Wakefield Poole
Wakefield Poole | |
---|---|
Born | Walter Wakefield Poole III February 24, 1936 |
Died | October 27, 2021 Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. | (aged 85)
Education | French Culinary Institute |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1971–1985 (as filmmaker) |
Notable credit | Boys in the Sand |
Walter Wakefield Poole III (February 24, 1936 – October 27, 2021) was an American dancer, choreographer, theatrical director, and pioneering film director in the gay pornography industry during the 1970s and 1980s.[1][2][3]
Biography
Poole was born in Salisbury, North Carolina, and was raised both there and in Jacksonville, Florida, where his family later moved.[3]
He joined the
In the late 1960s, Poole and his lover Peter Schneckenburger (later known as Peter Fisk, star of Boys in the Sand) began experimenting with film and multimedia shows, culminating in a multimedia gallery show for Broadway poster artist David Edward Byrd at the Triton Gallery in New York. Poole made his directorial film debut with Boys in the Sand (1971).[1]
He and Boys in the Sand producer Marvin Shulman made another film the following year entitled Bijou, starring Bill Harrison.[1] Driven by the success of Deep Throat, Poole considered the possibility of making a straight-porn movie about a female fashion model who goes to an anonymous sex club. But following the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, set up by President Lyndon B. Johnson and continued by Richard Nixon, he decided to "stay in this small little genre" of gay porn.[4] He took the idea of the model and change the role into a male construction worker who stumbles upon a mysterious invitation to a club after he finds it in the purse of a female hit-and-run victim.[5][4]
Poole and Shulman then attempted to make a crossover film,
In the mid-1970s Poole, Peter Fisk, and Paul Hatlestad owned an art gallery and gift shop in San Francisco named Hot Flash of America.[7][8][3]
Poole said that he stopped making films because of "the
Poole appears as himself in the film documentaries
A film documentary based on the autobiography, entitled I Always Said Yes: The Many Lives of Wakefield Poole, was directed and produced by Jim Tushinski (director of That Man: Peter Berlin) in 2013.[10]
Poole died at a nursing home in Jacksonville on October 27, 2021, at age 85.[3]
Partial filmography
- Boys in the Sand (1971)
- Bijou (1972)
- Wakefield Poole's Bible (1973)
- Moving! (1974)
- Take One (1977)
- Hot Shots (1981)
- The Hustlers (1984)
- Split Image (1984)
- Boys in the Sand II (1984) / Pirated version Men In The Sand
- One, Two, Three (1985)
The Wakefield Poole Collection was released on
Other notable achievements
- Dirty Poole: A Sensual Memoir (Book, Lethe Press, 2011, originally published by Alyson Publications in 2000)
- Bring Back Birdie [Original, Musical, Comedy] Video sequences created by Wakefield Poole; Associate to the Director: Wakefield Poole. March 5, 1981 - March 7, 1981
- Dear World [Original, Musical] Assistant to Mr. Layton: Wakefield Poole. February 6, 1969 - May 31, 1969
- George M! [Original, Musical, Comedy] Assistant to Mr. Layton: Wakefield Poole. April 10, 1968 - April 26, 1969
- Do I Hear a Waltz? [Original, Musical] Choreographic Associate: Wakefield Poole. March 18, 1965 - September 25, 1965
- The Girl Who Came to Supper [Original, Musical] Assistant to Mr. Layton: Wakefield Poole. December 8, 1963 - March 14, 1964
- No Strings [Original, Musical] Performer: Wakefield Poole [Dancer]; Dance Captain: Wakefield Poole. March 15, 1962 - August 3, 1963
- No Strings London Company Directed/ Restaged by Wakefield Poole (1963)
- The Unsinkable Molly Brown [Original, Musical, Comedy] Performer: Wakefield Poole [Dancer] - Replacement; Performer: Wakefield Poole [Denver Policeman] - Replacement. November 3, 1960 - February 10, 1962
- Tenderloin [Original, Musical, Comedy] Performer: Wakefield Poole [Dancer] October 17, 1960 - April 23, 1961
- Finian's Rainbow [Revival, Musical, Comedy] Performer: Wakefield Poole [Dancer]
- Dancer in The Ballet Russe Ballets Russes, An ode to the revolutionary 20th-century dance troupe known as the Ballets Russes. What began as a group of Russian refugees who never danced in Russia became not one but two rival dance troupes who fought the infamous "ballet battles" that consumed London society before World War II, released 2005
Awards
References
- ^ a b c d e 'Wakefield Poole: Theater, Dance, and Porn', The Rialto Report, audio interview with Wakefield Poole
- ^ IMDB entry
- ^ a b c d e f Vadukul, Alex (November 27, 2021). "Wakefield Poole, Pioneer in Gay Pornography, Dies at 85". The New York Times. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
- ^ a b Baran, Adam (July 7, 2014). "Wakefield Poole Interview Part 2: On His Masterpiece, 'Bijou,' And His 30 Years of Celibacy". The Sword.
- ^ Bijou (1972), retrieved July 23, 2023
- ^ Jack Fritscher, "DIRTY POOLE (Everything You Fantasized about Porn Director Wakefield Poole, But Were Too Wrecked to Ask)," Drummer, February 1979, http://www.jackfritscher.com/Drummer/Issues/027/Dirty%20Poole.html#Feature%20article.
- ^ "Hot Flash Store & Wakefield Poole Interview". Bay Area Television Archive. April 16, 1976. Retrieved April 12, 2024.
- ^ Chee, Alexander (May 14, 2017). "Wakefield Poole". Interview Magazine. Retrieved April 12, 2024.
- ^ Gary M. Kramer, "An Interview with Wakefield Poole," South Florida Gay News, November 12, 2014, p. 15, http://southfloridagaynews.com/Film/an-interview-with-porn-director-wakefield-poole.html?highlight=WyJwb29sZSIsInBvb2xlJ3MiXQ==, retrieved November 21, 2014. The online version is titled "An Interview With Porn Director Wakefield Poole."
- ^ "I Always Said Yes". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
External links
- I Always Said Yes: The Many Lives of Wakefield Poole - Official website
- ManNet Review: "The Wakefield Poole Collection: 1971-1986"
- Ballets Russes, the movie
- Wakefield Poole at IMDb
- Wakefield Poole at the Internet Broadway Database
- 'Wakefield Poole: Theater, Dance, and Porn', The Rialto Report, audio interview with Wakefield Poole
- Wakefield Poole discography at Discogs