Who is Lee Baldwin?

John was a very dear friend who, like Scott Taylor & Scott O'Hara, wanted to give his body over to the erotic arts. As a kid he was overweight & felt unatractive so he worked at getting in shape. He also loved showing his body off & loved sex.

   It's at the core of what males are, exhibitionists. We have an external sex organ that glow red when we're in heat. Males of other species have something bright they display in mating. Males are always the most beautiful of any species for this reason. Heterosexual humans are stupid enough to think they can subvert nature by artificially making males drab & females bright.

   John decided this was his passion & jumped in with both feet. He decided that with few exceptions he would do whatever he was asked to do by photographers, directors or clients. He decided he had to on occasion be a prostitute for the full experience. He never used drugs which many use to heighten the sexual experience. He said he felt they might take away something & he wanted to fully experience the adventure, including pain.

   His first film was "Shave Slave" for director T.R. Witomski of KATSAM. It could only be described as the 3 Stooges do porn. John was fully shaved from head to to toe including his eyebrows. Then fully nude he was subjected to every oddity from mud to raw eggs
(this was my review in my magazine OUTCOME:
It begins with Lee already defoliated with the credits written all over him. Lee has just lost at poker & goes into the bathroom to pee. The winner comes in and handcuffs him to the shower rod. He takes off Lee's belt and whips Lee's behind. Then he takes him off the rod, still handcuffed and bends him over the tub for a booze enema. Magically Lee is transported to the bed where he is tied up, shaved, given Mo Howard type slaps and another Daiquiri douche. Fully shaved a dog collar is put on and Lee must drink on all fours from a dog dish. Then on goes hot wax and an Old Fashion enema. Nipple clamped are put on and Lee's erect penis is whipped with a ridding crop. Lee is made to fuck himself with a large dildo & it ends with him in a kid's pool covered with all kinds of messy foods.) A film debut to write home about and give Martha Stewart goose bumps.

   Avery Willard of Gay Scene received from John a nude photo & a letter:
I am writing in reference to your ad in "Gay Scene", "Macho Males wanted for X-rated film work"
I am 5'9", 150 pounds, 24 years old, white with good tan and a 9" cock.
My waist is 29", and my chest is 40". I am in good shape and work out regularly. I'm versatile
with sex and have had experience behind the camera - mostly nude modeling but one porn movie (small studio type)
There is a photo enclosed for your reference.
I look forward to talking with you more and answering any
additional questions you may have.
Thanks,
Lee Baldwin

Down the line John contacted me with a nude photo:

"Enclosed is a photo of myself, as you requested. The hair on my chest is trimmed a bit now, so is a little lighter which I find shows off my definition better.
Some other details of myself: I'm 25, 5'9", 155#. My endowment is 9" when fully erect.
I've done 12 porn videos, 10 greeting cards (Brazen Images), and have appeared in "Honcho" and
"Inches". I do stripping in DC for parties and was also booked for a week in December as "Star of the Week" at the
Show Palace Theater in New York.
I'm interested in posing for your magazine. About once a month I make it up to New York. I'll be there
again around the third week in February.
I hope to hear from you regarding the possibility of doing some work together.
Lee Baldwin
P.S. - I didn't have any back/rear shots to send."

Our session in 1988 came the day after he posed for "Bound & Gagged" magazine where he was photographed in bondage and used as a sex toy by the staff.

   I found John to be a quiet, intelligent young guy who loved to pose. I was still recovering from having my home burned and was living in a very small apartment so our session wasn't anything of note. He did suck his toes for me and did his specialty autofellatio. I also had him use a penis pump. We just seemed to hit it off and from then to his tragic death in 1998 we kept in touch and I did all I could to provide publicity to him. That final year I put up his site at The Archive and he was very excited about it. He had decided to make the final step and cease using the stage name Lee Baldwin. He was getting back into modeling and doing movies using his real name.

   Some years earlier he had worked for Live Video doing all kinds of kink including urinating in mouth. For his return debut he did a video with friend a kink legend Chris Burns. He was tied fully naked to a chair as Chris worked him over with the highlight being Chris piercing John penis with hypodermic needles. He was very pleased with the film.

John died one night as he got ready to walk his dog. He suffered a massive heart attack and died instantly in his apartment. The autopsy revealed he had suffered numerous strokes over years that were so slight he never knew about them nor did his doctor. They weakened his heart little by little. Until this year when I was contacted by one of his friends I hadn't know he was also HIV positive which may have been a factor too. He told me he never had partners use condoms as it would have ruined the experience. I think the experience not having tops wear condoms gave John was more than he bargained for.

   He was raided by the San Diego police in an election year for doing his own videos and foolishly running the business from his home. The police dropped the case but nitwit L.A. DA gil garcetti, who had lost his case against Michael Jackson and other cases, decided he would redeem his reputation by going after John Mallette for selling a video where he fisted himself. garcetti would be honored for saving the universe. John was convicted and was put out of business but got no jail time. The shock affected him greatly and he left the business to work with AIDS groups. garcetti went into the garbage pail of history long forgotten.

This is what John wrote for his site:
"In the 1980s a porn performer named LEE BALDWIN did some porn.
He was in his 20s. Lee was labelled by one reviewer (the late John Rowberry) as the
Prince of fetish flicks. His radical and political sexuality got him in trouble more than once with California's anti-porn police squads.
But Lee survived.

Much later, in the annual ADAM WORLD VIDEO GUIDE, Lee was added to the
publication's 1995 issue of it's Porn Performers Hall of Fame. He was among
those actors in the porn industry who were thought to have made a contribution.

Lee Once stated "It was great fun living out my fantasies for the
celluloid record. However, the lifestyle in the industry is not one I
recommend. The ones that got out like myself are probably few and far
between. Wouldn't it be nice to know all these guys went back to their
Midwestern lives and are living happily ever after."

--Lee Baldwin early 1998 happily retired

   This is an over view:

   Lee grew up in Upstate New York. He obtained a degree in Journalism and worked in the corporate world. However his exhibitionist tendencies made him seek out roles in porn videos. His first notable work was in videos for the late porn producer Christopher Rage. He's appeared in numerous magazine spreads, has done hundreds of live performances, appeared on cable TV in New York for the Robin Byrd show several times and on Gay Cable Network's "Men in Films", also numerous sexy times. He has appeared in over 80 videos, including straight, Gay and Bisexual films. Lee began Lee Baldwin Entertainment in 1987 in order to express himself sexually and explore the fetishes that are lacking in mainstream porn. He hoped to use his line of videos as an educational tool to those who wanted to explore specific fetishes. Lee made his "Homemade Videos of Quality" as an alternative to the Gay porn that was currently available. Lee used his friends and lovers in his videos, so that the action was real and intense - something that really happened that was captured on videotape.

   The intensity that Lee's tapes offered caught the eyes of law authorities, and in 1992, Lee was required to remove ASSPLAY 2: The solos Plus from his offerings. A similar, but earlier tape, ASSPLAY, was pulled by Lee voluntarily.

   From 1990 to 1993 Lee went for his Masters degree - production, as well as Lee's porn activities, slowed down. Lee is now fully retired from the business he loved and is living happily as a legend in the world of Gay fetish/kink performance artists/actors.

   This is the obit his family did, note no mention of his career in erotica:
John Francis Mallette, 36, died of heart failure at his Baltimore home on Dec. 1, 1998, according to his friend, Coy Stout.
Mallette was born May 18, 1962, in West Seneca, N.Y. He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland at College Park in 1984, and then moved to Washington, D.C., to work in public relations and marketing for MCI Communications. From 1987 to 1989 he worked as an administrative planner for the National Education Association, but then moved to California, where he earned a master’s degree in social work from San Diego State University in 1993. While in California, he worked in many social work capacities, including: independent living counselor for the Association of Retarded Citizens, counselor for AIDS Foundation San Diego, intern for Alvarado Parkway Psychiatric Institute, and peer advocate coordinator for Being Alive. He moved to Baltimore in 1995.
Mallette was a social worker with the Maryland AIDS Administration, where he worked closely with the Maryland AIDS Drug Assistance Program and as an advocate for people with HIV/AIDS. Stout said Mallette enjoyed his work tremendously, and frequently spoke at local, state, and national events about his personal experience of returning to work from disability with the help of new HIV therapy.
Mallette was a visible, outgoing member of the HIV/AIDS community, and he belonged to many local organizations, such as the PLWA Coalition of Baltimore and the Social Work AIDS Network. Some of his varied interests included painting, reading and aerobics, and he was a member of the Downtown Athletic Club and the book discussion group of the Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Baltimore. He also volunteered with AIDS Action Baltimore and Chase-Brexton Health Services.
Mallette was cremated in a private ceremony in December. A memorial service for his friends will be Sunday, Jan. 24, at 2 p.m. at the Waxter Center at 816 Park Ave., Baltimore. Memorial donations may be sent to AIDS Action Baltimore, 2105 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218.

Lee again with Robert Parks	Lee with actor Jeff Pole
Lee with actors Jeff Pole and Tony Montana	Lee's Bound & Gagged cover
One of Lee's Brazen Images cards	Lee's butt, home to many
Lee and a sample stool	From Katsam's "Shave Slave" Lee's first video
And of course Lee Baldwin today