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Flashbacks

by cedric on Oct.24, 2008, under Flashbacks, Jamie wingo, Jon King, Ron pearson, chi chi larue, j Brian, leo ford

J. Brian’s “Flashbacks”
I was reading the Gay porn times news blog today and there was a piece about the re-release of a J Brian movie from the seventies. This brought back a memory which I had forgot about. My almost first porn movie. Funny how you think about the decisions that could have changed your life and who was there with you at the time. It was a Sunday night in 1980 and I was at the Endup with my friend’s Tyrone and Wayne. Tyrone was one of the MC’s at the Endup’s famed Jock strap contest. On this particular night they needed judges for the contest and it meant free cocktails so my friend Wayne and I were up for the gig. You know at the time we never refused a free drink. I was 21 years old at the time and I guess what you would call a twink. Tall skinny and cute but I sure did not know it or think so at the time. We will get to that later.

Well I had one to many cocktails that evening and I guess you could say that I was over served. Well the contestants in the contest were all cute twink types and it was fun looking at all of they’re cute little butts while they danced to the loud disco music. The ones that I remember were Jamie Wingo and Ron Pearson who both latter went on to do porn movies. Yes I said movie’s, porn was on film in those days. The fact that Wayne is hung like a horse and he would have been a great porn star and I’m not hurting in the dick department either is what almost got us both started in porn. What was funny is that this guy was lurking in the toilet checking out all the boy’s as they took a piss. Wayne and I thought it was funny that he was staring at us while we took a piss. We soon found out why and had a good laugh about it. We were being auditioned and did not even know it.

During the contest there was this guy running around and handing out his business cards to all of the cute boys in the club including Wayne and I, the same guy lurking in the toilet. This guy was named J. Brian. At the time I had no clue who he was so I asked my friend Tyrone who this guy was. Tyrone said he was a porn director. Now at the time I was young and the thought of fucking on film did cross my mind but the repercussions totally out weighed the benefit. I think we all had fantasies of doing porn but my major concern was what would my parents have thought about it. Me and Wayne both giggled about it and said there was no way we would ever do porn.

So I decided against it when J.Brian offered me $500.00. Funny thing is J. Brian was determined to get me in his movie so he came back and countered my refusal with a offer of $1,000.00 to which I told my friend’s Tyrone and Wayne and they both said don’t do it. So I told J. Brian no again he countered with $1500.00. I was a little drunk and I laughed at him and said no again to which he said he would give me the $1500.00 and an all expense paid trip to Hawaii. I told Tyrone about the new offer and that I had never been to Hawaii .Tyrone took J. Brian’s business card from me and tore it up and told J. to leave me alone. Funny thing is I have still not been to Hawaii nor have I done a porn movie and I reallty do not Drink anymore.

Now unbeknownst to me J.Brian did convince a couple of the contestants to do his movie. Jamie Wingo and Ron Pearson signed up to do the movie as well as Leo ford who was Jamie’s boyfriend and another friend of mine Guy whose porn name I can not remember Guy dated Cory Monroe at the time. I did not know that they were going to do the movie and I did not find out about it until J. Brian came back to the Endup to promote his new movie Flashbacks. So I asked Ron about it and how much he got paid for it and Ron told me $500.00, I told Ron that he should have held out and told him what I was offered. Needless to say Ron was a little pissed, I jokingly told Ron that if he needed me to be I would be his agent.

Now what is really sad about this story is that so many of my friends are now all gone. So I guess that is why I tend to block out big chunks of that time period. It is kind of painful to think about the fun we had and not be able to laugh with your friends who were there with you. I lost track of Jamie Wingo, last I heard he was living in LA, Ron Pearson died of AIDs complications in 2001, I had just seen Ron 2 months prior to his death and he was the picture of health. We had dinner together with a former boy friend of mine Michael. Michael also dated Ron after we broke up. Ron saw me talking to Michael and asked me who he was. I asked him if he wanted to meet him and he said yeah so I set them up. I introduced them on Halloween at a big “Gift Center party” in 1984. They went out for several years. I have not seen Michael since Ron died and I hope he is still with us.

Leo died after getting hit by a truck on his motorcycle while I was in LA visiting Tyrone who moved there with his lover Rick. Tyrone passed away in 1994 of AID’s complications after he and Rick moved back to the Bay Area. It was a very hard time for me but I am dealing with it much better now. Tyrone lived in the same apartment complex as me and we saw each other every day and it was great having such a good friend around. He and I would play video games constantly and get stoned on the good weed that he would get to stop the nausea from the AID’s drugs. When he passed a large chunk of my life went with him. Rick just disappeared after Tyrone died. Like Michael I tried to stay in touch but they both just disappeared.

I decided to look up J Brian on the Internet and there was not much information about him other than the fact that he was murdered. The movie Flashbacks’s was the start of the careers of several porn models and was based on the Endup Jockstrap contest. Funny how you tend to forget such pivotal moments in the history of porn. I am not sure why seeing that J. Brian story brought out this memory flood but I thought that I would write it down so I could share it with you all. I guess that whole six degrees of separation thing is true. Every one is connected by at least six degrees. Jamie Wingo helped Jon King get his start in porn with the help of David Forrest.

I meet Jon King in 1985 after he and Tyrone became friends. We became fast friends and we had allot of the same friends. One thing that is funny is that I did not see the movie Flashback for several years after it came out and when I watched it, it was a total trip. Tyrone and I laughed about that night at the Endup when these boys got their start in porn. He also told me that could have been me in that bad movie. Yes I will admit it was not the greatest movie or maybe it was just a bad video copy I really can’t remember because I only saw it once and did not really pay that close attention to it.

Now it would almost be like a home movie because it was full of my friends. Maybe I will look for it and get a copy and go down memory lane. The one friend of mine during all of that time who I still see is Wayne. We had a big laugh the last time I saw him at a good friends 50th birthday party. Because we are all headed for the big 50 this year and most of our close group of friends who are still with us have already crossed that threshold or will be in the near future.

Since being there at the beginning of the porn careers of a few legends in Gay Porn I have meet several other porn stars and the one thing that they all had in common was that they were all kind of shy in groups which I just thought was funny. How could they get naked and fuck on film when they could not even walk up to a guy that the thought was cute. Ron said that it is just a way to escape who he was and to act out his fantasies. One thing that they all told me about porn was that it was work and not really all that sexy.

Most of the scenes that were shot took hours to film and what you saw on film or Video was all editing. Do this for 20 seconds do that for another 20 seconds and so on and it would all be edited together and some parts would be replayed multiple times. Every time you see a different camera angle it means a cut in the action. These cuts in a video mean that you stop and wait for the camera’s to be reset and the lighting to be changed and you could take a break until they are ready for you. Have you ever noticed that allot of the guys have this hard time busting a nut? Well it is because they have been worked like dogs. Porn is not pretty until it is edited. The real stars in the porn or even the movie industry are the editors.

Oh yeah I forget to tell you all who won the Jock Strap Contest. Ron Pearson did and I think the first prize was $100.00 which was a good chunk of change in 1980. I think in the movie it was Leo ford who won the contest I really can’t remember though. I miss all my porn star buddies and just hope with all of the new bareback production that none of you will have to go through what I went through during the dark ages of the AID’s pandemic. Like Chi Chi says wrap it up. Stay safe and live a long life.

This is Elmysterio and I’m out.

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Fag Fridays is moving!

by cedric on Oct.12, 2007, under Ron pearson, clubs, coming out, endup, the trocadaro transfer

Well it looks like another San Francisco Institution is moving to a new location. Fag Fridays is moving from the legendary Endup at 401 6th street @ Harrison in San Francisco to a new location @2935 16th Street(Between Mission and South Van Ness),San Francisco, Ca.

This Friday October 12th that is the last day there and they will be moving to new digs.

I can tell you this that I remember the Endup fondly from the many years that I went there. I can remember the first time that I went there. It was one of the first bars that I went to when I finally admitted that I was gay. I will tell you this I was terrified and I hid in the back and watched what was going on. I was 21 and really had no clue as to what to expect. But the music helped me overcome my fears and I hit the dance floor. Just like the Trocadaro Transfer I met some lifelong friends who share so many of the same memories. There are so many interesting stories that I could tell you all about the Endup.

This is the same club where Ron Pearson was discovered after a jockstrap dance contest where I was a judge. And if you wanted to know Ron won the contest that night. I being a judge was given free drinks for the night and needless to say I took full advantage of them.

This is a flyer for they’re

Grand opening at their

new location

That was also the same night when I almost started my own porn career. Needless I was stopped by a good friend from going that route. I was so drunk that night that a friend drug me out of the club and we chilled in his car till we sobered up enough to go back in the club. take a wild guess where we went after the endup closed, if you said the Trocadaro you would be correct. and wer were back at the Endup sunday moring for “Sunrise Church Services” yes I was a wild child in my youth and I still can be a bit wild to this day. Just a little more responsible thats all.

Here is a flyer for they’re next event

afer the opening of theyr’re new location.

Maybe in another post I will go into more Endup stories. So if you are in San Francisco tonight you might want to pop by for a cocktail and a twirl. It should be a good time and I know the music will be hot.

This is Elmysterio and I’m out

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30th Anniversary party for the Trocadaro Transfer.

by cedric on Oct.09, 2007, under Gay Pride, Ron pearson, San Francisco, remember the party, sprint, the trocadaro transfer

The year was 1977 and being gay at that time was just not that cool and I was not even out of the closet yet. But things were changing fast and San Francisco had their first openly gay supervisor. It was also the year that Dan White shot and killed the Mayor, George Moscone and the first gay supervisor, Harvey Milk.

So picture this a scared 18 year-old young man goes to a gay dance club for the first time with 4 of his straight friends. We had just watched “Saturday Night Fever” and disco was the big thing. We heard about this club from a friend from High school. He said it was really fun and the crowd there was outrageous. It was a new club and it was so exclusive you had to be a member or you had to know someone to get in. Our friend told us all about it and said he could get us in if we wanted to go. So we decided to go. This club was in the South of Market area of San Francisco in the warehouse district and there was not much near it but a bunch of Leather bars. The thought of them scared me at the time they are not my thing but I ain’t scured of them anymore.

The club was painted all black and the windows were blacked out it had a black awning in front of it and a line down the block. We were scared to go in but we were also scared that they would not let us in as well. The doorman would look you up and down and he would determine if you were worthy and could get in or not. We watched several people get turned away before we finally got to the door. The doorman, His name was Les, asked for my membership card and I told him I was a guest of a member and he said the member had to be there with us so we could get in. We had been in line for over a hour and we it was getting cold and we were totally freaked out about the whole situation and we were about to turn and bolt from the scene when my friend came out to look for us.

When we finally got in I was amazed the club was huge. There were men in all states of dress and undress woman dancing topless, people in formal attire, fan dancers, Leather Daddies and anything else that you could imagine. The light show was out of this world and in the center of the room was a cluster of mirror balls unlike anything I had ever seen before.

The music was loud but not to loud and the sound was clear as a bell. It was just amazing. It was like stepping through a portal and being jettisoned to another planet where you could be who and whatever you wanted to be.

We were still scared shitless and my friends I and hung together for dear life. Now what was funny was that all of my friends and I were on the swim team in high school and you might have guessed it, they were all blondes and me being a tall black guy, we garnered a lot of attention that evening. I guess we were all considered twinks at the time but we did not even know what that was at the time. We all got allot of men who wanted to dance with us but we were to scared so we danced with each other. After a few drags from a joint that my friend offered us we chilled out and began to really have fun. We danced all night long and we did not get home until 5am the next morning. Little did we know that we had just gone to the premiere West Cost dance club at the time.

The Trocadaro Transfer was San Francisco’s version of Studio 54. It was a place to dance to the best music of the time with the best dancers on the West Coast. This club was huge, on an average night there would be thousands of dancers there and it would go all night long. Sometimes it would not close until noon on Sunday and when it did we would all run over to the Endup for Sunday church. The Trocadaro Transfer or The Troc as those who were regulars called it was a real fun club to go to if you loved to dance and I loved to dance.

So as you may have guessed I became a regular there. I was there from the early days and I was there on the night they closed their doors for the last time 12 years later. Funny thing is the Troc would not die it was the club that other clubs would strive to be like but never quite achieved. It was a place where you could see and meet the latest musical acts performing their latest chart topping hits and dance with the rich and famous. It was a place where it did not matter if you were rich or poor as long as you had fun. In a word the club was magic.

During my tenure there I meet and became great friends with quite a few people and we are still in touch to this day. Some did not make it through the aids crisis but amazingly allot of us did. I guess twirling to the “thumpa thumpa” kept us out of allot of trouble. Well about 5 years ago they decided to have a reunion party for the “Trocodetts”, that’s what we were called. And I got an email out of the blue about the upcoming party. I made a few calls to see if it was legit and low and behold it was. So I emailed a friend about it and we decided to go and then we emailed a few others. But what was really amazing is that it started a ground swell of interest and the emails were flying. Soon a friend informed me that they were expecting over a thousand former “Trocodetts” to be at the party

So on the day of the party as we are all arriving at the club it was just a huge hugfest. Oh and yes the party was held in the original building and it was just unreal. It was like a high school reunion but it was fun. I saw people who I had not seen in 10 to 15 years and we all just hugged and laughed about how much fun we had and cried about who was missing. Well that first reunion party was the first of many more and this past Sunday was the latest one. It was the 30th anniversary party of the opening day of The Trocadaro Transfer. What was amazing is that the place was packed and there were a lot of younger gay men there as well as the old stalwarts. The music was classic disco and allot of the songs were re-mixed and refreshed and I as usual was on the dance floor most of the night.

The lights were hot the music was hot and the men were hot. The cute thing was that most everyone was wearing Pearls, the symbol of 30 years. It is really hard to convey what it was like to go to the Troc. The closest thing that I have seen to explain what it was like was the club “Babylon” on Queer as Folk. I must say that I will definitely be at the next party too. I had so much fun at our little alley picnic after the club closed it was hilarious. The best thing is we can all still party all night just like we did 20 years ago. Watching my friends dance to the music and seeing the joy on their faces made me feel so happy I could not even begin to express it to you. To all of the “Trocetts” out there I love you all and you made my night a blast. I will be looking for you at the next party. Happy 30th to all my peeps.

This is Elmysterio and I’m out.

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Spin the lies and perpetuate the hate.

by cedric on Aug.13, 2007, under Aaron phelps, Boybatter, Brent Corrigan, Carter Longway, Dominik Trogan, Harlow Cuadra, Lance Chislom Jon King, Ron pearson, ashton Ryan, brent Everett, cobra video

The HIV testing of the models in Bare back porn is not a guarantee that the models are negative. The test only checks for antibodies. HIV tests are not conclusive and have never been. They can only tell you that you have no antibodies at the time of the test or that you do. If you are tested several times and have not participated in any risky behavior between the tests then you can consider the results accurate.
The quick test will only show that at the time of the test that you have no antibodies or that you do.

HIV is on the rise in the gay community and it is really a sad thing to say but it is true. I have been around since the beginning of the pandemic and I can say from experience that it is not something that I want to go through again. Watching so many of my friends get sick and die was not anything that I would wish on anyone. After reading the article by out magazine Barring the truth
I thought that I would do annother post on the subject.

What I find truly troubling is that the porn producers are using these young models for they’re own financial gain. There are no protections in place for these models that participate in these practices. I will not claim that all producers of Bareback porn do not take precautions but you see these models are not in a vacuum.
They have lives out side of porn and whatever sexual practices they participate in when not on camera have a direct bearing on the results of those instant HIV tests. We are talking about sexually active individuals here.
You can bad mouth a model for doing bareback porn and that is your prerogative but you also have to take into consideration that they are working for producers. The producers would not be doing this if there were no demand for the product. The demand by consumers of the product is what is driving this practice in the porn industry. And so we have the vicious circle of who is at fault? So to single out a single model or a producer is not going to help the situation. What the real issue is why would someone want to watch two young men potentially risk their health and possibly they’re lives for your sexual gratification.

There is plenty of bareback porn out there from before we knew the risks involved. Just go do an Internet search and I’m sure you can find it. But here is the deal do a check on the models who were in those videos and you will be surprised to see that 75% of them are dead and they died before they turned 40 years old. Now that is sad but it is true.
I have personally known quite a few of the models and I miss them. They were fun and full of life and they are gone because we did not know any better. We do know better now but that still has not stopped the producers from producing this product. Maybe the warnings are not strong enough or the risks are not stressed enough. Another sad fact is that many of the modles who are participating in this type of filming are positive as well. Maybe there needs to be legislation enacted. No one can perform Bareback on film or video until they are 25 years old. That would slow down the producers of this product a bit.
The producers seem to be taking advantage of these young and naïve men. Most of use did not have a clue at eighteen and many people still don’t.
Intelligence does not equate experience and it is not exclusive of the other. The fact that you are not that experienced in life has nothing to do with the fact that someone is intelligent.