Film Detectives: Serious, Mature Adults Only

[Billy A. Anderson]

Deeky, I made some notes when I searched thru Tim's long, long list of publications, of video catalogs, and various magazines that might have coverage of Mr. Louie's HIM, so if you want my list, I'll type it up for you.

For some film researchers of limited means, a year's membership in Tim's archive might be expensive, but his rates are not all that high, and seem reasonable (as Bobby Astyr said to Marlene Willoughby in Outlaw Ladies, about her prices for rim jobs).

Also on that list, one line only is BJ Land, a free for viewing blog.  The only result I got for HIM on the search engine there was a mid to late 1970s magazine (which Tim in Vermont might have in his archive), and this magazine was obviously not a promotional one for Mr. Louie's now lost film, although if it was in existence while HIM was  in release, I suppose it could have been reviewed there.

As far as searching for Mr. Louie on "social media," background checks, I have found all kinds of inaccuracies in doing searches on my friends and family, so I would be very wary of what might be found of Eddie Louie, dba Ed D. Louie, Chung Louis, and other alleged names of the manager of the 55th Street playhouse.

[Deeky]

No thanks. If I were to join it would be for an unrelated project.

[Billy A. Anderson]

Jan 27, 2020 11:24:50 GMT -5 Deeky said:

No thanks. If I were to join it would be for an unrelated project.

Fine with me, Deeky.  Just Do What Thou Wilt.

[Deeky]

Thanks for giving me permission.

[Jack Holman]

Hello everyone.

It's been quite a while since I've posted here, or on any of the various hubs containing info on 'Him'. Been busy with other projects, graduating etc. Happy to say I was recently contacted again by filmmaker Sam Ashby who has been hard at work with his own research, doing a lot of leg work that would be more or less impossible for me to do from behind my desk. He's given me his blessing to forward his findings to this forum, for as he so rightly pointed out, us film detectives are all in this together. I'm re-posting verbatim [with any bold text being my additions] a large section of his latest email to me. I've also taken the liberty of replacing the deadname of an individual who has publicly transitioned in the time since this email was written with their initial. I'm sure you'll all agree there's some pretty big breakthroughs here.

"Last summer I made contact with Joe Rubin over at Vinegar Syndrome, who is an expert on “all male” movies and has a lot of them in his collection (though he hasn’t released any of them citing their lack of commercial potential). He has heard of him, but is quite dismissive of it, suggesting that it probably wasn’t particularly good example of the genre, and stating that 20% of all “all male” movies on film are lost.

Joe put me in touch with his friend Martin Brooks (who uses the pseudonym '[redacted for privacy reasons]’ Facebook), another expert on porn movies. Martin told me that he had noticed the photo credit Valerie Brown on the HIM Village Voice ad [December 2, 1974] and had found Valerie online through her website [www.valeriebrownphotos.com/]. She replied, and even had the original negative for the shot and sold the image to Martin. He sent me a small image of it [imgur.com/a/RfRvmgW]. The subject is Mike Foldes, her friend who Valerie gave Martin his contact information. Martin gave me both their contacts and I sent them emails. Valerie had this to say:

"I must say I do not recall anything about the film. Eddie Louie lived in my loft building in Soho and he may have done filming there. The picture that Martin purchased is of Mike Foldes and I’m not sure if Eddie asked me to shoot it for ad or if he used a photo I already had.”

I made contact with Mike Foldes. He told me the correct spelling of Ed’s surname: Lui. I called him and we spoke for a short while. Here are the highlights:

—Mike tried and failed to track “Eddy" down in Hawaii "some time ago”.
—Mike owns an artwork by Ed [imgur.com/a/Q5Cy328], pen and ink on silk.
—Eddy was a multi-disciplinary artist.
—Eddy was bisexual.
—Eddy was cynical about religion.
—Mike didn’t know what the film was about, until after it was already in production.
—Mike didn’t recall being in the film, and if he was doesn’t think it would have been a speaking part. He says he was doing a lot of drugs at the time which might be why he doesn’t remember.
—Mike, Valerie and Eddy were friends from Columbus, Ohio and moved to New York together.
—Mike is the man in the advertisement, but he says the photo was taken in a house in Columbus Ohio before they moved to New York. This would corroborate Valerie’s memory that Eddy might have chosen a photo she had already taken to promote the film.
—Eddy was Chinese, spoke with an accent but was articulate in English
—Mike believed an artist called Thomas Fichter would know more, and might have even appeared in the film. (I contacted a Thomas Fichter in Brooklyn, but he tells me I had the wrong one)
—Eddy moved to Hawaii because he was tired of the New York scene and din’t think it was worth staying around for. Mike thinks he may have had family there.
—Mike thinks he saw the film more than once. He thought it was "kind of dragged out” and long but he liked the idea a lot. He didn’t consider it gay porn. He thought that if he had had more of a budget it could have had a bigger run and really shocked people. The thesis of the film wasn’t just about being gay, "it was philosophically and theologically bigger than that.”
—Mike only really remembers the scene of Christ dragging the cross.
—I sent Mike the image of [an] Ed Lui from LinkedIn page I found and he said he believes that it is his friend.

Martin Brooks sent me a review for HIM from HUSTLER magazine. They give the film a limp dick rating, but are quite complementary about it in the short text (imgur.com/a/yzBLWFt).

I also made contact with E. Purchell, another gay porn historian. E. runs the Instagram account Ask Any Buddy [www.instagram.com/askanybuddy/] and has an impressive collection of films and related ephemera. E. sent me a couple of things of interest. One is an advertisement for a screening of HIM at the French Quarter All Male Cinema in Houston, Texas on Friday, August 29 (imgur.com/a/OpIAlaC). The year is not on the ad so I need to follow up with E. on that [the Friday, August 29 date would suggest 1975]. Another is an obituary for the gay porn star and director Christopher Rage, which lists HIM among films he had appeared in. This is particularly interesting because Christopher is an important figure in gay porn history. (imgur.com/a/h94xDyY)

E. was doing some research at the ONE Archives in LA and came across a model release form (imgur.com/a/hm30N3u) that Tava had signed for a 1987 video called GOODJAC TOO! [www.gayeroticvideoindex.com/V/2/10272.html] [bijouworld.com/DVD/Goodjac-Too/Page-1-10.html - includes nudity]. Tava doesn’t look to be one of the main credited actors and I haven’t managed to find a full copy yet, but hopefully this means we will have some footage of Tava if HIM never shows up.

I met with Vincent Parillo, who was a real character! He gave sent me an amazing collection of images of Tava’s artwork which I might hold back from sending for now as there is a lot of it! I interviewed Vincent on camera so can send something over once it’s edited a bit.

So, ultimately quite a lot of good information which adds some more details to the narrative, but I think the biggest lead is the correct spelling of Ed’s surname..."

I've personally done some digging on Ed Lui now that we know the proper spelling of his surname, and it's possible that between Sam and I's research that we've found the man himself, although I'm understandably hesitant to post any identifying details until I'm certain we have our man. I'm in the process of preparing an updated version of my essay to include the above information which I'll be posting to my site ASAP, but I felt these forums should be the first to know.

[Billy A. Anderson]

Thanks for the post, DoubleU. I fully agree with you that these are Pretty Big Breakthroughs. My own feeling, based on a post to Cinema Treasures stating that a friend of the poster claims to have seen a trailer on VHS for HIM, in the early 1980s, is that a search of trailers might be were part of the film might be found, even if the entire feature film remains lost.

And, I have not written off the possibility that the film in the Kinsey Institute could still be there, and just misplaced.

You, and Sam, and Krakenslayer, and all those people that know something about this mysterious film, and have told what they know, as you also stated in the post above, are a part of the large number of people that collectively are solving the mysteries of Ed D Louie and HIM.

[Billy A. Anderson]

DoubleU, in relation to artists, I have recently joined Deviant Art, which has more artists, and more subject matter than I ever would have thought existed. I am still a rookie on that web page, and most of the time have no idea of what to look for.

Nextime I do log into Deviant Art, I will see if Thomas Fichter is a member there, but again, how many artists might there be, with that name?

I was not surprised that HIM played in Houston, Texas, and I did check a perpetual calendar(which I am sure others did), and August 29th was on Friday of 1975.

Sorry to say that newspapers.com only lists two Houston newspapers: The Houstin Post, 1912-1952, and The Jewish Herald, 1908-1911.

But, it is possible that newspapers.com could list 1975 Houston newspapers in the future, as they have done with The Charlotte, NC Observer, whereas their previous listings for Charlotte newspapers were  many years pre-1975, but now have the Charlotte Observer listed well before and past 1975 up to the present.

I would think the ad for the Houston showing would have been from a specialty GLBT newspaper of the kind listed in Tyler Alpern's and Tim in Vermont's physique photos archive.  As I said in a previous post, I did go through Tim's humongous listing of publications which might have had ads for, and reviews of HIM, and will eventually compile a list of which publications I found of interest there, especially film catalogs from the VHS era, in which that poster to Cinema Treasurers mentions a friend of his seeing a HIM trailer, assuming his ID of the trailer is correct, might be listed.

Back to the Charlotte, NC Observer.

This would probably not really be of use, since the Astor Art (that quaint last word, and "The Carolinas' Most Unusual Theater," being dropped from their logo sometime during the porno era), which, on February 9th of 1984, showed their last Straight program, and the following day went to a policy of All Male films.

I would think by that late a date, HIM would not have been in release, but there are sometimes unlikely surprises to be found in doing Film Detective work.

Needless to say, now that with the Charlotte Observer available, there are quite a few hardtop and drive-ins showing obscure films that I will now be able to check out.

To (possibly annoyingly) repeat myself, I think the most likely place where some part of HIM might survive would be in trailer compilations.

[Deeky]

[Billy A. Anderson]

OK, Deeky, so a (ro?) bot, posted that ad to Twitter.  Do you think that Twitter would be of any use in possibly finding HIM, or any part of that film, such as a Trailer,or a sequence in a compilation film, which is what my Sixth Sense tells me that looking among such sources, is more likely to have some remote chance of producing results?


I thought I had signed up for Twitter, so I though I'd check it out, and I went through my Jumbo Notebook with more names of all kinds of message boards, I have joined, thinking I had joined Twitter, but it was instead Tumbler that I had joined, and have no more found of any use in my Great Work in Life, than I have from being a member of Linkedin, which I am seriously thinking of deleting my account with.


In fact, I might even go thru my list of web pages and posting forums, and my user names and passwords for those net places, and post them here.


In many cases, I have written down the names of these places, but the user names I signed up under, along with the passwords are in notebooks of my day to day aimless wanderings thru this Veil of Tears.


Do you, our Roughshod Rimmer Web Master (I did notice that term, Roghshod Rimmer in looking over Twitter, as well as the flag which is now next to all of us members' names but so far, none of them, that I have clicked on has taken me to any members' Twitter pages.  Are many, if any ZAQB members,. also Twitter members? 

[Deeky]

Jun 10, 2020 19:15:02 GMT -5 Billy A. Anderson said:

Do you think that Twitter would be of any use in possibly finding HIM, or any part of that film, such as a Trailer,or a sequence in a compilation film, which is what my Sixth Sense tells me that looking among such sources, is more likely to have some remote chance of producing results?

No.

[Billy A. Anderson]

Right now, I will be wrapping up my searching the Final Days of the Astor Art House, in the Queen City of Charlotte, North Carolina, for any possible latter day showings of Ed D Louie's HIM, which I think highly unlikely.

The Astor's days as an All Male house couldn't save it, and I haven't gotten yet to the ads where they operated 24 hours a day, and offered their patrons free coffee and donuts, apparently to no avail.

In less than a year's time, they returned to straight films, the new ones opening on Mondays, but that couldn't save the Astor either, and not long after that, the house was sold to an owner who leased, or rented it to the First Church of the Last Chance, but they got behind in their monthly payments.

I hope some people did Get Saved there during that time.

As seen on Cinema Treasures the Astor was restored to its former glory as an opulent Palace (or was, since it's been a long time since the photo was posted there), called The Neighborhood Theater, and the area has apparently undergone Urban Renewal, if that term has not yet passed into antiquity.

(Pauline's Brothel in Bowling Green Kentucky fell victim to Urban renewal, and I know I've said before that other property owners in her neighborhood claimed she was given preferential treatment by the local authorities she had the needed connections with to openly operate her illegal business for so many years).

[A3Amboy]

Apr 22, 2020 12:51:27 GMT -5 Jack Holman said:

I met with Vincent Parillo, who was a real character! He gave sent me an amazing collection of images of Tava’s artwork which I might hold back from sending for now as there is a lot of it! I interviewed Vincent on camera so can send something over once it’s edited a bit.

So is Sam Ashby actually making a doc about Him (or the search to find it)?

[Jack Holman]

Sept 3, 2020 5:47:23 GMT -5 A3Amboy said:

So is Sam Ashby actually making a doc about Him (or the search to find it)?

He's talked to me at decent length about the prospect, although I'm not sure there's much I can divulge that I haven't already posted. I don't thing the project is exactly set in stone just yet, it is still very early days, but things are looking promising.

[Deeky]

I hope he interviews Billy.

[Billy A. Anderson]

Deeky I told Mr. Ashby I really didn't have anything to add. so no need to interview me. By posting Al Goldstein's review of the film, I sataisfied one of our members on Mesmerize that the film was real, and also the people on Snopes who claimed that there were no reviews of the film.

I think Mr. Ashby and others are far more capable to learn more about Mr. Louie and his strange film, and I've pretty much done all I can do to help assure that film history on this film is accurately recorded for future generations.

[A3Amboy]

Sept 3, 2020 7:24:34 GMT -5 Jack Holman said:

Sept 3, 2020 5:47:23 GMT -5 A3Amboy said:

So is Sam Ashby actually making a doc about Him (or the search to find it)?

He's talked to me at decent length about the prospect, although I'm not sure there's much I can divulge that I haven't already posted. I don't thing the project is exactly set in stone just yet, it is still very early days, but things are looking promising.

Thanks.  I've been mildly obsessed with this film since reading about it.  I'm a gay (and gay themed) doc filmmaker and have thought about doing something on it now and then, but if Sam is working towards it, then that's great and I'll look forward to seeing it.

Great info on here.  A doc I was in the middle of shooting has been suspended until 2021 thanks to COVID, so I have been rekindling old obsessions while being under house arrest.  I hope everyone is staying safe!

[Dr. Kobb]

Jun 8, 2020 16:41:27 GMT -5 Deeky said:

Is that a printing glitch, or does Jesus have a little sparkle in his eye?

[Jack Holman]

Sept 3, 2020 15:49:28 GMT -5 Dr. Kobb said:

Jun 8, 2020 16:41:27 GMT -5 Deeky said:

Is that a printing glitch, or does Jesus have a little sparkle in his eye?

To quote The Golden Turkey Awards, the book that brought this film into the public eye (no pun intended), "The ads for the film show the face of The Savior (with a cross glistening in one eye)..."

[Jack Holman]

Sept 3, 2020 15:24:18 GMT -5 A3Amboy said:

Sept 3, 2020 7:24:34 GMT -5 Jack Holman said:

He's talked to me at decent length about the prospect, although I'm not sure there's much I can divulge that I haven't already posted. I don't thing the project is exactly set in stone just yet, it is still very early days, but things are looking promising.

Thanks.  I've been mildly obsessed with this film since reading about it.  I'm a gay (and gay themed) doc filmmaker and have thought about doing something on it now and then, but if Sam is working towards it, then that's great and I'll look forward to seeing it.

Great info on here.  A doc I was in the middle of shooting has been suspended until 2021 thanks to COVID, so I have been rekindling old obsessions while being under house arrest.  I hope everyone is staying safe!

Hope you're staying safe too, bud. And hope your doc comes out alright! I'd love to check out your work sometime.

[Dr. Kobb]

Sept 3, 2020 16:10:01 GMT -5 Jack Holman said:

Sept 3, 2020 15:49:28 GMT -5 Dr. Kobb said:

Is that a printing glitch, or does Jesus have a little sparkle in his eye?

To quote The Golden Turkey Awards, the book that brought this film into the public eye (no pun intended), "The ads for the film show the face of The Savior (with a cross glistening in one eye)..."

Thanks!  That makes sense.  Would you recommend the book?  It appears to get decent ratings and is available used on Amazon for as low as $4. 

So, folks have been searching for this missing flick for a solid 40+ years now?  That does not bode well, but never-say-never!  I was flabbergasted at the news item from a few years ago, where long thought lost Dr. Who episodes turned up in a warehouse in I think it was Nigeria?