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In memory of David Hurles from Old Reliable

19th April 2023, 5:21 pm

 

 

Back in the day, I feverishly collected Old Reliable magazines that I bought from Circus of Books in West Hollywood.

Many years ago (circa 1988), I was hired by the Advocate Magazine to photograph the first reception for Gay Porn Awards at Chateau Marmont. I shot porn actors, Al Parker, JD Slater and director Christopher Rage along with this bashful guy wearing a button down shirt with a New Wave-style triangle & polka dot print. I assumed he was a producer.

Fast-forward to 1997, I was informed through a model that I would be allowed to interview the guy behind Old Reliable Studios. That man was David Hurles. I was driven to the secret location and introduced to a shy and slender man wearing a button down shirt with a New Wave-style triangle & polka dot print. That was David Hurles! He was wearing the same shirt nine years later!

David was one of the few remaining artists from the golden years of male physique photography, an incredibly creative era when there were no limits, since the limits had not been tested. At the time, you could get arrested just by photographing a hard-on. Since then, David & I have been friends.

In 2009, I heard the sad news that David had a massive stroke and was in very serious condition. I was invited by my friend Dave Naz to visit David. Initially scared for the condition in which I would find David, I was pleased to see him regaining his movement, slowly but surely, and he was in great spirits, considering all he had been through.

Now David Hurles AKA Old Reliable has left us. He was a legend of Homoerotic photography, filmmaking and kinky audio, literally creating thousands of fetish recordings (everything from talking dirty to the sounds of ass pounding). Like Tom of Finland, David was a trailblazer. There will never be anyone like him again. R.I.P. my kinky brother.

 –Rick Castro on the passing of David Hurles

 

2016 Tom of Finland Foundation Recipients

Lifetime Achievement Award

Guy Baldwin

Guy is a long time and respected member of the Leather community; he has won the titles of International Mr. Leather and Mr. National Leather Association. He is a psychotherapist-educator and a sought after speaker.

Guy takes the approach that erotic play can definitely be part of a healthy expression of one’s sexuality. Many have benefitted from his sound advice in seminars, workshops and through his publications.

Artist Hall of Fame

REX

The artist known only as REX has proved to be one of the most controversial and enduring artists. Over the past four decades his meticulously detailed pen-and-ink drawings have delighted and outraged a worldwide audience with their homoerotic subject matter, sometimes sweet and sometimes raw.

Since the sixties he has lead a reclusive life as a cult figure and underground artist with an international reputation enabled thru pirated reproductions of his work first in print, and today on the internet.

 

Artist Hall of Fame

David Hurles

For over 40 years, David Hurles documented the hidden world of rough trade and rent boys posing, masturbating, wrestling, or boxing. His models ranged from drifters and grifters to hustlers and ex-cons — men who came to Los Angeles, and Hurles’s studio, to make it big but mostly landed in Hollywood’s gutter.

His photographs were ubiquitous fixtures in gay publications throughout the seventies and eighties and continue to enjoy a strong following today.

Published: 19th April 2023

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