Drummer Bibliography:
An annotated list of writing and photography
by Jack Fritscher

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This Bibliography: "An annotated list of writing and photography by Jack Fritscher," in PDF

JACK FRITSCHER’S
EYEWITNESS DRUMMER:
INVENTING THE GAY ROOTS OF HOMOMASCULINITY
A PIONEER WRITER’S BIBLIOGRAPHY,
EDITOR’S WITNESS-NARRATIVE,
& GAY CULTURE TIME LINE
OF THE RISE OF DRUMMER

A COPYRIGHT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF DRUMMER MAGAZINE
DETAILING THE WRITING AND PHOTOGRAPHY
OF JACK FRITSCHER IN DRUMMER
COPYRIGHT BIBLIOGRAPHY COMPILED AND WRITTEN
BY MARK HEMRY

WITH INTERVIEW NOTES FROM JACK FRITSCHER
© Mark Hemry and Jack Fritscher

Over the years, author Jack Fritscher, the founding San Francisco editor-in-chief of Drummer, contributed writing and photography to Drummer in more than sixty of its 206 issues. This bibliography is the profile of that work, and a notice of copyright. To reprint from this bibliography, or for reprint information on the writing and photographs of Jack Fritscher, please email the author, Mark Hemry: publisher@PalmDrivePublishing.com.

     There’s gay history as well as a personal story inside the narrative threaded through this bibliography of the writing and photographs of Drummer’s founding San Francisco editor-in-chief, Jack Fritscher. This inventory of writing and photographs shows how Fritscher was point-man pioneering and engineering the male-identified gay magazine that was a cultural force.

     Jack Fritscher asserts his moral and legal ownership of the writing and photography in this bibliography which lists for historical and legal purposes 1) the writing in Drummer written by and copyright by Jack Fritscher as well as 2) the photographs in Drummer shot by and copyright by Jack Fritscher as well as 3) the photographs shot by David Sparrow/Jack Fritscher and copyright by Jack Fritscher.

     Precisely because Drummer never had a central-intelligence memory or actual bibliographical index, this listing intends to identify the writing of Jack Fritscher in more than 60 issues of the 206 issues published during Drummer’s existence under four different ownerships in Los Angeles, San Francisco (Alternate Publishing and Desmodus, Inc.), and Amsterdam.

     These actual discrete writings, with one-time-only rights to Drummer, are independent of the work Jack Fritscher provided Drummer in the position of editor–such as the assignment of re-writing of the serial novel Mr. Benson completing the draft by John Preston which was later published by Alternate Publishing in a final-final edit by John Preston based on the Fritscher edit partially serialized in Drummer. (Jack Fritscher, before, during, and after his days at Drummer, ran a literary coaching business, advertised in Drummer as “Writer’s Aid,” tutoring emerging erotic writers.)

* * * *

     Jack Fritscher says, “The British critic, Edward Lucie-Smith, once told me that if Robert Mapplethorpe had written a monograph, we’d all have a keener insight into his work. My writing in this virtual monograph is not very much internal about my writing, nor is it the history of leather as told by Hans Christian Anderson, nor is it sex institutionalized into “Mother-May-I?” S&M. Mark Hemry has created an annotated bibliography of what I wrote in Drummer, and the line-items tell the story of a specific group of people in a specific place at a specific time. Now, they are mostly all gone with the wind. Long ago, before I first navigated this venue of Drummer, I had to decide things no one need decide this new side of this millennium. In 1967, my questions were about personal and erotic identity: is it safe, or tasteful, to use my own name in erotic literature? Can I write about sex the way it has never been written about before? Can I subdivide sex into fetish? And what fetishes? This side of Y2K, hardly anything new under the sexual sun comes up. Those early days of gay liberation were an exciting, dangerous time in the XY-world of gay publishing before it was subverted by cancerous “diversities” such as 1) the ‘Advocate Experience’ (Gay EST) and 2) the imported Marxism of left-wing politically correct Puritans to say nothing of 3) the decimation of publishers, writers, poets, journalists, photographers, and artists by HIV.

     “As the founding San Francisco editor-in-chief of Drummer, I conceived and produced features, fiction, interviews, profiles, and photography written or lensed by others. As a freelance writer, I conceived, produced, and wrote many feature articles and shot many photographs. As editor, I worked ‘for hire’ beginning at $200 a month, increasing finally to $400. As writer, I sold only one-time North American rights to John Embry and his successors. As a photographer, working as David Sparrow/Jack Fritscher, I offered only one-time North American rights to the images. I was so separate an entity from office politics that I never had a desk at the Drummer offices at 1730 Divisadero, San Francisco.

     “My personal goal was to achieve the artistic independence to create a male-identified gay magazine, because the gay press, such as it was, was queenly and campy. (Even my pal, Drummer’s best art director, A. Jay came from Queen’s Quarterly in New York.) Before I pulled Drummer’s journalistic and psychological focus in the mid-70’s, Drummer, begun in Los Angeles, had actually featured a drag queen on the cover–which provoked much negative response. The content was also very Los Angeles, still centered in a sense of 50’s-60’s gay culture, crossed with cocktails and gaybar gossip, born of the age group who started Drummer out of an ethos where gaymen referred to themselves under the code of terms like ‘friends of Dorothy.’

     “Since 1970, I had lived in the midst of 70’s gay freedom in San Francisco, so in 1977 I made Drummer very San Francisco, and therefore very international. Spinning the Drummer look out of iconic, butch cigarette advertising, I tub-thumped American masculinity after the fashion of Marlboro’s masculine American cowboy-look marketed as export so successfully throughout the world. (In the 60’s I had worked as a collage artist reworking Marlboro images into saleable ‘pop art.’) In 1981, Victor Arimondi summed up this connection in his color photograph titled ‘Macho Man’ depicting a virtually nude leatherman spreadeagle against an outdoor Marlboro billboard in San Francisco. Arimondi’s 1981 image was full circle from the famous 1965 Life magazine expose of the Tool Box, which–I was the first gay historian to point out...actually in Drummer– was the first official invitation to men to come to San Francisco to celebrate the defiant new genus of masculine-identified homosexuality: homomasculinity. Even Tom of Finland, when he first left Finland for America, came directly to my ‘office’ at Drummer, and to supper with me and David Sparrow and Jim Kane and Ike Barnes, because he was in love with the American masculine look, and considered Drummer–after his years in Physique Pictorial–his magazine of choice.

     “My novel, Some Dance to Remember, which is about the 1970’s Renaissance of Gay Male Liberation in San Francisco, details an a clef version of what I did to Drummer in the story thread about the fictitious Maneuvers magazine and its “Masculinist Manifesto.” In reality, this was my job description. Historically, in that 1970s period of manual typewriters and cut-and-paste layout before computers, I arrived from my real job Monday through Thursday evenings after 6 PM and checked the assignments I had given the staff I supervised, of up to eight people (plus however many writers, artists, and photographers were involved in the upcoming issues), directed the theme and organic look and flow of text and graphics and typesetting design, absorbed A. Jay’s layout, handled correspondence and phone calls, and went home to write whatever was needed to develop the magazine or to fill in the holes where deadlines had not been met or assigned writers had not been paid, or simply to do the never-ending job of proofreading. I exited Drummer during the autumn quarter before the New Year’s eve when 1979 became 1980. The 70s were over.” [Narrative partially deleted from Internet publication. See forthcoming book.]

     “On a business level, gay publishing rarely tries to educate young writers how to protect their own copyright, and very often tries to wrest as many rights as possible from both new and established authors who are often uninformed about artists’ copyrights. Traditionally most writers, virgins or veterans, are so eager to be published that they are afraid to ask a clear agreement from the publisher about keeping their copyrights. The only part of the virtual phrase ‘gay community’ that actually exists is the community of users who try to get away with treating all gay writing, art, and photography as if it is ‘community property’ that anyone can reprint, on page or Internet, without regard for the creator’s rights, copyrights, or income. For instance, latter-day Drummers willy nilly reprinted any photographer’s photographs with no credit line vetted other than ‘From the Drummer Archives,’ as if that’s enough for provenance and copyright. Nobody’s so-called ‘archive’ should be lazy about proper ownership and credit of intellectual property. An archive’s principal task is research. [Narrative partially deleted from Internet publication. See forthcoming book.]

     “For instance, most contracts with lesbigay book publishers, particularly in the anthology craze of the 1990’s and continuing into the first decade of the millennium, are so demandingly lopsided in favor of the publisher that writers–established or beginning–might as well just throw their work out into public domain and run naked down the street shouting. “Free show! Free show!” Lesbigay publishing is the new plantation for exploitation of the intellectual property of authors.

     “In the matter of provenance and copyright, I should clarify that my lover of ten years (July 4, 1969-March 17, 1979) was David Sparrow, whose only camera was the one I owned and whose only job at Drummer was the one I created for him, because we always worked in tandem, shooting photographs together, first in Michigan as ‘Tomorrow Belongs to Us’ (from Cabaret), then in San Francisco as ‘Spitting Image’; finally as ‘David Sparrow/Jack Fritscher.’ [Narrative partially deleted from Internet publication.]

     “During my time at Drummer, I spent many hours assuaging typesetters, columnists, reviewers, serial novelists, artists, and photographers who told me, ‘I’m not giving you the next installment/review/blue line, etc. until you get the publisher to pay me for all the work he owes me.’ I had long written reviews for print and for my own radio show, and had also taught university writing courses like ‘Reviewing for the Press.’ But the Drummer-specific reason I began writing reviews was precisely because Drummer’s house reviewer, Ed Franklin, so often held his upcoming columns hostage waiting for his fee. I often wrote “Astrologic” for the same reason: Aristide refused to pony up copy until paid. The complaints about payment were not one or two people; the complaints were a chorus. I actually had to write the magazine to fill in the hold-outs, and still make the issue deadline. Nonpayment of talent and typesetters and printers was the reason no one knew–until this writing–why early Drummer was always behind schedule. Such nonpayment was one reason I myself left Drummer.

     “Despite that, I have always for almost 25 years found Drummer’s first publisher, John Embry, charming, and we work together to this very day on the current issues of his MR magazines. [Manifest Reader, Super MR]

     “Early on, John Embry called himself ‘Alternate Publications’ and pleaded with me to help him start up his counter-Advocate magazine, The Alternate. God knows, everyone knew The Advocate needed someone to balance its bologna. However, I told John Embry that filling Drummer was hard enough. I couldn’t take on another new magazine. At the time, I also was working at a real job as a writer for Kaiser Engineers with whom I was employed full-time from 1977-1984. In addition, John Embry knew my performance-art reputation. For two years, I had produced live ‘happenings’ for the Rainbow Motorcycle Club at the hottest bar on Folsom, the No Name, where Rainbow founder, my friend, Ron Johnson, was the manager. John Embry wanted me to produce a contest he wanted to start for publicity that would give Drummer free photographs of the leather contestants. In the way he wished to mimic The Advocate with The Alternate, he wanted to mimic the International Mr. Leather contest in Chicago with the Mr. Drummer contest.

     “I told him that I hadn’t time to run such a contest, and that the inherent problem with him running it was that the tail would eventually begin to wag the dog, meaning that the actual magazine would become subordinate to the contest, and instead of continually conceptualizing how Drummer could grow more deeply in gay culture of literature, criticism, art, and photography of masculine men, the magazine would become a leather-genre pictorial. I’ve always loved leather and S&M, but, as Tony DeBlase has so nicely noted about my work in Drummer, I have always been interested in a rough-and-tumble homomasculinity that included other metaphors as well as leather. I made 1970’s Drummer popular through just such a diversity of male-identified activities that inherently were independent of literal and metaphorical leather: S&M itself, sports, rodeo, piss, tits, cigars, jockstraps, etc. Homomasculinity denotes a way of being, and a state of mind, that focuses on gender issues wider than the sex at the center of homosexuality. Homofeminity is the same. [Narrative partially deleted from Internet publication.] Because of personal esthetic, I am often a very sweaty and participatory ‘leather writer’ of leather fiction and leather essays like Pat Califia or Larry Townsend. My first leather novel appeared in 1972. However, critically, I am professionally trained as a journalist whose subjects include, besides the pop-culture of leather, other angles of masculine-identified gay culture, such as bears, video, witchcraft, fiction, photography, history, etc. ‘Leather’ is a category under ‘homomasculinism’ which includes ‘leather’ and ‘bears’ and ‘cowboys’ and many other equivalent versions of homosexuality. [Additional narrative deleted from Internet publication.]

     “As history proved, Drummer, the magazine, ended the last night of the twentieth century, ten years after John Embry sold it. Drummer, the magazine, dead for years, bobbed belly up to the surface December 31, 1999, late, as usual; but ‘Mr. Drummer,’ the contest, continued. I’ll never be the one to say, ‘I told you so.’ Long live leather! I love it, but analysis of what happened between the real leather of outlaw ‘S&M homomasculinity’ and the bourgeois contest culture of Drummer is something else. If I were to dramatize the tension fictionally as a movie, I would write its TV-Guide thumbnail: ‘A fairy tale of dollars, sex-esteem, and C-List young men bottom-enough to consent to anything to win leather contest scored by judges themselves desperate to be beloved.’ [Narrative partially deleted from Internet publication. Note: This is the first coinage of the word, sex-esteem.]

     “When I resigned my position as editor-in-chief and left Drummer in the autumn of 1979, because the 70’s were over, the exit list included my intimates Robert Mapplethorpe, David Sparrow, Jim Stewart, John Trojanski, David Hurles, and Mark Hemry. From our circle that had existed before Drummer, only A. Jay stayed for several more months, and Drummer chugged on into the Reagan Era 80’s.” –Jack Fritscher

* * * *

     Drummer was first published in June 1975 (one month after the Catacombs opened), moved to San Francisco in 1976, and closed its doors in December 1999. Jack Fritscher began free-lancing for Drummer during Drummer’s second year.

     This copyrighted bibliography constitutes notice of the copyright and provenance of Jack Fritscher’s writing and photography published in Drummer and in the Drummer/Desmodus magazines, Mach, Foreskin Quarterly, and Tough Customers.

     This introduction and bibliography was written by Mark Hemry and is c 2000 Mark Hemry.

       Quotes from “Mark Hemry Interview with Jack Fritscher” are c 2000 Jack Fritscher. 

NOTE: The nature of this listing, which is discretely written to be referenced issue by issue–with each reference complete as a line item itself–will, if read narratively, exhibit repetition, but such repetition often adds interesting detail and supports the time-line story, and unfolds in layers the personalities of people behind this bibliography of Drummer culture, leather culture, and gay culture. Pointedly, this repetition intends to service the search and link essence of the Internet web.

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DRUMMER 14, April 1977

Jack Fritscher’s first appearance in Drummer.

“Men South of Market,” pp. 39-46, text written by Jack Fritscher for six centerfold photos by Jim Stewart, Key Hole Studios. This is the first piece produced for Drummer, or written for Drummer, by Jack Fritscher, and publicizes the Kalamazoo photographer Jim Stewart, the friend of Jack Fritscher and David Sparrow, who, when they moved from Kalamazoo to San Francisco, moved with them into their house on 25th Street where John H. Embry (aka Robert Payne) publisher of Drummer, came to hire Jack Fritscher as editor-in-chief. Note: the Fritscher text as it appears was edited by John Embry.

            The muscular bearded model in the football helmet, Bill Essex, was a few months later in 1977 one of the first openly gay deputy sheriffs hired by the City and County of San Francisco. In preparation for the deputy sheriff civil service test and examination, Bill Essex was the training partner of Jack Fritscher who finished 11th on the list and three times turned down the deputy sheriff position to keep his more realistic position as Manager of Marketing and Proposals, Kaiser Engineers, Inc., Oakland, where he won two Bay Area Technical Writer Awards for best color brochures created in California.

            John Embry had fled from Los Angeles to San Francisco after the LAPD arrested the crowd of leathermen at the Great Slave Auction. The raid of that charity event occurred in May1976, when Drummer was only eleven months old, and it was nearly the end of Drummer, because the tension of the raid occasioned the final split of the founding, feuding Drummer partners. Drummer’s first issue had come off the press in June 1975, coincidentally on Jack Fritscher’s birthday, June 20. As narrative arc as well as context to Drummer’s first summer in San Francisco, 1977, Anita Bryant, out of Florida, was persecuting homosexuals nationwide, and San Francisco was receiving gay refugees arriving daily. The clock at San Francisco City Hall was ticking down twenty-nine months before the assassination of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, and four years before the news of a mysterious gay cancer.

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DRUMMER 15, May 1977

In May, 1977, one month after Fritscher’s first piece appeared in Drummer, Publisher John Embry met with writer Jack Fritscher and asked him to consider becoming editor-in-chief of Drummer. The meeting, including Al Shapiro and David Sparrow, took place at 4436-25th Street, the house which figures in the gay history novel, Some Dance to Remember. Al Shapiro and his partner Dick Kriegmont were part of the circle of 70’s Gay Renaissance writers, artists, and photographers who frequented the 25th Street house of David Sparrow and Jack Fritscher. Others in the circle were photographer Jim Stewart; audio porn mogul and photographer, David Hurles/Old Reliable; photographer and publisher, Lou Thomas/Target Studios; leather-bar designer, Tony Tavarosi; sculptor Ed Parente; artist and Ueber-bottom, Tom Hinde; multi-media photographer, Gene Weber, with whom Fritscher traveled to Japan; performance artist and photographer, Robert Opel who had streaked the Academy Awards; and photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe.

“Cock Casting,” pp. 20-21, text written by Jack Fritscher for eight photographs assigned by Al Shapiro/A. Jay who, with his first Drummer cover drawing on this issue, was about to become Drummer’s first San Francisco art director.

“Durk Parker,” text written by Jack Fritscher for centerfold with five photographs shot by Jack Fritscher’s intimate friend, Lou Thomas, Target Studios, who first privately printed Jack Fritscher’s 1969 novella, Leather Blues, as I Am Curious (Leather) in 1972. “Durk Parker” aka Dirk Dehner, model, eventual founder of Tom of Finland Foundation and its commercial business.

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DRUMMER 16, June 1977

Second Anniversary Issue

[First appearance of A. Jay’s Harry Chess in Drummer.]

“Centerfold, Tom Hinde Drawings,” pp. 39-46, produced by, and introductory text written by, Jack Fritscher with notes written by Tom Hinde and edited into a feature by Jack Fritscher.

“Johnny Gets His Haircut,” pp. 66-68, cover photo-feature produced by and text written by Jack Fritscher for six photographs shot by Jim Stewart of red-headed Russell Van Leer (uncredited) as model, shot at house of Jack Fritscher/David Sparrow, spring 1977. Russell Van Leer and Jack Fritscher appeared together in “Blood Crucifixion,” a series of 35mm color-transparency photographs shot by Gene Weber and produced and directed by Jack Fritscher for a wide-screen mixed media performance. The Weber-Fritscher photographs are in the permanent collection of the Gay and Lesbian Archives, San Francisco Public Library. Gene Weber and Jack Fritscher traveled together to Japan in 1975, as well as to the Caribbean where Gene Weber shot the underwater fisting photographs Fritscher published in Drummer 20, January 1978, the seminal “Gay Sports” issue referenced by Brian Pronger’s nonfiction book, Gay Sports, in the 1980’s.

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DRUMMER 18, August 1977

The first issue of Drummer with actual by-line by Jack Fritscher.

[“What a time,” Jack Fritscher says. “Drummer in the summer of 1977 when I came on board was so behind schedule, it was nearly dead. I worked for three months whipping the talent and material together for the next several issues. I created a firm point of view of masculine culture whose core was leather, S&M, and fetishes. Finally, four months–repeat, four months–after August’s Drummer #18 came December’s Drummer #19. Instantly, we had a populist hit on our hands. We were the first radically male-identified magazine of gay liberation, and the masculine-identified men who were our readers loved it, because Drummer reflected them.”]

(Drummer #19, December, 1977, was the first issue

Jack Fritscher produced as editor-in-chief.)

“The Leatherneck,” pp. 82-84, feature article written by Jack Fritscher with twelve photographs by Jim Stewart, directed by Jack Fritscher, at Allan Lowery’s Leatherneck Bar, San Francisco. Allan Lowery was Jack Fritscher’s friend and roommate in 1971,1972,1973,1974. Allan Lowery and Jack Fritscher had long discussions about opening the Leatherneck together as a business, but Jack Fritscher was more inclined to writing, photography, and the business of gay popular culture in gay magazines. For instance, the photographs at bottom of page 82 and top of page 83 feature the bartender, Chris Meyrovich, who became the model Sweat McCloud for Jack Fritscher’s Palm Drive Video feature, The Adventures of Sweat McCloud, November 1987. In 1972, for an invitation to a 15th-and-Castro leather party hosted by Allan Lowery, David Sparrow, and Jack Fritscher, Fritscher created the art work and coined the now commonly accepted definition for S&M, “Sensuality and Mutuality.”

AUGUST 1977–DECEMBER 1977
DRUMMER GOES VIRTUALLY OUT-OF-BUSINESS TO RE-INVENT ITSELF.
JACK FRITSCHER BECOMES FOUNDING SAN FRANCISCO EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
OF DRUMMER, August 1, 1977, AND KICKS IT INTO GEAR.
A. JAY BECOMES FOUNDING SAN FRANCISCO ART DIRECTOR OF DRUMMER.

DRUMMER 19, December 1977

[“From August 1,” Jack Fritscher says, “it took me four months to fix Drummer, focus its identity and purpose, retool it, and get it back into publishing finally with the December, 1977, issue. I’ve often joked that Drummer was stillborn in LA and carried to San Francisco where I slapped the newborn and made it cry, shout. Actually, when I first met Drummer it was comatose, almost dead, and I had to give it virtual mouth-to-mouth. In mid-1977, Drummer could have died, but I would not let it. The production side was more or less in place. Drummer needed a voice and content. I was determined to have fun. Besides, as a university professor and founding member of the American Popular Culture Association in 1967, I knew the inherent value of creating a magazine inside a culture that recorded and reflected that culture even as it was occurring. That’s why one of the first line-items I created was the masthead line, “The American Journal of Gay Popular Culture.” I was very conscious of what was happening in gay culture and how to create a self-reflexive magazine reflecting the real life of readers.]


Masthead: Jack Fritscher, editor-in-chief.

“Contents” page one liners, p. 5, written by Jack Fritscher.

“Leather Christmas,” lead feature article, pp. 8-10, written by Jack Fritscher

Drummer’s Gifting,” pp. 20-21, written by Jack Fritscher, drawing by Harry Bush through AMG; photograph by David Hurles/Old Reliable.

“Astrologic” (Capricorn), p. 26, written by Jack Fritscher who often had to fill in for regular astrology writer, Aristede, who withheld his columns pending payment from the publisher for previous columns. [“After writing my serious nonfiction 1972 book on sex and witchcraft in America, Popular Witchcraft: Straight from the Witch’s Mouth, I enjoyed the satirical opportunity to write the astrology feature,” Fritscher says, “but actually I had no choice but to write it in order to keep to Drummer’s production deadline which notoriously slipped from the day Drummer started to the day Drummer folded. Drummer finally died...as usual, way behind schedule in December,1999.”]

El Paso Wrecking Corp: The Gage Brothers,” pp. 62-64, written by Jack Fritscher, pre-review of film presented with Gage photographs.

“Steve Reeves’ Screen Test,” pp. 66-68, captions written by Jack Fritscher, with 3 photographs of Steve Reeves humorously quoted.

“Mine Shaft,” pp. 82-83, written by Jack Fritscher, First Review in gay culture of the legendary New York after-hours bar; illustration by Rex. In 1989, Jack Fritscher conducted a three-hour video documentary interview of Wally Wallace, founder/manager of the Mine Shaft, who personally detailed his long esoteric history of the landmark after-hours mecca of sex, leather, and S&M. For access to this interview, contact Jack Fritscher at jack@jackfritscher.com.

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DRUMMER 20, January 1978

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, editor-in-chief.

“Contents” page one liners, p. 5, written by Jack Fritscher.

“Crimes Against Nature,” p. 6, written by Jack Fritscher, mini-review of the San Francisco theatrical drama featuring Jim Nyman who is the physical inspiration behind the Jack Fritscher 1976 short story, “How Buddy Left Me” in the anthology, Stand By Your Man and Other Stories,1987 and 1999. Crimes against Nature was performed at Lone Mountain College.

“Gay Jock Sports: Wrestling, Boxing, Rollerballing, Soaring, Scuba, Bodybuilding, Dune Bodies, Films,” Cover lead feature, pp. 8-17 & 70-71 & 83-84, written, researched and produced by Jack Fritscher; illustrated with drawings by Matt; photographs by David Hurles (Old Reliable Studios) on 10, 70, 71; photos by New York City Wrestling Club founder, John Handley, p. 84; Wide World Photos, p.11, subsequently published as the cover of the First ’Zine of the 80’s, Man2Man Quarterly #2, December 1980, which Bear magazine founder, Richard Bulger, named as his inspiration for Bear in 1987; water-ski photos by Bob Hefron; dune photographs by Joe Tiffenbach; scuba-fisting photographs by frequent Fritscher-collaborator, Gene Weber; wrestling photographs by Athletic Model Guild; photographs of gay football star, Dave Kopay, from his book. This article was the fore-runner for the nonfiction book by Brian Pronger, The Arena of Masculinity: Sports, Homosexuality, and the Meaning of Sex, 1990. Brian Pronger contacted Jack Fritscher and printed a photograph by Jack Fritscher from the Palm Drive Video, Gut Punchers, pp. 142-143.

“Dune Body,” p. 16, poem sidebar, written by Jack Fritscher.

“Pissing in the Wind,” pp. 22-24 & 83, feature article written by Jack Fritscher was the First Feature on Water Sports in the emerging gay press. [“Unlike latterday Puritan kveens who strangle gay literature and gay studies, I have always believed gay writing should be about sex,” Jack Fritscher says, “even though such dead-on honesty runs the risk that such writing, no matter how journalistic or literary may be dismissed as pornography. I chose early on to write about the actual sex lives and real sex practices of gay men. I was lucky. At that time the gay press was not its own worse censor–as it became with the politically-correct Puritans around 1982-1984. No one told me not to. Because of the pioneering times, nearly every sex topic I wrote about in Drummer was a ‘First’ in gay culture. I was in the right place at the right time.”]

“Astrologic” (Aquarius), p. 30, written by Jack Fritscher.

Salo: A Review of Pasolini, Toward an Understanding of Salo pp. 66-67, written by Jack Fritscher, with six photographs from the film.

“CMC Carnival 1977,” pp. 74-77, feature review by Jack Fritscher with 17 photographs shot by David Sparrow and Jack Fritscher; Fritscher pictured in cap is pissing, p. 76, large photo, upper right, in auto-portrait, lens clicked by lover, David Sparrow.

“Night Flight,” p. 88-89, feature review by Jack Fritscher of the famous San Francisco party on the New Year’s Eve as 1977 became 1978; party created by Wakefield Poole; photographs by Efren Ramirez. The “Soldier” photograph, p. 39, shot by David Sparrow and Jack Fritscher, is a photograph taken of David Wycoff who was Sparrow/Fritscher’s red-headed roommate and third domestic lover, whose ashes, after he died of HIV May 29, 1985, were spread from a boat in Paradise Cove off Angel Island by his two survivors, David Sparrow and Jack Fritscher.

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DRUMMER 21, March 1978

(One of Drummer’s most intense issues: 100 pages)

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, editor-in-chief.

“Cover Photograph,” designed, cast, and shot by Jack Fritscher/David Sparrow, lovers/domestic partners/business partners from July 4, 1969-March 17, 1979. Details of the Fritscher-Sparrow love affair and collaboration can be read in the magazine Checkmate #33, November 2000, as well as fictitiously in the novel Some Dance to Remember.

“Contents” page one-liners, p. 5, written by Jack Fritscher.

“Defending Your Attitude,” p. 6, written by Jack Fritscher.

“Prison Blues: Confessions of a Prison-Tour Junkie,” pp. 8-11 & 70-73; lead feature article conceived, written, and produced by Jack Fritscher with cover photograph and interior photographs by David Sparrow and Jack Fritscher, pp. 8, 9, 10, 11, shot in the Marin Headlands bunkers where Fritscher took Mapplethorpe for his piss and jockstrap shoot; photograph, p. 70, by Jack Fritscher. Cover and interior model is John Trowbridge, muscular and hairy member of the Pacific Drill Patrol uniform club who was well regarded and well reviewed in San Francisco as a supper-club pianist. (John Trowbridge died August 17, 1988.) Drummer publisher John Embry so liked this article that, with Fritscher’s permission, Embry 22 years later reprinted it, in two parts, in his new magazine, Super MR #6 (Super Manifest Reader #6, October 2000), and Super MR #7 (January 2001).

“Astrologic” (Aries), p. 30, written by Jack Fritscher.

“Gay Deteriorata,” p. 38, satire of “Desiderata,” written by Jack Fritscher who assigned Efren Ramirez to shoot the photographs of the Castro Street Fair. “Gay Deteriorata” was reprinted 22 years later, with permission, by John Embry on the masthead page of Super MR, June 2000, in which Embry publicized his 25 years in gay publishing by invoking classic writing and art from the early period at Drummer. “Gay Deteriorata” was also published in the gay history novel, Some Dance to Remember, 1990. An alternate version of “Gay Deteriorata” appeared as “DesiderBEARata” in the magazine, Bear #6, 1988, p. 46.

“Pumping Roger: Acts, Facts, and Fantasy,” pp. 45, 46, 68, written by Jack Fritscher, with five centerfold photographs of Roger by Wakefield Poole, backed by a centerfold poster drawing by Jakal. See the hilarious “Letter from a Reader” regarding Fritscher’s pointedly over-the-top lust of “Pumping Roger” in Drummer 23, p. 72. [“In February 1994,” Jack Fritscher says, “I received a phone call from the man (real name omitted here) who was the discoverer, mentor, and ultimate lover of Roger, whose real name was (real name omitted here). He detailed to me on audio tape the rise and ‘fall’ of Roger and himself and their circle of friends including Lou Thomas, professional bodybuilder and Colt model Chris Dickerson, and photographer Roy Dean. I see both the duty and the virtue of living a life in writing, and keeping excellent notes. Sooner or later every story comes full circle, every mystery is revealed, everybody comes to conclusion, even myself, eventually.”]

“Punk Funk: You Read This, You Deserve It,” pp.74-76, written by Jack Fritscher, with photographs and additional reporting by Mykel Board; revised and reprinted as “CBGB 1977: Hunting the Wild Mapplethorpe Model” in Honcho, Volume 22, Number 1, September 1999, as well as in the anthology, Titanic: Forbidden Stories Hollywood Forgot, 1999.

“Dr. Dick, Drummer Goes to the Doctor,” p. 77, column invented and produced by Jack Fritscher who wrote the “Dr. Dick” pieces based on his interviews with Richard R. Hamilton, M.D.

“Photograph of RCMP Mountie in Boots,” p. 27, photograph shot by Jack Fritscher, November 1976, at Stanford University, with Tony Perles, another founding member of the uniform club Pacific Drill Patrol, and author of several books on railroads including, Inside Muni: The Properties and Operations of the Municipal Railway of San Francisco, Interurban Press, 1982. Interestingly, Tony Perles’ father was a famous pulp-fiction writer in the 1930’s, and Tony Perles was one of the first gay men in the late 1960’s to buy a two-flat Victorian in the Castro, on 19th at Castro; in 1971, Perles rented his lower flat to the S&M leather priest, Jim Kane, as he had to Jack Fritscher and David Sparrow in 1970. Jim Kane, a longtime intimate of Jack Fritscher, was a founder of the Janus Society along with Cynthia Slater, who had an affair with Jack Fritscher’s heterosexual blood [family relationship and name deleted from Internet publication]. Fritscher also introduced Robert Mapplethorpe to Cynthia Slater who posed for the photographer.

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DRUMMER 22, May 1978

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, editor-in-chief.

“Contents” page one-liners, p. 5, written by Jack Fritscher.

“Attitude Begets Attitude,” p. 6, written by Jack Fritscher.

“Cigar Blues,” pp. 8-12, feature written by Jack Fritscher; photographs shot by Jack Fritscher on pp.8, 14; and from Collection of Jack Fritscher, p. 10, both bottom photographs, and two photographs of Nick Nolte; also photographs from Lou Thomas’ Target Studio. Historical note: This was the first ever writing about cigars as a fetish in the gay press. “Cigar Blues” was reprinted, with permission, as a cover feature by John Embry in Manhood Rituals #3, 1999, pp. 4-9 and 58-59 with six photographs shot by Jack Fritscher, and a Versace ad from the collection of Jack Fritscher. In his editorial, John Embry wrote: “It’s like deja vu all over again. We’ve been pouring through the first 100 issues of Drummer...a task pleasantly filled with powerful memories of other times and people and circumstances.”Embry also included in MR: “A Half-Page Palm Drive Video Display Ad,” p. 59, featuring photographs by Jack Fritscher of Palm Drive Video models Dave Gold and Jack Husky.

“Firebomber: Cigar Sarge,” p. 15, fiction written by Jack Fritscher. “Cigar Sarge” was reprinted in 1999 by John Embry in his magazine, Manifest Reader. “Cigar Sarge” also appeared in The California Action Guide, Volume 1 #6, December 1982, and in two fiction anthologies: Best Gay Erotica 1998: Selected and Introduced by Christopher Bram, Edited by Richard LaBonte, and Stand By Your Man and Other Stories, 1999. “Cigar Sarge” also appeared in the Y2K best-erotica summary book of canonical erotica, Best of the Best Gay Erotica, Edited by Richard LaBonte, 2000, coupled with “USMC Slapcaptain,” and titled, “Sexual Harassment in the Military: 2 Performance Pieces for 4 Actors in 3 Lovely Costumes,” a titled given to Jack Fritscher by the Colt model, Ledermeister, Paul Garrior, who appeared solo in Jack Fritscher’s 1974 Super-8 film, “San Francisco Lineman.” In June 1988, Jack Fritscher directed and photographed a feature video titled Cigar Sarge starring Bill Young at Palm Drive Video.

“USMC: Strip-Shaving the Raw Recruit,” pp. 20-21; drawing by A. Jay; photograph by Jim Stewart, who was the manager of the Campus Theatre, Kalamazoo, Michigan, and friend of Jack Fritscher and David Sparrow in Kalamazoo. In 1975, Jim Stewart moved to San Francisco and became the roommate of Jack Fritscher and David Sparrow while he started his Key Hole Studio.

“Astrologic” (Taurus), p. 30, written by Jack Fritscher.

“Corporal in Charge of Taking Care of Captain O’Malley, Part 1,” pp. 32-35, two-act play, written by Jack Fritscher from a concept by David Hurles, Old Reliable. Drawing by A. Jay. See detailed information on this piece in Drummer 23, July 1978.

            [“In our circle of friends, we were very close even before we were involved with Drummer,” Jack Fritscher says. “David Hurles and I bought a house together in 1977. When gay culture–meaning the tres gay–was frightened by the raw reality–by the verite–of Old Reliable, I saw Hurles’ immense talent, and was the first editor to publish the photographs of David Hurles/Old Reliable, as well as transcribe Old Reliable’s street-boys audio tapes so gay/straight/gay street voices could be read in gay magazines. Immediately, Old Reliable became the rage and a legend. I personally paid my friend, Steve MacEachern, founder and owner of the Catacombs to make all my transcriptions for Drummer. Steve’s typing business was on the first floor above the Catacombs which were in the cellar.] See notes on “Corporal” and the Winston Leyland anthology, Gay Roots, in the entry for Drummer 23.

“Sebastiane,” pp. 66-67, review written by Jack Fritscher of a film in Latin by Derek Jarman; five photographs from the film. [“Derek Jarman and Robert Mapplethorpe,” Jack Fritscher says, “were rather jealous, but celebratory, competitors over the years, right up to the end. Mapplethorpe died, age 42, March 9, 1989; Jarman died, age 52, February 19, 1994. Who won?”]

“End Product: The First Taboo,” p. 69, book review written by Jack Fritscher and coded with David Hurles’ permission under the name of “David Hurles” after Embry told Fritscher to vary the by-lines on Fritscher’s writing.

“Arena Slave Auction,” pp. 73-77, text written by Jack Fritscher with 21 photographs by Bob Hefron.

“Club San Francisco, Ritch Street,” pp. 92-93, feature text written by Jack Fritscher.

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DRUMMER 23, July 1978

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, editor-in-chief.

“Contents” page one liners, written by Jack Fritscher.

“Gay Pop Culture in Drummer,” p. 6, written by Jack Fritscher who, over John Embry’s raised eyebrow, this issue added to the masthead the phrase, “The American Journal of Gay Popular Culture.” The catch-line lasted during Fritscher’s tenure as editor, and then disappeared.

“The Catacombs: Upstairs over a Vacant Lot,” pp. 8-11; feature article written and produced by Jack Fritscher, with 12 photographs shot by “Larry Olson”/Jack Fritscher.

“Redneck Biker,” pp. 16-18; written by Jack Fritscher to illustrate 5 photographs by Robert Opel. [“Robert Opel,” Jack Fritscher says, “streaked the Academy Awards in 1974. Famous for that, he more importantly in March 1979 opened the Fey Way Gallery, South of Market, in effect officially creating SoMa, South of Market, where Drummer eventually moved its offices from Divisadero where I was editor. Opel added art to the sex and bars and baths. For an article in Drummer, I interviewed him and Camille O’Grady in his gallery three weeks before he was shot to death in that gallery. Very mysteriously. I think, an execution, actually. Opel’s death was too traumatic for me, and I could not work with that interview at that time of shock and grief. Opel and I collaborated on many projects including his two magazine ideas, National Pornographic and Cocksucker. The interview was finally published 16 years later in my memoir, Mapplethorpe: Assault with a Deadly Camera. The photographs shot during that interview by David Sparrow and me have not yet been published. Losing Robert Opel was devastating personally, but even more devastating to gay culture, not only in San Francisco, but worldwide. If Derek Jarman or Robert Mapplethorpe had been killed at Opel’s age, their careers would also have been cut way short and most of what we know of their work would never have been created.”]

“Astrologic” (Leo), limerick, p. 31, written by Jack Fritscher.

“Corporal in Charge of Taking Care of Captain O’Malley, Part 2,” pp. 32-35 & 73, two-act play, written by Jack Fritscher; drawing by A. Jay. The entire script for the play “Corporal in Charge” was included in the gay canon of Gay Roots, Twenty Years of Gay Sunshine: An Anthology of Gay History, Sex, Politics, and Culture, edited by Winston Leyland, 1991, pages 555-575. An early audio-taped version of this play was recorded and sold by Old Reliable.

“Target,” p. 45, centerfold photo text by Jack Fritscher, with 3 photographs by Lou Thomas, Target, featuring Lindsay X, who appeared on the cover of Man2Man Quarterly #3, Fall 1980, and subsequently appears in Bicoastal video by BIC on into the 21st century.

“Golden Drumsticks Awards,” p. 74, a Jack Fritscher original feature, compiled and written by Jack Fritscher.

“Reviewing Straight Magazines: Some Babes in the Woods,” pp. 78, 79, written by Jack Fritscher; photograph by Rich Clarkson redesigned from Sports Illustrated.

“Tough Shit,” p. 84, invented originally by Jack Fritscher who collected and wrote the feature.

“Submit to Drummer,” p. 94, pro-active solicitation written by Jack Fritscher as editor with direct intent of opening up the pages of the magazine to include as many photographers, writers, and artists as possible; photograph by David Moore.

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DRUMMER 24, September 1978

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, editor-in-chief

“THE MAPPLETHORPE COVER,” cover photograph shot by Robert Mapplethorpe designed and commissioned by Jack Fritscher who cast his friend Elliot Siegal whom Mapplethorpe had not known and whom Mapplethorpe, once introduced, continued to shoot. See Robert Mapplethorpe’s book, Ten by Ten, photograph “11. Elliot and Dominick, 1979.”

            [“John Embry, sniffing at the gorgeous and haughty Mapplethorpe’s condescending attitude to Embry, said, ‘It’s the worst selling cover we ever had.’ Jack Fritscher, fucking the gorgeous and haughty Mapplethorpe, says, “This Mapplethorpe incident was the start of John Embry’s animosity that I was somehow imprinting Drummer with my friends and my writing–somehow at the expense of his identity. I wasn’t kidnapping his baby. I was writing a chronicle about a muscular, active, historical time when there were actually only a few functioning writers, photographers, and artists–unlike now when everyone is a writer/photographer/performance artist. So, of course, I was cadging my friends to help. (They worked for free.) At that time, everyone was too busy having sex to create magazine work. Now, minus sex, there’s all the writing (or drafts of writing) that laptops can format and print. Actually, the universally acknowledged worst Drummer cover of the 70’s was Drummer 9, November 1976, The Halloween Issue,” with the drag cover.]

            The 1978 Mapplethorpe cover was reproduced in the tea-table book, Gay by the Bay: A History of Queer Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area, which, while crediting Jack Fritscher in the text, did not list him or Drummer in its index, typifying the dismissive attitude the queenstream often has of Drummer culture, leather, and homomasculinity.

“Contents” page, p. 7, one liners, written by Jack Fritscher.

“Let Us Now Praise Fucking with Authentic Men,” p. 8 & 72-73, feature essay written by Jack Fritscher.

“Bondage: Blest Be the Tie That Binds,” pp. 16-23 & 76, feature article written by Jack Fritscher with thirteen photographs by David Sparrow/Jack Fritscher, one drawing by Rex, one photograph from the San Francisco Ballet, and poster for production of Edward II” [“One of the models,” Jack Fritscher says, “is Ed Holder at whose home the photographs were shot. Because a second model did not show up for the bondage photographs, I had David Sparrow shoot me hooded and raised in suspension by Ed Holder. My moustache is the dead giveaway.] Historical note: This “interview of (name deleted at this time)” by Jack Fritscher was the First Feature Article on bondage, as well as on the psychology of bondage, in the gay press.

“Castro Blues: Years from Now When You Read This, and You Will Read This, Remember the Way We Were, 1978 Style),” pp. 32-36, feature satire with one-liner photo captions written by Jack Fritscher, with fifteen photographs by Efren Ramirez.

“In Hot Blood: Ex-Cons-We Abuse Fags, Part 1,” pp. 37-44, feature interview, produced, transcribed, and written for publication by Jack Fritscher from an audiotape commissioned by Old Reliable, David Hurles.

[Historical note: Apology, p. 69, “Drummer inadvertently omitted the credits last issue from ‘Redneck Biker.’ Robert Opel was the photographer and Jack Fritscher the author. Apologies to both.”

            [“This apology,” Jack Fritscher says, “typifies the lack of accurate credit attribution not only at Drummer, but at most gay magazines unless constant pressure and vigilance was and is brought for credit, copyright notice, etc. Credit and protection of copyright are constant battles in the gay press where many think all work is somehow “gay public domain,” particularly since the Internet has entered the scene and pirates are scanning gay press pages for photographs to post on line. I would like to expand my business called ‘Writer’s Aid’ to start a lesbigay writers, artists, and photographers guild to defend copyright and inform writers about copyright. Actually, I’m sure, this bibliography and its notes will be eagerly cannibalized, but then it is offered up for information.”]

“Tough Shit,” p. 83, conceived, compiled, and written from the collection of Jack Fritscher.

__________________________________

DRUMMER 25, December 1978

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, editor-in-chief

“Contents” page one-liners, written by Jack Fritscher.

“Afraid You’re Not Butch Enough?” p. 6, written by Jack Fritscher.

“Astrologic” (Scorpio), p. 22, written by Jack Fritscher.

“Gay Pop Culture Series: Fetishes, Equus (A One-Horse Open Sleigh),” pp. 31-39 feature essay written by Jack Fritscher; p. 32, one photograph by Jack Fritscher; five photographs by Efren Ramirez. Introduction to excerpt from Peter Shaffer’s play, Equus.

“The Horsemaster: Come to the Stable,” p. 40, fiction (erotic character sketch) written by Jack Fritscher; also published in The California Action Guide, Volume 1 #6, December 1982, and in Inches, Volume 1 #2, June 1985, as well as in the fiction anthology, Stand By Your Man and Other Stories, 1999.

“Big Mike and David Sparrow,” p. 49, text for centerfold written by Jack Fritscher; seven photographs by David Sparrow/Jack Fritscher.[“Big Mike,” Jack Fritscher says, “arrived from New York at our Drummer office on Divisadero when he was young, fresh, and maybe 23. David and I were happy to shoot him the way he was: masculine and bearded. Naturally, we were quite happy when Mike turned to steroids, beefed up, and became the very muscular and darkly threatening Colt model, Ed Dinakos. Mike/Ed is a case in point of what I wrote in my novel Some Dance to Remember that the most used drug on Castro, the biggest secret drug no one wanted to admit using, was steroids. Ed Dinakos’ best Colt movie co-starred his lover, Jake Tanner, and was the last duo Colt ever shot, reportedly because both Dinakos and Tanner soon after died, and Colt–as I also counsel as the director at Palm Drive–was reluctant ever to cast two people together for fear of them infecting each other. Colt and Palm Drive both for the same reason specialize in solo movies. The difference is Colt puffs and powders and grooms the men, turning them into inaccessible gods. Colt is Platonically perfect. Palm Drive shoots some of the exact same men, and throws dirt on their sweat to make them accessible. That too is Platonically perfect. Also, all Colt movies are silent movies. Palm Drive uses actual sound. That’s a great dimensional difference.”]

“We’re Looking for Mr. Drummer,” p. 68; text written by Jack Fritscher; one photograph by Jim Stewart; two photos by Lou Thomas/Target, two photographs by David Sparrow/Jack Fritscher.

“The Norseman,” p. 70, film review written by Jack Fritscher.

“Tough Shit,” p. 73, conceived, collected, and written by Jack Fritscher.

“Tough Customers,” p. 75, debut of this first inclusive invitation conceived, written, and produced by Jack Fritscher to readers, featuring “Bob California” who was the Colt and Palm Drive Video model, Dave Gold, in the Palm Drive Video, directed by Jack Fritscher, Dave Gold’s Gym Workout. Dave Gold also appears in the British coffee-table book of 55 black-and-white photographs titled, Jack Fritscher’s American Men, GMP, London. Madonna’s people contacted Jack Fritscher in order to cast Dave Gold and Big Bruno from the book in a Madonna video. Dave Gold was so cool. When Jack Fritscher told him that Madonna had seen his picture, Dave Gold refused, then finally, reluctantly gave the Material Girl his fax number. (Big Bruno, an 80’s star based on the Colt/Target Bruno of the 70’s, by that date was dead.)

            Historical note: this was the first appearance of the interactive reader feature, “Tough Customers,” which went on to such popularity it became the magazine, Tough Customers.

“Dr. Dick: Your Ass,” p. 80; feature written by Jack Fritscher; drawing by A. Jay.

Drummer Goes to Its Own Party,” pp. 88-91; feature essay written by Jack Fritscher; fifteen photographs by David Sparrow/Jack Fritscher.

“Scottish Games,” pp. 92-93; feature essay written by Jack Fritscher; eight photographs by David Sparrow/Jack Fritscher, shot at the Scottish Games in Santa Rosa, September 1978.

“Sleep in Heavenly Peace,” p. 102, short fiction for Christmas, written by Jack Fritscher with photograph by John Trojanski whom Jack Fritscher discovered and mentored as a gay journalist when Fritscher hired Trojanski to work as a technical writer while Jack Fritscher, before, during, and after editing Drummer, was the head of the Marketing and Proposals Department at Kaiser Engineers, Oakland. “Sleep in Heavenly Peace” also appeared as “2 All a Goodnight” in the last issue of Man2Man Quarterly #8, December 1981, and as “Sleep in Heavenly Peace” in the fiction anthology, Stand By Your Man and Other Stories, 1999.


____________________________

SON OF DRUMMER, September 1978

Jack Fritscher, editor-in-chief, wrote nearly the entirety of this special issue.

“Contents” page one liners, written by Jack Fritscher

“The Robert Mapplethorpe Gallery (Censored),” pp. 14-17, feature article written by Jack Fritscher, with 9 photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe, one titled by Jack Fritscher: “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Satyr.” This was the first ever notice of Robert Mapplethorpe in the gay press, and was based on the intimacy of the Fritscher-Mapplethorpe bicoastal-lover relationship. This piece forms one of the bases of Jack Fritscher’s nonfiction memoir, Mapplethorpe: Assault with a Deadly Camera, 1994, hardcover, Hastings House; available at Amazon.com..

“Target Studios Retrospective,” pp. 22-25, text written by Jack Fritscher; photographs by Lou Thomas at Target Studio. Lou Thomas and Jack Fritscher were intimates from 1969-1975, and Lou Thomas published Jack Fritscher’s fiction in The Target Album magazine in the 1980s.

“Turkish Delight: Macho Wrestling with Leather, Oil, and Heavy Sweat,” pp. 28-30, feature written by Jack Fritscher.

“Candle Power,” p.34, four photographs shot by Jack Fritscher of Johnny Young and Jack Green, San Francisco, June 1978. Johnny Young was a university professor of music in Canada, and a sexual pilgrim to international baths from Buda and Pest to Tokyo and San Francisco where Jack Fritscher met him at the Barracks Baths in 1971. Jack Green directed Fritscher’s one-act comedy, Coming Attractions, at the SIR Center, San Francisco, premiering March 1976, running for six weekends. The play, re-titled after its main character, appears as Kweenasheba, in the fiction collection, Sweet Embraceable You: 8 Coffee-House Stories, 2000. Jack Green and his lover were coupled as continuing fuck-partners with the couple of Sparrow and Fritscher.

“Rude Rubbers,” p. 35, four photographs shot by Jack Fritscher of Johnny Young and Jack Green, San Francisco, June 1978..

“I Am Curious (Leather),” pp. 41-47, fiction excerpt from Jack Fritscher’s 1972 novel, Leather Blues; two drawings by Bill Ward.” Leather Blues–with the original title I Am Curious (Leather) after the 60’s hugely famous porno movie, I Am Curious (Yellow)–was one of the first leather novels written after Stonewall.

            [“I was very much a fan of William Carney’s The Real Thing,” Jack Fritscher says, “and thought I could move Carney’s epistolary novel into third-person romantic fiction that could be published by a house as respectable as the ones that had published my nonfiction witchcraft book. I firmly resolved not to sell it for pennies to Greenleaf or Olympia and lose my copyright. I saw what happened to early novelists Dirk Vanden (I Want It All) and Richard Amory (Song of the Loon), and even Larry Townsend. Through the S&M priest Jim Kane, I was one of the many respondents to Larry Townsend’s first mimeographed questionnaires whose answers became the base of his Leatherman’s Handbook (1972). In those days of carbon paper and mimeograph, Jim and I–as did others in the distribution-tree of early leather–made copies of Larry Townsend’s questionnaire and circulated them, because the questions were provocative enough to jerk off to, before they were sent back to Larry Townsend. Life came full circle when Larry Townsend invited me to write the introduction to the Leatherman’s Handbook Silver Jubilee Edition (1997). For that introduction, I gifted the title by transfer: ‘I Am Curious (Leather): Leather Dolce Vita, Pop Culture, and the Prime of Mr. Larry Townsend.’ So in 1972 my novel was printed in a limited edition, as well as excerpted in Stroke magazine, and, when legitimate gay book publishers finally emerged ten long years later in the mid-1980’s, the novel was published by Gay Sunshine Press in 1984. John Embry in 1978 was very taken with my actual book I Am Curious (Leather), which he read as a sample of my work, and when he hired me as editor-in-chief promised that he would publish the novel. The note published at the end of this excerpt, on page 47, stated that the chapter was ‘from the forth-coming Drummer novel, I Am Curious (Leather).’]

            [Remainder of narrative deleted from Internet publication.]

            Leather Blues was published by Gay Sunshine Press, 1984 (10,000 copies) and by Palm Drive Publishing, 2001 (5,000 copies).

“Rex Revisited,” p. 48-51, feature review written by Jack Fritscher; five drawings by Rex. Visit www.Rexwerk.com.

“Chico Is the Man,” pp. 52-54, erotic poem written by Jack Fritscher; seven photographs by Bob Heffron. In February 2000, this poem was one of the winners of the Orgasmic Poetry Festival, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, California. See review in the San Francisco Chronicle, February 25, 2000, pages NB 1 & 2.

“Scum That I Am,” p. 62, (not listed on the contents page) is the final part of a fiction piece written by Jack Fritscher that actually began on page 31. Publisher John Embry pulled the text from page 31 at the last minute causing editor Fritscher to print on page 31 a proof sheet, titled “Ass-Sets,” shot by David Sparrow and Jack Fritscher. Embry thought the title, “Scum That I Am,” too strong, even though Fritscher had written the piece specifically to pair it with “Slave That I Am,” by Bruce Werner, on page 21, in the same issue. “Scum That I Am” can be read in its entirety as “Wound-Sucking Cocksucker” published in Man2Man Quarterly #3, March 1981, and as “Goodbye Saigon” in Powerplay #17, Spring 1998, and as “Goodbye Saigon” in the fiction anthology, Rainbow County and Other Stories, which was the Winner National 1998 Small Press Book Award as the Best Erotic book in the US from a field of straight, gay, and lesbian fiction and nonfiction.

“Arab Death: The Legend of the Thousand Testicles,” pp. 8-11, is credited to “Denny Sargent” who is the hero/protagonist of Jack Fritscher’s novel excerpt, “I Am Curious (Leather),” pp. 41-47 in the same issue; publisher John Embry presented the boiler plate “Arab” article as filler to illustrate the sand dune photographs Embry had commissioned (without text) from photographer Joe Tiffenbach whose cover for “Drummer 20” was from the same shoot. Fritscher re-worked the boiler plate from the public domain so the edit would be “hotter,” but he did not at that time take credit for writing the heavily edited, but sourced, article.

“Ass-Sets Photographs,” p. 31, proof-sheet of photographs shot by David Sparrow and Jack Fritscher, July 1978, upstairs at 4436-25th Street.

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DRUMMER 26, JANUARY 1979

Jack Fritscher, editor-in-chief

“Contents” page one liners, written by Jack Fritscher.

“Grand National Rodeo Blues: Comes a Horseman, Cowboys and Mounties,” pp. 8-17, lead feature article written by Jack Fritscher with nine photographs of cowboys shot during the Grand National Rodeo, October 31, 1978, at the Cow Palace by David Sparrow and Jack Fritscher. Six pictures of Mounties photographed by Jack Fritscher solo at Stanford University during the “big game” between Stanford and Cal, November 1976.

“High Performance: Or, Sex without a Net,” review of the magazine, High Performance, pp. 18-22, written by Jack Fritscher and coded with permission under name “David Hurles,” presages the Mapplethorpe-Helms art-politics controversy. AP photograph of Robert Opel; one photograph by David Sparrow/Jack Fritscher.

“Astrologic” (Saggitarius), pp. 30-31, written by Jack Fritscher; drawing by A. Jay.

“The Battered Lex Barker,” pp. 32-36; text written by Jack Fritscher; ten photographs from Lex Barker movies.

“Midnight Express,” pp. 68-69, political movie review, written by Jack Fritscher, coded under name J. Trojanski.

“Tough Shit,” p. 70, conceived, collected, and written by Jack Fritscher, featuring Bay Area strongman, the heterosexual Mike Dayton, who was the focus of a major feature article by Jack Fritscher in The California Action Guide, November 1982, with eight photographs furnished by Mike Dayton.

“Tough Customers,” p. 76, written by Jack Fritscher.

“CMC Carnival 1978: Seaman’s Semen’s End,” pp. 82-85, feature review of the famous ritual event written by Jack Fritscher; thirteen photos by David Sparrow/Jack Fritscher.

“Gay Writers/Writer’s Aid,” p. 86. This tutorial service here first advertised was offered by Jack Fritscher to assist new writers in the self-inventing world of gay erotic publishing. Fritscher, who had taught writing at university level for eleven years, and who was at that time manager of the technical writing staff at Kaiser Engineers, was trying any way possible to fill the pages of Drummer. According to Fritscher’s records, some of the writers who came to him or wrote him for coaching were John Preston, Anthony F. DeBlase (who ten years later actually bought Drummer and became its publisher and editor), and.... (out of discretion for the living and famous, whose letters are on file, names are currently deleted).

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DRUMMER 27, February 1979

Jack Fritscher, editor-in-chief.

“Contents” page one-liners, written by Jack Fritscher.

“Basic Plumbing Unplugged: LA Plays Hard with Itself,” pp.8-13, lead feature article, written by Jack Fritscher from initial reporting by Terry Sabreur with photographs by Joe Tiffenbach.

“Dirty Poole: Everything You Fantasized about Wakefield Poole, But Were Too Wrecked to Ask,” pp. 14-22, cover feature interview written by Jack Fritscher; three photographs, p. 15, of Wakefield Poole by David Sparrow/Jack Fritscher; with eleven photographs from Wakefield Poole. This was the first interview of a gay filmmaker in the gay press. In year 2000, Alyson Publications published Wakefield Poole’s autobiography whose title, Dirty Poole, came from the title of this feature interview produced, written, and titled by Jack Fritscher. [“Of course, I probably wasn’t,” Jack Fritscher says, “the first to combine Wake’s surname into the phrase, ‘dirty poole,’ but historically this was the first use of it in print.”]

“S&M: The Last Taboo, The Janus Society,” pp. 32-36, feature essay, produced and written by Jack Fritscher, accompanied by reporter, Eric Van Meter, who under another name worked for the San Francisco Chronicle. “Frank Cross” is the coded name for the Catholic priest, Jim Kane, on the back of whose Harley-Davidson Jack Fritscher toured in the famous road-trip from Denver to Taos and Santa Fe, June 1969, which included a swimming pool and Ken Kesey’s brown leather jacket. Jim Kane and Jack Fritscher were S&M playmates from 1967 to 1976. As priest-editor of the Colorado Springs diocesan newspaper titled Dateline Colorado, the Reverend Jim Kane published a continuing essay column on Catholicism and American pop culture written by Jack Fritscher from 1969-1971. In 1971, Jim Kane introduced Sam Steward/Phil Andros to Jack Fritscher who received a State of Michigan grant to the arts to chronicle the career of Sam Steward on audio tape. Ultimately, when Jack Fritscher’s former lover of ten years, David Sparrow, passed away from AIDS, he died in a house owned by Jim Kane at the corner of Pink and Pearl, San Francisco. David Andrew Sparrow who was born May 7, 1945, was partners with Jack Fritscher from July 4, 1969 to March 17, 1979, and died February 20, 1992.

Movie Movie,” “Superman,” pp. 61-62, two film reviews written by Jack Fritscher.

“Golden Drumsticks Awards,” p. 64, awards column invented and written by Jack Fritscher.

“Tough Shit,” p. 70, conceived, gathered, and edited by Jack Fritscher, featuring early rumblings similar to federal funding by NEA of suspect art, again, presaging the Mapplethorpe controversy.

“Tough Customers,” pp. 76-77; text written by Jack Fritscher; photograph page 77, lower left with beer is Paul Hatlestad, partner of Wakefield Poole. Hatlestad’s death is poignantly recalled in Dirty Poole.

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DRUMMER 28, April 1979

Jack Fritscher, editor-in-chief.

“Contents” page, p. 5, one liners, written by Jack Fritscher.

“Wet Stough,” pp. 14-17, poem written by Jack Fritscher with ten photographs shot by David Sparrow/Jack Fritscher at a UCLA-Stanford swimming meet at Stanford; later published as “Photo Op at Walt Whitman Junior College” in The James White Review, Fall/Winter 1997, and in Rainbow County and Other Stories, 1999.

“Bare-Ass Wrestling,” p. 41, centerfold copy written by Jack Fritscher.

The Deer Hunter,” pp. 53-54, movie review written by Jack Fritscher.

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DRUMMER 29, May 1979

Jack Fritscher, editor-in-chief.

“Contents” page, p. 5, one-liners, written by Jack Fritscher.

“The Most Dangerous Game in the Whole Wide World,” p. 6, essay written by Jack Fritscher.

“Drawings by Domino,” pp. 8-9, written by Jack Fritscher, with reporting credited to A. Jay as an “artist interview.”

“Domino: Interview,” p. 11, written from Jack Fritscher interview with Domino, with drawings by Domino and A. Jay portrait of Domino. Historical note: See the Domino drawing of blond, moustached, bodybuilding champion Jim Enger drawn in Jack Fritscher’s house, 1981, and featured in the Palm Drive video documentary, The Domino Video Gallery, created and photographed in 2000 by Mark Hemry/Jack Fritscher. There are some who hypothesize that the character, Kick, in Some Dance to Remember is based at least physically on this Domino model, who was the winner of the 1979 “Mr. Iron Man” physique competition, San Diego. For details of producer-artist Jack Fritscher arranging for camera-artist Robert Mapplethorpe to photograph physique-artist Jim Enger, see Fritscher’s memoir of life with these two men, Mapplethorpe: Assault with a Deadly Camera.

“Foot Loose,” p.13, poem written by Jack Fritscher, with photograph by John Trojanski.

“Noodles Romanov and the Golden Gloves,” pp.14-17, feature article written by Jack Fritscher, with three photographs by David Sparrow/Jack Fritscher, and two photographs by Lou Thomas, Target. [“At this Golden Gloves,” Jack Fritscher says, “David Sparrow and I were taken with a boxer who had been both a fireman and cop. He was handsome, hot, and fighting his last Golden Gloves fight before he turned thirty when he would no longer qualify. He fought wildly, amazingly. He was, of course, Dan White. I used that Golden Gloves scene in Some Dance to Remember.”]

“On Target,” pp. 37, centerfold copy written by Jack Fritscher.

“Tough Shit,” p. 62, collected and written by Jack Fritscher.

[“Mr Benson,” Part 1, Premiere Episode, p. 19, novel serialization, re-written by Jack Fritscher from a draft by “Jack Prescott” aka John Preston who subsequently used this version as base for his final draft published by Drummer’s Alternate Publishing. See notes on Mr. Benson, Drummer 30 and Drummer 31, and especially the note in Drummer 26, regarding “Gay Writers. Writers Aid,” Jack Fritscher’s small business of tutoring beginning erotic writers, of which, John Preston was one.]

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DRUMMER 30, June 1979

4th Anniversary Issue

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, editor-in-chief.

“Cover Photograph,” shot by David Sparrow/Jack Fritscher, cast and designed by Jack Fritscher, shot May 1979 in Sebastopol, California, at the ranch of Ed Linotti, one of the founding members of the Pacific Drill Patrol, San Francisco’s first uniform club. Although Sparrow and Fritscher split as lovers in March 1979, they continued to live under the same roof and work together for some years after.

“Contents” page one-liners, p. 3, written by Jack Fritscher. (Note that year 1978 remains incorrect. It should read 1979, but no one kept up Drummer’s housekeeping details.)

“Tit Torture Blues,” pp. 10-18, feature article, produced and written by Jack Fritscher. Historical Note: this feature dated June 1979 ends with a notice announcing a new ’zine, Man2Man Quarterly, using David Hurles/Old Reliable’s Haight Street address where in 1980 David Hurles handed Jack Fritscher one of the first video cameras for consumer use, and Fritscher, looking through the viewfinder, said, “This is the devil’s tool.”) Illustrations for this first feature article on the eros of male nipples were photographs by Richard Moore, Phillip Beard, Joe Tiffenbach, and Mikal Bales’ Zeus. The key drawing of Pecs O’Toole was by A. Jay.

“Meditations on Arthur Tress,” pp. 22-25, four poems written by Jack Fritscher and set as paragraphs to verbalize four photographs by New York photographer, Arthur Tress, who later photographed Jack Fritscher in 1999.

“Zeus: Introducing a New Studio,” p. 48, centerfold copy written by Jack Fritscher.

“The Brothel Hotel,” pp. 63-64, feature review written by Jack Fritscher, with five photographs by Tony Plewik and Fisher Ross.

“Tough Shit,” p. 72. Items researched, written, or rewritten by Jack Fritscher from his own files.

[Mr. Benson,” Part 2; see notes on Mr. Benson, Drummer 29 and Drummer 31.]

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DRUMMER 31, September 1979

Masthead: “Jack Fritscher, editor-in-chief,” deleted, upon exiting Drummer after creating issues 31, 32, and 33 which progressively had less of Fritscher’s concepts and writing.

“Contents” page one liners, p. 3, written by Jack Fritscher.

“The First Mr. International Leather,” pp. 20-24, text written by Jack Fritscher; captions for photographs by Male Hide Leathers of Chuck Renzlow and Durk Dehner written by Jack Fritscher. Male Hide Leathers was the leather store in Chicago owned by Bob Maddox who, with longtime intimate Jack Fritscher, participated in the first several Inferno runs in the early 1970’s in Chicago before Inferno moved to Saugatuck, twenty miles from Jack Fritscher’s then home in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

“Centerfold Photographs: Val and Bob,” pp. 41-48, all photographs shot by Jack Fritscher (solo) and published by John Embry under the name of “David Sparrow” who had exited Drummer with his lover, Jack Fritscher.

“Tony Plewik: Do-er’s Profile,” p. 68-70, an artist’s profile, written and produced by Jack Fritscher; intended as the first in a series promoting fresh new talent; Fritscher invented the feature on the back of the popular Scotch whiskey ad campaign, “Dewar’s Profiles.”

“In Passing, Robert Opel: His Last High Performance,” produced by Jack Fritscher.

[Mr. Benson,” Part 3, rewritten by Jack Fritscher from the John Preston draft manuscript; John Preston’s final draft incorporated this edit. “It was,” Jack Fritscher says, “no more than an edit, but it was a very thorough edit, because Preston wanted to become a ‘star.’ That was, of course, the theme and name of the Creative Power Foundation’s biggest party of the year, ‘Stars.’ I also suggested that Preston call himself by what he said was his real name, ‘John Preston,’ rather than ‘Jack Prescott.’ Why should a liberated gay writer use a pen-name? Even Anne Rice, who once used her Roquelaure pen-name in Drummer, also published as herself.”]

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DRUMMER 32, October 1979

Jack Fritscher, editor-in-chief exits Drummer after creating issues 31, 32, and part of 33.

Jack Fritscher had developed, produced, and edited this issue which was changed by subtraction after Fritscher left. See Embry’s distance of himself, p. 6, from the last of Drummer’s founding Los Angeles partners, Jeanne Barney and her “Leather Fraternity”; on p. 9, Mapplethorpe is misspelled “Maplethorpe.” Fritscher produced and wrote “A Confidential Drummer Dossier,” pp. 19-21, from which his name was pulled; however, Fritscher had internally by-lined the article by putting his birthday, June 20, in the title block.

“A Confidential Drummer Dossier,” pp. 19-21, written by Jack Fritscher.

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DRUMMER 33, December 1979

In this issue, publisher John Embry completes the ethnic cleansing of Jack Fritscher from Drummer and adds him, David Sparrow, David Hurles, and Robert Mapplethorpe to his Drummer “black list” which included Embry’s LA partners, particularly, Jeanne Barney; see Drummer 32, p. 9. Drummer employee John Rowberry operated the blacklist until he exited Drummer, was black-listed himself, and moved to Los Angeles to package gay magazines (sometimes with Aaron Travis), whereupon Rowberry immediately secured Jack Fritscher during the 1980’s to write more than forty stories and features for Rowberry’s Inches, Skin, Skinflicks, Uncut, etc. Fritscher, Sparrow, Mapplethorpe, and Hurles disappeared from nearly all the next 67 issues of Drummer, which sets off the other record: Jack Fritscher’s work actually appears in more than 60 issues of Drummer. Significantly, A. Jay, Al Shapiro, who was the legendary art director of Drummer, issues 16-33, exited Drummer after issue 33. The bond between Jack Fritscher and Al Shapiro remained so strong that the last drawing A. Jay created before he went blind, he drew for Jack Fritscher, who subsequently made the documentary, The A. Jay Video Gallery: Spit! Jack Fritscher is the protector of the A. Jay copyright for Richard Kriegmont, the partner/survivor os Al Shapiro/A. Jay, who wrote, “Not to be missed is the historical connection between Drummer art director, A. Jay, and Drummer editor, Jack Fritscher, who together created the mystique of Drummer magazine in the 1970s.”

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DRUMMER 81, February 1984

“Drummedia Books: Men Who Say Yo,” review of two best-selling books of fiction both written by Jack Fritscher, Corporal in Charge of Taking Care of Captain O’Malley and Other Stories and Leather Blues. Among other reviewers such as Michael Bronski and Richard LaBonte, this review-essay written by Aaron Travis aka Steven Saylor discusses Corporal in Charge, published in US by Gay Sunshine Press (10,000 copies, 1984), in UK by Prowler Press (5,000 copies, 1998), and in US by Palm Drive Publishing (7,000 copies, 2000). Leather Blues was published in by Gay Sunshine Press (10,000 copies, 1984) and Palm Drive Publishing (5,000 copies, 2001). Other reviews of both books are posted at www.PalmDrivePublishing.com and at www.JackFritscher.com.

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DRUMMER 85, December 1985

10th Anniversary Issue

“Smut Is Where You Find It–Erotic Writers: What They Read to Turn on,” p. 86, text written by Jack Fritscher accompanying other writers: Sam Steward, John Preston, T. R. Witomski, Mason Powell, etc. [Historical note: This issue contains a cursory ten-year bibliography titled “The Complete Drummer Fiction and Fetish Index.”]

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DRUMMER 100, October 1986

In summer 1986, Drummer was purchased from John Embry by Anthony F. DeBlase and Andrew Charles, Desmodus Inc.

            The artist Rex, black-listed by Embry, was invited back to Drummer and drew the cover for the new incarnation of the magazine. In August 1986, Trent Dunphy and Bob Mainardi, owners of The Magazine bookstore in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, and great patrons of the arts, particularly photography, hosted a lavish round-table supper to celebrate the “Liberation of Drummer,” and the return of Drummer’s original talent base, as well as Drummer’s new direction. Present at the “Drummer supper” which trailed into an evening of photographs spread throughout the rooms were Anthony F. DeBlase, Andrew Charles, Rex, Jack Fritscher, Mark Hemry, and the radical-sex photographer of Folsom Street, Mark I. Chester. Bob Mainardi’s book of photographs, The Naked Heartland, was published in 2000.

Masthead: no writers listed

“The Lords of Leather,” pp. 30-35, cover-featured short story billed as “New Fiction from Larry Townsend and Jack Fritscher,” written by Jack Fritscher. This was the first use of the phrase “Lords of Leather: A Casque of Amontillado Homage to Poe, Polanski, Kafka and Corman.” “The Lords of Leather” later became the name of an erotic video as well as the name of a fraternal club of gay men. This issue, Drummer 100, broke John Embry’s active blacklisting of Jack Fritscher’s writing. During the 63-issue banishment from Drummer, Jack Fritscher’s writing of fiction and features appeared regularly in a dozen other gay magazines, particularly under the editorship of John Rowberry, who himself, after a brief period as editor at Drummer after Jack Fritscher, also exited Drummer because of “creative differences” with John Embry. Jack Fritscher’s writing from this black-listed period appears collected in the award-winning 4-volume book series: Corporal in Charge of Taking Care of Captain O’Malley and Other Stories (published by Gay Sunshine Press, San Francisco, 1984; by Prowler Press, London, England, 1998; and by Palm Drive Publishing, San Francisco, 2000); Stand by Your Man and Other Stories (1987 & 1999); Rainbow County and Other Stories (published by Larry Townsend in 1997 & by Palm Drive in 1999); Titanic: Forbidden Stories Hollywood Forgot (1999). This story, “The Lords of Leather,” based on Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Casque of Amontillado” was a revenge and rape fantasy that interestingly enough was selected for the anthology, Rough Stuff, Alyson Publications.

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DRUMMER 107 August 1987

“The Artist, A JAY: Al Shapiro–The Passing of one of Drummer’s First Daddies,” cover Feature Article Obituary and Final Interview by Jack Fritscher, pp. 34-40, with layout by Jameo Sanders featuring A. Jay drawings. [“Quite possibly,” Jack Fritscher says, “the best integrated layout done to any of my features and fiction. The layout truly honored A. Jay’s work.”] A. Jay’s drawings appeared on pages 68, 70, 74, 76, 78, 80, 82, 84, and 88. Al Shapiro died May 30, 1987. Jack Fritscher has directed and photographed six videos of prominent erotic artists’ work, all available from Palm Drive Video: The A. Jay Video Gallery: Spit; The Domino Video Gallery: New York Men Who Will Fuck You Up; The Hun Video Gallery #1: Rainy Night in Georgia; The Hun Video Gallery #2: Chain Gang Gang Bang; The Rex Video Gallery: Corrupt Beyond Innocence; The Skipper Video Gallery: Soldiers.

“Obituary Sidebar,” p. 40, book dedication to Al Shapiro from the fiction anthology, Stand by Your Man and Other Stories, written by Jack Fritscher. “This A. Jay obituary, along with the excerpts from my novel, Some Dance to Remember, were two of the memoir pieces that I wrote,” Jack Fritscher says, “that caused Anthony F. DeBlase to ask me to anchor the historical column of the “Rear-View Mirror.”

“Sixth-page Palm Drive Video Display Ad,” the first Palm Drive Video ad, after five years of Palm Drive business, to appear in Drummer, p. 39.

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DRUMMER 115, April 1988

“Two Photographs,” p. 40, Gut Punchers, shot by Jack Fritscher in Los Angeles, July 24, 1987, accompanying “Video Reviews” by Fledermaus/Publisher Anthony F. DeBlase of four video features shot by Jack Fritscher for his Palm Drive Video: Gut Punchers, Woodshed Whipping, Thrasher: If Looks Could Kill, and Cigar Blues 1. Brian Pronger, author, as he was writing his nonfiction gay sports book, requested several Fritscher sports photographs and published one of the Gut Punchers photographs in The Arena of Masculinity: Sports, Homosexuality, and the Meaning of Sex, which was a book that grew from Jack Fritscher’s feature, the first article on gay sports, in Drummer 20, December 1978.

            Anthony F. DeBlase, when later he was editor of Dungeon Master regularly took themes, such as “erotic slapping” which first appeared as the lead feature written by Jack Fritscher for Man2Man Quarterly #7, November 1981, and titled, “USMC Slapcaptain: How the Corporal Came to Be in Charge of Taking Care of Captain O’Malley,” DeBlase also printed what had been an earlier centerfold shot titled “Two Straight Men Slapping” by Jack Fritscher in Drummer 148, April 1991. Many Palm Drive Video features were occasions for DeBlase’ requesting Jack Fritscher’s photographs to illustrate his articles. Dungeon Master was subsequently purchased by Harold Cox and Bob Reite and incorporated into Checkmate magazine which regularly features nonfiction articles on leather history by Jack Fritscher who photographed the cover of the last actual-paper issue of Checkmate (November 2000) before Checkmate turned to Internet publication. “USMC Slapcaptain” also appeared in Powerplay 11, May 1996.

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DRUMMER 116, May 1988

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, Contributing Writer.

“Photograph,” p. 48, shot by Jack Fritscher of John Muir in naval uniform and boxer shorts during shooting of video, Russian Bear, June 15 and 16, 1987, Palm Drive Video..

“In Passing: Hanging Out to Dry! Washday at Palm Drive Video,” p. 98, this last-page feature shows two photographs by Jack Fritscher shot during the taping of his feature for Palm Drive, the video, Vigilante,” March 17, 1988.

“Palm Drive Video Display Ad,” p. 39.

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DRUMMER 117 June 1988

“2 Photographs of Model Dave Gold,” p. 45, shot by Jack Fritscher, illustrating the cover feature, “Daddies”; from the Palm Drive Video feature, Dave Gold’s Gym Workout.

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DRUMMER 119, July 1988 (actually August 1988; masthead was not changed from issue 118, so two July 1988 issues exist.)

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, Frequent Contributors, Writers; Palm Drive Video, Photographers.

“How to Hunt Buckskin Leather Mountain Men and Live Among the Bears,” Plus 21 Interior Photographs Shot by Jack Fritscher, pp. 22-26, cover lead feature article, introducing the word “mountainman” into the gay lexicon, with four photos, pp. 2 & 3 (inside front cover, Big Bruno, and masthead page, two mountainmen and Jack Husky), plus seventeen photographs by Jack Fritscher from Palm Drive Video: p 18 (David Delay, co-founder, The Ambush bar, Harrison Street, San Francisco); p. 22, p. 23, p. 24, p. 25, p. 26 (the photographs numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9;11 and 12–both Mr. America/Mr. Universe, Chuck Sipes), 13, 15 17; 18 and19 and 20 (John Muir, model on the cover of the first issue of Bear magazine, and the star of two videos shot by Jack Fritscher, A Man’s Man,1987, and Russian Bear, 2000.)

“Palm Drive’s Video, Mud Pillow Fight,” letter, p. 5.

“Half-page Palm Drive Video Display Ad,” p. 68.

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DRUMMER 118, July 1988

Cover Plus 11 Interior Photographs Shot by Jack Fritscher.

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, Frequent Contributors, Writers; Palm Drive Video, Photographers.

“Cover Shot: Keith Ardent Rubber” photographed by Jack Fritscher, to fit theme, fetish rubber, suggested, and produced by Jack Fritscher. Other upcoming fetish issues, suggested by Fritscher fetish plan for Drummer, p. 27; photographs, p. 2 & 3, also shot by Jack Fritscher of model, Keith Ardent. All photographs shot by Jack Fritscher for his Palm Drive video feature, Nine-Inch Pec Stud in Black Rubber, November 22, 1987.

“Inside, Eight Photographs,” pp. 11-18 (also photo on p. 32), shot by Jack Fritscher; these photographs marked the first printing of color inside Drummer pages. “The front slick photos in this issue are devoted to some wonderful photos by Jack Fritscher’s Palm Drive Video of Keith Ardent in and out of rubber.” –Anthony F. DeBlase, publisher, p. 4.

“Nine-Inch Pec Stud in Black Rubber,” p. 14, photo text, written by Jack Fritscher to present his photographs.

“Rubber: Confessions of a Rubber Freak,” pp. 29-32, cover feature article, fetish feature, written by Jack Fritscher to implement the theme of this issue.

“Half-page Palm Drive Video Display Ad,” p. 80.

“Grizzly Action Photograph” and “Beards, Bears, and Barbarous Butts Photograph,” inside back cover, two photographs shot by Jack Fritscher.

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D 120 “mud

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DRUMMER 121, September 1988

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, Frequent Contributors, Writers; Palm Drive, Photographers.

“Photograph, Jason Steele,” p. 97, shot by Jack Fritscher of Jason Steele, from the feature video directed by Jack Fritscher, Tit Animal (Sex My Father Taught Me). March 20, 1987, illustrating a video review and a book review, both by Ken Kissoff, of the video, Tit Animal, and the fiction anthology, Jack Fritscher’s Stand by Your Man and Other Stories.

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DRUMMER 123, September 1988

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, Frequent Contributors, Writers; Palm Drive, Photographers.

21 Photographs by Jack Fritscher.

“Photograph inside Front Cover,” p. 2, shot by Jack Fritscher.

“Solo Sex: Nobody Does It Better–A Man’s Guide,” pp. 34-41, cover feature essay, written by Jack Fritscher: the joy of masturbation; eight photographs by Jack Fritscher, pp. 34 & 35; one photograph by Jack Fritscher, top p. 36; four photographs by Jack Fritscher, pp. 38-39; six photographs by Jack Fritscher, p. 40; one photograph by Jack Fritscher, bottom, p. 41.

“Half-page Palm Drive Video Display Ad,” p. 54.

“Palm Drive Video Classified Ad,” p. 81, continuous through many issues.

[Fritscher’s name is misspelled, without the “s”, on cover and inside pages]

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DRUMMER 124, December 1988

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, Frequent Contributors, Writers; Palm Drive, Photographers.

5 Photographs by Jack Fritscher.

“How to Judge Bodybuilding Inside and Out: A Sensual Critic’s Eye View,” pp. 7-9; lead feature with three photographs from the physique competition of Gay Games II, San Francisco.

Photographs, pp. 16-17, four photographs shot by Jack Fritscher of Dick Black, Sonny Butts, and bodybuilder.

Some Dance to Remember, Excerpts from the New Novel, Drummer’s Sneak Preview of a Literary Event,” pp. 20-25; published in Drummer two years before the novel itself was published, the completed book manuscript had been sitting since 1984 waiting to cut through political correction and East Coast book publishers’ attitude versus West Coast fiction. Authors and magazines oriented toward sex, and leather, have not yet been accepted as a legitimate genre by the so-called “gay literary establishment” that in academia gives lippy service to both inclusion and diversity but of the convenient kinds that–unlike male-identified homosexuality–don’t talk

back independently.

            Historical note: As point-man pioneering and engineering gay male culture in magazines, Jack Fritscher often influenced that culture in subtle ways. For instance, Drummer is coded as Leatherman magazine in Some Dance to Remember. Years later, when Terry LeGrand/Roger Earl’s actual magazine titled Leatherman appeared, it credited its own name in this way on its masthead: “Our title Leatherman was inspired by Jack Fritscher’s novel Some Dance to Remember.” –International Leatherman #2, 1994. Leatherman was subsequently purchased by Brush Creek Media.

            Some Dance to Remember is abundantly cited and quoted in Douglas Sadownick’s nonfiction analysis of gay culture, Sex Between Men, 1996.

“Photograph, Handsome, Bald Bodybuilder,” p. 35, photograph by Jack Fritscher, with review of a documentary video by Jack Fritscher titled Police Olympics Bodybuilding.” This photograph also appears in the 55-photograph collection shot by Jack Fritscher for Gay Men’s Press, London, Jack Fritscher’s American Men.

“Half-page Palm Drive Video Display Ad,” p 53.

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DRUMMER 125, February 1989

Historical note: Publisher, Editor, Anthony F. DeBlase, p. 82, announces, after consultation with Jack Fritscher, the new gay-culture history feature, “Rear-View Mirror” as an exploration of our Leather Roots. “Jack Fritscher has agreed to anchor the column, making frequent contributions to it, including reports from his collection of oral histories.

“Half-page Palm Drive Video Display Ad,” p. 57.

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DRUMMER 126, March 1989

“Rear-View Mirror #1: Home Is the Sailor! Home from the Sea!”; pp. 8-9, first appearance of “Rear-View Mirror,” historical feature-essay, with original angle conceived, material researched, and text written by Jack Fritscher at invitation of publisher, Anthony F. DeBlase.

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DRUMMER 127, April 1989

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, Frequent Contributors, Writers; Palm Drive, Photographers.

4 Photographs by Jack Fritscher.

“Rear-View Mirror #2: Bars and Bikes,” pp. 15 & 97, second appearance of “Rear-View Mirror” historical feature-essay in Drummer, with original angle conceived, material researched, and text written by Jack Fritscher at invitation of publisher, Anthony F. DeBlase.

“J. D. Slater Is ‘Dirt,’” pp. 16-17, text written and four photographs shot by Jack Fritscher from his Palm Drive Video feature, Mud and Oil, on October 27, 1988.

“Shadow Soldiers,” pp. 23-35, short story written by Jack Fritscher about Vietnam War POWs, with four drawings by Skipper from the collection of Jack Fritscher and Mark Hemry. This story was published in two parts in Man2Man Quarterly #4, June 1981, and Man2Man Quarterly #5, September 1981, and in Powerplay #15, August 1997, as well as in Rainbow County and Other Stories, 1997 and 1999, winner, National Small Press Book Award, Best Erotic Book.

“Half-page Palm Drive Video Display Ad,” p. 85.

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DRUMMER 128, May 1989

[“Letter to the Editor,” p. 5, re Jack Fritscher’s “Solo Sex” feature in Drummer 123.]

[Editorial by Anthony F. DeBlase states that the success of Drummer is owed precisely to its showcasing of “real,” that is, actual men, the readers, which as a concept was inaugurated in the 70s by then editor Jack Fritscher. DeBlase also acknowledges that Jack Fritscher’s “Tough Customers” concept “is obviously one of the, if not the, most popular feature in Drummer.”]

“Palm Drive Video Classified Ad,” p. 70.

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DRUMMER 129, June 1989

Masthead: Featured Contributors, Writers: Jack Fritscher; Frequent Contributors, Photographers: Palm Drive Video.

“Rear-View Mirror #3: Leather’s Founding Daddies, Brando,” pp.33-34, third appearance of “Rear-View Mirror”historical feature in Drummer, with original angle conceived, material researched, and text written by Jack Fritscher at invitation of publisher, Anthony F. DeBlase.

“Half-page Palm Drive Video Display Ad,” p. 67.

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DRUMMER 131, July 1989

“Rear-View Mirror #4: Inventing the Leather Bar,” pp. 22-23, fourth appearance of “Rear-View Mirror” historical feature in Drummer, with original angle conceived, material researched, and text written by Jack Fritscher at invitation of publisher, Anthony F. DeBlase; with drawing by Bill Ward. [This issue, discussing the Leather Flag designed by Anthony F. DeBlase makes a strong stand to protect the flag’s copyright. DeBlase knew that Drummer, the leather community, and the copyright concept were often at odds.] This “Rear-View Mirror”essay is specifically marked “copyright 1989 Jack Fritscher.”

“You’re History!” p. 23, three paragraphs written by Jack Fritscher as invitation to readers to send in their own histories the way in Drummer 25 he wrote the invitation creating “Tough Customers” as a column with actual readers’ photographs.

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DRUMMER 133, September 1989

Masthead: Featured Contributors, Writers: Jack Fritscher; Frequent Contributors, Photographers, Palm Drive Video.

Cover copy: “Jack Fritscher on Robert Mapplethorpe: Intelligent People Making Intelligent Sex.” “Pentimento for Robert Mapplethorpe: Fetishes, Faces, and Flowers of Evil,” pp. 8-15, lead cover feature, memoir, a vast elaboration on the “Rear-View Mirror” historical theme, with seven photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe, including the famous photograph of Jack Fritscher’s lover, Jim Enger, headless. (See Editorial, p. 4, that reprints the Drummer 24 Mapplethorpe cover designed by Fritscher.) This is also the first issue of Drummer to be printed entirely on glossy stock paper. See mention, p. 43, of Jack Fritscher/Mark Hemry and Palm Drive shooting the newest S&M video for Marathon Studios in Europe, June 1989. Robert Mapplethorpe died at 6 A. M. March 9,1989; Senator Jesse Helms attacked him ninety days later in June1989.

            Ten years previously in 1979, Jack Fritscher wrote this essay as a short story titled “Caro Ricardo,” fictionalized to protect the privacy of Robert Mapplethorpe, who loved the story so much that as witnessed by Mapplethorpe biographer, Patricia Morrisroe, he kept the story with him on his death bed in the form of Jack Fritscher’s 1984 fiction anthology, Corporal in Charge of Taking Care of Captain O’Malley and Other Stories. Upon Robert’s death in March 1989, Fritscher converted the auto-memoir fiction into a personal essay memorializing Robert Mapplethorpe.

            In May 1990, at the American Booksellers Association in Las Vegas, publisher Elizabeth Gershman of Knights Press offered Fritscher a contract to write a nonfiction book about Robert Mapplethorpe viewed through Fritscher’s personal and gay popular culture perspective. In 1994, that memoir, Mapplethorpe: Assault with a Deadly Camera, was published by Hastings House. It was the first biography of Robert Mapplethorpe and sold more than 40,000 copies in hardcover. Reviews at www.JackFritscher.com.

“Half-page Palm Drive Video Display Ad,” p. 90.

“Palm Drive Video Classified Ad,” p. 92.

“Photograph, Inside Back Cover,” shot by Jack Fritscher of Bobby Stumps in long johns and cowboy hat from the Palm Drive Video shot by Jack Fritscher, Blond Saddle Tramp in Brown Leather.

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DRUMMER 134, October 1989

18 Interior Photographs, Including Centerfold, Shot by Jack Fritscher.

Masthead: Featured Contributors, Jack Fritscher; Frequent Contributors, Photographers, Palm Drive Video.

“Rear-View Mirror #5: Artist Chuck Arnett–His Life and His Times,” pp.32-36, fifth appearance of “Rear-View Mirror” historical feature-essay in Drummer, with original angle conceived, material researched, and text written by Jack Fritscher at invitation of publisher, Anthony F. DeBlase; with six Chuck Arnett drawings from the collection of Jack Fritscher and Mark Hemry; later reprinted in Mark Thompson’s landmark anthology, Leatherfolk: Radical Sex, People, Politics, and Practice, 1991.

“Centerfold and Centerfold Photos,” pp. 50-55, seven photographs of Bobby Stumps, shot by Jack Fritscher on December 11, 1988.

“Full-page Palm Drive Video Display Ad for Christmas, 11 Photographs,” p. 72, eleven photographs shot by Jack Fritscher of clockwise, Redneck Cowboy Curtis James, Mike Welder, Pro-Wrestler Chris Colt, Big Hairy Bruno, Jack Husky, Cigar Sarge, Vigilante, Jason Steele, Dave Gold, Bobby Stumps, Keith Ardent.

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DRUMMER 135, December 1989

“Photograph, Uncut Bear,” p. 24, photograph shot by Jack Fritscher of model Ken Wimberly in the Palm Drive Video, Bear in the Woods, July 24, 1989.

Half-page Palm Drive Video display ad, “Star Search,” p. 82, a casting call for real guys, not models.

[“Cumlines,” p. 136, feature inaugurated by Anthony F. DeBlase asking Drummer’s Frequent Contributors to offer up the passages in others’ writing that always got them off.]

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DRUMMER 136, January 1990

“Half-page Palm Drive Video Display Ad,” p. 86, with two photographs shot by Jack Fritscher featuring Sonny Butts and Goliath.

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DRUMMER 137, February 1990

[“Letter to the Editor, Editor’s Reply,” regarding Palm Drive Video as a “good bet” for fetish-driven videos.]

[Announcement for, yes, Dummer #1, A Desmodus Flip Publication. See Drummer 138.]

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DRUMMER 138, March1990

[In the tradition of 1970’s extra issues of Drummer as annuals,” Jack Fritscher says, “I suggested to Anthony F. DeBlase that we create a 1990 annual titled Dummer. Before some other wag punned off the popularity of the Jim Carrey movie Dumb and Dumber, I told Tony to quick make fun of Drummer with Dummer in the self-satirizing vein of the 70’s Best and Worst of Drummer. No one in-house was able to develop a whole satirical issue, so I suggested the classic Mad magazine idea of turning the magazine upside down and making the back cover of Drummer the front cover of Dummer. About a dozen pages inside were devoted to this concept which featured Andy Charles, Tony’s partner in life and in Desmodus, sticking his tongue out at the camera in perfect self-satire. I think the concept of Dummer was also foreshortened by the October 1989 earthquake which destroyed Drummer’s office and Tony DeBlase’s confidence, giving him a physical metaphor for the internal chaos of the Drummer-quake that was always going on. I can safely state this: Drummer whipped everybody who ever owned it; that’s why every time it’s been offered to me to buy it, I have declined. I love Drummer like a father loves a son, but that magazine had a curse built into it way back in the first days in Los Angeles. I punned later on the words ‘Drum and Drummer’ in my essay on the history of Drummer magazine published in Checkmate magazine.”]

[“Review of Four Palm Drive Videos,” pp. 36, 37, 38, written by Joseph W. Bean, of the Jack Fritscher videos Blond Saddle Tramp, Mud and Oil, The Hun Video Gallery #1: Rainy Night in Georgia.]

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DRUMMER 139 May 1990

Masthead: Featured Contributors, Jack Fritscher (one of four with Guy Baldwin, Larry Townsend, and Bill Ward); Photographers: Palm Drive Video (one of eight with Old Reliable and Zeus)

“Remembrance of Sleaze Past...and Present and Future,” on-cover copy of cover feature article, pp. 7-11, produced and written by Jack Fritscher to set theme of this issue. Contents page teaser: “Jack Fritscher looks at our sleazy past, checks out the present, and imagines where we’re going.” This feature caused Patricia Morrisroe in her Random House biography of Robert Mapplethorpe, titled Mapplethorpe to label Jack Fritscher as “The King of Sleaze” because she perceived Fritscher’s memoir, Mapplethorpe: Assault with a Deadly Camera–published first before Morrisroe–to be competition. Fritscher in August 1989 gave Morrisroe a four-hour telephone interview (taped by both parties) for her book. Morrisroe did not comprehend that the phrase “King of Sleaze” in the gay world where everything is inverted is a compliment.

[See Editorial, p. 4, concerning Anthony F. DeBlase feeling for Fritscher’s historical sense.]

[See Sidebar, p. 34, by Gayle Rubin, concerning Jack Fritscher’s historical writing, “ a lovely piece on the Catacombs, Drummer 23, 1978.”]

[Editorial, p. 35, by Anthony F. DeBlase, referencing Jack Fritscher as the inspiration for the theme and photo shoot in the issue.]

[“Three-quarters-page Marathon Display Ad,” p. 77, featuring one photograph designed and shot by Jack Fritscher during the videotaping by Jack Fritscher/Mark Hemry of The Argos Session, Amsterdam, June 21, 1989.]

“Half-page Palm Drive Video Display Ad,” p. 85, featuring one photograph by Mark Hemry/Jack Fritscher of Terry Kelly and Jack Fritscher starring in Hot Lunch, and one photograph of Chris Colt and Jack Husky in Jack Fritscher’s video Sex Aggression: Jack Husky’s First Night at Chris Colt’s Wrestling Academy. Hot Lunch was photographed by Mark Hemry and directed by Jack Fritscher who appeared with Terry Kelly in the video.

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DRUMMER 140, June 1990

[Drummer inside this issue is offered up for sale, p. 5, as result of the October 1989 San Francisco earthquake.]

Cover Plus 21 Photographs Shot by Jack Fritscher.

Masthead: Featured Contributors, Jack Fritscher; Frequent Contributors, Palm Drive Video.

“Cover photograph, Daddy Trucker,” shot by Jack Fritscher of model Ken Horan from Fritscher’s video feature, Daddy Made Me Eat His Tools, November 2, 1989.

“Two Photographs, Goliath in Truck with Huge Cigar,” pp. 20 & 23, two photographs by Jack Fritscher for Palm Drive Video, shot April 10, 1987.

“Randy: Hot Carpenter Bear,” pp. 55-58, four color photographs of the cover model, Ken Horan, shot by Jack Fritscher, November 2, 1989.

“Half-page Palm Drive Video Display Ad,” p. 75, with seven photographs shot by Jack Fritscher

[Three-quarters-page Display Ad for The Argos Session Video, p. 83, featuring one photograph designed and shot by Jack Fritscher, Amsterdam, June 21, 1989.]

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DRUMMER 141, August 1990

14 Photographs Shot by Jack Fritscher.

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, Featured Contributor; Palm Drive Video, Photographer.

[Review of Jack Fritscher’s novel of the Gay Renaissance of the 1970’s, Some Dance to Remember, pp. 32-33, written by Paul Martin. Some Dance to Remember was published February 14, 1990, by Knights Press, and will be published as an “Alyson Classic Novel” by The Advocate’s Alyson Publications in 2002. See reviews of this best-selling novel at www.JackFritscher.com.]

[Review of Jack Fritscher’s feature video, Hot Lunch, pp. 33-34, written by Paul Martin.]

[Review of The Argos Session, p. 34, feature video shot and composed in two VHS cameras by Mark Hemry and Jack Fritscher for Marathon in Amsterdam, June 21, 1989, the last summer of Berlin divided into East and West.]

The Argos Session: Photo Feature and Review Photographs,” pp. 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, six photographs shot by Jack Fritscher in the Argos Bar, Amsterdam, June 21, 1989.

“Photograph, Goliath,” p. 47, shot by Jack Fritscher of Goliath in Spandex and boxing gear, from the cover of the coffee-table photobook titled Jack Fritscher’s American Men, GMP (Gay Men’s Press), London, 1994, featuring 55 photographs shot by Jack Fritscher, and with an “Introduction” by Edward Lucie-Smith. The cover photograph of Goliath by Jack Fritscher is also published on page 99 in Edward Lucie-Smith’s art-history book, Adam: The Male Figure in Art, Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 1998. This photograph also appeared on the cover of the magazine, Powerplay 10, May 1996.

“Half-page Palm Drive Video Display Ad,” with seven photographs shot by Jack Fritscher of Sonny Butts, Dave Gold, Keith Ardent, Jason Steele, Big Bruno, Mike Welder, and Curtis James.

[“Three-quarters Page Display Ad for Marathon Video, Fit to be Tied,” a video shot and composed in camera by Jack Fritscher and Mark Hemry in Dusseldorf, June 1989, for Marathon Studios.]

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DRUMMER 143, October 1990

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, Featured Contributors; Palm Drive Video, Photographers.

“Radical Nipples,” pp.18-22, cover feature article written by Jack Fritscher, with eight photographs chosen by Fritscher from Zeus Studio.

“Outrageous Auto-Photograph of Jack Fritscher,” p. 15, within a Palm Drive Video advertisement, self-satire of the storyteller who hears everything to write it down; designed, framed in lens, and directed by Jack Fritscher, camera shutter actually clicked by David Hurles, posed with the legendary Adams Brothers in Los Angeles, May 14, 1988. [“This is one of my favorite photographs,” Jack Fritscher says, “and certainly one of my favorite moments remembered. This was on the set of my shooting the video The Adams Brothers for Mark Hemry as a birthday present. That May 14 was his thirty-eighth birthday and he couldn’t be at the shoot. The fact that Old Reliable went on to release the video commercially was a great compliment. He thought I really caught the Adams boys as a duo. That’s because I had the audience in mind.”]

[Two Jack Fritscher books of fiction published by Gay Sunshine Press advertised on p. 87: Corporal in Charge of Taking Care of Captain O’Malley and Other Stories and Stand by Your Man and Other Stories.]

[Fit to Be Tied Marathon Video Display Ad. See notes on Drummer 141.]

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DRUMMER 144, November 1990

“Photographs, The Training Center: The Academy,” pp. 29, 30, as well as p. 98 inside back cover shot by Jack Fritscher. The page 98 photography announces the Fritscher feature, next issue, “Incarceration for Pleasure: The Training Center.”

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DRUMMER 145, December 1990

6 Interior Photographs Shot by Jack Fritscher.

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, Frequent Contributors, Writers; Palm Drive Video, Photographers.

Cover copy: “Incarceration for Pleasure! Jack Fritscher Takes on the Academy”

“The Academy: Incarceration for Pleasure–Real Cops and Rough Fun in Missouri,” pp. 24-29, cover feature article produced and written by Jack Fritscher, with five photographs shot by Jack Fritscher, pp. 24, 25, 27, 28, 29. “I always worked to lift even hot reality into hotter fantasy on Drummer pages. My exterior shot of the Academy,” Jack Fritscher revealed for this bibliography, “is actually a vintage power station shot early on a Sunday morning. I can make photography as well as fiction into hardon fantasy.” For this article, the Contents Page reads: “Jack Fritscher was there, and brought back words and pictures.” This version of this article was edited down for length to fit the space, and was the first writing by Jack Fritscher ever to be edited in any way by Drummer. Subsequently, the original, full-length version has been restored.

“I, Brutus: Muscle-Cop Road Warrior,” p. 70, poem by Jack Fritscher in half-page Palm Drive Video ad featuring one photograph shot by Jack Fritscher of Brutus, October 5, 1990. Brutus was the most frequent cover model ever featured on the cover of Drummer.

“Palm Drive Video Classified Ad,” p. 95, written by Jack Fritscher, details thumbnail sketches of Palm Drive Video.

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DRUMMER 148, April 1991

7 Interior Photographs, Including Centerfold, Shot by Jack Fritscher.

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, Frequent Contributors, Writers; Palm Drive Video, Photographers.

Contents Page: “Slap Happy. What Is the Sound of One Hand Slapping? Palm Drive Video Has the Answer.”

“3 Photographs, ‘Slap Happy,’ Centerfold,” pp. 50-51, three color photographs shot by Jack Fritscher of Goliath and Steve Thrasher, June 7, 1989. [“Publisher Anthony F. DeBlase regularly asked me,” Jack Fritscher recalls, “for themes and ideas. He also liked my casting of men in videos and photographs, even consulting with me when he moved from Drummer to Dungeon Master for themes, like slapping, as extreme sex. The only issues in which Drummer lists upcoming themes as an interactive alert to writers, artists, and photographers to submit are from the list of themes I gave him. As a matter of fact, in this issue, Tony DeBlase went directly to my discovery and model, Steve Parker, star of my video, Lightning Rodz, and–so taken was DeBlase–he himself shot Steve for the seven photos on pages 27-30. I love connecting people and ideas and themes together. As a historical note, it was Anthony DeBlase who told me, ‘You should call your Palm Drive Video, ‘Jack Fritscher’s Palm Drive Video,’ because your name is a known brand name and it grounds Palm Drive Video into a personal identity. And so I did.” These slapping photographs also were published in Powerplay 11, May 1996.

“3 Photographs, Sodbuster Mud,” p. 61, shot by Jack Fritscher of Mr. Drummer Contestant,Wes Decker, from the Jack Fritscher video feature, Sodbuster, April 3, 1990; photos printed with review of Sodbuster written by Joseph Bean, p. 62.

“Half-page Palm Drive Video Display Ad,” p. 92, with poem and photograph of Brutus by Jack Fritscher.

[Three-quarters page display ad for the video, Marks of Pleasure, p. 79, shot and composed in two VHS cameras by Jack Fritscher and Mark Hemry in Hamburg and West Berlin, July 1989, for Marathon Films. “I endorse the fantasy of Terry LeGrand and Roger Earl’s Marathon ad copy,” Jack Fritscher says, “but we never shot in East Berlin which was too dangerous and scary. We shot in the filthy basements of bars in West Berlin. Just getting through customs to fly from West Germany into West Berlin which was in East Germany was difficult enough. For one American to enter, one American had to first leave West Berlin. Can you imagine traveling with a bunch of gay men shooting a porno movie trying to get through tough blond female Communist customs! Scary. Some day, from my journal notes, I’ll write the tale of that summer when we scoured Holland and Germany late nights to make those six videos. Because of all the ruined German basements we shot it, I’ll be titling it, Trouble in the Rubble.” What still photographs I did not take were taken by the British photographer and painter, David Pearce, who shot the stills for Marathon’s Dungeons of Europe videos.]

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DRUMMER 155, May 1992

11 Interior Photographs Shot by Jack Fritscher.

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, Frequent Contributors, Writers; Palm Drive Video, Photographers.

Contents Page, p. 3, “Attitude! Photography by Jack Fritscher, Palm Drive Video.”

“Attitude Latino: A Photographic Essay,” pp. 18-22, cover photo feature written by Jack Fritscher with five pages of ten photographs shot by Jack Fritscher/Mark Hemry of Jose Del Norte in Los Angeles for the Fritscher/Hemry Palm Drive Video feature, Illegal Alien Blues.

“Half-page Palm Drive Video Ad,” p. 73, photograph shot by Jack Fritscher of Fritscher discovery, model Curtis James in the Palm Drive Video, Redneck Cowboy Hellbent for Leather. Curtis James had been in San Francisco for twenty hours when Jack Fritscher discovered him walking on the street. He was then recruited by Brush Creek Media for videos and magazine modeling, and partnered with the owner/manager of Floyd’s Country Western Bar in Long Beach.

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DRUMMER 159, December 1992

Cover Photo Plus 9 Interior Photographs Shot by Jack Fritscher.

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, Frequent Contributors, Writers, Jack Fritscher; Palm Drive Video, Photographers.

Contents Page, p. 3, “Barman Larry Perry. Take a Closer Look at a Los Angeles Bartender Who Won’t Take NO for an Answer, Photos by Palm Drive Video.” And, “On the cover, inset, Larry Perry, photo from Palm Drive Video.”

“Cover Photograph, Larry Perry,” shot by Jack Fritscher of the Mr. Drummer contestant Larry Perry for the Jack Fritscher video feature, Naked Came the Stranger. [The Larry Perry photograph was supposed to be the full cover, but the editor said that the Dutch publisher, who reportedly was angry at Larry Perry, reportedly said, “That man [Larry Perry] will never appear on my cover.” Nevertheless, the Fritscher photograph, reduced in size, was published by the editor, Joseph Bean. By the next issue, Drummer 160, January 1993, editor Joseph Bean had exited Drummer leaving the magazine in the hands of the publisher from Holland, Martijn Bakker. Jack Fritscher and Palm Drive remained on the masthead.]

“Larry Perry Eight Photo Feature,” pp. 14-18, eight photographs shot by Jack Fritscher of Mr. Drummer contestant, Larry Perry, for the video, Naked Came the Stranger, October 3, 1990.

[This was also the first issue in which former publisher Anthony F. DeBlase used for himself the title that had earlier been invented by Jack Fritscher for his own post-Drummer status, “editor emeritus.”]

“Half-page Palm Drive Video Display Ad,” one photograph shot by Jack Fritscher of Brutus in the Jack Fritscher feature video, I, Brutus.

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DRUMMER 169, November 1993

“Photograph of Donnie Russo,” p. 82, shot by Jack Fritscher, 18, 19, 20 May 1993.

“Quarter-page Palm Drive Video Display Ad,” featuring photograph by Jack Fritscher of Donnie Russo from the Palm Drive Video, Homme Alone. In May 1993, Donnie Russo, still unknown in the sixth week of his soon-to-be meteoric video career, spent four days with Jack Fritscher in the woods north of San Francisco, during which time Fritscher shot Russo in three videos and more than 400 color photographs, some of which appear in the 55 images in the 1994 photobook, Jack Fritscher’s American Men.

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DRUMMER 170, December 1993

Cover Photo Plus 12 Interior Photographs Shot by Jack Fritscher.

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, Frequent Contributors, Writers; Palm Drive Video, Photographers.

Cover photograph shot by Jack Fritscher of Donnie Russo, 18-20 May 1990.

Contents Page, p. 4, “Russomania. Recently Awarded the Title, ‘Video Star of the Century’ by Adult Video News magazine! Let Us Show You a Glimpse of This Guy’s A Peel! Photos and Interview by Jack Fritscher.”

“Russomania: Inside the Porn Star,” pp. 39-46, cover feature article written by Jack Fritscher, talking with Donnie Russo, plus twelve photographs shot by Jack Fritscher of Donnie Russo from the Jack Fritscher video feature, Homme Alone (Gonna Fuck You Up).

“One-quarter-page Palm Drive Video Display Ad,” p. 66, with one photograph shot by Jack Fritscher of Donnie Russo.

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DRUMMER 186, July 1995

Masthead: Writers, Jack Fritscher; Photography, Palm Drive Video.

Contents Page, p. 5, “Cover Story: Uncut Lust, “My Foreskin Fetish” by Jack Fritscher.”

Contents Page, p. 5, “Foreskin Prison Blues, Story and Illustration by Jack Fritscher.”

“My Foreskin Fetish,” pp.19-20, cover fiction, written by Jack Fritscher; also published in the fiction anthology, Stand By Your Man and Other Stories, 1999.

“Foreskin Prison Blues,” pp. 26-27, featured fiction, written by Jack Fritscher; original story–which appeared whole in Uncut: The Magazine of the Natural Man, Volume 1 #4, March 1987–appeared in this issue as a “partial-birth abortion” edited without permission down to two pages. These were bad days at the end of Drummer driven to death by one of its last and absolutely worst editors who, besides editing without permission, according to the final Drummer editor, the truly praise-worthy Robert Davolt, had a list of “Drummer Friends” and “Drummer Enemies” directing the penultimate editor’s agenda. The irony is that Jack Fritscher was personally invited by the lame editor, who admitted to being in trouble, to submit these two well-known fiction pieces for this uncut-themed issue. In addition, this story, adapted to a “Bear” version bringing up the hairiness which was always thematic, was also published as “Mapping the Genome of Bear: The Uncut Legend of the Musclebear” in Classic Bear 2000, March 2000, with seven pages of eight photographs shot by Jack Fritscher of Chris Welch/Tom Howard, including a ninth photograph on the cover. The original story also appeared in the anthology of Jack Fritscher’s fiction, Stand By Your Man and Other Stories.

“Foreskin Mask,” p. 27, drawing by Skipper for accompanying Jack Fritscher story; commissioned by Jack Fritscher, from the collection of Jack Fritscher/Mark Hemry and copyright 1995 Jack Fritscher/Mark Hemry.

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DRUMMER 188, September 1995

2Oth Anniversary Issue

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, Writers; Palm Drive Video, Photographers.

Contents Page, p. 5, “Cover Story, Drummer, The Magazine with Balls” by Jack Fritscher.

“Mapplethorpe cover, shot by Mapplethorpe, designed and cast by Jack Fritscher,” p. 17; p. 18, 19, Joseph Bean and Anthony DeBlase; John Embry: On page 23, “What happened in 1977 could fill a book.We hired A. Jay’s friend Jack Fritscher as editor-in-chief and bought a building on Harriet Street....” [“My idea,” Jack Fritscher says, “is, in fact, to write the concordance book to Drummer magazine, as well as encourage the historical scholarly maintenance of Drummer as a force in gay male culture, because that’s what I always intended it to be back in those early radical days of sex and journalism in San Francisco in the 70s Gay Renaissance.”]

“The Magazine with Balls: 20 Years of Drummer History,” pp. 21-22, feature essay by Jack Fritscher, Drummer’s founding San Francisco editor-in-chief; the essay as printed was excerpted from the whole which was published in its entirety in two parts in Checkmate 19 and 20 (May and August 1997) magazine by editor/publisher, Harold Cox, who says, “Jack Fritscher is the best editor Drummer ever had.”.

            [“It’s worth noting,” Jack Fritscher says, “that Anne Rice appeared in this important anniversary issue with her fiction as A. N. Roquelaure in an excerpt from Beauty’s Punishment. Anne Rice, who started out in San Francisco at the time I was editing Drummer, was, along with me, another supporter of John Preston, whose work, beginning with my editorship and sponsorship, for a time appeared in Drummer.”]

            In this anniversary issue, columnist Jack Rinella, p. 82, writes indirectly how influential Jack Fritscher’s writing, concepts, and images were in the formative years of creating the Drummer legend: “My first encounter with Drummer magazine in 1978 showed me a world filled with the kind of men I had always wanted to know, to fuck, to become. Drummer introduced me to a way of life defined by experience and the wildest fantasies come-to-life. It was a world with a secret wisdom.”

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DRUMMER 204, June 1997

19 Interior Photographs from a Video Shot by Jack Fritscher.

Masthead: Jack Fritscher, Writer; Palm Drive Video, Photographer.

“Hustler Bars: Tricks of the Trade,” pp. 36-37, short fiction/essay written by Jack Fritscher; also published in the book, Corporal in Charge of Taking Care of Captain O’Malley and Other Stories, 1984 and 2000; also published as “Patron of the Arts,” in the anthology, Bar Stories, edited by Scott Brassart, Alyson Books, 1999.

“19 Photo Essay: Gym Jock from Palm Drive Video,” pp.22-25, 19 color frames photographed by Jack Fritscher in the video, “Dave Gold’s Gym Workout,” March 17, 1988. This progressive experiment in printing of single video frames–as was done from Rumania on the cover of Newsweek in December 1989–was proposed to Drummer by Jack Fritscher when Drummer asked for something new and different. “Drummer apparently didn’t have the computer equipment,” Jack Fritscher says, “to make good quality frame grabs, but what was done had a certain graffiti-wall look that matched other images in the issue. The format made sex look vulgar, hot, and beautiful.”

[Palm Drive ad, despite agreement, omitted.]

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FORESKIN QUARTERLY 12, August 1989

A Drummer/Desmodus Magazine

7 Interior Photographs Shot by Jack Fritscher.

“6 Photographs, Cheesiest Uncut Cowboy in West Texas,” pp. 10-15, photo essay featuring six photographs shot by Jack Fritscher of Brody Houston from the Jack Fritscher video feature, Cheesiest Uncut Cowboy. Cover copy: “The Uncut Man 1889-1989. We Celebrate a Century of Man’s Uncut Glory in Photography. Photos by Altomar, Graphic Ink, International Studios, and Palm Drive Video.”

“Half-page Palm Drive Video Display Ad,” p. 63.

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MACH 20, April 1990

A Drummer/Desmodus Magazine

Cover and 12 Interior Photographs Shot by Jack Fritscher.

“Cover Photograph, Argos,” shot by Jack Fritscher for The Argos Session in Amsterdam, June 21, 1989, during the taping of The Argos Session, a video composed in two VHS cameras by Jack Fritscher and Mark Hemry for Marathon Films.

“Photograph Inside Front Cover, Argos,” photograph shot by Jack Fritscher for The Argos Session.

“Contents Page, Photograph, Argos,” shot by Jack Fritscher of two actors during the taping of The Argos Session, Amsterdam, June 21, 1989.

The Argos Session, Photographic Essay,” pp.41-45, ten photographs shot by Jack Fritscher as narrative in the Argos Bar, Amsterdam, June 21, 1989. [“Marathon disliked the blond in the police cap and uniform,” Jack Fritscher says, “because Marathon thought his dick was too small. I thought his look was beautiful, so I featured him in my still shots. In the video, while Mark Hemry and I tried to figure the blond into the frame, Marathon kept moving him to the side. To me, he was a beautiful blond Dutch cop whose innocence was yet unspoiled by the usual gay poisons of alcohol and tobacco.”]

            [“In the 1970’s,” Jack Fritscher says, “when publisher John Embry was adding to his magazines, he wanted to call a new mag, Macho. I was already Drummer’s editor-in-chief, and Embry wanted me to edit both his Alternate and his Macho. As I have mentioned, Embry created his Alternate as his retort to the Advocate whose publisher, David Goodstein. Embry was so competitive with Goodstein he even mimicked the name Advocate in the name Alternate which was supposed to be ‘alternative’ to The Advocate. The Advocate at that time was located near South San Francisco. When I informed Embry that I had previously freelanced in South San Francisco for an adult straight magazine already titled Macho, he settled on the title Mach, which I consoled Embry that I thought better because it suggested ‘mach-speed,’ ‘man as machine,’ like Richard Harris’ character, Frank Machin, in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. When Tony DeBlase asked to print my work in Mach 20, which Tony had bought from John Embry with the purchase of Drummer, I finally entered Mach as a favor to help DeBlase. To me, Mach was always the B-mag and weak sibling of Drummer. I give immense credit, however, to John Embry who was always the champion of fiction-based magazines and probably printed more gay short stories than any other magazine publisher.”]

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MACH 22 , December 1990

A Drummer/Desmodus Magazine

11 Interior Photographs Shot by Jack Fritscher.

“The Excellent Adventure of Peter Longdicker,” pp. 53-59, ten photographs, shot in Germany, from Jack Fritscher’s Palm Drive Video. Cover copy: “A Palm Drive Boy in Bondage.”

“Half-page Palm Drive Video Ad,” p. 29, featuring poem and one photograph by Jack Fritscher of Brutus from the video, I, Brutus: Muscle-Cop Road Warrior.

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MACH 29, July 1993

A Drummer/Desmodus Magazine

Cover and 12 Interior Photographs Shot by Jack Fritscher.

“Cover Photograph, Terry Kelly,” shot by Jack Fritscher from the Jack Fritscher/Mark Hemry video feature for Palm Drive, Hot Lunch.

“Terry Kelly, The Biker Next Door, Photo Essay,” pp. 5-9, eleven photographs shot by Jack Fritscher from the Jack Fritscher/Mark Hemry video feature for Palm Drive, Hot Lunch, shot October 29, 1989. “I always credited editor Joseph Bean,” Jack Fritscher says, “for being brave enough in an anti-body-fluid age to publish my photographs of the snot-nosed Irish lad, Terry Kelly. These photos from this issue have appeared in black-and-white on a number of websites. By the way, Joseph Bean and I interviewed each other over the telephone, both recording by mutual consent in June 1997. Joseph Bean was a great and talented editor while at Drummer.” For access to this interview, contact Jack Fritscher at jack@jackfritscher.com.

“Half-page Palm Drive Video Display Ad,” p. 51, featuring photograph shot by Jack Fritscher of Curtis James in the Jack Fritscher video feature, Redneck Cowboy

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TOUGH CUSTOMERS 1, July 1990

A Drummer/Desmodus Magazine

“Tough Customers,” Jack Fritscher says, “was a concept I dreamed up for Drummer 25 (December 1978) to encourage readers to send in their own photographs so that the pictures in Drummer could reflect the readers themselves. I intended “Tough Customers” as a continuing feature. Twelve years passed between my concept and column and the spin-off of the magazine Tough Customers. That was a bit late for Tough Customers, because Man2Man and Bear magazines had already picked up successfully on the verite concept that a magazine might reflect its readers rather than depressing its readers with constant shots of hot contestants and porn-star video models. I supported the TC magazine with a display ad, a casting call, for actual guys to appear in Palm Drive Videos which always have reflected real people. I rarely ever shot models.”

“Half-page “Casting Call for Real People” for Palm Drive Video,” p. 75, reflects the continuing effort by Jack Fritscher in magazines and videos to reveal the readers to themselves so they can see reality and not be forced to compare themselves to commercial “modelles.”

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TOUGH CUSTOMERS 12, 1996

A Drummer/Desmodus Magazine

4 Interior Photographs Shot by Jack Fritscher.

“Mickey Squires: How to Be a Tough Customer,” pp. 6-7, photo feature showing four photographs by Jack Fritscher of Mickey Squires from the Jack Fritscher feature video, Foul-Mouth Linebacker, February 17, 1995. These photographs were printed in the magazine, Tough Customers, without permission as the photographs had been sent to Drummer editor, Marcus Jay Wonacott, at his repeated request for use in Drummer. An editor other than Wonacott hijacked them into a house promotion for Tough Customers and credited only Jack Fritscher and neglected to credit Palm Drive Video, the model, and the title of the video.

 

In the masthead sections, “Contributing Writers”and “Contributing Photographers,” anyone who had ever had writing or photography published in Drummer was added to the list until periodic clean up of the masthead which occurred so infrequently that the 1978 date of publication remained on the masthead page well into 1979 making time-lining of the issues difficult at first glance. For instance, Wakefield Poole who only provided photographs to illustrate the one or two articles about his work never supplied any other images or even thought of himself as a photographer contributing to Drummer. As another example, two issues, Drummer 118 and Drummer 119 are both dated July 1988.

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