August 31, 2009 | Studio Flixxx

65-years-old and still putting out

Athletic Model Guild (AMG) specializes in the porn your gay great-uncle Maurice used to hide in his closet: men in posing straps re-enacting a gladiator battle, or a rough looking sailor checking out his shipmates on an obviously handmade set.

AMG was founded by gay pornography pioneer Bob Mizer in December, 1945. Sex, especially gay sex, was frowned upon and censorship laws prohibited photos of half- or fully naked men to appear in magazines. Mizer had his models pose and sold his work under the guise of exercise manuals for men.

Still, there was no denying that the images were more erotic than informative, and Mizer was eventually arrested and charged with obscenity. Somehow AMG survived the many legal challenges brought against it.

Mizer is said to have photographed over 10,000 men throughout the course of his career. And get this, even a certain California Governor posed for him. Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger was an AMG pin-up boy!  

Now under the leadership of photographer Dennis Bell, AMG has been releasing some of its best work on DVD and online, while adding new material (with an ethnic twist) to its catalogue. And what a varied catalogue it is ...

Now, if you want a taste of the classic AMG, you would need to check out one of their redigitized collections of old movies. We're talking college boys wrestling, motorcycle-riding leather men spanking a rival gang member, or cute young men playing cowboys and Indians.

The first in the new line of digitally remastered AMG films was 'Story Film Classics: Unstrapped,' which offers 12 full length AMG masterpieces from the 1950s to the 1970s with over 28 models.

Of course, by today's standards, most of Mizer's work would seem relatively tame. In fact, he claimed he never produced anything even bordering on the hardcore. AMG has since released 'Hardcore Film Classics,' a collection of sex film loops from the early 1970s that Mizer created, presumably for his own viewing pleasure. And remember, this was back in the day when Vaseline was the lube of choice!

'AMG Resurrections' was the studios attempt to recreate the feeling of the old films, but with better cameras and condoms. And you still get to see men in those sexy posing straps!

More successful, though, was AMG's move south, capturing the beauty of modern day Brazilian men. The creation of AMG Brasil was an interesting and bold shift for a company better known for athletic white studs.

Two of their best finds: Caio and Carlos Carvalho, the sexy twins from the video 'Gemeo.' As XCritic opined: "The fetish-like opportunity to see twins double teaming another hot Latin man makes me give this film my rating of Recommended." And it makes us cream our pants!