Whatever happened to Men of Odyssey mastermind Bob East? After a few decades in the adult industry, the executive producer and marketing master of some of gay porn’s best titles and his partner Michael Lavelle have opened American Travel Bureau. East said there are incredible deals out there. He’s working with school groups and planning trips around the Gay Pride events and Super Bowl, and doing special customized tours.
One tour East said he’s fascinated with is a trip to Bavaria for a Passion play that has occurred once every decade since the 1600s.
“We are doing all markets, but of course I want to concentrate on things like the Gay Games, RSVP Cruises, Mardi Gras,” said East, who got his travel agent license only a month ago. “It’s amazing how many people are traveling. I am.”
Find out more about East’s new venture at ATBWorldwide.com.
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Photographer, filmmaker and Lavendar Lounge producer Mark Kleim has a passion for preserving gay porn video. Now his first edition of classics is available on DVD. Vintage Bareback: Hairy Muscle Daddy Collection is available for about $20 at GayDVD.com. Kleim transferred scenes from hundreds of gay porn movies on 8mm and Super 8 film, mostly from the 1970s and in danger of being lost forever.
“I’ve seen a lot of vintage compilations on DVD that were a mishmash of twinks, jocks, leather or whatever just thrown together, often with models on the cover that aren’t even in the films,” Kliem said. “My vintage releases will all be very niche-specific and targeted to buyers who know what they like. I chose ‘hairy muscle daddies’ for the first release because it fits my own personal taste. Later releases will feature all twinks or all jocks or all left-handed albino pygmies.”
Kliem thinks of his efforts as filling a void created by companies that have folded. He said original masters, even in mainstream Hollywood, have been misplaced, destroyed or tucked away in musty warehouses until the film stock degrades to the point of no return. When that happens, history is lost.
“My collection is nowhere near complete, but I feel a duty to maintain this little slice of gay history for future generations,” he said.
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Other quickies:
- Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (Milk) may have backed out of a few porn-related events lately, but he did appear as one of the grand marshals at a few Pride parades around the country. And, most surprising and delightful, he and his new boyfriend visited to Hollywood United Methodist Church, where the minister spoke about Milk in the sermon. I chatted with Black there, and he seemed fine and relaxed and ready to direct his first big mainstream film.
- Self-sucking is always an intriguing art form to catch on video, and one of the classic guys known to do it well is Brian Shawn. He could just lean over and suck himself, and he does it easily in the latest Bijou Video digitally re-mastered re-release of Stop in the Name of Sex. The title, directed by Toby Ross, debuted in 1983.
- Rent Men, which specializes in arranging meetings with the guys you see on video, has an ever-enlarging stable of guys, including Michael Vincenzo, Ricardo Milos, Chad Stevens and a guy only known as Big Russian, who lives up to his name as the pictures on the site show. Visit the website for info about Rent Men’s second annual very dirty Go Go Party at Cock Bar in Manhattan in August.
