Acquired Tastes XLIII
Gay Pulp Fiction, Part 154
Frenchy's Gay Line
Publication Page
The imprint published a dozen titles between 1969-1971, operating out of the Le Salon Bookstore, in lower Nob Hill at 1124 Polk Street in San Francisco, CA 94109. It maintained a P.O. Box: P.O. Box 2261 in San Rafael, CA and was distributed by Oasis Periodical Distributors.
Le Salon Bookstore
In addition, several book retailers list that it had some type of association with the Eros Publishing Company, which operated in Wilmington, DE.
Here's the imprint's birth, as recalled by author Richard Fullmer (aka: Dirk Vanden), who, back in 1969, was trying to determine if the three titles he'd written for Greenleaf Classics were selling:
"...quite honestly my memory of the circumstances surrounding that book is quite hazy. I must have seen an ad somewhere and submitted to them. I found my first porn publisher (name I no longer remember) through an ad in The Daily Californian, the UC Berkeley paper, which led to three books. They were based in the San Fernando Valley in suburban L.A. I was a student at Berkeley, working my way through college. I don't recall ever meeting the Frenchy's people, although I was living in San Francisco at the time. It seems now like it was all done through the mail."
"There was no way I could determine if my books were selling or not except by going into Le Salon, San Francisco’s premier dirty-book store, and asking the owner, 'The Dirty Old Frenchman' (as he called himself), how they were selling. After a few visits, he told me of his plans to start a publishing company of his own, calling it Frenchy’s Gay Line, and asked if I was interested in writing his first book. He offered $500 and wanted something ASAP."
I also Googled author Larry Mellman's name and discovered that, not only was he still very much with us (and a real person), but lived across the river in St. Paul, MN. I caught him a few days before he was going to be celebrating the release of his new book, The Man The Sapphire Eyes, the second in his Ballot Boy trilogy.
I emailed him, asking if he was the author of The Sins of Socrates, one of Frenchy Gay Line's novels. Imagine my delight when he replied.
"...yes, that was me. It was supposed to have been published under a pen name but they screwed up (also stiffed me for half the fee), but oh, so long ago."
Queried, he then wrote:
I'll share more about Larry Mellman and Richard Fullmer later in this post.
But that's all I could really find out about this imprint, other than I found a note on Hommi Publishing's Big Ass List that the first cover illustrations was done by its author, Dirk Vanden/Richard Fullmer. And, since it appears that all of the artwork is quite similar, one could assume that he's responsible for all - though that's pure speculation on my part.
Here's the entire output of Frenchy's Gay Line. Fortunately, I was able to track down all twelve covers.
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I Want It All
Author: Dirk Vanden
1969
FGL-11
"I Want It All started out as a gay pulp, written for Frenchy's Gay Line in 1969. It introduces Warren Miller, a young man, working as a cowboy in Colorado, exploring his sexuality in a changing world."
"About that time, I started finding very positive reviews of my books in the gay bar newspapers and 'underground' magazines, and I soon made the acquaintance of the owner/publisher/editor/head-writer of California Scene, who gave I Want It All a very good review and asked if I’d let him publish an interview in his magazine. I was thoroughly flattered and agreed, and the next Sunday, at the Speak-Easy bar, he tape-recorded an interview, which he published the next month. It detailed all of the problems I’d had with both Greenleaf and Frenchy’s."
Fullmer died of cancer at his home in Carmichael, California in October 2014.
According to Library Thing, the title page of this book lists the author as Allen James, which was the pen name John Ahern had hoped to publish this title under. Allen James is credited with a number of novels in the genre, as published by Green Leaf Classics, 101 Books, and Magcorp Publishing.
Phil Andros is actually the name of a gay character created by author Samuel M. Steward, one whose name he occasionally employed as a pseudonym. In a blurb touting a collection of Steward's essays on the site LibraryThing, we learn:
"Samuel Steward (1909-93) was an English professor, a tattoo artist for the Hells Angels, a sexual adventurer who shared the considerable scope of his experiences with Alfred Kinsey, and a prolific writer whose publications ranged from scholarly articles to gay erotica (the latter appearing under the pen name Phil Andros). Perhaps his oddest authorial role was as a monthly contributor between 1944 and 1949 to The Illinois Dental Journal, an obscure trade publication for dentists, where writing as Philip Sparrow he produced a series of charming, richly allusive, and often quirky essays on a wildly eclectic assortment of topics. In Philip Sparrow Tells All, Jeremy Mulderig has collected thirty of these engaging but forgotten columns, prefacing them with revealing introductions that relate the essays to people and events in Steward's life and to the intellectual and cultural contexts in which he wrote during the 1940s. In these essays we encounter such famous friends of Steward as Gertrude Stein, André Gide, and Thornton Wilder. We hear of his stint as a holiday sales clerk at Marshall Field's (where he met and seduced fellow employee Rock Hudson), of his roles as an opera and ballet extra in hilariously shoddy costumes, of his hoarding tendencies, his disappointment with the drabness of men's fashions, and his dread of turning forty. We go along with him to a bodybuilding competition and a pet cemetery, and together we wander the boulevards of Paris and the alleys of Algiers. Throughout, Mulderig's entertaining annotations explain the essays' wide-ranging allusions and also highlight their gay subtext, which constituted a kind of private game that Steward played with his mostly oblivious audience of Midwestern dentists. The first collection of any of Samuel Steward's writings to be republished since his death in 1993, Philip Sparrow Tells All makes these lost essays available to a broad readership that Steward imagined but never actually enjoyed when he wrote them. In doing so, it takes a major step toward documenting his important place in twentieth-century gay literature and history."
In the 1960's after establishing a shop in Chicago where he practiced his art on sailors and streetwalkers, he moved to San Francisco, where he became the official tattoo artist of The Hell's Angels.
According to Hommi Publishing's Big Ass List, this book is about politics and sex. And, given the pen name, I think it can probably be credited to John Ahern/Allen James - whoever they might be.
According to a note on Hommi Publishing's Big Ass List, this is a collection of short stories - the first of two collaborations by Peter Harnes and Allan James.
This is the first appearance of the Global Press symbol in the upper left of the cover.
This is the second book in the trilogy. The third is All Is Well, which was first published by The Other Traveller imprint in 1971 and then republished in 1972 by Olympia Press.
"Larry Mellman was born in Los Angeles and educated in literature, political science, and life at the University of California, Berkeley. He has worked as a printer and journalist in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and St. Paul, Minnesota. Larry also worked with Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground on the Exploding Plastic Inevitable in NY, Provincetown, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, was mentored by Dean Koontz, and shared a palazzo in Venice with international opera singers Erika Sunnegårdh and Mark Doss.
While living in Venice for many years, Larry also taught English, led tours, and immersed himself in the history and art of the Venetian Republic. The Ballot Boy was born in Venice and completed in St. Paul.
Larry is a lifelong social activist and writer, a voracious reader and researcher, an opera fanatic, and devoted walker. He currently lives in St. Paul with his partner of twenty-one years and his ex-wife of twenty-five years. His son is a pianist devoted to blues and jazz."
Larry mentioned this in an email:
Adding both of these to my summer reading list!
Ah, ever since Richard Amory's Song Of The Loon became a best-seller, no vintage gay imprint is complete without a contribution to this particular sub-genre.
And that's the story for Frenchy's Gay Line.
I Want It All was originally published by Frenchy’s Gay Line in 1969 - the first of the series. In 1970, it was revised by the author and republished by The Other Traveller imprint and then still later published in a newly revised edition by Brass Ring Books in 1995.
This title was the first of a trilogy of books which, in 2011, were revised by the author and collected in one volume as All Together by loveyoudivine Alterotica. The collection received a Lambda Literary Award for Gay Erotica in 2012.
This title was the first of a trilogy of books which, in 2011, were revised by the author and collected in one volume as All Together by loveyoudivine Alterotica. The collection received a Lambda Literary Award for Gay Erotica in 2012.
Richard Fullmer
Richard Fullmer (Dick Vanden) was a gay pioneer of sorts, he is considered the first gay Mormon writer and part of a wave of writers who were part of the first significant group of gay authors to write for an almost exclusively gay readership.
Using the pen name Dirk Vanden, between 1969 and 1971 he published seven novels with Greenleaf Classics, Frenchy’s Gay Line, and Olympia Press.
"I wrote I Want It All for him ('The Dirty Old Frenchman') in two months, from April 22nd to June 20th (of 1969). I based it on one of Herb’s favorite bath-house-sling acid fantasies: being gang-raped by cowboys."
"About that time, I started finding very positive reviews of my books in the gay bar newspapers and 'underground' magazines, and I soon made the acquaintance of the owner/publisher/editor/head-writer of California Scene, who gave I Want It All a very good review and asked if I’d let him publish an interview in his magazine. I was thoroughly flattered and agreed, and the next Sunday, at the Speak-Easy bar, he tape-recorded an interview, which he published the next month. It detailed all of the problems I’d had with both Greenleaf and Frenchy’s."
The 'problems' Fullmer was referring to had to do with the way publishers would alter or misrepresent his work once it went to print. Greenleaf Classics, for instance, inserted a number graphic sex scenes written by someone else into Fullmer's novels. He also bemoaned how publishers, wishing to drive sales, would use sexually explicit covers and change the titles of his novels which he felt misled the reader. Non-payment of royalties was also cited as a frequent, common issue.
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The Search
Author: John Ahern
1969
FGL-12
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The Joy Spot
Author: Phil Andros
1969
FGL-13
"Samuel Steward (1909-93) was an English professor, a tattoo artist for the Hells Angels, a sexual adventurer who shared the considerable scope of his experiences with Alfred Kinsey, and a prolific writer whose publications ranged from scholarly articles to gay erotica (the latter appearing under the pen name Phil Andros). Perhaps his oddest authorial role was as a monthly contributor between 1944 and 1949 to The Illinois Dental Journal, an obscure trade publication for dentists, where writing as Philip Sparrow he produced a series of charming, richly allusive, and often quirky essays on a wildly eclectic assortment of topics. In Philip Sparrow Tells All, Jeremy Mulderig has collected thirty of these engaging but forgotten columns, prefacing them with revealing introductions that relate the essays to people and events in Steward's life and to the intellectual and cultural contexts in which he wrote during the 1940s. In these essays we encounter such famous friends of Steward as Gertrude Stein, André Gide, and Thornton Wilder. We hear of his stint as a holiday sales clerk at Marshall Field's (where he met and seduced fellow employee Rock Hudson), of his roles as an opera and ballet extra in hilariously shoddy costumes, of his hoarding tendencies, his disappointment with the drabness of men's fashions, and his dread of turning forty. We go along with him to a bodybuilding competition and a pet cemetery, and together we wander the boulevards of Paris and the alleys of Algiers. Throughout, Mulderig's entertaining annotations explain the essays' wide-ranging allusions and also highlight their gay subtext, which constituted a kind of private game that Steward played with his mostly oblivious audience of Midwestern dentists. The first collection of any of Samuel Steward's writings to be republished since his death in 1993, Philip Sparrow Tells All makes these lost essays available to a broad readership that Steward imagined but never actually enjoyed when he wrote them. In doing so, it takes a major step toward documenting his important place in twentieth-century gay literature and history."
In the 1960's after establishing a shop in Chicago where he practiced his art on sailors and streetwalkers, he moved to San Francisco, where he became the official tattoo artist of The Hell's Angels.
Samuel M. Steward
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Manager
Author: Allen James
The 1970
FGL-14
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A Collection Of Short Stories Featuring...
Arms of Arum
Author: Peter Harnes
The 1970 FGL-15
A copy of this title was up for sale during the first week in May on eBay, listed at $124.75.
I can't make out what is in that little 'cloud' symbol just to the right of center at the top of the cover. Any clue?
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The Thief
Author: Nala Macnore
1970
FGL-16
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Snowbird
Author: Peter Harnes
Birthday for Ben
Author: Allan James
1970
FGL-17
The second of two collaborations by Peter Harnes and Allan James. These two collections are the only books credited to Peter Harnes.
Available as a downloadable PDF or ebook at Hommi Publishing.
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Love
Author: Roger
1970
FGL-18
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All or Nothing
Author: Dirk Vanden
1970
FGL-19
TC-515
From Good Reads:
"You met him first in I Want It All - Bill Thorne, the mechanic from the local gas station: 'tall, muscular, dark-haired, and hung like a small stallion' – out in the dark alley behind Red’s Bar and Billiards, in Gorman, Colorado, where he and twelve other drunken ranch-hands and cowboys raped a hitch-hiking queer. As a result of the rape he lost his best friend, and discovered something about himself that he’d never suspected."
This is a bio I found for author Larry Mellman:
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The Sin of Socrates
Author: Larry Mellman
1970 FGL-20
"Larry Mellman was born in Los Angeles and educated in literature, political science, and life at the University of California, Berkeley. He has worked as a printer and journalist in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and St. Paul, Minnesota. Larry also worked with Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground on the Exploding Plastic Inevitable in NY, Provincetown, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, was mentored by Dean Koontz, and shared a palazzo in Venice with international opera singers Erika Sunnegårdh and Mark Doss.
While living in Venice for many years, Larry also taught English, led tours, and immersed himself in the history and art of the Venetian Republic. The Ballot Boy was born in Venice and completed in St. Paul.
Larry is a lifelong social activist and writer, a voracious reader and researcher, an opera fanatic, and devoted walker. He currently lives in St. Paul with his partner of twenty-one years and his ex-wife of twenty-five years. His son is a pianist devoted to blues and jazz."
Author: Larry Mellman
Larry mentioned this in an email:
"Last year, for my birthday, a friend gave me a copy of The
Sin of Socrates (Frenchy's Gay Line). He found it on Amazon!? It was the
last one. The cover art is quite chaste..."
He just released the second book in his Ballot Boy trilogy.
The Ballot Boy
Author: Larry Mellman
Available at Amazon as a paperback or Kindle download.
The Man With Sapphire Eyes
Author: Larry Mellman
*New Release*
Available at Amazon as a paperback or Kindle download.
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Come Naked to My Arms Gentle Savage
Author: Sebastian Lamb
1971
FGL-21
And yet another new logo, this one just right of center at the top of the cover.
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Tuesday Mirror Chronicles
Author: Peter Hughes
The 1971
FGL-22
Peter Tuesday Hughes (quite the pen name) was very prolific with a total of 33 books in the genre, many of which were for the Blueboy Library, Adonis, Greenleaf Classics, or HIS69 imprints. . He primarily wrote gay-oriented sci-fi and mystery novels, and is noted as an early exponent of the gay gothic subgenre. In 2013, Peter Tuesday Hughes' 'Bruce Doe' novels, a series of six mysteries, were named one of the top ten mystery series by The Lambda Literary Review.
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Next week: another vintage gay imprint and it's cover art.
Until then, thanks for reading!
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All Or Nothing - Cher
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1 comment:
Try as I may, I couldn't make out the word in the cloud....
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