Marcos by BiLatinMen, Augustine by LatinBoyz, Carlos by UomoTV and Roberto by MiamiBoyz

These pictures are from a few different photo sets put out by BiLatinMen many years ago; and I’m pretty sure that they (or perhaps one should say he) was republishing work by some South American associates, probably Brazilian, so I’m not exactly sure who deserves the photographer’s credit in the present instance.  In any case this model is given the name of Marcos for most of these pictures, though he has gone by many other names as well.  It all depended on which studio was buying or selling his rather remarkable and marketable images.  As best I can figure out, he’s Brazilian, though I initially assumed that he was Peruvian.  Whichever his true home may be, the viewer is encouraged to picture him as an inhabitant of the Amazonian Interior.

Marcos

Below one can see photographs of him published by UomoTV, Miami Boyz, Latin Boyz, Amazon Boy, and very likely a few others whose logos escape me at present.  The photos vary  in quality, but not all that much.  It helps having a model as perfectly handsome as this fellow, whether his name is Augustine, Lorenzo, Roberto, Carlos, Ernesto, or Marcos, as he is above.

Augustine

Carlos

 

Roberto

Cole Porter's Mack the Black

from The Pirate by Vincente Minnelli

One of the great highlights of Minnelli’s best film, The Pirate, is of course the performance of Cole Porter’s wonderful song (written in tribute to one of his lovers) Mack the Black.  This is one of those perfectly formed pearls that Vincente spoke of when explaining his approach to film making.  In it (his then wife) Judy Garland plays Manuela, a girl betrothed to the much older mayor, who (unknown to her) in his younger days was the very Pirate by whom she now dreams of being abducted.  When she is placed under hypnosis by a traveling player, Serafin played by Gene Kelly, she lets loose with a song that seeks to encompass and express her vast sensual longings. This seven minute musical sequence is among the best ever recorded and constructed on film.

(It should probably come as no great surprise that this film was among Jack Smith’s favorites, and one of the inspirations for his own unfinished masterwork, No President.)