BijouBlog

If you want to know anything, simply anything about gay sexuality or gay history, spend some time digging through our extensive collection of magazines and files. Today, I was looking at some issues of After Dark and Mandate magazine (now, if you really want to show you are of a certain generation (and proud to be that age, of course), drop a line and let us know if you remember those magazines), and found an interesting tidbit about porn legend Casey Donovan. 
 

It's not anything sexually scandalous (according to the April 1992 issue of Manshots magazine,  Casey pretty much covered that area thoroughly in his personal life at the baths and tearooms). It's actually kind of a savvy idea, but like many porn stars of that era, many endeavors they tried outside the filmmaking pretty much fizzled. 

Cal Culver (Casey's real name) opened up the Casa Donovan Guest House in Key West in April 1979 and then, in conjunction with that entity, launched Moonbow Tour. The Tour operated during the time of the full moon. Casey personally guided the tours, which included “three special dinners at unique spots, a conch train tour, a variety of sightseeing, a one-half day reef trip, and a rented bicycle.” According to Casey, at Casa Donovan, the nine-room house with a pool, “Everyone's a star.” 
 

What I would like to know is how long this enterprise lasted (it started before his last film appearance in Christopher Rage's Fucked Up in 1986) and if it folded before his death in 1987 of AIDS-related complications. According to the issue of Manshots cited above, he did get a job as a gay tour guide with Hanns Ebenston Travel Agency in about 1985, having struggled to keep his establishment running for some time. 

Right now as I am writing this, I am imagining a gloriously bare-chested Casey rising from his pool like a young sea god, drying himself off, and then going out to greet his guests clad only in a tight speedo. I do have a feeling the majority of the guests weren't other porn stars he appeared with like Pat Allen, Steve Anthony, or Al Parker. They may have been the slightly heavyset older “queens” of the period (I do not mean any insult) wearing flowered shirts, Bermuda shorts, and lumpy sandals. Still, if he treated everyone like a star as he claimed, I hope the legendary gave them something to remember, even cherish, by getting to know him as the real but still amazingly hot “boy next door” he always tried to be in his movies. 
 

 

The world has recently lost two immensely talented figures, one so tragically by suicide, one dying at a ripe old age. 

Both were able to reach deep into the heart of the human condition, using wit and humor with compassion and grace. 

In her own words, Lauren Bacall: 
 

“Find me a man who's interesting enough to have dinner with and I'll be happy.” 

“I am not a has-been. I am a will be.” 

“Imagination is the highest kite one can fly.”  

“I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that.”

“You realize yourself when you start reflecting–because I don’t live in the past, although your past is so much a part of what you are–that you can’t ignore it. But I don’t look at scrapbooks.” 

“You can’t always be a leading lady.” 

“I'd like to meet the man who decided that people do or don't look Jewish. What the hell does that mean anyway? Is it the American penchant for pinning things down, categorizing, for pigeonholing people? Whatever it is, it's wrong.” 

"My children give me a great sense of wonder. Just to see them develop into these extraordinary human beings. And a favorite book as a child? Growing up, it was 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' — I would read the whole C.S. Lewis series out loud to my kids. I was once reading to Zelda, and she said 'don't do any voices. Just read it as yourself.' So I did, I just read it straight, and she said 'that's better.'" 

"You're only given one little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it." 

"Do you think God gets stoned? I think so ... look at the platypus." 

"When in doubt, go for the dick joke." 

On his mentor, Jonathan Winters: "Jonathan taught me that the world is open for play, that everything and everybody is mockable, in a wonderful way." 

"I love kids, but they are a tough audience." 

“You'll always have bad times, but it'll always wake you up to the good stuff you weren't paying attention to.” – Robin Williams as Sean Maguire in Good Will Hunting 

“No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change this world. –Dead Poets Society 
 

May they rest in peace and continue to inspire us by making us laugh. 
 

 

 

 

In 1984, the wingnuts under the auspices of the Reagan administration were consolidating their positions and essentially loaded well their guns in fighting what would become the culture wars of today. 

August seems to have been a rather active month on their part, according to The Gay Decades by Leigh W. Rutledge: 

“August 13 – Jimmy Swaggart, Phyllis Schlafly, James Robinson and Jerry Falwell all testify before the Republican Party platform committee in Dallas, pressing for (and getting) a strongly pro-family, antigay, antiabortion platform. “There were no moderate religious folks who testified,” notes one delegate. 
 

August 19 – On the eve of the Republican National Convention in Dallas, President Reagan issues a statement reaffirming his support for “traditional” family values, and adds that his administration “will resist the efforts of some to obtain government endorsement of homosexuality.” 

August 22 – Jerry Falwell delivers the benediction at the Republican National Convention."

It's obvious that LGBT Americans have made great strides since this era, but note that the leaders of what became known as the Religious Right actually began to consolidate their power base in the Republican Party in the late 1960s. That was a time of both frightening violence and exhilarating freedom, but also a time when many, on both extremes of the political spectrum, were dissatisfied with the way the country was governed.

I am wondering if we are also experiencing a similar threshold time. Can those who would scapegoat LGBT persons for not conforming to their system of social and cultural order regroup somehow? Those justices who interpret the laws of this country give hope that this dynamic will not come to pass. I'm not so hopeful about those elected officials who make the laws, or rather, in this day and age, try to prevent just laws from being passed and executed. 
 

What I am hopeful about is the changing attitude of millenials, even those who identify as Evangelical Christians, toward LGBT issues, especially marriage equality. They've got the technological means to bring about change; I hope that apathy, narcissism, and economic problems won't deter them from making a difference in a future which will belong to them. 
 

 

And Manshots also offered some telling biographies of and interviews with most of the great gay porn stars of the past; again, treating their lives (and of course their activities on screen) as something as interesting and entertaining as any feature on a celebrity in a mainstream magazine likePeople. 

And if there was a gay porn star, or “retrostud” who deserved celebrity treatment, it was Lee Ryder. But like many of the gay porn stars of that period, as noted in the all­too­common “Fade Out” feature at the back of so many back issues of Manshots, he died of AIDS-­related complications (in 1991). 
 

Lee Ryder was born in 1959 as Darras Robert Pyron. He was California born and bred, raised in Laguna, and he graduated from Esperanza High School in Anaheim. 

After Mark Reynolds discovered him and featured him in All American Boys, he literally made a splash in Falcon Studio's Huge in 1982. 

He starred in thirteen features between 1982 and 1986, including Bijou titles Screenplay, A Few Good Men, Giants 1, and 2 X 10. 

Now, of course, if one views these films, it's clear that Lee Ryder's cock is pretty much legendary. According to one Jeff Starkey, who reviewed the movie Screenplay in tandem with Ryder's appearances at the Bijou Theater to greet fans and sign autographs back in 1984: 

"Ryder's cock is long, thick, and shapely and is criss­crossed by just the right number of lovely veins. Beneath it hang a perfectly balanced pair of what appear to be 5­pound balls. When his cock appears in public, it is usually hard as a baseball bat, with its swollen head looking purple and petulant." 

Purple and petulant? Wow. Perhaps those adjectives could apply to the cock, but not the person. 

In an interview with Stallion magazine, known for his sexually aggressive but also unforced, natural screen presence, seems rather low­key, both veering between a quiet confidence in himself, but also showing a somewhat self­deprecating attitude. Definitely not the “divo” attitude of so many celebrities: “Everyone wants to look at me, I am the Adonis with the giant cock and all should worship me. 
 

In fact, in the interview, he actually seems rather pragmatic: he does it for the money, and for his business (he actually was a successful floral designer), but ... he actually doesn't see himself as a sex symbol. He just enjoys being himself, and letting a chink of vulnerability come out, being wanted. 

(We also find out in the interview he had a relationship with an older guy from ages 15 to 18, who tragically committed suicide soon after they broke up.) 

To add to the complexity of his character, despite his appearance at the Bijou and other venues as a gay porn celebrity, he actually admits he would rather not be recognized (he even goes to Europe to escape the attention)... and he notices, even when he does, the guys stay away, or “they stare – I guess I do show a big crotch – or they look at my eyes.” 

To be honest, at least for me, the eyes can be just as erotic as, especially in Ryder's case, a dick of death. And Ryder he admits in the interview that he loves his eyes. And rightly so! 
 

His eyes make love to the camera, like those of that famous movie star Joan Crawford (completely the opposite in her approach to celebrity). The eyes themselves create a unique effect in the viewer; they seem to draw you in with a promise of something intense; you think he is looking directly at you via the camera, which could satisfy your desire, but you at the same time feel like you will always want more. Perhaps it's their narrow shape but also richly colored pupils. I don't know, but I can't stop looking at his picture on the cover on Stallion magazine as I write this piece. 

And I promise you, you won't be able to take your eyes off of Lee Ryder in our remastering of Huge (now Huge 1) as he beats his meat while perched on the toilet ­ ­ making it bigger, hotter and harder. He, Rick Jensen and Matt Stoker roll around on the cold concrete floor, licking each other's hairy armpits and sitting on each other's faces. 
 

Lately here at Bijouworld we've decided to follow some “food porn” people on Facebook and Twitter. 

Now, there's a pretty obvious connection between food and sex (I think it may have been Freud who lumped to the two together as some kind of primal desire in all humans). In fact, the ancient and medieval monks and hermits and mystical philosophers like Pythagoras tended to abstain from both food and sex in their attempt to gain union with the divine. These gents (and ladies too) seemed to get off on who could eat the least! Saint Catherine of Siena supposedly subsisted during her last years only on the Eucharist. 

You can't have one without the other, it seems. And if you are not getting enough of one, you may tend to overcompensate with the other. Though, I do wonder: If the Golden Girls seemed to enjoy regular sex (even Sophia), why were they always eating cheesecakes late at night? 
 

So, what's the big fat deal with food porn? We keep getting images of the most fattening, rich, decadent dishes. Some of the food in the pictures may not be that fattening, perhaps, but they just look delicious (the presentation, perhaps). I've noticed lots of peanut butter, melted cheese, chocolate, pizza (gooey fare); overall, perhaps a greater preponderance of desserts. 
 

So, it's not necessary to associate food porn directly with, say, that movie Nine ½ Weeks with its fun and at that time shocking food in the fridge sex scene (I now think of it more like the mommie porn of Fifty Shades of Grey).
 

The Urban Dictionary gives a few definitions that involve stunning photos of food that cause you to break a diet, Food Network stars like Rachael Ray, and, most interesting, status symbols on social media. Apparently it is safe way to get attention on “clean sites” like Instagram or Pinterest, as well as a way to show you appreciate art, because the photos are so “artistic.” I guess we've diverged aesthetically from Andy Warhol's austere soup can art. What we are trying to do now is find some connections between some of our gay porn titles and food porn. I did note an obvious connection between Club Mandom 1: Blue Collar Cheese Factory and melted cheese, and I am sure there are more sweet and savory ones. 

So, dear readers: Is there any food that tends to get you thinking of sex? Or if you aren't getting sex, are there foods that you crave? Can you think of sex and food (or better yet, eat and have sex) at the same time? Are there foods you like to eat while watching porn, or are you so satisfied with one you don't need the other? Let us know your yummy answers in the comment section of our blog! 

And be sure to check out our food-related titles such as Rough Trades, with its memorable grocery delivery man elevator sequence, and Morning, Noon and Night, in which Kansas City Trucking Co. director Joe Gage (in his only sex role) participates in a three-way orgy of food and sex and takes a large squash up the ass!