Dear Diary: 1976 to 2026, 50 Years of Memory Journaling by Tony Italiano

By Josh Eliot

When I started writing blogs for Bijou World, I honestly wasn’t sure how I would be able to draw on my memories to come up with fresh new ideas every two weeks. There are times that I struggled right up to the day before I had to send a new blog in for publication. I had 20+ years of on the job training during my tenure with Catalina Video and luckily I was able to re-watch movies on DVD, from my Catalina Library, to jump-start my memories of working on the productions. I’m also grateful for still being in touch with the surviving Catalina crew members Brad Austin (director/videographer), Jeff Burton (photographer) Eddie Cacho (make-up) and Peter Romero (director/photographer). When we get together or talk on the phone, so many shared memories come spilling out, which I in turn build ideas off of. Brad Austin is really insistent that we start a Catalina crew podcast, telling all the hysterical and tragic stories of our time working together from the 1990s to 2007. I’ve written well over 100 blogs since I started this endeavor, and only recently I felt the need to cut down to one per month. It’s challenging, but for some reason I am still able to pump out stories without too much repeating. I really wish we had smart phones back then, because I’m sure I would have taken hundreds of on set photographs to help me recall all of the adventures. The fun production stories are certainly fading with age. If I had only kept a diary.

In saying that, I could not be more proud or grateful that someone in my household has been putting in the work. My partner, Tony Italiano, was born in Perth, Australia, one of seven brothers and sisters, a few of which were born in southern Italy before his parents immigrated to Australia. In 1980, Tony moved to the USA after spending years in London. In 1976, when he first moved to England, he started writing his daily adventures into a diary. At the beginning of each new year, he would stop writing in his old book, put it in storage and continue his journalisms in a freshly purchased new one. About four years ago, he decided to pull them all out of the mothballs to give them a proper new home. He is painstakingly re-typing all of his writings into the computer to make digital files of the contents.

It was at that point that I noticed that he had a ton of memorabilia to go along with each month of the year. He puts keepsakes between the pages and I also scan them for the digital version, which I am convinced should be included in an LGBTQ+ time capsule “somewhere.” He kept receipts, ticket stubs, photos, buttons and more to be presented as evidence of the amazing events he experienced through his 50 year history as a “journaling” gay man. For example: on 5/17/1977, he has the original birthday card from his parents “to a dear son on his 21st,” with a beautiful full-page message written in Italian from his mother and father. Another was a photo from October, 1979 at the March for Gay Rights in Washington, DC, where he was holding an Australian flag. Many more life-changing and country-changing events follow, things I had forgotten about, like when I saw a “Schulte” pin. Steve Schulte, in addition to being the hottest, hairiest muscle stud in West Hollywood at the time, became the city’s gay mayor in 1986. Tony got the pin while working on his campaign. He has a lot of pins in his collection like “Stop Acid Rain” and “Stop LaRouche” -- Lyndon LaRouche was some asshole, anti-gay politician! The fact that he documented all these years and had the insight to keep the receipts, as they say, is a really unique thing. Can you imagine being able to go back to any day of any year and know exactly what you were doing and who you were doing it with?

Check out the templates below to see if any of the visuals stir up some memories for you.

-The first “teeny-tiny” journal book Tony purchased when he moved to London.

-Once he relocated to Los Angeles, Tony worked at Umbrello, an upscale furniture showroom on Melrose Avenue. Pamela Bellwood, who played Claudia on the series Dynasty, came in one day and Tony asked her to sign her autograph on their letterhead.

-Halloween 1984 was on the day after Joan Collin’s character Alexis, also from Dynasty, was thrown into jail. Dressed in drag, the group of friends all held “Free Alexis” signs as they paraded down the streets of West Hollywood.

-Mark and Tony (1982) in a romantic relationship that segued into lifelong “best” friends to this day. In fact Mark, Tony and I are vacationing together next week to the East Coast and are thinking about getting a place there to spend the summers.

What I find classic on this template is to see the love note, followed by a “pissed off note.” Real life, right!?

-Tony’s collection of “fortunes” from fortune cookies throughout the years are all over the place in his journaling.

-The pins tell a story of days gone by within the gay community...

-L.A. Cares “play safely” pin, from the Los Angeles Cooperative AIDS Risk-Reduction Education Service. They were a pioneering partnership between AIDS Project Los Angeles and The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center in 1980. Together, they launched a safer-sex education plan to combat the epidemic.

-The Shanti Project Foundation originated in San Francisco in 1974, founded by Dr. Charles Garfield. They were one of the world’s first community-based organizations to support individuals diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. They also started PAWS (Pets Are Wonderful Support), providing free pet food, supplies and veterinary care to companion animals of low income ill or disabled individuals. In 1990, while working for AT&T in Los Angeles, Tony invited the Shanti Project to come and educate over 400 employees during ten seminars sponsored by AT&T’s Quality of Work Life Committee.

-The Spike, West Hollywood’s most popular leather/cruise bar. I’ll tell you what, when I first moved to L.A., my co-worker Chet Thomas (“Sal & Sal”) and I spent a lot of time there, always on our worst behavior!

-Christopher Street West is a non-profit organization that organized the first “permitted” gay parade on June 28, 1970 to commemorate Stonewall.

All great pins, alongside Studio One, a West Hollywood Disco, AIDS Walk Los Angeles and the not to be forgotten performance of Marilyn Chambers in Insatiable (1980).

-Remember Hands Across America? This was a massive charity event on May 25, 1986, where over six million people formed a human chain across the USA in order to help raise awareness regarding hunger and homelessness, with 15 million dollars being raised. Tony and his friend Tim Webb participated.

-Porn icon Blue Blake made an appearance at the Gold Coast Bar in West Hollywood for one of their Aid for AIDS fundraisers.

-The Names Project Memorial Quilt was conceived on November 27, 1985 by activist Cleve Jones during the annual candlelight march in remembrance of Harvey Milk and George Moscone. The idea of an actual quilt came to Jones after attendees of the march taped signs of their deceased friend’s names to the San Francisco Federal Building.

-Tony has an amazing section in his journaling which includes the names and photos of over 100 of his friends who died from AIDS. A very dear friend, Chris Wooley is shown, as well as Nancy Cole Sawaya, who was one of Tony’s closest friends. She was one of the founders of APLA, and I talk about her in detail in the blog: “Is That Al Parker in Your Photograph?” Yes, another of Tony’s receipts included his friendship with Al Parker.

-The ticket stub and program from a Michael Jackson concert on Sunday November 13th, 1988. A week or so later Tony went to see Childs Play 2 at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

-A photo of Tony with one of his close friends, Jim Suwalkowski. While visiting a gay bar in Italy with Mark and his friend Deric, they spotted, and started cruising, a couple of “local-lookers” named Gianni and Paolo. The Hangar Bars card in the picture has their names and phone number on the back. They all chatted and became good friends, visiting each other in their own countries for years to come. 

-Tony purchased some Padre Pio stamps that were available for a limited time in that era.

-He kept the playbill for Jeff Stryker Does Hard Time (1999), a prison-themed comedy and erotic stage show that toured major cities, including San Francisco and Chicago. A West Hollywood playhouse favorite during its run which got the audience drooling when Jeff Stryker (Powertool) performed a brief solo/masturbation sequence near the end of the show. For the record, Tony has every playbill from every show and concert he ever attended. 

-Paramount Studios was the backdrop for the finish line of the AIDS Walk-a Thon in 1989. Tony, alongside his friends Peter and Paul, celebrate after finishing the fundraiser.

-Letterhead from the incredible Miramar By The Sea Hotel in Montecito, just south of Santa Barbara. If you visited the area and were lucky enough to stay there before it was torn down, after sitting vacant for two decades, you would always remember how magical it was. The hotel, with its infamous blue roofs, was set on lush grounds, but you could walk to the beachfront, which was just across the Amtrak train tracks. Yes, the Amtrak ran right through the hotel’s property -- it was very old school.

-Two passes from the L.A. Summer Olympics 1984 and the ticket from when Tony, my parents and I climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

-A Godzilla Minus One movie stub (a fabulous movie I forced him to go to), the 3D glasses from Meow Wolf in Santé Fe New Mexico and a napkin from our trip to Boston, where we stopped in the Cheers bar for a beer. Meow Wolf is a massive, immersive art installation and mind-bending interactive museum. 

-A more recent photo of Tony in his dog trainer uniform for Petco, and a snippet from his multi-volume set of journals. 

Tony dedicated five decades to documenting his daily life and experiences. It’s amazing that items like a movie stub, receipt or pin can all of a sudden bring a barrage of memories to the forefront. I hope you got something out of seeing these items, too! He knows what he did every day, where he ate, who he was with and the bars and clubs he went to. Just think about if you had records like that. Wouldn’t it be priceless?

As you might have guessed, Tony just asked me to print an extra copy of this writing. Can you guess why? He wants to add it to his journal.

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.