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Karrnal >>
April 4-10, 2013 • Bay Area Reporter • 43
Rueful farewells
enough of Jesse. His fresh appeal, the beauty of his cock, his thick and tousled black hair, and his supple body – oh boy. And I know the exact moment I began to lose interest in him. When he got his PA. It simply ruined the sculptural perfection of his cockhead. After that, he continued to systematically erase his unique qualities. He put barbells in newly pierced tits, and switched out suppleness for bulk with de rigueur hard muscle. He grew a regulation goatee, and buzz cut his hair. Currently, he’s sporting a trendy Mohawk. All of these can be sexy (I cream over Mohawks), but they’re all pretty conformist. Pedestrian. The porn star
by John F. Karr
H
arry Reems died two weeks ago. He was 65, and had pancreatic cancer. A handsome, dashing performer, he’d been the epitome of a 1970s porn star. I used to wonder at his career. He and I were the same age. And while I floundered rudderless out of college at age 22 and into San Francisco to pursue numerous vocations before securing a life in the theatre, Harry, also 22, floundered rudderless out of the Marines and into Off-Broadway, where a theatrical career as an actor eluded him. He earned his way by appearing in dozens of stag films. Loops, they were called. He graduated to a few porno features under the name Peter Long, and then in 1972 came a new name and Deep Throat, which made him nationally renowned (okay, infamous). Reems (born Herbert Streicher) had been hired as part of the movie’s lighting crew, but was impressed into service as an actor when the movie’s key male role remained uncast. He was paid $250 for a single day of acting work, and was unaware that the director had given him a new name until he saw the movie. Reems became the face of the industry when he quickly followed Deep Throat with The Devil and Miss Jones (1973). Together, the films ushered in the era of Porno Chic (I’ll soon be writing about another pinnacle of the day, The Opening of Misty Beethoven). Between 1973 and 1989, he appeared in some 140 films while enduring, along with a dozen creators of Deep Throat and the numerous corporations that financed it, an FBI indictment for distributing obscenity across state lines. He was the first American performer to be prosecuted by the federal government merely for appearing in a film. His conviction was ultimately overturned, and the charges dropped. But the trials dragged on with their stress and financial demands for years, during which Harry developed a debilitating drug dependency. Happy ending? Harry bottomed out in 1989, welcomed Jesus into his heart, converted to Christianity, married, and, retaining
Harry Reems was the epitome of a 1970s porn star.
Gigolo Hollywood
Once a unique twink, Jesse Santana is now standard issue.
his nom de porn, became a real estate agent. As a performer, he was known for his hefty Jewish schwanze (it was a truly sterling appendage), his thick bush of handlebar mustache, and most of all, for a sparkling personality that delivered sexuality with zest and humor. It wasn’t so much cock as character that made him loved, and will sustain his memory.
Mex twinks by Ernie Alderete
W
hat exactly is a twink? In my opinion, it’s a handsome young man, not quite yet out of his teens, with a lean, slim, firm build. Perhaps growing his first ’stache. Generally free of body modifications, such as tattoos and piercings. And maybe, possessing a joyful disposition. Of course, twinks are not confined to the borders of our United States. Like the proverbial Castro Street clone, they exist in every corner of our evershrinking world. Chacalitos isn’t a direct translation of twinks, but the term holds a similar meaning in Spanish. I’ve collected scores of pictures of Mexican Twinks from half-a-dozen Chacales, sites across Facebook where they were more or less lost in the crowd in not fully focused male collections. The mighty cell phone has made these choice images possible. Gay men no longer have to trudge old-school film in to be chemically developed by nosey and often disapproving, not to mention expensive, straight photoprocessors. This technological advance has freed hundreds of millions of people to take pictures of their most intimate and private moments, something they didn’t dare do even just a few years ago. MexTwink1, in his snug, body-
Collection Alderete
“MexTwink 1” wears formfitting red trunks.
hugging red shorts, personifies what it means to be a Chacalito to me. He has a very sweet and innocent-looking face with a rock-solid build, smoldering with sexual eroticism about to burst forth upon the unsuspecting world around him. MexTwink3 is yet another welcome cell phone self-portrait, this time featuring a somber-looking, broadshouldered, narrow-waisted, hairy MexTwink, taken on his 18th birthday. More MexTwinks from my col-
Jesse Santana hasn’t died, but he has announced his departure from porn. He told Next magazine, “My hopes are to slowly withdraw [from the industry] and move on.” He says he’ll attend Le Cordon Bleu and find a career in the food industry. I wish him the best. Yet between “hopes” and “slow withdrawal,” it doesn’t sound like retirement from porn is imminent (insert standard double entendre here: don’t we all hope for slow withdrawal?). For several years, I couldn’t get
lection: one is again taking his own picture with his cell phone, a rocksolid example of physical perfection matched with a glowing, clean-cut disposition. Another is a solidly built, body hair-free, well-groomed teen with copper-toned skin, posed against his green bedroom wall, hands conveniently folded across his entirely concealed package. One photo veers off in another direction entirely, although it’s another fine example of a similarly good body and fine character. But this time, the main Chacalito is totally hairless and naked in a gym locker room, pulled backwards off his feet good-naturedly by a partially obscured friend. The broad smile across his boyish face indicates that he and a partially clothed observer behind him enjoy the impromptu horseplay, even as he hurriedly covers his family jewels with his left hand. Who hasn’t been swatted across the ass by a towel while in a gym shower or locker room? It’s good, clean, harmless fun, yet with a sexual tingle and unmistakable erotic undercurrent. All of these Chacalitos are real people, not porno stars or models. They’re the kind of guys you might meet on vacation in Mexico. Stay tuned to this station for additional twink sightings to come.t
du jour. I’m not maligning Jesse’s performances. Recent scenes for Raging Stallion have been très stimulating. But he used to look unmistakably himself. Now he could be mistaken for anybody. Happy ending? Perhaps. Jesse’s realized porn isn’t a career, and is heading toward something practical, sustaining. But what he’s called his parting shot to porn is, lamentably, his debut in bareback. I’ve seen it. It’s hot. But disappointing to me all the same. Neither a wise move nor a career capper. I wonder if he’ll still cultivate that Mohawk at the culinary academy.t