L.A. plays itself/Boys in the sand PDF
Preview L.A. plays itself/Boys in the sand
PRAISE FOR QUEER FILM CLASSICS C “Each book offers a close reading of an underrated film, which i L.A. PLAYS ITSELF / n restores that film to its significance within queer history. The kinds d y of queerness at issue in these accounts are as distinct as the films’ P BOYS IN THE SAND a respective styles, and it is in their powerful elaboration of the t t o relation between the two that the books, and the series, break n new critical ground.” —Film Quarterly Cindy Patton This Queer Film Classic examines two groundbreaking gay films from the early 1970s, both of which exemplify the growing L . A liberalization of social attitudes toward sex and homosexuality . P in post-Stonewall America. L.A. Plays Itself and Boys in the Sand L A were both gay art house porn films released within months of Y each other at a theatre in New York in 1972. L.A. Plays Itself, S I directed by Fred Halsted, is a dark treatise on violence and urban T S squalor featuring hustlers and vagrants that reveals the City of E L Angels’ dark side; Wakefield Poole’s Boys in the Sand, meanwhile, F / is its sunny flipside, about a young man’s sexual adventures at B O a gay beach resort community. Both films represent particular, Y polarizing moments in the early history of the gay movement. S I N Cindy Patton discusses the historical context of these films and T H their legal and social ramifications, as well as other films that E were produced during this crucial period in cinematic history. S A N D Entertainment (Film) / LGBT ISBN 978-1-55152-562-4 $14.95 Canada & USA ARSENAL PULP PRESS arsenalpulp.com LAPlaysItself_Cover.indd 1 14-10-22 1:54 PM L.A. Plays Itself / Boys in the Sand “Cindy Patton tells the story of s gay pornography on its own terms, arguing that the tendency to look back on these works as an archive of condomless sex is to miss what is most interesting about them. A riveting account of gay sexual culture in the ’s from one of our foremost experts in the history of sexuality.” —Heather Love, author of Feeling Backward: Loss and the Politics of Queer History “Cindy Patton, an expert guide to sexual expression in the early s, offers a tour de force overview of the social, aesthetic, and erotic histories of the classics of gay porn films Boys in the Sand and L.A. Plays Itself. Patton does more than open our eyes to an important episode in gay film history; she revives a period alive to the inventiveness of sex and its representations, and she does so in an accessible, witty, and insightful style that makes this a most enjoyable and fascinating read.” —Christopher Castiglia, co-author of If Memory Serves: Gay Men, AIDS, and the Promise of the Queer Past “When a leading writer on the cultural politics of AIDS asks us to take gay male porn films of the s on their own terms as radical visual and political experiments and not simply nostalgic pre-AIDS, pre-condoms sexual representations, we need to pay attention, especially when that writer is Cindy Patton. Her original analyses are revelatory and counterintuitive, rewriting the history of both sex and film.” —Constance Penley, co-editor of The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure “In an era when sexual imagery is a tap away by smartphone, Cindy Patton’s book recaptures the turning point when Fred Halsted and Wakefield Poole ushered in a new form of gay erotic visibility. Influenced by gay liberation, while navigating through a tough social and legal context, Patton shows how these two iconic films paved the way for contemporary visions of how to be gay.” —Barry D. Adam, University of Windsor “Cindy Patton dives into the queer archive to celebrate the sexual culture of the pre-AIDS s gay world. Through her excavation, we’re reminded that the periodicals and porn of that era represent powerful ideas that have not been erased by the requirements of equality.” —Chris Bartlett, Executive Director, William Way LGBT Community Center (Philadelphia) Arsenal Pulp Press | Vancouver L.A. PLAYS ITSELF / BOYS IN THE SAND A QUEER FILM CLASSIC Cindy Patton L.A. PLAYS ITSELF/BOYS IN THE SAND: A Queer Film Classic Copyright © by Cindy Patton All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any part by any means—graphic, electronic, or mechanical—without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may use brief excerpts in a review, or in the case of photocopying in Canada, a license from Access Copyright. ARSENAL PULP PRESS Suite – East Georgia St. Vancouver, BC VA Z Canada arsenalpulp.com The publisher gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts Council for its publishing program, and the Government of Canada (through the Canada Book Fund) and the Government of British Columbia (through the Book Publishing Tax Credit Program) for its publishing activities. Efforts have been made to locate copyright holders of source material wherever possible. The publisher welcomes hearing from any copyright holders of material used in this book who have not been contacted. Queer Film Classics editors: Matthew Hays and Thomas Waugh Cover and text design by Gerilee McBride Edited for the press by Susan Safyan and Kerrie Waddington Printed and bound in Canada Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication: Patton, Cindy, –, author L.A. plays itself/Boys in the sand : a queer film classic / Cindy Patton. Includes index. Issued in print and electronic formats. ISBN ---- (pbk.).—ISBN ---- (epub) . L. A. plays itself (Motion picture). . Boys in the sand (Motion picture). . Gay men—Sexual behavior. . Gay liberation movement—United States—History. . Homosexuality in motion pictures. . Homosexuality and motion pictures. . Gay pornographic films—History and criticism. I. Title. PN..GP .' C-- C-- To the men and women who believe that showing sex is important, even time doesn’t tell. CONTENTS | Acknowledgments | Synopses | Credits | One: Porntasia | Two: Good Gay Porn | Three: Deep Play | Four: Porno Chic in the Porn Palace | Conclusion: To Hell in a Handbasket | References | Filmography | Index ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I want to thank Tom Waugh and Matthew Hays, who hatched the series and convinced me that I ought to write about these films. Tom’s work on gay porn is foun- dational for all research in the area, and Matt’s loving inter- view with Wakefield Poole sets the standard for recovering our queer past. They have been extremely patient in the face of many delays and uncertainty about how classic porn and classic film fit together. I don’t think this book is quite what they imagined, but I hope it nevertheless fits the bill. I also thank Susan Safyan and Gerilee McBride who helped me sort through production issues—these were a little out of the ordinary, especial since the materials I examined were at one time only quasi-legal. Some of the authors used pseudonyms, and a disproportionate number died in the early years of the AIDS epidemic. I have made every effort to identify author- ship and to seek permission from those I can identify as living or as having left their rights to an estate. There are three institutional debts, which also carry with them personal debts. First, to the University of Minnesota’s Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies, which, among many other trea- sures, holds one of the few copies of L.A. Plays Itself on Beta video. My friends and colleagues Beth Zemsky, who helped develop that collection, Richard Morrison, who edited 9
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