BijouBlog

By Josh Eliot

In my previous blog, I talked about the making of Runaways, my first movie for Catalina Video. My second movie, which we shot in our San Francisco studio in 1989, was Full Service. That movie caused me a lot of grief after it was released nationally, as I discussed in my blog, “DOWN BY LAW: My 1 Million Dollar Mistake.” Despite that nightmare, I still do have some great memories about making it.  

For Full Service, I had the idea floating around in my head to make a movie based on the 1978 film Grease Monkeys starring Kip Noll, Nick Rogers, Lee Marlin and Derrick Stanton. I hadn’t even viewed the movie at the time, so I wasn’t sure of its content other than what I saw on the movie poster.  Both the Grease Monkeys and Wet Shorts movie posters were burned into my brain from constantly walking past the Century Cinema when I lived in the Tenderloin.

For this venture, unlike Runaways, I was able to build my own sets and use them exclusively, and even though I shared quite a few cast members with John Travis for his movie Undercover, I did get to make a couple requests of my own.  Scott Masters had a hot new pair of models he assigned to me as the leads - Brad Phillips and Butch Taylor - who posed together on the box cover.  Both were hot studs but, by the time Full Service was released on VHS, Brad and Butch were so over-exposed in the industry that it affected the sales.  I think I remember Chris Mann telling me that Full Service only sold a little over 2,500 copies on its initial release, compared to much higher numbers for past new releases. I was totally bummed, because it ended up being a solid movie.  The reality was, and little did we know at the time, that new release sales numbers would mirror that of Full Service from that point on.  It was due to the fact that the industry now had too many players and everyone and their brother started pumping out product!  It took a while for management to see that it was not a fluke, but in fact how the industry was evolving.  

One of the stars I was able to request for my cast was Jake Corbin, who I bonded with while making Runaways.  We were both Rhode Islanders and less than a year apart in age. We hit it off and spent some time off the set partying in the Folsom District!  Luckily, John Travis agreed to cast him, as well, and paid to fly him in for his movie Undercover, since his budget was double that of mine.  Jake worked in a three-way with Tim Lowe and George Madera (who also played the hooded leatherman in Undercover).  I do remember struggling a little bit trying to think of a good position for their three-way sucking.  I remembered a Higgins movie where he had a bunch of guys lay on the floor in a circle and suck each other simultaneously, so I tried that and it was not attractive.  The body positions and angle of the dicks all looked so wrong.  I can honestly say that, in any of my future movies, I never, ever put models in that position again!  One and done - that positioning sucked, literally!

Before I move onto the other scenes, I feel I really should talk a bit more about Jake Corbin. A few months before we started shooting Jake in Runaways, Christopher Rage shot him for a solo, followed by William Higgins, who also videotaped him for William Higgins' Screentest 2.  Screentest 2 was the same movie in which Jake’s co-star in Full Service, Tim Lowe, was introduced.  You can read a really great Bijou Blog called “Arrested For Murder!” by Madame Bubby for more on Tim Lowe.

Jake made his first full feature debut in Cruisin: Men on the Make for Falcon Studios. He went on to perform in nineteen more movies between 1989-1991. Features that include: Boys On Fire (HIS), plus Mystic Museum (Bijou Classics) in 1990 and The Night Boys (Cinderfella) in 1991 for Gino Colbert.  Jake even worked with my ex-boss Frank Ross (read the blog, “Frank Ross: The Boss”) in 1990 in a movie called Legend Asian Man.  Born in Pawtucket, RI, and raised in Providence, he joined the Army after high school, having his first sexual experience in the army barracks with his roommate.  He had some troubles while enlisted, including fighting with and punching a Sergeant. The story gets stranger, with Jake stating that he slept with a colonel to get his discharge.   He moved to New York City in 1988 and toured the country in gay and straight clubs as a stripper. Jake made frequent appearances on The Robin Byrd Show and told funny stories about the porn industry and his adventures working as a hustler. He had an endearing, oddball wit which, combined with his street-tough New England accent, really made him stand out. Jake participated in many demonstrations with Act Up New York at the state capitol in Albany, as well as at the International AIDS Conference in Montreal and St. Patrick's Cathedral. He stripped at many AIDS fundraisers, showing off his lightning bolt butt tattoo and matching nipple ring, which were his trademarks.  In January of 1992, Jake Corbin moved from New York City back home to be with his family after a severe bout of pneumonia. On September 27, 1992, Jake passed away at his family home. Shooting Full Service was my last time seeing and working with Jake until we got word of his passing a few years later.

Other scenes in Full Service... Butch Taylor as the banker foreclosing on the auto-shop’s loan.  He seduces grease monkey Michael Britton under the pretenses of letting the late payments slide.  Once he’s done sliding into Michael’s tight hole, he goes back on his word.  It’s okay, the boys come up with a plan to win a drag race and the banker gets it in the end courtesy of Brad Phillips and Lou Cass, aka Sexy Billy Blue (Bijou Classics).  Chris Dano, very early in his career, has a great scene with Brad Carlton, who seduces him (their competitor) into missing the race.  I did want more exterior shots in this movie, but by the time we shot them night was falling, so we had to keep it short.  I did, however, have one of the best sets ever: behind the gas station, where we created an alleyway with a pile of old tires that motorist Chris Ladd gets pounded on.  Chris Ladd came to us from Houston and did a number of movies, including Main Attraction and Head of the Class 2, between 1989-1990. Unfortunately, Chris passed away on November 14, 1990, at a very young age.

Upon the release of the VHS, I was very excited to watch the edited cut of Full Service. My excitement quickly turned to anger, as this was the first time that I knew something wasn’t quite right in the editing department back in L.A.  I first suspected it with the edit of Runaways, as there were deliberate choices made to create choppiness, but I wasn’t sure what to do about it at the time.  Eventually, I knew I had to cozy up to Chet Thomas (read “SCANDAL at the Coral Sands Motel” and “There’s a Gloryhole WHERE?”), as he was in charge of the editing department and was slightly pissed off that I was directing so shortly after being hired.  It was so obvious to me that he was deliberately sabotaging my movie.  Strangely enough, we became fast friends when he flew up to San Francisco to shoot his movie The Big One, and that choppiness didn’t show its ugly face on a number of my future movies - that is, until it again appeared and I insisted on cutting my own movies.  Content within Full Service caused Catalina Video to be sued for one million dollars. My poor little movie felt cursed. Only my second directorial effort and I thought it was all over for me!  Luckily, it wasn’t.

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.

I was hired by Catalina Video in September of 1987 and worked in their San Francisco studio until December 1989, when they closed it up and moved me to Los Angeles. In addition to working as studio manager, set builder, and cameraman for John Travis, Scott Masters and Cameron Leight, I also worked my way into becoming a director. I directed my first two movies, Runaways and Full Service, in the studio and both were released in 1989. After relocating to Los Angeles, in January of 1990 I shot my third movie for Catalina, which was called Hard To Be Good. We shot on location in Lake Arrowhead and West Hollywood, which was a bit of a learning curve for me as I was used to shooting on a soundstage. In my next blog I will talk about the making of Full Service, followed by a blog discussing the making of Hard To Be Good.

In our San Francisco studio shooting Runaways, I was happy to get “hand me down sets” from John Travis and Scott Masters' movies that they were shooting at the time. My budget was minuscule because it was the first time they were letting me direct, so they didn’t want to chance a full blown budget on me. I was just fine with that, but getting sets that didn’t necessarily relate to each other made it difficult when writing the script. Three of the sets that really worked for that raw kind of runaway/homelessness feel were the “passenger bus,” “the dirt pit” and the “interior living room” sets.

The bus scene with Cameron Kelly and Tom Ross was lit for nighttime, as Cameron makes his way into the empty bus to spend the night when he encounters another homeless youth. A day or two before, I did videography for Scott Masters in the same bus for a scene with Chris Ladd and Keith Panther for his movie The Main Attraction. I made mental notes in my head about how I covered that scene with the camera and how I positioned the lights, which was a huge help when it came time to shoot my own scene. For many of my first movies, I directed from behind the camera while shooting the footage. The make-up man or grip would watch on the monitor and yell to me if the shot was dark, overexposed or out of focus. The day after shooting my scene in the bus, we shot another sex scene with Kurt Bauer, Mike Gregory and Johnny Davenport for John Travis’ My Best Buddy, just to give perspective on our scheduling.

The dirt pit scene had a runaway sleeping in the pit overnight; when the hardhat worker climbs down the next day, the young homeless fellow takes care of the worker’s morning wood. The day before, we shot a scene in this set for John Travis’ Powerline with Eric Manchester and Nick Cougar. In my scene, I ended up getting a verbal lashing because I had the contractor tie the runaway up while he fucked him. Producer Scott Masters made it sound like it was the end of the world and that it would all have to be cut out of the finished movie. Well, the editors never did that; they left all the shots in.

I can’t remember if the living room set was from John or Scott’s movie, but we converted it for Runaways. After that movie wrapped, we basically threw some trash around, covered the couch in a sheet, removed art work and sprayed graffiti on the walls, then pulled the door off its hinges. Both of those sets fit the storyline of homeless boys looking for a place to sleep and finding sex instead. Jake Corbin and John Hanks played a pair of buddies breaking in for the night. Jake and I hit it off immediately, as we were both born in Rhode Island and around the same age. It was like having my high school friend on the set, and he was very excited about starting his career. I knew I wanted to work with him again, as he was so much fun to be around and did a great job on the set. When it came time for my second movie, I did request Jake Corbin to come back, which he did, to shoot Full Service, and then Undercover. I will discuss more about Jake and his legacy in my next blog covering Full Service.

The hand-me-down “office set” I really had no idea what to do with or how to include it in the storyline. Additionally, Danny Wade was assigned to my movie as the lead star and box cover model. I don’t feel great saying this, but at the time I was really annoyed because at the same time we were scheduled to shoot the Runaways box cover, we were also shooting Matt Powers' box cover for The Main Attraction - a very hot and sexy cover with a chiseled stud on it. Danny Wade was a young guy with a very nondescript body and I wasn’t into “chickens.” I wanted a stud on my box cover! I didn’t have any options of mixing it up, so I had to figure out a way to make the box cover sexy. I went to a resale lot and found an old paint-chipped window frame for him to stand behind as a way to disguise his body for the box cover. We smudged all the window panes with Vaseline and broke glass in strategic spots where his face and bulging underwear would be. We kind of pulled it off, and his baby face looking sad played into the runaways theme. He actually did a good job sexually in his two scenes and hard-ons would appear on demand, which made me grow to like him more as the project progressed. Looking back on it today, his baby faced youthful look is exactly what runaways needed. Hot muscle studs don’t run away from home! I might add that most of the other cast members looked young as well, so I guess I was just being a judgmental brat! One thing of interest is that about half of this eleven-person cast only ever worked in this movie and did not go on to work in other porno projects, which is quite rare.

The final set I adopted was a “nightclub set” consisting of a dancefloor surrounded by multi-leveled tables and chairs, so large it took up a third of our studio space. This nightclub set was originally designed and used as a “mud wrestling” arena for the movie The Main Attraction. Again, another scene in The Main Attraction that took a layer of flesh to shoot. Just like the others. (Note: read previous blogs “We Waited 8 Hours for a Cum Shot, Is That a World Record?” and “More Than a Mouthful.”)

Cast for the roles in this mud wrestling scene were Peter Ashley and Tim Lowe. Scott Masters had a vision, and that vision was made of chocolate - chocolate pudding, to be exact. I can’t remember how we were able to purchase thirty pound bags of chocolate pudding powder, but I do clearly remember how fucking long it took to mix up bucket after bucket of the mix using water as the additive. Eventually, because we were running behind, we just poured all the remaining bags in the pit, turned on a hose and started mixing it with brooms and shovels. Hot studio lights beating on the chocolate pit didn’t help matters, and once the models entered, the pit the whole studio was already beginning to smell rancid. Peter and Tim sure were troopers to wrestle in this disgusting mess, and Scott Masters wanted the whole scene to be shot with mud (pudding) all over their bodies. I tried my hardest to get all the shots we needed from outside the mud pit, but at one point Masters told me to take off my shoes and hop in there. It felt absolutely disgusting, and I only had it on my feet; the boys' faces and bodies where smothered, and it seriously looked like they were covered in shit. We shot the first oral scene that way and it wasn’t sexy, it was bizarre looking. Thankfully, the boys started gagging on the rancid mixture and we persuaded Masters to make some dialogue up to let them exit to the shower. When we resumed they were squeaky clean, and finished up the sucking and fucking outside the pit.

For my movie, we got rid of the pit and turned it into a dance floor. I basically wrote a scene about two waiters at the club who get a visit from their “runaway” friend. A paper thin connection, for sure, and I got a lot of shit for not having a cohesive script once Runaways was released. That recurring critique in reviews bothered me, so much so that moving forward I made scripts a main focus. It wasn’t over night that my script skills improved, but I always tried to make sure that I would use unpredictable ideas when developing future movies.

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.

This week, we're reprinting Joseph W Bean's illuminating interview with legendary S/M filmmaker Roger Earl from the Oct-Nov 1997 issue of International Leatherman magazine. Earl and his collaborative partner Terry LeGrand were behind many of the most influential classic gay S/M films and videos, including Born to Raise Hell and the Dungeons of Europe and Bound for Europe series.

We're breaking this interview up into installments, so stay tuned in future weeks for its continuation!

Roger Earl: Thinking about this talk, I decided to start by telling you about a time when I was around 25 years old. I went to a party in the Hollywood Hills and, at that party, I met a great looking guy who was about 50 years old, six feet tall, with good body... and before the party was over, we were in the basement, on the cement stairs. I had his pants around his ankles, his shirt off and I was whipping his ass and his shoulders with my belt. It was his first experience ever in this sort of a scene – not mine, but his. He was a carpenter at the National Broadcasting Company and he was the one responsible for getting me a job at NBC. I say that was his first experience. It certainly wasn't his last.

After I joined NBC and was working there, George came to me and said he had been approached by a group of people who wanted to do a heavy S&M film. They wanted him to direct it. (George is the carpenter that I met at the party.) He said the only way he would do it is if I would co-direct with him and work with him on it, and I said, "Sure, why not."

Well, I went to the first meeting. George was supposed to be there. Needless to say, George never showed up at any meetings. George never participated. He dropped out and really didn't want anything to do with it. He wanted me to do it. This is where I met Terry LeGrand. The meeting was with Terry LeGrand and company, to do this heavy SM film. On the way home from the meeting that day, my mind was racing. I was thinking about all this stuff that needed to be done, thinking about the motorcycle men and the tattoos and all, and the tattoo "Born to Raise Hell" came to mind.

Right then and there, I knew, on the freeway, that was going to be the name of the film. They had no title. They had no script. All they had was, "Make us a heavy SM film. OK?" I knew that in order to do this film, I needed this dynamite top, this man that was always in everybody's mind as the Hot Top, and I had no idea where I was going to find him.

RE: Exactly! And, I even considered... there was this guy who was a Colt model, Ledermeister was his name with Colt. I forget his real name, but he hung out at the baths, and I was going to approach him. But he also was not into the scene. He really wasn't quite right. So I was haunting Larry's bar at the time in Los Angeles.

Joseph W. Bean: Larry's, the bar with the famous Full Moon Parties by invitation?

RE: Yes, and, one day when I went in there, there he was. He was the man that I knew would make this film what I wanted it to be. I knew I had to ask him to be a part of it, and can I tell you something: I was scared shitless. I figured he would knock me right through the fucking wall if l even approached him. I stood there on one foot, and my stomach turned and, finally, I said, “Hey, go for it, if he knocks you on your ass, he knocks you on your ass and we're done, we're finished.” So, I approached this guy, his name was Val Martin – of course, as we all know now, I told him what I wanted to do and he said, “Give me your number. I'll call you tomorrow.” And he did. Val turned out to be one of my dearest and closest friends, one of the sweetest men in the world, and totally made the movie, as we all know.

JWB: He went on to make Drummer and, in a sense, to make, or at least radically change, the whole scene as we now know it.

RE: Without Val there was no movie. He was the key to that whole movie. And, as I said, he became a very dear friend afterward. His was one of the first panels I made for the AIDS Memorial Quilt. I did his name in black with little silver studs, and, at the bottom, I put "A Leatherman and a Gentleman." To me, that really explained Val. He was really a gentleman and a hell of a leatherman. I admired him so much and miss him so much. I really miss Val.

RE: Anyway, that's how Born to Raise Hell all came about and, from that, Terry LeGrand became a business partner and a friend. We were never interested in each other sexually or anything, but we became very dear friends Terry will always be my friend through thick and thin, and hell and high water.

In all the films that I've done with Terry, I will say that all the real production values in these films are Terry's responsibility. I mean, he's responsible for that because he's the one that has the guts to go ask the Queen of England to let us shoot a fuck film in the palace. That's the kind of person Terry is, and that's why we got the great locations, the great people and the rest of it. I mean, had Terry been with me that night when Val was in the bar, Terry would have walked right up to him without any problem. I squirmed and carried on and went through six deaths, but Terry would have walked right up to him. So, Terry is really responsible for Marathon Films having the production values and having some of the great models. The two of us were able to work together so well because he has this wonderful chutzpah that created what I wanted, and every time I said, “Terry I need, I want," Terry would bend over backwards to make sure I got what I needed and wanted. We made a good tape – a very good tape.

There are a couple of things I would like to tell you about. This was during the making of Born To Raise Hell, when we were in the dungeon, and I had a guy tied up to the cross and all...

JWB: Where was that?

RE: That was a place in Hollywood called the House of Dominance, where all the Dominatrixes charged the guys anywhere from $200 to $500 to tie them up and beat their ass. They had lawyers, executives from film studios... everyone. And they were great gals. I really enjoyed them and they were terrific. They wanted to be there when I shot. They said they never allowed anybody to be there when they weren't present, and I said, "Bullshit! You will destroy everything I'm doing. You can't be here. These guys don't work well with women." Anyway, that was all solved, and they were very pleased with what we had done in their facility.

RE: But we were shooting this one scene with Tiger on the cross and tied up, and Val and Bob were whipping the hell out him and all this, and he was screaming bloody murder. I mean just screaming, wide open, screaming bloody murder. I finally just stopped, "Wait, wait," and I asked Tiger, "Are you OK?"

He said, "I'm fine. I was just acting."

I was so pissed off. I went back to Bob and Val and said, "Beat the shit out of that motherfucker. I don't like acting. I want to hear real fuckin' pain." I almost flipped. That's something I have never forgotten.

When we shot that last scene with the two cops out in the woods, I don't remember who I went through to get these two guys. But, anyway, I told them I needed their sizes to go to Western Costume to get the uniforms, and one of the guys said, "You don't need to get a uniform for me. I've got one." So, he showed up in his LAPD uniform, and it turned after I shot the whole thing, that he really was an LAPD – on the reserve unit.

JWB: I heard that from Val later.

RE: I told him I wished he had told me about all of this, and he said, "You wouldn't have used me if I had." I admitted he was right. Anyway, it was in the can, so I just went with it.

RE: Dale... yes, was the name of the guy we used in the opening scene, the guy that sat in the toilet and they pissed in his mouth, and they took him in and beat the shit out of him on the pool table and put the dildo up his ass. They really worked the kid over pretty roughly, and I was very pleased with all that he took, and I thought he was terrific. Then, when we finished that scene, I put my arm around him and said, "Man, you were terrific, you really were." And he asked if that was all. He asked if they weren't going to hurt him any more. "I love pain," he said, "I really was hoping there would be more." I said, "Hey, you want to do more, give me a few minutes." And that's when Val got out the alligator clips and we shot that extra scene, because the kid just hadn't had enough. As long as Val was willing... So, it's funny how these things happen in a shooting.

RE: Also, the kid whose head we shaved, the long-haired guy? What happened was, the first day we shot, I was so tired and so horny, I stopped by Larry's on the way home from the shoot and I met this guy and thought, “Well, I'll take him home, play with him a little bit and then go to bed and get a good night's sleep.” I brought him home, started playing with him, and I said something like, “I'm going to shave this long, fucking hair off." And he said that would be fine, "Go ahead." I went to get my stuff and I asked myself, "Am I fucking crazy? I want to do this on film." And I asked him if he would do it on film, and he said he would. I showed up the next morning with him and Terry said, "You told me that... You were very emphatic that we weren't allowed to bring tricks and friends to the shoot." I told him this wasn't a trick or a friend, this was a new actor. He said we didn't have the money. "Well, we'll have to find it," I said. He said the only way would be to take the money out of my money. I agreed, and that's how he came about.

JWB: Can I ask a couple questions about Born To Raise Hell while we're here? In the '70s, when you made Born, there were sex films sort of in the mainstream, and sex films were being shown in big theaters. It was all pretty different, but how different was it? Did you think, when you were making it, this is has to be a secret, this can't be thought of as part of my career, that kind of stuff?

RE: Absolutely, because it was a porn film... everything about it, I could not have been known as having done this. For years and years, it was very hush-hush that I had anything to do with it, and I actually denied having anything to do with it. Of course, Born to Raise Hell was shown on film and 16mm. It was edited on my dining room table in my apartment.

JWB: Movieola and canvas bag at the end of the table?

RE: Well, it wasn't even a Movieola, it was a reel-to-reel crank-through called the Moviescope, and I cut original. There wasn't enough money to do a work print, so I cut original.

JWB: Who cut the negative? Did you have to do that yourself?

RE: No. The original was...

JWB: Oh, you didn't have any kind of print at all?

RE: Nothing, I cut original, right out of the camera to my table. But I had enough confidence in myself that I could do it. And I said, "I'II do it. Don't worry about it. I know what I'm doing. I know the film. I shot it, I can do it." And I did. It didn't turn out all that bad. I made a couple little mistakes that I could certainly see, but most people don't see them. And it was very interesting.

Another little tidbit about Born To Raise Hell: the cameraman that we used was a cameraman for Jacques Cousteau, a straight man, of course. The action that went on never once bothered him. He never mentioned anything about what we were doing or anything. He just kept going on about, "God these guys have such dirty feet, I keep smelling those dirty feet, I smell dirty socks all the time, all these dirty feet." They're sniffing amyl one after the other. [Ed. Note: At the time, poppers were amyl nitrate in glass ampules, and spent amyl smelled powerfully of dirty socks.]

JWB: How much of a crew did it take to do Born To Raise Hell?

RE: We had a lighting director, a camera man, our still guy, myself, and I had an assistant, and Terry was there of course.

JWB: So, six or seven people?

RE: We had a gofer, too, who was running around getting food for the actors...

JWB: And how does that compare with the crew you needed to do the European shoot?

RE: About the same.

JWB: Really? So things didn't change that much in 20-plus years.

RE: When I started shooting in Europe, I switched to a two-camera shoot.

In the next installment, Roger Earl gets into his later work: the shoots in Europe with the Palm Drive Video photographers, Christian Dreesen, Marks of Pleasure, and more.

From June 15th to the 18th of 2001, the Catalina crew and I were on the East Coast to work on scenes for four of our upcoming productions. The movies were Vermont Reunion, New England Summer, Party in Provincetown, and His Terrible Twin. This was not the norm to be shooting this many movies simultaneously - in fact, we normally didn’t have a script or even an idea for an upcoming movie until a week or two before production would start. Needless to say that I had to do a lot of pre-planning for this trip to make everything work out seamlessly. I directed two of the four movies, with Peter Romero directing Vermont Reunion and Brad Austin directing Party in Provincetown. His Terrible Twin was the big budget movie for the year and was basically paying for a lot of the other movies to have “on-location” scenes in them.

We left from L.A. and flew to Boston, where we rented a large van and drove it to Rhode Island. We all stayed at my parent’s house, in Coventry, Rhode Island, where I grew up. My parents were very cool and accepting of my career with Catalina Video and were happy to host the crew for an evening. My mom made a large batch of Cacoila, delicious shredded beef we first discovered at the Portuguese Carnival held in town each summer. The next morning, we drove to Provincetown, MA and rented out a B&B on Bradford Street, about a ten minute walk from the center of town on Commercial Street. I remember being really excited to show the crew P-Town, as it was the first time for all of them. We hit all the hot spots: breakfast at The Squealing Pig, lunch at The Lobster Pot, drinks at The A-House, doughboys at The Portuguese Bakery, and your late night munchie fix at Spiritus Pizza. We were sitting on the steps of Spiritus Pizza eating our pepperoni slices when the most amazing thing happened. John Waters walked bye with a couple other guys! Brad Austin spotted him and it was everything I could do not to run up to him and “gush!” The models flying into Provincetown - Ray Harley, Brad McGuire, Aaron Tanner and Robert Black - all hated the very, very, very tiny Provincetown Airport. The flights were nail-biters because the planes were like - four-seaters! Robert Black had to sit next to the pilot and was trembling when he arrived!

The first movie we started rolling on was His Terrible Twin with Ray Harley and Brad McGuire. The pair realized that their roommate (played by Andy Hunter, who shot all his scenes in Los Angeles) was psychotic and they were determined to take him down. We blocked a day for dialogue in the rental house, as well as a local cemetery - the same cemetery Ryan Murphy used in a season of American Horror Story. I guess that will be my only six degrees of separation with Ryan Murphy, sadly. I have to say Brad McGuire is one hell of an actor, elevating His Terrible Twin with his performance, and Ray Harley benefited from working with him, as well.

The next morning, we took them both out of downtown and to the secluded sand dunes near the ocean. We hiked quite a distance into the dunes to find the perfect spot for shooting their outdoor sex scene. Everyone was carrying equipment, including the models, and we were all about to “drop” when we found a nice grassy area at the bottom of a dune. I put the make-up man on top of one sand dune and my partner, Tony, on another to look out for anyone heading our way. We got through the sucking and fucking without any interruptions, but just as I was about to go in for the cum shots, a “looky-loo” was spotted. We wrapped the guys in blankets, covered our video equipment and just sat around like we were chatting. Just when you think the scene is almost done! After about ten minutes, he finally left our sights and wandered off. Cum shots both came quickly and we were on our way back to town. Here’s a link to “The Making of His Terrible Twin,” a short video on my channel.

We definitely needed some stiff drinks after the shoot, so we hit the bars. Brad Austin, who always gets chatty with strangers in bars, was telling the bartender that we were in town shooting porn. I’m sure as a way to entice him into bed. The bartender was familiar with Catalina Video and mentioned that his roommate had a small sailboat that would be perfect for shooting a scene. We had scheduled the next day’s scene with Brad McGuire and Aaron Tanner at our house rental, but Brad Austin begged me to come up with some “moolah” to shoot on the boat. I thought it was a great idea and told him, “Yes, let’s see if we can get the bartender’s friend to accept $300.” It meant another fabulous dinner at the Lobster Pot would have to go bye-bye in exchange for a couple of pizzas from Spiritus, but we all agreed because we wanted to get on that boat to shoot. The scene came out fantastic and can be viewed in Brad Austin’s movie Party in Provincetown. The boat owner even dragged along a little dingy so we could get wide shots while the dingy circled the large sailboat. It looked like a million bucks. The next day, we hiked along the sea steps that led to an attached island with Ray Harley and Robert Black. There was a beautiful lighthouse in the distance so we stopped, set up the cameras and shot their sex scene with it in the background.

After wrapping up in Provincetown, we drove to Burlington, VT, where we picked up Steve Rambo and David Chelsea at the airport. We then headed out to Williamstown, VT, where we rented a secluded home in a rural part of the state. The house was home base for us to shoot some scenes for Vermont Reunion and New England Summer. On our way to Williamstown, we passed through Montpelier, VT for some dialogue scenes. In the movie New England Summer, Steve Rambo picks up his friend, played by David Chelsea, at the train station. Steve has always been in love with David, but David is such a whore that it was impossible to tie him down. Throughout the visit, the two find more things in common and realize they can embrace his “whorish ways” by playing together, thus making them the perfect couple. The movie ends with David proposing and the two of them walking into the stunning Capitol Building to take their vows. In 2002, when we shot this movie, the state of Vermont was not yet allowing gay marriage. I guess I was an optimist when writing the script, insinuating that Vermont allowed gay marriage, because it wasn’t until September 1, 2009 that Vermont actually became the fourth state to do so. The state of Vermont did, however, allow civil unions starting back in March of 2000. We continued our drive to the house rental and just so happened upon the most amazing covered bridge, right next to a dam and running river. When I spotted it, I just had to stop, pull out the cameras and get some shots of the two actors walking out of the bridge and across the dam. I discovered, from a YouTube follower who watched the New England Summer trailer on my channel, that it was “The Lower Cox Brook Covered Bridge in Northfield, VT.” Thanks! He was responding to a previous follower who thought it might be the Beetlejuice Bridge, from the 1988 film.

My partner, Tony, and our friend, Mark, all returned to the East Coast and Provincetown a few weeks ago. Provincetown has not changed one bit! Lunch at the Lobster Pot was amazing, and the doughboys and custard filled donuts at the Portuguese Bakery brought me right back to 2001! I thought we were booked into the same B&B that we shot His Terrible Twin in, but once we arrived I realized I was wrong!!! Damn, I had a whole blog I was going to write about that! It was actually up the street from where we stayed on Bradford Street, but I remembered (because of Tony’s diary that he’s kept since the early 1980’s) that His Terrible Twin’s house location was a house rental, not a B&B. I fucked up, but the John Randall House where we stayed this time was fabulous and actually more central to town! Once back in Rhode Island, we actually toured the real Conjuring house in Harrisville, but I’ll write about that in one of my Halloween themed blogs this October, as we also went to more haunted places while we were there.

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.

Producer Scott Masters was able to secure some great talent to work for Catalina Video in the 1980s and early 1990s. One of his main discoveries was Matt Powers, who I wrote about in the blog “Some Real What The Fuck Moments While Making Scott Masters' LIFEGUARD ON DUTY.” Scott signed Matt to an exclusive contract, moved him into his home and started a romantic relationship with him. When their breakup happened and Matt moved out of the residence, Scott suffered from separation anxiety and put out the feelers for a new exclusive model to replace him.

This new exclusive model came to us from the state of Colorado and was signed to a multi-picture deal in 1991. The model was Cody Foster, 21 years old, born October 9th, 1970. His very first scene was a J/O in the video Stargazing, which featured solo performances from all of the up-and-coming Catalina stars. He was personable, very friendly and fun to be around. Then we started production on Malibu Pool Boys (1992), his first full feature, which received more attention and instant success than many movies before it. Malibu Pool Boys made Cody an instant star and led to a staggering amount of magazine covers to follow, essentially turning him into the “It Boy” of 1992. Cody was poised to have a long successful career and an exciting life as one of Catalina’s dancers who toured the country. His multi-picture contract and company backing almost guaranteed that. In addition, his Colorado agent had national and international connections with all the gay clubs and event promoters.

I’d say some red flags were glaring to myself and the crew from working with him on Malibu Pool Boys. Shooting the movie started off smoothly, with Scott Masters, Cody and myself taking a drive down the Pacific Coast Highway, shooting exterior shots and having a fantastic seafood lunch on the shore. Spirits were high and everyone was excited to start this movie that we hoped would be a “star-vehicle” to make Cody a success. Shooting the first day with Chad Knight was going excellently - who didn’t love shooting a scene with Chad! His dick was always up and ready, so the oral went great. The real trouble started with the fucking. Scott Masters would never - absolutely never - put the full power and finances of the company behind a new exclusive star who was a “bottom,” no way no how. That’s how he felt, and he often verbalized it. This was years before popular power-bottom Joey Stefano hit the scene.

The shooting of Malibu Pool Boys was a classic lesson on how not to start off a working relationship. You see, Cody Foster was a bottom, through and through; he verbalized it to all of us and even tried to reason with Masters, but to no avail. Scott Masters was going to have this hot new exclusive fuck Chad Knight, come hell or high water! Well, I can tell you, that went over like “a fart in church.” Cody would get hard, run into the shot, try to stick it in and go soft almost immediately. This literally went on for hours and hours, and you could visibly see Cody’s spirit dimming and his hostility growing. Still photographer Jeff Burton and I were even a little frightened by certain personality changes we witnessed. It was more than just frustration we were seeing; his anger filled the room, though Scott Masters didn’t seem to notice. Yes, we got some shots in the final movie of Cody fucking, but at what expense? Cody became angrier and angrier and probably felt like his voice wasn’t heard, and his first time with the full crew was probably embarrassing for him. There was no Viagra then, and you could just see him almost losing it every time he had to penetrate Chad. I felt bad for Chad, too; how do you finish a scene with someone who is obviously in distress and ready to explode? Jeff and I both tried to get Scott Masters to just have Cody bottom to release some anxiety on the set, but it all fell on deaf ears. He waited until both models were absolutely exhausted to finally let Chad fuck Cody. Of course, Chad fucked like the star he is and saved the scene. But the damage was done. From that very first sex scene on his very first movie, Cody acted completely different in every single conversation with Scott Masters and the crew.

A couple of days later, it was time for Cody’s second scene in the movie with Arik Travis. Can I just say that Arik Travis never got the full “star-treatment” he so deserved! He is tall, dark and handsome, with a chiseled face and fat piece. I think the only cover he graced was for Fan Male, by Chi Chi LaRue, even though he worked on and off from 1992 to 2003. Total star potential with him! In any event, everyone showed up with a good attitude and the scene went off without a hitch, with Cody doing all the bottoming and no topping. Even though things went well that day, there was this weird tension in the air, almost like Cody was super annoyed to be around all of us.

The next time we saw Cody was when he came to town for his role in Chi Chi LaRue’s Bi-ology: The Making of Mr. Right (1992) with Lois Ayres and Dean Glass, and his role in Reunion (1992). I was shooting Down Bi Law downstairs while Chi Chi was working with Cody upstairs for Bi-ology. Chi Chi later told me that it was a bit tense at moments, where Cody would kind of get a bit pissy and she was scared that I would see Lois’ head rolling down the staircase. Lois Ayres is a strong woman, and the kind of starlet that you don’t fuck with. She might have pushed Cody’s buttons once or twice, causing another tense set. We split the crew in half to shoot simultaneously, and photographer Jeff Burton would run up and down the stairs to cover the still photography for both movies. He kept plopping down and sharing the nightmarish behavior happening upstairs with me. For the movie Reunion, I was the head videographer and we shot it at the 8 Is Enough TV show house in Universal City. All I truly remember is that it was tenser than tense! I’ve blocked out why and how, but Cody became very dark and slightly scary. I was so happy to have never had to direct him - I could always stay on his good side by being just the cameraman, plus a good listener when he wanted to go off.

By mid-1992, when Masters and John Travis departed the company, Cody had one movie left on his contract: Cody Exposed (1993), which I passed on to Brad Austin to direct. He never forgave me for that! Cody’s contract was not renewed, despite his becoming immensely popular with the public. He then went on to work with numerous companies like All Worlds (Hard as Marble, 1992), Falcon (Basic Plumbing, 1993) and Pleasure Productions (Ripped, 1992), despite having numerous run-ins with the law in Colorado. In 1992, a civil suit was filed and in 1993, he had a restraining order against him and was convicted in Colorado for prohibited use of a weapon. I remember hearing that he fired his gun at a government building. In 1994, despite his legal troubles, he worked on three movies: The Bigger the Better 2 (HIS), Workin’ Stiff (Falcon) and Grease Guns (Studio 2000). In early 1995, his popularity was finishing its peak when he worked on Tradewinds (Huge) for Matt Sterling and Whitefire (All Worlds). After those movies, suddenly and without warning, all productions of movies featuring Cody Foster ended.

In 1995, he began serving a four-year prison sentence in a Jefferson County, Colorado jail for retaliating against his wife, who had previously filed charges against him for battery. His wife divorced him while he was in jail. Once out of incarceration he tried to revise his career, this time in the bondage market of adult entertainment as a submissive bottom taking punishment under restraint, which included whipping and spanking. In 2003, despite the change in his looks and image after getting out of jail, he went on to work in Open House (Massive Studios) and Goldenrod (Studio 2000) for producer Scott Masters. Go figure.

He was not seen on screen again until 2006, when he was featured in Tough-Man Bondage (Grapik Art Productions), where he was hanging from all fours from the ceiling while John Bondi sweated his ass off while brutally whipping and spanking him. Those who have worked with Cody state that he had a very poor childhood, suffered from physical abuse when he was young, got married at age 20 and struggled with being in the closet.

On June 7th, 2007, he passed away from liver cancer at age 37. A difficult story to tell, for sure.

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.