All language subtitles for Seed Money The Chuck Holmes Story (2015)

Is there anything else I can get you?

I bought another ginger ale.

You sure you wouldn't like something a
little stiffer?

I got something stiffer.

Oh, you're here already. Well, I can see
what kind of workout this is going to

be. I was just getting warmed up.

Hi, Kurt.

I'm home.

The only in the gay porno world.

You deal with people, they have no
concept of being suave and debonair.

where Chuck Holmes was different.

He seemed to have a class about him that
nobody else did.

He was very concerned about social
change for gay people and understood

he could play a unique role.

He felt that he had to give back or he
would lose everything he had.

No one minded getting Chuck's money, but
some of them minded where it came from.

He's a pornographer. We don't want that
porno dirty money.

I think of Chuck Holmes very much in the
same way I look at Hugh Hefner, someone

who admired beauty and wanted to share
that beauty with others.

In the beginning, Chuck Holmes was a
great collector of poems.

That's how it all started, 8mm loop.

It was extremely closeted, and they
would have these little parties, like a

Tupperware party and a holiday and hotel
room. The customers would come. They

would buy that directly while they were
there.

I was probably one of the first in the
business.

I was traveling the country, checking
into hotels, meeting interested

And in one of my encounters back in
Cincinnati, Ohio, I met Chuck. He said,

I want to get into that business.

Oh, I'd love to get into that business.
I said, no, I don't think people really

want to deal with the feds and postal
inspectors and all the other shit. Oh, I

want to get into that business and I
want to make movies.

Six or seven months later, he moved out
to San Francisco.

Taking a walk down to the bookstore On a
lonely foreign day from

me Can't wait to see my latest boyfriend

Under the covers waiting to be free
Chuck came out of the

project really fast.

I don't think everybody understood,
like, come to San Francisco to come out.

But it was quite obvious.

And many, many people were uprooting and
coming west and landing here.

Sexually, it was on fire.

I was coming from the deep south and I
was just blown away by how comfortable

people were and how inhibited they were
about their sexuality.

I think San Francisco, when I came here,
is gayer than it is today. South of

Market, there was a bar called The
Hungry Hole that was glory holes where

put your ass through.

That's fairly radical.

We'd all come from very oppressed
backgrounds.

We went to San Francisco because we'd
had it with the rest of America. We

to be free, we wanted to have sex, we
wanted to be gay, we wanted to be queer,

we wanted to take a lot of drugs and
party. The Supreme Court ruled today

if anyone wants to read dirty books or
look at dirty movies in his own home, he

may do so, and it's none of the law's
business.

The law still may regulate the spread of
obscenity in public.

But the court said a person has every
right to satisfy his intellectual and

emotional needs in the privacy of his
own home, that the law has no business

telling anyone alone at home what books
he may read or what films he may look

at. Depending upon one's own moral
posture, this film festival means either

tarnish on the city's growing reputation
as the smut capital of America or a

major breakaway from inartistic
pornography.

It would be difficult for anyone to
deny, however, that erotica, by whatever

definition, has become a commercial as
well as cultural phenomenon.

Mike Lee, Eyewitness News, San
Francisco.

I came to San Francisco in 72.

I went to the BAR, which was relatively
new, and I kind of admired the fact that

a gay paper was being published.

I walked in the door and said, I'm a
writer, and the editor, Paul Lorch.

I said, what do you write? And I said,
theater reviews with an emphasis on

musical theater.

And he said, I've got somebody writing
those. Would you like to review porn?

It was his idea that it was time to be
legitimizing gay men's sexuality in its

on -screen depictions.

The big innovation of the sexual
revolution period was theatrical.

In other words, in mainstream theaters,
in movie theaters, or small storefront

theaters. The other way, and this was
more traditional and goes back to the

beefcake photographers, there was a mail
order business.

Mail order was selling directly through
ads and magazines.

They would send in cash many times.

because they were afraid to even have a
record as far as a personal check paying

for adult material.

It was a small little reel of film, not
well focused and not well lit.

Body hair was not manicured, dirty feet.

They were just thrilled to get anything
that was available out there. There just

wasn't that much product.

That's why you got invented.

That's what you told me to.

I get to watch porn movies and see those
goddamn models and they have dirty

feet. I said, I got to do it better.
There's not going to be a model with a

dirty foot within 10 miles of a fucking
movie.

A lot of them get into their industry
because of their sexual impulse and they

don't have much of a craft of an impulse
towards the craft of the medium they've

chosen. Chuck seems to have had a
natural proclivity.

Something in him. When he found himself
a gay filmmaker, he wasn't a bad one at

all.

Chuck started Falcon in 1970 out of his
home.

It probably just seemed like the
business to get into in the early days.

It was becoming legal. When you're the
first or one of the first to do

something, you can make money on it.

He had some friends who were in it, and
he always said that I'm smarter than

those guys are, and they seem to be
making a good living, so I know I can do

Chuck and I were very close. At that
time, I was not only shooting for

was also shooting for Matt Sterling.

We met, and he picked my brain. He
talked me into shooting all the earlier

films. We both put each other on
payroll, started Falcon.

Right after Chuck and I had met and
started things, Vaughn came into the

picture.

He was the person who went out and
recruited the mailing lists.

We were just walking, talking, and one
day he said, what should we call this? I

said, I want a bird of prey.

He said, eagle? I said, no.

Then he said, falcon. I said, that's it.

That's the way we named it. It was like
just fitting in the street. It wasn't no

big deal. It was just three or four
words and it was named.

I said, well, I'm going to set you up,
give you all the contacts.

I want $5 ,000 and a little percentage
or whatever.

And we just started doing it.

This is when it starts. When Chuck gets
that mailing list is when you can first

start calling the adult erotic gay
industry an industry.

Chuck was the business brain behind
everything.

He was the financial whiz.

John Travis was the cameraman.

He was the creative aspect of
everything.

He was... The original pioneer.

But Chuck knew how to capitalize off
this.

That fell.

It just blossomed overnight.

We just shot whenever we wanted to. It
was nothing.

plan or anything.

We weren't making films so people say,
oh, they're having good sex or they're

showing how sex should be done.

We were making it because we enjoyed it.
We loved it. And that's what we like

doing.

They're renegades, you know. They're out
there just shooting sex.

It's real guys having real sex.

Back then, there were like seven models.

And every once in a while, you'd find
that eighth model walking on Santa

Boulevard. and they kind of all would
swoop.

They'd have another business, and they
would kind of attract models. Like

had a company called Rugby, and it was a
really slick little clothing store in

Castro.

They printed a really nice catalog.

They'd take photographs of these guys.
Dick Fitz comes to mind. But it was

always like, well, we have this other
business, too, that you could make some

more money.

I just went out in the streets and
picked them up in bars and cable cars

walking and baseball fields. I just went
out and picked them up.

Once you pick up a guy, you know, you
never know what's going to happen.

Is it going to be sex or is it going to
be no?

Most times it was yes.

Falcon consistently looked for better
and better models and they always used

beautiful locations and outdoor scenes.

It was the consistency that the
customers...

knew if they were buying that brand,
they were going to receive a wonderful

product. It was a new era, and Chuck
really helped create that.

He was very smart at marketing.

He knew what he liked. He knew what
sold.

He knew to continually build up his mail
order list and the name Falcon.

Chuck was so competitive. He could move
at lightning speed. He could have... an

idea he could have it laid out in two
days and he printed overnight he'd be in

the mail while his other friends were
still thinking about it chuck in his

career was able to attain success
because he was able to deliver

in the brown paper wrapper the films the
magazines that gay america wanted to

see in a form that they could actually
accept it

Chuck Holmes and Toppett Studio
translated the sexual life of gay men in

smart cities into a kind of historical
record.

They were very post -Stonewall. They
were reflecting new gay freedom.

The explosion of our lives and our
visibility on the streets, in the world,

bars that no longer had their windows
painted black, you know, and the movies

quickly reflected this.

The clone look, the lumberjack look,
jeans, flannel shirts, mustaches, facial

hair.

It was the hippie look filtered through
a notched -up masculinity.

We had a rich lexicon of our culture, of
the way we lived and what we wore and

what we thought about and how we dressed
and talked.

filmmakers could put that out, you know,
and kind of recreate or document our

culture.

The porn stars were really heroes at a
time where it was necessarily not easy

be gay and not easy to be out. Not only
were they, like, gay and out, but they

were, like, really, like, putting it all
on the table.

You know, they were kind of going the
extra mile for all of us.

Pornography was still technically
considered a kind of prostitution. It

for money. Anybody who made pornography
at this point in time had not only to

worry about being arrested under
prostitution laws, but still had to

obscenity, vice squads. It was a
dangerous occupation.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court authorized
wider restrictions on the exhibition and

sale of obscenity. Today, a nationwide
crackdown was underway.

The explicit portrayal of sex activity
has become a big, very profitable

business. The vice squad goes after it
all.

We have to understand that it was
extremely risky.

I mean, people got busted for selling
porn interstate and went to jail.

They all hid, you know. They all had
noms to porn. At the first hint of a

or any legal issue, they'd all pick up
their teepees and run.

The entire industry was anonymous.

Neither the performers nor filmmakers
were credited or wanted to be known.

You had to be very careful. No one knew
where they were going to shoot that day

until they were going there. It was
secret.

It was like the McCarthy era for making
sex films.

They were after Chuck Holmes for a long
time because he was noted for fisting

movies.

He was indicted along with Matt
Sterling.

The trial was actually in Texas.

Chuck said that they showed, I believe
it was an interracial thing.

The prosecutor said, ladies and
gentlemen of the jury, this could be

And one of the women in the jury box
threw up.

Chuck hired Michael Kennedy and Tom
Steele. These are people who defended

Chicago Sevens.

They went to the judge.

in chambers and said, Judge, we feel
like we're not getting a fair trial.

And the judge said, Fair trial? Fair
trial, Michael? Hell, not too many years

ago, we would have taken those old boys
out behind the courthouse and hung them.

That's what the legal climate was like.

Chuck delayed it, and he had it moved
finally to San Francisco.

Matt Sterling, who wouldn't spend the
money, went to prison.

Chuck was lucky, but he was also smart.

I decided to just continue shooting for
myself because I just didn't want to

deal with the entanglement of the feds
and postal inspectors. I let Chuck take

the brunt.

People said, look, I'm tired.

He would be a buyer and buy these rights
out.

You know, it's like a card game. People
fold it. Yeah, I'll buy you out.

One reason why Chuck Holmes thrived the
way he did was that he was able to avoid

going to jail in a way that some of the
other directors were not able to do.

He basically built on that and acquired
their materials.

Chuck loved to go skiing, and it would
cost a lot of money.

So one year he said, let's just shoot a
couple of scenes so we can write it off.

On the other side of that, when he was
extremely involved, he'd want to get

everybody out of it.

A lot of my street clothing is in that
original movie.

In those days, they probably had sex at
night, I would imagine.

Three of the leading performers of each
generation, and generations are very

short at this point in time, of the gay
porn performers.

They had Casey Donovan, who was the very
first famous gay porn star.

They had Al Parker from the second
generation, and then Dick Fisk from the

generation.

He shot a few scenes and he brought it
back. And he showed it to Matt Sterling

and showed it to me. And we said, hmm,
we can make this into something.

I said, well, do we need an opening
scene?

Matt Sterling wrote the whole thing. And
it's just a little boy.

Well, there you are.

Hi, how are you?

Been running.

Wow, you're really sweating.

Yeah, a lot.

Did you have a good time?

Yeah, I had a great time.

Been thinking about this little...

At that point, they realized that they
had something a little different than

they had intended.

And it was really almost a feature
movie.

Once Chuck Holmes realized this, he
decided he was going to...

market it that way and sent out a
brochure asked for the people on his

list to mail in reservations it was such
a huge success that everyone decided to

imitate that it even was more important
than anyone realized at the time because

once the video revolution occurred what
you sent home was not a clip you sent

out a movie with four scenes it produced
the biggest success of his career

Falcon Video Pack number three.

When young businessman Craig Rand
realizes it was the cabbie who picked

at the airport, he's the incredible Al
Parker.

He gives in to the bearded, dud, blatant
come on.

Along a deserted country roadside, the
two men get naked and nasty together.

It almost happened overnight that all of
a sudden video was the big thing.

Everybody was buying machines, everybody
was getting tapes, people were sharing

tapes, and film just faded out.

Everything that was on 8mm got
transferred over, and we kept getting

sales without having to manufacture
anything new.

I was getting, like, FedEx packages
every Monday morning, like, stuffed with

pounds of cash.

I couldn't believe how much money there
was.

I mean, it was wild.

We had advance checks there and advance
checks there. Chuck certainly took

advantage of that, man. He was on the
edge of that.

Before you even finished making your
movie, you would have 10 ,000 units sold

35 bucks a pop.

Falcon was noted for having more than
that, and his mail order was so

and vast, he'd make a fortune any movie
he made.

He didn't hit the door in a hotel or on
a cruise ship that he wasn't handing out

$100 bills to the help.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,
boom. Everybody, they knew he was

Hello, Mr. Holmes.

One of the first things you did when you
got with Chuck is you got a Rolex.

Okay. And he, Chuck gave me two Rolexes,
a Tiffany watch, a lot of jewelry over

the years.

He started to refashion you in his
image.

I had a Rolls Royce, a totem, to and
from clubs at night, another one to

other boys home, or to follow with
shopping.

He told me, I'm going to spoil you so
rotten that no one else will ever have

you. And I was like, bring it.

I had a lot of famous friends.

Anderson and Chuck, he really got a lot
of kick out of it. Steve Rebell of 54

and David Geffen.

Austin, I took him to Austin's house. He
got so much joy out of that type of

stuff.

Chuck wanted a new way of life. He
wanted to be a big shot.

You take a look at the Falcon models of
1980, when I do, they're all picture

perfect. Falcon had the most beautiful
models there were.

They wanted the most perfectly beautiful
faces with

the most beautiful bodies, and the
biggest dicks possible, and they wanted

to do everything.

And then some.

Long ride, you guys. Did you check that
pothole?

I've got butts in my nuts coming over
that. Well, I think we should go inside

and get on with this initiation.

Okay? All right. If you really go back
to the first eight millimeter loops,

they're all hairy and with mustache.

In the 70s, that was the image that
reflected masculinity.

I believe the story was Calvin Klein
came out with his famous billboard,

underwear billboard, I believe in 1979
or 1980.

And they were friends.

And that whole image changed. It went
from machismo to clean cut.

Calvin Klein had sent me a box of
underwear, a hundred pair of Calvin

underwear. And I liked the way the guys
looked at them. And I started using

them.

It was not planned. It was just
something I liked the way it looked

Chuck was not a creative person at all.
He was a business person. What Vaughn

brought was the sheets and the art and
pictures and the orchid.

Vaughn could sell it. And when you talk
to Vaughn, he's like, oh, girl, just

imagine white crisp linens on tan.

Again, ooh, girl.

He'd sell to Chuck, and Chuck could
almost hypnotize Chuck with it.

Ooh, girl, yeah, okay, do it.

Convince him to spend the money for it.

I picked the guys and I picked the
clothes, cut their hair, plucked their

eyebrows and shaved them, scrubbed their
feet and bleached them so they had nice

white feet, tanned them up and boiled
them down.

And then Matt Sterling thought, you
know, this is going to change the way we

shoot film.

The thing I remember about Chuck and his
productions was he was really

methodical about manufacturing the
fantasy.

And the guys had to be a certain kind of
guy. They were always very white and

very muscular and very tanned.

Right at this time, the formula is
gelling. Beautiful people and beautiful

surroundings.

The models are getting more attractive,
and there's some money rolling in where

we can spend a little more money on the
production.

They were all just beautiful people. The
boy next door, there was no dog meat.

He is the first producer that wanted to
depict good, clean, all

-American fun.

Collegiate -looking guys, brand -new
socks, pure white underwear.

It was a new look that kind of brought
the industry above ground and made it

clean and fun and wholesome almost.

I think they were the first one ever
that you knew that that was.

A class act, if you can say anything's a
class act in pornography.

The standards of everybody's movie were
based on Falcon movies.

Working hard, gotta reach our feet.

Can't slow down.

We're in the green train, look out.

We've got the will to win.

We're in the green train, yeah.

Hey, thank Phil for introducing me to
Kathy last night. Man, she was a real

piece of ass.

Over half the guys in Phil's office have
been trying to get it on with her.

I know she's hot for my dick.

I could understand why.

I was just on my way into the sauna
before you came over. Why don't you join

You'll feel a hell of a lot better
afterwards.

Oh, what the fuck? Why not?

All right.

Falcon was just a reflection of Chuck.

His fetishes, his likes and dislikes
with guys, how he wanted gay to be

portrayed in his movies.

Falcon was really just right out of
Chuck's brain. It was Chuck.

He was very uber...

about masculinity and about boys and
about men and about keeping things

male.

He struggled with his being gay. Not so
much being gay or saying I'm gay,

but having a presence that was
flamboyant beyond being appropriate.

He never wore tore -off jeans.

He never wore anything that would give
away.

you know, the sexuality.

Well,

maybe.

A few times.

Could I give you a blowjob?

Sure. Why not?

The image of that masculine, basic,
plain, athletic man

was purposely created to combat the
image that society had of gay

men in the 60s and the early 70s. He was
taking that fringe element and dressing

it up and cutting its hair and teaching
it to speak well so that...

The general population would overlook
the gayness and pay attention to the

person to assimilate easier.

They would get them out of the Midwest.

They would go to great expense, do model
searches through people all over the

United States, the smaller the town,
wherever, fly them in, build them up.

Falcon would put them through the car
wash.

The idea being that you take somebody
and you beautify them, and

they work out, and they're toning their
body and their makeup, but before you're

done, you've got the perfect car wash
Falcon star.

Seemed like in a lot of cases, it all
looked alike.

Kevin Williams, Kurt Marshall, that was
the iconic look of Falcon.

That was the Falcon look. Everybody was
looking for the next beautiful blonde.

Hello?

Hey, Brian.

Yeah, how's it going? What's going on?

Hey, how about coming over to party?

Hey, my buddy Kirk here with me.

You've never met him before, but he's
real hot.

You'll like him for sure.

Anyhow, we'll be right over.

Bye.

They would strip all the color out of my
hair and then just add a beige corner

to it. So it would basically be stripped
to white.

And then we would just add a shade of
ash to my hair.

And it was different versions of that
flipped off to the side so it looked

I had this big mop.

I had to remain shaved.

And even though I make two or three
movies a year, I had to be shaven down

day.

And in San Francisco, you try to get a
date with no hair on your body.

They had this very lock -down concept of
what masculinity is, how it

should be portrayed, and how it should
be packaged, you know, for poor Joe in

Iowa that's going to pay $69 for a VHS.

You know, if I would bring in a fabulous
black model, a black model couldn't be

just in the cast.

There had to be a reason for the black
model to be in the cast.

The black guys were never to get fucked.

And the white boys were to never lick
the black guy's ass.

That's what he wanted.

How does that depiction of sexuality
reflect gay men?

What does it say about us? What does it
say about the filmmakers?

What set Falcon apart was that very
clean, squeaky clean college student

That squeaky clean kid becomes piggy
when the doors close.

And it's that juxtaposition that made
Falcon work.

He didn't want to see kissing.

God damn it, they're kissing too much.

Make them fuck that hole and I'm going
to see it open up. God damn it, they're

talking too much. A little whoop -de
-woo and gets the rights of the accent.

Flap that butt. A lot of butt. A lot of
fucking. He was just, ooh, honey.

Ooh.

He loved it.

Chuck always says to me, he goes, honey,
it'll stretch a mile for tears an inch.

Believe me.

Chuck's surgeons would come to me and
they'd say, what's wrong with him?

He must have some psychological problem.
He must have something going on with

him that's really wrong.

I looked at myself and I looked at Chuck
and I said, there's nothing wrong with

him. This guy's normal.

He's got wishes and dreams and
aspirations and all kinds of ideas that

fall into the box.

Chuck reads a lot of energy into his
relationships.

When Chuck fell in love with someone, it
was 110%.

As generous as he was,

he wasn't willing to allow the men in
his life a lot of room to express

themselves.

I had a complicated relationship with
Chuck. He was like my lover, brother,

father, buddy.

It was always extremely complicated.

Everybody knows Chuck as an extremely
sober individual and who would campaign

against alcohol.

He didn't like drinking at all, much
less drug use.

But the truth of the matter is, Chuck
had quite a sexing and drug episode in

life that I had engaged in with him, and
it amplified itself.

And so there were a few years there that
I didn't see him all the time. I'm

having a wild party in my condo at the
Aspen Club. Why don't you come on over?

Sounds pretty good.

Hey, you guys. You won't believe this
hot guy I ran into on the slope this

afternoon. I literally ran into his back
in the back room.

He wants to come up.

He's wearing a mask. You guys won't
mind.

My friend. Hey, Kurt.

Hey, everybody.

Hey, guys.

Hey, how are you?

Chuck was lucky he could bounce the
check.

He would spend all the money he had
coming in Falcon, chasing boys and going

New York.

And drugs.

He'd put up all the money. He didn't
have anything left. I hadn't been taken

anymore. It was just too much. I was not
going anywhere.

And everything was just going deeper.

So I left him.

When I saw Chuck in the mid -80s, 84,
85, was I could tell that,

you know, by his general appearance,
that he was not too well.

We left this meeting, we went out to the
car, we got on his Porsche, and he said

to me, he started crying.

They had diagnosed him with KS, KS on
his ankle.

That's when I first became aware about
his HIV status. I'm sure he was positive

long before that.

It was the first time that I had ever
seen him frightened, because he wasn't

that kind of person.

but also that I really became aware that
he was, you know, valuable, you know,

that he wasn't just a superhero.

I come from a generation... that had a
lot of sex in very casual and free ways

all over the town, all the time.

Having to switch rapidly to a sex life
that was prescribed

in any way was difficult.

We were used to being very freewheeling.
That was part of who we were. That was

part of our statement of identity.

So it was hard to put the brakes on.

You could have heard a pin drop down at
the Castro.

Everyone pretended that they were never
found bottom up on Dory Alley or any

other needy location.

People bled for the closet. They all ran
back into the closet. They ran back

into straight relationships.

Everybody abandoned being out in public.
This is how I thought.

I think that when AIDS happened, it was
devastating to this business.

I think it scared the shit out of
everybody.

When we found out how it was being
produced, and of course when we then

out all of our actors were dying, I
mean, I think it changed the industry a

Some people went out of business, I
think, because of that.

It pretty well got me why I didn't want
to be in the business anymore.

I didn't want to take somebody else's
life.

Man, it was just a very scary time.

And I mean, here I am like still
groveling down below with the camera and

dribbling on me.

Chuck would never speak to it like what
was going on in our community in a

general sort of way. He would do it very
quietly. But if you got him on an

incident like that poor guy, whatever,
Chuck would break down and cry.

But he had kind of a rigid front.

around it otherwise.

They were doing

everything

but using condoms. They were dancing
around that issue by squirting non

nine up the boy's butt. I would talk to
Chuck and I would say, you need to use

condoms, Chuck. You have to use condoms.
I remember that was one of the big

bones of contention with Falcon was that
they were sort of the last ones to come

on board with using a condom. The
feeling was that the consumer wouldn't

product that depicted condoms.

With performers, actually, who kind of
insisted on it.

But there was great resistance, as there
was among the popular.

I would hope that he would look around
and say, I can't promote this, I can't

contribute to people looking at my
movies and thinking it's okay to not use

condoms. I did not let up.

This was very serious, it was a health
crisis, so we talked about it all the

time. And I think the only time he
really wouldn't talk about it, but when

people started showing up very thin, and
I just said, you know what, I don't

feel comfortable with this.

I just can't do this anymore, and I
don't feel comfortable doing it anymore.

I had to argue with him about it. He
said, we can't go to condoms, we go to

condoms, we're going to go out of
business, people aren't going to buy it.

just couldn't convince him.

So I knew what would do it good.

Chuck, for all his being the grand
wizard, was also a coward.

And I told him, I said, you know what,
honey? I said, ACT UP is going to come

down here.

You're going to come to work one day,
and ACT UP is going to be standing

that door.

And you're going to get called out on
this.

And at that point, he decided, look,
it's starting to be common.

Coming through this AIDS epidemic, I
think a lot of people were afraid to

sex. even safer sex and porn was one of
their only sexual outlets

you'd be amazed at the amount of people
that have come to me like wow you saved

my life i think porn was a safety
mechanism

Business was growing.

I told Chuck, I said, we need to get
people in here full time. We need to get

serious about this. Stop being weekend
porno hobbyists.

I had brought professional filmmaking
people. Young kids really had something

prove. We really had ideas.

I was Stephen. Stephen and I were very
close. He was like my big brother.

And we literally had a lot every day.

Ideas, scripts. I was constantly
involved.

The Duplication Lab ran around the
clock, 24 hours a day. Hundreds of

were reduplicating in just one day.

It was at a time where people were
watching more porn. We were making

like The Production Lab.

We were just into distribution
nationally and internationally.

It was exploding.

We'd have $40 ,000 a day.

Chuck loved the gay porn world.

He loved being the jefe of the porn
world.

I think he made a complete turnaround of
his life. He had gotten sober and very

serious about it, watching his weight,
health conscious.

He was the kind of image you would look
up to. You could tell he was a very

successful man. He carried himself well.
He was real confident. He had whatever

he wanted.

I mean, he owned Falcon.

We're all lucky to be here.

Some of the best.

I think we've got a few more left. I
want to thank you.

Thank you.

He taught me so much about what to be
and what not to be.

He was a very lonely person, very lonely
and not satisfied.

Early on, I thought money brought
satisfaction.

Chuck taught me that.

That's not the case.

He lived on the hill, and he had all the
money, and he was not a happy person.

We would travel on planes or go places,
and people would say, what do you do?

Videotape replication.

And for most people, I would be like,
okay, great.

Anyway, it's nice of them, isn't it? You
know, they would keep them off track.

And I would always question them, like,
what is videotape replication?

What is that?

He was making tapes.

Well, yeah, but what kind of tapes?

You know, someone's going to ask you.

Well, they haven't yet, Mary, so quiet.

He was never really comfortable with
what he chose in his career.

You had to test the water before you
told somebody what you were doing.

You know, it wasn't completely open.

He used to tell his society friends, I'm
in the mail order business, and they'd

say, what? And he'd say, well, I sell,
you know, tchotchkes, tchotchkes and

things like that. So people around town
used to call them crystal homes

because... I don't know if Chuck was
proud to be a pornographer.

I don't think he was embarrassed by it.
It certainly afforded him a lucrative

lifestyle. I don't think that he ever
felt accepted by society because of

society's negative feelings towards the
porn industry.

He would come to the main entrance and
all the offices were lined up. It was

like an ice storm came through because
each person would be like doing

personal and then they saw him, oh,
hello Mr. Holmes.

He really, really cared about everybody
that worked for him even though he was a

tyrant at the office and people were
afraid of him.

He would storm around that office. If he
was in a bad mood and he came into that

office, a paperclip.

on the floor could send him into a
flying rage of

monumental proportions that shook the
ground that that office was on.

Guards, help.

Oh, no.

Ow! No!

He had that type A personality and he
never felt like he

achieved enough.

We'd gone to see Eva Perron's tomb.
Chuck came home and she's going to build

mausoleum. Chuck almost was going to
build a mausoleum for himself. And I

why?

Who's going to come see it?

I said, and we had to discuss it.

green marble and I'd say, no one's going
to come to see it. I said, you're going

to be dead and gone. I said, except for
a handful of us. I said, we don't have

kids.

He turned the corner later on and
realized that he could donate money and

would give him a living legacy.

It was very important to him that people
remember him.

He got involved in politics first and
foremost because he needs to protect his

business. He was really politically
motivated around we couldn't have a

Republican in office because I'm going
to go to jail.

I think I saw everything change and I
think it changed for many of us was the

promise of Bill Clinton becoming
president.

We needed a president who would speak
about AIDS, who would say the word AIDS,

who would maybe come to our defense and
perhaps our rescue.

That's when I saw him really begin to
contribute heavily.

He really was very, very shy about
getting into it. When he met Vincent

and Aisha Kenmore and a couple other
people, they encouraged him to say, your

money is as good as anybody else's here,
and we need you. You're a good leader.

You're a good organizer.

You can talk people into things that
nobody else could talk them into. You

get people on board.

We need you. And when he finally got
that message, my God, it was on.

Because he had self -doubt around it. I
think that he was always frightened by

that someone was going to return his
check.

I'm Chuck Holmes. I'm from San
Francisco.

I'm glad to be here in Washington. This
is the first time I've ever marched for

a cause in my life. I've waited a long
time, 48 years almost, and I'm here, and

I'm glad to be here. The spirit's very
high.

Everyone's very motivated and yet very
civilized. I know there's people that's

not rowdy. It's very safe.

I'm just glad to be here. I hope America
wakes up and gets our message.

He was part of an emerging very...

elite, successful group of gays that had
taken it upon themselves to really

immerse themselves in politics and use
their power and wherewithal to advance

gay candidacies and gay issues.

He was one of those guys that just
melted into the crowd, took everyone in,

them feel welcome.

He could sit next to anyone and have a
conversation about anything.

And really what he did was...

never really the subject of the
conversation.

Chuck and I met in a very particular and
singular capacity.

I as a volunteer fundraiser, he as a
very generous donor.

Chuck's name was at the top of the list
of donors, and so it was my job to, of

course, get to know who this...

individual was and make him my friend so
I could continue to encourage his

significant contribution to the human
rights campaign.

Chuck, how do you feel about this
weekend?

I'm very excited about the weekend. It's
a big part in our movement for our

equal rights for gays and lesbians. I
expect a million people hopefully will

turn the tide for the country or begin
to turn the tide. It's a big way.

You're a big supporter of the Human
Rights Campaign Fund? I do the best I

And who are your friends?

This is Steve Schellbarger, a co -chair
of the Board of Directors of the Human

Rights Campaign Fund, and Melinda
Cuthbert of the Board of Governors of

Human Rights Campaign Fund, and Tim
McFeely, our executive director.

The depth of his generosity made him a
significant player.

Chuck was a strategic thinker, certainly
had an opinion, always had an opinion.

and was very welcome as a board member
of the board of directors.

Chuck had the reaches to get to the
David Geffens of the world, the Jim

of the world. He would pick up the phone
and say, hey, you know, Jim, it's Mary.

And that was, you know, Chuck's favorite
thing. And, you know, he'd get $100

,000 out of him like that.

Chuck was a full -service activist.

He loved to go out and be the great
Gatsby and have a good time and hit the

and go to countless parties. He at the
very same time was working and being

focused, and he understood the power he
had, and he wanted to apply it in a

concentrated way for as long as he
could, that his talents and wherewithal

allow him.

I'm watching you.

I hear people like Angela Alioto, people
who were running that year, you've got

to meet him, he's got money, shake his
hand, meet him, meet him. I'm like, God,

crazy? And Chuck lived off that. He had
made it. It fortified

whatever negative impression people
would ever think

about his business.

A lot of the people that were...

His close friends who were big in the
political arena were his good friends.

loved them a lot and they loved him
back. But there were a lot of other

who were just hangers -on. A lot of the
people at the human rights campaign and

other organizations he belonged to
thought of him as just a person in porn

made a lot of money.

And I think Chuck always knew that part
of the reason these people enjoined him

was partially the money.

There wasn't so much an issue...

With HRC and taking money from Chuck,
where a lot of the issues came in were

the candidates that we gave money to.

So some candidates chose not to accept
funds, knowing that they were coming

Chuck Holmes because of his relationship
to the gay pornography industry.

One of the first openly lesbian
candidates to run for Congress was Tammy

Baldwin. And I remember a bunch of us in
San Francisco putting together and

hosting an event for her, and his check
wasn't accepted.

I mean it was later given back.

major donating level to see Clinton
before he was elected and they wouldn't

allow him in because of what he does for
a living.

And that crushed him. I mean, that
really, I remember he came home from

trip and all he got was a little glass
thing.

You know, he goes, well, all he needed
was a fucking glass trinket. He couldn't

even see the goddamn president.

I knew that some prune -faced people
might have thought twice

about wanting to

connect up with Chuck.

But it was so full of hypocrisy because
everyone had always been very

happy to enjoy his hospitality. And of
course, Chuck ran a legal, legitimate

business.

You know, the community slowly has
gotten over its own homophobia, perhaps.

1998 at Agrio.

This is one of the few shots when you
get to see me.

The old man's been let out of the barn
one more time.

Now,

I don't want to tell them that you've
made my house into a mushroom growing

ground where they just keep you in the
dark and feed you shit, but that's the

truth.

Chuck worked.

He was a workaholic. He worked all the
time.

He'd say, I'm Ram Tuff. I'm the original
Ram Tuff model. And they broke the mold

after I came along. And it was true, in
a way.

He was not thickly. Now, this was
somebody who had, early on, a lot

of health issues.

He was diabetic.

He had high blood pressure and HIV.

He had a liver that, in the end, is what
failed him.

A lot of the early HIV therapies were
very, very toxic and had the possibility

and probability of liver disease.

I think he was run from pillar to post
with all the magical therapies.

His anxiety and his basic personality
forced him to go to that leading edge,

you will.

People with liver disease tend to ride
along for a while and then just plummet.

He had chronic hiccups all day, all
night.

And the only way to stop them was to
inhale anal nitrate.

You're talking about a 6 '3", 6 '4",
man, very lithe and lanky, now having

a very tight belly just from distension,
not from fat, and walking around

hiccuping all day.

They wanted to remove the spleens which
would stop the hiccups.

And I remember the day he went in for
the operation, the doctors came in and

they said, we are not going to do this
operation.

You will not survive.

You will not come out of the table. You
are in no condition.

Stop everything going.

We used to call him Mayor because it was
French for Mary.

He used to say, I'm the old gray mayor.

It was a term of endearment. So if we
really wanted to say, oh, mayor, that's

how we talked to him. And it was always,
it just made him kind of misty -eyed

when he called him mayor.

When he was passing away, those last few
weeks he was in the hospital, I got to

tell him several times, I said, you
know, Mary, we fought hard over all

years for a lot of things. And I have to
tell you now that I've been in business

for myself is that you were usually
right. And he was.

It's strange how people die.

I got a call from his houseboy.

He was very ill.

He said Chuck was expecting a visitor
and his distributor.

He got up that morning, got dressed.

He started feeling a little tired, so he
thought he would lay down.

I'm in this long, dark hallway to
Chuck's room.

His door was closed, and it's rare.

And I thought, this is weird. So I
opened the door, and as I opened the

see all these people in a V facing him
in his bed, and he was in black sheets,

pale white. And as I walked to the door,
he goes, one breath. I'm not

kidding you. It was one breath.

And I see all the blood drain out of his
face. He's dead.

So I hold his hand, and I sat there, and
I just said to him, I said,

Chuck, I just want to thank you for
everything that you've done for me.

And I just love you so much.

And I was looking up thinking that when
you see on TV that people float up

when they die and look down, that you
might be looking down at me.

And that was...

when this little bitch came out of the
bathroom, hiding out in the bathroom, to

want to hear my conversation.

And I was like, one of the money
hangers, you know, like one of these

was there, just hanging on for his
wealth. Like, he probably got a cat, and

guy went and gave the cat back, because
he got the money and ran.

I mean, all these people were just
fucking him.

And so, that was it.

And then I walked out of the bedroom,
and I walked into the living room, and

everyone was talking about the
paintings, and where they're going, and

they're doing.

Who's going to get this? Who's going to
get that? And I'm like, whoa.

You know?

You fucking asshole.

He's not even fucking cold. And you guys
are all fucking dividing everything up.

Falcon was a glass castle.

It was not a reality.

After he died, the glass castle
shattered and all the air from the world

in.

He was incredibly secure, and he was as
secure as he was vulnerable.

He was filled with enormous self -love
and with enormous self -loathing.

He forgave immediately, and he carried a
grudge forever.

He wanted to control everything, and he
knew he had no control.

He always doubted.

Let's say that he knew he was a success,
but he kept waiting for someone to come

and tap him on the shoulder and say, no,
no, it wasn't meant to be you.

You weren't supposed to be the success.

Out. You're the imposter.

I read the headline in the January 31st
issue.

Center to be named after Falcon Studio
founder.

And I was filled with disgust.

It is no wonder that right -wing
advocates and the Christian movement

consistently criticize and damn the GLBT
community, when by this action, it

justifies their claim that we are all
about sex.

So he contributed a million dollars
toward the center. Big deal.

I, for one, will not contribute another
dime.

There were some people who thought Chuck
Holmes was buying respectability, but

you'll always have those prudes who
can't face up to the fact that people

sex and didn't think that a person who
made his fortune in the sex industry

should have his name put on a public
building.

I think it's good that Chuck Holmes'
name is attached to a business and that

people have to confront it.

whenever it comes up that that money and
the honor being given to him is going

to a person who is involved in gay men's
sexuality.

That's good.

Just think of the number of people that
will walk in the building or have

already and will in the future.

And I think it's important to create
more than a Wikipedia paragraph,

What we brought and what this business
continues to bring is a gay connection

people who lead private gay lives or
closeted lives out in the Midwest,

who have families or whatever their
circumstances are.

I got a letter from an elderly woman.
She said, please take my husband's name

off your mailing list. And I thought,
now I'm going to get it. And she said,

like to thank you for all the years of
enjoyment that you have brought my

husband. He was on your mailing list for
10 years and bought all your movies. He

two years ago moved to the nursing home,
took all his movies with him.

This was a woman who had nothing in
common with us, no investment to be

but she so loved her husband despite
something she couldn't understand that

was gracious in it in the end. That was
a wonderful moment for me, and I

thought, we reach more people like this
than you know.

The one thing none of us should ever,
ever forget is this, the image of that

young man making his way to San
Francisco in search of strength and

self -esteem.

And because of his own life, Chuck
never, ever forgot the need for each and

every one of us to do all things to make
a better life in this country and in

this city for young gay and lesbian
people.

And I think what we all know in this
room today is that a young gay person

do very well to grow up to be Chuck
Holmes.