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"vintage" porn stars Drummer magazine

Nick?

from Drummer 44, I’m 99% sure it’s Nick Rogers – but this is one reason I didn’t collect Drummer for a long time – the newspaper print quality – and this isn’t even a scan of something I own, but I think a pdf version converted to a jpg. All that to say I have my eye on a couple early 80’s Drummers, but I really ought not be buying more porn!

17 replies on “Nick?”

It does look a lot like Nick, I’d guess that’s him too. You can see scans of that issue of Drummer on Cowboy Frank’s website (warning, my browser gives me a ‘this site is not secure’ warning because he never updated it to https):

http://cowboyfrank.men/Drummer/044/index.htm

I saw two Nick pics, the first in an ad for Leather Game (a store on Melrose Avenue in L.A.) on page 21; then the pic you posted here, part of a subscription ad for Drummer on page 86. It seems to me, that if Drummer is using that pic as part of an ad for itself, maybe the image appeared in an earlier issue? And if so, it might be larger or higher quality, though probably still black & white.

So there’s an assignment for one of your jockstrap-clad interns, scroll through the first 43 issues of Drummer and find where that pic may have appeared before ;)

that is likely where i got my version – it’s a pdf, actually; which I then converted to jpg for viewing individual pages and potential posting. I’me trying to avoid TOO MUCH uying of old Drummers (i have a bunch, not many in the issues 40-50)…

Your interns must be on previously scheduled assignments, and scrolling through a dozen or so Drummers on cowboy Frank’s website sounded like fun for me. I didn’t find another pic of Nick in that pose, but look what I did find…

Nick is striking the exact pose from the logo for Boots, a leather bar that was on Ventura Blvd. in the Valley of L.A. Issue 30 has a clean looking scan of the unknown artist’s drawing, on page 68:

http://cowboyfrank.men/Drummer/030/

And there’s a write-up about the bar with pics (including the logo again, minus the dick and balls for some reason) in issue 27, starting on page 82:

http://cowboyfrank.men/Drummer/027/

“…reproductions of the already-famous Boots logo. Boots is a hunky stud with nothing on but a cycle cap and one massive boot. At his crotch, below washboard belly muscles, an enormous cock and bull’s balls swing free and tantalizing, while this stud pulls on his second boot with a vengeance.”

This is the logo as seen in the main bar, while a second projection of the image was found in the back patio area. I feel like this is a lead, but still unknown:

Where is a larger and less blurry image of Nick striking that boot pose?

And which came first, the Nick-en or the egg? Meaning was the photo of Nick the inspiration for the artist’s sketch, or was he emulating that pose?

And who was the artist too??

I can’t begin to guess who the artist was. I don’t recognize the style.

As an artist, I would guess that the illustrator copied the photo of Nick, because that is a common practice. But if he did, he only drew the pose, and didn’t try to realistically depict Nick Rodgers. The drawing looks nothing like Nick. Only the pose. So it could be either way. Perhaps someone at Boots asked Nick Rogers to pose like that?

Basically, I know nothing. I sure enjoyed those deep dives into the pages of Drummer though!

The shirtless photo of Timothy Dalton as dashing Prince Barin from the Flash Gordon movie? Divine!! I think I saw that in the theater when I was 12, but I never knew a photo of him *shirtless* existed. I would have given anything for that pic back then!

I think you mentioned being an artist before, that would make your opinion weigh more I’d say. The main thing missing from the sketch is Nick’s mustache, otherwise it’s a pretty accurate representation of the pose anyway, as you said. Even the shape and angle of his dick and balls are quite similar.

I started at issue 44 on cowboy Frank’s site and worked backwards to around 27, which was the one with the write-up about Boots then I stopped for the night. He has a few gaps but one thing I noticed, Nick was a regular model for that store on Melrose called Leather Game, in a variety of different poses and outfits. Some with his dick hanging out in all its glory, others where the clothes were the main focus.

The article about Boots says it had been open for a year as of issue 27, so maybe I just didn’t go back far enough to find the original pic of Nick? That was fun so maybe sometime in the near future I’ll keep scrolling, I agree there are some great pics of shirtless celebs that they would print there in their non-porn movie reviews of gay interest. I know Jan-Michael Vincent had a lot of shirtless pics show up there too.

Not sure how many people here can see imgur posts, I know BJ can so maybe he can reproduce this in the comments. I found an artist’s sketch of the pose Bill Henson made on the cover of A Matter Of Size, with the jock on and leaning back on his hands, as well as art from the cover of a pulp fiction book a decade later. Hope this works for at least some of you:

https://i.imgur.com/f6dLDfP.jpg

(by the way I’m not sure if imgur will soon be deleting all the pics I uploaded and stored there, something about requiring people to be signed in to view NSFW stuff so if you like it maybe save it for yourself somehow).

At the risk of this reply getting lost or appearing out of order on this page of BJLand, I am replying! Such great work you did Zephyr! Sounds like fun too.

I can’t speak for the others but I was able to see your Imgur link and that’s a good likeness of Bill Henson, one that I did not have! You certainly can’t help but know it’s him from that famous pose. It’s too bad they never credit the artist on those book covers, as I’m curious. I think artists like Adam (aka Jack Bozzi) did so many dirty book covers that they became known for it.

Richard A. White is an artist who is known (by me at least) to have done portraits of a lot of gay porn stars, including Nick Rodgers (alongside Giorgio Canali’s bottom half). Others he did: Gunner Hyde, Mike Morris, Kirby Scott, Dick Fisk & Clint Lockner, Rod Mitchell, Scott Manley, etc. And you can tell that most, if not all, of them were done from photographs because you sometimes recognize the pose better than the face, you know?

They should have hired him to do the Boots logo! He might’ve been able to make it look like Nick.

Thanks so much Zephyr! I saw two pics of Nick, and there’s so much other great stuff in that issue!

That’s Nick Rogers. I knew him in the early 1980’s when he danced on Male Strip Night at the Queen Mary in Studio City.

I absolutely agree that it’s Nick Rodgers. I should know from how often I have worshipped him in moving picture or still photograph. He’s one of my favorites.

I love Drummer, in spite of the newsprint quality. However, I agree that buying porn mags online is a slippery slope. You can end up spending more than you intended. Another kind of thinking with your dick. We’ve all been there.

I scrolled through a few more Drummers and found another page with the artist sketch logo, slightly larger than the others. It’s from the grand opening of Boots on December 2nd, 1977, and was page 86 of issue 19 of Drummer:

http://cowboyfrank.men/Drummer/019/drummer-019-078.jpg

Again missing the dick and balls in the logo, though some of the other versions had them. Still don’t know where a better quality version of the Nick pic could be found, it must be floating around somewhere. Or whether the logo predated Nick’s boot pose or vice versa. But if I ever find it I’ll point you to it.

Good job! I’ll keep an eye out for a better copy of the Nick Rodgers pic for sure, as I’m sure BJ will as well. I know we’d all like to see it.

You really do your homework! I can get a little obsessive with this stuff myself, but I don’t know all the web links that you and BJ seem to know. I know some of them, but if I don’t explore them right away, I can forget them. There is so much out there! I love that CowboyFrank blog. Thanks for pointing it out.

I didn’t even know about the connection between the Nick photo and the leather bar before this post, so thanks for that as well. I love those little nuggets of gay history/culture. It’s fascinating AND titillating!

I can lose track of time scrolling through scans of old magazines, it’s like time traveling back to the era in a way that just looking at selected pics (or even the films and loops) isn’t quite the same. The articles, fiction, and especially the ads tend to capture my interest and make me remember things I either heard about and had forgotten, or just offshoot thoughts. It may be borderline obsessive on my part but they are fun to dig around through, though I’m not as into actually buying them, that seems to be an interest you and BJ share.

As for the side by side I did with the box cover of A Matter Of Size and the artist sketch, I forget where I found the latter but it seems the book dates back to the early 90s. I did find some info about it when I made that and left it in a comment on reddit, but the sub ‘vintagegaypics’ was obliterated and with it, all the posts and comments are gone now too. Luckily I had saved this pic so I have it even if all my imgur links go away too.

Hey Zephyr!

I found something that pre-dates both the Boots ad AND the Nick Rodgers photo. It’s an illustration done by Rip Colt (aka you know who) and published in Manpower! No1 in 1969 and it’s an exact match. I wish I could post it here, but I don’t have a link to attach. I just have the photo. Maybe BJ can help?

I think it’s possible that both the Boots ad and the Nick photo are emulating that Colt illustration. Or maybe it’s just an iconic cowboy pose that became an iconic gay image?

Whatever the case may be, I think it’s all fascinating. Thanks for bringing it up!

Definitely the same pose, and 69 is earlier than 77 which was when Boots (the bar) opened in L.A. Just a few differences like the cigarette, Nick’s stash and the missing dick and balls on the bar ad, or at least some of them. I’d have to guess that Nick’s pic was emulating that then too, since he didn’t start in porn until mid to late 70s. So now we know the source, that’s cool! Glad I wondered why this post title looked familiar from the list of recent comments at the bottom of the blog, and found your reply. Good work Johnny, and thanks for uploading the pic for confirmation BJ! Cheers.

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