WANTED: the bad boys of AMG: Silki Paridi

This week: Silky Paridi – not the first, but one of the most brazen criminals to step through AMG’s gates.

On January 6, 1965, Antonio Phillipe Paridi aka Silky aka James King, with four accomplices held up the AMG studio stealing cash and equipment worth $1300 at gunpoint, none of which was recovered.  Silky, who had been photographed just a few days before, was picked up by police using this photo and confessed.  The other were tried and convicted.  All received jail time.  Bob Mizer

Smiling faces. Glistening bodies. Loaded posing pouches. Bob Mizer’s camera turned common boys into stars.

But life at AMG wasn’t always idyllic. Some of those stars were “trade”. Some were AWOL. Some were petty criminals. Occasionally, in return for his generosity, Bob was robbed or assaulted and his property damaged.

Bob listed those offenses and many others in Physique Pictorial. Even the subjective character symbols next to certain models’ photos included “physically dangerous”, “petty thief” and “criminally inclined”.

Every other Friday we’ll feature “WANTED:”, an article about a model and his subsequent downfall in Bob’s own words.