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Post by Jack Holman on Aug 29, 2018 8:14:12 GMT -5
Thanks for taking the time to post the ad, Billy. Everything's been updated and shared around as per usual. Excellent work as always!
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Aug 29, 2018 15:45:54 GMT -5
Still got getting paid for business to take care of, which always comes first, but I might have some things to say, and some photo exhibits on The Him Project a bit sooner than I was expecting, possibly tonight.
And, thanks to DoubleU for doing such a great job of Film Detective work.
Unless it's on the Way Back Machine, I don't suppose anyone concerned with the HIM mystery remembers the user name of the poster to AV Maniacs Forums mentioning the film playing at Nob Hill in S.F. in 75-76.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Aug 30, 2018 0:21:07 GMT -5
Two other February '75 screenings that we know of. Chicago, Jan 29th - Feb 11, and Philadelphia, Feb 16/17th - Feb 23rd.
The first ad you found in S.F. Examiner is from February 9th. For the sake of argument, let's be generous and assume the film was actually shown a day or two after this ad, it would still probably be far too short notice to get the Chicago print to the west coast, so logic would dictate that those would indeed have to be two separate prints. The Philly screening on the other hand seems to actually partly overlap with the SF screening. Going on this information, I wouldn't be surprised if the Philly and Chicago screenings used the same print.
DoubleU, while it's perfectly valid for you to assume that the listing for HIM on Sunday, February 9, 1975 at the Nob Hill in S.F. is an advance listing, it is equally valid to assume that the film was actually playing on Sunday, Feb 9, and had been playing for two days, Friday and Saturday, Feb 7-8. As I've previously mentioned, there was very little advertising in the Bay Area Review by the Nob Hill before and after that first S.F. run of HIM, eventually, that theater did become a frequent advertiser in the B.A.R., and would give starting dates and number of weeks the films were scheduled to play, sometimes with full page ads. In fact, in later years, a good bit of the Nob Hill schedule could be put onto a calendar, but that is a project I am in no hurry to do, and would only do so later to see if there could have been a re-run of HIM at that house (or at some other house in S.F. which also regularly advertised their schedule in B.A.R.) The first ad for the Nob Hill I found in the B.A.R. was the issue of Vol. 4, #22, 30 October, 1974, for the film Adam and Yves, on page 15 of that issue, with no starting date given. I have checked the S.F. Examiner for Sunday, October 20, 1974, and the film listed on Page 260 for that date at the Nob Hill is, That Boy, "very limited" engagement. In the Sunday, October 27 issue of S.F. Examiner, on page 285, Adam and Yves is listed as playing at the Nob Hill. One question would be, how long before the front cover date of October 30, 1974, did that issue of BAR go on sale? I did find one piece of evidence, photo attached, that in at least one case, Thursday was the last day for a film to run at the Nob Hill, with the new film apparently opening on Friday. This was in the S.F. Examiner of Sunday, January 12, 1975, with the Nob Hill listing of Wakefield Poole's Moving and Parade playing, "ends Thursday, January 16." Until we can find a seven days a week newspaper with ads for the Nob Hill (possibly the S.F. Chronicle?) before the opening and after the closing of HIM, we can't say for certain that HIM opened on February 7, the Friday before its listing of Sunday, February 9 and had its last day on Thursday, February 20, before the Sunday, February 23 listing of SUR playing at the Nob Hill, but it is a possibility we need to consider. I've looked over this post for possible typo errors because with so many dates of the months, and days of the weeks, things are hard to keep straight. I hope I've caught any possible errors and corrected them. Attachments:
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Aug 30, 2018 0:28:14 GMT -5
I would have thought that the Nob Hill Cinema would have closed decades ago, but did a quick net search, and found out that it was open until sometime this month, August 2018, the owners having retired and sold the building. To get onto other issues involving HIM and where it played, how about Ottawa? Although I have not found any ads on the movie ads page for this house, the Vanier Mini Cinema, and a net search turned up nothing, it was listed in a classified ad in the Ottawa Journal of January 14, 1974, on page 37. Gettiing the schedule for this house if possible, is another challenge for us Mature, Adult Film Detectives. Attachments:
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Aug 31, 2018 23:41:26 GMT -5
No word from Billy A Anderson in a day or two, but after doing his for pay computer jocking, this week, he has continued to to surf old newspapers on the net. But, in the last post, a more recent newspaper story is of interest to readers of this thread: the closing of the Nob Hill Cinema in San Francisco. Here's a link on the story and the nice looking elderly couple who ran the house for five? decades? Maybe they remember Ed D Louie's HIM playing at their house, and any of you other ZAQBers might want to wish them well, in their retirement, and possibly ask them if they remember Ed D Louie's strange and mysterious film. Here's the link to the story, which, in my Google search, turned up a lot of other stories, some people considering the Nob Hill Cinema as an historical landmark, comparable to that piddly little brothel S***** L**** that was closed in 1969 and burned in the 1990s. www.ebar.com/news/news/262173/nob_hill_theatre_to_close_in_augustAnd, while I devoted last night to putting my ear buds into my ears, and listening to the instructions of how to use the search engine of newspapers.com, I still can't figure it out, and am just playing it by ear, and have gotten great results on two really intriguing mysteries I have wondered about for many years: Brother Dave Gardner's Major Misunderstanding with the Atalanta police Department for possesing too many amphetamine pills, which Larry (Best Little Whorehouse In Texas) King incorrectly ID'd as 1962, but actually happened in 1959. Also, the woman who predicted the End of the World for March 15th, the kids at school incorrectly telling me March 16th, of 1965. Got her name and details to further pursue this mystery that I have long wanted to solve. So, my investment in newspapers.com has paid off and will continue to pay off until it expires. Right now, I don't know if it will get more results with the search for playdates of Ed D Louie's HIM, because I think we need to check some newspapers not on newspapers.com, such as for Denver, Colorado, which I distinctly remember a saturation booking for a film playing across the USA (as far as the small scale of all male cinemas goes), in a listing in Tyler and Brad's or was it Brad and Tyler's Guide to GLBT publications, which, sad to say, I lost in one of my computer crashes. That house in Denver obviously needs to be checked for any possible showings of HIM. And, with that discovery of Canada's movie houses where HIM could have played, I am also wondering if Newspapers.com might have some French language newspapers with listings for HIM playing at those houses.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Sept 1, 2018 14:17:52 GMT -5
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Sept 4, 2018 23:56:21 GMT -5
OK, fellow ZAQBers who are interested in what Film Detective Billy is now doing in his relentless search for playdates of Ed D Louie's HIM:
I have now turned my attention to Ottawa in Canada, and Boston in Massachussets in the USA.
I put Ottawa on hold and spent tonight on Boston, the Boston Globe,being the only daily newspaper I can find.
Supposedly, Him played at the South Station Cinema in Boston, but I years ago, on Google, I could only get the Boston Phoenix for years after HIM was initially released, and I do remember that the South Station Cinema usually moved their porno films, straight and gay to another location after the first week run to make their runs two weeks at two different locations.
I do remember the Art 1 & Art 2 theaters, and wonder if that could be the house the South Station moved their films to for a second week run?
I've run into some interesting things.
While I can't find any ads for the South Station Cinema in the Boston Globe, I have found ads for the Art 1 & Art 2, their program changing on Wednesday of each week, one house being straight the Art 2, one being all male, the Art 1.
In a net search I did, I found out that sometime in the mid 1970s, there was apparently a censorship problem, and the South Station Cinema had switched from hardcore porno to soft core erotic films.
I started my search of the Art 1 & Art 2 On Thursday, June 6, 1974, when the art 1 was showing Jack Deveau's Drive.
Well, on Wednesday, June 26, the Art 1 & Art 2 were playing general release films. Golden voyage of Sinbad and Shamus at Art 1, and Arnold and Williard at Art 2.
So, that was apparently when the censorship problem in Boston started.
Now, the question is: did the censorship problem, which was eventually solved, with the South Station and Art 1 & 2 returning to hard core porno films, happen after, or before, the first run of HIM in Boston?
HIM ended its NYC premiere in May of 1974.
Could HIM have played in Boston after that at the South Station Cinema, or the Art 1?
Or, could another print of HIM also been playing in Boston before its last day at the 55th Street Playhouse in NYC?
I'll investigate this further, and find out if HIM did play at the Art 1 before the censorship problem started, although it might have played only at the South Station Cinema or the Art 1, after the censorship problem had been cleared up.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Sept 6, 2018 2:49:02 GMT -5
Did you seriously ask if we all remembered "some guy" that was your hookup for vhs eurosleaze decades ago?? Choco, aftter some recent readng on Shock Cinema I think was the Webpage, I found a link to Eurpoean Trash Cinema, which I now think was the outfit i got that copy of The Hellfire Club from. Since they are still in business I am going to check to see if they have an original French version of Summer Heat.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Sept 6, 2018 10:20:31 GMT -5
I'm not going into a lot of details, but in April of 1974, the Obscenity laws of MA (I get the red underlined spelling error, so I'm just using the abbreviation) were declared invalid by a court.
After years of "hardcore" porno being shown in that state, the "censorship" problem that guessed had occurred, with the Art 1 porno house dropping the porno and showing general release films, was due to a new Obscenity law passed by the state of MA sometime before that change occurred, altho other houses continued to run "softcore" X rated films.
Apparently the operators of the X rated movie houses were scared that if they continued showing hardcore porno, they could be arrested and put on trial for showing hard core.
If there were any arrests and trials, I would guess that the theater owners were found not guilty, or possibly the new law could have been overturned by a court decision.
Maybe I (or "we", used in the editorial sense), will eventually find out what happened, but on my check of usual opening day for new films of September 3, 1975, it was back to Porno As Usual in Boston, with one of the Railroad Station Cinemas, the No. (North?) Station Cinema, with 3 screens, showng The Newcomers, which I think was called the first porno musical, and China Girl, as the second feature.
The No. Station cinema would run a 2 col display ad in the Boston Globe every Wednesday, although I couldn't find any ads for them on the other 6 days of the full week that I did check.
Remember that it was at the South Station Cinema that HIM was reported to have played. So far no ads for that house, but I'll continue to surf the Boston Globe, time permitting (gotta get to work tomorrow, for a bigger pay check, as usual).
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Post by Deeky on Sept 6, 2018 10:25:26 GMT -5
(I get the red underlined spelling error, so I'm just using the abbreviation) Usually, if you right click where the red line is a correct spelling will be suggested.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Sept 6, 2018 15:08:53 GMT -5
Thanks for the tip, Deeky. I will give it a try and if it works on my computer, use it in the future.
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Post by Deeky on Sept 7, 2018 23:31:14 GMT -5
Thanks for the tip, Deeky. I've heard that a million times.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Sept 12, 2018 22:31:36 GMT -5
No new real discoveries to report on HIM, except that I did click on the link to Vinney's page in memory of Tava, and Vinney lists HIM with the title addition "The Sex Life of Christ," which we had discussed awhile back.
Don't remember the exact part of the page it was on but it would be fairly easy to find by anyone interested enough to look.
I suppose since he has seen the film in a movie house, maybe that addition was included with the title as it was projected on the movie screen.
I'm still looking for more cities and movie houses where the film could have played.
I would think that New Orleans should be checked out, but have not been able to find any newspapers for that city.
Also, as with Miami, I have been surprised not to have found an LA showing of HIM in that city.
I'm getting all of my notes organized in an attempt to find out exactly where to look next, and have also saved to my desktop, Tyler and Brad's index to GLBT publications of the 1970s, which I lost in a computer crash years ago, with much other data, as I have previously mentioned.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Sept 15, 2018 16:00:20 GMT -5
I have come across some real oddities in surfing newspaper ads for movie houses that showed Ed D Louie's HIM. I think I've mentioned it previously, but one of the oddest I have come across is the Stag and Doe movie house which featured Le Gay Cinema on one of its screens. This house used quite a few gimmicks to lure patrons, such as senior citizen and military discount ticket prices. One thing I found confusing, is that when titles of the films were given, I could not tell which ones were gay and which were straight. Muscleman (or was it Musclemen?) Motel (I think it was Hotel in other ads) was a title listed at a number of straight houses. I think, in all of the countless ads for the all male houses, Summer of 72 was in some of those ads. It's really confusing, and I'm wondering if the outfit that created the gay films archive that DoubleU has used in his studies of EDL's Him, also has a straight films counterpart? I remember many years ago a porno webpage called RAD which had a Gay and a Straight film index. I have no idea if RAD is still around, and even if their list could be considered a film archive? Mix and Match Musclemen, Muscleman, and Hotel and Motel, and you could probably come up with titles for number of films on the gay archives index, but what I want to do is to find a straight films archives to confirm my guess that the film in the ad for the Stag and Doe about Musclemen Motel was a straight film. Ads below are from Palm Beach Post of 18 January and 14 March of 1973. Attachments:
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Oct 7, 2018 22:32:38 GMT -5
Well, fellow ZAQBers, it's been awhile since I've updated this thread. I've had some photos to post, and have procrastinated, simply because I am so lazy (like Wet Wille, born in a Georgia town with a natural lazy streak), and because doing film detective work is itself a very boring task. First thing I'll do is address the possibility of HIM being shown outside the USA, one Australian film student saying it could have played in that country. Don't know if he's still interested in the film and / or if it would be worth contacting him or not. My basic search on newspapers.com is (197--) HIM, all male cast. This search brings up a lot of entries, and in a Sydney, Australia newspaper, I found a listing for a Jean Genet film, that might even have been rated PG. I looked over the newspaper schedule of small listings, and didn't find HIM, listed, only the Genet film. With Austalian censorship being strict, if it did play in that country, I'd think it would have played in a private club, as was done in Maryland, and in the UK. This ad is from the Sydney Morning Hearald of May 15, 1976, page 43. Attachments:
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Post by Deeky on Oct 7, 2018 22:40:13 GMT -5
I'm 99% certain that's a play, not a movie.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Oct 7, 2018 22:45:05 GMT -5
In an earlier entry on this page, I mentioned reports of HIM being shown in Ottawa, Canada, and a classified ad I found for the Vanier Mini Cinema, titled "Men, Men, Men." Now, what could that have meant? Again, it turned up in my 1974 check of HIM all male cast. Would that title of the ad mean the Vanier showed "all male" cast films, or was it just an attraction to get men to see straight porno films? I'm re-posting that classified ad, and also a 2 col display ad where the Vanier program, with Daisy Chain as the feature film, is included in what appears to be a straight house with stage shows called the Bodee, this ad being from the Ottawa Citizen of July 11, 1975. Daisy Chain is a film title of both gay and straight porno films, but after looking over some other ads, it appears to me that the Vanier showed only straight films, although that might have changed later on, or maybe it started out as an all male house and changed to a straight house. There was so much change with porno theaters, which I'll get into reporting on, but this Lazy Lonely Dreamer has done enough work on these 2 posts to tire him out for awhile.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Oct 7, 2018 22:49:58 GMT -5
I'm 99% certain that's a play, not a movie. Deeky, you could very well be correct on that one, although in checking IMDB, there was a film version of "The Maids." Despite my laziness, I'm going to start a special thread Called something like Deeky's LA Times Goodies, with sections of that newspaper's adult entertainment pages.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Oct 8, 2018 11:17:33 GMT -5
Now, to get to the more Serious Business of an amateur (not one token dollar for all this work!) film detective. My strategy of starting the search for playdates of HIM with places on the list of 50 largest population cities in the USA, according to the 1970s census, was good, and has gotten results. However, I have found, with my newspaper searches, that all male films also played in cities not on the 50 largest list. I'm rather ignorant of American geography as well as demographics (to get pretentious, rather than simply saying "populations") but even before beginning this project, I knew that the explosion of movies showing porno films spread all across the country, and in some small towns, the only movie theaters were showing porno, although one such house in South Carolina did have a "kiddie" show on Saturday. How big a population did Binghampton, NY and Naugatuck, Connecticut have in the mid 1970s? Can't remember how many movie theaters there were in Binghampton, but Naugatuck had only one house showing general release films, and the other was a porno house. I'm attaching an ad from the Binghampton Press-Bulletin, of January 8, 1975, for the Art Cine, porno house, with several things of interest. One is the film, Mrs. Harris' Cavity, introducing Chesty Morgan, probably best known for being in the Doris Wishman films, which were not hard core porno films. Did Chesty do any porno? I know that Uschi Digart and some other actresses of X rated films, refused to do porno. That title, Mrs. Harris' Cavity, is a real ding-donger, and I am surprised to see it, instead of "title censored," or "title unprintable," as was often the case with porno film ads. Now, look in the lower left corner for an even bigger surprise. The Art Cine is having an all male films late show on Friday and Saturday nights. By 1975 straight porno houses in quite a few smaller towns were doing test marketing of gay films, with varying results, although from what I've seen so far, the exhibitors in many cases apparently found out that the GLBT population in those smaller towns was not enough to make running such films on a weekend late show basis or even seven days a week late show, profitable. Attachments:
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Oct 8, 2018 21:15:18 GMT -5
Below is an ad for the Mountain View Cinema of Naugatuck, Connecticut, from the Naugatuck Daily News of Wednesday, October 30, 1974, page 12, the two col ad for their straight porno films, which have an announcement that Friday, November 1, 2 all male films will be on their late show, also on Saturday. The one col. ad for that double feature is also posted below. The same double feature played on the late show the following week, and for a week or more when the house went to having the all male late show seven nights a week. This went on for awhile, with the all male films eventually being dropped from their program. During that time, I did not see any ads for Ed D Louie's HIM. Attachments:
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