Photograph By Bruce of Los Angeles
Muscle Builder, October, 1954
A different kind of showdown in the Wild West.
Here the outlaw is a photographer. The would-be gunslingers, two aspiring actors—
one found at a downtown department store luncheonette, the other at
a sleepy, beachside gymnasium. Both hired for their disarming
boy-next-door smiles and trim physiques. In front of the camera’s lens,
the twosome sporting only ink-black posing straps. These insincere triangles of fabric
gingerly uphold local and national obscenity laws.
A rancher’s wagon inserted behind the flexing models. The spokes of the wagon wheels
smooth and well proportioned. Now the defiant photographer instructs the young men
to remove even the G-strings. The male models toss them among their discarded
cowboy boots, Stetson hats, and holstered replicas of Colt .45 revolvers.
Manifest Destiny; the Gold Rush; the buttes of Monument Valley; Chisholm Trail—
all of it comes crashing into this 1954 Western scene.
Is the day unusually hot? Why is there never a good saloon around when you need one?
A braided rawhide lasso coils in the dirt, like a diamondback, ready to strike.
