 | Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "Jack Fritscher" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(March 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Jack Fritscher | |
|---|---|
 Fritscher in 1972 | |
| Born | John Joseph Fritscher (1939-06-20)June 20, 1939 (age 85) Jacksonville, Illinois, United States |
| Occupation |
|
| Alma mater | Pontifical College Josephinum Loyola University Chicago |
| Genre | Popular Culture LGBT History Literary fiction |
| Literary movement | New Journalism American Transcendentalism American drama American film |
| Spouse | Mark Hemry |
| Partner | Robert Mapplethorpe David Sparrow |
| Website | |
| jackfritscher | |
John Joseph "Jack" Fritscher (born June 20, 1939) is an American author,[1] university professor, historian, and social activist known internationally for his fiction,erotica, and nonfiction analyses of pop culture andgay male culture. Anactivist prior to the Stonewall riots, he was an out and founding member of theJournal of Popular Culture. Fritscher became highly influential as editor ofDrummer magazine.[2][3]
Fritscher was born June 20, 1939, inJacksonville and raised inPeoria, Illinois.[4] His family wasCatholic.[4] Born during theGreat Depression and growing up duringWorld War II in rental housing, Fritscher was part of the gay generation who in their teens, during the 1950s, rebelled against conformity through the birth ofpop culture and theBeats.[5]
From a young age he was raised to believe he should be a priest.[4] In 1953 at age 14, Fritscher attended thePontifical College Josephinum, for both high school and college,[4] studying Latin and Greek. He earned a degree in philosophy in 1961, followed by graduate work in theology and the Scholasticism ofThomas Aquinas (1961–1963).[citation needed] He was also schooled byJesuits in the Humanism ofMarsilio Ficino,Erasmus, andJacques Maritain. While in school, Fritscher earned his first publication (1958) and the production of his first play (1959). He has said that while he was celibate at the seminary, "I probably became gay because of the Josephinum, although nothing happened (to me) there."[6] In 1962 and 1963, inspired byFrench Worker-Priests and tutored bySaul Alinsky, Fritscher worked as a social activist on theSouth Side of Chicago.[4] He was ordained by theApostolic Delegate to the orders of porter, lector, exorcist, and acolyte.
In 1964, he enteredLoyola University Chicago and completed his master's and doctoral program, writing a dissertation onTennessee Williams entitledLove and Death in Tennessee Williams (1968).[7][8]
In 1961 Fritscher arrived in San Francisco and established a base there.[5] Beginning in 1965, he taught atLoyola University Chicago, received tenure atWestern Michigan University, and was a regular visiting lecturer atKalamazoo College.[citation needed] From 1968 to 1975, he served on the board of directors of theKalamazoo Institute of Arts where he founded and directed the museum film program.[citation needed] In 1969 he founded and taught the first film-as-literature courses at the Western Michigan University Department of English.[citation needed] In San Francisco in between academic posts, Fritscher used his academic credentials and publishing career in the Catholic press to find jobs as an editorial writer for KGO-ABC TV, as a technical writer for theSan Francisco Muni Metro, and as manager of marketing at Kaiser Engineers, Inc. (1976–1982).[citation needed]
Fritscher has published both fiction and nonfiction. His first novel was What They Did to the Kid: Confessions of an Altar Boy (1965), and his first gay novel wasI Am Curious (Leather) akaLeather Blues (1969). He authored the first book to investigate gay Wicca and witchcraft, Popular Witchcraft Straight from the Witch's Mouth (1972).[9] His short-story collectionCorporal in Charge of Taking Care of Captain O'Malley (Gay Sunshine Press, 1984) was the first collection of leather fiction, and the first collection of fiction fromDrummer magazine. The title entryCorporal in Charge was the only play published by editorWinston Leyland in theLambda Literary Award WinnerGay Roots: Twenty Years of Gay Sunshine - An Anthology of Gay History, Sex, Politics & Culture (1991).
Fritscher's academic writing has been published in theBucknell Review,Modern Drama,Journal of Popular Culture,Censorship: A World Encyclopedia, andPlaybill.[citation needed] His photographs have been published byTaschen,Rizzoli,Weidenfeld & Nicolson,Saint Martin's Press,Gay Men's Press London, as well as by dozens of magazines, newspapers, and book publishers including his cover forJames Purdy'sNarrow Rooms (1996).[citation needed] His videos and photographs are in the permanent collections of theMaison européenne de la photographie, Paris; theKinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction; and theLeather Archives and Museum.[citation needed] He has appeared onThe Oprah Winfrey Show and on BBC Channel 4 withCamille Paglia.[citation needed]
Fritscher entered post-Stonewall gay publishing as founding San Francisco editor-in-chief ofDrummer (March 1977 – December 1979), San Francisco's longest-running magazine (1975–1999).[citation needed] He was one of only two editors-in-chief inDrummer history.[citation needed] Fritscher was the magazine's most frequent contributor as editor, writer, and photographer through all three publishers, emerging as historian of the institutional memory ofDrummer.[citation needed] While atDrummer, Fritscher introduced into gay media such artists asRobert Mapplethorpe andDavid Hurles (Old Reliable), and showcased talents such asRobert Opel,Arthur Tress,Samuel Steward (Phil Andros),Larry Townsend,John Preston,Wakefield Poole,Rex, andA. Jay.[citation needed]
As an analyst and framer of gay linguistics in the first post-Stonewall decade when gay journalists were inventing new words for the emerging gay culture, Fritscher coined the gay-identity wordhomomasculinity, as well as redefiningS&M as "Sensuality and Mutuality" (1974).[10] As such, he self-described as homomasculinist, which falls within the larger group ofmasculinist men.[11] Documenting on page and on screen the dawn of the"Daddy" and"Bear" movements, Fritscher was the first writer and editor to feature "older men" (Drummer 24, September 1978) in the gay press.[citation needed]
Fritscher's eyewitness recollections and interviews ofDrummer history was published in 2007 asGAY PIONEERS HowDrummer Magazine Shaped Gay Popular Culture 1965–1999.[citation needed]
A selection of Fritscher's writing inDrummer was published in 2008 asGay San Francisco: Eyewitness Drummer.[citation needed]
After leavingDrummer, Fritscher published eight quarterly issues of the raunchy gayzineMan2Man between 1980 and 1981.[7] Primarily created on typewriter, under the slogans "What You're Looking For Is Looking for You" and "The Mag You Can Stick Your Nose In," issues ranged from 44 to 60 pages. Contents included uncensored and sometimes bizarre personal ads, readers' letters, artwork fromOld Reliable,Rex, and others, interviews, pornographic fiction by Fritscher, ads by purveyors of erotic merchandise, and articles on such topics as "Clothes Harvesting" (stealing athletes' clothes from locker rooms), jockstraps, cigars, and other extreme fetishes. Mark Hemry is credited as publisher and graphic designer.[citation needed]
WithCalifornia Action Guide, Fritscher became the first editor to refer to thegay "Bear" subculture on a magazine cover in November 1982.[12]
Fritscher contributed to the start-up of dozens of other emerging gay magazines as well as booking anthologies for new publishers such as Gay Sunshine Press and Bowling Green University Press.[citation needed]
Together with producer Mark Hemry, Fritscher co-founded the pioneeringPalm Drive Video in 1984, dedicated to homomasculine entertainment. Fritscher wrote, cast, and directed more than 150fetish features for Palm Drive Video. The studio also produced documentary content of a wide range of street festivals and competitive events, including the first "Bear" contest (Pilsner Inn, February 1987).
The 2021 documentary filmRaw! Uncut! Video! examines the output and influence of Fritscher and Hemry.[13]
As an eyewitness participant, Fritcher contributed an article onChuck Arnett ("Artist Chuck Arnett: His Life/Our Times”), to editorMark Thompson’sLeatherfolk: Radical Sex, People, Politics, and Practice.[citation needed] He was a frequent historical journalist for theBay Area Reporter andLeather Times. In 1972, he was the first gay writer to unearth and interviewSamuel Steward (Phil Andros); his Steward audiotapes were referenced in Justin Spring's biography of Steward,Secret Historian (2010). As a gay popular culture critic, Fritscher began collecting his extensive gay history archive in 1965.[citation needed]
Chris Nelson photographed Fritscher forRichard Bulger's originalBear magazine as well as for the photography bookThe Bear Cult, selected and introduced byEdward Lucie-Smith. As a writer and photographer, he contributed fiction and photographs for covers and interior layouts forBear magazine and other Brush Creek Media magazines. He wrote the introduction to Les Wright'sBear Book II and contributed toRon Suresha'sBears on Bears: Interviews & Discussions as well as to editor Mark Hemry's fiction anthologyTales of the Bear Cult. In addition toChris Nelson, Fritscher has been photographed byRobert Mapplethorpe,Daniel Nicoletta,Arthur Tress, David Hurles, David Sparrow,Robert Opel and his nephew Robert Oppel, and Jim Tushinski.[citation needed]
Fritscher is married to Mark Hemry, founding owner of Palm Drive Publishing.[14] The couple met May 22, 1979, the night after theWhite Night riots under the marquee of theCastro Theatre.[14] Following acivil union in Vermont (July 12, 2000) and a Canadian marriage (August 19, 2003), they were married in California (June 20, 2008).[citation needed]
Fritscher's previous significant partners were David Sparrow andRobert Mapplethorpe.[15][16]
Fritscher was portrayed by actor Anthony Michael Lopez in the 2018biopicMapplethorpe.[16]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
