#leather jacket lover

In honour or Pride month, for all the "leather jacket lovers"! Via the Homobilia website: “Leather Man on Berlin Street.” Details: “Part of a collection of leather / motorcycle photos taken in the Waidmannslust borough of Berlin by an unknown photographer. Vintage photo, 5" x 7," gloss finish, undated circa late 1950s, German. From the estate of physique photographer Cain of London.”

Attention, leather jacket lovers! The great outsider Swiss photographer and aficionado of firm male flesh Karlheinz Weinberger (10 June 1921 – 10 December 2006) was born on this day 105 years ago. He specialized in documenting rockabilly and motorcycle gang subcultures in the sixties and seventies, taking smouldering homoerotic portraits of sullen leather-clad thugs posed like defiant peacocks. It was reading John Waters’ garrulous praise that turned me on to Weinberger’s work, and I am eternally grateful. One regret: I wish I’d snapped up Rebel Youth (the 2011 coffee table book compiling Weinberger’s photography) when it first came out. It’s slipped out of print since and copies now go for over £100 on eBay! If you’re curious to delve deeper, following the official Karlheinz Weinberger Instagram page is a must.

Released on this day (8 March 1964): director Sidney J Furie’s gritty working-class British kitchen sink realist drama (and homoerotic biker classic) The Leather Boys (1964). (Tagline: “Three lives ripped savagely apart!”). Some scenes were filmed at London’s old-school transport café The Ace Café in Wembley; when I used to occasionally go to rockabilly gigs there years ago, it looked exactly the same. For the “leather jacket lover” crowd, Colin Campbell and Dudley Sutton (pictured) resemble escapees from Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising (1963) in their biker gear – and the great Rita Tushingham absolutely slays as the petulant Dot! Coronation Street fans will recognise a young Johnny Briggs (aka Mike Baldwin) in the supporting cast.

In Memoriam: the great outsider queer Swiss photographer and committed aficionado of firm male flesh Karlheinz Weinberger (10 June 1921 – 10 December 2006) died on this day. He specialized in documenting Elvis-worshiping rockabilly and motorcycle gang subcultures in the sixties and seventies, taking smoldering homoerotic portraits of sullen leather-clad thugs posed like defiant peacocks. It was reading John Waters’ voluble praise that turned me on to Weinberger’s work in the first place, and I am eternally grateful. One regret: I wish I’d snapped up the 2011 coffee table book Rebel Youth when it first came out. It’s slipped out of print since and copies now go for over £100 on eBay! Pictured: portrait of a young greaser punk by Karlheinz Weinberger, 1962.

Attention, Leather Jacket Lovers! The zenith of fifties juvenile delinquent / motorcycle gang exploitation films The Wild One was released in New York on this day (30 December 1953). (Yes – the one where gorgeous, insolent young Marlon Brando is asked, “What are you rebelling against, Johnny?” and he snarls, “Whaddaya got?"). By today’s standards some aspects of The Wild One may seem campy and tame, but it’s a tightly constructed, energetically told and enjoyable movie, and as a rockabilly fanatic it obviously holds a timeless fascination for me. For one thing, the film came out a few years before rock’n’roll burst through, so it’s surprising when the sullen and defiant anti-hero Johnny (Brando) swaggers into a cafe and fires up the jukebox, instead of a burst of twang-y rockabilly it emits ... jazz. (Frantic bebop jazz, but even still! No wonder the trailer refers to them as “jazzed-up hoodlums”). And the clothes Brando and his gang The Black Rebel Motorcycle Club wear (the engineer boots, dark indigo Levis with the perfect turn-ups, the T-shirts, the leather jackets, the caps, the sunglasses, the quiffs, the sideburns) are so covetable they virtually make me drool. Brando and his thugs remain the absolute sartorial ideal for male rockabillies in the way that, say, Bettie Page or Mamie van Doren do for female rockabilly kittens. Unwittingly, Brando in The Wild One also cemented the enduring homoerotic biker archetype (perhaps second only to the homoerotic sailor image in ubiquity) that’s permeated beefcake photography and gay pornography ever since. And of course, it would spark the imagination of Kenneth Anger. His eerie 1963 underground queer / occult classic Scorpio Rising (a true cinematic flower of evil!) even deliberately splices-in a grainy, flickering black-and-white TV clip of Brando in The Wild One in tribute. Beautiful!

Released on this day sixty years ago (8 March 1964): director Sidney J Furie’s gritty working-class British kitchen sink realist drama (and homoerotic biker classic) The Leather Boys (1964). (Tagline: “Three lives ripped savagely apart!”). Some scenes were filmed at London’s old-school transport café The Ace Café in Wembley; when I used to occasionally go to rockabilly gigs there years ago, it looked exactly the same. For the “leather jacket lover” crowd, Colin Campbell and Dudley Sutton resemble escapees from Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising (1963) in their biker gear – and the great Rita Tushingham absolutely slays as the petulant Dot! Coronation Street fans will recognize a young Johnny Briggs (aka Mike Baldwin) in the supporting cast.

Born on this day 63 years ago: feral frontman of first generation Los Angeles punk band the Germs, Darby Crash (aka Bobby Pyn, real name: Jan Paul Beahm, 26 September 1958 - 7 December 1980). We don’t talk nearly enough about quite how gorgeous Crash was. “Sex Boy” indeed! (The doomed US punk equivalent of Sid Vicious, Crash died of a heroin overdose aged 22). Crank up “Forming” or “Media Blitz” LOUD today in his memory!

Let’s face it: the puritanical, hypocritical and homophobic hellsite Tumblr has become a dying platform since it banned adult content in December 2018. I post here less and less. (I can’t even see my archive of “Likes” anymore!). Follow me instead on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or on my blog. Fuck Tumblr!