Beefcake

Pros: Funny and informative, this DVD mixes newly shot & vintage footage wonderfully.
Cons: Interviews could have been longer.

As director Thom Fitzgerald makes very clear in this funny docu-drama, during the 1950's the answer was probably 'No.' That is unless you purchased Bob Mizer's magazine Physique Pictorial (or a few other 'muscle magazines' available at the time). And...

Pros: camp poses, portrayal of ludicrous censorship
Cons: uneven pacing

"Beefcake," written and directed by Thom Fitzgerald) is an often funny 1998 docudrama about Bob Mizener (played with shy charm by Daniel MacIvor) the Athletic Models' Guild, horrified censors, manipulative young hunks, and an amazingly clueless mother (Carroll Godsman). There are talking heads recollecting the 1950s and 60s photographing of muscle boys in (and out of) posing straps and absurd poses and the relentless persecution of postal censors and police. The transcript from a trial for trumped-up prostitution charges was the basis for re-enactmentshot very 50s black-and-white melodrama style. I was left wondering what Neal's (Josh Peace) younger brother, hiding the magazines back in Nova Scotia thought of seeing his brother. The pace was uneven.

The DVD includes samples, including Joe Dallesandro's.

Mizener was not the only one chafing against censorship who was lost without it. (Billy Wilder and Otto Preminger are others.)