Harry Bush was an American illustrator known for his homoerotic drawings during, what we now call, the vintage beefcake era. Harry served in the Navy and Air Force during World War II when he first took up drawing. After the war he worked in the Pentagon until his retirement in the early 1960s. He was a self-trained artist, although he did take one course in drawing at a local college.
After he retired, Bush moved to Los Angeles where he met Bob Mizer of AMG who became the first one to publish his work. Bush's work appeared several times in Physique Pictorial issues in the 1960s. His work also appeared in Drummer and In Touch among several other magazines.
The two drawings below appeared in PP Vol 14 No 4 in June 1965. Bush did a great job capturing the image of David Mineric, a popular AMG model at the time.
JIM PARIS joined the Marines after working with AMG. Served in Viet Nam with distinction.!
ReplyDeleteHarry Bush remarkably captured the 1960s "California Boy" look. In fact, he may have helped create it. Also, he sometimes did quite literal copies of his favorite physique photos by Mizer and others. He was a very skilled artist with a wry sense of humor whose use of inuendo and double entendre could be amazing at times. One of the best and not nearly as well known as Tom of Finland or even Etienne.
ReplyDeleteHe was also very deep in the closet and stayed that way all his life. He feared he would lose his service pension if they found out. Ironically, he signed all his work with his real name.
DeleteTrue about the closet, and I read that he even destroyed some of his more blatantly graphic work.
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