Thanks to those of you who checked out the site from Vincent Lambert's website - welcome! For those of you long time fans of the Bad Boys Pool Party, I hope these pics are fun 'blasts from the past' for you. For those of you who are new to the party, literally, let me tell you what the Bad Boys Pool Party was.
I started helping Aid for AIDS with their Sunday beer blasts in June 1996 because they were the only org in town that would accept donated money from the then popular Gay Erotic Video Awards show that happened every year (remember, AVN wanted nothing to do with the gay side of the industry at that time; the GayVNs were still years away). AFA was dedicated to helping out those living with HIV/AIDS help meet financial pressures through a one time once annual grant and because they supported the erotic industry, they then created the Joey Stefano Fund, not because Joey was HIV positive, but because it would be a way to memorialize him after his untimely death. The fund would specifically help those who had worked in the gay erotic industry and who needed help. The Sunday beer busts were a great way to feature stars and promote the industry every few weeks and raise a ton of cash in an afternoon. I made an appearance with one of my recent co-stars of the time, Blue Blake who charmed the pants off of anyone and everyone he met (including me naturally). I was really impressed with how easily he could take control of the mic, it was really inspirational.
I was traveling back and forth from New York to LA and getting involved in the industry and by summer of 1997 was back on the rotation to do the beer bust again and in June 1997 was one of the guest stars again at the Gauntlet. And then the usual organizer called in sick and the other star kinda sulked in the corner because no one knew who he was. Well, they didn't really know me either but who cared? There were men, there was beer and we had hot movies to give away so I got on the mic, started talking and thirteen years haven't shut up yet.
AFA then asked me to bring in other stars and so I was sort of the unofficial MC and producer of the event for the next few months until the City of LA stopped allowing beer busts altogether. Something about an unlimited amount of beer and cars, crazy right? <wink>
The guys from AFA and I came up with an idea to do a birthday bash at the home of the A Men's (now known as Mighty Men) web guy, Jon Royce. I had done his No Pants Party the summer before so it seemed like the obvious location. We charged $15 to get in and the place was packed. There's a great pic of my then boyfriend Rob and I exhausted on Jon's couch after the party that I'll share someday.
We were happy and raised like $4000 during the evening but were criticized by the WeHo gay press for not being sexy enough. Now when given a challenge like that, what else can you say but "you want sexy? I'll give you sexy!" And there was an AFA board member with a home with a pool in the Hollywood Hills who would let us hold a party there and Mickey Skee's interview book was coming out, and so the Bad Boys Pool Party was born.
There are pics from that first party elsewhere on the site. It was a pretty big deal and I was impressed that we raised $8300 in an afternoon (I do have to thank the several people that paid $100 to see several of the stars - including myself much to the amusement of the boyfriend - jump naked into the pool - a pool, I should add that had a private observation window from a room below the pool level.
Because the party had gotten attention - too much attention? - the home owner got flak (he was a Hollywood producer/director) and wouldn't let us return the next year so we looked elsewhere for a home we could use. We turned to elsewhere in the Hills at an artists' home whose house was sort of pushed into the side of the hill. I felt that it was too small but without an alternative, it was that or nothing.
There were a lot of problems that year - a temperamental actor who I spent a week babysitting on the phone because he wanted me to hire a graphic designer to draw abs on his promo picture - I learned finally how to say the phrase "this isn't going to work out" which, for an event promoter is a very useful phrase to learn. I've only had to do it a few times over the years but there's a point where you reach it.
The biggest achivement that year was getting Cole Tucker, who was red hot in the industry at the moment, to be a part of the line-up. True class act as he was, he didn't need to have top billing. I'd wanted everyone to be billed alphabetically by first name, that way it was more equal and no one felt as though they were a C list actor because they were listed last. Having worked with a lot of guys by then (and knowing how I felt about this) I was sensitive to the fact that often guys are praised up and down by their director only to find themselves listed last and/or with no picture on the box. It does something to a guy's self esteem and frankly I didn't want to participate in perpetuating that. Thankfully in all the years I've done Bad Boys-like parties, there have been very very few actors who have asked for top billing. People who didn't need to? People like Michael Brandon and Zak Spears. And Cole Tucker.
Cole was months away from retirement and vowed never to make any further appearances, so, later, I was thrilled to have been able to have him at one of the parties. (I did try when we moved the party to Palm Springs but he was done, over. Out).
The party was decent, but it was cold and drizzled throughout the afternoon. Still, spirits were kept high by the mood of stars signing pics and the party atmosphere. It was helped tremendously by Absolut Vodka artist Jon Planas offering to come to the party and body paint two of the models. I had become friends with Spike and despite being freezing cold, he patiently let Jon paint him from head to toe. What a trooper. I saw him start to shake and asked if I should have Jon stop and he just looked at me and realized the art wasn't done yet and said 'no'. He found some warmth in that and of course the result was incredible.
What we didn't count on was the music from the party reverberating off the Hollywood Hills and towards the end of the afternoon, I got my first visit as a party promoter from the police. It would be the first of three such visits I would have in my party promoter life. Of course I couldn't look at it any other way than as a sign that the party had arrived - you ain't no body til you get shut down by the police. And the very next year we found out that we had indeed arrived. And then things really started getting crazy.
The rest of this week: a few more pictures from that second party where we raised another $11,000 for Aid for AIDS
