Champion (Multilingual Edition) [Hardcover]

Walter Kundzicz (Author), Reed Massengill (Editor), Champion Studios (Producer)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2004

The first book of images from Champion Studios, famous for quality color images of handsome, athletic young men from the late 1950s and early '60s. These 345 photographs of scantily clad athletes - packed with amusing props, costumes, and bulging posing pouches - are notable not only for the commercial success they enjoyed during their heyday, but also for their enduring creativity and imagination. Whether measured in terms of his prolific output, sales, his early and sophisticated use of customer mailing lists, or his impact upon the U.S. censorship laws of his time, Kundzicz and his work left an indelible imprint on male physique photography. Today, nearly half a century later, Kundzicz's work and his most popular models continue to have their ardent fans.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Reed Massengill is the photographer of three collections of male nudes His images also have been included in many important photographic anthologies, including Exposed (Thunder's Mouth, 2000) and Male Nude Now (Universe, 2001). He was commissioned to write the award-winning Becoming American Express; and his first book, Portrait of a Racist (St. Martin’s, 1994), was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1994.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Goliath Books; First Edition edition (March 2004)
• Language: Multilingual
• ISBN-10: 393670905X
• ISBN-13: 978-3936709056
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.7 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #716,449 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oddly Moving, August 21, 2004

By 

Bruce Frier (Ann Arbor, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Champion (Multilingual Edition) (Hardcover)

It's not easy to say why these pictures are so affecting. Most of them show moderately good-looking young men in the late 1950s and early 1960s, during a crucial period just before the outbreak of the gay lib revolution. The models are photographed mostly standing or lying down, against ordinary backgrounds (one bathroom recurs very often), with simple props; most of them are nude or in skimpy posing straps. The physical type is also repetitive: muscular, but largely smooth and lithe (as it seems, "six-packs" hadn't been invented yet), well-groomed and, with only one exception, clean-shaven. Except in a few group photos, they are usually expressionless, rather than, say, overtly lascivious in the modern manner. The photos are a bit washed out, in the understated style of older pornography, but on the whole this book is leagues distant from modern porn.

What I kept thinking as I looked through it is that, for most of these men, a heroic age lay just on the horizon: Stonewall just a few years ahead, a time of profound sexual liberation. It's like they are pausing just before the battle begins.

This book is a fine document of a distant era, and well worth owning.

26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Is Aptly Named., February 12, 2004

By 

H. F. Corbin "Foster Corbin" (ATLANTA, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Champion (Multilingual Edition) (Hardcover)

This book reminds me-- I swear I'm telling the truth-- of Dolly Parton's "Hard Rock Christmas." Something tells me Ms. Parton would like this book if she saw it. If you own this book, you can have Christmas the whole year long. The words "sated" and "abundance of riches" come to mind in describing these photographs. There are approximately 350 pages here, beautifully reproduced in color, of sexy young men whom Walter Kundzicz photographed in the 1950's and 1960's. To avoid the clutches of "Big Brother" and get around the laws against nudity, Mr. Kundzicz posed many of his models in see-through posing straps. According to his interesting article here about Champion Studio, he was not always successful in avoiding prosecution, however, particularly from a police force heavily influenced by the Catholic Church. From what we know now, the church would have spent its time more productively "policing" its own. But that's another story. It's scary to see what the laws were and such a short time ago.

Kudos to Reed Massengill for, in the words of Mr. Kundzicz, "managing the publication" of this book and seeing to completion yet another fine book of male photographs. You'll return to this delicious book again and again for more candy!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Eye Candy, August 9, 2007

By 

Louis XIV "horba" (Bothell, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Champion (Multilingual Edition) (Hardcover)

This is a really good book. The only problem that I have with it is its size. It would have been perfect if it had been a little larger. But that said, I still highly recommend this book.