all-americanheroes.net?

[Xstr8guy]

Does anyone know anything about www.all-americanheroes.net. I'd like to become an affiliate but I'm a little bit cautious because they use an off-brand biller, DHDRevEx that I've never heard of before. And they are asking for a SSN.

Any insight into this site or biller would be much appreciated?

[Dzinerbear]

I reviewed that site and an abyssmal. The tour makes you think that you're selling or buying lots of uniformed galleries, but when you get inside, it's just a bunch of regular guys. Okay, some of them start of wearing a Marines or NYPD t-shirt, but it's not the uniformed heaven I thought it would be.

It's too bad because they shoot their own content and the content is good, it's just not what they're leading the surfers to believe their buying. They should just call it Amatuer Gay Sex Videos or something. Otherwise, it's a chargeback waiting to happen.

Michael

[Xstr8guy]

The uniforms aren't really a major factor for me. I was just looking for "regular guy" type site to promote. And this looks like it will fit the bill. The tour doesn't show uniforms except a little in the header graphic.

But what about this weird biller, DHDRevEx? What do you know about them?

[XXXWriterDude]

The content on the site will probably be changing in the coming months. I know this because the owner, Steve Downard, who I was becoming very good friends with over the past few months, passed away unexpectedly two weeks ago. He was only 58, and one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet, and also a huge part of the Silver Lake community here in L.A. He will sorely be missed.

The site could use some new blood. Steve worked within his means, shooting all the content himself on a regular video camera and basing it off existing site models. I hope that the new owners do something great with it to honor Steve's vision and his memory.

Steve had a very interesting life, and a history of working in the adult industry. If you're interested, here is a copy of a write-up that I did on Steve for the remembrance book that was handed out at his memorial last week. An abbridged version also appeared in my "Silver Lake Seen" column in IN Los Angeles magazine. Additionally, I wrote a seperate write-up for AVN Online that will be appearing in the November issue of the magazine.

STEVE DOWNARD (1948-2006)

He was the previous owner of a well-known SoCal gay and lesbian publication, operated an adult theater in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, and even ran a coed bathhouse on Hyperion Avenue. But to the many who knew and loved him, Steve Downard, who passed away on Aug. 21 from complications following a massive stroke, will always be remembered as “the mayor of Silver Lake.”

Born in Oroville in 1948, Downard became a Los Angeles native at heart after his family moved to Inglewood. He was also a man who had many lives. After attending Inglewood High, where he served as president of his class, Steve headed east to finish college at the University of Ketucky, and later worked briefly as a salesman for Pitney-Bowes in the Philadelphia area—where he lived with his then partner Walter Gorski. Steve eventually migrated back West, where he ran the Campus Theater in San Francisco. Later, after relocating to Twenty-Nine Palms, Steve served as advertising director at Lesbian News under Deborah Bergman and helped turn the modest four-page mailer into a full-color tabloid magazine. Recalls Bergman, “He really was a passionate person who threw himself wholeheartedly into whatever he was interested in.” Bergman later edited The Whitehall Ledger for Downard during his brief stint living in Montana.

But Steve’s heart was in California, especially the communal neighborhood that Downard always thought of as home. “When he returned to Silver Lake, he often said that he was back home and would never leave again,” says longtime friend John Frakes. “He felt such love from all the friends and people that he encountered there.”

During his days as president of the Silver Lake Merchants Association (the gay and lesbian organization he helped to establish), Steve was also the owner of Healthworks, a bathhouse at Lyric and Hyperion. For a time, he owned Edge magazine. Fans of literature, meanwhile, may remember his poignant chapter, “Bury My Heart in 29 Palms,” which appeared in Steve Zeeland’s 1999 compilation Military Trade (Harrington Park Press). Downard’s fascination with servicemen continued in 2004 with the creation of the website All-AmericanHeroes.com. He was also known to speak fluent French.

I met Steve just three months ago at MJ’s, and I was immediately taken in by his charm, his wit, and his genuinely kind nature. (Of course, it didn’t hurt that he professed to be an avid reader of my “Silver Lake Seen” column in IN Los Angeles magazine; he obviously had exceptional taste in reading material!) It was Steve who convinced me to start hanging out at the Other Side, where he could always be found holding court every Friday night—often picking up the tab for tables full of his friends and, most recently, financing the recording of a live CD of pianist James Lent performing at the club.

“Steve's generosity was pretty much boundless,” says frequent Other Side performer Peter Nathan Foltz. “Of course, his monetary generosity is shadowed by his generosity of heart. He would keep tabs on your comings and goings if he felt you were wandering too far from the ‘Hyperion Theater District.’ That kind of mothering, coupled with his impish joy, made him a kind of master cylinder in the engine of certain Silver Lake circles.”

It was, in fact, his love of the East Side that earned Steve the affectionate nickname “the mayor of Silver Lake” from many of his friends and colleagues in the neighborhood. Recalls the Other Side’s owner Paul Hargis, “His pride in Silver Lake showed every time he took his morning and afternoon walk down Hyperion—with at least one dog in tow—greeting the local shop owners and other neighbors. If you studied him closely, you could see him bend over to pick up pieces of trash in the street and place it in the next sanitation container he could find. That’s a small reflection of a huge heart and the kind of giving person Steve was.”

No arguments here. Farethee well, Mr. Mayor. You will be sorely missed by many.
—Ken Knox


*A slightly abbreviated version of this biography appears as part of the “Silver Lake Seen” column in IN Los Angeles magazine (Vol. 9, Issue 15).

[hunkhunter]

I promote

[hunkhunter]

I tried to post and got hung up. I have used dhdmedia.com for at least 1.5 years with no problems. They are the guys who run Dirty Boy Videos and a few other sites; developed theor own in-house processing and began to offer it to others including Falcon. All-American Heroes just switched to them recently from verotel.

[Xstr8guy]

Very helpful HH. I appreciate it!

[DonMike]

Excellent article, Ken. I read that this morning in the magazine, it's nice to see the unedited version here. He seems like he was a really great man. I'm sorry I never got a chance to meet him.

[XXXWriterDude]

Excellent article, Ken. I read that this morning in the magazine, it's nice to see the unedited version here. He seems like he was a really great man. I'm sorry I never got a chance to meet him.

Thanx, Don. I appreciate the comment.

I really liked Steve a lot. Being so frustrated with the superficiality of L.A.'s gay community, it was great to be able to hang out with Steve. He'd been around the block many, many times, and really had a lot to teach me about taking myself out of the "scene" and just doing what makes me happy.

I so rarely meet people who have anything to say about, well, much of anything, and Steve was a man who had a LOT to say. We could get into debates about the merits of straight-guy niche content (since that is what he shot) and its potential effects on the gay community, and we could do it without ever getting angry at each other for disagreeing or without getting all self-righteous. We would just laugh and order another drink. That's a marked difference from some of the reactions I've gotten on here and out and about trying to talk with straight-guy webmasters about what they do. Steve didn't get defensive or pissy; he was genuinely interested in engaging in the discussion instead of attacking me for questioning the validity of his content. That was truly refreshing.

I used to hang out with older gay men a lot when I was just coming out. Hanging out with Steve made me realize how much I missed their knowledge and their wisdom, and their ability to see beyond their own egos. I am so glad to have known him, but I am very very sad that I did not have the chance to get to know him better.

Steve was relatively unknown in the gay webmaster circles (he didn't come on here, nor did he attend shows), but he was still someone I think a lot of us can learn from.

[Squirt]

Wow this guy had a full life and really made a difference in the world it's a shame he's not with us anymore, but we were lucky to have him while we did. Ken that was a great article and testiment to your outstanding character. :groovy:

[XXXWriterDude]

Wow this guy had a full life and really made a difference in the world it's a shame he's not with us anymore, but we were lucky to have him while we did. Ken that was a great article and testiment to your outstanding character. :groovy:

Oh, Squirt, stop.

Thanx for the comment. I really can't take too much credit, except to say that when I truly care about what I'm writing about, it shows in my work.

Thanx again.