How Palm Drive Video got me to wear an apricot hanky
Story by: Ryan A. White
Photography by: Palm Drive Video and Wohler Films
October 2, 2019
I’m a belly man, a total sucker for a guy with a gut. From a burgeoning dad bod to a massive tank, my attention goes directly to a man’s midsection. While this love runs deep down to my sexual core, only recently have I found the power to openly claim these desires. For most of my adult life, it was a secret that I rarely admitted to, for fear that my appetite for non-normative bodies would be ridiculed.A few years ago, I was introduced to the legendary Jack Fritscher while I was making Cruising Elsewhere, a film about a lost gay beach on the Russian River. After that initial meeting, my co-director, Alex Clausen, and I became fascinated with Palm Drive Video, the kinky porn studio that Fritscher and his husband Mark Hemry ran out of their Sonoma County ranch in the 1980s and ’90s. During the height of the North American AIDS crisis, their two-man production company produced over 150 mailorder fetish videos covering a diversity of kinks, from leather cowboys and biker bears to medical torture and vomit play. The couple explained that they wanted the videos to promote safe-sex alternatives to penetrative intercourse during the plague, and to help keep sexual exploration alive. After viewing Toilet Cigar Butt, starring the criminally sexy Jack Husky, Alex and I decided that Palm Drive would be the topic of our next documentary.
As we immersed ourselves in the project, I was excited to learn that Palm Drive had produced some early bear and chub videos. I spent some extra time “researching” their films, Bellybucker and Water Bear. During our production trips, I started getting frank with Alex about my fetish for big dudes, explaining that our exploration of this sex-positive production company was helping me feel empowered in my sexual desires. My kinks weren’t making me feel ashamed anymore; instead, I felt unique, more whole…and honestly, hornier!
“At the core of every interview and Palm Drive tape is a joyous celebration of the idiosyncrasies of erotic desires.”
For the past three years, Alex and I have been working on RAW! UNCUT! VIDEO!, our documentary about Fritscher and Hemry’s adventures in safe-sex fetish porn production. We’ve interviewed legends of porn and kink such as Donnie Russo, Roger Earl, Durk Dehner, Rick Castro, Mickey Squires, Susie Bright, and mr.Pam. We’ve spent countless hours digging through archival behind-the-scenes footage from raunchy Palm Drive shoots.
At the core of every interview and Palm Drive tape is a joyous celebration of the idiosyncrasies of erotic desires. And, at every stage of production, the project has reinforced my belief in the importance of promoting, preserving, and participating in sexual cultures. If I’ve learned anything, it’s this: if fucking a mud-puddle is your thing, or slurping up the ass-juices of sweaty construction workers, or even expanding your limits with sounding, don’t question it! Own it! And maybe even make a porno about it!We’re currently editing RAW! UNCUT! VIDEO! Funding a documentary about queer fetish porn continues to be a challenge, but we’re pushing forward for a late 2020 release. Check out rawuncutvideo.com for more information and find out how to support the project. We need your help to finish the documentary! And rest assured that as a result of making this film, I now proudly wear my apricot hanky on the right.
