8 TomofFinlandHouse UC

TOM OF FINLAND HOUSE
1419-1421 Laveta Terrace

CHC-2016-2510-HCM
ENV-2016-2511-CE
Agenda packet includes:
1. Under Consideration Staff Recommendation Report
2. Nomination
3. Letters of Support
Please click on each document to be directly taken to the corresponding page of the PDF.
Los Angeles Department of City Planning
RECOMMENDATION REPORT
CULTURAL HERITAGE COMMISSION CASE NO.: CHC-2016-2510-HCM

ENV-2016-2511-CE
HEARING DATE: August 4, 2016 Location: 1419-1421 Laveta Terrace

TIME: 10:00 AM Council District: 13
PLACE: City Hall, Room 1010 Community Plan Area: Silver Lake–Echo Park
200 N. Spring Street Elysian Valley
Los Angeles, CA 90012 Area Planning Commission: East Los Angeles
Neighborhood Council: Greater Echo Park Elysian
Legal Description: Sunset Boulevard Heights,
Lots 21-22
PROJECT: Historic-Cultural Monument Application for the

TOM OF FINLAND HOUSE
REQUEST: Declare the property a Historic-Cultural Monument
OWNER/ APPLICANT: Durk Dehner

1421 Laveta Terrace
Los Angeles, CA 90026
RECOMMENDATION That the Cultural Heritage Commission:
1. Take the property under consideration as a Historic-Cultural Monument per Los

Angeles Administrative Code Chapter 9, Division 22, Article 1, Section 22.171.10
because the application and accompanying photo documentation suggest the submittal
warrants further investigation.
2. Adopt the report findings.
VINCENT P. BERTONI, AICP

Director of PlanningN1907
[SIGNED ORIGINAL IN FILE] [SIGNED ORIGINAL IN FILE]
Ken Bernstein, AICP, Manager Lambert M. Giessinger, Preservation Architect

Office of Historic Resources Office of Historic Resources
[SIGNED ORIGINAL IN FILE]
Melissa Jones, Planning Assistant

Office of Historic Resources
Attachments: Historic-Cultural Monument Application

CHC-2016-2510-HCM
Page 2 of 3
SUMMARY
The Tom of Finland House, built in 1911, is located at 1419-1421 Laveta Terrace in Echo Park,
north of Sunset Boulevard, between Echo Park Avenue and Portia Street. The seventeen-room,
single-family residence was constructed by contractor W.J. Gretten in the Craftsman style; there
is no licensed architect recorded on the building permit. The home was occupied by a series of
families until 1979 when the property was purchased by its current owner, Durk Dehner. It was
into this household in 1980 that Dehner – a fan of the work of Tom of Finland – would invite the
artist to reside. Tom of Finland was an internationally-renowned artist celebrated for his stylized
homoerotic drawings and his influence on late twentieth century gay culture. Called the "most
influential creator of gay pornographic images" by cultural historian Joseph W. Slade, Tom of
Finland’s work has only grown in popularity since his death, making him one of the most
recognizable gay erotic artists of the twentieth century.
Tom of Finland was born as Touko Laaksonen in Kaarina, Finland on May 8, 1920. From early
adolescence, Laaksonen showed significant artistic talent, rendering homoerotic, lifelike
drawings of the masculine figures – loggers, lumberjacks, farmhands – that worked the rural
landscape of his youth. Upon graduating from high school in 1939, Laaksonen was directed
toward a more vocationally-oriented path than fine art and began studying commercial
advertising. However, his education was interrupted in 1940 by the outbreak of World War II
when he was conscripted into the Finnish army. After the war, Laaksonen moved to Helsinki,
revived his artistic career and became a freelance illustrator. In 1956, Laaksonen submitted his
artwork to the Los Angeles-based magazine, Physique Pictorial, the first all-nude, all-male
publication in the United States. To preserve his anonymity Laaksonen signed his submitted art
as “Tom.” Bob Mizer, publisher of Physique Pictorial, enthusiastically accepted the work for
publication and appended “of Finland” to “Tom,” in the style adopted by other erotic artists of the
period. Tom’s drawing, featured on the cover of the spring 1957 issue, received an immediate
positive response and began his 20-year period as a leading contributor to the magazine. Tom
first visited Los Angeles in 1978 to display his work in solo exhibitions and two years later, Tom
returned to Los Angeles more permanently, living with Durk Dehner at his home. Dehner
became Tom’s friend, partner, agent, and occasional model; their collaborative partnership
lasted until Tom’s death in 1991.
Noteworthy in itself as a Craftsman-style residence, the property at 1421 Laveta Terrace was
where Tom lived and worked for the last decade of his life. During this productive period, a third
floor space in the house served as Tom’s combined bedroom and studio. Though Tom would
spend his summers in Finland – visa restrictions required that Tom return to his native country
every six months – the house served as the strongest focal point for his work and legacy. Tom’s
presence at the house helped to christen it “TOM House” in the gay and artistic community. The
decade that Tom spent at TOM House was a standout period in his career; works produced at
the home during this time were pivotal in turning him into an artist of international acclaim.
Throughout the years, Tom’s work was collected by major art institutions, including the New
York Museum of Modern Art and Los Angeles’ own Museum of Contemporary Art; his work
came to be admired, too, by several notable individuals including Andy Warhol, Robert
Mapplethorpe, and John Waters.
In 1984, Tom and Dehner co-founded the Tom of Finland Foundation at the home to preserve
Tom’s work as well as to promote a space in which to invite other gay artists and luminaries to
be residents and guests. The home lent itself to discourses on art, gay liberation, and pride. To
this day, the home houses invaluable artistic material, classes, events and other cultural
activities telling of Tom’s legacy, helping to cultivate the next generation of gay erotic art and
culture in Los Angeles and the wider community.
CHC-2016-2510-HCM
Page 3 of 3
The primary building on the Laveta Terrace lots is a three-story Craftsman home that is
rectangular in plan and clad in composition shingles. The front entrance features an oak door
with decorative rectangular carvings and is flanked by vertical side lights containing beveled
glass. The ground floor of the primary elevation exhibits a slightly raised masonry and concrete
porch consisting of a side-gabled wood overhang with exposed rafters and rough-textured
masonry block pillar supports. The second floor of the main elevation has a centered projecting
bay directly over the porch overhang with small double-hung windows. The fully-exposed side
bay slightly projects and is supported by three rafters with decoratively carved tails. The third
floor features a steeply-hipped front-facing gable with decorative stained glass and a flat-roofed
dormer with exposed eaves. The interior spaces of the home retain most of the building’s early
twentieth century Craftsman-style plan and layout, along with extensive decorative features.
Coffered ceilings, Art Nouveau-style light fixtures, varnished wood trim and siding, cabinetry,
wood floors, and pocket doors are located throughout the space. Nearly all of the alterations to
the home were made prior to the proposed period of significance, 1980 – 1990, corresponding
to Tom of Finland’s direct association with the property during his lifetime. Changes made within
this period include the raising of the third-floor dormer roof to allow for larger window openings
in the 1980s and stained glass windows that were added to the third floor in 1989. Also, various
multimedia artworks have been incorporated into the walls and finishes of the building’s interior.
In addition to the three-story house, also on the property is a front-facing gabled garage with
exposed rafters, triangular brackets, horizontal wood siding, and decorative features identical to
the primary structure. Furthermore, there are multimedia art pieces located throughout the
grounds.
The citywide historic resources survey, SurveyLA, identified the Tom of Finland House as
individually eligible for local listing or designation as well as a notable resource associated with
Queer Art within the City’s LGBT Historic Context Statement.
CRITERIA
The criterion is the Cultural Heritage Ordinance which defines a historical or cultural monument
as any site (including significant trees or other plant life located thereon) building or structure of
particular historic or cultural significance to the City of Los Angeles, such as historic structures
or sites in which the broad cultural, economic, or social history of the nation, State or community
is reflected or exemplified, or which are identified with historic personages or with important
events in the main currents of national, State or local history or which embody the distinguishing
characteristics of an architectural type specimen, inherently valuable for a study of a period style
or method of construction, or a notable work of a master builder, designer or architect whose
individual genius influenced his age.
FINDINGS
Based on the facts set forth in the summary and application, the Commission determines that
the application is complete and that the property may be significant enough to warrant further
investigation as a potential Historic-Cultural Monument.
CITY OF LOS ANGELES
HISTORIC-CULTURAL MONUMENT
NOMINATION FORM
1. PROPERTY IDENTIFICATION
Proposed Monument Name: Tom of Finland House Former residence of notable person(s)
Other Associated Names: TOM House; Tom of Finland Foundation

Street Address: 1421 Laveta Terrace Zip: 90026 Council District: 13
Range of Addresses on Property: 1419-1421 Laveta Terrace Community Name: Echo Park
Assessor Parcel Number: 5419025029 Tract: Sunset Blvd Heights Block: NA Lot: 21-22
Proposed Monument Natural

Building Structure Object Site/Open Space
Property Type: Feature
2. CONSTRUCTION HISTORY & CURRENT STATUS
Year built: 1911 Factual E Threatened? None
Architect/Designer: Unknown Contractor: W.J. Gratten
Original Use: Residential Present Use: Foundation office/Residential/Art Space
Is the Proposed Monument on its Original Site? Yes Un
3. STYLE & MATERIALS
Architectural Style: Craftsman Stories: 3 Plan Shape: Rectangular
FEATURE PRIMARY SECONDARY

CONSTRUCTION Type: Wood Type: Select
CLADDING Material: Wood clapboards Material: Select
Type: Gable, crossed Type: Select

ROOF
Material: Composition shingle Material: Select
Type: Double-hung Type: Select

WINDOWS
Material: Wood Material: Select
ENTRY Style: Centered Style: Select
DOOR Type: Paneled, glazed Type: Select

CITY OF LOS ANGELES
NOMINATION FORM
4. ALTERATION HISTORY
1950s Addition of patio structure to garage. Permitted in 1974.

1970s Enclosure of second-floor porch. Original double-hung windows retained.
1970s Interior kitchen wall removed.
1980s Roof of third-floor dormer windows raised for additional attic space.
1987 Side chimney reconstructed after 1987 Whittier earthquake damage.
1989 Stained glass window added to third-floor space ("Tom's Room").
ongoing Addition of various multimedia art installations throughout walls and surfaces of interior.
ongoing Garden walls, seating areas, signage, paving, and hand railings in landscaped areas.
5. EXISTING HISTORIC RESOURCE IDENTIFICATION wn)
List Regist st c
List f Regist st c R rces
rve SurveyLA (LGBT Historic Context)
st r r rve
6. APPLICABLE HISTORIC-CULTURAL MONUMENT CRITERIA
t w st r r r t a g n ge
CITY OF LOS ANGELES
NOMINATION FORM
7. WRITTEN STATEMENTS
8. CONTACT INFORMATION
Applicant
Name: Durk Dehner Company: Tom of Finland Foundation
Street Address: 1421 Laveta Terrace City: Los Angeles State: CA
Zip: 90026 Phone Number: 213-250-1685 Email: office@tomoffinlandfoundation.org
es No o
Name: Durk Dehner Company: Tom of Finland Foundation
Name: Various Contributors Company: Tom of Finland Foundation

CITY OF LOS ANGELES
NOMINATION FORM
9. SUBMITTAL
APPLICATION CHECKLIST
10. RELEASE
read each atement and check the corr o to indicate that you agr atemen
Name: Date: Signature:
toric R r
Departmen
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A. Proposed Monument Description
TOM House (“Tom of Finland House”)
Primary elevation of TOM House. Source: Wallpaper Magazine (2014)
Primary Building Exterior
Set on a sloping lot and located on a residential street in the Echo Park area, the
subject building is a three-floor residential building constructed in 1911 and
designed in the Craftsman style. The building is located on Lots 21 and 22 of the
Sunset Blvd Heights Tract at 1421 Laveta Terrace.
The rectangular plan building is cross-gabled with a projecting dormer window at

roof level. The roof is covered in composition shingles. Three building floors are
above ground, with a basement located below the back portion of the building.
The ground floor of the primary elevation exhibits a slightly raised masonry and
concrete porch bisecting two-thirds of the facade. Rough textured masonry block
pillars and side walls support a porch consisting of a side-gabled wood overhang
with exposed rafters. The elevated porch is accessed by three steps from the
ground with flooring covered in tile. The centered entrance in the porch exhibits
an oak door with decorative rectangular carvings surrounding a glass opening.
This door is flanked by vertical side lights containing beveled glass. The window
located within the porch is a large single-pane window. The fully exposed side
1
bay also has a large single-pane window immediately below a horizontal band
that traverses the entire length of the main elevation.
The second floor of the main elevation has a centered projecting bay directly
over the porch overhang, with small double-hung windows. Flanking this center
bay are pairs of double-hung windows. The fully-exposed side bay is slightly
projecting and supported by three rafters with decoratively carved ends. The third
floor contains a steeply-hipped front-facing gable with wooden fascia boards and
supporting brackets. At the apex of the gable are paired single-pane windows
with decorative stained glass. The third floor’s western portion has a flat-roofed
dormer with exposed eaves, brackets, and two pairs of single-pane windows.
The exterior of the entire building consists of continuous horizontal wood boards
that traverse the main and side elevations. The side elevations of the subject
building have double-hung windows, rows of single-pane windows, continuous
horizontal wood siding, and a plaster and brick chimney on the western elevation.
Primary Building Interior
The subject building contains a total of seventeen rooms. The ground-floor

interior spaces of the subject building retain most of the building’s early 20th
century Craftsman-style plan and layout, along with extensive original decorative
features. Coffered ceilings, Art-Nouveau-style light fixtures, varnished wood trim
and siding, cabinetry, and wood floors are located throughout the interior. The
living room exhibits its original fireplace along with original pocket doors. The
dining room contains extensive cabinetry and the original built-in buffet with a
prominent stained glass window. The second-floor spaces of the subject building,
including the bathroom, also exhibit most of the building’s original layout and
features.
Secondary Buildings
The side driveway area of the subject property contains a temporary utilitarian
storage unit. Behind the storage unit is a front-facing gabled garage structure
exhibiting exposed rafters, triangular brackets, and horizontal wood siding. All
decorative features of the garage structure are identical to the subject building
and it appears to have been constructed concurrently with the primary building.
Attached to the side elevation of the garage structure is a wooden patio structure
immediately after the steps leading from the kitchen area of the main building.
The utilitarian structure is a wooden A-frame-style structure with exposed beams
and rafters, wooden latticework, and a concrete cinder block base. One end of
this patio area has a brick trash burner that has been converted into a barbeque.
2
Landscape Features
The downward sloping back portion of the subject property contains three
additional levels of terracing supported by low cinder block garden walls and
accessed by a concrete staircase with metal and wooden hand rails. This garden
area is a dense mix of mature trees, shrubs, vines, and plants. This includes
Mexican Fan Palm trees, rubber trees, citrus trees, avocado trees, fig trees,
bamboo, banana plants, bougainvillea, loquat, ferns, jasmine, grapes, and roses.
Hardscape features of this landscaped area include brick pavers, pebble rocks,
fountains, seating areas, signage, and bric-a-brac. Multimedia art pieces are
located throughout the grounds.
The street level portion of the subject property is screened by tall and dense
shrubbery punctuated by wooden gates. The front yard contains landscaped
shrubs, various plants, and two mature trees: a pepper tree and a rubber tree.
Flooring is a combination of turf, concrete, brick pavers, tiles, and pebble rocks.
Alterations
Since the subject building’s construction in 1911, the following alterations have
occurred to the building and grounds. Note that most alterations occurred prior to
or during the proposed period of significance of 1980-1990, some are ongoing.
1. The attached patio structure to the garage in the back area appears to
have been added sometime between the 1940s-1950s. This patio was
fully permitted and legalized by the City of Los Angeles in 1974.
2. A small second-floor porch centrally located over the ground-floor porch

was enclosed sometime in the 1970s. The previous owner appears to
have reused the same double-hung windows in extending the wall forward
a few feet. The space is now used as a bedroom.
3. An interior kitchen wall was removed to enlarge the space.
4. The side brick chimney collapsed in the 1987 Whittier earthquake and was
reconstructed with a stucco finish rather than with the original masonry
block facing.
5. In the 1980s, the roof of the third-floor dormer was raised several feet to
allow for larger window openings. The current owner reincorporated the
same roofing material, rafters, and brackets. (Note: The adjacent space
was used as a studio by subject artist Tom of Finland.)
6. Stained glass windows on the third floor were added in 1989.
3
7. Landscaped areas have had additions of seating areas, signage, retaining
garden walls, paving, and hand rails.
8. Various multimedia artworks have been incorporated into the walls and
finishes of the subject building interior.
Community History and Building History Prior to Period of Significance

(1911-1979)
The subject building was built as part of the early 20th century wave of
development in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles. With the laying out of Sunset
Boulevard in 1886, residential construction in the Echo Park area began with real
estate developer Thomas Kelley purchasing 40 acres to develop the “Montana
Tract” in 1887.
The Laveta Terrace location of the subject property was subdivided by Alex
Culver as “Sunset Boulevard Heights”. Culver began advertising Sunset
Boulevard Heights in 1905 with newspaper advertisements proclaiming “On a
Beautiful Knoll, 5 Minutes by the [Street] Car.” A still-extant public stairway was
constructed from Sunset Boulevard to Laveta Terrace to spur development.
At some point during the tract development, the residential street’s distinctive 80-
90-foot-tall Mexican Fan Palm trees were planted. The height of the palms
combined with the hilltop location of Laveta Terrace make the palms visible from
long distances and serve as a visual landmark for the immediate neighborhood.
Based on Sanborn Maps, the subject building appears to be one of the first
residential buildings constructed in the development. Anecdotal evidence
suggests that the building was the first residence constructed on Laveta Terrace,
but permit research and adjacent building construction information is unable to
fully support this assertion.
Building permits establish that the single-family residence was constructed in

1911 by contractor W.J. Gretten for owner R.W. Kemp at a cost of $4,500
dollars. There is no licensed architect listed in the building permit.
The home was occupied by a series of families, two of whom appear to be of

Italian-American descent. In 1929 the property was owned by Antonio Lozzi. In
the early 1970s, the residence was owned by Gelindo Marrone.
In 1979, the residence was purchased from Michael and Katherine A. Bishop by
current owner Durk Dehner. Tom of Finland’s residency in the subject property a
year later in 1980 establishes the period of significance.
[Refer to attachment History of Ownership, 1421 Laveta Terrace, Los Angeles for
additional information on prior ownership of property.]
4
Name Designation of Rooms and Exterior Spaces
Since the formation of the Tom of Finland Foundation in 1984, the organization
has given formal names to various spaces throughout the subject building and
property.
Basement
The Pit
Ground Floor
The Drawing Room
Kake’s Kitchen
Tom’s Hall
Second Floor
Lawton’s Lookout
The Masters’ Room
The Sultan’s Salon
The Lupetti Lavatory
The Music Room
The Kirwan Solarium
Third Floor
Tom’s Room
North Star (Foundation office)
Exterior
Tom’s Bar
Carrington Galen’s Pleasure Park
“Tom’s Room”
The third-floor studio and sleeping quarters of artist Tom of Finland are
preserved by the Tom of Finland Foundation to the physical condition that he left
them in 1990. This space contains his bed, desk, clothes, carpeting, lamps, and
other personal items. The policy of the organization is to conserve and maintain
these items in this space to the greatest extent possible.
Art Installations
Throughout the interior and exterior of the subject building, multimedia art
installations have been added and incorporated into the building by various
artists beginning in the 2000s. While the majority of the works exhibited in the
5
residence are detachable and movable by nature (framed paintings, drawings,
posters, sculpture, etc.), some works have been incorporated into the physical
fabric of building. Artworks are located on plaster ceilings, doorways, and
cabinetry.
Rather than being classified as detrimental alterations after the building’s period
of significance, these works are in keeping with both the Tom of Finland
Foundation’s mission to nurture artists, and the artistic aesthetic of Tom of
Finland. These works do not detract from the setting and feeling of the interior of
the building. The addition of these works are evolving and carefully curated, and
they are reviewed by arts professionals to be compatible with the setting of Tom
of Finland House. These built-in works enhancing the residence are by highly-
regarded artists such as Ross Johnston, Miguel Angel Reyes, Hector Silva,
Minoru Terada, and The Haas Brothers.
6
B. Statement of Significance
TOM House (“Tom of Finland House”)
Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen) (1980)

Photo: Robert Mapplethorpe
TOM House is the property in which the internationally-renowned artist known as “Tom
of Finland” (Touko Laaksonen) spent the last decade of his productive life, and it is the
residence most associated with the artist’s life and work. The property continues to
serve as the base of the Tom of Finland Foundation (ToFF), co-founded by Tom
himself, and it houses the largest repository of the artist’s work in the world.
Based on the Cultural Heritage Ordinance criteria for the City of Los Angeles, this
property meets two criteria for designation as a Historic-Cultural Monument:
• the property is identified with a historic personage;
• the property reflects the broad cultural, economic or social history of the nation,
state, or community
The proposed period of significance for the property is 1980-1990, corresponding to

Tom’s direct association with the property during his lifetime.
This statement is divided into 6 parts: a biographical overview of Tom of Finland as a

historic personage; a discussion of TOM House and Tom’s time at the house, a timeline
summarizing key events; an examination of the cultural significance of Tom and his art;
recognition by the nation of Finland; a conclusion.
1
1. Tom of Finland: Historic Personage1
Tom of Finland is still today the most recognizable of all gay erotic artists.
F. Valentine Hooven III, biographer for Tom of Finland2
Touko Laaksonen: Early Years
The artist who would become known as “Tom of Finland” was born as Touko
Laaksonen on May 8, 1920, in Kaarina, Finland. In the 1920s, Kaarina was a rural town
filled with farmland and woods. Already showing precocious artistic talent from
childhood, the adolescent Touko began privately creating homoerotic drawings of
masculine figures such as the loggers, lumberjacks and farmhands that populated this
rural area.
Upon graduating from high school in 1939, Touko was directed towards a more
vocationally-oriented path than fine art, and he began studying advertising. This
education was interrupted by World War II and Russia’s invasion of Finland. Touko was
conscripted into the Finnish army in 1940. His years of military service exposed him to
wartime violence that weighed on him for much of his life. With limited access to
privacy, he also did no erotic drawing during his four and a half years of service. During
this period, however, he began to have sex with uniformed men, adding additional
masculine archetypes – particularly uniformed soldiers and sailors – to his sexual
fantasies.
After the war, Touko moved to Helsinki and resumed his private erotic drawing. He
graduated from his studies in advertising in 1946 and became a freelance illustrator. In
1953, he met Veli Mäkinen, the man who would be his partner for the next 28 years.3
Tom of Finland: Career Breakthrough
In 1956, Touko – at the encouragement of a friend – submitted his artwork to Physique

Pictorial, a leading US “beefcake magazine” based in Los Angeles that featured
depictions of young, athletic men. Touko signed his submitted art as “Tom” to preserve
his anonymity. Bob Mizer, publisher of Physique Pictorial, enthusiastically accepted the
work for publication. Mizer also appended “of Finland” to “Tom”, in the style adopted by
other erotic artists of the period, such as the photographers Bruce of Los Angeles and
Spartan of Hollywood.4
Touko’s drawing – featuring a smiling lumberjack – was featured on the cover of the
spring 1957 issue. The response to the artwork was “immediate, electrifying, and
1
This biographical section draws primarily from the book Tom of Finland: Life and Work of a Gay Hero
(Valentine Hooven, 2012) and a proposal for a Finnish language biography of Tom (Luoto, 2014).
2
Valentine Hooven (2012), p. 25.
3
Touko and Veli were partners until Veli’s death in 1981.
4
Mustola, 2006, p. 31.
2
international”.5 Touko “became” Tom of Finland, and Tom began a 20-year period as a
leading contributor to the magazine. Significantly, Physique Pictorial was published out
of Los Angeles and thus Tom was connected to the city relatively early in his career.
First Tom of Finland Drawing with Physique Pictorial (1957)
This career breakthrough propelled Tom’s progression to becoming a producer of

homoerotic images that would eventually become globally recognizable. In his
distinctive drawings, Tom took hyper-masculine archetypes that had been reserved for
the heterosexual imagination (e.g. lumberjacks, bikers, sailors, cowboys and
policemen), and he re-cast them in his own homoerotic drawings. These unabashed re-
imaginings of men who enjoyed having sex with each other were unique for their time.
As the demand for Tom’s work grew, Tom began taking on private commissions of his
artwork. However, in the 1950s, neither erotic art nor homosexual art paid well. In 1958,
Tom became a permanent commercial artist at advertising agency McCann Erickson,
and it was not until 1973 that he was able to leave and work full-time on his own
creative practice. That same year, Tom had his first exhibition of his artwork, which took
place in Hamburg, Germany. However, all but one of the exhibited works were stolen. It
was to be five years before Tom exhibited his artwork again – this time, in the city that
he would come to be identified with for the remainder of his life: Los Angeles.
5
Valentine Hooven (2012), p. 107. As Valentine Hooven has noted elsewhere, by the end of its second
year, Physique Pictorial already had nationwide distribution in the USA and was also selling in numerous
major cities in Europe (Valentine Hooven, 1995, p. 46).
3
Tom in Los Angeles and at 1421 Laveta Terrace
In February 1978, Tom arrived in Los Angeles for a 21-day U.S. visit. He stayed with
Durk Dehner, a gay man who was then 28 years old. Two years earlier, Durk had seen
an image of Tom’s art in an advertisement at a gay bar in New York. Struck by the
image, he had written Tom a fan letter and they had begun a correspondence.
During Tom’s first stay in Los Angeles, his work was shown in solo exhibitions, both in
Los Angeles and San Francisco. Durk also began booking Tom into more galleries,
beginning a collaboration that saw Durk become Tom’s partner, friend and occasional
model. This historic and fruitful collaboration would continue until the end of Tom’s life.
In 1979, Durk bought a property at 1421 Laveta Terrace, Los Angeles, along with three
other gay men. It was into this household that Durk invited Tom, and in 1980, Tom
began to stay at the house, which eventually came to be known as “TOM House”.
Thus began the direct association of 1421 Laveta Terrace with Tom of Finland. Due to
visa restrictions, Tom returned to Finland every six months, but TOM House remained
his primary residence and work premises until virtually the end of his life. In 1984, Tom
and Durk together co-founded ToFF with the aim of preserving and promoting Tom’s
work. ToFF operated from TOM House, as it still does today. Eventually, Durk’s
housemates left the household and Durk became the sole owner of the property. Other
people, including gay artists, joined Tom and Durk as residents and guests of the
house, continuing a communal life that is retained at TOM House today.
The decade that Tom spent at TOM House was a standout period in his career. Tom’s
creative development and prolific output at the house, along with an increasing number
of exhibitions, private commissions and other sales, were pivotal in turning him into an
artist of international renown. His work came to be admired by notable individuals (e.g.
artists Andy Warhol6 and Robert Mapplethorpe)7 and collected by major art institutions,
including New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Los Angeles’ own Museum of
Contemporary Art (MOCA).
It was only due to declining health that Tom returned to Helsinki in 1989. The following
year, a documentary on his life, Daddy and the Muscle Academy, had an international
theatrical release. That same year, the first edition of his biography, Tom of Finland: His
Life and Times,8 was released and translated into multiple languages. His work was
also accepted into the Whitney Museum’s 1991 Biennial, alongside art by renowned
artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns and Cindy Sherman.9
6
Ramakers (2000), p. x.
7
Mapplethorpe was a known admirer and collector of Tom of Finland art (see, for example, Ramakers,
1988, p. 12 and Valentine Hooven, 1993, p. 181). Mapplethorpe had intended to write the introduction for
Tom’s Retrospective volume of works, but his declining health intervened (Niemelä, 2006, p. 66).
8
Valentine Hooven (1993).
9
Rus (2016), p. 20.
4
At age 71, Tom died of an emphysema-induced stroke on November 7, 1991. His work
had accrued international acclaim – a level of recognition that would only increase in the
years to follow. After his death, most of his remaining possessions in Finland were
shipped to TOM House,10 the site that is the strongest focal point for Tom’s work,
influence and legacy.
2. TOM House
Tom of Finland at TOM House (1984). Photo: Jack Shear
(TOM House) really is the center of… what was (Tom) and what is him.11
Durk Dehner, President, ToFF
Noteworthy in itself as a Craftsman-style residence, TOM House was the site where
Tom lived and worked for the last decade of his life. During this productive period, a
third-floor space in TOM House served as Tom’s combined bedroom and studio. For
much of this decade, Tom spent his winters at TOM House in Los Angeles and his
summers in Finland.12
10
Dehner (2009a). The transcript for this interview is available upon request.
11
Dehner (2009a).
12
Mustola (2006), p. 52.
5
While staying at the house, Tom would draw almost every day. As Durk Dehner recalled
in a 2009 interview:
(He) would actually just shut the door and he would draw… he would draw a
lot here. So he was really obsessed with drawing... The only time I ever knew
where he didn’t pick up his pencil was when we took him on a trip to
Hawaii.13
ToFF has documented and catalogued 3,862 pieces of Tom’s work (2,338 of these
being finished pieces and 1524 being preparatory studies). Approximately 1,500 of
these works are held on-site at TOM House as part of ToFF’s permanent collection,
which is the largest collection of Tom’s work in the world.14 ToFF estimates that, of
Tom’s total documented and catalogued body of work, approximately 800 pieces
(around 20%) were created at TOM House.
TOM House is also home to vast amounts of Tom-related ephemera, including personal
items belonging to Tom, such as clothing, correspondence and personal photographs;
Tom’s scrapbooks, which contained clippings of scenes and individuals that informed
his art; and paraphernalia that features or references Tom’s art – from bar coasters to
action figures to matchbooks to a Christmas tree ornament. With most of Tom’s
personal possessions shipped from Finland to TOM House after his death and merged
with what was already at the house,15 and due to ToFF’s ongoing work to preserve
Tom’s legacy, TOM House holds the world’s largest collection of Tom-related
ephemera.
Open to the public by appointment, TOM House typically has around 150 artworks on
exhibit for visitors to view, with an emphasis on Tom’s art and works that contain
allusions to Tom’s art. A dedicated library houses books on Tom’s life and work, along
with other relevant publications, such as books on erotic art and queer art. Over ToFF’s
32-year history, scholars at many levels and hundreds of artists have used ToFF’s
collection and library for research.
TOM House also continues to host a range of events that have maintained the public
visibility of the property itself and its identification with the personage of Tom of Finland.
These events include an art fair, gay and leather16 community events, and art classes.
13
Dehner (2009a).
14
ToFF also collects erotic works by other artists. In the 1980s, artists living with HIV/AIDS made pleas to
ToFF to protect their work posthumously – to ensure that these works did not, as Durk Dehner put it, “fall
into just nothingness” (Dehner, 2009a). Although ToFF had previously focused solely on Tom’s work,
Tom and Durk subsequently expanded its scope to include the preservation and promotion of erotic
works by other artists. To date, ToFF holds over 2000 original artworks by artists other than Tom. ToFF’s
full archive – with over 100,000 images, documents and pieces of memorabilia – is in fact the world’s
largest repository of erotic art.
15
Dehner (2009a).
16
In an adaptation of Johnson’s (2004) definition, “leather” is used here as “a blanket term for a large
array of sexual preferences, identities, relationship structures, and social organizations loosely”
connected to various sexual expressions and practices, including BDSM. Participants may wear leather
6
The fact that TOM House still has use as a residence – and one in which Durk Dehner
still lives – is also worth noting, as it continues the communal and social life of the
house that Tom himself experienced. TOM House is rarely empty of people and, over
the 25 years that have passed since Tom’s death, it still hosts artists from around the
world who make erotic art.
Today, the house continues to accrue distinction for its historical and cultural status,
owing to its association with Tom. Most recently, this has resulted in the March 2016
release, by esteemed art book publisher Rizzoli, of the 255-page book TOM House:
Tom of Finland in Los Angeles.17
Tom of Finland at TOM House: Period of Significance (1980-1990)
As the site most identified with Tom and his work, TOM House is a physical reflection of
and a testament to Tom’s artistic, cultural and historical influence.
During his decade at TOM House, Tom filled his days with an abundance of creative
activity and stimulation.18 As reflected in these excerpts from a 2009 interview with Durk
Dehner, this period was personally and artistically energizing for Tom:
(H)e loved Los Angeles and he was always happy to just be here. You know I
met him when he was 59 or 58… And actually, he (later) thanked me…
because he said (being hosted at TOM House, taken to events and
introduced to new people) kept him young for that 10 years… his friends of
the same age were retiring in Finland and he was out just meeting new
people all the time, new guys, and it really stimulated his artwork…
(P)eople would always be coming here. There were 3 or 4 of us living here

besides Tom and so there was always activity, there’d be dinners, there’d be
new people, and so he found a lot of his models just by being here and them
walking through the door as friends and he seemed to really like that…19
In the space available in this statement, it is difficult to do justice to the significance of

the work that Tom produced at TOM House. This echoes sentiments expressed by
Durk Dehner in his 2009 interview:
(T)he decade in LA was remarkable because we’re now just realizing how
important it was by looking at the hundreds of sketches that he did during the
garments, although the wearing of leather does not necessarily involve leather fetishization. As Johnson
notes, many of the sexual styles associated with leather subcultures “have a considerable history and are
arguably found in many societies” (p. 1).
17
Reynolds (2016). Also of significance is a 2014 article on TOM House in international design
publication Wallpaper* Magazine, written by Richard Meyer of Stanford University (see Meyer, 2014).
18
For example, as part of his morning routine, Tom would have breakfast and then “he would go (into his
room) and draw and draw for 4 hours” (Dehner, 2009a).
19
Dehner (2009a).
7
last 4 or 5 years (of this period)… they had stories and they told so much
about Tom...20
Nonetheless, the remainder of this section singles out some important aspects of the
work that Tom produced at TOM House, beginning with the broadened racial
representations in Tom’s work, as informed by his residence in Los Angeles and at the
property. For the first forty years of his career, Tom’s art was largely populated by
depictions of white men.21 However, while at TOM House, Tom was exposed to the
ethnic diversity of Los Angeles. In particular, he was exposed to men of ethnic
backgrounds whom he had had little exposure to in Finland, especially African-
American men.22
As a result, by 1986 – roughly mid-way through his decade of staying at TOM House –
men of African background were regularly appearing in Tom’s work.23 These men were
frequently shown in interracial encounters, which also broke social prohibitions
concerning (gay male) interracial sexuality at the time.24 By the end of the 1980s, Tom
had produced enough finished pieces to enable the publication of a book specifically
devoted to his works that featured African-American men.25 That a concept and a
market for such a book had been imagined speaks to important cultural shifts, both
within US race politics and US gay male culture. In the years since Tom’s death, some
of these drawings have circulated internationally, particularly via exhibitions and the
continued publication of Tom’s work in art books by publisher Taschen.
The racial dynamics in Tom’s work were always present26 and nuanced, and these
nuances were deepened through Tom’s experiences of living at TOM House. Various
commentators have discussed Tom’s representations of black men in his work.27 It has
also been observed that some ethnic groups remained largely, if not completely, absent
from Tom’s art.28 At the same time, it is less noted, although notable, that during the
1980s Tom’s work came to include depictions of men who appeared to be of mixed
race.29 During his stays at TOM House, Tom produced hundreds of works that engaged
with the racial dynamics of the time.
The impact of the AIDS epidemic was also reflected in the work that Tom produced at
TOM House during the 1980s. In interviews, Tom typically distanced himself from any
20
Dehner (2009a).
21
Ramakers (2000), p. 84.
22
Dehner (2014). In Finland, Tom’s exposure to black men had mostly been limited to material that he
received from the US via his job at McCann Erickson. Because this material included images of
Muhammad Ali, many of the black men in Tom’s early drawings bear physical similarities with Ali.
23
Ramakers (2000), p. 84.
24
Ramakers (2000), p. 90.
25
Ramakers (2000), p. 84.
26
Indeed, to discuss the racial dynamics in Tom’s work only in terms of representations of non-white men
is to reinforce the ability of whiteness to “(secure) its dominance by” masking itself as a racial category
(see Dyer, 1993, quoted in Ramakers, 2000, p. 96).
27
See, in particular, Ramakers (2000), pp. 83-97.
28
See, for example, Ramakers (2000), p. 84.
29
Dehner (2014).
8
suggestions that he had overt political intentions as an artist,30 but the AIDS epidemic
clearly galvanized his art practice. Durk Dehner recalled in a 2009 interview:
(Tom) tried his best to actually do what he could to encourage fellas to

protect themselves. And so for the rest of his life, for those 7 years he was
doing drawings oftentimes with condoms in them or with little (safer sex)
references. We did a lot of campaigning. We would send safe sex posters
(featuring donated Tom of Finland images) 31 out to bars all over the world.32
Tom himself died not from AIDS but from an emphysema-induced stroke, owing to
years of cigarette smoking. The effects of Tom’s own ageing and illness also came to
be reflected in the work he produced at TOM House. He began to depict older men,
some with receding hairlines and grey hair, allowing the men in his art to age with him –
in this sense, too, Tom literally produced his most mature work at TOM House. When
his emphysema medication caused his hands to shake, he abandoned the meticulous
pencil-work of his finished drawings and began creating pastel works, while continuing
his sketching.33 Some of these pastel works remain on display at TOM House.
3. Tom of Finland and TOM House: Timeline
1911 1421 Laveta Terrace residence is constructed.
May 8, 1920 Touko Laaksonen is born in Kaarina, Finland.
1957-1976 Touko’s artwork is published for the first time, when it appears on the
Spring 1957 cover of the Los Angeles-based magazine Physique
Pictorial under the name “Tom of Finland”. This begins his 20-year
period as a leading contributor to the magazine.
1976 Durk Dehner discovers Tom’s work and writes Tom a fan letter. They
begin a mail correspondence.
Feb 1978 Tom visits the US for the first time. During his 21-day visit, he stays
with Durk in Los Angeles and his work is exhibited in Los Angeles and
San Francisco. Durk begins booking Tom into galleries.
1979 Durk purchases 1421 Laveta Terrace.
30
See, for example, Tom’s assertion that he was “never… out to… have a strong influence on the
attitudes of heterosexuals or the approval of gays” (quoted in Mustola, 2006, p. 45).
31
Mustola (2006), pp. 51-52. Tom donated his work for use in numerous AIDS education campaigns,
including a widely used Finnish safer sex poster.
32
Dehner (2009a).
33
Dehner (2009a).
9
1980 At Durk’s invitation, Tom begins to stay at 1421 Laveta Terrace
(initially for short visits due to the illness of his partner, Veli). Durk and
Tom co-found the Tom of Finland Company34 to oversee the publishing
and licensing of Tom’s work.
1981 Tom’s partner Veli dies from cancer.
1982 Tom begins spending six months of each year at 1421 Laveta Terrace,
with the remainder of his time spent in Finland.
1984 Tom and Durk co-found the Tom of Finland Foundation, with 1421
Laveta Terrace as its operating premises. The entire archival collection
of Tom’s work is moved from Helsinki to Los Angeles.
1989 Due to declining health, Tom makes his final trip to the US.
Nov 7, 1991 Tom dies in Helsinki from an emphysema-induced stroke.
2000 Tom’s work is included in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
exhibition Made in California.
2016 Art book publisher Rizzoli releases the book TOM House: Tom of
Finland in Los Angeles.
34
As discussed in Dehner (2009a), the impetus for setting up the company was to eliminate what was
then the widespread piracy of Tom’s work. Tom of Finland Company later also became the parent
company of Tom of Finland Foundation.
10
4. Cultural Significance of Tom of Finland and his Art
(A)n artist superb, but… an influence transcendent. What (Tom of Finland)

did was open the doorway, the path for so many to follow by not being afraid
of homoerotic subject matter and also the way it was treated.
Harvey Shipley-Miller, Trustee, Judith Rothschild Foundation35
Far from the days when it circulated exclusively among “a small group of insiders”,
Tom’s work has “(become) a collectible cultural article”.36 His works now hang in
esteemed art institutions around the world. Images of “his men” also circulate in the
realm of the everyday, appearing on items such as homewares, clothing, and even a
stamp series produced by the Finnish postal service.37 All the while, reproductions or
derivations of his work are still to be found on the walls of today’s gay bars. Savored as
a pornographer, lauded by critics and artists such as Camille Paglia and John Waters,38
and acknowledged as both changing “the way gay men thought about themselves” and
“the way in which non-gay people thought about male homosexuals”,39 the wide
circulation and appreciation for Tom’s work is unique.
This section singles out some standout areas concerning the cultural significance of
Tom’s work. The discussion begins with Tom’s impact on the formation of gay male
identity and self-image.
As already noted, from 1957-1976, the main outlet for disseminating Tom’s art was
Physique Pictorial.40 Based in Los Angeles, this leading beefcake magazine has since
been credited as the first mass-produced magazine that directly and solely focused on
the male physique for its beauty.41
The 1940s and 1950s preceded not only the legalization of gay pornography in the
US,42 but the 1967 Black Cat demonstrations and the 1969 Stonewall Inn riots that are
often seen as marking the rise of the modern gay rights movement.43 During this era,
35
Quoted in Dehner (2009b), p. 10.
36
Ramakers (2000), p. x.
37
The release of the Tom of Finland stamp series attracted worldwide attention, resulting in pre-orders
from 178 countries (“Tom of Finland stamps on sale Monday; Finland’s biggest seller ever”, 2014).
38
See Paglia’s (2009) to the volume Tom of Finland XXL, in which she credits Tom as: “crucial in the
development of (her) thinking about art and gender” (p. 86). This volume also contains contributions from
notable artists and Tom appreciators, including filmmaker John Waters and author Armistead Maupin.
39
Lucie-Smith (2009), p. 21.
40
Ramakers (1998), p. 13.
41
42
The 1962 Supreme Court ruling in Manual Enterprises Inc vs. Day effectively ruled that nude male
photographs were not obscene. See Flemming (2012) for a write-up of the ruling.
43
The Stonewall riots were a series of riots by patrons of the New York lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender (LGBT) tavern Stonewall Inn, in response to a police raid. That said, California was in fact
the site of various pre-Stonewall riots in resistance to police raids on LGBT establishments. One of these
was the 1967 riot by patrons of The Black Cat Tavern, which itself has Historic-Cultural Monument Status
with the City of Los Angeles. Viewed together, TOM House and The Black Cat Tavern are complementary
sites reflecting the history of LGBT rights in the city.
11
beefcake magazines were critical to the formation of gay male identity. As one
commentator has noted:
These magazines functioned not only as a source for pin-up pictures, but
also as a ground for the exchange of ideas for fantasies and types of
identities. They began to form the image reservoirs from which gay men were
able to construct new codes for dress and behavior. They began to constitute
a placeless community for gay men before physical communities existed.44
Over a 20-year period, Tom contributed over 100 drawings45 to Physique Pictorial, with
his work often appearing as cover art. The magazine was published by photographer
Bob Mizer, himself a major protagonist in the post-war rise of beefcake aesthetics.46
Like Tom, Mizer was eventually recognized as a pioneer in homoerotic art.47
Significantly, both men were based in Los Angeles. In fact, the confluence of Tom and
Bob’s practices, along with their individual contributions, was the focus of a 2013-14
MOCA exhibition. The exhibition brought together two artists who lived and practiced in
Los Angeles, whose interests – artistic, erotic, political – coalesced into a notable
collaboration, and who became “two of the most significant figures of twentieth century
erotic art and forefathers of an emergent post-war gay culture.”48
In becoming a leading contributor to Physique Pictorial, Tom tapped into American

physique imagery, resulting in a historic period of cross-pollination. As Durk Dehner put
it in the magazine article aptly titled “Tom of Los Angeles”: “America became (Tom’s)
reference library.”49 Moreover, during this period, Tom’s art reached a mass audience of
gay men, both across the US and in major cities in Europe,50 and his work was
associated with a genre that was pivotal to the gay male culture of the time. In the early
1950s, the first US homophile51 organizations had begun to be established.52 Growing
alongside them were beefcake magazines, which, as Blake (1988) stresses, were “an
underground press equal in importance to the first gay political magazines.”53,54
44
Blake (1988), p. 45.
45
Ramakers (1998), p. 13.
46
See, for example, Valentine Hooven’s (1995) discussion of Mizer’s contribution to beefcake aesthetics.
47
See, for example, the Museum of Contemporary Art (2013a).
48
Museum of Contemporary Art (2013a).
49
Hilferty (1998), p. 99.
50
51
The homophile movement refers to “organizations and political strategies employed by homosexuals
prior to the era of confrontational activism of the late 1960s. The term broadly encompasses the period
from the end of World War II to 1970” (Pettis, 2009, p. 1).
52
Pettis (2009), p. 2.
53
Blake (1988), p. 45.
54
As discussed by Mustola (2006), Tom’s work was also pivotal to the gay political environment of the
time in Finland. The first homophile organizations were established in Nordic countries in the late 1940s
and early 1950s, but this was not so in Finland. Attempts to set up such organizations failed because
potential members feared that membership lists would fall into the hands of the police, who were then
active in investigating and arresting those suspected of homosexuality. Hence, “(i)n the 40s, 50s and 60s
Tom’s pictures were the Finnish homosexual liberation movement before organizations were set up and
began to operate” (p. 46, emphasis added).
12
Yet Tom’s art was not merely aligned with certain rising cultures of his era; his work
influenced those very cultures.55 One especially-cited area of Tom’s influence concerns
his masculinized depictions of gay men. Tom’s depictions of hyper-masculine men
shaped a generation’s ideas of gay male identity and self-image, and they remain
pervasive and pertinent today. As Geczy and Karaminas note: “The effect of Tom of
Finland on the male, gay community was immense, liberating many from inhibitions and
to assert that maleness, such as it is, is an idea to be shared between gay and straight
men”.56 In the era in which Tom was working, Tom’s masculinization of gay identity was
a brazen counter to effeminized stereotypes of gay men and it has been widely
acknowledged as such.57 This masculinization has also been praised as destabilizing
traditional images of masculinity.58 Now and into the future, it can still be seen “as a
touchstone for opening up the possibility for different queer identities”.59
Tom’s work resonated with other cultural shifts in post-war America. For example, art
critic/historian Edward Lucie-Smith notes that an important factor in the appeal of Tom’s
work in post-war America was the rise of a culture of bodybuilding in California,
which itself had crossover with beefcake aesthetics.60,61 Valentine Hooven credits the
US beefcake magazines of the 1950s and 1960s with pioneering the health and sports
magazines that followed, including those from the bodybuilding and fitness magazine
publishing empire founded by Joe Weider,62 who moved to California in the 1960s. The
circulation of beefcake magazines such as Physique Pictorial63 – and thus the increased
circulation of Tom’s work – increased in parallel with the growth of California’s
bodybuilding culture in the 1950s and 1960s.
Tom’s depiction of bikers also dovetailed with the popularization of outlaw biker
culture.64 On one level, Hollywood films clearly played a more influential role than
Tom’s art. Works such as the 1953 Marlon Brando film The Wild One played to
mainstream mass audiences, glamorizing male bikers as counter-cultural rebels. Yet
Tom mounted his own counter-discourse: his depictions of bikers were a rebellious
reminder that male bikers can be enthusiastic participants in gay sex. Indeed, whether
he turned his attention to bikers or bodybuilders – or cops or cowboys, or other
55
A similar sentiment has also been echoed by Mackie (2013).
56
Geczy and Karaminas (2013), p. 89.
57
See, for example, Dehner (2009b), p. 9, and Valentine Hooven, 1993, p. 169.
58
See Ramakers (2000), who asserts that Tom subverted traditional concepts of masculinity and that
Tom’s “hyper-masculine universe is not a confirmation of male logic, but its violation” (p. 27).
59
Geczy and Karaminas (2013), p. 88. See also Cho (2014), who argues that Tom’s drawings of hyper-
masculine bodies are laden with comic irony and thus invite our ironic reappraisal.
60
61
In fact, one of Bob Mizer’s most notable models was Arnold Schwarzenegger (Hanson, 2009, p. 19).
62
63
See Valentine Hooven (1995) for a discussion of Physique Pictorial’s swift early commercial success
(pp. 32, 44 and 46) and the mass circulation of beefcake magazines (p. 74). By 1955, Physique Pictorial
routinely sold over 40,000 copies (p. 74). It also spawned similar publications. Valentine Hooven
estimates that the total sales for beefcake magazines in 1955 would have approached one million copies
annually (p. 74). These are sizeable figures for specialty magazines of the 1950s (p. 72).
64
13
masculine figures – Tom poached these archetypes from the prevailing homophobic
culture and he came to be acknowledged as “the creator of some of the most iconic and
readily recognizable imagery of post-war gay culture.”65 Thus, it is not so much that
Tom’s work simply spoke to certain cultural shifts in post-war America, but that it spoke
against them; Tom’s work didn’t merely resonate with the culture but re-imagined it.
Tom’s homoerotic depictions of leather-clad and uniformed men, along with his eventual
depictions of BDSM practices between men, were also foundational to the then
emerging gay leather culture. As declared by Los Angeles’ own MOCA: “Tom
imagined the leather scene by drawing it; real men were inspired by it, and suited
themselves up.”66
Lucie-Smith also notes that Tom’s early depictions of gay men in Physique Pictorial
“fitted in with other aspects of American life: the love of sports, of the outdoors, and the
free and easy male camaraderie that survived from the years when many Americans
were frontiersmen.”67 In fact, Tom’s depiction of men publicly engaging in outdoor sex
reflects a particularly significant aspect of his work. The uninhibited public openness
among the men in so many of the scenes in Tom’s work, and their evident joy,
suggested a carefree sexual freedom. Tom himself spoke of his desire to give gay men:
… an impulse or right of sorts in the form of a picture so that they could

openly express their feelings and likes and opinions and attitudes. So that
they could smile and feel happy, that it was permitted in a picture even if in
practice or in real life it wasn’t the same.68
This unrestrained, buoyant freedom lent itself to discourses of gay liberation and,
later, gay pride that shaped gay politics in the West. Hence Tom and his art are
frequently read in emancipatory terms – for example, in Durk Dehner’s description of
Tom as a “liberator”69 – or in terms that speak explicitly of pride – as in Tom’s own
stated ambition to draw “proud and happy men!”70 This consonance with the gay politics
of the time helped to cement Tom’s place in post-war gay culture in the Western world.
As Durk Dehner commented in a 2009 interview:
(A) lot of (Tom’s) drawings took place out in nature or out in daytime and
there were always smiles amongst the guys and they were happy to be with
each other. So, they were having happy relationships in a healthy way and it
65
66
67
Lucie-Smith (2009), pp. 21-22.
68
From a series of interviews, conducted 12-14 May 1990, with Ilppo Pohjola for the documentary Daddy
and the Muscle Academy. Quoted in Mustola (2006), p. 45.
69
Dehner (2009b). See also the comment by French photographer Rachel Laurent, that Tom “represents
freedom for all of us” (quoted in Mackie, 2013).
70
Quoted in Valentine Hooven (1993), p. 88.
14
actually had such an impact. We didn’t really know what kind of impact it was
until actually we were all involved with it.71
5. Recognition by Finland
Starting near the end of Tom’s life, the nation of Finland began taking steps to properly
acknowledge Tom of Finland as a major international artist and contributor to their
cultural heritage. The recognition by the Finnish government and Finland’s cultural
institutions speak to the international significance of Tom and his work.
• In 1990, the Finnish Comics Society grants Tom the Puupäähattu, their most
prestigious award. This was the first Finnish organization to honor Tom of
Finland. Tom himself was too gravely ill to attend the ceremony.
• In 1991, the Finnish Film Foundation and the Finnish Broadcasting Company
(Yleisradio) produced the documentary Daddy and the Muscle Academy, written
and directed by IIppo Pohjola. First aired on national television in Finland with
theatrical release in Helsinki, the film would travel to film festivals in Berlin, New
York, Toronto, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Tom himself was able to see
the documentary at his Helsinki apartment shortly before his passing.
• The Otava Publishing Company, a publisher of Finnish literature since 1890,

publishes Tom of Finland: His Life and Times in 1992, written by F. Valentine
Hooven III. The publication is launched with press and Q & A with author and
Durk Dehner at the Academic Bookstore (Akateeminen Kirjakauppa) in Helsinki,
the largest bookstore in the Nordic countries. Later released in German by Bruno
Gmünder Verlag, in English by St. Martin’s Press, and in French by Gemini.
• The first solo exhibition of Tom’s work in Finland is held in Helsinki in 1992, at
Galerie Pelin. The works were from Tom of Finland Foundation. Kiasma, the
Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, purchases two works for their
permanent collection. Kaarina, Finland, the town where Tom was born and
raised, acquires one sketch to exhibit at their council hall.
• In 1999, a group exhibition (Ruralia, Art of the Countryside) held at the Pori Art
Museum includes Tom’s works. That same year, a solo retrospective exhibition
of Tom of Finland is held at the Finnish Institute in Paris (The Most Famous Finn)
and later travels to the Jyvaskyla Art Museum.
• In 2006, a solo exhibition (Ennennäkemätöntä – Unforeseen) is held at the

Helsinki City Museum, curated by Berndt Arell from collections in Northern
Europe.
71
Dehner (2009a).
15
• Tom of Finland (Retrospective Exhibition) is presented by Turku ÅBO 2011 –
Turku Foundation, Homotopia and ToFF in 2011. Curated by Gary Everett,
artistic director of Liverpool’s Homotopia, 64 works from ToFF’s permanent
collection are exhibited for a year. For the first time the Finnish Ministry of
Education and Culture contributes funds to an exhibition with Tom of Finland.
With over 80,000 visitors, guests including the Presidents of Finland and Austria.
Three nephews of Tom's were given a guided tour with a luncheon in their honor
and paid a visit to the original schoolhouse where the family went to school and
Tom was raised. This marked a new beginning for the Laaksonen family to
publicly show their pride for Tom and his legacy.
• In the fall of 2014, the Finish Postal Service (Itella Posti Oy) release official
postage stamps using Tom’s work. Working closely with the ToFF who
spearheaded the effort, works were selected from the collection at TOM House.
Tom of Finland postage stamp released by the Finnish Postal Service Itella Posti Oy (2014)
16
The Finnish Postal Service stated in their press release:
His emphatically masculine homoerotic drawings have attained iconic status in

their genre and had an influence on, for instance, pop culture and fashion. In his
works, Tom of Finland utilized the self-irony and humor typical of subcultures.
During his career, Tom of Finland produced more than 3,500 drawings… The
drawings on the stamp sheet represent strong and confident male figures typical
of their designer.72
• In 2014, Tom’s birthplace of Kaarina, Finland awards the Tom of Finland

Foundation their Medal of Honor, recognizing the organization’s efforts to
preserve the legacy of Tom’s work and his contributions.
6. Conclusion
On a palm tree-lined street in Echo Park sits the Tom of Finland Foundation,
a site that testifies to both personal and historical memory.73
Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles)
In 1997 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, a drawing was hung between the
works of Matisse and David Hockney for an exhibition. That drawing was by Tom of
Finland. The exhibition, Master Drawings in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,
was a survey of five centuries of European and American drawings in the museum’s
permanent collection.74 The show included the work of artists such as Picasso, Van
Gogh, Degas, Chagall, and various Italian Old Masters.75
This moment speaks to two points that are of importance to this application. The first
point: that Tom of Finland holds a distinctive place as a cultural producer. His creative
strategy was unique for its time: he drew “against the grain”, appropriating various
hyper-masculine archetypes for the imaginations and desires of gay male audiences.
Moreover, Tom’s influence was and remains uniquely broad, such that an image by
Tom of Finland can still just as suitably hang on the wall of a gay leather bar as it can
between a Matisse and a Hockney.
The second point: that the city of Los Angeles has been of vital importance to Tom of
Finland and his pioneering influence on gay culture and the broader culture at large.
This is in large part because the physical site that became and remains the strongest
focal point for Tom’s work and legacy is not in Tom’s native Finland, but at TOM House.
Today, the invaluable material objects and ongoing cultural activities at the house are
telling facts of Tom’s legacy and its embodiment in TOM House. As well as protecting
72
http://www.posti.fi/english/current/2014/20140413_stamps.html
73
Museum of Contemporary Art (2013b).
74
Beal (1997), p. 7.
75
Davis (1997), p. 8.
17
and preserving Tom’s work, the house is also host to vibrant events, such as its art fair
and art classes, that aim to cultivate the next generation of artists who are producing
erotic art. As Durk Dehner has noted:
(TOM House) really is the center of really what was him and what is him. It’s
actually a very lively place also because I think that it actually continues to
celebrate that point that he was actually making in his drawings.76
Year-round, the house receives local, national and international visitors from Tom of
Finland appreciators from many walks of life. Among the visitors to this historically and
culturally significant property are gay men who make “pilgrimages” to the property.
These are men whose lives have been changed by engaging with Tom’s art. The stories
that these men have to tell about the impact of Tom’s work on their lives reflect the fact
that “Tom of Finland made as much of an impact on the lives of individual men as he did
on the history of masculine representation.”77
The identification of TOM House with Tom of Finland has been reflected in numerous
published works, many of which have been cited in this statement. This has been
especially cemented by the recent release of the book TOM House: Tom of Finland in
Los Angeles.78 Locally, the house is also known within Los Angeles’ LGBT and leather
communities as a reference point for Tom, his work and his legacy. Moreover, in 2014,
TOM House was included amongst the identified resources in the SurveyLA: LGBT
Historic Context Statement, which was prepared for the City of Los Angeles’ own Office
of Historic Resources.79
In 2000, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art again included Tom’s work in an
exhibition. Timed to mark the 150th anniversary of California’s statehood, this exhibition
examined both the state of California and its cultural legacy. The inclusion of Tom’s
work was a testament to the strength of Tom’s local ties to the state, through his
residence at and identification with TOM House in Los Angeles. The name of the
exhibition: Made in California.
Tom of Finland will always be associated with his birth country of Finland, owing at
least to his working name as an artist. But the site that is above all identified with the
essence of this artist is TOM House, at 1421 Laveta Terrace in Echo Park, Los
Angeles.
Works Cited
Please refer to attached Bibliography.
76
Dehner (2009a).
77
Museum of Contemporary Art (2013b).
78
Reynolds (2016).
79
Office of Historic Resources (2014), pp. 90-91, 95.
18
Bibliography
Beal, G. W. J. (1997). Foreword. In Master Drawings in the Los Angeles County

Museum of Art (p. 7). Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Blake, N. (1988). Tom of Finland: An appreciation. Outlook, Fall, 36-45.
Cho, T. (2014). Tom Cho: Tom and me, part two. National Post, Afterword, May 2.
Accessed April 5, 2016 at http://arts.nationalpost.com/2014/05/02/tom-cho-tom-and-
me-part-two/
Davis, B. (1997). Introduction. In Master Drawings in the Los Angeles County Museum
of Art (pp. 8-10). Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Dehner, D. (2009a). Interview with Allison Schulte. Digital audio recording, January 16,
2009.
Dehner, D. (2009b). Understanding the Finn: Tom the liberator. In Hanson, D. (Ed.).
Tom of Finland XXL (pp. 9-10). Los Angeles: Taschen.
Dehner, D. (2014). Interview with Tom Cho. Digital audio recording, February 10, 2014.
Dyer, R. (1993). The Matter of Images: Essays on Representation. London and New
York: Routledge.
Flemming, R. (2012). Manual Enterprises, Inc. v. Day, 370 U.S. 478 (1962). American
Civil Liberties. Accessed April 5, 2016 at http://uscivilliberties.org/cases/4092-
manual-enterprises-inc-v-day-370-us-478-1962.html
Geczy, A. & Karaminas, V. (2013). Queer Style. London: Bloomsbury.
Hanson, D. (2009). Bob’s World: The Life and Boys of AMG’s Bob Mizer. Koln:
Taschen.
Hilferty, R. (1998). Tom of Los Angeles. OUT, October 1998, 94-99, 142.
Johnson, M. D. (2004). Leather culture. GLBTQ: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian,
Bisexual, Transgender, & Queer Culture. (Originally published in 2004; last updated
November 23, 2006.) Accessed April 5, 2016 at
http://www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/leather_culture_S.pdf
Lucie-Smith, E. (2009). Tom of Finland. In Hanson, D. (Ed.). Tom of Finland XXL (pp.
21-26). Los Angeles: Taschen.
Luoto, S. (2014). Tom’s bio. Unpublished book proposal.
Mackie, D. (2013). Tom of Finland in Los Angeles. KCET, Artbound, 5 December.
Accessed April 5, 2016 at http://www.kcet.org/arts/artbound/counties/los-
angeles/tom-of-finland-bob-mizer-moca.html
Meyer, R. (2014). The leather man. Wallpaper*, November, 122-136.
Museum of Contemporary Art (2013a). Bob Mizer & Tom of Finland. Accessed April 5,
2016 at http://www.moca.org/exhibition/bob-mizer-tom-of-finland
Museum of Contemporary Art (2013b). Tom of Finland - MOCA U - MOCAtv. Video
description. Accessed April 5, 2016 at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkCnzCI66RQ
Mustola, K. (2006). Touko Laaksonen – Tom of Finland. In Tom of Finland:
Ennennäkemätöntä – Unforeseen (pp. 5-57). Helsinki: Like.
Niemelä, T. (2006). Tom’s 1980s. In Tom of Finland: Ennennäkemätöntä – Unforeseen
(pp. 59-68). Helsinki: Like.
1
Office of Historic Resources (2014). SurveyLA: LGBT Historic Context Statement.
Prepared by GPA Consulting for the City of Los Angeles, Department of City
Planning, Office of Historic Resources. September.
Paglia, C. (2009). Sex quest in Tom of Finland. In Hanson, D. (Ed.). Tom of Finland
XXL (pp. 81-83). Los Angeles: Taschen.
Pettis, R. M. (2009). Homophile Movement, U. S. GLBTQ: An Encyclopedia of Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, & Queer Culture. (Originally published in 2008; last
updated March 17, 2009.) Accessed April 5, 2016 at
http://www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/homophile_movement_S.pdf
Ramakers, M. (1998). The art of pleasure. In Riemschneider, B. (Ed.), Tom of Finland:
The Art of Pleasure (pp. 12-28). Cologne: Taschen.
Ramakers, M. (2000). Dirty Pictures: Tom of Finland, Masculinity, and Homosexuality,
New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Reynolds, M. (Ed.). (2016). Tom House: Tom of Finland in Los Angeles. New York:
Rizzoli.
Rus, M. (2016). Foreword. In Reynolds, M. (Ed.). Tom House: Tom of Finland in Los
Angeles (pp. 7-20). New York: Rizzoli.
“Tom of Finland stamps on sale Monday; Finland’s biggest seller ever” (2014). YLE,
September 8. Accessed April 4, 2016 at
http://yle.fi/uutiset/tom_of_finland_stamps_on_sale_monday_finlands_biggest_seller
_ever/7459075
Valentine Hooven III, F. (1993). Tom of Finland: His Life and Times. New York: St
Martin’s.
Valentine Hooven III, F. (1995). Beefcake: The Muscle Magazines of America 1950-
1970. Cologne: Taschen.
Valentine Hooven III, F. (2012). Tom of Finland: Life and Work of a Gay Hero. Berlin:
Bruno Gmünder Verlag.
2
TOM OF FINLAND
Touko Valio Laaksonen, Finnish, 1920 – 1991

Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen): CV
Born 8 May 1920, Kaarina, Finland
Died 7 November 1991, Helsinki, Finland
Summary of Achievements
• Works held in public collections of esteemed art institutions in USA and Finland, including The
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA),
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art (Helsinki)
• Over 50 solo exhibitions and over 60 group exhibitions in North America and Europe
• Works published in multiple books by Germany-based art book publisher Taschen (including the large
format, 666 page book Tom of Finland XXL)
• Works have been the subject of writings by noted scholars and artists. Commentary on works has
been published in multiple languages and countries
Selected Solo Exhibitions

2016 The Pleasure of Play, Kunsthalle Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
2015 The Pleasure of Play, Artists Space Exhibitions, New York, NY
Early Work 1944 – 1972, David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2014 Sealed with a Secret: Correspondence of Tom of Finland, Museum Centre Vapriikki,
Tampere, Finland
2013 Tom of Finland: Preliminary Drawings, Stuart Shave/Modern Art, London, England
2012 Tom of Finland, Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden
Tom of Finland: Male Masterworks, World Erotic Art Museum, Miami Beach, USA
2011 Tom of Finland: Public and Private, Antebellum Gallery, Hollywood, USA
Tom of Finland: Original Drawings, PHD, St. Louis, USA
Tom of Finland Retrospective, European Capital of Culture, Logomo, Turku, Finland
2009 Tom of Finland, Schlechtriem Brothers, Berlin, Germany
2008 Galería Espacio Mînimo, Madrid, Spain
2007 Inman Gallery, Houston, USA
2006 Galerie Jean-Luc and Takako Richard, Paris, France
Keith Talent Gallery, London, UK
Ennennäkemätöntä – Unforeseen, Helsinki City Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland
Rough, Western Project, Culver City, USA
Coming of Age, Charles Cowles, New York City, USA
2005 Tom of Finland, Galeria Espacio Minimo, Madrid, Spain
Tom of Finland, Maes and Matthys Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium
2001 Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, USA
1999 Tom of Finland: Selections from the Tom of Finland Foundation Archives, YYZ Artist Outlet,
Toronto, Canada
Tom of Finland: The Most Famous Finn, Jyväskylä Art Museum, Jyväskylä, Finland
th
Tom of Finland: Kake, 4 Los Angeles Biennial International, Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica,
USA
Tom of Finland, James Van Damme Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
Tom of Finland: The Most Famous Finn, Finnish Institute, Paris, France
TBA, Chicago, USA
1997 Tom of Finland, Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, USA
Tom of Finland, Galleri Lars Boman, Stockholm, Sweden
1995 Theatre Mississippi, Montreal
Galerie Emanuel Perrotin, Paris, France
1994 Feature Inc., New York, USA
Tom of Finland Retrospective, Schwules Museum, Berlin, Germany
1
Tom of Finland, Museum des Erotik Kunst, Hamburg, Germany
Club Champion, Canberra, Australia
1993 Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne, Germany
1992 Galerie Pelin, Helsinki, Finland
Stuart Regan Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
A Memorial Retrospective, Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation, New York, USA
1990 Wessel-O’Connor Gallery, New York, USA
MUU Galleria, Helsinki, Finland
1989 National Leather Association, Los Angeles, USA
1987 Rob Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
1984 Erotische Zeihnungen, Galerie Jansen, Berlin, Germany
Galerie Anderes Ufer, Berlin, Germany
The Basement, New York
1982 Score, Los Angeles, USA
Portraits of Men, Rob Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
IEM, Paris, France
Ambush, San Francisco, USA
Rob Gallery, New York
Robert Samuel Gallery, New York, USA
1978 Calendar, Fey-Way Studios, San Francisco, USA
1978 Calendar, Eons Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
1973 Loggers, Revolt Press Bookstore, Hamburg, Germany
Selected Group Exhibitions
2015 Slash: In Between the Normative and the Fantasy, curated by Kaspars Vanags and Gary
Everett, kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga, Latvia
#RAWHIDE, curated by Dylan Brant and Vivian Brodie, Venus Over Manhattan, New
York, NY
2014 Richard Hawkins & William S. Burroughs, Cerith Wyn Evans, Isa Genzken, Tom of
Finland, Galerie Buchholz, Berlin, Germany
Hudson, Envoy Enterprises, New York City, USA
Dirty Frames, Gallery Muu, Helsinki, Finland
LET’S GO LET GO: In Memoriam Hudson, 33 Orchard, New York City, USA
Abandon the Parents, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark
Do Not Disturb, Gerhardsen Gerner, Oslo, Norway
2013 Bob Mizer and Tom of Finland, MOCA, Los Angeles, USA
Happy Birthday Galerie Perrotin/25 Years, Lille300/Tripostal, Lille, France
I Want That Inside Me, Feature Inc, New York, USA
Keep Your Timber Limber (Works on Paper), Institute of Contemporary Art, London,
England
Rare and Raw, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, New York, USA
2012 Punt, Feature Inc., New York, NY
We the People, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, New York, USA
Summer Camp, Schroeder, Romero & Shredder, New York, USA
2011 Tom of Finland and Mates, Galerie Mooi-Man, Groningen, The Netherlands
Compass in Hand, Martin-Gropius-Bau, New York, USA
Comics Stripped, Museum of Sex, New York, USA
2
2010 Compass in Hand, Valencian Institute of Modern Art, Valencia Spain
Never Alone: A Look at Tom and His Friends, One Archives Gallery, West Hollywood,
USA
Tom of Finland and Then Some, Feature Inc., New York, USA
The Boneyard, Maloney Fine Art + Kim Light, Los Angeles, USA
Revealed: The Tradition of Male Homoerotic Art, Central Connecticut State University Art
Galleries, New Britain, USA
2009 Sex in the Streets, Erotic Heritage Museum, Las Vegas, USA
rd
The Collectors, Nordic & Danish Pavilions, 53 Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Tattoo, Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts, New York, USA
Compass in Hand: Selections from the Judith Rothschild Foundation Collection, Museum
of Modern Art, New York, USA
2008 Pre-Revolutionary Queer, The Kinsey Institute, Bloomington, USA
Liverpool Biennial, Homotopia CUC, Liverpool, England
Ma Bête Noire, Phil, Los Angeles, USA
Glossolalia: Languages of Drawing, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
Trade, Phil, Los Angeles, USA
2006 Portland Museum of Art, Portland, USA
Scope, Miami Art Fair, Miami, USA
2005 Art@Large, New York, USA
2004 James Kelly Contemporary Museum, Santa Fe, USA
2001 The Armory Show, Mark Moore Gallery, New York, USA
2000 Whitechapel Gallery, London, England
Made in California: Art, Image, Identity, 1900-2000, Los Angeles County Museum of Art,
Los Angeles, USA
th
10 Anniversary Exhibition, Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation, New York, USA
1999 Drawing, Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, USA
Ruralia: Art of the Countryside, Pori Art Museum, Pori, Finland
bad boys … ROUGH TRADE, Highways, Santa Monica, USA
1998 Guggenheim Gallery, Chapman University, Orange, USA
Male, Wessel + O’Connor Fine Art, New York, USA
1997 100 Years of Gay Art, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany
Drawings: An Annual Invitational, Meyerson-Nowinski Gallery, Seattle, USA
Lovecraft, The Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, Scotland
Master Drawings in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles County
Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA
Some Lust, Patricia Faure Gallery, Santa Monica, USA
1996 Lifestyles Convention, San Diego
1992 The Red Light Show, Casco Gallery, Utrecht, Belgium
Summer Group Exhibition, Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation, New York, USA
Stuart Regen Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
1991 AIDS Timeline, Biennial of American Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,
USA
Exhibition of Erotic Art, Gallery Mosabacka, Helsinki, Finland
Fetish Art, National Leather Association, Los Angeles, USA
Rutgers State University, New Brunswick, USA
Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
Ruutujen aika, Amos Anderson Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland
From Private Collections, Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation, New York, USA
1990 Censorship, Couturier Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
Que Overdose!, Mincher/Wilcox Gallery, San Francisco, USA
1989 QSM, San Francisco, USA
Buttinsky, Feature Gallery, New York
AIDS Timeline, Matrix Gallery, University of California, Berkeley, USA
WIWA International, Cologne, Germany
The New Museum, New York, USA
3
1988 Leonardo da Vinci Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
1986 Social Distortion, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), Los Angeles, USA
Naked Eyes, International Gay & Lesbian Archives, Los Angeles, USA
1978 Stompers (boot shop), New York, USA
Public Collections
The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, USA

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA
University of California Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley (California), USA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
Tom of Finland Foundation, Los Angeles, USA
The Kinsey Institute, Bloomington (Indiana), USA
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA
Leather Archives and Museum, Chicago, USA
Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, New York City, USA
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, USA
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, USA
Portland Museum of Art, Portland (Oregon), USA
Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art, Turku, Finland
Kaarinan kaupunki (Kaarina Township), Kaarina, Finland
MSC Finland – Tom's Club, Helsinki, Finland
Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland
Suontausta Museum, Eura, Finland
Selected Publications as Artist/Author
2014 Tom of Finland – Sarja kuvia. Helsinki: Like Publishing

2012 Tom of Finland: Bikers: Volume 2. Hanson, D. (Ed.). Cologne: Taschen
2011 Tom of Finland: Comic Collection I. Hanson, D. (Ed.). Cologne: Taschen
2009 Tom of Finland XXL. Hanson, D. (Ed.). Los Angeles: Taschen America
2008 Tom of Finland: The Complete Kake Comics (paperback edition; also released in
hardback in 2014). Hanson, D. (Ed.). Cologne: Taschen
2005 Tom of Finland: The Comic Collection. Vol. 1-5. Hanson, D. (Ed.). Cologne: Taschen
1998 Tom of Finland: The Art of Pleasure. Riemschneider, B. (Ed.). Cologne: Taschen
1997 Tom of Finland: Retrospective III. Los Angeles: Tom of Finland Foundation
1992 Tom of Finland. Cologne: Taschen
1991 Tom of Finland: Retrospective II. Los Angeles: Tom of Finland Foundation
1988 Tom of Finland: Retrospective I. Los Angeles: Tom of Finland Foundation
Selected Bibliography (in Chronological Order)
Books and magazines
Pulkkinen, K. (2016). Tom of Finland. Helsinki: Like

Reynolds, M., Rus, M., & Thompson, M. (2016). Tom House. New York: Rizzoli
Valentine Hooven III, F. (2012). Tom of Finland: Life and Work of a Gay Hero. Berlin: Bruno Gmünder
Verlag
“Tom of Finland: Celebrating 50 years” (entire issue of magazine). qx International, 638, 23 May 2007
Arell, B. & Mustola, K. (2006). Tom of Finland: Ennennäkemätöntä – Unforeseen. Helsinki: Like
Ramakers, M. (2000). Dirty Pictures: Tom of Finland, Masculinity, and Homosexuality, New York: St.
Martin’s Press
4
Valentine Hooven III, F. (1993). Tom of Finland: His Life and Times. New York: St Martin’s (German
language edition published by Bruno Gmünder Verlag; French language edition published by Gemini;
Finnish language edition published by Otava)
Essays and articles
Cho, T. (2014). Tom Cho: Tom and me, part one. National Post, Afterword, 1 May. Accessed 14 July
2014 at http://arts.nationalpost.com/2014/05/01/tom-cho-tom-and-me-part-one/
Cho, T. (2014). Tom Cho: Tom and me, part two. National Post, Afterword, 2 May. Accessed 14 July
2014 at http://arts.nationalpost.com/2014/05/02/tom-cho-tom-and-me-part-two/
Killian, K. (2014). Bob Mizer and Tom of Finland (exhibition review). Artforum International, 52, 7, March,
293-294
Simpson, B. (2014). A quick note: Bennett Simpson on Bob Mizer & Tom of Finland. The Curve, January
22. Accessed 14 July 2014 at http://sites.moca.org/thecurve/2014/01/22/a-quick-note-bennett-
simpson-on-bob-mizer-tom-of-finland/
Vella, M. (2014). This is the world’s most homoerotic stamp. Time, April 15. Accessed 14 July 2014 at
http://time.com/63463/this-is-the-worlds-most-homoerotic-stamp/
Laamanen, L. (2011). Luutnantti Touko Laaksonen: Viipurinlahden puukotus piinaa Tom of Finlandia. In
Lagerbohm, J. (Ed.), Sata Sotakohtaloa (pp. 112-113). Helsinki: Otava
Arell, B. (2009). Outdoors: Public sex and Tom’s playground for big boys. In Hanson, D. (Ed.). Tom of
Finland XXL (pp. 47-50). Los Angeles: Taschen America
Dehner, D. (2009a). Understanding the Finn: The passion continues. In Hanson, D. (Ed.). Tom of Finland
XXL (pp. 491-492). Los Angeles: Taschen America
Dehner, D. (2009b). Understanding the Finn: Tom the liberator. In Hanson, D. (Ed.). Tom of Finland XXL
(pp. 9-10). Los Angeles: Taschen America
French, J. (2009). The myth of the cowboy t-shirt. In Hanson, D. (Ed.). Tom of Finland XXL (p. 275). Los
Angeles: Taschen America
Hanson, D. (2009). Tom’s woman. In Hanson, D. (Ed.). Tom of Finland XXL (pp. 117-119). Los Angeles:
Taschen America
Johnson, H. (2009). The liberating effect. In Hanson, D. (Ed.). Tom of Finland XXL (p. 283). Los Angeles:
Taschen America
Lucie-Smith, E. (2009). Tom of Finland. In Hanson, D. (Ed.). Tom of Finland XXL (pp. 21-26). Los
Maupin, A. (2009). Tom’s tits. In Hanson, D. (Ed.). Tom of Finland XXL (p. 93). Los Angeles: Taschen
America
Nawrocki, J. (2009a). Andrew Epstein: Tom of Finland’s eye in the sky. Gay and Lesbian Review
Worldwide, November-December, 33
Nawrocki, J. (2009b). Takes on Tom (review of Tom of Finland XXL). Gay and Lesbian Review
Worldwide, 16 (5), 35-36
Oldham, T. (2009). Tom of Finland: First sightings. In Hanson, D. (Ed.). Tom of Finland XXL (pp. 267).
Los Angeles: Taschen America
Paglia, C. (2009). Sex quest in Tom of Finland. In Hanson, D. (Ed.). Tom of Finland XXL (pp. 81-83). Los
Tangermann, U. (2009). Tom’s Saloon. In Hanson, D. (Ed.). Tom of Finland XXL (p. 297). Los Angeles:
Taschen America
Waters, J. (2009). Don Knotts at the Leather Mansion. In Hanson, D. (Ed.). Tom of Finland XXL (p. 485).
Los Angeles: Taschen America
Prono, L. (2007). Tom of Finland. Encyclopedia of Gay and Lesbian Popular Culture (pp. 257-259).
Westport, CT: Greenwood
Young, C. (2007). Homoerotic history: Tom of Finland. gaynz.com, 12 May. Accessed 14 July 2014 at
http://www.gaynz.com/articles/publish/23/article_1712.php
Gonzales-Day, K. (2004). Tom of Finland. In Summers, C. (Ed.), The Queer Encyclopedia of the Visual
Arts (pp. 330-331). San Francisco: Cleiss
Snaith, G. (2003). Tom’s men: The masculinization of homosexuality and the homosexualization of
masculinity at the end of the twentieth century. Paragraph, 26 (1-2), 77-88
5
Phillips, D. L. (2001). Tom of Finland. In Robert Aldrich & Garry Wotherspoon (Eds.) Who's Who in
Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History (pp. 403-404). London and New York: Routledge
Ramakers, M. (1998). The art of pleasure. In Riemschneider, B. (Ed.), Tom of Finland: The Art of
Pleasure (pp. 12-28). Cologne: Taschen
Dehner, D. (1998). Tom of Finland: A personal recollection. In Riemschneider, B. (Ed.), Tom of Finland:
The Art of Pleasure (p. 29). Cologne: Taschen
Lahti, M. (1998). Dressing up in power: Tom of Finland and gay male body politics. Special Issue
Scandinavian homosexualities, Journal of Homosexuality, 35 (3/4), 185-205
Valentine Hooven III, F. (1995). Beefcake: The Muscle Magazines of America 1950-1970. Cologne:
Taschen
Elley, D. (1992). Daddy and the Muscle Academy” (review). Variety, 349, November 30, 69-70
Rossi, L-M. (1992a). The afterlife of a certain Tom of Finland . . . and some afterthoughts." Siksi: The
Nordic Art Review, 1, 34-35
Rossi, L-M. (1992b). Turvaseksin Michelangelo: Tom of Finland välitti ja iloitsi piirtämistään miehistä.
Helsingin Sanomat, 16 January 1992, Kulttuuri B8
“Tom of Finland näyttely ja kirja — ‘Tom oli huomiosta todella onnellinen’. Demari ,9 Jan 1992
Cooper, D. (1991). Remembering Tom of Finland. Advocate, 592, 17 December, 88-89
Kalin, K. (1990). Tom of Finland. Image, 3, 104-119
Chua, L. (1989). Tom of Finland. FlashArt,147 (summer), 152
Valentine Hooven III, F. (1989). Drawn and now quartered: The Tom of Finland Foundation finds a home.
Advocate California, March 14, 8-9
Maydorn, A. (1989). Der Unglaubliche Thomas: Über das religiöse im werk von Tom of Finland (Doubting
Thomas: About religiosity in Tom of Finland's work). Siegessaule, 3, n.p.
Nayland, B. (1988). Tom of Finland: An Appreciation. Outlook, Fall, 36-45
Takala, K. (1986). Tom of Finland: Pojat aina valmiina. Siksi: The Nordic Art Review, 4, 18-19
Reed, D. (1980). Repression and exaggeration: The art of Tom of Finland. Christopher Street,
4 (8), April, 16-21
Opel, R. (1980). America welcomes Tom of Finland (Interview: Tom of Finland). Drummer, 38, 88-90
Video and Film
2014 Richard Hawkins – Bob Mizer & Tom of Finland, The Museum of Contemporary Art.
Accessed 14 July 2014 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQF4qN-8u0k
2013 Tom of Finland, The Museum of Contemporary Art. Accessed 14 July 2014 at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkCnzCI66RQ
2011 Tom of Finland, Mies Mikkonen (dir.), Turku 2011 Foundation
1991 Daddy and the Muscle Academy, Ilppo Pohjola (dir.), Yleisradio and Finnish Film
Foundation (aired on national television in Finland; theatrical release in Helsinki; film
festivals in Berlin, New York, Toronto, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Worldwide
theatrical release)
1990 Tom’s Men 1: The Art/Eros Series, James Williams (dir.), Eros Series, Altomar Video
1988 Boots, Biceps & Bulges: The Life and Works of Tom of Finland, James Williams (dir.),
Eros Series, Altomar Video
1987 Advocate Men Live! 2, Fred Bisonnes (dir.), Advocate Video Series, LPI
Lectures
1986 Art Center of Design, Pasadena, CA. Coordinated by artist Tony Greene.
1985 California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA. Coordinated by Professor/Artist Mike Kelley.
Award
1990 Puupäähattu Prize, Sarjakuvaseura (Finnish Comics Society)
6
Edge Magazine
TOM OF FINLAND
Artwork Portfolio
1928 - 1999
Untitled, 1928, Graphite and watercolor on paper,
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection
Untitled (from Initiation into the Brotherhood), 1946,

Pen & ink, Gouache on paper, Tom of Finland
Foundation Permanent Collection
Untitled (From the Athletic Model Guild “Men of the Forests
of Finland” series), 1957, Graphite on paper, artwork
Untitled, 1962, Graphite on paper, Untitled (From the “The Tattooed Sailor” series),
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection 1962, Graphite on paper, Tom of Finland Foundation
Permanent Collection
Buddies (QQ Magazine, Mar. - Apr. 1973), 1973, Untitled, 1974, Graphite on paper,
Gauche on paper, gauche artwork Private Collection Private Collection
Untitled (from Camping), 1976, Gouche on board,

Private Collection
Untitled (Portrait of Aarno), 1976, Graphite on paper, Untitled, 1977, Graphite on paper,
Private Collection Private Collection
Untitled, 1977, Graphite on paper, Untitled (Study for #77.25), 1977, Graphite on paper,
Private Collection Museum of Modern Art New York Permanent Collection
Untitled (from Dick), 1977, Pen and ink on paper,
Finnish Postage Stamps 2014, Itella Posti, Artwork: Untitled, 1979, Graphite on paper,
TOM OF FINLAND © 1979, 1978 Tom of Finland Private Collection
Foundation
Portrait of Robert Mapplethorpe, 1979, Ink on paper,
Private Collection
Untitled (Study for #81.20), 1981, Graphite on paper,
Los Angeles County Museum of Art Permanent
Collection
Untitled (Preparatory for portrait of Chuck Renslow),

1981, Graphite on paper, Leather Archives
Permanent Collection
Untitled, 1981, Graphite on paper, Untitled, 1981, Graphite on paper,
Untitled, 1981, Graphite on paper, Man and His Boot, 1982, Color pencil on paper,
Private Collection Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection
Untitled (Model: Luke Daniel. The Pits bar on Santa Monica Blvd., LA.), 1982, Graphite on paper,
Private Collection
Untitled, 1983, Graphite on paper, Untitled, 1983, Graphite on paper,

Untitled, 1983, Graphite on paper, Untitled (Cover artwork for the book, Roman Conquests),
Private Collection 1991, Graphite on paper, Private Collection
Untitled, 1984, Graphite on paper, Untitled (Use a Rubber), 1988, Graphite on paper,
Untitled, 1988, Graphite on paper,
Private Collection
Falcon’s Lair bar, c. 1970
Tom’s Company, c. 1985

Untitled (One Way bar on N. Hoover Street), 1989, Untitled, 1989, Graphite on paper,
Graphite on paper, Private Collection Private Collection
Untitled (Preparatory for finished drawing #77.37), 1977, Graphite on paper,

Images of TOM House
1980 to 2016
Tom in The Drawing Room, 1984, Photo by Jack Shear
Tom and friends in the Gardens. c. 1988 Tom and fan in TOM’s Hall, c. 1989
Tom and Jim Neuman, c. 1980
Durk Dehner and Tom at Kake’s Kitchen door,

c. 1985
Tom’s photos of model Joe taken at TOM House exterior, 1989
Friends in TOM’s Hall, c. 1981

Durk Dehner with Mapplethorpe portrait in front of TOM House, c. 2003
Bungaku Ito, editor-in-chief of Barazoku Magazine, visits TOM House, 1999 Portrait of Tom of Finland by
P. Florian, 1995
John Waters, Durk Dehner and Greg Gorman with “TOM’s Men” in TOM House, 2002
House Tour for Echo Park Historical Society, 2015
Los Angeles Band of Brothers, 2011

Carolers, 2013
Holiday Celebration, 2013
Holiday Celebration, 2014

Tom of Finland Foundation Drawing Workshop, 2013
Tom of Finland Art Fair, 2014

Volunteer researching in TOM’s Hall
Wedding of Tom Cho and Jackie Wyckes, 2014
Wedding of Dick Manniace and Andrew Buzzi, 2015

“Movie Night”, 2015
Tom of Finland Awards Reception, 2014
Award Presentation to Tom of Finland Foundation

Presented by Mitch O’Farrell to Durk Dehner, 2015
Foyer, photo by Henning von Berg, 2007 Drawing Room, photo by Henning von Berg, 2007
Breakfast Room, photo by Henning von Berg, 2007 Kake’s Kitchen, photo by Henning von Berg, 2007
The Masters’ Room, photo by Henning von Berg, 2007
Carrington Galen’s Pleasure Park,

photo by Henning von Berg, 2007
Portico at night, photo by Henning von Berg, 2007

Tom’s uniform and boots in TOM’s Room
Portrait of Tom of Finland by Rinaldo Hopf

TOM House
In Media
2009 - 2016
“Don Knotts at the Leather Mansion”
—John Waters
Once upon a time, I went to the Tom of Finland Foundation in Los

Angeles for one of their annual fundraising celebrations. I had
heard about this amazing mansion filled with pornographic
archives, dungeons, S & M offices, and a huge collection of erotic
male art, but I knew I didn’t have the proper outfit to wear. John
Waters in leather chaps, no pants, and motorcycle boots is just not
a look anybody would be comfortable with. The fact that my
friend, Greg Gorman, another “civilian” was going with me, gave
me a false sense of fashion confidence.
Of course, once we got there, we saw every single person but us

was dressed in full-fetish S & M gear. Durk Dehner, the great heir
apparent to Tom of Finland and top international cheerleader for
the leather lifestyle, greeted us at the door and showed no sign of
dominance-disappointment at our relatively normal cotton clothes.
Remembering how I had unsuccessfully tried to talk my way into
“uniform night” at The Mineshaft in New York in the ‘70s, by
claiming my suit was “plain clothes detective,” I was relieved I didn’t
have to pretend anymore.
Durk welcomed us warmly and introduced me to my “slave”

for the evening. Good God. A waiting-for-orders, white-man slave
dressed head-to-toe in leather. “Really…I’m fine…don’t need a
thing,” I mumbled to the clearly disappointed masochist who
seemed totally helpless without a command to obey. Seeing the
crushed look on his face, I finally asked him for a drink. “YES,
SIR!” he bellowed in sexual submission, and I felt even more like
Don Knotts. I learned from this exchange, however. Today, whenever
a young male fan calls me “sir,” I say, “Please don’t call me
‘sir’ in a non-sexual way.” Their faces pale, much like mine must
have that night in the leather mansion.
Tom of Finland is, of course, a great artist. There can really be

no debate about that anymore. His drawings are beautiful, confident,
sexy, totally original and butch-elegant. Tom of Finland uses
great wit in his work, but he’s never funny. Can “funny” ever really
be butch? Is humor, by definition, a little bit nelly? Tom is also a
classic. He invented a look, and you better respect it. He may have
been a “daddy”-type later in life, but I’m not so sure he would have
approved of the “bear” movement. After all, isn’t a “bear” just a
Tom of Finland man who let his body go?
Months later, I went back to buy a Tom of Finland drawing. As
an art collector, it was an experience like no other. Durk, now in art
dealer mode, answered the front door in full bondage gear, even
though our appointment was at 10:00 AM. He ushered me into his
“killing room,” (the term dealers use for their back room where the
sale is closed), and showed me Tom’s work that was still available. I
felt like I was in the Vatican. Never had a dealer’s commitment to
their artist’s work been so obvious. Durk was not only devoted to
Tom of Finland’s drawings, he had become one.
I selected a lovely little signed pencil sketch of a handsome stud

rimming a butch biker and wrote out the check. Money is rarely
spent so well. The drawing now hangs in a hall right outside my
bedroom in my Baltimore house, and every time I pass it, I feel
happier. I wonder what the cleaning lady thinks? She’s never mentions
it.
About the authors:
John Waters was born in 1946 in Baltimore, Maryland, and briefly attended New York University.
He made his first film, Hag in a Black Leather Jacket, in 1964, and has since directed 16 others,
including Pink Flamingos, Polyester, Hairspray, and Pecker. He lives in Baltimore.
Edward Lucie-Smith was born in 1933 in Kingston, Jamaica, and schooled at Oxford. He has
published over 100 books, including Sexuality in Western Art and Latin American Art of the 20th
Century. He lives in London and travels extensively.
Armistead Maupin launched his fictive Tales of the City serial in the San Francisco Chronicle in
1976, later released as a six-volume series of novels, three of which were produced as miniseries
for television. He lives in San Francisco.
Todd Oldham's studio is a multifaceted design studio for film, photography, furniture, interior décor,
books, and even floral arrangements. He lives in New York City and in eastern Pennsylvania.
Camille Anna Paglia is the author of five books, including Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence
from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, her groundbreaking analysis of sexual ambiguity in art and
literature. Paglia is University Professor of Humanities and Media Studies at University of the Arts,
Philadelphia, PA, where she lives.
Tom of Finland: XXL Printed in Italy ISBN 978-3-8228-2607-2
Original artwork copyright 2009 Tom of Finland Foundation. Inc.

All text copyright 2009 the authors listed.
Copyright 2009 TASCHEN GmbH

Hohenzollerenring 53, D-50672, Köln, Germany
TASCHEN
HONG KONG KÖLN LONDON LOS ANGELES MADRID PARIS TOKYO
Bigger is better: The complete life and work of the artist Tom of
Finland
In 1998, TASCHEN introduced the world to the masterful art of Touko

Laaksonen with The Art of Pleasure. Prior to that, Laaksonen, better known as
Tom of Finland, enjoyed an intense cult following in the international gay
community but was largely unknown to the broader audience. The Art of
Pleasure gave Tom well-deserved recognition and increased his following
exponentially; Tom of Finland XXL will fix him forever in the realm of fine art.
With dimensions of 29 by 40.5cm and 704 pages, Tom of Finland XXL

contains nearly 1000 images, covering 6 decades of the artist's career. The
work was gathered from all known collections across the US and Europe with
the help of the Tom of Finland Foundation and features many drawings,
paintings and preparatory sketches that have never been reproduced in any
book. Other images have only been seen out of context and will be presented
here in the sequential order Tom intended for full artistic appreciation and
Tom of Finland XXL erotic impact. This elegant oversized volume will showcase the full range of
Hanson, Dian (ED) Tom's talent, from sensitive portraits to frank sexual pleasure to tender
Paglia, Camille / Waters, John expressions of love to Tom's haunting tributes to young men struck down by
Hardcover, 29 x 40.5 cm (11.4 x 15.9 in.), the AIDS epidemic.
666 pages
USD 200.00 Completing this collector's edition are eight specially-commissioned essays
ISBN 978-3-8228-2607-2 (01/2009 on Tom's social and personal impact by Camille Paglia, John Waters,
German,French,English) Armistead Maupin, Todd Oldham, and others, plus a scholarly analysis of
individual drawings by art historian Edward Lucie-Smith. For the man—or
woman—who thinks bigger is better, Tom of Finland XXL is certain to satisfy.
About the editor:

Dian Hanson is TASCHEN’s sexy book editor. As a 25-year veteran of men’s
magazine publishing, she edited titles including Puritan, OUI, Outlaw Biker,
Juggs, and Leg Show. Her many books for TASCHEN include The Big Book of
Breasts and The Big Penis Book.
Page 1 of 1 / Tom of Finland XXL

Hidden behind a tall eugenia hedge in the unassuming Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles,
at 1421 Laveta Terrace, stands an Arts-and-Crafts bungalow where Touko Laaksonen spent
much of the last ten years of his life. Better known as Tom of Finland, Laaksonen produced an
enormous body of work whose radical and utopian depictions of masculine confidence, fantasy,
and pleasure influenced reality with such dominance that they liberated generations and became
a permanent cornerstone of gay culture. Today, the Laveta Terrace bungalow is home to the Tom
of Finland Foundation, run by Durk Dehner — a former model and Tom’s agent, friend, lover,
muse, and business partner for many years — and his partner Sharp. An informal museum of
Tom’s life, the foundation houses his archive as well as thousands of mementos from a career
that spanned four decades. Art, leather, and dark-wood trim permeate the house, creating a
heavy masculine energy, whether in the cozy ski-lodge-style living room or in the guest rooms,
which are now used for artist’s residencies. But there are light touches too: a Tom of Finland
cookie jar, two Michelangelos flanking the main bathroom’s sink, a fully-functioning phallic toilet
flush, and a wall covered in celebrity photographs showing Dehner with the likes of Grace Jones
and Liza Minnelli. The backyard, fitted out with a fun cage and an outdoor throne with peculiar
openings, overlooks the Hollywood Hills. It is here, at a cabana-meets-boot-camp outdoor bar,
that the foundation hosts its regular parties which, Dehner warns, are not necessarily for the faint
of heart (a dungeon-style basement is reserved for selected visitors only).
But it’s not all fun and games for Dehner and Sharp. Under their direction, the foundation’s
mission has expanded: as well as celebrating, preserving, and protecting Tom’s art, it is also an
active community center, and promotes erotic art in general. All available wall space showcases
works depicting some form of beauty, decadence, desire, hedonism, love, and lust. And while
many appear to be by the master, they’re not all real Tom of Finlands. “Unlike most artists, Tom
was never offended by others copying his style — he was always flattered,” says Dehner, who
keeps the many donated Tom-inspired pieces in annual rotation. The foundation even
commissions new pieces, like the trompe-l’oeil murals with strategic holes that turn viewers into
voyeurs.
There is one room, however, on the third floor, that has a very different aura. Quiet,
uncluttered, almost monastic, with just a bed and a bare-bones drafting table, it was Tom’s private
room. Since the artist’s death in 1991, Dehner and Sharp have preserved it exactly the way it was,
with Tom’s leather jacket hanging by the bedside and his sharpened pencils on the desk. “Tom
always enjoyed all the visitors and wild events we hosted here over the years,” says Dehner, “but
through it all, he would always find time to slip away to work in the attic, putting in many hours,
every day. He was absolutely driven to make his work. It was his life’s mission.”
Michael Bullock
March 7, 2016
The New Yorker Presents - Episode 9: TOM OF FINLAND: The artist called Tom of Finland
changed the image of gay men forever. Is his work porn, or is it art?
FOREWORD
MAYER RUS
Let’s get a shot with the rimming chair, the stocks, and the chaise. We’re at 1421 Laveta Terrace
in Echo Park, Los Angeles, home to the Tom of Finland Foundation and the men who administer
it. The occasion is a photo session for this book, and as usual, the joint is jumping. Photographer
Martyn Thompson is checking the light for his next picture. Michael Reynolds, the ingenious cre-
ative director, is busily arranging furniture—and trying to ignore the chorus of styling suggestions
that has, inevitably, broken out among the assembly of gay bikers, leathermen, artists, and other
miscellaneous friends of Tom.
In the alfresco bar/clubhouse, hard by the rimming chair and chaise, a silver-haired gentleman
in a crisp white T-shirt and black leather vest is overheard telling a friend, “I just got back from
Pebble Beach. My aunt has a house on the eighteenth fairway.” Meanwhile, two guys engaged in
light codpiece-on-codpiece frottage unexpectedly break out laughing. Then they disappear into
one of the more private pavilions arrayed along the terraces of the steeply inclined hillside, affec-
tionately dubbed “Pleasure Park.”
Across the way, a shirtless beefcake wearing a leather apron and a tattoo that reads “Tom of Fin-
land” across his well-muscled back is shaving the head of a fetching lad in a rickety barber chair.
Another eye-catching figure dressed in a California Highway Patrol uniform asks a group of artists
gathered around an easel which of his various leather dog hoods they prefer. The piped-in voices
of Edith Piaf, Ella Fitzgerald, Dionne Warwick, and Leslie Gore waft over the scene, their plain-
tive melodies mixing with the pitter-patter from the pissoir water feature. Welcome to Tom House.
Tucked behind a monumental Eugenia hedge on a street of modest bungalows and apartment
houses in the rapidly gentrifying Los Angeles neighborhood of Echo Park is one of the gay world’s
most idiosyncratic and authentic historical sites. Known officially as Tom House (or the Tom of
Finland House), it is the place where the revolutionary Finnish homoerotic artist Touko Laaksonen
(1920-1991) lived and worked for much of the last decade of his life.
The gabled Craftsman abode now serves as the headquarters of the Tom of Finland Foundation,
containing a vast trove of artworks, correspondence, historical documents, and ephemera. But
this is no ordinary shrine to a famous artist, trapped in amber, ä la Jackson Pollock’s studio in
East Hampton or Paul Cezanne’s dreamy atelier in Provence. For one thing, there are a lot more
cocks: metal cocks and marble cocks, painted cocks and penciled cocks, cock kitchen magnets
and cock throw pillows, cock collages and cock homages, black cocks and white cocks— cocks
around the clock.
The parade of tumescent penises—the work of homoerotic artists from across the globe, Tom in-
cluded—transcends mere pornography or kitsch (even if there is no shortage of either). Taken as
a whole, the kaleidoscopic array embodies the unapologetically phallocentric ethos that animates
Tom House—an ethos cultivated for nearly four decades by the men who live there.
It’s an extraordinary place, equal parts frat pad, utopian collective, art historical archive, sepul-
cher, community center, and den of iniquity. The character of the house morphs in response to
whoever happens to be living there or visiting at any particular time. Some days, that might be a
gaggle of art students or gay culture vultures; on other days, it might be a group of like-minded
voluptuaries gathered for a sex party. Occasionally, it’s all those things at once.
Volker Morlock, a longtime Tom of Finland collector and editor of a 1997 publication of the artist’s
work, aptly describes the residence as “a house of misfit toys, the last fortress of bohemia in a gay
cultural landscape that wants desperately to be boring and well-adjusted.”
The ringmaster presiding over this ever-changing circus of homoerotic artistry is Durk Dehner,
president and cofounder of the Tom of Finland Foundation, the property’s actual owner, and the
man perhaps most responsible for reclaiming Tom’s legacy from the ghettos of illustration and
pornography. As much as the Echo Park abode is Tom’s house, it is also Durk’s house. Artist
Richard Hawkins, who worked there as an office manager for five years after getting his MFA from
CalArts in 1988, explains: “People who don’t know the history of the place often think that this is
the house that Tom of Finland’s money built. It’s really the house that Durk sacrificed his life for.”
On this point, however, Dehner demurs. “It’s my house, it’s Tom’s house, it’s everyone’s house
who wants to be a part of it,” he says, sounding a bit like Aunt Belle in Jezebel, as she opens the
doors of her gracious Southern plantation: “My dear, Halcyon belongs to its guests.”
Born in Calgary, Dehner seems to have been training for his role as keeper of Tom’s flame from a
very young age. He says that he was aware of his sexuality when he was five and that he began
exploring men’s bathrooms by age nine. He also recalls hanging out at local motorcycle shops,
“polishing bikes and fetching sodas—anything to get a ride.”
Decamping from Canada when he was 20, Dehner’s peregrinations took him far and wide, from
Los Angeles and New York to Uruguay and Hawaii. Evidence of his adventure-filled life can be
found throughout Tom House. There are signed photos by Liza Minnelli and Grace Jones, two of
Dehner’s clients in the years he worked as a body therapist for a galaxy of high-profile personali-
ties, including Rock Hudson; model shots of Dehner taken by Bruce Weber in New York in the
mid-1970s; original Tom of Finland portraits consecrating Dehner’s face and physique; and, in the
kitchen, a crayon drawing by his granddaughter (he fathered a son when he was 16).
Dehner dates his Tom epiphany to 1976, when he saw one of the artist’s typically hyper- charged,
hyper-masculine images—Tom called them his “dirty drawings”—on an advertisement for a mo-
torcycle club hanging in the Spike, a popular New York leather bar. “It was so powerful and seduc-
tive that it cast a spell over me. It moved me like nothing I’d ever seen,” Dehner says.
Within days, Dehner got Tom’s address in Helsinki from Dorn Orejudos (aka Etienne), the house
artist at photographer Lou Thomas’s Manhattan-based atelier of gay erotica, Target Studios.
Dehner initiated his correspondence with a fan letter, and when Tom spied the photographs Bruce
Weber had taken of his admirer in After Dark magazine, his interest was piqued. The two finally
met in the spring of 1978, when Dehner offered to host Tom on his first trip to America, which
revolved around back-to-back exhibitions at Fey-Way Studios in San Francisco and Eons in L.A.
The opening at Fey-Way—a gallery of gay art founded by Robert Opel, the man who famously
streaked the Academy Awards in 1974—attracted a host of Tom aficionados, including Orejudos
and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. When they returned to L.A. for the presentation at Eons,
Tom stayed with Dehner and his partner, George Rauch, in the Spanish- style house they rented
in Silver Lake.
Tom was apparently smitten—both with Dehner and the sexually liberated milieu in which he
flourished. The artist and his protege—Tom was 58 and Durk 28 at the time of their meeting— re-
connected in New York in the fall of 1978 for a show Dehner had arranged at Stompers, composer
Louis Weingarden’s West Village boot shop-cum-gallery. By the time Tom returned to L.A. in late
1979, Dehner had pooled his resources with his current lover, his ex-lover, and his ex-lover’s
lover to purchase the house on Laveta Terrace. If that sounds like a set-up for a sexy sitcom, the
truth is not far off—the place proved to be the perfect backdrop for romantic round robins and gay
fellowship.
Completed in 1912, the capacious but timeworn dwelling retained a few vestiges of its Crafts-
man roots—notably, its dark oak paneling, sliding doors, and staircase—as well as vague hints
of the Art Nouveau influence that had migrated from Europe at roughly the same time. In addition
to ample outdoor space, the house possessed a partly finished cellar, which the new occupants
quickly painted black and outfitted with a sling, leather gear, and other essentials of a proper gay
dungeon. Dehner recalls a comic episode that occurred some years later, when a Maytag repair-
man descended into the cellar to fix the washing machine that was located, conveniently, near
the dungeon’s various apparatus: “I heard a scream and then saw the guy flee in horror. He didn’t
come back.”
Sex naturally played a big part in the social life of the defiantly polygamous household, but other,
less visceral forms of brotherly love set the overriding tone for the home. “There was always lots
of activity and people. This was a place where we could simply be ourselves, a place without
shame or judgment. It had a spiritual dimension,” Dehner explains.
Underscoring the atmosphere of a butch hippie commune, a few members of the core circle actu-
ally adopted the same last name, Dehner, which they appropriated from a venerable Nebraska-
based boot maker. Durk Dehner, who was born John Jonathan, Jr., also changed his forename
to perpetuate a vivid adolescent fantasy. When he was 14, he stole a pair of sunglasses from a
1956 Ford he stumbled upon in a Vancouver park. “The name Durk was scratched on the side of
the sunglasses, and I thought that sounded incredibly hot,” he recalls. “I never saw the.owner, but
I must have jerked off a thousand times to the image in my head.”
The Dehner Brotherhood, as it was known, included the four original occupants of the house—
Durk’s then ex-partner George Rauch became Butch Dehner—along with a circle of like-minded
friends and lovers, including Tom. In 1980, the artist returned to Laveta Terrace, this time with
his partner of many years, Veli Mäkinen. “Veli was very cool and reserved, like so many Finns,”
Dehner recalls, “but he ultimately gave his blessing to the business relationship I was developing
with Tom. He knew Tom had been burned before, but he felt I could be trusted.”
Following Makinen’s death from cancer the following year, Tom began spending more and more
time in L.A., eventually remaining in the U.S. for six months of the year, the maximum time af-
forded by his visa. Dehner describes the early years of Tom’s residency as a giddy honeymoon.
On road trips and bar visits, Dehner presented Tom, appropriately, as gay royalty. “He got to be
young again in L.A.,” Dehner says. “When I took him out to clubs, he saw firsthand that all the
work he’d done in obscurity for so long had really taken hold. It made him happy to see all these
young, sexy guys embracing the aesthetic he worked so hard to perfect.”
In 1980, Tom and Dehner cofounded the Tom of Finland Company, effectively wresting control
over the production and distribution of Tom’s work in the U.S. from the unscrupulous printers and
vendors who for years trafficked in pirated reproductions of inferior quality, with no royalties paid
to the artist whatsoever. That issue, which had dogged Tom for decades, was a frequent subject
in the letters he exchanged with Dehner early in their acquaintance. “Looking back to the ending
year, it has been one of the most depressing and difficult in my life. Once again I found out, that
I am the loser, damn naive idealist,” Tom wrote in a letter dated December 31, 1980, discussing
an exhibition at New York’s Robert Samuel Gallery. Not only had the gallery failed to pay Tom
for works purchased by collectors, it also produced and sold a wholly unauthorized set of Tom of
Finland greeting cards.
That type of blatant exploitation with apparent impunity made Dehner’s bold ideas for a self- sus-
taining Tom of Finland business enterprise all the more attractive. “What I wanted for Tom was
empowerment—the same thing he had given to so many gay brothers. He was a seminal figure in
gay history, but because of the nature of his work, he hadn’t been given the respect and recogni-
tion he deserved,” Dehner explains.
The Tom of Finland Company began by producing calendars, prints, and, most notably, a new
installment in Tom’s landmark Kake graphic novel series, which focused on the adventures of the
titular protagonist, a leather-clad Adonis with an insatiable appetite for raunchy man-sex. Kake
in the Wild West—Tom’s first story fully executed in the U.S.—captured the artist’s fascination
with the outlaw spirit of the American West, graphically displayed in a saloon stocked with randy
cowpokes eager for action.
When Tom was in L.A., he drew every day in his attic bedroom. He would have coffee each morn-
ing on one of the garden’s lower terraces, then sequester himself for hours at his desk before
coming down for lunch. “He needed two things to work—isolation and cigarettes,” Dehner says.
“The smoke was a kind of dreamy intoxicant, and as for the privacy, he once told me that he had
to have a hard-on to produce a really great drawing. When the door was closed, he was not to
be disturbed.”
Today, Tom’s room remains largely unchanged from the time of his residency. As one might ex-
pect, there is an array of personal memorabilia on display: his officer’s uniform from World War
11 bearing the medal presented to him while he served as a second lieutenant in the Finnish
Army; leather boots; containers filled with pencils, markers, and brushes; a well-traveled leather
suitcase; and a framed sheet of music composed by the artist, who had studied at the Sibelius
Academy in Helsinki after the war.
The decidedly unpretentious room also features an assortment of Tom of Finland merchandise
produced at various points during the artist’s lifetime and afterward. There are racks of clothing—
flannel shirts, leather jackets, and pants, all bearing Tom’s imagery—from the namesake apparel
line designed by Gary Robinson and David Johnson from 1996 to 2002. The bed Tom slept on
is now covered in Tom-themed sheets and pillowcases fabricated, more recently, by the Finnish
home goods company Finlayson. And mingling among the faded postcards and family photo-
graphs displayed on a bookcase is an articulated Tom of Finland action figure with interchange-
able feet, hands, and penises, both cut and uncut—think of it as Mr. Potato Dick.
As the business of the Tom of Finland Company at long last brought a measure of financial stabili-
ty, Tom and Dehner turned their attentions to Tom’s legacy. In 1984, they established the nonprofit
Tom of Finland Foundation with the express purpose of documenting and preserving the artist’s
vast archive, much of which Tom brought from Finland on his yearly trips. However, in 1986, with
the AIDS pandemic showing no signs of abating, the Foundation widened its purview and began
accepting the work of other homoerotic artists. “We took in collections that had no place to go be-
cause of the stigma attached to the subject matter. The artists’ families normally didn’t want it, mu-
seums and institutions didn’t want it, and there was no viable commercial market,” Dehner says.
During the bleakest years of the AIDS crisis, Tom House hosted roughly 50 memorial ceremonies
by Dehner’s account. Many of the artworks that now blanket the walls and ceilings of the resi-
dence exude a palpable sense of loss, but their very existence represents the triumph of memory
and celebration over the bitter ravages of disease. Were it not for the Foundation, the names of
many of these artists might easily have been lost to history. Instead, their creations helped de-
fine—and continue to perpetuate—the vital, sex-positive spirit that animates Tom House.
The sheer volume of material that flooded into the house over the years created serious challeng-
es for the Foundation’s tiny staff and volunteer corps, which was already struggling to organize
and catalog not only Tom’s archive of drawings but also a mountain of correspondence, vintage
magazines, press clippings, bills of sale, and countless other historical artifacts. All of this mate-
rial is collected in endless boxes, binders, portfolios, and storage containers crammed into every
possible nook and cranny of the house. The treasures of the collection are housed in a safe in a
repurposed refrigerated cargo container in the back of the house.
Despite the herculean efforts required to bring order to its vast holdings—an ongoing and seem-
ingly endless process—the Foundation has, in the years after Tom’s death, accomplished great
things. Dehner and S. R. Sharp, vice president of the Foundation and a full-time resident of Tom
House since 2008, regularly host an ambitious schedule of fundraisers, dinner parties, live draw-
ing classes, solo and group art exhibitions, symposia, and community meetings—all in addition to
the House’s ongoing mission to provide a refuge for at-risk youth and struggling artists.
“The timbre of the events shifts from academic to festive to raunchy,” explains Sharp, a former
municipal gallery manager who came to Hollywood and worked on the moralizing television dra-
ma 7th Heaven for years before the show ended in 2007. Sharp recalls a particularly memorable
visit from a group assisting the Foundation in utilizing technology as a means of disseminating in-
formation to the widest possible audience. “There was a potentially awkward moment when I was
taking the librarians through the house. We were walking by a cheap bust of David and I noticed
a dried-up, used condom nestled in his curls,” he remembers.
The Los Angeles Band of Brothers, a self-described “mentoring and fraternal organization” made
up of title holders who have competed in the Mr. Los Angeles Leather Contest, holds monthly
meetings (and an annual sex party) at Tom House, underscoring the fundamental connection be-
tween Tom’s artwork and the leather community. LABB member Shad Cruz explains that leather
is the common denominator for a wide-ranging group of fetishists whose interests extend to
sports gear, latex, neoprene, and fur. “It’s an identifier, a way of signaling that you’re into risque
sex,” he says. “Leather is the fabric of our lives.”
Marc Bellenger, who holds the title of Mr. Long Beach Leather 2013, moved into the house in
late 2014, supporting the Foundation’s work with responsibilities that range from “fundraising
to changing the toilet paper,” he says. He likens LABB’s summertime “play party for men” to an
exclusive event at the Scientology Celebrity Centre in Los Feliz. “The screens go up, no one can
see in, the music comes on, and then the fun starts,” he says.
Beyond hosting librarians and leathermen, the Foundation has produced 25 Tom of Finland Art
Fairs at different venues in Los Angeles and New York since 1995, helping to build an extensive
network of artists and collectors. It also sponsors a biennial emerging artist competition and an
artist-in-residence program. Michael Kirwan, whose erotic imagery celebrates everyday guys as
sex gods, became the first visiting artist by default: in 2005, when he came to Tom House to
mount his first solo exhibition, a hurricane destroyed his apartment in Fort Lauderdale. Dehner
invited him to stay at the house for whatever length of time he needed to regroup, and Kirwan
never returned to Florida.
Of course, the Foundation has been indefatigable in pursuing its original mission to promote Tom’s
work and see it recognized as a revolutionary force in the history of 20th-century art, culture, and
gay politics. Over the years, Dehner has found many art-world allies with progressive sensibili-
ties that allowed them to see Tom’s work as something beyond mere illustration or pornography.
Artist Richard Hawkins has remained a faithful friend and eminence grise. Hudson, the prescient,
mononymous force behind New York’s Feature gallery, began exhibiting Tom’s drawings in 1988
and was the first gallerist to acknowledge the importance of Tom’s preparatory sketches and
collages. Artist Nayland Blake penned a wide-ranging “appreciation” of Tom’s work—including
poignant commentary on Tom’s representation of black men and his use of Nazi imagery—in the
Fall 1988 issue of Outlook. Richard Marshall, the adventurous Whitney Museum curator and art
advisor, wrote the essay for the catalog of the third retrospective of Tom’s work, published by the
Foundation in 1997.
Los Angeles gallery owner David Kordansky, who represents the work of Tom of Finland, has
become a clarion voice in promoting a wider appreciation of Tom’s oeuvre. “The work has not
yet been subjected to the kind of criticality and scholarship that it merits. It’s so much more than
a garnish for West Hollywood coffee tables,” he insists. “There’s a politic involved, and it’s pretty
fucking radical.” Kordansky is particularly eloquent on the subject of Tom’s preparatory drawings:
“They are the central station of his desire and the arena in which he exercised his imagination.
You can see Tom’s mind and libido rendered through his hand.”
Kordansky is equally enthusiastic about Tom’s collages (or “reference pages,” as the artist called
them), which combine imagery of men lifted from both mainstream publications and illicit gay
magazines along with Tom’s own photography.
Tom’s sketches and collages featured heavily in Tom of Finland: The Pleasure of Play, an exhibi-
tion that opened at New York’s Artists Space in June 2015. That show was, at the time, the most
comprehensive survey of Tom’s work ever mounted, marking a milestone in the quest for institu-
tional recognition.
Thankfully, Tom got a small taste of the acclaim that was to come before he succumbed to em-
physema in Helsinki in 1991. The year before, he was honored in his homeland by the Finnish
Comics Society, and mere weeks before his death, he saw a screening of the as-yet- unreleased
Finnish documentary Daddy and the Muscle Academy, which paid tribute to the artist in a series
of interviews and curious tableaux vivants intercut with flashing images of Tom’s drawings. The
artist also lived just long enough to learn that his “dirty drawings” had made their way into the
Whitney Museum’s Biennial of 1991, where they rubbed shoulders with the work of Jasper Johns,
Roy Lichtenstein, Mike Kelley, Cindy Sherman, and David Wojnarowicz.
Today, the work of the Foundation continues apace while the maverick spirit of Tom House re-
mains happily undiluted. The Foundation is currently going through the process of registering
the property as an official Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, and the level of activity and
energy has only accelerated as Tom’s work reaches an ever-expanding global audience. The
house is rife with evidence of triumphs great and small—from numerous museum requests to an
increasingly varied array of Tom-themed merchandise. The Foundation has recently brokered
agreements for a collection of high-end Tom of Finland carpets produced by the Swedish rug
maker Henzel Studio, as well as a Tom-branded line of “pleasure tools” that encompasses lubri-
cants, restraints, nipple clamps, an array of insertables, and a collector’s edition dildo modeled on
Kake’s famous cock—the La Jaconde of the dildo world.
Like Torahs to the Jews, dildos are sacred objects at Tom House—one cannot simply throw them
out with the garbage when they become old and worn. In the sanctum sanctorum of the dungeon,
used dildos mingle with assorted chains, nooses, dog collars, cock rings, shackles, hoods, altars,
offering cups, and the odd bust of Hitler. A postcard mounted on a wall bears the irresistible mes-
sage “I love the smell of manhole in the morning.” Here as throughout Tom House, humor coexists
with raw sexuality, bonhomie with passion, and quotidian tchotchkes with masterpieces of erotica.
On the day Dehner led me on a tour of the musky basement lair, NPR news was playing on the
loudspeakers, striking a note that would seem discordant were it not for the genial, affectionate
air that pervades even the darkest corners of the home. At Tom House, everyone is welcome,
everyone is accepted, and all things considered.
HISTORY OF OWNERSHIP, 1421 LAVETA TERRACE, LOS ANGELES
The property at 1421 Laveta Terrace has had relatively few owners over the last 100 years. The
first recorded owner was a lawyer, Robert W. Kemp (1873-1922)i. Kemp bought Lot number
twenty one of Sunset Boulevard Heights, paying the amount of ten dollars. It was to be used for
“residential purposes with the condition that it not be leased resold to Negro, African or Asiatic
races.”ii When Robert Kemp applied for the “erection of frame building, permit #2778” iii, in April
of 1911, he listed his address as 824 East Kensington Road, apparently living with his in-laws iv.
In 1906, Robert Kemp married Corda Lillian Weller, daughter of Zachariah and Eliza Weller.
Lillian and her family lived in a Queen Anne house at 824 East Kensington Road. Zach Weller
who was a hardware merchant with a store, Hoffman & Weller, on Main Street, built the house,
which was originally at 401 North Figueroa. However, in 1900, the family vacationed on Catalina
Island while the house was moved 3,000 feet north and was wired for electricity, the first house
in Angelino Height to do so. The property would stay in the Weller family for the next fifty years
and become Historical Landmark, no.223 in 1979v.
Among the residents of 1421 Laveta Terrace in its early days were the Kemps 3 children: Phyllis
(born 1910), Robert (born 1913vi) and Doris (born 1916)vii, Minnie F. Klingaman (a cousin of
Lillian whose mother’s maiden name was Klingamanviii). Minnie was a secretary at the J.R. Ott
Company.ix Also living there in 1916 were Jas and Lucious Bethune, as gardener and
housekeeper.x By 1920, the “domestic” had changed to 17-year-old Mytle Boardman.xi
After Lillian died in 1926, the property was sold by the executor of her estate, C. E.
Listenwalterxii, in 1929 to Antonio and Rosa Lozzi for $11,500xiii. There is a Los Angeles City
Directory 1926 listing for an E.A. McGrath, who worked for the Times-Mirror  perhaps a
caretaker or such.xiv The Lozzis (or Lozzie or Lozzexv), Italian immigrants with 3 sons and 5
daughtersxvi, lived in the house from 1929 until selling it to Gelindo Marrone around 1960. The
Reconveyance document signed by Antonio Lozzi seems to indicate that the property was sold
in 1956, but not to whomxvii. There is a listing for a Gelindo Marrone and Zaccaria Casillo in the
Los Angeles Street Address Directory in March 1960xviii. This has been confirmed by a neighbor,
William (Willy) M. Centrone, age 64, who has lived at 1422 Laveta Terrace his entire life,
remembers both the Lozzi and Marrone families and that the Marrones moved there about that
time.xix Gelindo Marrone applied for an application to “ADD-ALTER-REPAIR-DEMOLISH” 1974
[Included in this application].
Apparently H. Michael and Katherine A. Bishopxx purchased the property between that
application for alterations and it being deeded in 1979 xxi to Durk Dehner who now owns the
property and continues to live there.
History of the Bench and Bar of California, 1912; "California Death Index, 1905-1939," database with
i
images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK91-TMLK : accessed 14 May 2016),

Robert W Kemp, 06 Nov 1922; citing 46372, Department of Health Services, Vital Statistics Department,
Sacramento.
Kuczynski genealogy lists Kemp as being an attorney in 1920. Genelogia Polska, 2016.
Los Angeles Deed recorded 1910, Book 4225, p. 162
ii
Department of Buildings, Application for Erection of Frame Building, Permit #2778, Apr 6,
iii
United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch "United States Census, 1910,"
iv
database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MVL3-F21 : accessed

16 May 2016), Robert W Kemp in household of Carrie Merrill, Los Angeles Assembly District 75, Los
Angeles, California, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 86, sheet 13A, NARA
microfilm publication T624 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.);
FHL microfilm 1,374,097.This index has Kemp as “son-in-law” of Carrie Merrill and her son on
Kensington. That is an obvious mistake as Mrs. Merrill is listed as being 4 years younger than Kemp.
Looking at the original document, it lists Kemp’s address as being separate - 824 Kensington. This sheet
is marked as being supplemental to the one where the Weller household is listed.
“Big Orange Landmarks: Exploring the Landmarks of Los Angeles One Monument at a Time”, Floyd B.
v
Bariscale, blog host. March 14, 2009.

Kuczynski genealogy, Genelogia Polska, 2016.
vi
"United States Census, 1920

vii
Ibid .
viii
Los Angeles City Directory 1912

ix
Los Angeles City Directory 1916

x
United States Census, 1920 .

xi
Lillian’s brother-in-law United States Census, 1910

xii
Los Angeles Deed recorded June 20 , 1929, Book 7419, p.352

xiii th
“slsmn Times-Mirror Ptg & Bndg Hse”, Los Angeles City Directory 1926
xiv
United States Census, 1930 lists a “Tony A. Lozzie” ; Los Angeles Street Address Directory, 1956, May
xv
lists him as Lozze Tony r 1421 Laveta Ter MI 2056. However, the Full Reconveyance document (by the
Southwest Title and Tax Company, recorded by the County of Los Angeles, June 29, 1956) has “Antonio
Lozze” typed in the document with his signature at the bottom as “Lozzi” with the “i” underlined.
United States Census, 1930
xvi
Full Reconveyance by the Southwest Title and Tax Company, recorded by the County of Los Angeles,
xvii
June 29, 1956.

Marrone, Gelindo P MA 9-1852 Co; Casilio, Zaccaria MA 9-1852 Los Angeles Street Address
xviii
Directory, 1960, March

Conversation with Willy Centroni, May 2016.
xix
H. Michael Bishop (Mr. & Mrs) Grant Deed 79-687081 May 7 1979; Katherine A. Bishop 79-687083
xx
June 20 1979 2220 Loveland, Los Angeles

Durk Dehner (Steve Stack, Phillip Chisum) Deed of Trust 79-687082 7th June 1979
xxi
TOM House Exterior
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South
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Northeast North
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TOM OF FINLAND HOUSE

1419-1421 Laveta Terrace

Agenda packet includes:

1. Under Consideration Staff Recommendation Report

CULTURAL HERITAGE COMMISSION CASE NO.: CHC-2016-2510-HCM

HEARING DATE: August 4, 2016 Location: 1419-1421 Laveta Terrace

PROJECT: Historic-Cultural Monument Application for the

OWNER/ APPLICANT: Durk Dehner

RECOMMENDATION That the Cultural Heritage Commission:

1. Take the property under consideration as a Historic-Cultural Monument per Los

2. Adopt the report findings.

VINCENT P. BERTONI, AICP

[SIGNED ORIGINAL IN FILE] [SIGNED ORIGINAL IN FILE]

Ken Bernstein, AICP, Manager Lambert M. Giessinger, Preservation Architect

[SIGNED ORIGINAL IN FILE]

Melissa Jones, Planning Assistant

Attachments: Historic-Cultural Monument Application

Other Associated Names: TOM House; Tom of Finland Foundation

Proposed Monument Natural

2. CONSTRUCTION HISTORY & CURRENT STATUS

Year built: 1911 Factual E Threatened? None

Architect/Designer: Unknown Contractor: W.J. Gratten

Original Use: Residential Present Use: Foundation office/Residential/Art Space

Is the Proposed Monument on its Original Site? Yes Un

3. STYLE & MATERIALS

Architectural Style: Craftsman Stories: 3 Plan Shape: Rectangular

FEATURE PRIMARY SECONDARY

CLADDING Material: Wood clapboards Material: Select

Type: Gable, crossed Type: Select

Type: Double-hung Type: Select

ENTRY Style: Centered Style: Select

DOOR Type: Paneled, glazed Type: Select

1950s Addition of patio structure to garage. Permitted in 1974.

5. EXISTING HISTORIC RESOURCE IDENTIFICATION wn)

List f Regist st c R rces

rve SurveyLA (LGBT Historic Context)

6. APPLICABLE HISTORIC-CULTURAL MONUMENT CRITERIA

Name: Durk Dehner Company: Tom of Finland Foundation

Street Address: 1421 Laveta Terrace City: Los Angeles State: CA

Zip: 90026 Phone Number: 213-250-1685 Email: office@tomoffinlandfoundation.org

Name: Durk Dehner Company: Tom of Finland Foundation

Street Address: 1421 Laveta Terrace City: Los Angeles State: CA

Zip: 90026 Phone Number: 213-250-1685 Email: office@tomoffinlandfoundation.org

Name: Various Contributors Company: Tom of Finland Foundation

Street Address: 1421 Laveta Terrace City: Los Angeles State: CA

Zip: 90026 Phone Number: 213-250-1685 Email: office@tomoffinlandfoundation.org

Name: Date: Signature:

TOM House (“Tom of Finland House”)

Primary elevation of TOM House. Source: Wallpaper Magazine (2014)

Primary Building Exterior

The rectangular plan building is cross-gabled with a projecting dormer window at

Primary Building Interior

The subject building contains a total of seventeen rooms. The ground-floor

2. A small second-floor porch centrally located over the ground-floor porch

3. An interior kitchen wall was removed to enlarge the space.

6. Stained glass windows on the third floor were added in 1989.

Community History and Building History Prior to Period of Significance

Building permits establish that the single-family residence was constructed in