Nelson Sullivan's First Private Outing (1984)

[@deetscrash]

R.I.P. Nelson... Thanks for the videos I've been watching for about 7 years now.. think I've seen every one more than once ❤

[@aliamjon2550]

Iits interesting to see the old cars and structures and look at hairstyles and clothes from that time

[@Callum-vj3yf]

Rest in peace Nelson. I'm sure he would be so proud to know how far his content ended up reaching. It's quite beautiful in a way.

[@Sol-Cutta]

I'm all way in UK , never been to America,.never will , never seen new York,, apart from movies and here.i live in a small village that could fit into Nelson's corner.

[@dramamonster]

It's amazing, but Nelson's world was like living in a small village. He walked to some of his destinations and tapped into a nightlife that booms in any small town. You don't have to live in New York to understand what was going on then. It' s still happening today (although on less of a grand scale, perhaps). But Nelson was a sprinter; he was out every night and captured many great moments with his camera. @@Sol-Cutta

[@aviratica6370]

I like to stop at 5/9th ave every once in a while and think of Nelson.

[@alvinwhitley8020]

Avi Ratica me too.

[@enorme72]

:(

[@nyc8802]

Weird

[@veronicapichardo7993]

Let's do it together

[@harrymonk6]

Dude are you ok?

[@acecarson3792]

Love, love, love Nelson's videos. It's like boarding a time machine.

[@prd1073]

I came out in June 1984, just short of my 16th birthday. This reminds me so much of the older gay men I met soon after; it's a real snapshot of time, place, relationships that have gone.

[@AmyPieterse]

These videos got me through a very lonely time in my life

[@waynesteadfineartphotograp2758]

That old man knew his shit. Talking about the original street levels. Amazing

[@Triiga]

Had no clue about technology though.

[@flyfly2850]

in 100 yrs from now we can look back at this films of your Elmer and say that's right he sounds it just like that.....the 'stereo effect'. I found it fascinating every time in a conversation they refer to the future.

[@Charlotte-kv7bk]

Nelson was such a sweet kind warm human being.

[@Picturepurrfekt]

That art is awesome!

[@missbeautifulblueroseangel6254]

He was the best KZbinr the all time so RIP 🙏 love ❤

[@noelgains8433]

Hi Gary it’s so interesting to see one of Nelson’s videos on your channel and to find out about your own work,I am going to order your book on Nelson from Amazon and hope to get to watch your own movies ,thank you kindly Noel .

[@dramamonster]

Glad to learn that somebody's watching. May be traveling to New York later this year to present a new musical about Nelson, entitled Camera Ready. Have been working on the script and songs, but am stage managing a women's rights play in L.A. over the summer for Victoria Valentino. You might enjoy watching Holly Woodlawn in East of the Tar Pits (with a cameo appearance by Marsha P. Johnson) or The Private Life of Marilyn Monroe, or my most recent work for the musical theater, Joseph and Marsha. Meanwhile, thanks for noticing. Nelson and I were close friends before he acquired his first video camera. I wish that he were alive today to enjoy his growing popularity.

[@melmak4108]

Gosh i love these videos. 😢💖

[@melmak4108]

@@dramamonster wow...thank you

[@mountainmamanirvana31]

Nelson looks great😊

[@Prophezora]

Gary seems like a nice person...like he really cared about his friends.

[@dramamonster]

They were worth caring about. They were all very dear, although most of them are gone, now.

[@rocknroller77]

Walking with their drinks 👍

[@jameskonzek6730]

I like Nelson!

[@PeterShieldsukcatstripey]

Nelson was a great 🤔 thinker

[@Prophezora]

Oh shit Nelson was a young dude in this vid!!

[@dennybenz5846]

Goodness nelson looks so handsome. ...

[@dramamonster]

He had just gotten his camera and had only taken it out of the house, once before, to photograph the Gay Pride March of 1984. He insisted on bringing it to Gary's birthday party, although he would have been welcome to attend without it. Gary had already been working in video since 1977 as a means of preserving his plays; Nelson was inspired to purchase his first camera after watching Mr. LeGault's epic motion picture, "Ina and Bruno," completed in 1982.

[@PeterShieldsukcatstripey]

G'day nelson and elmer ❤ 2023 Launceston, Tasmania.

[@rocknroller77]

Gary reminds me of John Cazale

[@Frankie343]

I agree with you

[@LannieLord]

Not a weird looking tho. @@Frankie343

[@heartstruth6875]

Say something to the camera. Hello camera! 😁

[@rocknroller77]

Gary drinking Reingold beer 👍

[@raeray2235]

All the great names....ga ga... They're all taken.

[@markjanssens1658]

i love that. sooooo ahead of his time and if he only knew we'd all be watching now

[@Prophezora]

I started at the grocery store...I'm like 5 vids deep now...

[@friendlier]

Walking down the street with cocktails! New York is so boring nowadays.

[@KateTheSleepyTeacher]

How great it would have been if Elmer had seen this video ….

[@dramamonster]

@halcolombo6380 This wouldn't surprise me. Nelson probably invited Elmer, Morgan and me to see it a short time later in his living room. It's been so long, who can remember? And, "Yes," I added some of my own video of Jackie Curtis to Nelson's footage, because (a): I didn't think he would mind and (b): I'd been shooting video long before Nelson. This time, I let him photograph me and my friends. But I wasn't expecting him to bring a camera on (of all days) something so personal as my birthday. He just showed up at the door with it. It was his idea of a surprise. He had recently gotten his single unit, new portapak camera.

[@teortega93]

37 long years ago

[@JB-zo7ln]

I was 4 years old when this party happened and this video was shot in NYC. But it's so interesting to watch all these years later as a look back in time. Nelson and Elmer are no longer with us, but Gary is alive and well living in LA. Morgan is still living in NYC, I believe, but I'm not positive of that.

[@johnanglin4493]

Elmer reminds me of my grandfather.

[@darthdennis6681]

A very gay grandfather

[@dramamonster]

Read more about Nelson Sullivan in Gary LeGault's new book, The Portapak Prince, available on Amazon at www.amazon.com/dp/0578371952

[@suzied4270]

Can you possibly take over Nelson's videos and post the rest of them we haven't seen due to Dick passing? Rip to both ❤️

[@dramamonster]

I didn't really know Dick Richards, Nelson's boyhood friend, although I watched some of the episodes from his cable show in Atlanta with Nelson. Robert Coddington was Nelson's archivist for a while, but may only have had access to a limited number of tapes. Nelson''s older brother, Mark, passed away six years ago, and I don't know whether he exerted any claim over Nelson's work. Perhaps if you write to someone at Funtone you will get a response regarding who currently holds the rights. Certain individuals may have copies of Nelson's tapes that are not in the archive. Nelson would always make a duplicate and present it to the subject of his video, the day after it had been shot. Maintaining Nelson's archive, containing over 2,000 hours of video footage plus his audio tape recordings of phone conversations, would be an enormous task. But you might also inquire at New York University, where I believe his tapes have come to rest.

[@suzied4270]

@@dramamonster ok thank you kindly ❤️

[@guybrushthreepwood3054]

​@@dramamonster 2000 hours?! Wow, so the content on Nelson's channel is just a tiny little percent of the whole collection. It's such a shame that this was not made public yet. I'm sure that among the followers of Nelson's channel there would be hundreds if not thousands of volunteers ready to help the university to catalog, edit and publish on KZbin his entire collection .

[@Ilianafaith_]

@suzie4270: Nelson's brother Mark passed away in 2017. All Nelson's tapes are at Fales Library & Special Collections, at New York University.

[@suzied4270]

@@Ilianafaith_ ok thank you

[@sirhcffoh294]

Elmer Klein, 25 April 1921 - 16 May 1999

[@dramamonster]

He is greatly missed, especially at this time, when I am presenting what is perhaps my finest theatrical work, Joseph and Marsha, at the Theater for the New City, a new musical playing for only two more weekends until Sunday, February 12th, 2023.

[@sirhcffoh294]

@@dramamonster he looked like Einstein

[@PeterShieldsukcatstripey]

Bless. He had a good long life. ❤

[@thruthealcove]

Can anyone tell us what streets and avenues this video takes place? I'd like to see what's there now on Google Maps.

[@dramamonster]

The apartment was at 325 West 21st Street (between 8th & 9th Avenues). The holography studio was at 223 West 21st Street (between 7th & 8th Avenues).

[@thruthealcove]

@@dramamonster Thank you so kindly!

[@PeterShieldsukcatstripey]

Such friendly people

[@Musistics]

That's David Byrne? Holy shit!

[@dramamonster]

Why are all these people watching this video? The party happened 37 years ago. Nary a soul is still alive, who remembers that day in '85... (or, '84).

[@rubydawn1]

did the guy Bill ever live in Montreal

[@dramamonster]

William Frederick Miller was from Lebanon, Pennsylvania and died there during 1988. For many years, he worked as a bartender in New York at the Eagle Tavern and performed in a production of Gilbert & Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance at the Fashion Institute of Technology, as well as in Gary LeGault's first feature-length video, Ina and Bruno, the movie that persuaded Nelson to purchase his first video camera. He was stationed in San Diego while serving in the United States Navy, but never lived in Canada. In addition to his musical talent, he was also an accomplished painter.

[@Sol-Cutta]

First holographic computer visuals ???

[@northalabama2264]

Back when we all were young and gay

[@dennybenz5846]

Where are all these people today?

[@dramamonster]

Videographer, Nelson Sullivan died in 1989; playwright and poet, Elmer Kline died from diabetes following a stroke during the early 1990's; holographer, Rudi Berkhout died from a heart attack in 2008; William F. Miller died during the AIDS epidemic in 1988; Warhol film star and off-off Broadway playwright, Jackie Curtis, died from a drug overdose in 1985. Morgan Moffatt lives in his apartment in New York City, where he's resided since 1968, and artist, playwright and filmmaker, Gary LeGault lives in West Hollywood, California.

[@nyc8802]

@@dramamonster Nelson said that he worked at a bookstore. He got this camcorder for fun. Months before he died, he recorded a trip to Washington with a bunch of people...it was in that video that he said that he just quit his job at the bookstore, which he had worked for a long time. A few months later he died--July 3rd, 1989.

[@dramamonster]

The store where Nelson worked was a sheet music store near Carnegie Hall called Patelson's. Nelson's background in music was useful in finding the correct piece for the classical musicians who dropped in. He had been planning to buy a video camera for a long time, but in those days the equipment was cumbersome, consisting of a camera and a separate recorder/player, so when Panasonic came out with its Portapak (in a singular unit), he immediately purchased one. Shortly thereafter, he began recording his telephone conversations as well. Whenever he videotaped someone, he would deliver a VHS copy to the subject of his work on the following day. He would often exhaust himself, running to events with his camera and staying out late, even though he had to work on the following day. Despite my discouragement for staying out late, his answer would always be, "I'm afraid I might miss something."

[@harrymonk6]

KZbin

[@rocknroller77]

dramamonster thank you for the updates. I always wondered what happened to Morgan. Never saw him after certain "years," on Nelson's videos

[@nikki9doors500]

Has anyone read Gary’s book? Nelson Sullivan Portapak Prince

[@dramamonster]

Nope. One of Nelson's favorite films was Mr. Hulot's Holiday, by the way. That detail was omitted from the book, along with his praise for Judy Garland's singing. But there are many other recollections.

[@PeterShieldsukcatstripey]

I ❤ elmer

[@harrymonk6]

Did Nelson edit this himself?

[@dramamonster]

"No." The original video is over two hours in length.

[@harrymonk6]

@@dramamonster did he not edit this for his friend? And his channel didn't upload it? And where can I find the 2 hour file verson?

[@dramamonster]

Just reading this. Robert Coddington is Nelson's curator. He has all of Nelson's video tape recorded events (amounting to more than 2,000 hours of footage). I edited the video, which includes my own video tape of Jackie Curtis, who Nelson never photographed. Nelson and I attended a rehearsal of Jackie's last play, Champagne, at the LaMama rehearsal loft on Great Jones Street, but Nelson declined to bring his camera, wishing that he had afterward, because Jackie and the other actors were so brilliant that night. I was glad that Nelson didn't bring his camera, because for once, he was able to actually sit and enjoy a performance without peering through a viewfinder. It was a bit of a drag going out together, when he had the video camera with him. He would forget about enjoying the event and run around trying to capture everything on videotape, sometimes leaving me to hold his camera bag.

[@dramamonster]

Also, for those of you who would like to see more of Nelson's video tapes, I understand that the Howl! Art Gallery on East 1st Street will be doing a retrospective of his work, sometime soon.

[@harrymonk6]

@@dramamonster why doesn't robert upload all his stuff? Cheers for the reply 👍

[@oschiri66]

17:19 July 07, 1998? What's that?

[@Charlesbjtown]

oschiri66 strange for sure, I'd like to know as well.

[@markjanssens1658]

@@Charlesbjtown they edited these films a long time after the fact and used example inserts from later years obvi

[@harrymonk6]

@@markjanssens1658 doubt it

[@enolamsamoht]

It was one day after my 8th birthday that's what it was.

[@MozWilde]

Whatever happened to Elmer?

[@dramamonster]

Elmer was in a b&w independent movie with Robert Downey Senior and hailed from Chicago, lived in Venice Beach, CA during the 1960's and spent his final years in New York. He was a close friend of the B'way director, Tom O"Horgan (Hair, JC Superstar, Lenny) and appears in the film, Hammett with his friend, Frederick Forrest. He was a poet and playwright and would study master painters at the New York Public Library in case he might discover a masterpiece at a thrift store, which he would immediately resell at Christie's Auction house. Eventually, he died following a stroke in 1998 while staying at an upper west side nursing home, near his apartment at the Park Royale in New York. He also worked on the Manhattan Project during WWII, which fostered the development of the A-bomb under top secret war-time conditions. He could often be seen roaming Central Park, walking a huge French poodle, named Holden. He lived with the ex-husband of Groucho Marx's daughter, Mack Gilbert, after making a movie together in Venice Beach about hippies on an acid trip. He was truly the "hippest," most delightful person one might ever know. Nelson adored him and invited him to many of his parties at his townhouse on Ninth Avenue.

[@PeterShieldsukcatstripey]

Yeah the manner of people speaking.

[@PeterShieldsukcatstripey]

People are plumper today. Fuller in the face.

[@PeterShieldsukcatstripey]

Gaga is taken but she won't be born for 2 years yet!! ❤❤❤

[@Musistics]

Roger Waters in your video? 26 sec.

[@PeterShieldsukcatstripey]

Blokes had real bodies back then. Not gym bods.