Okay film fanatics and historians of 20th century gay life (and MST3K fans!), here's a challenge for you -- Tom Graeff, David Love and _Teenagers From Outer Space_

As part of the latest batch of MST3K DVDs, Rhino has released the Joel-era episode Teenagers From Outer Space, originally filmed and released in the late fifties and already possessed of a general B-movie cachet, not least for the title of course but also for the weird and wonderful mix of sheer ridiculousness and occasional flashes of creativity amid the mire. (Ridiculous = the huge lobster 'Gargan' monster and its yells; flash of creativity = the skeletonizing [no really].)

I've seen the episode a number of times but rewatching it this weekend made me think of the story I'd heard a few times about how Tom Graeff, the writer/producer/screenwriter/etc., had cast his offscreen lover David Love as the star, and that Graeff and Love had apparently filmed a couple of abortive projects here and there at the time. Scrounging turned up the source of said story, namely the magazine Scarlet Street and its editor/publisher Richard Valley, an extremely friendly sort who responded to an e-mail of mine today very quickly and politely, good on him!

Between various posts on the magazine's boards -- a good thread is this one, including a nicely argued defense for Graeff's abilities to work on a budget -- as well as a few observations elsewhere, the portrait painted of Graeff is a striking and ultimately sad one. According to the official MST3K entry on the film, here's a quick sketch of Graeff's career:

According to URSULA PEARSON, TOM GRAEFF charmed her and her husband out of the $5,000 production cost for the film. Supposedly, Warner Brothers later paid Graeff $25,000 for the distribution rights, but the Pearsons saw none of their original investment. The flying saucer was abandoned on property near the estate of Gloria Swanson, who used it for publicity. No one knows what happened to DAVID LOVE (Graeff's off-screen lover) after the film. (He's frequently and erroneously credited as being this movie's director in many film reference materials). Ursula Pearson said that he talked just like Derek in real life...slow and not-so-bright.

Born around 1930, director THOMAS LOCKYEAR GRAEFF graduated from UCLA with a film degree in 1952. Graeff never made another movie after this one. In 1962, he bought a huge ad in the L.A. Times, proclaiming himself the second Christ. In 1968, he bought another ad, this time in Variety, announcing the upcoming production of a film called Orf, to be directed by Carl Reiner, who after seeing the ad, immediately threatened a lawsuit against Graeff for printing such untrue information. Graeff died sometime after that, the year and circumstances unknown.

Apparently nobody knows what has happened to Love, or even if he's still alive. For this reason Valley asked this in a post three years ago which still applies:

By the way, anyone with information (or anyone willing to hunt for information) about Tom Graeff for the upcoming second installment of "The Tom Graeff Story" will be eternally in the debt of Ye Reditor. We can always use more biographical info, more info about Graeff's work in films, more everything. Most of all, we can use a solution to the mystery "Who was David Love and Where--If Anywhere--Is He Now?"

So please use this thread to talk about the film if you've seen it and to add anything to the Graeff/Love story if you know anything more about it, or know somebody who might!