Lost Boys: Vintage Images of Bill Eld

Lost Boys: 

Vintage Images of Bill Eld

"... in his own way he was an icon a 'la Marilyn Monroe and Elvis not just a gay icon a 'la Al Parker. He transcends the gay frame." 

- Toby Ross, Director

Bill Eld  isn't all that well-remembered these days, but back in the early '70's he was one of the most sought after models/actors in gay porn. His career began in 1970, just a year after Stonewall, back in the days when being gay, by society's standards, was simply not considered acceptable. In spite of that, Eld chose to shed his clothes and have sex with men on camera for a living and, for a time, he did very well for himself.

Sometimes referred to as 'Big' Bill Eld, he became well-known for the size of his penis, his defined physique, and for his striking good looks. He was a gay porn star during a time when there were very few. Most such actors and models appeared in a single loop or magazine spread and then quickly disappeared from the scene. Despite Eld's initial success and time in the limelight, his stardom didn't last, as he, himself, came to an early and sad demise.

Let's take a look at the rise and fall of one of gay porn's first superstars.

Bill Eld
AKA: Billy, Loco Jones, Bill Young, William Eld, ”Big” Billy Eld, Big Bill Eld, Billy Eld, Jimmy

Birth Year: 1945
Birthplace: Rochester, NY

Death: 1987 (also reported as 1986)

Hair: Dirty Blonde
Endowment: 9"

Years Active: 1970-1986
Films: 15

Compilations: 3

Studios: Falcon, Brentwood, COLT, Bijou, In Hand, Hand In Hand, VCA

Born in Rochester, NY in 1945, Bill Eld had a hard life. His mother chose to abandoned him after his father left her, never to be seen again. So he was raised in foster homes from the age of nine to twelve, after which he was sent to an orphanage where he remained until the day he turned eighteen.

After graduating from college, Eld became a PE teacher. He also supplemented his income working as a shoe salesman. However, he found little satisfaction in either lines of work. Instead, he decided to switch gears and become a performer. He began his career as an Adajio dancer, working in clubs throughout San Francisco, such as the famed Condor. 

Adajio dancing can best be described as "an action, or series of actions, where one partner is hoisted up in the air and the other partner acts as the base... using a combination of acrobatics with (various) circus arts." The act Eld was part of proved so popular "(t)here were lines around the block waiting to take a glimpse."

In order to maintain his peak physical appearance, Eld spent many hours at various gyms in San Francisco. This is where, from time to time, he would catch the eye of a photographer, who would ask him to model. Photo shoots for the likes of AMG (American Model Guild), Falcon and COLT studios would be sold in sets in the back of mens magazines. Sometimes Eld would work solo, but more often than not, he would appear nude with other male models.

Despite Eld's chosen profession, the exact nature of his sexuality would remain the subject of much speculation. Photographer John Michael Cox, who photographed Eld for a magazine, recalled that during the shoot Eld told him he was "a married straight man." Other directors and photographers have claimed that he was either bisexual or gay. Eld, himself, never clearly defined his identity in any such terms - that could have something to do with the charged atmosphere at that time in San Francisco. According to director Toby Ross, things were very different in San Fancisco back then; few people defined themselves as any one thing. As far as sex was concerned as long as it felt good, people did it. 

As the '70's progressed, Eld would remain a fixture in the popular mens magazines of the time. 

IN HEAT #2 1977

STALLION March 1985 (v03 n12)
INCHES Dec 1985

JUST MEN v04 n01 Jan 1986

INCHES Feb 1988

MANSHOTS April 1992
INCHES: Men Of INCHES #2
IN TOUCH
STALLION: STALLION'S 50 BEST SPECIAL #4
SKINFLICKS v01 n03

Colt Studio:
BEST OF GALLERY #2
GALLERY SERIES #3: Private Collection
GALLERY SERIES #7

Falcon Studios:

FALCON: GOOD ‘N PLENTY GUYS #1
FALCON: THE FALCON FILE #1

other studios:
AMG: PHYSIQUE - AMG HISTORY
BRUCE KING: ROUGH & RAUNCHY MEN #1
J. BRIAN: THE NEW GOLDEN GUYS #1

J. BRIAN: THE NEW GOLDEN GUYS #6
MAN-AGE: NEW YORK STUDS
HUNK v01 n01
PRIVATE FILES #1

His popularity as a still photography subject would lead to him appear in short loops and, eventually, full-length films. 

Director Toby Ross recalls the first time he saw an image of Eld and how the young model ended up as part of Ross's debut as a director: 

"...when I was in college in Los Angeles, Bill had mad a magazine called The Hustler. And I just thought that he was the most enigmatic, other-worldly man. 'What is behind all that? What is the mystery?' I didn't know that it was all just fantasy that I had put inside my own head. But it doesn't matter. It existed. And the dick. It wasn't just the dick. John Homes had a big dick, too, and I never wanted to touch it, to be honest with you. Bill had a pretty one. And that sort of cocky nasty attitude really worked well with the rest of the package to the point that you just wanted a piece of it - c'mon, if you were gay."

"And there was a place called The Gold Cup - I hated it. It was on Hollywood and Las Palmas, with a news rack in the back, and with a waitress, a redhead. She reminded me of Flo on Alice on TV. Anyway, Eld often sat in there and I tried to talk to him many times and he wouldn't give me the time of day. And it was one of the only times I can remember of wanting to possess somebody completely, sexually. One day, somebody called Tom brought him over to my office, and said, 'Here's Bill. He'd like to make a movie.' And I tell you I about fell off my chair. The sense of excitement - I can't imagine feeling that today about anybody."

"He did a solo for Reflections of Youth. And I wish I had done a whole talking segment with him. I wish I had used him as a character - whatever he wanted to play in the whole movie. That is one of my regrets."

"It was beautiful. It was pleasant. He was a nice guy. We really got along. Interesting thing about him - when he really got hard, he turned his ass to me and pushed his dick backward toward the camera. I didn't realize that he liked to be fucked. He told me that years later. And I wasn't smart enough because I was so wrapped up in my own fantasy about Bill Eld. I didn't want to give him the space that he truly deserved. But his dick got hard when he did that, and I wish I had understood it. But he was very pleasant. We spent an hour together, and he came."

Ross's debut as a director, Reflections of Youth "had one of the biggest openings in the history of the Century Theatre."

Newspaper Ad for 

Reflections of Youth

IMDB's description of the film: "With a partial 1950's soundtrack, the excitement of young lust and the innocence of growing up, this seems to be a test run for Ross's Crusin' 57. The film opens with a view of a high school baseball game as we then follow a young blonde haired student approaching the new kid on campus. The two strike up a conversation as the blonde begins to talk about some of the local gossip around town. The film then goes into five different vignettes as they are introduced by the two talking students. The first is about another student's gay sex affair, the second is about how the blonde watches the gym teacher (Bill Eld) masturbate, the third goes into explicit detail about the sex lives of a gay couple that live on Clayton Street, follow(ed) with the fourth, which is about how one of the Clayton Street lovers seduces his straight friend while his partner is away. The blonde then concludes with the story of two Junior high students sexually experimenting with each other. The film closes with a sex scene between the blonde and the new student as they start in the school showers and then make their way to the locker room. After they get dressed, they walk away together as another school day is finished."

In 1977, a few years after the apex of his career, Bill Eld sat down for an interview with In Heat magazine, describing his history and involvement in the gay porn industry. Here's an excerpt from that interview:  

IN HEAT: How did you get involved in the 'porn' industry?

ELD: It was a lot of things. People were always approaching me. 'Course, I was working out in gyms and was very athletic, and also I was dancing at the time – that was in San Francisco, up on Broadway. I was about 23, and did an adagio act with a girl. It was a love act, but not anything like they have in New York. You couldn't just get up there and act like you were screwing, or whatever – it had to be part of the act. Like I said, I was approached by a lot of people and started doing a lot of photography work. Then I was asked to so some loops, and eventually people started getting ahold of me or I'd get ahold of them, and it grew and grew until it's where it's at now.

IH: Were you more into the gay or straight area at first?

ELD: Oh, the gay, because at that time there was so much straight stuff on the market. The gay stuff on the market was good, but not that good; and if you had the necessary equipment, as they say, you stood out. And, of course a gay is going to be more attracted to a male's body than a straight is, anyway. You could have a beautiful body and work in straight porno pictures and nobody gives a fuck. The majority of the audience, they're not looking at the guy.

IH: A trend is going on with the newer porn stars, like Peter Berlin and Jack Wrangler, to market their own photos and control their career. Had you ever thought along those lines?

ELD: I suppose I could do it if that's all I wanted to do. but that's not all I want to do. (Jim) Cassidy was very successful – I would say he was probably the first to really market himself. It depends on what you're geared to.

IH: Do you think the porn industry has changed?

ELD: Oh, yeah... everything changes, or it dies. Porn's much better. They're putting a little art, a little professionalism into it. The audience demands it, I think.

IH: Are porn actors being treated better, or worse?

ELD: I think they're being treated the same. You've still got the charlatans in the business. Until they legalize porn or make it illegal – one of the two – you can't keep it on the line. One day it's legal, the next day it isn't – that's why it's where it's at, and that's why it's in the hands of the people it's in.

IH: You came back to New York not too long ago after living in California. How do the working opportunities compare?

ELD: There's more work out there, but better jobs here. Because, number one, you've got more people out there – l mean more people they're looking for. You could take seven-eighths of the United States and move them all to California and there wouldn't be that much of a social change. But you move them to New York and it's a different world. To be successful – or just to live – in this city, it's three times harder. The pace is much faster. But I find it easier to live in New York. I like doing things late at night. I can do it here, whereas in L.A. you're tied down to an automobile – you can't do anything without a car, and that gets to be a bore. That's what the lifestyle is out there. They want to live it, fine – I don't, so I don't live there.

IH: In your photos, you often come across looking surly. Are you?

ELD: I find this – a lot of people approach me and they're very shy, because when I photograph, I come across very mystic, and I have... well, a look. It's enticing, but it's stand-offish – you know: "Don't touch." I'm not that way, but that's the way I photograph. That's what sells, and fortunately I've worked with people like Jim French and Lou Thomas who knew that and caught it, and it's some of the most beautiful work I've ever done. It was enticing, and sexy, and come on-ish, but very "Don't step on me or I'll hit you over the head." And people like that.

1974 

Adam And Yves

1975 

Reflections Of Youth

Good Hot Stuff

1976 

Destroying Angel

1977 

Sex Magic

1978 

A Night at the Adonis
Pool Party
Workmen's Compensation

1979 

Brothers

1981 

Bucky's Triple XXX Rated All-Male Beavers: Solo Studs 1

1983 

Black Velvet: The Big Deal

1984 

Strictly Forbidden

1985

Scared Stiff
Times Square Comes Alive (non-sex role)

1986 

Try To Take It

By 1976, after having appeared in a few films, Eld decided to relocate to New York City. There, to quote someone who knew him at the time, ",,,misery fell in love with him."

He began doing live appearances, working at the Gaiety Burlesque Theatre on Broadway, however he was by then past his peak and his drug use was already beginning to take a toll on his looks - his stock and trade, "and things got rough for him too early."

Sensing a decline in his popularity, Eld made several failed attempts to find employment outside of performing. However, whether due to the fact that his heart wasn't in it or his increasing drug use, he failed at all he tried and nothing stuck.

Photographer Michael Cox recalled seeing Eld at an adult theater sometime in the '80s working as a janitor and remarked about how depressing this was. The star was clearly on a downward spiral.

Toby Ross also ran into him during this time: "Bill Eld ended up as a homeless person in New York, pushing a cart full of his clothes. And whenever he used to see me, he used to run after me with the cart, wheeling up Broadway, screaming, 'Toby, Toby, remember me? I made a film for you once.' And he'd beg me, he'd say 'Can you give me a few bucks?'"

The Rialto Report did an interview/photo feature on a man who photographed a lot of porn stars, strippers and sex workers who worked in New York City during the 1980s. He talked about Eld and featured some pictures of him looking rather badly.

Marc Stevens and Bill Eld

New York City, circa 1986

At that time Eld was living in one of the porn theaters, in the projection room on a mattress. He had lost his teeth and put his dentures in when photographer came in the room. Another photo appeared to be later on after his crack cocaine habit had became worse, he was looking very gaunt. The photographer lost contact with Bill after that, but said he was most likely dead given the path he was going down. He's with Marc Stevens, "a pioneering sex industry figure during the 1970s," in the photo above. Marc died of AIDS in 1989 after drug dealers took over his apartment and let him waste away without any help.

It was reported that Eld ended up dying due to his cocaine addiction in 1987 at the age of 42. His body was supposedly dumped on Hart Island without a name or a stone. However, Eld's story does not end there.

Eld's life and career are revisited in Bill Eld: American Pop Culture Icon, a full-length documentary by director Toby Ross.

Ross serves as onscreen host and narrator as he shares the story of Eld's life. He also connected with a nephew of Eld's, who gave his blessing to the production and ended up supplying plenty of family history, offering viewers a sense of who Eld was before his meteoric rise and subsequent fall.

In an interview given to to David-Elijah Nahmod of South Florida Gay News, Toby Ross waxes enthusiastically about Eld, in conjunction with the documentary's release.

"It's not that I loved the person so much. He was difficult and unreachable, but it's that I was head over heels in love with the legend.

Do you get the difference? I also love stardom to the abyss stories a la Barbara Payton, and Bill is the quintessential prototype for this metaphor. No matter how great you are or how sexy you look, if your drug habit is out of control you have bought a one-way ticket for the train on its way to loser-ville."

"(Eld is...) (t)he only real male pinup whose career transcended his own botched porn career. Sex in an overload abundance can run amok and be a disadvantage without the mental capacity to manage it. His beauty was one thing but then having that fat gorgeous dick was the extra gift that kept him in the rat race and possibly destroyed him; a pipe bomb, a torpedo aimed at his life. He was not really a porn star. That is the uniqueness."

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I had no idea who Bill Eld was before I started working on this post. His photos and name kept popping up while I was doing research on other vintage gay porn stars, so I thought... let's find out who this guy is. I'm glad I did. His story is a tragic one, for sure, from start to finish, though he did seem to enjoy his work. 

Drug addiction is such a sad and harrowing thing. It's a familiar story, one with those caught in its grip, all too often, paying the ultimate price.

I am curious about that documentary. I found it on Amazon for $24.95. But I remain on the fence. Not because of the cost, but because of Toby Ross's involvement. He strikes me as a bit of an opportunist and a nut bag. 

When I look at images of Bill Eld? 

I do not see what Toby Ross claims to see... which makes me think the documentary is more Barnum & Bailey than fact - a bit of product that has more to do with keeping Toby Ross relevent and less to do with it subject? That kind of self-serving narrative rarely makes for a good documentary. If anyone's seen it, please let me know what you thought of it. 

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That's all for now...

My list of vintage gay porn stars is nearing its end, but, for now, I continue to turn a page and find another story to tell. 

Until next time...

Thanks for reading. 

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Miss World - Hole

When The Drugs Don't Work - Doobie