quote]His rough trade tricks were the legend of the time: he liked nasty nasty....

We need some specifics.

R26 I remember the trading cards in breakfast cereal packets. I particularly remember one of handsome david mccallum as ilya kuryakin shirtless and tied to a chair.

I can't find it now on Google but I see 2 other scenes shirtless and one tied to a chair.

Conrad’s ass was totally NOT padded. He wore super tight pants and coveralls in Black Sheep Squadron which nicely displayed his assets as well. Here’s another WWW pic.

Conrad himself has admitted there was padding...

Robert Fuller’s phat ass in motion...

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Fuller and Conrad at a nostalgia convention a couple of years ago (they were at the same event). Conrad can no longer walk without assistance and is paralyzed on one side, but he has a wicked sense of humor and is still a trip. Fuller is quite the scamp as well, and is as fit and spritely as ever. At one point I was having dinner at the restaurant inside the hotel that held the event, and Conrad comes in with his people to have dinner. Fuller came in a little later and walked over to Conrad’s table and they chatted a bit. Fuller is on his second marriage (he’s been married for years now to actress Jennifer Savidge) and Conrad, at the time, had some hot young female woman assisting him.

I tend to think that John Smith was gay as well. He married and divorced actress Luana Patten in the ‘60s, was rumored to have a very brief second marriage, was suspected to have a daughter which was never proven and remained single for the rest of his years. His career was thwarted by the director of the John Wayne movie Circus World in which Smith co-starred. The director reportedly hated him for unknown reasons and vowed that he would never work again. He did work, but not at the capacity that he could have and should have. Smith was gorgeous, with those full lips, long legs and that amazing bulge.

It amuses me that their tight pants are all very suggestive but they all adhere to the 1933 Hays Code rule that the navel must NOT be shown!

There's an episode where Conrad gets a shave. The entire thing is so obviously erotic. It's straight out of Tom of Finland. Personally, I'm glad that this show exists because something like this wouldn't get green lighted today because of its overt fixation on male sexuality. I'm sure the producers and the behind the scenes crew knew what they were doing.

Same thing for Italian Hercules movies back then. Wall to wall beefcake that, aside from 300, wouldn't be released today.

just watched an episode of Buck Rogers with Gil Gerard. Hilariously tight pants on Gil, such a big, plump ass. (nice crotch too)

Gil

Too bad there were never any spanking/paddling scenes with James Drury, Robert Fuller, John Smith or Robert Conrad on the receiving end. I wonder if the censors would have let something like that slide. There were certainly enough shows with women and children getting spanked in those days.

Male bondage was oddly popular in the sixties. James Bond was tied up with a laser aiming at his fuck, Batman and Robin were tied up almost as often as James West, all the TV secret agents at least got handcuffed.

Was there a cabal of gay prodecers running things back then?

[quote]Too bad there were never any spanking/paddling scenes with James Drury, Robert Fuller, John Smith or Robert Conrad on the receiving end.

There is. John Smith starred in an episode of The Paper Gunman where his character loses a poker game and gets put over some guy’s knee and spanked hard. If I can find it I’ll post it.

R90, there's that Peter Graves line in "Airplane" "Billy, do you like movies with gladiators?"

I think John Smith's first movie role was as Perkins ' friend in "Friendly Persuasion."

more of a tied up Robert Fuller

Loved Fuller and Conrad - and another 'Bob ' = Robert Wagner in It Takes A Thief got tied up and gagged a lot. He was suave sexy while Conrad and especially Fuller were more rough trade.

Amazing that John Smith got spanked! Thanks for that and will look it up. There was a scene in Laramie where Smith goes after Fuller, manhandles him and tries to dunk him in the water thing outside. Fuller gets the jump on him and dunks him instead. You could those 2 actors loved working together and ego did not compromise their relationship unlike the Larry Wilcox/Erik Estrada crap on CHIPS.

Another show that had off the wall homo-eroticism was RIPTIDE. Again, Perry King and Joe Penny live on a yacht and share a bedroom! I doubt right winger Stephen Cannell was 'going there' - but the chemistry like with Smith and Fuller, was off the charts.

Robert Conrad and Company. Nice legs and ass.

That heavenly, handsome face.

Enjoy.

we interrupt this Robert Conrad thread to give you more Robert Fuller. . .

Matts butt is better than conrads. He doesn't use padding either.

He was HOT!

"The water thing outside "

A trough?

It doesn't count if they're tied up with all their clothes on, r97!

OH MY GOD, r101 can you imagine your dick just a-slippin and a-slidin in and out of that ass?! Oy yoy yoy! r100, that pic just makes you melt and you'd expect that gorgeous guy to be friendly, humble and great in bed, none of which Robert Conrad was apparently, according to many posts here.

Robert Conrad was certainly hot, but he was a bad actor. I think that contributed to his being shirtless a lot.

He wasn’t a bad actor. He was a solid tv actor.

I don’t believe the padding story, either. A few of you say it’s a “fact,” which means you’re spreading rumor as truth. Where’s the interview? Where’s the source?

And no, you didn’t see stitching, either. Television wasn’t exactly hi def at that time.

He ran the gamut of emotion from A to B.

R110, that was actually Dorothy Parker, not Katharine Hepburn.

In addition, A to B can get you some pretty decent acting. But thanks for playing.

Subtle humor is lost on ^

Okay, R111, so it was ABOUT Kate (in "The Lake"?).

Actually, R107, he looks sullen and entitled in those pics. Like he'd just lie back and expect to be serviced. For some, that may in fact be part of his appeal. The hot HS jock.

R112, subtle humor?

LOL

R114 you're not supposed to correct r112! You're correcting the jokey ref! It wasn't the wittiest maybe but, Oy vey.

Ok, here it is. The show was called “Frontier” and the episode was “The Paper Gunman”. At the 9 minute mark, John Smith gets smacked and then spanked in the ass three times during a poker game...

Thx. Buns of steel. What the Internet was made for.

Thank you r116. It was pretty campy, but thanks for going to the trouble of finding and posting it!

That was a pretty good ass slapping. I bet he really felt it. I hope they only had to do it once for his sake.

r119, don't actors have a way of faking that stuff? "Pulling punches" and tricks with the camera can make it seem real. If it wasn't and John Smith actually got spanked by the other actor all I can say is, what a lucky guy. I wonder if they giggled about it after they did the spanking scene.

I recalled King Donovan from the Burns and Allen show which was on the air right about the time he made this particular western (1955). He was married to Imogene Coca from Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows", but I thought both he and his wife pinged loudly.

Another "near" spanking was on Wagon Train in an episode called "The Whipping", where at the end Bill Hawks tells his young protege Barnaby that for a variety of reasons he deserves a spanking and tells him to carry it out. One has to see the show to understand. Big buildup for a big letdown.

No one had tighter pants than Conrad , even I remember that.

Yeah, Conrad was hot but I prefer real men: Lloyd Bridges in Sea Hunt

I think Chad Everett was gay also.

Illya Kuryakin................................................WOOF

Hot guy. Somewhere I read that he's a Big Boy. Jill Ireland divorced him to marry Charles Bronson.

R47, what is the Rona Barrett story? Please do tell.

The only Rona Barrett story I know is her story that Hugh O'Brian wanted to screw her and said, "Oh please, Miss Rona, I'll just put the tip in."

To me, Robert Conrad always came off as a rageaholic who was just one excuse away from completely losing it and exploding his rage on whoever was closest. The word that comes to mind is “seething,” in that he had this inner emotional storm that was always percolating.

R1227: Here's the Rona Barrett story -- if you scroll down a bit and then enlarge the newspaper clipping...

Wow, Rona really didn't hold back. Are there any eldergays here who have more first-person stories about Conrad?

[quote]Beefing up a man's butt wasn't a thing in those days, and it still isn't. We've never heard of any other TV show doing this for its star, so why would The W W West do it?

*Ahem*

Now take it for what it's worth - CHARLES MANSON claims Conrad used to cruise him(!). Manson said Conrad was a nasty fuck who had a Napoleon complex. Manson also claimed Peter Falk as a trick. Conrad was starring in a new NBC Jack Webb series called the D.A. and he attended Manson's trial.

Well, gee, if Charlie said it...

I remember how ultra-competitive and obnoxious Robert Conrad used to be on “Battle of the Network Stars”.

theirs nothing harmonica about his back side. all you gaze think evryone is gay. but its not true most of the time. i like wild wild wild west. the only time it seemed gay to me was when will smith was in the motion picture show of wild wild west. robert conrad was a mans-man, like me!

This is the original Will Smith, Billy boy.....

I'm guessing that all of that shirtless S&M seen in late 1950s/early 1960s movies and TV was because it was only then that male shirtlessness became prevalent on film. That sort of brazen muscularity was fairly rare in preceding decades (with the exception of the Tarzan films).

And it had to be tamed!

I know he's clothed here, but this image is so campy it looks like it could be a prelude to porn.

Dont know any of these guys. Fuller is sexier. Conrad is pretty. Nice legs and ass. John smith getting spanked is hot. Seems like they were carrying him out to ravage him. Haha. Who does that? What guy spanks another guy when fighting?

It may have been gay but I asked mom, who was in her prime housewife years then, what she thought of Robert Conrad. "Best looking man on tv, and I never missed 'The Wild Wild West'" was her answer. And she added that her mahjongg and bridge partners all thought so too.

So there's that

Managing to escape, butt to the camera.

Exactly where you want him - stretched on the bed.

Tied up again, this time with an Indian lass.

Look at that tight, compact body!

Tie up once again!

A sailing we will go.

Why didn't they ever show their bellybuttons? It was the 1960s fercrissakes!!!

Was it thought to be effeminate?

[quote]I'm guessing that all of that shirtless S&M seen in late 1950s/early 1960s movies and TV was because it was only then that male shirtlessness became prevalent on film.

That's so not true. From the 1920s onward movies featured plenty of beefcake.

I remember reading when he was involved with that fatal car accident some years back that his actual birth date was in 1929, not 1935. It had been faked when he was starting out, which makes him 89.

His propensity to get violent toward his tricks is scary. He wanted to get fucked, but then beat the guy up? Did he ever top?

R152, he wanted you to knock a battery off his shoulder and it made sense at the time.

R149 Boobs jiggling and risqué harem costume but Barbara Eden was not supposed to show her navel in I Dream Of Jeannie. Go figure.

R151 -- Bobby claims that the reason his drivers license is dated 6 years earlier is that he lied about his age -- he needed to seem to be older when he ran away from home and got married and got a job.

However... that doesn't really make a lot of sense, unless he conned the DMV into accepting his lie without any proof. The odds are pretty good that he really is that much older -- when he came to Hollywood, Warners wanted to make him a teen heart throb, and if he was already approaching 30, that wouldn't have worked.

Also, if you look at him today, he certainly looks more like he's almost 90 than 83. In fact, he looks about 100. Although that could be the heavy drinking and unpleasant life he's led.

Older but still handsome.

[quote]Thank you [R116]. It was pretty campy, but thanks for going to the trouble of finding and posting it!

You’re welcome!

Time is a thief, and gravity a vandal.

Believe me, for someone approaching 90, he looks damn good.

I wonder if he still likes guys to beat him?

Robert Conrad's Columbo appearance was must-see TV for me. 15 glorious shirtless minutes of RC in his slightly older prime.

Hey, I just realized that both Conrad and Ross Martin were guest murderers on Columbo. Same thing with Shatner and Nimoy from Star Trek.

r150, the shirtlessness of 1920s silent film hunks was very different from what came later in the 1950s. It was all very romanticized, dreamy and soft focus back then with lots of makeup and glistening oils. It was really not so much sexual as idealized like classical statuary and not very threatening.

Bobby C botttoms for Van Williams

Bobby's on the bottom again.

Ahem

r28 r66 Here's a video of that scene. It also suffers from poor editing. His pants tear on the inside left leg and the crotch, then mend themselves and tear on the outside right leg.

Excuse me. I could flash my belly button in the 1960s.

What was with those beefcake shots - were they in a 50s/60s version of Tiger Beat? Here is one with one of my other favorite western pretty boys - Dough McClure with that guy from Rawhide.

IIIRC, it was Cher who eventually broke the taboo against showing her navel, since so many of her Bob Mackie outfits famously exposed hers.

In her divorce petition, John Smith's wife, Luana Patten, claimed that he would disappear for long periods of time and then refuse to tell her where he had been. She also claimed that he would refuse to talk to her for long periods of time. Very Ennis Del Mar.

R150 Joan's father in law,for a couple years.

Did anyone have a thing for James Stacy? Very similar to Conrad but not short. Tragic life - lost an arm and a leg when a drunk driver hit the motorcycle he was on, killing his girlfriend. Made a come back of sorts in the 70s and 80s. Convicted of child molestation in 1995 and went to prison for six years. Died in 2016 from anaphylactic shock after receiving an antibiotic.

And once married to Miss Connie Stevens!

LOL at R168 pic.

Okay you guys rassle in these skimpy shorts, the girls love it.

R168 That must be a non-studio shot.

They are displaying their navels.

[quote]In her divorce petition, John Smith's wife, Luana Patten, claimed that he would disappear for long periods of time and then refuse to tell her where he had been. She also claim that he would refuse to talk to her for long periods of time. Very Ennis Del Mar.

Indeed. I heard that later in life he had a close male friend, a Hispanic man, who he ended up leaving most of his things to.

Van Williams was another gorgeous one. He and Conrad did a lot of those scantily clad candid shot.

Yes r172! James Stacy was sexy as fuck on “Lancer”.

He was in the hilarious "Flare Up" with Raquel, and I remember his having a kind of sweetness that Conrad couldn't have mustered up.

I get James Stacey mixed up with John Ashley who was married to Deborah "Gidget" Walley and appeared in some of those Beach Blanket movies. Wasn't Stacey in some of them, too?

R172 Thanks for the link to James Stacey. It led me to a still from an obscure movie called The Women of Pitcairn Island which seems to be very much in the "hot men in peril" genre suggested by The Wild Wild West". It starred John Smith, one of Henry Willson's clients. For some inexplicable reason Willson changed his name from Robert Van Orden to John Smith.

Oh lord, r179, I'd totally forgotten about Flare-up!

Yeah he was hot- my favs were two of the TX Rangers on Larado!

Enterprising gays should film hardcore sex scenes and insert them in every WWW episode...that’s the only missing

...thing

So, R172, James Stacy's motorcycle cost him and arm and a leg?

Of all those 60s beefcake TV guys, Van Williams was the handsomest. But Conrad had the hottest body, and his seething rage made him incredibly hot.

Shatner fits into this category too--I guess his only superlative was he was the worst actor.

The 1st ep of Laramie 'Stage Stop' just saw this on Grit. I forgot about little Bobby Crawfrord (Rifleman Johnny's older brother) who played John Smith's brother Andy. Andy's crush on Jess is over the top. He begs him to take him with him, to be his partner. Andy makes a handful of appearances in the 2nd season but the character is shipped off to boarding school so big brother Slim can have Jess all to himself.

Joel McCrea, the camera eroticized his body in "The Sporting Parade" and "Bird of Paradise", both pre-code 1932 films

R157 -- Van was good looking but Conrad was indeed better looking -- for about 4 years. Then the drinking got to him and he turned into an attractive daddy type, no longer a stunning one. But at his prime, it's hard to find someone more handsome.

Buster Crabbe in "Search for Beauty" 1934

The thread has gone WAY off the rails.

Beefcake in Sixties TV seems a reasonable stretch, given the topic; but beefcake in 20s movies should be its own thread.

Sorry, I meant "beefcake in 30s movies"

Van has it all over Lil’ Bobby Conrad.

Too bad he was never tied up like Robert.

Hard to see in the photos but Van had incredible green eyes, a to-die-for combo with his black hair and genuine Southern drawl. And he was well over 6' tall!

I never understood why Warners pushed Troy Donahue on Surfside 6 and in their films instead of Van. Maybe Van wasn't very ambitious.

Van’s story

I love that episode of Cheyenne where humongous Clint Walker throws a drunken Van Williams over his shoulder and walks off with him.

bringing up the eroticism in the pre-code 30's movies was not taking the thread "off the rails" it was included to refute the ignoramus who made the assertion....

[quote]the shirtlessness of 1920s silent film hunks was very different from what came later in the 1950s. It was all very romanticized, dreamy and soft focus back then with lots of makeup and glistening oils. It was really not so much sexual as idealized like classical statuary and not very threatening.

"It's pretty well understood that the most homoerotiv show of the 1960s was "the Wid, Wild West.""

Did you guys completely miss "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea"? You know, the show that in its first season was 99% beefcake, and from the second season on was 100% male? Mostly hot males, too. As a kid, this was my favorite show hands-down. Total eye candy.

It's had me wondering for decades if Irwin Allen was gay. And if Richard Basehart and David Hedison had a thing going on.

I liked Kowalski

Tight pants on that blond actor in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

Now, Gary Conway, on Land of the Giants......

Yes, male homoeroticism with touches of BDSM was definitely a thing in the sixties.

Was Hollywood run by sadistic gays or something?

Shirtless William Smith tied up in bondage in "Laredo" (Season 1, Episode 11 "Jinx")

(start at the 28 minute mark for shirtless Will)

James Stacy was indeed a total stud. What a tragic life he had at the end. He reminded me so much of Michael Callen, another B-movie/TV actor.

For some reason, the B-movie actors are the ones I find most attractive. Good call on the guy who pointed out Kowalski on Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea. There was another minor actor from that era named Paul Carr,who was hot in that clean-cut Sixties kind of way.

Was there ever a hotter B actor than me?

My own personal fetish is to find these guys in grade-Z thrillers where they have a bedroom scene.

Guy Madison was really where it all started, followed by Rory Calhoun, Clint Walker and all the other Warner Bros B list studs on their TV westerns and sun-bathed detective shows

An entirely different aesthetic than that of Douglas Fairbanks, Valentino and even Joel McCrea. Can't you see that r198?

Voyage didn’t really show that much skin though.

Flipper on the other hand...

David Hedison was gorgeous and he got tied up a lot.

R208 Guy Madison. Completely gorgeous.

Guy Madison in his very first move, Since You Went Away.

The studio received 1000's of letters inquiring about him.

guy madison should never be photographed fully clothed

Guy and Spot.

Vintage bondage-like scene between 2 men.

Vintage erotica.

A boy and his chiropractor, getting some vitamin D.

injecting vintage erotic photography into a film/tv thread, does take it off the rails, though certainly worthy of its own thread

[quote]Guy Madison was really where it all started

An argument could be made that the male pin-up actually started with George O'Brien.

George O'Brien - Olive Borden

Publicity shot for "Fig Leaves" 1927

Nah, I think Douglas Fairbanks (Sr.) was the first movie star to spend a lot of time shirtless or scantily clad. Here's "The Thief of Bagdad" from 1924.

Although Fairbanks spent a lot of time shirtless, it didn't come across as all that sexual. He seemed more interested in his own marvelously athletic body than in having sex with others.

R221 You kind of don't get it.

It wasn't just a matter of being shirtless, O'Brien was presented shirtless in sexual situations. You would not see Fairbanks photographed as in R220 or like this:

R220, love his slender, slender calves.

R223 His legs were fine.

Herman Brix was Tarzan for a while in the 30s, then became Bruce Bennett, signed at Warners, and was Bert Pierce in "Mildred Pierce."

[quote]Guy Madison was really where it all started, followed by Rory Calhoun

Yes, they often followed each other . . .

That's certainly not Rory Calhoun at r226.

The sixties was a bonanza of good-looking guys in tight trousers often getting tied up. Nickelodeon started airing these shows in the 80s. "The Wild, Wild West" was a spoof of science fiction, westerns, and James Bond movies. "The Time Tunnel" was another. It had two hyper masculine leads, Robert Colbert and James Darren. One or the other often got tied up when they travelled through time.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned "Lost in Space." It's a shame that Major West (Marc Goddard) never got tied up. Jeez, his smoldering resentment was sexy! Then, there was "Land of the Giants." I loved it, when those little people, especially Don Matheson and Gary Conway got tied up!

Gary Conway posed for playgirl dut didn't show peen.

Conway's short little jacket to allow a full rear view did seem to have a bit of a WWW influence.

Lee Major's Heath ended up captured about once a year and in vulnerable situations a few additional times. There were a couple of episodes where he was basically taken captive from the pre-credit scene and was not free until the closing credits. Once by a vengeful Amish type that literally captured him to be their servant/slave and kept him bound or in a cage and once by an insane Lieslie Nielson who basically kept him as a source of entertainment. He could do vulnerable captive in a way that Nick probably could not have pulled off.

"Lawman" had the ultimate duo fighting crime back in the day. There was beautiful, sexy Daddy Lawman, John Russell and his sidekick Deputy Peter Brown, voted the stud most likely to fill out a pair of jeans like nobody's business. Certain shots of Brown running around left little to the imagination on which side his career was buttered. Sweet!

Lawman was just a warm-up to Brown's time on Laredo.

The director wanted to try out different gag styles.

Who's that on the far right, R233?

Robert Wolders. I think he was only on the show for one season ( season 2). He was a sophisticated European. In some ways he was duplicative of Brown's character (smart - a foil to Reese - able to make a wise-crack), that I can see why they ended up dropping him.

I remember watching Laramie, Laredo, and WWW repeats as a kid. I think WGN played a Rawhide WWW combo and Pat Robertson's CBN played Laredo and Laramie (the station played some old shows that were a little less frequently seen - both westerns and sitcoms). Grit TV played Laramie and Laredo recently (sadly I no longer pick up the station) and I have seen WWW off and on throughout the years. Some of the Laramie and WWW episodes actually hold up pretty well Laredo was pretty painful besides the gratuitous beefcake of Brown and Smith (and the two actors come off very likable). The comic character of Reese is painful to watch as is much of the Native American interactions, which are bad even for the time. One Life to Live's Asa Buchanan plays the commander - and interesting to see him younger and pretty handsome.

Peter Brown's peter

"His legs were fine."

All three of them, obviously!

Robert Wolders went on to marry Merle Oberon and was with her until she died. He then took up with Audrey Hepburn and stayed with her until she died. He is now shacked up with Henry Fonda's last widow.

The one TV cowboy who never seems to get mentioned in these threads is my fave Robert Horton, who starred on Wagon Train for many years. He had some actual talent and appeared on Broadway as Starbuck the Rainmaker in the musical 110 in the Shade.

Rory: "Listen up, Diana Lynn, I already told that ho next to Guy to keep her hands away from the goods and that goes for you too, hussy!"

Guy: "My man!"

[quote]There was another minor actor from that era named Paul Carr

Carr had a magnificent bubble butt and often sported some major VPL. An episode of The Rifleman that he guest starred in comes to mind.

R242 I can't find any good pictures of this Paul Carr person.

Bump the West.

Isn’t this the show Sally Draper was caught masturbating to on Mad Men?

John and Robert all tied up

He was gorgeous!

R22.. It worked. I was 11 at the time of the show, and he caught my eye.. lol.

he loved hot studs sukiin on his tittys

The shirtless-man-in-danger meme was also used in countless men's magazine covers back then. I don't pretend to fully understand why it was so culturally appealing, but I would have to assume it was just a way of embedding beefcake in a socially acceptable "masculine" context.

R46.. I think it was a trend because of James Bond 007, being so hot at the time... the spies always getting in precarious positions (tongue in cheek).

R241: Gore Vidal claimed to have had an affair with Diana Lynn. Whether she was lover or beard, all we know is Vidal's say-so.

[quote] He is now shacked up with Henry Fonda's last widow.

Not anymore!

R64... Very muscular legs. Good calves..

R101... Looks like Carroll O'Connor in that gif..

It is, R255. He played a criminal mortician.

There are several episodes that really feature the butt -- the best are Night of the Falcon and Night of the Turncoat