Title:
Pat Rocco collection of gay erotic shorts, home movies, and other material, approximately 1948-1977, 2003, (bulk 1968-1972)
Creator/Contributor:
Rocco, Pat., creator
Abstract:
This collection features Pat Rocco's gay erotic shorts, features, documentaries, and home movies including footage of the
June 1971 Christopher Street West parade in Hollywood, gay demonstrations, events and festivals, backstage footage of his
tour with Marge and Gower Champion, touring with the Top 20 dance group, and backstage footage from the Tennessee Ernie Ford
show highlighting Ford's version of The Mikado. Films include Yes (ca. 1968), Love is blue (ca. 1968), The performance (ca.
1968), Disneyland discovery (1969), Pat Rocco dares (1969-1970), A breath of love (ca. 1969), The end (1969), Marco of Rio
(1969), Let there be boys (1969-1970), Someone (ca. 1968), Sex and the single gay (1970), Mondo Rocco (1970), Drifter (1974),
and We were there (1976), Rocco's documentary about gay pride events in Los Angeles and San Francisco during the U.S. bicentennial
year. The collection also includes the video Rocco made while visiting his old friend Phyllis Diller at her home in Brentwood,
California titled A date with Phyllis (2003).
Date:
1968 (issued)
Subject:
Rocco, Pat -- Archives
Independent filmmakers -- California -- Los Angeles -- Archival resources
Gay activists -- United States -- Archival resources
Gay liberation movement -- United States
Note:
APPOINTMENT REQUIRED FOR VIEWING MATERIALS ONSITE. Inquire at the Archive Research and Study Center for further information
(email: arsc@ucla.edu).
Materials entirely in English.
Pat Rocco was born in Brooklyn, New York on February 9, 1934. His family moved to Southern California when Rocco was 11 years
of age. Rocco came out at 13 years of age and had his own radio show as a singer when he was 16 years of age. By the time
he was 19, Rocco had recorded his first album of songs, and he appeared on many early television shows during the 1940s and
early 1950s. He was involved in much little theatre work as a singer, actor, lighting designer, stage manager, etc. and he
created the part of Mack the Knife in the West Coast premiere of The threepenny opera. He enjoyed participating in summer
stock, was selected as one of the top 20 singers in the U.S. and for three years was part of the cast of the Tennessee Ernie
Ford show, a weekly television musical-variety show that premiered on NBC in 1956 and ended its run in 1961. After his stint
on the Ford show, he toured with MGM dance greats Marge Champion (1919-) and Gower Champion (1919-1980). Rocco was a 16 mm.
enthusiast and he was rarely without his camera. As a result, he captured home movies of many of the backstage antics and
tours in which he had participated. In the 1960s, Rocco was asked to photograph male nudes for a magazine and often took his
movie camera with him where he would make brief 3-minute sequences, and then later some longer narrative films using the models
he was photographing. Rocco successfully marketed the short films and was approached by an owner of a movie theatre who asked
Rocco to show his films in his theatre, which he did. The short films caught on and Rocco became an instant celebrity in the
gay community, receiving positive reviews for his works from the gay press, Variety, the Los Angeles times, Playboy magazine
and the Hollywood reporter. Rocco's prolific output slowed down in the early 1970s, when gay erotic hardcore films pushed
him out of the market. In the late 1960s and through the 1980s, Rocco shot footage of gay demonstrations, parades, marches,
festivals and events that are considered the only existing footage of the major beginnings of the gay rights movement in the
U.S. Rocco was the first president of the Christopher Street-West Association, founder of gay pride festivals (the first one
being in 1974), and in 1978, the founder of Hudson House, a series of shelters in Los Angeles, Hollywood, San Francisco and
San Diego that provides shelter, food, clothing and jobs for gay men and lesbians. He established the Stonewall Democratic
Club, the first political gay organization that helped to elect gay-friendly candidates. In 1978, Rocco purchased property
in Hawaii and moved there in 1982 where he remains active in the local community.
Copyright has not been assigned to the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Inventory list available. Inquire at the Archive Research and Study Center.
1/2 in. VHS videocassettes. Interview with Pat Rocco is contained as part of the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives collection
of film and video.
Forms part of: Outfest Legacy Project.
Type:
motion picture
Gay erotic films.
Personal/independent films and video.
Home movies and video.
Shorts.
Physical Description:
approximately 400 items.
Language:
English
Identifier:
Collection 24
Origin:
California
Copyright Note:
APPOINTMENT REQUIRED FOR VIEWING MATERIALS ONSITE. Inquire at the Archive Research and Study Center for further information
(email: arsc@ucla.edu).
Copyright has not been assigned to the UCLA Film & Television Archive.