Choconado
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Post by Choconado on Aug 13, 2018 16:38:36 GMT -5
I can't promise I'll be quick, but as our "man on the street" in SE Michigan, I can try to investigate the Detroit findings.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Aug 13, 2018 16:48:47 GMT -5
Choco, as a lazy, laid back beetle bailey type, and a devout procrastinator, take as long as you want to investigate the Detroit findings which I'll probably get posted here by midnight or sooner, or later, depending on what kind of a mood I am in to Wilt to Do.
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Choconado
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Post by Choconado on Aug 13, 2018 17:23:01 GMT -5
Well a quick half hour of searching gave me some info on the Wood-Six theater. "1" presumably meant "theater 1" as in, the male films theater.
First it technically isn't in Detroit. Here's the thing about Detroit...unlike many major US cities, it's a massive, urban sprawl of a city stretching for miles. Even more noteworthy is that it's surrounded by small "satellite cities" that are separated from the main metropolis by merely a road as a border or whatnot, and to outsiders, it's easier to just say many of them are still Detroit, despite having different governance. Highland Park is one of these, and is the location of the Wood-Six (Not to be confused with another now defunct theater, the AMC Woods Six). It's location on Woodward Avenue, just off of Six Mile Road (Technically its corner is the small street of Geneva), its location was the former city bank, when towns had incorporated banks. In fact, the logo announcing thus remained on it throughout the theater's life (I can't find much information, but it was still in operation as late as 1993). Highland Park in the 70s apparently had a bit of a porn theater renaissance, as there were MANY adult theaters in a very small area, practically creating a red light district that was apparently actively supported by the mayor at the time, who would hold lunch meetings at one of the local strip clubs. This causes some confusion in porn theater historians online, as many seem to associate the address with the "Krim Theater", a theater a block away that opened as a legit movie house in the 40s, only to be sold off in the early 70s to join the many adult venues, much to the lament of the good Mr. Krim, who did not have the foresight in his contract of sale of the building to forbid the continued use of his name. (Today that theater is greatly renovated and is now a Tabernacle) The Wood Six was a two story small theater, with a screen for each floor--the male films shown on the ground floor in theater 1, the hetero/female films upstairs in theater 2. Apparently in the 70s and 80s, this theater was known for much more than the movies they ran, as they would have live performers on hand during their screenings-first listed as mere "go go dancers" only to later be known for giving semi-private dances and more to patrons if the prices were negotiated right. Also the male theater was notorious for drug deals of all stripes as well as drawing in the gay crowd. By the 90s, with the internet slowly killing the theater business, it apparently got grimier and grosser, without dancers and whatnot. I'm not sure when in the last 25 years, but the theater is no more, and now it and its sorta connected building are two adult oriented businesses--a "Deja Vu" brand strip club, and an "adult book store" called Uptown Adult Books. Google Maps confirms that the structures are still two stories in height. I find myself wondering if any of the old theater records or whatnot might still be in storage on the premises?
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Post by Jack Holman on Aug 13, 2018 17:53:55 GMT -5
Yikes, that's a lot of info. Some good detective work there, Choco. Well done.
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Post by Jack Holman on Aug 13, 2018 18:48:47 GMT -5
Just a fun little tidbit. Browsing through a Village Voice issue (April 18th, 1974 to be exact) I came across an interesting ad on page 77. It seems to be for a play which a Google search shows is based on a 1927 book. Interesting title, almost makes me wonder if the film was trying to cash-in on the name, although I kind of doubt it. Still, the fact that this was playing at the time when Ed D. Louie's Him first opened is interesting none the less.
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Choconado
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Post by Choconado on Aug 13, 2018 18:49:00 GMT -5
Quick update: Uptown Books got back to me quite quickly and politely on facebook. Turns out the business wasn't renovated, it was full on torn down and replaced. Also, Deja Vu has been closed for two years due to being found guilty during a prostitution sting.
I'll try to search local newspapers some time soon. The next city over's library has a pretty large archive it seems. I doubt the weeklies Deeky posted will have anything, they started too late, though they're still in full circulation today, but the other two, and possibly Ann Arbor rags will have stuff from the mid seventies. Believe it or not, this is not my first rodeo for this type of research.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Aug 13, 2018 22:52:56 GMT -5
Thanks for the posts, Choco. That is a great piece of detective work you have done, and it has added a lot to this thread.
DoubleU, I don't think I had seen that ad for the HIM stage play before.
I've cropped the photos of the Atlanta and Detroit ads, and it's possible I can get them posted here on the board sometime after midnight.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Aug 14, 2018 0:07:19 GMT -5
Time to update my findings with the photo evidence, on the Atlanta and Detroit showings of him. Atlanta is first, two weeks at the Gay Paree theater, March 17-30, 1975, with the new films opening on Monday. All photos of ads are from the Atlanta Constitution. Following two photos: Ad for Sunday March 16, 1975, page 110, final day of the show that ran before HIM opened. Ad for Monday, March 17, 1975, opening day for HIM, page 19. Attachments:
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Aug 14, 2018 0:11:20 GMT -5
Second week of HIM begins in Atlanta. Ad from Monday, March 24, 1975, page 20. Ad from Sunday, March 30, 1975, page 114, final day of HIM on its two week run. Ad from Monday, March 31, 1975, page 19, new show folllowing him.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Aug 14, 2018 0:22:06 GMT -5
Now we will go to Detroit, where HIM played one week, April 16-22, of 1975 at the Wood Six 1 theater which Choco has so greatly given us the details of. All ads from the Detroit Free Press. First ad is from the show that preceded him at the Wood 6 # 1, with the new films opening on Wednesday, this one from Wednesday, April 9, page 59 I cannot find any ads for the final day showings at the Wood 6 1 & 2, for Tuesday, April 15 Wednesday, April 16, page 53, ad for opening day of HIM. Tuesday, April 22, I again could not find any ads for the final day of the weekly shows at the Wood 6 1 & 2 Wednesday, April 23, page 28, ad for new shows at the Wood 6 1 & 2.
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Post by Jack Holman on Aug 14, 2018 6:46:06 GMT -5
Fantastic work as usual, Billy. I've updated my essay and made the new revision public. As with the Philly screening, I've taken the liberty of posting the ads and sharing the news around the usual circles. Being able to state with some confidence the existence of two prints is a pretty big break in the case.
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Post by Deeky on Aug 14, 2018 7:44:21 GMT -5
Now we will go to Detroit, where HIM played one week, April 16-22, of 1975 at the Wood Six 1 theater which Choco has so greatly given us the details of. All ads from the Detroit Free Press. It's interesting that they used the same pic for all three ads.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Aug 14, 2018 12:22:50 GMT -5
Fantastic work as usual, Billy. I've updated my essay and made the new revision public. As with the Philly screening, I've taken the liberty of posting the ads and sharing the news around the usual circles. Being able to state with some confidence the existence of two prints is a pretty big break in the case. DoubleU, thanks for the post. I think it's good that you noted the Wood Six theaters were in Highland Park, although they advertised in a Detroit newspaper, as was pointed out by Choco. A lot of large urban areas in the USA, New York, Detroit, Miami, and, I forgot about another one, do have delineated (if that is the right word) communities (Boroughs in New York, for example), that add to a large population area as well as geographic area that can be, and often are called by the name of a single city. I suppose these communities might be said to fall under the umbrella of the larger city. This could lead to complications in selecting which newspapers to check. For example, Washington DC and Baltimore Maryland. We've got free access to the Washington Blade, which does include ads for a Baltimore movie membership club. The Blade, just like the mainstream newspapers, often repeatedly uses the same picture in the ads, sometimes giving movie titles and dates, other times not giviing the titles. I could not find any showings for HIM listed in the Blade, but would checking mainstream Washington DC newspapers, as well as Baltimore newspapers, add anything, something, or possibly even nothing, to what we can find out from the Washington Blade ads? And, New York City had other newspapers, than the Times. I noticed that despite the 1960s - 1970s explosion of porno movies advertised in The Times, a lot of exploitation fims did not advertise in the Times. David Friedman, in his biography, says that the strict NY State censor board did not give him any problems distributing Blood Feast, and it brought in big crowds in NYC, but I never saw any ads for that film in the Times, and if the Times were the only New York newspaper a peson read, they would not even know that Blood Feast existed. Same with some exploitation films that were reviewed by NYTimes (the Radley Metzger distributed I Spit On Your Grave (1963), the name of the house that film played in was given by the Times reviewer, but there were no ads for that film in the Times. At the present, as good a resource as newspapers.com is, I still can't find the Miami Herald, or newspapers for Several key cities in Texas, New Orleans, Denver Colorado, and of course, San Francisco and Los Angeles. I'm going on too long with this post, so I'll stop now. There are many complications in finding ads for showings of HIM.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Aug 14, 2018 13:02:04 GMT -5
PS to Last Post. For the present, I will concentrate on Honolulu. I have started in January of 1975, and have so far not found any showings of HIM, and if I don't find any showings at all of the film, it won't surprise me.
I think I'll go back to March of 1974, thru December of that year, to see if it could have played there on its first run.
I'm not expecting to find any more showings of HIM anytime soon, due to the situation with the lack of newspapers available on newspapers.com, although what has turned up there so far has been very useful to us Film Detectives.
I did not join newspapers.com solely and exclusively to do Film Detective Work on HIM, although that was a main reason.
But there are many, many other things I want to check out, on other topics having nothing to do with motion pictures.
I will say, that for those who can afford it, newspapers.com seems to be like a message board, where people can post profiles of themselves, and their interests and share what they find with each other.
But, not being wealthy, that is a luxury I cannot afford to indulge in, and six months, will probably be enough time to check out the main things I am interested in.
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Post by Deeky on Aug 15, 2018 11:49:10 GMT -5
Not sure if we're duplicating work on this, but I did go through all of the 1974-1977 issues of the Washington Blade. I found occasional ads for Southwest Cinema Club, Cinema Follies Club, Metropole Cinema Club, Mark II, and Le Salon, but none listed Him as playing. Some ads featured no titles, others had titles and images. (See below.) 1977 issues also featured separate ads for Cinema Follies Club Baltimore and later Pittsburgh and Atlantic City.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Aug 15, 2018 19:32:30 GMT -5
Deeky, while you are looking over stuff I looked over, thanks for telling us about it and posting those ads. You can post things that I might have missed.
And, while I don't know of the Follies ever showing HIM, there could always be an exception.
I know in the Ads the Follies was said to be the largest Gay movie theater chain, although I didn't see all that many locations listed, but that could have been only for the Northeast USA.
I'll check and see what other locations they had houses in.
I had forgotten that they had a house in Atlantic City, another place for me to look for showings of HIM. And, also how about Las Vegas?
While I had noticed the Metropole ads, I didn't remember that one you posted.
One very important thing to do is find a review of HIM when it was shown at a house that did not advertise it as Ed D Louie's HIM, those showings so far being in 1975, and that Data-Boy review of HIM was from a 1975 issue.
Now, how can we find that issue of Data-Boy and the review of HIM in it?
While I doubt that the ads that simply said "HIM," without using Ed D Louie's name were for a copycat film, confirming this with a review of the film when it was shown at a house without Ed D Louie's name in it, is a necessity.
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Post by Deeky on Aug 15, 2018 20:20:44 GMT -5
One very important thing to do is find a review of HIM when it was shown at a house that did not advertise it as Ed D Louie's HIM, those showings so far being in 1975, and that Data-Boy review of HIM was from a 1975 issue. Now, how can we find that issue of Data-Boy and the review of HIM in it? NYPL may have a copy. MSU may have one, too. Not sure how close Choco is to them. Other library locations here. There is an incomplete set of the magazine available for $279 here. Found this cover from 1973:
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Aug 15, 2018 21:05:39 GMT -5
Deeky, I have seen that magazine cover before, and none of us would want to pay that much, even for the March, 1975 issue with the review of HIM in it.
Also, Deeky, thanks for adding the links, which I have clicked on.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Aug 15, 2018 21:09:23 GMT -5
The site I used to find the listings for the rest of the films was gayeroticvideoindex.com [NSFW, obviously]. While looking for the rest of the films, I figured it might be worth seeing if they had a listing for Him. Sure enough, they did: gayeroticvideoindex.com/V/6/53586.htmlA few things struck me as interesting. Firstly, the page lists the distributor and studio behind Him as 'Fantastic Films', not Hand-in-Hand. The listing on the site for Fantastic Films turns up nothing other than Him. The page lists actor 'Ron Travers' in the role of the main (non-Jesus) character. Again, his page brings up nothing other than 'Him'. The page lists several scenes, including a few not mentioned in either David Tipmore or Al Goldstein's reviews. The page cites three sources for this information: 1. Pete Dvarackas. "Gayflicks" Gay Times #19, 1974 pg. 22 (Review) 2. Bruce King. Gay Scene Vol. 4 No. 12 May 1974 pg. 15 (Review) 3. Data-Boy No. 114 Mar. 12, 1975 pg. 17 (Review) I haven't come across any of these articles before in relation to the film. The page also lists Gustav Von Will (AKA Tava) under the name 'Tava von Wilo', which I'm thinking is probably just an error. I'm not sure how any of the new info presented on the page holds up, I guess I'd have to take a look at those articles to find out. I haven't been able to turn up anything in searching for them, but I've emailed the webmasters over on the site to see if they can provide me with the relevant scans. Deeky, here is the post where DoubleU mentions that review of HIM in the March 1975 issue of Data Boy.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Aug 15, 2018 21:13:23 GMT -5
The site I used to find the listings for the rest of the films was gayeroticvideoindex.com [NSFW, obviously]. While looking for the rest of the films, I figured it might be worth seeing if they had a listing for Him. Sure enough, they did: gayeroticvideoindex.com/V/6/53586.htmlA few things struck me as interesting. Firstly, the page lists the distributor and studio behind Him as 'Fantastic Films', not Hand-in-Hand. The listing on the site for Fantastic Films turns up nothing other than Him. The page lists actor 'Ron Travers' in the role of the main (non-Jesus) character. Again, his page brings up nothing other than 'Him'. The page lists several scenes, including a few not mentioned in either David Tipmore or Al Goldstein's reviews. The page cites three sources for this information: 1. Pete Dvarackas. "Gayflicks" Gay Times #19, 1974 pg. 22 (Review) 2. Bruce King. Gay Scene Vol. 4 No. 12 May 1974 pg. 15 (Review) 3. Data-Boy No. 114 Mar. 12, 1975 pg. 17 (Review) I haven't come across any of these articles before in relation to the film. The page also lists Gustav Von Will (AKA Tava) under the name 'Tava von Wilo', which I'm thinking is probably just an error. I'm not sure how any of the new info presented on the page holds up, I guess I'd have to take a look at those articles to find out. I haven't been able to turn up anything in searching for them, but I've emailed the webmasters over on the site to see if they can provide me with the relevant scans. The webmaster got back to me: "I personally don’t have access to this material. It is available at One Archives in Los Angeles. www.onearchives.orgThe data came from a volunteer working there who passed it on to me." Guess I've got another email to write. Deeky, this is the post where DoubleU gives a link to an archive where those 3 magazines above are supposed to be. As I mentioned in a previous post, I did do so suirfing of that webpage, and to fully utilize it requires a registration and password, as far as I know without having to pay any fee. What I did see was an inventory with lists of boxes of materials that had been donated to the archive.
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