Watch the Trailer then Unlock the Full Film
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Californiabig hunks
Six erotic male dancers. Six fantasy scenarios. One accidental cult classic.
In 1985, Mark Schulze and Patty Mooney videotaped six dancers, each in a setting built for his fantasy. The tape became a bachelorette-party staple, made a splash in gay publications, and sold around the world on VHS. Four decades later, it is still finding new audiences.
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- Directed by
- Mark Schulze
- Produced by
- Mark Schulze, Patricia Mooney & Dixie Crane
- Music
- Richard Jan Plasko
- Studio
- New & Unique Videos, San Diego
- Listing
- IMDb
Watch the trailer
Then unlock all sixty minutes for $5. The disco lights, the fringe and the synth soundtrack are exactly as they were in 1985.
Six men, six fantasies
Each dancer performs his own scenario, in a setting built to match his image.
Jim the Cop
Jim Kellogg
A traffic cop who fantasizes about losing the uniform in the bedroom of the woman he’s ticketing.
Reno the Nature Boy
Reno Black
A buckskin-clad nature boy, dancing it out in the jungle.
Dave the Cowboy
Dave Matthews
The urban cowboy, and the inspiration for “Dave the Dirty Cowboy” on the soundtrack.
Donny in the Ruins
Donny Chambers
The Michael Jackson look-alike, and the one dancer missing from the box covers. Here’s why.
Michael the Fashion Model
Michael Mednick
Stood up by his date at a restaurant, he takes his frustration out in the gym.
Danny in the Haunted Disco
Prince Daniel
The Latin discomaniac, closing the show under the mirror ball.
One tape, two boxes
California Big Hunks shipped in two different VHS covers. The first was New & Unique’s own. The second was designed by Bijou Video Sales, which distributed the tape to gay audiences.
Box No. 1
New & Unique · 1985
Cream stock, a gold-framed beach shot and a gold-and-pink title: the palette this page is built on.
Box No. 2
Designed by Bijou Video Sales
Bijou reworked the look for its own market: a letter-by-letter neon “California,” chrome “BIG HUNKS,” a second group photo and the line “Erotic Male Dancers.” Its ads carried Bijou’s own order numbers.
The missing dancer
Count the men on either cover and you’ll get five. Donny Chambers was set to join the promotional photo shoot, but a scheduling conflict kept him away.
He has since said he regrets missing it, and wishes he’d been part of the pictures that became pop-culture history. His performance in the Ruins is still one of the tape’s most memorable.
Made for women, sold where women were reading
California Big Hunks was pitched first to women, and New & Unique ran its ads in Playgirl, the “Entertainment for Women” magazine, across 1985 and 1986. By the studio’s own count, the tape drew more than 1,500 requests nationwide in its first months, mostly from professional women in their early 30s.
“Men have always had female stripper films to view, but women never really have.”
Mark Schulze, New & Unique press release
The reviews were mixed. The fans weren’t.
“A dazzling production.”
John Rowberry, Adult Video News, April 1986
“Long on ego and short on talent.”
Janine Coveney McAdams, Billboard, September 3, 1988, who predicted buyers would stampede to the counter anyway
How the Hunks became a cult classic
After DVDs arrived, the tape sat on a shelf while Mark and Patty ran Crystal Pyramid Productions. Then the rest of the world started finding it.
The Tonight Show and Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Jay Leno’s editors bought clips and put Jay’s head on one of the dancers. Later, Whose Line played Jim the Cop’s routine to a howling studio audience, with Patty and Mark sitting in it.
Jay Leno and the California Big Hunks →Found Footage Festival & Red Letter Media
The Found Footage Festival pulled a copy from a garage sale and took it on tour. Then Red Letter Media’s panel crowned it the winner of Best of the Worst: Black Spine Edition #3.
The soundtrack, on 12″
Berlin’s Sound Metaphors pressed Richard Jan Plasko’s synth score on pink vinyl as Miss You, a two-song record: “Dave the Dirty Cowboy” and “Prince Daniel in the Haunted Disco.” Critics compared it to Patrick Cowley’s high-NRG productions.
The short documentary The Mystery of the Dirty Cowboy follows one fan’s years-long search for that first track.
A Bernhard Willhelm cloak
European designer Bernhard Willhelm knit the title into a limited-edition unisex cloak, a fashion tribute to an icon of ’80s culture.
The Making of California Big Hunks
Never-before-seen dance footage from 1985, plus Patty Mooney’s own behind-the-scenes VHS tapes. Patty edited the film; she’s also the mysterious voice introducing each dancer in the original. “And now, Dave…”
With a new soundtrack by Candace Love.
See the Making Of
Get your hands on these hunks.
The complete 1985 film, 60 minutes. $5, one time, no subscription.