Throwback Thursday Remembers Porn Pioneer Fred Halsted

17th July 1941: American gay porn director Fred Halsted is born. His films "Sex Garage" and "LA Plays Itself" are the only gay porn movies in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art. #OnThisDay #Queerstory pic.twitter.com/RXeyXTndl2

— Gay Community News (@GCNmag) July 17, 2020

Yesterday, July 17th, was the birthday of art-house porn pioneer Fred Halsted. He would have been 83 had he not taken his own life with an intentional overdose of sleeping pills in 1989. Strap in, boys, this may get ugly!

A cruel, terrorizing film...the kind of film one can imagine Nazi concentration camp commanders commission for their jaded amusement. (Hollywood Reporter review of Halsted's film Sextool.)

Halsted's life was turbulent to say the least. Born in Long Beach, CA in 1941, his family was abandoned by his construction-worker father when he was just three. His mother remarried, and it was his stepfather, John Knight, who raped him when he was eight years old. This event, as described by Halsted, was "a turning point in his sexual identity." Indeed, Halsted porn work and personal life would dance a tightrope between sex and violence, which he describes as being intertwined. He said that "I consider myself a pervert first and a homosexual second....sadism (is) more basic to my personality than homosexuality."

Announcement: Gay Classics: Fred Halsted’s L.A. Plays Itself + S3x Garage - are joining our program this year! pic.twitter.com/tHEVPmaLnJ

— Pornfilmfestival Berlin (@PFFBerlin) September 8, 2022

Fred Halsted is clearly the Ken Russell of S&M homoerotica. (Variety review of Halsted's film Sextool.)

Halsted was unapologetic when it came to his sex and his art. He wrote, directed and starred in just a small handful of films: L.A. Plays Itself (1972), Sex Garage (1972), and Sex Tool (19750). The first two are the only gay pornographic films to be included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Indeed, those films were largely misunderstood by many in the gay community looking for gay porn to get off to, and critics as well were confused by his work. Combining hardcore gay sex often with an S/M bent with scenes from L.A. and his life in general, they create a picture of what it was to be underground in the gay world as a deviant-positive, blue-collar type of guy with a creative eye. His attitude towards sex has been described as "transgressive and sacramental," and hearkening back to his step-father, is "inherently violent and involves acts of violation."

"Sex is not 'coming,' that is superficial sex," he once explained. "Mine is personal cinema. I don't fuck to get my rocks off. In the best scenes I've ever had, I haven't come. I am not interesting in coming. … I am interested in getting my head off, my emotions off."

From Sextool:

Sextool (1975) Dir. Fred Halsted pic.twitter.com/Dmj6bxadcD

— minister judas fonda (@orphicfag) December 27, 2021

Halsted also co-starred in one of the iconic Joe Gage Working Man Trilogy films, El Paso Wrecking Corp. Alongside trilogy star Richard Locke, the two set off from Kansas City to El Paso on a sex road trip looking for work, but finding more dick. He would appear in a handful of other projects, as well as a straight stage play, always hired to be his smoldering, blue-collar vibing self, throwing a smile and a sneer and a load-full of masculine allure.

I would eat this film! (Divine's review of Halsted's film Sextool.)

 

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Halsted opened "Halsted's," a sex-forward club that lived inside an old warehouse space in the Silver Lake area of L.A. It featured gloryholes, slings and bunkbeds for patrons to romp on, and most interestingly, four empty truck trailers out back inside a walled yard, used as another play space. Fortunately, it stayed open long enough for Halsted to film his last big porn flick A Night at Halsted's. Unfortunately, it was closed within a year because as he put it, "Los Angeles did not have enough perverts."

The following is provided as context of a life, and not as a means of endorsement!

Fred Halsted... thank you pic.twitter.com/FeW2KX8vBo

— Liz (@schlockvalue) April 13, 2018

Fred Halsted was not an easy person to appreciate. His sex was rough and in your face. He cared not a whit for gay politics or acceptance. His longtime lover Joseph Yanoska died of AIDS in 1986 after telling Halsted "You did this to me." His last years were spent drugged out, drunk, and sick, sometimes offering himself up as an escort. But in his suicide note, he said "I had a good life... I've had looks, a body, money, success and artistic triumphs. I've had the love of my life. I see no reason to go on."

Photo of the day: Porn legends Fred Halsted & Richard Locke Kansas City Trucking Co. #LeatherHistory pic.twitter.com/XQkG20bQv4

— Leather Archives & Museum (@leatherarchives) November 27, 2016

Like I said, unapologetic.

Fred halsted pic.twitter.com/iENxIHiUSZ

— FatherLacrimarum (@DJnocide666) September 15, 2023

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