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 I remember seeing Val Martin when I reviewed Roger Earl's Born to Raise Hell for the Bijou Video website (a long time ago), and to be frank, despite by BDSM proclivities, quite horrified by some of the action, especially the upside-down flogging scene.  (Now that I've experienced more fully BDSM activities, especially at Chicago Hellfire Club's Inferno, I see that scene as a part of an broad dynamic of pain with peaks and valleys based on an implied context of ultimate trust.) Anyway, Val Martin was pretty much the “uber” leather/BDSM Master. He was the first to make visible “in the flesh” what is now an archetype. Think a recipe of a muscular bearded Tom of Finland type who descends from that ideal leather god heaven and becomes incarnate with sweaty armpits and beer and smoke piss and greasy fists in a sling and the crack of the whip on bare flesh.  Val did seem to descend from heaven (or, perhaps more accurately, ascend from hell), as there is a paucity of information about his personal life. Gay erotic video index actually gives detailed information on him, but so much of it seems like it came from the National Enquirer or some other fake news source. His real name was Val Martinelli, and he was born in Brazil on July 13, 1939. The Brazilian birth may be true, as many Italians emigrated there. Now, here's where it gets bizarre: he was the only boy among 18 sisters, and he got married at age 14, fathering two sons. His list of jobs sounds like something that would appear in a Hollywood tabloid from the 1930s: he was supposedly a stockbroker, horse trainer, medical student, a dancer, and banker. What is fairly definite: he was part owner of the gay disco, The Probe, in Los Angeles, the same disco featured in the film American Gigolo. After making Born to Raise Hell, Val Martin appeared in Fred Halsted's Sextool, where he brutally dominates and fists a sailor. He also had an early prominent role in the 1970 film 10:30 P.M. Monday and was in Wakefield Poole's Moving in a scene with Casey Donovan. Outside of his gay porn career, Val was active in the leather community; he was one of the participants arrested in the now infamous 1976 Los Angeles “slave auction.”  On April 10, 1976, Drummer sponsored a charity event at the Mark IV Baths in Los Angeles that included a mock slave auction with Val as the auctioneer. The Los Angeles Police Department claimed that an actual slave auction was occurring and intervened to rescue the “slaves.” They conducted a deliberately melodramatic raid that included a swarm of policemen, police cars, and helicopters. John Embry, the founder and publisher of Drummer, and others, including Fred Halsted, were charged under an 1899 statute against trafficking in human slaves, a felony. Val was named the first Mr. Drummer by John Embry in 1980, and he also competed in the second International Mr. Leather contest, where he was named as first runner-up.  Val died in on April 15, 1983, like so many during that time, of AIDS-related complications. More than forty years later, the movies Val appeared in remain seminal not only in the history of gay leather and BDSM, but gay culture in its complex journey toward visibility and diversity.  You can find Val Martin's movies on DVD at the links above or watch them instantly on our video on demand site here! |
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