Forrester Millard, John Miller, and Tommy Thornburgh

John Miller

John Miller and Forrester Millard

John Miller

50,000 page views!

Mizer on location

1,000th post

 My first post, back in February 2024, featured Forrester Millard in AMG’s Album A. Here he is in successive variety and solo albums:

With John Miller in Album B. Note the hand-drawn loin cloths.

Solo, in Album C.

Seaside in Album G.

With some vital statistics in Album J.

On the rocks in Album M.

Resting on velvet in Album R.

On the go in Album ZB.

John Miller

First impressions

Forrester Millard and Gene Meyer posed for Bob Mizer for years, starting when they were very young and documenting their bodies’ development over a long period. I thought it might be interesting to pull together the first appearances of some early AMG notables — not the earliest image taken (as of Meyer, when he was in his early teens), but the first the studio published. 

Bob McCune

Bob Yerkes

Gene Eberle

Gene Meyer 

and Pepper Gomez

John Miller

AMG IDs

It can sometimes seem like Bob Mizer released his photos in a flood and without a plan. For some reason, perhaps because of the legal peril American physique photographers faced before 1968, he did not make it easy — at least from this vantage point — to navigate his oeuvre, since one (hard to identify) muscular half-naked man may readily be taken for another muscular half-naked man.

But of course there was a plan, and for the audience he sought there was indeed guidance. Even before the (not always satisfactory) Thousand Model Directory was published in 1957, AMG issued materials to guide the collector to Mizer’s preferred outlet: an album showing twelve of the best images in the set and a catalogue (often packed with treasures) from sessions with the model or models. 

It turns out to be difficult to reconstruct this vanished world: the linkages seem broken, and the structures imperfect … to say nothing of the variety of prints AMG made and the consistency with which the studio stamped (or did not stamp or otherwise mark) the reverse of the image with its code.

Difficult, but not impossible. This image, from AMG’s Bulletin 54, is one of many of the lists Mizer offered his customers. To decode it — rather like his later symbol codes — one needs familiarity with the albums and catalogues themselves. It is frustrating to lump “Catalog A-ZB13” together: what does that mean? Only the location of many of the most desirable early Athletic Model Guild images, that’s all.

Let me break it down:

A, Variety

B, Variety

C, Forrester Millard

D, John Miller

E, Variety

F, Gene Eberle

G, Variety

H, Howard Olsen

I, Andy Kozak

J, Forrester Millard

K, Variety

L, Larry Farrell

Continued here.

 

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