The photographer and the Marine spent much of the rest of Tuck’s liberty shooting pictures, in the hotel room and out at the beach, photos and 8 mil- limeter film, shots as risky as the law of the time allowed and erotic enough to provide a sensual jolt some 37 years later. Tuck and the photographer parted ways on Monday morning. This three-day shoot was Tuck Powell’s first and (we think) only time before a professional camera. Tuck was due back at the base that day, and it wasn’t long before he shipped out to the fighting.
A year later the photographer received a letter from Tuck’s fiancée saying that, shortly after his 19th birthday, Tuck had been fatally wounded in Vietnam. But later research by Man-Age Studios has been unable to locate any record of Tuck’s death. Some speculate that Tuck’s fiancée, upset that her boyfriend had posed for shots that would have been considered well beyond respectability, might have been trying to make the ultimate break with Tuck’s photographer. If Tuck died in Vietnam, what an awful waste, and yet how lucky we are to have this eternal record of that moment when he was young and ripe and about as perfect as a man gets. Any reader who has any knowledge of Tuck Powell or his subsequent whereabouts should write to Playguy (or e-mail us at playguymag@aol.com) with the details, and we’ll print them in a later issue of Playguy. For now, savor these shots.
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