Bill Eld: American Pop Culture Icon (Documentary)

As it happens most times, I am not too familiar with the "celebrities" of American pop/porn culture. This documentary is a love letter from cult filmmaker Toby Ross to male model and gay adult film superstar Bill Eld and  tells the story of one of the gay film industry's sexiest man (because he had one of the most beautiful cocks) and attracts the international sex symbol's meteoric rise and unfortunate decline into the abyss. For those like me, who do not know of him, it is an introduction to not only the man but to the culture in which he lived. Eld was an underground icon who became the most "beautiful male pinup in the world".

For as much of a queer icon as Eld became, the life behind the man was a mystery. Virtually no biographical information about him was published during his lifetime, and he drifted around the country with such regularity that he hardly made any lasting connections. Ross- who knew Eld during two key periods in both mens’ lives- seeks to explore the mystery behind the man while also solidifying his place in queer history and paying tribute to a lost friend. We learn how he was born to parents who didn't want him, wa sin foster homes till 10 and eventually in an orphanage. By 18 when he realized that he had a good body and a good dick, he moved to San Francisco, met a photographer who took some amazing photos of him and how he became a sensation. He had good looks and charm and through straight porn started to make money. But it was eventually his introduction to the gay porn world that turned his fortunes. His rise was meteoric but so was hi fall as well. Cocaine addiction soon followed which led to him not being able to perform. That's when Bill was reduced to cleaning toilets in a porn theatre and sleeping in a closet. Eventually he dies under mysterious circumstances (likely drugs) when he was in his 40s.

This is an interesting documentary in the sense that this is not polished at all. Likely made during covid times, the film maker records the narration on computer camera reading out from a draft of narration with photos and videos and montage inter spread through out. Since the maker knew Bill Eld personally as well, the story seems to have some personal connection towards the second half. The parts that are the most engaging about ELD are those in which Ross himself takes center stage in the narrative: having briefly worked with Eld in California when they both lived there in the 1970s, the pair fell out of touch, until a chance encounter led to their reconnecting in 1980s New York, where Ross was working an office job and Eld was a virtually homeless drug addict living in a grindhouse basement. He should have had better directors, says Toby Ross, with a greater understanding of his idiosyncrasies, including in the sexual kind. The deterioration into the abyss is almost more fascinating then the rise to stardom. Ross's tale of a last meeting with Eld one night in that old dilapidated theatre is breathtakingly deep and poignant. Overall an interesting doc which feels like someone actually telling you a story over a cup of coffee, because that is how the narration ends. For some this may be boring, but for me, I got to knew a man I knew nothing about and how many similar likely stories are never gonna be known to us. At least Bill Eld had a director friend who chose to give him a tribute in his own way. (5.5/10)