Calendar Boy

Gay TV host Butch Cordora wants hot, naked men. (Homos need not apply.)

by Ashlea Halpern

Billy Barton is dying. His eyes roll like fat white marbles to the back of his head, and his jaw quivers with each shallow breath. He's just been pulled out of a horrific car wreck by the man hovering above him: Butch Cordora, tanned and ripped, face growing ever more desperate with each passing second. He's sweating and wild-eyed, hands pressed hard in a pyramid shape against Barton's abdomen: Push, breathe, push, breathe, God damn it, breathe!

It's a tender gesture — albeit a futile one. After nearly 25 minutes, Barton's hamstrings tremble under the strain. Snap, snap, snap — lights flash everywhere. Then, silence.

"OK, thank you! That's a wrap!"

TRAUMA WARD: Butch Cordora (standing) and Billy Barton get naked for photographer Tony Ward at Tattooed Mom. : tony ward (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Tony Ward claps his hands and starts unplugging extension cords and packing up his camera equipment. Relief washes over the faces of Barton and Cordora as they rush to put on clothes.

I did mention they were both naked, right? And that the scene of the aforementioned "car crash" is upstairs at South Street's Tattooed Mom? And the wrecked cars in question aren't cars at all but vintage bumpers plucked from a defunct theme park?

To be precise, I'm on the set of a photo shoot for Straight and Butch, an '09 calendar featuring Cordora, the 47-year-old gay host of DUTV/WYBE's long-running talk show In Bed with Butch, posed in various states of erotic undress with — who else? — hot, heterosexual Philadelphians.

Today's model is Barton, a Tattooed Mom cook whom Cordora met through a listing in City Paper. With his smudgy eyes and rainbow of tattoos, Barton's far from your stereotypical pretty boy, but gorgeous all the same. This is the second installment to be shot by Philly resident Tony Ward, the celebrated fashion and erotica photographer whose work has appeared in everything from GQ to Leg Show. (The first installment, shot last August, featured Survivor's Gervase Peterson seated on the porch of a sprawling Jenkintown home, holding a towel over his groin while Cordora shaved his head.)

Today's scene was originally going to be shot at the First Unitarian Church, but wound up at Tattooed Mom after the church got cold feet. This feels more apropos, anyway. Paper skulls hang over the bar, the walls are blanketed with graffiti, and the air stinks of cigarettes and fruity hair spray.

When Ward walks in, the ideas start flying. He sees David Cronenberg's Crash in black and white, with a high-gloss finish — Cordora will get off on Barton's grave misfortune. As such, Ward bends Barton into an impossible position and preens every detail — the curvature of his fingers, the gentle slope of his penis — before ever pushing a button.

The result is a punk-rock take on Michelangelo's Pietà: delicate, tragic and sick with loss. The drama is palpable, the desire unnerving. Amazingly, all parties remain flaccid throughout the shoot.

The idea to do a pinup calendar was Cordora's long-seeded dream. "It's so easy to get stuck inside the gay bubble," he muses. "I really want to touch mainstream Philly. ... A lot of gay guys are attracted to straight guys. So I thought, 'Wow, how hot would it be to be photographed naked with a straight guy?'"

It was Tenley Ammerman, a trainer at Cordora's gym and a former Ward model, who first suggested he get in touch with the photographer. A meeting was arranged. "At the time, I thought it was just so crazy I was in Tony Ward's studio apartment," exclaims Cordora. "It was just the coolest."

Cool until he heard Ward's asking price, anyway: 12 shots for $20,000 to $30,000.

Cordora was floored. Where would he raise that kind of money? Ready to call it quits after exhausting a summer's worth of possibilities, he exasperatedly explained his situation to Ward. The photographer dropped his asking price to $10,000. But for that, he explained, it'd go like this: You pay up front, find the models, scout the location and do the makeup. I blow in. Snap, boom, I'm gone.

A million times yes, Cordora remembers saying; he'd figure out the money later.

If Cordora is the visionary behind Straight and Butch, Ward is the voice of reason. Cordora does all the leg work; Ward tells him if it's good enough. He even encouraged him to chuck social taboo: To show dick or not to show dick — that was the big question.

At first, Cordora was opposed to the idea. He didn't want anyone confusing his calendar with smut. But one pep talk later and Cordora was rethinking his stance: "[Ward] said, 'You're making rules for yourself and you don't even know why.'"

Butch Cordora tends to Gervase Peterson's scalp. : tony ward (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Finding models has been one of his toughest challenges. He's recruited anyone he thinks may be both hot and straight: members at his gym, restaurant dishwashers, even his bank teller. ("He's, like, iconic Abercrombie," says Cordora, fanning his neck.)

Potentials generally regard him with suspicion; that Ward is behind the lens holds little sway. "I try to explain, but straight guys don't fucking know who Annie Leibovitz is, let alone Tony Ward." After lunch or coffee, most guys warm up to the idea. A handshake later seals the deal. Sort of. "Guys almost always say yes, then freak out and can't get their girlfriend's permission."

The third shoot in the series is slated for March 2 at Rittenhouse's Astral Plane; former TLA Video clerk John Raisola is the hetero du jour. Cordora is angling for a gay-straight masseuse scene. After that, Cordora's banking on a shoot with "Dell Dude" Benjamin Curtis. The way he pictures it, they'll hang out on a TV set, smoking tea and surfing the Net. If all goes according to plan, the calendar will be published by 2009.

And the message behind all the brotherly nudity? "I want people to see that straight men are comfortable enough in their skin to pose naked with a gay guy," says Cordora. "Here we are, 2009, look how cool this is."

(ashlea.halpern@citypaper.net)

Interested in modeling or making a donation? Contact Butch Cordora at 215-923-0709 or e-mail phillybutch@yahoo.com for more info.