19 Facts About Alonzo Hanagan

Alonzo "Lon" Hanagan was an American physique photographer during the 1940s and 1950s.

Alonzo Hanagan produced erotic images of men under the alias "Lon of New York", or simply "Lon".

Alonzo James "Lon" Hanagan was born in 1911 in Lexington, Massachusetts, the oldest child and only son of Frank and Lizzie Hanagan's three children.

Alonzo Hanagan started to work as a teen boy, with his first job delivering fish from a local seller.

Alonzo Hanagan's first published composition was "A Bunch of Good Fellows Are We", written for a musical, performed by "Good Fellows" group.

Alonzo Hanagan started to play piano and organ on a weekly radio program in Lexington at the age of sixteen.

Alonzo Hanagan moved with his family in 1928 to Lockport, New York, when his father was transferred to the Jefferson Union Plant.

Alonzo Hanagan befriended a local boy, Ralph Ehmke, who became his first boyfriend.

Alonzo Hanagan learned darkroom skills in a Boy Scout camp in New Hampshire.

Alonzo Hanagan studied music at Juilliard School and for some time worked as an organist at Radio City Music Hall.

Alonzo Hanagan rented his first apartment at 617 West 113th Street.

Alonzo Hanagan continued to write and publish music during those years.

Alonzo Hanagan was known for using Greco-Roman esthetic in his photographic work.

Alonzo Hanagan mostly worked with Mediterranean, Latino and African American models, which was unusual in the 1940s, when most photographers preferred white models.

Alonzo Hanagan's work is largely to be considered one of the pioneers of physique photography.

Alonzo Hanagan was a contemporary of, and many would argue inspired, several other photographers in different regions of the country including Bruce Bellas, Bob Mizer Douglas Juleff, Don Whitman of Western Photography Guild in Denver and, in Northern California, Russ Warner in Oakland and Dave Martin in San Francisco.

Alonzo Hanagan died in Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City on December 4,1999, after a brief hospitalization.

Alonzo Hanagan's body was cremated and ashes were scattered at his mother's grave in Lockport.

Alonzo Hanagan's work is in the permanent collection of Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art and in Harry Weintraub Collection Of Gay-Related Photography And Historical Documentation of Cornell University Library.