All language subtitles for S05E06 Dark Side of the Ring

You know you people right now
are looking at the greatest

talent in the wrestling
business today!

Christopher Colt,
very shrewd individual.

I've often said that
Chris Colt was the

best wrestler that
nobody ever saw.

I love pain. I'm a
psychopath, I'm sadist,

I'm a masochist.
I do everything.

He was a maniac.
[Laughing]

[Laughing]

A Hells Angel,
a Comanchero,

a space oddity,

and the original rock
and roll wrestler,

Chris Colt tore up
the territories in

the 60s, 70s, and 80s,

thrilling audiences
with unhinged performances

and outlandish characters.

[Commentary] On the seat of his
trunks, "Space Odyssey".

For all we know, Colt might
well be from outer space.

I'm surprised there
were times that

Chris didn't get
stabbed or shot.

That's how good
he was as a heel.

[Audience booing]

A talented performer,
Chris Colt's in-ring antics

mirrored his volatility
outside of the squared circle.

When you looked in
his eyes, I thought,

my God,
this is a madman.

Chris was an outlaw.

He did just what you
didn't want him to do,

and he was happier
doing it his way.

But beneath his
psychedelic appearance,

a darkness lurked...

and Chris' obsession
with death was no act.

Chris had his own
Vietnam war

going on in his head.

I don't think that it was
necessarily white

picket fence, two kids and
a dog or whatever.

That's definitely not the
life that he lived as a child.

"They threw rocks at me.
Called me Queer.

Small towns can be
so weird and cruel."

Driven by demons and
obsessed with death,

he became a cult
icon and a legend.

But who was Chris Colt?

Chris' favorite saying is,
"Hey, man, I'm a homosexual,

I'm a drug addict,
and I'm an alcoholic.

And I'll match
you scar-for-scar,

and you'll look like
a ----ing virgin."

I mean, Ozzy Osbourne
was Mother Teresa...

next to Chris Colt.

♪

♪

Chris Colt stood out from
the average wrestler because

he wasn't just a rock star,
he was the most wild,

over-the-top,
strung out rock star

that he could
possibly be.

I'm Jim Cornette.

Before I started my 40-plus
year career in professional

wrestling, as a kid,
I was a fan of Chris Colt.

Chris was overboard in
every facet of life.

He wanted to have
the most sex,

take the most drugs,
do the whatever.

One time, he gets
booked in a cage match.

♪

What's a cage match for?

It's to keep the
wrestlers in, right?

They tell the fans,
"No way in, no way out.

We're gonna settle this."

But they didn't
count on Chris Colt

taking LSD before
he got in the cage.

So now the match is going on,
there's people watching it.

Everything's normal and
suddenly, Chris Colt...

he starts imagining that
there are giant spiders...

coming over the
cage to get him.

And you've
got to think,

what in the world
would that be like?

You're almost naked,
in spandex, in a ring

surrounded by a cage
with thousands of people

looking at you.

And suddenly,
the giant spiders arrive!

♪

And he's just freaking out.

And finally, he climbs
over the cage...

And he starts
punching people, fans.

Every fan was like
something that

needed to be destroyed,
in his mind.

The people, they can't
see the spiders.

They don't know the
spiders are there.

I'm watching the match from
upstairs in the balcony.

Fans are just on top of him,

and they're just
pummelling him.

But he was invincible.

Chris didn't feel nothing.

He was having bottles
broke over his head.

He's like, "Agh!"
He's like a monster.

I came downstairs.

I picked up a, a metal
folding chair and

I started swinging at,
at the fans.

It just became a riot.

My name is
Bill Anderson,

30-year veteran of
pro wrestling.

Billy Anderson!

In the summer of 1975,
my rookie year,

I became a tag team partner
for crazy Chris Colt,

as Bill Colt.

Cops started arriving,
handcuffs going on people.

All I smelled was mace.

It was in my eyes and it-
everybody's just burning.

The world is coming to
an end in this arena.

And, here I am, 18,
I had drank maybe

two beers in my
entire life...

wanting to be a pro wrestler,
that's all I cared about,

and there's my partner-
a bloody mess,

drugged out of his mind,
beaten up out of his mind-

and that's my new partner
to start my career.

And I'm like, wow, what in
the hell am I getting into?

♪

Chris Colt was one of the
early guys in the business

who was wrapped up in the
rock and roll lifestyle,

and part of rock and roll,
especially in those days,

was drugs, chemicals,
substances.

And when the other wrestlers
were- back in the 60s were,

you know, still more
old fashioned,

Chris was on
the edge of it.

And he spent time
around Janis Joplin.

He worked as a roadie
for Joe Cocker.

So, this is the
notebook in which

Chris Colt started to write

what he wanted
to become a book.

There's about, oh, I think
100 pages or so here

of handwritten notes.

Chris Colt telling
his own story.

♪

My name is Ty Haggard,

and Chris Colt was
my great uncle.

As I read through this stuff,
especially as a teenager,

it was like, holy cow, like
some of this stuff is wild,

like, I don't know if this
is appropriate for

a 13-year-old
to be reading.

But, ah, as I
read that stuff,

I realized that it was
his intention for

his story to get out.

"I was bored in Phoenix one
weekend and decided

I wanted to go to San
Francisco for the first time

'cause it was always
a dream of mine,

all the freedom
of the 60s-

people getting high,
having open sex on bars,

streets,
it was all open.

One night I was walking
to Market Street.

I noticed a girl sitting on
some steps looking lonely,

chugging a gallon of wine.

I gave her a
quick look, said, 'Hi,'

and kept walking.

She responded with, 'Hey,
wanna have a drink?'

I turned and I said,
'Sure.' She just smiled.

Beyond her smile I saw
sincere, deep eyes.

But I also saw tragedy,
and hurt, and pain."

Then, as he's on his
way to leave there,

he stops at a head shop and
sees a poster on the wall and

then realizes that that's
the person that he was

talking to, and it was
Janis Joplin.

And, so he went back
and asked her,

"Why didn't you tell me
who you were?"

And she just wanted a
friend that wasn't there

as a beggar or hanger on,

or somebody who only
liked her because

she was talented
or something.

And he told her- gave her
a hug and told her,

"Janis, I will always
be your friend."

"I styled myself as a male
Janis Joplin in the ring-

jewelry, chains,
clothes, attitude."

She left everything
on the stage

like he left everything
in the ring.

She was living in
the moment,

she didn't care
about the future.

Living fast and
dying young.

That's the path that
he figured he'd take.

♪

Chris told me,
if not once

he told me 500 times...

"I plan on being dead by 27,

just like Janis Joplin."

And he did everything
he could to be there.

Born Charles Fay Harris
in Idaho in 1946,

and raised in the small
town of Drain, Oregon,

Chris' chaotic upbringing
set the tone for

the rest of his life.

Monday through Friday,
it was a very loving home.

They had everything
they wanted and needed.

They had clothes, they
had money, they had food.

It's when they started
drinking on

the weekends that
everything...

Blew up.

My grandparents
drank a lot and,

I've heard stories that on
weekends they would

stop and get a case of
half gallons of whiskey.

They would get drunk
and have brawls and...

the kids were all involved
and it got really brutal.

My name's Rhonda Rondeau,
and I am Chris Colt's niece.

My mother was his sister.

Uncle Chuck, he'll
always be Uncle Chuck.

♪

When he was,
ah, like 10...

he came home from a friend's
house- it was a Saturday.

Everything was
destroyed in the house,

all the dishes
were broke and,

his mom was sitting around
the couch with a bloody face

and there was a gun sitting
next to her that Grandpa

had hit her in the face
with and split the...

handle of the gun.

It was a wooden handle.

"I thought she was dead.
She was flowing with blood.

Blood out of her nose,
mouth, ears.

We put her in the
back seat of the car,

a '56 Chevy,
trying to hide her.

He hadn't had
enough of her yet.

He was a raving maniac.
I screamed,

'I wish you were dead,
you bastard,'

and he hit me.

Broke my ear drum.

He grabbed another gun

and started
firing it at us."

[Gunshots]

"Sis was now
behind the wheel,

successfully driving
down an old dirt road...

making our escape
to the highway."

I think by that time,
my Uncle Chuck was like,

"Oh, my god, I gotta
get out of here."

♪

Some weekends there was
professional wrestling in,

in the area.

My mother and my
Uncle Chuck...

They would drive to Roseburg,
which was the closest

big town for him to watch
wrestling matches.

He just fell in
love with it,

and that's all he
ever wanted to do.

"One day in high school,
Drain High,

we were having an
orientation class,

and the question came up,

what are we going to do
with our lives?

My turn came, and I said,
'Professional Wrestler'.

The class laughed.
It hurt me."

So, my uncle went out for the
wrestling team in high school

and, he made the team,
he was really excited about it.

And, then decided that he
needed to stand out

a little bit and, bleached
his hair blond.

They kicked him off
the wrestling team,

kicked him
out of school.

Then he got rocks
thrown at him.

And so,
I think that...

in his mind, he was like,
"I'm gonna show them.

I'm gonna make it."

So, he jumped on a, a bus,
went out to Chicago,

walked into wrestling
school and said,

"Hey, I want to do this."

Well, that wasn't exactly
how it worked.

It wasn't just an
open invitation.

He found himself in a
situation where

he had to make
some money.

Met a kid on the street that
was prostituting himself.

He found that to
be intriguing.

And, saw that as a
solution for how

he could become a
professional wrestler.

"Now remember, I never had a
sex relationship with anyone,

but I had heavy
bisexual feelings.

I was more attracted
to men than women.

I wanted one thing, to be
a professional wrestler,

so with nothing to lose,
I hit the streets

for the first time
in my life.

I was scared,
but it was survival."

He had a chip on his shoulder
and I think that that

contributed to the "by any
means necessary"

type attitude that he
took towards it.

He was not going to fail.

He wanted to come back
to his tiny little town

of Drain, Oregon...

as a star.

Finding his
way in Chicago,

training by day
and hustling by night,

Charles Harris begins
his wrestling career

with a variety
of ring names.

Maurice Chevier,

The Magnificent Chevier...

And finally,
Chris Colt.

Colt Magazine was a,
at the time one of

the early underground
gay publications,

and that's where he got the
name Chris Colt from.

I was to go into the army
in 1966 and, I said,

"Chris, gee, you're gonna be
drafted pretty soon, too."

And he said, "No,
I'm disqualified."

And, I said,
"Disqualified?"

"Yeah, I just checked off
I like boys."

So, c'est la vie.

My name is Tom Burke.

I'm a wrestling
collector and historian.

I've been friends with Chris
Colt since were teenagers.

It was a different world.

It was a different world,
and that was my first contact

with a person coming out,
in that sense.

I don't know that it was...

that it was a big
coming out party.

The challenges that that
must have presented him in

the wrestling world at the
time that he was doing it.

There were a lot of
gay wrestlers that

people didn't
know were gay...

but the promoters did,
or the boys did,

but the fans
didn't know.

I'm Princess Victoria.

I was half of the women's
world tag champions

for the WWF.

Princess Victoria
on the war path!

Another double
Tomahawk chop!

There was one night, and one
of the guys came over to me

and said, "We want you
to go over and

spend some time
with Chris Colt."

I said, "Why?"

And, not punching my
own ticket, but he said,

"If anybody can turn
him straight, you can."

I guess they thought he
was missing something...

by not being
with women.

But, that wasn't
the case for Chris.

One thing I noticed when we
were traveling together and

he would talk about the
other boys in the circuit,

it always had this image
in his mind that

they were
backstabbing him...

and,
out to get him.

Any territory,
he was in and out.

He'd either have a personal
issue or just something

would happen and
he'd be gone.

The only place that he stayed
for any significant portion

of his career was the
small territory in Arizona.

♪

In Arizona, Chris teams with
wrestler Ron Dupree and

takes the ring name
Paul Dupree,

tag teaming as the
Dupree Brothers.

It's a formative
relationship in Chris' life,

professionally
and personally.

Ron Dupree was my Uncle
Chuck's very best friend.

They were, like,
very close.

I only got to be with him
a couple times in life,

but he was a very,
very nice, kind guy.

They were a couple,
you know, Ron was older.

Probably by about maybe
8 years, maybe 10.

Their love for the business
kind of gelled them together.

Chris and Ronnie
became lovers.

You know, I just never
asked a lot of questions

along the way,
but it was something

I understood to be
the way it was.

I can't imagine it would
have been easy to be gay,

period, in wrestling
in the 50s or 60s,

much less to be
a gay couple.

It was not something
that was easily accepted,

and it wasn't information
that was offered freely.

So, in a lot of cases,
a promoter, or a booker,

or the wrestlers in a
particular territory

might not even know and,

through a number of
different gimmicks

they kind of changed their
looks and changed their

presentation, but they
were always together.

Weighing in at a combined
weight of 450 pounds,

the world tag team champions,
the California Hells Angels!

The California Hells Angels
were a chance for them to

have a gimmick
as a team and

sort of bring real life
into the thing.

The metal, the studs,
the iron cross,

the leather- well,
they sell all that stuff

in the Village in
New York City.

They were so far ahead
of their time nobody

even knew what
the ---- it was.

They used to say, "Okay,
they're bikers."

No, they're gay!

Same tailer.

Pushing the limits of what's
acceptable to audiences

of the era, Chris is
determined to become

the ultimate villain.

Chris was so
excited on TV once,

and he knew- Chris knew
how to generate heat.

In those days in wrestling,
trying to push the envelope

either meant you could draw
money because people

would be shocked and,
and surprised.

Or, you could go too
far and get heat,

and the whole company
could go under in the

twinkling of an
eye because you...

you thought it would
fly but it wouldn't.

♪

Chris was not an anti
-American by any means,

but he took an American
flag and, with a lighter,

and lit it on fire
and burned it up.

They went too far,

and they got kicked off
the television for it.

Not the wrestlers- the
actual wrestling program

got taken off the air.

Even in a small
territory in Arizona,

even 50 years ago,

even back in those days on
a local television show,

even if you were
heel wrestlers,

it was going a little
too far to burn the

American flag
on television.

Didn't fly.

Chris' time in Arizona comes
to an abrupt end when

his lover, Ron Dupree,
suffers a heart attack.

Though Ron can no
longer wrestle,

the two continue
their relationship

outside of the ring.

As Chris searches for
a new tag team partner,

he ends up in a trio
with Bill Anderson

and Mike Boyette.

Chris had approached me,
and he said,

"I got a proposition for you.

And not that proposition,
a different proposition."

He says, "I'd like to
have you be Bill Colt,

my younger brother."

When they came
to Tennessee,

the team was
supposed to be

Chris Colt and Mike Boyette
with valet Bill Colt.

[Commentary]
William Colt, the valet...

preceding his brother, and
he almost got run over!

Colt changed outfits,
he changed gimmicks,

because he was so wrapped
up in the rock and roll

lifestyle- the makeup,
the hair he already had,

the personal habits
he already had.

He wanted to
create his gimmick,

being that he
is a rock star.

Bill at the time, he has
no body weight whatsoever,

he just started.

So, he's a lost ball
in high weeds.

And, if you were
gonna say, okay,

who is the professional
wrestler that is using the

most mind-altering
substances,

if you weren't
pointing at Chris Colt,

you'd be pointing
at Mike Boyette.

So, this team...

was destined for
disaster to begin with.

♪

[Bill] One night we left
Johnson City.

I'm driving, Mike Boyette's
in the passenger seat,

Chris is in the back seat.

He's getting high
just like he wants,

living the Janis Joplin,
Joe Cocker life,

and all of a sudden,
I feel

a punch to the
side of my head.

And I look- I was like
looking in the mirror like,

"What are you doing?"
He says, "---- you."

And then he reached up
with his right hand

and grabbed
Mike's hair...

and yanked it and
pulled him back.

Then Chris reached up
with his other hand and

grabbed my hair,
and he's pulling me.

And Mike just said,
"Stop the car.

Stop the car!"

What I learned, Mike is
nobody to 'F' with.

He was a Vietnam veteran,

he was a world
Judo champion.

He was a very tough,
legitimate guy.

So, we pull over.

Chris gets out of the car,
walks around to my side...

Boom! As hard as he could,
punches me in the face.

Then, he walked back
over to Boyette,

did the same thing.
And Mike says,

"This is your warning.

One more time
and I'll kill you."

Chris went to swing,
Mike blocked him,

hooked him in a
front face lock

and just cinched on it.

And, Chris
just went limp.

Mike just dropped him.

Chris was laying right
beside the car.

Mike gets in the
passenger seat.

He says, "Back up." I said,
"What do you mean,

back up?" He says,
"Just back up."

So, I start
slowly backing.

I get about an eighth of a
mile down the road,

and Mike grabs the wheel,
puts his foot on top of

my foot on the accelerator,
on the gas...

And he says, "We're killing
this mother----er right now."

Chris Colt's erratic and
violent behaviour comes to a

head as he's tossed onto a
highway and stares down

a car speeding in
his direction.

And Mike says, "We're
putting an end to this shit.

It's never gonna
happen again, ever."

It's the headlights
getting brighter,

and brighter, and brighter,
and brighter on Chris' body,

and at the last second,
I hit Mike's arm

just to the side, and I
turned the wheel.

I says, "Mike,
we can't kill this guy.

We can't kill him,
we can't do this."

And Mike says, "That
mother----er deserved to die."

He says, "---- him,
leave him, leave him."

I honestly did not
really overanalyze the

story in my mind until
many years later that,

I could've, I could've
been in prison

the rest of my
life for murder.

The cops could have easily
arrested me and said

you... purposely
ran this guy over,

first degree murder!

Could've been
death, easily.

Bill Anderson and
Mike Boyette leave Chris

for dead on the side of
a southern road.

But the next day,
when Bill makes

his way home to his
Nashville apartment,

a surprise is
waiting for him.

Open the apartment
door, look in,

and Chris is sitting at our
dining room table and

he has this big smile
comes on his face.

"Come on in, sit down,
sit down, sit down,

sit down." And I'm
like looking at Chris,

never saying a word like, oh,
I'm back to being a brother...

maybe a friend
again, ah...

I don't know
what's going on.

He says, "We're getting
rid of Boyette,"

and that was the
end of Boyette.

We were leaving
Tennessee as a tag team,

going to wrestle
in Seattle.

Before I could even
get off the plane,

Chris was already off the
plane and sitting in a bar.

Remember it just
like yesterday.

Remember him sitting there
with a drink in front of him.

And that's my last
visual of Chris.

And I hadn't
made up my mind

exactly what to do
until right then.

And I said, "This is it,
I can't do this anymore."

And I just walked away.

♪

Not long after his
partnership with

Bill Anderson ends,

Chris' attempt to get his
career restarted is

stopped when he suffers
an unimaginable tragedy.

It was in Washington state at
a small show that Ron Dupree

had ring announced at,
and he had a heart attack

at ringside in front
of all the people.

They called an ambulance,
Chris rode with Ron in the

ambulance to the hospital
and Ron died on the way,

right in front of Chris,

he witnessed
the whole thing.

He had loved Ronnie
all his life.

That was the only time that
I ever heard him

come out and say anything
of emotion of that way.

Chris was holding his hand.

Chris told me that he
just weeped and weeped.

I don't think Chris
ever overcame

the death of Ron Dupree.

♪

He was devastated.

Ah, 'cause they were
so close, you know,

and he didn't know how
to go on without him.

My uncle was like, "I don't
know what I'm gonna do."

Well, they'd been together at
that point for over 10 years,

not only professionally
but personally.

That was a big turning point
for Chris 'cause he kind of

lost an anchor that
he had had that-

somebody to keep him
tethered to

some element of reality.

"After losing my lover
of 6 years,

I hit bottom,
I thought.

The bottom under the
bottom came later.

More dope was yet to come,
more fixes were to be made,

more hearts were
to be broken.

Mainly mine."

And he just
metamorphosized himself

to fit whatever mood he
was in at the time.

This is where he decides

he's not just gonna
be called Chris Colt.

Now he's The
Chris Colt Experience.

[Announcer]
The Chris Colt Experience!

And Referee Joe...

♪ WELCOME TO
MY BREAKDOWN ♪

And he uses Alice Cooper's
"Welcome to my Nightmare"

as his entrance music.

What he did in that
period of time...

was invent modern entrance
music in wrestling.

He saw the tie in that it
could have with the fans

to set a tone.

♪

Definitely a pitch black
dark psychedelic edge to it

because that's where he
was in his mind space.

I will not be responsible
for hurting, crippling,

or putting anybody in
the hospital that I

wrestle up against
right now, man.

He'd make you hate him.

My name's Edward
Giovanetti.

I wrestled for 35 years
as 'Moondog' Ed Moretti.

From Idaho,
Moondog Moretti!

Back then, you didn't
have people like that.

He would shock people,
he would scare people.

He's bizarre-ity at its
best. He was so bizarre

he got banned in England,
from wrestling on TV.

They called him
the vampire.

They couldn't
take how he was.

He was just too bizarre,
he scared people.

And he was just
being Chris.

When you look at the
picture of Chris in his

younger years, he's a
good looking guy.

As years progressed,
and he got into

his demonic possession
image where...

he would put needles
and stuff in his face...

just totally strange.

It was like out
of a horror movie.

You know, the whole vibe of
"Welcome to my Nightmare".

He was living it!

Chris' life from that point
didn't get better.

It definitely got
more out of control.

Throughout the mid 1980s,

Chris' erratic behaviour
and appetite for drugs

are both wildly
out of control.

...And another disappointing
loss for Chris Colt.

Into the 80s, if he
popped up here...

It's gonna be a fight!

My god, he might look
like he hasn't

seen the sun in 10 years.

Or if he pops up over here,
now he's got more hair and

he's got a moustache
and a beard

and he's gained some weight
and he looks like

he might have once
been out in the sun.

And over here, he's barely
able to stand up straight.

And promoters kind of
got tired of, you know,

is Chris gonna show
up or, you know, how-

and if he does, what
shape's he gonna be in?

From Germany...!

Several years later
he's in Alabama as

Chris Von Colt
and he's a Nazi!

And he just said, "Well,
what is the most offensive

thing that I can do to
the general public? Ah!

[Claps] I'll become Chris Von
Colt and I'll be a Nazi."

Nazis were big in wrestling
in the 50s and 60s

to get all the heat 'cause
they were heels.

'Cause it was after
World War Two.

When you get to 1987,
he just wanted to

be a Nazi just to
piss people off.

I think it was
desperation maybe.

Trying to find heat,
you know.

His reputation was getting
tarnished left and right,

probably because,
you know, at that time,

I think he was getting
too absorbed into drugs.

Chris Colt started
doing cocaine.

And, I think that
that was a...

that was the beginning
of the turning point.

Then from there, it
switched to crystal meth.

I think that that's where it
got really dark and

that's where the
desperation came in.

By the late 1980s,

Chris Colt's wrestling
career dries up

due in part to
his mounting

substance abuse issues.

After alienating most of
his friends and allies,

he fades into obscurity.

He was done wrestling.

He has no income, and so
he gets this idea that...

he'll start busting
drug houses.

"I would go on
6 and 7 days up.

By the way, now I'm addicted
to crystal meth, speed.

Not like the cocaine
a few years ago.

I'm clean from coke.

I just switched drugs
to a more dangerous one.

One where you require
no sleep, no food.

I'm in a dope house
in Hollywood

in the Silver Lake area.

One of the biggest
dope houses around.

It took me 4 buys
just to get in.

I walk in, confident,

and place my order
for an 8 ball.

As soon as the
dealer shows me,

I flash my badge so fast
they don't check it,

and say, "You're all
under arrest!

I work for LAPD
undercover!"

I tell them the house is
surrounded by police cars.

I catch them off guard.
Take the dope and run."

♪

♪

You'd always hear
a different story,

if you asked somebody,
"Hey, have you

heard anything about
Chris Colt?"

And they're like, "Ah, yeah,
he's in Portland," or,

"He's in Seattle," and-

but they never knew
anything definitive.

That's kind of what set
about this mystique about

Chris Colt today with the
modern generation because...

he has a 20-year career with
the most amazing ups and

downs, and all kinds of
outlandish behaviour,

and then disappears off
the face of the earth.

But if- I mean, you
could've said, oh,

he's become an international
double naught spy or

an astronaut,
it would've been

equally as
believable because...

it was, his whole life
was insane.

And nobody in wrestling knew
where Chris Colt had gone.

Until somebody saw
an adult movie.

♪

With him as a,
as a gay man who...

at least in his work always
had to kind of keep that

under wraps, he was
attempting to

show the world that
side of himself.

"This is not something
that I see as shameful.

This is who I am."

I have not seen any
of his productions,

but I understand
that, again...

he was over-the-top
with everything,

whether it was wrestling-
I gotta take

all the bumps and
cause all the riots.

Or with sex- I gotta have
as much of it with

as many people as
possible and I don't care

who and what and
who's watching.

♪

I did not hear about him doing
those videos until very...

late in life.

I Googled his name and
what I saw was like,

oh, my god.

That is not my uncle.

That was very secretive.

I had no idea that he
had done any of that.

Now I'm back!
I'm back and I'm in shape!

And I'm ready to fight!

And I'll run you
right out of town.

And then I'll ---- ya.

After disappearing from
the wrestling scene

in the mid 80s, Chris Colt
resurrects himself

as an adult film star...

Here with a
professional wrestler!

...Shocking many
from his past.

Chris was a dream
to work with.

I sat him down in
front of a camera...

and, as soon as I turned
the camera on and yelled,

"Action!", Charles Harris
turned into Chris Colt.

Ah-ha-ha-ha!

The same way that
Norma Jean Baker

turned into
Marilyn Monroe.

I'm Jack Fritscher.

I've been a writer and
a university professor,

teaching film, and
literature, and pop culture.

The editor of
Drummer Magazine,

and I've written 20 books
and I've shot 150 videos.

Well, Chris had been reading
my writing in Drummer for

years and, he liked my
Palm Drive Video movies

because Palm Drive
Video's tag line was,

"Masculine Videos For Men
Who Like Men Masculine."

In 1987,
Drummer had a cover

featuring the
Barbarian Brothers.

They were actors
and body builders,

but their gimmick was
acting like pro wrestlers.

And shortly thereafter that,
Chris contacted me

about shooting
a video and...

we set it all up that he came
here and stayed for a week.

[Jack laughing]
1921?

During the San Francisco
earthquake.

Palm Drive Video
was like the USO,

entertaining the American
troops during the war.

Palm Drive entertained
gay men during the 1980s.

We specialized
in solo videos,

that is one actor
talking to the viewer

through the camera lens.

Chris Colt's heat was in
his person, in his face,

and the way he related
directly to the camera.

Yeah, I'm a
street fighter.

I'm the original rock
and roll wrestler.

The original Hells Angel
of wrestling.

Chris knew also that I was
not gonna give him a script.

He could let it all hang out
and be as crude, and honest,

and open, and vulgar
even as he wanted to be.

You want a wrestler dick?
A real man?

A professional
wrestler dick?

I am the king of wrestling.

He said one of the greatest
powers he ever felt

in his life was walking
into a ring and

making 10,000
fans scream.

The way he made
10,000 fans scream,

he put that energy
into the camera

to make the viewer cum.

Most people don't bring
this amount of energy

to the screen
right away.

You have to build
them up to it.

But he hit the
set running.

I mean, this is not fake,
this is real.

That's me in
the mask, yes.

[Chuckling] I shall have
these moments to remember.

Chris was trying to create
a statement about his

triumph in wrestling,
in his wrestling career,

as a homo
masculine man.

Another victory!

One more time
somebody goes down,

and they're
gonna down on me.

Pro wrestling has
always been

soft core porn
for gay men,

and Chris knew
that as a wrestler,

he himself was
a fetish object.

I ran Hulk Hogan out
of New York City!

He was scared to sign a
match with me because

I'd take his belt and
slap his ass with it!

Hulk Hogan was a god
to the gay community.

When Hulk would play
with the WWF at,

at the Cow Palace,

the Cow Palace
would be, you know,

filled with gay men there
yelling the Hulkster on.

♪

Because to them he was
a strong, powerful,

well built,
healthy-looking man.

That is 24 inches.
That is, that is incredible.

That's awesome,
I'll tell you.

And they were strong,
powerful men themselves,

but they were afraid that
they were going to

shrink away
because AIDS is

known as the
wasting disease.

I don't know if
he was infected.

I presume that all my models
in the 80s were infected

because you didn't ask
and they didn't tell.

And, I made sure that
everything on set

was very sterile
and sanitized.

And, there was no
discussion of that.

He looked perfectly healthy,
but somebody with AIDS

can look
perfectly healthy.

Chris came to me because he
knew he needed a different

kind of publicity and
coverage for this

last part of his career.

In a sense, movies are like
a gladiator entering

the coliseum for
his last match.

Hail and farewell, we who
are about die salute you.

[Laughing]

He had hoped to have
an extra act by

being a trainer
and a coach.

But...

that never happened.

Almost 10 years after his
wrestling career was over,

Chris Colt's wild
and chaotic life

quietly comes to an end.

He was found in a
back alley in Seattle.

I'm sure of that.

Sure of that part.
How and...

what the circumstances
were in regards to

how he ended up there...

I'm not sure.

I had heard through the grape
vine that he was found...

in a chair, with a needle
in his arm when he died,

when they found him dead,
and he had been dead

for like about two
or three days.

Shortly after he died,

I got a phone call
from somebody

asking me if I knew anything
about his death and

I said no,
and they told me...

that they thought
that he had died, ah,

of AIDS in some kind of

flop house in Seattle.

He died the way
he wanted to die.

That, that was Chris,
and on-

it was probably
on the streets.

He didn't want to live in
this world any other way.

I don't think it
was peaceful,

I can tell you that.

He's not the
type of guy who

was ever not at full tilt.

And, I would believe
that he died...

in that same vain.

The official death certificate
for Charles Fay Harris

dated May 23rd, 1995,

lists HIV as a factor
in his death.

No autopsy is performed.

His listed occupation...

Professional Wrestler.

♪

Been a lot of years to
try to make it here.

That's why this
means so much.

He lived his life the
way he wanted to live it.

He lived the
rock star lifestyle.

And that's the way he
would've wanted it-

I mean, if he would
do it over again

he would've done
it the same way.

He died too young,

although it's
what he wanted.

Honestly....
[Exhaling sharply]

If he had it his way,
it would've been 27,

but at 49, his body
succumbed and...

I just, ah, I can only just
say I'm really sorry that

he's gone and I
wish he was here.

He was the first
at so many things,

and he was so good at
what he did- the way that

he could work, the way
that he could bump,

the way that he could
get heat from the crowd,

the way that he
could talk on promos.

He was decades
ahead of his time,

and his talents would
be in the upper

20% of anybody in the
business today.

♪

Chris was just
outstanding.

He was ahead
of his time.

I think Chris was
one of the true

icons of wrestling.

A, a person
who changed the

focus of wrestling,

and brought rock and roll
into wrestling far earlier

than Cindi Lauper,
Hulk Hogan, etc.

He was doing things like
coming off of the top rope

with an elbow before a
lot of other people were.

If Chris was not on
drugs and alcohol,

Chris would've been
one of the greatest.

If you reduce
people to one word,

you miss the
entire world of

what they are really about.

And so, reducing Chris
to a drug addict,

an alcoholic,
a faggot...

does not come anywhere
near to the inner truth of

what that man
was about.

And I think a lot of his
addictions to alcohol and

drugs grew out of the
homophobia that he

experienced in the
world and in wrestling.

He was a complete
human being.

You can go to online
forums that talk about

pro wrestling, and they'll
talk about the character

that was Chris Colt.

This is a real human being
with his own demons and,

and family,
and people that he loved.

He was a really,
really good uncle.

You know, he would always
bring us something...

when he would
come to visit.

Sometimes it might've
just been

a roll of toilet paper
from a motel,

but we were happy to get it
from him because...

he was our uncle.

♪

The last letter I got
from him was 1991.

"I stopped drinking
and drugging.

I'm clean and sober.

The way I should've been.

And from now on
Chris Colt is buried.

Chuck Harris lives.

Want to talk to you soon."

And he signs off,

"Write well, keep well,
your buddy...

the legendary Chris Colt,
aka Chuck Harris."

Such is life.