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Sunday, November 20, 2022
Today we have a question. A commentor is insistent that it is "an accepted fact in the field of physique photography that the man named Greg Bradford" shown here in the top three photos by Dave Martin is the same man known as Joe Napoli in the bottom three by various other photographers. I see the resemblance but I'm not convinced. What do you all say?
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The Male Models Vintage Beefcake blog which is extremely well curated has them featured as one and the same person.
ReplyDeleteMale Models Vintage Beefcake is a great blog, and I wish it was still active. However, even though it's extremely well done, it doesn't give any source on the blog that establishes that they're the same person-- it just repeatedly states that "Greg Bradford" later modeled for Los Angeles-area photographers as "Joe Napoli."
DeleteMMVB also identifies a single Russ Warner photograph as "Greg Bradford, who went by the name, Joe Napoli, when he modeled in Los Angeles." However, this photo appears to be from the same set represented by a headshot labeled "John Fontenot" on a Warner Model Guide that was previously posted on MMVB,
Warner was based in Oakland, where Dave Martin identified "Greg Bradford" as being active in soccer and in bodybuildig at a Jack LaLanne gym in his notes on other photos. While being photographed by Warner is likely because of this, it would help to know how the identification was made by MMVB as "Greg Bradford."
-- hsc
Joe has an underbite, completely straight eyebrows and a straight hairline whereas Greg has arched eyebrows and a bit of a widow's peak. Even if he'd shaved the middle of his brows the shape would still be the same. Jim.
ReplyDeleteI see that too.
DeleteI agree with Anonymous. The eye brow shape is so markedly different, they are not the same person.
DeleteTwo seperate individuals. Joe has a definite "uni-brow" and shaved /less hairy body..
ReplyDeleteThere is a book about Bruce Bellas called Inside-Outside by Taschen with an index at the back taken from Mr. Bellas' own notes about some of the models he worked with. Joe Napoli is listed with the following info -
Real name -Joseph G. Nappi, DOB 3-16-1942, HGT 5'2" WGT 139 -attended Columbus & Aquinas High School--all around athlete, Pasadena City College- where he excelled at gymnastics & diving (All-American), Southern Illinois Univ. at Carbondale- gymnastics. It also mentions he posed for Bruce starting in Dec.1964 and posed for 197 photographs.
Rj/IE
Here's Joe, but he may have been married: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/GHCM-4Y9
DeleteThanks, Jim. The link brought me to a Mormon ancestry site and asked to me to create an account. I'll leave it to others to investigate further if they choose. Happy Holidays!
DeleteI was not able to find him or any relatives on WikiTree.com or findagrave.com, 2 other free sites. I didn't look on any pay sites. Very rarely I get lucky and find through those sites that someone that you feature is a distant relative.
DeleteNo, they are not. I have spoken.
ReplyDeletelol yessir!
DeleteIn addition to the above comments, the chest freckles don't appear to match.
ReplyDeleteI see that too.
DeleteSince the original commenter raising the assertion that the two are the same has deleted his original comment and several others on the topic I've chosen to remove his name from the title question of this blog entry. Thanks to everyone with an opinion.
ReplyDeleteThe top penis look uncut , but retracted.
ReplyDeleteThe bottom. Is more radically circ'd.
If Joe was born in 1942 and he is Greg he would be 13 years old in that first 1955 photo
ReplyDeleteWelp, it looks like that settles it. Thanks to everyone who weighed in!
DeleteOn the Men From Back Then blog, a commentor who was repeatedly insisting that "Greg Bradford" and "Joe Napoli" are the same person posted an explanation for that age discrepancy.
ReplyDeleteAccording to him, either "Joe Napoli" or Bruce Bellas falsified the DOB given in Bellas' records as cited above, and "Joe" was actually born in 1933 rather than 1942-- making him about 22 when he posed as "Greg Bradford" for Dave Martin in 1955. His explanation of the fudging of the birth year in Bellas' files was so that "Joe Napoli" could appear to still be in his early 20s, rather than already over 30.
His source for the alleged 1933 birth year was an unnamed alleged "niece" of "Joe Napoli," who told an unnamed "Vintage Blogger" that "Uncle Joe" had died at age 58 in 1991. Assuming that's accurate, it only establishes that "Joe Napoli" was about 9 years older than Bellas indicated in his records-- and there's no cited indication from the "niece" that "Uncle Joe" was also "Greg Bradford," though she was evidently aware of his modeling career.
However, simply being the right age doesn't overcome all the clear differences in facial structure (jawline, profile, shape of lips) and face and body proportions. And these differences aren't due to about 9 years of aging and a "loss of muscle." Despite a fairly strong general resemblance, they're clearly two different people when you really study enough photos of "Joe Napoli." (There aren't nearly as many of "Greg Bradford," but I've seen a few others that really show a jawline difference.)
And what surprises me is that the commentor on MFBT is so adamant about this point, and yet he's *usually* one of the best reliable sources of information on model I.D.s!
-- hsc
The FamilySearch link I posted earlier https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/GHCM-4Y9 leads to Social Security and other records that have Joseph Gaeton Nappi born on 16 March 1942, the date in Bruce Bellas' notes, in Columbus, Ohio, which did have an Aquinas High School, and dying in Los Angeles on 27 September 1999 at age 57-1/2, close to the alleged niece's memory. He's on the 1950 Census in Columbus.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for digging around and adding that extra info from government records, jimboylan2!
DeleteThe postings from the commentor on Men From Back Then were made about three weeks before this thread originally started here. In that string of MFBT comments, the unnamed alleged "niece" was said to have contacted an unnamed "Vintage Blogger" in 1991.
However, since what you've uncovered on the government records for "Joseph Gaeton Nappi" duplicate Bruce Bellas' file information on "Joe Napoli"-- and more importantly, since his age at death also so closely matvhes the age at death given by the "niece"-- the most logical explanation is that:
1) Bruce Bellas' file information on "Joe Napoli" is indeed accurate; and
2) (assuming any part of this unsourced allegation is accurate) the "niece" actually contacted the "Vintage Blogger" in 1999 or 2001 rather than 1991; and
3) regardless of similarities and any claims to the contrary, "Greg Bradford" and "Joe Napoli" are two different people.
--
Even though blogger "James IV" came to his own conclusion that they were two different people and removed the AKAs from his blog posts on MFBT, it would be nice if the information from SS and other records that jimboylan2 just posted could be added to a long comments debate there-- snce it waa insistently alleged that Bellas' file information was falsified.
I'd do it myself, but for some reason, my outdated computer won't let me post to certain Blogger sites, and MFBT is one of them.
If anyone's motivated to do so, the MFBT blog entry was "Proud Pose" (a pair of Milo photos of Joe with an erection) posted on Saturday, October 29, 2022.
-- hsc