100 Years of Gym Bunny Beefcake: A Pictorial History

Seeing a pumped up gym queen is business as usual for us early 21st century gays. Before the 1980s, however, muscle studs were an odd, rare fascination that started being documented as soon as photography was invented. Here's a brief 100 year history of America's fascination with the beefy male physique.

The new book "American Hunks," by David L. Chapman and Brett Josef, documents America's love of the hunk with a dazzling collection of images spanning over 125 years. Even if images of near naked ladies seem dominant in popular culture, buffed-up bare chested honchos have been historically shamelessly used to sell the ideology of American virility. Then as now, these gym queens sure fancy themselves pretty little creatures.

· American Hunks (out.com)
· Buy "American Hunks" at arsenalpulp.com

David L. Dowd could be considered an early personal trainer, having invented bodybuilding contraptions and even opening a "Physical Culture" school in New York City. This photo, taken in 1880, proves he also invented the pretty poses gym queens still contort themselves into to make their muscles look bigger. Yes, David, darling, we see your perky pecs.

Vaudeville wasn't just for snazzy tap dances, hoary comedians and ventriloquists. Strongmen regularly filled the bill, lifting massive weights for dazzled audiences in much the same fashion as modern bodybuilding competitions. Here's a photo of one of vaudeville's professionals, Otis Lambert, taken in the early 20th century. The fig leaf gives it class.

What's with the fig leaves? President Woodrow Wilson had his own personal exercise instructor, and his name was Abe Boshes, who looks like he's hiding a nice thick bosh.

Goodbye, fig leaves. Hello, jock straps! Although the athletic supporter started appear in the late 1800s, 'twasn't 'til the 20th century that jocks started strapping up. Here's a '20s photo of a dude named W.B. Hobert pretending he's a precursor to an International Male catalog. The roman sandals are a nice kinky touch.

Then came the fitness magazines, where ripped studs would submit photos. Around 1935, a pup named Paul Gaza submitted this photo to a magazine with the dream of being published. Bubble butts are timeless treasures of inspiration.

For all you men who pine for the good ol' days before body shaving, looks like pubic trims ain't nuttin' new. Then as now, it enhances muscle form, which helped boost sales for physique photography. Apparently, this 1948 photo was a hot seller for a decade. Consider it the mid-century's Fred with Tires.

Then Hollywood movie stars of the 1950s joined the shirtless hunk craze. Anthony Perkins is looking surprisingly twinky and delish in this 1955 shot from "Desire Under the Elms." Lock us up in the Bates Motel.

As the Hollywood Hunk rose in popularity, Robert Mizer used the style to start his famous Athletic Model Guild in the '50s. Strapping men with movie star looks posed in straps for a variety of homoerotically charged portraits. What the hell is in model John Tristam's mouth? Is that water?

In the early 1960s, as cameras started becoming household items, amateur "physique photography" started cropping up. Hmmmm...sounds familiar to what camcorders and the web did to porn. These dudes are the Corbin Fisher models of the Kennedy era.

According to Out.com, gay gym culture started blooming during the '60s, as is evidenced by this salacious 1969 pulp novel. If only, if only we could find a midtown gym where the hunks worked out in thongs.

Finally we reach the 1970s, where civil rights catches up to the glorification of the gym bunny. In 1970, Henri Christophe Dickerson crossed the racial line by being the first African-American to win Amateur Athletic Union Mr. America. Huzzah for a century of bodybuilding progress!

See many more photos at Out.com.