Jack Fritscher

John Joseph Fritscher (born June 20, 1939) is an American author, university professor, historian, and social activist known internationally for his fiction, erotica, and nonfiction analyses of pop culture and gay male culture. An activist prior to the Stonewall riots, he was an out and founding member of the Journal of Popular Culture. Fritscher became highly influential as editor of Drummer magazine.

Early life

Fritscher was born June 20, 1939, in Jacksonville and raised in Peoria, Illinois. His family was Catholic.

From a young age he was raised to believe he should be a priest. In 1962 and 1963, inspired by French Worker-Priests and tutored by Saul Alinsky, Fritscher worked as a social activist on the South Side of Chicago.

Academic life and writing

In 1961 Fritscher arrived in San Francisco and established a base there. His short-story collection Corporal 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 from Drummer magazine. The title entry Corporal in Charge was the only play published by editor Winston Leyland in the Lambda Literary Award Winner Gay Roots: Twenty Years of Gay Sunshine - An Anthology of Gay History, Sex, Politics & Culture (1991).

Fritscher's academic writing has been published in the Bucknell Review, Modern Drama, Journal of Popular Culture, Censorship: A World Encyclopedia, and Playbill. His photographs have been published by Taschen, 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 for James Purdy's Narrow Rooms (1996). His videos and photographs are in the permanent collections of the Maison européenne de la photographie, Paris; the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction; and the Leather Archives and Museum. He has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and on BBC Channel 4 with Camille Paglia.

Drummer magazine

Fritscher entered post-Stonewall gay publishing as founding San Francisco editor-in-chief of Drummer (March 1977December 1979), San Francisco's longest-running magazine (1975–1999). He was one of only two editors-in-chief in Drummer history. Fritscher was the magazine's most frequent contributor as editor, writer, and photographer through all three publishers, emerging as historian of the institutional memory of Drummer. While at Drummer, Fritscher introduced into gay media such artists as Robert Mapplethorpe and David Hurles (Old Reliable), and showcased talents such as Robert Opel, Arthur Tress, Samuel Steward (Phil Andros), Larry Townsend, John Preston, Wakefield Poole, Rex, and A. Jay.

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 word homomasculinity, as well as redefining S&M as "Sensuality and Mutuality" (1974). As such, he self-described as homomasculinist, which falls within the larger group of masculinist men. 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.

Fritscher's eyewitness recollections and interviews of Drummer history was published in 2007 as GAY PIONEERS How Drummer Magazine Shaped Gay Popular Culture 1965–1999.

A selection of Fritscher's writing in Drummer was published in 2008 as Gay San Francisco: Eyewitness Drummer.

Genre publishing After leaving Drummer, Fritscher published eight quarterly issues of the raunchy gay zine Man2Man between 1980 and 1981.

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.

Palm Drive Video

Together with producer Mark Hemry, Fritscher co-founded the pioneering Palm Drive Video in 1984, dedicated to homomasculine entertainment. Fritscher wrote, cast, and directed more than 150 fetish 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 film Raw! Uncut! Video! examines the output and influence of Fritscher and Hemry.

Gay historian and cultural participant

As an eyewitness participant, Fritcher contributed an article on Chuck Arnett ("Artist Chuck Arnett: His Life/Our Times”), to editor Mark Thompson’s Leatherfolk: Radical Sex, People, Politics, and Practice. He was a frequent historical journalist for the Bay Area Reporter and Leather Times. In 1972, he was the first gay writer to unearth and interview Samuel 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.

Chris Nelson photographed Fritscher for Richard Bulger's original Bear magazine as well as for the photography book The Bear Cult, selected and introduced by Edward Lucie-Smith. As a writer and photographer, he contributed fiction and photographs for covers and interior layouts for Bear magazine and other Brush Creek Media magazines. He wrote the introduction to Les Wright's Bear Book II and contributed to Ron Suresha's Bears on Bears: Interviews & Discussions as well as to editor Mark Hemry's fiction anthology Tales of the Bear Cult. In addition to Chris Nelson, Fritscher has been photographed by Robert Mapplethorpe, Daniel Nicoletta, Arthur Tress, David Hurles, David Sparrow, Robert Opel and his nephew Robert Oppel, and Jim Tushinski.

Personal life

Fritscher is married to Mark Hemry, founding owner of Palm Drive Publishing. The couple met May 22, 1979, the night after the White Night riots under the marquee of the Castro Theatre.

Fritscher was portrayed by actor Anthony Michael Lopez in the 2018 biopic Mapplethorpe. 2020 – National Leather Association International: Cynthia Slater Non-Fiction Article Award for "Thom Gunn (1929-2004)" 2020 – National Leather Association International: Lifetime Achievement Award 2018 - National Leather Association International: Geoff Mains Nonfiction Book Award for Gay Pioneers: How Drummer Magazine Shaped Gay Popular Culture 1965-1999 2016 - National Leather Association International: Cynthia Slater Non-Fiction Article Award (award shared with Jaco Lourens) for “Conversations With Leather” 2014 - Pantheon of Leather Awards: Mr. Marcus Hernandez Lifetime Achievement Award (Man) 2010 - Pantheon of Leather Awards: Northern California Regional Award 2009 – National Leather Association International: Geoff Mains Non-Fiction Best Book Award for Gay San Francisco: Eyewitness Drummer Vol. 1 2009 – National Leather Association International: Cynthia Slater Non-Fiction Feature Article Award for "Spill a Drop for Lost Brothers: An Obituary for Larry Townsend"