RetroStuds of the Past: Focus on Michael Cummings

Skimming through our physical files on performers, I recently spent a few minutes poring over some archived magazine pages containing quotes and interviews with a popular '80s star I'd always enjoyed on screen but had known little about – Michael Cummings, a stage and video performer with a magnetic, playful presence and a specialty for unusual and memorable scenes.

Starting with 1984's Hot Off the Press, Cummings' first scene was with Matt Ramsey - a sometimes performer in the gay porn world, better known as the ultra-prolific straight porn star Peter North. Continuing to work in videos until at least 1989, Cummings produced a large filmography full of collaboration with many other major studios, directors, and performers. As he discusses below, Cummings (who could transform himself into a variety of characters) was often selected to perform in some of the more inventive and eye-catching sequences in his productions, including: a colorful, food-filled ice cream parlor threeway in Al Parker's Hard Disk Drive (1985); a karate-turned-sex session with Scott O'Hara and David Ashfield in Philip St. John's Below the Belt (1985); serving meals and more in the buff in Roger Earl's Sex Lunch (1985); getting down to work at countless offerings from construction site gloryholes in Steve Scott's 2 X 10 (1986); playing with balloons and jacking off with an animate blow-up doll, then sucking off himself and a gorilla mask-clad beefcake in Michael Zen's Mansize (1986).
 

In interviews, Cummings comes across as confident and clear in his ideas about his career and the value of his work. A charming and insightful speaker, he has many memorably clever quotes. From one of these late-'80s mags, pictured here:

“The critics and finger-pointers imagine all porn stars are dum-dums. Why? Simple: they want to believe that someone out there is so groggy and lust-driven, he'd even have sex with them, the jeering critics. On the other hand, I've never yet heard a well-rested, self-confident man – or woman – mock the people who work in the sex industry.”
 

In a compelling, extensive Stallion Magazine interview (entitled, “Michael Cummings: Porn Imp”), Cummings is described as: “[sitting] on a big bed in a little room... surrounded by a jungle of teddy-bears and other stuffed animals, sipping a tiny bottle of ginseng through a miniature straw... The naive visual is deceptive; as we speak, a strong, determined personality emerges...”
 

Conducted during what Cummings calls a period of “over-saturation” when he was on all the porno box covers in the video stores, he details in this interview his thoughts about the nature of performing on stage and screen, his plans for the future of his career, and more. At that time, he was in the midst of setting up his own production company (“Cumming Rays”), which had just made its first video, a solo tape called Teddy's Bare.


Some excerpts...


After discussing the allure of his youthful look -

Cummings: I know, its not going to last long.

Stallion: One day soon, people will start calling you “Sir.”

Cummings: Or “Madame.”


On his persona -

Cummings: A camera can't see things like attitude and it ignores certain flaws, but it can see an aura, it can smell a sense of ease. I come on a set and warm the whole place up. Like a daisy!

Stallion: Like a daisy?

Cummings: Yes, I just warm up the whole room. I do what's asked of me to the best of my abilities, and no arguments. Producers tell me Michael Cummings is a joy to work with, so I get work, over and over again.

Stallion: My original point when we started this interview was that you were very different from the other boys doing porn – that what you project is more playful, more impish.

Cummings: That's Michael Cummings, though, that's not me.

Stallion: You're quite subdued.

Cummings: I'm very shy – very shy.

Stallion: Am I giving you a hard time?

Cummings: No, no – actually, I'm having fun. I'm always nervous. Michael Cummings is the cover-up.

Stallion: How close is the real you to that sweet naughty little character you've created for film?

Cummings: I don't want to blow anyone's image of me, but I can be somewhat of a bitch. I'm very spoiled, and I did it to myself. No one spoiled me but me.

Stallion: How would you describe your lifestyle?

Cummings: Quiet, a homebody. You won't see me out flaunting my public persona. People don't recognize me in person because there's such a clearly defined difference in my look and composure. I'm not at all what I appear to be in photographs.

Stallion: Do you think people are charmed by the lightness and brightness of the character you present onscreen?

Cummings: Yes. He's refreshing. So many of the men in porno are alike.


On making movies -

Stallion: Do you enjoy the process of filmmaking?

Cummings: Actually, I do. It's therapy for me. Not the in-front-of-the-camera stuff but – well, I did the only smart thing a porn-puppy can do. I kept my eyes open and learned. Now that I'm making a transition to the other side of the lens, I can do camera work, sound work, and editing. I can and have put my own production together.

Stallion: That's Teddy's Bear?

Cummings: Teddy's Bare – as in naked, as in buck-ass naked. It's pretty good, I'm happy with it.

Stallion: It's a collection of solos?

Cummings: Three different solos, about forty-five minutes long. It stars Brett Simms, Dane Ford, and me. The guys in it are all under contract. They get a percentage as royalties, so they have the feeling, “Hey, I've got something to show for this, this Michael Cummings isn't all that bad, he cares about my welfare!” I don't want to leave any of these guys... when their careers are over... I mean, where are they going to get a job?

Stallion: When their porn careers are over.

Cummings: Yeah, some of them just sit there and let this business chew them up. I'm sorry to say that a lot of these guys, not necessarily Brett or Dane, but a lot of them just don't have the mentality to prepare for their futures. They think this is going to last forever. It doesn't.

Stallion: Do a lot of boys fear that doing pornography will affect their futures?

Cummings: Yes, but I don't think it's anything to worry about. Society's views are changing. People are becoming more aware of what it takes to expose yourself to this extreme. They're beginning to realize that, indeed, we're providing a service... We're providing an important service and we don't get enough credit for it. We deserve more credit.


On performing -

Stallion: Auto-fellatio. You use it almost as a symbol. The ritualistic way you use your tongue.

Cummings: That symbolizes something to everybody. People will come to me after a show and say, “How do you do that?” or, “I have always wanted to do that!” It's something everyone shares a fantasy about: What would it be like to be on both ends at the same time? It's all facade. My whole stage show is built on illusion.

Stallion: But is it an illusion? Don't you like sucking your own dick?

Cummings: Not really. It's a pain in the ass. I mean literally, it really hurts. I've been doing it every show and it hurts!

Stallion: What audience response pleases you most?

Cummings: When I'm onstage, there's a tremendous amount of energy running through me – so much energy that there's nothing they can think or feel that I'm not in on. I'm right there, right at the nerve-center. I can put anything I want into their minds at that point. I'm actually right up there bending people's minds. I strip them of all their wiles.

Stallion: Do you see the same qualities in yourself on film?

Cummings: Yes, I do. That's why I'm in demand. I have some of the strangest things asked of me when I work, because people are aware of the broad range of my energy level. They know now that they can ask me to call up a certain character, and there he is – they've got it!

Stallion: Were those qualities right there from the start – in your first film?

Cummings: When I first went to see myself on screen, I expected to see something very dull, very flat. And it was very flat and dull, but I looked and I studied, and I asked myself what that character could do to sharpen his edges. What would make him more “Michael Cummings?” Slowly but surely, I began to develop a certain rhythm, my own style. I'm working on a new character now – he's more of a porn-boy, he's real quiet and forceful, and he does less to get the same message across than Michael Cummings does.

***

Cummings' consideration of all angles of his career, including setting up his production company to actually pay royalties to performers (a rare move) and help sustain their well-being, is notable. I've so far been able to turn up very little information about Cumming Rays, though Teddy's Bare pops up with the potential release date of 1987. It seems like Cummings' studio may not have taken off dramatically, but he continued performing beyond this interview and gracing the screen with his much more of his charisma and intrigue.

You can find a number of his classic gay porn appearances on DVD and Streaming through Bijou!