Page 493 - Gay Pioneers: How DRUMMER Magazine Shaped Gay Popular Culture 1965-1999

Jack Fritscher Chapter 18 475

gave the first and only glimmer that in his heart of hearts he knew he
himself had set off Chief Ed Davis and brought the LAPD down on his
own head. He was already diverting the accusation that followed him all
the years since.
Embry alone nearly destroyed Drummer on Saturday night, April 10,
1976.
Deep down, was this man, who never admitted to shame, covering his
guilt through the subterfuge of attacking Blueboy?
Less deep down, he was competing in a marketing turf war with Blueboy
by trying to destroy Embinder’s reputation.
That was the bully Embry’s core technique for his Blacklist: To destroy
the reputation of anyone who resisted him.
It is gut-busting hilarious to read Embry’s Drummer 9 editorial des-
perately ridiculing Blueboy, founded in 1974, a year before issue one of
Drummer, for venturing

...into an area it was completely unqualified for...the result is
disastrous. Four pages of a suicide in a bathtub, with the blood
going down the drain. A simulated (we assume) corpse may be
somebody’s idea of S&M [said Embry, the indignant publisher of
the “Fetish: Necrophilia” feature in Drummer 4 and the “White
Death” snuff poem in Drummer 5], but it isn’t ours. There are glit-
tering razor blades slicing nipples [raged the publisher who soon
after printed Mapplethorpe’s photo of a cut-and-bloodied cock
and balls tied to a bondage board in Son of Drummer]....There are
interesting shots of somebody’s dungeon entitled “Black Room”
[said the publisher who printed photos of his own Drummer dun-
geon and Fritscher photos of the Catacombs].... The feature article
on “S&M 1976” is written by a woman who starts off admit-
ting she knew nothing about the subject [complained the sen-
sitive publisher whose founding Los Angeles editor-in-chief was
the woman Jeanne Barney]....We have no intention of starting a
rhubarb with Blueboy [said the publisher who owned a rhubarb
patch].... A campy bomb like this [said the publisher famous for
pasting camp cartoon balloons on serious S&M photographs]....
May we respectfully [said the man who disrespected the writers,
artists, and photographers who suggested topics to him] suggest
topics to Blueboy other than this one. Drummer promises to steer
clear of seascapes, travelogues, fashion shows [said the founding
Barnum of the Mr. Drummer Contest] and the avant garde [said

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