Page 54 - AVN August 2017

GAYVN
JIM FRENCH, 1932-2017
Artist created ‘sleek visual language for worshipping the male body’
French was born July 14, 1932, and was known for his taste in fine
arts. He attended the Philadelphia Museum School of Art from 1950 to
1954, and originally planned a career in fashion illustration. After college,
he enlisted in the Army, serving for two years before being honorably
discharged. French worked for a time as a freelance advertising illustrator.
As a hobby in the mid-1960s, he began creating romantic homoerotic
illustrations using the pen name Arion. He did one mail-order mailing of
his Arion illustrations from the New York City-based Arion Studio before
he set out on his next venture.
In 1966, French teamed with his Army buddy Saul Stollman to create the
Luger Studio, a mail-order company also based in New York City. At that
time, French used the pseudonym Kurt Luger when he created illustrations
that featured more masculine subjects, including bikers, wrestlers,
cowboys and the like. Legal restrictions at the time prevented him from
drawing full frontal nudity, but the images were a hit among fans for their
suggestiveness and erotic nature.
French eventually bought out Stollman and partnered with Lou Thomas
to create Colt Studio, which also started as a mail-order company that sold
French’s drawings and photographs—now produced under the pseudonym
Rip Colt. After operating Colt from New York for 15 years, French moved
himself and his studio to Los Angeles to take advantage of better weather
and a wider selection of models.
In a 2016 blog post for the Huffington Post, writer Steve Drum said,
“Under the pseudonym ‘Rip Colt,’ French created a sleek, visual language
for worshipping the male body.
“Today, French’s images have become icons of a singular moment in gay
history: post-Stonewall and pre-AIDS, post-beefcake and pre-VHS.
“‘Let’s face it,’ one user posted on a Jake Tanner fan page. ‘Before the
advent of VCRs, we had Colt. Period.’”
In an announcement about French’s death on their blog, Colt Studio
Group noted the following:
“Colt Studio would eventually grow into one of the most successful gay
erotic photography studios of its time. The company was famed not only for
its stable of male models, but for its long-running magazine brands which
included Manpower, Colt Men, Spurs, and Colt Studio Presents, as well as
its calendars. Jim French continued to run the company until 2003, when
former Falcon Studios director John Rutherford
purchased the Colt name and rebranded the
company the Colt Studio Group. For a few years
after his sale of the company, French continued to
privately sell salon prints of his photographs, but
he has since settled into a quiet retirement. The
Colt Studio Group continues to feature much of
French’s work on their website.” (Pictured at left
is an example of French’s photography for Colt:
an image of Pete Kuzak, ©ColtStudioGroup.com.)
In addition to his work in the adult industry,
French is also associated with the Sex Pistols and
the London punk scene. One of French’s images,
Longhorns - Dance, was the basis for a T-shirt sold
in 1975 at Sex, a King’s Road clothing boutique
operated by Sex Pistols manager Malcolm
McLaren and Vivienne Westwood.
The image showed two cowboys, naked from
the waist down save for their boots, facing one
another. The original illustration was published in
Britain in 1973, and McLaren used an unlicensed
copy of the illustration and added dialogue before
printing it on T-shirts. The shirts became famous
when a friend of McLaren’s wore the shirt in
public and was arrested and charged under the
Vagrancy Act of 1824 for “showing an obscene
print in a public place.” The shirts gained even
more notoriety after members of the Sex Pistols,
including bassist Sid Vicious, were photographed
in tattered and torn-up versions.
The arrest eventually led to a fine for the friend
as well as McLaren, who reportedly continues to
receive money from the shirts’ sales, while French
was never compensated.
French is survived by Turner and several close
friends.
Jim French, the man who founded
Colt Studios and whose work sparked
a key image in London’s punk
movement in the 1970s, died in his
sleep at his Palm Springs home.
The 84-year-old French died June
15, according to his partner, Jeff
Turner.
J
French is the founder of Los
Angeles-based gay studio Colt, which
is celebrating its 50th anniversary this
year. French had not been involved
with the company since 2003, when
he sold his rights to Colt Studio
Group, but his history in adult
predated his time at Colt, which was
founded on December 5, 1967.
IN MEMORIAM
CHUCK RENSLOW, 1929-2017
Chicago entrepreneur founded International Mr. Leather
Chuck Renslow, a longtime pillar of the LGBTQ
community in Chicago and around the world, died June
29 after multiple long-term health issues. He was 87.
Renslow reigned over a seven-decade empire, starting
more than two dozen businesses—bars, discos, photo
studios, health clubs, bathhouses, gay magazines and
newspapers, hotels, restaurants and bookstores. He
fostered organizations and dealt with Mafia and police
payoffs, the Chicago machine, anti-gay government
policies, and controversy within the gay community.
The founder of International Mr. Leather, owner of
Man’s Country and the Gold Coast bar and publisher of
the GayLife newspaper in the ’80s was a political activist
and a critical contributor to a wide range of political,
social, business, health and other causes.
In the early ’50s, Renslow founded Kris Studios, one
of the earliest and most durable of the physique photography houses. He was an
accomplished photographer, including of the ballet. His dance photography is in
the Newberry Library dance collection in the Chuck Renslow Dance Photographs
collection.
He was the publisher of Triumph, Mars and Rawhide
Male magazines, publications mailed and shared across
the country as early ways in which gay men found
each other. In 1965, he was a founder of Second City
Motorcycle Club.
He opened Gold Coast, believed to be the first leather
bar in the U.S., in Chicago in 1958. He was the founder
of many bars and sex clubs since the ’60s, including
Man’s Country, which is still open in Andersonville.
Renslow had many partners over the years. He spent
more than 40 years with Dom “Etienne” Orejudos
and helped encourage his work as the artist Etienne.
Renslow was also involved with Cliff Raven, Chuck
Arnett, Sam “Phil Andros” Steward, David Grooms and
Ron Ehemann, and encouraged them in their work too.
In 1979, he founded International Mr. Leather, which
grew out of his Mr. Gold Coast contest and the experience he had managing
A.A.U. physique competitions. When Orejudos died, Renslow combined his
collection of Etienne’s art with his own archives from his business and his life;
Renslow and Tony DeBlase co-founded the Leather Archives & Museum in 1991.
(Continued on page 56)
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