Steve Rambo & Will Seagers For Breakfast

By Josh Eliot

The first time I met Steve Rambo was in 1992, when our general manager Mike sent him over to the set of Nutt Crackers to fill in for a model who never showed up to work. Steve knew Mike from Drake's Bookstore, which Mike also managed. I think he worked there briefly as a cashier, but I’m not entirely sure. He showed up to the set, a complete porn virgin, with no experience in front of the camera at all. He was personable, friendly and cock-hungry as hell. What started off as a bummer of a day due to the no-show ended up turning for the better once Rambo’s hungry hole(s) started doing their thing. Little did any of us realize that on that day Catalina’s new exclusive was born, and he would end up shooting 67 movies for our company. He won Best Actor at the Grabby Awards in 1999 for his amazing performance in CatalinaVille. The last time I worked with Steve Rambo was around 2006, when his contract ended and he retired from the business.

The first time I saw Will Seagers in a movie was when my roommate Brian brought home the Joe Gage classic L.A. Tool & Die on VHS from a video rental store in the Castro. I think it might have been a double bill that night as I believe we also watched, re-watched, re-wound and watched again The Biggest One I Ever Saw starring Dave Connors, Lee Ryder and Rick Donovan. As I’m sure most of you are aware, Will Seagers had an amazing career, with a couple of his earliest films being 1978's Dune Buddies (Hand in Hand) and Champs (Falcon). 1979 was a very good year for Will with headlining roles in both Fire Island Fever (also Hand in Hand) and L.A .Tool & Die, two instant gay classics. In 1980, he was in Steve Scott's Wanted (Mustang) with Al Parker. I was invited to watch the filming of the jailhouse scene, at age 18, but my nerves got the best of me and I didn’t accept the invitation from producer Frank Ross, who was my boss at the time when I sold tickets at San Francisco's Screening Room Theatre. You can read all about that and the great Frank Ross in my previous blog, “Frank Ross: The Boss.” Will brought his hotness to the screen in many more movies until he retired in 1994, according to IAFD. Will, If I’m wrong about any of this forgive me!! It wasn’t until some point in 2022, when Steven and Jules at Bijou asked me to be a contributor to their blog page, that I was fortunate enough to have an opportunity to meet Will Seagers face to face.

Being out of the industry since 2009, I kind of left “all of it behind” and focused on re-imagining my future. I worked as a manager at an incredible spa for the JW Marriott and the Westin Mission Hills in the Palm Springs area and was very happy. It was tough at first, as I had worked in the gay adult industry for 22 years and didn’t really know anything else. But slowly I adjusted, not missing the stress of production one bit! But for me it was always the creative part of developing and making movies that gave me the most joy. Being so far removed from it all, you can imagine how delighted I was when in 2023, within three weeks of each other, I sat down with both Steve Rambo and Will Seagers for breakfast, separately.

After his contract was up, Steve Rambo moved back to Rochester, NY where he was born November 25, 1956. I hadn’t heard a peep from him or about him until Covid-19 when I discovered The Catalina Collection channel on YouTube. It seemed that the movies CatalinaVille and Boy Band had gone viral, with thousands of straight and gay fans around the world watching and commenting on the camp dialogue in the PG versions posted on the channel. There were also dozens of memes created from a Boy Band scene between Rambo and Brad McGuire, one even created with AI showing them singing in Russian. Around the same time, I discovered Instagram, during those long days of staying home due to the virus. I discovered @Jeffreymixed, whose Instagram was featuring Steve Rambo Saturdays, with clips from his movies. Somehow, @Jeffreymixed was the go-between with Rambo and myself and arranged a breakfast at Palm Springs Elmer’s Restaurant for a reunion a few weeks ago, while Rambo was in town on vacation. Seeing Rambo again after 17 years was incredible, it was like we were never apart. Rambo has this intoxicating laugh that hits you like a freight train and trust me, the heads were turning at Elmer’s every few seconds. I think it's gotten much louder now that we are older! We reminisced and had such a great time; after all those years working on the set together, we really became family.

I started communicating with Will Seagers through Jules at Bijou when they got together over the holidays. After that, Will and I worked together on a few joint ventures for Bijou Blogs like our Deep Inside the Castro series and Diving Into SOMA/Folsom series. When my partner Tony and I planned a trip to Santa Fe to see our friends and go to the Pride event there, I contacted Will to see about meeting up for breakfast when we passed through his city. I was thrilled when he agreed, and we met up at a little restaurant joint named Weck’s. I recognized him immediately as he was walking through the parking lot; I have to say, he is very statuesque in height and still features his leading man good looks. We had a great time getting to know each other, sharing stories and learning about each other's interests. I was thrilled to see his blog with all of his plants, which I wish we had time to see in person, as well as his bird collection. Breakfast was yummy, of course, and it was a little surreal being surrounded by so many families who hadn’t a clue about our past histories or what we were discussing. There was definitely an alignment of the stars this summer for me to be able to catch up with both Steve Rambo and Will Seagers in the same month. I’m happy to say they both look great and are in a good and happy place!

Bio of Josh Eliot:

At the age of 25 in 1987, Josh Eliot was hired by Catalina Video by John Travis (Brentwood Video) and Scott Masters (Nova Video). Travis trained Eliot on his style of videography and mentored him on the art of directing. Josh directed his first movie, Runaways, in 1987. By 2009 when Josh parted ways with Catalina Video, he'd produced and directed hundreds of features and won numerous awards for Best Screenplay, Videography, Editing, and Directing. He was entered into the GayVN Hall of fame in 2002.