- ISBN13: 9780786720101
- Condition: USED – VERY GOOD
- Notes:
Product Description
Hardcore porn—both the straight and gay varieties—entered mainstream American culture in the 1970s as the sexual revolution swept away many of the cultural inhibitions and legal restraints on explicit sexual expression. The first porn movie ever to be reviewed by Variety, the entertainment industry’s leading trade journal, was Wakefield Poole’s Boys in the Sand (1971), a sexually-explicit gay movie shot on Fire Island with a budget of $4000. Moviegoers, cele… More >>
Bigger Than Life: The History of Gay Porn Cinema from Beefcake to Hardcore
Tags: american culture, Beefcake, Bigger, Cinema, entertainment industry, explicit sexual expression, fire island, from, Hardcore, History, inhibitions, legal restraints, Life, moviegoers, Porn, porn cinema, sexual revolution, Than
#1 by Thomas Desimone on April 16, 2010 - 6:13 pm
This book is merely facts and snippets of interviews all lifted from previous books, articles and other’s interviews. Some of the facts are questionable at best and many of the persons quoted are not even living anymore so there’s no way of verifying these quotes. You won’t learn anything you don’t already know if you have any interest in this subject.
Rating: 1 / 5
#2 by WAM on April 16, 2010 - 8:25 pm
This book was selected by others for our book club. Well put together. Somewhat pedestrian style, but not bad. It helps if you know a lot about gay porn (I don’t). There are some real revelations about the porn industry in general, the lives of some of the “stars,” the intricacies of the business. Written with a decent sense of humor. I really enjoyed the segment on the Mineshaft bar in NYC.
Rating: 3 / 5
#3 by Ranch Hand on April 16, 2010 - 8:47 pm
I found this book to give an excellent overview of the gay porn industry from the sixties to the present. It did seem to focus a bit much on certain production companies (AMG in the early days and Falcon in the eighties and nineties), while ignoring or peripherally mentioning others such as Colt Studios and Titan Media. Likewise with certain of the gay subcultures with thug porn getting a separate chapter but absolutely no mention of the bear subculture. This may be due to just the wide range of gay porn out there, or might be a result of too much reliance on Manshots, that may have had its own internal biases, as a primary source of information. All in all though, this is an important history and record of an aspect of gay life whose importance and influence is often overlooked or minimized.
Rating: 4 / 5
#4 by Larry Lingle on April 16, 2010 - 9:24 pm
I had a special interest in Jeffrey Escoffier’s book as I fairly much by chance started a gay bookstore in Dallas, Texas, in 1974 and rode the wave of the gay porn business for years. While my wave crashed in 2004, after reading Escoffier perhaps I got out at the right time considering the changed market from selling the product in person as opposed to the internet. All the characters that cross his pages are familiar from names on video boxes to friendships with such interesting persons as Richard Lawrence and Drew Onkon (Al Parker) – one story not in his book was told to me by Drew about selling the masters of his Surge Studio films to a certain “business man” in Las Vegas. If I were to point to any omission it would be from the view of the gay retailer such as myself. How my partner and I had to fly out of state for merchandise because of strict state laws, how we had to travel to San Francisco (a great sacrifice I know) to acquire Falcon 8mm films via Le Salon’s then owner, and having to use a friend in the military in southern California to pick up videos from William Higgins. But his book does fill in a lot of blanks (such as who was known as the Black Budda) from my perspective.
Rating: 4 / 5
#5 by Scott E. Lopriore on April 17, 2010 - 12:04 am
Gay Porn is an interesting counter-culture subject. I have read many books about the Gay Porn escapades. Basically the book by Wakefield Poole, bio on Casey Donovan and Al Parker; to the tragic story of Joey Stefano. This book is a perfect work to read.
The author executes subjects in gay porn in perfect timing. From the 60s of Andy Warhol’s movies, to Wakefield Poole’s classic BOYS IN THE SAND, then on to the development of FALCON and other production companies, gay-for-pay, and directors who process their own style. What got me thinking is how the author explains the difference between GAY PORN SUPERSTAR and GAY PORN STAR. There are many many GAY PORN STARS right now with the increasing demand of porn and internet, BUT there isn’t a SUPERSTAR. I would have liked the author to talk about KRISTEN BJORN. Even though he is quoted in the book in certain areas, BJORN has his own style of gay porn which is unique and, I feel, artistic. This is an easy read, not boring at all. Buy this book!
Rating: 5 / 5