A Sears Catalog Full of Memories

In the early ‘50s, I was a Korean War vet, attending college and supplementing my income as a male model in Chicago (“Tears and Roebuck,” by Dan Neil, 800 Words, Dec. 9). I was one of those “underwear” guys, appearing in the Sears catalogs.

There is a reason that the male models in the print ads appear to be eunuchs. All male underwear models were required to wear dance belts under the briefs or shorts being modeled. When worn, this impossibly snug garment obscured any bulge the model possessed. It was very uncomfortable, and it rigidly controlled the genitalia. The photographers were instructed that not a “dimple was to be seen.”

Patrick Palumbo

Bonsall, Calif.