SAN FRANCISCO - Athletic Model Guild now is shipping two titles from the original Bob Mizer archives: Theatre Film Classics: Why the Wooden Indian Wouldn't and Theatre Film Classics: Billy Boy.
The Theatre Film Classics line, the most recent addition to the AMG Classics brand, represents a crucial period in gay pornography. During the late 1960s and early '70s, hardcore pornography was in its infancy. Studios were creating explicit "loops" - or short films - for viewing in adult theaters, and audiences embraced the concept. Now-powerhouse studios like COLT and Falcon Entertainment were beginning to rise, and the physique photographers who once dominated the gay nude market were faced with a major decision: continue producing thinly veiled beefcake photographs and risk becoming obsolete, or take a dip in the XXX pool.
"AMG's founder, Bob Mizer, wasn't ready to give up his stake in gay culture," AMG president Dennis Bell said. "He certainly wasn't willing to give up the empire that he built off his still photography, so he gave sex loops a chance. His approach was very old-school, and it didn't work in the new industry. Customers wanted raw and graphic footage. He loosened up and produced some full-on hardcore as well, which we are releasing in a couple of Hardcore Film Classics DVDs, but they still weren't explicit enough to compete."
Mizer's "loops" are the basis of the Theatre Film Classics line. Mizer shot hundreds of the short, plot-driven stories specifically for the few theaters that would show openly gay material. Most of them premiered at Los Angeles' now-shuttered Park Theater on Alvarado Street near the original AMG studio compound.
During a period of about three years, Mizer's films became much more graphic and blatantly homosexual. They were the obvious precursors to the handful of hardcore films Mizer produced a few years later - before he began adamantly denying they ever existed.
"Having only made posing-strap shorts for the previous 35 years, he couldn't keep up with the new graphic style," Bell said. "So around 1974, he quit the endeavor altogether, retreated into his studio and went back to creating nude wrestling and anal erotic films for a small number of private customers. AMG almost completely disappeared from the porn map during those years. Looking back at those first films that flickered on the big screen, today we can see them with a fresh eye. Now they're just endearing."
Billy Boy, at about one hour and 15 minutes in length, has a significantly longer run time than Mizer's signature loops. It was one of the only films of its size and magnitude to be produced by Athletic Model Guild. However, like the five 15-20 minute loops featured in Why the Wooden Indian Wouldn't, Billy Boy was made specifically for the big screen and has not been seen since its theatrical release 35 years ago.
"What's great is hardly anyone in the younger generation has seen them," AMG promotions manager Christopher Trout said. "They were shown a handful of times at theaters like the Park in L.A., and then they were put back in their canisters and stored away. This is the first time people will be able to watch these films in the privacy of their own homes."
Why the Wooden Indian Wouldn't is available both in the AMG Web store and wholesale via Paladin Video Distribution. Billy Boy is available exclusively through the studio's Web store until Jan. 9, when it too will be available from Paladin.
"All you need is a trench coat and some amyl nitrate and it's almost like you're sitting in the Park Theater again - minus the threat of police raids," Fleshbot 's Jonno remarked.
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