Early in the Year 2000 William Higgins begin writing occasional newsletters for the subscribers of EuroMilitary.Com. The purpose of the Newsletters was to keep the sites Members informed of the latest updates to the website. For anyone unfamiliar with William Higgins some background information is needed: Higgins began directing male/male erotic films in Hollywood, California, in 1977. After a long career based in the Los Angeles area, early in 1988, Higgins began a world tour. He intended the tour to last from six months to one year. And along the route he wanted to direct films from exotic locals. He directed one film in Australia. From there he moved onto Europe, after brief stops in Hong Kong, Thailand, and India. After touring Spain and Portugal, Higgins settled down in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Holland was a choice that Higgins drifted into because many of his business colleagues lived there. From his Amsterdam base, Higgins directed one film who story centered around the Berlin wall. Unfortunately, after completion of photography, most of the film's star, a German, dental student who had second thoughts after completing his work. Higgins did not have enough footage remaining to release the film on which he'd worked for six months and was mightily discouraged. In the meantime, he became involved in establishing a Hollywood Style 'Drakes' adult shop on Damrak Street in Amsterdam and without any intention drifted away from filmmaking for about eight years.
Higgins says that he'd long had a fascination with Prague, starting even before Prague Spring in 1968. Shortly after the fall of the Berlin wall, Higgins made his first trip to Prague. He says that it was an 'acquired taste.' But within a few months of his first visit, he began planning to move to Prague. With a lot of difficulty in those 'cowboy' days he established a 'Drakes of Prague.' During this period, Higgins told everyone who asked, "I am retired from filmmaking. I never intend to pick up a camera again."
During the following years entrepreneurial work at Drakes was completed. Higgins says that he'd hired an excellent manager of Drakes 'who could run the place better than me, and I found myself out of a job and bored to death.' In the meantime, Higgins turned down 'too many requests to keep track of' to resume his directorial career. Finally about three years ago, at the urging of Dirk Yates, Higgins took up directing again as a 'retirement hobby.' His 'hobby' has grown into a large ensemble of cast and crew. 'However,' Higgins says, 'I have and will always keep a different motivation nowadays. The work will always be my art and not the source of my daily bread. If my current productions look different from what I produced in the '80s, that the primary reason why. The other reason is that I'm a lot older, and hopefully wiser. With age, you tend to see things with a differently. Rembrandt had an old style, and so do I.' Thus begin what Jerry Douglas calls: "The Comeback of William Higgins." Now, a few words about these newsletter that can be accessed through the links below. The most recent newsletter will always be posted at the top list of URLs. The farther that a reader moves down the list, the older the Newsletters get. Higgins, who has always fended off requests to write his memoirs, started adding a few comments to the Newsletters about what happened during the shoots. Hundreds of readers began writing Higgins saying that they loved being 'a fly on the wall of his shoots' and requested more and more inside information. "I decided that I would tell what really happened," Higgins says, "if it was a great shoot, I'd write that. But if things went horribly wrong, I'd tell that too. The readers really appreciate the honest approach. It makes them sort of feel like a part of our family. They can always sus out the false hype anyway. And, the sun don't shine every day darlin's." The Higgins Newsletter was primarily intended for paid subscribers of EMA. But Higgins says that he has found that thousands of non-subscribers love reading his 'inside stories.' So, the Newsletter is available free to non-subscribers of EMA as well.
