Peter de Rome, The Grandfather Of Gay Porn, Has Died

Sad news today from across the pond. Peter de Rome, the man commonly referred to as "The Grandfather of Gay Porn," has died at the age of 89. 

Filmmaker David McGillivray wrote a lovely tribute to de Rome over at /bent (link below), having spent a lot of time with him working on the documentary Peter de Rome: The Grandfather of Gay Porn, which just premiered last month at the Sheffield Documentary Festival. Anyone who's seen his films Underground or Hot Pants or Wakefield Poole's Boys in the Sand (which was inspired by de Rome's work), recognizes how crucial de Rome's impact on the industry truly was. 

Prior to de Rome there were amateur loops and the occasional artistic experiment, e.g. Jean Genet’s “Un chant d’amour” (1950). But it was de Rome’s short films which inspired Wakefield Poole to make “The Boys in the Sand” (1971), the first hardcore porn movie to cross to the mainstream. This was the gay equivalent of “Deep Throat” (which Poole’s film preceded).

In 1971 de Rome’s film “Hot Pants” won a prize at Amsterdam’s Wet Dream Festival. De Rome was approached by producer Jack Deveau, who released several de Rome shorts under the umbrella title “The Erotic Films of Peter de Rome” (1972).  They included “Underground” in which two men had genuine sex on a subway train; “Mumbo Jumbo” with its first person cum shot (later a gonzo prerequisite); and “The Second Coming” featuring arguably the first no-hands cum shot (although de Rome later admitted that the penis was a prosthetic).

In the last few years of his life de Rome was the subject of a number of film documentaries, the last of which, “Peter de Rome: Grandfather of Gay Porn”, premiered earlier this month at the Sheffield Documentary Festival. De Rome was due to travel to Sheffield but was suddenly taken ill with the leukaemia that was to kill him. As the executive producer of the film I reluctantly took his place at the Showroom cinema, telling the audience that “Peter is not just a part of gay porn history, or gay history, he’s a part of history.” 

Via /Bent