Vintage Bondage - Jack Wrangler

 

Jack Wrangler was one of the great stars of gay porn in the 1970/80's.
He was well-regarded for his openness about his homosexuality and his obvious contentment with it. 

This oily-jock pose is one of his best known images.

 

His confident attitude, straight-looking appearance and modestly muscled, lean body 

gave him a special 'regular-guy' appeal which is no less attractive 40 years on.

He appeared in films like 'Kansas City Trucking Company', 'Hot House','Gemini' and 'A Night At The Adonis'. His natural masculinity and 'seemingly straight' persona made his performances as a 'bottom' especially memorable. There's a similar effect in the photo sequence below which culminates in a bondage finale.

This series of images appeared in the first issue of 'Action Male' Magazine. The cover of 'Sex Machine' (above) is taken from the same shoot but it's not part of that video as far as I know.

Wrangler deploys his acting skills in this enigmatic opening shot .It's as if he's not quite sure what he has to do and is seeking guidance from the photographer.

His clothes are standard, classic menswear in muted colours which help to create that beguiling, ordinary guy effect. The macho belt buckle and neck pendant look camp and dated now, but were commonplace fashions in their day.

Strip sequences often involve light hearted fumbling and over-eagerness to disrobe. This shoot is quite unusual in that Wrangler portrays reluctance and then impatience, anger even. There's no sense of him wanting to flaunt his body for us, quite the reverse, but no embarrassment either. It makes for an interesting photograph.

Having removed his shirt the model pauses as if hoping that's all that is required of him. It would have been in any mainstream advertising shoot at that time. There's a sense of wariness and simmering rebellion and a nice, natural shot of his torso.

The model's reluctance is partly explained when it's revealed that he's been wearing  a pair of shiny, riding boots inside his jeans and a very different personality emerges.

Boots like this were regarded as symbols of a dominant male personality and subtly threatening, but Wrangler kneels and worships them himself, as though imagining they belong to a dominant partner. That 'butch' belt is now draped around his neck waiting for a master to come and collar him.

Having exposed his inner vulnerability, Wrangler attacks his jeans with energy as though this shoot is not about gradually revealing his body for the viewer's pleasure, but simply about getting naked, a process that needs to be got over as quickly as possible. It's a very mannish thought process (shared by most modern video producers).

The photographer has other ideas and manages to catch a nice flash of white underwear, (it's a shame we don't have access to the original photo quality). A different, intimate angle might have made this image even more erotic, but by capturing the growing pile of discarded clothes in the foreground

it tells the story of the model's accumulating compliance with the order to strip and the shedding of his outer, public 'skin'.

'Free at last!', he seems to be saying, here, neatly reflecting the sense of freedom all gay men were getting used to around this time, the freedom to express all aspects of their sexuality.

When silent movies gave way to the talkies, some prominent actors whose voices did not live up to their appearance were forced to retire. I imagine there must have been a similar effect in porn when nudity became more available and stars could not hide behind clothes any more.

As you can imagine, Wrangler's generous endowment did his reputation no harm at all.

This image is a variant of the 'Sex Machine' cover above.

You get a good sense of the charisma of this man in these images. He flaunts his physique, shrugging off the awkwardness of 'half mast' underwear but portraying perhaps a lingering reluctance to surrender to complete nudity. The bowed head and hands behind back pose (while facing the intimidating boot) seems to reiterate that desire to be dominated

Be careful what you wish for!

There's a nice element of surprise in this image as Wrangler 'finds himself' naked and bound. His performance for the camera is curtailed here by the simplest of restraints, reducing him to an ordinary man now under the control of another. His twist to examine the predicament produces a subtle arching and tension in his torso

The addition of elbow ties amplifies the effectiveness of the restraint and his submissive, kneeling pose adds pathos to the frustration of captivity. I've always been a fan of simplicity in bondage scenarios and this arrangement pairs well with Wrangler's under-stated physique. There's a sense of spontaneous capture rather than a contrived, muscle restraint 'scene'.

An moment of desperation. As the captive struggles against his bindings, he unwittingly shows his backside which he uncovered voluntarily but cannot now protect. This fleeting, blurred glimpse of explicit eroticism is unexpectedly compelling.

The 'coup-de grace' is the addition of knee-ties, which makes for a pleasing symmetry in the restraint arrangements and further limits movement. Wranglers examination of the situation shows the calm thoughtfulness needed to effect escape. This is much more interesting than endless, mindless struggle because it shows intelligence and an acknowledgement of his captivity. The anguish and frustration on his face suggests he might be obliged to surrender to this fate

~

In these early days of liberation, explicit nudity was still a novelty, but bondage themes had largely slipped into obscurity. Having subtly flourished in the 1950's scenarios which gave the excuse for protraying near-nudity, they were pushed aside by the rush to express straight-forward, gay sexuality in full for the first time legitimately on camera. There was probably an element of 'needing to be respectable' in that prioritising too, which we see revived today in the antics of Yahoo (which perhaps ought to be re-christened as Yahboo!) 

This series showing a mainstream, 'Star' porn model in an extended bondage sequence is therefore something of a rarity and one to cherish. Jack Wrangler's understated but essentially positive masculinity which helped make him so desirable and somehow attainable makes for a perfect bondage fantasy and the sheer lack of artifice in this sequence teases the lust-buds with it's believability. A classic portrayal of a very special man.

Other Vintage Bondage articles are listed in my article on Ryder Knight