Bob Crane Home Movies: A Hobby That Went Too Far

Video Equipment from Bob Crane’s apartment at the time of his death.

This blog post, video & photo gallery contain graphic content.

Bob Crane loved photography! He was fascinated with taking still photos of family and outings – and eventually preserving the memories of his many sexual conquests. The Crane photographs of very personal moments, both with family and multitudes of women, live on.

With the invention of home video-tape and its introduction to the wealthy and famous in the mid-’60s, Bob Crane became a fast study. He was first “exposed” to the wonderful world of home video by none other than John Carpenter. Carpenter was introduced to Crane during the early years of Hogan’s Heroes by his co-star, Richard Dawson. Dawson was an accomplished British comedian and played the role of ‘Peter Newkirk’ on “Hogan’s.” He later starred for many years as host of the wildly popular game show, “Family Feud.” Carpenter and Crane actually met on the set of ‘Hogan’s Heroes” and quickly hit it off.

It began with Carpenter and Crane spending time in topless bars as the two became “fast friends”— in every sense of the word. When it came to home video, Carpenter was mentor, teacher and procurer of the equipment, which at that time, was unavailable to the average American consumer. He taught Crane how to operate the machines. Carpenter was the first national sales representative for Sony Electronics in the United States. According to Carpenter, President Lyndon Johnson was the first person in the United States to own a VCR, a videocassette recorder. The second was comedian Red Skelton. Carpenter spent several days in Skelton’s home, teaching him how to work the bulky videotape machine. And he did the same with notables Alfred Hitchcock and even Elvis Presley. Carpenter had been around famous people for some time, and was accustomed to their ways.

Crane’s oldest son, Robert Junior told me in 2016, that it was a hobby for Carpenter and Crane that “went too far.” It may have, in the end, cost Crane his life.

Bob Crane’s video camera

The pair loved two things: electronics and women. For many years, Crane operating solo, had been documenting his sexual conquests with Polaroids and still cameras. Many of the photos I’ve seen in evidence are of Crane receiving oral sex with the camera aimed primarily at his crotch as he clicked away. But there are also naked photos of many woman that might have graced the pages of Playboy — or better yet — Hustler!

For Crane, the possibility of documenting his sexual conquests on videotape was beyond exciting. Crane was years ahead of his time. Consider the millions of dollars made by later celebrity “sex tapes” — Pamela Anderson, Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian, to name a few. But in his case, Crane never intended these for public consumption. He might show close friends and associates his homemade porn videos, but his adoring fans would have been shocked that “Colonel Hogan” was fueled by such a dark obsession.

The women in the videotapes (and I’ve seen a bunch) knew exactly what was going on. They were willing participants. You couldn’t miss the bulky 70’s era video equipment. The cameras and clunky tape machines were huge and looked like they had fallen from a Soviet spaceship. Besides, it was all hooked up to a large television set, prominently displayed in Crane’s apartment living room when he was out on the road performing in dinner theaters around the country. Any idea that Crane was taping surreptitiously is pure nonsense. In the many videos and photos I’ve personally seen, the women are all mugging for the camera – willing participants in the festivities. Crane may have been a pervert, even a sex addict. But his subjects were also completely aware of what was going on in the private moments preserved on video and photographs captured in Bob Crane’s apartment “studio.”