BijouBlog

By Will Seagers

Hi Folks - Will here! This week's endeavor deals with one of the seven deadly sins - Pride. I hope to convey some of my personal thoughts about pride, whether it be personal pride or collective pride - AKA Gay Pride.

Regarding personal pride, I looked to my family in my early years for role models. My mother and father were a stunning couple and took a great deal of pride in the genetic hand they were dealt. On my father's side was a mixture of Scots and Irish. Our family clan - my real birth surname was one of the largest in Scotland. I studied that in my 30s and attended gatherings while living in California. On my mother's side, her mother was second generation Irish and her father was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Graced with good looks, they showed their appreciation by a lifetime of self preservation and preening!

I noticed a different level of hereditary pride in the generation of my great-uncle (and godfather). He was Irish and was proud enough to burst! LOL. I will never forget when JFK was elected... he was ecstatic! I spent a great deal of time with him and my aunt (my godmother) during my youth. As a child at family gatherings, I was obliged to sing Irish folk songs and dance the jigs! It was fun and challenging, looking back now.

By my teens, I started to notice my hereditary traits were showing up. Like my folks from generations past, I took pride in them and made the most of them in later years (wink!). It was not an easy journey in high school, however. I was gay and knew it. I didn't flaunt it. Nor did I try to mask it by "fitting in" and hiding anything. That was my form of pride that never wavered throughout the rest of my life. Being myself.

I was never a fan of forcing my beliefs on anyone. I felt it set up two battlefields: 1) making someone else uncomfortable and 2) not taking into consideration whether the other person(s) had the intellectual capacity for that kind of difference. As a result, I made a broad spectrum of friends throughout my life. With my straight friends and in various work situations, I always liked to inject self deprecating humor to keep things light. It never bothered me to place myself as the butt of a joke... I knew better!

Enter living in gay communities. I was always drawn to NYC because of my close proximity in northern NJ. And, NYC was a great testing ground for living in a gay community. Mine was the West Village and the Upper West Side. It wasn't so much acceptance as it was a feeling of no one caring about me being "different." Living in NYC was a great lesson. You could observe all sorts of people together without conflict. People thrived on and were proud of their differences.

Then onto living in a gay ghetto. When I moved to San Francisco in 1976, I quickly learned that there were distinct neighborhoods. My first was The Castro followed by South of Market. It was a double dose of concentrated gaiety, to say the least. What had seemed eccentric and outlandish were quite the norm in these neighborhoods. I really liked how much I was learning about the "culture" in my first few years. And, it fit like a glove! However, I did bring along my own form of pride, as mentioned earlier. I figured the best way for the whole town to get along was not to force a lifestyle down anyone's throat. Be accepted by not being obnoxious. It worked for me, and once again in work situations, too.

I am proud of who I am and what I have accomplished over the decades. I have done everything from bringing home boyfriends for my parents to meet (regardless of their reactions) to getting legally married to my current spouse. I also have pride in the work I've done in adult media. It was a colorful and wonderful decade, where once again I didn't want to force any ideas. My point was to be as “sex-succesful” as possible. As you can see, I have had nothing to hide and plenty to share. So, whether it's a Giorgio Armani suit or chaps... I have tried to wear it well!

Double-breasted suit or birthday suit?

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 M. Webster

Today, we're flashing back to the late '70s/early '80s for a peek at a much earlier time for Bijou. This was within the era when porn features were still at their cinematic height, playing in theaters in major cities across the U.S. In Chicago, the Bijou Theater & Sex Club (which later expanded into Bijou Video), projected many of the great gay porn classics of the time on its screen. The Bijou Theater was in operation from the earliest days of the hardcore film industry, opening in 1970, until its closing in September of 2015, making it the longest-running gay adult theater in the country. It screened countless movies, keeping the classics in frequent rotation up through its final day in operation.

At Bijou, we have an archive of vintage gay newspapers, including larger publications and smaller regional papers, particularly with a large stash of gay papers local to our home base, Chicago. A number of years ago, we scanned in a stack of vintage issues of Chicago gay newspaper GayLife, where the Bijou Theater frequently ran advertisements for the movies playing, improvements to the theater, live performances by big stars (including Peter Berlin, Richard Locke, Casey Donovan [more on his stage appearances here!], and Lee Ryder), video sales (by the later point of the VHS/Beta home video era), and more.

An August 31, 1979 GayLife interview with Steven Toushin, owner of Bijou Video and the Bijou Theater, gives some insight into the business at the time. Here, journalist Dennis Kouba asks Steven a few questions about the Bijou (before reviewing Tom DeSimone's The Idol, a 1979 Hand in Hand Films classic, which had recently opened at the theater, recommended to the writer as being one of “the best [films] in the genre,” a reputation which it still deservedly holds.)

Following are some excerpts from the interview.

"Mr. Toushin proved to be a relaxed and informative gentleman. Originally from New York, he has been active in Chicago's gay business community for several years, owning and managing several establishments... Mr. Toushin is an admitted film buff, seeing at least two films a week. He is well-versed in the film business and appears to be using his knowledge to provide quality entertainment for the gay community.”

GayLife: Why do you play films for only one week?

Toushin: We cannot afford to play a film for more than one week. We die if we play a film two weeks in a row. Frequently, if a film is popular, we will bring it back for a return engagement. Quite a few of our regular customers actually come to the theater weekly to see the films, and they complain if we play the same film more than one week.

GayLife: Where do you advertise?

Toushin: The Chicago Tribune, Gay Chicago, and GayLife. Actually, we have found that the Chicago Tribune attracts the biggest audience. We discovered that advertising in the Chicago Sun-Times did not bring in more patrons.

GayLife: Do you have have difficulty obtaining new films to exhibit at the Bijou?

Toushin: It is difficult to book good new films every week since the gay film market is limited and supply is scarce. We find it easier to book films from New York, especially from Hand in Hand. [Bijou now owns and distributes the Hand in Hand catalog on DVD/Streaming.] It is much more difficult to book films from California since the suppliers do not understand our situation in Chicago and present us with stiff, unrealistic terms. We simply can't afford to book films for several weeks and certainly not at the terms they constantly demand.

GayLife: What is the average cost of a gay film?

Toushin: Twelve to fifteen thousand dollars. The most expensive film to date was Dune Buddies [a Hand in Hand film directed by studio co-founder Jack Deveau, released in 1978], which ran $30,000. That's too much, since the market is limited.

GayLife: Do you have any future plans for the theater?

Toushin: Yes, next spring we plan to elaborate on the Bijou garden, giving it more of a legitimate garden atmosphere. Beyond that, I'm considering bringing in a video viewer so patrons have a choice of two films.

GayLife: Have you ever considered exhibiting any major commercial film?

Toushin: Yes. Immediately after viewing La Cage Aux Folles (Birds of a Feather) [a 1978 French film from director Édouard Molinaro, adapted into the 1996 Robin Williams/Nathan Lane movie The Birdcage], I contacted the studio – United Artists. I asked about the possibility of running it as a midnight show on weekends. At this point, I have received no answer. Other theater exhibitors in Chicago are considering the same.

GayLife: How seriously do you take the interests and demands of your clientele?

Toushin: I feel there is a legitimate need for a theater of this kind. I have a responsibility to our public to keep the theater clean, comfortable, and attractive. I take my responsibility to the gay community seriously.

The Bijou Theater did indeed wind up playing La Cage Aux Folles, a popular mainstream film of the era with a story focused on gay men, for an extended run the following year (1980). Numerous full-spread ads Bijou placed in issues of GayLife that year feature the French film in the mix with its typical fare of gay porn features. Particularly since the work of Hand in Hand was markedly highlighted during the late '70s/early '80s era at the Bijou, the cinematic, artistic, and narrative quality of gay porn films in rotation at the theater was of a high caliber and would have blended well with this addition of a piece of non-pornographic cinema.

In our scans, we have a couple of GayLife articles and letters to the editor praising the Bijou's decision to feature La Cage Aux Folles on the theater's screen.

GayLife, August 22, 1980 letter to the editor:

“I wish to compliment Steven Toushin, the owner of the Bijou Theater, for making an evening at his establishment enjoyable. Usually, a trip to the Bijou is serious business: serious porno viewing and serious cruising. But last weekend, at midnight, Steve scheduled a screening of La Cage Aux Folles, the Italian/French comedy that has been such a hit the last year or so. For the first time in my memory, the theater was jammed with people having a good time. People were actually watching the movie and enjoying it. People were laughing, smiling, and talking to each other at the end of the film. And best of all, there were all types of people, including people who would never have been seen at the Bijou before. I am told that the Bijou will lose money with each midnight show of La Cage, but I'm sure they'll more than make up for it in good will.”

As mentioned in the 1979 interview with Steven Toushin, Bijou's garden did see improvements by the following year, which is also spotlit in Bijou Theater advertisements of 1980.

Bijou maintained this mixing of various types of movies and materials of gay interest in the late '80s and 1990s through its mail order catalog, the most comprehensive gay porn print catalog of the time. In addition to an extensive listing of available gay porn films on VHS/Beta, the catalog expanded to feature an array of other types of video tapes, including LGBTQ documentaries, documentation of LGBTQ events and competitions (such as Mr. Drummer, International Mr. Leather, the Gay Games), sex educational videos, lesbian porn (particularly a large selection from important early lesbian porn studio Fatale Films), and a number of non-pornographic films of interest to an LGBTQ audience, from those popular in gay culture (George Cukor's 1939 film The Women) to LGBTQ underground, arthouse, and independent films (Donna Deitch's 1985 lesbian classic Desert Hearts, John Waters' 1972 Pink Flamingos, and more).

This spotlight on the Bijou Theater's original publishing date coincided with our 2024 re-release of the classic 1994 Bijou Video production Fulton Street from director Mike Donner, unavailable for decades, and now newly restored and re-released on DVD and Streaming! This narrative gay porn feature was set and shot in Chicago. Its complex storyline thoughtfully incorporates weighty thematic material, romance, and character development - and, of particular interest here, its Chicago locales include an extended cruising/sex sequence filmed in the Bijou Theater, itself!

This Fulton Street scene shows action in a couple of spots in the theater that those who have visited are likely to recognize: the lobby where VHS/Beta sales and, later, DVD sales took place (catch glimpses of tons of box covers of Bijou classics, many of which we still carry) and in the maze of interconnected gloryhole booths on the second floor. (Only fellow Bijou Video production A Winter's Tail, an intense 1984 S/M video from Dave Nesor, also illustrates the Bijou Theater's interior.)

Catch Bijou's Fulton Street, plus peek at the mini-documentary on the Bijou Theater page of our website and these tales of events at the Bijou Theater over the decades for more flashbacks!

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.