BijouBlog

By Josh Eliot

By 1990, Chi Chi LaRue had a number of Catalina Video features under her belt including the award winner The Rise. The Rise received honors for Video of the Year and Best Erotic Scene with Ryan Yeager and Scott Bond (“The name is Bond, Scott Bond”) at the GayVN Awards. It was a definite high point in Chi Chi’s career with Catalina Video, but one glance at her bio and you see how massive an influence Chi Chi LaRue really was, and still is, to the industry. Born November 8th, 1959 in Hibbing, Minnesota, Chi Chi LaRue moved to Minneapolis and started performing in drag as one half of "The Weather Gals," a drag revue. In 1987, Ch Chi moved to California and was hired by Catalina Video, holding a position in sales and promotion. Excelling at the role of publicist and endearing herself to Higgins, John Travis and Scott Masters, Chi Chi’s directorial debut for the company came in 1989 with Billboard starring Joey Stefano. It should be noted that Chi Chi was directing for In Hand Video prior to being added onto the directorial staff at Catalina Video.

Around the same time as The Rise, 1990, Chi Chi also started a simultaneous successful career for the #1 straight porn company, Vivid Video. Vivid Video was famous for its “Vivid Girls” under exclusive contracts. Jenna Jameson was one of those girls and became close friends with Chi Chi during a time where the straight and gay factions of the industry couldn’t be any more divided. Once the leading girls in the industry welcomed Chi Chi with open arms, it had a ripple effect with the girls' male co-stars and the industry leaders. It was through this connection that Chi Chi thought of a concept that, in my mind, was absolutely brilliant! The leading ladies made buck in the straight industry, but at that time the guys, even though they were famous as well, only made around $400 a scene. About half to a third of what the girls made. Chi Chi was now working regularly with the top guys and girls and came up with an idea for a movie called Straight To Bed. She proposed the idea to the GM at Catalina and he was immediately on board with it. Since the starlets always received the promotion and high rates, Chi Chi thought “Let’s flip the script.” Catalina offered the straight leading men in the industry, at that time, double their normal rate: $800 to do a J/O and another $300 for a glamor magazine photo layout, shot at the same time as filming their J/O. $1100.00 total for a few hours' work. Every male star that was asked accepted! The top straight stars jacking off for a gay company, selling the product to gay men. That would be a first as far as I knew!

Randy Spears was at the top of his game and graced the box cover of Straight To Bed. Randy Spears won the Performer of the Year Award in 2004, 2007 and 2008 for XRCO and also the Best Actor Award for Adult Video News in 1991, 2000, 2004, 2006 and 2007. He also received many awards for Best Supporting Actor and was inducted into the Hall of Fame for AVN in 2002, and in 2003 for XRCO. Straight To Bed included other top performers: TT Boy, Sean Michaels, Cal Jammer, Lex Baldwin and Derrick Lane. The scenes were all beautifully shot and edited, and the magazine layouts were a great promotion for the project. The movie won the Best Solo Video Award at 1990’s Adult Video News show in Las Vegas. We were all there to root Chi Chi on!

The entire cast was fantastic to work with and one or two of them brought a girlfriend on set to “fluff” them. Chi Chi’s outgoing personality kept the set light and prevented any awkwardness from occurring. It felt groundbreaking at the time, almost like a stigma was shattered. It goes without saying that the whole crew was just drooling over Randy Spears!

In the later years, Chi Chi’s connections with the straight industry really came in handy as she and I were shooting our bisexual movies back to back, sometimes in the same house at the same time! Her Vivid Video connections came into play when casting the “straight scene” performers in our bisexual productions. Because each Bi movie had a straight scene with no “bi activity,” we were able to secure some of the top girls of the time including: Bionca, Madison, Lois Ayres, Jeanna Fine, Lexi Erickson and Leanna Foxxx. It all was a bit chaotic for our first pair of Bi movies, because we were shooting simultaneously for two different movies to save expenses. Chi Chi was shooting Bi-ology upstairs while I was shooting Down Bi Law downstairs, and we kept yelling to each other to “be quiet” when we were filming dialogue. It was a bit of a shit show, but we always had a good laugh about how loud each of us was when directing! It also helped that the starlets could shoot two scenes in one day. So once Lois Ayres was done with her sex scene for Bi-ology and I finished my sex scene with Patricia Kennedy, they would swap sets and I would shoot Lois in a three way for Down Bi Law, while Patricia Kennedy would run upstairs and get it again on Chi Chi’s set of Bi-ology, with brand new male co-stars, of course! This way the girls would get paid for two scenes in one day, making it desirable for them to accept the roles.

One take away from Straight To Bed was Lex Baldwin, now famously known as Talon in the world of straight porn. We signed Lex Baldwin to a several picture deal in an exclusive contract, starting with the bisexual movie Sex Bi Lex. Gay for pay made a comeback! He went on to star in King of the Mountain, Powertool 2 and Man of the Year. Sex Bi Lex and Bachelor Party: The Big Switch 3 were other examples of when Chi Chi and I shared a location, shooting two movies at once. Jenna Fine was going to jump from one set to another! I remember her telling me in the middle of her sex scene with John Dough for Sex Bi Lex that she was starting the clock. I was like, “What??!” She explained, as she tapped her watch, that I had four minutes to catch the fucking, because she had a whole other scene and box cover to shoot for Chi Chi when we were done. I was like, “Sure, no problem.” I don’t think I’ve ever bounced around with the video camera so fast from angle to angle. Side, side wide, side pan, overhead, underneath. I covered the whole thing with John Dough only needing to insert his cock once into her pussy, because they were so into each other. Jeanna was happy when I said, “Okay, let’s go for the cum shot,” even though I’m sure I got five minutes of fucking out of them and not four! It wasn’t the best set-up, having the girls shoot two scenes in one day, but it really was the only way to get these high profile girls in our movies with their busy schedules and high prices!

Success kept coming for Chi Chi LaRue with Best Director wins at the GayVN Awards for: Songs in the Key of Sex (1992), Echoes (2001), Deep South Parts 1 and 2 (2003 - shared with John Rutherford from Falcon), Wrong Side of the Tracks Parts 1 and 2 (2006) and Link: The Evolution (2008). That list is just the GayVN Awards; I didn’t even mention the sixteen Grabby Awards for everything from Best Non-Sexual Role to Best Screenplay. Chi Chi was also inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999. There’s no doubt that Chi Chi LaRue is the most awarded in the Gay Adult Industry, but in true Chi Chi fashion, and in the words of “The Greatest Showman,” it’s “Never Enough!” So the show is still going on with Chi Chi LaRaw, streaming on a site near you!

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! In the spirit of "The Good Old Summertime," today's blog is about my life's encounters with the great and not so great bodies of water around the globe.

Born right at the edge of two signs, Capricorn (the sea goat) and Aquarius (the water bearer), I have had a life-long affinity to water. Until recently, I have had the privilege of living near an ocean, bay, lake or pond. There has always been a feeling of connection with these various bodies of water. From childhood till about twenty-five years ago, I was always within a short walk or drive to these "spiritual retreats." For the last twenty-five years, I have been surrounded by an inland ocean, so to speak - the Great American Southwest Desert!

Recounting the early years, my father was kind enough to take my brothers, sisters and myself to the "Shore" or to various man-made lakes in the northern part of my home state, New Jersey. The shore visits were always memorable because lots of our extended family lived along the coast. They were like mini family reunions. With that, a host of my aunts and uncles had us under their close watch and "policed" our activities in the water. Good thing, too, as riptides and turbulence were common occurrences. Although the beaches were always staffed with lifeguards, you could never have too many eyes on the kids in the water.

Next stop, the lakes. Another set of memories came from my father taking us kids up to "the lakes." These were in the northern counties of N.J. and usually fed by a nearby natural spring. I loved the lakes because the water was fresh and potable, unlike the brine of the ocean. But, here is where I had my first brush with mortality. I was about seven or eight and still didn't know how to swim. Normally, this would not be a problem, as I seldom ventured beyond the water's edge. But, this one outing we brought an old inner tube with us for some floating fun. Being the oldest of my siblings, I laid claim to it and promptly started floating out to the middle of the lake. I was okay until a rather nasty looking horse fly landed on my arm. Terrified, I swatted at my arm and went ass over tea kettle out of the inner tube and into about twenty feet of water. In a panic, I sunk below the water's surface. Luckily, the lifeguard snagged me by the back of the neck and hauled me to shore... safe but shaken. Swimming lessons soon followed. In the interim between my inner tube feat and learning to swim, my father was kind enough to erect an above ground pool in the backyard. It was quite sizeable and a big hit in the neighborhood... to say the least.

Learning to swim at the YMCA. Yet another fine gesture of my father was weekly visits to the local "Y." To say that I was stimulated by the size of the pool and the fact that all the men in the pool were naked was an understatement. After the initial shock of it all wore off, I was ready, willing and able to learn how to swim. My only regret was the horrific chlorine levels of this pool. My eyes burned and stayed red for hours.

Move the calendar forward fifteen years... San Juan and a few oceanic escapades. While stationed in San Juan with Eastern Airlines, I lucked out. I shared a beach side casita just minutes from the famous Condado resort beaches and their hotels. Before flights, particularly in the winter, I would grab my beach chair and head down for an hour or so of sun to flaunt aboard the airplanes. One morning while taking a dip in front of the Carribe Hilton, I saw the commotion of two locals swimming furiously into the water with bowie knives in their mouths. An unusual sight, indeed. But the swimmers around me stayed put. Moments later, all of us were shocked as the two men returned back to shore with two hammerhead sharks they retrieved from the very area we all were in! The local hotels paid men like these a bounty for catching these sharks. The other pre-flight swim that vividly comes to mind was me coming up out of the water underneath a Portuguese Man-O-War! What a horror. It seemed like forever before I had removed all of the stinging tentacles from my face. I was assisted by a hotel lifeguard who knew to spray my face with benzocaine. I guess I wasn't his first. I was thankful. In just a few short minutes, the red and swelling vanished and I was home and showering for my flight. Man-O-War, indeed!

Half a decade later I was living in San Francisco and enjoying both the frigid Pacific waters at San Gregorio beach (just north of San Francisco), and the lovely, almost tepid waters of the Russian River near Guerneville. The beach was great. And, as long as the day was hot enough the Pacific could be tolerated - albeit for brief dips! And, the little enclaves along the base of the mountains were perfect places to take full advantage of the clothing optional status!

Of course, clothing optional was the way of life along the Russian River banks, as well. Lots of romping in the nearby woods was standard bill of fare. (You just had to be careful of poison ivy and ticks!) I was privy to seeing the whole Russian River resort phenomenon explode. No more bushes and ticks. Resorts like The Woods and Fifes were a more civilized approach. And happily, the clothing optional thing followed along, too!

Oh, and did I mention that I was bi-coastal at this point? I spent half my year in S.F. and the other half on Fire Island working in The Pines as (you got it) a lifeguard at the Boatel. After getting my Red Cross certification at the downtown S.F. YMCA, I matriculated from Pines waiter to Pines lifeguard! It was a small pool with a bar and restaurant attached. So, some slinging of drinks and food came along with the title.

In the 1990s, I return to the East Coast. I was soon acquainted with Sandy Hook State Park Beach. Although from N.J. originally, I never knew about nor had I ever visited this beach. At the very tip of Monmouth County with a view of Manhattan, its white sandy beaches beckoned another clothing optional crowd. I liked the beach and the crowd and made some buddies straight up. The water's temps were comfortable and the water was quite clean... All the better to see bouncing genitals in the surf! LOL. You did have to be aware of the local park police who seemed to delight in hauling off beach patrons for anything they deemed as lude or lascivious. It was hard to stay behaved with so much flesh in your face! But behaved you were or off you went in a paddy wagon!

South Beach followed. What more can I say. It was 1994 and the gay invasion had begun down there. I had never seen anything like it. Stuff went on right on the beach with no cops to be found! I know firsthand... it happened to me. I didn't really like the water too much. It was like a bathtub and not particularly clean. Oh. And, did I mention the frequent sightings of Portuguese Men-O-War? Reason enough to stay on the beach and ogle all of the cuties! Just when I thought I saw the most handsome man in the world, the next contender blew him right off the map! But, it was a very - let me repeat, VERY - fast-paced town. It was very hard to make friends because people were here one day and gone the next! (Quel problème!)

Now in my seventies, I revel in all of my memories of the beaches, rivers, ponds and lakes. Of late, I have traded the vast oceanic vistas for those of the Southwest desert. They are quite beautiful, too. But, I will have to admit It is hard to splash around and frolic in the desert sand!

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

Catalina’s slogan “All Kinds of Action for All Kinds of Men,” as I mentioned in part one of this blog, referred to movies with a wide diversity of cast members. I previously wrote about our Black Gold Series, the Freshman Features with twinks, our Far East Features with Asian casts and our Generation Gap Series featuring daddies matched with twinks. In this follow-up, I’ll cover the other series we included in our library of movies.

Our debut Leather Series movie was The Taste of Leather (1993), specifically hiring leatherman Joe Magnum. At the time, Catalina was not a studio you would go to for your favorite new leather movie; in fact, I think we only had one leather feature in our library, the fabulous Tom DeSimone film NightCrawler, so we were far from knowing what we were doing. Yes, William Higgins, John Travis, Scott Masters and Cameron Leight all knew how to dress models up in leather for a random scene, but that was the extent of our knowledge regarding the leather community. Joe Magnum continued on with Catalina in the Chet Thomas production Sex Crimes alongside Phil Bradley and Bill Marlowe, star of the movie Private Dick. His diversity beyond the leather genre kept him busy for years to come.

Out of nowhere, we got the opportunity to shoot The International Mr. Leather Contest in Chicago, starting in 1996. We suddenly had access to the winners and runners up, which was a game changer for our Leather Series category. It was an amazing opportunity to work with Chuck Renslow, the founder of International Mr. Leather. In 1958, he opened the Gold Coast Bar in Chicago, which is believed to be the first leather bar in the U.S., among a host of other bars and businesses like the Chicago Eagle, The Club Baths, Sparrows Lounge and Man’s Country, to name a few. We were definitely in over our heads on our first trip to Chicago, but Chuck welcomed us with open arms, discussed the history of the IML with us and opened his sex club Man’s Country to us for filming. He was with us every step of the way as we set up and shot the IML contest and made sure we had access to each and every contestant that we wanted to follow up with regarding roles in adult cinema. He personally brought the winner of the contest to the set the following morning to shoot the box cover for the VHS version of the show. This is but a “smidge” when discussing the achievements of Chuck Renslow; much more can be found in the amazing book Leatherman: The Legend of Chuck Renslow by Tracy Baim and Owen Keehnen. Another of Renslow’s triumphs was as co-founder of the Leather Archives & Museum, a repository for history and a place where future generations can discover the past. Despite the fact that we didn’t know all that much about the leather community, we kept trying with Hell Bent For Leather (1997). This movie starred the winner of International Mr Leather 1996, Joe Gallagher, in his porn video debut, as well as 1996’s Mr. Boston Leather, Beau Lyons. As far as I can tell, Joe Gallagher only performed in one other movie for Director Frank Parker, Leather Factory, released in 2001.

At the 20th Annual IML Contest in 1998, Tony Mills won the top prize and the first runner up was Andrew Lennox from Australia. I swear, when Tony Mills came to the box cover shoot the next morning, our jaws dropped. He was bare-ass in chaps and those ass cheeks looked like two hard basketballs - it was incredible! Brad Austin tried his hardest to persuade Tony Mills to do a porn movie for Catalina but it was a hard “no.” He had an amazing career in the medical industry, so we totally got it, but we were so bummed not to be able to see that “bum” penetrated in one of our movies! We did, however, meet the first runner up, Andrew, at the bar of the Congress Hotel later that day and he was 100% down for it! Months later, we shot and released Australian For Leather (1999) starring the 1st runner up, Andrew Lennox. Andrew was very versatile and went on to do a number of other movies for us including Thrill Me!, Score, SwitchCraft and Spit & Leather (unfortunately). I say unfortunately because in 1999, when we shot Spit & Leather, director Chi Chi LaRue was at the time the “spit queen,” using it in all her movies for other companies. I couldn’t stand it, so she included all that spitting just to gross me out, I’m sure! That was the last IML contest we videotaped, and our leather series took a back seat after that. Cole Tucker was another model with the IML connection, but he entered the contest in 1999 after shooting several movies for us including CatalinaVille and Big Guns 2.

We did, however, return to Chicago to shoot the BEAR Contest once or twice, and in 1997 another diverse category was added when we initiated our Furry Features series. The debut movie was Big BEAR Lake (1997) starring Anthony Gallo and a bunch of unknown hairy bears! Gallo wasn’t exactly a BEAR, but he did have a hairy chest, he grew a full beard for us and looked incredible on the box cover! Furry Men Do! (2000), Bathhouse BEARS (2000) and BEAR Country (2001) started the trend, using our tried and true Catalina style that they adapted to seamlessly. Other titles included BEAR Patrol (2002), BEAR Chested (2002), BEAR Boned (2004), Grizzly (2006) and many others.

Making these movies, we got to meet and befriend “Tit Pig” Steve Hurley, who helped me immensely in finding talent and shooting locations throughout Palm Springs and Cathedral City where he lived. After a shoot one day, he introduced the crew and me to Don and Sweet Sue’s Restaurant that he loved, and in fact I just ate there with friends last week! Steve was able to work in our mainstream movies, as well, and was always such a great energy and presence on the set. He’s dressed as a CHP officer on the cover of Truck Stop Daddy (2003) and worked in the adult industry for over 15 years. I just couldn’t talk about Furry Features without giving a shout out to Steve Hurley, who recently passed away on April 17, 2022 at the age of 64. Furry Features naturally aligned with our Generation Gap Series that I spoke of in detail in the first part of this blog, allowing crossover bookings for our furry friends matched with twinks from our Freshman Features.

Diversity didn’t end there - we even shot a movie called Steel Garters back in 1992. Steel Garters was promoted as a gender-bender featuring a gay, straight and drag cast, and was directed by Chi Chi LaRue. This movie was pulled from the market a mere two weeks after release by Catalina executives due to its controversial content, and remained unavailable for seventeen years! The movie was re-released in 2009.

There were times where we missed the mark in our diversity campaign, like when we made a girl-girl movie called The Women ("I Am Not A Lesbian Director"), but having the freedom and ability to feature all kinds of performers from every race and background really was a move forward for the company and opened the doors for everyone to be included. When it came to Leather and BEARS, help from representatives of the Leather and BEAR communities like Chuck Renslow and Tit Pig allowed the crew to attain a much better understanding of our entire LGBTQIA community. Priceless.

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 M. Webster

During a recent session of scanning and touching up behind the scenes photos from Jack Deveau's Hot House (1977) from our archive of materials from the great Hand in Hand Films, I felt a lot of enthusiasm to share them with an interested audience. In that spirit, here is a primarily photo-based blog featuring a selection of those images, interspersed with interview excerpts from Hand in Hand crew members pulled from the 2019 book Good Hot Stuff: The Life and Times of Gay Film Pioneer Jack Deveau, a historically valuable peek into the inner workings of one of the foundational studios of '70s/'80s gay porn!

On Hot House:
Classic porn icons Roger and Jack Wrangler star in this comical tale of frustration as two horny men trying to find privacy to have fun in a NYC apartment that is invaded by obnoxious painters, crabby janitors, and neighbors who have lost their keys.

Also starring Jayson MacBride (Catching Up, A Night at the Adonis), David Hunter, Eric Streiff, and Garry Hunt (Ballet Down the Highway, Dune Buddies, Fire Island Fever), and featuring the voice of Tray Christopher (aka legendary fetish video artist Christopher Rage).

Director: Jack Deveau
Writer: Moose 100
Camera: Kees Chapman & Jack Deveau
Sound: Rolf Pardula
Key Grip: Ken Schnetzer
Make-Up: Gene Kelton
Make-Up Assistant: Jim Delegatti
Production Coordinator: Sydney Soons
Editor: Robert Alvarez
Mixer: Kees Chapman
Music Consultant: Bobby
Producer: Jack Deveau

“The big-ticket draw of Hot House was to have been the sex scene between Wrangler and Roger, and the pay-off is there. Back in 1977, these two porn titans knew that the audience expected to be transported nearly to Valhalla when settling in for this section, and both go all out to create what comes off as a genuine physical desire.” - Manifest Reader

“There's a sense of humor and a sense of innocence that resonates from an earlier time.” - Mr. Magazine
 

Frequent Hand in Hand sound mixer Rolf Pardula started with the company with 1975's Ballet Down the Highway and continued to work with them throughout the rest of their productions. He went on to serve as the sound mixer for many independent films including George Romero's Day of the Dead, Larry Cohen's The Stuff, and several Spike Lee productions (School Daze, Malcolm X, Crooklyn, Summer of Sam, and Bamboozled). In Marcus Siedelmann's Good Hot Stuff interview with Pardula, he credits Hand in Hand with helping him to come out.

“When I started working with Bob [Alvarez] and Jack [Deveau] – that was back in the 70s – this was my first introduction into another world, the homosexual world. I had never been exposed to that. I was having relations with women at the time. Bob and Jack, they liked me... They treated me as a part of the family, which was very kind. They had love and care, and they didn't want anything to happen to me. In fact, they protected me, and at the same time allowed me to be on the set, and see these beautiful men having sex with other men. After a few years, I realized I'd been hiding my sexual feelings, and that I really wanted the company of other men. So thanks to Jack and Bob, I was allowed to formulate my personality, who I really was... I didn't have to suppress my feelings or to hide them. Why should I hide my homosexuality if Jack and Bob didn't do that?”

On Jack's style on set: “[Jack] managed it in a very casual style; never something like the set of a Hollywood film. It was always like having a party. He was always comfortable. He never screamed, and he was always a gentleman on the set. He said he wants this and that done, but it was always graciously, and with great respect... That's one of the things Jack Deveau was very well known for.”

Hot House screenwriter Moose 100 had begun as a playwright and was introduced to Jack Deveau and Bob Alvarez through his friend David Earnest, who wrote original scores to many of the studio's early films. Moose 100's writing brought Hand in Hand into its later era, which largely focused on lighter, more comedic works cleverly and affectionately capturing and spoofing NYC gay life.

“Most of the films I've written opened at the Adonis Theater. People went there to cruise. The most unusual thing was that somebody would sit down and watch the movie from the beginning to the end. So the audience saw the films in fragments. Jack and I felt that it was giving us the opportunity to write the movies just like we wanted to, because no one paid that much attention. They were just looking at the sex scenes. They were fantasizing. They were picking up men. That freed us. We felt we were able to experiment. In fact, I used to borrow a print of a new movie, throw a big party, and asked the audience consisting of my straight female friends. They loved them! And they had plenty of hot men to look at.”

Moose 100: "We had a style of working where I would present a first draft. Then we would meet and talk about it, discussing some changes. I used to go home and write [these revisions]... Once we got a shooting script – and this is what I really liked about the process – I was on set all the time in case I was needed. The minute a sex scene starts, you're shooting a documentary. It's what happens in reality, and sometimes, people who act in porn movies got problems, because suddenly there are all these people around, those big hot lights, and they're expected to get erections. Sometimes it doesn't work that way, and things have to change. So having the writer right there can be a helpful thing, or – depending on the people in the cast – sometimes you see one of the actors and you want to sort of customize the role for them. There was one incident during Hot House. They were shooting a sex scene, and right when they'd come to the cumshot, the film suddenly went out of the camera. And they lost it. Immediately, Jack fixed the camera and put in new film, and by that time they were ready to re-shoot the scene – Jack Wrangler also was sexually ready again. I think he was amazingly good at what he was doing. I used to call him The Sexual Professional. You could tell him: 'Jump out of an airplane, jerk off, and come as you land!' (laughing) And he could have done it, because he was totally a pro. In a way that nobody I ever worked with was. He could control his sexuality in a way most people couldn't.”

Robert Alvarez was Jack Deveau's partner in life and in Hand in Hand. They co-founded the studio with Jaap Penraat in 1972 and later co-ran it with Kees Chapman. Bob was the studio's editor, with past experience in experimental and documentary film, and his creativity and skill brought polish and excitement to Hand in Hand's productions.

“[Kees Chapman] came to us actually as the partner of Sydney Soons [aka Mark Woodward]. Sydney came to our office and worked as a production assistant. He also was in Drive, of course, but he was way more interested in the jobs behind the camera, and so he ended up working for us in production. Kees then was working as a waiter downtown. He came in, hung out, and next thing you know, he also was doing work for us [behind the scenes]. At a later point in the game, Kees and Sydney split up... Kees became another partner [in Hand in Hand] because he was very valuable to us. He was a huge help in the later years of Hand in Hand Films' existence. He organized a lot and he also got into camera work. He actually shot some of the stuff in the later films with Jack. He had no specific artistic background; I guess it just came out while working with us. He was very ambitious to learn the different aspects of filmmaking. He was able to work with actors very well, especially after Jack died. More or less, he took over the directing of the actors. We always worked well together.”

Jim Delegatti worked in many different behind-the-scenes roles for Hand in Hand over the years. He initially came to them after seeing their debut film, Left-Handed (1972), with the fantasy of being a performer. They didn't need any at the time, but were looking for crew members. He began as assistant to their make-up artist, Gene Kelton, and served as primary make-up artist on some of their final films. He additionally did set decorating, still photography, acting cameos, and more (“I was still doing this and that. I was learning a lot during the films.”). In his interview with Siedelmann, Delegatti says of Hand in Hand, “We really were a family in many ways” and that, as a small company, everyone helped with everything.

“It was a wonderful time of my life... I always wanted to do it, and I did it. And it was good. I helped a lot to create these films, because in these kind of films you need a certain atmosphere on set; a special mood. And I helped a lot on that too. The actors got their buffet. (laughing)”

“Jack became sick and after he passed I was... he was a big influence in my life. He meant a lot to me. At the time, I needed someone like him to be around. He was there, and so this was a big family loss.”

“I really don't think there was such a thing after Hand in Hand. Jack tried to make something out of it, something different than just a porno film. He was a great cinematographer, and he learned to do all these different things by himself... [Jack] did a lot to improve pornography, and gay cinema. There was a story behind all his films, and there is so much knowledge about the gay community.”

Read more interviews and catch more behind the scenes photos from Hand in Hand Films in Good Hot Stuff: The Life and Times of Gay Film Pioneer Jack Deveau!

In addition to Hot House, Bijou carries the Hand in Hand Films catalog of movies on DVD and Streaming.

For more Bijou Blogs on Hand in Hand Films:
-Interview with Robert Alvarez
-Blog on Jack Deveau & Hand in Hand
-Interview with Tom DeSimone Part 1 & Part 2
-The Backstory of Peter de Rome's The Destroying Angel

By Josh Eliot

“All Kinds of Action for All Kinds of Men”

A slogan Catalina used in advertising for many years may not have been the initial business plan when Catalina Video was developed and named by founder William Higgins, but it quickly moved in that direction once Higgins stepped back from the company. As early as my first couple of shoots for Catalina back in 1987, we were filming Black Magic with Joe Simmons and Gene LaMar. I barely remember much about Joe Simmons other than the fact that he was a stunning presence on the set and so sweet and professional. We shot Black Force in 1988, which starred Randy Cochran. The movie used the same nighttime woods set we constructed for Mike Henson and Doug Niles in My Best Buddy and also shared the interior shower sets from The Young Cadets, with slight modifications changing them from a military base to a prison farm. Unfortunately, the movie Black Force was pulled shortly after release. There was nothing out of the ordinary in it, other than the fact that it was interracial. It was pulled because a movie called Taxi from In Hand Video was involved in a Georgia lawsuit to determine if it was obscene, due to a gang bang. Things eventually worked out, and I’m happy to say that I see Black Force back for sale on DVD again! Catalina’s Black Gold Series actually started under Higgins with Black Attack and Black Attack II, but really came into fruition in the 1990’s and continued being successful through the 2000’s. A major reason for its success was the fantastic pool of models in the L.A. area elevating the productions. Hot stars like Bobby Blake, Rick Pantera, Jack Simmons, Flex Gamble, Andre Bolla and Bo Stallion. The Black Gold Series was still in production all the way up until we stopped shooting movies altogether in 2006.

Joe Simmons returned to our set for Black Alley: South of the Border in 1991 for director Chet Thomas. This time, we cast Black actors with Latino actors and made some really hot releases! It wasn’t until years later, in 1995 when I heard about his passing, that I discovered Simmons' notoriety. Joe Simmons was featured in Robert Mapplethorpe’s controversial Black Book series. From that point on, we started our Baja Bay Series, with movies focused on showcasing hot, uncut Latino studs. In the mid 90’s, Catalina was looking to diversify even further when we started our Leather Series with A Taste of Leather (1996) and our Furry Features Series with Big BEAR Lake (1997). My follow-up blog will focus more on our Latino and Leather series and movies from Furry Features.

Diversity kept expanding in 1997 when we developed the Far East Features Series, which pretty much came about for one reason and one reason only: Brandon Lee. Chi Chi LaRue introduced us to Brandon Lee who (now age 44) was a hot, super hung Asian superstar. The beautiful thing about Brandon is that he fit seamlessly in any movie; for example, the opening group orgy in Big Guns 2, as well as Harley’s Crew and Dial S for Sex. But having Brandon grace the box covers of our Far East Features Series made them an instant success. Brandon starred in the movies Asian Persuasion (1997), Fortune Nookie (1998) and Chew Manchu (2000), and started the ball rolling for other productions like Crème of Sum Yung Gai (2004) and With Sex You Get Eggroll (1999).

Very early on after the millennium, we started Freshman Features (we were on a roll), which was basically a twink-based series with a young collegiate cast. The Rascal Series of movies was born and were made with a continuing storyline from 2001-2003. 100% clarity: the name of the Rascal movies just so happened to also be the same name as Chi Chi LaRue’s new company, Rascal Video, but it was all just a coincidence! Though she didn’t think so. The Rascal Series was going to be a school-based series like Beverly Hills 90210 meets Netflix’s Elite. The lead character was Ricky Haskell, a character based on Eddie Haskell from Leave it to Beaver, as the Rascal.

Of course, I wouldn't dream of making a school-themed movie without casting Sharon Kane in a non-sexual role as the dean, Ms. Narkwurst! She was a hot, if not somewhat crazy, head of the academy with a strong European accent. Her character was based on The Ilsa series from the 1970’s, played by Dyanne Thorne. (Ilsa Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks - 1976, Ilsa The Tigress of Siberia - 1977, Ilsa The Wicked Warden - 1977). Needless to say, Sharon’s accent and performance had us all in stitches. We shot her scenes for the first three movies all in one day, following one of the sex scenes. My spouse Tony Fontana played Coach Collins, who was instrumental in the Rascal’s growth while at the academy.

The Rascal was played by Brandon Weber from El Paso, Texas. We wanted a newcomer or an underexposed performer to take on the role. Brandon had a few scenes under his belt, but for a low profile company, so the fact that we offered him a six picture deal after completing the initial Rascal movie was kind of unheard of. He had this little bratty edge to him that was perfect for the role, but it also got on my nerves a bit. The series was an instant hit and had five follow-up features: The Rascal Joins the Wrestling Team, The Rascal Stows Away, The Rascal vs The Spoiled Brat, The Rascal Goes to Bootcamp and The Rascal’s Graduation Gang Bang. After directing The Rascal vs The Spoiled Brat, I was, as they say, out of there! I'd had quite enough of “The Rascal.” I finished off Ms. Narkwurst’s character by making her go blind after she moved during a Lasik surgery because she had an itch. I handed off the last two features to Brad Austin and Peter Romero to write and direct. Looking back on things, I wish I would have finished the series myself, but I was way over it. For the record, The Spoiled Brat was going to be a spin off, but that fell flat. The Rascal was now past tense and I came up with “Junior,” continuing for Freshman Features with Junior’s Nude Cleaning Service (2003). It happened that while in post-production for Junior in 2003, I stumbled onto an idea for a new series. In Junior’s Nude Cleaning Service, it just coincidentally happened that the young twink cleaners at Junior’s company were servicing older men like Ray Harley and Maxime Cannon. It didn’t really hit me until I was editing the movie that the combination of older and younger was something we could fine tune, casting and story-wise, to create a new series. I brought it up to the GM, and the Generation Gap Series was born. This new series was to pair older guys with young twinks. We had a good stable of hot guys from our Leather Series and this gave us an opportunity to give them more work opposite the young'uns. Now, I know these types of matchings had occurred in the past successfully, like Chad Douglas and Kevin Wiles in Big Guns, but this series would really focus on pairing those couples with storylines to match the idea. Daddy’s Teen-Age Turn On (2003) was the first, and this new, deliberate “hungry daddy eats the innocent” idea was really working out. Features like Daddy’s Reform School Playmate (2004), Junior Meets the BEAR Patrol (2004) and Daddy’s Bubble Butt Boys (2005) were in full swing with more on the way up until Catalina stopped shooting new productions in 2006.

The Generation Gap theme seems to be going extra strong these days with companies like Mormon Boyz, Bang Me Daddy, Say Uncle, Family Dick, Dad Perv, Creep Dad, Dad Creepy, Family Cest and Family Values all putting out new content to a very receptive audience...

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.