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Post by Jack Holman on Jul 19, 2018 15:50:20 GMT -5
Did anyone ever claim to see it in Chicago? They certainly have.
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Post by Dr. Kobb on Jul 19, 2018 18:57:12 GMT -5
Did anyone ever claim to see it in Chicago? They certainly have.
Why is Jesus in a tux? I kid of course. But that is an odd image for that film. I've only previously ever seen the more beatific-looking picture in previous ad-mats for the film.
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Post by Jack Holman on Jul 19, 2018 19:01:15 GMT -5
They certainly have.
Why is Jesus in a tux? I kid of course. But that is an odd image for that film. I've only previously ever seen the more beatific-looking picture in previous ad-mats for the film.
There were quite a few different ad designs for the film. My essay linked in the first post in this thread includes links to all the ads I've personally gotten my hands on. Although in relation to this ad, we technically don't know if this is indeed the same film. It's referred to as 'HIM', not 'Ed D. Louie's HIM'. It could very well be a different film with the same title, although we have no way of confirming either way.
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Post by Deeky on Jul 19, 2018 22:51:56 GMT -5
Why wouldn't Jesus be in a tux?
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Jul 20, 2018 4:19:40 GMT -5
Well, Folks, it seems like the available newspaper archives are starting to snowball, and thru the Wayback Machine, we might be able to find more documentation for how and where Ed D Louie's HIM toured the USA (and, Canada?) Back in 2012, when I searched possible venues for HIM in NYC, Miami, Pittsburgh, and Boston, where there are people on record as saying that HIM played at the South Station Cinema in Boston, the archives of that newspaper were not complete for the years that HIM was in release. Well, if you check out the link below, the owner of the Boston Phoenix, the newspaper that I did check out, in incomplete form on Google News Archives, has donated his collection of back issues to a University, hopefully in complete form which I couldn't get to, in my 2012 surfing of Google's available issues six years ago. library.northeastern.edu/archives-special-collections/find-collections/boston-phoenix-collectionMy time being limited, I will check this link out further as soon as I can, but hopefully, in the meantime, some of you other film detectives might get to this collection, and find an ad for the showing(s?) of HIM at the South Station Cinema in Boston, before I can begin my own search. While I have so far not found any showings of HIM in the Washington DC area, from the archive of the Washington Blade, I have found some things of interest, in relation to the showing of porno films in the US Capital, as well as in the neighboring city of Baltimore, where the porno film exhibitors found a way to evade the Maryland Censor board.
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Post by Deeky on Jul 20, 2018 15:35:29 GMT -5
Apropos of nothing, I also found this will searching Archive.org.
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Post by Deeky on Jul 21, 2018 10:25:57 GMT -5
My essay linked in the first post in this thread includes links to all the ads I've personally gotten my hands on. JFC, I don't know how I missed that essay originally, but I'm downloading it now. Fine work, Jack!
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Post by Jack Holman on Jul 21, 2018 10:31:20 GMT -5
JFC, I don't know how I missed that essay originally, but I'm downloading it now. Fine work, Jack! Hope it's of interest to you. Been almost two years since I started writing it, and over a year since I published the first draft. I must have revised it 20 or 30 times since then.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Jul 21, 2018 13:41:32 GMT -5
I would like to add, that Krakenslayer's pioneering effort, along DoubleU's essay are the two most scholarly Internet sources for those interested in learning about Ed D Louie and HIM to consult, and both have lead to more discoveries about this film and its maker.
With this recent explosion of so many issues of the Washington and SF special audience GLBT community newspapers becoming available, it is an overwhelming and time-consuming chore to read through them, and so far, I have not found much or even anything of use from the Washington Blade search engine, although I have not yet tried the one for the Bay Area Report, if it does have a search engine.
I have however, learned that there were porno films in Baltimore, despite Maryland's censor board, with the porno house owners operating their theaters as private membership clubs.
It would not surprise me if there might have been a few rare, latter day showings of HIM before Video put the porno houses out of business.
Boston After Dark (which source said they reviewed HIM?) and the South Cinema Station ads are probably the next best places to look for showings of HIM, as well as in 1975 Philadelphia, Buffalo, and other of the 50 largest population cities in the New England, Northeast part of the USA.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Jul 21, 2018 15:25:55 GMT -5
My next check for the Bay Area Reporter will be 1977: archive.org/details/bayareareporter?and%5B%5D=1977&sin=I'm still considering the possibility there could have been some latter day showings of HIM. Although the Cinemattachine membership club did not show many if any Hand in Hand films, they did show some "classics" from time to time, meaning older films, and after Him had its first runs, it could have been considered a classic oldie film by the Mattachine people.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Jul 21, 2018 23:14:37 GMT -5
Haven't found any showings for HIM in 1977 at the Nob Hill Cinema. In looking for showings in SF, it could have shown at other houses besides the Nob Hill, and also at the Nob Hill. In 1977, as well as other years, the Nob Hill would sometimes have ads for stage shows, and for films. Did they have two different audotoriums at the same location, or different locations? On the films, sometimes they would advertise in advance how many weeks a coming attraction film would play for. Looking over the Bay Area Reporter, when it had ads for the Nob Hill, and when it didn't have ads, would aid a film detective in knowing when to look for HIM at that house if he or she or it were to get access to the San Francisco Chronicle, if my memory is correct that was the newspaper in San Francisco it was reportedly advertised in as having been shown. Of course how accurate is the memory of the person who reported that in the first place. Also, some issues of the BAR seem to be missing, and all of the porno houses in SF did not always advertise in that newspaper at the same time, so checking other newspapers for San Francisco in the years HIM was in release would be necessary. I'm still thinking that HIM could have possibly played in the late 1970s as an "oldie" although right now I'm very tired of surfing thru the years of 1974-1977. Anyone who wants to start looking in 1978, here is the link: archive.org/details/bayareareporter?and%5B%5D=1978&sin=
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Post by Dr. Kobb on Jul 22, 2018 1:02:49 GMT -5
I don't really have a horse in this race, but I read somewhere (either in this thread, or in DoublU's research paper) that the director Wakefield Poole attended a showing of Him in San Francisco way back when. Well, Poole is still alive. Granted, he's probably pretty old by now, but he might be able to provide more memories or even know of better resources for tracking this obscurity down, having been such an influential member of the gay community back in the day. I know it's a longshot, but who knows? He's not going to be around forever.
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Post by Jack Holman on Jul 22, 2018 2:41:56 GMT -5
I don't really have a horse in this race, but I read somewhere (either in this thread, or in DoublU's research paper) that the director Wakefield Poole attended a showing of Him in San Francisco way back when. Well, Poole is still alive. Granted, he's probably pretty old by now, but he might be able to provide more memories or even know of better resources for tracking this obscurity down, having been such an influential member of the gay community back in the day. I know it's a longshot, but who knows? He's not going to be around forever. I actually spoke with him briefly and included some of our conversation in my essay. He saw it in New York during it's initial run. He was able to provide some information regarding the identity of the director (information that has now, sadly, hit a dead end) and commented on the quality of the film that "it wasn't very good".
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Jul 23, 2018 3:55:07 GMT -5
Next year to check of the Bay Area Reporter is 1979. Then, 1980, and I will stop checking that newspaper, as far as surfing the bi-weekly movie ads goes. archive.org/details/bayareareporter?and%5B%5D=1979&sin=Upon discovering the humongus number of issues of that newspaper are on file, for free viewing, my hopes were greatly raised that some West Coast showings of Ed D Louie's HIM would turn up. So far I have found none, both a surprise and a disappointment. If I could learn how to use the search engine, I would then turn my efforts to searching for names of people connected with HIM, or any mention of the film's title, in all the years the BAR is archived. Then, after gettin well prepared for a lot of newspaper movie ad searching, I might give Newspaper Archive's free one week offer a try, remembering that 48 hours advance notice must be given before the one week is up, or a person going on the free one week offer will be considered a paying member. If I do this, I will look for gaps between the showings in 1975 in NYC, Pittsburg, and Chicago, to see where it could have played between those engagements, as well as looking for showings at the South Station Cinema in Boston in 1974 and 1975. And, I would make a list of all gaps in the Nob Hill Cinema's schedule from the BAR, and look in the San Francisco Chronicle, if Newspaper Archive has that one in their collection. That is the best strategy I can think of, but if anyone can offer a better one, please do so. And, if anyone can put this strategy into action before I do, please do so, and save me a lot of work I'd rather not do.
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Post by Deeky on Jul 23, 2018 9:17:19 GMT -5
If I could learn how to use the search engine, I would then turn my efforts to searching for names of people connected with HIM, or any mention of the film's title, in all the years the BAR is archived. I searched the Bay Area Reporter for any mention of "Louie" since that's a fairly odd name. I think searching "him" would be pointless, as it is too common a word to return any useful results. Same with any other words relating to the film. That said, the only results for "Louie" were for Louie Crew, a noted gay rights activist from that era. I don't believe the film was ever discussed in the pages of the Bay Area Reporter.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Jul 23, 2018 14:25:00 GMT -5
Deeky, thanks for doing the searches. I don't think that Ed D Louie and HIM are really of much, or any interest in the GLBT community today, or even after the Medved brother's book and the years of claims that the film never existed.
I think that HIM is of interest only to a tiny number of film fans and film detectives regardless of their sexual orientation, and as far as lost films go, I find the idea that HIM is a lost film equal in status to that of London After Midnight, as hard to believe.
I've probably said this before, but even if someone today could get the rights to the film, it would have little sales potential, and would be a special burn a DVD upon request item like the films of Something Weird Video.
I do think that, in the mid 1970s, HIM probably did earn a profit, and was a very rare exception that in the USA, porno films dealing with Biblical and church themes were generally losers, for example, The 1950s Nun's Story being titled changed to ??? forget the US re-titling, altho it reportedly sold well in largely Catholic countries.
The bombing at the box office of Wakefield Pool's BC Scandals (title changed from Wakefield Poole's Bible to avoid offending a segment of the US population) is a typical example of this, although I'd say HIM was a rare exception, but I have never seen any reports of box office returns to confirm my guess that it was a success at the box office.
If anyone disagrees with what I've said above, I'll gladly read what they have to say.
It is presumed that Ed D Louie was the director of HIM, but is there really any documented proof of that claim?
On the early David Friedman HG Lewis films, David Friedman ran the sound recorder, for which he claimed the title Producer, and HG Lewis operated the camera, for which he claimed the title of Director.
Could Ed D Louie have been producer, director, and camera operator on HIM? Or was there more sophisticated division of labor on the film?
The newspaper ads are quite sophisticated (hope I'm not over using that word), and a prominent photographer is credited for the photo of "Jesus" in one of the ads.
There is really so much that we don't know about HIM. Along with the presumption that Ed D Louie was the Director of the film, it is assumed that he is now deceased, but I have not seen what his birth and death dates are, if he is indeed deceased today.
As far as GLBT publications go, I would think there could have been ingterviews with Tava, since he had a career as a mural artist, and possibly the guy who played the man obsessed with Jesus in HIM, but as far as we know, he had no other credits, so he probably would not have been of interest to those interviewing porno "stars."
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Post by Dr. Kobb on Jul 23, 2018 15:11:43 GMT -5
For some reason, the director's name sounds like an alias. That wasn't partuicularly unusual back then for porn film makers. I wonder though if it might not be an anagram of the director's actual name? I'll admit, it's a long shot, but "might" be worth looking into.
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Post by Deeky on Jul 23, 2018 15:18:01 GMT -5
Ed D Louis is an anagram of Dildoes U.
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Post by Jack Holman on Jul 23, 2018 15:19:48 GMT -5
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Post by Deeky on Jul 23, 2018 15:21:03 GMT -5
Ed D. Louis could be a tweak of a name like Eddie Louis, or Eddie Lewis or Ed Lewis.
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