BijouBlog

“His appeal is not easily defined; there are men who are hunkier, better hung, certainly younger. But none have that hypnotic gaze. And unlike so many others in the field, Slater can talk.” – Frontiers, September 13, 1991. 

John Duffy Slater appears in two of our Bijou classic movies, In Heat and Roger, but according to the source above, by age 36 he appeared in 150 films.

Interesting facts about him: 

Slater had legitimate stage experience; he worked as a sound technician and an actor, though he has a master's degree in behavioral psychology from Fordham University. 

He appeared in a major off-Broadway production, Short Eyes. He also wrote a couple of musicals, Zounds and Rodney Rocks and the Oral Fixation. The title of the last sounds particularly intriguing. 

He got started in the whole gay porn scene while walking down Christopher Street in New York City. A photographer came up to him and said, “Gee, you wear the T-shirt well!” He then wound up on the cover of the gay rag Numbers. Lana Turner, eat your heart out; you had to pay money to sit at a soda fountain to get discovered. 

J.D. then appeared in Joe Gage's film Handsome. 
 

The last year he was in New York, 26 friends died during the AIDS epidemic, including the director Christopher Adler. 

He specialty was the erotic monologue. He directed a film called Confessions Motoerwhere the guys had sex, and between scenes, the guys talked about themselves. 

He was a drug addict, strung out on speed, but made a successful recovery. 

He made a film about sexual compulsion, Motorsexual, the motor being the sex drive. Quite daring, I think, confronting head-on what the vicissitudes of desire and their relationship to the porn viewer who often watches what he knows he can't ever attain in reality. 

He cast men in his films in their late 30s and early 40s, because they know how to have sex better. Bravo! 

He also deliberately was interested in, as he said, “presenting an alternative to the stereotype of being 22 with a perfect body sitting by a pool.” Bravissimo! 

For the 1990 feature Guilty, he started his own production company, and nearly landed in jail when copies he'd shipped to  England were seized and declared obscene. 

People tended to see him as a top, but he got fucked in about 50 percent of his films. He did feel safe, post-AIDs, when they pulled out before climaxing, but “it was a big enough trial just to get them to get hard.” 

He recovered from testicular cancer which resulted in the removal of his right ball. The ball received a memorial service. 

What a complex guy! He entices with his eyes, making you beg for more, but in the act of begging you are most satisfied. The connection is ultimately mental.

And he is totally comfortable in himself yet also something of a chameleon. His range is from the softest, slickest vanilla to the raunchiest leather. 

I think I am in love. 
 

 

I first encountered Gino Colbert in his youthful glory, in a spanking fetish film Bijou Video carries called Disciplining the Undisciplined Athlete. Gino, playing a short in stature boxer with a chip on his shoulder, and Michael Ryan spank each other.

Little did I know Gino was also a phenomenal director and producer with a multitude of porn films to his credit, including straight and bisexual ones. In fact, according to an interview in a February 25, 2004 issue of Unzipped, he even cast the legendary Jack Wrangler in several straight flicks.

He also worked with the famous straight porn actor and director Ron Jeremy on several pictures.

Gino was born in 1957 in Toledo, Ohio, and like many guys and gals from the Heartland, wanted to to to Holllywood to make it big in pictures. He ended up making it big in adult films, beginning in 1980, but eight years later made an extraordinary transition to directing. He is best known for directing Men in Blue, Blue Blake's final film appearance.

I culled some interesting tidbits from two interviews Gino did for Manshots magazine in October 1989 and December 1990. I'll let him speak for himself about sexual chemistry between actors in porn movies and also about Bijou's classic “story porn:”

“You have to hire people who like to suck and fuck and enjoy it. And if they don't, you're gonna have a dead sex scene. I'm hot because I like sex. In a sex scene, I really go crazy, the moment the clothes are off. Even if the guy is mediocre, I can get something out of him while acting.”

“I choose my actors by the chemistry techniques. I have to find guys who will work with other guys. I just can't put Guy A with Guy B and expect them to have a good time. It's a very personal thing – they have to have sex together, and one guy may not be turned on to another.... You learn all that by talking to them ahead of time and asking them straight out, 'What turns you on? What kind of guys do you like?' I focus on heat. I like my sex scenes hot, so you have to have the right chemistry.”

Manshots: “Is the younger consumer aware of the stuff that was made in the past?"

Colbert: I don't think so, because if it's a new consumer, chances are he only knows video. He doesn't know film. He doesn't know about the days when we were taking time to make movies. And a typical x-rated film, whether it be gay or straight, was shot over four days and the budgets were more … we're talking about five and even six figures. I remember one gay flick that was shot over a week, and it cost six figures – Centurians of Rome. And it's still on the market and it's doing well, because a lot of people claim the consumer doesn't care about the story, as I said earlier, but those movies that have the good stories and really went to town with the quality, those are the ones that are still on the shelf and still selling.”
 

Gino no longer acts, but he still directs and currently owns his own production company, Gino Pictures.

We recently remastered a mostly black-cast movie called Black Jacks; Gino produced the film, and he also is a performer, doing a couple of hot scenes with the black guys in the cast.

Check out more of our titles that feature Gino and also stand the test of time with their combination of hot sex and engaging stories.

The facts (courtesy of Back2Stonewall.com):

David Ashfield was one of the biggest names of 1980s porn, making dozens of movies and appearing in plenty more as a stunt dick.

He was slim, born in 1960, had a huge and thick cut penis and topped (although he started off as a bottom in early Falcon loops). 
 

David starred in movies like Below the Belt, and was famous for big ejaculations.

David speaks for himself; passages from an interview in the October 1987 issue of Hot Shots:

“Fantasies started to come along when I was about 12 years old … I grew up in the desert in Arizona. So of course, I had dreams and fantasies of long blonde-haired country boys; and grass and trees; playing in the woods; you always dream of what you don't have.”

“Do you find it more exhilarating with a live audience?"
"No, because it's a totally different trip. When we're doing the movies we're in a corner, just us and the cameraman; it's still pretty much private, even though there are people there. Everyone knows exactly what's going on, and are all part of the deal. Whereas when I'm on stage I'm a spectacle. I try to be a trouper and do a good job of it, bring out the Scorpio side of my image, but, a lot of times I still get the willies.”

“For the record, what is the main feature about your cock that makes you stand out in a crowd?"
"A lot of guys have a dick as long as mine, but most people don't have one as fat as mine. It's 6-1/2 inches around. And in the movies I can really fuck.

"Do you find a lot of guys can't take you?"
"Some can, some can't. About an even number, I guess.”