Bonerboard

Brian Idol (whose real name was Brian Arthur Hengel) was born August 31, 1949, in Minneapolis, Minnesota of German / Scandanavian stock. He grew up in northern Idaho, however, where he did mill & farm work during summer vacations from high school. In 1966, right after graduation, he headed for Los Angeles, barely arriving at the downtown bus station (the gay equivalent to Schwabb's drugstore) when he was "discovered" by an alert model scout, Darby Summers. Taken immediately to the studio of Bob Carr (whose brief career in physique photography is poorly documented today), Brian agreed to pose, though he later told Bob Mizer that he had thought the physique pix & films Carr showed him were "disgusting." Even so, after being launched on a beefcake career by Carr (who gave him his now-famous nom de pouch), Brian went on to pose for many other studios: besides Carr and Mizer, Bruce and Milo did a considerable amount of work with him. As we see, most of these photos were nudes, and he did films (in & out of the pouch) both for AMG and Bruce--his 'at home' color film for the latter being particularly successful. He stood 5' 11" and even though he looked heftier, usually weighed only 165-170 lbs. Judging from his AMG-symbols chart, he must have commanded nice fees as a hustler, and he eventually got himself into trouble with drugs. By 1968 or so, he escaped total perdition by heading back to Minneapolis, where he worked in electrical engineering. The following year, Bob Mizer reported that Brian had licked the drug problem & was eager to get back to LA, but subsequent mentions of him (in 1973 & 1974) don't make it clear if he ever made it. In any case, the photographic work already done on him had already established him as the 'idol' of many all over the world, truly one of the most popular models of his generation.

PG November 1998 Campus Hunks

PG Extras