How did you get into the sex scene?īOAS: Show Palace was at the corner of 42nd and 8th. Watching the prostitutes doing their thing always jazzed me, and I was young enough that sometimes I was approached as if I was working.īOAS: But you know, we’re always working. It was a hustler bar right in the Theater District. I would go to 8th Avenue, and I would just hang out by the Haymarket and watch the hustlers working the streets.īOAS: The Haymarket. RIMANELLI: How did you transition from celebrity stalking into the porn world?īOAS: I was in between the shows a lot. So it’s the ’70s, and we’re getting into porn. I was Katharine Hepburn’s Eve Harrington, because I actually had a camera underneath her on a fire escape in Philadelphia, and she read me the riot act she said, this is where we stand. OTTENBERG: You were like Eve in All About Eve at that stage door, Gary.īOAS: I know. When I started doing the stage door, a lot of times I didn’t go see the plays. But if a Marlene Dietrich type walked out, and I didn’t have any idea who she was, she would sort of push me towards her. People ask, “Did you have a theatrical mother that pushed you?” No. So you went to Sweet Charity and got hooked on the Broadway buzz.īOAS: I don’t even know what sent me to the stage door. My first Broadway show was Sweet Charity with Gwen Verdon. Mainly because my mother worked at a watch factory, and she would get weekend trips to New York they would put us up at the Manhattan Hotel. RIMANELLI: Were you very excited by Broadway? There are a lot of show-people in your photographs as opposed to just film and TV.īOAS: Well, yeah. In a small town, you don’t have access to any celebrity, let alone somebody who’s carrying a title. Everybody is just flocking to her for an autograph or a picture and everybody is in awe. So, she’s doing her Miss Universe thing and what excited me the most was how much control this one woman had. You had to change the flashbulb every single time you took a photo. I had a nanny and one day she said, “Miss Universe is in town, she’s going to cut the ribbon for a hotel.” I thought, “I’ll go and get her autograph.” I don’t know what made me grab my Brownie Instamatic camera. OTTENBERG: Amish country, really far away from the glitz and glam.īOAS: So far away. I was homeschooled from the seventh to 12th grade. OTTENBERG: So back to David’s question, how did you get started taking all these amazing pictures?īOAS: I grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. They’ve already fucked at Studio 54.īOAS: Exactly. What’s that like? How many people are there? What’s going on? Is everyone fucking?īOAS: No. So you danced and stuff, and then you would go to the afters. I was a dancer, so I had that lean body back in the day. OTTENBERG: So you’re wearing little blue shorts?īOAS: Blue, gold, whatever they chose that week, and knee-high gym socks. Ever since Andy Warhol handed me an issue.īOAS: I was one of those boys that ran around collecting the drinks. RIMANELLI: What drove you to start taking pictures?īOAS: So are we starting the interview now?īOAS: I have been a subscriber of your magazine forever. Anyway, there are reasons why we’re obsessed with you, Gary. OTTENBERG: And I’ve always been collecting celebrities too, but differently.
OTTENBERG: I think that in a lot of ways, David has always been collecting really interesting art people, right David? You know what I mean?ĭAVID RIMANELLI: That’s the dream, isn’t it?īOAS: I collected people, and 57 years later I’m still doing it. For something you just did as a hobby that turned into a lifestyle, you can never hear that enough.
MEL OTTENBERG: Hey Gary, for real, we’re two of your biggest fans. Gary’s parallel obsessions are also the obsessions of our editor-in-chief Mel Ottenberg and Artforum contributing editor David Rimanelli, so the fans called their idol to talk about Leo & Lance, celebrity excess, and why they are lifelong devotees to Gary’s art. His two books are cult classics: Starstruck is a feverish recording of 1970s celebrity glitterati, while New York Sex is an unparalleled showcase of sleaze during the golden age of porn. Gary Lee Boas is a documentary photographer and a mega fan of America’s two greatest cultures: porn and celebrity.