Leatherman

Both B&W ($24.99) and full-color ($79.99) editions available.Chuck Renslow, founder of International Mr. Leather, is the subject of a new biography, Leatherman: The Legend of Chuck Renslow, by Tracy Baim and Owen Keehnen. The book contains more than 300 images, posters for IML, leather bar murals and photos from the Gold Coast, Pride Parades, physique magazines and more. Renslow has reigned over a six-decade empire, starting more than two dozen businesses just in Chicago'¬ ;bars, discos, photo studios, health clubs, bathhouses, gay magazines and newspapers, hotels, restaurants, and bookstores. He'¬"s fostered organizations, dealt with Mafia and police payoffs, the Chicago Machine, anti-gay political policies, harassment from censors, and controversy within the gay community. He was politically active, including running as a delegate for Sen. Ted Kennedy when he ran for president. Renslow bailed out and ran GayLife newspaper, and when the AIDS epidemic struck Renslow was there with money and support. He also knew celebrities from Marlene Dietrich to Rudolf Nureyev, from Divine to Grace Jones, and from Sylvester to Quentin Crisp. He even helped with the Kinsey Institute'¬"s sex research.In the mid-1950s Renslow became a pioneer in male physique photography with Kris Studio. With longtime lover, artist Dom Orejudos aka Etienne, Renslow battled censors and produced thousands of gay erotic images despite postal censorship and decency laws, and went on to publish magazines such as Triumph, Mars and Rawhide. In 1960 Renslow assumed ownership of The Gold Coast, and transformed it into one of the most notorious gay leather bars in the world. With Etienne'¬"s murals, a leather/Western/uniform dress code, a grungy look, and a dark Pit full of all sorts of goings-on, the Gold Coast set the standard for raunchy sexual liberation. It was the birthplace of motorcycle clubs and sex groups as well as the first leather contest, which evolved to become International Mr. Leather in 1979. Renslow expanded the concept of bathhouse by creating the sex-and-entertainment complex Man'¬"s Country in the 1970s with a variety of rooms, shops, and a Music Hall that attracted top names in the '¬SK-Y circuit.'¬ Renslow is also Daddy of the Family, a unique created group of lovers, tricks, and friends who were bound by sex and oftentimes love and by a goal of providing support to one another. Authors Tracy Baim and Owen Keehnen uncover the truths and myths of a living legend in this compelling new biography about the man many know, but few understand. Leatherman: The Legend of Chuck Renslow (Prairie Avenue Productions, $24.99 B&W, $79.99 Color. See http://www.facebook.com/LeathermanTheLegendOfChuckRenslow.