“All you need is a trench coat and some amyl nitrate and it’s almost like you’re sitting in the Park Theater again—minus the threat of police raids!”
Jonno, Fleshbot.com

Athletic Model Guild announced today that the two latest releases from the original Bob Mizer archives, Theatre Film Classics: Why the Wooden Indian Wouldn’t and Theatre Film Classics: Billy Boy are now shipping. Why the Wooden Indian Wouldn’t is now available both in the AMG web store and wholesaled with Paladin Video. Billy Boy is available exclusively through the studio’s web store until January 9, 2008, when it too will be available through Paladin Video.

The Theatre Film Classics line, the most recent addition to the AMG Classics brand, represents a crucial period in gay pornography. In the late 1960s, and on into the early 1970s, hardcore pornography was in its infancy. Studios were creating explicit ‘loops’ – or short films – for viewing in adult theatres, and audiences were taking notice. Burgeoning studios like Colt and Falcon were just beginning to take root, and the physique photographers who once dominated the gay nude market, were faced with a major decision – continue producing thinly-veiled beefcake photographs and risk becoming obsolete, or take a dip in the XXX pool.

“AMG’s founder, Bob Mizer, wasn’t ready to give up his stake in gay culture,” AMG President, Dennis Bell said. “He certainly wasn’t willing to give up the empire that he built off his still photography. So he gave sex loops a chance. His approach was very old-school, and didn’t work in the new industry. Customers wanted raw and graphic footage. He loosened up and produced some full-on hardcore as well, which we are releasing in a couple Hardcore Film Classics DVDs, but they still weren’t explicit enough to compete.”
The ‘loops’ are the basis of the Theatre Film Classics line. Mizer shot hundreds of these short, plot-driven stories specifically for the few theatres that would show openly gay material. Most of them premiered at the Los Angeles’ now-shuttered Park Theatre, on Alvarado Street near the original AMG studio compound. During this period of about 3 years, his films became much more graphic and blatantly homosexual. They are the obvious precursors to the handful of hardcore films that Mizer would produce a few years later and then adamantly deny ever having existed.

“Having only made posingstrap shorts for the previous 35 years, he couldn’t keep up with the new, graphic style.” Bell said. “So around 1974, he quit the endeavor altogether, retreated into his studio, and went back to creating nude wrestling and anal erotic films for a small number of private customers. AMG almost completely disappeared from the porn map during those years. Looking back at those first films that flickered on the big screen, today we can see them with a fresh eye. Now they‘re just endearing.”

Billy Boy has a significantly longer run time than Mizer’s signature loops – about one hour and 15 minutes – and was one of the only films of its size and magnitude to come out of the Athletic Model Guild. However, like the five 15-20 minute loops featured in Why the Wooden Indian Wouldn’t, Billy Boy was made specifically for the big screen and has not been seen since its theatrical release 35 years ago.

“What’s great is hardly anyone in the younger generation has seen them,” AMG Promotions Manager, Christopher Trout said. “They were shown a handful of times at theatres like the Park in LA and then they were put back in their canisters and stored away. This is the first time people will be able to watch these films in the privacy of their own homes.”

For additional information, please contact:
Christopher Trout
Athletic Model Guild Media Relations
3020 El Cerrito Plaza – Suite 114
El Cerrito, California 94530
(877) AMG-DIRECT (264-3473)
Web: http://www.AthleticModelGuild.com
E-mail: sales@AthleticModelGuild.com

US DVD Distribution:
Paladin Video
Laurie Rachal
P.O. Box 50492
Henderson, NV 89016
Toll-free: (800) 228-8395
Email: laurie@paladinvideo.net

International DVD Distribution:
COLT Studio Group
Rick Camagro
PO Box 883694
San Francisco, CA 94188-3694
Phone: 800-445-COLT (2658)
Email: wholesale@coltstudio.com