Fred Halsted

Fred Charles Halsted (July 20, 1941 – May 9, 1989) was an American gay pornographic film director, actor, escort, publisher, and sex club owner. His films ''Sex Garage'' and '' L.A. Plays Itself'' are the only gay pornographic movies in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, where they were screened before a capacity audience on April 23, 1974. A screening of ''L.A. Plays Itself'' was sponsored by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on February 28, 2013 and another took place on December 16, 2011 at the Los Angeles art gallery Human Resources. His films have also been shown the Netherlands Film Museum and in competition at The Deauville Film Festival.

"Halsted more or less created the world of gay sexual art and experimentation. He then watched it, and himself, be destroyed by AIDS, a sanitizing of gay sexual tastes and the power of addiction."

Halsted was a sex radical. He believed that the erotic is transgressive and sacramental, that it is inherently violent and involves acts of violation. "Sex is not 'coming,' that is superficial sex," he once explained. "Mine is personal cinema. I don't fuck to get my rocks off. In the best scenes I've ever had, I haven't come. I am not interesting in coming. … I am interested in getting my head off, my emotions off."

Early life and career

Halsted was born in Long Beach, California in 1941. His father, Milton William Halsted, worked in construction, and his mother, Lillian Halsted (née Samoyloff), was a Doukhobor and did agricultural work. Milton abandoned the family when Fred was three. His mother was remarried to John Knight, who raped Fred when he was 8, which he described as "a turning point in his sexual identity.""Fred Halsted Looks to the Boards," ''The Advocate'', no. 263, March 22, 1979, pp. 31-32, 43, reproduced in Jones, pp. 162-165, at p. 165. He attended high school in Bakersfield, California and San Jose, California, and he described himself as a student politician, which led to his failing all his classes.Autobiographical statement by Halsted, reproduced in Jones, pp. 52-53. Halsted studied botany at Cal State LA,
, consulted 1/6/2015. and subsequently worked as a gardenerJones, p. 23. and was in the nursery plant business;Rosa von Praunheim, ''Army of Lovers'', London, Gay Men's Press, 1980, , pp. 91-96, reproduced in Jones, pp. 166-169, quote on p. 167. he owned a wholesale nursery in El Monte, California."Fred Halsted Looks to the Boards," ''The Advocate'', no. 263, March 22, 1979, pp. 31-32, 43, reproduced in Jones, pp. 162-165.Moore, p. 59. He later said he looked back on his years as a gardener as the happiest days of his life.Jones, p. 90. He never held a regular job nor had a Social Security number. His long-term lover (though with interruptions) was Joseph Yanoska, who appears in his movies under the name "Joe Yale"; they were called "sadomasochism's heaviest couple". Halsted wrote autobiographical pieces about his promiscuous gay sex life.

Halsted was a good friend of Kenneth Anger, and he loved '' Scorpio Rising''. He said that "I consider myself a pervert first and a homosexual second." Also, he considered "sadism... more basic to my personality than homosexuality".

''L.A. Plays Itself'' (1972)

The movie begins with a shot of a sign at the city limits of Los Angeles, giving its population at the time (2,535,700). An overheard conversation contains the words "Los Angeles stinks." Mists over the canyons of Malibu are seen. Halsted, taking a walk in the forest, sees a naked blond, who offers to give him head. Their sexual encounter is interrupted by shots of approaching bulldozers. (Halsted was concerned about development destroying the wild areas of the Santa Monica Mountains.) In the second part of the movie, an older man (Halsted) tortures a young innocent (Halsted's lover Joseph Yale). A voiceover states that the youth is a cowboy hustler just arrived from Texas. The youth is bound, beaten, and kicked. At the climax, he is fisted, with a closeup of a can of Crisco, usual lubricant for fisting at that time. (Yale refused to be fisted and a double was used.Jones, p. 83.) According to Halsted, this was the first time fisting was shown on screen. At the end, he is bound and left helpless in a closet. The action is not one continuous scene; it is punctuated by Halsted driving through Griffith Park, a gay cruising spot also featured in John Rechy's ''City of Night''. In the park unidentified men appear, the camera focusing on their dirty pants, especially crotches ("baskets," in gay slang) and asses. There are also interspersed newspaper headlines about weird cults and the Manson murders, ads pushing "101 varieties of meat", shots of hustlers, bums, vagrants, porn theaters. The film ends on shots of newspapers saying that a young man was found dead after being tortured.

According to the film's cinematographer "Tom", there was no screenplay. Random footage was shot, which Halsted was capable of sorting out and putting in a sequence.

Halsted described it thus: "It was okay to be openly gay, but to get into S&M was another trip. One of the purposes of ''L.A. Plays Itself'' was to get S&M and allied perversions out on the screen where people could look at them, think about them, analyze them, let it affect them, whatever they wanted, but not have it hidden anymore, and leave it open where people can deal with it easily." He has been quoted as saying that the film was highly autobiographical.

''L.A. Plays Itself'' was a huge sensation when it opened in New York. The movie was praised by Fernando Arrabal, William Burroughs, and Al Goldstein, but was misunderstood by most homosexuals and film critics. After seeing it, Burroughs sought out Halsted to discuss a collaboration (Terry Southern was also involved) to film Burroughs' '' The Wild Boys'' as a hard-core porn film. The project was abandoned as financially unviable.

A 2003 documentary, ''Los Angeles Plays Itself'', takes its title from Halsted's movie.

The film was restored by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 2020 and released on DVD, Blu-ray, and VOD by Altered Innocence on December 28, 2021

''Sex Garage'' (1972)

''Sex Garage'' was a 35-minute black-and-white short. It was produced after ''L.A. Plays Itself'' was completed, but before its release; it was intended to accompany the longer movie. It takes place in an auto repair facility (garage). As it begins a woman takes her car to the garage for service, and performs fellatio on her long-haired mechanic boyfriend. A male arrives with a car for service, scaring off the woman, who has just reached her climax. He starts servicing the mechanic, and is forced to put on the woman's discarded panties. A long-haired, bearded biker arrives, wearing a dirty jockstrap. He fucks the man wearing the panties; the mechanic thrusts his head into a toilet. The biker ejaculates onto the motorcycle seat. Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, performed on a piano, is background music, as is "When Tomorrow Comes" by The Emotions. There are many atmosphere shots of vehicles, of the Hollywood Freeway, and of billboards on Sunset Strip.

The film was restored by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 2020 and released on DVD, Blu-ray, and VOD by Altered Innocence on December 28, 2021

''Erotikus: A History of the Gay Movie'' (1974)

''Erotikus'' is a history of the gay pornographic movie, directed by Tom DeSimone. It is narrated by Halsted, seated in a director's chair, at first fully clothed, then naked, then masturbating. A double was used in the latter part, not out of modesty but to have a bigger penis and a more impressive ejaculation. He reaches a climax during a montage of cum shots set to Ravel's ''Boléro''. According to the box cover of the Bijou Video release, Halsted, "dick in hand, narrates this survey of gay pornography, starting with the Apollo Physique magazines, which eventually evolved into 8mm loops and eventually into hard-core full-length movies." It contains excerpts from ''Boys in the Sand

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