Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade (58 page)

“I [had] had a lot”
: Ibid., pp. 289–91.

Rechy wrote Steward that
: Rechy to Steward (“Phil Sparrow”), July 11, 1963, Samuel M. Steward Papers.

He was not only
: Steward, Stud File entry for Roy Davis. The card also notes, “Not sure this boy wasn’t AWOL.”

“I wonder if I”
: Steward to Pomeroy, July 30, 1963, Kinsey Institute.

The weekly commute from
: Steward, “Early Chapters,” pp. 291, 313.

The Milwaukee tattoo parlor
: Details of the location of the Dietzel Studio, 612 North Fifth Street, come from Dietzel’s business card. Samuel M. Steward Papers.

“his reputation was firmly”
: Steward, “Early Chapters,” p. 300.

It was Cliff Raven’s
: Steward to John Schacht, Feb. 14, 1986, Steward Papers.

“Your letter [about closing]”
: Toklas to Steward, July 20, 1963, “Chez Madame Debar—Soye-en-Septaine”
Dear Sammy
, p. 244.

“He is a man”
: Cecil Beaton,
The Unexpurgated Beaton: The Cecil Beaton Diaries as He Wrote Them (1970–1980)
ed. Hugo Vickers (New York: Random House, 2003), p. 516.

“In all these changing”
: Dorothy Carrington, “Francis Rose,” in
Sir Francis Rose, 1909–1979: A Retrospective
(London: England & Co., [1988]).

“The restrictions for me”
: Steward to Gebhard, Dec. 2, 1963, Kinsey Institute.

“I tattooed him…That”
: Steward, “Early Chapters,” p. 334.

“I’m glad you are”
: Gebhard to Steward, Dec. 10, 1963, Kinsey Institute.

“As you may know”
: Steward to Gebhard, Dec. 19, 1963, Kinsey Institute.

“somehow I share the”
: Gebhard to Steward, Jan. 20, 1964, Kinsey Institute.

“I wondered if he”
: Steward, “Early Chapters,” p. 329.

By 1964, a distinct
: The history of the San Francisco leather community has been documented in Gayle Rubin, “The Valley of the Kings: Leathermen in San Francisco (1960–1990),” dissertation, University of Michigan, 1994, which is currently being revised for publication.

The look and feel
: Robert Opel, “Requiem for a Tool Box,”
Drummer,
no. 2 (1975), p. 28.

“a little shop right”
: Steward, “Early Chapters,” p. 303.

“to case the area”
: Ibid., p. 342.

Womack had a terrible
: Renslow, Bean interview, Leather Archives and Museum.

he organized and ran
: For more on Womack, see Bronski,
Pulp Friction: Uncovering the Golden Age of Gay Male Pulps
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002), pp. 83–85 (from which some of this information is paraphrased), as well as the H. Lynn Womack Papers, #7441, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.

“the whole basic concept”
: Steward to Frisch, March 20, 1965, Samuel M. Steward Papers.

“‘Lavender Evenings’”
: Steward to Womack, April 9, 1965, Samuel M. Steward Papers.

18: A NEW LIFE IN OAKLAND

“small house built in”
: Steward, “Early Chapters,” p. 342.

“my trick had worked”
: Phil Andros [Samuel M. Steward],
Shuttlecock
(San Francisco: Perineum, 1984), p. 38.

When after all these
: Steward, “Early Chapters,” pp. 342–43.

“migawd, don’t ever move”
: Steward to Gebhard, May 23, 1965, Kinsey Institute.

“After twelve years of”
: Steward, “Early Chapters,” pp. 342–43.

“Oakland in the fifties”
: Ralph “Sonny” Barger,
Hells Angel: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club
, p. 142.

“The [Berkeley] Free Speech”
: Steward, “Early Chapters,” pp. 344–45.

Outside there was a
: Ibid., p. 345.

$TUD
was meanwhile moving
: Frisch to Steward, July 7, 1965, Samuel M. Steward Papers.

“to write a book”
: Gebhard to Steward, Sept. 27, 1965, Kinsey Institute.

Nonetheless, within the year
:
Drum
, vol. 5, no. 10 (December 1965).

“on [a] motorsickle”
: Steward, Stud File, Samuel M. Steward Papers.

“Cliff was five years”
: Don Ed Hardy, interview with author.

“Both can insert their”
: Steward,
Bad Boys
, p. 160.

“Shit on this publishing”
: Steward to Gebhard, Oct. 10, 1966, Kinsey Institute.

For the next three
: John Preston, Introduction to
STUD: A Novel by Phil Andros, Introduction by John Preston
(Boston: Perineum/Alyson, 1982). (N.B.: In reprinting
$TUD
, Alyson changed the book’s title to
STUD
.) Preston’s information on Womack (who is not named directly in the introduction) seems to have been provided to him by Steward.

“She was then completely”
: Steward, “Early Chapters,” p. 313a.

“the Toulouse-Lautrec of”
: Joseph Bean, e-mail to author.

came by to have
: Bill Tellman (“Chuck Arnett”),
Black Sheets
, no. 15 (April 1998), pp. 39–40.

By 1972 he would
: Steward, Stud File, “Payments to Hustlers” card.

“It upset me a”
: Steward to Gebhard, March 11, 1967, Kinsey Institute.

By the time Steward
: Barger,
Hells Angel
, pp. 257–59.

“gang bang”
: Barger,
Hells Angel
, plus additional information from Barger in telephone interview with author.

Barger subsequently had her
: Barger,
Hells Angel
, p. 103.

“Back in the late”
: Barger, interview with author.

Steward worked as the
: Steward, “Early Chapters,” p. 345.

“[But] gradually I acquired”
: Steward,
Chapters
, p. 90.

“their presence [in the shop always]”
: Steward, “Early Chapters,” p. 348.

Sonny Barger not only
: Barger, interview with author.

Barger enthusiastically recalled
: Barger,
Hells Angel
, p. 65.

“Despite all the news”
: Steward,
Chapters
, pp. 90–92.

He later confided to
: “Twelve Years Behind the Lens: The Life and Hard Times of J. Brian” by Eric Ridge (publisher and date unknown, 1975), Samuel M. Steward Papers, gift of Douglas Martin.

“Sam [Steward] and J. Brian”
: Fritscher to author, Aug. 14, 2005.

“‘The Male House of Prostitution’”
: David J. Pittman, “The Male House of Prostitution,”
TransAction
, vol. 8, nos. 5 and 6 (March/April 1971), p. 21. The article is featured as part of “Sex and Marginality in American Men: A Special Supplement,” Samuel M. Steward Papers, gift of Douglas Martin.

“The Link”
: “The Link,”
Golden Boys
, no. 6 (1968), pp. 2–3, 5–7, 9.

a fictionalized version of
: “Pig in a Poke,”
Golden Boys
, no. 9 (nd).

“he evidently found the money”
: Steward, “Early Chapters,” pp. 314–15.

“I consider myself lucky”
: Steward to Gebhard, July 4, 1969, Kinsey Institute.

“After Altamont”
: Barger,
Hells Angel
, p. 169.

The explosion of hepatitis
: Steward,
Bad Boys
, p. 190.

“The irritant factors in”
: Ibid., p. 175.

“The shop next door”
: Steward, “Early Chapters,” p. 349.

“Cartun asked [Steward] that”
: “Pawnbroker Slain During Gun Battle” [unknown newspaper, nd], clipping found in the Samuel M. Steward Papers. The article mistakenly names Steward as proprietor of the “Archer” (not Anchor) tattoo parlor and gives his age (incorrectly) as forty-six (he was sixty).

“In March, 1970, I”
: Steward, “Early Chapters,” pp. 349–50.

19: “FROM THE BROW OF ZEUS”

“If you wanted to”
: Steward, “Early Chapters,” pp. 318–19.

“the decline of Western”
: Steward to Martin, Aug. 1, 1977, Samuel M. Steward Papers.

“because of its melancholy”
: Steward, “Early Chapters,” p. 354.

“Phil Andros springing full-grown”
: Ibid., pp. 318–19.

“press releases”
: This quotation is published in the catalog advertising the sale of Purdy’s letters to Steward, which took place on January 26, 1995. (For this and more information on the thirty-eight autographed typed letters, some signed by Purdy’s pseudonym, “Babe Helps,” that are now in private hands, see Lot 545,
Pacific Book Auction Galleries
catalog, Sale 66, Jan. 26, 1995.)

“the payment for”
: Steward, “Early Chapters,” p. 297.

getting writing of this sort
: For more on the plight of gay pulp writers, see Bronski,
Pulp Friction
, p. 225
passim
.

“a black leather jacket”
: Phil Andros [Samuel M. Steward],
The Boys in Blue
(San Francisco: Perineum, 1984), p. 2.

Steward used the novel
: Phil Andros [Samuel M. Steward],
My Brother, My Self
, p. 49.

“the guys didn’t always”
: Austen,
Playing the Game
, p. 185.

Song of the Loon: Bronski,
Pulp Friction
, p. 212; his citation comes from Tom Norman, author of
American Gay Erotic Paperbacks: A Bibliography
.

The panel discussion was
: Larry Townsend, “Plight of Gay Novelists: Who Gauges Market Correctly, Publishers or Writers?”
Advocate
, Aug. 19, 1970, p. 19.

“I just had the”
: Dirk Vanden, interview with Richard Amory,
Vector
, July 1970.

“The people at Greenleaf”
: Richard Amory,
The Song of the Loon
(Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2005), p. 244. The Vanden interview with Amory comes from
Gay
magazine, Oct. 26, 1970 [np].

“a writer who tries”
: My quotation from Douglas Dean is taken from Michael Bronski, “Introduction,” in
Song of the Loon
(p. 25).

“The Phil Andros books”
: John Preston, “Introduction,” in
STUD
(the Alyson Publications reissue of
$TUD
, published 1982).

20: DEAR SAMMY

“[Kane would] come home”
: Steward to Claude Schwab, Aug. 24, 1977, Samuel M. Steward Papers, Boston University.

The journals contained lengthy
: Steward to Jonathan Ned Katz, May 9, 1977, Samuel M. Steward Papers, Boston University.

At the suggestion of
: Gallup to Steward, March 24, 1970, Samuel M. Steward Papers, Boston University.

“these are private experiences”
: Harrison to Steward, Jan. 27, 1971 (apparently misdated; 1972), Samuel M. Steward Papers.

“If I’d been alive”
: Steward,
Roman Conquests
, p. 1.

“I was at present”
: Ibid., pp. 15–16.

“sex was just a”
: Ibid., p. 121.

At Brian’s request
: Eric Ridge, “Twelve Years Behind the Lens: The Life and Hard Times of J. Brian” (publisher and date unknown, 1975). Samuel M. Steward Papers, gift of Douglas Martin.

“including, with all due”
: Sisson to Steward, Aug. 1972, Samuel M. Steward Papers.

“Then in my loins”
: Steward,
Shuttlecock
, pp. 55–56.

“A male ‘marriage’”
: Ibid., pp. 73–74.

“Back in the old days”
: Ibid., pp. 99–100.

“the deadening repetitiveness”
: Ibid., p. 138.

“I enjoyed all”
: Isherwood to Steward, April 30, 1975, Samuel M. Steward Papers.