I have always been interested in peplum style movies. As an impressionable young teenager, I was always turned on by the "swords and sandals"movies that portrayed muscular heroes scantily clad in the briefest of loincloths. I have always felt these movies were surreptitiously made for a gay audience at a time when society wasn't as open o homosexuality as it is today. Certainly, i had many "guilty" pleasures from watching these movies.
Searching back through my files, I discovered a small collection of movie stills that portray slaves and historically this one in particular interests me.
It is from a movie, "The Sign of the Cross" made in 1932 with a very young Charles Laughton playing the part of the emperor, Nero. Of course, my interest was more focused on the near naked slave serving Nero, the actor, George Bruggeman who is probably long forgotten now as he died in 1967 after an acting career of many years.
George was born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1904 and first worked in California as a lifeguard at a private club so I have no doubt he was shirtless on many occasions. This picture doesn't really do him credit; his physique and fitness was much more impressive. In 1934, George once again acted the part of a semi-naked slave this time to Cleopatra.
George also played a major role in the early Tarzan movies starring Johnny Weissmuller. George "doubled" for Weissmuller in the scenes where Tarzan was swinging from tree to tree. Next time you see an old Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movie you will also see George Bruggeman albeit at a distance.
During the making of one Tarzan movie, an elephant attacked a group of dwarf actors and George stepped in to save them. Sadly, one of the dwarf actors was killed but George saved the others. However, this left him with a serious back injury which stayed with him for the remainder of is life.
George featured in many movies as well as television series. These include such well-known series as Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Virginian, Ironside, Laredo, Mannix to name just s few.
However, for me, George Bruggeman will always be remembered as Nero's near naked slave in the 1932 movie.
Picture found on the internet. The text is mine.
My teenage boner was Robert Conrad from the James West television series. He had well-defined muscles, was hairy and was shirtless and bound every two or three chapters.
ReplyDeletePote, I remember him in that series. Are you familiar with the works of Amalaric who is one of my favourite artists? If I remember correctly, he wrote about James West based on the tv series and illustrated it with Robert Conrad. His images, as I recall, were very erotic and arousing and attracted much attention when they appeared at the former Chained Muscle site. But then, Robert Conrad was a most handsome subject. I can well imagine him giving you a teenaged boner. I suggest you weren't the only one.
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