Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Ball (Jim Buddy) Papers
Coll2014-004
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California
Title: Jim (Buddy) Ball papers
creator:
Ball, Jim (Buddy) (James L. Ball)
Identifier/Call Number: Coll2014-004
Physical Description:
4 Linear Feet
2 archive boxes + 1 flat archive box
Date (inclusive): 1959-1987
Abstract: James L. Ball, Ph.D., known as "Buddy" Ball, produced films, records, and videos from about 1977 to 1997 for a variety of
audiences including African American churches and other Christian groups, crafters, gay men, and horror fans. The collection
includes corporate records, personal papers, and photographs documenting his varied activities from his early career as an
educator to his involvement in motorcycle clubs to his inclusion in the banned-in-Britain "Video nasties" list.
This collection is arranged in the following series:
Series 1. Corporate records, 1961-1998
Series 2. Personal records, 1959-1997
During the years between 1960 and 2000, James L. Ball, Ph.D., (also known as Buddy Ball, Jim Ball, Jim L. Ball, Jim Lloyd
Ball, Mr. Jim L. Ball B.A., M.A., and Jimmy Ball) was active in several fields, including being the credited editor, writer
and producer of horror films and craft instructional materials for his Aldan Company, Inc. (earlier known as Aldan Producers
& Distributors of Motion Pictures). Ball also worked in the gay erotic video industry and sold Christian church supplies through
his Major Studio Productions company. He recorded alternating subjects including drug abuse counseling, fortune-telling, Christian
hymn, and teen heartthrobs with his Ball Record Company and Velvet Records. Ball's businesses operated in Southern California
out of his homes in Los Angeles and Winnetka, California as well as the French Market in West Hollywood, California.
Ball attended Baylor University and Texas Christian University. Before returning to school at the University of Southern California
for his Doctorate in Communication, the Waco resident taught "Child Expression," a course for children to learn how to deport
themselves on stage. He compared working as a student in 1957 on "I was a Teenage Werewolf" to the Andy Hardy camaraderie
of Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney urging the gang to put on a show. In 1962 Velvet Records released "No Camping" which featured
recordings of Jose Sarria performing in drag at the Black Cat Cafe in San Francisco the year before the bar was closed, and
included clandestine recordings of Hollywood fortune telling. Buddy Ball also worked with California churches, releasing record
albums of their choirs and soloists, as seen in advertisements in "The California Eagle," a long-running Los Angeles African-American
newspaper.
Jim "Buddy" Ball is best known for being the story writer and producer of the Sasquatchploitation horror film initially titled
in a 1977 script "Revenge of Bigfoot" that had a limited theatrical release in the United States between 1980–1983 through
the Aldan Company as "Night of the Demon," but was banned in several countries and was prosecuted in the United Kingdom as
a result of the Video Recordings Act 1984 as one of its "video nasties". In the late 1980's and early 1990's, Jim Ball distributed
several gay adult erotic videos through Major Studio Productions and is credited as editor on videos with adult film director
and producer Kennith Holloway. Ball is not to be confused with another Jim Ball who was a contemporary in the horror film
genre known for writing the music for 1981's "Night of Horror" and appearing in 1982 as Bill in "The Curse of the Screaming
Dead" (alternately titled "Curse of the Cannibal Confederates").
There is evidence of Buddy Ball's support of gay activism in his service as a chairperson for the Mark 40 Defense Fund which
had been organized to provide legal representation for men charged in the wake of a Los Angeles Police Department "slave auction"
raid in 1976. Buddy Ball was also conversant with many facets of the gay experience, keeping in touch with a fellow Wacoan's
updates on that city's tea house cruising scene, producing videos for men who prefer uncircumcised men, joining Southern California
motorcycle clubs, and appearing in drag as "the beautiful Sister Simple, the Chinese Firecracker" on a flyer parodying the
1993 film "Jurassic Park" in "King Kong Park, the Musical."
Source: Doctor Kiss. (2011, April 11). Does know 80's and 90's horror films received theatrical distribution? Retrieved February
24, 2015, from http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/37220/Does-know-80s-90s-horror-films-received-theatrical-d#.
The collection is open to researchers. Restricted access to some membership and financial records. Please consult archivist.
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the ONE Archivist. Permission
for publication is given on behalf of ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at USC Libraries as the owner of the physical
items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Date and method of acquisition unknown.
[Box/folder #, or item name] Jim (Buddy) Ball Papers, Coll2014-004, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University
of Southern California.
Originally housed in box 103-232. Collection processed by Jeff Snapp, 2014.
Contents include financial records, mailing lists, order forms and promotional materials for the Aldan Company Inc., Ball
Record Company, Major Studio Productions, and Venice Tool Works. The collection also includes constitutional records from
the Mark 40 Defense Fund, handwritten notes, greeting cards, letters, Christian and motorcycle club materials, contact sheets,
headshots, negatives, Polaroids, slides, transparencies, scripts and screenplays for several works including "Night of the
Demon" and "Prophecy of Blood."
Separated to the ONE library periodical and performing arts collections:
Above and Beyond Tours, Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, March 1, 1997.
Evita. Playbill [Program. June 1980] Shubert Theatre [ABC Entertainment Center. Century City]. Beverly Hills, CA.: Performing Arts.
RSVP Travel Productions, 1996-1997.
In a Changing Voice: Verses including juvenalia by Jim Kepner, 1996, both letter-sized copy and $2.75 staple-bound pamphlet; 36 p.; 22 cm.
Klondyke Kontact. v.18, no. 6, December 1996/ January 1997, R.A.W., formerly 15%.
Jim Kepner's Song and Dance, #8, March 1996.
Separated to the ONE audio visual collection:
VHS labeled “60 Minutes" video recording - Repayment of Vietnamese commandos/adoption of Ukranian babies. Spring 1997 Final:
Army plans to end sexual discrimination 9/11/1997”.
The videotape includes: a 20/20 episode with John Stossel on transgender firefighters and police; the "Escape from New York"
episode of "Wings" with a drag queen contest; "The Ambiguously Gay Duo" cartoon episode from "Saturday Night Live"; "Extra"
episode about Allen R. Schindler, Jr. gay sailor murder; "Crosstalk" episode with Pat Harvey mediating African American debate
with Reverend Peterson and Reverend Hayes, a lesbian minister about the gay rights bill; k.d. Lang on "The Tonight Show";
ABC "Primetime" news program "Boy or Girl?" Dr. Nancy Snyderman on sex reassignment of babies; CBS News Los Angeles report
on Cardinal Mahoney welcoming Catholic gays; "World News Tonight" Army sexual misconduct; and a Los Angeles Channel 9 News
Army sexual harassment report.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Gay motorcycle clubs
Gay dramatists
Gay men
Christian gay men
Scripts (documents)
Gay erotic films
Gay erotic videos
Promotional materials
Advertising fliers
Motion picture producers and directors -- Archival resources
Mail-order business
Businessmen -- California -- Los Angeles -- Archival resources
Motion picture plays
Ball, Jim (Buddy) (James L. Ball)
Ball, Jim (Buddy) (James L. Ball)