S4E25: William Higgins / A Married Man / Kip Noll

[00:00:00] In his 40 year career, William Higgins built a catalog of over 3000 films and is considered

[00:00:05] by his peers as one of the most influential and beloved gay porn directors of all time.

[00:00:10] A married man, directed by William Higgins and starring Jack Wrangler was the director's

[00:00:15] debut into the maddening world of gay erotic cinema.

[00:00:19] The film was so wrought with many location issues, technical glitches, and demanding

[00:00:24] stars that it led to Higgins calling it quits before the movie was released.

[00:00:29] Kip Noel was a fantasy for so many men.

[00:00:32] The first major twink in gay adult film history.

[00:00:36] A straight man with a wife, every few months he would shake off his life and travel the

[00:00:41] country as Kip Noel.

[00:00:43] The bona fide gay porn superstar.

[00:00:46] In this episode we're going to cover William Higgins, a gay porn director and founder of

[00:00:50] Catalina Video who immediately established a reputation of casting young, fresh, handsome

[00:00:55] models in full-length features with relatable storylines.

[00:00:59] His film, A Married Man, a classic gay porn film by a director who almost left the business

[00:01:05] before the film was seen by a savvy theater owner and given a proper successful release.

[00:01:10] And finally we will celebrate Kip Noel, a gay porn star who was lusted after by what

[00:01:14] it seems like almost everyone and whose popularity was unequaled during his time in the industry

[00:01:20] until he just disappeared.

[00:01:22] This is Demis Defined Gay Porn.

[00:01:23] My name is Aike Grande and if you watch gay porn I've definitely helped to get off.

[00:01:32] Before we continue please don't forget that you can help this channel and this audio

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[00:01:51] William Higgins was born George William Fisher Jr. on December 19th 1942 in Oklahoma

[00:01:57] and raised in Texas.

[00:01:59] In high school Higgins developed an interest in filmmaking and photography.

[00:02:04] Part of what led to Higgins career in filmmaking was a foreign film he sought out while on

[00:02:08] visit to upstate New York.

[00:02:10] The film was I Am Curious Yellow, a 1967 film by Vilgot Krollmann.

[00:02:22] Higgins was running a stained glass business in Houston where he taught housewives how

[00:02:26] to make stained glass decorations for their homes.

[00:02:30] At this point in his life Higgins was approaching 35 and had never had sex with

[00:02:34] a man or a woman.

[00:02:36] He explored his sexuality by going to theaters to watch gay porn.

[00:02:41] Higgins thought the movies he was watching were so bad that he decided to, you guessed

[00:02:46] it, move to California and start trying to make videos himself.

[00:02:50] To prepare himself he bought a copy of Steven Ziplos recently published The Filmmaker's

[00:02:54] Guide to Pornography which provided a checklist of various sexual acts that should be

[00:02:59] included in straight porn films along with instructions on how best to film them.

[00:03:05] From there Higgins purchased a second hand 16mm movie camera and began cruising the local

[00:03:10] gay clubs like the Midtown Spa, a popular bath house in Houston.

[00:03:20] In early 1978 Higgins set out for San Francisco but only got as far as Los Angeles.

[00:03:26] He met a man who would help him produce the film that would become A Married Man

[00:03:30] starring Jack Wrangler.

[00:03:31] The experience was horrendous enough for Higgins to almost call it quits after just starting

[00:03:36] his directing career.

[00:03:37] Discouraged after the manager of the Adonis Theater refused to play his film, Higgins

[00:03:42] went to the 55th Street Playhouse where he struck a deal and A Married Man was a modest

[00:03:46] hit.

[00:03:47] Higgins returned to LA, took a job as a clerk at a bath house in the San Fernando

[00:03:51] Valley and settled in Venice Beach.

[00:03:55] While living in Venice Beach Higgins couldn't help but notice all the young, half-naked

[00:03:59] men sunbathing, surfing and roller skating.

[00:04:03] He thought to himself this would be an interesting movie and began to shoot footage with film that

[00:04:07] was left over from A Married Man.

[00:04:10] The footage he shot sat on a shelf until Monroe Bealer, the owner of Century Theater in

[00:04:15] California reached out to him and said he really liked The Married Man and was

[00:04:19] hoping Higgins would make another film.

[00:04:22] Higgins agreed and put together the film that would be called The Boys of Venice,

[00:04:26] the film that would launch his career.

[00:04:34] The Boys of Venice was a box office success and decisively launched William Higgins'

[00:04:38] career.

[00:04:39] Higgins set up Laguna Pacific to handle production and Catalina to handle distribution and went

[00:04:44] on to become one of the most prolific gay porn filmmakers in the United States.

[00:04:49] Over the next five years, he made 20 movies and set new production standards for gay

[00:04:53] pornography single-handedly codifying the California aesthetic called The William

[00:04:58] Higgins Tradition.

[00:05:00] The William Higgins Tradition was based off of J. Brian, a contemporary of Higgins and

[00:05:06] his publication Golden Boys.

[00:05:08] In fact, one of Higgins most successful films, Class for Union, is modeled directly after

[00:05:14] J. Brian's pool party.

[00:05:24] Higgins launched several modeling careers, among them Kip Noel, Leo Ford, J. W. King and

[00:05:32] Derek Stanton just to name a few.

[00:05:51] What did happen was one of Higgins' talent scouts took pictures of an underage teen.

[00:05:57] The film was developed by the FBI posing as a film lab, something that was not uncommon

[00:06:01] at the time.

[00:06:03] Higgins' house was raided and surrounded by police cars and after being interviewed

[00:06:07] and processed, Higgins and the talent scout were released.

[00:06:11] Higgins then went on a world tour with his talent agent and left for Australia, Thailand,

[00:06:17] Germany, Spain, Portugal and Amsterdam.

[00:06:22] During this time and back in the US, the charges related to the incident were dropped.

[00:06:27] But by that point, Higgins decided he would stay abroad in search of a better legal environment

[00:06:32] for gay erotica.

[00:06:39] Higgins settled in Amsterdam and opened Drake's, a club with a variety of activities

[00:06:44] including male hustlers, dark rooms, glory holes, porn and an S&M basement.

[00:06:50] And food service.

[00:06:51] Things are very different in other countries.

[00:06:54] Until there, Higgins found it harder to shoot since men in European countries were not as

[00:06:58] eager to have sex on camera just for money.

[00:07:01] Around this time, Higgins would meet two Czech men that began to work at the bar as escorts.

[00:07:07] These two escorts told him he will find men willing to work in the Czech Republic.

[00:07:12] Higgins, excited by the prospect of beautiful young gay men, moved to Prague and quickly

[00:07:17] established himself there, opening a drakes and getting back into filmmaking.

[00:07:22] Higgins had recently sold Catalina and along with it is right to the name William Higgins,

[00:07:27] during which time he began making films under the name Wim Hof and making films for Dirk

[00:07:32] Yates and later All Worlds Video.

[00:07:34] A technicality gave him the use of the name William Higgins again.

[00:07:38] By this point, Higgins noticed the saturation of the market and the decline in profit.

[00:07:43] He also saw huge potential with the internet.

[00:07:46] So he started his site, Euro Military, which would later morph into William Higgins.

[00:08:38] In hindsight, William Higgins didn't grasp the magnitude of what he was doing.

[00:08:43] When he began his career, there were a handful of producers on the west coast and east coast

[00:08:47] producing gay porn.

[00:08:48] By the time he was inducted into the Gavians, the industry had flourished into the well

[00:08:53] oil juggernaut it is today.

[00:08:56] In an age when directors and performers come and go, from visual iteration to iteration,

[00:09:02] Higgins was one of the very few who maintained relevance over decades.

[00:09:07] On December 21st, 2019, George William Fisher Jr., William Higgins died of a heart attack

[00:09:14] at the age of 77 in Amsterdam.

[00:09:19] Higgins' career began in the 1970s, pushing the envelope of what is and is not protected

[00:09:24] by the First Amendment of the United States.

[00:09:26] He would go on to be recognized for his signature look as well as run head first

[00:09:30] into the dot com era where his sites have found a formidable home.

[00:09:36] Here's to the hours upon hours of pleasure William Higgins has given the world.

[00:09:46] In 1978, William Higgins set out for San Francisco but only got as far as Los Angeles.

[00:09:52] There, Higgins headed for Hollywood where he was told there was a gay area of town.

[00:09:57] As he drove down Santa Monica Boulevard and began to see hustlers hitchhiking, he knew

[00:10:02] he was at the right place.

[00:10:05] At the French Market, a popular restaurant for gay men in West Hollywood, Higgins met

[00:10:09] a man and told him he'd specifically come out to California to make a gay porn film.

[00:10:14] The man, going by the name of Edward Higgins, ended up helping Higgins find his cast as

[00:10:20] well as use of his apartment for the shoot.

[00:10:22] This is where Higgins would get his stage name, copying Joe Gage and his business

[00:10:26] partner who went by the Gage Brothers.

[00:10:33] When you watch the film, the first thing that attacks your senses is the theme song.

[00:10:37] That would be Jack Wrangler singing the theme song of the film.

[00:10:41] Higgins met Jack Wrangler who at the time was already a star after finding his manager.

[00:10:47] The two hit it off at the start but during production there was tension between the star,

[00:10:51] the director who was credited to be Steve Scott and Higgins.

[00:10:55] Higgins attributes this to Wrangler wanting to sing the theme song of the film.

[00:11:00] Higgins reluctantly agreed and paid for three hours of studio time and Wrangler

[00:11:03] recorded the track Smoggy City.

[00:11:06] To make matters worse, Wrangler refused to allow the movie to be released if it didn't

[00:11:10] include the song.

[00:11:17] The filming of a married man went badly in so many ways.

[00:11:21] First and foremost, nobody knew how to make a movie.

[00:11:24] None of the three principals got along and they all disagreed on shooting, performance

[00:11:28] and editing.

[00:11:30] An add to the fact that yeah, Higgins had an interest in photography in high school

[00:11:34] but he had virtually no previous experience in photography or filming.

[00:11:39] An add to all of this that Higgins, not having that much sexual experience himself, had never

[00:11:43] seen two guys have sex up close until directing a married man.

[00:11:48] A married man was shot over the course of 24 hours.

[00:11:51] The film's location had been scouted by Higgins in the cast four or five times before

[00:11:56] the shoot.

[00:11:57] It was a mansion in the Hollywood Hills that belonged to a man who sold it to

[00:12:00] a Russian princess who was set to own it in a couple of days.

[00:12:05] On the day of the shoot, the mansion was seized by US Marshals after the owner declared bankruptcy.

[00:12:11] After shooting a bit of the first scene, Higgins and his crew were told to leave.

[00:12:15] Luckily, they were able to shoot the rest of the movie in Ed Higgins' apartment.

[00:12:25] A married man is a story about a gardener for a wealthy couple who was caught by his

[00:12:28] employer having sex with a hitchhiker friend Chuck.

[00:12:41] Before she fires him, her gardener in true snitch form tells her about her husband's

[00:12:46] gay infidelities with the butler and the chauffeur.

[00:12:49] Like what?

[00:12:50] There's been some mighty strange things happening since you've been away.

[00:12:54] I don't understand.

[00:12:55] I'm really, I really don't understand.

[00:12:57] Through a series of flashbacks, we too can partake in the story.

[00:13:01] You're lying to me.

[00:13:03] You're fired.

[00:13:05] The wife is in disbelief when she finds out everything she was told is true and

[00:13:09] even her father tried to hide it from her.

[00:13:11] There really isn't much meat to this film, although I can't knock it.

[00:13:15] But a Joe Gage film, it is not.

[00:13:17] In between the sex scenes, Higgins does his best at stylistic shots.

[00:13:22] The film overall does not look bad considering time and what inevitably

[00:13:27] happened in post.

[00:13:29] After a grueling shoot, Higgins would now learn the pains of post production

[00:13:37] and there were a lot of them.

[00:13:39] Higgins took the last of his money and sent the film to be processed.

[00:13:43] It was at the lab that he would learn that the film was loaded into the camera

[00:13:47] backwards.

[00:13:48] After some back and forth with the technician, Higgins was able to

[00:13:52] convince him to process the film.

[00:13:54] Meanwhile, through another connection he had made in LA, Higgins was able

[00:13:59] to score a meeting with the owner of a gay theater in Philadelphia who

[00:14:03] was interested in financing the film's release.

[00:14:05] Higgins arranged for his potential financier to see the film.

[00:14:09] In the middle of the screening, the producer got up and walked out

[00:14:13] saying, I don't know who shot this piece of shit, but clearly they

[00:14:16] don't know anything about making a porno movie.

[00:14:19] After that gut-punching experience, Higgins persisted and was able

[00:14:24] to by chance meet another investor who gave him $5,000 to finish

[00:14:28] the film.

[00:14:29] Higgins took the money and took the film to a movie doctor to fix

[00:14:33] a slew of technical mistakes.

[00:14:40] Once the film was finished, Higgins met with the owner of the

[00:14:43] Adonis Theater who refused to show the film because he felt

[00:14:46] Jack Wrangler was overexposed.

[00:14:49] Higgins did have luck in New York, striking a deal with the

[00:14:52] 55th Street Playhouse where a married man would have a theatrical

[00:14:55] release and become a moderate success.

[00:14:58] Monroe Bealer, who owned the Century Theater in California,

[00:15:02] booked the film and took an interest in Higgins as a director.

[00:15:06] From that point on, things got a little easier for Higgins and

[00:15:10] it was the start of his career.

[00:15:12] A married man had its haters when it was released, from theater

[00:15:21] owners to producers to the filmmakers themselves.

[00:15:24] Ed Higgins had such a horrible time making the film that

[00:15:27] William Higgins was able to purchase his part of the rights

[00:15:30] with a big TV he brought with him from Texas.

[00:15:32] Steve Scott, the man who directed the film and William

[00:15:35] Higgins, fractured their friendship during the making of this

[00:15:38] film and would eventually fall out years later.

[00:15:41] A married man was a learning lesson mostly for Higgins, who

[00:15:44] learned, it isn't easy to say you can make a better porn

[00:15:47] film than the ones out there without a swift dose of

[00:15:50] reality. All in all, a married man is a seminal film

[00:15:53] in gay erotic history today and is well regarded

[00:15:56] among its fans.

[00:16:04] What are you doing? How are you?

[00:16:13] I'm Kip. Yeah. How you doing, dude?

[00:16:17] Kip Noel was born Thomas Earl Hagen on August 7th, 1957

[00:16:22] in Greenwich, Connecticut and was raised by his parents

[00:16:25] and was one of seven brothers.

[00:16:27] Keep in mind that none of his brothers did porn.

[00:16:29] Noel's presence created a string of models who adopted

[00:16:32] his last name. As a teenager, Noel began spending

[00:16:35] his time in New York City where he would work as

[00:16:38] a hustler and a dancer and stripper at various gay

[00:16:41] clubs. He moved to San Diego with his wife and went

[00:16:44] to trade school to become a carpenter, plumber,

[00:16:47] auto mechanic, eventually settling into machinist.

[00:16:51] What first compelled you to do your movies?

[00:16:59] To be in films? To start films, Megan?

[00:17:02] I guess my desire and my drive for the first sex.

[00:17:11] The enjoyment.

[00:17:13] Enjoying sex. I love it.

[00:17:16] What's it like doing it? Do you enjoy it?

[00:17:19] Yeah, I really get into what I'm doing when I make a movie.

[00:17:23] In 1975, Noel caught the eye of a talent scout for

[00:17:26] Trademark Studios. Noel was then flown out to

[00:17:29] San Diego to meet the Trademark Studio director

[00:17:31] Mark Reynolds. Reynolds was not impressed by Noel

[00:17:34] at first and was quickly dismissive but decided

[00:17:37] to at least give him an interview. It was during

[00:17:40] that interview that Noel would seduce Reynolds.

[00:17:43] Needless to say, it worked and Noel began making

[00:17:46] loops. Noel's career was officially launched by

[00:17:51] director William Higgins after being recommended to

[00:17:54] Higgins by Monroe Bealer, one of the porno theater

[00:17:57] kings of the West. I'll get to him later.

[00:18:00] Higgins also recounted in an interview with Jerry

[00:18:03] Douglas having a similar first impression of Noel

[00:18:06] as did Reynolds. Higgins thought Noel was

[00:18:09] too street wise but as he got to know him

[00:18:12] he enjoyed his company. Noel was inspired to go

[00:18:15] into modeling by one motivating factor, money.

[00:18:18] Of performing, Noel said

[00:18:21] the adrenaline rush he feels in audiences also

[00:18:24] helps. As a performer, Noel was both

[00:18:27] a bottom and a top. A versatile performer

[00:18:30] motivated by his drive and enjoyment of

[00:18:33] sex. Although Noel identified as straight

[00:18:38] he did go on to say sex was a part of his

[00:18:41] life. Every sex scene was real unless he was

[00:18:44] cast with someone he was not attracted to

[00:18:47] then it was just for pay.

[00:19:11] The people, sometimes they'll cop at it to you.

[00:19:14] Oh yeah? It's kind of bonus people out

[00:19:17] but it takes a long time to work with them. It's alright.

[00:19:20] So there's work, there's a lot of work

[00:19:23] and there's a lot of enjoyment out of it. You gotta work a lot

[00:19:26] to get enjoyment. His filmography was varied

[00:19:29] doing two films a year during his time in the industry

[00:19:32] for fear of wearing out his welcome.

[00:19:35] Hell yeah man, remember last year? Yeah we had a ball.

[00:19:39] No too, that's when we met later. Sure as hell did.

[00:19:47] Noel did want to move into modeling for fashion

[00:19:50] believing that he had the look for it and he was interested in fashion.

[00:19:53] His only recourse was every time he'd go

[00:19:56] to a photographer they would ask him to take his clothes off.

[00:20:02] What are your fans like? How do they react to you?

[00:20:05] Well, as to which aspect?

[00:20:08] To looking at me as

[00:20:12] a person on the screen or a person in life.

[00:20:15] In life how would they react to you? How would they approach you?

[00:20:18] Totally different from what I really am.

[00:20:21] A lot of people come up to me and expect me to be a person

[00:20:24] they see on the screen. Right.

[00:20:27] The person on the screen. So what you project on the screen

[00:20:30] is not what you are as a person?

[00:20:33] Yeah, it's part of my life definitely.

[00:20:36] After appearing in films and realizing his popularity among men

[00:20:39] Noel would take this and get on the road for a month at a time

[00:20:42] and travel to New York, Washington D.C.

[00:20:45] and San Francisco for work

[00:20:47] and then to smaller cities where he would make appearances

[00:20:50] at bars and theaters and shatter attendance records.

[00:20:54] Businessmen, lawyers, congressmen

[00:20:57] internationally celebrated fashion designers

[00:20:59] pop and cultural titans

[00:21:01] boys next door, rabid older men

[00:21:03] soldiers, sailors, marines

[00:21:05] married men, single men, queens, rough leather trade

[00:21:08] all lusted over him. What's it like dancing lion on stage?

[00:21:11] It's a lot of hard work.

[00:21:14] You gotta put out a lot of energy

[00:21:16] and you gotta draw a lot of energy from the people

[00:21:19] because if not they just sit under hands

[00:21:21] and just got caught.

[00:21:23] According to erotic filmmaker and producer Jack DeVoe

[00:21:26] Noel was the perfect example of what would come

[00:21:29] in the next decade, a manufactured star.

[00:21:33] He was in pictures and undeniably had a certain quality

[00:21:36] but if you wanted to know what makes him a porn star

[00:21:39] this guy defied all conventions

[00:21:42] he had a long trunk and rather short legs

[00:21:45] his skin isn't particularly great

[00:21:48] but the mere fact that he has been merchandised

[00:21:51] in loops, books and a few movies and stills

[00:21:54] creates a mystique that he is able to live up to through chutzpah

[00:21:57] and charm. Yet if you were walking on the street

[00:22:00] and I'd never seen him before

[00:22:02] my reaction would be he's okay

[00:22:05] nothing special.

[00:22:26] Kip Noel appeared on the scene and established everything we know today

[00:22:29] about a twink, an attractive young gay man

[00:22:32] with a slender build and little to no body here

[00:22:35] to many he was the iconic William Higgins star

[00:22:38] Noel was as elusive as his brand

[00:22:40] one day he just announced his retirement

[00:22:43] to William Higgins remorse

[00:22:45] Noel told Higgins he wanted to do some work

[00:22:48] Higgins replied I'll get back to you in a week

[00:22:51] one week later Kip Noel was gone

[00:22:54] no one is really sure what happened to Kip Noel

[00:22:57] after he disappeared from the industry

[00:23:00] in an interview with Robert W. Reynolds

[00:23:02] Noel wanted to settle down, have a family

[00:23:05] and raise his children in the same manner he and his brothers were raised

[00:23:08] with the ability to give them everything his parents couldn't give him

[00:23:12] during my research for this segment on Kip Noel

[00:23:16] I happened to come across an obituary

[00:23:19] for a Thomas Earl Hagan who died of myocardial infraction

[00:23:23] in Utah on May 21st 2001 under the care of the Salt Lake Mission

[00:23:28] much of the information seemed to be verified

[00:23:31] by rare interviews Noel had given in the past about his family

[00:23:35] Thomas Earl Hagan, Kip Noel was 43 at the time of his death

[00:23:41] people just stop and look at me and they'll say

[00:23:44] that's Kip Noel, that's Kip Noel

[00:23:47] and it kind of makes me laugh inside

[00:23:50] because I'm just a person like them there

[00:23:53] I'm not everyone's in porn films

[00:23:57] You've been listening to Demystifying Gay Porn

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