BijouBlog

By Will Seagers

Hi Folks! "Will at Large" here for you today on this fortuitous "Ides of March" Friday. Yes, this is a departure from my ramblings about my past in the wonderful world of porn. But, there has always been a very large part of me that is drawn to the occult and esoteric parts of life. It is an ironic contrast to the showy and external nature of porn. Here, we find ourselves diving deep inside to find answers to questions that we barely know we are asking. Yet they are there tugging at us! One of which is the Idus Martias - better know as the Ides of March!

First off, there is so much negativity and bad reputation that has come to surround "The Ides of March," which is hardly the case. I guess that most of the negativity is due to our old friend William Shakespeare. He immortalized the phrase in the infamous death of Julius Caesar in the play by the same name.

With a little combing through the internet, I have come to find that the Ides were one of four time markers used by the Romans in their Lunar Calendars. The Ides were a time marker indicating the 13th to the 15th of most months (including March). The Ides were joined by the "Kalends" - the first of the month and the "Nones" around the 7th of the month. These were time markers indicated by the phases of the Moon, so there was some variation from month to month similar to what we experience in the variations of our current calendars. My point in all of this is that it is not a given that the Ides are a bad thing. As a matter of fact, as we draw closer to this infamous day, things (for me at least) are on an unusual upswing!

For the past few days I have had a most unusual and symbolic visitor - a Peacock. And, for the past few days, he has been roosting on my roof as well as that of my next door neighbor. According to a neighborhood blog, the bird was first sighted last Friday. Animal authorities have been notified as well as the police. But, it seems no one wants the arduous task of collecting this bird, as they can be quite feisty and hard to capture. So, for the time being he has become our neighborhood mascot!

Now, not only does the Ides of March have a lot of history and symbolism tied to it... but, so does the sighting, or even moreso the visiting, of a peacock! Once again, the internet to the rescue! So many cultures revere this bird and attach symbolic strength, power, confidence and even divinity to it. I would have written it off as a freak migratory event... but, it has remained here for the past few days without enticement from me or my neighbor! So, I don my Merlin wizard cap and try to get a sense of what's going on.

OK, I am currently 73 and am trying to figure out what these "golden years" ahead of me have in store. May I mention that having had some fame and glamour earlier in my life, it is sometimes hard to face the aging game. Yes, I valiantly and religiously go to the gym and try to keep a modicum of my past physique intact. I am grateful to have the strength to do it. And, I love to write to engage my mind and keep memories intact. Sometimes this routine needs an external jolt to help these processes to continue.

The Jolts. Recently there have been three: two that were tough and one that was a near miracle and that I would like to attribute to both the "Ides and the Peacock." The two tough ones were the loss of a life long friend to cancer. And, the other was a disturbing cancellation of a friendship - the cause of which I still can't determine. The positive jolt ties in mysteriously with the arrival of my friend the peacock. Out of the blue, I received a call from a long time friend from San Francisco. Coincidentally, this person who called has had a life long relationship with the "friend" that canceled my friendship just before Christmas and was responsible for bringing me and my former friend together.

My friend calling from San Francisco heard my tale of woe concerning the "cancellation" and, in a powerful and loving way, put my whole spirit at ease. He acknowledged that this was a behavior pattern that he knew from this former friend. I felt like a millstone had been taken from around my neck. I felt guilt and blame lift from me that I had been carrying since the altercation around the holidays.

Just after this phone call, I felt a mental and spiritual shift occur. I mused over the "blessing" that I had - with the call and the visit of my peacock totem. One of my research articles from the web referred to the sighting or visiting of a peacock as a time to "open up to new possibilities and to trust in yourself more."

I am grateful for acknowledging this sixth sense that I have always had with me both on and off the screen. It is definitely part of who I am. Be aware of your blessings.

Bio of Will Seagers:

Will Seagers (also credited as Matt Harper), within his multifaceted careers and participation in numerous gay communities across the country in the '70s and '80s and beyond, worked as a print model, film performer, and DJ, just to name a few. He made iconic appearances in releases from Falcon, Hand in Hand, Joe Gage, Target (Bullet), J. Brian, Steve Scott, and more, including in lead roles in major classics like Gage's L.A. Tool & Die (1979) and Scott's Wanted (1980). He brought strong screen presence and exceptional acting to his roles and was scene partners with many fellow legends of classic porn.

Will Seagers, recent photo

Now I know by the title of this blog, you are thinking: “Oh Sweet! Josh is writing a blog about Bijou Video’s Beat Cop Donnie Russo," and it would make sense to think that by the way I formed the title. The truth is, I’d love to write a blog, again, about Donnie Russo. Some of the most hysterical times on and off the set were with Donnie. When he pulled out his dick on the 10 freeway and raised his hips up so high that the truck drivers passing by could see his boner. That was on the way to a Palm Springs shoot. Or numerous other times we shot together, then would hang out in West Hollywood. Hey, there’s even the best story of all in my blog called “A Salty Fuck in Saugatuck,” starring Lord Russo, when we shot the movie Thrill Me! But I am writing about a different RUSSO. However, I did come across a great recent interview with Donnie Russo by Jim Jordan (thankfully not the douche bag Jordan you might be thinking of) from The Fire Island News. The below “after” photos are from that interview; it’s a great read.

The Russo I am writing this blog about is a bit of a mystery. I came home from a hard day’s work at Petco, yes Petco, sorry to destroy the illusion! My partner Tony and I are both around retirement age and we like to keep active, so we punish ourselves by doing a “Boot Camp” like workout unloading the Petco delivery truck at 4am every Tuesday and then over another couple of days we stock, restock and re-face the store. It’s exactly the job I want, no thinking, just doing… busy work. Those 40lb bags of dog food will keep you in shape! 20+ years of producing, directing and running a production department are behind me. As are the years after that working in customer service as a spa supervisor at the JW Marriott’s 35,000 square foot high end facility. I’m looking forward to retiring soon and winding down the work I do to have time for myself and hobbies that are key for me right now. One of my hobbies that I’ve written about before is re-watching some of the Catalina Video movies we made and cutting clips, trailers and “PG” full feature versions for my YouTube Channel.

I just worked on a movie I produced that was directed by my right hand man on the crew, Brad Austin. It was a movie we were so excited to be able to make. Once the actual sound stage “airplane set” was secured and the cost approved by the GM, it was on. The airplane set was actually used in the opening scene of the original Charlie’s Angels movie with Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu. The movie was Cockpit: Everybody’s Going Down! I used some cool new AI technology and stripped the original music from the background, leaving only the actors' dialogue. I reused two songs from the movie which were great, but honestly the other original “muzak” throughout was simply annoying, so I replaced it courtesy of my CANVA membership. All with the blessing of Brad Austin, of course. I then cut the sequel Cockpit: Survival of the Fittest onto the end of the first movie and made one big brand new 40 minute PG version called Cockpit: The Ultimate Edition. I did this because my dear friend Brad Austin really dreamed of having this done, and like I said, It’s my new hobby. It turned out great! (Click this link for the Cockpit trailer or click this link for Cockpit: The Ultimate Edition, the full movie.) I’m supposed to get Brad over here so we can record the director’s commentary version to put on my YouTube Channel this spring.

So anyway, I got home from Petco (where the pets go) today and I saw this really nice comment pop up on my tablet. The comment was attached to the full version of Cockpit from YouTuber @YouSoRusso. You know at first I thought the same things as you. Is that Donnie Russo’s handle? It’s not, but it’s funny how name recognition works. Here is the comment followed by my response:

@YouSoRusso (edited):
Josh, You really did make some special stuff. Like, you got a group of guys together on a shoestring budget and took us all on sexy gay adventures. In the skies, In Chicago, In Arizona, in Yosemite, In L.A., on a crash-landed island, even to the International Mr. Leather Competition. All in pursuit of making phenomenal stories. Stories that stand the test of time to the point that thousands of people will come and sit down and watch porn films with no porn 25 years after their releases. The vibes of guys just having a good time and some bros coming together having fun always comes through. Thank you for preserving these gems of a forgotten time and here’s to some more remasters!

@TheJoshEliot:
YouSoRusso, I just got home from work and saw your comment pop up. I have to say, your kind words really made an impact with me. Thank you very much. You described my crew and I to a T. Most of the movies were made with just enough money to pay the models, buy the still photographer his Fuji Film, cover our location fees and lunches, without leaving much at all for a prop. Dildo, model airplane, tie-die T-shirts for a certain Boy Band, or to get Steve Rambo a really fancy haircut. We all were in it for the stories we could tell and the love of movie-making. Much to the dismay of the GM at Catalina, we displayed “rebel-ish” behavior. Many times I told my producer I was making a themed movie he approved of and then completely changed what I shot. If I knew my producer, early on, would not approve an idea, I would simply show him one script and go and direct the real one I wanted to shoot. I would just deal with the wrath once he watched it for approval to release on VHS or DVD, and by that time he wouldn’t be so irate, hopefully.

I guess I’m referring to all of this because of what you mentioned. It truly does blow me away that our movies, which we always thought would have a very limited audience, are now seeing the light of day on social media and actually being enjoyed. I also love the fact that I get to tweak them when making their PG rated debuts. I might not feel “so great” if someone uninvolved with the production of them did the same, music changes, editing changes, etc., but I figured if I made them from scratch as writer, director or producer, it kind of entitles us to make a Director’s Cut, albeit 20 to 30 years later. The changes I make on them honestly are all things I would have done in the first place if we had access to things like: a music library, sound effects, color correction, buzz remove, goodness - even slow motion! Or fast motion! The fact is we had zero bells and whistles at our disposal when editing, so we always relied on our imaginations and shot the movies so they would work with our limited editing abilities. Thank you for getting all of this, as shown in your note to me, that means so much. I’ve written so much right now, and as I think about it, I have a blog due two weeks from Friday for BijouWorld.com. I’m going to use your comment as inspiration for that blog and include what we have both written. I’ll go one step further and say I’m titling the blog: “You So RUSSO”... (though I might add a subtitle).

Your comment really hit home with me… and I thank you. You can sign up to get the BijouWorld.com blogs emailed to you each week. I’m currently on my 51st and having a blast reminiscing about the golden days at Catalina Video. Take Care.

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.

By Will Seagers

Hi folks! Will here! It's only been one short month since my departure. I have been itching to get back into writing. I love jogging my memory for all of you...

First off, I would like to thank everyone for their great support and reaction to the "Finale" video I put together with Jules and George. With my friends' help, I think a rather tasty video morsel emerged! Maybe more of them will emerge in the future. One thing we learned - they will need more of a time "cushion" around them as conferring with other creative talents takes more time and organization.

So, here it is the first of my redux blogs. Much like the original blogs they will differ only in when an how often they appear. My guess is monthly. as it is taking longer to dig into my memory banks to furnish you readers with entertainment and facts from the past.

As you can see by the header, the title of this first redux is "The Peter Pan Syndrome - "Don't Wanna Grow Up!" Contained within this title is a question that has haunted me all of my life... "What do you want to be when you grow up?" I have grappled with that question all of my childhood, adolescent years and early adult life without a clear or concrete answer. So, to combat the sheer panic that followed every time I was asked that question, I just decided to remain as Peter Pan - perennially young.

I can't say that I never had a plan... it just never worked out the way I wanted in school! You see, I was actually enrolled in a prominent engineering school in N.J. to study electrical engineering. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I started studies at that school and came out at the same time. Studying engineering required much more discipline than I could muster up at the time. Truth be told, physics and the higher end of mathematics were over my head. All my youth (and to this day), I have had a natural understanding and curiosity of electricity and mechanical things. Unfortunately, that was not enough to get me over the hump of more complicated studies. To this day, I am still building and tinkering with all things electrical, mechanical and audio related. That morphed into selling retail electronics and things of a mechanical nature.

What has gotten me through over the millennia has been my people skills. I was born a natural salesman... it was in my genes. My father had enjoyed a lifelong and successful career in sales. With my gift of gab and being unafraid to strike up a conversation with a total stranger, selling became my default career, as well. Of course, realizing that I wasn't hard to look at made for a good fit, too. I have a direct way with words and a disarming smile that helps to put customers at ease - especially when it comes time to ask them for their money! LOL. So, These skills were what got me through financially in between my films and photo shoots back in my twenties and thirties.

In my forties I realized that things were about to change - a function of aging. The porn industry that had treated me so well in my youth was a bit fickle about the whole topic of age. I decided to bow out gracefully just before my 40th birthday. I had a lot to be thankful for from the prior two decades! But, there was no Peter Pan Syndrome in this business! It was time to lean into my selling and technical abilities.

There seemed to be a recurring redux theme when it came to the jobs I like the most. Twice I did well in retail electronics. First, in San Francisco in the Castro at Eber Electronics. And second at Santa Fe's Candyman - a complex selling electronics, CDs, and musical instruments. Having a bear trap memory and a love of all things electronica, I was a walking Rolodex of models and their technical datum. Both in San Francisco and Santa Fe, I did consultation and installation of home theater sound systems for restaurants, bars and gyms... some of my very favorite endeavors!

Another redux was in furniture. First in N.Y. While at Room Plus Furniture, a made to order company, I learned to do floor plans, and interior design. Then a second opportunity arose in N.M. with a local, well established retailer. Now, with the knowledge of electronics and interiors, I started to mix the two together... much to the delight of a lot of my women customers, who hated having their living spaces cluttered with wires and electronica. It was my goal to hide every wire and make each piece of electronics look like an objet d'arte!

So, this jack of all trades has had a wild ride over the decades - always observing and learning from those around me. Life itself is a school and I have always been, and still am, willing to learn. So, stay young at heart and mind and you will be like me - a Summa Cum Laude in the school of hard knocks!

Bio of Will Seagers:

Will Seagers (also credited as Matt Harper), within his multifaceted careers and participation in numerous gay communities across the country in the '70s and '80s and beyond, worked as a print model, film performer, and DJ, just to name a few. He made iconic appearances in releases from Falcon, Hand in Hand, Joe Gage, Target (Bullet), J. Brian, Steve Scott, and more, including in lead roles in major classics like Gage's L.A. Tool & Die (1979) and Scott's Wanted (1980). He brought strong screen presence and exceptional acting to his roles and was scene partners with many fellow legends of classic porn.

Will Seagers, recent photo

By Josh Eliot

I am writing this on Saturday January 13th, 2024. I specifically blocked out time on this day as it was exactly 25 years ago that my partner (from 1992-1999) Yves-Claude Theriault aka Mark Rutter passed away. When I was pulling photos for my last blog about the Gold Coast Bar and writing about Mark working there, I discovered it was the 25th anniversary. I’ve spoken about our relationship in the past (“7 Years with Colt Model Mark Rutter”), but this time I think it would be special for Mark’s words to do a little story telling. I re-discovered a diary Mark had started to work on but never got to complete. I never thought his words in writing would ever find an audience, but thanks to BijouWorld and this blog excerpts now will. The passages I will share may not read like a story and have a beginning, middle and end like a blog should, but it makes me really happy to give them some life, with an audience.

Mark Rutter was born Yves-Claude Theriault, on October 8, 1951, a French Canadian growing up in Maine. After shooting a photo layout with Al Parker for the Surge Studio magazine Pit Stop, he was introduced to Jim French at Colt Studios and worked exclusively for them in films. Mark passed away at the age of 47, leaving siblings who include his sister Charlene, his brother Rick, nephews Pierre and Jeremy and his Mom. We had his ceremony at The Little Brown Church in Studio City, where celebrities Marlon Brando, Debbie Reynolds and Mickey Rooney were married and the Reagans renewed their vows in 1992. He was cremated and buried over his father’s grave in Maine. Here are some of his thoughts, as written, with only punctuation, spelling and my real name changed, along with a ton of pictures!

*****

I knew I was HIV+ in 1982 without actually going to see a doctor or being diagnosed. Something was going on with my body that let me know I was positive. I can almost pinpoint the day I feel I was infected. It was through intravenous drug use and I knew the dangers at the time but was not very knowledgeable that it could happen to me. I went into denial for 5 years because there was so little help out there and decided to not go on whatever medication was available. People were going through terrible side effects and were still dying left and right. One day in 1987 while walking to work I noticed a small purplish dot on the inside of my elbow. I knew right away what it was, Kaposi Sarcoma, a type of cancer associated with HIV. I freaked out but was not the least bit surprised. I kept it to myself for 3 or 4 weeks and finally told Rick, my brother, who was my roommate at the time. I was still against any medication. I was going to let the process take its course. I finally called my sister and found the nerve to tell her about it. We discussed it at length but I was still determined not to do anything about it. She got very angry with me and said I was being irresponsible.

I decided to go to the Gay & Lesbian Center on Highland Blvd to get tested and be told all my options. Two weeks later I returned for my blood results as instructed. By then I had developed two more lesions on my right arm. A counselor took me in this little room and informed me that my test results were back and my results were negative. My mouth dropped to the floor and I had chills up and down my spine. I said to the counselor, showing her my arm, “Then what is this?” She proceeded to shuffle papers around and her face turned ghostly white. She was very upset and told me that she was looking at someone else’s results. She was devastated and did not know what to say or do next. I told her not to worry, that I had known about my results, and I ended up counseling her.

Mark ended up being referred to a research program for treatment using Tran Retinoic Acid, a derivative of Vitamin A. Eight pills three times a day for one year until the KS went into full remission. In the next excerpt, we jump ahead a number of years. Mark’s brother Rick confessed that he too was HIV+. The two shared an apartment until a falling out over Mark’s partying too much, with his friend Kelly, so Mark moved out. Kelly was a fellow bartender at the Gold Coast and was also dealing coke. Mark was hanging out with Kelly and his partner Don all the time.

*****

I was hanging around my friend Kelly a lot and was doing a lot of cocaine, while my health was getting worse and worse. My T-cells were dropping at an alarming rate. By this time by an act of God I met someone at the Gold Coast and we made plans for dinner. I was a little apprehensive and felt awkward, we were to meet on safe grounds at Rafters (bar) and then go to dinner from there. I asked my friend Valerie and her girlfriend (Michelle) to join us for a drink before dinner. When I walked into Rafters he was there wearing a denim shirt, jeans and a black leather jacket. I was wearing a denim shirt, jeans and a black leather jacket, the only difference was that mine was pressed and starched and his was wrinkled. HaHa. His name was (Josh) by the way. I asked him if he wanted a line and his eyes lit up and he said yes, and off we went to the bathroom. I thought… there goes dinner. We stayed at the bar until closing, by then Valerie and Michelle were drunk and obnoxious. I asked him if he wanted to come over and he answered yes.

The next morning we took showers and he said he would take me to breakfast since we missed dinner altogether. We went off to Silver Spoon, one of the worst places to eat in town, but I was not really bothered by it because something was happening. Shelly Winters was sitting next to us and was yelling and being obnoxious. She needed butter for her fucking toast. After breakfast I drove (Josh) back to his truck which was parked down the street from Rafters. We exchanged phone numbers and promised to call one another.

We started meeting a few times a week for dinner. I was showing (Josh) the fine art of dining and expanding his horizons. He kept my feet on the ground and in control, it was a perfect match. I remember Kelley saying: “If you fuck this up I’ll kill you.” Kelly and Don were very fond of him. I remember we had a date to spend Easter together. I stopped by Thrifty’s and got him an Easter basket to impress him. Well when I got to his place he had a dozen roses and a box of Godiva chocolates. I felt like a fool with my little basket from Thrifty’s.

One thing led to another and we started dating exclusively. We really got along very well together. It was my first serious relationship since I was a gay man and it felt good. He’s fun to be around and is very compassionate and takes very good care of me. We are complete opposites but complement each other. After dating for a year we started talking about getting a place together. That scared me a little since I had been living on my own since I was 16 years old. I was very good at changing the subject and I managed to avoid it for another year.

It literally took months of being together before I was able to wean Mark off his addiction to Kelly and their cocaine lifestyle. I knew he was a party animal from the start but I wasn’t about to buy into it. I was not into the whole drug as a lifestyle thing and made it very clear from the get go. We cut our visits to their place to once a week, if that, but I’m sure they were doing coke while working their shifts at the bar. I did eventually convince him to look at a great condo in West Hollywood that I strong-armed him into moving into with me, finally conquering his fear of living with a partner. Later that year. Kelly’s partner Don passed away and Kelly ended up moving back home to Tennessee. Shortly after moving there, he was riding on the back of a friend's motorcycle when it went off the road and they both were killed. Mark was devastated, naturally, but by this time his health was better and he stopped drinking and drugging. His HIV was under control and we had a good number of years ahead of us.

When Mark started these writings it was not long before he started having issues with CMV, which affected his eyes. He was let go from the Gold Coast at this time, leading to depression as his failing health got the best of him. Unfortunately, his brother Rick passed away a few years later. I’m just happy to be able to get a couple passages of his words in print somewhere even though they are minimal. I’ve had these writings in a file for 25 years and the timing of this blog could not be more appropriate. Reading Mark’s writings, it was almost as if I could hear him reciting the words. Twenty-five years is a long time ago, but in the case of so many of the adult film and video actors who entertained and aroused us over the years, their performances are eternal. Thanks to companies like Bijou, their work is being preserved, allowing them to live on for future generations to enjoy.

Thank you to Josh Eliot for use of his photos.

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.

By Josh Eliot

In 1993, I was videographer on the Catalina Video movie The Bite for director Chi Chi LaRue. It featured a great cast headlined by Jon Vincent, and featured Derrick Corbin, Dillon Reid, Londun, Max Holden and Rob Cryston. We shot it at the same time as a movie I directed called Sex Between The Lines in a Hollywood Hills house formerly owned by Fatty Arbuckle, but at that time occupied by squatters. Say what? Ask Scott Masters! He had some really funky connections! I do remember regretting that I had not come up with the vampire movie idea; it was right up my alley, as I was born and raised in one of the most haunted states in the union. But I was just glad to be shooting a horror-themed movie, and Chi Chi did a great job with The Bite and The Bite 2! I never went the vampire route in any of my movies, but I probably should have If I had, I would have drawn upon two of the most notorious cases below.

A farmer named George Brown lost his wife, Mary, and daughter, Mary Olive, after both became sickly and died one after the other. In 1892, another daughter, Mercy, died at the age of 19. Two months later, George Brown’s teenage son, Edwin, became sick and frail. The village doctor told George that it was “consumption” that was taking his son, but occupants in the town of Exeter had another explanation. The undead.

Between 1790 and 1899, it was not uncommon in New England, particularly Rhode Island, for family members to demand that the bodies of their deceased family members be exhumed. The reason being that they suspected the dead of being “undead” and afflicting the living. Sometimes going as far as to burn the hearts, lungs and livers and mixing the ashes into a solution to administer to the afflicted as a treatment.

In March of 1892, villagers, a local doctor and a newspaper reporter, along with George Brown, entered the Chestnut Hill Cemetery, under the wild idea that one of the deceased members of George’s family was leaving the grave at night to suck the life out of his son, and only by killing the undead could Edwin be saved. The bodies of George’s wife and daughter Mary gave no clues, but when Mercy Brown’s body was exhumed, it appeared oddly well preserved, appearing like her hair and nails had also continued to grow. When they prodded the body with the shovel, they found it filled with fresh blood. They continued on and removed her heart and burned it on a nearby rock. All documented. The ashes were added to Edwin’s medicine, but he died a short time later. Rhode Island’s South County between 1870 and 1900 was known as the “Vampire Capital of America.” Rumors, accusations and panic set in. Bram Stoker, who wrote Dracula in 1897, kept newspaper accounts of “vampire” Mercy Brown in his files that were discovered after his death. For the less superstitious, the well-preserved condition of Mercy’s body could be due to the fact that she was buried in the ground during the two coldest months of the year. Mercy’s grave is one of the most visited to this day and is reinforced with a metal band connected to a post to protect it from being stolen. The Mercy Brown case is one of the best documented cases of the exhumation of a corpse in order to perform rituals to banish an undead manifestation.

Vampire's Grave is located in a rural 19th century cemetery by an old wooden church in West Greenwich Rhode Island, not all that far from the real Conjuring house at 1677 Round Top Road in Burrillville, RI.

 

Starting back in the 1960s, stories related to an occupant of the graveyard spread like wildfire around the state. A teacher at Coventry High School told the students the story of Mercy Brown, a young woman whose body was exhumed and heart removed because family members were convinced she came back from the dead. Bram Stoker’s Dracula was based in part on Mercy Brown, and she is currently buried in a graveyard in Rhode Island. The students, mixing up their details, tracked down the wrong cemetery and headstone belonging to Nellie Vaughn. Nellie Vaughn died in 1889 at the age of 19 from pneumonia. When the students came upon her headstone which read in epitaph, “I am waiting and watching for you,” the legend of Nellie Vaughn being a vampire was born. Still the talk of high school in the 1970s, my friends and I along with probably every other student in the state at some point went to Vampire's Grave after smoking a ton of weed. Of course we were 100% sure that she was in fact a living dead vampire. The night we were there was scarier than hell; to reach it you drive for miles through a thick forest to a very desolate area. It is at a crossroads where you come upon the Plain Meeting House Cemetery. It took us forever to find her headstone, and yes, no grass was growing over her grave like the story said. Although it was a very creepy experience, no sightings of strange phenomena occurred that night.

Today, that headstone has been removed because there was too much vandalism of her grave site over the years. Nellie Vaughn has no marker and is in an unmarked grave. However, people have reported seeing a woman in Victorian clothing in the cemetery before vanishing into the woods, and also hearing a young woman’s voice near the grave site saying, “I am perfectly pleasant.” Almost as if she is trying to clear her name. Trying to tell the visitors that she was not an evil, frightening vampire, but only a very pleasant, proper young lady. The worst thing for us that night was driving home from the grave, still very stoned, going down that very winding wooded road in the middle of nowhere. We turned a corner that opened up to a big field on the right side of the road. There was a huge barn fire with about twenty to thirty people in white robes standing around it in a circle. Very scary, “devil worshippy” and demonic! We all screamed when we saw them and hit the gas to get out of there, constantly looking in the rear-view mirror to make sure no one was coming after us.

I promised that when I wrote this final “Halloween” themed blog, I would include a little bit of sizzle in keeping with the fact that this is after all for the BijouWorld website. So, after our harrowing adventure to Vampire's Grave, we dropped off the girls (our high school “girlfriends” at the time) and met up with one of their brothers named Michael and his “friend” Donald. There was a house in the neighborhood that was vacant and under construction. David and I had been “working” these two for what seemed like forever, getting a little flirt here and there, always followed by a big fat “nothing.” We met up with the boys, smoked some more weed; then, after months and months of build up, I did Donald, while my friend David did Michael.

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.