[Education]

DRUMMER HISTORY

The following is an email interview with Robert Davolt, former publisher and editor of Drummer magazine, who also managed the International Drummer Contests from 1996-1999.

What are your earliest memories of Drummer magazine and the Drummer contests?

I starting coming out in the early 1980’s on the West Coast, shortly after leaving the Navy. Like most guys my age, I picked up the magazine first and I guess I first learned about the Drummer Contest reading about it or when I started going to IML in 1985.

I was a pretty typical reader and fan (even appeared in an issue of Drummer Tough Customers) until I was asked to come to San Francisco and work for Drummer in 1996. I started as Operations Manager with responsibility for the International Contest system thrown in later, and became Editor and Publisher a little more than a year after that.

How would you compare Drummer and IML?

Before I got involved, I remember Drummer as a more sexual (after all, you did appear naked in the magazine), more "Californian" title than IML. Drummer, of course, requires a five-minute piece of performance art called a "fantasy" so can therefore be considered a bit more theatrical. The two clearly evolved into totally different structures: Drummer is still a tightly controlled system of step-by-step, preliminary, regional contests and IML is an open cattle call to anyone with ambition and a $60 (at least it used to be) entry fee.

I have been at every IML for the past 16 years. I was a contestant in 1995 and have been either a vendor or covered the contest for various magazines since then. I always liked the raucous, freewheeling spirit of the IML weekend. The Drummer system has advantages and drawbacks of its own.

How did the International Drummer titles begin?

The simple answer is: As a promotional extension of the magazine. But we all know that leather history is never that simple nor always agreed upon.

After extensive conversations with the originator of Drummer (who either claims the contest as one of his most brilliant ideas or blames it on staff members, depending on how the conversation is going), the story he tells is that it was originally the magazine's participation in the CMC Carnival in San Francisco in 1979. Val Martin was picked either by the publisher or the staff (depending on who is telling the story and when). The next year, Val was "reappointed" to go to IML. After Luke Daniel won Drummer and then IML in 1982 (thus depriving the magazine of an exclusive representative for the year) the International Mr. Drummer title stood on its own.

The Drummerboy contest was added in 1990 by then publisher Tony DeBlase. Mr. Drummer was never really specified as a "top" or "bottom" so folks could paste their own fantasies and illusions on a blank slate. The Drummerboy, however, was very specifically a submissive, so while it enjoyed some success when paired with the Mr. Drummer contest, it was a hard sell to some regions and difficult to promote on it's own (at one time, it was suggested that the two contests be held on successive nights). There were some calls when I came onboard to add a "Drummer Daddy" title, but the contest itself was in such poor shape by then it was decided to concentrate on just saving the title.

At it's best, the Drummer contests reflected different geographic regions through men in leather who represented more than just urban, coastal enclaves. It provided free models for the magazine that were not airbrushed professionals but everyday men that everyday men could relate to. It served as a promotional tool for the magazine and got the publisher (or some staff member) out of San Francisco, expanded his vision and brought him a closer to his readers.

And at it’s worst?

Understand that my experience ended as something of a personal disaster after taking an unprofitable contest and magazine and making them profitable in only three years-- then to be left twisting in the wind. It is the subject of the book I am writing and the behind-the-scenes story is actually an interesting, ironic tale with a little sex, humor, futility, politics, betrayal, struggle and triumph.

Can you tell us briefly what happened?

In 1996, when I became the executive producer and coordinator of the Drummer contests, the event had lost money for at least 15 out of 18 years. It was considered a drain on the already tottering company and I was told by the owner that "if the contest costs one penny ever again, that would be the last Drummer contest."

The were several obstacles: It was not politically or financially possible for us to move the Drummer International Finals out of San Francisco, so I was chained to the most expensive city to hold the event on the most difficult weekend: Folsom Street Fair. The vice president (and ranking US officer) of the company at the time was openly hostile to the contest and the leather community itself. There was no money budgeted for the contest, not even a budget. All the past records were being held hostage by a former producer-- even the basic applications and forms. Many people in town were pissed at Drummer for various reasons (some of them pretty good reasons) and I had only been in San Francisco for three months. There was a limited staff and turning around the magazine was already a 60-hour a week job. On top of all this, even though I had been all over IML in the previous ten years, I had never actually seen a Drummer contest.

What do you do?

Figuring that no one was exactly counting on the Drummer contest as a profit center, I recreated it as a charity fundraiser. This gave me access to volunteers and in-kind donations from sponsors-- besides, the magazine would realize enough value from the publicity, free models, etc. Like changes I had made at the magazine, a strict accounting system was put in place and all possible value was squeezed from every dollar spent. I recreated every form and every important record from scratch. I rebuilt a lot of bridges previously burned and I called on my contacts and friends from years at IML across the country for a very dedicated corps of volunteers. When there was no money for deposits or guaranties, I used my paychecks. I went to each of the regional contests personally-- the first time in years that a staff member had done so. The first year we made just a couple hundred dollars over expenses.

The second year was a little easier. The third, we had obviously had too much success. In 1999, I was presented with a paper just about 24 hours before the International Finals that declared I (and the American company) no longer had rights to use the Drummer name for either a contest or a magazine. Effectively, this ended Drummer magazine and abandoned all North American operations of the parent company. In a secret agreement earlier that year, the rights had been leased to a company out of Pittsburgh who intended to run the contests as a for-profit venture. I went ahead with the 1999 contest anyway in what was the most difficult 72 hours of my life.

Since they had already been promised as a condition of participation, my last act as the manager of Desmodus (the US company that published Drummer) was to see that the checks representing the event profits sent to charities throughout the US and Canada cleared before the accounts were closed and Drummer ceased operations September 30, 1999.

There has only been one contest since then. What did you think of IMD 2000?

The whole nature of the contest has changed, but very few of those changes will really be noticed by the general public. One of the most dramatic is the shift from a community fundraiser to a for-profit event.

The judging panel is another radical change. Drummer was the first international contest to include a leather woman as a judge. In 1997, I invited the first transgendered leatherman to judge an international men’s contest. When you think about it, few men have to face and wrestle with issues of gender and masculinity to the extent that female and transgendered members of our community have, so I welcomed their opinion on the panel along with a majority of leathermen. I was refocusing Drummer as a men’s magazine for leathermen, but this was one opportunity to include the rest of our community and actually sharpen that focus.

What do you see as the future of the Drummer contests without Drummer magazine?

I am a bit conflicted. On the one hand, I am happy to see something I worked very hard to preserve continue. On the other, I still have certain bitterness (and several worthless paychecks).

Any opinion I have at this point is pure speculation. As long as the magazine was printing, there was a certain status to having your photo professionally taken and presented in an international magazine. Now, I must confess I don't know why men participate. As for regional sponsors, I used to guarantee back at least 200% of a sponsor's licensing fee in ad space, services and benefits. I don't know what sort of return regional sponsors get now or what motivates them.

The current administrators of the contest, who pay a "lease" fee to use the name, have put a lot of money into the contests. They have found a new city and a new venue that seems cooperative. Their efforts could keep the contest going for a few more years sans magazine. I wish them all the luck in the world, but the bottom line is whoever owns the trademark will ultimately benefit from any success, not us poor schmucks who added value to the brand.

There is a lot of talk about upholding the "tradition of Drummer" which is pure hyperbole and nonsense. The owners of the Drummer trademarks are the very same people who decided to discontinue the magazine and pimp out the name-- hardly "upholding the tradition". It is difficult to claim the legacy without also shouldering some of the responsibility.

Some statements have mentioned Drummer contestants appearing on the Drummer.com website. The website is a dismal failure and has been for at least five years. Touted as an "online magazine", it was at one time supposed to replace the magazine with the same features and depth, but in reality is hardly a pale shadow of Drummer magazine at it's worst. Only a few pages of content, it’s not even a good website-- considering the dozens of leather-oriented websites out there-- let alone a "magazine". If there are photos of the Drummer contestants, they are few and on the "members-only" section. It is run by a lawyer out of Amsterdam, although International Drummerboy 2000 Ritchie Black bravely writes most of it. I don’t know what they will do when Ritchie steps down.

Why is this part of Drummer history not known?

To a certain extent, that’s my fault. In those last years, a lot of effort went into to keeping up appearances. Part of making a comeback was dependent on keeping the confidence and enthusiasm of contestants, sponsors, customers and suppliers up long enough to fix what was wrong. That was my job. We put on our game faces and toughed it out.

I was trying to be neither brave nor deceptive, just successful. I am not naturally the optimistic, cheer-leader sort, but in this case maintaining a positive outlook was what I believed I owed to the owners, the community, the contestants who worked so hard to be at the International Drummer finals and the many fans and friends of Drummer. I sincerely believed it was worth the extra mile.

The immediate past is not something anyone currently involved with the Drummer names is eager to talk about. It’s the same reason Macbeth was rarely comfortable in the same room as Banquo's Ghost. I think that’s unfortunate. The legacy of Drummer has many sides and to ignore one or the other because it is untidy is to subtract from the total. When I was with Drummer, I built and maintained strong relationships with former publishers John Embry and Tony DeBlase, as well as many other former editors, titleholders and staff. That took dealing with some past baggage, some hostility, some criticism and some doubts, but the results were well worth it.

Drummer was described as “both revered and reviled” and it was endearing for both its faults as well as its fortunes. Good and bad, courageous and cowardly, pioneers and pirates. Now that Drummer magazine is history, it at least deserves an honest and accurate picture that includes all the welts, scars, scuffs and scrapes of 25 years.


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