Wednesday, May 07, 2008 01:58 PM -0400
The ARCHIVE

    Photographer/journalist John Cox was invited to a screening of the heterosexual porn flick "The Elmstreets" back in late 70s. Among it's starts was one of the legendary model/actors of male erotica, "Big" Billy Eld. The first images he had seen of Billy were in a J. Brian magazine "Newcomers" produced by Gay Parisian Press. The magazine oddly called him "Jimmy", typical for publishers of that time to misname models. These were some of the earliest shots of Billy. He was total perfection. Muscles tight but not overly big, great nipples, washboard abs, his trademark "outtie" navel & his huge penis & large testicles all topped by a beautiful boyish face. Love at first sight. The "Elmstreets" was, like the majority of heterosexual films, moronic boring & simple minded - like most things in hetero-world. It's one historic contribution was the theme song. Sung by then porn queen Andrea True, "More, More, More" went on to become a great "disco" (gag) hit. A song absolutely perfect for any porn film/video or to strip to. The film is now long forgotten.

    John was able to get the film's publicist to set up a meeting with Billy who was very unpleasant. He wanted a great deal of money to pose & it never happened. John, who at the time was the N.Y. rep. for In Touch magazine, got a call from the editor some months after he met with Billy. They were going to start publishing  a new magazine to be called "IN HEAT" and needed porn star interviews. John easily set up an interview with his friend hetero porn star Marc "10 1/2" Stevens & provided his pictures. He mentioned that he could contact Billy Eld but that Billy wanted bucks to pose. In Touch, in typical fashion, said they could come up with a flat $50 (fifty). He could see if he's accept that to do an interview. John called another friend, legendary director Jack Deveau at Hand-in-Hand Films. Billy did a lot of work for them & Jack always could contact Billy. Jack called Billy then called back & gave John Bill's number at the Opera Hotel in Manhattan. John made the offer expecting to be told to go fuck himself. Instead Billy said he would do both a photo session & an interview for the fifty - if - he came over that afternoon with cash. Billy needed it to buy cocaine. His addiction had begun earlier. By this time, Billy was 32,  it was hard for him to get an erection (impossible eventually) but he still looked like himself. Within a year he was losing weight & looking older than his years.

    Billy, unlike that first encounter, was very warm & friendly. John was star struck at meeting him. He noted his trademark navel, that beautiful face & remembered hearing that Billy loved his have his big balls sucked. It also stuck him that this male icon of legend, this work of art, was living in a tiny room in a so-so hotel. There was a mattress on the floor, & a sink - maybe a closet & dresser he doesn't recall. Billy showed him his collection of brass objects - his hobby was collecting such. They talked briefly then did the pix. They used the mattress on end as a backdrop & the mirror on the wall. John had brought a large tie dyed t-shirt with holes cut out for nipples, navel & - at the bottom - cock. John was so awestruck he wasn't going to bring it out but Billy saw it & asked if he brought it for him to wear. He slipped it on & like magic the holes had been cut correctly. John had been told of his problem & didn't ask him to get hard. They decided that time was short & Billy had to get to his contact. Billy said to call the next week to set up the interview. John was very surprised that Billy was true to his word & they met at the porn theatre where Billy was working as projectionist.

Not included in the interview, because it had been discussed back at Billy's home, was the question of his sexuality. Billy was married. He lived at the Opera hotel & his wife live on Long Island. He saw her some weekends. He didn't define himself but it was clear that while was Bisexual and thought of himself as heterosexual he spent more time in bed with guys that girls. He did only a few hetero or bisexual loops. He said the reason he got into Gay modeling & films was that he wanted to be a star. In straight films the women are stars & the guys are nothing more than living dildoes. Only an extremely rare few, like John Holmes, got their names "up in lights". He knew Gay men loved him & he was a star of the first magnitude. He also told John about being hired for parties. He would lie on a table totally nude & masturbate while the party goers touched & played with him. He professed an enjoyment of being adored. No doubt there was a "darkness" within him that the cocaine could keep at bay providing a false sense of  positiveness. The price for that was his health, his looks & in time his life.

This was the first interview Billy had ever done in his long career & John had it exclusively.
Here then from "IN HEAT" #2 from ©1977 by John Cox is the interview:

JMC: Let's start with some of the basics--where were you born, what your childhood was like. . .

BE: I was born in Rochester, New York in 1945. From ages of 9 to 12, I was in Foster homes--then I went to an orphanage and stayed there 'til I was 18.

JMC: What did you want to do with your life?

BE: After High School, I went to college to be a physical education teacher, working with kids. I worked with kids for about three years then with a recreation therapist in a state hospital for about six months, until I finally decided that I just wasn't that happy with it.

JMC: How did you get involved in the "porn" industry?

BE:  It was a lot of things. People were always approaching me. 'course, I was working out in gyms and was very athletic, and also I was dancing at the time--that was in San Francisco, up on Broadway. I was about 23 (1968), and did an adagio act with a girl. It was a love act, but not anything like they have in New York.  You couldn't just get up there and act like you were screwing, or whatever--it had to be part of the act. Like I said, I was approached by a lot of people and started doing a lot of photography work. Then I was asked to do some loops, and eventually people started getting ahold of me or I'd get ahold of them, and it grew and grew until it's where it's at now.

JMC: Were you more into the Gay or straight area at first?

BE: Oh, the Gay, because at that time there was so much straight stuff on the market. The Gay stuff on the market was good, but not that ggod; and if you had the necessary equipment, as they say, you stood out. And, of course a Gay is going to be more attracted to a male's body than a straight is, anyway. You could have a beautiful body and work in straight porno pictures and nobody gaves a fuck. The majority of the audience, they're not looking at the guy.

JMC: A trend is going on with the newer porn stars, like Peter Berlin and Jack Wrangler, to market their own photos and control their career. Had you ever thought along those lines?

BE: I suppose I could do it if that's all I wanted to do, but that's not all I want to do. (Jim) Cassidy was very successful--I would say he was probably the first to really market himself. It depends on what you're geared to.

JMC: Do you think the porn industry has changed?

BE: Oh, yeah. . .everything changes, or it dies. Porn's much beter. They're puting a lille art, a little professionalism into it. The audience demands it, I think.

JMC: Are porn actors being treated better or worse?

BE:: I think they're being treated the same. You've still got the charlatans in the business. Until they legalize porn or mae it illegal--one of the two--you can't keep it on the line. One day it's legal, the next day it isn't--that's why it's where it's at, and that's why it's in the hands of the people it's in.

JMC: You came back to New York not too long ago after living in California. How do the working opportunities compare?

BE: There's more work out there,  but better jobs here. Because, number one, you've got more people out there--I mean more people they're looking for. You could take seven-eighths of the United States and move them all to California and there wouldn't be that much of a social change. But you move them to New York and it's a different world. To be successful--or just to live--in this city, it's three times harder. The pace is much faster. But I find it easier to live in New York. I like doing things late at night. I can do it here, whereas in L.A. you're tied down to an automobile--you can't do anything without a car, and that gets to be a bore. That's what the lifestyle is out there. They want to live it, fine--I don't, so I do't live there.

JMC: In his new book, Marc Stevens paints a very depressing picture of hustling. You've been involved in that scene--what's it like?

BE: I don't think there's any job that isn't, at points, depressing--but I think it's ridiculous to say that the whole thing is depressing. I'm not saying it isn't boring at times. You meet all kinds, but you meet good people, too. It's not always only a sex thing. I know many people it started out as a financial thing with, but now it's social and we're friends.

JMC: Can you make a good living at hustling?

BE: Oh, sure--there are thousands of people who do it.  I've done it to make money at times when I've needed money, but I've never done it to make $10,000 or $50,000. Many hustlers I know, that's the only reason they did it--for the cash.

JMC: Have you ever been hard up enough for cash that you went to bed with someone you thought was really repulsive?

BE: I really don't think so. I've been to bed with people who are physically ugly, but in other ways they are beautiful people.

JMC: In your photos, you often come across looking surly. Are you?

BE: I find this--a lot of people  approach me and they're very shy, because when  I photograph, I come across very mystic, and I have. . .well, a look. It's enticing, but it's stand-offish--you know: "Don't touch." I'm not that way, but that's the way I photograph. That's what sells, and fortunately I've worked with people like Jim French (Colt) and Lou Thomas (Target) who knew that and caught it, and it's some of the most beautiful work I've ever done. It was enticing, and sexy, and come on-ish, but very "Don't step on me or I'll hit you over the head." And people like that.

JMC: Do you consider yourself a Gay-libber?

BE: I think too many people are still in the fucking closet, mentally. Until Gays stand up to the bigots, they're going to get all that shit poured on them, and  it's their own fault. You're always going to get that hate aspect: everybody who's Gay is a child molester; anybody who's ever gone to bed with a guy is a pervert--you're going to get that. But if Gays don't stand up for themselves, what are you going to do? They don't stand up and say: "This is a bunch of bullshit--we don't need people like this and why do we have to listen to this crap?" If you took Gays away from the theatre, there wouldn't be any fuckin' theatre--there wouldn't be any TV industry, either.  And I'm saying that because I know. But as long as they don't stand up, when they're still worried because they're out in the public eye and are petrified that someone will find out they're Gay. . .That's ridiculous. They've got to get to the point where they say: "Fuck it! We ain't gonna move back no more. We've been movin' back and movin' back. . .fuck it! This is bullshit!" You've got a bunch of  people running around who aren't organized. The people who most discriminate against Gay people are Gay people. As long as you have that, you can't have anything. You're going to have people like (Anita) Bryant walking around saying they're talking for God. I think God would throw up if he came down here and looked at these people. But as long as Gays have a little fence around themselves as individuals and they're safe, they don't give a fuck!

The ARCHIVE