Exclusive: Legendary Producer Dink Flamingo On Why He Sold Active Duty, What It Was Like Making Gay Porn With Real-Life Military Men, How He Recruits Models At Walmart, And More!
Like many longtime viewers of gay porn, I was a huge fan of Dink Flamingo and his notorious ActiveDuty—the gay porn studio that hired real-life active duty servicemen (most of whom were straight) to perform in hardcore gay porn scenes throughout the aughts and up till 2014, when it was sold to Canadian porn conglomerate Gamma. Recently, I had the honor of interviewing the legendary Dink Flamingo himself about Active Duty, the men he filmed, why he sold his studio, what he’s doing now with the new studio he’s running, what it was like working with Brent Corrigan, and much more. Below is our conversation, which has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Thank you again to Dink for taking the time to chat!
Str8UpGayPorn: Hi Dink! It’s great to talk with you after all these years. You sold Active Duty to Gamma in 2014, so what in the world have you been up to for the last 4 years?
Dink Flamingo: Yes, I sold Active Duty to Gamma, and they took over the site in early 2015. I’ve been up to a lot during my “vacation” from pornoland. I bought a really nice farm back in my home state of North Carolina about a year before I sold Active Duty, and I fell in love with a Marine from Camp Pendleton while still living out in California.
Wow, almost like something out of a movie. One of your movies, even.
Once he was finished with his Marine Corps obligation, he and I headed back to the farm in North Carolina, and I’ve spent a good portion of my time there, getting it just the way I wanted it since. Having pretty much achieved that about a year ago, I began to get very bored and started toying with the idea of a return to porn. It’s been a fun little ride so far.
I want to ask about the new studio, but back to Active Duty first. It was such a game-changing studio—from the models you found, to the way they were recruited, to the way the scenes were filmed. And I know the word “legend” gets thrown around a lot, but it genuinely does apply to you. Does it feel weird when people refer to you that way?
What a great compliment. Stop it, Zach! You’re just trying to make me cry! That’s a hard question to answer without sounding like a complete pompous asshole. Creative people don’t set out to make their mark, they just do what they love. Any mark they make comes as a result of that creativity and the love they have for what they’re doing! I haven’t heard myself referred to as a “legend” very often. Now, “bitch” or “asshole” would be a different story (laughs). I’m moved that you feel that way and I am appreciative of the kind gesture, but as most “legends” are dead, I don’t think I’m quite there yet. Give me a little more time to “die” up to the honor.
OK, but do you at least think you’ve been given the proper credit and acknowledgement for what you brought to the gay porn industry?
Both the fans and the industry have been very kind to me. The fans made it possible for me to create a body of work that I’m very proud of, and because of their loyalty I’ve been able to live a pretty nice life. The industry has recognized me by showering me with plenty of awards, and all of them sit on shelves in my office to this day to remind me of that. I’ve always thought of myself as having come to the table with what I had. Thankfully it was a dish that many people thought was delicious.
What prompted you to sell Active Duty in 2014?
It was a plain and simple case of burn out. I had been feeding the monster for 16 years. I started Active Duty in the summer of 1998, and by the end of 2014, I was suffering a great deal of burn out. I wanted to return to the simplicity of my roots. My father had passed away, and my mother was aging and needed me back home in the Carolinas. I had already purchased the beautiful 500 acre farm back home, and was eager to get back there and get to work on it.
So, it was the right decision to make.
I’m very thankful that I sold when I did, as I got to spend my mother’s last years with her every day. That alone was a blessing. Most people are busy working every day and paying the bills when that happens to their parents, but I was fortunate to have that time with my mama. I wouldn’t change it.
And now, Active Duty is of course nothing like it was once was. What do you think of what Gamma has done to it?
When I made the decision to sell, I knew that the mark I’d left on it would eventually get overtaken by someone else’s vision. It took me several years before selling to come to terms with what those changes could mean, and to just let go of it, so to speak. When I sold Active Duty, its future was no longer in my control, and I accepted that. I honestly don’t visit the site much as all my favorite scenes are on a hard drive that I compiled over the years, so I just refer back to that when I want to see my favorite scenes.
I have spent so much time wondering one thing: How did you find and convince these real-life Marines—most of whom were straight—to be in gay porn?
Most of my recruiting has always been face-to-face. When recruiting for the type of guys I was looking for, you have to go where they go. So, I hung out in local Walmart stores so much that the security crew must have said every time they seen me coming, “Here he is again. Passing out his porn cards.” (Laughs.)
Ha! Well, I guess it would’ve been tricky to get onto the bases and recruit directly from there.
And fortunately, the Walmart people never approached me and asked me to leave. I rarely went to the bases to recruit after 9/11, as base security had gotten so tight that if you didn’t have a military ID, getting on was a real bitch. I had and still have other secrets about my recruiting methods that I can’t give up just yet. That’ll have to be told in the book one day!
Can you give any clue as to what you might say to one of the guys, upon first approaching them?
As far as the “convincing” part, well, I can’t exactly give up those closely held secrets just yet either. But, it’s sometimes a lot of work. People think it’s all about having the money to throw at the guys, but it goes way, way deeper than that. If they don’t trust you first, you’re done for. So, building trust and a good relationship with models first is just as important as any money you can throw at them. And you can take that to the bank.
Do you keep in touch with any of the guys? I always wonder what happened to Cole (above, center). Any update on him or any of the other popular guys, like Thomas or Shane?
I do keep in touch with a lot of the guys. Cole was with the company right up until I sold. He had gone from model to DVD warehouse manager to being our editor, and he’s doing very well now. He’s married and has a son, and he works for a huge national company where he enjoys a pretty plush job with a six figure income.
That’s great to hear.
I’m very happy for him. I’m glad he was able to get the education he got during the years he worked for me. He’s really the son I never had, and I’m very proud of him. I keep in touch with a lot of the other older models, too, like Thomas, Damien, Dean, and the list goes on. Many of those guys are well into their 30’s now, but most are still looking delicious.
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” wasn’t repealed until 2011, but do you think if it had been repealed earlier, that would’ve changed any of the dynamics or taboos behind what the service members were doing on Active Duty?
Oh, I’m certain it would have made it all look a lot less jaw-dropping. Part of the appeal for the earlier Active Duty was that you felt like you were watching something that society overall had no clue was happening. It was so taboo at the time that you felt like just being able to watch these guys do those things made you part of a secret “in the know” crowd. And, for the most part, that seemed to be true once the “scandal of ’06” broke.
I remember that. Several guys were charged for violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice, for being on the site.
Right, and good lord, you’d have thought it never occurred to anyone that these guys were the craziest bunch of sex driven men on the planet. Having grown up around military bases all my life, I knew better. Which was my driving force behind starting Active Duty in the first place.
And now you’ve taken over and relaunched Amateur Straight Guys. Did you buy it completely?
Yes, I originally bought ASG back in 2010. At the time, we put several different directors at the helm to include Active Duty’s very own Kaden Saylor (as seen above), and eventually another director named Matt who seemed to do very well bringing ASG-type guys in.
One of my favorites from the Matt era on ASG, post 2010, was this guy Colton (as seen above). Will Matt be back to bring more guys in like him? Or, will you be doing most the recruiting and filming?
I will be bringing Matt back on board from time to time to fill in some gaps. I got back in the business and made ASG my new home because I’d become very bored down on the farm. It was time. I’m coming back very refreshed and free of my burn out. I figure, I’ve got another good 16 years in me. I think, ha. And since ASG was still mine, it was the perfect place to settle in and rebuild what was once a great site. There are over 500 videos already in the members area, so it’s not like I’m starting from scratch. Joining members are still getting a great value for their money as I work on adding more and more content to the catalog.
How are you getting new models for ASG now?
Well, let’s put it this way, I can pretty much tell you every “rollback” that Walmart has.
Oh my god, back to the Walmart again!
I’m also doing something a bit different than I’ve done in the past, and that can be seen in the new “Try Outs” section of Amateur Straight Guys. We’ve just posted our first “Try Out” video featuring a super hung hottie named Big Mac. He has a great bareback creampie scene with another model coming out soon. Of course, I’m mainly hand selecting the guys I meet online.
What is the number one thing you look for in a model?
Personality! I can’t stress that enough. That’s such a big part of what’s missing from all the corporate, zipped-up porn out there today. There’s no personality, and guys just seem like beautiful wind-up dolls being wound tight, thrown on a bed, and left to squirm around until they run out of wind. Porn should feature as much personality as it does sex, in my opinion.
I think we’re not seeing personality as much these days because some studios just don’t have the time to be that discerning. It’s just a matter of getting the guys in, filming the scenes, then moving onto the next.
Right, and sex has so much to do with personality, unless you’re having it through a hole in the wall. If you’re into the whole anonymous “hush, let’s not talk, let’s just fuck” scenario, then the lack of personality is fine. But most people want more than just that. I know I do. That’s not to say I won’t settle for a HUGE cock shoved toward my face through some hole in the wall.
Same.
But, really, I’d prefer to get to know who’s attached to that monster, most of the time. Let’s bring some personality back into this thing already.
You’ve been around a while and seen so many people come and go. What’s the biggest challenge that studios have to contend with now?
Maintaining paying customers. There’s so much free stuff out there and so many sites you can spend days on, watching free stuff. And that’s huge. But, what folks need to realize is that if we stop paying for the specific types of porn we like, eventually we’ll be left with what’s already out there, and no new porn will be produced. We need fans to embrace us and support our work so that we can keep on producing. With that said, producers have to step it up a little and stop making more of the same ol’, same ol’. That’s why I’m thankful for the four-year break that I’ve had. I’m coming back with a fresh outlook, a brand new perspective, and a lot of energy to put out some great stuff. Hopefully, the fans will support those efforts and embrace ASG, if that’s their kind of porn.
Any advice you can give to studios that are struggling right now?
Start actually listening to the fans. After all, those fans are who’s paying the bills and making it possible to shoot new content. When you stop listening to your fans, in a sense, you stop listening to your boss who is writing your check! Eventually, the boss gets tired of paying someone who doesn’t listen to them and finds someone else who does.
I don’t know if you remember this, but you and I met once at Brent Corrigan’s birthday party in 2009, at his apartment in San Diego. Have you kept in touch with Brent—whom you worked with on the Dirty Bird line—and what would it be like to work with him again?
I do remember meeting you! You are unforgettable, Zachie-poo. I have kept in touch with Brent and we’ve come close to doing some things together, but the timing hasn’t proven to be right yet. I loved what we did with Dirty Bird. A lot of those films were really good. Especially the Brent Corrigan films. I still own Dirty Bird Pictures and would love to see Brent eventually revive it, but I think he has plans for other things. Also, ASG is my main focus right now, but maybe someday he and I can come together and focus on something together.
You’ve had such great taste in models. Which popular gay porn stars working right now do you think are hot?
Thank you, that’s a compliment coming from someone who sees as many models as you do. And, the second part of that question is really hard for me to answer. It’s like a time that I was drunk at the Hyatt on the River Walk in San Antonio, and I’d lost my key to my room. The desk clerk asked me which room I was in, and not remembering my room number, I blurted out, “I’d know it if I saw it.” To be honest, what little porn I do watch, I couldn’t tell you the names of the guys that appeal to me. I never remember. But, there are a lot of hot guys out there.
Have you kept up with industry news over the years? Any major events or news stories surprising to you?
I have kept up with things here and there, but I just recently spent a large amount of time playing catch up. The most alarming thing to me is how many of the sites have been bought out by big, corporate porn conglomerates. I fear this is a sign of bad porn to come. When you get that big, you aren’t as focused on what you’re putting out, you’re just focused on getting the updates out on time.
Well, and some studios can’t even do that.
It really has an effect on the quality when you’ve got that kind of quantity to put out. I think that’s why you’ll see a huge turn back for consumers, and the smaller, individually run companies will start to be embraced more deeply. This all has to do with the point I made about putting personality in porn. It’s the same ingredient that has gone missing from so much of the corporate owned sites. Porn with the most personality will always bring the fans back.
What will make ASG different from other studios as you move forward?
Most importantly, it’s a site being ran by someone who has been around long enough to know that what fans want to see is what rules supreme. Hopefully, fans will use my email address on the site and reach out to me. I want ASG to be a fan-run site, not a Dink-run site. So, I invite all my former fans as well as new ones to get in touch with me and tell mama what you’ve been longing for. And at the end of the day, I’ll be able to say something I often said over at AD: “Mama tried, mama tried.”
That’s very sweet and earnest, which is rare these days!
I’ve kept a poem on my desk for many years by a famous poet, and to paraphrase it, it goes something like: “We may not always create a masterpiece, but the point is, we get out there and we try. Sometimes it really happens, other times we were just stretching our souls.” Every time I’ve picked up a camera over the years I have tried to the best of my ability to create a masterpiece. Sometimes it did in fact happen, and I think those are the ones that made Active Duty stick out for so many as a “game-changer.” Other times—often beyond my ultimate control, for various reasons and none specific—I was simply stretching my soul. Luckily, even some of those shoots were pretty darn good. So, going forward, the fans of ASG have my word that I will keep that same objective in mind each time. If I fuck it up, I expect to hear from them so I can try and correct it.
They’ll be glad to hear that, and it was great hearing from you. Will you be coming to the Str8UpGayPorn Awards in October? We would love to have you there!
Is that an invitation to receive my award?
Let me see if I can work in a last minute Lifetime Achievement award, but if not this year, next year!
Sounds good! See you then, and thanks again.
Preview of ASG model Maverick:
