BobCrane.com

September 30, 2002 10:37 AM

BobCrane.com is a pay-pr0n site (don't worry; the first page, at least, is work-safe) that collects the explicit photos, films, etc. that "Hogan's Heroes" star Bob Crane took of himself and a ceaseless stream of female companions in his off-hours. What makes the site unusual is that it's run by Bob's son, Scotty, who takes particular pride in defending his dad's sexual prowess and mental health. This defense is necessary because Crane is being biopic'd in a new film by Paul Schrader which, according to a recent NYT article, imagines Crane as the archetypal sex addict, culminating in a still-unsolved murder. [reg. req'd: metafilter41, metafilter; much more inside.]
posted by blueshammer (16 comments total)

The New York Times article chronicles the troubles Schrader has had with Scotty Crane, as well as the co-operation of Scotty's 20-years-older half-brother, Bobby. No one is upset that a movie is being made that portrays Crane as a sex fiend; Scotty just wishes it was from his own script ("The script is half his life and half his murder investigation," Scotty explains. "It's a lot like Pulp Fiction.") and didn't cast certain asperions; for instance, that Bob Sr. might have had his penis enlarged. Capturing this sentiment, as well as the fact that the duelling brothers like to cast aspersions on one another's genetic legitimacy, Scotty says: Bob Crane was very talented. Very gifted. A great father. And he had a very large penis. By the way, I don't only resemble him from the neck up. All Bobby has to do is drop his pants, and I'll be able to tell if he's really Bob Crane's son. Maybe he's afraid to let me see. Not that Bobby isn't as proud of ol' dad: Writing in Partner, a porn magazine, [Bobby] boasted that his father once had sex "with five different women in one day." His conclusion: "Good for you, Dad."

A terrific article. It loses its path somewhat with a wrongheaded examination of why the insignificant are being increasingly memorialized, but it paints a compelling, almost frightening portrait of the Crane household; reactionaries will love the portrait it paints of pr0n and free love. (Of Scotty: Although he was only 7 when his father died, Bob Crane showed his young son his sex films. Of Bobby: My dad never showed me movies of himself. He showed me women with other guys. I thought it was neat. I was watching this new video technology as a male: 'We can watch naked women in our house! That's cool.' ... He did show me photographs from a threesome he had ... I guess that could be considered weird. Both sons have worked, to some degree, in the pr0n biz.)
posted by blueshammer at 10:42 AM on September 30, 2002

Already discussed here and here
posted by matteo at 10:47 AM on September 30, 2002

Rargh. Well, the NYT story nevertheless adds all kinds of new dimensions to the story; it's really the heart of the post. I just thought leading off with bobcrane.com would be more dramatic, but I should have done more to make the post seem less redundant on its face.
posted by blueshammer at 10:50 AM on September 30, 2002

is there not a way to beef-up the mefi search tool? e.g. the ability to search for headline urls would make avoiding repeats much easier...you could even script it to check for a repeat link...
posted by subpixel at 11:00 AM on September 30, 2002

The article, and the film, are more or less new parts to the mix. The topic has been discussed before, and matteo was merely pointing out prior discussion.

Search for search over at metatalk and you'll find many a suggestion for beefing up the search function. Do keep in mind that anything with a solution that boils down to "and in this step, Matt does lots and lots of work" is probably not going to get front-burnered.

The controversy certainly isn't new, and shouldn't be news to careful readers; e.g. the primary source for the film seems to be The Murder of Bob Crane, which was first published back in 1993. The site itself attracted a lot of attention, e.g. Salon, other major media outlets, a couple of years back when his son started it up -- with discussion at that point centering on son Scotty's financial or psychological motives. He's obviously relishing turning the tables on Schrader after the beating he took then.
posted by dhartung at 11:13 AM on September 30, 2002

I typed in bob crane into the google tool, which I prefer using. First hit. No beefing up needed.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 11:13 AM on September 30, 2002

dhartung's right.
I was pointing to those two threads just to help out the discussion (I didn't use the dreaded "Double Post" line after all)

It's a good story. I've always hated Hogan's Heroes, seemed to me a cheap ripoff of Billy Wilder's masterful Stalag 17, and Crane looked like a cheap William Holden impersonator

I'm a Schrader fan, but AutoFocus' writers (they wrote Ed Wood and the Larry Flynt and Andy Kaufman movie) I find pretty weak and formulaic (Ed Wood was good for many different reasons, Burton and Depp and the rest of the cast and the art direction, cinematography etcetera, the script looked kind of weak)

I'll go see the movie, maybe, but Kinnear does not strike me as the perfect choice.
Also, I don't see the scandal and maybe Calvinist Schrader does: Crane loved sex, and loved to film himself with his girlfriends. In the Internet era, the concept is not that shocking is it?

And, how many not-very-faithful biopics do we have to endure?
posted by matteo at 11:31 AM on September 30, 2002

Oh, and blueshammer, don't worry, you're still pretty new and you'll google your FPP better next time.
Also, I liked Ghost World too
posted by matteo at 11:39 AM on September 30, 2002

I don't object to this particular doubling (trebling?), since it is timely again thanks to "Auto-Focus" (which I'm eager to see). But, I don't think there's really any great mystery about the murderer. The only reason Carpenter isn't in jail is because they lost a key piece of evidence in the span between the crime and the trial. Certainly, the burden is on the State -- and they screwed up -- but this is a "mystery" in the sense that the identity of Nicole Simpson's murderer is a mystery.
posted by RavinDave at 12:30 PM on September 30, 2002

[schultzie]

I Know Nothing!!

[/schultzie]
posted by jonmc at 1:06 PM on September 30, 2002

Homer: "did you know kinch hid a radio in the coffee pot? Te-hee"

Klink: "hmmmUMPPGH"
posted by clavdivs at 2:24 PM on September 30, 2002

I saw Auto Focus. Greg Kinnear is actually the best thing about it, along with a hilarious Hogan's Heroes sex fantasy. But by the time it was all over, I was asking myself why this was a story worth telling -- it's just another moralilty tale. Here's my review.
posted by muckster at 2:44 PM on September 30, 2002

Here's an earlier story that covers much of the same ground. The younger son insisted he had only noble motives for publicizing dad's porn archive:

"Scotty is unfazed by [his brother and sister's] condemnations and bristles at the suggestion that there is indeed something squalid about his desire to make money off his dead dad's dirty deeds. Rather, he insists--again and again--that the Web site and book exist solely to dispel long-standing tales that his father was into S&M and homosexuality."

Also, Ain't It Cool News has an advance review of Auto Focus, which calls it "perhaps the most ICKY film ever made."
posted by Daze at 3:09 PM on September 30, 2002

Daze: Obviously, he's never seen Baby Doll. (I saw a pic of the real "Baby Doll" house a few years ago. "Beth is a bitch" was spray-painted at top, with "and she knows it" near the door.)
posted by raysmj at 5:09 PM on September 30, 2002

Greg Kinnear as Crane seems like near miss casting. How about Rob Lowe as Bob Crane? He has more of a resemblance (in every sense of the word) to the character than the William Holden-esque Kinnear does.
posted by Modgoddess at 4:51 PM on October 1, 2002

Kinnear is good as Crane because his innocence is so spooky. All throughout, the guy just doesn't get why, say, his wife doesn't approve of his escapades. It feels good, so it has to be ok, right? He's a helpless slave to his desires, and that's a lot more interesting than a straight-on scumbag. And besides, William Dafoe has that angle covered.
posted by muckster at 5:11 PM on October 1, 2002