BijouBlog

Him! Him! (What a title … it reminds me of that giant ants horror flick of the 1950s, where someone screams the title Them! Them!) But it's the title of the much sought-after, famously lost 1974 Jesus gay porn film.

 

First of all, it's almost become a trope of Western culture: speculation about Jesus' sexuality. Think Holy Blood, Holy Grail, The DaVinci Code, and the controversial Terrence McNally play Corpus Christi. Either Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene (or at least some kind of attraction between the two occurs), or Jesus was gay, because he hung around with a bunch of guys (Uh… Peter we know was married, because his sick mother-in-law was cured by Jesus, not that being married always makes a difference, but still…). And then there's the speculation about Jesus and the Beloved Disciple, who may or may not have been John, because of certain cuddly iconography of the two.

I'm not going to get into the detail about all the speculation above, and I also think all the speculation about this 1974 movie ends up going around in circles.

Starting with Wikipedia (a well-documented article, and I checked the cites), we do know that there was a film of that title that premiered on Mary 27, 1974, at the 55th Street Playhouse in New York, at that time becoming more of a porn house than an art house. The film was directed by someone going by the name Ed D. Louie and featured a mural artist named Tava Von Will as Jesus.

Now, I initially thought it was some kind of sword and sandals knock-off, Jesus wandering around having sex with the disciples, but it actually told the story of a young guy with an erotic fixation on Jesus. Actually, not that unusual a theme, for goodness sake… just open any Catholic devotional work or story about the saints (usually female). The spiritual delights of being married to Jesus often look and sound orgasmic, even sadomasochistic.

Anyway, the film also played at Chicago's Bijou Theater in January and February of 1975. The ad shows a guy in a tuxedo, not clothing one associates with Jews in 1st century Palestine. Why? Maybe to avoid controversy, but no one remembers much of a fall-out, even in the still very much underground LGBTQ world of that time.

 

The film fell into obscurity, and in fact, no one seems to be able to locate a copy; film critic and later culture warrior Michael Medved even claimed it was a hoax (huh?).

Peter Malone in his book Screen Jesus: Portrayals of Christ in Television and Film, actually quotes Medved, who claims it is tasteless (how would he know? Did he see it?) but also innovative. Medved claims one scene, a “low point in the history of cinema,” involves a handjob in the confessional as the young man confesses to the priest his erotic fantasies about Jesus. (I wouldn't actually call that scene remarkably innovative in the world of porn.)

But then Medved in his 1980 book Golden Turkey Awards implies that, among the bad movies he and his brother Harry review in his book, Him wasn't real. The beginnings of an urban legend?

A number of years ago, the late porn star/director Gino Colbert was trying to find out if the film was indeed real or was a hoax, and contacted Bijou Video as part of his research. We could not at the time verify, but more recently, another researcher on the film brought to our attention the Bijou Theater ad shown above. The film indeed played in New York, Chicago, and in many other places.

 

 

We may never know all the details on this film, unless a copy or more information is tracked down. It seems to have clearly existed and, like many a classic porn film, may sadly have no copies any longer in existence. The scarcity of information or memories about this film, its missing status, and its scandalous subject matter have made it somewhat of a legend and fueled the aforementioned rumors.

In the meantime, you can find religiously-themed porn scenes in a number of other classics, many of which are featured in our compilation, For the Love of God (on DVD and Streaming), which contains scenes from our films that explore the complex connection between sexuality and religion.

By Josh Eliot

Back in the late 1980s, Catalina’s general manager left the company to start a new position as head of production at a straight adult company called Video Team. We loved our original GM, Chris Mann, because even though he was straighter than straight, he never placed restrictions on movie content and was extremely effective moving the company forward after William Higgins left the helm. His office always had a lot of reading material in it - all the great publications of the day from the gay and straight adult industry. Randomly one day while breezing through Adult Video News magazine, I came across a movie that caught my eye. The movie was called Brat Girl and I thought it was a fun take off on Batman, but Chi Chi LaRue told me that it was a title in the series Vivid Video started a few years earlier to promote their first official “Vivid Girl,” Jaime Summers. In my opinion, a brilliant concept. Paul Thomas started the series and produced the original movie, aptly named The Brat (1986), which cast Jerry Butler as the Brat’s husband, with, in later in follow-up movies, Tom Byron taking on that role. A slew of follow-up Brat movies were made with Jaime Summers, Nikki Randall and, lastly, Julianne James. For some strange reason, over the years I was always intrigued by the Brat series, even though I never actually saw one of them. I always imagined the Brat character to be like Sammy Jo from Dynasty, just naughtier. The series name and premise was a great marketing scheme, and I always appreciated seeing the new release selection of movie posters for the series. It made my imagination run wild.

Jump ahead to the year 2000: Catalina Video was starting our Freshman Features selection of movies, which would cast young twinks in most, if not all of the roles. We were looking for a limited series of sorts to get the ball rolling, when I started considering a “Brat series” take off with young gay men instead of hot babes. I proposed the idea of a young stud who was a troublemaker in school, with a cast of characters reminiscent of those found in the mainstream movie, The Breakfast Club. I suggested we call it The Spoiled Brat, but even the current GM had his own idea for a title, which we settled on. We would name it The Rascal. The search was on for someone to play “Little” Ricky Haskell, a horny young teen, over 18 of course, who lived with his grandmother, Granny Haskell. We thought that whomever got the role needed to be an unknown who had only worked very minimally in the industry. The role ended up going to Brandon Weber, a relative unknown from El Paso, Texas, whose real personality was an almost identical match to that of the Rascal. The role of Little Ricky Haskell was based on the name and personality of the character Eddie Haskell from the 1957-1963 series Leave it to Beaver.

The first movie in the series, The Rascal, came out so much better than I could have ever hoped for. The characters were fully developed and the movie was filled with hijinks and really good sex scenes. The downside was that I was still in my thirties and was in no way shape or form into twinks, so making the movie initially felt like a chore. Luckily, once I started on the scripts, I drew inspiration from some of my favorite John Hughes movies of the 1980s like Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles and Fast Times at Ridgemont High! Ricky Haskell’s best friend and schoolmate is Sparky, played by Sebastian Jaymz, with a supporting cast as follows - The School Bullies: Mack Rollins and Ethan Richards; The Foster Home Bullies: Tuck Johnson and Danny Chance; and Ricky’s small group of friends played by Coby Kinkade, Jesse Martin and Ryan Stevens. The Racal himself gets into trouble when he exacts revenge on his terrorizers by putting “itching powder” in their underwear during gym class. Coach Collins, played by my real life spouse, Tony Fontana, is a recurring character throughout all six of the Rascal movies. Additionally, at the helm of the chaos and supplying humor for the movies was Ms. Narkwurst, the school superintendent, played to the T by Sharon Kane. Honestly, it was Sharon Kane’s character and situations in the movies that kept me inspired sequel after sequel. Ms. Narkwurst has a soft spot for her “Little Ricky Haskell,” no matter how much damage he causes or how many innocent students he seduces at the school. Over the course of the series, her eyeglasses are pulled off her face and thrown to the ground by Coach Collins to prevent her from seeing the wrestling team going at it. Once on the ground, the assistant principle stomps on the glasses, breaking them into pieces. In a later follow-up movie, Ms. Narkwurst gets Lasik eye surgery to correct her vision, but because of an itch she jerks her head, causing the laser to burn her retina, which causes blindness. The students watching over her at home take full advantage by turning her place into a sex den, and even though she thinks she can hear them, she’s not able to see them. Determined to find out where the sexual noises are coming from, she leaves the safety of her bed and tries to make her way downstairs, running into anything and everything along the way. A hysterical show-stopping performance from the master Ms. Kane!

After shooting The Racal, The Rascal Joins the Wrestling Team (2001) and The Rascal Stows Away (2002), I finally got the green light to start a new series using my original title idea of The Spoiled Brat! I debuted the character Lawrence Porter, played by actor Jake Woodman, in the newest Rascal release and called it The Rascal vs The Spoiled Brat (2002). This new character was a Richie Rich type, a cartoon from the 1970s. Porter is more of a preppy jock stuck up brat in contrast to the troublemaking Rascal. The new star, Jake Woodman, was previously in Jet Set Fraternity Gang Bang (2002), for Jet Set Productions, so he was totally unknown at the time. I was excited to start this new series with its new and different cast of characters. As fast as it was green lit, The Spoiled Brat never made it any further. No follow up movie was ever shot; The Spoiled Brat series never came to fruition and Jake Woodman never made another movie. I honestly don’t remember the details, but shooting his scene must have been pretty brutal for one of two reasons: the sex or the attitude, don’t really remember - I must have douched that from my brain. In fact, it was after that movie that I decided I was out of the Rascal series altogether - I guess I must have really been traumatized! I think around this time, Brandon Weber was actually becoming the Rascal and the Spoiled Brat in real life and that in itself made it easy for me to walk away. Since we had two more movies to go in Brandon Weber’s contract, I handed them off to Brad Austin for The Rascal Goes to Boot Camp (2002), then Peter Romero for The Rascal’s Graduation Gang Bang (2002). Brandon Weber did a number more features for other studios in supporting roles, then stopped shooting movies in 2003. 

The series was successful for the company and it did jump start our Freshman Features series of movies, which also included Junior’s Nude Cleaning Service and The Foreign Exchange Student. Moving along with the times and audience desires, future content of Freshman Features segued into the Generation Gap Series, combining freshman twinks with daddies for features like Junior Meets the Bear Patrol, Daddy’s Reform School Playmate and Daddy’s Bubble Butt Boys. All in all, it was a fun series to work on, until it wasn’t, but I am happy to have been able to create it and finally bring my own version of Vivid Video’s Brat series to fruition.

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

It’s Halloween month again so, as usual, I’m writing something appropriate for the upcoming All Hallows Eve. Excuse the gratuitous title, which features four of my full features for Catalina Video that were a product of my love for horror movies. The first was Single White Male (1992), then Sexual Suspect (1996), Thrill Me! (1999) and finally Cracked! made in (2001). The first three were all-male features, while Cracked! was a bisexual movie that garnered Sharon Kane Best Actress in a non-sexual role gay or bi in 2002. I have to say, getting the adult stars to step out of their comfort zone from being sexy to being scared, scary, crazy or vulnerable was easier than I thought it would be. On any one of those movies, if the lead player or supporting cast gave a stiff, lifeless performance, the movie would have been a joke and, more importantly, I’m sure Catalina would not have let me venture into the thriller zone ever again. Single White Male set the bar high, really high, mostly due to Rob Cryston’s incredible performance. Each of these movies garnered nominations and awards but I’m not going to talk about the movies, themselves, as I’ve gone into detail on each and every one in previous blogs. I’m going to talk about one or more specific actors in each movie that really pulled out a fantastic, mainstream-worthy performance.

Single White Male starred Rob Cryston as Alex, a male version of Glenn Close’s “Alex” in Fatal Attraction, with a little bit of Jennifer Jason Leigh’s quirks from her performance in Single White Female (1992). Rob’s first movie, from the best I can tell, was Big Drill (CDI Home Video) in 1988, then another in 1991 called Video Head (All Worlds). He came to my attention when I cast him in Down Bi Law in a supporting role opposite Randy Mixer. I spoke with him after the shooting about a role I wanted him to play, explaining it was one so intricate it could really get his career going full force. He gave me his full commitment that day and brought his “A” game to the set, sometimes surprising me when he would split his personality into two very different people in the scope of presenting his lines. In particular, there is a scene where Alex sees his roommate’s visiting cousin seducing the pool man, whom Alex was obsessed with, by jumping in the pool naked and stroking the pool skimmer pole. There’s a take we shot that was completely improvised by Rob Cryston where his anger builds and builds and builds until he explodes. I kept the camera rolling as long as he kept building his anger, and in the finished movie I ended up intercutting that long shot so I was able to keep most of it. Rob completely deserves the Best Actor Award he won in 1993 at the Gay Erotic Video Awards for the many layers he brought to Alex. I am convinced that without the performance given by Rob Cryston in Single White Male, it would not have been remotely as frightening and sexy as it is. Huge shout out to Brian Hart who played the victim of Alex’s obsession. I’ve worked with Brian on movies like Head of the Class 2 (Scott Masters) and Long Distance Lovers (Chi Chi LaRue) and, let me tell you, his dialogue was stiff and uninspired. In Single White Male, working with Rob in most of his scenes, Brian was able to pull out a great performance filled with anger, fear and revenge. My top two guys who made it all work and set me on the path to make more horror porno movies that felt real!

Sexual Suspect was shot four years later and was based on the French movie Diabolique (1955). I was currently casting the movie but still did not have the lead performer in mind. I needed someone to play a jealous and conspiring lover who could take on the task of being a mean drunk as well as a persuading hustler trying to get every penny out of his current lover. I was hanging out in the Gold Coast Bar one night with friends when Eric Marx (aka Dex Weston from Major Owens, Bijou Video) was introduced to me. I was impressed by his 1970’s mustached look and demeanor, as he had a slight edge to him that made me feel a little nervous. I was not familiar with the fact that he had been working in movies for the past couple of years. Because of that gut feeling, I started talking to him about the role I was looking to cast. A few kamikaze shots later, I was convinced and committed to book him for the role. Weeks later, up in Arrowhead Lake at a rented lakefront home, we started filming his scenes. Funny thing, I wasn’t that thrilled at first with Cory Miles, who was cast to play his rich lover, but once he read a line or two on camera, I was sold. I had two leads who could act their face off! I was quite relieved, because I wasn’t supposed to be shooting the “horror” movie at all - my producer thought I was shooting something completely different in Arrowhead, a jock themed movie. I was relieved because when I had the film in the can, as they say, I knew I wouldn’t get into too much trouble, since this movie was solid! Eric was sinister as the belligerent drunk who smacks his lover across the face, just after saying, “I will never put my hands on you again… promise.” Cory Miles portrayed simultaneous hatred and fear of his lover, which came through in every scene and elevated this movie 100%.

Thrill Me was shot two years after Sexual Suspect and brings the best of comedy, sexiness and horror all wrapped into one fan-fucking-tastic movie, in my opinion. Shot in Saugatuck, Michigan on the coast of one of the Great Lakes, I have to credit absolutely everyone in this movie for raising their acting game. There is one standout though: Doug Jeffries. In the movie, there is a group of friends who reunite after being apart for years, only to receive a letter taped to the door stating, “I saw what you did, and I know who you are.” (The title of a Joan Crawford movie, by the way.) The group immediately goes into panic mode, discussing the unintentional manslaughter of a drifter (played by Donnie Russo) years earlier. Doug Jeffreys, who is the lover of one of the group’s members, overhears the conversation and all hell breaks loose now that the cat is out of the bag. Doug, who is normally very masculine in real life and on screen, took the risk and ran with it adding just enough camp into his character without looking nelly. Steve Rambo and Ray Harley also came out of their “wooden” shells with dialogue and each turned in one of, if not the best, performances of their careers. I was very lucky to have models who would trust the vision I was putting forward and would go along for the ride with no restrictions.

Cracked is a different situation entirely. You see, when Sharon Kane is cast in anything, the movie is elevated and transcends, right there on the set, into something more than it would have been otherwise. Sharon played Joan, based basically on Mommy Dearest and Straight Jacket’s Joan Crawford, again. Joan is off her rocker from the very opening shot, as she fakes a broken ankle to trick her daughter-in-law to come stay with her while she mourns her son's death. Joan wants her pesky daughter-in-law dead and out of the picture so she doesn’t get her hands on the money Joan’s son left behind. I was really lucky to get straight porn icon Herschel Savage in the movie cast opposite Sharon Kane as her lawyer. The two of them combined have worked in well over a 1000 porn movies over the years; Sharon states she did over 900 on her own. They both brought years of experience to the roles, which legitimized this ax-murdering, ass-fucking thriller. Nadia, another straight porn icon, was fantastic as the daughter-in-law's friend who finds herself on the other end of Joan’s ax. Nicole Moore plays the daughter-in-law who refuses to take the shit Joan is dishing out, and the two of them together on screen form a perfect collaboration, because Nicole’s strength and desire for all that money allows her to give it to Joan in the end!

A little taste of terror for your Halloween month - may the psycho, slashing, sexpots be with you! Check out the trailers for each and watch the full PG versions of them on my YouTube Channel!

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

If there was ever a “wing man” for me, it was definitely director Brad Austin. As I’ve likely mentioned in the past, Brad was my lead cameraman as well as production supervisor for Catalina once I gave up that position to become producer. In addition to being a really great guy who would give you the shirt off his back, he also had the nerve to try things I was always hesitant to do. He wasn’t afraid to approach, what I considered, the unapproachable. For example, in a past blog I wrote about how Brad discovered Ray Harley during the International Mr. Leather Contest in Chicago by tracking him down in his hotel room. Brad saw him jacking off in his hotel window, counted the number of floors and windows and knocked on his door. That act of bravery gave us an exclusive multi-year contract with Ray! On one of Brad’s movie sets, he continued shooting sex for one of his scenes by a pool, even though the house next door had a rooftop full of workers watching the whole thing. I would have panicked and moved the entire scene indoors for privacy. If I wanted Brad to approach someone who I thought would be a hot model for movies, he was on it - instantly. I naturally gave him a $100 finder’s fee for anyone he approached that ended up working in a movie. 

The ultimate “wing man” operation took place again at the International Mr. Leather Contest in Chicago, while in our host hotel, the Ramada Congress. Catalina, and now renowned photographer Jeff Burton and I were at the bar inside the lobby of the Congress, decompressing after what was probably a long, grueling day of shooting sex. Suddenly, out of nowhere and very unexpectedly, we got a glimpse of Falcon exclusive Eric Stone entering the lobby. I was surprised to see him alone, as I had imagined John Rutherford would have been keeping very close tabs on him to make sure one of their top stars didn’t play around prior to shooting a scene. I mean, he must have been there to shoot a scene, right? Well, before Jeff and I could even react to seeing him, Brad Austin came running up to us at the bar to let us know he saw him too. He wanted to bring him over to meet me, but I was like, “No, he’s exclusive with Falcon.” Brad basically called me neurotic and ran over to fetch him as Burton and I were just dying inside. We were about to meet with the hottest star at the time.

When Eric Stone came onto the scene, he made a very big splash on the industry - a tsunami, as Parker Posey would say. Eric Stone was born November 6th, 1959 and raised in Peekskill, New York in the Hudson River Valley. He was active in the industry from 1992 through 1996, but prior to working in Adult Gay Cinema, he held the position of a New York State Trooper. In addition to his Falcon movies, he also worked minimally for Pleasure Productions, HIS, Stallion, Galaxy and All Worlds Video. Some of his widely known titles are Ripe For Harvest (1996), Other Side of Aspen 4 (1995) and A Hidden Man (1993). His nostalgic image on magazines guaranteed strong sales and I remember always, since his first movie, wanting to cast him in one of our productions, but I never had access to him. Unfortunately, at age 37, Eric Stone passed away in his upstate New York home on December 24th, 1996. Two movies shot in 1996 were released in 1997, posthumously: Manhandlers (Falcon) and Ranger in the Wild, a movie I directed for Catalina Video, when I finally got Eric Stone on a Catalina set.

Eric came over with Brad Austin and we all sat down and chatted. Surprisingly, my nerves disappeared almost instantly, as this hot stud we’d seen in print over many years was a warm, sweet, down-to-earth guy with a New York accent that I could immediately relate to. It’s true, Eric was under a current contract with Falcon, but it was coming to an end, so we exchanged numbers and I told him we wanted to plan a movie around him and would match his scene fee with that of Falcon's. I’m pretty sure I tripled Brad's finder’s fee for that one. A number of months later, Brad Austin, Jeff Burton, Eric Stone and I found ourselves on the road together to a lake east of Santa Barbara. I vacationed at Zaca Lake in 1995 with my then partner, Mark Rutter, and when we were there I knew I had to come back and shoot a movie one day. The property was thirty miles into the forest from the main road and was small and intimate, with only four lakefront cabins and a small shop and restaurant that only opened for breakfast and lunch. Back in those days, I thought I would use the location for an adult movie based on Friday the 13th, as it looked very Camp Crystal Lake, but ended up coming to my senses and using it for Ranger in the Wild.

Eric looked so damned handsome in his rented Ranger outfit, and it fit him like a glove. It was rare to travel with only one model and half a crew, but we wanted to fill the movie with great outdoor footage to set up all the scenes, and all we needed was Eric for those. We couldn’t exactly shoot a full-on sex scene on this property, but we did get great exterior footage and we were able to capture his J/O in front of a fireplace in Eric’s cabin (that he shared with Brad). I also spotted two dilapidated pink trailers while walking around the lake shooting some shots - those made it into a movie as well. One was Chi Chi LaRue’s trailer and the other Sharon Kane’s in The Hills Have Bi’s. Just having the footage of those two trailers actually helped me come up with the idea for Hills. In the movie, Eric plays a ranger working in the Grand Canyon, speaking to some tourists when he notices Tony Cummings in the crowd videotaping his crotch. In the final scene of the movie, the ranger is relaxing at his lakefront home when he sees Tony Cummings walking on a log, then falling into the lake. The ranger rescues Tony and carries him out of the water, laying him down onto a chaise lounge. Because Tony Cummings was not with us at Zaca Lake, Jeff Burton played his role, falling into the water and being picked up and carried out of the water. I can tell you, Jeff was over the moon in Eric’s arms! Eric even wore Jeff’s swimsuit in the scene, which I’m sure Jeff sniffed once he got home.

The movie has a very strong cast, with Kyle McKenna, Tony Cameron, Jake Taylor, Kristian White, Drew Andrews, Kent Burk, Daryl Brock, Matthew Easton, Cody Whiler, Max Grand and Steve Rambo. Working with Eric was everything we had hoped it would be: a multi-year wish come to fruition. He could not have been nicer and always a real pro who didn’t hesitate to apologize when things didn’t run as smoothly as he would have wanted. We took our time, never rushed things, and let him work at his pace, which I know he appreciated. It was very sad to hear the news shortly into the new year of his passing, and I had really mixed emotions when the movie was released. I wish he could have seen the finished product, as his moments on screen reinforced to all of his fans that his handsome face and persona was that of a legend.

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 2008, magazine empire owner Bentley Morris put his 50+ year old company on the market. There were no takers, and what was once called “One of the industry’s leading trade publications” by the Associated Press closed its doors forever. When I was working in the gay adult industry from 1987 to 2006, anyone and everyone in the gay industry read The Adam Film World Guide and its gay spin offs: The Adam Gay Video XXX Showcase, Adam Gay Video Erotica, Adam Gay Video Pictorial and The Adam Gay Video Directory. I’m sure it was the same for the straight industry with all of Adam's straight spin offs: Adam Directory of Adult Films, Adam Black Video Illustrated, Cinema X, Porn Star Annual and others. The magazine empire had a humble beginning as simply “Adam” in 1956, an attempt to tap into Playboy’s market by also covering mainstream films and stars. In 1966, It became The Adam Film Quarterly, then Adam Film World, with monthly publications, and finally the Adam Film World Guide. The publication started the very first adult movie awards with the X-Caliber Awards in 1975, renaming the award ceremony to The Adam Film World Guide Awards in 1981.

The models pleaded to be on its cover and studios opened every outlet when Adam came a-calling. The XXX Showcase spinoff would focus on a movie of the month; they would promote with the magazine cover, center layout and accompanying story. The very best movie stills were always reserved for the publication over all others and it was always a challenge to rip Catalina’s complimentary monthly copy out of any given co-workers hands in order to get a peek at the reviews and layouts. The Adam Gay Video Directory had the most prestige of the spin offs. It was a really big deal for the models and the companies to get the cover of the directory, which was released once a year.

From 1991-1993, John Rowberry was the editor of the gay directory, followed in 1995 and 1996 by Dave Kinnick and Wilder Guyjoy and finally Doug Lawrence, who took over as editor and held the role until at least 2005. Doug Lawrence took control of another series under his watch called The Adam Gay Video Erotica Magazine. The publication chose either a director or studio and featured their movies exclusively. All the top brass were chosen, like Kristen Bjorn, William Higgins, Dirk Yates, Jet Set Productions, George Duroy, John Travis, Gino Colbert, Jerry Douglas, John Rutherford, Chi Chi LaRue and even little ‘ol me.

The Films of Josh Eliot: The Catalina Collection was one of Adam Gay Video’s Erotica series of magazines. I remember when editor Doug Lawrence was putting the issue together, he came by the Catalina offices to pick out chromes from some of my favorite productions. In addition. we sat down with his audio recorder while I gave insights to an array of different movies and models. I wish I had some input into the title, because I would have asked him to cut the word “Films” and replace it with either “Movies” or “Videos.” But I never knew of the title until the copies of the magazine arrived. Doug was a real sweetheart, always very pleasant when he would come by the offices, so I was at ease sitting down with him. He allowed me to pick the movies and models I wanted to comment on, here’s a small sampling of some of the movies and models we discussed.

You’ll notice I included a few pics and comments on Catalina exclusive Matt Powers. Maybe because he has been on my mind lately since he actually just reached out to me last week! Keep in mind, we have not seen nor heard from each other since we worked on Lifeguard on Duty in 1991. He responded to my YouTube trailer postings of Lunch Hour and The Main Attraction. He thanked me for doing such a great job (his words) when I directed him in Lunch Hour. He also said he was very proud of the work he did for Catalina. He lives a very different life in Massachusetts, but it’s great to see that he embraced his career as much as his fans embraced him. Currently in the modern day adult industry, Adult Video News is the top trade magazine and has been going strong since 1983. AVN and its division GayVN host the best award shows, hands down, for both straight and gay XXX entertainment. The ADAM publications, though now obsolete, will always hold a place in history as one of the pioneers and success stories in adult film history.

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.