Dear iDEALS, it was about two months ago when I received a letter from Gary Lee Boas. I could clearly see a golden opportunity rising, a gift for the readers of Isterografo and as a chance to explore a man’s hobby turned to profession. An obsession that took away any sign of private life and personal moments.
Gary Lee Boas spent almost his entire life running after the Hollywood Stars. When I ask him what the title of his biography would be he said “The rope”, meaning the detail that separates a paparazzo like him from the celebrities on the red carpet…
In Europe, his work is treated with great respect. Especially by the fashion crowd. A recent example is the one during a festive night at Maxim’s in Paris, when Gary approached Marc Jacobs to express his admiration, Jacobs expressed the same admiration back. In every Fashion House’s library, Boas books have a place, as they represent a great source of references for the world of what he puts as “The Original Hollywood Glamour”.
“It is easy to understand the differences between the icons of the 70’s and 80’s era compared to the “stars” of today”, says Gary. “Back then the famous people where more approachable and truly glamorous. Today, the stars are always accompanied by an entourage of people, their press agents and stylists. Their Ego is most of the times bigger that their actual career, yet they carry an attitude towards the people who want to approach them”
Of course, at those times they were simply known as "Stars". Casting him in the role of a documentarian the camera gave him the reason he'd needed to approach stars in person. Boas discovered that his pictures could capture the attention of those who might once have brushed him off. The fact that the Stars allowed themselves to be photographed was as important to Boas as actually meeting them.
Professionals like Gary Lee Boas are rare to find nowadays. I wonder if any other person could actually sacrifice his own personal life, waiting outside, rain or sun, during movie premiers or glamorous parties, just for a simple shot of a celebrity…
Although he spends more money than he actually makes, when I ask whether he could be someone else he gives me a sharp “NO!!” answer.
The photos you are about to see, dating from 1966 to 1980, and document with refreshing vitality a bygone era of glamour, fandom and pre-paparazzi innocence. The great number of people filtered through the lens of an unknown, devoted fan, moves this collection into the realms of pop-culture and «outsider" art photography.
The passion and dedication with which
Boas has collected these trophies and the intensity with which he sets
them in memory make him more appealing than the common paparazzo. It
is, however, the way his compulsion manifests the deeper desires and
darker needs of our society that makes his extensive work so relevant
to, and resonant with, the issues of contemporary art.
Please read the following conversation
we had.
FilepMotwary: When did your hobby turn to
obsession start?
GaryLeeBoas: Even as a kid I never did anything half assed, so I would really say
from the start.
I didn’t really know what I was starting, but I knew when I was around
these people. I was just loving the feeling.. And half the time I had
NO IDEA who they were because I was not a real movie buff. I was a child
of the 60 s so everything was all about TV. It was no more of a hobby
than it was an obsession, it ran hand in hand.
FilepMotwary:How old are you?
GaryLeeBoas: I am 57 years young
FilepMotwary: As a young man, did you ever think
your work would become such an important point of reference
today?
GaryLeeBoas: God no , it is still hard for me to think that way .There are times
I am talking to people and I am telling a story about back in the day
. I all but cry. I feel so lucky to have had a life that allowed me
to step into that world, mainly because I put myself there. You know
when your young you are so busy living life, that you never think this
one day will be just a memory.
FilepMotwary:When did you realize the importance
of your photographs?
GaryLeeBoas:Never really thought of it like that, but I know when friends would
look at my photo s their face would light up and questions would start.
So I guess the answer would be almost from the beginning ...
The thing is that I have a weird time thinking that my photo s has
turned into ART. What a rush. Even to have FANS of my own, I mean how
would any one feel being famous or knowing the famous??
FilepMotwary: Where you aware of its uniqueness back then? Are you
now..
GaryLeeBoas:No in the past never thought of it much. I was always a bit off the
normal, left school in 7th grade and had a private teacher. So in a
way I was always running around with the older and wild crowd be it
in my home town of Lancaster, Pennsylvania or New York City. No grass
grew under my feet (Laughs) .
Nowadays, hell yes!! To travel all over the world and have people come
up to me and say I “LOVE YOUR WORK”, “I AM A FAN” or “CAN
I HAVE A PHOTO WITH YOU” , somehow it still feels like I am in a dream
and needless to say I DON T WANT TO WAKE UP ..
FilepMotwary:When was that you had the
first Hollywood star snapshot? Under
what conditions? Do you remember the incident?
GaryLeeBoas:Yes I remember how I could forget? It started a whole new
life for me. It was Sept of 1966.. The singer Robert Goulet
was in my town..
I was walking downtown and I saw all these people in front of the local
Hospital gathered around this person... so I went up to see what was
going on .At first, certainly I knew him from some where but could not
think where. Then when I saw people getting autographs and getting photo
s with him, I put the jigsaw together .He was going into the Hospital
for a Fund Raiser , so I ran home and got a pen and paper and as I was
running out the door . I though “hey I should get my camera, maybe
I can get a photo” and this is when the “bug” started.
FilepMotwary:How was the Hollywood era back
then?
GaryLeeBoas: STARS WERE STARS. When you were in front of them you felt like you were
in front of someone almost not human. From the way they acted, dressed
... When you walked into a room, you never had to look for them. THEY
STOOD OUT. How do you miss a Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly or Sophia Loren?
Today some times you’re not even sure you’re in the “right”
room.
True Glamour and we were fans , no
one was trying to get a bad photo or someone with someone, or doing
drugs , it was a clean time , so the stars knew that you had no harm
in mind . YOU WERE A FAN
Plus they had contracts with the studios. The studio would take time
to mould a star. Even today when you see an Old star from back then,
they still have that flair about them, so I truly believe Hollywood
went to shit when they stopped contracts ..
FilepMotwary: Have you become friends with any of the icons you
photographed...?
GaryLeeBoas: After 42 years of doing this I would hope so. Most of the stars from
2000 or before, know me by name or face because I am one of the few
people who do it on both East and West Coast..
Friends, yes the ones that come to mind first are Katharine Hepburn,
Julie Christie, Geraldine Page, Chita Rivera, Richard Nixon and Jodie
Foster... I really could go on and on. I think the hardest thing for
me is when the GREATS I have meet die and people tell me with the tone:
“ OH DID YOU KNOW SO AND SO DIED” and to them it is only someone
they knew from films. A lot of times It feels like I just LOST A FRIEND
and that is always very HARD on me
FilepMotwary: What was your motivation, running after these people with a camera
?
GaryLeeBoas:I was just living life and having fun and getting to meet people that
most people only think of as someone on a screen; and here I was chilling
with them, going to movie openings, Awards, parties. How could you not
like that, to be famous for knowing the famous? WHAT A TRIP! Wouldn’t
you “buy a ticket”? (Laughs)
FilepMotwary: “Startstruck
“was published in 2002, yet it is still a success
today. Why do you think a book like STARSTRUCK makes a
difference?
GaryLeeBoas: Good question, but hard to answer, Starstruck was published in 1999
.First of all it looks like a photo album that people feel “ok”
with looking at and also then for seeing photo s of the past, people
you forgot about, clothing, cars.. it goes on and on . I’ve heard
so many things over the years what that book has meant to different
people.
The thing I like the most is that it brings people together. I’ve
seen people start talking, exchanging e mails and numbers, so if I could
say any one thing that it did was, I will know when I am gone. I will
live on in many people’s homes and lives. What a great reward this
is for me… I mean that is about as good as it gets..
FilepMotwary: Will the younger generation understand
it you think?
GaryLeeBoas: Oh yes. I am so touched when that happens, that a young person comes
up and thanks me for giving them a blast from the past, both with the
STAR photos and Porn. I get alot of people saying. Oh I wish I was back
then, it must have been GREAT and at that point I laugh and always
say “ if you were, you'd be OLD or DEAD” and they laugh ..
But yeah I have a lot of YOUNG FANS Sometimes they don t know who the
person in the photo is .They just love the photo
FilepMotwary: I came to see it while working in Paris. Are you aware that many people
in the fashion world know your work?
Can you suspect why it happens?
GaryLeeBoas: Yes I am very aware of it because I spend two months out of the year
in Paris.
When I go out in Paris, I feel like a STAR. People say the greatest
things to me, treat me like a VIP and I am truly loved. The funny thing
if you would see the way I dress you would think I never even looked
at a fashion magazine. I always joke about how the EUROPEANS “just
get it “ gets me to the point I don t want to come home to the STATES
some times ... I love Paris.
As far as why they “get it”? Don t really know , just know that
I love most of the people in that world and they are movers and shakers
, like I was in the 80 s ... so I get them ... they get me .. And I
am still moving and shaking. (Laughs) I love Paris.
FilepMotwary: How was the term HOLLYWOOD STAR changed today compared to what you
experienced back in the 1970 s and 80
s?
GaryLeeBoas: They trusted you, as I said before. .I never heard the word poprazzi,
E BAY selling my collection..We did it for the LOVE OF MEETING WHO WAS
IN FRONT OF US. Now it’s a meat market. STAR: what does that mean
today? Hell, you eat ants on FEAR FACTOR and you’re a STAR. Mostly
AMERICAN CELEBRITY has gone to Hell.
FilepMotwary: How was the Studio 54 experience?
Where you a part of it?
GaryLeeBoas: Yes very much, in and out for 5 years. Mark, the door man, was a great
friend and he would always head me where I was to go, front or back,
who was there, who was expected and did the inside a lot. There are
no words to explain that period of time. All I can say, if you ever
did that club back in the day is very hard to even go into a club today
and try to have the best time you can . STUDIO 54 had everything you
could want for a great time: disco music, crazy people, famous
people, sex, drugs. Wouldn’t you go there?? The thing I look back on the most is getting to hang with Andy Warhole,
Liza Minnelli, Elizabeth Taylor, Halston, Cheryl Tiegs, Mick and Bianca
Jagger, Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams and not knowing you were
living a piece of HISTORY . It feels great that I am alive to share
the tale. So yes, I was part of it and now it is a big part of me.
FilepMotwary:What was Studio 54 really about, in general?
GaryLeeBoas: Steve made it a place where you could come and just BE YOUSELF, whatever
that meant.. That is the best way I can put it , to be able to mix with
all the types of people that went there and everyone was there for the
same reason : To let go..
FilepMotwary: Why do you think nightlife changed
so much today? Where there is a lack of romance
today?
GaryLeeBoas: Odd question and I can only answer this from MY MIND. I think AIDS had
a lot to do with it, when that came around there was a cloud over everything.
Plus the times were different. Nowadays ... people feel the need to
be noticed and be the center of attention. Back in the 70 s and 80 s
people where just themselves..
As far as romance, well Hollywood and the shit movies they put out there
are not very romantic. Everyone is running around in their own world
and space just trying to make life work..
FilepMotwary:How was your childhood?
GaryLeeBoas: I made it a mess, but it was really very great. I had a wonderful mother
whom I owe everything I am to. She was my mom and my friend and never
even knew it until I lost her in 1977.
I knew I was gay at 15 so that was hard to deal with in a small farm
town. Just knew I was differnt and that is why I had to get out of school.
Hated it, kids are nasty at that age , so in a way I grew up too fast
and missed a lot of what it was for a young in mind and body .
FilepMotwary: How did your parents see this hobby/mania of yours?
GaryLeeBoas: Neither of them ever said or did anything negative about it. My
dad was never around much because he was a bricklayer and always off
doing jobs. Mom was my saving grace, she loved going along and being
part of it somehow.
One time I went to The Monkees concert, a group that was huge on Television
back then . That week-end, my mom and I went to NYC. They were staying
at this Hotel, so we went and waited in front to see them. I wanted
to leave but mom wanted to meet Davy Jones and he had not come in yet,
so she forced me to wait. I’ll never forget it!
Never really talked to her about it but when I’d hear her talk to
her friends, she would tell the story we had just gone through and who
we met. This is how I know she enjoyed it . I miss her more than I can express.
Thank You MOM
FilepMotwary: In your opinion are there any real
Hollywood Stars today?
GaryLeeBoas: Not STARS, like in golden Hollywood era but there are a lot of Celebrities
out there, a lot of them good actors and actresses. Real glamour is
gone. Half the people showing up at the Awards come dressed in outfits
pushing a designer or a brand. When I am at an event the first question
is WHO ARE YOU WEARING...?
Do you think they asked Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich or any other
great movie star that question? I don t think so. Also I don’t
know if these people could even pick out a great out fit by themselves.
I love Charlize Theron cause she always looks great ,
Selma Hayek , Gwen Stefani...but I really have to
think .Plus I am given a list of who is at a party and I have to run
around looking for the people nowadays…Sad!
FilepMotwary: Porn Photography was the second
path you followed? Why porn?
GaryLeeBoas: When I was 18 I worked in a porn shop in my home town of Lancaster,
Pennsylvania. I was very sexual as a kid. So I fit right in. When we
got the new magazines in the store, I would look through all of them,
so I knew who most of the people were, the faces, names, their tits,
ass, and dick.
There were strip joints in New York City and Washington, DC and big
porn stars would come and appear there, so when I was running from one
Broadway show to another I would pass these places and see the names
of the people from the magazines or movies I sold in the store outside
of what event or theatre the were appearing at. So I would stand outside
to meet these people. It was a rush and most of them became friends
with me so I got to know their real name. Next thing I know I was hanging
with them and even getting to sleep with some of them. (Now that was
a rush), something that was considered as most people's fantasy and
I was living it.
I met one porn star who became one of my best friends, David Ashfield,
and he was telling me that when they film a movie, part of the deal
is to do a photo layout, so, if I would photograph the stars and he
knew (almost everyone that is), I could just split the money with them
and sell them to the magazines. This is how I started my PORN CAREER...
The only touble was by the time I photographed them they were already
all over the magazines. This pushed me to start looking for unknown
guys and to say the least that was much more fun. Most of the guys were
straight, so it was fun watching them LET GO...
I like that work a lot, for a lot of reasons .People let go when they
are naked, they tell you all kinds of shit and by the time your
done doing a GOOD SHOOT , you feel like you ve had sex with them . TALK
ABOUT SAFE SEX.. LOL
I still do that to this day and will until I can't hold a camera.
FilepMotwary: Can you share with us more details
about this chapter of your life?
GaryLeeBoas: Well that is a book, so again it s hard to write this myself because
as I am telling one story I am thinking of another one.
As you know a lot of the clubs, mostly the gay ones had back room for
sex in them. So sex was very much part of life in the 70 s and 80 s
.It was the feel good time of life .Even in Studio 54 people would have
sex on the balcony .It was everwhere : in trucks, warehouses,
allies , cheap motels, door ways, bushes . Anywhere you could bang a
quick one off. (Laughs)
Seems very odd to remember those days and the strange part is, if you
were caught up in that world, you did not feel bad about it, in fact
you LIVED for it. Then AIDS came and “a door closed hard.”
I really do feel very bad for the kids of today, I believe that you
truly got to know a lot of different parts of yourself when you just
let go, and SEX is a big part of that experience.
FilepMotwary: Why do you think porn sells so much?
GaryLeeBoas: This my own feelings on this … In the USA we are still a very backward
country when it comes to sex .It has still has to have some label, which
I don’t understand as far as life I think we go through changes and
need different things to turn us on. Because we change in life, bored
in a marriage or relationship or don t feel like we can find someone
who is going to deal with whatever turns us on. So we watch porn.
I have been in the sex business since 1986 and seen a lot of turns.
Must say, working in a small town porn store was an eye and ear opener,
I learned to never use the says “OH THAT S SICK”, because before
we are all dead and gone, we don’t really know what we will deal with..
But again, this is my feeling towards porn. If you don’t feel OK with
your own sexual desires, then, you are never true to yourself. I believe
that is a big part of what makes you tick.
FilepMotwary: Have you achieved all you wanted life wise and career
wise?
GaryLeeBoas: Hell no, if I did I’d be dead. Hope that I can do what I do until
I can‘t. Then I guess it’s the end.. .I really like the ART world
that I wish would go further. As far as the RED CARPET and PRESS ROOM
STUFF, since I am getting old and I don t get it any more, I don t get
THAT RUSH. I still want to meet DORIS DAY, so if anyone that is reading
this knows her, please hook me up (laughs)
FilepMotwary: How has instinct helped you in your life and work ?
GaryLeeBoas: God blessed me with that, INSTINCT is my life and every angle of it,
not just the movie star thing ...I just know when I am in a room and
someone famous is there..
The only thing I was never good at was my love life. I am still single
and now that I’ve run around, I feel the need to settle down a bit.
But still love going all around the world meeting new interesting people.
FilepMotwary: From all the STARSTRUCK snapshots
my favourite is the one of Greta Garbo. How did you find
her? Please tell me the story..
GaryLeeBoas: My lover at the time, Jeff got standing room tickets for both of us,
to see a Broadway show and right when the lights went down and the curtain
went up I looked next to me and there she was standing there. So, for
the next two and a half hours I had to stand next to GRETA GARBO.
Funnily, Jeff had no idea who she was and I was going nuts. At the end,
as soon as the theatre went dark, she was gone. I missed the chance
and I got sick disappointed...
Then, we were walking down 5t Avenue and as soon as we got at the
corner of Sacks of there she was again standing at the corner and se
noticed us. She stood in front of the window and watched people go back
and forth , then went into the store and that’s when the race started
as she was going through all the clothing departments trying to loose
us.... Well she did ...
I knew she lived on a dead-end street, 64th, so I
talked Jeff into going there and we waited at the corner. Instinctively
I knew she had to come home .We weren’t waiting long and I saw her
walking up the street. Since Jeff really didn’t know who she was he
got in a phone booth and when she came around closer, I gave him the
sign and he jumped out and snapped the photo, so that photo credit really
goes to HIM..
FilepMotwary: What are your new projects about? How has your work evolved and where
are you now?
GaryLeeBoas: I just had a new show photos from the 60’s and 70’s that have never
been revealed so far, in Amsterdam and a new book that just came out
called Celebrity.
So I hope that grows into different and more ART SHOWS around the world,
that’s what I’d really like. Would love to do a show in Greece,
it would be nice since I have never been there before.
I have just been offered to do another book and show in Paris in the Fall.. So that is something I hope pans out.
FilepMotwary: What are your
expectations for the future?
GaryLeeBoas: That I don t know , guess I ‘ll do the “star” thing until I hate
everyone .It is not fun any more and every year when Awards time comes
up , I get all locked up in my head . On the other hand, if I don t
do it, some young buck will take my spot. (Laughs) so I have to keep
going on. The ART WORLD ,that seems to be it , and keep living life
to the fullest ; and most of all, keep meeting all the GREAT people
I am getting to meet ..
Note: All photographs courtecy of Gary Lee Boas. The interview was scheduled for the 6th issue of ISTEROGRAFO Cyprus. Copyrights of the interview Filep Motwary/ Un nouVeau iDEAL and Gary Lee Boas.
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