Jim French is the man behind Colt Studios, and Jim French Diaries (Bruno Gmuender) is his story. French obviously admired massively muscular, hormonally charged, masculine men. It's as if he brought the sketches of Tom of Finland to life. The cover art features a gorgeous faux cowboy wearing only his requisite white cowboy hat, brown suede chaps and boots. But what really struck me was his skin color. He's obviously white, his eyes are blue, but he has so much Coppertone body make-up on that he looks as if his entire body has been tanned like the hide of a cow. There is no contrast between the brown tones of his skin and the similar shade of his chaps and boots. He looks like a highly polished brown leather couch! His naturally white skin would have provided a much better contrast to his darker attire.
Some of the photos contained within are dated by today's standards. Neff Wade looks more like a member of the cartoonish Village People than a legitimate leather daddy. Steve Kelso, on the other hand, retains his panache and carnal vibrancy as much today as when he posed for Colt decades ago.
As much as massively hairy Kelso was a fantasy of my youth, I am more impressed by images I haven't seen before, especially an ethereal picture of Burke Grafton displaying a choice tan-line, providing the natural contrast lacking in the cover photo. Grafton is more of a regular guy, not so much the macho he-man Colt built its reputation on, but his appeal is as fresh as ever. He's posed facedown, hands and knees on a twin mattress covered in nothing but a plain crumpled white sheet and a well-used pillow. This is much more effective than posing him on a luxury hotel bed. Here we are not distracted by fancy pillowcases or bedspreads. We zero in on the man, which is the way it should be.
Jim French could well be the gay male equivalent of what Hugh Hefner was to straight male sexuality. He created and preserved a certain male image that we may not have seen otherwise.