Below are excerpts from this article about the Hell's Angels gay tag team -- Ron and Paul Dupree (aka Chris Colt) -- from the July 1969 issue of Inside Wrestling that I recently stumbled upon.
Before exposing their big secret, the article describes how they got together as partners when Ronnie Dupree, tired of playing a Good Guy, went looking for his biker brother, Paul, in San Francisco so they could form a Heel team.
[By the way, I had to look up "Frank Merriwell," the character that Ronnie Dupree was likened to. This was a fictional character in old 1900s dimestore novels, continuing on to 1950s comic books. Merriwell was the ultimate Boy Scout, an older version of Gallant from Goofus and Gallant. He was a model of healthy, obedient, positive behavior for straight American lads to hopefully take after.]
(The above image is NOT from the 1969 Inside Wrestling article.)
Back to the article, which included the following photo of the "brothers" in their leather vests with Paul down on his knees:
How implicitly gay can you get with Paul's face at bulging crotch level?
The next part of the story provides a kayfabe explanation for how Paul (aka Chris Colt) was convinced to take up pro wrestling in addition to biking.
Of course Paul refuses to abandon his biker buddies. Motorcycle gangs have long held gay overtones and homosexual associations in the popular imagination since they began in the 1940s and 50s. I mean the whole point of the hobby is to go around with other bad boys in leather, while your vehicle offers no easy way to bring your wife and kids along for the ride. There were even explicitly gay biker gangs like the Satyrs, founded in 1954. And of course, one of the Village People (a 1970s gay disco band) had to be a biker -- an icon of gayness.
I recently read an article claiming that the actual Hell's Angels members would kiss each other on the lips, supposedly to shock the squares in their vicinity... Even the 2024 film The Bikeriders about the rise of motorcycle clubs included a really, really gay conversation between the two (ostensibly) straight male characters.
So during the 1960s and 70s, you couldn't BE any sketchier, any more gay adjacent (or outright gay) than to don leather gear and join a (male only) biker gang. And this is exactly the gimmick adopted by the Duprees, as noted in the article -- how much louder could they possibly scream, Yes we are totally gay!?
My next post will reveal the shocking secret that, according to the article, these bikers/wrestlers are trying to hide. Prepare to be underwhelmed.
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