THE WREAL WRANGLER
by Edward Sladek for Clothes/Dick magazine
Patiently waiting in the office for Jack Wrangler to appear (I was made completely comfortable by Jack’s business manager Bob Meyer), my eyes were riveted to the stacks of magazines covering the table directly in front of me… all cover stories and centerfolds of Jack Wrangler.
Suddenly I became jolted into the reality of things, that I was at any moment going to meet and interview one of the hottest, if not THE hottest porn star (superstud) in films today. What would he be like?
I became apprehensive and uncomfortable; what if he didn’t like me? Or, what if he gave me the star attitude (one of my personal pet peeves), or what if he didn’t talk, and 1 had to carry the conversation?
I hardly had enough time to answer these questions in my mind before the door opened and in walked Jack Wrangler. His shirt was opened to the waist exposing that well-photographed chest; tanned and sandy-haired, with a smile to rival Jimmy Carter’s. I couldn’t help but immediately feel that charismatic charm that has put Jack on top of the porn film business, and made him an easily identifiable gay superstar.
I laughed at myself for thinking he would have any kind of attitude, for he is as “real” a person as you or 1. And he is a man of many words. immediately focusing on his career, and spilling it all (so to speak).
Since Jack’s story is best as told by Jack, I’ve decided to tell it to you in his own words. The following is a concised version of the highlights of the verbatim interview.
E.S. Let’s start with the most obvious question.
J.W. What would be the most obvious question?
E.S. How did you get involved in gay porn?
J.W. I was a director. I had been an actor as a kid at college at North- western University in Illinois. I went to work at the Ivanhoe Theater in Chicago as their resident kid. I played all the kid roles. On top of that I had a musical review playing in Chicago’s old town, and I had a celebrity radio show.
Then I was doing a revival of a play
“It was the first time I took my shirt off onstage. and the audience went bananas.’
called “Dear Charles” with Hermione Gingold. And she would go up on her lines from the second act to the third,
and one night I had to do a monologue to get her back to the second act. Well, we became very close friends as a re- sult of this, and she took me to New York with the show. After that, she felt I should be here on the West Coast. So I came back out here, having been born and raised here, and was immediately sent to Texas to do a bunch of shows I had done before. Then I became the resident director for
a whole chain of theatres, and would have three or four shows running ac- ross the country as once… Jane Rus sel, Yvonne De Carlo, Betty Hutton… I directed her last show before she went into the nunnery. I was directing one show after another, then I was in the Florida circuit for awhile. I di rected Sal Mineo in just about every thing he did on the road.
Then I got back here and realized the stars were making all the money, and I was working my ass off, and really not doing all that well financially. So I got back here and was offered a part in a
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show in San Francisco called “Special Friends”, a comedy, in which I was supposed to play an ex-hustler from Arkansas, now go-go boy in San Fran- cisco, kind’ve an extension of cowboy in “The Boys in the Band,” only he was a central character. It was the first time I took my shirt off onstage, and the audiences went bananas. The show became the most successful show of 1975. This gets long winded, babe. E.S. Well, keep going, that’s what
we’re here for. J.W. Now, before that my name was
Jack Stillman. Well, this was a non- union show. Being a member of Ac- tor’s Equity I had been fined before for doing a non-union show. So the night before the programs went to print I had on a Wrangler work shirt, and I looked down and said, that’s it, call me Jack Wrangler. So they made up a phony biography, said I was from Minnesota and wanted to be a forest ranger. And the audience bought it. All of a sudden the show is this great big hit, we’ve got covers and centerfolds in America and Europe. As a result of all of this, everyone had heard of Jack Wrangler, and no one had heard of Jack Stillman. My name was then legally changed to Jack Wrangler. Then the films natur- ally followed.
E.S. Do you party a lot? J.W. I’m not seen out at a lot of places. E.S. Why is that?
J.W. I can never feel comfortable out. First of all, I don’t dance, theatrically or socially, and I tend to become self- conscious with the stares and whispers that go on when I enter a bar. I stay home a lot. Sometimes I’m home watching an old movie on T.V. and I wonder what most of America think I’m doing right now? They probably think I’m fucking the shit out of every body in Los Angeles, and I’m at home watching an old Charles Laughton film. I don’t go out a lot. I live at the
beach, and I love it. E.S. Well what do you do for enjoy- ment?
J.W. I go to the beach a lot at night, and there’s a bar there that closes up when I come in, sometimes I go alone, sometimes with a friend, and play the pinballs, talk, whatever. Then I’ll leave there, walk along the water. Sometimes stay up all night and watch the sun rise. That’s my trip. E.S. What about all the sex in your
films, is it really happening? J.W. Oh yeah, there’s no way you can fake that.
E.S. Do you ever have to retake a sex scene?
J.W. Oh yes, very often.
E.S. How do you keep it going?
J.W. It’s concentration more than anything else.
E.S. Your films are major motion pic- tures, in that they use set directors, costumers, make-up and lighting people. Is that right?
J.W. Yes, on the last film I did, “Night of Adonis”, which isn’t released yet, we used what they call a steady-cam. It’s only been used in two other films before… “Rocky” was one of them. E.S. Do you get into the sex in your films?
J.W. Very much so. Now, I’ve never dated any of the models I’ve worked with, not because I’ve had any criteria about it, but because of the business aspects of my work, and traveling all the time. I really never had the time to get to know somebody well. Plus, 1 don’t want people feeling that when they’re with me they’re going to feel overshadowed. That they’re not going to be able to maintain their own thing.
“…I had on a Wrangler work shirt, and I looked down and said, ‘that’s it, call me Jack Wrangler.”
That’s really important to me, because I get off more on the other guy.
It’s like when I first make it with some- body. I’m so damned uptight that they’re not going to be happy, that usually the first time is kind’ve a bum- mer for me because I’m more con- cerned about the guy being turned on, when he’s got this whole image in his mind. And sometimes they get so up- tight they can’t handle it all.
E.S. Do you have script approval? Is there anything you won’t allow in your films?
J.W. Yes. I don’t allow fist-fucking or water sports in my films. Not because I
“I was making it with guys and girls at a very early age. it just depended on
who was around at the time.”
E.S. What are the endorsements? J.W. Well, aside from films and per- sonal appearances, I sing. I’ve got a very expensive nightclub act ready to open about spring. Then we have all the Jack Wrangler products, starting with the Jack Wrangler Fraternity. which is basically a travel club. I host several tours a year, and I’m with the tours every minute.
Then we have the Jac-Masters line, which consists of the Accu-Jac, the Jac-Pac, Jac-Blaster, Black-Jac which is an aroma that’s sensational, no headaches, longer lasting high.
The Jac-Pac is sensational. It looks like this plastic thing you blow up and throw into the swimming pool, like a plastic muff. You lubricate it with your Jac-cream. Then there’s the Accu-Jac. It’s the Rolls Royce of adult toys. E.S. It costs a couple hundred dollars. doesn’t it?
E.S. Do you make a lot of money in your films?
J.W. Not really. I’ve never worked for a percentage. The films actually keep my name going, but it’s the personal appearances, the one-man-show, and the endorsements that make me money.
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J.W. From $250.00 to $2500.00. We can match it to the decor of your home. It comes in what looks like a tackle box, with control dials. You plug it in, stick your cock in a prefit sleeve, and
don’t approve of them. I do, for any one who’s into it, but on film you’re trying to reach a majority of the gay minority. And by using those particu- lar devices you reduce the majority of the minority even more. Your com- mercial appeal goes right down the drain.
let it do the rest. It gets you hard, and feels like you’re getting beat off and sucked off at the same time. And your hands are free!
E.S. Jack, how did you come into gay life?
J.W. How did I come once I was in the gay life? I was never brought up thinking that any sexual activity was wrong. It wasn’t like any heavy revel- ation… my god, I’m making it with a guy… I was making it with guys and
“…they can live a very exciting life being gay. They have to forget that conditioning syndrome and all that crap that goes with it.”
girls since a very early age, it just de- pended on who was around at the time.
You know, we get enormous amounts of letters from kids whose pa- rents do not understand, and some- times they’re very suicidal. And we answer every one of those letters very carefully. These people don’t have anybody to turn to, or even talk to. So they identify with me, and talk to me. And I realize how fortunate I’ve been, and all I’m trying to do is communicate some of that to them. To make them feel that their masculinity isn’t threatened, and they can live a very exciting life being gay. They have to forget that conditioning syndrome and all that crap that goes with it. They’ve got to realize that they’ve got a hell of a thing going, that being gay is as responsible a position as being straight, which a lot of people don’t feel, but it is. Developing a gay relationship is just as tough as developing a straight relationship, maybe tougher.
Even in my show, I stand there and tell the audience… you know, you people are incredible. I’m not here be- cause you’re getting off on me, I’m here because I’m getting off on you… it’s a reversal. I’m much more in- terested in what you’re doing. I know what I’m doing. It’s a switch, it’s not like see what I’ve got, it’s let’s see what you’ve got!!!
E.S. Well, Jack, I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to interview you, and on behalf of CLOTHES- DICK magazine I’d like to wish you the best of success in the future.
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