A Vintage Vantage: Burt Lancaster in The Swimmer

'Pool by pool, they form a river all the way to our house.'

Ned Merrill

Although I had heard of actor Burt Lancaster, until about six years ago, I'd never seen any of films, including his iconic role From Here To Eternity. (still on my list to watch...)  Thanks to my love of circus, and circus themed films, I did DVR and watch  TCM's airing of Trapeze, the 1956 circus film co-starring Tony Curtis and Gina Lollobrigida.

I thought Lancaster was incredibly hot in the flick, and put together a piece for FH about Lancaster and the film. (HERE:)  During my research, I discovered something many of you already knew, Lancaster's early work as a nude physique model. I didn't however know, until last week, that Lancaster also had a nude scene in 1968's The Swimmer.

The Swimmer (1968)

I DVR'd and watched another of Lancaster's film, this time 1969's Airport.  I'd heard of Airport, and it's sequels before, and loved Airplane, the Leslie Nelson spoof of the film.  I've loved watching many old disaster films from the 70's and 80's, but for some reason, Airport never really interested me.  I really enjoyed it, mostly because the 'disaster' wasn't really the focus of the film.  Instead, the focus is on the character drama which leads up to it.

I again crushed over the ruggedly handsome Lancaster and once again, I clicked on Google images and typed 'Burt Lancaster nude'.  This time, not only did some of Lancaster nude modeling shots come up, but a black and white still of Lancaster's meaty backside from The Swimmer.

I immediately found a copy to watch, enjoy and cap for FH.  The Swimmer was written and directed by Academy Award-nominated husband-and-wife team of Eleanor Perry (screenplay adaptation) and Frank Perry (director). The film was based on a 1964 short story by Jon Cheever which appeared in The New Yorker.

In the story, Ned Merrill, discovers a series of backyard swimming pools which he thinks / hopes will allow him to swim home.  Checking out the pools, and their owners, means Lancaster is in his tight black bathing suit, (except when remove it....) for almost the entire film. Lancaster was 55 during the filming of The Swimmer, but looked incredibly fit.  I read this was one of Lancaster's favorite roles, and like in Trapeze, Lancaster seems to welcome leaving his tough guy roles for parts that spotlight his physique and sex appeal.

Blast From The Past: Mike Ribble in Trapeze

If you had asked me a few weeks ago about actor Burt Lancaster, I wouldn't have had much to say. I think I may have known he was in From Here To Eternity (below), but I have not actually seen that film, or until this weekend, any other of Lancaster's films.

Since discovering TMC with this year, with their 31 Days of Oscar, I have been recording and watching as many old movies as I can watch. This past weekend, I finally got around to watching Trapeze, a film from 1956 starring Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Gina Lollobrigida. Some of you might remember my long standing fascination with the Circus, so this film set under a Paris big top, was right up my alley.

Thanks to TMC's Robert Osborne, I learned Burt Lancaster himself was once an acrobat, part of the duo Lang and Cravat in the 1930s and what point traveled with the Kay Brothers circus. In 1939, much like his character in Trapeze, an injury forced Lancaster to give up the profession. Since Trapeze is the first, and currently, the only film of Lancaster's I have seen, I cannot yet say he joins the rank of Favorite Hunk, but... I did love this film, and found myself lusting over his character Mike Ribble.

Trapeze is beautifully filmed, colorful, dramatic and suspenseful. The story is an interesting one to me. It involves a triangle, both professional and personal, between Mike, an eager young flyer Tino Orsini (Curtis) and the ambitious Lola (Lollobrigida). The cinematic ménage à trois certainly has less than subtle homoerotic undertones as Mike's jealousy of Lola, and her interference in his relationship with Tino, dominate the films second half, leading up to a climatic finale high in the air.

Lancaster's Ribble is incredibly sexy. First off, for most of the film he wears nothing by white tights, sadly he also seems to be wearing a diaper under it. Diaper aside, there are still some great shots of Lancaster's body, still in great shape in his forties. Given his circus experience, Lancaster does most of his own stunts, lessening the cut aways to stunt doubles. I, and I would guess most of the audience were rooting for Mike to wins Tino's loyalty over Lola, even with her obvious assets.

A bit more Burt

Archives: Blast From The Past

Peter Barton

When I started FH, one of my goals was to only featured some of today's hottest and most talented hunks, but also feature men who impacted my, and others in the past.  So many sites are all about the men of the moment, the current and hottest bodies and moments.  As we all know however, it's hard to stay front burner for too long, at least not without burning out.

Patrick Duffy

Blast From The Past began as my way of spotlighting some of the models, actors and singers who I grew u with.  It soon became so much more.   Although I had connections with many of the men that I featured, I also included actors who I discovered later in life.  There are many actors, who I either didn't like or didn't notice that I looked at differently when I got older.  

Terry Lester

When I was a kid, I remember thinking that Tom Selleck was sort of 'gross'.  He seemed old, and I hated his moustache, and how hairy he was.  Then... when I hit my thirties, I started looking back on all those shirtless shots of Selleck with a different perspective...   There are also several classic stars from the 40's, 50's and 60's that I never heard of when I was a kid.  Thanks To TCM, I quickly began crushing over actors, many of whom are in their 80's, 90's or no longer with us at all.

Adrian Zmed & Scott Baio

This list includes most of those actors, performers, singers and models that I've blasted back to the past with.  I say most, as there are many former heart throbs who showed up in my birthdays or movie section that I have yet to include.  I hope to add them in once I have time to fully research the blog, but this list is a pretty good beginning.   Looking back at some of the posts, especially those from the site's early days, I realize many need an update.  Some were done before I had the ability to cap and create images on my own, and before learning how enlarge an image.  Hoping to update a few of my favorites soon.

Ted Shackelford

Willie Aames | Bruce Abbott | Jeb Adams | Steve Antin | Richard Dean Anderson | Christopher Atkins | Scott Bakula  | Jimmy Baio | Scott Baio |  Lajos Balázsovits | Christopher Daniel Barnes | Doug Barr | Peter Barton | Steven Bauer | Randall Batinkoff | Warren Beatty | John Beck | Michael Beck | Dirk Benedict | Tom Berenger | Helmut Berger | Kevin Bernhardt | Michael Biehn | Hunt Block | Brian Bloom | Steve Bond | Jesse Borrego |  Joseph Bottoms | Timothy Bottoms | Bruce Boxleitner | Greg Bradford | Brady Boys | Beau Bridges | Woody Brown |  Tom Byrd | 

Billy Hufsey

Bill Cable | Stephen Caffrey | Dean Cain | John David Carson | Maxwell Caulfield | Byron Cherry | Brian Patrick Clarke | Nicolas Clay | Jack Coleman | Christopher Collet | Jeff Conaway | Nicholas Cortland | Christopher Crabb | Brett Cullen | William Kirby Cullen | Rad Daly | Brad Davis | Mac Davis | Brandon De Wilde | Matt Dillon | Troy Donahue | Patrick Duffy | Keir Dullea | Sam Elliott | Greg Evigan | Shea Farrell | Jay R. Ferguson | Jon Finch | Steve Forrest | Sami Frey | Tony Ganios | Leif Garrett | Jonathan Gilbert | Grant Goodeve | Richard Grieco | Steve Guttenberg

John Allen Nelson

Antony Hamilton | Randy Hamilton | Tye Hardin | Mark Harmon | Jim Harris | Gregory Harrison | Rodney Harvey | David Hasselhoff | Richard Hatch | Martin Hewitt | Charlton Heston | Jon-Erik Hexum | Darby Hinton | Tom Hodges | Lee Horsely | Billy Hufsey | John James | Doug Jeffery | Christopher Jones | Sam Jones | Steve Kanaly | William Katt | Omri Katz | Alan Kayser |  Andrew Keegan | Brian Kerwin | Perry King | Wyatt Knight | Martin Kove | Kris Kristofferson | 

Kevin Bernhardt

Matthew Laborteaux | John Lafayette | Burt Lancaster | Lorenzo Lamas | Michael Landon | Perry Lang | Lawrence Lau | Scott Layne | Terry Lester | Tony Lo Bianco | Jason London | Simon MacCorkindale | Fred MacMurray | Ed Marinaro | Steve Mateo | Lee Majors | Paul Mercurio | Leigh McCloskey | Matt McCoy | Ted McGinley | Scott McGinnis | Todd McKee | John McMurray | William McNamara | Jimmy McNicol | Steve McQueen | Robert Mitchum | Lee Montgomery | Rick Moses | William R. Moses | Ben Murphy | Timothy Patrick Murphy |

Jon-Erik Hexum

Michael Nader | James Naughton | John Allen Nelson | Rick Nelson | Anthony Newley | Paul Newman | Tony O'Dell | Michael O'Keefe | Miles O'Keeffe | Ryan O'Neal | Cyril O'Reilly | Ken Olandt | Ken Olin | Jameson Parker | Michael Parks | Michael Paré | Robert Parucha | Alain Patrick | Don Michael Paul | John Payne | Bruce Penhall | George Peppard | Radames Pera | Joe Perry | Pat Peterson | Aidan Quinn | Robert Redford | Christopher Reeve | Burt Reynolds | Christopher Rich | Brian Robbins | Charles Robinson | Cliff Robertson | Rick Rossovich | Kurt Russell |

Greg Evigan

John Savage | Devon Sawa | Jack Scalia | John Schneider | Ricky Schroder | Tom Selleck | Ted Shackelford | Stephen Shellen | Marc Singer | Mark Slade | Rex Smith | Star Trek | Andrew Stevens | Parker Stevenson | John Stockwell | Rob Stone | Adam Storke | David Tiefen | Richard Thomas | Oliver Tobias | Barry Tubb | Robert Urich | Tim Van Patton |  Jan-Michael Vincent | Jesse & Alan Vint | Ralph Waite | Clint Walker | Kelly Ward | Ted Wass | Grant Wilson | Brian Wimmer | Ray Wise | Tom Wopat | Jeff Yagher | Michael York | Jim Youngs | William Zabka | Adrian Zmed |

Scott McGinnis

Men in Tights

Burt Lancaster in Trapeze

'Let's face it. You've gotta be a man to wear tights!'

Little John

Rick and Dave Nelson

From the late 70's through the early 90's, various celebrities jumped atop elephants, got into cages with tigers and flew on the flying trapeze on Circus of the Stars. Although the 'stars' ran the gamut between C and D list celebrities, there were also a few A list actors who joined as ringmasters and special guests. In addition to many young TV stars of the time, a few classic movie stars including Tony Curtis, Vincent Price, Angela Landsbury, Lauren Bacall, Glenn Ford and Lana Turner also showed up.

Brooke Shields & Scott Baio

I think I first caught part of one of the last episodes in the early 90's which featured Mama's Family hottie Allan Kayer riding a turning wheel high in the air outside. I had already had a crush on Allan, so seeing him rolling around in his red tights was a sight to behold. Recently, I was checking out some episodes on Youtube and saw many of favorite hunks that I have featured over the years have pulled on their tights to join the circus.

Jay R. Ferguson

Given the show is not on DVD, and most people's copies would be old VHS recordings there are not a lot of great images that I could find. There were a few promotional shots out there, but would have loved to found higher quality recordings of some of the episodes, especially ones with some of my favorite hunks.

Richard Hatch & Eddie Mekka

Allan Kayser

I did find another episode featuring Kayser from 1989.  This time, Kayser is looking hot wearing his white tights walking the high wire. I added a clip below, but the entire show, as well as other clips can be found by searching Youtube.

Ricky Schroder

Steve Burton

Greg Louganis

Christopher Atkins

Gil Gerard in his Daisy Dukes 

Perry King

Ken Olandt & Company