Fwd: [mitchmen by Mitchell] Tom of Finland - Mr Universe, part 2

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Subject:	[mitchmen by Mitchell] Tom of Finland - Mr Universe, part 2
Date:	Thu, 26 Jun 2025 10:19:28 +0000
From:	Blogger <no-r...@blogger.com>
To:	mitc...@gmail.com

You can read Part 1 of this article first if you wish

 

Tom of Finland - Mr Universe 08 (Oiling Up)

 

On the day of the contest, the buddies change into their costumes and oil up. The dark haired one is being assisted here by some very butch-looking young men. The scenario provides an excuse for implying some fairly intimate contact between them. The bodybuilder has got himself a sexy, dark pouch with a chain for the waistband, and one of the assistants actually seems to be putting him into it. It's a daring ingredient, albeit well-disguised by a confusing arrangement of hands. 

 

The blond changes his clothes, unassisted. There's a sense of his friend getting all the attention, being pampered and hero worshipped. He's playing up to it, too, striking a god-like beefcake pose with modest downcast eyes. His blond buddy does not seem dismayed or jealous. He is, perhaps, proud of his friend changing from a clumsy, ugly duckling into a swan. Interestingly, the beefcake pose resembles the ballet dancer's 'petit pose' and this conjures up another swan connection - 'Swan Lake', which is also about transformations. However, the Black Swan in that ballet plays a very dark role.  

 

 There's no doubt about this image being part of the 'Universe' set, it was explicitly labelled as such (with title) in Scan issue 8, circa August 1961. The distinctive chain pouch helps to assign other, later images to this set. Apart from these, I know of only one another image by Tom which features this pouch design, it is included in the mitchmen 'Tailor Group' article (previously referenced in Part 1 of Mr Universe). That other image is not part of this set, the pouch is white and it's being worn in a studio setting, suggesting a porn star being dressed or fluffed up for something quite different. Interestingly, it's dated as 1963 in the Tom of Finland Retrospective Vol 1, but the Universe image above is definitely 1961. 

 

Notice the number 1 written in the bottom left corner. This may offer an explanation of the 1961 v 1963 date controversy. That the later images in Part 1 were post-scripts, inspired by and elaborating on the run-up to the contest.  That doesn't explain image 3, however, which is indistinguishable in style and provenance to the group presented here.

 

Tom of Finland - Mr Universe 09

 The boys strut their stuff on the competition stage.

 

Obviously this is only a fragment of the full image and although it didn't appear until later (in 101 Boys Art Quarterly for Summer 1965), it did so alongside other fragments from the Universe series so it's almost certainly part of it. There wasn't much mileage for Tom in drawing beefcake posing when the magazines were awash with photographs of the real thing, so it's not entirely surprising that no copies of the full image have be found. The cropping here might lead you to suppose that Tom spiced it up with some provocative, costume detail. However, this publication seems to have used cropping arbitrarily, perhaps to evade copyright challenges.

 

 

Tom of Finland - Mr Universe 10

 

Needless to say, one of the two boys is fated to win the contest. It turns out to be the blond who has appeared to be the more confident and polished one throughout the (my) story. In a flip of image 8, it's now him who is being feted (exceptionally generously) by his rivals. Tom uses an unconventional viewpoint at the rear of the stage which shows the enormous, equally excited audience almost clamouring to get on the stage with them. This is the era of pop star adulation, remember, with screaming 'Beatlemania' just around the corner.

 

Tom's backstage viewpoint also shows us the backsides of the bodybuilders, who are all, as expected, wearing very skimpy costumes, halfway to being backless thongs. The two-man lift has parted the blond's legs (and butt cheeks) creating an extremely suggestive view (the serial croppers at '101 Boys' printed an unsubtle fragment of this area framed only by a glimpse of supporting shoulders). Despite this, the image was used to advertise the series in Scan 9 (Nov 1961).

 

However, this is not the complete image.

 

Tom of Finland - Mr Universe 10 (version 2)

 This version of the victor's celebration was used to promote the series later, in Man Alive #19 (Mar 1962). It reveals that the blond's dark-haired buddy is watching the proceedings from one side and looking defeated, disappointed and envious. 

 

Notice the lines top and bottom that seem to suggest this version was meant to be cropped as well. However, the extra detail is an important link to what follows. The accompanying blurb talks mysteriously of 'back-stage struggles'.

 

Notice the Number '3' in the bottom corner of this picture (refer to image 8). 

 

This Article is Work in Progress, 

More Images Soon 

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Posted by Blogger to mitchmen by Mitchell at 26 Jun 2025, 11:19

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