THE FIRST GAY PORN: WAKEFIELD POOLE’S BOYS IN THE SAND

Posted July 2, 2013 8:50 AM by with 5 comments

Given the release of Dominic Ford’s The Meatrack, I thought you should probably see this as well.

Wakefield Poole’s Boys in the Sand — featuring Casey Donovan and Peter Fisk — is widely credited as being the first commercial gay porn film (an advertisement even appeared in the New York Times). Boys was reviewed in Variety (favorably!) and reportedly prompted Andy Warhol to conclude that he needn’t make any more films, because after Boys, his own films seemed “unnecessary and a little naive.”

Some clips from Boys, plus a full director’s commentary, after the jump …

This director’s commentary track is unfortunately family friendly — but it’s a great introduction into the early business, and how Wakefield made the movie that would make gay history.

Director Jim Tushinski has been making a documentary on Poole — you should give him money to help complete it.

Related:
Dominic Ford’s The Meatrack

5 responses to THE FIRST GAY PORN: WAKEFIELD POOLE’S BOYS IN THE SAND

  1. conversationchamber.ipbhost.com July 3rd, 2013 at 2:44 PM

    I don’t think this was the first gay porn. I’m certain I’ve seen some vintage gay porn that was credited to the year 1968, but don’t ask me what it was called. That being said, this movie is still a classic…and it actually predates Deep Throat by a year. The ending interracial scene was very hot.

    Something I really like about 70’s porn in general is that back then it wasn’t about perfect bodies and pretty faces (in fact, many of the actors who appeared in those movies at the time were very “middle of the road” average, and looked like they could be your local bus driver or bank teller) but instead was more about the sex and sexual liberation of the period. It was more earnest and “real”.

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  2. Mike July 3rd, 2013 at 6:39 PM

    You’re partly right. There have been gay porn’s almost as long as there have been cameras — I recently saw some photos at the Fales Collection in NYC of hardcore gay sex shot in what looked to be the 1890s. And there were 8mm loops that existed through underground channels and in private collections, but they were highly illegal. And by the VERY late 60s, there were a few storefronts in San Francisco that would risk obscenity busts to show them.

    Boys in the Sand was the first hardcore gay porn movie of any renown to screen legally. I mean, it was advertised in the New York fucking Times. Could that be done even today? This was a blockbuster, and really changed the landscape.

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  3. bearfuzzlover July 10th, 2013 at 4:01 AM

    I have written a bio about Casey Donovan for Forgive Me Father … Devils & Angels Bio Group – and have to say he was and still is rightly considered to be the only Gay Porn Superstar … having, with Film Maker, Wakefield Poole, were and still are the Icons and Legends that laid the foundation stone of gay porn as a genre in 1971 … and created the gay porn industry as we know it today.
    It was mentioned that gay porn may have started in 1968. In fact, it started a great deal earlier than this. There are references to “gay porn” in the 1920’s and earlier … but it depends on what one means or interprets as gay porn.
    For some, gay porn could be images of men from Ancient Greece, where homosexuality was considered the norm, or the works of the Father of Male Photography; German Aristocrat, Baron Wilhelm von Gloeden in the 19th century. The Baron spent most of his life in Italy and created some the worlds best images of male sensuality there, and why they are now photographic works of art in the possession of very rich collectors, with a single image sold a few years back by world-renowned Art Auctioneers Christies for more than $40,000, and some being auctioned for even higher amounts.
    The Boys in the Sand was not the best gay porn film or best quality production (but it was the early 1970’s). It was never meant to be a gay porn film, but an interpretation of male love as a work of photographic art … and was the single most important film as the beginning for gay porn as we know it, and a film that was not shown in a mainstream “theatre” in New York to make its début with many straight people seeing it and major newspapers and publications of the time reviewing it with enthusiasm and with the amazing vision of Wakefield and a former teacher and cat-walk model, Casey Donovan became the “image” of a gay porn star who went on to be known as the Gay Porn Superstar for very obvious reasons, and this has not changed for those with an interest in Classics as models, actors and gay porn as works of art.

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  4. DID PORN DE-STIGMATIZE ANAL SEX FOR GAY MEN? - Gay Porn Blog: Gay News, Tubes, Stars and Videos November 30th, 2013 at 8:34 AM

    […] came across an odd thing when I was writing about Boys in the Sand the other day — an interview in an old issue of Drummer that before gay porn, gay men turned […]

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  5. Our Top 10 Favorite Gay Porn Stars EVER ... sort of - Gay Porn Blog: Gay News, Tubes, Stars and Videos November 30th, 2013 at 8:49 AM

    […] Casey Donovan (1971-1986) Casey Donovan starred in some of the first full-length porn films, like Boys in the Sand, during the early 70s as new mores allowed for greater freedom of expression (and sexuality) and […]

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