LOS ANGELES—Legendary director Scott Masters, who founded Studio 2000, Nova Studios, and In Touch magazine — and pushed the boundaries of what it meant to publish male nudity — died late last year in a nursing home in Bloomington, Ill. He was 86.
Masters, whose real name was Bill Sheffler, also worked under the names of Robert Walters, Ken Albert and Robert Stephens. He is credited with helping launch Catalina Video with William Higgins, as well as discovering Jeff Stryker and other porn legends with his co-director John Travis.
He was inducted into the GayVN Hall of Fame and given Legend awards by the Gay Erotic Video Awards; placed on the Wall of Fame by the Grabby Awards in Chicago; and he was the first recipient of any gay awards show at the Gay Producers Association of America in 1984.
"I'm sorry to hear of his passing, he was truly a pioneer in the adult business," said former porn star Chad Donovan, who was inducted into the GayVN Hall of Fame in 2005, and performed in many movies for Masters, as well as worked as production manager for Studio 2000 from 2003 until 2006 when they sold the company to Falcon. "He was very meticulous about getting the acting and the B-roll just right and would spend days shooting just that. He also loved telling stories about gay life in his movies."
In 1965, Masters helped push the boundaries of publishing male nudes—when the obscenity laws were getting ridiculously specific about photographing the tumescence of an erect penis— even though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that male nudity wasn't obscene. The U.S. postal inspectors considered distribution of the photos a violation of federal obscenity laws and in 1972 in Texas he was slapped with obscenity charges and received a one-year suspended sentence for distributing pornography, with three years on probation.
But, that didn't stop Masters, who published more than 500 soft and hardcore male magazines and then went into video production.
"I was familiar with Scott Masters's work long before I met him," said director Kevin Clarke, based in New York. "I remember one of his early Nova films, I lost count how many quarters I spent watching it. His work was something I emulated, he was a terrific director, but his true genius was as a producer. He understood that you had to spend money to make money, but he never wasted a dime. He was one of those that risked everything early on and survived. For that alone he deserved his place in the Hall of Fame."
Masters helped develop the careers of gay industry superstars such as Joey Stefano, Adam Hart, Ryan Idol, Jon Vincent, Ken Ryker, Rick Chase and many more. His first full-length movie was Greek Lightning in 1973 under the name of Robert Walters for Nova. In 1992, he co-founded Studio 2000 with John Travis, who died in 2017.
Studio 2000 won multiple awards after hiring Jerry Douglas (who passed away earlier this month) to write and direct Dream Team, and he also won awards for many innovative marketing campaigns as well as for their international line.
Performer Kevin Kramer, who appeared in many Studio 2000 movies, said, "Bill was very into the details of every script. He was always making sure we acted it and recited it the exact way he wanted until we, as actors, captured the character the way he wanted us to, and that makes great director."
Kramer and Donovan were nominated for Best Oral Scene in the studio's Nights in Eden.
On a personal note, Kramer also performed in Studio 2000's Playing to Win, which is the only gay adult video that was written by me, Mickey Skee. While on a trip to Chicago with Masters and Travis to visit their on-location shoot In Man's Country at a notorious bathhouse, I told Masters about a personal tryst I was having at the time with a closeted professional baseball player.
"Write it up for me, and we'll make a movie out of it," Masters suggested.
I did, and Playing to Win came out in 2002, with some adjustments to the script rewritten by Masters himself, which I didn't mind.
As always on the set, Masters shot the dialogue, acting and B-roll, while Travis shot the sex. Many times, they bickered, usually about costs of locations, or time the other was taking shooting their portions of the video. People said they acted like brothers.
"They were like two old women, or an old married couple, often bickering at each other," laughed Donovan, who spoke to Masters last after Travis died. The inseparable duo lost touch with each other when Masters moved from his Palm Springs area home to Illinois, where he had family and was facing failing health.
Donovan, who even rode a horse in Masters's movie Raw Hide shot on a ranch in Lake Elisnore, remembered once when police arrived at the set because they didn't have proper filming permits, and Masters said, "You better handle it, I don't think it would be a good idea for me to get involved." (Masters was convinced the police still had it out for him during his four decades of adult work.)
Clarke added, "His joining with John Travis in Studio 2000 was a marriage truly made on Santa Monica Boulevard, (where they had offices). He was tough, brilliant and got the job done. His work is a must to study for all young filmmakers."
Notoriously shy and shunning the camera, Masters often would say, "Focus on the models, they are the ones who you want to see." Yet, he created an awards show for the gay industry because it was otherwise forgotten (it was before AVN gave out gay awards). So, with other producers, he helped create the short-lived Gay Producers Association of America, and received one of the first awards. A proliferation of other shows soon replaced them, and many of the shows became fundraisers for AIDS causes.
Former porn star Sonny Markham only worked for Masters and Studio 2000 after debuting in Mavericks and said, "I alway felt comfortable with them, they took really good care of me. They found me dancing in a club in Chicago and I didn't know anything about porno, so I put my trust in them."
After he retired, many of his photographs and model releases were archived. The ONE Archives in Los Angeles has 70 feet worth of boxes, a total of 45 archive boxes, eight flat boxes and two shoe boxes.
On a personal note, Masters always loved showing off his miniature Christmas village that he displayed and collected for decades. He once had a house near Palm Springs dedicated only to that entire collection.
"I don't know what happened to all that," sighed Donovan. "But he was a character."
Scott Masters and Jerry Douglas after finding out they won Best Gay Feature at the GayVN Awards for Dream Team.
Photos by Mickey Skee
