SAN FRANCISCO - Athletic Model Guild has released two classic collections on DVD. Both Theatre Film Classics: Bike Shop Trade and Theatre Film Classics: Teacher's Pests comprise compilations of 10- to 15-minute "loops" originally released to gay porn theaters in the late 1960s and early '70s.
Since their theatrical release almost 40 years ago, the films have been tucked away in the AMG archives. AMG recently restored and re-mastered the works.
The six short films presented on Bike Shop Trade present examples of the typical guys that showed up at AMG's front gate during the studio's early days: hoodlums, runaways, felons and the generally curious. AMG favorite Ramon Gabron (also known as Ross Judd) appears in full sailor garb with Paul Fox in Professor's Sailor, cover boys Richard Monroe and Billy Hamilton appear in the 1969 epic Bike Shop Trade, and Nevada Smith shoots his gun in a solo loop. Also included are Jealous Cowboy, Desert Thieves and The Marine & the Mexican.
The models in the second collection of six films may be a teacher's worst nightmare. Bad boy Jay Howard shows just how bad he is in the title feature, Teacher's Pests. Real-life boyfriends Steve St John and Eddie Dancer star in After the Party's Over. The DVD also includes Strangers in the Park, a look into the then-future in Love 2001, and solo posing films from models JJ Kent and Richard Thayer, who was filmed in the early days of legal male nudity.
The DVDs celebrate and document the iconography that emerged from the late Bob Mizer, whose work has been praised as some of the most influential gay photography of the 20th century. His photographs and films have been cited as inspiration for the work of such contemporary artists and photographers as Bruce Weber, Robert Mapplethorpe and David Hockney.
"Of course we've gone through all of the material in the collection, but there is quite a bit that hasn't been seen by the public since it was released at L.A.'s Park Theatre," AMG president Dennis Bell said. "Other parts of the collection haven't been seen by anyone outside of the company. We are taking these gems and remastering them to bring out the richness of color and fullness of the old-style sync-sound."
The Theatre Film Classics line has allowed AMG to send Mizer's classic male studies into customers' homes. Each DVD contains 70 minutes of content, film still galleries and rare intermission reels.
Both Theatre Film Classics collections are available at AMG's online store. Bike Shop Trade will go on sale in brick-and-mortar stores on Sept. 28, and Teacher's Pests will be available at retail outlets Nov. 19.
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