UC Irvine

This article presents a microhistory of Shan Sayles’ entrepreneurship in film exhibition that involved both arthouse and exploitation cinemas. Covering the years up to around 1970, it also functions as a commemoration for Sayles with particular focus on the gay films he acquired for his theaters across the country in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The article was commissioned by the Bob Mizer Foundation for their relaunch of Mizer’s Physique Pictorial as an expansion on my article for The Advocate entitled “Commemorating Two Forgotten Figures of Stonewall-Era Gay Film.” While some of the broader points echo from The Advocate article, this piece does not focus on Monroe Beehler, and instead includes additional original research fleshing out Sayles’ beginnings in arthouse exhibition as well as his later business practices. As of this writing, Physique Pictorial 49 is out-of-print.