"A Very Natural Thing" - 1974 - Fire Island Filming Locations Etc.

Link to "A Very Natural Thing" on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6klkTVWBco
  • I really enjoy the 1974 gay romance movie, "A Very Natural Thing" by Christopher Larkin (aka Purusha)
  • It's a really awesome time capsule of a movie, showing gay men trying to figure out love and sex and intimacy in the context of Gay Liberation and gay New York life. I'm very surprised that I'd not heard of the movie before.
  • The main couple in the movie goes to Fire Island (around 41:05) for some sexual exploration, about halfway through the movie, and there's a cool scene in the Meat Rack. The couple ends up at an orgy which is filmed at 257 Bay Walk. The lighting is pretty dim, but if you compare the photos you have on the Pines Modern site with the film, the house is recognizable, including the furniture and art on the walls. This scene begins around 44:11.
  • Much of the Pines section of the movie is filmed at 361 Ocean Walk. It's interesting to see the house in the movie in its more original state. The house looked very different then, much more dramatically modern (and striking, I think) than it does now, but it's recognizable still. There are some cool exterior shots that show the houses around it from a high elevation, and some neat interior shots. The part for this house begins at 42:38. A young Vito Russo appears in this scene wearing a Mickey Mouse t-shirt.
  • In addition to Vito Russo who is in the same scene, one handsome denizen of Fire Island Pines, Rhodes Cox (1946 -1986), shows up in the Pines portion of the movie, talking about "Wine Enemas". According to a friend, he partially inspired the character "Malone" in "Dancer from the Dance" by Andrew Holleran. In another part, shortly after, there's a cute guy that comes on screen at 43:56 (dancing with the main characters) and then again at 45:34 (making out with one of the main the characters, Mark) and I wish I could figure out his identity.
  • One of the main characters, Mark, is played by an actor using the psuedonym Curt Gareth and I'm not sure what his real name was. Thanks to Brian from BJLand, it was also possible to figure out that in 1974 he did a porn movie called "Moving" with Wakefield Poole, and other guys in that film include Val Martin and Casey Donovan, so he's in good company.
  • The 1973 Christopher Street Gay Pride March, and scenes of the Christopher Street Pier, are also recorded by the movie. It's an amazing way to view New York in 1973.
  • IMDB
    • A Very Natural Thing

    Comments

    Post a Comment

    Popular posts from this blog

    Fire Island Fever (1979)

    Image
    This awesome Hand In Hand Films movie has great footage of Fire Island Pines in 1979. This is the IMDB listing . It was filmed at 417 Ocean Walk ( which has since lost its pool , maybe in a hurricane?). Looks like the neighboring house, what would have been 415 or 416 Ocean Walk, has disappeared . It also has great interior and exterior shots of The Monster in Cherry Grove . In the opening Christmas Party scene, the pianist is Johnny Savoy, who was part owner of the cabaret clubs "Waverly Waverly" and "Oh Johnny ". George Sardi is one of the party hosts and sings/speaks an incredibly campy song in a sequin jacket. Garry Hunt, who plays the character Jack is really charming and funny in his performance and does an excellent voiceover. I also like the actor Larry Paige , who is also in the movie Dune Buddies. When Will Seagars appears as a poster come-alive, they use the song "Love Attack" , by Ferrara, as the theme song. The film is currently poste...
    Read more

    Making Love - 1982

    Image
    This isn't really Gay Oral History, but it's somewhat tangentially related to gay history, or just a funny little fact. "Making Love" (1982) isn't a great movie, but it served a purpose in it's time towards gay visibility and educating straight people about the experiences of gay men in marriages. In the final scene, Michael Ontkean, the gay husband, and his ex wife, Rachel Jackson, part after she show's him the life she now has with her new husband and child, showing that everything's turned out ok, despite their divorce, and giving a happy ending to the film. The scene takes place in the front yard of her large, suburban home, showing that she is comfortable and content. I noticed that the house that's used for the scene is one that I'd coincidentally seen recently for sale on Zillow, in the Hollywood Hills (although in the film, you get no sense that the Hollywood Hills, with spectactular views, is all around them. The house is loca...
    Read more

    Michael Fesco Interview on Flamingo and The Saint

    Image
    life in the different "societies" of gay Manhattan pre-Stonewall (the east side and the west side and the village etc) when Stonewall happened, hearing about it and running over to see the scene the etiquette of gay life pre-Stonewall as "very sophisticated" with manners, having to know people, no club scene (formal clothes, dressing for dinner parties, a closed world), "it was such a society", you had to make your way in the gay world the opening up of gay life post-Stonewall with clubs and big bars and a much larger (and less formal) social world clubs staying open late, clubs where you take your shirt off and feel safe and free the creation of the Ice Palace at Cherry Grove on Fire Island removal of laws preventing men from dancing with each other around 1970 (previously grounds for arrest) and end to the ubiquity of police harrasment of gay bars/cubs the relaxation of formality in the gay world and Michael Fesco wearing "dungarees" ...
    Read more