TOMMY WILDE, the real one not the scrawny fake who was taken out by a car, was discovered in a Washington D.C. strip club in the summer of 1981 by Man-Age Studios. Man-Age had just been hired as house photographer for the original STARS Magazine by publisher Glenn M. Turner. Tommy was 19 (turned 20 that September), and had in fact been turned down by STARS when he "auditioned" on Glenn's casting couch a couple months before. Glenn had forgotten until his SX-70 audition pic was found. Tommy was a bit shy, a real blond, hung big, super bod & a hot bottom. s

The first photo session was taken in Virginia on a site where a foundation for a house was going up. The first picture of him he posed with the white with the red interior smoking a cigarette, & wore a blue "Out magazine" t-shirt & jeans. The pictures of him posing nude inside the car has become the most famous & sought after. They were first used by Glenn in a subscription ad with the copy "if you are looking at the car buy Car & Driver". It was a double session. Also posing, separately, was D.C. hustler Lonnie Mayles, a legend in his own mind. Based on this session Glenn decided to put him on the copy along with a major push "look out Kip Noll, here comes Tommy Wilde"

A non-explicit cover was needed so a second session was set up at the house where Tommy lived in Maryland. Behind the house, against a brick wall Tommy posed in cutoffs, black posing strap & for a couple pix with his little dog. Issue #13 of STARS ended the superstition. It turned out to be the biggest selling issue to date. Tommy was a star.

The following weekend Tommy came up to NYC with Glenn for the Gay Pride parade and stayed with Man-Age while Glenn, as usual, stayed at The Broadway Arms bathhouse (with trips to the piss tub at The Mineshaft.) Man-Age however took ill upon his return to NYC & was sick for two weeks. Tommy & Man-Age hit if off as friends (Tommy's confidant, adviser & father figure) and talked a couple times a week.

Man-Age went to D.C. every 3 months & stayed 2 weeks. On his next trip Tommy did his first J/O pix which became a part of "Tommy Wilde & Friends", the magazine that is now a collector's item. On other trips Tommy posed out by the canal in some beautiful shots with lush trees & the water & did a duo session with then lover Ron by the canal. He visited Man-Age in NYC staying a week or more. He brought loony Chris Noll (who pretended he was Kip's real brother and looked like a bizzaro world Kip) over to Man-Age and ended up staying two years.

When Glenn was raided it was Tommy who got friends together & moved Glenn to a new apartment. Tommy followed Glenn when he moved to San Francisco in 1983. Somewhere along here Jim Laffy of Funtime Video asked Man-Age if Tommy would do a video. While Tommy hoped into bed like Little Annie Fanny & consented to pose for duos for Man-Age he had no desire to do porn. Laffy agreed to only do a solo & paid enough to make it worthwhile. Laffy, with the biggest ego in creation, wanted to do the session without Man-Age being there, in violation of agreements. Tommy was very tense & it showed. Had his friend been there for moral support it might have been a tape worth watching. Tommy hated Laffy & his lover. He was paid but when they left him alone to get the release to sign he raced out, got on the train & went direct to Man-Age. Funtime released the tape but never the stills, no release means legally Tommy owned the tape & pix. They learned a lesson in 1984 when they worked with Gary Wilde.

Tommy had been hustling whenever he needed money but never got a regular job for more than short periods of time. He didn't like hustling nor the tricks. He always, like Ms. Duboi, depended on the kindness of strangers (or Glenn & Man-Age) to let him stay with them while he explored. Tommy had been abused as a child which had taken a toll.  Tommy spent time in a Dallas, TX prison convicted of stealing money from his job. He said he was innocent & this being Texas we're sure he was. Fool that he was, he kept returning to visit friends and being careful not to get into trouble. In the late 80s he was in California & had to go away for a few months. He let "friends" move into his apartment to watch over things. When he got out he found they had not paid the rent and had sold everything he owned. Tommy never listened to the good advice Glenn & Man-Age gave. Instead he was drawn like a magnet to abusive lovers & phony friends who used him.

In 1990 he got a call from Chris Noll who had seen his picture in the debut issue of OUTCOME. They were both living in San Francisco and had run into each other the week before. Chris had kept in touch with Man-Age while Tommy lost contact after a "discussion". Tommy contacted Man-Age & the friendship was rekindled. On July 5, 1991 Tommy arrived back in New York with his alcoholic lover Scott and moved in with Man-Age. No pix were ever done. He was now 30 and had to find a regular job in order to live. Scott, a hustler-con artist-user-with a streak of violence , was a talented plasterer, carpenter, repairman who non-the-less couldn't read, was a thief and spent so much time drunk that he couldn't keep a job. Tommy worked hard as a waiter and other in other occupations. Scott, as it turned out, had A.I.D.S. and was determined  to spread it around to the unknowing.

The stay only lasted till October when Tommy returned to live with his father & stepmother never to be heard from again. Scott, leach that he was, stayed. He moved in with a foolish older man and brought him to near ruin. He was finally convinced to return to Los Angeles just before Christmas. Scott died in October 1993. We had assumed Tommy had joined him but in April '99 we got a surprise e-mail from someone claiming to be Tommy. We asked questions only the real Tommy Wilde would know & sure as shit it was him (see top of page). Man-Age says he likes to remember him as that sweet, shy 19 year old with his life ahead of him, a smile that could light up a room & a the cutest laugh you could ever have had the joy of hearing.

Too many sad stories in this business. The public forgets this is a business of fantasy, reality bites.

SURPRISE    SURPRISE
Out of the blue we got an e-mail from someone claiming to be Tommy protesting our assumption of his death. We asked questions only Tommy would know answers to & YES it's him. Man-Age Press arranged for him to be interviewed by Playguy Magazine & the interview along with the classic Man-Age Studios pix from back when he debuted at 19 is on newstands now . Fans can write him directly. Below is his account of his travels since he vanished in '91.
"After leaving the bright lights of Jersey City, New Jersey,  I went to live a quiet and simple life in the countryside of Eastern Ohio. I returned to San Francisco at the urging of a long time acquaintance in the winter of 95. I am now returning to the forefront to honor the request of one of my long time mentors, (Glenn Turner) to fulfill a fantasy of both of ours and maybe put a zap of class into an industry that already has a blackened eye since most of us our not entirely comfortable about who we are and our sexuality"- TOMMY WILDE April 1999
 

The Sept. 1999 issue of PLAYGUY has my layout & interview !