Joe Cuilla and Angelo Noto

Millard, Gillespie, McLeod, Feniello, Cuilla, and Noto

More first impressions

Howard Olsen

AMG album/catalogue E introduced a fair number of models who became studio perennials — no fewer than nine men who would recur, two of whom would appear in albums of their own.

Louis Paul 

and Joe Bloomberg 

Angelo Noto and Joe Cuilla

Don McLeod

Frank Mead

John Balen

Ken Rashoff

Jerry Feniello

More early AMG duals

Forrester Millard and Harold Gillespie

Bob Mizer’s Athletic Model Guild publishing program was initially premised on a curated “album” of twelve images supplemented by a “catalogue” of extras. So far as I know, only Albums M and O are complete as albums — that is, with no extras gathered into a catalogue.

Album M is a variety album with some of the same models found in Albums E and G. Like the G album, these images record outdoor sessions: Forrester Millard and Harold Gillespie in the shallows, Don McLeod and Jerry Feniello grappling in the grass, Angelo Noto and Joe Cuilla in an acrobatic pose and at rest. A final evocative image shows the pair clasping hands across railroad tracks.

Don McLeod and Jerry Feniello

Joe Cuilla and Angelo Noto 

More early AMG duals

Bob Mizer’s AMG album/catalogue G marks the studio’s first full venture outdoors. (John Miller’s D catalogue and Gene Eberle’s album/catalogue F are the earliest tentative steps out of the photographer’s studio.) 

Harold Gillespie appears for the first time in G, but the models are otherwise familiar: Angelo Noto and Joe Cuilla (seen here), Howard Olsen, Bob Yerkes, Gene Eberle, Don McLeod, Jerry Feniello, John Miller, and Forrester Millard had already appeared in earlier albums and catalogues.

Some of the compositions in this al fresco outing indicate that Mizer was just as confident outside as indoors.

John Miller

and Forrester Millard

Jerry Feniello and Don McLeod

Harold Gillespie and Forrester Millard 

Early AMG duals

The Kamp brothers were the earliest pair published by the Athletic Model Guild. Next came Gene Meyer and Pepper Gomez, followed by Forrester Millard and John Miller. (The first published trio was Millard, Miller, and Tom Thornburg in Miller’s D catalogue.)

Louis Paul and Joe Bloomberg come next, in Album E, along with Angelo Noto and Joe Cuilla. The E catalogue includes another trio: John Balen, Frank Mead, and Fred Servoss.

Considering Mizer’s fondness for groups, these first five album/catalogues get off to a slow start!

Gene Meyer

and Pepper Gomez

Forrester Millard

and John Miller

Louis Paul

and Joe Bloomberg

Angelo Noto

and Joe Cuilla

See also AMG A-Z and AMG Compound

Shirts Optional

Bob Mizer tended to publish the finished product of a photo session, at least in the early days, only occasionally showing the preliminaries. (For the purposes of the Athletic Model Guild, this meant getting the models into posing pouches or abbreviated swimwear as soon as possible.)

There is something charming about the way-stations in the photographic process, as here:

Howard Olsen

Joe Cuilla and Angelo Noto

Wayne Roberts

John Murphy