TARZANA APES: 1951 ALL-MALE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA POOL PARTY PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM
Item #1736
TARZANA APES: 1951 ALL-MALE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA POOL PARTY PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM
[Tarzana, California]: Edwards Photography, July 21, 1951. Plastic-comb-bound album measuring 8¼" x 10½", containing fourteen approximately 8" x 10" gelatin silver photographs.
A wonderfully spirited photographic record of an all-male Saturday afternoon gathering identified on the cover as “Tarzana Apes, July 21, 1951.” A preliminary leaf bears the imprint of Edwards Photography of Glendale, California, while the opening photograph states that the event was held “at Slim Williams.”
The album begins with a composite photograph containing individual bare-chested portraits of approximately seventeen participants. The remaining photographs document the men relaxing around a private swimming pool: drinking, swimming, playing badminton, posing together, and engaging in exuberant horseplay, including splashing, mock fighting, and tossing one another into the pool. The album concludes with a particularly strong group portrait of the attendees gathered in swimsuits and holding drinks and badminton rackets.
The host may have been E. R. “Slim” Williams, a prominent University of Southern California alumnus who headed an athletic-support and alumni organization known as the Trojaneers, although this identification remains unconfirmed. The professional photography and personalized album format suggest an organized social or athletic group rather than an ordinary family gathering.
An unusually extensive and visually engaging record of midcentury male sociability, leisure, physicality, and camaraderie, with interest for studies of masculinity, Southern California social life, and queer visual culture, without necessarily establishing that the group or its participants were gay.
Covers moderately worn and frayed at the edges and corners; some leaves worn around the binding holes, with occasional corner creasing. Photographs generally very good, with strong tonal range and minor handling wear.
Price: $250.00