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Dates of Operation: late-1960's to mid-1980's
Location: New York
City
Known Aliases : Jon
Target
Known Affiliations : Target
Studios, Colt Studio
Thomas, a second-generation Lebanese-American, was born on March
10, 1933, in Waterville, Maine, where he grew up, developed an in terest
in photography, and later attended Colby College. After living briefly
in Hartford, Connecticut, he moved to New York City to study opera.
In 1967, he founded Luger Studios, and in 1969, founded Colt Studios,
both in partnership with Jim French. They produced both still photos
and film loops, until 1971 when French took over the operation, and
Thomas joined with his lover, Bob Lewis, to found Target Studios. From
1971 to 1984 they ran Target Studios and produced films and later videos
for their Bullseye Films, as well as publishing such popular all-male
magazines as Ramrod, Javelin, Dart, Lancer, and The Target Album.
Among
the many popular early skin stars who began their careers for Thomas'
camera were Bruno, Jeremy Brent, Rod Mitchell, Josh Kincaid, Wade Nichols,
Oak, Jimmy Hughes, Dennis Walsh, Kyle Hazzard, Bo
Gantry, Myles Long, Glenn Dime, and Jeff Cameron.
In 1983, Thomas became
affiliated with FirstHand Publications (the publisher of Manshots)
where he served as editor of FirstHand, Manscape, Manscape II, Guys,
and FirstHand Events. It was in his capacity as that that he wrote
the following words (about the gay community's response to the AIDS
crisis) in one of his editorials:
''There is a resilience here that will not be denied. We have been
here since time immemorial and have overcome countless attempts by
the preachers and the politicos and much of the populace to make us
disappear, quietly go away. These attempts have not yet succeeded.
They never will.''
Lou Thomas died of AIDS complications at St. Luke' s - Roosevelt Hospital
in New York City on January 7, 1990.
information source: MANSHOTS
MAGAZINE - July 1990
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