S4E30: Arch Brown/The Night Before/Dick Fisk

[00:00:00] Arch Brown, an amateur photographer turned incidental filmmaker, first came to broad public attention through his films.

[00:00:07] During Gay Liberation's first decade, Brown's homoerotic films achieved an international following garnering amazing reviews.

[00:00:16] Jack DeVau entrusted him with a surreal film which has been compared to the works of Jean-Luc Godard, Federico Fellini, Louis Bernoulli and Jean Cocteau.

[00:00:26] So what is the night before trying to tell us?

[00:00:29] He was one of the most famous faces of Gay Erotica in the mid to late 1970s and onward into the 1980s.

[00:00:37] He was manly, oozed sexuality and confidence and that mustache.

[00:00:43] He appeared in only a handful of magazines and movies but his iconic look made him Falcon Studios first instant superstar.

[00:00:51] In this episode, we're going to celebrate Arch Brown, a filmmaker who would become a master craftsman and philanthropist after leaving the corporate world behind.

[00:00:59] His film, The Night Before, a beautifully crafted film that was on Variety's 50 Top Grossing Films list in the nation for five weeks.

[00:01:08] And finally Dick Fisk, the archetypal Castro clone with the perfect physique and generous endowment

[00:01:15] whose contributions to the gay adult entertainment industry still resonate with his admirers today.

[00:01:22] This is Demystifying Gay Porn, my name is Zyke Grande and if you watch Gay Porn I've definitely helped to get off.

[00:01:28] Before we continue please don't forget to help my channel and this audio visual podcast by subscribing, clicking the like button and selecting the bell icon so you can be notified every time I publish a new video.

[00:01:50] Also leave a comment and let me know what you think.

[00:01:58] Arch Brown was born Arnold Kruger in the middle of the depression in Chicago, Illinois.

[00:02:04] Brown describes his upbringing as middle class and Western with his parents raising him in a neighborhood of small bungalows with alleys and garages.

[00:02:13] Brown grew up a shy child, a good student with good grades.

[00:02:18] Brown fumbled through finding his sexuality at an early age, experimenting with a male classmate and later with girls, ultimately realizing he preferred the company of men.

[00:02:29] By the time he was 15, Brown, who now stood 6'3 and confident, knew all the cruising locations in town, taking a lover during high school and one during college as well.

[00:02:40] While in college, Brown wanted to pursue a career in television or theater, having always been a visual person.

[00:02:47] He attended Northwestern University and studied under Alvina Krauss.

[00:02:57] Brown graduated college and returned home, lending a job that paid well enough for him to afford a flight to New York.

[00:03:05] He rented a small apartment and got a job at an off-Broadway theater called The Circle in the Square as a designer and technical assistant.

[00:03:16] It was around this time that Brown would meet Bruce Allen Brown.

[00:03:24] Arch Brown met Bruce in 1965 at a bathhouse near Coney Island.

[00:03:29] It was rocky at first with Brown saying he kept trying to get Bruce's attention, but to no avail.

[00:03:35] When they finally spoke, they hid it off.

[00:03:38] And after their first date, Brown allegedly told his roommate he had met the man he was going to spend the rest of his life with.

[00:03:46] Arch and Bruce had a wonderfully easy lifestyle and partnership that is perfectly documented through good times and hard times in the book Long Time Companions.

[00:04:00] During the mid-1960s, Brown was shuffling through a series of jobs for different companies.

[00:04:06] In the spring of 1967, Brown was a junior executive of a large corporation far removed from the communicative arts.

[00:04:15] Brown also for the first time had a decent salary.

[00:04:19] Little did he know that a year and a half later, he would be thrust into the world of gay erotic cinema.

[00:04:26] Brown lost his job when he and his coworkers stood by an employee who was fired by upper management for thumbing through a Playboy magazine at the office for an assignment.

[00:04:37] Brown and his coworkers argued that this was not Brown's determination, but upper management begged to differ.

[00:04:48] Unemployed and money dwindling in his bank account, Brown began to think of his next move.

[00:04:54] During this time, Brown would also come down with hepatitis.

[00:04:58] He no longer had health insurance and was unable to afford a hospital stay his doctor had recommended.

[00:05:03] Brown was nursed by Bruce at home.

[00:05:06] While ailing, all that kept popping into his head was a camera.

[00:05:10] Once he was feeling better and after browsing through a camera store, Brown decided to buy a small bolex camera.

[00:05:17] Brown would go out and shoot footage in New York.

[00:05:20] Surprisingly, finding a lot of curious and interested models.

[00:05:24] His first sexual shoot came by way of a beautiful blonde man Brown happened upon

[00:05:30] who was intrigued by some public handed shots and went back to Brown's place for more.

[00:05:36] While there, the shoot turned into an impromptu solo session.

[00:05:51] The man came back to see the finished product and enjoyed it but left without asking for a copy.

[00:06:00] In fact, in his book, A Pornographer, Brown talks of innocent outings that would turn into men and women wanting to pose nude for him at his apartment.

[00:06:08] He would show the footage to Bruce who was always excited to see and hear about his exploits as well as friends in private who encouraged him to become an erotic filmmaker.

[00:06:30] I met him first in the village and then met his friend Jason McBride.

[00:06:36] The hustle of the streets was hard, like for just in time.

[00:06:41] But I took them away from all that. They called me Harley and I called them Harley's Angels.

[00:06:49] Many of Brown's early gay film sex loops were shown in private movie clubs like Cinema 7 in New York City.

[00:06:55] You were charged $3 to watch porn films.

[00:06:59] In January 1970, the cinema was raided.

[00:07:03] The owner, employees and several customers were arrested and many of Brown's films were confiscated.

[00:07:10] The projectionist managed to save some of his loops and from that, one of his films, Five Hard Pieces was made.

[00:07:19] As a pornographer, Brown always worked for hire.

[00:07:25] Writing, directing and filming for a flat fee rather than owning and starting a studio or producing and distributing his own films.

[00:07:33] As his films were released and successful, more opportunities came in from theater owners, producers and distributors.

[00:07:40] Because of the success of his films, Brown was in a position of making demands like having a producer pay him a flat fee for all of the production costs up front.

[00:07:50] Many of his earlier films focus on love and tenderness. However, viewers will find that there is something for every kink in Brown's filmography.

[00:07:58] This can be attributed to Brown understanding and experimenting with the thought that the audience walks in with a predetermined idea of what they need to get off.

[00:08:08] His shooting style also consisted of filming as much of a particular scene as he felt was needed before having the models move around or take a break.

[00:08:17] Brown felt it was important to catch as much of the uninterrupted sexual action as possible so long as the attraction was there.

[00:08:25] He would screen and interview his actors and worked best with actors he developed a rapport with.

[00:08:30] As he felt they were true sexual performers.

[00:08:34] He loved the performers. They were less interested in their cocks or tits and more interested in performance.

[00:08:41] His films were filled with ordinary people in ordinary situations that audiences could relate to.

[00:08:48] Thanks a lot for helping.

[00:08:51] That's alright. This is a nice place. It'll be great when you finish it and it's a hot building.

[00:08:58] You know somebody?

[00:09:00] I'm a friend downstairs.

[00:09:02] Brown enjoyed critical acclaim during his time as a filmmaker.

[00:09:05] From the advocates' praise of his films as high quality and beautifully crafted intelligent pieces of erotica that create new standards

[00:09:14] to Warhol's interview magazine admiring his theories on love and sex

[00:09:19] and moving porn into the middle class mainstream of society.

[00:09:28] As theatres began to close and video was on its way in, Brown's career in the adult entertainment industry began to fade.

[00:09:35] At the suggestion of a friend who recognized the wit in his films, Brown turned to playwriting.

[00:09:41] His first play, Newsboy, was produced later that year by the Glines, a non-profit organization in New York,

[00:09:48] went on to a full off-Broadway mounting at the Players Theatre

[00:09:52] and had nine productions across the country over the next 15 years.

[00:09:56] Brown, at the age of 43, had a new career and was a playwright.

[00:10:03] As I mentioned earlier, Brown's relationship with Bruce is well documented by Brown

[00:10:11] and is a great love story with its ups and downs.

[00:10:15] During the 1980s, Bruce's work had taken a mental toll on his health

[00:10:20] and Brown believed that the best way to remedy this was to find a new adventure

[00:10:24] and they did several.

[00:10:27] From owning a bed and breakfast in the US Virgin Islands to moving to Arizona,

[00:10:32] the Browns found themselves in many new experiences.

[00:10:35] One night in Arizona, Bruce collapsed in the kitchen and suffered a brain hemorrhage,

[00:10:41] stroke and a concussion from the fall.

[00:10:44] This resulted in Bruce having a partial frontal lobe removal that would leave him impaired

[00:10:50] and in recovery for two years.

[00:10:52] After two years of an emotionally painful recovery, Bruce gained back some of his memory

[00:10:58] as well as his ability to walk and take care of himself.

[00:11:03] In 1993, Bruce had another brain hemorrhage and died before paramedics could save him.

[00:11:10] Brown, who had always thought he and Bruce would grow old together,

[00:11:14] would pick himself up from his own bouts of depression and move forward.

[00:11:20] He continued to write and would learn to love again.

[00:11:24] He set up the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation,

[00:11:27] which gives grants to gay positive arts projects based on history.

[00:11:50] Arch Brown, Arnold Krueger, died on September 3rd, 2012 in Palm Springs at the age of 76.

[00:12:00] While packing and archiving his work, an unpublished manuscript was discovered

[00:12:05] that would eventually become his memoir, A Pornographer.

[00:12:09] Brown's life and the way of life that had been drilled into his head since he was a child,

[00:12:14] the American dream was changed when he entered the world of erotic filmmaking.

[00:12:19] Brown made the jump from a corporate world into an erotic visual landscape that better suited him.

[00:12:25] He was fortunate to live in a world where he can buy a Bollocks camera, point and shoot,

[00:12:30] and people were practically begging him to be in his shot.

[00:12:33] A very different world than we live in today.

[00:12:36] Through his camera, Brown was not only helping people realize their fantasies.

[00:12:42] He was realizing and satisfying his own.

[00:12:53] Written by director Arch Brown and his partner Bruce,

[00:12:57] the night before is an imaginative classic offering a funny, sweet and at times bizarre take

[00:13:03] on new lovers, their emotion, and lust all depicted in this surreal fantasy film.

[00:13:12] The night before begins with the director setting up the film with a series of pictures,

[00:13:17] introducing us to neighbors in an apartment complex.

[00:13:20] Hank, our protagonist, played by Coke Hennessy, which sounds delicious,

[00:13:25] the first sound we get is a phone conversation,

[00:13:28] showing us Brown employed both sound and voiceovers in the film.

[00:13:32] Paul, a photographer in Central Park, takes pictures of his subject,

[00:13:37] reminiscent of Brown's everyday life.

[00:13:40] In fact, I'll preface that the entire film seems autobiographical

[00:13:44] after reading Brown's posthumously published autobiography.

[00:13:49] It's playful and innocent.

[00:13:51] While walking around the city, our protagonist Hank meets a messenger

[00:13:55] and a cyclist before literally running into Paul

[00:13:58] who invites him to his apartment to watch him develop the film.

[00:14:01] And then we get it.

[00:14:03] The first glimpse of harsh reality in the film.

[00:14:06] Photos of beautiful men and women in various sexual and non-sexual poses

[00:14:11] adorn Paul's apartment.

[00:14:13] After some conversation, we watch as Hank and Paul go throughout their day

[00:14:17] working, visiting friends, grabbing coffee,

[00:14:21] and finally returning to Paul's place for an evening of smoke, wine, and fun.

[00:14:26] Do you work?

[00:14:28] Yeah.

[00:14:31] Do you want to work?

[00:14:33] No. Why should I?

[00:14:35] Don't you get bored?

[00:14:37] New York? No, never happened.

[00:14:41] There's too many people to meet.

[00:14:44] Figure of finding out one person every day.

[00:14:48] Take me a quarter of a million years to know everybody in New York.

[00:14:52] How many people do you think you have yet to meet?

[00:14:55] A few.

[00:14:57] So all you do is meet people. How do you eat?

[00:15:01] Clever hands.

[00:15:04] Their bedroom conversation reveals a way of life gone with the era they lived in.

[00:15:09] After sleeping over, Hank and Paul spend the next day together

[00:15:13] and again roam the streets of New York and playing.

[00:15:17] The soundtrack is both haunting and hopeful.

[00:15:20] Hank wakes up at his apartment and again watches through his window

[00:15:24] as we see Paul and the male subject Pete from the other day.

[00:15:28] All of a sudden, there's heavy breathing and a dirty, dirty voiceover

[00:15:33] leading us into a visually surreal sexual experience.

[00:15:37] Hank is then on the street and begins to follow the messenger he ran into the other day.

[00:15:41] He follows him into a basement apartment where he is naked and ready for an encounter.

[00:15:48] Here we get our first interracial scene covered on DGP in a long time.

[00:15:53] Thank you, Arch Brown.

[00:15:55] After everything is said and done, Hank is left in the basement apartment

[00:15:59] when the messenger leaves without the package he was carrying.

[00:16:02] Hank runs after him and then finds himself on the roof

[00:16:06] where he meets the cyclist he encountered the other day.

[00:16:10] The cyclist leads Hank to a window where he looks in

[00:16:13] and sees Paul with his other friend.

[00:16:15] Hank then climbs the water tower, looks into the water

[00:16:19] and we are now in a room with Hank and Paul painting each other's bodies

[00:16:22] in one of the trippiest sex scenes yet.

[00:16:24] Then, in one of the most daring scenes,

[00:16:27] Hank is streaking through the piers of New York in public

[00:16:30] and into the back of a truck.

[00:16:33] He is given clothes by Tim, who we met earlier.

[00:16:39] The cyclist passes him again as does Tim.

[00:16:43] Hank looks up and sees the messenger posing like a statue

[00:16:47] before running into Tim again.

[00:16:49] Then, all of a sudden, there she is.

[00:16:52] The judgy woman in red from the beginning.

[00:16:55] And then a dance break.

[00:16:58] Hank sits down and opens the portrait he's been holding this entire time.

[00:17:03] A picture with the advocate sprawled across the top.

[00:17:07] We are now transported into the image we've seen before

[00:17:10] in Paul's apartment of two men,

[00:17:12] spinning before an interpretive dance.

[00:17:17] Hank grabs a picture up and the string, holding it all together,

[00:17:24] leads him to the park and into a building

[00:17:27] where a man with a bow tie and apron, who we've seen before,

[00:17:31] takes off his clothes and leads him into a room

[00:17:34] with all of the men we've met throughout the movie.

[00:17:38] He pours champagne and while I'll let you analyze the rest of your story

[00:17:42] Hank wakes up and now we realize it was all a crazy dream

[00:17:45] and just like our dreams sometimes,

[00:17:47] everyone Hank encounters in real life he sees in his dream

[00:17:51] like the Wizard of Oz or something.

[00:17:54] But in this film, director Arch Brown weaves his depictions of lust,

[00:17:59] jealousy, paranoia and insecurity.

[00:18:13] In an interview with Michael's Things,

[00:18:16] a section in Andy Warhol's interview magazine,

[00:18:19] Brown says he didn't intend for the film to be political.

[00:18:22] He wanted to make a good fuck film.

[00:18:25] The night before is a practice in surrealism on film

[00:18:28] expertly put together by Arch Brown.

[00:18:31] You can probably get off to this film,

[00:18:34] but I wouldn't come to it for that purpose first.

[00:18:37] The night before is more an avant-garde film

[00:18:40] The night before is more an avant-garde piece masquerading as a porn film.

[00:18:44] It was Brown's first and only big budget film

[00:18:48] and we are glad to have it in the annals of gay porn history.

[00:18:59] Dick Fisk was born Frank Riky Fitz on May 13th, 1955

[00:19:04] in Atlanta, Georgia.

[00:19:07] Little is publicly known of his childhood,

[00:19:10] but Fisk would attend Emory University in Atlanta

[00:19:13] where he was a math major before dropping out.

[00:19:21] Fisk moved to Los Angeles and began to appear

[00:19:24] in a number of magazines as well as smaller film roles.

[00:19:27] His breakout role finally came when he appeared

[00:19:30] in Falcon Studios' The Other Side of Aspen

[00:19:33] where he would appear in three of the four scenes of the film.

[00:19:36] Fisk's appearance in the film, one of the first to be released on VHS,

[00:19:40] propelled him to the top tier of gay porn stars of his day.

[00:19:44] Fisk's look and demeanor were a huge part of what made him so irresistible.

[00:19:48] The men at the time were mostly blonde,

[00:19:51] clean shaven and younger.

[00:19:53] Fisk was dark, hairy and athletic.

[00:20:00] Fisk would go on to work with Surge Studios

[00:20:03] and again with Falcon Studios in Champs,

[00:20:06] another huge hit before returning to Atlanta to get his shit together.

[00:20:11] Falcon came calling again

[00:20:13] and Fisk made a comeback in the film Spokes.

[00:20:16] On October 31st, 1983, Fisk was killed in a car accident with his lover Joe Howard

[00:20:36] and the driver of the other vehicle in Marietta, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta.

[00:20:42] Dick Fisk, Frank Ricki Fitz, was 28 years old.

[00:20:52] At the time of his death, Fisk was in between films and working at a bar in Midtown Atlanta.

[00:21:12] Dick Fisk had a short but celebrated career in adult entertainment.

[00:21:18] He was an iconic image of the masculine ideal of the day

[00:21:22] and his purity and image are forever encapsulated in the images and films

[00:21:26] he will be a part of for the rest of our time.

[00:21:36] You've been listening to Demystifying Gay Porn

[00:21:38] I am your host, Ike Grande.

[00:22:08] Once again, this is Demystifying Gay Porn.

[00:22:11] My name is Ike Grande and if you watch Gay Porn, I definitely want to go.