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Billy Byars, Jr.

2023-12-04T01:33:39Z

Sneeuwbol: /* Adopted with a silver spoon in his mouth */

<div style="margin-right: 25px; float: left;">__TOC__</div>'''Billy Byars, Jr.''' (1936-), owner of [[Lyric International]], producer of ''[[The Genesis Children]]'', partner to pornographer [[Guy Strait]], friend of [[J. Edgar Hoover]], key figure in "the first [[child pornography]] [[ring]] ... brought to public view", perpetual footnote in Kennedy assassination theories, is a fascinating figure. And also a public figure, which permits his discussion here. Mr. Byars is of primary interest here as the owner of Lyric. Many of Lyric's reputedly 90 magazines and many movies still circulate on the Internet. Photographed by [[Harlan 'Slim' Pfeiffer]], many were filmed in Mr. Byars's home - also the Lyric studio - and around [[the pool with the cinderblock walls]] in his backyard. While Lyric's films featured extensive nudity of boys and young men, Lyric's catalog featured only "[[physique]]" photography and never pornography. However, two of the "Lyric boys" who played around Byars's pool later found their way into the bed - or at least the limousine - of the Director of the FBI.
==Adopted with a silver spoon in his mouth ==
Billy Goebel Byars, Jr. was born in Texas in August, 1936 and adopted through the Edna Gladney Foundation in Fort Worth by oil man [[Billy Byars, Sr.]] and his wife, Emily.<ref name="Swisher1972">Swisher, Viola Hegyi. "Generating ''The Genesis Children''". ''After Dark'', September 1972, p. 18. Available in the media depository, https://www.boywiki.org/media/File:Generating_Genesis.pdf</ref>

While his birth certificate says "William G. Byars" and newspaper reports on the Lyric scandal, when he was out of the country, call him "William", when he is able to give his own name, and in other legal papers, he is always "Billy". His father is "Billy" on his death certificate.

The 1941 movie ''Blossoms in the Dust''<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033407/ ''Blossoms in the Dust''] on IMDB</ref> highlighted the accomplishments of Edna Gladney, two of which are important to the story of Billy Byars, Jr. In 1936 Edna Gladney succeeded in having the Texas legislature pass a bill to have children registered as the children of their adoptive parents, removing the stigma of illegitimacy. Byars was one of the earliest beneficiaries of this law. In 1951, again at the instigation of Gladney, Texas law was changed to give adopted children the same inheritance rights as biological children.<ref>[http://www.adoptionsbygladney.com/html/about/history.html Timeline] of Gladney Home</ref>

That same year the Byars family adopted Billy, they purchased a large corner lot in Tyler, Texas, and in 1937 built a two story house in the Monterey style. The scale of the house was sumptuous for the midst of the Depression: brick and frame construction with three baths, a three-car garage and a servant's room with a bath. The house was enlarged to 5,000 square feet in the 1940s, and Byars's parents resided there for the rest of their lives. There was a Steinway grand piano in the living room, and parties that included such guests as Ronald Reagan.<ref name=Tyler2004>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050830061056/http://www.historictyler.org/spring_tour/tour_2004/summers_2004/ Historic Tyler on Tour, 2004]</ref>

Tyler is in the eastern, green part of Texas, the closest major city being Shreveport, Louisiana.

Byars is quoted as describing his mother as "an elegant but colorful woman" of Irish descent.<ref name=Swisher1972 /> The family businesses included not only oil, but the Byars Royal Oaks Farm in Tyler, where the elder Byars bred champion cattle.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100409064053/http://eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/1101.cfm Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal To Billy G. Byars, 7 October 1954]. In ''The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower'', ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1101. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996</ref> The Byars family includes a sister who continued raising cattle.<ref name=Swisher1972 /> In 2003 there were still Byars breeding champion cattle.

Billy Jr. was also fond of telling people that his biological parents were of Russian royalty, however local Tyler, Texas residents contend he was the son of a coffee shop waitress and a lonesome trucker.<ref name=Bear2009>[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/soc.motss/3Bq0xnS8o4c Usenet Post] by Edward Bear/[[User:Ballog|Ballog]]] on Genesis Children. Ballog interviewed Genesis Children director Anthony Aikman in 2006</ref>

=== Catholic upbringing ===

The Byars family was Catholic. Byars, Sr.'s funeral was held in the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church.<ref name=SrObit /> The younger Byars at the age of six was the crown-bearer at a ceremony of the coronation of the Blessed Virgin.<ref>"Group at Tyler will celebrate Sodality Day". ''The Tyler Courier-Times'' (Tyler, Texas). 9 May 1943, p. 2</ref>

=== Schooling ===

A search of online public school yearbooks from Tyler, Texas does not find Byars. The leading Catholic high school in the city was founded only in 1955, when Byars would have been 18.<ref>[https://www.bishopgorman.net/about/history/ Bishop Gorman school history]</ref> Byars's sister "attended school in St. Louis, Mo., and in the East for three years" which suggests Byars may also have attended boarding school.<ref name=RoseQueen />

Although Billy Jr. would often tell people he held various degrees and was a molecular biologist, in truth he only attended MIT for one semester from Sept. 16, 1954 - January 7, 1955 and held no college degree.<ref name=Bear2009 /> He was back in Tyler, Texas in early 1957, appearing in the local press as the publicity chairman of the East Texas Timing Association, a "hot rod association". <ref>"Auto Show for Polio" [photo caption], ''Tyler Courier-Times'', 3 Feb 1957, Page 7 and "Hot Rodders Organize Timing Association", ''Tyler Morning Telegraph'' 10 Jan 1957, Page 10</ref> Reportedly he was attending the private University of Denver in 1959.<ref name=RoseQueen>"Rose Festival Queen Will Be Betty Byars", Marguerite Hercules, ''The Tyler Courier-Times'' (Tyler, Texas). 8 Feb 1959, Page 36</ref>

After dropping out of college, Billy reportedly had a falling out with his father regarding his homosexuality and left his Texas home.<ref name=Bear2009 /> Apparently, Billy and his father somewhat reconciled their differences and in the early 1960s, in his mid twenties, he was still joining his father for annual vacations at Clint Murchison's Del Charo Hotel in San Diego, where they often took the bungalow next to J. Edgar Hoover's.<ref>{{cite book |title=Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover |last=Summers |first= Anthony |year=1992 |publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons |location=New York|isbn=0-399-13800-5 |pages=329-330}}</ref>

== At the summit in Los Angeles ==
Byars was living in San Francisco at the time of his father's death in 1965, and in Hollywood by 1967.<ref name=SrObit>"B.G. Byars Dies Here At Age 64", ''Tyler Morning Telegraph'' (Tyler, Texas). 7 Oct 1965, Page 1&2</ref><ref>"Quebec Honeymoon Follows Byars-Summers Nuptial Rites", ''Tyler Courier-Times-Telegraph'' (Tyler, Texas). 17 Nov 1967, Sec. 3, Page 2</ref>

Presumably Billy, Jr. received an inheritance, and installed himself in style in Los Angeles. "His bachelor pad in the Hollywood hills boasts massive oaken beams and other touches of baronial elegance," according to a 1972 interviewer.<ref name=Swisher1972 /> Summers says that "Byars's house in Los Angeles, at the summit of Laurel Canyon, was for a while a haven for adult homosexuals and male teenagers." His friendship with J. Edgar Hoover continued, and he received at least one Christmas card from the FBI Director in the house on Mulholland Drive.[Summers, ''op. cit.'', p. 377]

Byars's life and Lyric's history are inseparable at this point. An examination of the Lyric catalog would clarify dates. Two of the Lyric films seem to have been produced in Texas, ''[[Summer Freedom]]'' supposedly shot on Padre Island Seashore near Corpus Christi, Texas, and ''[[Sandy Hill]]'', possibly in the town of that name north-west of Houston. Online sources say that the earliest photos of [[Peter Glawson]] are from the Texas gulf coast, while ''Sandy Hill'' features a Peter notably younger than in ''The Genesis Children'' or in photos taken at the house on Mulholland Drive. It would also be interesting to know how Byars's relationship with 'Slim' Pfeiffer began. Byars and Pfeiffer may have begun their photography in Texas.

Valerie Swisher, who interviewed Byars after ''The Genesis Children'' was released, describes him: "Molecular biologist Billy Byars came to movie making with a background in biophysics, bacteriology, protozoology, virology, geology, astronomy, mathematics, entomology and weight training. He also exercises great expertise at the racetrack and in Las Vegas, computing odds. In more orthodox veins, he's a painter, art photographer, camera expert and color connoisseur."<ref name=Swisher1972 /> Summers, more concise, calls Byars "a part-time filmmaker, fitness enthusiast, and dilettante".[Summers, ''op. cit.'', p. 377]

Swisher calls Byars a "tall Texan" and describes him as a "very forthright black sheep, acting always upon passionate private conviction and not out of hypocritical public pretense."<ref name=Swisher1972 />

== Appearance ==

Billy Byars, Jr. had dark, thinning hair: photos after 1970 show a rising hairline and expanding waistline. While there are a vast number of photos of the "Lyric Boys", photos of Byars seem to be limited to early photos in his hometown newspaper, photos in the LIFE magazine archives where he's not identified, and some snapshots during the filming of ''The Genesis Children''.

The ''After Dark'' interview includes a photo of Byars and the actor Vincent Child in Rome filming ''The Genesis Children''.<ref name=Swisher1972 /> Byars is slightly shorter than Child, and wearing dark glasses and a ten-gallon hat looks very much like anyone else wearing dark glasses and a ten-gallon hat. ''Genesis Children'' sound man John Dulaney took slides as he accompanied the Lyric troupe through Europe while filming ''The Genesis Children'' and other projects in 1970, and posted a series of VHS-quality YouTube slideshow videos in 2010-2011. One is described as including "BILLY BYARS, JR. (balding with Hasselblad) and Lyric Film company, Europe, 1970."<ref>[https://youtu.be/ldaiVaf84bk?t=487 Dulaney video] on YouTube.</ref> Dulaney has other photos that may well be Byars with Peter Glawson, and a close-up of Byars alone.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=508&v=D3-1zhJN2ZA , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRTqxU_eXZc&t=588s</ref> Byars was 34-35 in 1970, and does appear to be balding and wearing glasses, and with a slight paunch.

He's not wearing glasses in the photo accompanying an 1972 interview in a hometown newspaper, but the photo is too poorly reproduced online to show his face, though the paunch is less slight. <ref>"Film Industry Challenge Grows, Pat Blair, ''The Tyler Courier-Times'' (Tyler, Texas). 24 Dec 1972, Page 37</ref>

Photos taken for ''LIFE Magazine'' of Byars, Sr.'s 1954 stunt lodging of prize bull Prince 105TT in the Governor's Suite of Tyler's Blackstone Hotel include a shot that portrays a Black boy dressed as a harem guard with a gold shovel, the partners in the bull's purchase and others. <ref>[https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/prize-bull/GAFVWJNg2MpqWQ Prize Bull] John Dominis. 1954. LIFE Photo Collection.</ref> Immediately behind the bull is the elder Byars, with his wife and blond daughter to his left.<ref>"Party Hosts and House Guests", shows Mr & Mrs Byars matching the ''LIFE'' photo. ''The Tyler Courier-Times''. 4 Oct 1953, Page 39. Miss Byars can be recognized from photos as the 1959 Rose Queen, such as "Crowning of 1959 Rose Queen", ''Tyler Morning Telegraph''. 16 Oct 1959, Page 1 </ref> The bull's halter is being held by a young man who could well be the then 17-year-old Byars, Jr. In these photos he is one of the tallest in each crowd where he appears.

== Photography of enduring quality ==
However, according to a 1975 interview with a Lyric producer,
:"Lyric had specialized in nude photos of models ranging from twelve to twenty years of age. As a physique photographer, Lyric had been out of business for several years, since Byars did not approve of doing hardcore photography and the market accepted little else, but the company name was being carried on as a producer of television travelogues."<ref name=Campfire1975>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120061219/http://www.hunkvideo.com/library/lewis/index.html Campfire Video interview]</ref>
Lyric's production occurred in a narrow window of time, when social mores had loosened sufficiently to permit the sort of naturist films it produced, but not enough to allow more explicit content. The same producer acknowledged that "Lyric had once been one of the biggest photographers in the business."<ref name=Campfire1975 />

Mr. Byars himself was a sometime photographer. ''[[Zipper]]'' magazine, a Hollywood publication which billed itself as “Art/Entertainment For Men” included in its February 1972 issue the pictorial “Photographer of the Month: Billy Byars.”

Something more than being "one of the biggest" is needed to explain the frequency with which Lyric's films and photographs circulate even today. Perhaps it was the quality of Pfeiffer's photography, which transcends the genre, or the choice of models, or the beauty of the settings. Pfeiffer's camera captured a swimming pool full of splashing boys, high above Los Angeles and in the hazy distance the sea, and made those summer afternoons eternal.

== Byars and the Lyric boys ==
It is difficult to determine just who the "Lyric boys" who appear in Lyric's films were, and the nature of their relationship with Mr. Byars. Possibly he merely considered that having a lot of naked teenagers about improved the view.

Peter Glawson appeared both in the early Texas films and the later California ones. An online source says
:"I would say that he was totally straight and not a nudist but a 'financed boy' who was resident with an older person. He liked being looked at but I would doubt that he was that keen on looking. He was brought into the big city from the country and I would say that it was his practical nature rather than anything else that kept him there." [http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.prettyboy/msg/9600bca3cb3239ce]
Various other posts confirm Mr. Glawson's heterosexual orientation. Others posts assert that a younger brother appeared in Lyric productions as "Maxey Adams". The family may have been originally from Texas.

One of Lyric's early magazines, ''[[Coq d'Or]]'', says "Peter rarely wears clothes around the studio." However, there is no reason to believe that Lyric's text about its models is any more factual than what Playboy prints about its models.

Robin Lloyd affirms in 1976 that a "Peter, a thirteen-year-old and one of Byars's favorites, still commands a high price in the chicken market."[Lloyd, Robin, ''For Money or Love: Boy Prostitution in America'', Ballantine Books, NY, 1976, p. 79] Lloyd's "Peter" may not be intended to be Peter Glawson, and even so on the same page Lloyd also claims that "One of Billy Byars's best sellers, ''Genesis Children'', portrayed the "delights" of Guy Sommers, a boy ... imported from Hawaii". There is no "Guy Sommers" credited in that film, but Lloyd provides no footnotes or bibliography and cannot have envisioned that his readers would have access to something like IMDB. He also refers to "[[Guy Strait]] (probably not his real name)" without bothering to check.[Lloyd, p.77]It is the name Strait was born with. [Clifford L. Linedecker, ''Children in Chains'', 1981, p.228] Online rumor seems reliable in comparison with Lloyd.

The previously cited Lyric producer did respond to questions about the Lyric boys, one of whom lived with him. He says that one of his accusers in the 1973 scandal "was the kid brother of a fellow that was living with me at the time. The older brother was just a beautiful boy, a really great guy, whom I had taken in because things were so rough for him at home-an alcoholic father, the whole bit." In response to the direct question, "The older brother was your lover, then?" he responded,
:"Not in the classic sense, no. But that's what everybody assumed, and you can't stop people from making assumptions, you know. Everybody figured we had some wild affair going, and they couldn't understand why my girl friend at the time wasn't jealous-why she liked him too. But in reality we were just a family unit - no wild sex orgies or anything. But even the kid brother thought we were lovers, and he was kind of jealous that his brother was getting all the affection, and not him."<ref name=Campfire1975 />
There is no reason to believe that the producer's houseguest and Peter Glawson were the same person.

Byars was not unfamiliar with the seamier side of life in Los Angeles, or unacquainted with young men in the sex trade from the [[Gold Cup]].

Given widespread statements by those who knew him that the most prominent of the Lyric boys was straight, and the direct statement by someone at Lyric that one of the boys lived with him in a non-sexual family relationship, the minimum assumption is the most indicated: that the Lyric boys were merely part of the scenery at Mr. Byars's house.

== The Scandal ==
Lyric came to an end in late 1973, in a scandal that the [[Meese Commission]] later called "the first child pornography ring ... brought to public view."<ref>[https://ia801903.us.archive.org/13/items/finalreportofatt00unit/finalreportofatt00unit.pdf Attorney General's Commission on Pornography: final report.] Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice (1986) Chapter 11, p. 131)</ref>
The ''Los Angeles Times'' article about the arrests was titled "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17: Son of Actress, Heir to Oil Fortune, [[YMCA]] Counselor, Scoutmaster, Schoolteacher Among Those Facing Charges".<ref name=Farr1973a>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref>
The "Heir to Oil Fortune" was Billy Byars, Jr. and the "Son of Actress" a Lyric producer. As the policy of the ''Los Angeles Times'' was then to not index criminal justice proceedings, it is difficult to determine just what happened to the fourteen accused. A later story confirms that the first of the accused to go to trial ("YMCA Counselor") was acquitted after a full day of jury deliberation, and that two others had pled guilty. A jury deliberated four days before convicting D.M.Y, accused on nine counts, although one of the two thirteen-year-old victims testified that he had been dangled over a cliff by two policemen who insisted he name men with whom he had had sex. (Lloyd, ''supra'', p. 151) also <ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050219002356/http://www.paedosexualitaet.de/exp/cliffsrc.html online summary] based on articles in ''Advocate''</ref>. The defendant in that case received a $500 fine. [''L.A. Times'', May 31, 1974, p. E4. Online summary only consulted]

While the Meese commission and the ''Los Angeles Times'' both refer to films of child pornography, the news article says that the accused were charged not with child pornography, but with molesting children. It says "One confiscated film shows the boys playing nude on a beach believed to be near Corpus Christi."<ref name=Farr1973a /> Lyric did produce such a film, [[Summer Freedom]] but perhaps no charges were filed based on the film because it was not pornographic under California law.

Two of the accusers
:"... were just hustlers the police had dug up ... they had worked for Lyric a good little while ago. Even the police didn't push their stories too much, because they were both well into their teens and they admitted they were willing participants."<ref name=Campfire1975 />

The Los Angeles scandal was fueled in part by the 1973 murders in Houston, Texas, by [[Dean Corll]] of at least 27 teenagers. The police insinuated to the press that the Lyric scandal might have a connection. Lyric's owner was originally from Texas; another of those arrested in the case was identified by the ''L.A. Times'' as "William Johnson, 55, a Houston photographer".<ref name=Farr1973a />

Some of the accusations are puzzling and inconsistent. While the headline says the men were "Indicted in Sex Movies" the text says "the indictments do not charge anyone with making obscene films." Guy Strait was arrested, as well as another man, D.M.Y, called "a major competitor of Strait in the distribution of homosexual films".<ref name=Farr1973a /> How a "ring" can be formed by competitors is not explained. While that's certainly possible in price-fixing, that is not mentioned as a concern in the episode.

[[Lloyd Martin]], the policeman most responsible for the arrests, constructed a national reputation as the "child abuse policeman". He later fell into discredit. Widespread criticism of him and his methods is easily found on the Internet. Martin's signature sound bite is that child abuse is "worse than homicide." One ''Salon'' article calls him "infamous" and provides a good general discussion of the exaggerations of child pornography foes.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070304095923/http://archive.salon.com/mwt/feature/2000/01/31/kincaid/index1.html Is this child pornography?] Kincaid, James R. ''Salon'', 31 Jan 2000</ref>

Byars's old friend J. Edgar Hoover had died in May, 1972.

== Fortunes Restored? ==
Mr. Byars was out of the country at the time of the scandal. Robin Lloyd claimed in 1976 that "As soon as the heat was on, Byars fled to Europe to avoid prosecution. He is presumably there today and will probably stay, since there are at least four outstanding felony warrants for his arrest in this country."[Lloyd, p. 78] The Lyric producer, however, says that after Strait's arrest he spoke with friends in the police and was told there was no cause for concern. He at least did not feel "the heat was on".<ref name=Campfire1975 /> Summers says that, "Byars was by then abroad, reportedly in Morocco, and stayed out of the United States for many years to come."[Summers, ''op. cit.'', p. 377] The implication is that he had returned by the time Summers interviewed him in 1988.

While Swisher refers to Byars's mother in the past tense, Texas public records show that Emily Byars died on December 30, 1979.<ref>[http://vitals.rootsweb.com/tx/death/search.cgi Rootsweb] no longer has the Social Security Death Index online</ref> Byars's sister purchased the family home from the estate.<ref name=Tyler2004 /> That would imply that there were other heirs, presumably Billy Byars, Jr.

The house in the Hollywood hills that served as Byars's home and as the Lyric studio was rented, not owned by him.

So whatever harm may have been done to his finances by ''The Genesis Children'', it's safe to assume he inherited another chunk of a Texas-sized fortune, and this after a decade that had been good to oil money. Fifteen years older and presumably wiser, he may have held onto it. Certainly he has not since cut as wide as swath as he did in the halcyon years of Lyric International.

== Kennedy Assassination Conspiracy ==
Summers shows through numerous details how very well the Byars, father and son, knew Hoover. The afternoon of President Kennedy's death, J. Edgar Hoover phoned three people: the Attorney General, the head of the Secret Service, and Billy Byars, Sr. [Summers, ''supra'', p. 329]

One statement by Billy Byars, Jr., is frequently repeated by conspiracy theorists. Byars related to Summers a conversation at the Del Charro during the summer of 1964 or 1965.
:"I asked him, 'Do you think Lee Harvey Oswald did it?' And he stopped and looked at me for quite a long time. Then he said, "If I told you what I really know, it would be very dangerous to this country. Our whole political system could be disrupted.' That's all he said, and I could see he wasn't going to say any more." [Summers, ''supra'', p. 330].
Usually when this quote is cited online Byars, Jr. is described as "teenage", but he would have been in his late twenties.<ref>[https://www.salon.com/2004/09/15/warren/ "The mother of all coverups"] David Talbot, ''Salon'',
September 15, 2004, refers to "Byars' teenage son", and the error has been reproduced.</ref>

== Common Errors ==
Several errors are frequent in online information about Byars.
* The most common is spelling his name as "By'''e'''rs".
* The next common is describing his mother as an actress. While the headline in the 1973 scandal referred to "Heir to Oil Fortune" and "Son of Actress", "son of actress" was in fact someone else, a Lyric producer.
* Lastly, More & Co. of San Francisco, in their magazine ''More Children #1'' identified one of the models as "Billy Byars, Jr." This is probably a competitor tweaking Lyric. It is not plausible that the son of a wealthy Texan was posing for nude photos in San Francisco. Byars's 1936 birth doesn't match up, either.
== References ==
[[Category:Filmmakers]]
[[Category:1936 births]]

Lyric International

2023-12-04T01:26:53Z

Sneeuwbol: /* The next film */ Added link to After Dark interview in media depository

<div style="margin-right: 25px; float: left;">__TOC__</div>'''Lyric International''' produced "[[physique]]" photography of boys and young men during the window that opened in the late 1960s when legal and social bans against male nudity fell, but before more hardcore products skimmed off demand for Lyric's nudes, and the child pornography panic. At its height, Lyric made a push for mainstream respectability with the feature film [[The Genesis Children]], filmed in 1970 and released in 1972, which combined a foggy New Age message with teen and preteen nudity, and the 1971-1973 [[Zipper]] magazine, where wide-ranging articles similar those in ''Playboy'' were printed along with nude but not explicit photo features of male teenagers and youths. While the Lyric catalog did not go beyond non-sexual nudity, carefully avoiding the legal line of obscenity, Lyric owner [[Billy Byars, Jr.]] partnered for distribution with San Francisco gay rights pioneer and noted pornographer [[Guy Strait]], some of whose pornography did include actors under 16. Lyric maintained an unusually constant stable of "Lyric Boy" actors, the best known of whom was the blond [[Peter Glawson]] who appeared from around 10 years of age to 17 in Lyric's products, including magazines, 16mm shorts, photo sets, ''The Genesis Children'', and a ''Zipper'' interview.

Lyric came to an end in late 1973, in a scandal that the [[Meese Commission]] called "the first [[child pornography]] [[ring]] ... brought to public view," although no pornography charges were ever brought against Lyric's collaborators.<ref>[https://ia902908.us.archive.org/0/items/finalreportofatt00unit/finalreportofatt00unit.pdf#page=185 Attorney General's Commission on Pornography: final report.] Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice (1986) Chapter 11, p. 131</ref> The arrests mark the first appearance in the ''Los Angeles Times'' of policeman [[Lloyd Martin]] who became one of the faces of the [[great kiddie porn panic]]. Guy Strait's arrest in an unrelated case of sex with a minor led to his becoming a nonperson in the gay rights community, and in gay rights history. In recent years some of the same film clips found unprosecutable in 1973 have appeared as evidence in the [[Azov Films]] prosecutions.

Lyric's prime was a high-water mark for tolerance, and its fall marked the beginning of repression. It was a nearly perfect scandal. The headline of the newspaper article that introduced Lloyd Martin to a wider public had all the usual suspects: "Son of Actress, Heir to Oil Fortune, YMCA Counselor, Scoutmaster, Schoolteacher Among Those Facing Charges". They might have been picked for headline value, and may have been: some had no apparent connection to Lyric, and at least one was found innocent by a jury. A number of names important in rights and repression are woven into the case, as well as some inexplicable threads: Mr. Byars is a perpetual footnote in Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories.

== Physique but not pornography==
According to a 1975 interview with a Lyric producer who was one of those named in the scandal,
:"Lyric had specialized in nude photos of models ranging from twelve to twenty years of age. As a physique photographer, Lyric had been out of business for several years, since Byars did not approve of doing hardcore photography and the market accepted little else, but the company name was being carried on as a producer of television travelogues."
Lyric’s production occurred in a narrow window of time, when social mores had loosened sufficiently to permit the sort of naturist films it produced, but not enough to allow more explicit content. The same producer acknowledged that "Lyric had once been one of the biggest photographers in the business." <ref name=campfire>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120061219/http://www.hunkvideo.com/library/lewis/index.html Campfire Video Library]</ref>.

== DOM-Lyric ==
While the Lyric catalog offered no pornography, Lyric's owner joined with [[Guy Strait]] in creating DOM-LYRIC to distribute Lyric's products as well as Strait's. Strait did produce pornography, including pornography with adolescent actors.

== Crossroads of the World ==
Lyric also had an office located at '''Crossroads Of The World''' office complex in Hollywood, which "has been called America's first modern shopping mall.<ref name=wikipedia_crossroads>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossroads_of_the_World Wikipedia]</ref> Director Anthony Aikman and cameraman Bill Dewar edited ''The Genesis Children'' there. Aikman describes the studio as being in a building designed to look like Mothers Hubbard's shoe.<ref>[Interview, 2006, Anthony Aikman by Ballog]</ref> While the complex has a variety of kitschy styles, no building meets that description. Crossroads is a block away from the [[Gold Cup]], a well-known Hollywood Boulevard hangout for boy prostitutes, and occasional source for actors.

''[[Zipper]]'' Magazine's office was also in the complex.(citation needed) That, along with the large amount of editorial space that ''Zipper'' devoted to Lyric's projects, and the number of ads in the magazine purchased by Lyric, suggests that it too may have been owned by Byars.

Wikipedia also says that "In the late-1960s, one of the offices was occupied by a porn magazine that tried out young hopefuls by photographing them in the nude. It was here that an unknown John C. Holmes went one day and showcased his unusually large "endowment", leading to the start of his notorious career in adult films."<ref name=wikipedia_crossroads />

== The next film ==
There are several accounts of what Byars and Lyric were planning after ''The Genesis Children'', but it seems clear another feature fill was complete or nearly so. In a 1972 interview with Byars published just after that film opened (and closed), dance journalist Violet Helgy Swisher says,
<blockquote>"Byars's next film venture is an already filmed documentary he has titled ''The Russian Adventure''. It unreels as a story of the travels of an International Boyhood group, filmed not only in Russia, but elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Still in the early planning stages is a ballet feature to be filmed in the desert. Nude. Of course."<ref name="Swisher">Swisher, Viola Hegyi. "Generating ''The Genesis Children''". ''After Dark'', September 1972, p. 18. Available in the media depository, https://www.boywiki.org/media/File:Generating_Genesis.pdf</ref></blockquote>

The ''L.A. Times'' article about the arrests described Lyric's current project as "''Soviet '73'', a film about Jews traveling in Russia." <ref name=LATimes27Oct /> The Lyric producer claimed in 1975 that, "We had a tremendous amount of money sunk into a major TV travelogue on Russia just then." <ref name=campfire /> The recurring Russian theme indicates all three sources are discussing the same project.

With a comic story on a bomb scare (it was a prop), the ''Los Angeles Free Press'' gives an account of what Lyric was up to in December, 1972. "Lyric Films, also known as Billy Byars and Associates" was in the process of editing two films at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios, Formosa Ave., Hollywood. Jeremy Hoenack, who edited ''The Genesis Children'', was with his wife Barbara "toiling over the celluloid images on a reel of motorcycle adventures" on a Movieola. Lyric was using two editing rooms. Other Lyric personnel included "Miss Helen Hill, business manager and confidante of producer Billy Byars ("Genesis' Children") who is out of town." Those with access to the editing rooms include "Tom Grubbs, a young filmmaker who's renting one of the rooms for an educational short he's producing. Oh, yes, and there's Joe Fineman, he's also studio manager, in charge of things in Mr. Byars's absence." Mr. Fineman is "... cutting a film for Mr. Byars now — a documentary on Russia."<ref name=Rubine1972>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/community.28040031.pdf?page=10 Rubine, Naomi. "The bomb at Goldwyn Studios"] ''Los Angeles Free Press'', Volume 9, issue 438, Dec 8-18, 1972. P.10</ref>

None of these names appeared in the press in the Lyric scandal. Mr. Fineman's IMDB entry has a long list of credits, including 88 in editing and an equal number in production, starting in 1971 and including the "Real to Reel Film and Video Festival" Festival Prize in 2018. There is however a gap of several years starting in 1972. IMBD has more than one Tom Grubbs. The ''Free Press'' article says that Hoenack finished editing the Russia film.<ref name=Rubine1972 />

Byars told his hometown paper on Christmas Eve, 1972 about a "television documentary scheduled for release under the title "Soviet '73" [...] the first totally uncensored film ever made in the Soviet republics."<ref name=blair1972> Blair, Pat. "Film Industry Challenge Grows" ''Tyler Courier-Times'', Tyler, Texas, 24 Dec 1972. Page 37</ref> It was "hoped to be shown sometime during late winter." He said he was seeking Texas financing for "his next feature film, a spy spoof with the working title of "Heist."" <ref name=blair1972 /> "His goal is to base the financial headquarters of his company in Houston, and he’s getting a start on that goal by seeking "entirely Texas money" to finance "Heist." "<ref name=blair1972 />

Byars said in the same interview that "His previous documentaries, one made in Denmark on the International Boys Camp and one on sculpture in France, were for theater distribution."<ref name=blair1972 />

It seems clear though that Lyric was in fact producing other movies after "The Genesis Children", and based on their subsequent careers, Mr. Byars had engaged competent craftsmen to do so. The "ballet feature to be filmed in the desert" promised to Swisher, if "in the early planning stages" in August would not have been part of the Russian travelogue being edited in December. Perhaps Lyric was already enough of a going concern to have the next project in planning while finishing the current one.

Just how the ''L.A. Times'' or the police would know of Lyric's plans is unclear, and the reporting may be unreliable. Perhaps only in Los Angeles does one include in an arrest report the suspects' plans for their next movie.

== The scandal ==

Lyric came to an end in late 1973. The ''Los Angeles Times'' article about the arrests was titled "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17: Son of Actress, Heir to Oil Fortune, [[YMCA]] Counselor, Scoutmaster, Schoolteacher Among Those Facing Charges".<ref name=LATimes27Oct>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref>

The "Heir to Oil Fortune" was Lyric's owner, and the "Son of Actress" a Lyric producer. As the policy of the ''Los Angeles Times'' was then to not index criminal justice proceedings, it used to be difficult to determine just what happened to the fourteen accused. Those newspaper archives with full-text indexing are now available online, however. A later story confirms that the first of the accused to go to trial ("YMCA Counselor") was acquitted after a full day of jury deliberation, and that two others had pled guilty. An article in ''The Advocate'' gives the final toll: "Five guilty, four 'no contest,' one acquitted in chicken ring" <ref>[https://uosc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01USC_INST/vafrrm/proquest2268824486 "Five guilty, four 'no contest,' one acquitted in chicken ring"].''The Advocate'', May 22, 1974, Issue 138, p.27.
</ref>
[[Guy Strait]], though among the first two arrested in the case, jumped bail and was never brought to trial on the Los Angeles charges.

While the Meese Commission and the ''Los Angeles Times'' both refer to films of child pornography, the news article says that the accused were charged not with child pornography, but with molesting children. It says "One confiscated film shows the boys playing nude on a beach believed to be near Corpus Christi." Lyric did produce such a film, ''[[Summer Freedom]]'', but a film of "boys playing nude on a beach" was then neither pornography nor illegal in the US.

One source claims that one of the boys was "dangled over a cliff" by policemen until he agreed to name men with whom he had had sex.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050219002356/http://www.paedosexualitaet.de/exp/cliffsrc.html Documenting Abuse of Boys and Families by Los Angeles Police] cites two articles as its source for the claim: Sarff, Doug. "L.A. Jury frees first 'chicken ring' defendant". ''The Advocate'' San Mateo, CA. 16 January 1974 (page 3); and "Cliffhanging Testimony: Jury: Second 'chicken ring' defendant guilty". ''The Advocate'', San Mateo, CA, 30 January 1974 (page 5). There may be a digital copy including the 1974 ''Advocate'' at [http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/record=b24360993~S1 UC Berkeley].</ref> The claim was apparently made in open court. The Lyric producer cited above said that "[T]wo of them were just hustlers the police had dug up — I hardly even knew them. They had worked for Lyric a good little while ago. Even the police didn't push their stories too much, because they were both well into their teens and they admitted they were willing participants."<ref name=campfire />

The Los Angeles scandal was fueled in part by the August 1973 discovery of the murders in Houston, Texas, by [[Dean Corll]] of at least 27 teenagers. The police insinuated to the press that the Lyric scandal might have a connection. Lyric's owner was originally from Texas; another of those arrested in the case was identified by the ''L.A. Times'' as "William Johnson, 55, a Houston photographer".<ref name=LATimes27Oct />

Lloyd Martin, the policeman most responsible for the arrests, constructed a national reputation as the "child abuse policeman". He later fell into discredit. Widespread criticism of him and his methods is easily found on the Internet. Martin's signature sound bite is that child abuse is "worse than homicide." A ''Salon'' article calls him "infamous" and provides a good general discussion of the exaggerations of child pornography foes.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070304095923/http://archive.salon.com/mwt/feature/2000/01/31/kincaid/index1.html Is this child pornography?] Kincaid, James R. ''Salon'', 31 Jan 2000</ref>

== Technical quality of the films ==
[[File:Beaulieu.jpg|thumb|230px|A 16mm Beaulieu such as Guy Strait favored]] [[Harlan "Slim" Pfeiffer]] is said to have filmed the Lyric movies in 16mm, and reduced them to 8mm for distribution. Guy Strait, who handled the distribution end of DOM-LYRIC, recounted in prison his techniques for taking photos and avoiding piracy of his films. “His favorite still camera was a Yashika E, twin-reflex that cost a mere $50 [...] He depended on a Mimiya C-33 for most of his professional still work. [...] He usually filmed 12-minute loops and longer movies with a 16-millimeter Beaulieu, which he considered to be superior to the more expensive German Hasselblad."<ref>Linedecker, Clifford L. 1981. ''Children in Chains''. New York: Everest House. p. 230</ref>
<blockquote>"He protected his reputation for quality work by keeping his films out of bookstores. It was more difficult to protect his work from pirates who purchased the films on his lists and had them duplicated for sales through other outlets. Although it bothered his aesthetic sensibilities and pride in his own work, he learned to lower the reproductive quality of his 8-millimeter film. He considered them still better quality than the competition, but not good enough to withstand the loss of detail and clarity when duplicated again by film pirates."(ibid, p. 233)</blockquote>

== Books, magazines, and films ==

''[[The Genesis Children]]'' was the only feature film Lyric ever released, although at least one other appears to have been ready at the time of the firm's spectacular close. Its other movies were shorts produced in 16mm and reduced to 8mm for distribution. Some of the films are:
* ''[[Danish Boys' Camp]]''. Feature documentary. 1971. Producer: Billy Byars. Editor: Wayne Schotten. There is no indication if this was a 16mm or 35mm production.
* ''[[Swim Party]]'' and ''[[Spring Break]]'' were filmed by Slim Pfeiffer at [[the pool with the cinderblock walls]] at the Lyric studio in Los Angeles.
* ''[[Sandy Hill]]'' may have been filmed in Sandy Hill in east Texas.
* ''[[Summer Freedom]]'' was made at Corpus Christi National Seashore in Texas.
*''[[How to Make Friends]]''
Two other "films" are slideshows assembled from Lyric photographs, and perhaps some others, bear a 1995 copyright claim by "Gulf Coast Productions", and have text cards that refer to Lyric photographer Slim Pfeiffer. They are:
* ''[[Peter and the Desert Riders]]''
* ''[[Boyhood Scrapbook]]''

Lyric produced a number of magazines (two authors, Robin Lloyd and Clifford Linedecker, say 90 magazines were produced, but neither cites his source for the figure) and at least one calendar.
[[Zipper]] Magazine (1971-1973) appears to have been produced by Byars, though without the Lyric imprimatur.

Some of the Lyric magazine titles include:
* ''[[Naked Boyhood Magazine]]''
* ''[[Sun Children]]''
* ''[[Lyric's American Boys]]''
* ''[[Naked Teens]]''
* ''[[Coq d'Or]]''

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:photography]]
[[Category:Newspapers and magazines]]
[[Category:Filmmakers]]

The Genesis Children (film)

2023-12-04T01:19:56Z

Sneeuwbol: /* References */ Link added to After Dark interview in media depository

{{Infobox film
| image = File:The genesis children.jpg
| imagewidth = 200
| yearReleased=1972
|mpaaRating=X
|director=Anthony Aikman
|stars=
Vincent Child Greg Hill [[Peter Glawson]] 
David Johnson Jack Good Butch Burr Max Adams Bubba Collins Mike Good
}}

'''The Genesis Children''' (1972), a film directed by [[Anthony Aikman]] and produced by [[Billy Byars, Jr.]] of [[Lyric International]], features eight of the [[Lyric boys]]. The film takes them on a surreal non-linear journey from an international school in Rome to a beach where they abandon the trappings of civilization, romping nude on the sand. The film marked the entry of Lyric into genuine Hollywood production, as it was a full-length 35mm movie, received an MPAA rating (of X due to the nudity), opened in a legitimate movie theater and played there for a month, and was reviewed in a major newspaper. However, mail-order vendors who later made it available on VHS and DVD suffered police and postal repression and attempts to entrap their customers.

== Legitimate Movie with all the trappings ==

The plot of the film is apparently very much in tune with the 70s mentality, told in a non-linear fashion, with flashbacks and circularity. A group of boys in a boarding school in Rome answer an ad to "perform in a play before God"; a priest takes them to a beach (the Palinuro natural arch and its beach below Salerno)<ref>[https://goo.gl/maps/VRxpYkRHdn93L1zw6 Palinuro Beach on Google Maps]</ref> and abandons them with a crate of food; they run about naked a lot; they crash then burn a Volkswagen minibus in a fit of fury; five dress and go home while three remain naked and stay. The ''Los Angeles Times'' review by Kevin Thomas said, "There's enough earnestness to'' 'The Genesis Children' '' (at the Encore) to allow for the possibility that its makers had something more in mind than an adolescent male nudie. But that is what it becomes by default, so murky is their philosophizing and vague are ..." <ref>Thomas, Kevin. "'The Genesis Children' a Gambol on the Beach". ''Los Angeles Times'', 5 August 1972, p. B5</ref> Filmed in 1970, copyright was registered (for a 91-minute version) on 26 October 1971.<ref name=LOCcard>[https://cdn.loc.gov/service/copyright/hprcatcard/19/71/19/77/GE/NE/RI/-G/EN/EZ/19711977GENERI-GENEZ/CC19711977GENERI-GENEZ.0334.jpg LOC copyright file card]</ref>.

The movie opened on Friday, August 2, 1972 at the Encore Theater at Melrose-Van Ness in Hollywood, where it continued until September 10.<ref>[https://latimes.newspapers.com/search/#query=%22The+Genesis+Children%22&dr_year=1972-1972 L.A. Times search at newspapers.com]</ref> The Encore was "repertory house for old 30s-60s movies and foreign films".<ref>[http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/1129 Encore] on Cinema Treasures</ref> In 1972, the Metropolitan Community Church, founded to minister to homosexuals, was holding Sunday services at the Encore.<ref>[http://foundersmcc.org/about/about-founders-mcc/history-of-mccla-founders-mcc/ MCC] held services at the Encore.</ref> A long interview with Mr. Byars by Violet Helgy Swisher appeared in the September, 1972 issue of ''After Dark'' magazine.<ref name="Swisher">Swisher, Viola Hegyi. "Generating ''The Genesis Children''". ''After Dark'', September 1972, p. 18. Available in the media depository, https://www.boywiki.org/media/File:Generating_Genesis.pdf</ref> The magazine's public was closeted homosexuals.<ref>[https://ctvoice.com/2021/03/15/the-fabulous-70s-decade-of-after-dark-magazine/ Rizzo, Frank], "The Fabulous ’70s Decade of After Dark Magazine", ''Connecticut Voice'', March 15, 2021</ref> An ad in alternate newspaper ''Los Angeles Free Press'' announces, "If beauty offends you, do not, '''do not''', see this film - for here are naked young boys on an Italian beach, searching for '''the real meaning of life'''! Rated X. Now playing!"<ref name=Rubine1972>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.28039998 Advertisement. "The Genesis Children"] ''Los Angeles Free Press'', Volume 9, issue 422, August 18-28, 1972 P.10</ref>

== Controversy ==

The film received an X rating from the MPAA. "''The Genesis Children'' is really a very benign film. It was only the cumulative amount of nudity and the closeup shots of the pelvic area that brought about the X decision. Even the violence of the scene in which the boys attack the bus is well within the R category," said Dr. Aaron Stern, director of MPAA's code and rating administration.<ref name=Swisher />
In the same article, where the subheadline “Director ''(sic)'' Billy Byars, Jr., rankles over the rating of his film”, Byars was quoted as saying, "You know, this is the most incredible thing [...] It's just unbelievable to me that the MPAA would comment to me that this film is dangerous, that it deserves an X. I think the MPAA has been the sole critic of my use of the young boys."<ref name=Swisher /> ''The Los Angeles Times's'' one-sentence summary of the film called it a "harmless allegory featuring naked adolescent romping on an Italian beach."<ref>[https://latimes.newspapers.com/search/#query=%22The+Genesis+Children%22&dr_year=1972-1972 L.A. Times search at newspapers.com]</ref>

However, ''The Genesis Children'' has turned up in both the [[Insider Video Club]] and [[Azov Films Prosecutions]].

== Crew of inexperienced expatriates ==

Sound man John Dulaney describes how he came to work on ''The Genesis Children'',
<blockquote>"In Jan. 1970 my wife and son and I were traveling around Europe and in Rome I saw an ad in THE DAILY AMERICAN (now defunct newspaper in Rome) of a Hollywood film company looking for a sound man for a series of films they were going to do. I met Billy Byars, Jr. and he hired me. We travelled across Europe for 9 months making various films including THE GENESIS CHILDREN. I [...] had a wide variety of duties. [...] I was the sound man for all productions in Europe and also became chief purchasing agent [...] I haven't seen any of them since 1970."<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkJw1fpSzDE YouTube comments] on travel slides</ref></blockquote>
The ''Rome Daily American'' was CIA financed according to Carl Bernstein.<ref>[http://carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php "The CIA and the media"] "... the ''Rome Daily American'', forty percent of which was owned by the CIA until the 1970s. "</ref> Libraries in Rome, Florence and Milan have copies for the year the ad would have run. <ref>[https://opac.sbn.it/opacsbn/opaclib?rpnlabel=+Title+%3D+daily+american+%28words+in+AND%29++AND+Document+type+%3D+Printed+text+%28words+in+OR+%29+&totalResult=48&nentries=1&resultForward=opac%2Ficcu%2Ffull.jsp&select_db=solr_iccu&do_cmd=show_cmd&searchForm=opac%2Ficcu%2Ferror.jsp&rpnquery=%2540attrset%2Bbib-1%2B%2540and%2B%2B%2540attr%2B1%253D4%2B%2540attr%2B4%253D6%2B%2522daily%2Bamerican%2522%2B%2B%2540attr%2B1%253D1001%2B%2540attr%2B4%253D2%2B%2522a%2522&db=solr_iccu&saveparams=false&fname=none&from=1 Rome Daily American] in the central Italian card catalog.</ref>

Mr. Dulaney has had a variety of acting roles since then, and has been a director and producer and now has his own video production company, but has no other credit as a movie sound man, before or since.<ref>[https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2bbc6e953c Delaney] on British Film Institute site.</ref>

A posting based on an interview with director Anthony Aikman describes how he joined the project:
<blockquote>British citizen Anthony Aikman, who had also migrated to Italy, had heard from a friend who worked at the American Embassy that a young American film
crew was in Italy and that the producer was looking for a writer/director to join the crew. Upon meeting Billy Byars, Aikman was told that the script needed work and that they also needed help directing the film. Aikman soon agreed to join the crew and together Byars and Aikman completed the script. <ref name=Bear2009>[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/soc.motss/3Bq0xnS8o4c Usenet Post] by Edward Bear on Genesis Children.</ref></blockquote>
Aikman has no other film directing credits, though he wrote a number of books, some available on his site.<ref>[https://anthonyaikman.frogbox.co.uk/Books.htm Aikman books]</ref>
The film includes one credited adult actor, Vincent Child, who plays multiple roles, which may reflect artistic vision as well as financial economy. His too has no other credits outside ''The Genesis Children''.<ref>[https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba4707cfa Vincent Child] on BFI</ref>
Somewhat more experienced was Bill Dewar, brought from Los Angeles by Byars, credited as cinematographer, and on IMDB as production supervisor. “Bill Dewar was the cameraman and really the only person who had professional experience working on a film. He was described as a hard working man and talented filmographer.” <ref name=Bear2009 />
The film’s crew includes two who went on to long careers in Hollywood, film editor Jeremy Hoenack (see below) who later won an Emmy, and composer Jerry Styner, who had already in 1968 been nominated for a Golden Globe, and who has 75 IMDB credits over a 50-year career.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0836598/ Jerry Styner] on IMDB</ref> Hoenack however entered the project after filming was completed, and nothing indicates Styner participated in the European caravan of the Lyric troupe. Byars appears in the uncredited role of "Military Man with Bicycle" according to IMDB.<ref>https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0136217/characters/nm0125695</ref>

With the professional crew assembled from English-speakers who happened to be at loose ends in Italy, it was time for locations and cast.
<blockquote>After finding a remote coastal location in Salerno, Italy and a home to rent, the Lyric Boys, many of whom by this time were under the legal foster care custody of Billy Byars Jr. , were brought over to Italy from the U.S.A. by Byars's longtime companion and photographer William Johnson. Among the boys was the model and soon to be actor known as "Peter Glawson" and his younger brother known as "Max" and the long time Lyric model known as "Billy Marshall" appearing as "Jack Good". 
Aikmans' first and lasting impression of the boys were that they were ill mannered, illiterate and unintelligent. He remembers it was very difficult to get them to learn even the simplest of lines.<ref name=Bear2009 /></blockquote>
The Palinuro natural arch and its beach are striking locations, but scarcely discovered by Lyric, as the locations had previously appeared in ''Jason and the Argonauts'' (1963)<ref>[https://www.naturalarches.org/movies/index.htm#jason Natural Arches at the Movies]</ref> The movie does have other locations besides the beach. IMDB and BFI lists credits for Rome and Palinuro production managers, and a field manager credit is given to Bill Johnson, presumably William Johnson, although Johnson is missing from the IMDB listing. All three have no other film credits on BFI or IMDB.<ref>[https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b71db582c BFI listing]</ref> The list of those indicted in the 1973 Lyric scandal includes "William Johnson, 55, a Houston photographer."<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref>

== Editing confusion ==

''The Genesis Children'' was edited by at least two teams, and exists or existed in three run times: 91 minutes, 85 in the re-edit, and 84 on DVD.

IMDB says that the film was edited by Jeremy Hoenack and runs 85 minutes, while director Anthony Aikman said he edited the film along with cameraman Bill Dewar. The film's 1971 copyright registration gives the film's run time as 91 minutes, and includes "Credits: Producer, Billy Byars; director, Anthony Aikman; writers, Anthony Aikman & Billy Byars; music, Jerry Styner; photographer & editor, Bill Dewar. © Lyric Films International & Billy Byars".<ref name=LOCcard /> A Usenet post based on an interview with Aikman provides picaresque details:
<blockquote>Aikman and Dewar were sent back to Los Angeles to work on the editing of TGC while Byars, Johnson and the boys reportedly headed to Russia to scout locations for a future film. […] Aikman and Dewar arrived back in Los Angeles where Aikman was sent to stay at the house near Mulholland Drive. Aikman and Dewar worked on editing the film at the Lyric Studios located at The Crossroads of the World business complex in Hollywood. Aikman describes the studio as being in a building designed to look like Mothers Hubbard's shoe. Aikman says that as soon as the editing work had begun, it was discovered that Byars either hadn’t paid the rent for the editing space, or had made the landlord angry, as soon he and Dewar were locked out of the space and the air conditioner was removed. 
The two ended up crawling through a "jimmied" window and working in sweltering heat. 
[...] 
After a few weeks of rest Byars rented a motor home and he and some of the boys reportedly left for Alaska while Dewar and Aikman remained behind to finish the film. At some point, Aikman reports that someone, possibly Jeremy Hoenack, appeared at the Lyric studios saying he was told to take over the editing. Dewar and Aikman were not about to turn over the project at this point and reportedly Dewar became so angry he had a bloody fistfight with the interloper. Dewar and Aikman prevailed but then a "lawyer type" who occupied an office next to their studios attempted to evict them from the premises. Despite all of this Dewar and Aikman finished the film and Aikman returned to Italy never to see Byars again. 
Upon the release of the film Aikman read the reviews and was shocked. He couldn't understand why there was so much criticism about the film being so disjointed and not making any sense. Many years later he was able to obtain a copy of the film and discovered that the film had been re-edited. Jeremy Hoenack was listed as the editor and Aikman believes that this person basically ruined the film under the direction of Byars who was really only interested in displaying the naked boys. Aikman believes the Dewar/Aikman version must still exist somewhere today.<ref name=Bear2009 /></blockquote>

Both IMDB and BFI give a run time of 85 minutes for the film, and give editing credit to Jeremy Hoenack. Hoenack was credited as Assistant Editor in ''[[Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (film)|Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song]]'', which premiered in early 1971 to unprecedented financial success for an independent film. That film includes a 3½ minute simulated sex scene by a 13-year-old boy and was initially rated "X", and also has confusing, non-linear editing. After editing four films, Hoenack specialized in sound, and area where IMDB shows 253 sound credits for him and an Emmy in 1975.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0388507/ Jeremy Hoenack] on IMDB</ref>.

Byars spoke of ''The Genesis Children'' as “this highly personal creation – my creation”, which would support Aikman’s contention that his was the guiding hand. <ref name=Swisher /> Mr. Hoenack may have been chosen to bring ''Sweet Sweetback's'' golden touch to ''Genesis Children'', or his subsequent long career may indicate an ability to work well with others, following the dictates of those holding the purse strings.

In December 1972, Hoenack was editing one of [https://www.boywiki.org/en/Lyric_International#The_next_film Lyric's next, never-released films], "a reel of motorcycle adventures".

Mr. Hoenack, elected to a local school board in Arizona, suffered a failed attempt to recall him in 2022. The recall petition focused on his work on "Sweet Sweetback" and "The Genesis Children". Mr. Hoenack responded,

<blockquote>"Mr. Hoenack has an award winning film career with over 240 film credits with every major studio. He has never worked on a pornographic film or for a company that was producing pornography. Melvin Van Peebles “Sweet Sweet back” was designated by the Library of Congress for preservation as a Culturally Significant Film. “Genesis Children” was described as “benign” by the president of the Motion Picture Rating Association. Hoenack did limited film editing on both films when he was 21 years old, over 50 years ago."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220130024102/https://ballotpedia.org/A._Jeremy_Hoenack_recall,_Litchfield_Elementary_School_District,_Arizona_(2021-2022) Ballotpedia.org] reporting on failed recall petition.</ref></blockquote>

== Personal Vision ==
[[File:Genesisad1.png|right|300 px]]
Billy Byars, Jr., was incensed with the X rating, but disillusioned by lack of public understanding and acceptance. While he complains of yes-men, he assume responsibility for the movie, and doesn’t blame anyone else:
<blockquote>"I discovered that one of the most valuable lessons any newcomer to film making can learn is this: the day of he yes-man is still with us. The people associated with the industry; the people working with producers, patting them on the back and saying, "What a work of art!" are not the same people who buy tickets, sit in the general audience; and make their own independent judgments. 

"The making of a film becomes so personal, yet the mission of that film must be very public," he observed. "It's the man in the street who has final authority over whether this highly personal creation—my creation, in this instance—shall survive in the life-giving climate of public acceptance or die in the killing climate of public rejection." <ref name=Swisher /></blockquote>

The ''After Dark'' interview would have seen print only a few days after the ''Los Angeles Times’'' one-line summary that was perhaps the unkindest of all, dismissing the film as “harmless.”

== VHS and DVD ==

The film was available on VHS and later DVD-R from mail-order vendor [[Insider Video Club]] in Los Angeles.<ref>[https://gepir.gs1.org/index.php/search-by-gtin The GS1 database] informs the barcode 736144000001 on the DVD cover is assigned to Ivb, Inc. one of Insider Video Club's names. The barcode on the VHS cover also starts with Ivb, Inc.'s assigned number 736144.</ref> The DVD sold by Ivb affirms a run time of 84 minutes.

A version of the film enhanced with modern software to 1280 x 720 resolution was uploaded to the Internet in April, 2022, a considerable improvement from the standard VHS resolution of 640 x 480.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
*[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0136217/ IMDB entry]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20190629035529/http://www.anthonyaikman.co.uk/ Director Anthony Aikman]’s site on Wayback Machine

{{Navbox/film}}
[[Category: Drama films]]

The pool with the cinderblock walls

2023-11-17T19:00:34Z

Sneeuwbol: /* The house as real estate */ 2023 for-sale price

'''The pool with the cinderblock walls''' was in the back yard of the house on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles's Hollywood Hills that served from the mid-60s to 1973 as [[Lyric International]]'s studio; as the home of Lyric's owner, [[Billy Byars, Jr.]]; as the residence of some of the [[Lyric Boys]]; and as permanent or temporary temporary housing for Lyric collaborators. The products in Lyric's catalog, including magazines, films and photo sets, feature extensive nudity by the Lyric boys and other boys and young men, and many were shot in the pool and the house. The house "was for a while a haven for adult homosexuals and male teenagers."<ref>{{cite book |title=Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover |last=Summers |first= Anthony |year=2003 |publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons |location=New York|isbn=0-399-13800-5 |page=337}}</ref>

== Spectacular backdrop ==

The house at the summit of the Hollywood Hills has views west and south to Los Angeles and the Pacific and north to the San Fernando Valley. At least two Lyric films, ''[[Swim Party]]'' and ''[[Spring Break]]'', featuring [[Peter Glawson]] and others of the Lyric boys, mostly in the nude, were filmed around the pool with the cinderblock walls. ''Swim Party'' had panoramic shots of the views that made it possible to identify the location.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20190731091154/http://www.angelfire.com/retro2/sneeuwbol/tech.html How the pool was found]</ref> Not only the backyard but the house's interior served as a backdrop for photos. The living room, a "bachelor pad [which] boasts massive oaken beams and other touches of baronial elegance" <ref name=Swisher>Swisher, Viola Hegyi. "Generating ''The Genesis Children''". ''After Dark'', September 1972, p. 18.</ref> appeared in Lyric's magazines with nude boys around its pool table.

The Lyric portfolio did not include pornography, but its offerings were distributed through DOM/Lyric, a collaboration with [[Guy Strait]], who did however produce pornography including child pornography, and lived only a few miles from the Lyric studio.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/947893/guy_strait_arrest_1/ Pair Arraigned in Case Involving Homosexuals]. ''The Van Nuys News''. 7 September 1973, p. 8</ref> There's no indication Strait filmed at home: police claimed a film made in a hotel led them to him in 1973,(needs source) and in his 1976 arrest the appellate court said, "the defendant came to the Holiday Inn in Rockford, Illinois, in March of 1972, to shoot a pornographic movie"<ref>[http://www.leagle.com/decision/197765152IllApp3d599_1557/PEOPLE%20v.%20STRAIT 52 Ill. App.3d 599 (1977) 367 N.E.2d 768]</ref>

The pool with the cinderblock walls which appears in many Lyric shorts changed over time. Early photos show the walls painted white, and a diving board. The diving board was removed, although the base remains, and the walls repainted. In some films the cinderblock walls appear to be black or purplish, but still photos taken at the same time, or perhaps printed from a frame of the 16mm negative, show the walls to be royal blue. "Many older films have taken on a distinct purplish cast, caused by the rapid fading of the cyan and yellow image dyes."<ref>[https://www.filmpreservation.org/preservation-basics/color-dye-fading Color Dye Fading]. National Film Preservation Foundation.</ref> The video files that circulate on the Internet and the DVDs available commercially may have been made from old or deteriorated 8mm films.

== Home to the Lyric Boys ==
In 2006, Anthony Aikman, director of ''The Genesis Children'', told in an interview of traveling to Los Angeles after the end of filming, along with the Lyric boys, the film's adult actor, Vincent Child, Byars and his factotum William Johnson:
<blockquote>This busy house also included Byars's pet snake, which was allowed free roam of the house, and a Beddington Terrier dog.<ref>Likely a Bedlington Terrier, a breed listed by the American Kennel Club. The AKC has no Beddington Terrier.</ref> One of Billy's only rules at the house was that if you wanted to swim in the pool you had to swim naked.
On one occasion, the dog got loose and everyone started to run naked down the road to try to catch it. The group was almost run over by a shocked elderly couple coming around the corner in their car. Aikman claims that the car actually left the pavement and hit a tree, resulting in the fire brigade racing up Mulholland with sirens and bells wailing. The dog can be seen in many Lyric photo shoots and short films shot at the pool location.

Since several of the "Lyric boys" were under legal custody of Byars as foster children, on one occasion the Los Angeles County Department of Child Services notified Byars that they would be coming by the house the next day for an inspection/visitation. Byars and friends quickly went on a shopping trip to buy books, tables and a portable blackboard. By the time the Child Services officials came to inspect the next day, Byars had set up an outdoor classroom complete with Vincent Child, black cape and all, acting as the boys' teacher. Byars received rave reviews by the impressed county officials.<ref name=Bear2009>[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/soc.motss/3Bq0xnS8o4c Usenet Post] by "Edward Bear", who also used "Ballog", on Genesis Children, based on interview with Anthony Aikman.</ref></blockquote>

== Residents and denizens ==
Besides Byars and the Lyric Boys, several other names or pseudonyms appear as living or working at the house.
===William Johnson===
Bill Johnson, presumably William Johnson, is given a field manager credit for ''The Genesis Children''<ref>[https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b71db582cis BFI listing]</ref> The list of those indicted in the 1973 Lyric scandal includes "William Johnson, 55, a Houston photographer."<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref> It's safe to assume that he is a real person, and unless he's 112, deceased.
<blockquote>The Lyric Boys [...] were brought over to Italy from the U.S.A. by Byars's longtime companion and photographer William Johnson.
William "Bill" Johnson was described as an older man who remained in the background and was said by Billy to be his security guard. He has also been described as Byars "henchman" and "hired bully".<ref name=Bear2009 /></blockquote>
===[[Harlan "Slim" Pfeiffer]]===
Pfeiffer is described in Lyric's materials as the photographer responsible for its movies and still photos, including the early films in Texas.(source needed). Possibly his name is an alias. William Johnson was arrested as "a Houston photographer" and could be Pfeiffer's real name.

===Terry Stuart===
Terry Stuart, possibly his real name, is a Lyric Boy who aged out of modeling and into the role of "boy wrangler" at Lyric.

Byars would usually give each issue of the various Lyric magazines a title and a mostly fictitious story line. An issue that featured photos of the Lyric boys swimming at the Mulholland Drive home, naked as usual, claims they were "...visiting Uncle Terry and Uncle Bill..." at their home for a summer swim. (needs source) ONE Archives' Erotic and physique studios photography includes 84 photographic prints from Lyric, which "include the following models: Joey, '''Terry Stuart''', Jim, Damon".<ref>[https://pdf.oac.cdlib.org/pdf/calaong/2014-051_erotic_photos.pdf#page=46 Catalog Finding Aid]
ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California</ref>

The name Terry Stuart was used in a number of publications:

One of the earliest appearances of Billy Byars' Lyric Studios upon the gay "physique magazine" scene in California appeared in the magazine ''Muscle Teens'', Volume 1 #1, Oct 1965 published by Y.P. Productions. This issue featured photographs of various nude teen males including the soon to be famous 15 year old "Terry Stuart".<ref>[http://www.timinvermont.com/vintage/mags1.html Current Magazine Listing] Tim in Vermont still lists the issue, described not as nude but "posing strap"</ref>

One Lyric short was reportedly titled ''[[Uncle Terry's Pool]]''. Usenet posts mention Terry Stuart as sharing Mr. Byars's house; as a former physique model; as the owner of the house with the pool with the cinderblock walls; as being Peter Glawson's uncle; as the person Mr. Glawson lived with; or as all of the above.

One 2001 Usenet post says,
<blockquote>"I think that I am clear about Terry; he was Billy's first and always tried to look the biz. He had a thing about clean money and used to wash it and dry it in a big rotary dryer in the studio. Once someone saw all the money coming out and called the Feds 'cos they thought he was printing it! He was always running around with a briefcase; I'd forgotten all this." <ref>[http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.prettyboy/msg/eb4d67d8f2e168fe A Peter Glawson Question]</ref></blockquote>

A January 1999 Usenet post describes the cover of an issue of Lyric’s “[[Naked Boyhood]]” magazine, probably Vol 1, #2, as showing “young Peter [Glawson] on the Gulf Coast of Texas with his Uncle Terry (middle) and an unknown adult friend.”

There is no "Terry" nor any "Stuart" on the list of those arrested in the 1973 scandal, nor does either name appear in the extensive credits of ''The Genesis Children''. Three of the others accused with Mr. Byars in the 1973 case were also said to be from Hollywood. All three are roughly ten years younger than Byars. At least one of them was acquitted at trial in 1973. All are possible candidates for Terry, but Terry could well be someone else.

The manager of Billy Byars, Sr.'s Royal Oaks Farm was named Stuart, and Terry might have been some relation.<ref>"Byars-Dayson Angus Sale Set Wednesday", ''Tyler Courier-Times'' (Tyler, Texas) 02 Oct 1955, Page 14. Includes a photo of "Tommie E. Stuart, Byars's farm manager"</ref> The Social Security Birth Database finds several "Terry Stuarts" born in Texas within five years of 1950; a Tyler high school yearbook has a Tommy Stuart of about the right age.

== Varied houseguests ==
When Anthony Aikman, director of ''The Genesis Children'', came to Los Angeles to edit the film, he stayed at the house on Mulholland Drive. Aikman found a strange man named Teeterman there. Teeterman slept in a coffin in the lower level of the house and had a job at the Hollywood Wax Museum where he dressed up in a costume and played the Mechanical Man while standing outside the museum to attract customers. Teeterman once showed Aikman an old 8mm film of himself, dressed in a vampire's costume, and Billy Byars trolling through a cemetery late at night. The cemetery was supposedly located out in the Midwest.<ref name=Bear2009 />

Vincent Child, the adult actor in ''The Genesis Children'', stayed at the house for a while on completion of the film.<ref name=Bear2009 />

== The house today ==

The house today and several of its neighbors make up "The Hills Treatment Center", listed in ''Psychology Today'' as a place which "offers a fantastic educational and therapeutic drug and alcohol rehabilitation experience."<ref>[https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/treatment-rehab/the-hills-treatment-luxury-addiction-center-los-angeles-ca/469051 The Hills treatment center] on Psychology Today website.</ref> Previously it was Wonderland Treatment Center.<ref>[http://www.rehabcosts.org/center/ca_90046_wonderland-treatment-center Wonderland listing]</ref> The "massive oaken beams" have been painted an inoffensive white, the pool deck has been tiled, and other indignities have been inflicted on the architect's work.

== The house as real estate ==
The house is in Los Angeles, California in the Hollywood Hills between Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley. More specifically, it is at 8181 and 8207 Mulholland Drive just west of Laurel Canyon Boulevard. The place is latitude 34°7'21.85" N (34.122736), longitude 118°22'37.35" W (-118.377042).

Billy Byars, Jr. let people believe he owned the house but he actually rented it from the owner.<ref name=Bear2009 />

Zillow.com tracks real estate values on a house-to-house basis, and a decade ago listed the house as a duplex, divided as 8181 and 8207 Mulholland Drive. 8181 is described as two bedrooms, one bath, five rooms total, 767 square feet of construction and 13,070 square feet (0.3 acres) of land. 8207 is four bedrooms, three baths, 2,624 square feet, on 19,600 sq ft (0.45 acres) of land. The total would be 3,391 square feet, with six bedrooms and four baths, on a three-quarter acre lot. In January, 2020, Zillow does not show 8181 and lists 8207 as being 2 bedrooms, 2 baths and 1,857 sq ft, which is inconsistent with aerial photographs which show no substantial change in the house's footprint, though outbuildings have been added. <ref name="zillow">[https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/8207-Mulholland-Dr-Los-Angeles-CA-90046/20031982_zpid/ 8207 Mulholland Drive] on Zillow</ref>The house was built in 1961.<ref>[https://portal.assessor.lacounty.gov/parceldetail/2381030009 8207 Mulholland Drive] listing at Los Angeles Count Assessor's Office</ref>

As of November, 2023 the house is listed for sale on Zillow as part of an "extremely rare, 3.4-acre assemblage of nine legal lots" at a price of $17.9 million. Zillow says the taxes increased from $381 in 2021 to $30,809 in 2022.<ref name=zillow />

At present, the house bordering the property on the west is the residence of actor
Joaquim Phoenix.<ref>[https://sanfernandovalleyblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/celeb-re-joaquin-phoenix-buys-house.html Celeb RE in San Fernando Valley real estate blog] The article indicate the Phoenix house no long shares the long driveway to Mulholland Drive, but is accessed from Mulholland Terrace.</ref>

==Related places==

Lyric's activities were not confined to the pool with the cinderblock walls. When arrested in the 1973 scandal, Lyric partner and pornographer Guy Strait lived 2.4 miles away by road, at 7718 Skyhill Drive, Studio City. That is currently assessed as having 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, and 2,786 sq ft, and having been built in 1960 but having an "effective year" of 1965, which suggests it may have been expanded since Guy Strait lived there.<ref>[https://portal.assessor.lacounty.gov/parceldetail/2380004006 7718 Skyhill Drive] listing at Los Angeles Count Assessor's Office</ref>
Lyric had an office at the Crossroads of the World complex in Hollywood, 4.2 miles away down Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard. The [[Gold Cup]], famed "chicken" hangout, was only 3.2 miles away, down Laurel Canyon and Hollywood Boulevard. From Strait's house to the Gold Cup is only 3.9 miles straight down US 101. In December of 1972, Lyric was renting editing space at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios, then at the corner of Formosa Ave. and Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, 4.1 miles away.<ref name="Rubine1972">[https://voices.revealdigital.org/?a=d&d=BGJFHJH19721208.1.10 Rubine, Naomi. "The bomb at Goldwyn Studios"] ''Los Angeles Free Press'', Volume 9, issue 438, Dec 8-18, 1972. P.10</ref>

==External links==

*[https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=a17cecfc-791a-4128-97bd-67bdb85b070e&cp=34.122899~-118.37717&lvl=21.05764&style=g&pi=0&v=2&sV=2&form=S00027 Bird's eye view] on Microsoft Bing Maps
*[https://maps.google.com/maps?q=34+07'21.85%22+N,+118+22'37.35%22W&spn=0.003738,0.010274&t=k&iwloc=A&hl=en Aerial photograph] on Google Maps
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20190731091155/https://www.angelfire.com/retro2/sneeuwbol/ 3D reconstruction] by [[User:Sneeuwbol|Sneeuwbol]] Adobe Atmosphere software is long unsupported.
*[https://portal.assessor.lacounty.gov/parceldetail/2381030009 8207 Mulholland Drive] listing at Los Angeles Count Assessor's Office
*[http://mil.library.ucsb.edu/ap_images/tg-2755/tg-2755_23-15.tif 1971 aerial photo (28.1 MB)] at UC Santa Barbara Library. Flight TG_2755, Frame 23-15. nb: North is to the left, not the top.

==References==

[[Category:History]]

<references />

The pool with the cinderblock walls

2023-11-17T18:58:19Z

Sneeuwbol: /* The house as real estate */

'''The pool with the cinderblock walls''' was in the back yard of the house on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles's Hollywood Hills that served from the mid-60s to 1973 as [[Lyric International]]'s studio; as the home of Lyric's owner, [[Billy Byars, Jr.]]; as the residence of some of the [[Lyric Boys]]; and as permanent or temporary temporary housing for Lyric collaborators. The products in Lyric's catalog, including magazines, films and photo sets, feature extensive nudity by the Lyric boys and other boys and young men, and many were shot in the pool and the house. The house "was for a while a haven for adult homosexuals and male teenagers."<ref>{{cite book |title=Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover |last=Summers |first= Anthony |year=2003 |publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons |location=New York|isbn=0-399-13800-5 |page=337}}</ref>

== Spectacular backdrop ==

The house at the summit of the Hollywood Hills has views west and south to Los Angeles and the Pacific and north to the San Fernando Valley. At least two Lyric films, ''[[Swim Party]]'' and ''[[Spring Break]]'', featuring [[Peter Glawson]] and others of the Lyric boys, mostly in the nude, were filmed around the pool with the cinderblock walls. ''Swim Party'' had panoramic shots of the views that made it possible to identify the location.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20190731091154/http://www.angelfire.com/retro2/sneeuwbol/tech.html How the pool was found]</ref> Not only the backyard but the house's interior served as a backdrop for photos. The living room, a "bachelor pad [which] boasts massive oaken beams and other touches of baronial elegance" <ref name=Swisher>Swisher, Viola Hegyi. "Generating ''The Genesis Children''". ''After Dark'', September 1972, p. 18.</ref> appeared in Lyric's magazines with nude boys around its pool table.

The Lyric portfolio did not include pornography, but its offerings were distributed through DOM/Lyric, a collaboration with [[Guy Strait]], who did however produce pornography including child pornography, and lived only a few miles from the Lyric studio.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/947893/guy_strait_arrest_1/ Pair Arraigned in Case Involving Homosexuals]. ''The Van Nuys News''. 7 September 1973, p. 8</ref> There's no indication Strait filmed at home: police claimed a film made in a hotel led them to him in 1973,(needs source) and in his 1976 arrest the appellate court said, "the defendant came to the Holiday Inn in Rockford, Illinois, in March of 1972, to shoot a pornographic movie"<ref>[http://www.leagle.com/decision/197765152IllApp3d599_1557/PEOPLE%20v.%20STRAIT 52 Ill. App.3d 599 (1977) 367 N.E.2d 768]</ref>

The pool with the cinderblock walls which appears in many Lyric shorts changed over time. Early photos show the walls painted white, and a diving board. The diving board was removed, although the base remains, and the walls repainted. In some films the cinderblock walls appear to be black or purplish, but still photos taken at the same time, or perhaps printed from a frame of the 16mm negative, show the walls to be royal blue. "Many older films have taken on a distinct purplish cast, caused by the rapid fading of the cyan and yellow image dyes."<ref>[https://www.filmpreservation.org/preservation-basics/color-dye-fading Color Dye Fading]. National Film Preservation Foundation.</ref> The video files that circulate on the Internet and the DVDs available commercially may have been made from old or deteriorated 8mm films.

== Home to the Lyric Boys ==
In 2006, Anthony Aikman, director of ''The Genesis Children'', told in an interview of traveling to Los Angeles after the end of filming, along with the Lyric boys, the film's adult actor, Vincent Child, Byars and his factotum William Johnson:
<blockquote>This busy house also included Byars's pet snake, which was allowed free roam of the house, and a Beddington Terrier dog.<ref>Likely a Bedlington Terrier, a breed listed by the American Kennel Club. The AKC has no Beddington Terrier.</ref> One of Billy's only rules at the house was that if you wanted to swim in the pool you had to swim naked.
On one occasion, the dog got loose and everyone started to run naked down the road to try to catch it. The group was almost run over by a shocked elderly couple coming around the corner in their car. Aikman claims that the car actually left the pavement and hit a tree, resulting in the fire brigade racing up Mulholland with sirens and bells wailing. The dog can be seen in many Lyric photo shoots and short films shot at the pool location.

Since several of the "Lyric boys" were under legal custody of Byars as foster children, on one occasion the Los Angeles County Department of Child Services notified Byars that they would be coming by the house the next day for an inspection/visitation. Byars and friends quickly went on a shopping trip to buy books, tables and a portable blackboard. By the time the Child Services officials came to inspect the next day, Byars had set up an outdoor classroom complete with Vincent Child, black cape and all, acting as the boys' teacher. Byars received rave reviews by the impressed county officials.<ref name=Bear2009>[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/soc.motss/3Bq0xnS8o4c Usenet Post] by "Edward Bear", who also used "Ballog", on Genesis Children, based on interview with Anthony Aikman.</ref></blockquote>

== Residents and denizens ==
Besides Byars and the Lyric Boys, several other names or pseudonyms appear as living or working at the house.
===William Johnson===
Bill Johnson, presumably William Johnson, is given a field manager credit for ''The Genesis Children''<ref>[https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b71db582cis BFI listing]</ref> The list of those indicted in the 1973 Lyric scandal includes "William Johnson, 55, a Houston photographer."<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref> It's safe to assume that he is a real person, and unless he's 112, deceased.
<blockquote>The Lyric Boys [...] were brought over to Italy from the U.S.A. by Byars's longtime companion and photographer William Johnson.
William "Bill" Johnson was described as an older man who remained in the background and was said by Billy to be his security guard. He has also been described as Byars "henchman" and "hired bully".<ref name=Bear2009 /></blockquote>
===[[Harlan "Slim" Pfeiffer]]===
Pfeiffer is described in Lyric's materials as the photographer responsible for its movies and still photos, including the early films in Texas.(source needed). Possibly his name is an alias. William Johnson was arrested as "a Houston photographer" and could be Pfeiffer's real name.

===Terry Stuart===
Terry Stuart, possibly his real name, is a Lyric Boy who aged out of modeling and into the role of "boy wrangler" at Lyric.

Byars would usually give each issue of the various Lyric magazines a title and a mostly fictitious story line. An issue that featured photos of the Lyric boys swimming at the Mulholland Drive home, naked as usual, claims they were "...visiting Uncle Terry and Uncle Bill..." at their home for a summer swim. (needs source) ONE Archives' Erotic and physique studios photography includes 84 photographic prints from Lyric, which "include the following models: Joey, '''Terry Stuart''', Jim, Damon".<ref>[https://pdf.oac.cdlib.org/pdf/calaong/2014-051_erotic_photos.pdf#page=46 Catalog Finding Aid]
ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California</ref>

The name Terry Stuart was used in a number of publications:

One of the earliest appearances of Billy Byars' Lyric Studios upon the gay "physique magazine" scene in California appeared in the magazine ''Muscle Teens'', Volume 1 #1, Oct 1965 published by Y.P. Productions. This issue featured photographs of various nude teen males including the soon to be famous 15 year old "Terry Stuart".<ref>[http://www.timinvermont.com/vintage/mags1.html Current Magazine Listing] Tim in Vermont still lists the issue, described not as nude but "posing strap"</ref>

One Lyric short was reportedly titled ''[[Uncle Terry's Pool]]''. Usenet posts mention Terry Stuart as sharing Mr. Byars's house; as a former physique model; as the owner of the house with the pool with the cinderblock walls; as being Peter Glawson's uncle; as the person Mr. Glawson lived with; or as all of the above.

One 2001 Usenet post says,
<blockquote>"I think that I am clear about Terry; he was Billy's first and always tried to look the biz. He had a thing about clean money and used to wash it and dry it in a big rotary dryer in the studio. Once someone saw all the money coming out and called the Feds 'cos they thought he was printing it! He was always running around with a briefcase; I'd forgotten all this." <ref>[http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.prettyboy/msg/eb4d67d8f2e168fe A Peter Glawson Question]</ref></blockquote>

A January 1999 Usenet post describes the cover of an issue of Lyric’s “[[Naked Boyhood]]” magazine, probably Vol 1, #2, as showing “young Peter [Glawson] on the Gulf Coast of Texas with his Uncle Terry (middle) and an unknown adult friend.”

There is no "Terry" nor any "Stuart" on the list of those arrested in the 1973 scandal, nor does either name appear in the extensive credits of ''The Genesis Children''. Three of the others accused with Mr. Byars in the 1973 case were also said to be from Hollywood. All three are roughly ten years younger than Byars. At least one of them was acquitted at trial in 1973. All are possible candidates for Terry, but Terry could well be someone else.

The manager of Billy Byars, Sr.'s Royal Oaks Farm was named Stuart, and Terry might have been some relation.<ref>"Byars-Dayson Angus Sale Set Wednesday", ''Tyler Courier-Times'' (Tyler, Texas) 02 Oct 1955, Page 14. Includes a photo of "Tommie E. Stuart, Byars's farm manager"</ref> The Social Security Birth Database finds several "Terry Stuarts" born in Texas within five years of 1950; a Tyler high school yearbook has a Tommy Stuart of about the right age.

== Varied houseguests ==
When Anthony Aikman, director of ''The Genesis Children'', came to Los Angeles to edit the film, he stayed at the house on Mulholland Drive. Aikman found a strange man named Teeterman there. Teeterman slept in a coffin in the lower level of the house and had a job at the Hollywood Wax Museum where he dressed up in a costume and played the Mechanical Man while standing outside the museum to attract customers. Teeterman once showed Aikman an old 8mm film of himself, dressed in a vampire's costume, and Billy Byars trolling through a cemetery late at night. The cemetery was supposedly located out in the Midwest.<ref name=Bear2009 />

Vincent Child, the adult actor in ''The Genesis Children'', stayed at the house for a while on completion of the film.<ref name=Bear2009 />

== The house today ==

The house today and several of its neighbors make up "The Hills Treatment Center", listed in ''Psychology Today'' as a place which "offers a fantastic educational and therapeutic drug and alcohol rehabilitation experience."<ref>[https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/treatment-rehab/the-hills-treatment-luxury-addiction-center-los-angeles-ca/469051 The Hills treatment center] on Psychology Today website.</ref> Previously it was Wonderland Treatment Center.<ref>[http://www.rehabcosts.org/center/ca_90046_wonderland-treatment-center Wonderland listing]</ref> The "massive oaken beams" have been painted an inoffensive white, the pool deck has been tiled, and other indignities have been inflicted on the architect's work.

== The house as real estate ==
The house is in Los Angeles, California in the Hollywood Hills between Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley. More specifically, it is at 8181 and 8207 Mulholland Drive just west of Laurel Canyon Boulevard. The place is latitude 34°7'21.85" N (34.122736), longitude 118°22'37.35" W (-118.377042).

Billy Byars, Jr. let people believe he owned the house but he actually rented it from the owner.<ref name=Bear2009 />

Zillow.com tracks real estate values on a house-to-house basis, and a decade ago listed the house as a duplex, divided as 8181 and 8207 Mulholland Drive. 8181 is described as two bedrooms, one bath, five rooms total, 767 square feet of construction and 13,070 square feet (0.3 acres) of land. 8207 is four bedrooms, three baths, 2,624 square feet, on 19,600 sq ft (0.45 acres) of land. The total would be 3,391 square feet, with six bedrooms and four baths, on a three-quarter acre lot. In January, 2020, Zillow does not show 8181 and lists 8207 as being 2 bedrooms, 2 baths and 1,857 sq ft, which is inconsistent with aerial photographs which show no substantial change in the house's footprint, though outbuildings have been added.<ref name="zillow">[https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/8207-Mulholland-Dr-Los-Angeles-CA-90046/20031982_zpid/ 8207 Mulholland Drive] on Zillow</ref>The house was built in 1961.<ref>[https://portal.assessor.lacounty.gov/parceldetail/2381030009 8207 Mulholland Drive] listing at Los Angeles Count Assessor's Office</ref>

As of November, 2023 the house is listed for sale on Zillow as part of an "extremely rare, 3.4-acre assemblage of nine legal lots" at a price of $17.9 million. Zillow says the taxes increased from $381 in 2021 to $30,809 in 2022.<ref name="zillow">

At present, the house bordering the property on the west is the residence of actor
Joaquim Phoenix.<ref>[https://sanfernandovalleyblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/celeb-re-joaquin-phoenix-buys-house.html Celeb RE in San Fernando Valley real estate blog] The article indicate the Phoenix house no long shares the long driveway to Mulholland Drive, but is accessed from Mulholland Terrace.</ref>

==Related places==

Lyric's activities were not confined to the pool with the cinderblock walls. When arrested in the 1973 scandal, Lyric partner and pornographer Guy Strait lived 2.4 miles away by road, at 7718 Skyhill Drive, Studio City. That is currently assessed as having 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, and 2,786 sq ft, and having been built in 1960 but having an "effective year" of 1965, which suggests it may have been expanded since Guy Strait lived there.<ref>[https://portal.assessor.lacounty.gov/parceldetail/2380004006 7718 Skyhill Drive] listing at Los Angeles Count Assessor's Office</ref>
Lyric had an office at the Crossroads of the World complex in Hollywood, 4.2 miles away down Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard. The [[Gold Cup]], famed "chicken" hangout, was only 3.2 miles away, down Laurel Canyon and Hollywood Boulevard. From Strait's house to the Gold Cup is only 3.9 miles straight down US 101. In December of 1972, Lyric was renting editing space at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios, then at the corner of Formosa Ave. and Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, 4.1 miles away.<ref name="Rubine1972">[https://voices.revealdigital.org/?a=d&d=BGJFHJH19721208.1.10 Rubine, Naomi. "The bomb at Goldwyn Studios"] ''Los Angeles Free Press'', Volume 9, issue 438, Dec 8-18, 1972. P.10</ref>

==External links==

*[https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=a17cecfc-791a-4128-97bd-67bdb85b070e&cp=34.122899~-118.37717&lvl=21.05764&style=g&pi=0&v=2&sV=2&form=S00027 Bird's eye view] on Microsoft Bing Maps
*[https://maps.google.com/maps?q=34+07'21.85%22+N,+118+22'37.35%22W&spn=0.003738,0.010274&t=k&iwloc=A&hl=en Aerial photograph] on Google Maps
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20190731091155/https://www.angelfire.com/retro2/sneeuwbol/ 3D reconstruction] by [[User:Sneeuwbol|Sneeuwbol]] Adobe Atmosphere software is long unsupported.
*[https://portal.assessor.lacounty.gov/parceldetail/2381030009 8207 Mulholland Drive] listing at Los Angeles Count Assessor's Office
*[http://mil.library.ucsb.edu/ap_images/tg-2755/tg-2755_23-15.tif 1971 aerial photo (28.1 MB)] at UC Santa Barbara Library. Flight TG_2755, Frame 23-15. nb: North is to the left, not the top.

==References==

[[Category:History]]

<references />

The pool with the cinderblock walls

2023-11-17T18:32:09Z

Sneeuwbol: /* External links */ map link fixed

'''The pool with the cinderblock walls''' was in the back yard of the house on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles's Hollywood Hills that served from the mid-60s to 1973 as [[Lyric International]]'s studio; as the home of Lyric's owner, [[Billy Byars, Jr.]]; as the residence of some of the [[Lyric Boys]]; and as permanent or temporary temporary housing for Lyric collaborators. The products in Lyric's catalog, including magazines, films and photo sets, feature extensive nudity by the Lyric boys and other boys and young men, and many were shot in the pool and the house. The house "was for a while a haven for adult homosexuals and male teenagers."<ref>{{cite book |title=Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover |last=Summers |first= Anthony |year=2003 |publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons |location=New York|isbn=0-399-13800-5 |page=337}}</ref>

== Spectacular backdrop ==

The house at the summit of the Hollywood Hills has views west and south to Los Angeles and the Pacific and north to the San Fernando Valley. At least two Lyric films, ''[[Swim Party]]'' and ''[[Spring Break]]'', featuring [[Peter Glawson]] and others of the Lyric boys, mostly in the nude, were filmed around the pool with the cinderblock walls. ''Swim Party'' had panoramic shots of the views that made it possible to identify the location.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20190731091154/http://www.angelfire.com/retro2/sneeuwbol/tech.html How the pool was found]</ref> Not only the backyard but the house's interior served as a backdrop for photos. The living room, a "bachelor pad [which] boasts massive oaken beams and other touches of baronial elegance" <ref name=Swisher>Swisher, Viola Hegyi. "Generating ''The Genesis Children''". ''After Dark'', September 1972, p. 18.</ref> appeared in Lyric's magazines with nude boys around its pool table.

The Lyric portfolio did not include pornography, but its offerings were distributed through DOM/Lyric, a collaboration with [[Guy Strait]], who did however produce pornography including child pornography, and lived only a few miles from the Lyric studio.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/947893/guy_strait_arrest_1/ Pair Arraigned in Case Involving Homosexuals]. ''The Van Nuys News''. 7 September 1973, p. 8</ref> There's no indication Strait filmed at home: police claimed a film made in a hotel led them to him in 1973,(needs source) and in his 1976 arrest the appellate court said, "the defendant came to the Holiday Inn in Rockford, Illinois, in March of 1972, to shoot a pornographic movie"<ref>[http://www.leagle.com/decision/197765152IllApp3d599_1557/PEOPLE%20v.%20STRAIT 52 Ill. App.3d 599 (1977) 367 N.E.2d 768]</ref>

The pool with the cinderblock walls which appears in many Lyric shorts changed over time. Early photos show the walls painted white, and a diving board. The diving board was removed, although the base remains, and the walls repainted. In some films the cinderblock walls appear to be black or purplish, but still photos taken at the same time, or perhaps printed from a frame of the 16mm negative, show the walls to be royal blue. "Many older films have taken on a distinct purplish cast, caused by the rapid fading of the cyan and yellow image dyes."<ref>[https://www.filmpreservation.org/preservation-basics/color-dye-fading Color Dye Fading]. National Film Preservation Foundation.</ref> The video files that circulate on the Internet and the DVDs available commercially may have been made from old or deteriorated 8mm films.

== Home to the Lyric Boys ==
In 2006, Anthony Aikman, director of ''The Genesis Children'', told in an interview of traveling to Los Angeles after the end of filming, along with the Lyric boys, the film's adult actor, Vincent Child, Byars and his factotum William Johnson:
<blockquote>This busy house also included Byars's pet snake, which was allowed free roam of the house, and a Beddington Terrier dog.<ref>Likely a Bedlington Terrier, a breed listed by the American Kennel Club. The AKC has no Beddington Terrier.</ref> One of Billy's only rules at the house was that if you wanted to swim in the pool you had to swim naked.
On one occasion, the dog got loose and everyone started to run naked down the road to try to catch it. The group was almost run over by a shocked elderly couple coming around the corner in their car. Aikman claims that the car actually left the pavement and hit a tree, resulting in the fire brigade racing up Mulholland with sirens and bells wailing. The dog can be seen in many Lyric photo shoots and short films shot at the pool location.

Since several of the "Lyric boys" were under legal custody of Byars as foster children, on one occasion the Los Angeles County Department of Child Services notified Byars that they would be coming by the house the next day for an inspection/visitation. Byars and friends quickly went on a shopping trip to buy books, tables and a portable blackboard. By the time the Child Services officials came to inspect the next day, Byars had set up an outdoor classroom complete with Vincent Child, black cape and all, acting as the boys' teacher. Byars received rave reviews by the impressed county officials.<ref name=Bear2009>[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/soc.motss/3Bq0xnS8o4c Usenet Post] by "Edward Bear", who also used "Ballog", on Genesis Children, based on interview with Anthony Aikman.</ref></blockquote>

== Residents and denizens ==
Besides Byars and the Lyric Boys, several other names or pseudonyms appear as living or working at the house.
===William Johnson===
Bill Johnson, presumably William Johnson, is given a field manager credit for ''The Genesis Children''<ref>[https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b71db582cis BFI listing]</ref> The list of those indicted in the 1973 Lyric scandal includes "William Johnson, 55, a Houston photographer."<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref> It's safe to assume that he is a real person, and unless he's 112, deceased.
<blockquote>The Lyric Boys [...] were brought over to Italy from the U.S.A. by Byars's longtime companion and photographer William Johnson.
William "Bill" Johnson was described as an older man who remained in the background and was said by Billy to be his security guard. He has also been described as Byars "henchman" and "hired bully".<ref name=Bear2009 /></blockquote>
===[[Harlan "Slim" Pfeiffer]]===
Pfeiffer is described in Lyric's materials as the photographer responsible for its movies and still photos, including the early films in Texas.(source needed). Possibly his name is an alias. William Johnson was arrested as "a Houston photographer" and could be Pfeiffer's real name.

===Terry Stuart===
Terry Stuart, possibly his real name, is a Lyric Boy who aged out of modeling and into the role of "boy wrangler" at Lyric.

Byars would usually give each issue of the various Lyric magazines a title and a mostly fictitious story line. An issue that featured photos of the Lyric boys swimming at the Mulholland Drive home, naked as usual, claims they were "...visiting Uncle Terry and Uncle Bill..." at their home for a summer swim. (needs source) ONE Archives' Erotic and physique studios photography includes 84 photographic prints from Lyric, which "include the following models: Joey, '''Terry Stuart''', Jim, Damon".<ref>[https://pdf.oac.cdlib.org/pdf/calaong/2014-051_erotic_photos.pdf#page=46 Catalog Finding Aid]
ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California</ref>

The name Terry Stuart was used in a number of publications:

One of the earliest appearances of Billy Byars' Lyric Studios upon the gay "physique magazine" scene in California appeared in the magazine ''Muscle Teens'', Volume 1 #1, Oct 1965 published by Y.P. Productions. This issue featured photographs of various nude teen males including the soon to be famous 15 year old "Terry Stuart".<ref>[http://www.timinvermont.com/vintage/mags1.html Current Magazine Listing] Tim in Vermont still lists the issue, described not as nude but "posing strap"</ref>

One Lyric short was reportedly titled ''[[Uncle Terry's Pool]]''. Usenet posts mention Terry Stuart as sharing Mr. Byars's house; as a former physique model; as the owner of the house with the pool with the cinderblock walls; as being Peter Glawson's uncle; as the person Mr. Glawson lived with; or as all of the above.

One 2001 Usenet post says,
<blockquote>"I think that I am clear about Terry; he was Billy's first and always tried to look the biz. He had a thing about clean money and used to wash it and dry it in a big rotary dryer in the studio. Once someone saw all the money coming out and called the Feds 'cos they thought he was printing it! He was always running around with a briefcase; I'd forgotten all this." <ref>[http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.prettyboy/msg/eb4d67d8f2e168fe A Peter Glawson Question]</ref></blockquote>

A January 1999 Usenet post describes the cover of an issue of Lyric’s “[[Naked Boyhood]]” magazine, probably Vol 1, #2, as showing “young Peter [Glawson] on the Gulf Coast of Texas with his Uncle Terry (middle) and an unknown adult friend.”

There is no "Terry" nor any "Stuart" on the list of those arrested in the 1973 scandal, nor does either name appear in the extensive credits of ''The Genesis Children''. Three of the others accused with Mr. Byars in the 1973 case were also said to be from Hollywood. All three are roughly ten years younger than Byars. At least one of them was acquitted at trial in 1973. All are possible candidates for Terry, but Terry could well be someone else.

The manager of Billy Byars, Sr.'s Royal Oaks Farm was named Stuart, and Terry might have been some relation.<ref>"Byars-Dayson Angus Sale Set Wednesday", ''Tyler Courier-Times'' (Tyler, Texas) 02 Oct 1955, Page 14. Includes a photo of "Tommie E. Stuart, Byars's farm manager"</ref> The Social Security Birth Database finds several "Terry Stuarts" born in Texas within five years of 1950; a Tyler high school yearbook has a Tommy Stuart of about the right age.

== Varied houseguests ==
When Anthony Aikman, director of ''The Genesis Children'', came to Los Angeles to edit the film, he stayed at the house on Mulholland Drive. Aikman found a strange man named Teeterman there. Teeterman slept in a coffin in the lower level of the house and had a job at the Hollywood Wax Museum where he dressed up in a costume and played the Mechanical Man while standing outside the museum to attract customers. Teeterman once showed Aikman an old 8mm film of himself, dressed in a vampire's costume, and Billy Byars trolling through a cemetery late at night. The cemetery was supposedly located out in the Midwest.<ref name=Bear2009 />

Vincent Child, the adult actor in ''The Genesis Children'', stayed at the house for a while on completion of the film.<ref name=Bear2009 />

== The house today ==

The house today and several of its neighbors make up "The Hills Treatment Center", listed in ''Psychology Today'' as a place which "offers a fantastic educational and therapeutic drug and alcohol rehabilitation experience."<ref>[https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/treatment-rehab/the-hills-treatment-luxury-addiction-center-los-angeles-ca/469051 The Hills treatment center] on Psychology Today website.</ref> Previously it was Wonderland Treatment Center.<ref>[http://www.rehabcosts.org/center/ca_90046_wonderland-treatment-center Wonderland listing]</ref> The "massive oaken beams" have been painted an inoffensive white, the pool deck has been tiled, and other indignities have been inflicted on the architect's work.

== The house as real estate ==
The house is in Los Angeles, California in the Hollywood Hills between Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley. More specifically, it is at 8181 and 8207 Mulholland Drive just west of Laurel Canyon Boulevard. The place is latitude 34°7'21.85" N (34.122736), longitude 118°22'37.35" W (-118.377042).

Billy Byars, Jr. let people believe he owned the house but he actually rented it from the owner.<ref name=Bear2009 />

Zillow.com tracks real estate values on a house-to-house basis, and a decade ago listed the house as a duplex, divided as 8181 and 8207 Mulholland Drive. 8181 is described as two bedrooms, one bath, five rooms total, 767 square feet of construction and 13,070 square feet (0.3 acres) of land. 8207 is four bedrooms, three baths, 2,624 square feet, on 19,600 sq ft (0.45 acres) of land. The total would be 3,391 square feet, with six bedrooms and four baths, on a three-quarter acre lot. In January, 2020, Zillow does not show 8181 and lists 8207 as being 2 bedrooms, 2 baths and 1,857 sq ft, which is inconsistent with aerial photographs which show no substantial change in the house's footprint, though outbuildings have been added.<ref>[https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/8207-Mulholland-Dr-Los-Angeles-CA-90046/20031982_zpid/ 8207 Mulholland Drive] on Zillow</ref>The house was built in 1961.<ref>[https://portal.assessor.lacounty.gov/parceldetail/2381030009 8207 Mulholland Drive] listing at Los Angeles Count Assessor's Office</ref>

At present, the house bordering the property o the west is the residence of actor
Joaquim Phoenix.<ref>[https://sanfernandovalleyblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/celeb-re-joaquin-phoenix-buys-house.html Celeb RE in San Fernando Valley real estate blog] The article indicate the Phoenix house no long shares the long driveway to Mulholland Drive, but is accessed from Mulholland Terrace.</ref>

== Related places ==

Lyric's activities were not confined to the pool with the cinderblock walls. When arrested in the 1973 scandal, Lyric partner and pornographer Guy Strait lived 2.4 miles away by road, at 7718 Skyhill Drive, Studio City. That is currently assessed as having 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, and 2,786 sq ft, and having been built in 1960 but having an "effective year" of 1965, which suggests it may have been expanded since Guy Strait lived there.<ref>[https://portal.assessor.lacounty.gov/parceldetail/2380004006 7718 Skyhill Drive] listing at Los Angeles Count Assessor's Office</ref>
Lyric had an office at the Crossroads of the World complex in Hollywood, 4.2 miles away down Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard. The [[Gold Cup]], famed "chicken" hangout, was only 3.2 miles away, down Laurel Canyon and Hollywood Boulevard. From Strait's house to the Gold Cup is only 3.9 miles straight down US 101. In December of 1972, Lyric was renting editing space at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios, then at the corner of Formosa Ave. and Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, 4.1 miles away.<ref name=Rubine1972>[https://voices.revealdigital.org/?a=d&d=BGJFHJH19721208.1.10 Rubine, Naomi. "The bomb at Goldwyn Studios"] ''Los Angeles Free Press'', Volume 9, issue 438, Dec 8-18, 1972. P.10</ref>

== External links ==

* [https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=a17cecfc-791a-4128-97bd-67bdb85b070e&cp=34.122899~-118.37717&lvl=21.05764&style=g&pi=0&v=2&sV=2&form=S00027 Bird's eye view] on Microsoft Bing Maps
* [https://maps.google.com/maps?q=34+07'21.85%22+N,+118+22'37.35%22W&spn=0.003738,0.010274&t=k&iwloc=A&hl=en Aerial photograph] on Google Maps
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20190731091155/https://www.angelfire.com/retro2/sneeuwbol/ 3D reconstruction] by [[User:Sneeuwbol|Sneeuwbol]] Adobe Atmosphere software is long unsupported.
* [https://portal.assessor.lacounty.gov/parceldetail/2381030009 8207 Mulholland Drive] listing at Los Angeles Count Assessor's Office
* [http://mil.library.ucsb.edu/ap_images/tg-2755/tg-2755_23-15.tif 1971 aerial photo (28.1 MB)] at UC Santa Barbara Library. Flight TG_2755, Frame 23-15. nb: North is to the left, not the top.

== References ==

[[Category:History]]

The pool with the cinderblock walls

2023-11-17T18:09:54Z

Sneeuwbol: /* External links */ Fixed dead link

'''The pool with the cinderblock walls''' was in the back yard of the house on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles's Hollywood Hills that served from the mid-60s to 1973 as [[Lyric International]]'s studio; as the home of Lyric's owner, [[Billy Byars, Jr.]]; as the residence of some of the [[Lyric Boys]]; and as permanent or temporary temporary housing for Lyric collaborators. The products in Lyric's catalog, including magazines, films and photo sets, feature extensive nudity by the Lyric boys and other boys and young men, and many were shot in the pool and the house. The house "was for a while a haven for adult homosexuals and male teenagers."<ref>{{cite book |title=Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover |last=Summers |first= Anthony |year=2003 |publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons |location=New York|isbn=0-399-13800-5 |page=337}}</ref>

== Spectacular backdrop ==

The house at the summit of the Hollywood Hills has views west and south to Los Angeles and the Pacific and north to the San Fernando Valley. At least two Lyric films, ''[[Swim Party]]'' and ''[[Spring Break]]'', featuring [[Peter Glawson]] and others of the Lyric boys, mostly in the nude, were filmed around the pool with the cinderblock walls. ''Swim Party'' had panoramic shots of the views that made it possible to identify the location.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20190731091154/http://www.angelfire.com/retro2/sneeuwbol/tech.html How the pool was found]</ref> Not only the backyard but the house's interior served as a backdrop for photos. The living room, a "bachelor pad [which] boasts massive oaken beams and other touches of baronial elegance" <ref name=Swisher>Swisher, Viola Hegyi. "Generating ''The Genesis Children''". ''After Dark'', September 1972, p. 18.</ref> appeared in Lyric's magazines with nude boys around its pool table.

The Lyric portfolio did not include pornography, but its offerings were distributed through DOM/Lyric, a collaboration with [[Guy Strait]], who did however produce pornography including child pornography, and lived only a few miles from the Lyric studio.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/947893/guy_strait_arrest_1/ Pair Arraigned in Case Involving Homosexuals]. ''The Van Nuys News''. 7 September 1973, p. 8</ref> There's no indication Strait filmed at home: police claimed a film made in a hotel led them to him in 1973,(needs source) and in his 1976 arrest the appellate court said, "the defendant came to the Holiday Inn in Rockford, Illinois, in March of 1972, to shoot a pornographic movie"<ref>[http://www.leagle.com/decision/197765152IllApp3d599_1557/PEOPLE%20v.%20STRAIT 52 Ill. App.3d 599 (1977) 367 N.E.2d 768]</ref>

The pool with the cinderblock walls which appears in many Lyric shorts changed over time. Early photos show the walls painted white, and a diving board. The diving board was removed, although the base remains, and the walls repainted. In some films the cinderblock walls appear to be black or purplish, but still photos taken at the same time, or perhaps printed from a frame of the 16mm negative, show the walls to be royal blue. "Many older films have taken on a distinct purplish cast, caused by the rapid fading of the cyan and yellow image dyes."<ref>[https://www.filmpreservation.org/preservation-basics/color-dye-fading Color Dye Fading]. National Film Preservation Foundation.</ref> The video files that circulate on the Internet and the DVDs available commercially may have been made from old or deteriorated 8mm films.

== Home to the Lyric Boys ==
In 2006, Anthony Aikman, director of ''The Genesis Children'', told in an interview of traveling to Los Angeles after the end of filming, along with the Lyric boys, the film's adult actor, Vincent Child, Byars and his factotum William Johnson:
<blockquote>This busy house also included Byars's pet snake, which was allowed free roam of the house, and a Beddington Terrier dog.<ref>Likely a Bedlington Terrier, a breed listed by the American Kennel Club. The AKC has no Beddington Terrier.</ref> One of Billy's only rules at the house was that if you wanted to swim in the pool you had to swim naked.
On one occasion, the dog got loose and everyone started to run naked down the road to try to catch it. The group was almost run over by a shocked elderly couple coming around the corner in their car. Aikman claims that the car actually left the pavement and hit a tree, resulting in the fire brigade racing up Mulholland with sirens and bells wailing. The dog can be seen in many Lyric photo shoots and short films shot at the pool location.

Since several of the "Lyric boys" were under legal custody of Byars as foster children, on one occasion the Los Angeles County Department of Child Services notified Byars that they would be coming by the house the next day for an inspection/visitation. Byars and friends quickly went on a shopping trip to buy books, tables and a portable blackboard. By the time the Child Services officials came to inspect the next day, Byars had set up an outdoor classroom complete with Vincent Child, black cape and all, acting as the boys' teacher. Byars received rave reviews by the impressed county officials.<ref name=Bear2009>[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/soc.motss/3Bq0xnS8o4c Usenet Post] by "Edward Bear", who also used "Ballog", on Genesis Children, based on interview with Anthony Aikman.</ref></blockquote>

== Residents and denizens ==
Besides Byars and the Lyric Boys, several other names or pseudonyms appear as living or working at the house.
===William Johnson===
Bill Johnson, presumably William Johnson, is given a field manager credit for ''The Genesis Children''<ref>[https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b71db582cis BFI listing]</ref> The list of those indicted in the 1973 Lyric scandal includes "William Johnson, 55, a Houston photographer."<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref> It's safe to assume that he is a real person, and unless he's 112, deceased.
<blockquote>The Lyric Boys [...] were brought over to Italy from the U.S.A. by Byars's longtime companion and photographer William Johnson.
William "Bill" Johnson was described as an older man who remained in the background and was said by Billy to be his security guard. He has also been described as Byars "henchman" and "hired bully".<ref name=Bear2009 /></blockquote>
===[[Harlan "Slim" Pfeiffer]]===
Pfeiffer is described in Lyric's materials as the photographer responsible for its movies and still photos, including the early films in Texas.(source needed). Possibly his name is an alias. William Johnson was arrested as "a Houston photographer" and could be Pfeiffer's real name.

===Terry Stuart===
Terry Stuart, possibly his real name, is a Lyric Boy who aged out of modeling and into the role of "boy wrangler" at Lyric.

Byars would usually give each issue of the various Lyric magazines a title and a mostly fictitious story line. An issue that featured photos of the Lyric boys swimming at the Mulholland Drive home, naked as usual, claims they were "...visiting Uncle Terry and Uncle Bill..." at their home for a summer swim. (needs source) ONE Archives' Erotic and physique studios photography includes 84 photographic prints from Lyric, which "include the following models: Joey, '''Terry Stuart''', Jim, Damon".<ref>[https://pdf.oac.cdlib.org/pdf/calaong/2014-051_erotic_photos.pdf#page=46 Catalog Finding Aid]
ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California</ref>

The name Terry Stuart was used in a number of publications:

One of the earliest appearances of Billy Byars' Lyric Studios upon the gay "physique magazine" scene in California appeared in the magazine ''Muscle Teens'', Volume 1 #1, Oct 1965 published by Y.P. Productions. This issue featured photographs of various nude teen males including the soon to be famous 15 year old "Terry Stuart".<ref>[http://www.timinvermont.com/vintage/mags1.html Current Magazine Listing] Tim in Vermont still lists the issue, described not as nude but "posing strap"</ref>

One Lyric short was reportedly titled ''[[Uncle Terry's Pool]]''. Usenet posts mention Terry Stuart as sharing Mr. Byars's house; as a former physique model; as the owner of the house with the pool with the cinderblock walls; as being Peter Glawson's uncle; as the person Mr. Glawson lived with; or as all of the above.

One 2001 Usenet post says,
<blockquote>"I think that I am clear about Terry; he was Billy's first and always tried to look the biz. He had a thing about clean money and used to wash it and dry it in a big rotary dryer in the studio. Once someone saw all the money coming out and called the Feds 'cos they thought he was printing it! He was always running around with a briefcase; I'd forgotten all this." <ref>[http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.prettyboy/msg/eb4d67d8f2e168fe A Peter Glawson Question]</ref></blockquote>

A January 1999 Usenet post describes the cover of an issue of Lyric’s “[[Naked Boyhood]]” magazine, probably Vol 1, #2, as showing “young Peter [Glawson] on the Gulf Coast of Texas with his Uncle Terry (middle) and an unknown adult friend.”

There is no "Terry" nor any "Stuart" on the list of those arrested in the 1973 scandal, nor does either name appear in the extensive credits of ''The Genesis Children''. Three of the others accused with Mr. Byars in the 1973 case were also said to be from Hollywood. All three are roughly ten years younger than Byars. At least one of them was acquitted at trial in 1973. All are possible candidates for Terry, but Terry could well be someone else.

The manager of Billy Byars, Sr.'s Royal Oaks Farm was named Stuart, and Terry might have been some relation.<ref>"Byars-Dayson Angus Sale Set Wednesday", ''Tyler Courier-Times'' (Tyler, Texas) 02 Oct 1955, Page 14. Includes a photo of "Tommie E. Stuart, Byars's farm manager"</ref> The Social Security Birth Database finds several "Terry Stuarts" born in Texas within five years of 1950; a Tyler high school yearbook has a Tommy Stuart of about the right age.

== Varied houseguests ==
When Anthony Aikman, director of ''The Genesis Children'', came to Los Angeles to edit the film, he stayed at the house on Mulholland Drive. Aikman found a strange man named Teeterman there. Teeterman slept in a coffin in the lower level of the house and had a job at the Hollywood Wax Museum where he dressed up in a costume and played the Mechanical Man while standing outside the museum to attract customers. Teeterman once showed Aikman an old 8mm film of himself, dressed in a vampire's costume, and Billy Byars trolling through a cemetery late at night. The cemetery was supposedly located out in the Midwest.<ref name=Bear2009 />

Vincent Child, the adult actor in ''The Genesis Children'', stayed at the house for a while on completion of the film.<ref name=Bear2009 />

== The house today ==

The house today and several of its neighbors make up "The Hills Treatment Center", listed in ''Psychology Today'' as a place which "offers a fantastic educational and therapeutic drug and alcohol rehabilitation experience."<ref>[https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/treatment-rehab/the-hills-treatment-luxury-addiction-center-los-angeles-ca/469051 The Hills treatment center] on Psychology Today website.</ref> Previously it was Wonderland Treatment Center.<ref>[http://www.rehabcosts.org/center/ca_90046_wonderland-treatment-center Wonderland listing]</ref> The "massive oaken beams" have been painted an inoffensive white, the pool deck has been tiled, and other indignities have been inflicted on the architect's work.

== The house as real estate ==
The house is in Los Angeles, California in the Hollywood Hills between Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley. More specifically, it is at 8181 and 8207 Mulholland Drive just west of Laurel Canyon Boulevard. The place is latitude 34°7'21.85" N (34.122736), longitude 118°22'37.35" W (-118.377042).

Billy Byars, Jr. let people believe he owned the house but he actually rented it from the owner.<ref name=Bear2009 />

Zillow.com tracks real estate values on a house-to-house basis, and a decade ago listed the house as a duplex, divided as 8181 and 8207 Mulholland Drive. 8181 is described as two bedrooms, one bath, five rooms total, 767 square feet of construction and 13,070 square feet (0.3 acres) of land. 8207 is four bedrooms, three baths, 2,624 square feet, on 19,600 sq ft (0.45 acres) of land. The total would be 3,391 square feet, with six bedrooms and four baths, on a three-quarter acre lot. In January, 2020, Zillow does not show 8181 and lists 8207 as being 2 bedrooms, 2 baths and 1,857 sq ft, which is inconsistent with aerial photographs which show no substantial change in the house's footprint, though outbuildings have been added.<ref>[https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/8207-Mulholland-Dr-Los-Angeles-CA-90046/20031982_zpid/ 8207 Mulholland Drive] on Zillow</ref>The house was built in 1961.<ref>[https://portal.assessor.lacounty.gov/parceldetail/2381030009 8207 Mulholland Drive] listing at Los Angeles Count Assessor's Office</ref>

At present, the house bordering the property o the west is the residence of actor
Joaquim Phoenix.<ref>[https://sanfernandovalleyblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/celeb-re-joaquin-phoenix-buys-house.html Celeb RE in San Fernando Valley real estate blog] The article indicate the Phoenix house no long shares the long driveway to Mulholland Drive, but is accessed from Mulholland Terrace.</ref>

== Related places ==

Lyric's activities were not confined to the pool with the cinderblock walls. When arrested in the 1973 scandal, Lyric partner and pornographer Guy Strait lived 2.4 miles away by road, at 7718 Skyhill Drive, Studio City. That is currently assessed as having 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, and 2,786 sq ft, and having been built in 1960 but having an "effective year" of 1965, which suggests it may have been expanded since Guy Strait lived there.<ref>[https://portal.assessor.lacounty.gov/parceldetail/2380004006 7718 Skyhill Drive] listing at Los Angeles Count Assessor's Office</ref>
Lyric had an office at the Crossroads of the World complex in Hollywood, 4.2 miles away down Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard. The [[Gold Cup]], famed "chicken" hangout, was only 3.2 miles away, down Laurel Canyon and Hollywood Boulevard. From Strait's house to the Gold Cup is only 3.9 miles straight down US 101. In December of 1972, Lyric was renting editing space at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios, then at the corner of Formosa Ave. and Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, 4.1 miles away.<ref name=Rubine1972>[https://voices.revealdigital.org/?a=d&d=BGJFHJH19721208.1.10 Rubine, Naomi. "The bomb at Goldwyn Studios"] ''Los Angeles Free Press'', Volume 9, issue 438, Dec 8-18, 1972. P.10</ref>

== External links ==

* [https://www.bing.com/maps?v=2&cp=34.123866~-118.377138&style=o&lvl=2&scene=3385292&sp=aN.34.123541_-118.376971 Bird's eye view] on Microsoft Bing Maps
* [https://maps.google.com/maps?q=34+07'21.85%22+N,+118+22'37.35%22W&spn=0.003738,0.010274&t=k&iwloc=A&hl=en Aerial photograph] on Google Maps
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20190731091155/https://www.angelfire.com/retro2/sneeuwbol/ 3D reconstruction] by [[User:Sneeuwbol|Sneeuwbol]] Adobe Atmosphere software is long unsupported.
* [https://portal.assessor.lacounty.gov/parceldetail/2381030009 8207 Mulholland Drive] listing at Los Angeles Count Assessor's Office
* [http://mil.library.ucsb.edu/ap_images/tg-2755/tg-2755_23-15.tif 1971 aerial photo (28.1 MB)] at UC Santa Barbara Library. Flight TG_2755, Frame 23-15. nb: North is to the left, not the top.

== References ==

[[Category:History]]

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2022-07-18T18:55:59Z

Sneeuwbol: Add Beach Boy

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The Genesis Children (film)

2022-07-16T21:51:40Z

Sneeuwbol: /* VHS and DVD */ 2022 comments by editor Hoeneck added

{{Infobox film
| image = File:The genesis children.jpg
| imagewidth = 200
| yearReleased=1972
|mpaaRating=X
|director=Anthony Aikman
|stars=
Vincent Child Greg Hill [[Peter Glawson]] 
David Johnson Jack Good Butch Burr Max Adams Bubba Collins Mike Good
}}

'''The Genesis Children''' (1972), a film directed by [[Anthony Aikman]] and produced by [[Billy Byars, Jr.]] of [[Lyric International]], features eight of the [[Lyric boys]]. The film takes them on a surreal non-linear journey from an international school in Rome to a beach where they abandon the trappings of civilization, romping nude on the sand. The film marked the entry of Lyric into genuine Hollywood production, as it was a full-length 35mm movie, received an MPAA rating (of X due to the nudity), opened in a legitimate movie theater and played there for a month, and was reviewed in a major newspaper. However, mail-order vendors who later made it available on VHS and DVD suffered police and postal repression and attempts to entrap their customers.

== Legitimate Movie with all the trappings ==

The plot of the film is apparently very much in tune with the 70s mentality, told in a non-linear fashion, with flashbacks and circularity. A group of boys in a boarding school in Rome answer an ad to "perform in a play before God"; a priest takes them to a beach (the Palinuro natural arch and its beach below Salerno)<ref>[https://goo.gl/maps/VRxpYkRHdn93L1zw6 Palinuro Beach on Google Maps]</ref> and abandons them with a crate of food; they run about naked a lot; they crash then burn a Volkswagen minibus in a fit of fury; five dress and go home while three remain naked and stay. The ''Los Angeles Times'' review by Kevin Thomas said, "There's enough earnestness to'' 'The Genesis Children' '' (at the Encore) to allow for the possibility that its makers had something more in mind than an adolescent male nudie. But that is what it becomes by default, so murky is their philosophizing and vague are ..." <ref>Thomas, Kevin. "'The Genesis Children' a Gambol on the Beach". ''Los Angeles Times'', 5 August 1972, p. B5</ref> Filmed in 1970, copyright was registered (for a 91-minute version) on 26 October 1971.<ref name=LOCcard>[https://cdn.loc.gov/service/copyright/hprcatcard/19/71/19/77/GE/NE/RI/-G/EN/EZ/19711977GENERI-GENEZ/CC19711977GENERI-GENEZ.0334.jpg LOC copyright file card]</ref>.

The movie opened on Friday, August 2, 1972 at the Encore Theater at Melrose-Van Ness in Hollywood, where it continued until September 10.<ref>[https://latimes.newspapers.com/search/#query=%22The+Genesis+Children%22&dr_year=1972-1972 L.A. Times search at newspapers.com]</ref> The Encore was "repertory house for old 30s-60s movies and foreign films".<ref>[http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/1129 Encore] on Cinema Treasures</ref> In 1972, the Metropolitan Community Church, founded to minister to homosexuals, was holding Sunday services at the Encore.<ref>[http://foundersmcc.org/about/about-founders-mcc/history-of-mccla-founders-mcc/ MCC] held services at the Encore.</ref> A long interview with Mr. Byars by Violet Helgy Swisher appeared in the September, 1972 issue of ''After Dark'' magazine.<ref name=Swisher>Swisher, Viola Hegyi. "Generating ''The Genesis Children''". ''After Dark'', September 1972, p. 18.</ref> The magazine's public was closeted homosexuals.<ref>[https://ctvoice.com/2021/03/15/the-fabulous-70s-decade-of-after-dark-magazine/ Rizzo, Frank], "The Fabulous ’70s Decade of After Dark Magazine", ''Connecticut Voice'', March 15, 2021</ref> An ad in alternate newspaper ''Los Angeles Free Press'' announces, "If beauty offends you, do not, '''do not''', see this film - for here are naked young boys on an Italian beach, searching for '''the real meaning of life'''! Rated X. Now playing!"<ref name=Rubine1972>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.28039998 Advertisement. "The Genesis Children"] ''Los Angeles Free Press'', Volume 9, issue 422, August 18-28, 1972 P.10</ref>

== Controversy ==

The film received an X rating from the MPAA. "''The Genesis Children'' is really a very benign film. It was only the cumulative amount of nudity and the closeup shots of the pelvic area that brought about the X decision. Even the violence of the scene in which the boys attack the bus is well within the R category," said Dr. Aaron Stern, director of MPAA's code and rating administration.<ref name=Swisher />
In the same article, where the subheadline “Director ''(sic)'' Billy Byars, Jr., rankles over the rating of his film”, Byars was quoted as saying, "You know, this is the most incredible thing [...] It's just unbelievable to me that the MPAA would comment to me that this film is dangerous, that it deserves an X. I think the MPAA has been the sole critic of my use of the young boys."<ref name=Swisher /> ''The Los Angeles Times's'' one-sentence summary of the film called it a "harmless allegory featuring naked adolescent romping on an Italian beach."<ref>[https://latimes.newspapers.com/search/#query=%22The+Genesis+Children%22&dr_year=1972-1972 L.A. Times search at newspapers.com]</ref>

However, ''The Genesis Children'' has turned up in both the [[Insider Video Club]] and [[Azov Films Prosecutions]].

== Crew of inexperienced expatriates ==

Sound man John Dulaney describes how he came to work on ''The Genesis Children'',
<blockquote>"In Jan. 1970 my wife and son and I were traveling around Europe and in Rome I saw an ad in THE DAILY AMERICAN (now defunct newspaper in Rome) of a Hollywood film company looking for a sound man for a series of films they were going to do. I met Billy Byars, Jr. and he hired me. We travelled across Europe for 9 months making various films including THE GENESIS CHILDREN. I [...] had a wide variety of duties. [...] I was the sound man for all productions in Europe and also became chief purchasing agent [...] I haven't seen any of them since 1970."<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkJw1fpSzDE YouTube comments] on travel slides</ref></blockquote>
The ''Rome Daily American'' was CIA financed according to Carl Bernstein.<ref>[http://carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php "The CIA and the media"] "... the ''Rome Daily American'', forty percent of which was owned by the CIA until the 1970s. "</ref> Libraries in Rome, Florence and Milan have copies for the year the ad would have run. <ref>[https://opac.sbn.it/opacsbn/opaclib?rpnlabel=+Title+%3D+daily+american+%28words+in+AND%29++AND+Document+type+%3D+Printed+text+%28words+in+OR+%29+&totalResult=48&nentries=1&resultForward=opac%2Ficcu%2Ffull.jsp&select_db=solr_iccu&do_cmd=show_cmd&searchForm=opac%2Ficcu%2Ferror.jsp&rpnquery=%2540attrset%2Bbib-1%2B%2540and%2B%2B%2540attr%2B1%253D4%2B%2540attr%2B4%253D6%2B%2522daily%2Bamerican%2522%2B%2B%2540attr%2B1%253D1001%2B%2540attr%2B4%253D2%2B%2522a%2522&db=solr_iccu&saveparams=false&fname=none&from=1 Rome Daily American] in the central Italian card catalog.</ref>

Mr. Dulaney has had a variety of acting roles since then, and has been a director and producer and now has his own video production company, but has no other credit as a movie sound man, before or since.<ref>[https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2bbc6e953c Delaney] on British Film Institute site.</ref>

A posting based on an interview with director Anthony Aikman describes how he joined the project:
<blockquote>British citizen Anthony Aikman, who had also migrated to Italy, had heard from a friend who worked at the American Embassy that a young American film
crew was in Italy and that the producer was looking for a writer/director to join the crew. Upon meeting Billy Byars, Aikman was told that the script needed work and that they also needed help directing the film. Aikman soon agreed to join the crew and together Byars and Aikman completed the script. <ref name=Bear2009>[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/soc.motss/3Bq0xnS8o4c Usenet Post] by Edward Bear on Genesis Children.</ref></blockquote>
Aikman has no other film directing credits, though he wrote a number of books, some available on his site.<ref>[https://anthonyaikman.frogbox.co.uk/Books.htm Aikman books]</ref>
The film includes one credited adult actor, Vincent Child, who plays multiple roles, which may reflect artistic vision as well as financial economy. His too has no other credits outside ''The Genesis Children''.<ref>[https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba4707cfa Vincent Child] on BFI</ref>
Somewhat more experienced was Bill Dewar, brought from Los Angeles by Byars, credited as cinematographer, and on IMDB as production supervisor. “Bill Dewar was the cameraman and really the only person who had professional experience working on a film. He was described as a hard working man and talented filmographer.” <ref name=Bear2009 />
The film’s crew includes two who went on to long careers in Hollywood, film editor Jeremy Hoenack (see below) who later won an Emmy, and composer Jerry Styner, who had already in 1968 been nominated for a Golden Globe, and who has 75 IMDB credits over a 50-year career.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0836598/ Jerry Styner] on IMDB</ref> Hoenack however entered the project after filming was completed, and nothing indicates Styner participated in the European caravan of the Lyric troupe. Byars appears in the uncredited role of "Military Man with Bicycle" according to IMDB.<ref>https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0136217/characters/nm0125695</ref>

With the professional crew assembled from English-speakers who happened to be at loose ends in Italy, it was time for locations and cast.
<blockquote>After finding a remote coastal location in Salerno, Italy and a home to rent, the Lyric Boys, many of whom by this time were under the legal foster care custody of Billy Byars Jr. , were brought over to Italy from the U.S.A. by Byars's longtime companion and photographer William Johnson. Among the boys was the model and soon to be actor known as "Peter Glawson" and his younger brother known as "Max" and the long time Lyric model known as "Billy Marshall" appearing as "Jack Good". 
Aikmans' first and lasting impression of the boys were that they were ill mannered, illiterate and unintelligent. He remembers it was very difficult to get them to learn even the simplest of lines.<ref name=Bear2009 /></blockquote>
The Palinuro natural arch and its beach are striking locations, but scarcely discovered by Lyric, as the locations had previously appeared in ''Jason and the Argonauts'' (1963)<ref>[https://www.naturalarches.org/movies/index.htm#jason Natural Arches at the Movies]</ref> The movie does have other locations besides the beach. IMDB and BFI lists credits for Rome and Palinuro production managers, and a field manager credit is given to Bill Johnson, presumably William Johnson, although Johnson is missing from the IMDB listing. All three have no other film credits on BFI or IMDB.<ref>[https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b71db582c BFI listing]</ref> The list of those indicted in the 1973 Lyric scandal includes "William Johnson, 55, a Houston photographer."<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref>

== Editing confusion ==

''The Genesis Children'' was edited by at least two teams, and exists or existed in three run times: 91 minutes, 85 in the re-edit, and 84 on DVD.

IMDB says that the film was edited by Jeremy Hoenack and runs 85 minutes, while director Anthony Aikman said he edited the film along with cameraman Bill Dewar. The film's 1971 copyright registration gives the film's run time as 91 minutes, and includes "Credits: Producer, Billy Byars; director, Anthony Aikman; writers, Anthony Aikman & Billy Byars; music, Jerry Styner; photographer & editor, Bill Dewar. © Lyric Films International & Billy Byars".<ref name=LOCcard /> A Usenet post based on an interview with Aikman provides picaresque details:
<blockquote>Aikman and Dewar were sent back to Los Angeles to work on the editing of TGC while Byars, Johnson and the boys reportedly headed to Russia to scout locations for a future film. […] Aikman and Dewar arrived back in Los Angeles where Aikman was sent to stay at the house near Mulholland Drive. Aikman and Dewar worked on editing the film at the Lyric Studios located at The Crossroads of the World business complex in Hollywood. Aikman describes the studio as being in a building designed to look like Mothers Hubbard's shoe. Aikman says that as soon as the editing work had begun, it was discovered that Byars either hadn’t paid the rent for the editing space, or had made the landlord angry, as soon he and Dewar were locked out of the space and the air conditioner was removed. 
The two ended up crawling through a "jimmied" window and working in sweltering heat. 
[...] 
After a few weeks of rest Byars rented a motor home and he and some of the boys reportedly left for Alaska while Dewar and Aikman remained behind to finish the film. At some point, Aikman reports that someone, possibly Jeremy Hoenack, appeared at the Lyric studios saying he was told to take over the editing. Dewar and Aikman were not about to turn over the project at this point and reportedly Dewar became so angry he had a bloody fistfight with the interloper. Dewar and Aikman prevailed but then a "lawyer type" who occupied an office next to their studios attempted to evict them from the premises. Despite all of this Dewar and Aikman finished the film and Aikman returned to Italy never to see Byars again. 
Upon the release of the film Aikman read the reviews and was shocked. He couldn't understand why there was so much criticism about the film being so disjointed and not making any sense. Many years later he was able to obtain a copy of the film and discovered that the film had been re-edited. Jeremy Hoenack was listed as the editor and Aikman believes that this person basically ruined the film under the direction of Byars who was really only interested in displaying the naked boys. Aikman believes the Dewar/Aikman version must still exist somewhere today.<ref name=Bear2009 /></blockquote>

Both IMDB and BFI give a run time of 85 minutes for the film, and give editing credit to Jeremy Hoenack. Hoenack was credited as Assistant Editor in ''[[Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (film)|Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song]]'', which premiered in early 1971 to unprecedented financial success for an independent film. That film includes a 3½ minute simulated sex scene by a 13-year-old boy and was initially rated "X", and also has confusing, non-linear editing. After editing four films, Hoenack specialized in sound, and area where IMDB shows 253 sound credits for him and an Emmy in 1975.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0388507/ Jeremy Hoenack] on IMDB</ref>.

Byars spoke of ''The Genesis Children'' as “this highly personal creation – my creation”, which would support Aikman’s contention that his was the guiding hand. <ref name=Swisher /> Mr. Hoenack may have been chosen to bring ''Sweet Sweetback's'' golden touch to ''Genesis Children'', or his subsequent long career may indicate an ability to work well with others, following the dictates of those holding the purse strings.

In December 1972, Hoenack was editing one of [https://www.boywiki.org/en/Lyric_International#The_next_film Lyric's next, never-released films], "a reel of motorcycle adventures".

Mr. Hoenack, elected to a local school board in Arizona, suffered a failed attempt to recall him in 2022. The recall petition focused on his work on "Sweet Sweetback" and "The Genesis Children". Mr. Hoenack responded,

<blockquote>"Mr. Hoenack has an award winning film career with over 240 film credits with every major studio. He has never worked on a pornographic film or for a company that was producing pornography. Melvin Van Peebles “Sweet Sweet back” was designated by the Library of Congress for preservation as a Culturally Significant Film. “Genesis Children” was described as “benign” by the president of the Motion Picture Rating Association. Hoenack did limited film editing on both films when he was 21 years old, over 50 years ago."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220130024102/https://ballotpedia.org/A._Jeremy_Hoenack_recall,_Litchfield_Elementary_School_District,_Arizona_(2021-2022) Ballotpedia.org] reporting on failed recall petition.</ref></blockquote>

== Personal Vision ==
[[File:Genesisad1.png|right|300 px]]
Billy Byars, Jr., was incensed with the X rating, but disillusioned by lack of public understanding and acceptance. While he complains of yes-men, he assume responsibility for the movie, and doesn’t blame anyone else:
<blockquote>"I discovered that one of the most valuable lessons any newcomer to film making can learn is this: the day of he yes-man is still with us. The people associated with the industry; the people working with producers, patting them on the back and saying, "What a work of art!" are not the same people who buy tickets, sit in the general audience; and make their own independent judgments. 

"The making of a film becomes so personal, yet the mission of that film must be very public," he observed. "It's the man in the street who has final authority over whether this highly personal creation—my creation, in this instance—shall survive in the life-giving climate of public acceptance or die in the killing climate of public rejection." <ref name=Swisher /></blockquote>

The ''After Dark'' interview would have seen print only a few days after the ''Los Angeles Times’'' one-line summary that was perhaps the unkindest of all, dismissing the film as “harmless.”

== VHS and DVD ==

The film was available on VHS and later DVD-R from mail-order vendor [[Insider Video Club]] in Los Angeles.<ref>[https://gepir.gs1.org/index.php/search-by-gtin The GS1 database] informs the barcode 736144000001 on the DVD cover is assigned to Ivb, Inc. one of Insider Video Club's names. The barcode on the VHS cover also starts with Ivb, Inc.'s assigned number 736144.</ref> The DVD sold by Ivb affirms a run time of 84 minutes.

A version of the film enhanced with modern software to 1280 x 720 resolution was uploaded to the Internet in April, 2022, a considerable improvement from the standard VHS resolution of 640 x 480.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
*[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0136217/ IMDB entry]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20190629035529/http://www.anthonyaikman.co.uk/ Director Anthony Aikman]’s site on Wayback Machine

{{Navbox/film}}
[[Category: Drama films]]

The Genesis Children (film)

2022-07-15T01:49:38Z

Sneeuwbol: /* Editing confusion */ fix bad ref

{{Infobox film
| image = File:The genesis children.jpg
| imagewidth = 200
| yearReleased=1972
|mpaaRating=X
|director=Anthony Aikman
|stars=
Vincent Child Greg Hill [[Peter Glawson]] 
David Johnson Jack Good Butch Burr Max Adams Bubba Collins Mike Good
}}

'''The Genesis Children''' (1972), a film directed by [[Anthony Aikman]] and produced by [[Billy Byars, Jr.]] of [[Lyric International]], features eight of the [[Lyric boys]]. The film takes them on a surreal non-linear journey from an international school in Rome to a beach where they abandon the trappings of civilization, romping nude on the sand. The film marked the entry of Lyric into genuine Hollywood production, as it was a full-length 35mm movie, received an MPAA rating (of X due to the nudity), opened in a legitimate movie theater and played there for a month, and was reviewed in a major newspaper. However, mail-order vendors who later made it available on VHS and DVD suffered police and postal repression and attempts to entrap their customers.

== Legitimate Movie with all the trappings ==

The plot of the film is apparently very much in tune with the 70s mentality, told in a non-linear fashion, with flashbacks and circularity. A group of boys in a boarding school in Rome answer an ad to "perform in a play before God"; a priest takes them to a beach (the Palinuro natural arch and its beach below Salerno)<ref>[https://goo.gl/maps/VRxpYkRHdn93L1zw6 Palinuro Beach on Google Maps]</ref> and abandons them with a crate of food; they run about naked a lot; they crash then burn a Volkswagen minibus in a fit of fury; five dress and go home while three remain naked and stay. The ''Los Angeles Times'' review by Kevin Thomas said, "There's enough earnestness to'' 'The Genesis Children' '' (at the Encore) to allow for the possibility that its makers had something more in mind than an adolescent male nudie. But that is what it becomes by default, so murky is their philosophizing and vague are ..." <ref>Thomas, Kevin. "'The Genesis Children' a Gambol on the Beach". ''Los Angeles Times'', 5 August 1972, p. B5</ref> Filmed in 1970, copyright was registered (for a 91-minute version) on 26 October 1971.<ref name=LOCcard>[https://cdn.loc.gov/service/copyright/hprcatcard/19/71/19/77/GE/NE/RI/-G/EN/EZ/19711977GENERI-GENEZ/CC19711977GENERI-GENEZ.0334.jpg LOC copyright file card]</ref>.

The movie opened on Friday, August 2, 1972 at the Encore Theater at Melrose-Van Ness in Hollywood, where it continued until September 10.<ref>[https://latimes.newspapers.com/search/#query=%22The+Genesis+Children%22&dr_year=1972-1972 L.A. Times search at newspapers.com]</ref> The Encore was "repertory house for old 30s-60s movies and foreign films".<ref>[http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/1129 Encore] on Cinema Treasures</ref> In 1972, the Metropolitan Community Church, founded to minister to homosexuals, was holding Sunday services at the Encore.<ref>[http://foundersmcc.org/about/about-founders-mcc/history-of-mccla-founders-mcc/ MCC] held services at the Encore.</ref> A long interview with Mr. Byars by Violet Helgy Swisher appeared in the September, 1972 issue of ''After Dark'' magazine.<ref name=Swisher>Swisher, Viola Hegyi. "Generating ''The Genesis Children''". ''After Dark'', September 1972, p. 18.</ref> The magazine's public was closeted homosexuals.<ref>[https://ctvoice.com/2021/03/15/the-fabulous-70s-decade-of-after-dark-magazine/ Rizzo, Frank], "The Fabulous ’70s Decade of After Dark Magazine", ''Connecticut Voice'', March 15, 2021</ref> An ad in alternate newspaper ''Los Angeles Free Press'' announces, "If beauty offends you, do not, '''do not''', see this film - for here are naked young boys on an Italian beach, searching for '''the real meaning of life'''! Rated X. Now playing!"<ref name=Rubine1972>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.28039998 Advertisement. "The Genesis Children"] ''Los Angeles Free Press'', Volume 9, issue 422, August 18-28, 1972 P.10</ref>

== Controversy ==

The film received an X rating from the MPAA. "''The Genesis Children'' is really a very benign film. It was only the cumulative amount of nudity and the closeup shots of the pelvic area that brought about the X decision. Even the violence of the scene in which the boys attack the bus is well within the R category," said Dr. Aaron Stern, director of MPAA's code and rating administration.<ref name=Swisher />
In the same article, where the subheadline “Director ''(sic)'' Billy Byars, Jr., rankles over the rating of his film”, Byars was quoted as saying, "You know, this is the most incredible thing [...] It's just unbelievable to me that the MPAA would comment to me that this film is dangerous, that it deserves an X. I think the MPAA has been the sole critic of my use of the young boys."<ref name=Swisher /> ''The Los Angeles Times's'' one-sentence summary of the film called it a "harmless allegory featuring naked adolescent romping on an Italian beach."<ref>[https://latimes.newspapers.com/search/#query=%22The+Genesis+Children%22&dr_year=1972-1972 L.A. Times search at newspapers.com]</ref>

However, ''The Genesis Children'' has turned up in both the [[Insider Video Club]] and [[Azov Films Prosecutions]].

== Crew of inexperienced expatriates ==

Sound man John Dulaney describes how he came to work on ''The Genesis Children'',
<blockquote>"In Jan. 1970 my wife and son and I were traveling around Europe and in Rome I saw an ad in THE DAILY AMERICAN (now defunct newspaper in Rome) of a Hollywood film company looking for a sound man for a series of films they were going to do. I met Billy Byars, Jr. and he hired me. We travelled across Europe for 9 months making various films including THE GENESIS CHILDREN. I [...] had a wide variety of duties. [...] I was the sound man for all productions in Europe and also became chief purchasing agent [...] I haven't seen any of them since 1970."<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkJw1fpSzDE YouTube comments] on travel slides</ref></blockquote>
The ''Rome Daily American'' was CIA financed according to Carl Bernstein.<ref>[http://carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php "The CIA and the media"] "... the ''Rome Daily American'', forty percent of which was owned by the CIA until the 1970s. "</ref> Libraries in Rome, Florence and Milan have copies for the year the ad would have run. <ref>[https://opac.sbn.it/opacsbn/opaclib?rpnlabel=+Title+%3D+daily+american+%28words+in+AND%29++AND+Document+type+%3D+Printed+text+%28words+in+OR+%29+&totalResult=48&nentries=1&resultForward=opac%2Ficcu%2Ffull.jsp&select_db=solr_iccu&do_cmd=show_cmd&searchForm=opac%2Ficcu%2Ferror.jsp&rpnquery=%2540attrset%2Bbib-1%2B%2540and%2B%2B%2540attr%2B1%253D4%2B%2540attr%2B4%253D6%2B%2522daily%2Bamerican%2522%2B%2B%2540attr%2B1%253D1001%2B%2540attr%2B4%253D2%2B%2522a%2522&db=solr_iccu&saveparams=false&fname=none&from=1 Rome Daily American] in the central Italian card catalog.</ref>

Mr. Dulaney has had a variety of acting roles since then, and has been a director and producer and now has his own video production company, but has no other credit as a movie sound man, before or since.<ref>[https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2bbc6e953c Delaney] on British Film Institute site.</ref>

A posting based on an interview with director Anthony Aikman describes how he joined the project:
<blockquote>British citizen Anthony Aikman, who had also migrated to Italy, had heard from a friend who worked at the American Embassy that a young American film
crew was in Italy and that the producer was looking for a writer/director to join the crew. Upon meeting Billy Byars, Aikman was told that the script needed work and that they also needed help directing the film. Aikman soon agreed to join the crew and together Byars and Aikman completed the script. <ref name=Bear2009>[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/soc.motss/3Bq0xnS8o4c Usenet Post] by Edward Bear on Genesis Children.</ref></blockquote>
Aikman has no other film directing credits, though he wrote a number of books, some available on his site.<ref>[https://anthonyaikman.frogbox.co.uk/Books.htm Aikman books]</ref>
The film includes one credited adult actor, Vincent Child, who plays multiple roles, which may reflect artistic vision as well as financial economy. His too has no other credits outside ''The Genesis Children''.<ref>[https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba4707cfa Vincent Child] on BFI</ref>
Somewhat more experienced was Bill Dewar, brought from Los Angeles by Byars, credited as cinematographer, and on IMDB as production supervisor. “Bill Dewar was the cameraman and really the only person who had professional experience working on a film. He was described as a hard working man and talented filmographer.” <ref name=Bear2009 />
The film’s crew includes two who went on to long careers in Hollywood, film editor Jeremy Hoenack (see below) who later won an Emmy, and composer Jerry Styner, who had already in 1968 been nominated for a Golden Globe, and who has 75 IMDB credits over a 50-year career.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0836598/ Jerry Styner] on IMDB</ref> Hoenack however entered the project after filming was completed, and nothing indicates Styner participated in the European caravan of the Lyric troupe. Byars appears in the uncredited role of "Military Man with Bicycle" according to IMDB.<ref>https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0136217/characters/nm0125695</ref>

With the professional crew assembled from English-speakers who happened to be at loose ends in Italy, it was time for locations and cast.
<blockquote>After finding a remote coastal location in Salerno, Italy and a home to rent, the Lyric Boys, many of whom by this time were under the legal foster care custody of Billy Byars Jr. , were brought over to Italy from the U.S.A. by Byars's longtime companion and photographer William Johnson. Among the boys was the model and soon to be actor known as "Peter Glawson" and his younger brother known as "Max" and the long time Lyric model known as "Billy Marshall" appearing as "Jack Good". 
Aikmans' first and lasting impression of the boys were that they were ill mannered, illiterate and unintelligent. He remembers it was very difficult to get them to learn even the simplest of lines.<ref name=Bear2009 /></blockquote>
The Palinuro natural arch and its beach are striking locations, but scarcely discovered by Lyric, as the locations had previously appeared in ''Jason and the Argonauts'' (1963)<ref>[https://www.naturalarches.org/movies/index.htm#jason Natural Arches at the Movies]</ref> The movie does have other locations besides the beach. IMDB and BFI lists credits for Rome and Palinuro production managers, and a field manager credit is given to Bill Johnson, presumably William Johnson, although Johnson is missing from the IMDB listing. All three have no other film credits on BFI or IMDB.<ref>[https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b71db582c BFI listing]</ref> The list of those indicted in the 1973 Lyric scandal includes "William Johnson, 55, a Houston photographer."<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref>

== Editing confusion ==

''The Genesis Children'' was edited by at least two teams, and exists or existed in three run times: 91 minutes, 85 in the re-edit, and 84 on DVD.

IMDB says that the film was edited by Jeremy Hoenack and runs 85 minutes, while director Anthony Aikman said he edited the film along with cameraman Bill Dewar. The film's 1971 copyright registration gives the film's run time as 91 minutes, and includes "Credits: Producer, Billy Byars; director, Anthony Aikman; writers, Anthony Aikman & Billy Byars; music, Jerry Styner; photographer & editor, Bill Dewar. © Lyric Films International & Billy Byars".<ref name=LOCcard /> A Usenet post based on an interview with Aikman provides picaresque details:
<blockquote>Aikman and Dewar were sent back to Los Angeles to work on the editing of TGC while Byars, Johnson and the boys reportedly headed to Russia to scout locations for a future film. […] Aikman and Dewar arrived back in Los Angeles where Aikman was sent to stay at the house near Mulholland Drive. Aikman and Dewar worked on editing the film at the Lyric Studios located at The Crossroads of the World business complex in Hollywood. Aikman describes the studio as being in a building designed to look like Mothers Hubbard's shoe. Aikman says that as soon as the editing work had begun, it was discovered that Byars either hadn’t paid the rent for the editing space, or had made the landlord angry, as soon he and Dewar were locked out of the space and the air conditioner was removed. 
The two ended up crawling through a "jimmied" window and working in sweltering heat. 
[...] 
After a few weeks of rest Byars rented a motor home and he and some of the boys reportedly left for Alaska while Dewar and Aikman remained behind to finish the film. At some point, Aikman reports that someone, possibly Jeremy Hoenack, appeared at the Lyric studios saying he was told to take over the editing. Dewar and Aikman were not about to turn over the project at this point and reportedly Dewar became so angry he had a bloody fistfight with the interloper. Dewar and Aikman prevailed but then a "lawyer type" who occupied an office next to their studios attempted to evict them from the premises. Despite all of this Dewar and Aikman finished the film and Aikman returned to Italy never to see Byars again. 
Upon the release of the film Aikman read the reviews and was shocked. He couldn't understand why there was so much criticism about the film being so disjointed and not making any sense. Many years later he was able to obtain a copy of the film and discovered that the film had been re-edited. Jeremy Hoenack was listed as the editor and Aikman believes that this person basically ruined the film under the direction of Byars who was really only interested in displaying the naked boys. Aikman believes the Dewar/Aikman version must still exist somewhere today.<ref name=Bear2009 /></blockquote>

Both IMDB and BFI give a run time of 85 minutes for the film, and give editing credit to Jeremy Hoenack. Hoenack was credited as Assistant Editor in ''[[Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (film)|Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song]]'', which premiered in early 1971 to unprecedented financial success for an independent film. That film includes a 3½ minute simulated sex scene by a 13-year-old boy and was initially rated "X", and also has confusing, non-linear editing. After editing four films, Hoenack specialized in sound, and area where IMDB shows 253 sound credits for him and an Emmy in 1975.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0388507/ Jeremy Hoenack] on IMDB</ref>.

Byars spoke of ''The Genesis Children'' as “this highly personal creation – my creation”, which would support Aikman’s contention that his was the guiding hand. <ref name=Swisher /> Mr. Hoenack may have been chosen to bring ''Sweet Sweetback's'' golden touch to ''Genesis Children'', or his subsequent long career may indicate an ability to work well with others, following the dictates of those holding the purse strings.

In December 1972, Hoenack was editing one of [https://www.boywiki.org/en/Lyric_International#The_next_film Lyric's next, never-released films], "a reel of motorcycle adventures".

== Personal Vision ==
[[File:Genesisad1.png|right|300 px]]
Billy Byars, Jr., was incensed with the X rating, but disillusioned by lack of public understanding and acceptance. While he complains of yes-men, he assume responsibility for the movie, and doesn’t blame anyone else:
<blockquote>"I discovered that one of the most valuable lessons any newcomer to film making can learn is this: the day of he yes-man is still with us. The people associated with the industry; the people working with producers, patting them on the back and saying, "What a work of art!" are not the same people who buy tickets, sit in the general audience; and make their own independent judgments. 

"The making of a film becomes so personal, yet the mission of that film must be very public," he observed. "It's the man in the street who has final authority over whether this highly personal creation—my creation, in this instance—shall survive in the life-giving climate of public acceptance or die in the killing climate of public rejection." <ref name=Swisher /></blockquote>

The ''After Dark'' interview would have seen print only a few days after the ''Los Angeles Times’s'' one-line summary that was the unkindest of all, dismissing the film as “harmless.”

== VHS and DVD ==

The film was available on VHS and later DVD-R from mail-order vendor [[Insider Video Club]] in Los Angeles.<ref>[https://gepir.gs1.org/index.php/search-by-gtin The GS1 database] informs the barcode 736144000001 on the DVD cover is assigned to Ivb, Inc. one of Insider Video Club's names. The barcode on the VHS cover also starts with Ivb, Inc.'s assigned number 736144.</ref> The DVD sold by Ivb affirms a run time of 84 minutes.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
*[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0136217/ IMDB entry]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20190629035529/http://www.anthonyaikman.co.uk/ Director Anthony Aikman]’s site on Wayback Machine

{{Navbox/film}}
[[Category: Drama films]]

Coq d'Or

2022-07-14T23:50:14Z

Sneeuwbol: /* First Issue */

[[Image:Coqtrim.png|thumb|300px|right|'''Coq d'Or''' Partial cover of first issue.]]
''Coq d'Or'' was a color magazine featuring photos of nude adolescents and young men published by [[Lyric International]], starting about 1969 with an unknown number of issues. The first issue was produced when [[Billy Byars, Jr.]] was already established in Los Angeles, and from a reference to DOM, already working with [[Guy Strait]].
=First Issue=
The first issue features a color cover photo of three nudes standing in line on a sand dune, leftmost and foremost being [[Peter Glawson]], looking several years younger than when [[The Genesis Children]] was filmed in 1970 or 1971. The other two are 18 or so. The title, in the upper left, "COQ D'OR (The Golden Cock)", while in the upper right in the same italic font is "Volume One Number One" and a price of $3.50 (''Playboy'' in 1971 had a cover price of one dollar). Below it are three black-and-white graphic elements: one seems to be a small cloud with lettering inside, the second is the capital letters "LM" draped with a deflating whale, and lastly a line drawing of a long-tailed rooster. Horizontally in the lower right in bold capitals is "Adults Only", while vertically from the bottom right in lighter capitals is "Sale to Minors Forbidden".

A 2016 online listing for the edition on a European auction site includes scans of eleven pages including the cover, strategically censored by the seller. The scans include neither table of contents nor page numbers. About a dozen models are shown, all are nude, and all (with the possible exception of Peter in the cover photo) have pubic hair. Peter and "Dick More" look to be at the start of their teens, while all the others seem closer to the end. The little interior text shown is typewritten.

Two pages of pictures, one with three black-and-white photos an another with a single color photograph, show Peter Glawson with an older boy in the living room of the house with [[The pool with the cinderblock walls|the pool with the cinderblock walls]]. In these photos he is visibly older than in the cover photo, and only slightly younger than in The Genesis Children. The text on the black-and-white page is:

<blockquote>PETER and CHES 
Ches has a way with the young and young PETER is no exception. Here Peter had just come in from the swimming pool and saw Ches in front of the camera. Since he (Peter) rarely wears clothes around the studio it took but just a few moments to have both of them focused in for some action shots. Ches seems to be admiring some of Peter's finer points.</blockquote>
Another page has two black-and-white photos of a boy sprawled half on a squarish easy chair and half on its hassock, dangling a cherry in his right hand. The text is surmounted by a stylized line drawing that could be a cat with its head in a duck press, and reads:
<blockquote>DICK MORE 
DOM was photographing this one a couple of years ago (before he became so well developed) and made dates for future photography. Here we are again with Dick in the easy chair and forbidden but delightful fruit in the offing.</blockquote>
=Physique=
Lyric's catalog included only material that was at the time on the right side of the line of the law. None of the photos in the first issue of Coq d'Or show overt sexual situations. Guy Strait, nicknamed "DOM", produced pornography including child pornography, and of the two youngest boys in the magazine, the text states that he photographed one when he was even younger.

The line of legality changed with time. There may have been off-catalog Lyric products, or off-camera activities, that went beyond what the law permitted at the time. There is nothing in ''Coq d'Or'' that exceeds what is in The Genesis Children, which was legally filmed and exhibited.

Coq d'Or

2022-07-14T23:48:19Z

Sneeuwbol: partial cover added

[[Image:Coqtrim.png|thumb|300px|right|'''Coq d'Or''' Partial cover of first issue.]]
''Coq d'Or'' was a color magazine featuring photos of nude adolescents and young men published by [[Lyric International]], starting about 1969 with an unknown number of issues. The first issue was produced when [[Billy Byars, Jr.]] was already established in Los Angeles, and from a reference to DOM, already working with [[Guy Strait]].
=First Issue=
The first issues features a color photo of three nudes standing in line on a sand dune, leftmost and foremost being [[Peter Glawson]], looking several years younger than when [[The Genesis Children]] was filmed in 1970 or 1971. The other two are 18 or so. The title, in the upper left, "COQ D'OR (The Golden Cock)", while in the upper right in the same italic font is "Volume One Number One" and a price of $3.50 (''Playboy'' in 1971 had a cover price of one dollar). Below it are three black-and-white graphic elements: one seems to be a small cloud with lettering inside, the second is the capital letters "LM" draped with a deflating whale, and lastly a line drawing of a long-tailed rooster. Horizontally in the lower right in bold capitals is "Adults Only", while vertically from the bottom right in lighter capitals is "Sale to Minors Forbidden".

A 2016 online listing for the edition on a European auction site includes scans of eleven pages including the cover, strategically censored by the seller. The scans include neither table of contents nor page numbers. About a dozen models are shown, all are nude, and all (with the possible exception of Peter in the cover photo) have pubic hair. Peter and "Dick More" look to be at the start of their teens, while all the others seem closer to the end. The little interior text shown is typewritten.

Two pages of pictures, one with three black-and-white photos an another with a single color photograph, show Peter Glawson with an older boy in the living room of the house with [[The pool with the cinderblock walls|the pool with the cinderblock walls]]. In these photos he is visibly older than in the cover photo, and only slightly younger than in The Genesis Children. The text on the black-and-white page is:

<blockquote>PETER and CHES 
Ches has a way with the young and young PETER is no exception. Here Peter had just come in from the swimming pool and saw Ches in front of the camera. Since he (Peter) rarely wears clothes around the studio it took but just a few moments to have both of them focused in for some action shots. Ches seems to be admiring some of Peter's finer points.</blockquote>
Another page has two black-and-white photos of a boy sprawled half on a squarish easy chair and half on its hassock, dangling a cherry in his right hand. The text is surmounted by a stylized line drawing that could be a cat with its head in a duck press, and reads:
<blockquote>DICK MORE 
DOM was photographing this one a couple of years ago (before he became so well developed) and made dates for future photography. Here we are again with Dick in the easy chair and forbidden but delightful fruit in the offing.</blockquote>
=Physique=
Lyric's catalog included only material that was at the time on the right side of the line of the law. None of the photos in the first issue of Coq d'Or show overt sexual situations. Guy Strait, nicknamed "DOM", produced pornography including child pornography, and of the two youngest boys in the magazine, the text states that he photographed one when he was even younger.

The line of legality changed with time. There may have been off-catalog Lyric products, or off-camera activities, that went beyond what the law permitted at the time. There is nothing in ''Coq d'Or'' that exceeds what is in The Genesis Children, which was legally filmed and exhibited.

Jeunes et Naturels

2022-07-14T22:58:41Z

Sneeuwbol: /* French repression */

'''''Jeunes et Naturels''''' was a French-languare language [[naturism|naturist]] magazine printed in the [[United Kingdom]] by Peenhill Ltd., publishers of Britain's best-known naturist magazine, ''Health and Efficiency''. Peenhills also published ''Jung & Frei'', with the same illustrations but with German text.<ref name=germanwiki>[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jung_%26_Frei] German Wikipedia article on ''Jung & Frei''</ref>

''Jung & Frei'' began publishing in July 1987 and ran through at least January, 1987.<ref name=germanwiki /> ''Jeunes et Naturels'' may have had a similar lifespan. The journal appeared monthly, sold on newsstands and by subscription. It presented articles and pictures featuring people practicing [[naturism]], teens or children of both sexes, often accompanied by their parents, and not having any allusion or sexual connotation.
==French repression==
In April 1986, the French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, decided to launch a media offensive to 'fight against pornography' - both homosexual and child pornography-, inaugurated a Museum of horrors. Its targets were publications such as ''Jeunes et Naturels'', ''Gai Pied hebdo''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gai_pied], ''L’Écho des Savannes''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27%C3%89cho_des_savanes] and even the magazine ''Photo''[http://www.photo.fr/], also the books of photographs of [[Bernard Alapetite]], and bookshops specialized in this field, such as Le Scarabée d’Or.

As a result of this, suspicion was thrown against magazines disseminating naturist photos or artistic nudes of minors, the intensification of [[Pedo-hysteria|pedo-hysteria]] in France resulted in a 1995 ban on newsstands sales of ''Jeunes et Naturels'', accused of being a "pedophile review". This mode of distribution was vital for the magazine’s survival and it ceased publication.

However in 1997, a decision of the Joint Committee of the publications and news agencies reversed this decision, <ref>[http://www.cppap.fr/article.php3?id_article=120 La décision du CPPAP [[(link is dead)]]]</ref> but times had changed, the journal never more reappeared on newsstands.

==British arrests at publisher==
In 1996, British police raided the offices of the publisher seized photographs, negatives and printing plates, and arrested three people.<ref>[https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Child+porn+police+raid+naturist+magazine.-a061167092 Child porn police raid naturist magazine.] Sunday Mirror (London, England) July 14, 1996</ref> One of those arrested was Peenhill's company secretary. [[(needs source)]]

==German restrictions rejected, then imposed==
German Wikipedia says attempts to "index" ''Jung & Frei'' were made in 1986 and again in 1992, but rejected by courts on both occasions. However, in 1996, "increasing public pressure" was examined again. With the argument that protection of minors also includes protection against sexual assault by pedophiles, to which these issues would encourage them, the magazines were indexed. The magazine was not banned in Austria or Switzerland. ''Jung & Frei'' ceased to appear a few months later.<ref name=germanwiki />

==US Courts ruled magazines not obscene==
A three judge panel of the U.S. Third Circuit Court ruled on October 23, 2000, that the magazine is not obscene.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100517154458/https://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F3/230/230.F3d.649.00-5124.html 230 F.3d 649 (3rd Cir. 2000)] United States of America v. Various Articles of Merchandise. Schedule No. 287
Alessandra's Smile, Inc., Appellant. No. 00-5124</ref> That does not mean that these magazines would be considered legal in the United States today. They can still be found on online auction sites.

==References==
{{reflist}}
==Also see==
*[[Naturism]]
*[[Azov Films Prosecutions]]
== External links ==

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070823201702/http://www.natours.hu/galeria/1995/1995jul_jeunes/index.htm Some pictures] from ''Jeunes et Naturels'' July 1995 issue (thumbnails with censored enlargements).
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110924071635/http://www.natours.hu/galeria/1993/1993aug_jeunes/index.htm Some pictures] from ''Jeunes et Naturels'' August 1993 issue (thumbnails with censored enlargements).

{{Template:Navbox magazines}}
[[fr:Jeunes et Naturels (revue)]]
[[Category:Newspapers and magazines]]

Jeunes et Naturels

2022-07-14T22:57:29Z

Sneeuwbol: /* French repression */

'''''Jeunes et Naturels''''' was a French-languare language [[naturism|naturist]] magazine printed in the [[United Kingdom]] by Peenhill Ltd., publishers of Britain's best-known naturist magazine, ''Health and Efficiency''. Peenhills also published ''Jung & Frei'', with the same illustrations but with German text.<ref name=germanwiki>[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jung_%26_Frei] German Wikipedia article on ''Jung & Frei''</ref>

''Jung & Frei'' began publishing in July 1987 and ran through at least January, 1987.<ref name=germanwiki /> ''Jeunes et Naturels'' may have had a similar lifespan. The journal appeared monthly, sold on newsstands and by subscription. It presented articles and pictures featuring people practicing [[naturism]], teens or children of both sexes, often accompanied by their parents, and not having any allusion or sexual connotation.
==French repression==
In April 1986, the French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, decided to launch a media offensive to 'fight against pornography' - both homosexual and child pornography-, inaugurated a Museum of horrors. Its targets were publications such as ''Jeunes et Naturels'', ''Gai Pied hebdo''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gai_pied], ''L’Écho des Savannes''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27%C3%89cho_des_savanes] and even the magazine ''Photo''[http://www.photo.fr/], also the books of photographs of [[Bernard Alapetite]], and bookshops specialized in this field, such as Le Scarabée d’Or.

As a result of this, suspicion was thrown against magazines disseminating naturist photos or artistic nudes of minors, the intensification of [[Pedo-hysteria|pedo-hysteria]] in France resulted in a 1995 ban on newsstands sales of ''Jeunes et Naturels'', accused of being a "pedophile review". This mode of distribution was vital for the magazine’s survival and it ceased publication.

However in 1997, a decision of the Joint Committee of the publications and news agencies reversed this decision, <ref>[http://www.cppap.fr/article.php3?id_article=120 La décision du CPPAP]</ref> but times had changed, the journal never more reappeared on newsstands.

==British arrests at publisher==
In 1996, British police raided the offices of the publisher seized photographs, negatives and printing plates, and arrested three people.<ref>[https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Child+porn+police+raid+naturist+magazine.-a061167092 Child porn police raid naturist magazine.] Sunday Mirror (London, England) July 14, 1996</ref> One of those arrested was Peenhill's company secretary. [[(needs source)]]

==German restrictions rejected, then imposed==
German Wikipedia says attempts to "index" ''Jung & Frei'' were made in 1986 and again in 1992, but rejected by courts on both occasions. However, in 1996, "increasing public pressure" was examined again. With the argument that protection of minors also includes protection against sexual assault by pedophiles, to which these issues would encourage them, the magazines were indexed. The magazine was not banned in Austria or Switzerland. ''Jung & Frei'' ceased to appear a few months later.<ref name=germanwiki />

==US Courts ruled magazines not obscene==
A three judge panel of the U.S. Third Circuit Court ruled on October 23, 2000, that the magazine is not obscene.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100517154458/https://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F3/230/230.F3d.649.00-5124.html 230 F.3d 649 (3rd Cir. 2000)] United States of America v. Various Articles of Merchandise. Schedule No. 287
Alessandra's Smile, Inc., Appellant. No. 00-5124</ref> That does not mean that these magazines would be considered legal in the United States today. They can still be found on online auction sites.

==References==
{{reflist}}
==Also see==
*[[Naturism]]
*[[Azov Films Prosecutions]]
== External links ==

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070823201702/http://www.natours.hu/galeria/1995/1995jul_jeunes/index.htm Some pictures] from ''Jeunes et Naturels'' July 1995 issue (thumbnails with censored enlargements).
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110924071635/http://www.natours.hu/galeria/1993/1993aug_jeunes/index.htm Some pictures] from ''Jeunes et Naturels'' August 1993 issue (thumbnails with censored enlargements).

{{Template:Navbox magazines}}
[[fr:Jeunes et Naturels (revue)]]
[[Category:Newspapers and magazines]]

Jeunes et Naturels

2022-07-14T22:54:19Z

Sneeuwbol: /* British arrests at publisher */ link format

'''''Jeunes et Naturels''''' was a French-languare language [[naturism|naturist]] magazine printed in the [[United Kingdom]] by Peenhill Ltd., publishers of Britain's best-known naturist magazine, ''Health and Efficiency''. Peenhills also published ''Jung & Frei'', with the same illustrations but with German text.<ref name=germanwiki>[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jung_%26_Frei] German Wikipedia article on ''Jung & Frei''</ref>

''Jung & Frei'' began publishing in July 1987 and ran through at least January, 1987.<ref name=germanwiki /> ''Jeunes et Naturels'' may have had a similar lifespan. The journal appeared monthly, sold on newsstands and by subscription. It presented articles and pictures featuring people practicing [[naturism]], teens or children of both sexes, often accompanied by their parents, and not having any allusion or sexual connotation.
==French repression==
In April 1986, the French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, decided to launch a media offensive to 'fight against pornography' - both homosexual and child pornography-, inaugurated a Museum of horrors. Its targets were publications such as ''Jeunes et Naturels'', ''Gai Pied hebdo''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gai_pied], ''L’Écho des Savannes''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27%C3%89cho_des_savanes] and even the magazine ''Photo''[http://www.photo.fr/], also the books of photographs of [[Bernard Alapetite]], and bookshops specialized in this field, such as Le Scarabée d’Or.

As a result of this, suspicion was thrown against magazines disseminating naturist photos or artistic nudes of minors, the intensification of [[Pedo-hysteria|pedo-hysteria]] in France resulted in a 1995 ban on newsstands sales of ''Jeunes et Naturels'', accused of being a "pedophile review". This mode of distribution was vital for the magazine’s survival and it ceased publication.

However in 1997, a decision of the Joint Committee of the publications and news agencies reversed this decision, <ref>[http://www.cppap.fr/article.php3?id_article=120 La décision du CPPAP]</ref> but times had changed, the journal never more reappeared on newsstands.
==British arrests at publisher==
In 1996, British police raided the offices of the publisher seized photographs, negatives and printing plates, and arrested three people.<ref>[https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Child+porn+police+raid+naturist+magazine.-a061167092 Child porn police raid naturist magazine.] Sunday Mirror (London, England) July 14, 1996</ref> One of those arrested was Peenhill's company secretary. [[(needs source)]]

==German restrictions rejected, then imposed==
German Wikipedia says attempts to "index" ''Jung & Frei'' were made in 1986 and again in 1992, but rejected by courts on both occasions. However, in 1996, "increasing public pressure" was examined again. With the argument that protection of minors also includes protection against sexual assault by pedophiles, to which these issues would encourage them, the magazines were indexed. The magazine was not banned in Austria or Switzerland. ''Jung & Frei'' ceased to appear a few months later.<ref name=germanwiki />

==US Courts ruled magazines not obscene==
A three judge panel of the U.S. Third Circuit Court ruled on October 23, 2000, that the magazine is not obscene.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100517154458/https://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F3/230/230.F3d.649.00-5124.html 230 F.3d 649 (3rd Cir. 2000)] United States of America v. Various Articles of Merchandise. Schedule No. 287
Alessandra's Smile, Inc., Appellant. No. 00-5124</ref> That does not mean that these magazines would be considered legal in the United States today. They can still be found on online auction sites.

==References==
{{reflist}}
==Also see==
*[[Naturism]]
*[[Azov Films Prosecutions]]
== External links ==

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070823201702/http://www.natours.hu/galeria/1995/1995jul_jeunes/index.htm Some pictures] from ''Jeunes et Naturels'' July 1995 issue (thumbnails with censored enlargements).
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110924071635/http://www.natours.hu/galeria/1993/1993aug_jeunes/index.htm Some pictures] from ''Jeunes et Naturels'' August 1993 issue (thumbnails with censored enlargements).

{{Template:Navbox magazines}}
[[fr:Jeunes et Naturels (revue)]]
[[Category:Newspapers and magazines]]

Jeunes et Naturels

2022-07-14T22:47:03Z

Sneeuwbol: /* US Courts ruled magazines not obscene */ There aren't any on Ebay.

'''''Jeunes et Naturels''''' was a French-languare language [[naturism|naturist]] magazine printed in the [[United Kingdom]] by Peenhill Ltd., publishers of Britain's best-known naturist magazine, ''Health and Efficiency''. Peenhills also published ''Jung & Frei'', with the same illustrations but with German text.<ref name=germanwiki>[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jung_%26_Frei] German Wikipedia article on ''Jung & Frei''</ref>

''Jung & Frei'' began publishing in July 1987 and ran through at least January, 1987.<ref name=germanwiki /> ''Jeunes et Naturels'' may have had a similar lifespan. The journal appeared monthly, sold on newsstands and by subscription. It presented articles and pictures featuring people practicing [[naturism]], teens or children of both sexes, often accompanied by their parents, and not having any allusion or sexual connotation.
==French repression==
In April 1986, the French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, decided to launch a media offensive to 'fight against pornography' - both homosexual and child pornography-, inaugurated a Museum of horrors. Its targets were publications such as ''Jeunes et Naturels'', ''Gai Pied hebdo''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gai_pied], ''L’Écho des Savannes''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27%C3%89cho_des_savanes] and even the magazine ''Photo''[http://www.photo.fr/], also the books of photographs of [[Bernard Alapetite]], and bookshops specialized in this field, such as Le Scarabée d’Or.

As a result of this, suspicion was thrown against magazines disseminating naturist photos or artistic nudes of minors, the intensification of [[Pedo-hysteria|pedo-hysteria]] in France resulted in a 1995 ban on newsstands sales of ''Jeunes et Naturels'', accused of being a "pedophile review". This mode of distribution was vital for the magazine’s survival and it ceased publication.

However in 1997, a decision of the Joint Committee of the publications and news agencies reversed this decision, <ref>[http://www.cppap.fr/article.php3?id_article=120 La décision du CPPAP]</ref> but times had changed, the journal never more reappeared on newsstands.
==British arrests at publisher==
In 1996, British police raided the offices of the publisher seized photographs, negatives and printing plates, and arrested three people.<ref>https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Child+porn+police+raid+naturist+magazine.-a061167092</ref> One of those arrested was Peenhill's company secretary. [[(needs source)]]

==German restrictions rejected, then imposed==
German Wikipedia says attempts to "index" ''Jung & Frei'' were made in 1986 and again in 1992, but rejected by courts on both occasions. However, in 1996, "increasing public pressure" was examined again. With the argument that protection of minors also includes protection against sexual assault by pedophiles, to which these issues would encourage them, the magazines were indexed. The magazine was not banned in Austria or Switzerland. ''Jung & Frei'' ceased to appear a few months later.<ref name=germanwiki />

==US Courts ruled magazines not obscene==
A three judge panel of the U.S. Third Circuit Court ruled on October 23, 2000, that the magazine is not obscene.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100517154458/https://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F3/230/230.F3d.649.00-5124.html 230 F.3d 649 (3rd Cir. 2000)] United States of America v. Various Articles of Merchandise. Schedule No. 287
Alessandra's Smile, Inc., Appellant. No. 00-5124</ref> That does not mean that these magazines would be considered legal in the United States today. They can still be found on online auction sites.

==References==
{{reflist}}
==Also see==
*[[Naturism]]
*[[Azov Films Prosecutions]]
== External links ==

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070823201702/http://www.natours.hu/galeria/1995/1995jul_jeunes/index.htm Some pictures] from ''Jeunes et Naturels'' July 1995 issue (thumbnails with censored enlargements).
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110924071635/http://www.natours.hu/galeria/1993/1993aug_jeunes/index.htm Some pictures] from ''Jeunes et Naturels'' August 1993 issue (thumbnails with censored enlargements).

{{Template:Navbox magazines}}
[[fr:Jeunes et Naturels (revue)]]
[[Category:Newspapers and magazines]]

Jeunes et Naturels

2022-07-14T22:44:34Z

Sneeuwbol: Dead footnotes corrected when possible. Sister publication Jung & Frei added. Minor corrections.

'''''Jeunes et Naturels''''' was a French-languare language [[naturism|naturist]] magazine printed in the [[United Kingdom]] by Peenhill Ltd., publishers of Britain's best-known naturist magazine, ''Health and Efficiency''. Peenhills also published ''Jung & Frei'', with the same illustrations but with German text.<ref name=germanwiki>[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jung_%26_Frei] German Wikipedia article on ''Jung & Frei''</ref>

''Jung & Frei'' began publishing in July 1987 and ran through at least January, 1987.<ref name=germanwiki /> ''Jeunes et Naturels'' may have had a similar lifespan. The journal appeared monthly, sold on newsstands and by subscription. It presented articles and pictures featuring people practicing [[naturism]], teens or children of both sexes, often accompanied by their parents, and not having any allusion or sexual connotation.
==French repression==
In April 1986, the French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, decided to launch a media offensive to 'fight against pornography' - both homosexual and child pornography-, inaugurated a Museum of horrors. Its targets were publications such as ''Jeunes et Naturels'', ''Gai Pied hebdo''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gai_pied], ''L’Écho des Savannes''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27%C3%89cho_des_savanes] and even the magazine ''Photo''[http://www.photo.fr/], also the books of photographs of [[Bernard Alapetite]], and bookshops specialized in this field, such as Le Scarabée d’Or.

As a result of this, suspicion was thrown against magazines disseminating naturist photos or artistic nudes of minors, the intensification of [[Pedo-hysteria|pedo-hysteria]] in France resulted in a 1995 ban on newsstands sales of ''Jeunes et Naturels'', accused of being a "pedophile review". This mode of distribution was vital for the magazine’s survival and it ceased publication.

However in 1997, a decision of the Joint Committee of the publications and news agencies reversed this decision, <ref>[http://www.cppap.fr/article.php3?id_article=120 La décision du CPPAP]</ref> but times had changed, the journal never more reappeared on newsstands.
==British arrests at publisher==
In 1996, British police raided the offices of the publisher seized photographs, negatives and printing plates, and arrested three people.<ref>https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Child+porn+police+raid+naturist+magazine.-a061167092</ref> One of those arrested was Peenhill's company secretary. [[(needs source)]]

==German restrictions rejected, then imposed==
German Wikipedia says attempts to "index" ''Jung & Frei'' were made in 1986 and again in 1992, but rejected by courts on both occasions. However, in 1996, "increasing public pressure" was examined again. With the argument that protection of minors also includes protection against sexual assault by pedophiles, to which these issues would encourage them, the magazines were indexed. The magazine was not banned in Austria or Switzerland. ''Jung & Frei'' ceased to appear a few months later.<ref name=germanwiki />

==US Courts ruled magazines not obscene==
A three judge panel of the U.S. Third Circuit Court ruled on October 23, 2000, that the magazine is not obscene.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100517154458/https://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F3/230/230.F3d.649.00-5124.html 230 F.3d 649 (3rd Cir. 2000)] United States of America v. Various Articles of Merchandise. Schedule No. 287
Alessandra's Smile, Inc., Appellant. No. 00-5124</ref> That does not mean that these magazines would be considered legal in today's society ([[{{CURRENTYEAR}}]]) thought they currently can still be found being sold on Ebay.

==References==
{{reflist}}
==Also see==
*[[Naturism]]
*[[Azov Films Prosecutions]]
== External links ==

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070823201702/http://www.natours.hu/galeria/1995/1995jul_jeunes/index.htm Some pictures] from ''Jeunes et Naturels'' July 1995 issue (thumbnails with censored enlargements).
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110924071635/http://www.natours.hu/galeria/1993/1993aug_jeunes/index.htm Some pictures] from ''Jeunes et Naturels'' August 1993 issue (thumbnails with censored enlargements).

{{Template:Navbox magazines}}
[[fr:Jeunes et Naturels (revue)]]
[[Category:Newspapers and magazines]]

Jeunes et Naturels

2022-07-14T19:39:36Z

Sneeuwbol: /* External links */

'''''Jeunes et Naturels''''' is a French language [[naturism|naturist]] magazine printed in the [[United Kingdom]].

Jeunes et Naturels appeared in (?) and ran until 1995. The journal appeared monthly, sold on newsstands and by subscription. It was published by the British company Peenhill Ltd. Publishers and printed in Britain. It presented articles and pictures featuring people practicing [[naturism]], teens or children of both sexes, often accompanied by their parents, and not having any allusion or sexual connotation.

In April 1986, the French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, decided to launch a media offensive to 'fight against pornography' - both homosexual and child pornography-, inaugurated a Museum of horrors. Its targets were publications such as ''Jeunes et Naturels'', ''Gai Pied hebdo''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gai_pied], ''L’Écho des Savannes''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27%C3%89cho_des_savanes] and even the magazine ''Photo''[http://www.photo.fr/], also the books of photographs of [[Bernard Alapetite]], and bookshops specialized in this field, such as Le Scarabée d’Or.

As a result of this, suspicion was thrown against magazines disseminating naturist photos or artistic nudes of minors, the intensification of [[Pedo-hysteria|pedo-hysteria]] in France resulted in a 1995 ban on newsstands sales of Jeunes et Naturels, accused of being a "pedophile review» This mode of distribution was vital for the magazine’s survival and it ceased publication.

However in 1997, a decision of the Joint Committee of the publications and news agencies reversed this decision, <ref>[http://www.cppap.fr/article.php3?id_article=120 La décision du CPPAP]</ref> but times had changed, the journal never more reappeared on newsstands.

In 1996, the police raided the offices of the publisher seized photographs, negatives and printing plates, and arrested three people including Peenhill's company secretary.<ref>http://www.questia.com/library/1G1-111429179/three-arrested-in-child-porn-probe-police-raid-naturism</ref>

A three judge panel of the U.S. Third Circuit Court ruled on October 23, 2000, that the magazine is not obscene.<ref>http://articles.philly.com/2000-10-24/news/25587911_1_third-circuit-photo-magazines-european-magazines</ref> That does not mean that these magazines would be considered legal in today society ([[{{CURRENTYEAR}}]]) thought they currently can still be found being sold on Ebay.

==References==
{{reflist}}
==Also see==
*[[Naturism]]
*[[Azov Films Prosecutions]]
== External links ==

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070823201702/http://www.natours.hu/galeria/1995/1995jul_jeunes/index.htm Some pictures] from ''Jeunes et Naturels'' July 1995 issue (thumbnails with censored enlargements).
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110924071635/http://www.natours.hu/galeria/1993/1993aug_jeunes/index.htm Some pictures] from ''Jeunes et Naturels'' August 1993 issue (thumbnails with censored enlargements).

{{Template:Navbox magazines}}
[[fr:Jeunes et Naturels (revue)]]
[[Category:Newspapers and magazines]]

Jeunes et Naturels

2022-07-14T19:37:59Z

Sneeuwbol: /* External links */

'''''Jeunes et Naturels''''' is a French language [[naturism|naturist]] magazine printed in the [[United Kingdom]].

Jeunes et Naturels appeared in (?) and ran until 1995. The journal appeared monthly, sold on newsstands and by subscription. It was published by the British company Peenhill Ltd. Publishers and printed in Britain. It presented articles and pictures featuring people practicing [[naturism]], teens or children of both sexes, often accompanied by their parents, and not having any allusion or sexual connotation.

In April 1986, the French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, decided to launch a media offensive to 'fight against pornography' - both homosexual and child pornography-, inaugurated a Museum of horrors. Its targets were publications such as ''Jeunes et Naturels'', ''Gai Pied hebdo''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gai_pied], ''L’Écho des Savannes''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27%C3%89cho_des_savanes] and even the magazine ''Photo''[http://www.photo.fr/], also the books of photographs of [[Bernard Alapetite]], and bookshops specialized in this field, such as Le Scarabée d’Or.

As a result of this, suspicion was thrown against magazines disseminating naturist photos or artistic nudes of minors, the intensification of [[Pedo-hysteria|pedo-hysteria]] in France resulted in a 1995 ban on newsstands sales of Jeunes et Naturels, accused of being a "pedophile review» This mode of distribution was vital for the magazine’s survival and it ceased publication.

However in 1997, a decision of the Joint Committee of the publications and news agencies reversed this decision, <ref>[http://www.cppap.fr/article.php3?id_article=120 La décision du CPPAP]</ref> but times had changed, the journal never more reappeared on newsstands.

In 1996, the police raided the offices of the publisher seized photographs, negatives and printing plates, and arrested three people including Peenhill's company secretary.<ref>http://www.questia.com/library/1G1-111429179/three-arrested-in-child-porn-probe-police-raid-naturism</ref>

A three judge panel of the U.S. Third Circuit Court ruled on October 23, 2000, that the magazine is not obscene.<ref>http://articles.philly.com/2000-10-24/news/25587911_1_third-circuit-photo-magazines-european-magazines</ref> That does not mean that these magazines would be considered legal in today society ([[{{CURRENTYEAR}}]]) thought they currently can still be found being sold on Ebay.

==References==
{{reflist}}
==Also see==
*[[Naturism]]
*[[Azov Films Prosecutions]]
== External links ==

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070823201702/http://www.natours.hu/galeria/1995/1995jul_jeunes/index.htm Some pictures] from ''Jeunes et Naturels'' July 1995 issue (thumbnails with censored enlargements).
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110927234908/http://www.natours.hu/galeria/1993/1993aug_jeunes/pages/1993Aug_JetN_11_1.htm Some pictures] from ''Jeunes et Naturels'' August 1993 issue (thumbnails with censored enlargements).

{{Template:Navbox magazines}}
[[fr:Jeunes et Naturels (revue)]]
[[Category:Newspapers and magazines]]

Jeunes et Naturels

2022-07-14T19:35:32Z

Sneeuwbol: /* External links */ archive.org in place of dead links

'''''Jeunes et Naturels''''' is a French language [[naturism|naturist]] magazine printed in the [[United Kingdom]].

Jeunes et Naturels appeared in (?) and ran until 1995. The journal appeared monthly, sold on newsstands and by subscription. It was published by the British company Peenhill Ltd. Publishers and printed in Britain. It presented articles and pictures featuring people practicing [[naturism]], teens or children of both sexes, often accompanied by their parents, and not having any allusion or sexual connotation.

In April 1986, the French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, decided to launch a media offensive to 'fight against pornography' - both homosexual and child pornography-, inaugurated a Museum of horrors. Its targets were publications such as ''Jeunes et Naturels'', ''Gai Pied hebdo''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gai_pied], ''L’Écho des Savannes''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27%C3%89cho_des_savanes] and even the magazine ''Photo''[http://www.photo.fr/], also the books of photographs of [[Bernard Alapetite]], and bookshops specialized in this field, such as Le Scarabée d’Or.

As a result of this, suspicion was thrown against magazines disseminating naturist photos or artistic nudes of minors, the intensification of [[Pedo-hysteria|pedo-hysteria]] in France resulted in a 1995 ban on newsstands sales of Jeunes et Naturels, accused of being a "pedophile review» This mode of distribution was vital for the magazine’s survival and it ceased publication.

However in 1997, a decision of the Joint Committee of the publications and news agencies reversed this decision, <ref>[http://www.cppap.fr/article.php3?id_article=120 La décision du CPPAP]</ref> but times had changed, the journal never more reappeared on newsstands.

In 1996, the police raided the offices of the publisher seized photographs, negatives and printing plates, and arrested three people including Peenhill's company secretary.<ref>http://www.questia.com/library/1G1-111429179/three-arrested-in-child-porn-probe-police-raid-naturism</ref>

A three judge panel of the U.S. Third Circuit Court ruled on October 23, 2000, that the magazine is not obscene.<ref>http://articles.philly.com/2000-10-24/news/25587911_1_third-circuit-photo-magazines-european-magazines</ref> That does not mean that these magazines would be considered legal in today society ([[{{CURRENTYEAR}}]]) thought they currently can still be found being sold on Ebay.

==References==
{{reflist}}
==Also see==
*[[Naturism]]
*[[Azov Films Prosecutions]]
== External links ==

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070823201702/http://www.natours.hu/galeria/1995/1995jul_jeunes/index.htm] from ''Jeunes et Naturels'' July 1995 issue (thumbnails with censored enlargements).
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110927234908/http://www.natours.hu/galeria/1993/1993aug_jeunes/pages/1993Aug_JetN_11_1.htm some pictures] from ''Jeunes et Naturels'' August 1993 issue (thumbnails with censored enlargements).

{{Template:Navbox magazines}}
[[fr:Jeunes et Naturels (revue)]]
[[Category:Newspapers and magazines]]

Beach Boy

2022-07-14T19:28:11Z

Sneeuwbol: phrasing

[[Image:Beach Boy 13.jpg|thumb|300px|right|'''Beach Boy 13''' by [[Bernard Alapetite]], Akki and George Ulvoas (1985) ]]
'''''Beach Boy''''' (ca 1986-198?) was a [[France|French]] magazine featuring [[Photography|photographs]] of boys.

The magazine was edited by photographer [[Bernard Alapetite]] in Paris, who previously worked on the similar ''Jean's'' magazine for [[J.M.V. Diffusion]] publications. ''Beach Boy'' was published in Paris by Editions Findakly and its ISSN number was 0980-0956. There was no text and each issue contained photographs of boys mostly from amateurs and otherwise from people publishing using pseudonyms (like [[Akki]]).

More than 21 issues were published during the mid 1980s. The initial cover price was 50 francs, eventually rising to 90 francs. An edition at this last price promised "48 pages of photos of adolescents", and offered annual subscription of 6 issues for 420 francs in France and 480 francs overseas. Prices were given ("You can also pay in local currency in cash in a strong envelope") for the U.S.A., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, West Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Italy. The price for the U.S.A. was $18 for one issue and $85 for a year. The issues were numbered sequentially with no cover indication of year.
[[Image:beachboycontent.png|thumb|300px|left| Page from an online auction listing.]]
Each cover features a single boy, usually with a seascape setting, usually wearing a bathing suit but occasionally a shirt. At least one edition has a nude preadolescent on the cover. Covers varied between color and black-and-white. Scans on an auction site suggest that many of the interior photographs were of fully nude boys, sometimes preadolescent. One such listing described "central page in color", for an edition with a black-and-white cover.
{{Template:Navbox magazines}}
[[fr:Beach Boy]]
[[de:Beach Boy]]
[[Category:Newspapers and magazines]]

Beach Boy

2022-07-14T19:24:43Z

Sneeuwbol: Auction photo of page offering back issues inserted

[[Image:Beach Boy 13.jpg|thumb|300px|right|'''Beach Boy 13''' by [[Bernard Alapetite]], Akki and George Ulvoas (1985) ]]
'''''Beach Boy''''' (ca 1986-198?) was a [[France|French]] magazine featuring [[Photography|photographs]] of boys.

The magazine was edited by photographer [[Bernard Alapetite]] in Paris, who previously worked on the similar ''Jean's'' magazine for [[J.M.V. Diffusion]] publications. ''Beach Boy'' was published in Paris by Editions Findakly and its ISSN number was 0980-0956. There was no text and each issue contained photographs of boys mostly from amateurs and otherwise from people publishing using pseudonyms (like [[Akki]]).

More than 21 issues were published during the mid 1980s. The initial cover price was 50 francs, eventually rising to 90 francs. An edition at this last price promised "48 pages of photos of adolescents", and offered annual subscription of 6 issues for 420 francs in France and 480 francs overseas. Prices were given ("You can also pay in local currency in cash in a strong envelope") for the U.S.A., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, West Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Italy. The price for the U.S.A. was $18 for one issue and $85 for a year. The issues were numbered sequentially with no cover indication of year.
[[Image:beachboycontent.png|thumb|300px|left| Page from an online auction listing.]]
The covers mostly feature boys in bathing suits, usually with a seascape setting, occasionally with shirts, and at least once with a nude preadolescent. Covers varied between color and black-and-white. Scans on an auction site suggest that many of the interior photographs were of fully nude boys, sometimes preadolescent. One such listing described "central page in color", for an edition with a black-and-white cover.
{{Template:Navbox magazines}}
[[fr:Beach Boy]]
[[de:Beach Boy]]
[[Category:Newspapers and magazines]]

Gold Cup

2022-07-14T19:15:20Z

Sneeuwbol:

'''The Gold Cup''' at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas was "a notoriously sleazy dump of a coffee shop". <ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050410011139/http://www.tvparty.com/tvp-AC/homeroom1/12-1-80.html Eye, Billy. "In search of punk life?"]. ''Data-Boy Magazine'', Hollywood. December 1, 1980. The printed editions are or were in the ONE Archives at USC.</ref>"Once a beacon for teenage runaways, the Gold Cup attracted the worst elements of Hollywood Boulevard sleaze."<ref name=Fein1990>[https://archive.org/details/lamusicalhistory0000fein/page/50/mode/2up Fein, Art. The Gold Cup] "The L.A. musical history tour: a guide to the rock and roll landmarks of Los Angeles". Boston : Faber and Faber, 1990</ref>
== Nationally known for young hustlers ==
[[Image:Gold Cup.jpg|thumb|300px|right|''Crowds watch Los Angeles's first Pride parade in 1970 in front of the Gold Cup''<ref name=GoldCupPride />]]The Gold Cup was a hangout and pick-up place for young male hustlers. An online source compares it to a location where runaway teenage girls congregated, "A different kind of same kind of place was The Gold Cup coffee shop at Las Palmas and Hollywood. The neighborhood teemed with 15 and 16 year old boys who ran away before 'someone found out'. Since they couldn't get in bars, it was the Gold Cup for them. (But the boys had it better off... They got to keep their whole $5 instead of split it with a pimp!)"<ref>[https://depthshooter.blogspot.com/2009/05/hollywood-crime-scnes-procurment-of.html Depthshooter on "Hollywood Crime Scenes"]</ref> It was also a source for actors for pornographic films:
<blockquote>One early filmmaker, Barry Knight, described how “central casting in those days was The Gold Cup restaurant on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmos [in L.A.]. Whenever they needed an actor, or an actor didn’t show up, they’d go down to ‘central casting’...” (Douglas 1996a, p. 11).<ref>{{Citation
| last=Escoffier
| first=Jeffrey
| title=Gay-for-Pay: Straight Men and the Making of Gay Pornography
| journal=Qualitative Sociology
| volume=26
| issue=4
| year=2003
| pages=521-535
| url=http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/~mma/teaching/MS110/reading/GayforPay.pdf#5
}}</ref></blockquote>
Jackson Browne sang of it in his 1980 hit ''Boulevard'':<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulevard_(song) Wikipedia on ''Boulevard'']</ref>
<blockquote>"Down at the golden cup They set the young ones up Under the neon light Selling day for night"</blockquote>
Online rumor says that boys as young as 12-16 could be found in the Gold Cup or on the sidewalk outside.
<blockquote>"There used to be a 24 hour coffee shop at Hollywood Blvd and Selma Ave called the Gold Cup. [...] That's where the pedos could find either sex for rent, and these little kids were either addicted, runaways, often both. 
I have been there on medical aid calls many times. I remember one little boy, approx 11 years old, painted up like a vaudeville hussy, wearing girls' clothes, and beat bloody to a pulp."<ref>[https://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,11464793~mode=journal#6 A retired Fire Captain thinks back...]</ref></blockquote>

During the [[great kiddie porn panic]], national media in May, 1977 showcased the child pornography problem, and The Gold Cup appeared in a number of national vehicles.
=== Chicago Tribune ===
"Los Angeles [is] the child pornography capital of the United States," informs one article in ''The Chicago Tribune’s'' May, 1977 series on child prostitution, and the epicenter was The Gold Cup:
<blockquote>In Los Angeles, police told the Tribune, the favorite gathering place of runaway boys and the men who prey on them is in the area of the Gold Cup Restaurant at 6700 Hollywood Dr. One night recently, a Tribune reporter watched about 14 youths, between 12 and 20 years old, waiting on the sidewalk in front of the Gold Cup. Occasionally a man would walk up, a whispered conversation would ensue, and man would walk away with a boy. "We have no problem finding our sex offenders here," [Sgt. Lloyd] Martin said. "But we don't have laws to detain them."<ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/51083NCJRS.pdf#452 How Ruses Lure Victims to Child Pornographers]. Chicago Tribune, 17 May 1977, in PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AGAINST SEXUAL EXPLOITATION Hearings before the Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency], 95th Congress, 1st Session, Chicago, Ill., May 27, 1977, Washington, DC. June 16, 1977, pp. 437-440</ref></blockquote>
=== The New York Times ===
<blockquote><center><big>The Last Porno Show</big>
(By Robert Sam Anson)

The Cup and the Rack</center>
In Los Angeles, when police say "the Cup" they mean the Gold Cup Cafe, at Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas, first stop on what is called "the meat rack." The meat rack begins at the Cup, runs down Las Palmas, then turns right on Selma, goes on for a couple of blocks, then left on Highland to Santa Monica. It is not hard to find it. Simply follow the slowly cruising cars and look for kids lounging on the street. When the cars stop and the kids walk over, you're there.

On any night of the week, the Gold Cup is jammed: with kids, both boys and girls, menacing-looking black pimps, a few assorted lesbians and a sizable contingent of middle-aged chickenhawks. The atmosphere is a cross between a YMCA club and Dante's ninth circle. In the back of the Cup half a dozen teenage boys are playing pinball. A scantily dressed prostitute wanders in to watch the action. Then she leans over one of the machines to see the score, one of her breasts flops out. No one looks twice. In the front of the cafe, three beefy chickenhawks sit in a booth, chatting, sipping coffee, and commenting on the passing merchandise. "Who's that sweet little blond?" one of them calls out, and blows a kiss to a boy sitting at the counter. The youth turns, smiles knowingly, and walks to the table. One of the chickenhawks reaches out and fondles his crotch.

At 9:30, when the cafe closes for the night, the kids straggle out the door, some heading off for other well-known "chicken coops" in the neighborhood, others around the corner to the bookstall on Las Palmas (where one of the gay magazines features pictures of one of the boys who'd been playing pinball that night), and still others down the block to Selma Avenue. There they queue up for the cruising chickenhawks. <ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/46772NCJRS.pdf#page=158 "The Last Porno Show"] Robert Sam Anson, ''New York Times'', June 24, 1977 via Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, p. 155.</ref></blockquote>

=== CBS 60 Minutes ===
<blockquote><center><big>KIDDIE PORN</big>
Sunday, May 15, 1977, with CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Morley Safer

(Produced by Barry Lando) </center>
Sergeant MARTIN. Not only do your adults come up here looking for to satisfy their sexual pleasures, but you will also find the pornographers that's looking for models. A typical place for them to go would be in here to the Gold Cup restaurant here. This one down—

Mr. WALLACE. The Gold Cup right over here?

Sergeant MARTIN. Yes, right here on the right. And I've seen them as young as six years old in here, all the way up to eighteen or nineteen.

Mr. WALLACE. Six years old?

Sergeant MARTIN. Six years old. A lot of the hot dog stands and pinball arcades, this is where the young ones, the real young ones, would come to—to play the pinball machines. This is where the chicken hawk would come with a pocket full of quarters to give the young kids. This is how he makes his introduction. Then it leads up: Would you like to go home and smoke a joint? And it's little by little, but it maybe only take an hour, an hour and a half, till he's got him home and got him in the bed. After that point, after the act of oral copulation has occurred, or sodomy, what's—what's a little bit of picture taking? That's nothing. Other kids that don't—that don't score at "The Meat Rack" walk down Highland Avenue here to the Arthur J's restaurant.

Mr. WALLACE. This is a regular beat?

Sergeant MARTIN. It's a regular beat, yes.

Mr. WALLACE. [to boy]. Who are you waiting for?

Boy. Huh?

Mr. WALLACE. Who are you waiting for?

Boy. I'm waiting for a trick.

Mr. WALLACE. How old are some of the kids who work here? Boy. Some of them is young. Here?

Mr. WALLACE. How young.

Boy. Sixteen. A lot—there's a lot of chicken around here. There's a lot of old men who likes chicken. That's what they call chicken.

Mr. WALLACE. Yeah. But how old are the youngest kids that you know who do it out here?

Boy. Thirteen, fourteen. Thirteen on up.<ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/46772NCJRS.pdf#page=129 "Kiddie Porn"] CBS News from "60 Minutes," Produced by Barry Lando, Vol. IX, No. 33, as broadcast over the CBS Television Network, Sunday, May 15, 1977, with CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Morley Safer, via Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, p. 126.</ref></blockquote>

== Popular Culture ==

The 2004 film ''The Hillside Strangler''<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376649/ IMDB] entry for ''The Hillside Strangler''</ref> includes scenes of the Gold Cup, which online commentary describes as accurate.

In Tom Reamy's 1975 award-winning fantasy story "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_Lightfoot_Sue Wikipedia on "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"]</ref>, the fifteen-year-old protagonist arrives in Los Angeles by bus from Kansas, and reaches a coffee shop that is clearly The Gold Cup:
<blockquote>John Lee got off and stood at the corner of Hollywood and Vine grinning at the night. He walked down Hollywood Boulevard, gawking at everything, reading the names in stars on the sidewalk. He never imagined there would be so many cars or so many people at night. There were more than you would see in liberal even on Saturday afternoon. And the strange clothes the people wore. And men with long hair like the Beatles. Mary Ellen Walker had a colored picture of them pasted on her notebook. He didn’t know how far he had walked—the street never seemed to end—but the box was heavy. He was hungry and his Sunday shoes had rubbed a blister on his heel. He went into a cafe and sat in a booth, glad to get rid of the weight of the box. Most of the people looked at him as he came in. Several of them smiled. He smiled back. A couple of people had said hello on the street too. Hollywood was certainly a friendly place. He told the waitress what he wanted. He looked around the cafe and met the eyes of a man at the counter who had smiled when he came in. The man smiled again. John Lee smiled back, feeling good. The man got off the stool and came to the booth carrying a cup of coffee.</blockquote>

The 1977 punk "Trouble At The Cup" by Black Randy & Metrosquad, is written from the viewpoint of a runway. The lyrics include, "They say the boulevard is no place to be [...] I'd rather stand here and sell my dick" and complains of police violence, saying "Hollywood Boulevard is a military zone".<ref name=Fein1990 /> "In the late seventies there was a punk band called Arthur J and the Gold Cups, incorporating the names of two of the town’s most unsavory restaurants."<ref name=Fein1990 />

The 2019 "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" recreated a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard, with stars DiCaprio and Pitt dining with Al Pacino at the Musso & Frank Grill, half a block from the Gold Cup's site at the corner of Las Palmas. <ref>[https://variety.com/2019/film/news/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-locations-guide-musso-and-frank-1203284555/ Variety on "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" locations]</ref> A look at YouTube "making of" videos, however, show that director Taratino neither reproduced the Gold Cup - it remained as it is today, a tattoo parlor - nor its teenage sidewalk hustlers.<ref>[https://youtu.be/IUpNHBYjO80?t=359 Youtube] Making of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" - BTS On Location July 23, 24 & Oct 22, 23 2018. </ref>

== Linked to Lyric scandal ==
In the 1973 scandal which brought down [[Lyric International]], the ''Los Angeles Times'' claimed that “Many of the youngsters involved were recruited at hangouts for homosexuals particularly a Hollywood Blvd. coffee shop and a motel in Hollywood.”<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref> On-line advertisements for a game offering a "Fabulous 3-D Action walk-through of Hollywood Boulevard, circa 1968" lists among the sights of that time and place, "...oh, there's [[Billy Byars, Jr.|Billy Byers, Jr.]] (''sic'') over at the Gold Cup".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120317142206/http://www.slimeworld.org/bardotown/bardogames/gemini.html GEMINI "PSYCHEDELIC SUPERMARKET"]</ref>.

A Lyric producer named in the scandal described the police methodology in a 1975 interview, "What they did was to very, very carefully invent and build up cases against these fourteen people whose names they had scared out of a couple of teenage prostitutes". He said of these two supposed victims, "Well, two of them were just hustlers the police had dug up—I hardly even knew them. They had worked for Lyric a good little while ago. Even the police didn't push their stories too much, because they were both well into their teens and they admitted they were willing participants."<ref name=campfire>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120061219/http://www.hunkvideo.com/library/lewis/index.html Jones, Marvin. Interview]. Campfire Video Library</ref>

== Photos at ONE Archive ==

The ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California library has digitized photos in its collection, including of The Gold Cup.<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5182 Gold Cup Negatives] in ONE Archives</ref> Some of the scanned negatives are labeled as including "Gold Cup restaurant and street hustlers"<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5185 Gold Cup restaurant and street hustlers] in ONE Archives</ref>, and there are a few others just of "Street hustlers"<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5215 Street hustlers] in ONE Archives</ref>, which appear to be less than a block away, at Las Palmas and Selma. All these photos are in the daytime, although the texts (and song) above refer to night or 24-hour hustling. There is also a color photo of, "The crowd at Los Angeles's first Christopher Street West pride parade in front of the Gold Cup Restaurant. 1970."<ref name=GoldCupPride>[https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/asset-management/2A3BF1OX9JWY4 Gay pride parade crowd in front of Gold Cup] in ONE Archives</ref>"

A search will find photos for sale in sites offering vintage Hollywood images, and a least one interior photo is available.

== References ==

[[Category:History]]

Gold Cup

2022-07-14T18:55:21Z

Sneeuwbol: /* Nationally known for young hustlers */

'''The Gold Cup''' at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas was "a notoriously sleazy dump of a coffee shop". <ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050410011139/http://www.tvparty.com/tvp-AC/homeroom1/12-1-80.html Eye, Billy. "In search of punk life?"]. ''Data-Boy Magazine'', Hollywood. December 1, 1980. The printed editions are available at the [https://onearchives.andornot.com/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll?AC=GET_RECORD&XC=/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll&BU=https%3A%2F%2Fonearchives.andornot.com%2F&TN=opac&SN=AUTO8979&SE=1629&RN=0&MR=20&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=2&XP=&RF=WebBrief&EF=&DF=WebFull&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=3&ID=&MF=&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=21514&NR=0&NB=0&SV=0&SS=0&BG=&FG=&QS=&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=ISO-8859-1 ONE Archives at USC]</ref>"Once a beacon for teenage runaways, the Gold Cup attracted the worst elements of Hollywood Boulevard sleaze."<ref name=Fein1990>[https://archive.org/details/lamusicalhistory0000fein/page/50/mode/2up Fein, Art. The Gold Cup] "The L.A. musical history tour: a guide to the rock and roll landmarks of Los Angeles". Boston : Faber and Faber, 1990</ref>
== Nationally known for young hustlers ==
[[Image:Gold Cup.jpg|thumb|300px|right|''Crowds watch Los Angeles's first Pride parade in 1970 in front of the Gold Cup''<ref name=GoldCupPride />]]The Gold Cup was a hangout and pick-up place for young male hustlers. An online source compares it to a location where runaway teenage girls congregated, "A different kind of same kind of place was The Gold Cup coffee shop at Las Palmas and Hollywood. The neighborhood teemed with 15 and 16 year old boys who ran away before 'someone found out'. Since they couldn't get in bars, it was the Gold Cup for them. (But the boys had it better off... They got to keep their whole $5 instead of split it with a pimp!)"<ref>[https://depthshooter.blogspot.com/2009/05/hollywood-crime-scnes-procurment-of.html Depthshooter on "Hollywood Crime Scenes"]</ref> It was also a source for actors for pornographic films:
<blockquote>One early filmmaker, Barry Knight, described how “central casting in those days was The Gold Cup restaurant on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmos [in L.A.]. Whenever they needed an actor, or an actor didn’t show up, they’d go down to ‘central casting’...” (Douglas 1996a, p. 11).<ref>{{Citation
| last=Escoffier
| first=Jeffrey
| title=Gay-for-Pay: Straight Men and the Making of Gay Pornography
| journal=Qualitative Sociology
| volume=26
| issue=4
| year=2003
| pages=521-535
| url=http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/~mma/teaching/MS110/reading/GayforPay.pdf#5
}}</ref></blockquote>
Jackson Browne sang of it in his 1980 hit ''Boulevard'':<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulevard_(song) Wikipedia on ''Boulevard'']</ref>
<blockquote>"Down at the golden cup They set the young ones up Under the neon light Selling day for night"</blockquote>
Online rumor says that boys as young as 12-16 could be found in the Gold Cup or on the sidewalk outside.
<blockquote>"There used to be a 24 hour coffee shop at Hollywood Blvd and Selma Ave called the Gold Cup. [...] That's where the pedos could find either sex for rent, and these little kids were either addicted, runaways, often both. 
I have been there on medical aid calls many times. I remember one little boy, approx 11 years old, painted up like a vaudeville hussy, wearing girls' clothes, and beat bloody to a pulp."<ref>[https://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,11464793~mode=journal#6 A retired Fire Captain thinks back...]</ref></blockquote>

During the [[great kiddie porn panic]], national media in May, 1977 showcased the child pornography problem, and The Gold Cup appeared in a number of national vehicles.
=== Chicago Tribune ===
"Los Angeles [is] the child pornography capital of the United States," informs one article in ''The Chicago Tribune’s'' May, 1977 series on child prostitution, and the epicenter was The Gold Cup:
<blockquote>In Los Angeles, police told the Tribune, the favorite gathering place of runaway boys and the men who prey on them is in the area of the Gold Cup Restaurant at 6700 Hollywood Dr. One night recently, a Tribune reporter watched about 14 youths, between 12 and 20 years old, waiting on the sidewalk in front of the Gold Cup. Occasionally a man would walk up, a whispered conversation would ensue, and man would walk away with a boy. "We have no problem finding our sex offenders here," [Sgt. Lloyd] Martin said. "But we don't have laws to detain them."<ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/51083NCJRS.pdf#452 How Ruses Lure Victims to Child Pornographers]. Chicago Tribune, 17 May 1977, in PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AGAINST SEXUAL EXPLOITATION Hearings before the Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency], 95th Congress, 1st Session, Chicago, Ill., May 27, 1977, Washington, DC. June 16, 1977, pp. 437-440</ref></blockquote>
=== The New York Times ===
<blockquote><center><big>The Last Porno Show</big>
(By Robert Sam Anson)

The Cup and the Rack</center>
In Los Angeles, when police say "the Cup" they mean the Gold Cup Cafe, at Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas, first stop on what is called "the meat rack." The meat rack begins at the Cup, runs down Las Palmas, then turns right on Selma, goes on for a couple of blocks, then left on Highland to Santa Monica. It is not hard to find it. Simply follow the slowly cruising cars and look for kids lounging on the street. When the cars stop and the kids walk over, you're there.

On any night of the week, the Gold Cup is jammed: with kids, both boys and girls, menacing-looking black pimps, a few assorted lesbians and a sizable contingent of middle-aged chickenhawks. The atmosphere is a cross between a YMCA club and Dante's ninth circle. In the back of the Cup half a dozen teenage boys are playing pinball. A scantily dressed prostitute wanders in to watch the action. Then she leans over one of the machines to see the score, one of her breasts flops out. No one looks twice. In the front of the cafe, three beefy chickenhawks sit in a booth, chatting, sipping coffee, and commenting on the passing merchandise. "Who's that sweet little blond?" one of them calls out, and blows a kiss to a boy sitting at the counter. The youth turns, smiles knowingly, and walks to the table. One of the chickenhawks reaches out and fondles his crotch.

At 9:30, when the cafe closes for the night, the kids straggle out the door, some heading off for other well-known "chicken coops" in the neighborhood, others around the corner to the bookstall on Las Palmas (where one of the gay magazines features pictures of one of the boys who'd been playing pinball that night), and still others down the block to Selma Avenue. There they queue up for the cruising chickenhawks. <ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/46772NCJRS.pdf#page=158 "The Last Porno Show"] Robert Sam Anson, ''New York Times'', June 24, 1977 via Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, p. 155.</ref></blockquote>

=== CBS 60 Minutes ===
<blockquote><center><big>KIDDIE PORN</big>
Sunday, May 15, 1977, with CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Morley Safer

(Produced by Barry Lando) </center>
Sergeant MARTIN. Not only do your adults come up here looking for to satisfy their sexual pleasures, but you will also find the pornographers that's looking for models. A typical place for them to go would be in here to the Gold Cup restaurant here. This one down—

Mr. WALLACE. The Gold Cup right over here?

Sergeant MARTIN. Yes, right here on the right. And I've seen them as young as six years old in here, all the way up to eighteen or nineteen.

Mr. WALLACE. Six years old?

Sergeant MARTIN. Six years old. A lot of the hot dog stands and pinball arcades, this is where the young ones, the real young ones, would come to—to play the pinball machines. This is where the chicken hawk would come with a pocket full of quarters to give the young kids. This is how he makes his introduction. Then it leads up: Would you like to go home and smoke a joint? And it's little by little, but it maybe only take an hour, an hour and a half, till he's got him home and got him in the bed. After that point, after the act of oral copulation has occurred, or sodomy, what's—what's a little bit of picture taking? That's nothing. Other kids that don't—that don't score at "The Meat Rack" walk down Highland Avenue here to the Arthur J's restaurant.

Mr. WALLACE. This is a regular beat?

Sergeant MARTIN. It's a regular beat, yes.

Mr. WALLACE. [to boy]. Who are you waiting for?

Boy. Huh?

Mr. WALLACE. Who are you waiting for?

Boy. I'm waiting for a trick.

Mr. WALLACE. How old are some of the kids who work here? Boy. Some of them is young. Here?

Mr. WALLACE. How young.

Boy. Sixteen. A lot—there's a lot of chicken around here. There's a lot of old men who likes chicken. That's what they call chicken.

Mr. WALLACE. Yeah. But how old are the youngest kids that you know who do it out here?

Boy. Thirteen, fourteen. Thirteen on up.<ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/46772NCJRS.pdf#page=129 "Kiddie Porn"] CBS News from "60 Minutes," Produced by Barry Lando, Vol. IX, No. 33, as broadcast over the CBS Television Network, Sunday, May 15, 1977, with CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Morley Safer, via Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, p. 126.</ref></blockquote>

== Popular Culture ==

The 2004 film ''The Hillside Strangler''<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376649/ IMDB] entry for ''The Hillside Strangler''</ref> includes scenes of the Gold Cup, which online commentary describes as accurate.

In Tom Reamy's 1975 award-winning fantasy story "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_Lightfoot_Sue Wikipedia on "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"]</ref>, the fifteen-year-old protagonist arrives in Los Angeles by bus from Kansas, and reaches a coffee shop that is clearly The Gold Cup:
<blockquote>John Lee got off and stood at the corner of Hollywood and Vine grinning at the night. He walked down Hollywood Boulevard, gawking at everything, reading the names in stars on the sidewalk. He never imagined there would be so many cars or so many people at night. There were more than you would see in liberal even on Saturday afternoon. And the strange clothes the people wore. And men with long hair like the Beatles. Mary Ellen Walker had a colored picture of them pasted on her notebook. He didn’t know how far he had walked—the street never seemed to end—but the box was heavy. He was hungry and his Sunday shoes had rubbed a blister on his heel. He went into a cafe and sat in a booth, glad to get rid of the weight of the box. Most of the people looked at him as he came in. Several of them smiled. He smiled back. A couple of people had said hello on the street too. Hollywood was certainly a friendly place. He told the waitress what he wanted. He looked around the cafe and met the eyes of a man at the counter who had smiled when he came in. The man smiled again. John Lee smiled back, feeling good. The man got off the stool and came to the booth carrying a cup of coffee.</blockquote>

The 1977 punk "Trouble At The Cup" by Black Randy & Metrosquad, is written from the viewpoint of a runway. The lyrics include, "They say the boulevard is no place to be [...] I'd rather stand here and sell my dick" and complains of police violence, saying "Hollywood Boulevard is a military zone".<ref name=Fein1990 /> "In the late seventies there was a punk band called Arthur J and the Gold Cups, incorporating the names of two of the town’s most unsavory restaurants."<ref name=Fein1990 />

The 2019 "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" recreated a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard, with stars DiCaprio and Pitt dining with Al Pacino at the Musso & Frank Grill, half a block from the Gold Cup's site at the corner of Las Palmas. <ref>[https://variety.com/2019/film/news/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-locations-guide-musso-and-frank-1203284555/ Variety on "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" locations]</ref> A look at YouTube "making of" videos, however, show that director Taratino neither reproduced the Gold Cup - it remained as it is today, a tattoo parlor - nor its teenage sidewalk hustlers.<ref>[https://youtu.be/IUpNHBYjO80?t=359 Youtube] Making of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" - BTS On Location July 23, 24 & Oct 22, 23 2018. </ref>

== Linked to Lyric scandal ==
In the 1973 scandal which brought down [[Lyric International]], the ''Los Angeles Times'' claimed that “Many of the youngsters involved were recruited at hangouts for homosexuals particularly a Hollywood Blvd. coffee shop and a motel in Hollywood.”<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref> On-line advertisements for a game offering a "Fabulous 3-D Action walk-through of Hollywood Boulevard, circa 1968" lists among the sights of that time and place, "...oh, there's [[Billy Byars, Jr.|Billy Byers, Jr.]] (''sic'') over at the Gold Cup".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120317142206/http://www.slimeworld.org/bardotown/bardogames/gemini.html GEMINI "PSYCHEDELIC SUPERMARKET"]</ref>.

A Lyric producer named in the scandal described the police methodology in a 1975 interview, "What they did was to very, very carefully invent and build up cases against these fourteen people whose names they had scared out of a couple of teenage prostitutes". He said of these two supposed victims, "Well, two of them were just hustlers the police had dug up—I hardly even knew them. They had worked for Lyric a good little while ago. Even the police didn't push their stories too much, because they were both well into their teens and they admitted they were willing participants."<ref name=campfire>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120061219/http://www.hunkvideo.com/library/lewis/index.html Jones, Marvin. Interview]. Campfire Video Library</ref>

== Photos at ONE Archive ==

The ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California library has digitized photos in its collection, including of The Gold Cup.<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5182 Gold Cup Negatives] in ONE Archives</ref> Some of the scanned negatives are labeled as including "Gold Cup restaurant and street hustlers"<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5185 Gold Cup restaurant and street hustlers] in ONE Archives</ref>, and there are a few others just of "Street hustlers"<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5215 Street hustlers] in ONE Archives</ref>, which appear to be less than a block away, at Las Palmas and Selma. All these photos are in the daytime, although the texts (and song) above refer to night or 24-hour hustling. There is also a color photo of, "The crowd at Los Angeles's first Christopher Street West pride parade in front of the Gold Cup Restaurant. 1970."<ref name=GoldCupPride>[https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/asset-management/2A3BF1OX9JWY4 Gay pride parade crowd in front of Gold Cup] in ONE Archives</ref>"

A search will find photos for sale in sites offering vintage Hollywood images, and a least one interior photo is available.

== References ==

[[Category:History]]

Gold Cup

2022-07-14T18:53:48Z

Sneeuwbol: /* Nationally known for young hustlers */

'''The Gold Cup''' at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas was "a notoriously sleazy dump of a coffee shop". <ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050410011139/http://www.tvparty.com/tvp-AC/homeroom1/12-1-80.html Eye, Billy. "In search of punk life?"]. ''Data-Boy Magazine'', Hollywood. December 1, 1980. The printed editions are available at the [https://onearchives.andornot.com/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll?AC=GET_RECORD&XC=/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll&BU=https%3A%2F%2Fonearchives.andornot.com%2F&TN=opac&SN=AUTO8979&SE=1629&RN=0&MR=20&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=2&XP=&RF=WebBrief&EF=&DF=WebFull&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=3&ID=&MF=&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=21514&NR=0&NB=0&SV=0&SS=0&BG=&FG=&QS=&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=ISO-8859-1 ONE Archives at USC]</ref>"Once a beacon for teenage runaways, the Gold Cup attracted the worst elements of Hollywood Boulevard sleaze."<ref name=Fein1990>[https://archive.org/details/lamusicalhistory0000fein/page/50/mode/2up Fein, Art. The Gold Cup] "The L.A. musical history tour: a guide to the rock and roll landmarks of Los Angeles". Boston : Faber and Faber, 1990</ref>
== Nationally known for young hustlers ==
[[Image:Gold Cup.jpg|thumb|300px|right|''Crowds watch Los Angeles's first Pride parade in 1970 in front of the Gold Cup''<ref name=GoldCupPride>]]The Gold Cup was a hangout and pick-up place for young male hustlers. An online source compares it to a location where runaway teenage girls congregated, "A different kind of same kind of place was The Gold Cup coffee shop at Las Palmas and Hollywood. The neighborhood teemed with 15 and 16 year old boys who ran away before 'someone found out'. Since they couldn't get in bars, it was the Gold Cup for them. (But the boys had it better off... They got to keep their whole $5 instead of split it with a pimp!)"<ref>[https://depthshooter.blogspot.com/2009/05/hollywood-crime-scnes-procurment-of.html Depthshooter on "Hollywood Crime Scenes"]</ref> It was also a source for actors for pornographic films:
<blockquote>One early filmmaker, Barry Knight, described how “central casting in those days was The Gold Cup restaurant on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmos [in L.A.]. Whenever they needed an actor, or an actor didn’t show up, they’d go down to ‘central casting’...” (Douglas 1996a, p. 11).<ref>{{Citation
| last=Escoffier
| first=Jeffrey
| title=Gay-for-Pay: Straight Men and the Making of Gay Pornography
| journal=Qualitative Sociology
| volume=26
| issue=4
| year=2003
| pages=521-535
| url=http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/~mma/teaching/MS110/reading/GayforPay.pdf#5
}}</ref></blockquote>
Jackson Browne sang of it in his 1980 hit ''Boulevard'':<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulevard_(song) Wikipedia on ''Boulevard'']</ref>
<blockquote>"Down at the golden cup They set the young ones up Under the neon light Selling day for night"</blockquote>
Online rumor says that boys as young as 12-16 could be found in the Gold Cup or on the sidewalk outside.
<blockquote>"There used to be a 24 hour coffee shop at Hollywood Blvd and Selma Ave called the Gold Cup. [...] That's where the pedos could find either sex for rent, and these little kids were either addicted, runaways, often both. 
I have been there on medical aid calls many times. I remember one little boy, approx 11 years old, painted up like a vaudeville hussy, wearing girls' clothes, and beat bloody to a pulp."<ref>[https://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,11464793~mode=journal#6 A retired Fire Captain thinks back...]</ref></blockquote>

During the [[great kiddie porn panic]], national media in May, 1977 showcased the child pornography problem, and The Gold Cup appeared in a number of national vehicles.
=== Chicago Tribune ===
"Los Angeles [is] the child pornography capital of the United States," informs one article in ''The Chicago Tribune’s'' May, 1977 series on child prostitution, and the epicenter was The Gold Cup:
<blockquote>In Los Angeles, police told the Tribune, the favorite gathering place of runaway boys and the men who prey on them is in the area of the Gold Cup Restaurant at 6700 Hollywood Dr. One night recently, a Tribune reporter watched about 14 youths, between 12 and 20 years old, waiting on the sidewalk in front of the Gold Cup. Occasionally a man would walk up, a whispered conversation would ensue, and man would walk away with a boy. "We have no problem finding our sex offenders here," [Sgt. Lloyd] Martin said. "But we don't have laws to detain them."<ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/51083NCJRS.pdf#452 How Ruses Lure Victims to Child Pornographers]. Chicago Tribune, 17 May 1977, in PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AGAINST SEXUAL EXPLOITATION Hearings before the Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency], 95th Congress, 1st Session, Chicago, Ill., May 27, 1977, Washington, DC. June 16, 1977, pp. 437-440</ref></blockquote>
=== The New York Times ===
<blockquote><center><big>The Last Porno Show</big>
(By Robert Sam Anson)

The Cup and the Rack</center>
In Los Angeles, when police say "the Cup" they mean the Gold Cup Cafe, at Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas, first stop on what is called "the meat rack." The meat rack begins at the Cup, runs down Las Palmas, then turns right on Selma, goes on for a couple of blocks, then left on Highland to Santa Monica. It is not hard to find it. Simply follow the slowly cruising cars and look for kids lounging on the street. When the cars stop and the kids walk over, you're there.

On any night of the week, the Gold Cup is jammed: with kids, both boys and girls, menacing-looking black pimps, a few assorted lesbians and a sizable contingent of middle-aged chickenhawks. The atmosphere is a cross between a YMCA club and Dante's ninth circle. In the back of the Cup half a dozen teenage boys are playing pinball. A scantily dressed prostitute wanders in to watch the action. Then she leans over one of the machines to see the score, one of her breasts flops out. No one looks twice. In the front of the cafe, three beefy chickenhawks sit in a booth, chatting, sipping coffee, and commenting on the passing merchandise. "Who's that sweet little blond?" one of them calls out, and blows a kiss to a boy sitting at the counter. The youth turns, smiles knowingly, and walks to the table. One of the chickenhawks reaches out and fondles his crotch.

At 9:30, when the cafe closes for the night, the kids straggle out the door, some heading off for other well-known "chicken coops" in the neighborhood, others around the corner to the bookstall on Las Palmas (where one of the gay magazines features pictures of one of the boys who'd been playing pinball that night), and still others down the block to Selma Avenue. There they queue up for the cruising chickenhawks. <ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/46772NCJRS.pdf#page=158 "The Last Porno Show"] Robert Sam Anson, ''New York Times'', June 24, 1977 via Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, p. 155.</ref></blockquote>

=== CBS 60 Minutes ===
<blockquote><center><big>KIDDIE PORN</big>
Sunday, May 15, 1977, with CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Morley Safer

(Produced by Barry Lando) </center>
Sergeant MARTIN. Not only do your adults come up here looking for to satisfy their sexual pleasures, but you will also find the pornographers that's looking for models. A typical place for them to go would be in here to the Gold Cup restaurant here. This one down—

Mr. WALLACE. The Gold Cup right over here?

Sergeant MARTIN. Yes, right here on the right. And I've seen them as young as six years old in here, all the way up to eighteen or nineteen.

Mr. WALLACE. Six years old?

Sergeant MARTIN. Six years old. A lot of the hot dog stands and pinball arcades, this is where the young ones, the real young ones, would come to—to play the pinball machines. This is where the chicken hawk would come with a pocket full of quarters to give the young kids. This is how he makes his introduction. Then it leads up: Would you like to go home and smoke a joint? And it's little by little, but it maybe only take an hour, an hour and a half, till he's got him home and got him in the bed. After that point, after the act of oral copulation has occurred, or sodomy, what's—what's a little bit of picture taking? That's nothing. Other kids that don't—that don't score at "The Meat Rack" walk down Highland Avenue here to the Arthur J's restaurant.

Mr. WALLACE. This is a regular beat?

Sergeant MARTIN. It's a regular beat, yes.

Mr. WALLACE. [to boy]. Who are you waiting for?

Boy. Huh?

Mr. WALLACE. Who are you waiting for?

Boy. I'm waiting for a trick.

Mr. WALLACE. How old are some of the kids who work here? Boy. Some of them is young. Here?

Mr. WALLACE. How young.

Boy. Sixteen. A lot—there's a lot of chicken around here. There's a lot of old men who likes chicken. That's what they call chicken.

Mr. WALLACE. Yeah. But how old are the youngest kids that you know who do it out here?

Boy. Thirteen, fourteen. Thirteen on up.<ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/46772NCJRS.pdf#page=129 "Kiddie Porn"] CBS News from "60 Minutes," Produced by Barry Lando, Vol. IX, No. 33, as broadcast over the CBS Television Network, Sunday, May 15, 1977, with CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Morley Safer, via Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, p. 126.</ref></blockquote>

== Popular Culture ==

The 2004 film ''The Hillside Strangler''<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376649/ IMDB] entry for ''The Hillside Strangler''</ref> includes scenes of the Gold Cup, which online commentary describes as accurate.

In Tom Reamy's 1975 award-winning fantasy story "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_Lightfoot_Sue Wikipedia on "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"]</ref>, the fifteen-year-old protagonist arrives in Los Angeles by bus from Kansas, and reaches a coffee shop that is clearly The Gold Cup:
<blockquote>John Lee got off and stood at the corner of Hollywood and Vine grinning at the night. He walked down Hollywood Boulevard, gawking at everything, reading the names in stars on the sidewalk. He never imagined there would be so many cars or so many people at night. There were more than you would see in liberal even on Saturday afternoon. And the strange clothes the people wore. And men with long hair like the Beatles. Mary Ellen Walker had a colored picture of them pasted on her notebook. He didn’t know how far he had walked—the street never seemed to end—but the box was heavy. He was hungry and his Sunday shoes had rubbed a blister on his heel. He went into a cafe and sat in a booth, glad to get rid of the weight of the box. Most of the people looked at him as he came in. Several of them smiled. He smiled back. A couple of people had said hello on the street too. Hollywood was certainly a friendly place. He told the waitress what he wanted. He looked around the cafe and met the eyes of a man at the counter who had smiled when he came in. The man smiled again. John Lee smiled back, feeling good. The man got off the stool and came to the booth carrying a cup of coffee.</blockquote>

The 1977 punk "Trouble At The Cup" by Black Randy & Metrosquad, is written from the viewpoint of a runway. The lyrics include, "They say the boulevard is no place to be [...] I'd rather stand here and sell my dick" and complains of police violence, saying "Hollywood Boulevard is a military zone".<ref name=Fein1990 /> "In the late seventies there was a punk band called Arthur J and the Gold Cups, incorporating the names of two of the town’s most unsavory restaurants."<ref name=Fein1990 />

The 2019 "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" recreated a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard, with stars DiCaprio and Pitt dining with Al Pacino at the Musso & Frank Grill, half a block from the Gold Cup's site at the corner of Las Palmas. <ref>[https://variety.com/2019/film/news/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-locations-guide-musso-and-frank-1203284555/ Variety on "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" locations]</ref> A look at YouTube "making of" videos, however, show that director Taratino neither reproduced the Gold Cup - it remained as it is today, a tattoo parlor - nor its teenage sidewalk hustlers.<ref>[https://youtu.be/IUpNHBYjO80?t=359 Youtube] Making of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" - BTS On Location July 23, 24 & Oct 22, 23 2018. </ref>

== Linked to Lyric scandal ==
In the 1973 scandal which brought down [[Lyric International]], the ''Los Angeles Times'' claimed that “Many of the youngsters involved were recruited at hangouts for homosexuals particularly a Hollywood Blvd. coffee shop and a motel in Hollywood.”<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref> On-line advertisements for a game offering a "Fabulous 3-D Action walk-through of Hollywood Boulevard, circa 1968" lists among the sights of that time and place, "...oh, there's [[Billy Byars, Jr.|Billy Byers, Jr.]] (''sic'') over at the Gold Cup".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120317142206/http://www.slimeworld.org/bardotown/bardogames/gemini.html GEMINI "PSYCHEDELIC SUPERMARKET"]</ref>.

A Lyric producer named in the scandal described the police methodology in a 1975 interview, "What they did was to very, very carefully invent and build up cases against these fourteen people whose names they had scared out of a couple of teenage prostitutes". He said of these two supposed victims, "Well, two of them were just hustlers the police had dug up—I hardly even knew them. They had worked for Lyric a good little while ago. Even the police didn't push their stories too much, because they were both well into their teens and they admitted they were willing participants."<ref name=campfire>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120061219/http://www.hunkvideo.com/library/lewis/index.html Jones, Marvin. Interview]. Campfire Video Library</ref>

== Photos at ONE Archive ==

The ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California library has digitized photos in its collection, including of The Gold Cup.<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5182 Gold Cup Negatives] in ONE Archives</ref> Some of the scanned negatives are labeled as including "Gold Cup restaurant and street hustlers"<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5185 Gold Cup restaurant and street hustlers] in ONE Archives</ref>, and there are a few others just of "Street hustlers"<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5215 Street hustlers] in ONE Archives</ref>, which appear to be less than a block away, at Las Palmas and Selma. All these photos are in the daytime, although the texts (and song) above refer to night or 24-hour hustling. There is also a color photo of, "The crowd at Los Angeles's first Christopher Street West pride parade in front of the Gold Cup Restaurant. 1970."<ref name=GoldCupPride>[https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/asset-management/2A3BF1OX9JWY4 Gay pride parade crowd in front of Gold Cup] in ONE Archives</ref>"

A search will find photos for sale in sites offering vintage Hollywood images, and a least one interior photo is available.

== References ==

[[Category:History]]

Gold Cup

2022-07-14T18:53:20Z

Sneeuwbol: /* Photos at ONE Archive */

'''The Gold Cup''' at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas was "a notoriously sleazy dump of a coffee shop". <ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050410011139/http://www.tvparty.com/tvp-AC/homeroom1/12-1-80.html Eye, Billy. "In search of punk life?"]. ''Data-Boy Magazine'', Hollywood. December 1, 1980. The printed editions are available at the [https://onearchives.andornot.com/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll?AC=GET_RECORD&XC=/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll&BU=https%3A%2F%2Fonearchives.andornot.com%2F&TN=opac&SN=AUTO8979&SE=1629&RN=0&MR=20&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=2&XP=&RF=WebBrief&EF=&DF=WebFull&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=3&ID=&MF=&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=21514&NR=0&NB=0&SV=0&SS=0&BG=&FG=&QS=&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=ISO-8859-1 ONE Archives at USC]</ref>"Once a beacon for teenage runaways, the Gold Cup attracted the worst elements of Hollywood Boulevard sleaze."<ref name=Fein1990>[https://archive.org/details/lamusicalhistory0000fein/page/50/mode/2up Fein, Art. The Gold Cup] "The L.A. musical history tour: a guide to the rock and roll landmarks of Los Angeles". Boston : Faber and Faber, 1990</ref>
== Nationally known for young hustlers ==
[[Image:Gold Cup.jpg|thumb|300px|right|''Crowds watch Los Angeles's first Pride parade in 1970 in front of the Gold Cup''<ref=GoldCupPride>]]The Gold Cup was a hangout and pick-up place for young male hustlers. An online source compares it to a location where runaway teenage girls congregated, "A different kind of same kind of place was The Gold Cup coffee shop at Las Palmas and Hollywood. The neighborhood teemed with 15 and 16 year old boys who ran away before 'someone found out'. Since they couldn't get in bars, it was the Gold Cup for them. (But the boys had it better off... They got to keep their whole $5 instead of split it with a pimp!)"<ref>[https://depthshooter.blogspot.com/2009/05/hollywood-crime-scnes-procurment-of.html Depthshooter on "Hollywood Crime Scenes"]</ref> It was also a source for actors for pornographic films:
<blockquote>One early filmmaker, Barry Knight, described how “central casting in those days was The Gold Cup restaurant on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmos [in L.A.]. Whenever they needed an actor, or an actor didn’t show up, they’d go down to ‘central casting’...” (Douglas 1996a, p. 11).<ref>{{Citation
| last=Escoffier
| first=Jeffrey
| title=Gay-for-Pay: Straight Men and the Making of Gay Pornography
| journal=Qualitative Sociology
| volume=26
| issue=4
| year=2003
| pages=521-535
| url=http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/~mma/teaching/MS110/reading/GayforPay.pdf#5
}}</ref></blockquote>
Jackson Browne sang of it in his 1980 hit ''Boulevard'':<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulevard_(song) Wikipedia on ''Boulevard'']</ref>
<blockquote>"Down at the golden cup They set the young ones up Under the neon light Selling day for night"</blockquote>
Online rumor says that boys as young as 12-16 could be found in the Gold Cup or on the sidewalk outside.
<blockquote>"There used to be a 24 hour coffee shop at Hollywood Blvd and Selma Ave called the Gold Cup. [...] That's where the pedos could find either sex for rent, and these little kids were either addicted, runaways, often both. 
I have been there on medical aid calls many times. I remember one little boy, approx 11 years old, painted up like a vaudeville hussy, wearing girls' clothes, and beat bloody to a pulp."<ref>[https://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,11464793~mode=journal#6 A retired Fire Captain thinks back...]</ref></blockquote>

During the [[great kiddie porn panic]], national media in May, 1977 showcased the child pornography problem, and The Gold Cup appeared in a number of national vehicles.
=== Chicago Tribune ===
"Los Angeles [is] the child pornography capital of the United States," informs one article in ''The Chicago Tribune’s'' May, 1977 series on child prostitution, and the epicenter was The Gold Cup:
<blockquote>In Los Angeles, police told the Tribune, the favorite gathering place of runaway boys and the men who prey on them is in the area of the Gold Cup Restaurant at 6700 Hollywood Dr. One night recently, a Tribune reporter watched about 14 youths, between 12 and 20 years old, waiting on the sidewalk in front of the Gold Cup. Occasionally a man would walk up, a whispered conversation would ensue, and man would walk away with a boy. "We have no problem finding our sex offenders here," [Sgt. Lloyd] Martin said. "But we don't have laws to detain them."<ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/51083NCJRS.pdf#452 How Ruses Lure Victims to Child Pornographers]. Chicago Tribune, 17 May 1977, in PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AGAINST SEXUAL EXPLOITATION Hearings before the Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency], 95th Congress, 1st Session, Chicago, Ill., May 27, 1977, Washington, DC. June 16, 1977, pp. 437-440</ref></blockquote>
=== The New York Times ===
<blockquote><center><big>The Last Porno Show</big>
(By Robert Sam Anson)

The Cup and the Rack</center>
In Los Angeles, when police say "the Cup" they mean the Gold Cup Cafe, at Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas, first stop on what is called "the meat rack." The meat rack begins at the Cup, runs down Las Palmas, then turns right on Selma, goes on for a couple of blocks, then left on Highland to Santa Monica. It is not hard to find it. Simply follow the slowly cruising cars and look for kids lounging on the street. When the cars stop and the kids walk over, you're there.

On any night of the week, the Gold Cup is jammed: with kids, both boys and girls, menacing-looking black pimps, a few assorted lesbians and a sizable contingent of middle-aged chickenhawks. The atmosphere is a cross between a YMCA club and Dante's ninth circle. In the back of the Cup half a dozen teenage boys are playing pinball. A scantily dressed prostitute wanders in to watch the action. Then she leans over one of the machines to see the score, one of her breasts flops out. No one looks twice. In the front of the cafe, three beefy chickenhawks sit in a booth, chatting, sipping coffee, and commenting on the passing merchandise. "Who's that sweet little blond?" one of them calls out, and blows a kiss to a boy sitting at the counter. The youth turns, smiles knowingly, and walks to the table. One of the chickenhawks reaches out and fondles his crotch.

At 9:30, when the cafe closes for the night, the kids straggle out the door, some heading off for other well-known "chicken coops" in the neighborhood, others around the corner to the bookstall on Las Palmas (where one of the gay magazines features pictures of one of the boys who'd been playing pinball that night), and still others down the block to Selma Avenue. There they queue up for the cruising chickenhawks. <ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/46772NCJRS.pdf#page=158 "The Last Porno Show"] Robert Sam Anson, ''New York Times'', June 24, 1977 via Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, p. 155.</ref></blockquote>

=== CBS 60 Minutes ===
<blockquote><center><big>KIDDIE PORN</big>
Sunday, May 15, 1977, with CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Morley Safer

(Produced by Barry Lando) </center>
Sergeant MARTIN. Not only do your adults come up here looking for to satisfy their sexual pleasures, but you will also find the pornographers that's looking for models. A typical place for them to go would be in here to the Gold Cup restaurant here. This one down—

Mr. WALLACE. The Gold Cup right over here?

Sergeant MARTIN. Yes, right here on the right. And I've seen them as young as six years old in here, all the way up to eighteen or nineteen.

Mr. WALLACE. Six years old?

Sergeant MARTIN. Six years old. A lot of the hot dog stands and pinball arcades, this is where the young ones, the real young ones, would come to—to play the pinball machines. This is where the chicken hawk would come with a pocket full of quarters to give the young kids. This is how he makes his introduction. Then it leads up: Would you like to go home and smoke a joint? And it's little by little, but it maybe only take an hour, an hour and a half, till he's got him home and got him in the bed. After that point, after the act of oral copulation has occurred, or sodomy, what's—what's a little bit of picture taking? That's nothing. Other kids that don't—that don't score at "The Meat Rack" walk down Highland Avenue here to the Arthur J's restaurant.

Mr. WALLACE. This is a regular beat?

Sergeant MARTIN. It's a regular beat, yes.

Mr. WALLACE. [to boy]. Who are you waiting for?

Boy. Huh?

Mr. WALLACE. Who are you waiting for?

Boy. I'm waiting for a trick.

Mr. WALLACE. How old are some of the kids who work here? Boy. Some of them is young. Here?

Mr. WALLACE. How young.

Boy. Sixteen. A lot—there's a lot of chicken around here. There's a lot of old men who likes chicken. That's what they call chicken.

Mr. WALLACE. Yeah. But how old are the youngest kids that you know who do it out here?

Boy. Thirteen, fourteen. Thirteen on up.<ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/46772NCJRS.pdf#page=129 "Kiddie Porn"] CBS News from "60 Minutes," Produced by Barry Lando, Vol. IX, No. 33, as broadcast over the CBS Television Network, Sunday, May 15, 1977, with CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Morley Safer, via Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, p. 126.</ref></blockquote>

== Popular Culture ==

The 2004 film ''The Hillside Strangler''<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376649/ IMDB] entry for ''The Hillside Strangler''</ref> includes scenes of the Gold Cup, which online commentary describes as accurate.

In Tom Reamy's 1975 award-winning fantasy story "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_Lightfoot_Sue Wikipedia on "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"]</ref>, the fifteen-year-old protagonist arrives in Los Angeles by bus from Kansas, and reaches a coffee shop that is clearly The Gold Cup:
<blockquote>John Lee got off and stood at the corner of Hollywood and Vine grinning at the night. He walked down Hollywood Boulevard, gawking at everything, reading the names in stars on the sidewalk. He never imagined there would be so many cars or so many people at night. There were more than you would see in liberal even on Saturday afternoon. And the strange clothes the people wore. And men with long hair like the Beatles. Mary Ellen Walker had a colored picture of them pasted on her notebook. He didn’t know how far he had walked—the street never seemed to end—but the box was heavy. He was hungry and his Sunday shoes had rubbed a blister on his heel. He went into a cafe and sat in a booth, glad to get rid of the weight of the box. Most of the people looked at him as he came in. Several of them smiled. He smiled back. A couple of people had said hello on the street too. Hollywood was certainly a friendly place. He told the waitress what he wanted. He looked around the cafe and met the eyes of a man at the counter who had smiled when he came in. The man smiled again. John Lee smiled back, feeling good. The man got off the stool and came to the booth carrying a cup of coffee.</blockquote>

The 1977 punk "Trouble At The Cup" by Black Randy & Metrosquad, is written from the viewpoint of a runway. The lyrics include, "They say the boulevard is no place to be [...] I'd rather stand here and sell my dick" and complains of police violence, saying "Hollywood Boulevard is a military zone".<ref name=Fein1990 /> "In the late seventies there was a punk band called Arthur J and the Gold Cups, incorporating the names of two of the town’s most unsavory restaurants."<ref name=Fein1990 />

The 2019 "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" recreated a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard, with stars DiCaprio and Pitt dining with Al Pacino at the Musso & Frank Grill, half a block from the Gold Cup's site at the corner of Las Palmas. <ref>[https://variety.com/2019/film/news/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-locations-guide-musso-and-frank-1203284555/ Variety on "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" locations]</ref> A look at YouTube "making of" videos, however, show that director Taratino neither reproduced the Gold Cup - it remained as it is today, a tattoo parlor - nor its teenage sidewalk hustlers.<ref>[https://youtu.be/IUpNHBYjO80?t=359 Youtube] Making of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" - BTS On Location July 23, 24 & Oct 22, 23 2018. </ref>

== Linked to Lyric scandal ==
In the 1973 scandal which brought down [[Lyric International]], the ''Los Angeles Times'' claimed that “Many of the youngsters involved were recruited at hangouts for homosexuals particularly a Hollywood Blvd. coffee shop and a motel in Hollywood.”<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref> On-line advertisements for a game offering a "Fabulous 3-D Action walk-through of Hollywood Boulevard, circa 1968" lists among the sights of that time and place, "...oh, there's [[Billy Byars, Jr.|Billy Byers, Jr.]] (''sic'') over at the Gold Cup".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120317142206/http://www.slimeworld.org/bardotown/bardogames/gemini.html GEMINI "PSYCHEDELIC SUPERMARKET"]</ref>.

A Lyric producer named in the scandal described the police methodology in a 1975 interview, "What they did was to very, very carefully invent and build up cases against these fourteen people whose names they had scared out of a couple of teenage prostitutes". He said of these two supposed victims, "Well, two of them were just hustlers the police had dug up—I hardly even knew them. They had worked for Lyric a good little while ago. Even the police didn't push their stories too much, because they were both well into their teens and they admitted they were willing participants."<ref name=campfire>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120061219/http://www.hunkvideo.com/library/lewis/index.html Jones, Marvin. Interview]. Campfire Video Library</ref>

== Photos at ONE Archive ==

The ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California library has digitized photos in its collection, including of The Gold Cup.<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5182 Gold Cup Negatives] in ONE Archives</ref> Some of the scanned negatives are labeled as including "Gold Cup restaurant and street hustlers"<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5185 Gold Cup restaurant and street hustlers] in ONE Archives</ref>, and there are a few others just of "Street hustlers"<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5215 Street hustlers] in ONE Archives</ref>, which appear to be less than a block away, at Las Palmas and Selma. All these photos are in the daytime, although the texts (and song) above refer to night or 24-hour hustling. There is also a color photo of, "The crowd at Los Angeles's first Christopher Street West pride parade in front of the Gold Cup Restaurant. 1970."<ref name=GoldCupPride>[https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/asset-management/2A3BF1OX9JWY4 Gay pride parade crowd in front of Gold Cup] in ONE Archives</ref>"

A search will find photos for sale in sites offering vintage Hollywood images, and a least one interior photo is available.

== References ==

[[Category:History]]

Gold Cup

2022-07-14T18:52:37Z

Sneeuwbol: /* Nationally known for young hustlers */

'''The Gold Cup''' at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas was "a notoriously sleazy dump of a coffee shop". <ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050410011139/http://www.tvparty.com/tvp-AC/homeroom1/12-1-80.html Eye, Billy. "In search of punk life?"]. ''Data-Boy Magazine'', Hollywood. December 1, 1980. The printed editions are available at the [https://onearchives.andornot.com/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll?AC=GET_RECORD&XC=/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll&BU=https%3A%2F%2Fonearchives.andornot.com%2F&TN=opac&SN=AUTO8979&SE=1629&RN=0&MR=20&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=2&XP=&RF=WebBrief&EF=&DF=WebFull&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=3&ID=&MF=&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=21514&NR=0&NB=0&SV=0&SS=0&BG=&FG=&QS=&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=ISO-8859-1 ONE Archives at USC]</ref>"Once a beacon for teenage runaways, the Gold Cup attracted the worst elements of Hollywood Boulevard sleaze."<ref name=Fein1990>[https://archive.org/details/lamusicalhistory0000fein/page/50/mode/2up Fein, Art. The Gold Cup] "The L.A. musical history tour: a guide to the rock and roll landmarks of Los Angeles". Boston : Faber and Faber, 1990</ref>
== Nationally known for young hustlers ==
[[Image:Gold Cup.jpg|thumb|300px|right|''Crowds watch Los Angeles's first Pride parade in 1970 in front of the Gold Cup''<ref=GoldCupPride>]]The Gold Cup was a hangout and pick-up place for young male hustlers. An online source compares it to a location where runaway teenage girls congregated, "A different kind of same kind of place was The Gold Cup coffee shop at Las Palmas and Hollywood. The neighborhood teemed with 15 and 16 year old boys who ran away before 'someone found out'. Since they couldn't get in bars, it was the Gold Cup for them. (But the boys had it better off... They got to keep their whole $5 instead of split it with a pimp!)"<ref>[https://depthshooter.blogspot.com/2009/05/hollywood-crime-scnes-procurment-of.html Depthshooter on "Hollywood Crime Scenes"]</ref> It was also a source for actors for pornographic films:
<blockquote>One early filmmaker, Barry Knight, described how “central casting in those days was The Gold Cup restaurant on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmos [in L.A.]. Whenever they needed an actor, or an actor didn’t show up, they’d go down to ‘central casting’...” (Douglas 1996a, p. 11).<ref>{{Citation
| last=Escoffier
| first=Jeffrey
| title=Gay-for-Pay: Straight Men and the Making of Gay Pornography
| journal=Qualitative Sociology
| volume=26
| issue=4
| year=2003
| pages=521-535
| url=http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/~mma/teaching/MS110/reading/GayforPay.pdf#5
}}</ref></blockquote>
Jackson Browne sang of it in his 1980 hit ''Boulevard'':<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulevard_(song) Wikipedia on ''Boulevard'']</ref>
<blockquote>"Down at the golden cup They set the young ones up Under the neon light Selling day for night"</blockquote>
Online rumor says that boys as young as 12-16 could be found in the Gold Cup or on the sidewalk outside.
<blockquote>"There used to be a 24 hour coffee shop at Hollywood Blvd and Selma Ave called the Gold Cup. [...] That's where the pedos could find either sex for rent, and these little kids were either addicted, runaways, often both. 
I have been there on medical aid calls many times. I remember one little boy, approx 11 years old, painted up like a vaudeville hussy, wearing girls' clothes, and beat bloody to a pulp."<ref>[https://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,11464793~mode=journal#6 A retired Fire Captain thinks back...]</ref></blockquote>

During the [[great kiddie porn panic]], national media in May, 1977 showcased the child pornography problem, and The Gold Cup appeared in a number of national vehicles.
=== Chicago Tribune ===
"Los Angeles [is] the child pornography capital of the United States," informs one article in ''The Chicago Tribune’s'' May, 1977 series on child prostitution, and the epicenter was The Gold Cup:
<blockquote>In Los Angeles, police told the Tribune, the favorite gathering place of runaway boys and the men who prey on them is in the area of the Gold Cup Restaurant at 6700 Hollywood Dr. One night recently, a Tribune reporter watched about 14 youths, between 12 and 20 years old, waiting on the sidewalk in front of the Gold Cup. Occasionally a man would walk up, a whispered conversation would ensue, and man would walk away with a boy. "We have no problem finding our sex offenders here," [Sgt. Lloyd] Martin said. "But we don't have laws to detain them."<ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/51083NCJRS.pdf#452 How Ruses Lure Victims to Child Pornographers]. Chicago Tribune, 17 May 1977, in PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AGAINST SEXUAL EXPLOITATION Hearings before the Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency], 95th Congress, 1st Session, Chicago, Ill., May 27, 1977, Washington, DC. June 16, 1977, pp. 437-440</ref></blockquote>
=== The New York Times ===
<blockquote><center><big>The Last Porno Show</big>
(By Robert Sam Anson)

The Cup and the Rack</center>
In Los Angeles, when police say "the Cup" they mean the Gold Cup Cafe, at Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas, first stop on what is called "the meat rack." The meat rack begins at the Cup, runs down Las Palmas, then turns right on Selma, goes on for a couple of blocks, then left on Highland to Santa Monica. It is not hard to find it. Simply follow the slowly cruising cars and look for kids lounging on the street. When the cars stop and the kids walk over, you're there.

On any night of the week, the Gold Cup is jammed: with kids, both boys and girls, menacing-looking black pimps, a few assorted lesbians and a sizable contingent of middle-aged chickenhawks. The atmosphere is a cross between a YMCA club and Dante's ninth circle. In the back of the Cup half a dozen teenage boys are playing pinball. A scantily dressed prostitute wanders in to watch the action. Then she leans over one of the machines to see the score, one of her breasts flops out. No one looks twice. In the front of the cafe, three beefy chickenhawks sit in a booth, chatting, sipping coffee, and commenting on the passing merchandise. "Who's that sweet little blond?" one of them calls out, and blows a kiss to a boy sitting at the counter. The youth turns, smiles knowingly, and walks to the table. One of the chickenhawks reaches out and fondles his crotch.

At 9:30, when the cafe closes for the night, the kids straggle out the door, some heading off for other well-known "chicken coops" in the neighborhood, others around the corner to the bookstall on Las Palmas (where one of the gay magazines features pictures of one of the boys who'd been playing pinball that night), and still others down the block to Selma Avenue. There they queue up for the cruising chickenhawks. <ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/46772NCJRS.pdf#page=158 "The Last Porno Show"] Robert Sam Anson, ''New York Times'', June 24, 1977 via Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, p. 155.</ref></blockquote>

=== CBS 60 Minutes ===
<blockquote><center><big>KIDDIE PORN</big>
Sunday, May 15, 1977, with CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Morley Safer

(Produced by Barry Lando) </center>
Sergeant MARTIN. Not only do your adults come up here looking for to satisfy their sexual pleasures, but you will also find the pornographers that's looking for models. A typical place for them to go would be in here to the Gold Cup restaurant here. This one down—

Mr. WALLACE. The Gold Cup right over here?

Sergeant MARTIN. Yes, right here on the right. And I've seen them as young as six years old in here, all the way up to eighteen or nineteen.

Mr. WALLACE. Six years old?

Sergeant MARTIN. Six years old. A lot of the hot dog stands and pinball arcades, this is where the young ones, the real young ones, would come to—to play the pinball machines. This is where the chicken hawk would come with a pocket full of quarters to give the young kids. This is how he makes his introduction. Then it leads up: Would you like to go home and smoke a joint? And it's little by little, but it maybe only take an hour, an hour and a half, till he's got him home and got him in the bed. After that point, after the act of oral copulation has occurred, or sodomy, what's—what's a little bit of picture taking? That's nothing. Other kids that don't—that don't score at "The Meat Rack" walk down Highland Avenue here to the Arthur J's restaurant.

Mr. WALLACE. This is a regular beat?

Sergeant MARTIN. It's a regular beat, yes.

Mr. WALLACE. [to boy]. Who are you waiting for?

Boy. Huh?

Mr. WALLACE. Who are you waiting for?

Boy. I'm waiting for a trick.

Mr. WALLACE. How old are some of the kids who work here? Boy. Some of them is young. Here?

Mr. WALLACE. How young.

Boy. Sixteen. A lot—there's a lot of chicken around here. There's a lot of old men who likes chicken. That's what they call chicken.

Mr. WALLACE. Yeah. But how old are the youngest kids that you know who do it out here?

Boy. Thirteen, fourteen. Thirteen on up.<ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/46772NCJRS.pdf#page=129 "Kiddie Porn"] CBS News from "60 Minutes," Produced by Barry Lando, Vol. IX, No. 33, as broadcast over the CBS Television Network, Sunday, May 15, 1977, with CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Morley Safer, via Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, p. 126.</ref></blockquote>

== Popular Culture ==

The 2004 film ''The Hillside Strangler''<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376649/ IMDB] entry for ''The Hillside Strangler''</ref> includes scenes of the Gold Cup, which online commentary describes as accurate.

In Tom Reamy's 1975 award-winning fantasy story "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_Lightfoot_Sue Wikipedia on "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"]</ref>, the fifteen-year-old protagonist arrives in Los Angeles by bus from Kansas, and reaches a coffee shop that is clearly The Gold Cup:
<blockquote>John Lee got off and stood at the corner of Hollywood and Vine grinning at the night. He walked down Hollywood Boulevard, gawking at everything, reading the names in stars on the sidewalk. He never imagined there would be so many cars or so many people at night. There were more than you would see in liberal even on Saturday afternoon. And the strange clothes the people wore. And men with long hair like the Beatles. Mary Ellen Walker had a colored picture of them pasted on her notebook. He didn’t know how far he had walked—the street never seemed to end—but the box was heavy. He was hungry and his Sunday shoes had rubbed a blister on his heel. He went into a cafe and sat in a booth, glad to get rid of the weight of the box. Most of the people looked at him as he came in. Several of them smiled. He smiled back. A couple of people had said hello on the street too. Hollywood was certainly a friendly place. He told the waitress what he wanted. He looked around the cafe and met the eyes of a man at the counter who had smiled when he came in. The man smiled again. John Lee smiled back, feeling good. The man got off the stool and came to the booth carrying a cup of coffee.</blockquote>

The 1977 punk "Trouble At The Cup" by Black Randy & Metrosquad, is written from the viewpoint of a runway. The lyrics include, "They say the boulevard is no place to be [...] I'd rather stand here and sell my dick" and complains of police violence, saying "Hollywood Boulevard is a military zone".<ref name=Fein1990 /> "In the late seventies there was a punk band called Arthur J and the Gold Cups, incorporating the names of two of the town’s most unsavory restaurants."<ref name=Fein1990 />

The 2019 "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" recreated a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard, with stars DiCaprio and Pitt dining with Al Pacino at the Musso & Frank Grill, half a block from the Gold Cup's site at the corner of Las Palmas. <ref>[https://variety.com/2019/film/news/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-locations-guide-musso-and-frank-1203284555/ Variety on "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" locations]</ref> A look at YouTube "making of" videos, however, show that director Taratino neither reproduced the Gold Cup - it remained as it is today, a tattoo parlor - nor its teenage sidewalk hustlers.<ref>[https://youtu.be/IUpNHBYjO80?t=359 Youtube] Making of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" - BTS On Location July 23, 24 & Oct 22, 23 2018. </ref>

== Linked to Lyric scandal ==
In the 1973 scandal which brought down [[Lyric International]], the ''Los Angeles Times'' claimed that “Many of the youngsters involved were recruited at hangouts for homosexuals particularly a Hollywood Blvd. coffee shop and a motel in Hollywood.”<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref> On-line advertisements for a game offering a "Fabulous 3-D Action walk-through of Hollywood Boulevard, circa 1968" lists among the sights of that time and place, "...oh, there's [[Billy Byars, Jr.|Billy Byers, Jr.]] (''sic'') over at the Gold Cup".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120317142206/http://www.slimeworld.org/bardotown/bardogames/gemini.html GEMINI "PSYCHEDELIC SUPERMARKET"]</ref>.

A Lyric producer named in the scandal described the police methodology in a 1975 interview, "What they did was to very, very carefully invent and build up cases against these fourteen people whose names they had scared out of a couple of teenage prostitutes". He said of these two supposed victims, "Well, two of them were just hustlers the police had dug up—I hardly even knew them. They had worked for Lyric a good little while ago. Even the police didn't push their stories too much, because they were both well into their teens and they admitted they were willing participants."<ref name=campfire>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120061219/http://www.hunkvideo.com/library/lewis/index.html Jones, Marvin. Interview]. Campfire Video Library</ref>

== Photos at ONE Archive ==

The ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California library has digitized photos in its collection, including of The Gold Cup.<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5182 Gold Cup Negatives] in ONE Archives</ref> Some of the scanned negatives are labeled as including "Gold Cup restaurant and street hustlers"<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5185 Gold Cup restaurant and street hustlers] in ONE Archives</ref>, and there are a few others just of "Street hustlers"<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5215 Street hustlers] in ONE Archives</ref>, which appear to be less than a block away, at Las Palmas and Selma. All these photos are in the daytime, although the texts (and song) above refer to night or 24-hour hustling. There is also a color photo of, "The crowd at Los Angeles's first Christopher Street West pride parade in front of the Gold Cup Restaurant. 1970."<ref=GoldCupPride>[https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/asset-management/2A3BF1OX9JWY4 Gay pride parade crowd in front of Gold Cup] in ONE Archives</ref>"

A search will find photos for sale in sites offering vintage Hollywood images, and a least one interior photo is available.

== References ==

[[Category:History]]

Gold Cup

2022-07-14T18:49:34Z

Sneeuwbol: /* Photos at ONE Archive */ Footnote named

'''The Gold Cup''' at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas was "a notoriously sleazy dump of a coffee shop". <ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050410011139/http://www.tvparty.com/tvp-AC/homeroom1/12-1-80.html Eye, Billy. "In search of punk life?"]. ''Data-Boy Magazine'', Hollywood. December 1, 1980. The printed editions are available at the [https://onearchives.andornot.com/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll?AC=GET_RECORD&XC=/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll&BU=https%3A%2F%2Fonearchives.andornot.com%2F&TN=opac&SN=AUTO8979&SE=1629&RN=0&MR=20&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=2&XP=&RF=WebBrief&EF=&DF=WebFull&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=3&ID=&MF=&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=21514&NR=0&NB=0&SV=0&SS=0&BG=&FG=&QS=&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=ISO-8859-1 ONE Archives at USC]</ref>"Once a beacon for teenage runaways, the Gold Cup attracted the worst elements of Hollywood Boulevard sleaze."<ref name=Fein1990>[https://archive.org/details/lamusicalhistory0000fein/page/50/mode/2up Fein, Art. The Gold Cup] "The L.A. musical history tour: a guide to the rock and roll landmarks of Los Angeles". Boston : Faber and Faber, 1990</ref>
== Nationally known for young hustlers ==
[[Image:Gold Cup.jpg|thumb|300px|right|''Crowds watch Los Angeles's first Pride parade in 1970 in front of the Gold Cup''<ref>[https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/asset-management/2A3BF1OX9JWY4 ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives], University of Southern California. No copyright claimed; other, copyrighted, photos are available online in the ONE Archives.</ref>]]The Gold Cup was a hangout and pick-up place for young male hustlers. An online source compares it to a location where runaway teenage girls congregated, "A different kind of same kind of place was The Gold Cup coffee shop at Las Palmas and Hollywood. The neighborhood teemed with 15 and 16 year old boys who ran away before 'someone found out'. Since they couldn't get in bars, it was the Gold Cup for them. (But the boys had it better off... They got to keep their whole $5 instead of split it with a pimp!)"<ref>[https://depthshooter.blogspot.com/2009/05/hollywood-crime-scnes-procurment-of.html Depthshooter on "Hollywood Crime Scenes"]</ref> It was also a source for actors for pornographic films:
<blockquote>One early filmmaker, Barry Knight, described how “central casting in those days was The Gold Cup restaurant on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmos [in L.A.]. Whenever they needed an actor, or an actor didn’t show up, they’d go down to ‘central casting’...” (Douglas 1996a, p. 11).<ref>{{Citation
| last=Escoffier
| first=Jeffrey
| title=Gay-for-Pay: Straight Men and the Making of Gay Pornography
| journal=Qualitative Sociology
| volume=26
| issue=4
| year=2003
| pages=521-535
| url=http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/~mma/teaching/MS110/reading/GayforPay.pdf#5
}}</ref></blockquote>
Jackson Browne sang of it in his 1980 hit ''Boulevard'':<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulevard_(song) Wikipedia on ''Boulevard'']</ref>
<blockquote>"Down at the golden cup They set the young ones up Under the neon light Selling day for night"</blockquote>
Online rumor says that boys as young as 12-16 could be found in the Gold Cup or on the sidewalk outside.
<blockquote>"There used to be a 24 hour coffee shop at Hollywood Blvd and Selma Ave called the Gold Cup. [...] That's where the pedos could find either sex for rent, and these little kids were either addicted, runaways, often both. 
I have been there on medical aid calls many times. I remember one little boy, approx 11 years old, painted up like a vaudeville hussy, wearing girls' clothes, and beat bloody to a pulp."<ref>[https://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,11464793~mode=journal#6 A retired Fire Captain thinks back...]</ref></blockquote>

During the [[great kiddie porn panic]], national media in May, 1977 showcased the child pornography problem, and The Gold Cup appeared in a number of national vehicles.
=== Chicago Tribune ===
"Los Angeles [is] the child pornography capital of the United States," informs one article in ''The Chicago Tribune’s'' May, 1977 series on child prostitution, and the epicenter was The Gold Cup:
<blockquote>In Los Angeles, police told the Tribune, the favorite gathering place of runaway boys and the men who prey on them is in the area of the Gold Cup Restaurant at 6700 Hollywood Dr. One night recently, a Tribune reporter watched about 14 youths, between 12 and 20 years old, waiting on the sidewalk in front of the Gold Cup. Occasionally a man would walk up, a whispered conversation would ensue, and man would walk away with a boy. "We have no problem finding our sex offenders here," [Sgt. Lloyd] Martin said. "But we don't have laws to detain them."<ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/51083NCJRS.pdf#452 How Ruses Lure Victims to Child Pornographers]. Chicago Tribune, 17 May 1977, in PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AGAINST SEXUAL EXPLOITATION Hearings before the Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency], 95th Congress, 1st Session, Chicago, Ill., May 27, 1977, Washington, DC. June 16, 1977, pp. 437-440</ref></blockquote>
=== The New York Times ===
<blockquote><center><big>The Last Porno Show</big>
(By Robert Sam Anson)

The Cup and the Rack</center>
In Los Angeles, when police say "the Cup" they mean the Gold Cup Cafe, at Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas, first stop on what is called "the meat rack." The meat rack begins at the Cup, runs down Las Palmas, then turns right on Selma, goes on for a couple of blocks, then left on Highland to Santa Monica. It is not hard to find it. Simply follow the slowly cruising cars and look for kids lounging on the street. When the cars stop and the kids walk over, you're there.

On any night of the week, the Gold Cup is jammed: with kids, both boys and girls, menacing-looking black pimps, a few assorted lesbians and a sizable contingent of middle-aged chickenhawks. The atmosphere is a cross between a YMCA club and Dante's ninth circle. In the back of the Cup half a dozen teenage boys are playing pinball. A scantily dressed prostitute wanders in to watch the action. Then she leans over one of the machines to see the score, one of her breasts flops out. No one looks twice. In the front of the cafe, three beefy chickenhawks sit in a booth, chatting, sipping coffee, and commenting on the passing merchandise. "Who's that sweet little blond?" one of them calls out, and blows a kiss to a boy sitting at the counter. The youth turns, smiles knowingly, and walks to the table. One of the chickenhawks reaches out and fondles his crotch.

At 9:30, when the cafe closes for the night, the kids straggle out the door, some heading off for other well-known "chicken coops" in the neighborhood, others around the corner to the bookstall on Las Palmas (where one of the gay magazines features pictures of one of the boys who'd been playing pinball that night), and still others down the block to Selma Avenue. There they queue up for the cruising chickenhawks. <ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/46772NCJRS.pdf#page=158 "The Last Porno Show"] Robert Sam Anson, ''New York Times'', June 24, 1977 via Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, p. 155.</ref></blockquote>

=== CBS 60 Minutes ===
<blockquote><center><big>KIDDIE PORN</big>
Sunday, May 15, 1977, with CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Morley Safer

(Produced by Barry Lando) </center>
Sergeant MARTIN. Not only do your adults come up here looking for to satisfy their sexual pleasures, but you will also find the pornographers that's looking for models. A typical place for them to go would be in here to the Gold Cup restaurant here. This one down—

Mr. WALLACE. The Gold Cup right over here?

Sergeant MARTIN. Yes, right here on the right. And I've seen them as young as six years old in here, all the way up to eighteen or nineteen.

Mr. WALLACE. Six years old?

Sergeant MARTIN. Six years old. A lot of the hot dog stands and pinball arcades, this is where the young ones, the real young ones, would come to—to play the pinball machines. This is where the chicken hawk would come with a pocket full of quarters to give the young kids. This is how he makes his introduction. Then it leads up: Would you like to go home and smoke a joint? And it's little by little, but it maybe only take an hour, an hour and a half, till he's got him home and got him in the bed. After that point, after the act of oral copulation has occurred, or sodomy, what's—what's a little bit of picture taking? That's nothing. Other kids that don't—that don't score at "The Meat Rack" walk down Highland Avenue here to the Arthur J's restaurant.

Mr. WALLACE. This is a regular beat?

Sergeant MARTIN. It's a regular beat, yes.

Mr. WALLACE. [to boy]. Who are you waiting for?

Boy. Huh?

Mr. WALLACE. Who are you waiting for?

Boy. I'm waiting for a trick.

Mr. WALLACE. How old are some of the kids who work here? Boy. Some of them is young. Here?

Mr. WALLACE. How young.

Boy. Sixteen. A lot—there's a lot of chicken around here. There's a lot of old men who likes chicken. That's what they call chicken.

Mr. WALLACE. Yeah. But how old are the youngest kids that you know who do it out here?

Boy. Thirteen, fourteen. Thirteen on up.<ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/46772NCJRS.pdf#page=129 "Kiddie Porn"] CBS News from "60 Minutes," Produced by Barry Lando, Vol. IX, No. 33, as broadcast over the CBS Television Network, Sunday, May 15, 1977, with CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Morley Safer, via Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, p. 126.</ref></blockquote>

== Popular Culture ==

The 2004 film ''The Hillside Strangler''<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376649/ IMDB] entry for ''The Hillside Strangler''</ref> includes scenes of the Gold Cup, which online commentary describes as accurate.

In Tom Reamy's 1975 award-winning fantasy story "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_Lightfoot_Sue Wikipedia on "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"]</ref>, the fifteen-year-old protagonist arrives in Los Angeles by bus from Kansas, and reaches a coffee shop that is clearly The Gold Cup:
<blockquote>John Lee got off and stood at the corner of Hollywood and Vine grinning at the night. He walked down Hollywood Boulevard, gawking at everything, reading the names in stars on the sidewalk. He never imagined there would be so many cars or so many people at night. There were more than you would see in liberal even on Saturday afternoon. And the strange clothes the people wore. And men with long hair like the Beatles. Mary Ellen Walker had a colored picture of them pasted on her notebook. He didn’t know how far he had walked—the street never seemed to end—but the box was heavy. He was hungry and his Sunday shoes had rubbed a blister on his heel. He went into a cafe and sat in a booth, glad to get rid of the weight of the box. Most of the people looked at him as he came in. Several of them smiled. He smiled back. A couple of people had said hello on the street too. Hollywood was certainly a friendly place. He told the waitress what he wanted. He looked around the cafe and met the eyes of a man at the counter who had smiled when he came in. The man smiled again. John Lee smiled back, feeling good. The man got off the stool and came to the booth carrying a cup of coffee.</blockquote>

The 1977 punk "Trouble At The Cup" by Black Randy & Metrosquad, is written from the viewpoint of a runway. The lyrics include, "They say the boulevard is no place to be [...] I'd rather stand here and sell my dick" and complains of police violence, saying "Hollywood Boulevard is a military zone".<ref name=Fein1990 /> "In the late seventies there was a punk band called Arthur J and the Gold Cups, incorporating the names of two of the town’s most unsavory restaurants."<ref name=Fein1990 />

The 2019 "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" recreated a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard, with stars DiCaprio and Pitt dining with Al Pacino at the Musso & Frank Grill, half a block from the Gold Cup's site at the corner of Las Palmas. <ref>[https://variety.com/2019/film/news/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-locations-guide-musso-and-frank-1203284555/ Variety on "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" locations]</ref> A look at YouTube "making of" videos, however, show that director Taratino neither reproduced the Gold Cup - it remained as it is today, a tattoo parlor - nor its teenage sidewalk hustlers.<ref>[https://youtu.be/IUpNHBYjO80?t=359 Youtube] Making of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" - BTS On Location July 23, 24 & Oct 22, 23 2018. </ref>

== Linked to Lyric scandal ==
In the 1973 scandal which brought down [[Lyric International]], the ''Los Angeles Times'' claimed that “Many of the youngsters involved were recruited at hangouts for homosexuals particularly a Hollywood Blvd. coffee shop and a motel in Hollywood.”<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref> On-line advertisements for a game offering a "Fabulous 3-D Action walk-through of Hollywood Boulevard, circa 1968" lists among the sights of that time and place, "...oh, there's [[Billy Byars, Jr.|Billy Byers, Jr.]] (''sic'') over at the Gold Cup".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120317142206/http://www.slimeworld.org/bardotown/bardogames/gemini.html GEMINI "PSYCHEDELIC SUPERMARKET"]</ref>.

A Lyric producer named in the scandal described the police methodology in a 1975 interview, "What they did was to very, very carefully invent and build up cases against these fourteen people whose names they had scared out of a couple of teenage prostitutes". He said of these two supposed victims, "Well, two of them were just hustlers the police had dug up—I hardly even knew them. They had worked for Lyric a good little while ago. Even the police didn't push their stories too much, because they were both well into their teens and they admitted they were willing participants."<ref name=campfire>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120061219/http://www.hunkvideo.com/library/lewis/index.html Jones, Marvin. Interview]. Campfire Video Library</ref>

== Photos at ONE Archive ==

The ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California library has digitized photos in its collection, including of The Gold Cup.<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5182 Gold Cup Negatives] in ONE Archives</ref> Some of the scanned negatives are labeled as including "Gold Cup restaurant and street hustlers"<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5185 Gold Cup restaurant and street hustlers] in ONE Archives</ref>, and there are a few others just of "Street hustlers"<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5215 Street hustlers] in ONE Archives</ref>, which appear to be less than a block away, at Las Palmas and Selma. All these photos are in the daytime, although the texts (and song) above refer to night or 24-hour hustling. There is also a color photo of, "The crowd at Los Angeles's first Christopher Street West pride parade in front of the Gold Cup Restaurant. 1970."<ref=GoldCupPride>[https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/asset-management/2A3BF1OX9JWY4 Gay pride parade crowd in front of Gold Cup] in ONE Archives</ref>"

A search will find photos for sale in sites offering vintage Hollywood images, and a least one interior photo is available.

== References ==

[[Category:History]]

Gold Cup

2022-07-14T18:45:31Z

Sneeuwbol: /* Nationally known for young hustlers */ Photo added

'''The Gold Cup''' at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas was "a notoriously sleazy dump of a coffee shop". <ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050410011139/http://www.tvparty.com/tvp-AC/homeroom1/12-1-80.html Eye, Billy. "In search of punk life?"]. ''Data-Boy Magazine'', Hollywood. December 1, 1980. The printed editions are available at the [https://onearchives.andornot.com/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll?AC=GET_RECORD&XC=/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll&BU=https%3A%2F%2Fonearchives.andornot.com%2F&TN=opac&SN=AUTO8979&SE=1629&RN=0&MR=20&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=2&XP=&RF=WebBrief&EF=&DF=WebFull&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=3&ID=&MF=&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=21514&NR=0&NB=0&SV=0&SS=0&BG=&FG=&QS=&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=ISO-8859-1 ONE Archives at USC]</ref>"Once a beacon for teenage runaways, the Gold Cup attracted the worst elements of Hollywood Boulevard sleaze."<ref name=Fein1990>[https://archive.org/details/lamusicalhistory0000fein/page/50/mode/2up Fein, Art. The Gold Cup] "The L.A. musical history tour: a guide to the rock and roll landmarks of Los Angeles". Boston : Faber and Faber, 1990</ref>
== Nationally known for young hustlers ==
[[Image:Gold Cup.jpg|thumb|300px|right|''Crowds watch Los Angeles's first Pride parade in 1970 in front of the Gold Cup''<ref>[https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/asset-management/2A3BF1OX9JWY4 ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives], University of Southern California. No copyright claimed; other, copyrighted, photos are available online in the ONE Archives.</ref>]]The Gold Cup was a hangout and pick-up place for young male hustlers. An online source compares it to a location where runaway teenage girls congregated, "A different kind of same kind of place was The Gold Cup coffee shop at Las Palmas and Hollywood. The neighborhood teemed with 15 and 16 year old boys who ran away before 'someone found out'. Since they couldn't get in bars, it was the Gold Cup for them. (But the boys had it better off... They got to keep their whole $5 instead of split it with a pimp!)"<ref>[https://depthshooter.blogspot.com/2009/05/hollywood-crime-scnes-procurment-of.html Depthshooter on "Hollywood Crime Scenes"]</ref> It was also a source for actors for pornographic films:
<blockquote>One early filmmaker, Barry Knight, described how “central casting in those days was The Gold Cup restaurant on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmos [in L.A.]. Whenever they needed an actor, or an actor didn’t show up, they’d go down to ‘central casting’...” (Douglas 1996a, p. 11).<ref>{{Citation
| last=Escoffier
| first=Jeffrey
| title=Gay-for-Pay: Straight Men and the Making of Gay Pornography
| journal=Qualitative Sociology
| volume=26
| issue=4
| year=2003
| pages=521-535
| url=http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/~mma/teaching/MS110/reading/GayforPay.pdf#5
}}</ref></blockquote>
Jackson Browne sang of it in his 1980 hit ''Boulevard'':<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulevard_(song) Wikipedia on ''Boulevard'']</ref>
<blockquote>"Down at the golden cup They set the young ones up Under the neon light Selling day for night"</blockquote>
Online rumor says that boys as young as 12-16 could be found in the Gold Cup or on the sidewalk outside.
<blockquote>"There used to be a 24 hour coffee shop at Hollywood Blvd and Selma Ave called the Gold Cup. [...] That's where the pedos could find either sex for rent, and these little kids were either addicted, runaways, often both. 
I have been there on medical aid calls many times. I remember one little boy, approx 11 years old, painted up like a vaudeville hussy, wearing girls' clothes, and beat bloody to a pulp."<ref>[https://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,11464793~mode=journal#6 A retired Fire Captain thinks back...]</ref></blockquote>

During the [[great kiddie porn panic]], national media in May, 1977 showcased the child pornography problem, and The Gold Cup appeared in a number of national vehicles.
=== Chicago Tribune ===
"Los Angeles [is] the child pornography capital of the United States," informs one article in ''The Chicago Tribune’s'' May, 1977 series on child prostitution, and the epicenter was The Gold Cup:
<blockquote>In Los Angeles, police told the Tribune, the favorite gathering place of runaway boys and the men who prey on them is in the area of the Gold Cup Restaurant at 6700 Hollywood Dr. One night recently, a Tribune reporter watched about 14 youths, between 12 and 20 years old, waiting on the sidewalk in front of the Gold Cup. Occasionally a man would walk up, a whispered conversation would ensue, and man would walk away with a boy. "We have no problem finding our sex offenders here," [Sgt. Lloyd] Martin said. "But we don't have laws to detain them."<ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/51083NCJRS.pdf#452 How Ruses Lure Victims to Child Pornographers]. Chicago Tribune, 17 May 1977, in PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AGAINST SEXUAL EXPLOITATION Hearings before the Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency], 95th Congress, 1st Session, Chicago, Ill., May 27, 1977, Washington, DC. June 16, 1977, pp. 437-440</ref></blockquote>
=== The New York Times ===
<blockquote><center><big>The Last Porno Show</big>
(By Robert Sam Anson)

The Cup and the Rack</center>
In Los Angeles, when police say "the Cup" they mean the Gold Cup Cafe, at Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas, first stop on what is called "the meat rack." The meat rack begins at the Cup, runs down Las Palmas, then turns right on Selma, goes on for a couple of blocks, then left on Highland to Santa Monica. It is not hard to find it. Simply follow the slowly cruising cars and look for kids lounging on the street. When the cars stop and the kids walk over, you're there.

On any night of the week, the Gold Cup is jammed: with kids, both boys and girls, menacing-looking black pimps, a few assorted lesbians and a sizable contingent of middle-aged chickenhawks. The atmosphere is a cross between a YMCA club and Dante's ninth circle. In the back of the Cup half a dozen teenage boys are playing pinball. A scantily dressed prostitute wanders in to watch the action. Then she leans over one of the machines to see the score, one of her breasts flops out. No one looks twice. In the front of the cafe, three beefy chickenhawks sit in a booth, chatting, sipping coffee, and commenting on the passing merchandise. "Who's that sweet little blond?" one of them calls out, and blows a kiss to a boy sitting at the counter. The youth turns, smiles knowingly, and walks to the table. One of the chickenhawks reaches out and fondles his crotch.

At 9:30, when the cafe closes for the night, the kids straggle out the door, some heading off for other well-known "chicken coops" in the neighborhood, others around the corner to the bookstall on Las Palmas (where one of the gay magazines features pictures of one of the boys who'd been playing pinball that night), and still others down the block to Selma Avenue. There they queue up for the cruising chickenhawks. <ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/46772NCJRS.pdf#page=158 "The Last Porno Show"] Robert Sam Anson, ''New York Times'', June 24, 1977 via Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, p. 155.</ref></blockquote>

=== CBS 60 Minutes ===
<blockquote><center><big>KIDDIE PORN</big>
Sunday, May 15, 1977, with CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Morley Safer

(Produced by Barry Lando) </center>
Sergeant MARTIN. Not only do your adults come up here looking for to satisfy their sexual pleasures, but you will also find the pornographers that's looking for models. A typical place for them to go would be in here to the Gold Cup restaurant here. This one down—

Mr. WALLACE. The Gold Cup right over here?

Sergeant MARTIN. Yes, right here on the right. And I've seen them as young as six years old in here, all the way up to eighteen or nineteen.

Mr. WALLACE. Six years old?

Sergeant MARTIN. Six years old. A lot of the hot dog stands and pinball arcades, this is where the young ones, the real young ones, would come to—to play the pinball machines. This is where the chicken hawk would come with a pocket full of quarters to give the young kids. This is how he makes his introduction. Then it leads up: Would you like to go home and smoke a joint? And it's little by little, but it maybe only take an hour, an hour and a half, till he's got him home and got him in the bed. After that point, after the act of oral copulation has occurred, or sodomy, what's—what's a little bit of picture taking? That's nothing. Other kids that don't—that don't score at "The Meat Rack" walk down Highland Avenue here to the Arthur J's restaurant.

Mr. WALLACE. This is a regular beat?

Sergeant MARTIN. It's a regular beat, yes.

Mr. WALLACE. [to boy]. Who are you waiting for?

Boy. Huh?

Mr. WALLACE. Who are you waiting for?

Boy. I'm waiting for a trick.

Mr. WALLACE. How old are some of the kids who work here? Boy. Some of them is young. Here?

Mr. WALLACE. How young.

Boy. Sixteen. A lot—there's a lot of chicken around here. There's a lot of old men who likes chicken. That's what they call chicken.

Mr. WALLACE. Yeah. But how old are the youngest kids that you know who do it out here?

Boy. Thirteen, fourteen. Thirteen on up.<ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/46772NCJRS.pdf#page=129 "Kiddie Porn"] CBS News from "60 Minutes," Produced by Barry Lando, Vol. IX, No. 33, as broadcast over the CBS Television Network, Sunday, May 15, 1977, with CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Morley Safer, via Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, p. 126.</ref></blockquote>

== Popular Culture ==

The 2004 film ''The Hillside Strangler''<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376649/ IMDB] entry for ''The Hillside Strangler''</ref> includes scenes of the Gold Cup, which online commentary describes as accurate.

In Tom Reamy's 1975 award-winning fantasy story "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_Lightfoot_Sue Wikipedia on "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"]</ref>, the fifteen-year-old protagonist arrives in Los Angeles by bus from Kansas, and reaches a coffee shop that is clearly The Gold Cup:
<blockquote>John Lee got off and stood at the corner of Hollywood and Vine grinning at the night. He walked down Hollywood Boulevard, gawking at everything, reading the names in stars on the sidewalk. He never imagined there would be so many cars or so many people at night. There were more than you would see in liberal even on Saturday afternoon. And the strange clothes the people wore. And men with long hair like the Beatles. Mary Ellen Walker had a colored picture of them pasted on her notebook. He didn’t know how far he had walked—the street never seemed to end—but the box was heavy. He was hungry and his Sunday shoes had rubbed a blister on his heel. He went into a cafe and sat in a booth, glad to get rid of the weight of the box. Most of the people looked at him as he came in. Several of them smiled. He smiled back. A couple of people had said hello on the street too. Hollywood was certainly a friendly place. He told the waitress what he wanted. He looked around the cafe and met the eyes of a man at the counter who had smiled when he came in. The man smiled again. John Lee smiled back, feeling good. The man got off the stool and came to the booth carrying a cup of coffee.</blockquote>

The 1977 punk "Trouble At The Cup" by Black Randy & Metrosquad, is written from the viewpoint of a runway. The lyrics include, "They say the boulevard is no place to be [...] I'd rather stand here and sell my dick" and complains of police violence, saying "Hollywood Boulevard is a military zone".<ref name=Fein1990 /> "In the late seventies there was a punk band called Arthur J and the Gold Cups, incorporating the names of two of the town’s most unsavory restaurants."<ref name=Fein1990 />

The 2019 "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" recreated a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard, with stars DiCaprio and Pitt dining with Al Pacino at the Musso & Frank Grill, half a block from the Gold Cup's site at the corner of Las Palmas. <ref>[https://variety.com/2019/film/news/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-locations-guide-musso-and-frank-1203284555/ Variety on "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" locations]</ref> A look at YouTube "making of" videos, however, show that director Taratino neither reproduced the Gold Cup - it remained as it is today, a tattoo parlor - nor its teenage sidewalk hustlers.<ref>[https://youtu.be/IUpNHBYjO80?t=359 Youtube] Making of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" - BTS On Location July 23, 24 & Oct 22, 23 2018. </ref>

== Linked to Lyric scandal ==
In the 1973 scandal which brought down [[Lyric International]], the ''Los Angeles Times'' claimed that “Many of the youngsters involved were recruited at hangouts for homosexuals particularly a Hollywood Blvd. coffee shop and a motel in Hollywood.”<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref> On-line advertisements for a game offering a "Fabulous 3-D Action walk-through of Hollywood Boulevard, circa 1968" lists among the sights of that time and place, "...oh, there's [[Billy Byars, Jr.|Billy Byers, Jr.]] (''sic'') over at the Gold Cup".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120317142206/http://www.slimeworld.org/bardotown/bardogames/gemini.html GEMINI "PSYCHEDELIC SUPERMARKET"]</ref>.

A Lyric producer named in the scandal described the police methodology in a 1975 interview, "What they did was to very, very carefully invent and build up cases against these fourteen people whose names they had scared out of a couple of teenage prostitutes". He said of these two supposed victims, "Well, two of them were just hustlers the police had dug up—I hardly even knew them. They had worked for Lyric a good little while ago. Even the police didn't push their stories too much, because they were both well into their teens and they admitted they were willing participants."<ref name=campfire>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120061219/http://www.hunkvideo.com/library/lewis/index.html Jones, Marvin. Interview]. Campfire Video Library</ref>

== Photos at ONE Archive ==

The ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California library has digitized photos in its collection, including of The Gold Cup.<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5182 Gold Cup Negatives] in ONE Archives</ref> Some of the scanned negatives are labeled as including "Gold Cup restaurant and street hustlers"<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5185 Gold Cup restaurant and street hustlers] in ONE Archives</ref>, and there are a few others just of "Street hustlers"<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5215 Street hustlers] in ONE Archives</ref>, which appear to be less than a block away, at Las Palmas and Selma. All these photos are in the daytime, although the texts (and song) above refer to night or 24-hour hustling. There is also a color photo of, "The crowd at Los Angeles's first Christopher Street West pride parade in front of the Gold Cup Restaurant. 1970."<ref>[https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/asset-management/2A3BF1OX9JWY4 Gay pride parade crowd in front of Gold Cup] in ONE Archives</ref>"

A search will find photos for sale in sites offering vintage Hollywood images, and a least one interior photo is available.

== References ==

[[Category:History]]

Beach Boy

2022-07-14T02:47:16Z

Sneeuwbol: more description of issues from old auction listings

[[Image:Beach Boy 13.jpg|thumb|300px|right|'''Beach Boy 13''' by [[Bernard Alapetite]], Akki and George Ulvoas (1985) ]]
'''''Beach Boy''''' (ca 1986-198?) was a [[France|French]] magazine featuring [[Photography|photographs]] of boys.

The magazine was edited by photographer [[Bernard Alapetite]] in Paris, whom previously worked on the similar ''Jean's'' magazine for [[J.M.V. Diffusion]] publications. ''Beach Boy'' was published in Paris by Editions Findakly and its ISSN number was 0980-0956. There was no text and each issue contained photographs of boys mostly from amateurs and otherwise from people publishing using pseudonyms (like [[Akki]]).

More than 21 issues were published during the mid 1980s. The initial cover price was 50 francs, eventually rising to 90 francs. An edition at this last price promised "48 pages of photos of adolescents", and offered annual subscription of 6 issues for 420 francs in France and 480 francs overseas. Prices were given ("You can also pay in local currency in cash in a strong envelope") for the U.S.A., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, West Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Italy. The price for the U.S.A. was $18 for one issue and $85 for a year. The issues were numbered sequentially with no cover indication of year.

The covers mostly feature boys in bathing suits, usually with a seascape setting, occasionally with shirts, and at least once with a nude preadolescent. Covers varied between color and black-and-white. Scans on an auction site suggest that many of the interior photographs were of fully nude boys, sometimes preadolescent. One such listing described "central page in color", for an edition with a black-and-white cover.
[[fr:Beach Boy]]
[[de:Beach Boy]]
[[Category:Newspapers and magazines]]

The pool with the cinderblock walls

2022-07-07T01:29:08Z

Sneeuwbol: /* The house as real estate */ Added celeb neighbor and former boy actor

'''The pool with the cinderblock walls''' was in the back yard of the house on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles's Hollywood Hills that served from the mid-60s to 1973 as [[Lyric International]]'s studio; as the home of Lyric's owner, [[Billy Byars, Jr.]]; as the residence of some of the [[Lyric Boys]]; and as permanent or temporary temporary housing for Lyric collaborators. The products in Lyric's catalog, including magazines, films and photo sets, feature extensive nudity by the Lyric boys and other boys and young men, and many were shot in the pool and the house. The house "was for a while a haven for adult homosexuals and male teenagers."<ref>{{cite book |title=Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover |last=Summers |first= Anthony |year=2003 |publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons |location=New York|isbn=0-399-13800-5 |page=337}}</ref>

== Spectacular backdrop ==

The house at the summit of the Hollywood Hills has views west and south to Los Angeles and the Pacific and north to the San Fernando Valley. At least two Lyric films, ''[[Swim Party]]'' and ''[[Spring Break]]'', featuring [[Peter Glawson]] and others of the Lyric boys, mostly in the nude, were filmed around the pool with the cinderblock walls. ''Swim Party'' had panoramic shots of the views that made it possible to identify the location.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20190731091154/http://www.angelfire.com/retro2/sneeuwbol/tech.html How the pool was found]</ref> Not only the backyard but the house's interior served as a backdrop for photos. The living room, a "bachelor pad [which] boasts massive oaken beams and other touches of baronial elegance" <ref name=Swisher>Swisher, Viola Hegyi. "Generating ''The Genesis Children''". ''After Dark'', September 1972, p. 18.</ref> appeared in Lyric's magazines with nude boys around its pool table.

The Lyric portfolio did not include pornography, but its offerings were distributed through DOM/Lyric, a collaboration with [[Guy Strait]], who did however produce pornography including child pornography, and lived only a few miles from the Lyric studio.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/947893/guy_strait_arrest_1/ Pair Arraigned in Case Involving Homosexuals]. ''The Van Nuys News''. 7 September 1973, p. 8</ref> There's no indication Strait filmed at home: police claimed a film made in a hotel led them to him in 1973,(needs source) and in his 1976 arrest the appellate court said, "the defendant came to the Holiday Inn in Rockford, Illinois, in March of 1972, to shoot a pornographic movie"<ref>[http://www.leagle.com/decision/197765152IllApp3d599_1557/PEOPLE%20v.%20STRAIT 52 Ill. App.3d 599 (1977) 367 N.E.2d 768]</ref>

The pool with the cinderblock walls which appears in many Lyric shorts changed over time. Early photos show the walls painted white, and a diving board. The diving board was removed, although the base remains, and the walls repainted. In some films the cinderblock walls appear to be black or purplish, but still photos taken at the same time, or perhaps printed from a frame of the 16mm negative, show the walls to be royal blue. "Many older films have taken on a distinct purplish cast, caused by the rapid fading of the cyan and yellow image dyes."<ref>[https://www.filmpreservation.org/preservation-basics/color-dye-fading Color Dye Fading]. National Film Preservation Foundation.</ref> The video files that circulate on the Internet and the DVDs available commercially may have been made from old or deteriorated 8mm films.

== Home to the Lyric Boys ==
In 2006, Anthony Aikman, director of ''The Genesis Children'', told in an interview of traveling to Los Angeles after the end of filming, along with the Lyric boys, the film's adult actor, Vincent Child, Byars and his factotum William Johnson:
<blockquote>This busy house also included Byars's pet snake, which was allowed free roam of the house, and a Beddington Terrier dog.<ref>Likely a Bedlington Terrier, a breed listed by the American Kennel Club. The AKC has no Beddington Terrier.</ref> One of Billy's only rules at the house was that if you wanted to swim in the pool you had to swim naked.
On one occasion, the dog got loose and everyone started to run naked down the road to try to catch it. The group was almost run over by a shocked elderly couple coming around the corner in their car. Aikman claims that the car actually left the pavement and hit a tree, resulting in the fire brigade racing up Mulholland with sirens and bells wailing. The dog can be seen in many Lyric photo shoots and short films shot at the pool location.

Since several of the "Lyric boys" were under legal custody of Byars as foster children, on one occasion the Los Angeles County Department of Child Services notified Byars that they would be coming by the house the next day for an inspection/visitation. Byars and friends quickly went on a shopping trip to buy books, tables and a portable blackboard. By the time the Child Services officials came to inspect the next day, Byars had set up an outdoor classroom complete with Vincent Child, black cape and all, acting as the boys' teacher. Byars received rave reviews by the impressed county officials.<ref name=Bear2009>[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/soc.motss/3Bq0xnS8o4c Usenet Post] by "Edward Bear", who also used "Ballog", on Genesis Children, based on interview with Anthony Aikman.</ref></blockquote>

== Residents and denizens ==
Besides Byars and the Lyric Boys, several other names or pseudonyms appear as living or working at the house.
===William Johnson===
Bill Johnson, presumably William Johnson, is given a field manager credit for ''The Genesis Children''<ref>[https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b71db582cis BFI listing]</ref> The list of those indicted in the 1973 Lyric scandal includes "William Johnson, 55, a Houston photographer."<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref> It's safe to assume that he is a real person, and unless he's 112, deceased.
<blockquote>The Lyric Boys [...] were brought over to Italy from the U.S.A. by Byars's longtime companion and photographer William Johnson.
William "Bill" Johnson was described as an older man who remained in the background and was said by Billy to be his security guard. He has also been described as Byars "henchman" and "hired bully".<ref name=Bear2009 /></blockquote>
===[[Harlan "Slim" Pfeiffer]]===
Pfeiffer is described in Lyric's materials as the photographer responsible for its movies and still photos, including the early films in Texas.(source needed). Possibly his name is an alias. William Johnson was arrested as "a Houston photographer" and could be Pfeiffer's real name.

===Terry Stuart===
Terry Stuart, possibly his real name, is a Lyric Boy who aged out of modeling and into the role of "boy wrangler" at Lyric.

Byars would usually give each issue of the various Lyric magazines a title and a mostly fictitious story line. An issue that featured photos of the Lyric boys swimming at the Mulholland Drive home, naked as usual, claims they were "...visiting Uncle Terry and Uncle Bill..." at their home for a summer swim. (needs source) ONE Archives' Erotic and physique studios photography includes 84 photographic prints from Lyric, which "include the following models: Joey, '''Terry Stuart''', Jim, Damon".<ref>[https://pdf.oac.cdlib.org/pdf/calaong/2014-051_erotic_photos.pdf#page=46 Catalog Finding Aid]
ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California</ref>

The name Terry Stuart was used in a number of publications:

One of the earliest appearances of Billy Byars' Lyric Studios upon the gay "physique magazine" scene in California appeared in the magazine ''Muscle Teens'', Volume 1 #1, Oct 1965 published by Y.P. Productions. This issue featured photographs of various nude teen males including the soon to be famous 15 year old "Terry Stuart".<ref>[http://www.timinvermont.com/vintage/mags1.html Current Magazine Listing] Tim in Vermont still lists the issue, described not as nude but "posing strap"</ref>

One Lyric short was reportedly titled ''[[Uncle Terry's Pool]]''. Usenet posts mention Terry Stuart as sharing Mr. Byars's house; as a former physique model; as the owner of the house with the pool with the cinderblock walls; as being Peter Glawson's uncle; as the person Mr. Glawson lived with; or as all of the above.

One 2001 Usenet post says,
<blockquote>"I think that I am clear about Terry; he was Billy's first and always tried to look the biz. He had a thing about clean money and used to wash it and dry it in a big rotary dryer in the studio. Once someone saw all the money coming out and called the Feds 'cos they thought he was printing it! He was always running around with a briefcase; I'd forgotten all this." <ref>[http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.prettyboy/msg/eb4d67d8f2e168fe A Peter Glawson Question]</ref></blockquote>

A January 1999 Usenet post describes the cover of an issue of Lyric’s “[[Naked Boyhood]]” magazine, probably Vol 1, #2, as showing “young Peter [Glawson] on the Gulf Coast of Texas with his Uncle Terry (middle) and an unknown adult friend.”

There is no "Terry" nor any "Stuart" on the list of those arrested in the 1973 scandal, nor does either name appear in the extensive credits of ''The Genesis Children''. Three of the others accused with Mr. Byars in the 1973 case were also said to be from Hollywood. All three are roughly ten years younger than Byars. At least one of them was acquitted at trial in 1973. All are possible candidates for Terry, but Terry could well be someone else.

The manager of Billy Byars, Sr.'s Royal Oaks Farm was named Stuart, and Terry might have been some relation.<ref>"Byars-Dayson Angus Sale Set Wednesday", ''Tyler Courier-Times'' (Tyler, Texas) 02 Oct 1955, Page 14. Includes a photo of "Tommie E. Stuart, Byars's farm manager"</ref> The Social Security Birth Database finds several "Terry Stuarts" born in Texas within five years of 1950; a Tyler high school yearbook has a Tommy Stuart of about the right age.

== Varied houseguests ==
When Anthony Aikman, director of ''The Genesis Children'', came to Los Angeles to edit the film, he stayed at the house on Mulholland Drive. Aikman found a strange man named Teeterman there. Teeterman slept in a coffin in the lower level of the house and had a job at the Hollywood Wax Museum where he dressed up in a costume and played the Mechanical Man while standing outside the museum to attract customers. Teeterman once showed Aikman an old 8mm film of himself, dressed in a vampire's costume, and Billy Byars trolling through a cemetery late at night. The cemetery was supposedly located out in the Midwest.<ref name=Bear2009 />

Vincent Child, the adult actor in ''The Genesis Children'', stayed at the house for a while on completion of the film.<ref name=Bear2009 />

== The house today ==

The house today and several of its neighbors make up "The Hills Treatment Center", listed in ''Psychology Today'' as a place which "offers a fantastic educational and therapeutic drug and alcohol rehabilitation experience."<ref>[https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/treatment-rehab/the-hills-treatment-luxury-addiction-center-los-angeles-ca/469051 The Hills treatment center] on Psychology Today website.</ref> Previously it was Wonderland Treatment Center.<ref>[http://www.rehabcosts.org/center/ca_90046_wonderland-treatment-center Wonderland listing]</ref> The "massive oaken beams" have been painted an inoffensive white, the pool deck has been tiled, and other indignities have been inflicted on the architect's work.

== The house as real estate ==
The house is in Los Angeles, California in the Hollywood Hills between Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley. More specifically, it is at 8181 and 8207 Mulholland Drive just west of Laurel Canyon Boulevard. The place is latitude 34°7'21.85" N (34.122736), longitude 118°22'37.35" W (-118.377042).

Billy Byars, Jr. let people believe he owned the house but he actually rented it from the owner.<ref name=Bear2009 />

Zillow.com tracks real estate values on a house-to-house basis, and a decade ago listed the house as a duplex, divided as 8181 and 8207 Mulholland Drive. 8181 is described as two bedrooms, one bath, five rooms total, 767 square feet of construction and 13,070 square feet (0.3 acres) of land. 8207 is four bedrooms, three baths, 2,624 square feet, on 19,600 sq ft (0.45 acres) of land. The total would be 3,391 square feet, with six bedrooms and four baths, on a three-quarter acre lot. In January, 2020, Zillow does not show 8181 and lists 8207 as being 2 bedrooms, 2 baths and 1,857 sq ft, which is inconsistent with aerial photographs which show no substantial change in the house's footprint, though outbuildings have been added.<ref>[https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/8207-Mulholland-Dr-Los-Angeles-CA-90046/20031982_zpid/ 8207 Mulholland Drive] on Zillow</ref>The house was built in 1961.<ref>[https://portal.assessor.lacounty.gov/parceldetail/2381030009 8207 Mulholland Drive] listing at Los Angeles Count Assessor's Office</ref>

At present, the house bordering the property o the west is the residence of actor
Joaquim Phoenix.<ref>[https://sanfernandovalleyblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/celeb-re-joaquin-phoenix-buys-house.html Celeb RE in San Fernando Valley real estate blog] The article indicate the Phoenix house no long shares the long driveway to Mulholland Drive, but is accessed from Mulholland Terrace.</ref>

== Related places ==

Lyric's activities were not confined to the pool with the cinderblock walls. When arrested in the 1973 scandal, Lyric partner and pornographer Guy Strait lived 2.4 miles away by road, at 7718 Skyhill Drive, Studio City. That is currently assessed as having 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, and 2,786 sq ft, and having been built in 1960 but having an "effective year" of 1965, which suggests it may have been expanded since Guy Strait lived there.<ref>[https://portal.assessor.lacounty.gov/parceldetail/2380004006 7718 Skyhill Drive] listing at Los Angeles Count Assessor's Office</ref>
Lyric had an office at the Crossroads of the World complex in Hollywood, 4.2 miles away down Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard. The [[Gold Cup]], famed "chicken" hangout, was only 3.2 miles away, down Laurel Canyon and Hollywood Boulevard. From Strait's house to the Gold Cup is only 3.9 miles straight down US 101. In December of 1972, Lyric was renting editing space at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios, then at the corner of Formosa Ave. and Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, 4.1 miles away.<ref name=Rubine1972>[https://voices.revealdigital.org/?a=d&d=BGJFHJH19721208.1.10 Rubine, Naomi. "The bomb at Goldwyn Studios"] ''Los Angeles Free Press'', Volume 9, issue 438, Dec 8-18, 1972. P.10</ref>

== External links ==

* [https://www.bing.com/maps?v=2&cp=34.123866~-118.377138&style=o&lvl=2&scene=3385292&sp=aN.34.123541_-118.376971 Bird's eye view] on Microsoft Bing Maps
* [https://maps.google.com/maps?q=34+07'21.85%22+N,+118+22'37.35%22W&spn=0.003738,0.010274&t=k&iwloc=A&hl=en Aerial photograph] on Google Maps
* [https://www.angelfire.com/retro2/sneeuwbol/ 3D reconstruction] by [[User:Sneeuwbol|Sneeuwbol]] Adobe Atmosphere software is long unsupported.
* [https://portal.assessor.lacounty.gov/parceldetail/2381030009 8207 Mulholland Drive] listing at Los Angeles Count Assessor's Office
* [http://mil.library.ucsb.edu/ap_images/tg-2755/tg-2755_23-15.tif 1971 aerial photo (28.1 MB)] at UC Santa Barbara Library. Flight TG_2755, Frame 23-15. nb: North is to the left, not the top.
== References ==

[[Category:History]]

The pool with the cinderblock walls

2022-07-07T01:20:18Z

Sneeuwbol: /* Spectacular backdrop */ Regularize footnote Swisher

'''The pool with the cinderblock walls''' was in the back yard of the house on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles's Hollywood Hills that served from the mid-60s to 1973 as [[Lyric International]]'s studio; as the home of Lyric's owner, [[Billy Byars, Jr.]]; as the residence of some of the [[Lyric Boys]]; and as permanent or temporary temporary housing for Lyric collaborators. The products in Lyric's catalog, including magazines, films and photo sets, feature extensive nudity by the Lyric boys and other boys and young men, and many were shot in the pool and the house. The house "was for a while a haven for adult homosexuals and male teenagers."<ref>{{cite book |title=Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover |last=Summers |first= Anthony |year=2003 |publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons |location=New York|isbn=0-399-13800-5 |page=337}}</ref>

== Spectacular backdrop ==

The house at the summit of the Hollywood Hills has views west and south to Los Angeles and the Pacific and north to the San Fernando Valley. At least two Lyric films, ''[[Swim Party]]'' and ''[[Spring Break]]'', featuring [[Peter Glawson]] and others of the Lyric boys, mostly in the nude, were filmed around the pool with the cinderblock walls. ''Swim Party'' had panoramic shots of the views that made it possible to identify the location.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20190731091154/http://www.angelfire.com/retro2/sneeuwbol/tech.html How the pool was found]</ref> Not only the backyard but the house's interior served as a backdrop for photos. The living room, a "bachelor pad [which] boasts massive oaken beams and other touches of baronial elegance" <ref name=Swisher>Swisher, Viola Hegyi. "Generating ''The Genesis Children''". ''After Dark'', September 1972, p. 18.</ref> appeared in Lyric's magazines with nude boys around its pool table.

The Lyric portfolio did not include pornography, but its offerings were distributed through DOM/Lyric, a collaboration with [[Guy Strait]], who did however produce pornography including child pornography, and lived only a few miles from the Lyric studio.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/947893/guy_strait_arrest_1/ Pair Arraigned in Case Involving Homosexuals]. ''The Van Nuys News''. 7 September 1973, p. 8</ref> There's no indication Strait filmed at home: police claimed a film made in a hotel led them to him in 1973,(needs source) and in his 1976 arrest the appellate court said, "the defendant came to the Holiday Inn in Rockford, Illinois, in March of 1972, to shoot a pornographic movie"<ref>[http://www.leagle.com/decision/197765152IllApp3d599_1557/PEOPLE%20v.%20STRAIT 52 Ill. App.3d 599 (1977) 367 N.E.2d 768]</ref>

The pool with the cinderblock walls which appears in many Lyric shorts changed over time. Early photos show the walls painted white, and a diving board. The diving board was removed, although the base remains, and the walls repainted. In some films the cinderblock walls appear to be black or purplish, but still photos taken at the same time, or perhaps printed from a frame of the 16mm negative, show the walls to be royal blue. "Many older films have taken on a distinct purplish cast, caused by the rapid fading of the cyan and yellow image dyes."<ref>[https://www.filmpreservation.org/preservation-basics/color-dye-fading Color Dye Fading]. National Film Preservation Foundation.</ref> The video files that circulate on the Internet and the DVDs available commercially may have been made from old or deteriorated 8mm films.

== Home to the Lyric Boys ==
In 2006, Anthony Aikman, director of ''The Genesis Children'', told in an interview of traveling to Los Angeles after the end of filming, along with the Lyric boys, the film's adult actor, Vincent Child, Byars and his factotum William Johnson:
<blockquote>This busy house also included Byars's pet snake, which was allowed free roam of the house, and a Beddington Terrier dog.<ref>Likely a Bedlington Terrier, a breed listed by the American Kennel Club. The AKC has no Beddington Terrier.</ref> One of Billy's only rules at the house was that if you wanted to swim in the pool you had to swim naked.
On one occasion, the dog got loose and everyone started to run naked down the road to try to catch it. The group was almost run over by a shocked elderly couple coming around the corner in their car. Aikman claims that the car actually left the pavement and hit a tree, resulting in the fire brigade racing up Mulholland with sirens and bells wailing. The dog can be seen in many Lyric photo shoots and short films shot at the pool location.

Since several of the "Lyric boys" were under legal custody of Byars as foster children, on one occasion the Los Angeles County Department of Child Services notified Byars that they would be coming by the house the next day for an inspection/visitation. Byars and friends quickly went on a shopping trip to buy books, tables and a portable blackboard. By the time the Child Services officials came to inspect the next day, Byars had set up an outdoor classroom complete with Vincent Child, black cape and all, acting as the boys' teacher. Byars received rave reviews by the impressed county officials.<ref name=Bear2009>[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/soc.motss/3Bq0xnS8o4c Usenet Post] by "Edward Bear", who also used "Ballog", on Genesis Children, based on interview with Anthony Aikman.</ref></blockquote>

== Residents and denizens ==
Besides Byars and the Lyric Boys, several other names or pseudonyms appear as living or working at the house.
===William Johnson===
Bill Johnson, presumably William Johnson, is given a field manager credit for ''The Genesis Children''<ref>[https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b71db582cis BFI listing]</ref> The list of those indicted in the 1973 Lyric scandal includes "William Johnson, 55, a Houston photographer."<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref> It's safe to assume that he is a real person, and unless he's 112, deceased.
<blockquote>The Lyric Boys [...] were brought over to Italy from the U.S.A. by Byars's longtime companion and photographer William Johnson.
William "Bill" Johnson was described as an older man who remained in the background and was said by Billy to be his security guard. He has also been described as Byars "henchman" and "hired bully".<ref name=Bear2009 /></blockquote>
===[[Harlan "Slim" Pfeiffer]]===
Pfeiffer is described in Lyric's materials as the photographer responsible for its movies and still photos, including the early films in Texas.(source needed). Possibly his name is an alias. William Johnson was arrested as "a Houston photographer" and could be Pfeiffer's real name.

===Terry Stuart===
Terry Stuart, possibly his real name, is a Lyric Boy who aged out of modeling and into the role of "boy wrangler" at Lyric.

Byars would usually give each issue of the various Lyric magazines a title and a mostly fictitious story line. An issue that featured photos of the Lyric boys swimming at the Mulholland Drive home, naked as usual, claims they were "...visiting Uncle Terry and Uncle Bill..." at their home for a summer swim. (needs source) ONE Archives' Erotic and physique studios photography includes 84 photographic prints from Lyric, which "include the following models: Joey, '''Terry Stuart''', Jim, Damon".<ref>[https://pdf.oac.cdlib.org/pdf/calaong/2014-051_erotic_photos.pdf#page=46 Catalog Finding Aid]
ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California</ref>

The name Terry Stuart was used in a number of publications:

One of the earliest appearances of Billy Byars' Lyric Studios upon the gay "physique magazine" scene in California appeared in the magazine ''Muscle Teens'', Volume 1 #1, Oct 1965 published by Y.P. Productions. This issue featured photographs of various nude teen males including the soon to be famous 15 year old "Terry Stuart".<ref>[http://www.timinvermont.com/vintage/mags1.html Current Magazine Listing] Tim in Vermont still lists the issue, described not as nude but "posing strap"</ref>

One Lyric short was reportedly titled ''[[Uncle Terry's Pool]]''. Usenet posts mention Terry Stuart as sharing Mr. Byars's house; as a former physique model; as the owner of the house with the pool with the cinderblock walls; as being Peter Glawson's uncle; as the person Mr. Glawson lived with; or as all of the above.

One 2001 Usenet post says,
<blockquote>"I think that I am clear about Terry; he was Billy's first and always tried to look the biz. He had a thing about clean money and used to wash it and dry it in a big rotary dryer in the studio. Once someone saw all the money coming out and called the Feds 'cos they thought he was printing it! He was always running around with a briefcase; I'd forgotten all this." <ref>[http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.prettyboy/msg/eb4d67d8f2e168fe A Peter Glawson Question]</ref></blockquote>

A January 1999 Usenet post describes the cover of an issue of Lyric’s “[[Naked Boyhood]]” magazine, probably Vol 1, #2, as showing “young Peter [Glawson] on the Gulf Coast of Texas with his Uncle Terry (middle) and an unknown adult friend.”

There is no "Terry" nor any "Stuart" on the list of those arrested in the 1973 scandal, nor does either name appear in the extensive credits of ''The Genesis Children''. Three of the others accused with Mr. Byars in the 1973 case were also said to be from Hollywood. All three are roughly ten years younger than Byars. At least one of them was acquitted at trial in 1973. All are possible candidates for Terry, but Terry could well be someone else.

The manager of Billy Byars, Sr.'s Royal Oaks Farm was named Stuart, and Terry might have been some relation.<ref>"Byars-Dayson Angus Sale Set Wednesday", ''Tyler Courier-Times'' (Tyler, Texas) 02 Oct 1955, Page 14. Includes a photo of "Tommie E. Stuart, Byars's farm manager"</ref> The Social Security Birth Database finds several "Terry Stuarts" born in Texas within five years of 1950; a Tyler high school yearbook has a Tommy Stuart of about the right age.

== Varied houseguests ==
When Anthony Aikman, director of ''The Genesis Children'', came to Los Angeles to edit the film, he stayed at the house on Mulholland Drive. Aikman found a strange man named Teeterman there. Teeterman slept in a coffin in the lower level of the house and had a job at the Hollywood Wax Museum where he dressed up in a costume and played the Mechanical Man while standing outside the museum to attract customers. Teeterman once showed Aikman an old 8mm film of himself, dressed in a vampire's costume, and Billy Byars trolling through a cemetery late at night. The cemetery was supposedly located out in the Midwest.<ref name=Bear2009 />

Vincent Child, the adult actor in ''The Genesis Children'', stayed at the house for a while on completion of the film.<ref name=Bear2009 />

== The house today ==

The house today and several of its neighbors make up "The Hills Treatment Center", listed in ''Psychology Today'' as a place which "offers a fantastic educational and therapeutic drug and alcohol rehabilitation experience."<ref>[https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/treatment-rehab/the-hills-treatment-luxury-addiction-center-los-angeles-ca/469051 The Hills treatment center] on Psychology Today website.</ref> Previously it was Wonderland Treatment Center.<ref>[http://www.rehabcosts.org/center/ca_90046_wonderland-treatment-center Wonderland listing]</ref> The "massive oaken beams" have been painted an inoffensive white, the pool deck has been tiled, and other indignities have been inflicted on the architect's work.

== The house as real estate ==
The house is in Los Angeles, California in the Hollywood Hills between Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley. More specifically, it is at 8181 and 8207 Mulholland Drive just west of Laurel Canyon Boulevard. The place is latitude 34°7'21.85" N (34.122736), longitude 118°22'37.35" W (-118.377042).

Billy Byars, Jr. let people believe he owned the house but he actually rented it from the owner.<ref name=Bear2009 />

Zillow.com tracks real estate values on a house-to-house basis, and a decade ago listed the house as a duplex, divided as 8181 and 8207 Mulholland Drive. 8181 is described as two bedrooms, one bath, five rooms total, 767 square feet of construction and 13,070 square feet (0.3 acres) of land. 8207 is four bedrooms, three baths, 2,624 square feet, on 19,600 sq ft (0.45 acres) of land. The total would be 3,391 square feet, with six bedrooms and four baths, on a three-quarter acre lot. In January, 2020, Zillow does not show 8181 and lists 8207 as being 2 bedrooms, 2 baths and 1,857 sq ft, which is inconsistent with aerial photographs which show no substantial change in the house's footprint, though outbuildings have been added.<ref>[https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/8207-Mulholland-Dr-Los-Angeles-CA-90046/20031982_zpid/ 8207 Mulholland Drive] on Zillow</ref>The house was built in 1961.<ref>[https://portal.assessor.lacounty.gov/parceldetail/2381030009 8207 Mulholland Drive] listing at Los Angeles Count Assessor's Office</ref>

== Related places ==

Lyric's activities were not confined to the pool with the cinderblock walls. When arrested in the 1973 scandal, Lyric partner and pornographer Guy Strait lived 2.4 miles away by road, at 7718 Skyhill Drive, Studio City. That is currently assessed as having 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, and 2,786 sq ft, and having been built in 1960 but having an "effective year" of 1965, which suggests it may have been expanded since Guy Strait lived there.<ref>[https://portal.assessor.lacounty.gov/parceldetail/2380004006 7718 Skyhill Drive] listing at Los Angeles Count Assessor's Office</ref>
Lyric had an office at the Crossroads of the World complex in Hollywood, 4.2 miles away down Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard. The [[Gold Cup]], famed "chicken" hangout, was only 3.2 miles away, down Laurel Canyon and Hollywood Boulevard. From Strait's house to the Gold Cup is only 3.9 miles straight down US 101. In December of 1972, Lyric was renting editing space at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios, then at the corner of Formosa Ave. and Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, 4.1 miles away.<ref name=Rubine1972>[https://voices.revealdigital.org/?a=d&d=BGJFHJH19721208.1.10 Rubine, Naomi. "The bomb at Goldwyn Studios"] ''Los Angeles Free Press'', Volume 9, issue 438, Dec 8-18, 1972. P.10</ref>

== External links ==

* [https://www.bing.com/maps?v=2&cp=34.123866~-118.377138&style=o&lvl=2&scene=3385292&sp=aN.34.123541_-118.376971 Bird's eye view] on Microsoft Bing Maps
* [https://maps.google.com/maps?q=34+07'21.85%22+N,+118+22'37.35%22W&spn=0.003738,0.010274&t=k&iwloc=A&hl=en Aerial photograph] on Google Maps
* [https://www.angelfire.com/retro2/sneeuwbol/ 3D reconstruction] by [[User:Sneeuwbol|Sneeuwbol]] Adobe Atmosphere software is long unsupported.
* [https://portal.assessor.lacounty.gov/parceldetail/2381030009 8207 Mulholland Drive] listing at Los Angeles Count Assessor's Office
* [http://mil.library.ucsb.edu/ap_images/tg-2755/tg-2755_23-15.tif 1971 aerial photo (28.1 MB)] at UC Santa Barbara Library. Flight TG_2755, Frame 23-15. nb: North is to the left, not the top.
== References ==

[[Category:History]]

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (film)

2022-07-06T18:04:39Z

Sneeuwbol: /* Juvenile sex scene */

{{Infobox film | yearReleased=1971
|mpaaRating=X
|director=Melvin Van Peebles
|stars=
Melvin Van Peebles Hubert Scales John Dullaghan Mario Van Peebles
|Assistant Editor=Jeremy Hoeneck
}}
With '''Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song''' (1971) director Melvin Van Peebles(Aug. 21, 1932 - Sep. 21, 2021) created the "Blaxploitation" genre. The low budget was eked out by Van Peebles writing, co-producing, scoring, editing, directing and starring in the film, including performing his own stunts and sex scenes, some of which were not simulated. Van Peebles' then thirteen-year-old son Mario plays the young version of his father, including full nudity and simulated sex. Assistant editor Jeremy Hoeneck would go on to edit the 1972 ''[[The_Genesis_Children_(film)|The Genesis Children]]''. The film was shot over 19 days, with Van Peebles presenting it as a Negro porn flick to evade union regulations. The director financed the film with his own money and a $50,000 loan from Bill Cosby, and the film went on to gross over $15 million.

With full nudity and simulated sex by a minor boy, ''Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song'' was treated more leniently than the nearly contemporaneous ''The Genesis Children'', which had only simple nudity, and which shared at least one production person, and likely a similar budget. ''Sweetback'' had its initial "X" rating reduced to an "R" three years after release. ''Sweetback'' appears in a 2019 reference book published by the Museum of Modern Art to commemorate key works of art in its collection. <ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Sweetback%27s_Baadasssss_Song Wikipedia]
</ref> It is also included in The Criterion Collection of "important classic and contemporary films."<ref name=criterion>[https://www.criterion.com/films/32000-sweet-sweetback-s-baadasssss-song The Criterion Collection] listing "Sweet Sweetback's Badass Song". The film is offered as part of a Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films Blu-ray Box Set, or on streaming video. </ref> ''The Genesis Children'' DVD and VHS appeared as two of the top ten best-selling films at [[Insider_Video_Club|Insider Video Club]], raided by the Postal Inspection Service.

== Juvenile sex scene ==

An IMDB review describes the sex scene:
<blockquote>In the opening scene a 13 year old boy, played by Peebles' son Mario, makes love with a hooker. This scene runs 3½ minutes. The boy is shown nude primarily from the rear, much of this time on top of the woman. Split-second views of male frontal nudity occurs a couple of times. The hooker is shown fully nude, front and back, but her pubic hair is visible only briefly.</blockquote>
The younger Sweetback character is described in the online Criterion Collection notes as "Mario Van Peebles ... Sweetback, age ten".<ref name=criterion /> Current obscenity law can criminalize visual representations that "appear to depict minors", lending importance to the character's age, and not only the actor's.<ref>U.S Department of Justice, "Citizen's Guide To U.S. Federal Law On Obscenity"</ref>

Mario Van Peebles had previous acting credits, including the soap opera 'One Life to Live', and while he did no acting for a decade after 'Sweet Sweetback', he did get a BA in Economics from Colombia in 1978, and went on to forty years of uninterrupted work in Hollywood.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005522/ IMDB page for Mario Van Peebles]</ref>

The scene appears in a number of lists of controversial sex scenes, reviewers variously giving Mario's age as 11, 13, or 14. As the scene was filmed in 1970 and the younger Peebles was born in January, 1957, the calendar favors 13. One review puts the actress who shared the scene as in her 40s. Mario is sometimes described as being "practically forced" to perform the role. Mario has stated that the scene was not real but simulated. (needs source).

== Actor's docudrama and homage ==

In 2003 Mario van Peebles filmed ''Baadasssss!'', originally titled, ''How to Get the Man's Foot Outta Your Ass'', a "half-documentary/half-homage to his father Melvin Van Peebles' movie ''Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song'' (1971)."<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367790/ IMDB entry for ''Baadasssss!'']</ref>, in which Mario plays his father. An IMDB review claims:
<blockquote>Mario's reluctance about being forced to be in a "sex scene" in his dad's movie is one of the film's highlights. The moment works thanks to a nicely subdued and thoughtful performance by Khleo Thomas as the young Mario.<ref>[https://m.imdb.com/review/rw0924351/?ref_=tt_urv IMDB review]</ref></blockquote>
Possibly Mario presented himself as being only 11 at the time he filmed the sex scene. Screen caps show Khleo been made up to appear as Mario did in ''Sweet Sweetback'', including dyed and mangy hair, but another review informs that the scene was not re-enacted in ''Baadasssss!'', the documentary jumping from preparation to watching the 1970 scenes on a video monitor.

''Baadasssss!'' is an adult's perspective on his father's groundbreaking work - and on his own participation at the age of thirteen in an adult/minor sex scene in front of the cameras.

Melvin Van Peebles cast his son in another film, the 1989 “Identity Crisis,” in which his Mario plays a rap singer who assumes the body of a middle-aged gay fashion designer.<ref name=retrospective>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-09-11-ca-320-story.html "American Cinematheque Sets Melvin Van Peebles Tribute"], Kevin, Thomas. ''LA Times'', Sept 11, 1992</ref></blockquote>

== Rating ==
Van Peebles released the film with the slogan, "Rated X by an all-white jury", though sources vary as to whether he self-rated the film, submitted the film for rating, or whether the MPAA rated it without it being submitted. The MPAA database shows only that the film was rated "R" in 1974.<ref>[https://www.filmratings.com/Search?filmTitle=sweetback MPAA filmratings.com] RATING: R CERTIFICATE #: 1130
</ref>. For other films where the rating changed, such as the contemporaneous "Midnight Cowboy", only the final rating appears in the database.

Wikipedia claims of a 2005 British DVD edition, "The Region 2 DVD release from BFI Video has the opening sex sequences altered. A notice at the beginning of the DVD states "In order to comply with UK law (the Protection of Children Act 1978), a number of images in the opening sequence of this film have been obscured." <ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Sweetback%27s_Baadasssss_Song Wikipedia]
</ref>

Other ratings include:
Australia:R Canada:R Canada:R (Alberta) Canada:(Banned) (Nova Scotia) Canada:16+ (Quebec) Germany:Not Rated Netherlands:18 (original rating) New Zealand:R18 United Kingdom:18 (video) United States:R (1974) United States:X (1971) <ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067810/parentalguide?ref_=tt_stry_pg#certification IMDB] Certification page</ref>

== Success ==
The film was a success financially, as one of the highest-grossing independent films of all time; politically, as Huey P. Newton devoted an entire issue of 'The Black Panther' to the film; culturally, as its success paved the way for the 1970s Blaxploitation genre; and artistically, as it has entered museum collections, and been restored and shown at festivals.

The ''New York Times'' "New Movies in Town" column on May 2, 1971, which also mentioned [[Johnny Minotaur]], summarized the film as<blockquote>SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG is film maker Melvin Van Peebles' “third and worst feature,” says Roger Greenspan. “Sweet Sweetback (played almost without dialogue by Van Peebles himself) performs in a black Southern California brothel until he is routinely picked up by the police one night and, driven by what they do to one of his brothers, he assaults a couple of cops and runs away. The subject, then, is Sweetback's flight to the border, and his adventures during flight; and at one level of artiness or another, it is almost all predictable formula material.”<ref>The New Movies in Town, ''New York Times'', May 2, 1971, Section D, Page 9</ref></blockquote>

== Editing ==
Critics were forgiving of the chaotic, non-linear structure of ''Sweet Sweetback'' For example, ''Los Angeles Times'' film critic Kevin Thomas discussed the film in an article on a 1992 Van Peebles retrospective:

<blockquote>
Without a doubt, the key Van Peebles film is his corrosive 1971 tour de force, “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” (screening Saturday at 7 p.m.). So abstract is “Sweet Sweetback” that all you can say for sure of the plot is that it’s about a pimp (Van Peebles) on the lam after being involved in the killing of a brutal cop. As the picture progresses, you worry less and less about keeping track of the story line (an impossible task anyway) because its incoherence, intended or otherwise, becomes so expressive of Sweetback’s predicament and induces identification with him.<ref name=retrospective /></blockquote>

Marvin Van Peebles is credited as editor, with Jeremy Hoeneck as assistant editor. Hoeneck would go on to edit ''The Genesis Children'' and three other films, however he has no editing credits after 1974 except for a 1978 film where he is also director and producer, but IMDB list 253 credits in sound through 2018.
== References ==
{{reflist}}
{{Navbox/film}}
[[Category:English-language films]]
[[Category:Action films]]

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (film)

2022-07-06T17:34:49Z

Sneeuwbol: Criterion Collection link added

{{Infobox film | yearReleased=1971
|mpaaRating=X
|director=Melvin Van Peebles
|stars=
Melvin Van Peebles Hubert Scales John Dullaghan Mario Van Peebles
|Assistant Editor=Jeremy Hoeneck
}}
With '''Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song''' (1971) director Melvin Van Peebles(Aug. 21, 1932 - Sep. 21, 2021) created the "Blaxploitation" genre. The low budget was eked out by Van Peebles writing, co-producing, scoring, editing, directing and starring in the film, including performing his own stunts and sex scenes, some of which were not simulated. Van Peebles' then thirteen-year-old son Mario plays the young version of his father, including full nudity and simulated sex. Assistant editor Jeremy Hoeneck would go on to edit the 1972 ''[[The_Genesis_Children_(film)|The Genesis Children]]''. The film was shot over 19 days, with Van Peebles presenting it as a Negro porn flick to evade union regulations. The director financed the film with his own money and a $50,000 loan from Bill Cosby, and the film went on to gross over $15 million.

With full nudity and simulated sex by a minor boy, ''Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song'' was treated more leniently than the nearly contemporaneous ''The Genesis Children'', which had only simple nudity, and which shared at least one production person, and likely a similar budget. ''Sweetback'' had its initial "X" rating reduced to an "R" three years after release. ''Sweetback'' appears in a 2019 reference book published by the Museum of Modern Art to commemorate key works of art in its collection. <ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Sweetback%27s_Baadasssss_Song Wikipedia]
</ref> It is also included in The Criterion Collection of "important classic and contemporary films."<ref name=criterion>[https://www.criterion.com/films/32000-sweet-sweetback-s-baadasssss-song The Criterion Collection] listing "Sweet Sweetback's Badass Song". The film is offered as part of a Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films Blu-ray Box Set, or on streaming video. </ref> ''The Genesis Children'' DVD and VHS appeared as two of the top ten best-selling films at [[Insider_Video_Club|Insider Video Club]], raided by the Postal Inspection Service.

== Juvenile sex scene ==

An IMDB review describes the sex scene:
<blockquote>In the opening scene a 13 year old boy, played by Peebles' son Mario, makes love with a hooker. This scene runs 3½ minutes. The boy is shown nude primarily from the rear, much of this time on top of the woman. Split-second views of male frontal nudity occurs a couple of times. The hooker is shown fully nude, front and back, but her pubic hair is visible only briefly.</blockquote>

Mario had previous acting credits, including the soap opera 'One Life to Live', and while he did no acting for a decade after 'Sweet Sweetback', he did get a BA in Economics from Colombia in 1978, and went on to forty years of uninterrupted work in Hollywood.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005522/ IMDB page for Mario Van Peebles]</ref>

The scene appears in a number of lists of controversial sex scenes, reviewers variously giving Mario's age as 11, 13, or 14 - as the scene was filmed in 1970 and the younger Peebles was born in January, 1957, the calendar favors 13. One review puts the actress as in her 40s. Mario is sometimes described as being "practically forced" to perform the role. Mario has stated that the scene was not real but simulated. (needs source).

== Actor's docudrama and homage ==

In 2003 Mario van Peebles filmed ''Baadasssss!'', originally titled, ''How to Get the Man's Foot Outta Your Ass'', a "half-documentary/half-homage to his father Melvin Van Peebles' movie ''Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song'' (1971)."<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367790/ IMDB entry for ''Baadasssss!'']</ref>, in which Mario plays his father. An IMDB review claims:
<blockquote>Mario's reluctance about being forced to be in a "sex scene" in his dad's movie is one of the film's highlights. The moment works thanks to a nicely subdued and thoughtful performance by Khleo Thomas as the young Mario.<ref>[https://m.imdb.com/review/rw0924351/?ref_=tt_urv IMDB review]</ref></blockquote>
Possibly Mario presented himself as being only 11 at the time he filmed the sex scene. Screen caps show Khleo been made up to appear as Mario did in ''Sweet Sweetback'', including dyed and mangy hair, but another review informs that the scene was not re-enacted in ''Baadasssss!'', the documentary jumping from preparation to watching the 1970 scenes on a video monitor.

''Baadasssss!'' is an adult's perspective on his father's groundbreaking work - and on his own participation at the age of thirteen in an adult/minor sex scene in front of the cameras.

Melvin Van Peebles cast his son in another film, the 1989 “Identity Crisis,” in which his Mario plays a rap singer who assumes the body of a middle-aged gay fashion designer.<ref name=retrospective>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-09-11-ca-320-story.html "American Cinematheque Sets Melvin Van Peebles Tribute"], Kevin, Thomas. ''LA Times'', Sept 11, 1992</ref></blockquote>

== Rating ==
Van Peebles released the film with the slogan, "Rated X by an all-white jury", though sources vary as to whether he self-rated the film, submitted the film for rating, or whether the MPAA rated it without it being submitted. The MPAA database shows only that the film was rated "R" in 1974.<ref>[https://www.filmratings.com/Search?filmTitle=sweetback MPAA filmratings.com] RATING: R CERTIFICATE #: 1130
</ref>. For other films where the rating changed, such as the contemporaneous "Midnight Cowboy", only the final rating appears in the database.

Wikipedia claims of a 2005 British DVD edition, "The Region 2 DVD release from BFI Video has the opening sex sequences altered. A notice at the beginning of the DVD states "In order to comply with UK law (the Protection of Children Act 1978), a number of images in the opening sequence of this film have been obscured." <ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Sweetback%27s_Baadasssss_Song Wikipedia]
</ref>

Other ratings include:
Australia:R Canada:R Canada:R (Alberta) Canada:(Banned) (Nova Scotia) Canada:16+ (Quebec) Germany:Not Rated Netherlands:18 (original rating) New Zealand:R18 United Kingdom:18 (video) United States:R (1974) United States:X (1971) <ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067810/parentalguide?ref_=tt_stry_pg#certification IMDB] Certification page</ref>

== Success ==
The film was a success financially, as one of the highest-grossing independent films of all time; politically, as Huey P. Newton devoted an entire issue of 'The Black Panther' to the film; culturally, as its success paved the way for the 1970s Blaxploitation genre; and artistically, as it has entered museum collections, and been restored and shown at festivals.

The ''New York Times'' "New Movies in Town" column on May 2, 1971, which also mentioned [[Johnny Minotaur]], summarized the film as<blockquote>SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG is film maker Melvin Van Peebles' “third and worst feature,” says Roger Greenspan. “Sweet Sweetback (played almost without dialogue by Van Peebles himself) performs in a black Southern California brothel until he is routinely picked up by the police one night and, driven by what they do to one of his brothers, he assaults a couple of cops and runs away. The subject, then, is Sweetback's flight to the border, and his adventures during flight; and at one level of artiness or another, it is almost all predictable formula material.”<ref>The New Movies in Town, ''New York Times'', May 2, 1971, Section D, Page 9</ref></blockquote>

== Editing ==
Critics were forgiving of the chaotic, non-linear structure of ''Sweet Sweetback'' For example, ''Los Angeles Times'' film critic Kevin Thomas discussed the film in an article on a 1992 Van Peebles retrospective:

<blockquote>
Without a doubt, the key Van Peebles film is his corrosive 1971 tour de force, “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” (screening Saturday at 7 p.m.). So abstract is “Sweet Sweetback” that all you can say for sure of the plot is that it’s about a pimp (Van Peebles) on the lam after being involved in the killing of a brutal cop. As the picture progresses, you worry less and less about keeping track of the story line (an impossible task anyway) because its incoherence, intended or otherwise, becomes so expressive of Sweetback’s predicament and induces identification with him.<ref name=retrospective /></blockquote>

Marvin Van Peebles is credited as editor, with Jeremy Hoeneck as assistant editor. Hoeneck would go on to edit ''The Genesis Children'' and three other films, however he has no editing credits after 1974 except for a 1978 film where he is also director and producer, but IMDB list 253 credits in sound through 2018.
== References ==
{{reflist}}
{{Navbox/film}}
[[Category:English-language films]]
[[Category:Action films]]

Gold Cup

2022-07-06T12:32:33Z

Sneeuwbol: /* Popular Culture */ Better shot of the former Gold Cup

'''The Gold Cup''' at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas was "a notoriously sleazy dump of a coffee shop". <ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050410011139/http://www.tvparty.com/tvp-AC/homeroom1/12-1-80.html Eye, Billy. "In search of punk life?"]. ''Data-Boy Magazine'', Hollywood. December 1, 1980. The printed editions are available at the [https://onearchives.andornot.com/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll?AC=GET_RECORD&XC=/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll&BU=https%3A%2F%2Fonearchives.andornot.com%2F&TN=opac&SN=AUTO8979&SE=1629&RN=0&MR=20&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=2&XP=&RF=WebBrief&EF=&DF=WebFull&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=3&ID=&MF=&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=21514&NR=0&NB=0&SV=0&SS=0&BG=&FG=&QS=&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=ISO-8859-1 ONE Archives at USC]</ref>"Once a beacon for teenage runaways, the Gold Cup attracted the worst elements of Hollywood Boulevard sleaze."<ref name=Fein1990>[https://archive.org/details/lamusicalhistory0000fein/page/50/mode/2up Fein, Art. The Gold Cup] "The L.A. musical history tour: a guide to the rock and roll landmarks of Los Angeles". Boston : Faber and Faber, 1990</ref>
== Nationally known for young hustlers ==
The Gold Cup was a hangout and pick-up place for young male hustlers. An online source compares it to a location where runaway teenage girls congregated, "A different kind of same kind of place was The Gold Cup coffee shop at Las Palmas and Hollywood. The neighborhood teemed with 15 and 16 year old boys who ran away before 'someone found out'. Since they couldn't get in bars, it was the Gold Cup for them. (But the boys had it better off... They got to keep their whole $5 instead of split it with a pimp!)"<ref>[https://depthshooter.blogspot.com/2009/05/hollywood-crime-scnes-procurment-of.html Depthshooter on "Hollywood Crime Scenes"]</ref> It was also a source for actors for pornographic films:
<blockquote>One early filmmaker, Barry Knight, described how “central casting in those days was The Gold Cup restaurant on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmos [in L.A.]. Whenever they needed an actor, or an actor didn’t show up, they’d go down to ‘central casting’...” (Douglas 1996a, p. 11).<ref>{{Citation
| last=Escoffier
| first=Jeffrey
| title=Gay-for-Pay: Straight Men and the Making of Gay Pornography
| journal=Qualitative Sociology
| volume=26
| issue=4
| year=2003
| pages=521-535
| url=http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/~mma/teaching/MS110/reading/GayforPay.pdf#5
}}</ref></blockquote>
Jackson Browne sang of it in his 1980 hit ''Boulevard'':<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulevard_(song) Wikipedia on ''Boulevard'']</ref>
<blockquote>"Down at the golden cup They set the young ones up Under the neon light Selling day for night"</blockquote>
Online rumor says that boys as young as 12-16 could be found in the Gold Cup or on the sidewalk outside.
<blockquote>"There used to be a 24 hour coffee shop at Hollywood Blvd and Selma Ave called the Gold Cup. [...] That's where the pedos could find either sex for rent, and these little kids were either addicted, runaways, often both. 
I have been there on medical aid calls many times. I remember one little boy, approx 11 years old, painted up like a vaudeville hussy, wearing girls' clothes, and beat bloody to a pulp."<ref>[https://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,11464793~mode=journal#6 A retired Fire Captain thinks back...]</ref></blockquote>

During the [[great kiddie porn panic]], national media in May, 1977 showcased the child pornography problem, and The Gold Cup appeared in a number of national vehicles.
=== Chicago Tribune ===
"Los Angeles [is] the child pornography capital of the United States," informs one article in ''The Chicago Tribune’s'' May, 1977 series on child prostitution, and the epicenter was The Gold Cup:
<blockquote>In Los Angeles, police told the Tribune, the favorite gathering place of runaway boys and the men who prey on them is in the area of the Gold Cup Restaurant at 6700 Hollywood Dr. One night recently, a Tribune reporter watched about 14 youths, between 12 and 20 years old, waiting on the sidewalk in front of the Gold Cup. Occasionally a man would walk up, a whispered conversation would ensue, and man would walk away with a boy. "We have no problem finding our sex offenders here," [Sgt. Lloyd] Martin said. "But we don't have laws to detain them."<ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/51083NCJRS.pdf#452 How Ruses Lure Victims to Child Pornographers]. Chicago Tribune, 17 May 1977, in PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AGAINST SEXUAL EXPLOITATION Hearings before the Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency], 95th Congress, 1st Session, Chicago, Ill., May 27, 1977, Washington, DC. June 16, 1977, pp. 437-440</ref></blockquote>
=== The New York Times ===
<blockquote><center><big>The Last Porno Show</big>
(By Robert Sam Anson)

The Cup and the Rack</center>
In Los Angeles, when police say "the Cup" they mean the Gold Cup Cafe, at Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas, first stop on what is called "the meat rack." The meat rack begins at the Cup, runs down Las Palmas, then turns right on Selma, goes on for a couple of blocks, then left on Highland to Santa Monica. It is not hard to find it. Simply follow the slowly cruising cars and look for kids lounging on the street. When the cars stop and the kids walk over, you're there.

On any night of the week, the Gold Cup is jammed: with kids, both boys and girls, menacing-looking black pimps, a few assorted lesbians and a sizable contingent of middle-aged chickenhawks. The atmosphere is a cross between a YMCA club and Dante's ninth circle. In the back of the Cup half a dozen teenage boys are playing pinball. A scantily dressed prostitute wanders in to watch the action. Then she leans over one of the machines to see the score, one of her breasts flops out. No one looks twice. In the front of the cafe, three beefy chickenhawks sit in a booth, chatting, sipping coffee, and commenting on the passing merchandise. "Who's that sweet little blond?" one of them calls out, and blows a kiss to a boy sitting at the counter. The youth turns, smiles knowingly, and walks to the table. One of the chickenhawks reaches out and fondles his crotch.

At 9:30, when the cafe closes for the night, the kids straggle out the door, some heading off for other well-known "chicken coops" in the neighborhood, others around the corner to the bookstall on Las Palmas (where one of the gay magazines features pictures of one of the boys who'd been playing pinball that night), and still others down the block to Selma Avenue. There they queue up for the cruising chickenhawks. <ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/46772NCJRS.pdf#page=158 "The Last Porno Show"] Robert Sam Anson, ''New York Times'', June 24, 1977 via Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, p. 155.</ref></blockquote>

=== CBS 60 Minutes ===
<blockquote><center><big>KIDDIE PORN</big>
Sunday, May 15, 1977, with CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Morley Safer

(Produced by Barry Lando) </center>
Sergeant MARTIN. Not only do your adults come up here looking for to satisfy their sexual pleasures, but you will also find the pornographers that's looking for models. A typical place for them to go would be in here to the Gold Cup restaurant here. This one down—

Mr. WALLACE. The Gold Cup right over here?

Sergeant MARTIN. Yes, right here on the right. And I've seen them as young as six years old in here, all the way up to eighteen or nineteen.

Mr. WALLACE. Six years old?

Sergeant MARTIN. Six years old. A lot of the hot dog stands and pinball arcades, this is where the young ones, the real young ones, would come to—to play the pinball machines. This is where the chicken hawk would come with a pocket full of quarters to give the young kids. This is how he makes his introduction. Then it leads up: Would you like to go home and smoke a joint? And it's little by little, but it maybe only take an hour, an hour and a half, till he's got him home and got him in the bed. After that point, after the act of oral copulation has occurred, or sodomy, what's—what's a little bit of picture taking? That's nothing. Other kids that don't—that don't score at "The Meat Rack" walk down Highland Avenue here to the Arthur J's restaurant.

Mr. WALLACE. This is a regular beat?

Sergeant MARTIN. It's a regular beat, yes.

Mr. WALLACE. [to boy]. Who are you waiting for?

Boy. Huh?

Mr. WALLACE. Who are you waiting for?

Boy. I'm waiting for a trick.

Mr. WALLACE. How old are some of the kids who work here? Boy. Some of them is young. Here?

Mr. WALLACE. How young.

Boy. Sixteen. A lot—there's a lot of chicken around here. There's a lot of old men who likes chicken. That's what they call chicken.

Mr. WALLACE. Yeah. But how old are the youngest kids that you know who do it out here?

Boy. Thirteen, fourteen. Thirteen on up.<ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/46772NCJRS.pdf#page=129 "Kiddie Porn"] CBS News from "60 Minutes," Produced by Barry Lando, Vol. IX, No. 33, as broadcast over the CBS Television Network, Sunday, May 15, 1977, with CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Morley Safer, via Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, p. 126.</ref></blockquote>

== Popular Culture ==

The 2004 film ''The Hillside Strangler''<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376649/ IMDB] entry for ''The Hillside Strangler''</ref> includes scenes of the Gold Cup, which online commentary describes as accurate.

In Tom Reamy's 1975 award-winning fantasy story "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_Lightfoot_Sue Wikipedia on "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"]</ref>, the fifteen-year-old protagonist arrives in Los Angeles by bus from Kansas, and reaches a coffee shop that is clearly The Gold Cup:
<blockquote>John Lee got off and stood at the corner of Hollywood and Vine grinning at the night. He walked down Hollywood Boulevard, gawking at everything, reading the names in stars on the sidewalk. He never imagined there would be so many cars or so many people at night. There were more than you would see in liberal even on Saturday afternoon. And the strange clothes the people wore. And men with long hair like the Beatles. Mary Ellen Walker had a colored picture of them pasted on her notebook. He didn’t know how far he had walked—the street never seemed to end—but the box was heavy. He was hungry and his Sunday shoes had rubbed a blister on his heel. He went into a cafe and sat in a booth, glad to get rid of the weight of the box. Most of the people looked at him as he came in. Several of them smiled. He smiled back. A couple of people had said hello on the street too. Hollywood was certainly a friendly place. He told the waitress what he wanted. He looked around the cafe and met the eyes of a man at the counter who had smiled when he came in. The man smiled again. John Lee smiled back, feeling good. The man got off the stool and came to the booth carrying a cup of coffee.</blockquote>

The 1977 punk "Trouble At The Cup" by Black Randy & Metrosquad, is written from the viewpoint of a runway. The lyrics include, "They say the boulevard is no place to be [...] I'd rather stand here and sell my dick" and complains of police violence, saying "Hollywood Boulevard is a military zone".<ref name=Fein1990 /> "In the late seventies there was a punk band called Arthur J and the Gold Cups, incorporating the names of two of the town’s most unsavory restaurants."<ref name=Fein1990 />

The 2019 "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" recreated a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard, with stars DiCaprio and Pitt dining with Al Pacino at the Musso & Frank Grill, half a block from the Gold Cup's site at the corner of Las Palmas. <ref>[https://variety.com/2019/film/news/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-locations-guide-musso-and-frank-1203284555/ Variety on "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" locations]</ref> A look at YouTube "making of" videos, however, show that director Taratino neither reproduced the Gold Cup - it remained as it is today, a tattoo parlor - nor its teenage sidewalk hustlers.<ref>[https://youtu.be/IUpNHBYjO80?t=359 Youtube] Making of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" - BTS On Location July 23, 24 & Oct 22, 23 2018. </ref>

== Linked to Lyric scandal ==
In the 1973 scandal which brought down [[Lyric International]], the ''Los Angeles Times'' claimed that “Many of the youngsters involved were recruited at hangouts for homosexuals particularly a Hollywood Blvd. coffee shop and a motel in Hollywood.”<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref> On-line advertisements for a game offering a "Fabulous 3-D Action walk-through of Hollywood Boulevard, circa 1968" lists among the sights of that time and place, "...oh, there's [[Billy Byars, Jr.|Billy Byers, Jr.]] (''sic'') over at the Gold Cup".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120317142206/http://www.slimeworld.org/bardotown/bardogames/gemini.html GEMINI "PSYCHEDELIC SUPERMARKET"]</ref>.

A Lyric producer named in the scandal described the police methodology in a 1975 interview, "What they did was to very, very carefully invent and build up cases against these fourteen people whose names they had scared out of a couple of teenage prostitutes". He said of these two supposed victims, "Well, two of them were just hustlers the police had dug up—I hardly even knew them. They had worked for Lyric a good little while ago. Even the police didn't push their stories too much, because they were both well into their teens and they admitted they were willing participants."<ref name=campfire>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120061219/http://www.hunkvideo.com/library/lewis/index.html Jones, Marvin. Interview]. Campfire Video Library</ref>

== Photos at ONE Archive ==

The ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California library has digitized photos in its collection, including of The Gold Cup.<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5182 Gold Cup Negatives] in ONE Archives</ref> Some of the scanned negatives are labeled as including "Gold Cup restaurant and street hustlers"<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5185 Gold Cup restaurant and street hustlers] in ONE Archives</ref>, and there are a few others just of "Street hustlers"<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5215 Street hustlers] in ONE Archives</ref>, which appear to be less than a block away, at Las Palmas and Selma. All these photos are in the daytime, although the texts (and song) above refer to night or 24-hour hustling. There is also a color photo of, "The crowd at Los Angeles's first Christopher Street West pride parade in front of the Gold Cup Restaurant. 1970."<ref>[https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/asset-management/2A3BF1OX9JWY4 Gay pride parade crowd in front of Gold Cup] in ONE Archives</ref>"

A search will find photos for sale in sites offering vintage Hollywood images, and a least one interior photo is available.

== References ==

[[Category:History]]

Coq d'Or

2022-07-06T02:37:25Z

Sneeuwbol: Created page with "Coq d'Or was a color magazine featuring photos of nude adolescents and young men published by Lyric International, starting about 1969 with an unknown number of issues. The first issue was produced when Billy Byars, Jr. was already established in Los Angeles, and from a reference to DOM, already working with Guy Strait. =First Issue= The first issues features a color photo of three nudes standing in line on a sand dune, leftmost and foremost being Peter..."

Coq d'Or was a color magazine featuring photos of nude adolescents and young men published by [[Lyric International]], starting about 1969 with an unknown number of issues. The first issue was produced when [[Billy Byars, Jr.]] was already established in Los Angeles, and from a reference to DOM, already working with [[Guy Strait]].
=First Issue=
The first issues features a color photo of three nudes standing in line on a sand dune, leftmost and foremost being [[Peter Glawson]], looking several years younger than when [[The Genesis Children]] was filmed in 1970 or 1971. The other two are 18 or so. The title, in the upper left, "COQ D'OR (The Golden Cock)", while in the upper right in the same italic font is "Volume One Number One" and a price of $3.50 (Playboy in 1971 had a cover price of one dollar). Below it are three black-and-white graphic elements: one seems to be a small cloud with lettering inside, the second is the capital letters "LM" draped with a deflating whale, and lastly a line drawing of a long-tailed rooster. Horizontally in the lower right in bold capitals is "Adults Only", while vertically from the bottom right in lighter capitals is "Sale to Minors Forbidden".

A 2016 online listing for the edition on a European auction site includes scans of eleven pages including the cover, strategically censored by the seller. The scans include neither table of contents nor page numbers. About a dozen models are shown, all are nude, and all (with the possible exception of Peter in the cover photo) have pubic hair. Peter and "Dick More" look to be at the start of their teens, while all the others seem closer to the end. The little interior text shown is typewritten.

Two pages of pictures, one with three black-and-white photos an another with a single color photograph, show Peter Glawson with an older boy in the living room of the house with [[The pool with the cinderblock walls|the pool with the cinderblock walls]]. In these photos he is visibly older than in the cover photo, and only slightly younger than in The Genesis Children. The text on the black-and-white page is:

<blockquote>PETER and CHES 
Ches has a way with the young and young PETER is no exception. Here Peter had just come in from the swimming pool and saw Ches in front of the camera. Since he (Peter) rarely wears clothes around the studio it took but just a few moments to have both of them focused in for some action shots. Ches seems to be admiring some of Peter's finer points.</blockquote>
Another page has two black-and-white photos of a boy sprawled half on a squarish easy chair and half on its hassock, dangling a cherry in his right hand. The text is surmounted by a stylized line drawing that could be a cat with its head in a duck press, and reads:
<blockquote>DICK MORE 
DOM was photographing this one a couple of years ago (before he became so well developed) and made dates for future photography. Here we are again with Dick in the easy chair and forbidden but delightful fruit in the offing.</blockquote>
=Physique=
Lyric's catalog included only material that was at the time on the right side of the line of the law. None of the photos in the first issue of Coq d'Or show overt sexual situations. Guy Strait, nicknamed "DOM", produced pornography including child pornography, and of the two youngest boys in the magazine, the text states that he photographed him when even younger.

The line of legality changed with time. There may have been off-catalog Lyric products, or off-camera activities, that went beyond what the law permitted at the time. There is nothing in Coq d'Or that exceeds what is in The Genesis Children, which was legally filmed and exhibited.

Gold Cup

2022-07-06T00:20:53Z

Sneeuwbol: /* Popular Culture */

'''The Gold Cup''' at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas was "a notoriously sleazy dump of a coffee shop". <ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050410011139/http://www.tvparty.com/tvp-AC/homeroom1/12-1-80.html Eye, Billy. "In search of punk life?"]. ''Data-Boy Magazine'', Hollywood. December 1, 1980. The printed editions are available at the [https://onearchives.andornot.com/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll?AC=GET_RECORD&XC=/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll&BU=https%3A%2F%2Fonearchives.andornot.com%2F&TN=opac&SN=AUTO8979&SE=1629&RN=0&MR=20&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=2&XP=&RF=WebBrief&EF=&DF=WebFull&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=3&ID=&MF=&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=21514&NR=0&NB=0&SV=0&SS=0&BG=&FG=&QS=&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=ISO-8859-1 ONE Archives at USC]</ref>"Once a beacon for teenage runaways, the Gold Cup attracted the worst elements of Hollywood Boulevard sleaze."<ref name=Fein1990>[https://archive.org/details/lamusicalhistory0000fein/page/50/mode/2up Fein, Art. The Gold Cup] "The L.A. musical history tour: a guide to the rock and roll landmarks of Los Angeles". Boston : Faber and Faber, 1990</ref>
== Nationally known for young hustlers ==
The Gold Cup was a hangout and pick-up place for young male hustlers. An online source compares it to a location where runaway teenage girls congregated, "A different kind of same kind of place was The Gold Cup coffee shop at Las Palmas and Hollywood. The neighborhood teemed with 15 and 16 year old boys who ran away before 'someone found out'. Since they couldn't get in bars, it was the Gold Cup for them. (But the boys had it better off... They got to keep their whole $5 instead of split it with a pimp!)"<ref>[https://depthshooter.blogspot.com/2009/05/hollywood-crime-scnes-procurment-of.html Depthshooter on "Hollywood Crime Scenes"]</ref> It was also a source for actors for pornographic films:
<blockquote>One early filmmaker, Barry Knight, described how “central casting in those days was The Gold Cup restaurant on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmos [in L.A.]. Whenever they needed an actor, or an actor didn’t show up, they’d go down to ‘central casting’...” (Douglas 1996a, p. 11).<ref>{{Citation
| last=Escoffier
| first=Jeffrey
| title=Gay-for-Pay: Straight Men and the Making of Gay Pornography
| journal=Qualitative Sociology
| volume=26
| issue=4
| year=2003
| pages=521-535
| url=http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/~mma/teaching/MS110/reading/GayforPay.pdf#5
}}</ref></blockquote>
Jackson Browne sang of it in his 1980 hit ''Boulevard'':<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulevard_(song) Wikipedia on ''Boulevard'']</ref>
<blockquote>"Down at the golden cup They set the young ones up Under the neon light Selling day for night"</blockquote>
Online rumor says that boys as young as 12-16 could be found in the Gold Cup or on the sidewalk outside.
<blockquote>"There used to be a 24 hour coffee shop at Hollywood Blvd and Selma Ave called the Gold Cup. [...] That's where the pedos could find either sex for rent, and these little kids were either addicted, runaways, often both. 
I have been there on medical aid calls many times. I remember one little boy, approx 11 years old, painted up like a vaudeville hussy, wearing girls' clothes, and beat bloody to a pulp."<ref>[https://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,11464793~mode=journal#6 A retired Fire Captain thinks back...]</ref></blockquote>

During the [[great kiddie porn panic]], national media in May, 1977 showcased the child pornography problem, and The Gold Cup appeared in a number of national vehicles.
=== Chicago Tribune ===
"Los Angeles [is] the child pornography capital of the United States," informs one article in ''The Chicago Tribune’s'' May, 1977 series on child prostitution, and the epicenter was The Gold Cup:
<blockquote>In Los Angeles, police told the Tribune, the favorite gathering place of runaway boys and the men who prey on them is in the area of the Gold Cup Restaurant at 6700 Hollywood Dr. One night recently, a Tribune reporter watched about 14 youths, between 12 and 20 years old, waiting on the sidewalk in front of the Gold Cup. Occasionally a man would walk up, a whispered conversation would ensue, and man would walk away with a boy. "We have no problem finding our sex offenders here," [Sgt. Lloyd] Martin said. "But we don't have laws to detain them."<ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/51083NCJRS.pdf#452 How Ruses Lure Victims to Child Pornographers]. Chicago Tribune, 17 May 1977, in PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AGAINST SEXUAL EXPLOITATION Hearings before the Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency], 95th Congress, 1st Session, Chicago, Ill., May 27, 1977, Washington, DC. June 16, 1977, pp. 437-440</ref></blockquote>
=== The New York Times ===
<blockquote><center><big>The Last Porno Show</big>
(By Robert Sam Anson)

The Cup and the Rack</center>
In Los Angeles, when police say "the Cup" they mean the Gold Cup Cafe, at Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas, first stop on what is called "the meat rack." The meat rack begins at the Cup, runs down Las Palmas, then turns right on Selma, goes on for a couple of blocks, then left on Highland to Santa Monica. It is not hard to find it. Simply follow the slowly cruising cars and look for kids lounging on the street. When the cars stop and the kids walk over, you're there.

On any night of the week, the Gold Cup is jammed: with kids, both boys and girls, menacing-looking black pimps, a few assorted lesbians and a sizable contingent of middle-aged chickenhawks. The atmosphere is a cross between a YMCA club and Dante's ninth circle. In the back of the Cup half a dozen teenage boys are playing pinball. A scantily dressed prostitute wanders in to watch the action. Then she leans over one of the machines to see the score, one of her breasts flops out. No one looks twice. In the front of the cafe, three beefy chickenhawks sit in a booth, chatting, sipping coffee, and commenting on the passing merchandise. "Who's that sweet little blond?" one of them calls out, and blows a kiss to a boy sitting at the counter. The youth turns, smiles knowingly, and walks to the table. One of the chickenhawks reaches out and fondles his crotch.

At 9:30, when the cafe closes for the night, the kids straggle out the door, some heading off for other well-known "chicken coops" in the neighborhood, others around the corner to the bookstall on Las Palmas (where one of the gay magazines features pictures of one of the boys who'd been playing pinball that night), and still others down the block to Selma Avenue. There they queue up for the cruising chickenhawks. <ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/46772NCJRS.pdf#page=158 "The Last Porno Show"] Robert Sam Anson, ''New York Times'', June 24, 1977 via Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, p. 155.</ref></blockquote>

=== CBS 60 Minutes ===
<blockquote><center><big>KIDDIE PORN</big>
Sunday, May 15, 1977, with CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Morley Safer

(Produced by Barry Lando) </center>
Sergeant MARTIN. Not only do your adults come up here looking for to satisfy their sexual pleasures, but you will also find the pornographers that's looking for models. A typical place for them to go would be in here to the Gold Cup restaurant here. This one down—

Mr. WALLACE. The Gold Cup right over here?

Sergeant MARTIN. Yes, right here on the right. And I've seen them as young as six years old in here, all the way up to eighteen or nineteen.

Mr. WALLACE. Six years old?

Sergeant MARTIN. Six years old. A lot of the hot dog stands and pinball arcades, this is where the young ones, the real young ones, would come to—to play the pinball machines. This is where the chicken hawk would come with a pocket full of quarters to give the young kids. This is how he makes his introduction. Then it leads up: Would you like to go home and smoke a joint? And it's little by little, but it maybe only take an hour, an hour and a half, till he's got him home and got him in the bed. After that point, after the act of oral copulation has occurred, or sodomy, what's—what's a little bit of picture taking? That's nothing. Other kids that don't—that don't score at "The Meat Rack" walk down Highland Avenue here to the Arthur J's restaurant.

Mr. WALLACE. This is a regular beat?

Sergeant MARTIN. It's a regular beat, yes.

Mr. WALLACE. [to boy]. Who are you waiting for?

Boy. Huh?

Mr. WALLACE. Who are you waiting for?

Boy. I'm waiting for a trick.

Mr. WALLACE. How old are some of the kids who work here? Boy. Some of them is young. Here?

Mr. WALLACE. How young.

Boy. Sixteen. A lot—there's a lot of chicken around here. There's a lot of old men who likes chicken. That's what they call chicken.

Mr. WALLACE. Yeah. But how old are the youngest kids that you know who do it out here?

Boy. Thirteen, fourteen. Thirteen on up.<ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/46772NCJRS.pdf#page=129 "Kiddie Porn"] CBS News from "60 Minutes," Produced by Barry Lando, Vol. IX, No. 33, as broadcast over the CBS Television Network, Sunday, May 15, 1977, with CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Morley Safer, via Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, p. 126.</ref></blockquote>

== Popular Culture ==

The 2004 film ''The Hillside Strangler''<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376649/ IMDB] entry for ''The Hillside Strangler''</ref> includes scenes of the Gold Cup, which online commentary describes as accurate.

In Tom Reamy's 1975 award-winning fantasy story "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_Lightfoot_Sue Wikipedia on "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"]</ref>, the fifteen-year-old protagonist arrives in Los Angeles by bus from Kansas, and reaches a coffee shop that is clearly The Gold Cup:
<blockquote>John Lee got off and stood at the corner of Hollywood and Vine grinning at the night. He walked down Hollywood Boulevard, gawking at everything, reading the names in stars on the sidewalk. He never imagined there would be so many cars or so many people at night. There were more than you would see in liberal even on Saturday afternoon. And the strange clothes the people wore. And men with long hair like the Beatles. Mary Ellen Walker had a colored picture of them pasted on her notebook. He didn’t know how far he had walked—the street never seemed to end—but the box was heavy. He was hungry and his Sunday shoes had rubbed a blister on his heel. He went into a cafe and sat in a booth, glad to get rid of the weight of the box. Most of the people looked at him as he came in. Several of them smiled. He smiled back. A couple of people had said hello on the street too. Hollywood was certainly a friendly place. He told the waitress what he wanted. He looked around the cafe and met the eyes of a man at the counter who had smiled when he came in. The man smiled again. John Lee smiled back, feeling good. The man got off the stool and came to the booth carrying a cup of coffee.</blockquote>

The 1977 punk "Trouble At The Cup" by Black Randy & Metrosquad, is written from the viewpoint of a runway. The lyrics include, "They say the boulevard is no place to be [...] I'd rather stand here and sell my dick" and complains of police violence, saying "Hollywood Boulevard is a military zone".<ref name=Fein1990 /> "In the late seventies there was a punk band called Arthur J and the Gold Cups, incorporating the names of two of the town’s most unsavory restaurants."<ref name=Fein1990 />

The 2019 "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" recreated a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard, with stars DiCaprio and Pitt dining with Al Pacino at the Musso & Frank Grill, half a block from the Gold Cup's site at the corner of Las Palmas. <ref>[https://variety.com/2019/film/news/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-locations-guide-musso-and-frank-1203284555/ Variety on "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" locations]</ref> A look at YouTube "making of" videos, however, show that director Taratino neither reproduced the Gold Cup - it remained as it is today, a tattoo parlor - nor its teenage sidewalk hustlers.<ref>[https://youtu.be/IUpNHBYjO80?t=198 Youtube] Making of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" - BTS On Location July 23, 24 & Oct 22, 23 2018</ref>

== Linked to Lyric scandal ==
In the 1973 scandal which brought down [[Lyric International]], the ''Los Angeles Times'' claimed that “Many of the youngsters involved were recruited at hangouts for homosexuals particularly a Hollywood Blvd. coffee shop and a motel in Hollywood.”<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref> On-line advertisements for a game offering a "Fabulous 3-D Action walk-through of Hollywood Boulevard, circa 1968" lists among the sights of that time and place, "...oh, there's [[Billy Byars, Jr.|Billy Byers, Jr.]] (''sic'') over at the Gold Cup".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120317142206/http://www.slimeworld.org/bardotown/bardogames/gemini.html GEMINI "PSYCHEDELIC SUPERMARKET"]</ref>.

A Lyric producer named in the scandal described the police methodology in a 1975 interview, "What they did was to very, very carefully invent and build up cases against these fourteen people whose names they had scared out of a couple of teenage prostitutes". He said of these two supposed victims, "Well, two of them were just hustlers the police had dug up—I hardly even knew them. They had worked for Lyric a good little while ago. Even the police didn't push their stories too much, because they were both well into their teens and they admitted they were willing participants."<ref name=campfire>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120061219/http://www.hunkvideo.com/library/lewis/index.html Jones, Marvin. Interview]. Campfire Video Library</ref>

== Photos at ONE Archive ==

The ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California library has digitized photos in its collection, including of The Gold Cup.<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5182 Gold Cup Negatives] in ONE Archives</ref> Some of the scanned negatives are labeled as including "Gold Cup restaurant and street hustlers"<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5185 Gold Cup restaurant and street hustlers] in ONE Archives</ref>, and there are a few others just of "Street hustlers"<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5215 Street hustlers] in ONE Archives</ref>, which appear to be less than a block away, at Las Palmas and Selma. All these photos are in the daytime, although the texts (and song) above refer to night or 24-hour hustling. There is also a color photo of, "The crowd at Los Angeles's first Christopher Street West pride parade in front of the Gold Cup Restaurant. 1970."<ref>[https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/asset-management/2A3BF1OX9JWY4 Gay pride parade crowd in front of Gold Cup] in ONE Archives</ref>"

A search will find photos for sale in sites offering vintage Hollywood images, and a least one interior photo is available.

== References ==

[[Category:History]]

Gold Cup

2022-07-05T22:42:27Z

Sneeuwbol: /* Popular Culture */ Added "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"

'''The Gold Cup''' at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas was "a notoriously sleazy dump of a coffee shop". <ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050410011139/http://www.tvparty.com/tvp-AC/homeroom1/12-1-80.html Eye, Billy. "In search of punk life?"]. ''Data-Boy Magazine'', Hollywood. December 1, 1980. The printed editions are available at the [https://onearchives.andornot.com/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll?AC=GET_RECORD&XC=/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll&BU=https%3A%2F%2Fonearchives.andornot.com%2F&TN=opac&SN=AUTO8979&SE=1629&RN=0&MR=20&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=2&XP=&RF=WebBrief&EF=&DF=WebFull&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=3&ID=&MF=&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=21514&NR=0&NB=0&SV=0&SS=0&BG=&FG=&QS=&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=ISO-8859-1 ONE Archives at USC]</ref>"Once a beacon for teenage runaways, the Gold Cup attracted the worst elements of Hollywood Boulevard sleaze."<ref name=Fein1990>[https://archive.org/details/lamusicalhistory0000fein/page/50/mode/2up Fein, Art. The Gold Cup] "The L.A. musical history tour: a guide to the rock and roll landmarks of Los Angeles". Boston : Faber and Faber, 1990</ref>
== Nationally known for young hustlers ==
The Gold Cup was a hangout and pick-up place for young male hustlers. An online source compares it to a location where runaway teenage girls congregated, "A different kind of same kind of place was The Gold Cup coffee shop at Las Palmas and Hollywood. The neighborhood teemed with 15 and 16 year old boys who ran away before 'someone found out'. Since they couldn't get in bars, it was the Gold Cup for them. (But the boys had it better off... They got to keep their whole $5 instead of split it with a pimp!)"<ref>[https://depthshooter.blogspot.com/2009/05/hollywood-crime-scnes-procurment-of.html Depthshooter on "Hollywood Crime Scenes"]</ref> It was also a source for actors for pornographic films:
<blockquote>One early filmmaker, Barry Knight, described how “central casting in those days was The Gold Cup restaurant on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmos [in L.A.]. Whenever they needed an actor, or an actor didn’t show up, they’d go down to ‘central casting’...” (Douglas 1996a, p. 11).<ref>{{Citation
| last=Escoffier
| first=Jeffrey
| title=Gay-for-Pay: Straight Men and the Making of Gay Pornography
| journal=Qualitative Sociology
| volume=26
| issue=4
| year=2003
| pages=521-535
| url=http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/~mma/teaching/MS110/reading/GayforPay.pdf#5
}}</ref></blockquote>
Jackson Browne sang of it in his 1980 hit ''Boulevard'':<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulevard_(song) Wikipedia on ''Boulevard'']</ref>
<blockquote>"Down at the golden cup They set the young ones up Under the neon light Selling day for night"</blockquote>
Online rumor says that boys as young as 12-16 could be found in the Gold Cup or on the sidewalk outside.
<blockquote>"There used to be a 24 hour coffee shop at Hollywood Blvd and Selma Ave called the Gold Cup. [...] That's where the pedos could find either sex for rent, and these little kids were either addicted, runaways, often both. 
I have been there on medical aid calls many times. I remember one little boy, approx 11 years old, painted up like a vaudeville hussy, wearing girls' clothes, and beat bloody to a pulp."<ref>[https://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,11464793~mode=journal#6 A retired Fire Captain thinks back...]</ref></blockquote>

During the [[great kiddie porn panic]], national media in May, 1977 showcased the child pornography problem, and The Gold Cup appeared in a number of national vehicles.
=== Chicago Tribune ===
"Los Angeles [is] the child pornography capital of the United States," informs one article in ''The Chicago Tribune’s'' May, 1977 series on child prostitution, and the epicenter was The Gold Cup:
<blockquote>In Los Angeles, police told the Tribune, the favorite gathering place of runaway boys and the men who prey on them is in the area of the Gold Cup Restaurant at 6700 Hollywood Dr. One night recently, a Tribune reporter watched about 14 youths, between 12 and 20 years old, waiting on the sidewalk in front of the Gold Cup. Occasionally a man would walk up, a whispered conversation would ensue, and man would walk away with a boy. "We have no problem finding our sex offenders here," [Sgt. Lloyd] Martin said. "But we don't have laws to detain them."<ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/51083NCJRS.pdf#452 How Ruses Lure Victims to Child Pornographers]. Chicago Tribune, 17 May 1977, in PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AGAINST SEXUAL EXPLOITATION Hearings before the Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency], 95th Congress, 1st Session, Chicago, Ill., May 27, 1977, Washington, DC. June 16, 1977, pp. 437-440</ref></blockquote>
=== The New York Times ===
<blockquote><center><big>The Last Porno Show</big>
(By Robert Sam Anson)

The Cup and the Rack</center>
In Los Angeles, when police say "the Cup" they mean the Gold Cup Cafe, at Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas, first stop on what is called "the meat rack." The meat rack begins at the Cup, runs down Las Palmas, then turns right on Selma, goes on for a couple of blocks, then left on Highland to Santa Monica. It is not hard to find it. Simply follow the slowly cruising cars and look for kids lounging on the street. When the cars stop and the kids walk over, you're there.

On any night of the week, the Gold Cup is jammed: with kids, both boys and girls, menacing-looking black pimps, a few assorted lesbians and a sizable contingent of middle-aged chickenhawks. The atmosphere is a cross between a YMCA club and Dante's ninth circle. In the back of the Cup half a dozen teenage boys are playing pinball. A scantily dressed prostitute wanders in to watch the action. Then she leans over one of the machines to see the score, one of her breasts flops out. No one looks twice. In the front of the cafe, three beefy chickenhawks sit in a booth, chatting, sipping coffee, and commenting on the passing merchandise. "Who's that sweet little blond?" one of them calls out, and blows a kiss to a boy sitting at the counter. The youth turns, smiles knowingly, and walks to the table. One of the chickenhawks reaches out and fondles his crotch.

At 9:30, when the cafe closes for the night, the kids straggle out the door, some heading off for other well-known "chicken coops" in the neighborhood, others around the corner to the bookstall on Las Palmas (where one of the gay magazines features pictures of one of the boys who'd been playing pinball that night), and still others down the block to Selma Avenue. There they queue up for the cruising chickenhawks. <ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/46772NCJRS.pdf#page=158 "The Last Porno Show"] Robert Sam Anson, ''New York Times'', June 24, 1977 via Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, p. 155.</ref></blockquote>

=== CBS 60 Minutes ===
<blockquote><center><big>KIDDIE PORN</big>
Sunday, May 15, 1977, with CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Morley Safer

(Produced by Barry Lando) </center>
Sergeant MARTIN. Not only do your adults come up here looking for to satisfy their sexual pleasures, but you will also find the pornographers that's looking for models. A typical place for them to go would be in here to the Gold Cup restaurant here. This one down—

Mr. WALLACE. The Gold Cup right over here?

Sergeant MARTIN. Yes, right here on the right. And I've seen them as young as six years old in here, all the way up to eighteen or nineteen.

Mr. WALLACE. Six years old?

Sergeant MARTIN. Six years old. A lot of the hot dog stands and pinball arcades, this is where the young ones, the real young ones, would come to—to play the pinball machines. This is where the chicken hawk would come with a pocket full of quarters to give the young kids. This is how he makes his introduction. Then it leads up: Would you like to go home and smoke a joint? And it's little by little, but it maybe only take an hour, an hour and a half, till he's got him home and got him in the bed. After that point, after the act of oral copulation has occurred, or sodomy, what's—what's a little bit of picture taking? That's nothing. Other kids that don't—that don't score at "The Meat Rack" walk down Highland Avenue here to the Arthur J's restaurant.

Mr. WALLACE. This is a regular beat?

Sergeant MARTIN. It's a regular beat, yes.

Mr. WALLACE. [to boy]. Who are you waiting for?

Boy. Huh?

Mr. WALLACE. Who are you waiting for?

Boy. I'm waiting for a trick.

Mr. WALLACE. How old are some of the kids who work here? Boy. Some of them is young. Here?

Mr. WALLACE. How young.

Boy. Sixteen. A lot—there's a lot of chicken around here. There's a lot of old men who likes chicken. That's what they call chicken.

Mr. WALLACE. Yeah. But how old are the youngest kids that you know who do it out here?

Boy. Thirteen, fourteen. Thirteen on up.<ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/46772NCJRS.pdf#page=129 "Kiddie Porn"] CBS News from "60 Minutes," Produced by Barry Lando, Vol. IX, No. 33, as broadcast over the CBS Television Network, Sunday, May 15, 1977, with CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Morley Safer, via Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, p. 126.</ref></blockquote>

== Popular Culture ==

The 2004 film ''The Hillside Strangler''<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376649/ IMDB] entry for ''The Hillside Strangler''</ref> includes scenes of the Gold Cup, which online commentary describes as accurate.

In Tom Reamy's 1975 award-winning fantasy story "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_Lightfoot_Sue Wikipedia on "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"]</ref>, the fifteen-year-old protagonist arrives in Los Angeles by bus from Kansas, and reaches a coffee shop that is clearly The Gold Cup:
<blockquote>John Lee got off and stood at the corner of Hollywood and Vine grinning at the night. He walked down Hollywood Boulevard, gawking at everything, reading the names in stars on the sidewalk. He never imagined there would be so many cars or so many people at night. There were more than you would see in liberal even on Saturday afternoon. And the strange clothes the people wore. And men with long hair like the Beatles. Mary Ellen Walker had a colored picture of them pasted on her notebook. He didn’t know how far he had walked—the street never seemed to end—but the box was heavy. He was hungry and his Sunday shoes had rubbed a blister on his heel. He went into a cafe and sat in a booth, glad to get rid of the weight of the box. Most of the people looked at him as he came in. Several of them smiled. He smiled back. A couple of people had said hello on the street too. Hollywood was certainly a friendly place. He told the waitress what he wanted. He looked around the cafe and met the eyes of a man at the counter who had smiled when he came in. The man smiled again. John Lee smiled back, feeling good. The man got off the stool and came to the booth carrying a cup of coffee.</blockquote>

The 1977 punk "Trouble At The Cup" by Black Randy & Metrosquad, is written from the viewpoint of a runway. The lyrics include, "They say the boulevard is no place to be [...] I'd rather stand here and sell my dick" and complains of police violence, saying "Hollywood Boulevard is a military zone".<ref name=Fein1990 /> "In the late seventies there was a punk band called Arthur J and the Gold Cups, incorporating the names of two of the town’s most unsavory restaurants."<ref name=Fein1990 />

The 2019 "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" recreated a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard, with stars DiCaprio and Pitt dining with Al Pacino at the Musso & Frank Grill, half a block from the Gold Cup's site at the corner of Las Palmas. <ref>https://variety.com/2019/film/news/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-locations-guide-musso-and-frank-1203284555/ Variety on "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" locations</ref> A look at YouTube "making of" videos, however, show that director Taratino neither reproduced the Gold Cup - it remained as it is today, a tattoo parlor - nor its teenage sidewalk hustlers.

== Linked to Lyric scandal ==
In the 1973 scandal which brought down [[Lyric International]], the ''Los Angeles Times'' claimed that “Many of the youngsters involved were recruited at hangouts for homosexuals particularly a Hollywood Blvd. coffee shop and a motel in Hollywood.”<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref> On-line advertisements for a game offering a "Fabulous 3-D Action walk-through of Hollywood Boulevard, circa 1968" lists among the sights of that time and place, "...oh, there's [[Billy Byars, Jr.|Billy Byers, Jr.]] (''sic'') over at the Gold Cup".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120317142206/http://www.slimeworld.org/bardotown/bardogames/gemini.html GEMINI "PSYCHEDELIC SUPERMARKET"]</ref>.

A Lyric producer named in the scandal described the police methodology in a 1975 interview, "What they did was to very, very carefully invent and build up cases against these fourteen people whose names they had scared out of a couple of teenage prostitutes". He said of these two supposed victims, "Well, two of them were just hustlers the police had dug up—I hardly even knew them. They had worked for Lyric a good little while ago. Even the police didn't push their stories too much, because they were both well into their teens and they admitted they were willing participants."<ref name=campfire>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120061219/http://www.hunkvideo.com/library/lewis/index.html Jones, Marvin. Interview]. Campfire Video Library</ref>

== Photos at ONE Archive ==

The ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California library has digitized photos in its collection, including of The Gold Cup.<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5182 Gold Cup Negatives] in ONE Archives</ref> Some of the scanned negatives are labeled as including "Gold Cup restaurant and street hustlers"<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5185 Gold Cup restaurant and street hustlers] in ONE Archives</ref>, and there are a few others just of "Street hustlers"<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5215 Street hustlers] in ONE Archives</ref>, which appear to be less than a block away, at Las Palmas and Selma. All these photos are in the daytime, although the texts (and song) above refer to night or 24-hour hustling. There is also a color photo of, "The crowd at Los Angeles's first Christopher Street West pride parade in front of the Gold Cup Restaurant. 1970."<ref>[https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/asset-management/2A3BF1OX9JWY4 Gay pride parade crowd in front of Gold Cup] in ONE Archives</ref>"

A search will find photos for sale in sites offering vintage Hollywood images, and a least one interior photo is available.

== References ==

[[Category:History]]

Gold Cup

2022-07-05T21:28:08Z

Sneeuwbol: /* Photos at ONE Archive */ USC/ONE archives links to "permalinks"

'''The Gold Cup''' at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas was "a notoriously sleazy dump of a coffee shop". <ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050410011139/http://www.tvparty.com/tvp-AC/homeroom1/12-1-80.html Eye, Billy. "In search of punk life?"]. ''Data-Boy Magazine'', Hollywood. December 1, 1980. The printed editions are available at the [https://onearchives.andornot.com/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll?AC=GET_RECORD&XC=/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll&BU=https%3A%2F%2Fonearchives.andornot.com%2F&TN=opac&SN=AUTO8979&SE=1629&RN=0&MR=20&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=2&XP=&RF=WebBrief&EF=&DF=WebFull&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=3&ID=&MF=&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=21514&NR=0&NB=0&SV=0&SS=0&BG=&FG=&QS=&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=ISO-8859-1 ONE Archives at USC]</ref>"Once a beacon for teenage runaways, the Gold Cup attracted the worst elements of Hollywood Boulevard sleaze."<ref name=Fein1990>[https://archive.org/details/lamusicalhistory0000fein/page/50/mode/2up Fein, Art. The Gold Cup] "The L.A. musical history tour: a guide to the rock and roll landmarks of Los Angeles". Boston : Faber and Faber, 1990</ref>
== Nationally known for young hustlers ==
The Gold Cup was a hangout and pick-up place for young male hustlers. An online source compares it to a location where runaway teenage girls congregated, "A different kind of same kind of place was The Gold Cup coffee shop at Las Palmas and Hollywood. The neighborhood teemed with 15 and 16 year old boys who ran away before 'someone found out'. Since they couldn't get in bars, it was the Gold Cup for them. (But the boys had it better off... They got to keep their whole $5 instead of split it with a pimp!)"<ref>[https://depthshooter.blogspot.com/2009/05/hollywood-crime-scnes-procurment-of.html Depthshooter on "Hollywood Crime Scenes"]</ref> It was also a source for actors for pornographic films:
<blockquote>One early filmmaker, Barry Knight, described how “central casting in those days was The Gold Cup restaurant on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmos [in L.A.]. Whenever they needed an actor, or an actor didn’t show up, they’d go down to ‘central casting’...” (Douglas 1996a, p. 11).<ref>{{Citation
| last=Escoffier
| first=Jeffrey
| title=Gay-for-Pay: Straight Men and the Making of Gay Pornography
| journal=Qualitative Sociology
| volume=26
| issue=4
| year=2003
| pages=521-535
| url=http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/~mma/teaching/MS110/reading/GayforPay.pdf#5
}}</ref></blockquote>
Jackson Browne sang of it in his 1980 hit ''Boulevard'':<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulevard_(song) Wikipedia on ''Boulevard'']</ref>
<blockquote>"Down at the golden cup They set the young ones up Under the neon light Selling day for night"</blockquote>
Online rumor says that boys as young as 12-16 could be found in the Gold Cup or on the sidewalk outside.
<blockquote>"There used to be a 24 hour coffee shop at Hollywood Blvd and Selma Ave called the Gold Cup. [...] That's where the pedos could find either sex for rent, and these little kids were either addicted, runaways, often both. 
I have been there on medical aid calls many times. I remember one little boy, approx 11 years old, painted up like a vaudeville hussy, wearing girls' clothes, and beat bloody to a pulp."<ref>[https://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,11464793~mode=journal#6 A retired Fire Captain thinks back...]</ref></blockquote>

During the [[great kiddie porn panic]], national media in May, 1977 showcased the child pornography problem, and The Gold Cup appeared in a number of national vehicles.
=== Chicago Tribune ===
"Los Angeles [is] the child pornography capital of the United States," informs one article in ''The Chicago Tribune’s'' May, 1977 series on child prostitution, and the epicenter was The Gold Cup:
<blockquote>In Los Angeles, police told the Tribune, the favorite gathering place of runaway boys and the men who prey on them is in the area of the Gold Cup Restaurant at 6700 Hollywood Dr. One night recently, a Tribune reporter watched about 14 youths, between 12 and 20 years old, waiting on the sidewalk in front of the Gold Cup. Occasionally a man would walk up, a whispered conversation would ensue, and man would walk away with a boy. "We have no problem finding our sex offenders here," [Sgt. Lloyd] Martin said. "But we don't have laws to detain them."<ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/51083NCJRS.pdf#452 How Ruses Lure Victims to Child Pornographers]. Chicago Tribune, 17 May 1977, in PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AGAINST SEXUAL EXPLOITATION Hearings before the Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency], 95th Congress, 1st Session, Chicago, Ill., May 27, 1977, Washington, DC. June 16, 1977, pp. 437-440</ref></blockquote>
=== The New York Times ===
<blockquote><center><big>The Last Porno Show</big>
(By Robert Sam Anson)

The Cup and the Rack</center>
In Los Angeles, when police say "the Cup" they mean the Gold Cup Cafe, at Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas, first stop on what is called "the meat rack." The meat rack begins at the Cup, runs down Las Palmas, then turns right on Selma, goes on for a couple of blocks, then left on Highland to Santa Monica. It is not hard to find it. Simply follow the slowly cruising cars and look for kids lounging on the street. When the cars stop and the kids walk over, you're there.

On any night of the week, the Gold Cup is jammed: with kids, both boys and girls, menacing-looking black pimps, a few assorted lesbians and a sizable contingent of middle-aged chickenhawks. The atmosphere is a cross between a YMCA club and Dante's ninth circle. In the back of the Cup half a dozen teenage boys are playing pinball. A scantily dressed prostitute wanders in to watch the action. Then she leans over one of the machines to see the score, one of her breasts flops out. No one looks twice. In the front of the cafe, three beefy chickenhawks sit in a booth, chatting, sipping coffee, and commenting on the passing merchandise. "Who's that sweet little blond?" one of them calls out, and blows a kiss to a boy sitting at the counter. The youth turns, smiles knowingly, and walks to the table. One of the chickenhawks reaches out and fondles his crotch.

At 9:30, when the cafe closes for the night, the kids straggle out the door, some heading off for other well-known "chicken coops" in the neighborhood, others around the corner to the bookstall on Las Palmas (where one of the gay magazines features pictures of one of the boys who'd been playing pinball that night), and still others down the block to Selma Avenue. There they queue up for the cruising chickenhawks. <ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/46772NCJRS.pdf#page=158 "The Last Porno Show"] Robert Sam Anson, ''New York Times'', June 24, 1977 via Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, p. 155.</ref></blockquote>

=== CBS 60 Minutes ===
<blockquote><center><big>KIDDIE PORN</big>
Sunday, May 15, 1977, with CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Morley Safer
(Produced by Barry Lando) </center>
Sergeant MARTIN. Not only do your adults come up here looking for to satisfy their sexual pleasures, but you will also find the pornographers that's looking for models. A typical place for them to go would be in here to the Gold Cup restaurant here. This one down—

Mr. WALLACE. The Gold Cup right over here?

Sergeant MARTIN. Yes, right here on the right. And I've seen them as young as six years old in here, all the way up to eighteen or nineteen.

Mr. WALLACE. Six years old?

Sergeant MARTIN. Six years old. A lot of the hot dog stands and pinball arcades, this is where the young ones, the real young ones, would come to—to play the pinball machines. This is where the chicken hawk would come with a pocket full of quarters to give the young kids. This is how he makes his introduction. Then it leads up: Would you like to go home and smoke a joint? And it's little by little, but it maybe only take an hour, an hour and a half, till he's got him home and got him in the bed. After that point, after the act of oral copulation has occurred, or sodomy, what's—what's a little bit of picture taking? That's nothing. Other kids that don't—that don't score at "The Meat Rack" walk down Highland Avenue here to the Arthur J's restaurant.

Mr. WALLACE. This is a regular beat?

Sergeant MARTIN. It's a regular beat, yes.

Mr. WALLACE. [to boy]. Who are you waiting for?

Boy. Huh?

Mr. WALLACE. Who are you waiting for?

Boy. I'm waiting for a trick.

Mr. WALLACE. How old are some of the kids who work here? Boy. Some of them is young. Here?

Mr. WALLACE. How young.

Boy. Sixteen. A lot—there's a lot of chicken around here. There's a lot of old men who likes chicken. That's what they call chicken.

Mr. WALLACE. Yeah. But how old are the youngest kids that you know who do it out here?

Boy. Thirteen, fourteen. Thirteen on up.<ref>[https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/46772NCJRS.pdf#page=129 "Kiddie Porn"] CBS News from "60 Minutes," Produced by Barry Lando, Vol. IX, No. 33, as broadcast over the CBS Television Network, Sunday, May 15, 1977, with CBS News correspondents Mike Wallace and Morley Safer, via Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, p. 126.</ref></blockquote>

== Popular Culture ==

The 2004 film ''The Hillside Strangler''<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376649/ IMDB] entry for ''The Hillside Strangler''</ref> includes scenes of the Gold Cup, which online commentary describes as accurate.

In Tom Reamy's 1975 award-winning fantasy story "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_Lightfoot_Sue Wikipedia on "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"]</ref>, the fifteen-year-old protagonist arrives in Los Angeles by bus from Kansas, and reaches a coffee shop that is clearly The Gold Cup:
<blockquote>John Lee got off and stood at the corner of Hollywood and Vine grinning at the night. He walked down Hollywood Boulevard, gawking at everything, reading the names in stars on the sidewalk. He never imagined there would be so many cars or so many people at night. There were more than you would see in liberal even on Saturday afternoon. And the strange clothes the people wore. And men with long hair like the Beatles. Mary Ellen Walker had a colored picture of them pasted on her notebook. He didn’t know how far he had walked—the street never seemed to end—but the box was heavy. He was hungry and his Sunday shoes had rubbed a blister on his heel. He went into a cafe and sat in a booth, glad to get rid of the weight of the box. Most of the people looked at him as he came in. Several of them smiled. He smiled back. A couple of people had said hello on the street too. Hollywood was certainly a friendly place. He told the waitress what he wanted. He looked around the cafe and met the eyes of a man at the counter who had smiled when he came in. The man smiled again. John Lee smiled back, feeling good. The man got off the stool and came to the booth carrying a cup of coffee.</blockquote>

The 1977 punk "Trouble At The Cup" by Black Randy & Metrosquad, is written from the viewpoint of a runway. The lyrics include, "They say the boulevard is no place to be [...] I'd rather stand here and sell my dick" and complains of police violence, saying "Hollywood Boulevard is a military zone".<ref name=Fein1990 /> "In the late seventies there was a punk band called Arthur J and the Gold Cups, incorporating the names of two of the town’s most unsavory restaurants."<ref name=Fein1990 />

== Linked to Lyric scandal ==
In the 1973 scandal which brought down [[Lyric International]], the ''Los Angeles Times'' claimed that “Many of the youngsters involved were recruited at hangouts for homosexuals particularly a Hollywood Blvd. coffee shop and a motel in Hollywood.”<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref> On-line advertisements for a game offering a "Fabulous 3-D Action walk-through of Hollywood Boulevard, circa 1968" lists among the sights of that time and place, "...oh, there's [[Billy Byars, Jr.|Billy Byers, Jr.]] (''sic'') over at the Gold Cup".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120317142206/http://www.slimeworld.org/bardotown/bardogames/gemini.html GEMINI "PSYCHEDELIC SUPERMARKET"]</ref>.

A Lyric producer named in the scandal described the police methodology in a 1975 interview, "What they did was to very, very carefully invent and build up cases against these fourteen people whose names they had scared out of a couple of teenage prostitutes". He said of these two supposed victims, "Well, two of them were just hustlers the police had dug up—I hardly even knew them. They had worked for Lyric a good little while ago. Even the police didn't push their stories too much, because they were both well into their teens and they admitted they were willing participants."<ref name=campfire>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120061219/http://www.hunkvideo.com/library/lewis/index.html Jones, Marvin. Interview]. Campfire Video Library</ref>

== Photos at ONE Archive ==

The ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California library has digitized photos in its collection, including of The Gold Cup.<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5182 Gold Cup Negatives] in ONE Archives</ref> Some of the scanned negatives are labeled as including "Gold Cup restaurant and street hustlers"<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5185 Gold Cup restaurant and street hustlers] in ONE Archives</ref>, and there are a few others just of "Street hustlers"<ref>[https://doi.org/10.25549/one-c4-5215 Street hustlers] in ONE Archives</ref>, which appear to be less than a block away, at Las Palmas and Selma. All these photos are in the daytime, although the texts (and song) above refer to night or 24-hour hustling. There is also a color photo of, "The crowd at Los Angeles's first Christopher Street West pride parade in front of the Gold Cup Restaurant. 1970."<ref>[https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/asset-management/2A3BF1OX9JWY4 Gay pride parade crowd in front of Gold Cup] in ONE Archives</ref>"

A search will find photos for sale in sites offering vintage Hollywood images, and a least one interior photo is available.

== References ==

[[Category:History]]

Lyric International

2022-07-03T01:28:56Z

Sneeuwbol: /* Technical quality of the films */ Beaulieu 16mm movie camera photo added

<div style="margin-right: 25px; float: left;">__TOC__</div>'''Lyric International''' produced "[[physique]]" photography of boys and young men during the window that opened in the late 1960s when legal and social bans against male nudity fell, but before more hardcore products skimmed off demand for Lyric's nudes, and the child pornography panic. At its height, Lyric made a push for mainstream respectability with the feature film [[The Genesis Children]], filmed in 1970 and released in 1972, which combined a foggy New Age message with teen and preteen nudity, and the 1971-1973 [[Zipper]] magazine, where wide-ranging articles similar those in ''Playboy'' were printed along with nude but not explicit photo features of male teenagers and youths. While the Lyric catalog did not go beyond non-sexual nudity, carefully avoiding the legal line of obscenity, Lyric owner [[Billy Byars, Jr.]] partnered for distribution with San Francisco gay rights pioneer and noted pornographer [[Guy Strait]], some of whose pornography did include actors under 16. Lyric maintained an unusually constant stable of "Lyric Boy" actors, the best known of whom was the blond [[Peter Glawson]] who appeared from around 10 years of age to 17 in Lyric's products, including magazines, 16mm shorts, photo sets, ''The Genesis Children'', and a ''Zipper'' interview.

Lyric came to an end in late 1973, in a scandal that the [[Meese Commission]] called "the first [[child pornography]] [[ring]] ... brought to public view," although no pornography charges were ever brought against Lyric's collaborators.<ref>[https://ia902908.us.archive.org/0/items/finalreportofatt00unit/finalreportofatt00unit.pdf#page=185 Attorney General's Commission on Pornography: final report.] Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice (1986) Chapter 11, p. 131</ref> The arrests mark the first appearance in the ''Los Angeles Times'' of policeman [[Lloyd Martin]] who became one of the faces of the [[great kiddie porn panic]]. Guy Strait's arrest in an unrelated case of sex with a minor led to his becoming a nonperson in the gay rights community, and in gay rights history. In recent years some of the same film clips found unprosecutable in 1973 have appeared as evidence in the [[Azov Films]] prosecutions.

Lyric's prime was a high-water mark for tolerance, and its fall marked the beginning of repression. It was a nearly perfect scandal. The headline of the newspaper article that introduced Lloyd Martin to a wider public had all the usual suspects: "Son of Actress, Heir to Oil Fortune, YMCA Counselor, Scoutmaster, Schoolteacher Among Those Facing Charges". They might have been picked for headline value, and may have been: some had no apparent connection to Lyric, and at least one was found innocent by a jury. A number of names important in rights and repression are woven into the case, as well as some inexplicable threads: Mr. Byars is a perpetual footnote in Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories.

== Physique but not pornography==
According to a 1975 interview with a Lyric producer who was one of those named in the scandal,
:"Lyric had specialized in nude photos of models ranging from twelve to twenty years of age. As a physique photographer, Lyric had been out of business for several years, since Byars did not approve of doing hardcore photography and the market accepted little else, but the company name was being carried on as a producer of television travelogues."
Lyric’s production occurred in a narrow window of time, when social mores had loosened sufficiently to permit the sort of naturist films it produced, but not enough to allow more explicit content. The same producer acknowledged that "Lyric had once been one of the biggest photographers in the business." <ref name=campfire>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120061219/http://www.hunkvideo.com/library/lewis/index.html Campfire Video Library]</ref>.

== DOM-Lyric ==
While the Lyric catalog offered no pornography, Lyric's owner joined with [[Guy Strait]] in creating DOM-LYRIC to distribute Lyric's products as well as Strait's. Strait did produce pornography, including pornography with adolescent actors.

== Crossroads of the World ==
Lyric also had an office located at '''Crossroads Of The World''' office complex in Hollywood, which "has been called America's first modern shopping mall.<ref name=wikipedia_crossroads>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossroads_of_the_World Wikipedia]</ref> Director Anthony Aikman and cameraman Bill Dewar edited ''The Genesis Children'' there. Aikman describes the studio as being in a building designed to look like Mothers Hubbard's shoe.<ref>[Interview, 2006, Anthony Aikman by Ballog]</ref> While the complex has a variety of kitschy styles, no building meets that description. Crossroads is a block away from the [[Gold Cup]], a well-known Hollywood Boulevard hangout for boy prostitutes, and occasional source for actors.

''[[Zipper]]'' Magazine's office was also in the complex.(citation needed) That, along with the large amount of editorial space that ''Zipper'' devoted to Lyric's projects, and the number of ads in the magazine purchased by Lyric, suggests that it too may have been owned by Byars.

Wikipedia also says that "In the late-1960s, one of the offices was occupied by a porn magazine that tried out young hopefuls by photographing them in the nude. It was here that an unknown John C. Holmes went one day and showcased his unusually large "endowment", leading to the start of his notorious career in adult films."<ref name=wikipedia_crossroads />

== The next film ==
There are several accounts of what Byars and Lyric were planning after ''The Genesis Children'', but it seems clear another feature fill was complete or nearly so. In a 1972 interview with Byars published just after that film opened (and closed), dance journalist Violet Helgy Swisher says,
<blockquote>"Byars's next film venture is an already filmed documentary he has titled ''The Russian Adventure''. It unreels as a story of the travels of an International Boyhood group, filmed not only in Russia, but elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Still in the early planning stages is a ballet feature to be filmed in the desert. Nude. Of course."<ref name=Swisher>Swisher, Viola Hegyi. "Generating ''The Genesis Children''". ''After Dark'', September 1972, p. 18.</ref></blockquote>

The ''L.A. Times'' article about the arrests described Lyric's current project as "''Soviet '73'', a film about Jews traveling in Russia." <ref name=LATimes27Oct /> The Lyric producer claimed in 1975 that, "We had a tremendous amount of money sunk into a major TV travelogue on Russia just then." <ref name=campfire /> The recurring Russian theme indicates all three sources are discussing the same project.

With a comic story on a bomb scare (it was a prop), the ''Los Angeles Free Press'' gives an account of what Lyric was up to in December, 1972. "Lyric Films, also known as Billy Byars and Associates" was in the process of editing two films at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios, Formosa Ave., Hollywood. Jeremy Hoenack, who edited ''The Genesis Children'', was with his wife Barbara "toiling over the celluloid images on a reel of motorcycle adventures" on a Movieola. Lyric was using two editing rooms. Other Lyric personnel included "Miss Helen Hill, business manager and confidante of producer Billy Byars ("Genesis' Children") who is out of town." Those with access to the editing rooms include "Tom Grubbs, a young filmmaker who's renting one of the rooms for an educational short he's producing. Oh, yes, and there's Joe Fineman, he's also studio manager, in charge of things in Mr. Byars's absence." Mr. Fineman is "... cutting a film for Mr. Byars now — a documentary on Russia."<ref name=Rubine1972>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/community.28040031.pdf?page=10 Rubine, Naomi. "The bomb at Goldwyn Studios"] ''Los Angeles Free Press'', Volume 9, issue 438, Dec 8-18, 1972. P.10</ref>

None of these names appeared in the press in the Lyric scandal. Mr. Fineman's IMDB entry has a long list of credits, including 88 in editing and an equal number in production, starting in 1971 and including the "Real to Reel Film and Video Festival" Festival Prize in 2018. There is however a gap of several years starting in 1972. IMBD has more than one Tom Grubbs. The ''Free Press'' article says that Hoenack finished editing the Russia film.<ref name=Rubine1972 />

Byars told his hometown paper on Christmas Eve, 1972 about a "television documentary scheduled for release under the title "Soviet '73" [...] the first totally uncensored film ever made in the Soviet republics."<ref name=blair1972> Blair, Pat. "Film Industry Challenge Grows" ''Tyler Courier-Times'', Tyler, Texas, 24 Dec 1972. Page 37</ref> It was "hoped to be shown sometime during late winter." He said he was seeking Texas financing for "his next feature film, a spy spoof with the working title of "Heist."" <ref name=blair1972 /> "His goal is to base the financial headquarters of his company in Houston, and he’s getting a start on that goal by seeking "entirely Texas money" to finance "Heist." "<ref name=blair1972 />

Byars said in the same interview that "His previous documentaries, one made in Denmark on the International Boys Camp and one on sculpture in France, were for theater distribution."<ref name=blair1972 />

It seems clear though that Lyric was in fact producing other movies after "The Genesis Children", and based on their subsequent careers, Mr. Byars had engaged competent craftsmen to do so. The "ballet feature to be filmed in the desert" promised to Swisher, if "in the early planning stages" in August would not have been part of the Russian travelogue being edited in December. Perhaps Lyric was already enough of a going concern to have the next project in planning while finishing the current one.

Just how the ''L.A. Times'' or the police would know of Lyric's plans is unclear, and the reporting may be unreliable. Perhaps only in Los Angeles does one include in an arrest report the suspects' plans for their next movie.

== The scandal ==

Lyric came to an end in late 1973. The ''Los Angeles Times'' article about the arrests was titled "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17: Son of Actress, Heir to Oil Fortune, [[YMCA]] Counselor, Scoutmaster, Schoolteacher Among Those Facing Charges".<ref name=LATimes27Oct>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref>

The "Heir to Oil Fortune" was Lyric's owner, and the "Son of Actress" a Lyric producer. As the policy of the ''Los Angeles Times'' was then to not index criminal justice proceedings, it used to be difficult to determine just what happened to the fourteen accused. Those newspaper archives with full-text indexing are now available online, however. A later story confirms that the first of the accused to go to trial ("YMCA Counselor") was acquitted after a full day of jury deliberation, and that two others had pled guilty. An article in ''The Advocate'' gives the final toll: "Five guilty, four 'no contest,' one acquitted in chicken ring" <ref>[https://uosc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01USC_INST/vafrrm/proquest2268824486 "Five guilty, four 'no contest,' one acquitted in chicken ring"].''The Advocate'', May 22, 1974, Issue 138, p.27.
</ref>
[[Guy Strait]], though among the first two arrested in the case, jumped bail and was never brought to trial on the Los Angeles charges.

While the Meese Commission and the ''Los Angeles Times'' both refer to films of child pornography, the news article says that the accused were charged not with child pornography, but with molesting children. It says "One confiscated film shows the boys playing nude on a beach believed to be near Corpus Christi." Lyric did produce such a film, ''[[Summer Freedom]]'', but a film of "boys playing nude on a beach" was then neither pornography nor illegal in the US.

One source claims that one of the boys was "dangled over a cliff" by policemen until he agreed to name men with whom he had had sex.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050219002356/http://www.paedosexualitaet.de/exp/cliffsrc.html Documenting Abuse of Boys and Families by Los Angeles Police] cites two articles as its source for the claim: Sarff, Doug. "L.A. Jury frees first 'chicken ring' defendant". ''The Advocate'' San Mateo, CA. 16 January 1974 (page 3); and "Cliffhanging Testimony: Jury: Second 'chicken ring' defendant guilty". ''The Advocate'', San Mateo, CA, 30 January 1974 (page 5). There may be a digital copy including the 1974 ''Advocate'' at [http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/record=b24360993~S1 UC Berkeley].</ref> The claim was apparently made in open court. The Lyric producer cited above said that "[T]wo of them were just hustlers the police had dug up — I hardly even knew them. They had worked for Lyric a good little while ago. Even the police didn't push their stories too much, because they were both well into their teens and they admitted they were willing participants."<ref name=campfire />

The Los Angeles scandal was fueled in part by the August 1973 discovery of the murders in Houston, Texas, by [[Dean Corll]] of at least 27 teenagers. The police insinuated to the press that the Lyric scandal might have a connection. Lyric's owner was originally from Texas; another of those arrested in the case was identified by the ''L.A. Times'' as "William Johnson, 55, a Houston photographer".<ref name=LATimes27Oct />

Lloyd Martin, the policeman most responsible for the arrests, constructed a national reputation as the "child abuse policeman". He later fell into discredit. Widespread criticism of him and his methods is easily found on the Internet. Martin's signature sound bite is that child abuse is "worse than homicide." A ''Salon'' article calls him "infamous" and provides a good general discussion of the exaggerations of child pornography foes.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070304095923/http://archive.salon.com/mwt/feature/2000/01/31/kincaid/index1.html Is this child pornography?] Kincaid, James R. ''Salon'', 31 Jan 2000</ref>

== Technical quality of the films ==
[[File:Beaulieu.jpg|thumb|230px|A 16mm Beaulieu such as Guy Strait favored]] [[Harlan "Slim" Pfeiffer]] is said to have filmed the Lyric movies in 16mm, and reduced them to 8mm for distribution. Guy Strait, who handled the distribution end of DOM-LYRIC, recounted in prison his techniques for taking photos and avoiding piracy of his films. “His favorite still camera was a Yashika E, twin-reflex that cost a mere $50 [...] He depended on a Mimiya C-33 for most of his professional still work. [...] He usually filmed 12-minute loops and longer movies with a 16-millimeter Beaulieu, which he considered to be superior to the more expensive German Hasselblad."<ref>Linedecker, Clifford L. 1981. ''Children in Chains''. New York: Everest House. p. 230</ref>
<blockquote>"He protected his reputation for quality work by keeping his films out of bookstores. It was more difficult to protect his work from pirates who purchased the films on his lists and had them duplicated for sales through other outlets. Although it bothered his aesthetic sensibilities and pride in his own work, he learned to lower the reproductive quality of his 8-millimeter film. He considered them still better quality than the competition, but not good enough to withstand the loss of detail and clarity when duplicated again by film pirates."(ibid, p. 233)</blockquote>

== Books, magazines, and films ==

''[[The Genesis Children]]'' was the only feature film Lyric ever released, although at least one other appears to have been ready at the time of the firm's spectacular close. Its other movies were shorts produced in 16mm and reduced to 8mm for distribution. Some of the films are:
* ''[[Danish Boys' Camp]]''. Feature documentary. 1971. Producer: Billy Byars. Editor: Wayne Schotten. There is no indication if this was a 16mm or 35mm production.
* ''[[Swim Party]]'' and ''[[Spring Break]]'' were filmed by Slim Pfeiffer at [[the pool with the cinderblock walls]] at the Lyric studio in Los Angeles.
* ''[[Sandy Hill]]'' may have been filmed in Sandy Hill in east Texas.
* ''[[Summer Freedom]]'' was made at Corpus Christi National Seashore in Texas.
*''[[How to Make Friends]]''
Two other "films" are slideshows assembled from Lyric photographs, and perhaps some others, bear a 1995 copyright claim by "Gulf Coast Productions", and have text cards that refer to Lyric photographer Slim Pfeiffer. They are:
* ''[[Peter and the Desert Riders]]''
* ''[[Boyhood Scrapbook]]''

Lyric produced a number of magazines (two authors, Robin Lloyd and Clifford Linedecker, say 90 magazines were produced, but neither cites his source for the figure) and at least one calendar.
[[Zipper]] Magazine (1971-1973) appears to have been produced by Byars, though without the Lyric imprimatur.

Some of the Lyric magazine titles include:
* ''[[Naked Boyhood Magazine]]''
* ''[[Sun Children]]''
* ''[[Lyric's American Boys]]''
* ''[[Naked Teens]]''
* ''[[Coq d'Or]]''

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:photography]]
[[Category:Newspapers and magazines]]
[[Category:Filmmakers]]

Lyric International

2022-07-01T18:04:30Z

Sneeuwbol:

<div style="margin-right: 25px; float: left;">__TOC__</div>'''Lyric International''' produced "[[physique]]" photography of boys and young men during the window that opened in the late 1960s when legal and social bans against male nudity fell, but before more hardcore products skimmed off demand for Lyric's nudes, and the child pornography panic. At its height, Lyric made a push for mainstream respectability with the feature film [[The Genesis Children]], filmed in 1970 and released in 1972, which combined a foggy New Age message with teen and preteen nudity, and the 1971-1973 [[Zipper]] magazine, where wide-ranging articles similar those in ''Playboy'' were printed along with nude but not explicit photo features of male teenagers and youths. While the Lyric catalog did not go beyond non-sexual nudity, carefully avoiding the legal line of obscenity, Lyric owner [[Billy Byars, Jr.]] partnered for distribution with San Francisco gay rights pioneer and noted pornographer [[Guy Strait]], some of whose pornography did include actors under 16. Lyric maintained an unusually constant stable of "Lyric Boy" actors, the best known of whom was the blond [[Peter Glawson]] who appeared from around 10 years of age to 17 in Lyric's products, including magazines, 16mm shorts, photo sets, ''The Genesis Children'', and a ''Zipper'' interview.

Lyric came to an end in late 1973, in a scandal that the [[Meese Commission]] called "the first [[child pornography]] [[ring]] ... brought to public view," although no pornography charges were ever brought against Lyric's collaborators.<ref>[https://ia902908.us.archive.org/0/items/finalreportofatt00unit/finalreportofatt00unit.pdf#page=185 Attorney General's Commission on Pornography: final report.] Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice (1986) Chapter 11, p. 131</ref> The arrests mark the first appearance in the ''Los Angeles Times'' of policeman [[Lloyd Martin]] who became one of the faces of the [[great kiddie porn panic]]. Guy Strait's arrest in an unrelated case of sex with a minor led to his becoming a nonperson in the gay rights community, and in gay rights history. In recent years some of the same film clips found unprosecutable in 1973 have appeared as evidence in the [[Azov Films]] prosecutions.

Lyric's prime was a high-water mark for tolerance, and its fall marked the beginning of repression. It was a nearly perfect scandal. The headline of the newspaper article that introduced Lloyd Martin to a wider public had all the usual suspects: "Son of Actress, Heir to Oil Fortune, YMCA Counselor, Scoutmaster, Schoolteacher Among Those Facing Charges". They might have been picked for headline value, and may have been: some had no apparent connection to Lyric, and at least one was found innocent by a jury. A number of names important in rights and repression are woven into the case, as well as some inexplicable threads: Mr. Byars is a perpetual footnote in Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories.

== Physique but not pornography==
According to a 1975 interview with a Lyric producer who was one of those named in the scandal,
:"Lyric had specialized in nude photos of models ranging from twelve to twenty years of age. As a physique photographer, Lyric had been out of business for several years, since Byars did not approve of doing hardcore photography and the market accepted little else, but the company name was being carried on as a producer of television travelogues."
Lyric’s production occurred in a narrow window of time, when social mores had loosened sufficiently to permit the sort of naturist films it produced, but not enough to allow more explicit content. The same producer acknowledged that "Lyric had once been one of the biggest photographers in the business." <ref name=campfire>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120061219/http://www.hunkvideo.com/library/lewis/index.html Campfire Video Library]</ref>.

== DOM-Lyric ==
While the Lyric catalog offered no pornography, Lyric's owner joined with [[Guy Strait]] in creating DOM-LYRIC to distribute Lyric's products as well as Strait's. Strait did produce pornography, including pornography with adolescent actors.

== Crossroads of the World ==
Lyric also had an office located at '''Crossroads Of The World''' office complex in Hollywood, which "has been called America's first modern shopping mall.<ref name=wikipedia_crossroads>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossroads_of_the_World Wikipedia]</ref> Director Anthony Aikman and cameraman Bill Dewar edited ''The Genesis Children'' there. Aikman describes the studio as being in a building designed to look like Mothers Hubbard's shoe.<ref>[Interview, 2006, Anthony Aikman by Ballog]</ref> While the complex has a variety of kitschy styles, no building meets that description. Crossroads is a block away from the [[Gold Cup]], a well-known Hollywood Boulevard hangout for boy prostitutes, and occasional source for actors.

''[[Zipper]]'' Magazine's office was also in the complex.(citation needed) That, along with the large amount of editorial space that ''Zipper'' devoted to Lyric's projects, and the number of ads in the magazine purchased by Lyric, suggests that it too may have been owned by Byars.

Wikipedia also says that "In the late-1960s, one of the offices was occupied by a porn magazine that tried out young hopefuls by photographing them in the nude. It was here that an unknown John C. Holmes went one day and showcased his unusually large "endowment", leading to the start of his notorious career in adult films."<ref name=wikipedia_crossroads />

== The next film ==
There are several accounts of what Byars and Lyric were planning after ''The Genesis Children'', but it seems clear another feature fill was complete or nearly so. In a 1972 interview with Byars published just after that film opened (and closed), dance journalist Violet Helgy Swisher says,
<blockquote>"Byars's next film venture is an already filmed documentary he has titled ''The Russian Adventure''. It unreels as a story of the travels of an International Boyhood group, filmed not only in Russia, but elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Still in the early planning stages is a ballet feature to be filmed in the desert. Nude. Of course."<ref name=Swisher>Swisher, Viola Hegyi. "Generating ''The Genesis Children''". ''After Dark'', September 1972, p. 18.</ref></blockquote>

The ''L.A. Times'' article about the arrests described Lyric's current project as "''Soviet '73'', a film about Jews traveling in Russia." <ref name=LATimes27Oct /> The Lyric producer claimed in 1975 that, "We had a tremendous amount of money sunk into a major TV travelogue on Russia just then." <ref name=campfire /> The recurring Russian theme indicates all three sources are discussing the same project.

With a comic story on a bomb scare (it was a prop), the ''Los Angeles Free Press'' gives an account of what Lyric was up to in December, 1972. "Lyric Films, also known as Billy Byars and Associates" was in the process of editing two films at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios, Formosa Ave., Hollywood. Jeremy Hoenack, who edited ''The Genesis Children'', was with his wife Barbara "toiling over the celluloid images on a reel of motorcycle adventures" on a Movieola. Lyric was using two editing rooms. Other Lyric personnel included "Miss Helen Hill, business manager and confidante of producer Billy Byars ("Genesis' Children") who is out of town." Those with access to the editing rooms include "Tom Grubbs, a young filmmaker who's renting one of the rooms for an educational short he's producing. Oh, yes, and there's Joe Fineman, he's also studio manager, in charge of things in Mr. Byars's absence." Mr. Fineman is "... cutting a film for Mr. Byars now — a documentary on Russia."<ref name=Rubine1972>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/community.28040031.pdf?page=10 Rubine, Naomi. "The bomb at Goldwyn Studios"] ''Los Angeles Free Press'', Volume 9, issue 438, Dec 8-18, 1972. P.10</ref>

None of these names appeared in the press in the Lyric scandal. Mr. Fineman's IMDB entry has a long list of credits, including 88 in editing and an equal number in production, starting in 1971 and including the "Real to Reel Film and Video Festival" Festival Prize in 2018. There is however a gap of several years starting in 1972. IMBD has more than one Tom Grubbs. The ''Free Press'' article says that Hoenack finished editing the Russia film.<ref name=Rubine1972 />

Byars told his hometown paper on Christmas Eve, 1972 about a "television documentary scheduled for release under the title "Soviet '73" [...] the first totally uncensored film ever made in the Soviet republics."<ref name=blair1972> Blair, Pat. "Film Industry Challenge Grows" ''Tyler Courier-Times'', Tyler, Texas, 24 Dec 1972. Page 37</ref> It was "hoped to be shown sometime during late winter." He said he was seeking Texas financing for "his next feature film, a spy spoof with the working title of "Heist."" <ref name=blair1972 /> "His goal is to base the financial headquarters of his company in Houston, and he’s getting a start on that goal by seeking "entirely Texas money" to finance "Heist." "<ref name=blair1972 />

Byars said in the same interview that "His previous documentaries, one made in Denmark on the International Boys Camp and one on sculpture in France, were for theater distribution."<ref name=blair1972 />

It seems clear though that Lyric was in fact producing other movies after "The Genesis Children", and based on their subsequent careers, Mr. Byars had engaged competent craftsmen to do so. The "ballet feature to be filmed in the desert" promised to Swisher, if "in the early planning stages" in August would not have been part of the Russian travelogue being edited in December. Perhaps Lyric was already enough of a going concern to have the next project in planning while finishing the current one.

Just how the ''L.A. Times'' or the police would know of Lyric's plans is unclear, and the reporting may be unreliable. Perhaps only in Los Angeles does one include in an arrest report the suspects' plans for their next movie.

== The scandal ==

Lyric came to an end in late 1973. The ''Los Angeles Times'' article about the arrests was titled "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17: Son of Actress, Heir to Oil Fortune, [[YMCA]] Counselor, Scoutmaster, Schoolteacher Among Those Facing Charges".<ref name=LATimes27Oct>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref>

The "Heir to Oil Fortune" was Lyric's owner, and the "Son of Actress" a Lyric producer. As the policy of the ''Los Angeles Times'' was then to not index criminal justice proceedings, it used to be difficult to determine just what happened to the fourteen accused. Those newspaper archives with full-text indexing are now available online, however. A later story confirms that the first of the accused to go to trial ("YMCA Counselor") was acquitted after a full day of jury deliberation, and that two others had pled guilty. An article in ''The Advocate'' gives the final toll: "Five guilty, four 'no contest,' one acquitted in chicken ring" <ref>[https://uosc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01USC_INST/vafrrm/proquest2268824486 "Five guilty, four 'no contest,' one acquitted in chicken ring"].''The Advocate'', May 22, 1974, Issue 138, p.27.
</ref>
[[Guy Strait]], though among the first two arrested in the case, jumped bail and was never brought to trial on the Los Angeles charges.

While the Meese Commission and the ''Los Angeles Times'' both refer to films of child pornography, the news article says that the accused were charged not with child pornography, but with molesting children. It says "One confiscated film shows the boys playing nude on a beach believed to be near Corpus Christi." Lyric did produce such a film, ''[[Summer Freedom]]'', but a film of "boys playing nude on a beach" was then neither pornography nor illegal in the US.

One source claims that one of the boys was "dangled over a cliff" by policemen until he agreed to name men with whom he had had sex.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050219002356/http://www.paedosexualitaet.de/exp/cliffsrc.html Documenting Abuse of Boys and Families by Los Angeles Police] cites two articles as its source for the claim: Sarff, Doug. "L.A. Jury frees first 'chicken ring' defendant". ''The Advocate'' San Mateo, CA. 16 January 1974 (page 3); and "Cliffhanging Testimony: Jury: Second 'chicken ring' defendant guilty". ''The Advocate'', San Mateo, CA, 30 January 1974 (page 5). There may be a digital copy including the 1974 ''Advocate'' at [http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/record=b24360993~S1 UC Berkeley].</ref> The claim was apparently made in open court. The Lyric producer cited above said that "[T]wo of them were just hustlers the police had dug up — I hardly even knew them. They had worked for Lyric a good little while ago. Even the police didn't push their stories too much, because they were both well into their teens and they admitted they were willing participants."<ref name=campfire />

The Los Angeles scandal was fueled in part by the August 1973 discovery of the murders in Houston, Texas, by [[Dean Corll]] of at least 27 teenagers. The police insinuated to the press that the Lyric scandal might have a connection. Lyric's owner was originally from Texas; another of those arrested in the case was identified by the ''L.A. Times'' as "William Johnson, 55, a Houston photographer".<ref name=LATimes27Oct />

Lloyd Martin, the policeman most responsible for the arrests, constructed a national reputation as the "child abuse policeman". He later fell into discredit. Widespread criticism of him and his methods is easily found on the Internet. Martin's signature sound bite is that child abuse is "worse than homicide." A ''Salon'' article calls him "infamous" and provides a good general discussion of the exaggerations of child pornography foes.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070304095923/http://archive.salon.com/mwt/feature/2000/01/31/kincaid/index1.html Is this child pornography?] Kincaid, James R. ''Salon'', 31 Jan 2000</ref>

== Technical quality of the films ==
[[Harlan "Slim" Pfeiffer]] is said to have filmed the Lyric movies in 16mm, and reduced them to 8mm for distribution. Guy Strait, who handled the distribution end of DOM-LYRIC, recounted in prison his techniques for taking photos and avoiding piracy of his films. “His favorite still camera was a Yashika E, twin-reflex that cost a mere $50 [...] He depended on a Mimiya C-33 for most of his professional still work. [...] He usually filmed 12-minute loops and longer movies with a 16-millimeter Beaulieu, which he considered to be superior to the more expensive German Hasselblad."<ref>Linedecker, Clifford L. 1981. ''Children in Chains''. New York: Everest House. p. 230</ref>
<blockquote>"He protected his reputation for quality work by keeping his films out of bookstores. It was more difficult to protect his work from pirates who purchased the films on his lists and had them duplicated for sales through other outlets. Although it bothered his aesthetic sensibilities and pride in his own work, he learned to lower the reproductive quality of his 8-millimeter film. He considered them still better quality than the competition, but not good enough to withstand the loss of detail and clarity when duplicated again by film pirates."(ibid, p. 233)</blockquote>

== Books, magazines, and films ==

''[[The Genesis Children]]'' was the only feature film Lyric ever released, although at least one other appears to have been ready at the time of the firm's spectacular close. Its other movies were shorts produced in 16mm and reduced to 8mm for distribution. Some of the films are:
* ''[[Danish Boys' Camp]]''. Feature documentary. 1971. Producer: Billy Byars. Editor: Wayne Schotten. There is no indication if this was a 16mm or 35mm production.
* ''[[Swim Party]]'' and ''[[Spring Break]]'' were filmed by Slim Pfeiffer at [[the pool with the cinderblock walls]] at the Lyric studio in Los Angeles.
* ''[[Sandy Hill]]'' may have been filmed in Sandy Hill in east Texas.
* ''[[Summer Freedom]]'' was made at Corpus Christi National Seashore in Texas.
*''[[How to Make Friends]]''
Two other "films" are slideshows assembled from Lyric photographs, and perhaps some others, bear a 1995 copyright claim by "Gulf Coast Productions", and have text cards that refer to Lyric photographer Slim Pfeiffer. They are:
* ''[[Peter and the Desert Riders]]''
* ''[[Boyhood Scrapbook]]''

Lyric produced a number of magazines (two authors, Robin Lloyd and Clifford Linedecker, say 90 magazines were produced, but neither cites his source for the figure) and at least one calendar.
[[Zipper]] Magazine (1971-1973) appears to have been produced by Byars, though without the Lyric imprimatur.

Some of the Lyric magazine titles include:
* ''[[Naked Boyhood Magazine]]''
* ''[[Sun Children]]''
* ''[[Lyric's American Boys]]''
* ''[[Naked Teens]]''
* ''[[Coq d'Or]]''

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:photography]]
[[Category:Newspapers and magazines]]
[[Category:Filmmakers]]

Lyric International

2022-07-01T18:00:39Z

Sneeuwbol: /* Books, magazines, and films */

<div style="margin-right: 25px; float: left;">__TOC__</div>'''Lyric International''' produced "[[physique]]" photography of boys and young men during the window that opened in the late 1960s when legal and social bans against male nudity fell, but before more hardcore products skimmed off demand for Lyric's nudes, and the child pornography panic. At its height, Lyric made a push for mainstream respectability with the 1971 feature film [[The Genesis Children]] which combined a foggy New Age message with teen and preteen nudity, and the 1971-1973 [[Zipper]] magazine, where wide-ranging articles similar those in ''Playboy'' were printed along with nude but not explicit photo features of male teenagers and youths. While the Lyric catalog did not go beyond non-sexual nudity, carefully avoiding the legal line of obscenity, Lyric owner [[Billy Byars, Jr.]] partnered for distribution with San Francisco gay rights pioneer and noted pornographer [[Guy Strait]], some of whose pornography did include actors under 16. Lyric maintained an unusually constant stable of "Lyric Boy" actors, the best known of whom was the blond [[Peter Glawson]] who appeared from around 10 years of age to 17 in Lyric's products, including magazines, 16mm shorts, photo sets, ''The Genesis Children'', and a ''Zipper'' interview.

Lyric came to an end in late 1973, in a scandal that the [[Meese Commission]] called "the first [[child pornography]] [[ring]] ... brought to public view," although no pornography charges were ever brought against Lyric's collaborators.<ref>[https://ia902908.us.archive.org/0/items/finalreportofatt00unit/finalreportofatt00unit.pdf#page=185 Attorney General's Commission on Pornography: final report.] Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice (1986) Chapter 11, p. 131</ref> The arrests mark the first appearance in the ''Los Angeles Times'' of policeman [[Lloyd Martin]] who became one of the faces of the [[great kiddie porn panic]]. Guy Strait's arrest in an unrelated case of sex with a minor led to his becoming a nonperson in the gay rights community, and in gay rights history. In recent years some of the same film clips found unprosecutable in 1973 have appeared as evidence in the [[Azov Films]] prosecutions.

Lyric's prime was a high-water mark for tolerance, and its fall marked the beginning of repression. It was a nearly perfect scandal. The headline of the newspaper article that introduced Lloyd Martin to a wider public had all the usual suspects: "Son of Actress, Heir to Oil Fortune, YMCA Counselor, Scoutmaster, Schoolteacher Among Those Facing Charges". They might have been picked for headline value, and may have been: some had no apparent connection to Lyric, and at least one was found innocent by a jury. A number of names important in rights and repression are woven into the case, as well as some inexplicable threads: Mr. Byars is a perpetual footnote in Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories.

== Physique but not pornography==
According to a 1975 interview with a Lyric producer who was one of those named in the scandal,
:"Lyric had specialized in nude photos of models ranging from twelve to twenty years of age. As a physique photographer, Lyric had been out of business for several years, since Byars did not approve of doing hardcore photography and the market accepted little else, but the company name was being carried on as a producer of television travelogues."
Lyric’s production occurred in a narrow window of time, when social mores had loosened sufficiently to permit the sort of naturist films it produced, but not enough to allow more explicit content. The same producer acknowledged that "Lyric had once been one of the biggest photographers in the business." <ref name=campfire>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120061219/http://www.hunkvideo.com/library/lewis/index.html Campfire Video Library]</ref>.

== DOM-Lyric ==
While the Lyric catalog offered no pornography, Lyric's owner joined with [[Guy Strait]] in creating DOM-LYRIC to distribute Lyric's products as well as Strait's. Strait did produce pornography, including pornography with adolescent actors.

== Crossroads of the World ==
Lyric also had an office located at '''Crossroads Of The World''' office complex in Hollywood, which "has been called America's first modern shopping mall.<ref name=wikipedia_crossroads>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossroads_of_the_World Wikipedia]</ref> Director Anthony Aikman and cameraman Bill Dewar edited ''The Genesis Children'' there. Aikman describes the studio as being in a building designed to look like Mothers Hubbard's shoe.<ref>[Interview, 2006, Anthony Aikman by Ballog]</ref> While the complex has a variety of kitschy styles, no building meets that description. Crossroads is a block away from the [[Gold Cup]], a well-known Hollywood Boulevard hangout for boy prostitutes, and occasional source for actors.

''[[Zipper]]'' Magazine's office was also in the complex.(citation needed) That, along with the large amount of editorial space that ''Zipper'' devoted to Lyric's projects, and the number of ads in the magazine purchased by Lyric, suggests that it too may have been owned by Byars.

Wikipedia also says that "In the late-1960s, one of the offices was occupied by a porn magazine that tried out young hopefuls by photographing them in the nude. It was here that an unknown John C. Holmes went one day and showcased his unusually large "endowment", leading to the start of his notorious career in adult films."<ref name=wikipedia_crossroads />

== The next film ==
There are several accounts of what Byars and Lyric were planning after ''The Genesis Children'', but it seems clear another feature fill was complete or nearly so. In a 1972 interview with Byars published just after that film opened (and closed), dance journalist Violet Helgy Swisher says,
<blockquote>"Byars's next film venture is an already filmed documentary he has titled ''The Russian Adventure''. It unreels as a story of the travels of an International Boyhood group, filmed not only in Russia, but elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Still in the early planning stages is a ballet feature to be filmed in the desert. Nude. Of course."<ref name=Swisher>Swisher, Viola Hegyi. "Generating ''The Genesis Children''". ''After Dark'', September 1972, p. 18.</ref></blockquote>

The ''L.A. Times'' article about the arrests described Lyric's current project as "''Soviet '73'', a film about Jews traveling in Russia." <ref name=LATimes27Oct /> The Lyric producer claimed in 1975 that, "We had a tremendous amount of money sunk into a major TV travelogue on Russia just then." <ref name=campfire /> The recurring Russian theme indicates all three sources are discussing the same project.

With a comic story on a bomb scare (it was a prop), the ''Los Angeles Free Press'' gives an account of what Lyric was up to in December, 1972. "Lyric Films, also known as Billy Byars and Associates" was in the process of editing two films at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios, Formosa Ave., Hollywood. Jeremy Hoenack, who edited ''The Genesis Children'', was with his wife Barbara "toiling over the celluloid images on a reel of motorcycle adventures" on a Movieola. Lyric was using two editing rooms. Other Lyric personnel included "Miss Helen Hill, business manager and confidante of producer Billy Byars ("Genesis' Children") who is out of town." Those with access to the editing rooms include "Tom Grubbs, a young filmmaker who's renting one of the rooms for an educational short he's producing. Oh, yes, and there's Joe Fineman, he's also studio manager, in charge of things in Mr. Byars's absence." Mr. Fineman is "... cutting a film for Mr. Byars now — a documentary on Russia."<ref name=Rubine1972>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/community.28040031.pdf?page=10 Rubine, Naomi. "The bomb at Goldwyn Studios"] ''Los Angeles Free Press'', Volume 9, issue 438, Dec 8-18, 1972. P.10</ref>

None of these names appeared in the press in the Lyric scandal. Mr. Fineman's IMDB entry has a long list of credits, including 88 in editing and an equal number in production, starting in 1971 and including the "Real to Reel Film and Video Festival" Festival Prize in 2018. There is however a gap of several years starting in 1972. IMBD has more than one Tom Grubbs. The ''Free Press'' article says that Hoenack finished editing the Russia film.<ref name=Rubine1972 />

Byars told his hometown paper on Christmas Eve, 1972 about a "television documentary scheduled for release under the title "Soviet '73" [...] the first totally uncensored film ever made in the Soviet republics."<ref name=blair1972> Blair, Pat. "Film Industry Challenge Grows" ''Tyler Courier-Times'', Tyler, Texas, 24 Dec 1972. Page 37</ref> It was "hoped to be shown sometime during late winter." He said he was seeking Texas financing for "his next feature film, a spy spoof with the working title of "Heist."" <ref name=blair1972 /> "His goal is to base the financial headquarters of his company in Houston, and he’s getting a start on that goal by seeking "entirely Texas money" to finance "Heist." "<ref name=blair1972 />

Byars said in the same interview that "His previous documentaries, one made in Denmark on the International Boys Camp and one on sculpture in France, were for theater distribution."<ref name=blair1972 />

It seems clear though that Lyric was in fact producing other movies after "The Genesis Children", and based on their subsequent careers, Mr. Byars had engaged competent craftsmen to do so. The "ballet feature to be filmed in the desert" promised to Swisher, if "in the early planning stages" in August would not have been part of the Russian travelogue being edited in December. Perhaps Lyric was already enough of a going concern to have the next project in planning while finishing the current one.

Just how the ''L.A. Times'' or the police would know of Lyric's plans is unclear, and the reporting may be unreliable. Perhaps only in Los Angeles does one include in an arrest report the suspects' plans for their next movie.

== The scandal ==

Lyric came to an end in late 1973. The ''Los Angeles Times'' article about the arrests was titled "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17: Son of Actress, Heir to Oil Fortune, [[YMCA]] Counselor, Scoutmaster, Schoolteacher Among Those Facing Charges".<ref name=LATimes27Oct>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref>

The "Heir to Oil Fortune" was Lyric's owner, and the "Son of Actress" a Lyric producer. As the policy of the ''Los Angeles Times'' was then to not index criminal justice proceedings, it used to be difficult to determine just what happened to the fourteen accused. Those newspaper archives with full-text indexing are now available online, however. A later story confirms that the first of the accused to go to trial ("YMCA Counselor") was acquitted after a full day of jury deliberation, and that two others had pled guilty. An article in ''The Advocate'' gives the final toll: "Five guilty, four 'no contest,' one acquitted in chicken ring" <ref>[https://uosc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01USC_INST/vafrrm/proquest2268824486 "Five guilty, four 'no contest,' one acquitted in chicken ring"].''The Advocate'', May 22, 1974, Issue 138, p.27.
</ref>
[[Guy Strait]], though among the first two arrested in the case, jumped bail and was never brought to trial on the Los Angeles charges.

While the Meese Commission and the ''Los Angeles Times'' both refer to films of child pornography, the news article says that the accused were charged not with child pornography, but with molesting children. It says "One confiscated film shows the boys playing nude on a beach believed to be near Corpus Christi." Lyric did produce such a film, ''[[Summer Freedom]]'', but a film of "boys playing nude on a beach" was then neither pornography nor illegal in the US.

One source claims that one of the boys was "dangled over a cliff" by policemen until he agreed to name men with whom he had had sex.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050219002356/http://www.paedosexualitaet.de/exp/cliffsrc.html Documenting Abuse of Boys and Families by Los Angeles Police] cites two articles as its source for the claim: Sarff, Doug. "L.A. Jury frees first 'chicken ring' defendant". ''The Advocate'' San Mateo, CA. 16 January 1974 (page 3); and "Cliffhanging Testimony: Jury: Second 'chicken ring' defendant guilty". ''The Advocate'', San Mateo, CA, 30 January 1974 (page 5). There may be a digital copy including the 1974 ''Advocate'' at [http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/record=b24360993~S1 UC Berkeley].</ref> The claim was apparently made in open court. The Lyric producer cited above said that "[T]wo of them were just hustlers the police had dug up — I hardly even knew them. They had worked for Lyric a good little while ago. Even the police didn't push their stories too much, because they were both well into their teens and they admitted they were willing participants."<ref name=campfire />

The Los Angeles scandal was fueled in part by the August 1973 discovery of the murders in Houston, Texas, by [[Dean Corll]] of at least 27 teenagers. The police insinuated to the press that the Lyric scandal might have a connection. Lyric's owner was originally from Texas; another of those arrested in the case was identified by the ''L.A. Times'' as "William Johnson, 55, a Houston photographer".<ref name=LATimes27Oct />

Lloyd Martin, the policeman most responsible for the arrests, constructed a national reputation as the "child abuse policeman". He later fell into discredit. Widespread criticism of him and his methods is easily found on the Internet. Martin's signature sound bite is that child abuse is "worse than homicide." A ''Salon'' article calls him "infamous" and provides a good general discussion of the exaggerations of child pornography foes.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070304095923/http://archive.salon.com/mwt/feature/2000/01/31/kincaid/index1.html Is this child pornography?] Kincaid, James R. ''Salon'', 31 Jan 2000</ref>

== Technical quality of the films ==
[[Harlan "Slim" Pfeiffer]] is said to have filmed the Lyric movies in 16mm, and reduced them to 8mm for distribution. Guy Strait, who handled the distribution end of DOM-LYRIC, recounted in prison his techniques for taking photos and avoiding piracy of his films. “His favorite still camera was a Yashika E, twin-reflex that cost a mere $50 [...] He depended on a Mimiya C-33 for most of his professional still work. [...] He usually filmed 12-minute loops and longer movies with a 16-millimeter Beaulieu, which he considered to be superior to the more expensive German Hasselblad."<ref>Linedecker, Clifford L. 1981. ''Children in Chains''. New York: Everest House. p. 230</ref>
<blockquote>"He protected his reputation for quality work by keeping his films out of bookstores. It was more difficult to protect his work from pirates who purchased the films on his lists and had them duplicated for sales through other outlets. Although it bothered his aesthetic sensibilities and pride in his own work, he learned to lower the reproductive quality of his 8-millimeter film. He considered them still better quality than the competition, but not good enough to withstand the loss of detail and clarity when duplicated again by film pirates."(ibid, p. 233)</blockquote>

== Books, magazines, and films ==

''[[The Genesis Children]]'' was the only feature film Lyric ever released, although at least one other appears to have been ready at the time of the firm's spectacular close. Its other movies were shorts produced in 16mm and reduced to 8mm for distribution. Some of the films are:
* ''[[Danish Boys' Camp]]''. Feature documentary. 1971. Producer: Billy Byars. Editor: Wayne Schotten. There is no indication if this was a 16mm or 35mm production.
* ''[[Swim Party]]'' and ''[[Spring Break]]'' were filmed by Slim Pfeiffer at [[the pool with the cinderblock walls]] at the Lyric studio in Los Angeles.
* ''[[Sandy Hill]]'' may have been filmed in Sandy Hill in east Texas.
* ''[[Summer Freedom]]'' was made at Corpus Christi National Seashore in Texas.
*''[[How to Make Friends]]''
Two other "films" are slideshows assembled from Lyric photographs, and perhaps some others, bear a 1995 copyright claim by "Gulf Coast Productions", and have text cards that refer to Lyric photographer Slim Pfeiffer. They are:
* ''[[Peter and the Desert Riders]]''
* ''[[Boyhood Scrapbook]]''

Lyric produced a number of magazines (two authors, Robin Lloyd and Clifford Linedecker, say 90 magazines were produced, but neither cites his source for the figure) and at least one calendar.
<a href="/en/Zipper" title="Zipper">Zipper</a> Magazine appears to have been produced by Byars, though without the Lyric imprimatur.

Some of the Lyric magazine titles include:
* ''[[Naked Boyhood Magazine]]''
* ''[[Sun Children]]''
* ''[[Lyric's American Boys]]''
* ''[[Naked Teens]]''
* ''[[Coq d'Or]]''

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:photography]]
[[Category:Newspapers and magazines]]
[[Category:Filmmakers]]

Lyric International

2022-07-01T17:53:47Z

Sneeuwbol: /* Books, magazines, and films */

<div style="margin-right: 25px; float: left;">__TOC__</div>'''Lyric International''' produced "[[physique]]" photography of boys and young men during the window that opened in the late 1960s when legal and social bans against male nudity fell, but before more hardcore products skimmed off demand for Lyric's nudes, and the child pornography panic. At its height, Lyric made a push for mainstream respectability with the 1971 feature film [[The Genesis Children]] which combined a foggy New Age message with teen and preteen nudity, and the 1971-1973 [[Zipper]] magazine, where wide-ranging articles similar those in ''Playboy'' were printed along with nude but not explicit photo features of male teenagers and youths. While the Lyric catalog did not go beyond non-sexual nudity, carefully avoiding the legal line of obscenity, Lyric owner [[Billy Byars, Jr.]] partnered for distribution with San Francisco gay rights pioneer and noted pornographer [[Guy Strait]], some of whose pornography did include actors under 16. Lyric maintained an unusually constant stable of "Lyric Boy" actors, the best known of whom was the blond [[Peter Glawson]] who appeared from around 10 years of age to 17 in Lyric's products, including magazines, 16mm shorts, photo sets, ''The Genesis Children'', and a ''Zipper'' interview.

Lyric came to an end in late 1973, in a scandal that the [[Meese Commission]] called "the first [[child pornography]] [[ring]] ... brought to public view," although no pornography charges were ever brought against Lyric's collaborators.<ref>[https://ia902908.us.archive.org/0/items/finalreportofatt00unit/finalreportofatt00unit.pdf#page=185 Attorney General's Commission on Pornography: final report.] Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice (1986) Chapter 11, p. 131</ref> The arrests mark the first appearance in the ''Los Angeles Times'' of policeman [[Lloyd Martin]] who became one of the faces of the [[great kiddie porn panic]]. Guy Strait's arrest in an unrelated case of sex with a minor led to his becoming a nonperson in the gay rights community, and in gay rights history. In recent years some of the same film clips found unprosecutable in 1973 have appeared as evidence in the [[Azov Films]] prosecutions.

Lyric's prime was a high-water mark for tolerance, and its fall marked the beginning of repression. It was a nearly perfect scandal. The headline of the newspaper article that introduced Lloyd Martin to a wider public had all the usual suspects: "Son of Actress, Heir to Oil Fortune, YMCA Counselor, Scoutmaster, Schoolteacher Among Those Facing Charges". They might have been picked for headline value, and may have been: some had no apparent connection to Lyric, and at least one was found innocent by a jury. A number of names important in rights and repression are woven into the case, as well as some inexplicable threads: Mr. Byars is a perpetual footnote in Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories.

== Physique but not pornography==
According to a 1975 interview with a Lyric producer who was one of those named in the scandal,
:"Lyric had specialized in nude photos of models ranging from twelve to twenty years of age. As a physique photographer, Lyric had been out of business for several years, since Byars did not approve of doing hardcore photography and the market accepted little else, but the company name was being carried on as a producer of television travelogues."
Lyric’s production occurred in a narrow window of time, when social mores had loosened sufficiently to permit the sort of naturist films it produced, but not enough to allow more explicit content. The same producer acknowledged that "Lyric had once been one of the biggest photographers in the business." <ref name=campfire>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120061219/http://www.hunkvideo.com/library/lewis/index.html Campfire Video Library]</ref>.

== DOM-Lyric ==
While the Lyric catalog offered no pornography, Lyric's owner joined with [[Guy Strait]] in creating DOM-LYRIC to distribute Lyric's products as well as Strait's. Strait did produce pornography, including pornography with adolescent actors.

== Crossroads of the World ==
Lyric also had an office located at '''Crossroads Of The World''' office complex in Hollywood, which "has been called America's first modern shopping mall.<ref name=wikipedia_crossroads>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossroads_of_the_World Wikipedia]</ref> Director Anthony Aikman and cameraman Bill Dewar edited ''The Genesis Children'' there. Aikman describes the studio as being in a building designed to look like Mothers Hubbard's shoe.<ref>[Interview, 2006, Anthony Aikman by Ballog]</ref> While the complex has a variety of kitschy styles, no building meets that description. Crossroads is a block away from the [[Gold Cup]], a well-known Hollywood Boulevard hangout for boy prostitutes, and occasional source for actors.

''[[Zipper]]'' Magazine's office was also in the complex.(citation needed) That, along with the large amount of editorial space that ''Zipper'' devoted to Lyric's projects, and the number of ads in the magazine purchased by Lyric, suggests that it too may have been owned by Byars.

Wikipedia also says that "In the late-1960s, one of the offices was occupied by a porn magazine that tried out young hopefuls by photographing them in the nude. It was here that an unknown John C. Holmes went one day and showcased his unusually large "endowment", leading to the start of his notorious career in adult films."<ref name=wikipedia_crossroads />

== The next film ==
There are several accounts of what Byars and Lyric were planning after ''The Genesis Children'', but it seems clear another feature fill was complete or nearly so. In a 1972 interview with Byars published just after that film opened (and closed), dance journalist Violet Helgy Swisher says,
<blockquote>"Byars's next film venture is an already filmed documentary he has titled ''The Russian Adventure''. It unreels as a story of the travels of an International Boyhood group, filmed not only in Russia, but elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Still in the early planning stages is a ballet feature to be filmed in the desert. Nude. Of course."<ref name=Swisher>Swisher, Viola Hegyi. "Generating ''The Genesis Children''". ''After Dark'', September 1972, p. 18.</ref></blockquote>

The ''L.A. Times'' article about the arrests described Lyric's current project as "''Soviet '73'', a film about Jews traveling in Russia." <ref name=LATimes27Oct /> The Lyric producer claimed in 1975 that, "We had a tremendous amount of money sunk into a major TV travelogue on Russia just then." <ref name=campfire /> The recurring Russian theme indicates all three sources are discussing the same project.

With a comic story on a bomb scare (it was a prop), the ''Los Angeles Free Press'' gives an account of what Lyric was up to in December, 1972. "Lyric Films, also known as Billy Byars and Associates" was in the process of editing two films at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios, Formosa Ave., Hollywood. Jeremy Hoenack, who edited ''The Genesis Children'', was with his wife Barbara "toiling over the celluloid images on a reel of motorcycle adventures" on a Movieola. Lyric was using two editing rooms. Other Lyric personnel included "Miss Helen Hill, business manager and confidante of producer Billy Byars ("Genesis' Children") who is out of town." Those with access to the editing rooms include "Tom Grubbs, a young filmmaker who's renting one of the rooms for an educational short he's producing. Oh, yes, and there's Joe Fineman, he's also studio manager, in charge of things in Mr. Byars's absence." Mr. Fineman is "... cutting a film for Mr. Byars now — a documentary on Russia."<ref name=Rubine1972>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/community.28040031.pdf?page=10 Rubine, Naomi. "The bomb at Goldwyn Studios"] ''Los Angeles Free Press'', Volume 9, issue 438, Dec 8-18, 1972. P.10</ref>

None of these names appeared in the press in the Lyric scandal. Mr. Fineman's IMDB entry has a long list of credits, including 88 in editing and an equal number in production, starting in 1971 and including the "Real to Reel Film and Video Festival" Festival Prize in 2018. There is however a gap of several years starting in 1972. IMBD has more than one Tom Grubbs. The ''Free Press'' article says that Hoenack finished editing the Russia film.<ref name=Rubine1972 />

Byars told his hometown paper on Christmas Eve, 1972 about a "television documentary scheduled for release under the title "Soviet '73" [...] the first totally uncensored film ever made in the Soviet republics."<ref name=blair1972> Blair, Pat. "Film Industry Challenge Grows" ''Tyler Courier-Times'', Tyler, Texas, 24 Dec 1972. Page 37</ref> It was "hoped to be shown sometime during late winter." He said he was seeking Texas financing for "his next feature film, a spy spoof with the working title of "Heist."" <ref name=blair1972 /> "His goal is to base the financial headquarters of his company in Houston, and he’s getting a start on that goal by seeking "entirely Texas money" to finance "Heist." "<ref name=blair1972 />

Byars said in the same interview that "His previous documentaries, one made in Denmark on the International Boys Camp and one on sculpture in France, were for theater distribution."<ref name=blair1972 />

It seems clear though that Lyric was in fact producing other movies after "The Genesis Children", and based on their subsequent careers, Mr. Byars had engaged competent craftsmen to do so. The "ballet feature to be filmed in the desert" promised to Swisher, if "in the early planning stages" in August would not have been part of the Russian travelogue being edited in December. Perhaps Lyric was already enough of a going concern to have the next project in planning while finishing the current one.

Just how the ''L.A. Times'' or the police would know of Lyric's plans is unclear, and the reporting may be unreliable. Perhaps only in Los Angeles does one include in an arrest report the suspects' plans for their next movie.

== The scandal ==

Lyric came to an end in late 1973. The ''Los Angeles Times'' article about the arrests was titled "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17: Son of Actress, Heir to Oil Fortune, [[YMCA]] Counselor, Scoutmaster, Schoolteacher Among Those Facing Charges".<ref name=LATimes27Oct>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref>

The "Heir to Oil Fortune" was Lyric's owner, and the "Son of Actress" a Lyric producer. As the policy of the ''Los Angeles Times'' was then to not index criminal justice proceedings, it used to be difficult to determine just what happened to the fourteen accused. Those newspaper archives with full-text indexing are now available online, however. A later story confirms that the first of the accused to go to trial ("YMCA Counselor") was acquitted after a full day of jury deliberation, and that two others had pled guilty. An article in ''The Advocate'' gives the final toll: "Five guilty, four 'no contest,' one acquitted in chicken ring" <ref>[https://uosc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01USC_INST/vafrrm/proquest2268824486 "Five guilty, four 'no contest,' one acquitted in chicken ring"].''The Advocate'', May 22, 1974, Issue 138, p.27.
</ref>
[[Guy Strait]], though among the first two arrested in the case, jumped bail and was never brought to trial on the Los Angeles charges.

While the Meese Commission and the ''Los Angeles Times'' both refer to films of child pornography, the news article says that the accused were charged not with child pornography, but with molesting children. It says "One confiscated film shows the boys playing nude on a beach believed to be near Corpus Christi." Lyric did produce such a film, ''[[Summer Freedom]]'', but a film of "boys playing nude on a beach" was then neither pornography nor illegal in the US.

One source claims that one of the boys was "dangled over a cliff" by policemen until he agreed to name men with whom he had had sex.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050219002356/http://www.paedosexualitaet.de/exp/cliffsrc.html Documenting Abuse of Boys and Families by Los Angeles Police] cites two articles as its source for the claim: Sarff, Doug. "L.A. Jury frees first 'chicken ring' defendant". ''The Advocate'' San Mateo, CA. 16 January 1974 (page 3); and "Cliffhanging Testimony: Jury: Second 'chicken ring' defendant guilty". ''The Advocate'', San Mateo, CA, 30 January 1974 (page 5). There may be a digital copy including the 1974 ''Advocate'' at [http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/record=b24360993~S1 UC Berkeley].</ref> The claim was apparently made in open court. The Lyric producer cited above said that "[T]wo of them were just hustlers the police had dug up — I hardly even knew them. They had worked for Lyric a good little while ago. Even the police didn't push their stories too much, because they were both well into their teens and they admitted they were willing participants."<ref name=campfire />

The Los Angeles scandal was fueled in part by the August 1973 discovery of the murders in Houston, Texas, by [[Dean Corll]] of at least 27 teenagers. The police insinuated to the press that the Lyric scandal might have a connection. Lyric's owner was originally from Texas; another of those arrested in the case was identified by the ''L.A. Times'' as "William Johnson, 55, a Houston photographer".<ref name=LATimes27Oct />

Lloyd Martin, the policeman most responsible for the arrests, constructed a national reputation as the "child abuse policeman". He later fell into discredit. Widespread criticism of him and his methods is easily found on the Internet. Martin's signature sound bite is that child abuse is "worse than homicide." A ''Salon'' article calls him "infamous" and provides a good general discussion of the exaggerations of child pornography foes.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070304095923/http://archive.salon.com/mwt/feature/2000/01/31/kincaid/index1.html Is this child pornography?] Kincaid, James R. ''Salon'', 31 Jan 2000</ref>

== Technical quality of the films ==
[[Harlan "Slim" Pfeiffer]] is said to have filmed the Lyric movies in 16mm, and reduced them to 8mm for distribution. Guy Strait, who handled the distribution end of DOM-LYRIC, recounted in prison his techniques for taking photos and avoiding piracy of his films. “His favorite still camera was a Yashika E, twin-reflex that cost a mere $50 [...] He depended on a Mimiya C-33 for most of his professional still work. [...] He usually filmed 12-minute loops and longer movies with a 16-millimeter Beaulieu, which he considered to be superior to the more expensive German Hasselblad."<ref>Linedecker, Clifford L. 1981. ''Children in Chains''. New York: Everest House. p. 230</ref>
<blockquote>"He protected his reputation for quality work by keeping his films out of bookstores. It was more difficult to protect his work from pirates who purchased the films on his lists and had them duplicated for sales through other outlets. Although it bothered his aesthetic sensibilities and pride in his own work, he learned to lower the reproductive quality of his 8-millimeter film. He considered them still better quality than the competition, but not good enough to withstand the loss of detail and clarity when duplicated again by film pirates."(ibid, p. 233)</blockquote>

== Books, magazines, and films ==

''[[The Genesis Children]]'' was the only feature film Lyric ever released, although at least one other appears to have been ready at the time of the firm's spectacular close. Its other movies were shorts produced in 16mm and reduced to 8mm for distribution. Some of the films are:
* ''[[Danish Boys' Camp]]''. Feature documentary. 1971. Producer: Billy Byars. Editor: Wayne Schotten. There is no indication if this was a 16mm or 35mm production.
* ''[[Swim Party]]'' and ''[[Spring Break]]'' were filmed by Slim Pfeiffer at [[the pool with the cinderblock walls]] at the Lyric studio in Los Angeles.
* ''[[Sandy Hill]]'' may have been filmed in Sandy Hill in east Texas.
* ''[[Summer Freedom]]'' was made at Corpus Christi National Seashore in Texas.
*''[[How to Make Friends]]''
Two other "films" are slideshows assembled from Lyric photographs, and perhaps some others, bear a 1995 copyright claim by "Gulf Coast Productions", and have text cards that refer to Lyric photographer Slim Pfeiffer. They are:
* ''[[Peter and the Desert Riders]]''
* ''[[Boyhood Scrapbook]]''

Lyric produced a number of magazines (two authors, Robin Lloyd and Clifford Linedecker, say 90 magazines were produced, but neither cites his source for the figure) and at least one calendar.

Some of the magazine titles include:
* ''[[Naked Boyhood Magazine]]''
* ''[[Sun Children]]''
* ''[[Lyric's American Boys]]''
* ''[[Naked Teens]]''
* ''[[Coq d'Or]]''

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:photography]]
[[Category:Newspapers and magazines]]
[[Category:Filmmakers]]

Lyric International

2022-07-01T17:40:40Z

Sneeuwbol: /* The next film */

<div style="margin-right: 25px; float: left;">__TOC__</div>'''Lyric International''' produced "[[physique]]" photography of boys and young men during the window that opened in the late 1960s when legal and social bans against male nudity fell, but before more hardcore products skimmed off demand for Lyric's nudes, and the child pornography panic. At its height, Lyric made a push for mainstream respectability with the 1971 feature film [[The Genesis Children]] which combined a foggy New Age message with teen and preteen nudity, and the 1971-1973 [[Zipper]] magazine, where wide-ranging articles similar those in ''Playboy'' were printed along with nude but not explicit photo features of male teenagers and youths. While the Lyric catalog did not go beyond non-sexual nudity, carefully avoiding the legal line of obscenity, Lyric owner [[Billy Byars, Jr.]] partnered for distribution with San Francisco gay rights pioneer and noted pornographer [[Guy Strait]], some of whose pornography did include actors under 16. Lyric maintained an unusually constant stable of "Lyric Boy" actors, the best known of whom was the blond [[Peter Glawson]] who appeared from around 10 years of age to 17 in Lyric's products, including magazines, 16mm shorts, photo sets, ''The Genesis Children'', and a ''Zipper'' interview.

Lyric came to an end in late 1973, in a scandal that the [[Meese Commission]] called "the first [[child pornography]] [[ring]] ... brought to public view," although no pornography charges were ever brought against Lyric's collaborators.<ref>[https://ia902908.us.archive.org/0/items/finalreportofatt00unit/finalreportofatt00unit.pdf#page=185 Attorney General's Commission on Pornography: final report.] Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice (1986) Chapter 11, p. 131</ref> The arrests mark the first appearance in the ''Los Angeles Times'' of policeman [[Lloyd Martin]] who became one of the faces of the [[great kiddie porn panic]]. Guy Strait's arrest in an unrelated case of sex with a minor led to his becoming a nonperson in the gay rights community, and in gay rights history. In recent years some of the same film clips found unprosecutable in 1973 have appeared as evidence in the [[Azov Films]] prosecutions.

Lyric's prime was a high-water mark for tolerance, and its fall marked the beginning of repression. It was a nearly perfect scandal. The headline of the newspaper article that introduced Lloyd Martin to a wider public had all the usual suspects: "Son of Actress, Heir to Oil Fortune, YMCA Counselor, Scoutmaster, Schoolteacher Among Those Facing Charges". They might have been picked for headline value, and may have been: some had no apparent connection to Lyric, and at least one was found innocent by a jury. A number of names important in rights and repression are woven into the case, as well as some inexplicable threads: Mr. Byars is a perpetual footnote in Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories.

== Physique but not pornography==
According to a 1975 interview with a Lyric producer who was one of those named in the scandal,
:"Lyric had specialized in nude photos of models ranging from twelve to twenty years of age. As a physique photographer, Lyric had been out of business for several years, since Byars did not approve of doing hardcore photography and the market accepted little else, but the company name was being carried on as a producer of television travelogues."
Lyric’s production occurred in a narrow window of time, when social mores had loosened sufficiently to permit the sort of naturist films it produced, but not enough to allow more explicit content. The same producer acknowledged that "Lyric had once been one of the biggest photographers in the business." <ref name=campfire>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120061219/http://www.hunkvideo.com/library/lewis/index.html Campfire Video Library]</ref>.

== DOM-Lyric ==
While the Lyric catalog offered no pornography, Lyric's owner joined with [[Guy Strait]] in creating DOM-LYRIC to distribute Lyric's products as well as Strait's. Strait did produce pornography, including pornography with adolescent actors.

== Crossroads of the World ==
Lyric also had an office located at '''Crossroads Of The World''' office complex in Hollywood, which "has been called America's first modern shopping mall.<ref name=wikipedia_crossroads>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossroads_of_the_World Wikipedia]</ref> Director Anthony Aikman and cameraman Bill Dewar edited ''The Genesis Children'' there. Aikman describes the studio as being in a building designed to look like Mothers Hubbard's shoe.<ref>[Interview, 2006, Anthony Aikman by Ballog]</ref> While the complex has a variety of kitschy styles, no building meets that description. Crossroads is a block away from the [[Gold Cup]], a well-known Hollywood Boulevard hangout for boy prostitutes, and occasional source for actors.

''[[Zipper]]'' Magazine's office was also in the complex.(citation needed) That, along with the large amount of editorial space that ''Zipper'' devoted to Lyric's projects, and the number of ads in the magazine purchased by Lyric, suggests that it too may have been owned by Byars.

Wikipedia also says that "In the late-1960s, one of the offices was occupied by a porn magazine that tried out young hopefuls by photographing them in the nude. It was here that an unknown John C. Holmes went one day and showcased his unusually large "endowment", leading to the start of his notorious career in adult films."<ref name=wikipedia_crossroads />

== The next film ==
There are several accounts of what Byars and Lyric were planning after ''The Genesis Children'', but it seems clear another feature fill was complete or nearly so. In a 1972 interview with Byars published just after that film opened (and closed), dance journalist Violet Helgy Swisher says,
<blockquote>"Byars's next film venture is an already filmed documentary he has titled ''The Russian Adventure''. It unreels as a story of the travels of an International Boyhood group, filmed not only in Russia, but elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Still in the early planning stages is a ballet feature to be filmed in the desert. Nude. Of course."<ref name=Swisher>Swisher, Viola Hegyi. "Generating ''The Genesis Children''". ''After Dark'', September 1972, p. 18.</ref></blockquote>

The ''L.A. Times'' article about the arrests described Lyric's current project as "''Soviet '73'', a film about Jews traveling in Russia." <ref name=LATimes27Oct /> The Lyric producer claimed in 1975 that, "We had a tremendous amount of money sunk into a major TV travelogue on Russia just then." <ref name=campfire /> The recurring Russian theme indicates all three sources are discussing the same project.

With a comic story on a bomb scare (it was a prop), the ''Los Angeles Free Press'' gives an account of what Lyric was up to in December, 1972. "Lyric Films, also known as Billy Byars and Associates" was in the process of editing two films at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios, Formosa Ave., Hollywood. Jeremy Hoenack, who edited ''The Genesis Children'', was with his wife Barbara "toiling over the celluloid images on a reel of motorcycle adventures" on a Movieola. Lyric was using two editing rooms. Other Lyric personnel included "Miss Helen Hill, business manager and confidante of producer Billy Byars ("Genesis' Children") who is out of town." Those with access to the editing rooms include "Tom Grubbs, a young filmmaker who's renting one of the rooms for an educational short he's producing. Oh, yes, and there's Joe Fineman, he's also studio manager, in charge of things in Mr. Byars's absence." Mr. Fineman is "... cutting a film for Mr. Byars now — a documentary on Russia."<ref name=Rubine1972>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/community.28040031.pdf?page=10 Rubine, Naomi. "The bomb at Goldwyn Studios"] ''Los Angeles Free Press'', Volume 9, issue 438, Dec 8-18, 1972. P.10</ref>

None of these names appeared in the press in the Lyric scandal. Mr. Fineman's IMDB entry has a long list of credits, including 88 in editing and an equal number in production, starting in 1971 and including the "Real to Reel Film and Video Festival" Festival Prize in 2018. There is however a gap of several years starting in 1972. IMBD has more than one Tom Grubbs. The ''Free Press'' article says that Hoenack finished editing the Russia film.<ref name=Rubine1972 />

Byars told his hometown paper on Christmas Eve, 1972 about a "television documentary scheduled for release under the title "Soviet '73" [...] the first totally uncensored film ever made in the Soviet republics."<ref name=blair1972> Blair, Pat. "Film Industry Challenge Grows" ''Tyler Courier-Times'', Tyler, Texas, 24 Dec 1972. Page 37</ref> It was "hoped to be shown sometime during late winter." He said he was seeking Texas financing for "his next feature film, a spy spoof with the working title of "Heist."" <ref name=blair1972 /> "His goal is to base the financial headquarters of his company in Houston, and he’s getting a start on that goal by seeking "entirely Texas money" to finance "Heist." "<ref name=blair1972 />

Byars said in the same interview that "His previous documentaries, one made in Denmark on the International Boys Camp and one on sculpture in France, were for theater distribution."<ref name=blair1972 />

It seems clear though that Lyric was in fact producing other movies after "The Genesis Children", and based on their subsequent careers, Mr. Byars had engaged competent craftsmen to do so. The "ballet feature to be filmed in the desert" promised to Swisher, if "in the early planning stages" in August would not have been part of the Russian travelogue being edited in December. Perhaps Lyric was already enough of a going concern to have the next project in planning while finishing the current one.

Just how the ''L.A. Times'' or the police would know of Lyric's plans is unclear, and the reporting may be unreliable. Perhaps only in Los Angeles does one include in an arrest report the suspects' plans for their next movie.

== The scandal ==

Lyric came to an end in late 1973. The ''Los Angeles Times'' article about the arrests was titled "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17: Son of Actress, Heir to Oil Fortune, [[YMCA]] Counselor, Scoutmaster, Schoolteacher Among Those Facing Charges".<ref name=LATimes27Oct>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref>

The "Heir to Oil Fortune" was Lyric's owner, and the "Son of Actress" a Lyric producer. As the policy of the ''Los Angeles Times'' was then to not index criminal justice proceedings, it used to be difficult to determine just what happened to the fourteen accused. Those newspaper archives with full-text indexing are now available online, however. A later story confirms that the first of the accused to go to trial ("YMCA Counselor") was acquitted after a full day of jury deliberation, and that two others had pled guilty. An article in ''The Advocate'' gives the final toll: "Five guilty, four 'no contest,' one acquitted in chicken ring" <ref>[https://uosc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01USC_INST/vafrrm/proquest2268824486 "Five guilty, four 'no contest,' one acquitted in chicken ring"].''The Advocate'', May 22, 1974, Issue 138, p.27.
</ref>
[[Guy Strait]], though among the first two arrested in the case, jumped bail and was never brought to trial on the Los Angeles charges.

While the Meese Commission and the ''Los Angeles Times'' both refer to films of child pornography, the news article says that the accused were charged not with child pornography, but with molesting children. It says "One confiscated film shows the boys playing nude on a beach believed to be near Corpus Christi." Lyric did produce such a film, ''[[Summer Freedom]]'', but a film of "boys playing nude on a beach" was then neither pornography nor illegal in the US.

One source claims that one of the boys was "dangled over a cliff" by policemen until he agreed to name men with whom he had had sex.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050219002356/http://www.paedosexualitaet.de/exp/cliffsrc.html Documenting Abuse of Boys and Families by Los Angeles Police] cites two articles as its source for the claim: Sarff, Doug. "L.A. Jury frees first 'chicken ring' defendant". ''The Advocate'' San Mateo, CA. 16 January 1974 (page 3); and "Cliffhanging Testimony: Jury: Second 'chicken ring' defendant guilty". ''The Advocate'', San Mateo, CA, 30 January 1974 (page 5). There may be a digital copy including the 1974 ''Advocate'' at [http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/record=b24360993~S1 UC Berkeley].</ref> The claim was apparently made in open court. The Lyric producer cited above said that "[T]wo of them were just hustlers the police had dug up — I hardly even knew them. They had worked for Lyric a good little while ago. Even the police didn't push their stories too much, because they were both well into their teens and they admitted they were willing participants."<ref name=campfire />

The Los Angeles scandal was fueled in part by the August 1973 discovery of the murders in Houston, Texas, by [[Dean Corll]] of at least 27 teenagers. The police insinuated to the press that the Lyric scandal might have a connection. Lyric's owner was originally from Texas; another of those arrested in the case was identified by the ''L.A. Times'' as "William Johnson, 55, a Houston photographer".<ref name=LATimes27Oct />

Lloyd Martin, the policeman most responsible for the arrests, constructed a national reputation as the "child abuse policeman". He later fell into discredit. Widespread criticism of him and his methods is easily found on the Internet. Martin's signature sound bite is that child abuse is "worse than homicide." A ''Salon'' article calls him "infamous" and provides a good general discussion of the exaggerations of child pornography foes.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070304095923/http://archive.salon.com/mwt/feature/2000/01/31/kincaid/index1.html Is this child pornography?] Kincaid, James R. ''Salon'', 31 Jan 2000</ref>

== Technical quality of the films ==
[[Harlan "Slim" Pfeiffer]] is said to have filmed the Lyric movies in 16mm, and reduced them to 8mm for distribution. Guy Strait, who handled the distribution end of DOM-LYRIC, recounted in prison his techniques for taking photos and avoiding piracy of his films. “His favorite still camera was a Yashika E, twin-reflex that cost a mere $50 [...] He depended on a Mimiya C-33 for most of his professional still work. [...] He usually filmed 12-minute loops and longer movies with a 16-millimeter Beaulieu, which he considered to be superior to the more expensive German Hasselblad."<ref>Linedecker, Clifford L. 1981. ''Children in Chains''. New York: Everest House. p. 230</ref>
<blockquote>"He protected his reputation for quality work by keeping his films out of bookstores. It was more difficult to protect his work from pirates who purchased the films on his lists and had them duplicated for sales through other outlets. Although it bothered his aesthetic sensibilities and pride in his own work, he learned to lower the reproductive quality of his 8-millimeter film. He considered them still better quality than the competition, but not good enough to withstand the loss of detail and clarity when duplicated again by film pirates."(ibid, p. 233)</blockquote>

== Books, magazines, and films ==

''[[The Genesis Children]]'' was Lyric's only feature film, its other movies being shorts produced in 16mm and reduced to 8mm for distribution. Some of the films are:
* ''[[Danish Boys' Camp]]''. Feature documentary. 1971. Producer: Billy Byars. Editor: Wayne Schotten
* ''[[Swim Party]]'' and ''[[Spring Break]]'' were filmed by Slim Pfeiffer at [[the pool with the cinderblock walls]] at the Lyric studio in Los Angeles.
* ''[[Sandy Hill]]'' may have been filmed in Sandy Hill in east Texas.
* ''[[Summer Freedom]]'' was made at Corpus Christi National Seashore in Texas.
* ''[[Peter and the Desert Riders]]''
* ''[[How to Make Friends]]''
* ''[[Boyhood Scrapbook]]''

Lyric produced a number of magazines (two authors, Robin Lloyd and Clifford Linedecker, say 90 magazines were produced, but neither cites his source for the figure) and at least one calendar.

Some of the magazine titles include:
* ''[[Naked Boyhood Magazine]]''
* ''[[Sun Children]]''
* ''[[Lyric's American Boys]]''
* ''[[Naked Teens]]''
* ''[[Coq d'Or]]''

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:photography]]
[[Category:Newspapers and magazines]]
[[Category:Filmmakers]]

Lyric International

2022-07-01T17:35:22Z

Sneeuwbol: /* The next film */

<div style="margin-right: 25px; float: left;">__TOC__</div>'''Lyric International''' produced "[[physique]]" photography of boys and young men during the window that opened in the late 1960s when legal and social bans against male nudity fell, but before more hardcore products skimmed off demand for Lyric's nudes, and the child pornography panic. At its height, Lyric made a push for mainstream respectability with the 1971 feature film [[The Genesis Children]] which combined a foggy New Age message with teen and preteen nudity, and the 1971-1973 [[Zipper]] magazine, where wide-ranging articles similar those in ''Playboy'' were printed along with nude but not explicit photo features of male teenagers and youths. While the Lyric catalog did not go beyond non-sexual nudity, carefully avoiding the legal line of obscenity, Lyric owner [[Billy Byars, Jr.]] partnered for distribution with San Francisco gay rights pioneer and noted pornographer [[Guy Strait]], some of whose pornography did include actors under 16. Lyric maintained an unusually constant stable of "Lyric Boy" actors, the best known of whom was the blond [[Peter Glawson]] who appeared from around 10 years of age to 17 in Lyric's products, including magazines, 16mm shorts, photo sets, ''The Genesis Children'', and a ''Zipper'' interview.

Lyric came to an end in late 1973, in a scandal that the [[Meese Commission]] called "the first [[child pornography]] [[ring]] ... brought to public view," although no pornography charges were ever brought against Lyric's collaborators.<ref>[https://ia902908.us.archive.org/0/items/finalreportofatt00unit/finalreportofatt00unit.pdf#page=185 Attorney General's Commission on Pornography: final report.] Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice (1986) Chapter 11, p. 131</ref> The arrests mark the first appearance in the ''Los Angeles Times'' of policeman [[Lloyd Martin]] who became one of the faces of the [[great kiddie porn panic]]. Guy Strait's arrest in an unrelated case of sex with a minor led to his becoming a nonperson in the gay rights community, and in gay rights history. In recent years some of the same film clips found unprosecutable in 1973 have appeared as evidence in the [[Azov Films]] prosecutions.

Lyric's prime was a high-water mark for tolerance, and its fall marked the beginning of repression. It was a nearly perfect scandal. The headline of the newspaper article that introduced Lloyd Martin to a wider public had all the usual suspects: "Son of Actress, Heir to Oil Fortune, YMCA Counselor, Scoutmaster, Schoolteacher Among Those Facing Charges". They might have been picked for headline value, and may have been: some had no apparent connection to Lyric, and at least one was found innocent by a jury. A number of names important in rights and repression are woven into the case, as well as some inexplicable threads: Mr. Byars is a perpetual footnote in Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories.

== Physique but not pornography==
According to a 1975 interview with a Lyric producer who was one of those named in the scandal,
:"Lyric had specialized in nude photos of models ranging from twelve to twenty years of age. As a physique photographer, Lyric had been out of business for several years, since Byars did not approve of doing hardcore photography and the market accepted little else, but the company name was being carried on as a producer of television travelogues."
Lyric’s production occurred in a narrow window of time, when social mores had loosened sufficiently to permit the sort of naturist films it produced, but not enough to allow more explicit content. The same producer acknowledged that "Lyric had once been one of the biggest photographers in the business." <ref name=campfire>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120061219/http://www.hunkvideo.com/library/lewis/index.html Campfire Video Library]</ref>.

== DOM-Lyric ==
While the Lyric catalog offered no pornography, Lyric's owner joined with [[Guy Strait]] in creating DOM-LYRIC to distribute Lyric's products as well as Strait's. Strait did produce pornography, including pornography with adolescent actors.

== Crossroads of the World ==
Lyric also had an office located at '''Crossroads Of The World''' office complex in Hollywood, which "has been called America's first modern shopping mall.<ref name=wikipedia_crossroads>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossroads_of_the_World Wikipedia]</ref> Director Anthony Aikman and cameraman Bill Dewar edited ''The Genesis Children'' there. Aikman describes the studio as being in a building designed to look like Mothers Hubbard's shoe.<ref>[Interview, 2006, Anthony Aikman by Ballog]</ref> While the complex has a variety of kitschy styles, no building meets that description. Crossroads is a block away from the [[Gold Cup]], a well-known Hollywood Boulevard hangout for boy prostitutes, and occasional source for actors.

''[[Zipper]]'' Magazine's office was also in the complex.(citation needed) That, along with the large amount of editorial space that ''Zipper'' devoted to Lyric's projects, and the number of ads in the magazine purchased by Lyric, suggests that it too may have been owned by Byars.

Wikipedia also says that "In the late-1960s, one of the offices was occupied by a porn magazine that tried out young hopefuls by photographing them in the nude. It was here that an unknown John C. Holmes went one day and showcased his unusually large "endowment", leading to the start of his notorious career in adult films."<ref name=wikipedia_crossroads />

== The next film ==
There are several accounts of what Byars and Lyric were planning after ''The Genesis Children'', but it seems clear another feature fill was complete or nearly so. In a 1972 interview with Byars published just after that film opened (and closed), dance journalist Violet Helgy Swisher says,
<blockquote>"Byars's next film venture is an already filmed documentary he has titled ''The Russian Adventure''. It unreels as a story of the travels of an International Boyhood group, filmed not only in Russia, but elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Still in the early planning stages is a ballet feature to be filmed in the desert. Nude. Of course."<ref name=Swisher>Swisher, Viola Hegyi. "Generating ''The Genesis Children''". ''After Dark'', September 1972, p. 18.</ref></blockquote>

The ''L.A. Times'' article about the arrests described Lyric's current project as "''Soviet '73'', a film about Jews traveling in Russia." [''L.A. Times'', ''op. cit.''] The Lyric producer claimed in 1975 that, "We had a tremendous amount of money sunk into a major TV travelogue on Russia just then." <ref name=campfire /> The recurring Russian theme indicates all three sources are discussing the same project.

With a comic story on a bomb scare (it was a prop), the ''Los Angeles Free Press'' gives an account of what Lyric was up to in December, 1972. "Lyric Films, also known as Billy Byars and Associates" was in the process of editing two films at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios, Formosa Ave., Hollywood. Jeremy Hoenack, who edited ''The Genesis Children'', was with his wife Barbara "toiling over the celluloid images on a reel of motorcycle adventures" on a Movieola. Lyric was using two editing rooms. Other Lyric personnel included "Miss Helen Hill, business manager and confidante of producer Billy Byars ("Genesis' Children") who is out of town." Those with access to the editing rooms include "Tom Grubbs, a young filmmaker who's renting one of the rooms for an educational short he's producing. Oh, yes, and there's Joe Fineman, he's also studio manager, in charge of things in Mr. Byars's absence." Mr. Fineman is "... cutting a film for Mr. Byars now — a documentary on Russia."<ref name=Rubine1972>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/community.28040031.pdf?page=10 Rubine, Naomi. "The bomb at Goldwyn Studios"] ''Los Angeles Free Press'', Volume 9, issue 438, Dec 8-18, 1972. P.10</ref>

None of these names appeared in the press in the Lyric scandal. Mr. Fineman's IMDB entry has a long list of credits, including 88 in editing and an equal number in production, starting in 1971 and including the "Real to Reel Film and Video Festival" Festival Prize in 2018. There is however a gap of several years starting in 1972. IMBD has more than one Tom Grubbs. The ''Free Press'' article says that Hoenack finished editing the Russia film.<ref name=Rubine1972 />

Byars told his hometown paper on Christmas Eve, 1972 about a "television documentary scheduled for release under the title "Soviet '73" [...] the first totally uncensored film ever made in the Soviet republics."<ref name=blair1972> Blair, Pat. "Film Industry Challenge Grows" ''Tyler Courier-Times'', Tyler, Texas, 24 Dec 1972. Page 37</ref> It was "hoped to be shown sometime during late winter." He said he was seeking Texas financing for "his next feature film, a spy spoof with the working title of "Heist."" <ref name=blair1972 /> "His goal is to base the financial headquarters of his company in Houston, and he’s getting a start on that goal by seeking "entirely Texas money" to finance "Heist." "<ref name=blair1972 />

Byars said in the same interview that "His previous documentaries, one made in Denmark on the International Boys Camp and one on sculpture in France, were for theater distribution."<ref name=blair1972 />

It seems clear though that Lyric was in fact producing other movies after "The Genesis Children", and based on their subsequent careers, Mr. Byars had engaged competent craftsmen to do so. The "ballet feature to be filmed in the desert" promised to Swisher, if "in the early planning stages" in August would not have been part of the Russian travelogue being edited in December. Perhaps Lyric was already enough of a going concern to have the next project in planning while finishing the current one.

Just how the ''L.A. Times'' or the police would know of Lyric's plans is unclear, and the reporting may be unreliable. Perhaps only in Los Angeles does one include in an arrest report the suspects' plans for their next movie.

== The scandal ==

Lyric came to an end in late 1973. The ''Los Angeles Times'' article about the arrests was titled "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17: Son of Actress, Heir to Oil Fortune, [[YMCA]] Counselor, Scoutmaster, Schoolteacher Among Those Facing Charges".<ref name=LATimes27Oct>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref>

The "Heir to Oil Fortune" was Lyric's owner, and the "Son of Actress" a Lyric producer. As the policy of the ''Los Angeles Times'' was then to not index criminal justice proceedings, it used to be difficult to determine just what happened to the fourteen accused. Those newspaper archives with full-text indexing are now available online, however. A later story confirms that the first of the accused to go to trial ("YMCA Counselor") was acquitted after a full day of jury deliberation, and that two others had pled guilty. An article in ''The Advocate'' gives the final toll: "Five guilty, four 'no contest,' one acquitted in chicken ring" <ref>[https://uosc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01USC_INST/vafrrm/proquest2268824486 "Five guilty, four 'no contest,' one acquitted in chicken ring"].''The Advocate'', May 22, 1974, Issue 138, p.27.
</ref>
[[Guy Strait]], though among the first two arrested in the case, jumped bail and was never brought to trial on the Los Angeles charges.

While the Meese Commission and the ''Los Angeles Times'' both refer to films of child pornography, the news article says that the accused were charged not with child pornography, but with molesting children. It says "One confiscated film shows the boys playing nude on a beach believed to be near Corpus Christi." Lyric did produce such a film, ''[[Summer Freedom]]'', but a film of "boys playing nude on a beach" was then neither pornography nor illegal in the US.

One source claims that one of the boys was "dangled over a cliff" by policemen until he agreed to name men with whom he had had sex.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050219002356/http://www.paedosexualitaet.de/exp/cliffsrc.html Documenting Abuse of Boys and Families by Los Angeles Police] cites two articles as its source for the claim: Sarff, Doug. "L.A. Jury frees first 'chicken ring' defendant". ''The Advocate'' San Mateo, CA. 16 January 1974 (page 3); and "Cliffhanging Testimony: Jury: Second 'chicken ring' defendant guilty". ''The Advocate'', San Mateo, CA, 30 January 1974 (page 5). There may be a digital copy including the 1974 ''Advocate'' at [http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/record=b24360993~S1 UC Berkeley].</ref> The claim was apparently made in open court. The Lyric producer cited above said that "[T]wo of them were just hustlers the police had dug up — I hardly even knew them. They had worked for Lyric a good little while ago. Even the police didn't push their stories too much, because they were both well into their teens and they admitted they were willing participants."<ref name=campfire />

The Los Angeles scandal was fueled in part by the August 1973 discovery of the murders in Houston, Texas, by [[Dean Corll]] of at least 27 teenagers. The police insinuated to the press that the Lyric scandal might have a connection. Lyric's owner was originally from Texas; another of those arrested in the case was identified by the ''L.A. Times'' as "William Johnson, 55, a Houston photographer".<ref name=LATimes27Oct />

Lloyd Martin, the policeman most responsible for the arrests, constructed a national reputation as the "child abuse policeman". He later fell into discredit. Widespread criticism of him and his methods is easily found on the Internet. Martin's signature sound bite is that child abuse is "worse than homicide." A ''Salon'' article calls him "infamous" and provides a good general discussion of the exaggerations of child pornography foes.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070304095923/http://archive.salon.com/mwt/feature/2000/01/31/kincaid/index1.html Is this child pornography?] Kincaid, James R. ''Salon'', 31 Jan 2000</ref>

== Technical quality of the films ==
[[Harlan "Slim" Pfeiffer]] is said to have filmed the Lyric movies in 16mm, and reduced them to 8mm for distribution. Guy Strait, who handled the distribution end of DOM-LYRIC, recounted in prison his techniques for taking photos and avoiding piracy of his films. “His favorite still camera was a Yashika E, twin-reflex that cost a mere $50 [...] He depended on a Mimiya C-33 for most of his professional still work. [...] He usually filmed 12-minute loops and longer movies with a 16-millimeter Beaulieu, which he considered to be superior to the more expensive German Hasselblad."<ref>Linedecker, Clifford L. 1981. ''Children in Chains''. New York: Everest House. p. 230</ref>
<blockquote>"He protected his reputation for quality work by keeping his films out of bookstores. It was more difficult to protect his work from pirates who purchased the films on his lists and had them duplicated for sales through other outlets. Although it bothered his aesthetic sensibilities and pride in his own work, he learned to lower the reproductive quality of his 8-millimeter film. He considered them still better quality than the competition, but not good enough to withstand the loss of detail and clarity when duplicated again by film pirates."(ibid, p. 233)</blockquote>

== Books, magazines, and films ==

''[[The Genesis Children]]'' was Lyric's only feature film, its other movies being shorts produced in 16mm and reduced to 8mm for distribution. Some of the films are:
* ''[[Danish Boys' Camp]]''. Feature documentary. 1971. Producer: Billy Byars. Editor: Wayne Schotten
* ''[[Swim Party]]'' and ''[[Spring Break]]'' were filmed by Slim Pfeiffer at [[the pool with the cinderblock walls]] at the Lyric studio in Los Angeles.
* ''[[Sandy Hill]]'' may have been filmed in Sandy Hill in east Texas.
* ''[[Summer Freedom]]'' was made at Corpus Christi National Seashore in Texas.
* ''[[Peter and the Desert Riders]]''
* ''[[How to Make Friends]]''
* ''[[Boyhood Scrapbook]]''

Lyric produced a number of magazines (two authors, Robin Lloyd and Clifford Linedecker, say 90 magazines were produced, but neither cites his source for the figure) and at least one calendar.

Some of the magazine titles include:
* ''[[Naked Boyhood Magazine]]''
* ''[[Sun Children]]''
* ''[[Lyric's American Boys]]''
* ''[[Naked Teens]]''
* ''[[Coq d'Or]]''

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:photography]]
[[Category:Newspapers and magazines]]
[[Category:Filmmakers]]

Lyric International

2022-07-01T17:31:16Z

Sneeuwbol: /* The next film */ Swisher footnotes standarized

<div style="margin-right: 25px; float: left;">__TOC__</div>'''Lyric International''' produced "[[physique]]" photography of boys and young men during the window that opened in the late 1960s when legal and social bans against male nudity fell, but before more hardcore products skimmed off demand for Lyric's nudes, and the child pornography panic. At its height, Lyric made a push for mainstream respectability with the 1971 feature film [[The Genesis Children]] which combined a foggy New Age message with teen and preteen nudity, and the 1971-1973 [[Zipper]] magazine, where wide-ranging articles similar those in ''Playboy'' were printed along with nude but not explicit photo features of male teenagers and youths. While the Lyric catalog did not go beyond non-sexual nudity, carefully avoiding the legal line of obscenity, Lyric owner [[Billy Byars, Jr.]] partnered for distribution with San Francisco gay rights pioneer and noted pornographer [[Guy Strait]], some of whose pornography did include actors under 16. Lyric maintained an unusually constant stable of "Lyric Boy" actors, the best known of whom was the blond [[Peter Glawson]] who appeared from around 10 years of age to 17 in Lyric's products, including magazines, 16mm shorts, photo sets, ''The Genesis Children'', and a ''Zipper'' interview.

Lyric came to an end in late 1973, in a scandal that the [[Meese Commission]] called "the first [[child pornography]] [[ring]] ... brought to public view," although no pornography charges were ever brought against Lyric's collaborators.<ref>[https://ia902908.us.archive.org/0/items/finalreportofatt00unit/finalreportofatt00unit.pdf#page=185 Attorney General's Commission on Pornography: final report.] Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice (1986) Chapter 11, p. 131</ref> The arrests mark the first appearance in the ''Los Angeles Times'' of policeman [[Lloyd Martin]] who became one of the faces of the [[great kiddie porn panic]]. Guy Strait's arrest in an unrelated case of sex with a minor led to his becoming a nonperson in the gay rights community, and in gay rights history. In recent years some of the same film clips found unprosecutable in 1973 have appeared as evidence in the [[Azov Films]] prosecutions.

Lyric's prime was a high-water mark for tolerance, and its fall marked the beginning of repression. It was a nearly perfect scandal. The headline of the newspaper article that introduced Lloyd Martin to a wider public had all the usual suspects: "Son of Actress, Heir to Oil Fortune, YMCA Counselor, Scoutmaster, Schoolteacher Among Those Facing Charges". They might have been picked for headline value, and may have been: some had no apparent connection to Lyric, and at least one was found innocent by a jury. A number of names important in rights and repression are woven into the case, as well as some inexplicable threads: Mr. Byars is a perpetual footnote in Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories.

== Physique but not pornography==
According to a 1975 interview with a Lyric producer who was one of those named in the scandal,
:"Lyric had specialized in nude photos of models ranging from twelve to twenty years of age. As a physique photographer, Lyric had been out of business for several years, since Byars did not approve of doing hardcore photography and the market accepted little else, but the company name was being carried on as a producer of television travelogues."
Lyric’s production occurred in a narrow window of time, when social mores had loosened sufficiently to permit the sort of naturist films it produced, but not enough to allow more explicit content. The same producer acknowledged that "Lyric had once been one of the biggest photographers in the business." <ref name=campfire>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120061219/http://www.hunkvideo.com/library/lewis/index.html Campfire Video Library]</ref>.

== DOM-Lyric ==
While the Lyric catalog offered no pornography, Lyric's owner joined with [[Guy Strait]] in creating DOM-LYRIC to distribute Lyric's products as well as Strait's. Strait did produce pornography, including pornography with adolescent actors.

== Crossroads of the World ==
Lyric also had an office located at '''Crossroads Of The World''' office complex in Hollywood, which "has been called America's first modern shopping mall.<ref name=wikipedia_crossroads>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossroads_of_the_World Wikipedia]</ref> Director Anthony Aikman and cameraman Bill Dewar edited ''The Genesis Children'' there. Aikman describes the studio as being in a building designed to look like Mothers Hubbard's shoe.<ref>[Interview, 2006, Anthony Aikman by Ballog]</ref> While the complex has a variety of kitschy styles, no building meets that description. Crossroads is a block away from the [[Gold Cup]], a well-known Hollywood Boulevard hangout for boy prostitutes, and occasional source for actors.

''[[Zipper]]'' Magazine's office was also in the complex.(citation needed) That, along with the large amount of editorial space that ''Zipper'' devoted to Lyric's projects, and the number of ads in the magazine purchased by Lyric, suggests that it too may have been owned by Byars.

Wikipedia also says that "In the late-1960s, one of the offices was occupied by a porn magazine that tried out young hopefuls by photographing them in the nude. It was here that an unknown John C. Holmes went one day and showcased his unusually large "endowment", leading to the start of his notorious career in adult films."<ref name=wikipedia_crossroads />

== The next film ==
There are several accounts of what Byars and Lyric were planning after ''The Genesis Children'', but it seems clear another feature fill was complete or nearly so. In a 1972 interview with Byars published just after that film opened (and closed), dance journalist Violet Helgy Swisher says,
<blockquote>"Byars's next film venture is an already filmed documentary he has titled ''The Russian Adventure''. It unreels as a story of the travels of an International Boyhood group, filmed not only in Russia, but elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Still in the early planning stages is a ballet feature to be filmed in the desert. Nude. Of course."<ref name=Swisher>Swisher, Viola Hegyi. "Generating ''The Genesis Children''". ''After Dark'', September 1972, p. 18.</ref></blockquote>

The ''L.A. Times'' article about the arrests described Lyric's current project as "''Soviet '73'', a film about Jews traveling in Russia." [''L.A. Times'', ''op. cit.''] The Lyric producer claimed in 1975 that, "We had a tremendous amount of money sunk into a major TV travelogue on Russia just then." <ref name=campfire /> The recurring Russian theme indicates all three sources are discussing the same project.

With a comic story on a bomb scare (it was a prop), the ''Los Angeles Free Press'' gives an account of what Lyric was up to in December, 1972. "Lyric Films, also known as Billy Byars and Associates" was in the process of editing two films at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios, Formosa Ave., Hollywood. Jeremy Hoenack, who edited ''The Genesis Children'', was with his wife Barbara "toiling over the celluloid images on a reel of motorcycle adventures" on a Movieola. Lyric was using two editing rooms. Other Lyric personnel included "Miss Helen Hill, business manager and confidante of producer Billy Byars ("Genesis' Children") who is out of town." Those with access to the editing rooms include "Tom Grubbs, a young filmmaker who's renting one of the rooms for an educational short he's producing. Oh, yes, and there's Joe Fineman, he's also studio manager, in charge of things in Mr. Byars's absence." Mr. Fineman is "... cutting a film for Mr. Byars now — a documentary on Russia."<ref name=Rubine1972>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/community.28040031.pdf?page=10 Rubine, Naomi. "The bomb at Goldwyn Studios"] ''Los Angeles Free Press'', Volume 9, issue 438, Dec 8-18, 1972. P.10</ref>

None of these names appeared in the press in the Lyric scandal. Mr. Fineman's IMDB entry has a long list of credits, including 88 in editing and an equal number in production, starting in 1971 and including the "Real to Reel Film and Video Festival" Festival Prize in 2018. There is however a gap of several years starting in 1972. IMBD has more than one Tom Grubbs. Rubine says that Hoenack finished editing the Russia film.<ref name=Rubine1972 />

Byars told his hometown paper on Christmas Eve, 1972 about a "television documentary scheduled for release under the title "Soviet '73" [...] the first totally uncensored film ever made in the Soviet republics."<ref name=blair1972> Blair, Pat. "Film Industry Challenge Grows" ''Tyler Courier-Times'', Tyler, Texas, 24 Dec 1972. Page 37</ref> It was "hoped to be shown sometime during late winter." He said he was seeking Texas financing for "his next feature film, a spy spoof with the working title of "Heist."" <ref name=blair1972 /> "His goal is to base the financial headquarters of his company in Houston, and he’s getting a start on that goal by seeking "entirely Texas money" to finance "Heist." "<ref name=blair1972 />

Byars said in the same interview that "His previous documentaries, one made in Denmark on the International Boys Camp and one on sculpture in France, were for theater distribution."<ref name=blair1972 />

It seems clear though that Lyric was in fact producing other movies after "The Genesis Children", and based on their subsequent careers, Mr. Byars had engaged competent craftsmen to do so. The "ballet feature to be filmed in the desert" promised to Swisher, if "in the early planning stages" in August would not have been part of the Russian travelogue being edited in December. Perhaps Lyric was already enough of a going concern to have the next project in planning while finishing the current one.

Just how the ''L.A. Times'' or the police would know of Lyric's plans is unclear, and the reporting may be unreliable. Perhaps only in Los Angeles does one include in an arrest report the suspects' plans for their next movie.

== The scandal ==

Lyric came to an end in late 1973. The ''Los Angeles Times'' article about the arrests was titled "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17: Son of Actress, Heir to Oil Fortune, [[YMCA]] Counselor, Scoutmaster, Schoolteacher Among Those Facing Charges".<ref name=LATimes27Oct>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref>

The "Heir to Oil Fortune" was Lyric's owner, and the "Son of Actress" a Lyric producer. As the policy of the ''Los Angeles Times'' was then to not index criminal justice proceedings, it used to be difficult to determine just what happened to the fourteen accused. Those newspaper archives with full-text indexing are now available online, however. A later story confirms that the first of the accused to go to trial ("YMCA Counselor") was acquitted after a full day of jury deliberation, and that two others had pled guilty. An article in ''The Advocate'' gives the final toll: "Five guilty, four 'no contest,' one acquitted in chicken ring" <ref>[https://uosc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01USC_INST/vafrrm/proquest2268824486 "Five guilty, four 'no contest,' one acquitted in chicken ring"].''The Advocate'', May 22, 1974, Issue 138, p.27.
</ref>
[[Guy Strait]], though among the first two arrested in the case, jumped bail and was never brought to trial on the Los Angeles charges.

While the Meese Commission and the ''Los Angeles Times'' both refer to films of child pornography, the news article says that the accused were charged not with child pornography, but with molesting children. It says "One confiscated film shows the boys playing nude on a beach believed to be near Corpus Christi." Lyric did produce such a film, ''[[Summer Freedom]]'', but a film of "boys playing nude on a beach" was then neither pornography nor illegal in the US.

One source claims that one of the boys was "dangled over a cliff" by policemen until he agreed to name men with whom he had had sex.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050219002356/http://www.paedosexualitaet.de/exp/cliffsrc.html Documenting Abuse of Boys and Families by Los Angeles Police] cites two articles as its source for the claim: Sarff, Doug. "L.A. Jury frees first 'chicken ring' defendant". ''The Advocate'' San Mateo, CA. 16 January 1974 (page 3); and "Cliffhanging Testimony: Jury: Second 'chicken ring' defendant guilty". ''The Advocate'', San Mateo, CA, 30 January 1974 (page 5). There may be a digital copy including the 1974 ''Advocate'' at [http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/record=b24360993~S1 UC Berkeley].</ref> The claim was apparently made in open court. The Lyric producer cited above said that "[T]wo of them were just hustlers the police had dug up — I hardly even knew them. They had worked for Lyric a good little while ago. Even the police didn't push their stories too much, because they were both well into their teens and they admitted they were willing participants."<ref name=campfire />

The Los Angeles scandal was fueled in part by the August 1973 discovery of the murders in Houston, Texas, by [[Dean Corll]] of at least 27 teenagers. The police insinuated to the press that the Lyric scandal might have a connection. Lyric's owner was originally from Texas; another of those arrested in the case was identified by the ''L.A. Times'' as "William Johnson, 55, a Houston photographer".<ref name=LATimes27Oct />

Lloyd Martin, the policeman most responsible for the arrests, constructed a national reputation as the "child abuse policeman". He later fell into discredit. Widespread criticism of him and his methods is easily found on the Internet. Martin's signature sound bite is that child abuse is "worse than homicide." A ''Salon'' article calls him "infamous" and provides a good general discussion of the exaggerations of child pornography foes.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070304095923/http://archive.salon.com/mwt/feature/2000/01/31/kincaid/index1.html Is this child pornography?] Kincaid, James R. ''Salon'', 31 Jan 2000</ref>

== Technical quality of the films ==
[[Harlan "Slim" Pfeiffer]] is said to have filmed the Lyric movies in 16mm, and reduced them to 8mm for distribution. Guy Strait, who handled the distribution end of DOM-LYRIC, recounted in prison his techniques for taking photos and avoiding piracy of his films. “His favorite still camera was a Yashika E, twin-reflex that cost a mere $50 [...] He depended on a Mimiya C-33 for most of his professional still work. [...] He usually filmed 12-minute loops and longer movies with a 16-millimeter Beaulieu, which he considered to be superior to the more expensive German Hasselblad."<ref>Linedecker, Clifford L. 1981. ''Children in Chains''. New York: Everest House. p. 230</ref>
<blockquote>"He protected his reputation for quality work by keeping his films out of bookstores. It was more difficult to protect his work from pirates who purchased the films on his lists and had them duplicated for sales through other outlets. Although it bothered his aesthetic sensibilities and pride in his own work, he learned to lower the reproductive quality of his 8-millimeter film. He considered them still better quality than the competition, but not good enough to withstand the loss of detail and clarity when duplicated again by film pirates."(ibid, p. 233)</blockquote>

== Books, magazines, and films ==

''[[The Genesis Children]]'' was Lyric's only feature film, its other movies being shorts produced in 16mm and reduced to 8mm for distribution. Some of the films are:
* ''[[Danish Boys' Camp]]''. Feature documentary. 1971. Producer: Billy Byars. Editor: Wayne Schotten
* ''[[Swim Party]]'' and ''[[Spring Break]]'' were filmed by Slim Pfeiffer at [[the pool with the cinderblock walls]] at the Lyric studio in Los Angeles.
* ''[[Sandy Hill]]'' may have been filmed in Sandy Hill in east Texas.
* ''[[Summer Freedom]]'' was made at Corpus Christi National Seashore in Texas.
* ''[[Peter and the Desert Riders]]''
* ''[[How to Make Friends]]''
* ''[[Boyhood Scrapbook]]''

Lyric produced a number of magazines (two authors, Robin Lloyd and Clifford Linedecker, say 90 magazines were produced, but neither cites his source for the figure) and at least one calendar.

Some of the magazine titles include:
* ''[[Naked Boyhood Magazine]]''
* ''[[Sun Children]]''
* ''[[Lyric's American Boys]]''
* ''[[Naked Teens]]''
* ''[[Coq d'Or]]''

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:photography]]
[[Category:Newspapers and magazines]]
[[Category:Filmmakers]]

Lyric International

2022-07-01T02:58:38Z

Sneeuwbol: /* The scandal */ footnote regularized

<div style="margin-right: 25px; float: left;">__TOC__</div>'''Lyric International''' produced "[[physique]]" photography of boys and young men during the window that opened in the late 1960s when legal and social bans against male nudity fell, but before more hardcore products skimmed off demand for Lyric's nudes, and the child pornography panic. At its height, Lyric made a push for mainstream respectability with the 1971 feature film [[The Genesis Children]] which combined a foggy New Age message with teen and preteen nudity, and the 1971-1973 [[Zipper]] magazine, where wide-ranging articles similar those in ''Playboy'' were printed along with nude but not explicit photo features of male teenagers and youths. While the Lyric catalog did not go beyond non-sexual nudity, carefully avoiding the legal line of obscenity, Lyric owner [[Billy Byars, Jr.]] partnered for distribution with San Francisco gay rights pioneer and noted pornographer [[Guy Strait]], some of whose pornography did include actors under 16. Lyric maintained an unusually constant stable of "Lyric Boy" actors, the best known of whom was the blond [[Peter Glawson]] who appeared from around 10 years of age to 17 in Lyric's products, including magazines, 16mm shorts, photo sets, ''The Genesis Children'', and a ''Zipper'' interview.

Lyric came to an end in late 1973, in a scandal that the [[Meese Commission]] called "the first [[child pornography]] [[ring]] ... brought to public view," although no pornography charges were ever brought against Lyric's collaborators.<ref>[https://ia902908.us.archive.org/0/items/finalreportofatt00unit/finalreportofatt00unit.pdf#page=185 Attorney General's Commission on Pornography: final report.] Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice (1986) Chapter 11, p. 131</ref> The arrests mark the first appearance in the ''Los Angeles Times'' of policeman [[Lloyd Martin]] who became one of the faces of the [[great kiddie porn panic]]. Guy Strait's arrest in an unrelated case of sex with a minor led to his becoming a nonperson in the gay rights community, and in gay rights history. In recent years some of the same film clips found unprosecutable in 1973 have appeared as evidence in the [[Azov Films]] prosecutions.

Lyric's prime was a high-water mark for tolerance, and its fall marked the beginning of repression. It was a nearly perfect scandal. The headline of the newspaper article that introduced Lloyd Martin to a wider public had all the usual suspects: "Son of Actress, Heir to Oil Fortune, YMCA Counselor, Scoutmaster, Schoolteacher Among Those Facing Charges". They might have been picked for headline value, and may have been: some had no apparent connection to Lyric, and at least one was found innocent by a jury. A number of names important in rights and repression are woven into the case, as well as some inexplicable threads: Mr. Byars is a perpetual footnote in Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories.

== Physique but not pornography==
According to a 1975 interview with a Lyric producer who was one of those named in the scandal,
:"Lyric had specialized in nude photos of models ranging from twelve to twenty years of age. As a physique photographer, Lyric had been out of business for several years, since Byars did not approve of doing hardcore photography and the market accepted little else, but the company name was being carried on as a producer of television travelogues."
Lyric’s production occurred in a narrow window of time, when social mores had loosened sufficiently to permit the sort of naturist films it produced, but not enough to allow more explicit content. The same producer acknowledged that "Lyric had once been one of the biggest photographers in the business." <ref name=campfire>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120061219/http://www.hunkvideo.com/library/lewis/index.html Campfire Video Library]</ref>.

== DOM-Lyric ==
While the Lyric catalog offered no pornography, Lyric's owner joined with [[Guy Strait]] in creating DOM-LYRIC to distribute Lyric's products as well as Strait's. Strait did produce pornography, including pornography with adolescent actors.

== Crossroads of the World ==
Lyric also had an office located at '''Crossroads Of The World''' office complex in Hollywood, which "has been called America's first modern shopping mall.<ref name=wikipedia_crossroads>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossroads_of_the_World Wikipedia]</ref> Director Anthony Aikman and cameraman Bill Dewar edited ''The Genesis Children'' there. Aikman describes the studio as being in a building designed to look like Mothers Hubbard's shoe.<ref>[Interview, 2006, Anthony Aikman by Ballog]</ref> While the complex has a variety of kitschy styles, no building meets that description. Crossroads is a block away from the [[Gold Cup]], a well-known Hollywood Boulevard hangout for boy prostitutes, and occasional source for actors.

''[[Zipper]]'' Magazine's office was also in the complex.(citation needed) That, along with the large amount of editorial space that ''Zipper'' devoted to Lyric's projects, and the number of ads in the magazine purchased by Lyric, suggests that it too may have been owned by Byars.

Wikipedia also says that "In the late-1960s, one of the offices was occupied by a porn magazine that tried out young hopefuls by photographing them in the nude. It was here that an unknown John C. Holmes went one day and showcased his unusually large "endowment", leading to the start of his notorious career in adult films."<ref name=wikipedia_crossroads />

== The next film ==
There are several versions of what Byars and Lyric were planning after ''The Genesis Children''. In 1972 Swisher says,
<blockquote>"Byars's next film venture is an already filmed documentary he has titled ''The Russian Adventure''. It unreels as a story of the travels of an International Boyhood group, filmed not only in Russia, but elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Still in the early planning stages is a ballet feature to be filmed in the desert. Nude. Of course."[Swisher, ''op. cit.'']</blockquote>

The ''L.A. Times'' article about the arrests described Lyric's current project as "''Soviet '73'', a film about Jews traveling in Russia." [''L.A. Times'', ''op. cit.''] The Lyric producer claimed in 1975 that, "We had a tremendous amount of money sunk into a major TV travelogue on Russia just then." <ref name=campfire /> The recurring Russian theme indicates all three sources are discussing the same project.

With a comic story on a bomb scare (it was a prop), the ''Los Angeles Free Press'' gives an account of what Lyric was up to in December, 1972. "Lyric Films, also known as Billy Byars and Associates" was in the process of editing two films at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios, Formosa Ave., Hollywood. Jeremy Hoenack, who edited ''The Genesis Children'', was with his wife Barbara "toiling over the celluloid images on a reel of motorcycle adventures" on a Movieola. Lyric was using two editing rooms. Other Lyric personnel included "Miss Helen Hill, business manager and confidante of producer Billy Byars ("Genesis' Children") who is out of town." Those with access to the editing rooms include "Tom Grubbs, a young filmmaker who's renting one of the rooms for an educational short he's producing. Oh, yes, and there's Joe Fineman, he's also studio manager, in charge of things in Mr. Byars's absence." Mr. Fineman is "... cutting a film for Mr. Byars now — a documentary on Russia."<ref name=Rubine1972>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/community.28040031.pdf?page=10 Rubine, Naomi. "The bomb at Goldwyn Studios"] ''Los Angeles Free Press'', Volume 9, issue 438, Dec 8-18, 1972. P.10</ref>

None of these names appeared in the press in the Lyric scandal. Mr Fineman's IMDB entry has a long list of credits, including 88 in editing and an equal number in production, starting in 1971 and including the "Real to Reel Film and Video Festival" Festival Prize in 2018. There is however a gap of several years starting in 1972. IMBD has more than one Tom Grubbs. Rubine says that Hoenack finished editing the Russia film.<ref name=Rubine1972 />

Byars told his hometown paper on Christmas Eve, 1972 about a "television documentary scheduled for release under the title "Soviet '73" [...] the first totally uncensored film ever made in the Soviet republics."<ref name=blair1972> Blair, Pat. "Film Industry Challenge Grows" ''Tyler Courier-Times'', Tyler, Texas, 24 Dec 1972. Page 37</ref> It was "hoped to be shown sometime during late winter." He said he was seeking Texas financing for "his next feature film, a spy spoof with the working title of "Heist."" <ref name=blair1972 /> "His goal is to base the financial headquarters of his company in Houston, and he’s getting a start on that goal by seeking "entirely Texas money" to finance "Heist." "<ref name=blair1972 />

Byars said in the same interview that "His previous documentaries, one made in Denmark on the International Boys Camp and one on sculpture in France, were for theater distribution."<ref name=blair1972 />

It seems clear though that Lyric was in fact producing other movies after "The Genesis Children", and based on their subsequent careers, Mr. Byars had engaged competent craftsmen to do so. The "ballet feature to be filmed in the desert" promised to Swisher, if "in the early planning stages" in August would not have been part of the Russian travelogue being edited in December. Perhaps Lyric was already enough of a going concern to have the next project in planning while finishing the current one.

Just how the ''L.A. Times'' or the police would know of Lyric's plans is unclear, and the reporting may be unreliable. Perhaps only in Los Angeles does one include in an arrest report the suspects' plans for their next movie.

== The scandal ==

Lyric came to an end in late 1973. The ''Los Angeles Times'' article about the arrests was titled "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17: Son of Actress, Heir to Oil Fortune, [[YMCA]] Counselor, Scoutmaster, Schoolteacher Among Those Facing Charges".<ref name=LATimes27Oct>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref>

The "Heir to Oil Fortune" was Lyric's owner, and the "Son of Actress" a Lyric producer. As the policy of the ''Los Angeles Times'' was then to not index criminal justice proceedings, it used to be difficult to determine just what happened to the fourteen accused. Those newspaper archives with full-text indexing are now available online, however. A later story confirms that the first of the accused to go to trial ("YMCA Counselor") was acquitted after a full day of jury deliberation, and that two others had pled guilty. An article in ''The Advocate'' gives the final toll: "Five guilty, four 'no contest,' one acquitted in chicken ring" <ref>[https://uosc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01USC_INST/vafrrm/proquest2268824486 "Five guilty, four 'no contest,' one acquitted in chicken ring"].''The Advocate'', May 22, 1974, Issue 138, p.27.
</ref>
[[Guy Strait]], though among the first two arrested in the case, jumped bail and was never brought to trial on the Los Angeles charges.

While the Meese Commission and the ''Los Angeles Times'' both refer to films of child pornography, the news article says that the accused were charged not with child pornography, but with molesting children. It says "One confiscated film shows the boys playing nude on a beach believed to be near Corpus Christi." Lyric did produce such a film, ''[[Summer Freedom]]'', but a film of "boys playing nude on a beach" was then neither pornography nor illegal in the US.

One source claims that one of the boys was "dangled over a cliff" by policemen until he agreed to name men with whom he had had sex.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050219002356/http://www.paedosexualitaet.de/exp/cliffsrc.html Documenting Abuse of Boys and Families by Los Angeles Police] cites two articles as its source for the claim: Sarff, Doug. "L.A. Jury frees first 'chicken ring' defendant". ''The Advocate'' San Mateo, CA. 16 January 1974 (page 3); and "Cliffhanging Testimony: Jury: Second 'chicken ring' defendant guilty". ''The Advocate'', San Mateo, CA, 30 January 1974 (page 5). There may be a digital copy including the 1974 ''Advocate'' at [http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/record=b24360993~S1 UC Berkeley].</ref> The claim was apparently made in open court. The Lyric producer cited above said that "[T]wo of them were just hustlers the police had dug up — I hardly even knew them. They had worked for Lyric a good little while ago. Even the police didn't push their stories too much, because they were both well into their teens and they admitted they were willing participants."<ref name=campfire />

The Los Angeles scandal was fueled in part by the August 1973 discovery of the murders in Houston, Texas, by [[Dean Corll]] of at least 27 teenagers. The police insinuated to the press that the Lyric scandal might have a connection. Lyric's owner was originally from Texas; another of those arrested in the case was identified by the ''L.A. Times'' as "William Johnson, 55, a Houston photographer".<ref name=LATimes27Oct />

Lloyd Martin, the policeman most responsible for the arrests, constructed a national reputation as the "child abuse policeman". He later fell into discredit. Widespread criticism of him and his methods is easily found on the Internet. Martin's signature sound bite is that child abuse is "worse than homicide." A ''Salon'' article calls him "infamous" and provides a good general discussion of the exaggerations of child pornography foes.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070304095923/http://archive.salon.com/mwt/feature/2000/01/31/kincaid/index1.html Is this child pornography?] Kincaid, James R. ''Salon'', 31 Jan 2000</ref>

== Technical quality of the films ==
[[Harlan "Slim" Pfeiffer]] is said to have filmed the Lyric movies in 16mm, and reduced them to 8mm for distribution. Guy Strait, who handled the distribution end of DOM-LYRIC, recounted in prison his techniques for taking photos and avoiding piracy of his films. “His favorite still camera was a Yashika E, twin-reflex that cost a mere $50 [...] He depended on a Mimiya C-33 for most of his professional still work. [...] He usually filmed 12-minute loops and longer movies with a 16-millimeter Beaulieu, which he considered to be superior to the more expensive German Hasselblad."<ref>Linedecker, Clifford L. 1981. ''Children in Chains''. New York: Everest House. p. 230</ref>
<blockquote>"He protected his reputation for quality work by keeping his films out of bookstores. It was more difficult to protect his work from pirates who purchased the films on his lists and had them duplicated for sales through other outlets. Although it bothered his aesthetic sensibilities and pride in his own work, he learned to lower the reproductive quality of his 8-millimeter film. He considered them still better quality than the competition, but not good enough to withstand the loss of detail and clarity when duplicated again by film pirates."(ibid, p. 233)</blockquote>

== Books, magazines, and films ==

''[[The Genesis Children]]'' was Lyric's only feature film, its other movies being shorts produced in 16mm and reduced to 8mm for distribution. Some of the films are:
* ''[[Danish Boys' Camp]]''. Feature documentary. 1971. Producer: Billy Byars. Editor: Wayne Schotten
* ''[[Swim Party]]'' and ''[[Spring Break]]'' were filmed by Slim Pfeiffer at [[the pool with the cinderblock walls]] at the Lyric studio in Los Angeles.
* ''[[Sandy Hill]]'' may have been filmed in Sandy Hill in east Texas.
* ''[[Summer Freedom]]'' was made at Corpus Christi National Seashore in Texas.
* ''[[Peter and the Desert Riders]]''
* ''[[How to Make Friends]]''
* ''[[Boyhood Scrapbook]]''

Lyric produced a number of magazines (two authors, Robin Lloyd and Clifford Linedecker, say 90 magazines were produced, but neither cites his source for the figure) and at least one calendar.

Some of the magazine titles include:
* ''[[Naked Boyhood Magazine]]''
* ''[[Sun Children]]''
* ''[[Lyric's American Boys]]''
* ''[[Naked Teens]]''
* ''[[Coq d'Or]]''

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:photography]]
[[Category:Newspapers and magazines]]
[[Category:Filmmakers]]

Lyric International

2022-07-01T02:52:59Z

Sneeuwbol: /* The scandal */

<div style="margin-right: 25px; float: left;">__TOC__</div>'''Lyric International''' produced "[[physique]]" photography of boys and young men during the window that opened in the late 1960s when legal and social bans against male nudity fell, but before more hardcore products skimmed off demand for Lyric's nudes, and the child pornography panic. At its height, Lyric made a push for mainstream respectability with the 1971 feature film [[The Genesis Children]] which combined a foggy New Age message with teen and preteen nudity, and the 1971-1973 [[Zipper]] magazine, where wide-ranging articles similar those in ''Playboy'' were printed along with nude but not explicit photo features of male teenagers and youths. While the Lyric catalog did not go beyond non-sexual nudity, carefully avoiding the legal line of obscenity, Lyric owner [[Billy Byars, Jr.]] partnered for distribution with San Francisco gay rights pioneer and noted pornographer [[Guy Strait]], some of whose pornography did include actors under 16. Lyric maintained an unusually constant stable of "Lyric Boy" actors, the best known of whom was the blond [[Peter Glawson]] who appeared from around 10 years of age to 17 in Lyric's products, including magazines, 16mm shorts, photo sets, ''The Genesis Children'', and a ''Zipper'' interview.

Lyric came to an end in late 1973, in a scandal that the [[Meese Commission]] called "the first [[child pornography]] [[ring]] ... brought to public view," although no pornography charges were ever brought against Lyric's collaborators.<ref>[https://ia902908.us.archive.org/0/items/finalreportofatt00unit/finalreportofatt00unit.pdf#page=185 Attorney General's Commission on Pornography: final report.] Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice (1986) Chapter 11, p. 131</ref> The arrests mark the first appearance in the ''Los Angeles Times'' of policeman [[Lloyd Martin]] who became one of the faces of the [[great kiddie porn panic]]. Guy Strait's arrest in an unrelated case of sex with a minor led to his becoming a nonperson in the gay rights community, and in gay rights history. In recent years some of the same film clips found unprosecutable in 1973 have appeared as evidence in the [[Azov Films]] prosecutions.

Lyric's prime was a high-water mark for tolerance, and its fall marked the beginning of repression. It was a nearly perfect scandal. The headline of the newspaper article that introduced Lloyd Martin to a wider public had all the usual suspects: "Son of Actress, Heir to Oil Fortune, YMCA Counselor, Scoutmaster, Schoolteacher Among Those Facing Charges". They might have been picked for headline value, and may have been: some had no apparent connection to Lyric, and at least one was found innocent by a jury. A number of names important in rights and repression are woven into the case, as well as some inexplicable threads: Mr. Byars is a perpetual footnote in Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories.

== Physique but not pornography==
According to a 1975 interview with a Lyric producer who was one of those named in the scandal,
:"Lyric had specialized in nude photos of models ranging from twelve to twenty years of age. As a physique photographer, Lyric had been out of business for several years, since Byars did not approve of doing hardcore photography and the market accepted little else, but the company name was being carried on as a producer of television travelogues."
Lyric’s production occurred in a narrow window of time, when social mores had loosened sufficiently to permit the sort of naturist films it produced, but not enough to allow more explicit content. The same producer acknowledged that "Lyric had once been one of the biggest photographers in the business." <ref name=campfire>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051120061219/http://www.hunkvideo.com/library/lewis/index.html Campfire Video Library]</ref>.

== DOM-Lyric ==
While the Lyric catalog offered no pornography, Lyric's owner joined with [[Guy Strait]] in creating DOM-LYRIC to distribute Lyric's products as well as Strait's. Strait did produce pornography, including pornography with adolescent actors.

== Crossroads of the World ==
Lyric also had an office located at '''Crossroads Of The World''' office complex in Hollywood, which "has been called America's first modern shopping mall.<ref name=wikipedia_crossroads>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossroads_of_the_World Wikipedia]</ref> Director Anthony Aikman and cameraman Bill Dewar edited ''The Genesis Children'' there. Aikman describes the studio as being in a building designed to look like Mothers Hubbard's shoe.<ref>[Interview, 2006, Anthony Aikman by Ballog]</ref> While the complex has a variety of kitschy styles, no building meets that description. Crossroads is a block away from the [[Gold Cup]], a well-known Hollywood Boulevard hangout for boy prostitutes, and occasional source for actors.

''[[Zipper]]'' Magazine's office was also in the complex.(citation needed) That, along with the large amount of editorial space that ''Zipper'' devoted to Lyric's projects, and the number of ads in the magazine purchased by Lyric, suggests that it too may have been owned by Byars.

Wikipedia also says that "In the late-1960s, one of the offices was occupied by a porn magazine that tried out young hopefuls by photographing them in the nude. It was here that an unknown John C. Holmes went one day and showcased his unusually large "endowment", leading to the start of his notorious career in adult films."<ref name=wikipedia_crossroads />

== The next film ==
There are several versions of what Byars and Lyric were planning after ''The Genesis Children''. In 1972 Swisher says,
<blockquote>"Byars's next film venture is an already filmed documentary he has titled ''The Russian Adventure''. It unreels as a story of the travels of an International Boyhood group, filmed not only in Russia, but elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Still in the early planning stages is a ballet feature to be filmed in the desert. Nude. Of course."[Swisher, ''op. cit.'']</blockquote>

The ''L.A. Times'' article about the arrests described Lyric's current project as "''Soviet '73'', a film about Jews traveling in Russia." [''L.A. Times'', ''op. cit.''] The Lyric producer claimed in 1975 that, "We had a tremendous amount of money sunk into a major TV travelogue on Russia just then." <ref name=campfire /> The recurring Russian theme indicates all three sources are discussing the same project.

With a comic story on a bomb scare (it was a prop), the ''Los Angeles Free Press'' gives an account of what Lyric was up to in December, 1972. "Lyric Films, also known as Billy Byars and Associates" was in the process of editing two films at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios, Formosa Ave., Hollywood. Jeremy Hoenack, who edited ''The Genesis Children'', was with his wife Barbara "toiling over the celluloid images on a reel of motorcycle adventures" on a Movieola. Lyric was using two editing rooms. Other Lyric personnel included "Miss Helen Hill, business manager and confidante of producer Billy Byars ("Genesis' Children") who is out of town." Those with access to the editing rooms include "Tom Grubbs, a young filmmaker who's renting one of the rooms for an educational short he's producing. Oh, yes, and there's Joe Fineman, he's also studio manager, in charge of things in Mr. Byars's absence." Mr. Fineman is "... cutting a film for Mr. Byars now — a documentary on Russia."<ref name=Rubine1972>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/community.28040031.pdf?page=10 Rubine, Naomi. "The bomb at Goldwyn Studios"] ''Los Angeles Free Press'', Volume 9, issue 438, Dec 8-18, 1972. P.10</ref>

None of these names appeared in the press in the Lyric scandal. Mr Fineman's IMDB entry has a long list of credits, including 88 in editing and an equal number in production, starting in 1971 and including the "Real to Reel Film and Video Festival" Festival Prize in 2018. There is however a gap of several years starting in 1972. IMBD has more than one Tom Grubbs. Rubine says that Hoenack finished editing the Russia film.<ref name=Rubine1972 />

Byars told his hometown paper on Christmas Eve, 1972 about a "television documentary scheduled for release under the title "Soviet '73" [...] the first totally uncensored film ever made in the Soviet republics."<ref name=blair1972> Blair, Pat. "Film Industry Challenge Grows" ''Tyler Courier-Times'', Tyler, Texas, 24 Dec 1972. Page 37</ref> It was "hoped to be shown sometime during late winter." He said he was seeking Texas financing for "his next feature film, a spy spoof with the working title of "Heist."" <ref name=blair1972 /> "His goal is to base the financial headquarters of his company in Houston, and he’s getting a start on that goal by seeking "entirely Texas money" to finance "Heist." "<ref name=blair1972 />

Byars said in the same interview that "His previous documentaries, one made in Denmark on the International Boys Camp and one on sculpture in France, were for theater distribution."<ref name=blair1972 />

It seems clear though that Lyric was in fact producing other movies after "The Genesis Children", and based on their subsequent careers, Mr. Byars had engaged competent craftsmen to do so. The "ballet feature to be filmed in the desert" promised to Swisher, if "in the early planning stages" in August would not have been part of the Russian travelogue being edited in December. Perhaps Lyric was already enough of a going concern to have the next project in planning while finishing the current one.

Just how the ''L.A. Times'' or the police would know of Lyric's plans is unclear, and the reporting may be unreliable. Perhaps only in Los Angeles does one include in an arrest report the suspects' plans for their next movie.

== The scandal ==

Lyric came to an end in late 1973. The ''Los Angeles Times'' article about the arrests was titled "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17: Son of Actress, Heir to Oil Fortune, [[YMCA]] Counselor, Scoutmaster, Schoolteacher Among Those Facing Charges".<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref>

The "Heir to Oil Fortune" was Lyric's owner, and the "Son of Actress" a Lyric producer. As the policy of the ''Los Angeles Times'' was then to not index criminal justice proceedings, it used to be difficult to determine just what happened to the fourteen accused. Those newspaper archives with full-text indexing are now available online, however. A later story confirms that the first of the accused to go to trial ("YMCA Counselor") was acquitted after a full day of jury deliberation, and that two others had pled guilty. An article in ''The Advocate'' gives the final toll: "Five guilty, four 'no contest,' one acquitted in chicken ring" <ref>[https://uosc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01USC_INST/vafrrm/proquest2268824486 "Five guilty, four 'no contest,' one acquitted in chicken ring"].''The Advocate'', May 22, 1974, Issue 138, p.27.
</ref>
[[Guy Strait]], though among the first two arrested in the case, jumped bail and was never brought to trial on the Los Angeles charges.

While the Meese Commission and the ''Los Angeles Times'' both refer to films of child pornography, the news article says that the accused were charged not with child pornography, but with molesting children. It says "One confiscated film shows the boys playing nude on a beach believed to be near Corpus Christi." Lyric did produce such a film, ''[[Summer Freedom]]'', but a film of "boys playing nude on a beach" was then neither pornography nor illegal in the US.

One source claims that one of the boys was "dangled over a cliff" by policemen until he agreed to name men with whom he had had sex.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050219002356/http://www.paedosexualitaet.de/exp/cliffsrc.html Documenting Abuse of Boys and Families by Los Angeles Police] cites two articles as its source for the claim: Sarff, Doug. "L.A. Jury frees first 'chicken ring' defendant". ''The Advocate'' San Mateo, CA. 16 January 1974 (page 3); and "Cliffhanging Testimony: Jury: Second 'chicken ring' defendant guilty". ''The Advocate'', San Mateo, CA, 30 January 1974 (page 5). There may be a digital copy including the 1974 ''Advocate'' at [http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/record=b24360993~S1 UC Berkeley].</ref> The claim was apparently made in open court. The Lyric producer cited above said that "[T]wo of them were just hustlers the police had dug up — I hardly even knew them. They had worked for Lyric a good little while ago. Even the police didn't push their stories too much, because they were both well into their teens and they admitted they were willing participants."<ref name=campfire />

The Los Angeles scandal was fueled in part by the August 1973 discovery of the murders in Houston, Texas, by [[Dean Corll]] of at least 27 teenagers. The police insinuated to the press that the Lyric scandal might have a connection. Lyric's owner was originally from Texas; another of those arrested in the case was identified by the ''L.A. Times'' as "William Johnson, 55, a Houston photographer".(supra)

Lloyd Martin, the policeman most responsible for the arrests, constructed a national reputation as the "child abuse policeman". He later fell into discredit. Widespread criticism of him and his methods is easily found on the Internet. Martin's signature sound bite is that child abuse is "worse than homicide." A ''Salon'' article calls him "infamous" and provides a good general discussion of the exaggerations of child pornography foes.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070304095923/http://archive.salon.com/mwt/feature/2000/01/31/kincaid/index1.html Is this child pornography?] Kincaid, James R. ''Salon'', 31 Jan 2000</ref>

== Technical quality of the films ==
[[Harlan "Slim" Pfeiffer]] is said to have filmed the Lyric movies in 16mm, and reduced them to 8mm for distribution. Guy Strait, who handled the distribution end of DOM-LYRIC, recounted in prison his techniques for taking photos and avoiding piracy of his films. “His favorite still camera was a Yashika E, twin-reflex that cost a mere $50 [...] He depended on a Mimiya C-33 for most of his professional still work. [...] He usually filmed 12-minute loops and longer movies with a 16-millimeter Beaulieu, which he considered to be superior to the more expensive German Hasselblad."<ref>Linedecker, Clifford L. 1981. ''Children in Chains''. New York: Everest House. p. 230</ref>
<blockquote>"He protected his reputation for quality work by keeping his films out of bookstores. It was more difficult to protect his work from pirates who purchased the films on his lists and had them duplicated for sales through other outlets. Although it bothered his aesthetic sensibilities and pride in his own work, he learned to lower the reproductive quality of his 8-millimeter film. He considered them still better quality than the competition, but not good enough to withstand the loss of detail and clarity when duplicated again by film pirates."(ibid, p. 233)</blockquote>

== Books, magazines, and films ==

''[[The Genesis Children]]'' was Lyric's only feature film, its other movies being shorts produced in 16mm and reduced to 8mm for distribution. Some of the films are:
* ''[[Danish Boys' Camp]]''. Feature documentary. 1971. Producer: Billy Byars. Editor: Wayne Schotten
* ''[[Swim Party]]'' and ''[[Spring Break]]'' were filmed by Slim Pfeiffer at [[the pool with the cinderblock walls]] at the Lyric studio in Los Angeles.
* ''[[Sandy Hill]]'' may have been filmed in Sandy Hill in east Texas.
* ''[[Summer Freedom]]'' was made at Corpus Christi National Seashore in Texas.
* ''[[Peter and the Desert Riders]]''
* ''[[How to Make Friends]]''
* ''[[Boyhood Scrapbook]]''

Lyric produced a number of magazines (two authors, Robin Lloyd and Clifford Linedecker, say 90 magazines were produced, but neither cites his source for the figure) and at least one calendar.

Some of the magazine titles include:
* ''[[Naked Boyhood Magazine]]''
* ''[[Sun Children]]''
* ''[[Lyric's American Boys]]''
* ''[[Naked Teens]]''
* ''[[Coq d'Or]]''

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:photography]]
[[Category:Newspapers and magazines]]
[[Category:Filmmakers]]

The Genesis Children (film)

2022-07-01T02:20:14Z

Sneeuwbol: /* Crew of inexperienced expatriates */

{{Infobox film
| image = File:The genesis children.jpg
| imagewidth = 200
| yearReleased=1972
|mpaaRating=X
|director=Anthony Aikman
|stars=
Vincent Child Greg Hill [[Peter Glawson]] 
David Johnson Jack Good Butch Burr Max Adams Bubba Collins Mike Good
}}

'''The Genesis Children''' (1972), a film directed by [[Anthony Aikman]] and produced by [[Billy Byars, Jr.]] of [[Lyric International]], features eight of the [[Lyric boys]]. The film takes them on a surreal non-linear journey from an international school in Rome to a beach where they abandon the trappings of civilization, romping nude on the sand. The film marked the entry of Lyric into genuine Hollywood production, as it was a full-length 35mm movie, received an MPAA rating (of X due to the nudity), opened in a legitimate movie theater and played there for a month, and was reviewed in a major newspaper. However, mail-order vendors who later made it available on VHS and DVD suffered police and postal repression and attempts to entrap their customers.

== Legitimate Movie with all the trappings ==

The plot of the film is apparently very much in tune with the 70s mentality, told in a non-linear fashion, with flashbacks and circularity. A group of boys in a boarding school in Rome answer an ad to "perform in a play before God"; a priest takes them to a beach (the Palinuro natural arch and its beach below Salerno)<ref>[https://goo.gl/maps/VRxpYkRHdn93L1zw6 Palinuro Beach on Google Maps]</ref> and abandons them with a crate of food; they run about naked a lot; they crash then burn a Volkswagen minibus in a fit of fury; five dress and go home while three remain naked and stay. The ''Los Angeles Times'' review by Kevin Thomas said, "There's enough earnestness to'' 'The Genesis Children' '' (at the Encore) to allow for the possibility that its makers had something more in mind than an adolescent male nudie. But that is what it becomes by default, so murky is their philosophizing and vague are ..." <ref>Thomas, Kevin. "'The Genesis Children' a Gambol on the Beach". ''Los Angeles Times'', 5 August 1972, p. B5</ref> Filmed in 1970, copyright was registered (for a 91-minute version) on 26 October 1971.<ref name=LOCcard>[https://cdn.loc.gov/service/copyright/hprcatcard/19/71/19/77/GE/NE/RI/-G/EN/EZ/19711977GENERI-GENEZ/CC19711977GENERI-GENEZ.0334.jpg LOC copyright file card]</ref>.

The movie opened on Friday, August 2, 1972 at the Encore Theater at Melrose-Van Ness in Hollywood, where it continued until September 10.<ref>[https://latimes.newspapers.com/search/#query=%22The+Genesis+Children%22&dr_year=1972-1972 L.A. Times search at newspapers.com]</ref> The Encore was "repertory house for old 30s-60s movies and foreign films".<ref>[http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/1129 Encore] on Cinema Treasures</ref> In 1972, the Metropolitan Community Church, founded to minister to homosexuals, was holding Sunday services at the Encore.<ref>[http://foundersmcc.org/about/about-founders-mcc/history-of-mccla-founders-mcc/ MCC] held services at the Encore.</ref> A long interview with Mr. Byars by Violet Helgy Swisher appeared in the September, 1972 issue of ''After Dark'' magazine.<ref name=Swisher>Swisher, Viola Hegyi. "Generating ''The Genesis Children''". ''After Dark'', September 1972, p. 18.</ref> The magazine's public was closeted homosexuals.<ref>[https://ctvoice.com/2021/03/15/the-fabulous-70s-decade-of-after-dark-magazine/ Rizzo, Frank], "The Fabulous ’70s Decade of After Dark Magazine", ''Connecticut Voice'', March 15, 2021</ref> An ad in alternate newspaper ''Los Angeles Free Press'' announces, "If beauty offends you, do not, '''do not''', see this film - for here are naked young boys on an Italian beach, searching for '''the real meaning of life'''! Rated X. Now playing!"<ref name=Rubine1972>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.28039998 Advertisement. "The Genesis Children"] ''Los Angeles Free Press'', Volume 9, issue 422, August 18-28, 1972 P.10</ref>

== Controversy ==

The film received an X rating from the MPAA. "''The Genesis Children'' is really a very benign film. It was only the cumulative amount of nudity and the closeup shots of the pelvic area that brought about the X decision. Even the violence of the scene in which the boys attack the bus is well within the R category," said Dr. Aaron Stern, director of MPAA's code and rating administration.<ref name=Swisher />
In the same article, where the subheadline “Director ''(sic)'' Billy Byars, Jr., rankles over the rating of his film”, Byars was quoted as saying, "You know, this is the most incredible thing [...] It's just unbelievable to me that the MPAA would comment to me that this film is dangerous, that it deserves an X. I think the MPAA has been the sole critic of my use of the young boys."<ref name=Swisher /> ''The Los Angeles Times's'' one-sentence summary of the film called it a "harmless allegory featuring naked adolescent romping on an Italian beach."<ref>[https://latimes.newspapers.com/search/#query=%22The+Genesis+Children%22&dr_year=1972-1972 L.A. Times search at newspapers.com]</ref>

However, ''The Genesis Children'' has turned up in both the [[Insider Video Club]] and [[Azov Films Prosecutions]].

== Crew of inexperienced expatriates ==

Sound man John Dulaney describes how he came to work on ''The Genesis Children'',
<blockquote>"In Jan. 1970 my wife and son and I were traveling around Europe and in Rome I saw an ad in THE DAILY AMERICAN (now defunct newspaper in Rome) of a Hollywood film company looking for a sound man for a series of films they were going to do. I met Billy Byars, Jr. and he hired me. We travelled across Europe for 9 months making various films including THE GENESIS CHILDREN. I [...] had a wide variety of duties. [...] I was the sound man for all productions in Europe and also became chief purchasing agent [...] I haven't seen any of them since 1970."<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkJw1fpSzDE YouTube comments] on travel slides</ref></blockquote>
The ''Rome Daily American'' was CIA financed according to Carl Bernstein.<ref>[http://carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php "The CIA and the media"] "... the ''Rome Daily American'', forty percent of which was owned by the CIA until the 1970s. "</ref> Libraries in Rome, Florence and Milan have copies for the year the ad would have run. <ref>[https://opac.sbn.it/opacsbn/opaclib?rpnlabel=+Title+%3D+daily+american+%28words+in+AND%29++AND+Document+type+%3D+Printed+text+%28words+in+OR+%29+&totalResult=48&nentries=1&resultForward=opac%2Ficcu%2Ffull.jsp&select_db=solr_iccu&do_cmd=show_cmd&searchForm=opac%2Ficcu%2Ferror.jsp&rpnquery=%2540attrset%2Bbib-1%2B%2540and%2B%2B%2540attr%2B1%253D4%2B%2540attr%2B4%253D6%2B%2522daily%2Bamerican%2522%2B%2B%2540attr%2B1%253D1001%2B%2540attr%2B4%253D2%2B%2522a%2522&db=solr_iccu&saveparams=false&fname=none&from=1 Rome Daily American] in the central Italian card catalog.</ref>

Mr. Dulaney has had a variety of acting roles since then, and has been a director and producer and now has his own video production company, but has no other credit as a movie sound man, before or since.<ref>[https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2bbc6e953c Delaney] on British Film Institute site.</ref>

A posting based on an interview with director Anthony Aikman describes how he joined the project:
<blockquote>British citizen Anthony Aikman, who had also migrated to Italy, had heard from a friend who worked at the American Embassy that a young American film
crew was in Italy and that the producer was looking for a writer/director to join the crew. Upon meeting Billy Byars, Aikman was told that the script needed work and that they also needed help directing the film. Aikman soon agreed to join the crew and together Byars and Aikman completed the script. <ref name=Bear2009>[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/soc.motss/3Bq0xnS8o4c Usenet Post] by Edward Bear on Genesis Children.</ref></blockquote>
Aikman has no other film directing credits, though he wrote a number of books, some available on his site.<ref>[https://anthonyaikman.frogbox.co.uk/Books.htm Aikman books]</ref>
The film includes one credited adult actor, Vincent Child, who plays multiple roles, which may reflect artistic vision as well as financial economy. His too has no other credits outside ''The Genesis Children''.<ref>[https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba4707cfa Vincent Child] on BFI</ref>
Somewhat more experienced was Bill Dewar, brought from Los Angeles by Byars, credited as cinematographer, and on IMDB as production supervisor. “Bill Dewar was the cameraman and really the only person who had professional experience working on a film. He was described as a hard working man and talented filmographer.” <ref name=Bear2009 />
The film’s crew includes two who went on to long careers in Hollywood, film editor Jeremy Hoenack (see below) who later won an Emmy, and composer Jerry Styner, who had already in 1968 been nominated for a Golden Globe, and who has 75 IMDB credits over a 50-year career.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0836598/ Jerry Styner] on IMDB</ref> Hoenack however entered the project after filming was completed, and nothing indicates Styner participated in the European caravan of the Lyric troupe. Byars appears in the uncredited role of "Military Man with Bicycle" according to IMDB.<ref>https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0136217/characters/nm0125695</ref>

With the professional crew assembled from English-speakers who happened to be at loose ends in Italy, it was time for locations and cast.
<blockquote>After finding a remote coastal location in Salerno, Italy and a home to rent, the Lyric Boys, many of whom by this time were under the legal foster care custody of Billy Byars Jr. , were brought over to Italy from the U.S.A. by Byars's longtime companion and photographer William Johnson. Among the boys was the model and soon to be actor known as "Peter Glawson" and his younger brother known as "Max" and the long time Lyric model known as "Billy Marshall" appearing as "Jack Good". 
Aikmans' first and lasting impression of the boys were that they were ill mannered, illiterate and unintelligent. He remembers it was very difficult to get them to learn even the simplest of lines.<ref name=Bear2009 /></blockquote>
The Palinuro natural arch and its beach are striking locations, but scarcely discovered by Lyric, as the locations had previously appeared in ''Jason and the Argonauts'' (1963)<ref>[https://www.naturalarches.org/movies/index.htm#jason Natural Arches at the Movies]</ref> The movie does have other locations besides the beach. IMDB and BFI lists credits for Rome and Palinuro production managers, and a field manager credit is given to Bill Johnson, presumably William Johnson, although Johnson is missing from the IMDB listing. All three have no other film credits on BFI or IMDB.<ref>[https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b71db582c BFI listing]</ref> The list of those indicted in the 1973 Lyric scandal includes "William Johnson, 55, a Houston photographer."<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref>

== Editing confusion ==

''The Genesis Children'' was edited by at least two teams, and exists or existed in three run times: 91 minutes, 85 in the re-edit, and 84 on DVD.

IMDB says that the film was edited by Jeremy Hoenack and runs 85 minutes, while director Anthony Aikman said he edited the film along with cameraman Bill Dewar. The film's 1971 copyright registration gives the film's run time as 91 minutes, and includes "Credits: Producer, Billy Byars; director, Anthony Aikman; writers, Anthony Aikman & Billy Byars; music, Jerry Styner; photographer & editor, Bill Dewar. © Lyric Films International & Billy Byars".<ref name=LOCcard /> A Usenet post based on an interview with Aikman provides picaresque details:
<blockquote>Aikman and Dewar were sent back to Los Angeles to work on the editing of TGC while Byars, Johnson and the boys reportedly headed to Russia to scout locations for a future film. […] Aikman and Dewar arrived back in Los Angeles where Aikman was sent to stay at the house near Mulholland Drive. Aikman and Dewar worked on editing the film at the Lyric Studios located at The Crossroads of the World business complex in Hollywood. Aikman describes the studio as being in a building designed to look like Mothers Hubbard's shoe. Aikman says that as soon as the editing work had begun, it was discovered that Byars either hadn’t paid the rent for the editing space, or had made the landlord angry, as soon he and Dewar were locked out of the space and the air conditioner was removed. 
The two ended up crawling through a "jimmied" window and working in sweltering heat. 
[...] 
After a few weeks of rest Byars rented a motor home and he and some of the boys reportedly left for Alaska while Dewar and Aikman remained behind to finish the film. At some point, Aikman reports that someone, possibly Jeremy Hoenack, appeared at the Lyric studios saying he was told to take over the editing. Dewar and Aikman were not about to turn over the project at this point and reportedly Dewar became so angry he had a bloody fistfight with the interloper. Dewar and Aikman prevailed but then a "lawyer type" who occupied an office next to their studios attempted to evict them from the premises. Despite all of this Dewar and Aikman finished the film and Aikman returned to Italy never to see Byars again. 
Upon the release of the film Aikman read the reviews and was shocked. He couldn't understand why there was so much criticism about the film being so disjointed and not making any sense. Many years later he was able to obtain a copy of the film and discovered that the film had been re-edited. Jeremy Hoenack was listed as the editor and Aikman believes that this person basically ruined the film under the direction of Byars who was really only interested in displaying the naked boys. Aikman believes the Dewar/Aikman version must still exist somewhere today.<ref name=Bear2009 /></blockquote>

Both IMDB and BFI give a run time of 85 minutes for the film, and give editing credit to Jeremy Hoenack. Hoenack was credited as Assistant Editor in ''[[Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (film)|Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song]]'', which premiered in early 1971 to unprecedented financial success for an independent film. That film includes a 3½ minute simulated sex scene by a 13-year-old boy and was initially rated "X", and also has confusing, non-linear editing. After editing four films, Hoenack specialized in sound, and area where IMDB shows 253 sound credits for him and an Emmy in 1975.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0388507/ Jeremy Hoenack] on IMDB</ref>.

Byars spoke of ''The Genesis Children'' as “this highly personal creation – my creation”, which would support Aikman’s contention that his was the guiding hand. <ref=Swisher /> Mr. Hoenack may have been chosen to bring ''Sweet Sweetback's'' golden touch to ''Genesis Children'', or his subsequent long career may indicate an ability to work well with others, following the dictates of those holding the purse strings.

In December 1972, Hoenack was editing one of [https://www.boywiki.org/en/Lyric_International#The_next_film Lyric's next, never-released films], "a reel of motorcycle adventures".

== Personal Vision ==

Billy Byars, Jr., was incensed with the X rating, but disillusioned by lack of public understanding and acceptance. While he complains of yes-men, he assume responsibility for the movie, and doesn’t blame anyone else:
<blockquote>"I discovered that one of the most valuable lessons any newcomer to film making can learn is this: the day of he yes-man is still with us. The people associated with the industry; the people working with producers, patting them on the back and saying, "What a work of art!" are not the same people who buy tickets, sit in the general audience; and make their own independent judgments. 

"The making of a film becomes so personal, yet the mission of that film must be very public," he observed. "It's the man in the street who has final authority over whether this highly personal creation—my creation, in this instance—shall survive in the life-giving climate of public acceptance or die in the killing climate of public rejection." <ref name=Swisher /></blockquote>

The ''After Dark'' interview would have seen print only a few days after the ''Los Angeles Times’s'' one-line summary that was the unkindest of all, dismissing the film as “harmless.”

== VHS and DVD ==

The film was available on VHS and later DVD-R from mail-order vendor [[Insider Video Club]] in Los Angeles.<ref>[https://gepir.gs1.org/index.php/search-by-gtin The GS1 database] informs the barcode 736144000001 on the DVD cover is assigned to Ivb, Inc. one of Insider Video Club's names. The barcode on the VHS cover also starts with Ivb, Inc.'s assigned number 736144.</ref> The DVD sold by Ivb affirms a run time of 84 minutes.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
*[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0136217/ IMDB entry]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20190629035529/http://www.anthonyaikman.co.uk/ Director Anthony Aikman]’s site on Wayback Machine

{{Navbox/film}}
[[Category: Drama films]]

The Genesis Children (film)

2022-07-01T01:32:41Z

Sneeuwbol: /* Legitimate Movie with all the trappings */

{{Infobox film
| image = File:The genesis children.jpg
| imagewidth = 200
| yearReleased=1972
|mpaaRating=X
|director=Anthony Aikman
|stars=
Vincent Child Greg Hill [[Peter Glawson]] 
David Johnson Jack Good Butch Burr Max Adams Bubba Collins Mike Good
}}

'''The Genesis Children''' (1972), a film directed by [[Anthony Aikman]] and produced by [[Billy Byars, Jr.]] of [[Lyric International]], features eight of the [[Lyric boys]]. The film takes them on a surreal non-linear journey from an international school in Rome to a beach where they abandon the trappings of civilization, romping nude on the sand. The film marked the entry of Lyric into genuine Hollywood production, as it was a full-length 35mm movie, received an MPAA rating (of X due to the nudity), opened in a legitimate movie theater and played there for a month, and was reviewed in a major newspaper. However, mail-order vendors who later made it available on VHS and DVD suffered police and postal repression and attempts to entrap their customers.

== Legitimate Movie with all the trappings ==

The plot of the film is apparently very much in tune with the 70s mentality, told in a non-linear fashion, with flashbacks and circularity. A group of boys in a boarding school in Rome answer an ad to "perform in a play before God"; a priest takes them to a beach (the Palinuro natural arch and its beach below Salerno)<ref>[https://goo.gl/maps/VRxpYkRHdn93L1zw6 Palinuro Beach on Google Maps]</ref> and abandons them with a crate of food; they run about naked a lot; they crash then burn a Volkswagen minibus in a fit of fury; five dress and go home while three remain naked and stay. The ''Los Angeles Times'' review by Kevin Thomas said, "There's enough earnestness to'' 'The Genesis Children' '' (at the Encore) to allow for the possibility that its makers had something more in mind than an adolescent male nudie. But that is what it becomes by default, so murky is their philosophizing and vague are ..." <ref>Thomas, Kevin. "'The Genesis Children' a Gambol on the Beach". ''Los Angeles Times'', 5 August 1972, p. B5</ref> Filmed in 1970, copyright was registered (for a 91-minute version) on 26 October 1971.<ref name=LOCcard>[https://cdn.loc.gov/service/copyright/hprcatcard/19/71/19/77/GE/NE/RI/-G/EN/EZ/19711977GENERI-GENEZ/CC19711977GENERI-GENEZ.0334.jpg LOC copyright file card]</ref>.

The movie opened on Friday, August 2, 1972 at the Encore Theater at Melrose-Van Ness in Hollywood, where it continued until September 10.<ref>[https://latimes.newspapers.com/search/#query=%22The+Genesis+Children%22&dr_year=1972-1972 L.A. Times search at newspapers.com]</ref> The Encore was "repertory house for old 30s-60s movies and foreign films".<ref>[http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/1129 Encore] on Cinema Treasures</ref> In 1972, the Metropolitan Community Church, founded to minister to homosexuals, was holding Sunday services at the Encore.<ref>[http://foundersmcc.org/about/about-founders-mcc/history-of-mccla-founders-mcc/ MCC] held services at the Encore.</ref> A long interview with Mr. Byars by Violet Helgy Swisher appeared in the September, 1972 issue of ''After Dark'' magazine.<ref name=Swisher>Swisher, Viola Hegyi. "Generating ''The Genesis Children''". ''After Dark'', September 1972, p. 18.</ref> The magazine's public was closeted homosexuals.<ref>[https://ctvoice.com/2021/03/15/the-fabulous-70s-decade-of-after-dark-magazine/ Rizzo, Frank], "The Fabulous ’70s Decade of After Dark Magazine", ''Connecticut Voice'', March 15, 2021</ref> An ad in alternate newspaper ''Los Angeles Free Press'' announces, "If beauty offends you, do not, '''do not''', see this film - for here are naked young boys on an Italian beach, searching for '''the real meaning of life'''! Rated X. Now playing!"<ref name=Rubine1972>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.28039998 Advertisement. "The Genesis Children"] ''Los Angeles Free Press'', Volume 9, issue 422, August 18-28, 1972 P.10</ref>

== Controversy ==

The film received an X rating from the MPAA. "''The Genesis Children'' is really a very benign film. It was only the cumulative amount of nudity and the closeup shots of the pelvic area that brought about the X decision. Even the violence of the scene in which the boys attack the bus is well within the R category," said Dr. Aaron Stern, director of MPAA's code and rating administration.<ref name=Swisher />
In the same article, where the subheadline “Director ''(sic)'' Billy Byars, Jr., rankles over the rating of his film”, Byars was quoted as saying, "You know, this is the most incredible thing [...] It's just unbelievable to me that the MPAA would comment to me that this film is dangerous, that it deserves an X. I think the MPAA has been the sole critic of my use of the young boys."<ref name=Swisher /> ''The Los Angeles Times's'' one-sentence summary of the film called it a "harmless allegory featuring naked adolescent romping on an Italian beach."<ref>[https://latimes.newspapers.com/search/#query=%22The+Genesis+Children%22&dr_year=1972-1972 L.A. Times search at newspapers.com]</ref>

However, ''The Genesis Children'' has turned up in both the [[Insider Video Club]] and [[Azov Films Prosecutions]].

== Crew of inexperienced expatriates ==

Sound man John Dulaney describes how he came to work on ''The Genesis Children'',
<blockquote>"In Jan. 1970 my wife and son and I were traveling around Europe and in Rome I saw an ad in THE DAILY AMERICAN (now defunct newspaper in Rome) of a Hollywood film company looking for a sound man for a series of films they were going to do. I met Billy Byars, Jr. and he hired me. We travelled across Europe for 9 months making various films including THE GENESIS CHILDREN. I [...] had a wide variety of duties. [...] I was the sound man for all productions in Europe and also became chief purchasing agent [...] I haven't seen any of them since 1970."<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkJw1fpSzDE YouTube comments] on travel slides</ref></blockquote>
The ''Rome Daily American'' was CIA financed according to Carl Bernstein.<ref>[http://carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php "The CIA and the media"] "... the ''Rome Daily American'', forty percent of which was owned by the CIA until the 1970s. "</ref> Libraries in Rome, Florence and Milan have copies for the year the ad would have run. <ref>[https://opac.sbn.it/opacsbn/opaclib?rpnlabel=+Title+%3D+daily+american+%28words+in+AND%29++AND+Document+type+%3D+Printed+text+%28words+in+OR+%29+&totalResult=48&nentries=1&resultForward=opac%2Ficcu%2Ffull.jsp&select_db=solr_iccu&do_cmd=show_cmd&searchForm=opac%2Ficcu%2Ferror.jsp&rpnquery=%2540attrset%2Bbib-1%2B%2540and%2B%2B%2540attr%2B1%253D4%2B%2540attr%2B4%253D6%2B%2522daily%2Bamerican%2522%2B%2B%2540attr%2B1%253D1001%2B%2540attr%2B4%253D2%2B%2522a%2522&db=solr_iccu&saveparams=false&fname=none&from=1 Rome Daily American] in the central Italian card catalog.</ref>

Mr. Dulaney has had a variety of acting roles since then, and has been a director and producer and now has his own video production company, but has no other credit as a movie sound man, before or since.<ref>[https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2bbc6e953c Delaney] on British Film Institute site.</ref>

A posting based on an interview with director Anthony Aikman describes how he joined the project:
<blockquote>British citizen Anthony Aikman, who had also migrated to Italy, had heard from a friend who worked at the American Embassy that a young American film
crew was in Italy and that the producer was looking for a writer/director to join the crew. Upon meeting Billy Byars, Aikman was told that the script needed work and that they also needed help directing the film. Aikman soon agreed to join the crew and together Byars and Aikman completed the script. <ref name=Bear2009>[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/soc.motss/3Bq0xnS8o4c Usenet Post] by Edward Bear on Genesis Children.</ref></blockquote>
Aikman has no other film directing credits, though he wrote a number of books, some available on his site.<ref>[https://anthonyaikman.frogbox.co.uk/Books.htm Aikman books]</ref>
The film includes one credited adult actor, Vincent Child, who plays multiple roles, which may reflect artistic vision as well as financial economy. His too has no other credits outside ''The Genesis Children''.<ref>[https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba4707cfa Vincent Child] on BFI</ref>
Somewhat more experienced was Bill Dewar, brought from Los Angeles by Byars, credited as cinematographer, and on IMDB as production supervisor. “Bill Dewar was the cameraman and really the only person who had professional experience working on a film. He was described as a hard working man and talented filmographer.” <ref name=Bear2009 />
The film’s crew includes two who went on to long careers in Hollywood, film editor Jeremy Hoenack (see below) who later won an Emmy, and composer Jerry Styner, who had already in 1968 been nominated for a Golden Globe, and who has 75 IMDB credits over a 50-year career.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0836598/ Jerry Styner] on IMDB</ref> Hoenack however entered the project after filming was completed, and nothing indicates Styner participated in the European caravan of the Lyric troupe.

With the professional crew assembled from English-speakers who happened to be at loose ends in Italy, it was time for locations and cast.
<blockquote>After finding a remote coastal location in Salerno, Italy and a home to rent, the Lyric Boys, many of whom by this time were under the legal foster care custody of Billy Byars Jr. , were brought over to Italy from the U.S.A. by Byars's longtime companion and photographer William Johnson. Among the boys was the model and soon to be actor known as "Peter Glawson" and his younger brother known as "Max" and the long time Lyric model known as "Billy Marshall" appearing as "Jack Good". 
Aikmans' first and lasting impression of the boys were that they were ill mannered, illiterate and unintelligent. He remembers it was very difficult to get them to learn even the simplest of lines.<ref name=Bear2009 /></blockquote>
The Palinuro natural arch and its beach are striking locations, but scarcely discovered by Lyric, as the locations had previously appeared in ''Jason and the Argonauts'' (1963)<ref>[https://www.naturalarches.org/movies/index.htm#jason Natural Arches at the Movies]</ref> The movie does have other locations besides the beach. IMDB and BFI lists credits for Rome and Palinuro production managers, and a field manager credit is given to Bill Johnson, presumably William Johnson, although Johnson is missing from the IMDB listing. All three have no other film credits on BFI or IMDB.<ref>[https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b71db582c BFI listing]</ref> The list of those indicted in the 1973 Lyric scandal includes "William Johnson, 55, a Houston photographer."<ref>Farr, William. "14 Men Indicted in Sex Movies Featuring Boys Ages 6 to 17". ''Los Angeles Times'' 27 Oct 1973, p. B1, B8</ref>

== Editing confusion ==

''The Genesis Children'' was edited by at least two teams, and exists or existed in three run times: 91 minutes, 85 in the re-edit, and 84 on DVD.

IMDB says that the film was edited by Jeremy Hoenack and runs 85 minutes, while director Anthony Aikman said he edited the film along with cameraman Bill Dewar. The film's 1971 copyright registration gives the film's run time as 91 minutes, and includes "Credits: Producer, Billy Byars; director, Anthony Aikman; writers, Anthony Aikman & Billy Byars; music, Jerry Styner; photographer & editor, Bill Dewar. © Lyric Films International & Billy Byars".<ref name=LOCcard /> A Usenet post based on an interview with Aikman provides picaresque details:
<blockquote>Aikman and Dewar were sent back to Los Angeles to work on the editing of TGC while Byars, Johnson and the boys reportedly headed to Russia to scout locations for a future film. […] Aikman and Dewar arrived back in Los Angeles where Aikman was sent to stay at the house near Mulholland Drive. Aikman and Dewar worked on editing the film at the Lyric Studios located at The Crossroads of the World business complex in Hollywood. Aikman describes the studio as being in a building designed to look like Mothers Hubbard's shoe. Aikman says that as soon as the editing work had begun, it was discovered that Byars either hadn’t paid the rent for the editing space, or had made the landlord angry, as soon he and Dewar were locked out of the space and the air conditioner was removed. 
The two ended up crawling through a "jimmied" window and working in sweltering heat. 
[...] 
After a few weeks of rest Byars rented a motor home and he and some of the boys reportedly left for Alaska while Dewar and Aikman remained behind to finish the film. At some point, Aikman reports that someone, possibly Jeremy Hoenack, appeared at the Lyric studios saying he was told to take over the editing. Dewar and Aikman were not about to turn over the project at this point and reportedly Dewar became so angry he had a bloody fistfight with the interloper. Dewar and Aikman prevailed but then a "lawyer type" who occupied an office next to their studios attempted to evict them from the premises. Despite all of this Dewar and Aikman finished the film and Aikman returned to Italy never to see Byars again. 
Upon the release of the film Aikman read the reviews and was shocked. He couldn't understand why there was so much criticism about the film being so disjointed and not making any sense. Many years later he was able to obtain a copy of the film and discovered that the film had been re-edited. Jeremy Hoenack was listed as the editor and Aikman believes that this person basically ruined the film under the direction of Byars who was really only interested in displaying the naked boys. Aikman believes the Dewar/Aikman version must still exist somewhere today.<ref name=Bear2009 /></blockquote>

Both IMDB and BFI give a run time of 85 minutes for the film, and give editing credit to Jeremy Hoenack. Hoenack was credited as Assistant Editor in ''[[Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (film)|Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song]]'', which premiered in early 1971 to unprecedented financial success for an independent film. That film includes a 3½ minute simulated sex scene by a 13-year-old boy and was initially rated "X", and also has confusing, non-linear editing. After editing four films, Hoenack specialized in sound, and area where IMDB shows 253 sound credits for him and an Emmy in 1975.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0388507/ Jeremy Hoenack] on IMDB</ref>.

Byars spoke of ''The Genesis Children'' as “this highly personal creation – my creation”, which would support Aikman’s contention that his was the guiding hand. <ref=Swisher /> Mr. Hoenack may have been chosen to bring ''Sweet Sweetback's'' golden touch to ''Genesis Children'', or his subsequent long career may indicate an ability to work well with others, following the dictates of those holding the purse strings.

In December 1972, Hoenack was editing one of [https://www.boywiki.org/en/Lyric_International#The_next_film Lyric's next, never-released films], "a reel of motorcycle adventures".

== Personal Vision ==

Billy Byars, Jr., was incensed with the X rating, but disillusioned by lack of public understanding and acceptance. While he complains of yes-men, he assume responsibility for the movie, and doesn’t blame anyone else:
<blockquote>"I discovered that one of the most valuable lessons any newcomer to film making can learn is this: the day of he yes-man is still with us. The people associated with the industry; the people working with producers, patting them on the back and saying, "What a work of art!" are not the same people who buy tickets, sit in the general audience; and make their own independent judgments. 

"The making of a film becomes so personal, yet the mission of that film must be very public," he observed. "It's the man in the street who has final authority over whether this highly personal creation—my creation, in this instance—shall survive in the life-giving climate of public acceptance or die in the killing climate of public rejection." <ref name=Swisher /></blockquote>

The ''After Dark'' interview would have seen print only a few days after the ''Los Angeles Times’s'' one-line summary that was the unkindest of all, dismissing the film as “harmless.”

== VHS and DVD ==

The film was available on VHS and later DVD-R from mail-order vendor [[Insider Video Club]] in Los Angeles.<ref>[https://gepir.gs1.org/index.php/search-by-gtin The GS1 database] informs the barcode 736144000001 on the DVD cover is assigned to Ivb, Inc. one of Insider Video Club's names. The barcode on the VHS cover also starts with Ivb, Inc.'s assigned number 736144.</ref> The DVD sold by Ivb affirms a run time of 84 minutes.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
*[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0136217/ IMDB entry]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20190629035529/http://www.anthonyaikman.co.uk/ Director Anthony Aikman]’s site on Wayback Machine

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[[Category: Drama films]]