Clone: The Life and Legacy of Al Parker, Gay Superstar Paperback – October 1, 2000

A good read for Al Parker fans and for fans of 70s and 80s adult film world.

I enjoyed reading this biography a lot about Al Parker's life.

Very interesting book, great story, very well written, rich in archivial footage. Recommended fo fans of gay history. One way to better understand the evolution of the gay movement

Al Parker was a vastly popular gay movie icon starting in the late 1970s and through the 1980s. He was gorgeous, sexy, macho, clean-cut. I wanted to read in detail how he got into X-rated movies, the problems he encountered, etc. The author does a nice job of at least giving us this quick paperback read, but I wished the photos weren't so vanilla and clean. I understand the ban on full frontal nudity for books although I've been seeing more and more recently. What we need now is a "The Films of Al Parker"--showing the hotness and the intensity of his performance that made him a mega-star for gay men around the world.

I had purchased this book some time ago and Loved reading it. I thought it did a good job of pointing out the events of Al Parker. It illustrated the defining moments and how he was directed into the path he took. If you want to know more about a great porn star then check out this book.

Still have NEVER received the item from Amazon even though the item when I purchased it stated "SHIPS IN 24 HRS".Since then I have received "difficulty in obtaining item" notices - TWICE.The Amazon site still states the item is available and now states ships in"2-5 weeks".Perhaps it should states "ships in 2-5 MONTHS"!!!!!!!I suspect Amazon would like me to cancel the order and I feel that NO effort has been made to acquire the item. Keep trying or change your site info.

The 1970s were a time of sexual freedom and optimism for the gay male community in the United States. Having broken out and found a sense of identity and pride in the wake of Stonewall, gay men celebrated their sexuality, many to excess, in a brief explosion of gleeful hedonism before the scourge of AIDS swept all before it.Roger Edmonson, having profiled an icon of this lost era, Casey Donovan, with fair success, attempts the same with another star of gay male pornography from the same period, Drew Okun, or Al Parker. This book is not up to the standard of that earlier effort, partly because, when it comes right down to it, Drew Okun led a remarkably humdrum life for a porn star. Unlike Donovan, who traveled a lot, acted on stage, and knew famous people, Okun seems to have been basically a homebody, quite content to live with his longtime companion Richard Cole (who also acted in porn films with Okun under the name Steve Taylor, a fact which Edmonson oddly forgets to note) on the California coast and run his production company, Surge Studios.Edmonson does not help his cause by superficial writing and research. Interesting facts about Okun/Parker's life are mentioned almost in passing and never explored in depth, or even mentioned again. One would like to know more, for example, about Okun's estrangements from his elder sister and from Steve Scott, who directed some of his best films, but revelations are not forthcoming in this rather slim volume, which spends a lot of time describing Parker's films which are, for the most part, readily available and better seen for oneself anyway. Even the photographs included are disappointing. In short, this volume succeeds neither as serious biography nor as guilty pleasure.

The title of this book should have been: Al Parker: A Glowing Tribute with Synopsis of his Porn Films.If you are looking for an actual biography, keep looking. Practically 80% of this book is just a written synopsis of his various porn films that he starred in or directed. If you have seen Al Parker's films, there is no reason to buy this book. And if you haven't seen Al Parker's films, a written and condensed synopsis is no substitute for actually seeing his films and there is still no reason to buy this book.SPOILER ALERT: Al Parker was raped at knifepoint at age 15. The author then surmises that this event "had no long-lasting emotional effects on Al". WHAT?! It gets worse. Al Parker was also raging sex addict as an adult! Why was this not explored? Not all porn stars are sex addicts. Rather, the author just kissed the ass of his subject kept framing this behavior in ridiculously pure and holy terms. Addiction is addiction. Al Parker was also a drug addict as well. So what does this author do? He spends his time telling us how straight-edge Al was because he always went to the gym and never drank. Al Parker died of AIDS... His sex and drug addiction played into that in a big way, so it is insanity to not address it. Why was virtually none of the book devoted to Al Parker having HIV? How did he get it? When did he get it? Who did he get it from? What were the repercussions in his daily life? It is like the author did not want to judge (which is a good thing) but went WAY overboard in going the opposite direction and this book went from a potentially hateful and judgmental hit piece to a ridiculous and whitewashing 200-page PR blurb.This book committed the ultimate sin for a biography. It fell in love with its subject and could not maintain objectivity, which leaves you with a dull love letter, long on praise but short on facts or reasonable analysis.