Gay Porn Theaters

The Adonis was a dirty, sticky, slice of Heaven on Earth.

Good times

Many!

The old 57th St Playhouse is where I met my first partner he was married to a woman at that time. We went up to the balcony and played until closing time then went back to his place. His wife was house sitting for friends and would not be home until the next day.

R1 Oh the rainy afternoons spent at the Adonis!

When I first came up to NYC during college, I saw theatres that said "Male Only Casts" on the marquees and seriously thought, "Those movies must be so boring," not realizing what kind of movies they were. When I finally realized what they were, I sheepishly went into one, and had a great time. I was a young twink and got alot of attention, oc course. My big dick helped too.

One of my favorite memories was sitting in a seat watching the movie and wanking off. Two guys, one on either side sat down and took turns deep kissing me and sucking me off. They were both so beautiful and hairy chested. I finally came, with one guy eating all my cum and the other disappointed that he didn't get to have it. Ahh, those were the days

There was a really sleazy one on 44th and 8th avenue. I forgot the name. I remember when the basement flooded you had to walk on planks in disgusting dirty water.

The Kings theater. That one is now a very touristy restaurant.

Ewwwwww! Gross!

I came all over someone in the stall of the bathroom at the Kings - no paper to clean up. i felt bad.

I had my way (and they with me) with one or two major stars de smut back in the day, in the mezzanine heads at the Adonis. Ah great times.

THere was one by the David Letterman Theatre--maybe on 57th? There was also one near 42nd and 8th (with a balcony). Sadly, I remember when the city started cracking down. It saent police into the theatres to watch and the clientele disappeared.

I recall meeting a cute guy that I sort of dated during a summer in NY. He was an illegal from Costa Rica who worked in a video store. he ultimately returned to his country because of the lack of opportunity here. He was such a warm and funny guy. He even made me a mixed tape of love songs that I still have. A sweetie, for sure.

My first gay pron experience was at the Bijou in Chicago. Saw Casey Donovan's "Boys in the Sand."

Talk about hitting a home run at my first at bat. All the pron I've seen since can't hold a candle to this gay masterpiece.

Compared to the utter crap that's being churned and spit out today, well, there is no comparison.

When I lived in SF, a dilapidated movie palace on Market showed porn, grind house and pretentious European art movies, all in the same day, in rotation. What was the name of that place? I remember seeing Salo and gay porn on the same bill. I thought it was brilliant.

[quote] Ewwwwww! Gross!

Frau, get your ass in the kitchen and cut me a slice of pie!

The Case street Cinema in Akron just closed a few years back. As r1 so eloquently put it, a dirty sticky slice of heaven on earth. Had some great times - gay and straight men from all walks of life - I truly miss it.

Under a black light, those places must have glowed like nuclear waste!

[12], are you referring to The Strand on Market Street?

The smell. No designer ever bottled it.

R16 Well I don't remember as I said. It would have been 1985, 86.

I'm sure they all had nacreous layers of permacum.

There is still one here in brooklyn. And there’s one in Queens also.

There’s really small underground type ones in Manhattan too.

I went into a gay cinema in Times Square once back in the mid 80's. There were all sorts in there. Some guys were fully dressed and just sat there watching the movie. A few guys had stripped butt naked and were sitting in seats masturbating. One or two others were in various stages of administering blow jobs in the seat. Just off to the side of the screen was a row of glory hole booths and guys would get up from their seats occasionally and saunter over and partake of a little nosh 'o' pecker and then sit back down. It was just too sleazy even for me, a seasoned sex hound, so I left.

[quote]My first gay pron experience was at the Bijou in Chicago.

Me, too.

I was on a business trip. I met the cutest guy I've ever been with. He was visiting his brother and, he later told me, was a student and the President of the Interfraternity Council at Iowa.

He came back to my hotel. And blew me while I talked to the partner on the case about preparations for the next morning's arbitration hearing. I then put down the phone and blew his beautiful dick.

In a place like that my OCD would be running so high, you'd be able to hear the whine if you stood next to me!

When I first moved to NYC, I engaged in behavior previously unknown to me. Picking up guys on the street and Porn Theaters. I didn't know anybody and I wondered if it was being isolated without the usual friends and family that led to this. Sometimes it was so much fun and other times I didn't feel so great about myself. It must have lasted 3-4 years. I'm not sorry at all though and when it was hot...

I met a such a hunky guy at a NY pron theatre once--he was an anesthesiologist visiting from Chicago for a conference. After meeting at the pron theatre, we actually went to dinner and had a great night in his hotel room. We even emailed a few times when he return to Chicago. Sadly, we lost touch, but I've wondered, from time to time, what he's up to

This place is still here.

The Strand in SF was not a "porn" house, BUT, it had an endless, scary balcony where there were lots of guys messing around - scary good fun. They usually showed double/triple bills of classics or indie movies.

The one on Third avenue around 14th street was fun - a regular porn theater upstairs, and a stairway behind the screen with lots of booths in the basement.

Good Times!

I blew a beautiful Italian man in his 40s at a porn theater. And I mean beautiful.

Just by looking at him you knew he was Italian. He had those features and a beautiful complexion. Then after he busted in my mouth I found out he was married with kids.

You should make it into a film @29...and then show it to his family.

The Adonis Theater was the best. I was very selective with who I hooked up with and only engaged in safe sex which is why I'm still around and -HIV today.

R24 you are me! The first guy I blew smelled of RL Polo.

R26 I sucked off at least 500 guys at that place when it was the TomKat. Holy shit, it was glorious.

Once I saw a movie that was filmed there. Gay porn, obviously. And when they moved around, the sound of the squeaky seats transported me back in time immediately.

R30 nah. He’s cool. The porn theater had 2 screens showing gay porn and one showing straight porn and a bunch of booths. There’s two sides of booths, and again, one side showing 2 different straight porns and the other side showing 2 different gay porns.

Some men go there and stay watching the straight porn cause that’s what gets them off. They like women. But they sure are quick to wanna shove their cocks down your gay throat for a quick bust then be on their way again.

The Italian man was so beautiful I couldn’t be mad. Beautiful firm body, round plump ass, thick thighs and legs, nice arms, that Italian nose (which I love), beautiful hazel eyes, and a beautiful head of salt n pepper hair.

I would bounce around the theater, going to both gay porn theaters and the straight porn theater, lurking to see whose around. Would around around the dark back where all the booths are, and he was there standing in a corner outside a booth looking in watching straight porn. He kept eyeing me down. Wouldn’t look at anyone else. I walked away and went downstairs (where they had regular TV on for those who are porned out) and he found me down there and started to talk to me. I pointed out there are many other men around and he didn’t want them, he wanted me. He then asked what I like, I told him I love sucking dick, and he said “what’s wrong with that?” In his sexy low voice. I said nothing and next thing you knew his cock was down my throat and after he was done he pulled a ring out of his pocket and put it on. I asked him if he’s married and he looked at me and said yes with kids. I was like oh... and he said he hopes to see me again. He didn’t. But I remember him always.

He was also super charming and charismatic, so even if you didn’t wanna blow him he would know how to make you want to. I’ve never dealt with anyone THAT charming since.

He’s one of those that charms his way through life, ON TOP of his good looks.

The porn theaters in Buenos Aires are still going strong. The Cine Ideal is huge so you can roam around - 5 theaters.

R29 The most incredible men I've ever had in my life were at two straight porn theaters in Florence Italy. One near the train station and one a bit outside of town. Both are closed down now, but up until around 2005 they were unbelievable. Everyone seemed to be wearing a wedding ring.

Ah the Bijou in Chicago! Loved afternoons there. Didn't spend a lot of time in the movie theater part but upstairs was another story.

[quote]There is still one here in brooklyn. And there’s one in Queens also.

What are the names?

I never had very much fun in theaters — clientele was always way too skeevy — but I had a lot of fun, hours on end, for years in adult video stores in the booths. The suspense, the hormones raging, the precum, pounding heart, the excitement, and the pleasure. I loved cruising, and I don’t regret any of it (except for all the time I wasted when it was dead but I didn’t want to leave because I kept holding out hope that someone hot would show up).

Cinema Kong’s Highway in Brooklyn. It’s dying though. Doesn’t get much business these days. They won’t last much longer.

Fair Theater far in Queens. That one gets busy sometimes.

Cinema Kings Highway*

[quote] The one on Third avenue around 14th street was fun - a regular porn theater upstairs, and a stairway behind the screen with lots of booths in the basement.

Either the Variety or the Bijou. The former I think. More straight trade there as they didn't always show porn but badly dubbed Z grade movies. I sucked countless cocks at the more hardcore Bijou.

Bette Gordon made a film about the Variety.

"The one on Third avenue around 14th street was fun - a regular porn theater upstairs, and a stairway behind the screen with lots of booths in the basement."

The Bijou was the one at 100 3rd Avenue just south of 13th Street. it was the one with the behind the screen stairs and the booths in the basement. After it closed for good about 15 years ago, they eventually renovated it, added 2 floors and now it's a hipster cocktail bar called VNYL with a 1970s theme owned by Adrian Grenier. It's the white building in the photo.

So many memories of the three in Chicago during the 1980s.

The Bijou - now closed.

Second Story Emporium - closed a while ago.

The Ram - (or as I call it, "The RAM It Up My Ass") - still going today, although I haven't been there in a long time.

Thanks R42 They should put a plaque up for the Bijou there. These sites have history. Same with the club baths on 1st Ave that became cave canem and then lucky chengs.

I used to love going to the the abs and get there in time for the blue collar guys who started getting off (in more ways than one!) at 3pm. Being a prettty tranny with big boobs I’d get fucked an average of 5x. I was very careful about protection, so I’m still here to savor the memories. Ps. There is a pretty good french film called “Porn Shor” or “Porn Theater” you should check out if you miss the good ol days.

I thought for a second that R44 wrote that they should put a plage up for the Bijou which oddly sounds more correct.

Of course only gorgeous well endowed guys hung around porn theaters.

A Night At The Adonis

The Pilgrim Theatre on Washington Street in Boston's Combat Zone was the mother of them all. It was one of those former big burlesque theatres that turned into a movie palace that turned into a porn movie palace. It was spectacular faded glory at its best. Technically is it was a straight porn theatre, but the movie being shown and the scattered straight male audience were beside the point. There was so much gay sex and masturbation going on all over the place. Dark, but lit enough so you could see what you were doing, the sex was everywhere, in the seats, in the aisles, in the corners, on the stairs, in the stalls, hidden away, out in the open. It was a sex escape from the world and heaven on earth in the middle of downtown Boston. Surprisingly, it was a safe place and police didn't bother the patrons. In fact, you never saw them.

And if the delightful depravity wasn't enough on the main floor and balcony, then head down the marble staircase to one of those once elaborate men's rooms in old theatres. The lighting was a bit brighter where you could see men and their cocks hanging out. Sucking, fucking and stroking were happening at every turn. The jizz and piss flowed freely at those old-fashioned, floor to waist-high, divider-less urinals where you stood back, pissed and cruised the guy next to you was unobstructed, not like the paranoia that goes on today. The Pilgrim was a den of iniquity not to be missed. The Pilgrim had its own cleaning staff of mostly older black men doing their best to mop the marble men's room floor. Yes, the Pilgrim maintained cleanliness standards albeit low, but nonetheless, it was a nice touch in this ornate palace.

The Pilgrim attracted everyone from the urban to the suburban from the residents to tourists alike from the married business man to the proper Brahmins of Beacon Hill to the guidos of the North End. From the one-time visitor to the regulars to the blue collar guys and white collar guys before heading home to the wives, girlfriends and boyfriends, old men, young men, students, loners, the shy, the not-so-shy and gays looking for a place to go after the bars, everyone ended up at the Pilgrim at some point in their out and open or closeted curious journey. The Pilgrim ebbed and flowed with "moviegoers" looking to escape for a while, be alone or be with others with weekend nights of course being the busiest. If you were still there on Monday morning, the escape had perhaps gone a bit too far, and the dwindling bottom-of-the-barrel, attendees were clearly not the "respectable" boys out for a good time on a Saturday night.

Sadly, the building in which the Pilgrim was located was demolished in 1996, and over the years the Combat Zone has been transformed into a bland, busy intersection kind of like a smaller cleaned up Times Square. It was the end of an era. But at the Pilgrim in days gone by, gays and straights mixed in a world all their own. And at the Pilgrim, gay ruled the day and night, but even among the countless straights, almost everyone was a little bit gay at the Pilgrim.

And everyone died of AIDS. THE END.

cave canem well I haven't heard that name in decades!!

I know people that would get into porn theaters fairly easy while only 14 and 15 years old with fake IDs and some places didn’t ID you at all in NYC. They would always go watch porn lol.

These are my older friends that were teens in the 70s and 80s. I was born in the late 80s so I can’t relate. I only experienced the two porn theaters still open. But theyre dying.

I was 23 when I first got a job in NYC. I had two hour lunches (I worked in advertising); right near my office was the 55th Street movie house. My first time there someone sat next to me, unzipped my pants, sucked my dick and swallowed my load. I went back there repeatedly.

R53 Was it called the David?

I would assume now sitting in a porn theatre in the USA is extremely high risk for bed bugs and scabies.

Why now r55

RIP, Tea Room Theatre in San Francisco. Small, INCREDIBLY sleazy and always full of guys looking to swallow a load.

Loved those places. So much better than Grindr. Of course the prisspot millennials worry it’s too dirty. Ugh.

Philly still has the Sansom Theater. Even bathhouses.Like so much of Philly, it never changes - for better or worse.

I loved the immediacy of the porn theaters. Except for the guys who seemingly lived there, guys went there to get off. Standards were relative to who else was there at the moment you were. Today's menu apps like Grindr make hooking up a chore. It seems everybody is moving on to the next guy who does not check all their (unrealistic) boxes. In the theaters, it was a fast, simple yes or no.

There was a one on 7th avenue - now another restaurant - sometimes it was like death going in there. But once I met the cutest Colombian boy - totally hot sex.

[quote]Like so much of Philly, it never changes - for better or worse.

Philly is maybe the last major city that still has a bit of a 1970s vibe.

I loved them, the dirty sleazy smell and atmosphere of sexual high were such turn on. Whenever I traveled to a city I went to those place. Foten crowded and good looking guys. Much easier than Grindr.

there was a sleazy one on the west side highway in the 90s - I remember standing in the very back and fondling a guy's balls - he was very turned on by that, as was I.

Apps are fine, but I agree - there's so much back and forth that sometimes it's not worth it. That's why cruising and ABS/theaters are so hot. It's an in-the-moment connection that is fucking hot.

Have fun telling your family how you and Mr. Right met.

R65 I only tell my gay friends that story it would be TMI for the family.

I had a friend I used to kid about having a gringo complex.

He loves the Latino boys he used to meet them in the porn theaters in 8th avenue and the tiny seedy bars next to them. I forget their names.

He said, with good authority, they were straight but too poor to date.

There was one on West St just around corner from Badlands bar. Nice cocks yum yum

In 1975, at the 55th Street Playhouse across the street from City Center, I rejected John Gielgud at a urinal! Projectionist, whom I knew, there found Schuyler Chapin's wallet on the floor and very discreetly called the apartment on Lexington Avenue. Used to be a skinny black pick-pocket there who was named "snake hips". He'd be all over you trying to get your wallet. At the David Cinema on West 54th Street, used to see Sir Rudolph Bing all the time; he was impeccably dressed in a double-breasted suit.

Love your post. Did you ever see Sir Rudolph do anything?

Did Bing ping?

Honey, with the exception of Gielgud, the names you just dropped landed harder than a 300lb bottom falling from a sling.

[quote] Fair Theater far in Queens. That one gets busy sometimes.

It's still very popular. Datalounge has a thread on it.

R73 I know.

It’s a shame the one in Brooklyn isn’t.

(shudders)

I bet those places were never cleaned...ugh.

And I bet there were[italic] tattoos[/italic] ! !

Tattoos EVERYWHERE!

I’m a lesbian and I’ve long been fascinated by these theaters. Thanks for sharing some of the stories and explaining what all went on inside. Has anyone ever spotted a woman inside them?

R78. I think it's generally understood that "No Girls Allowed" rules the day...and night at these dens of iniquity.

It all just sounds so sordid - -

R80 Yes, indeed. Just one of the reasons it was so great and so missed.

R78 the only time a woman went to a theater like that was if a man brought her.

The belief women never went is foolish.

So did guys just openly suck and fuck in the actual theater or did they go to a different area?

R93 Both. Depending on the theater and its architecture. Sucking was usually what went on in the actual theater. Places like the the Adonis had a balcony where there was fucking. In some theaters there was action behind the screen too.

Great stories R69 (how appropriate!)

Obama and Gayor Rahm were charter members of Chicago's Bijou.

Had some amazing experiences in NY theaters... There was a place in the 30's.. between 5th and 6th, it was really odd. I think you had to go up a flight of stairs? There was a very small dark area in a corner, kind of like a closet without a door. This guy beckoned me in and we had some of the hottest sex of my life. I couldn't really make out his face and we were standing up the entire time but the sex was intense. Miss those encounters. Can't stand these apps...

R87 olivia D?

Definitely not for me, even if I were into anonymous hookups I certainly wouldn't be into having them while a roomful of strange men watched.

The Adonis was the Radio City Music Hall of gay porn.

R69, wow names I haven't heard in decades.

I once saw Alan Cumming giving Blowjob after Blowjob at the Adonis. He seemed so contended.

Never saw any women ever in any of the porn cinemas I frequented in the 70s/80s. Once at the 55th Street Playhouse, saw a guy in drag with a man in a suit. Very tasteful couple in their 40s. They were sitting and the drag was jerking off her lover. 55th Street Playhouse had action behind the screen. Once alerted a guy to the fact that his wallet was getting lifted and the pick pocket heard me and punched me in the stomach. Projectionists could be very strict about men staying out of the ladies room. The one there had "ladies" misspelled: "laides" which means ugly women in French! Was always afraid of dropping trousers while sitting for fear of getting crabs. Men's room frequently had an overflowing toilet. Met Didier Grumbach there and an Air France Concorde pilot and tons of married men. Many would do the johns at the Hilton and Dorset Hotels and then check out the 55th Street Playhouse and the David Cinema.

[quote]r93 55th Street Playhouse had action behind the screen. Once alerted a guy to the fact that his wallet was getting lifted and the pick pocket heard me and punched me in the stomach.

No one likes a snitch...

[quote]Met Didier Grumbach there

Not Didier Grumbach?!? The Didier Grumbach?

The Variety didn't have porn but last runs of the cheapest releases, so bad they more likely escaped. The theater, like the Adonis but not as glorious architecturally, was enormous. People sat sprinkled far apart and you couldn't see much going on. There was a lot of changing of seats lol.

I've seen a woman at the Fair Theater, R78, maybe just once or twice. And yes, a man brought her.

Anyone in NY remember the Jewel theater? Lots of action there and the strippers on stage put on a good show before the movie.

Movie....hee hee

I did get pickpocketed in one of the theatres while visiting NYC. Thankfully I always had a habit of putting $20 in my sock for fear of pickpockets. That money got me to my hotel.

I loved those theaters. Once after college, I came up to New York to interview for a job. I stayed at my friend's apartment, put on my suit, and went for the interview. After the interview, I changed into my jeans in a bathroom and headed to an adult theatre with my suit bag! Fun times.

Did the seats crunch when you sat on them?

That place in the 30's between 5th and 6th - Banana Video? They had pay booths on one level and a theater on the next floor.

I believe there is still one on East 4th Street - don't know the name.

"I once saw Alan Cumming giving Blowjob after Blowjob at the Adonis. He seemed so CONTENDED."

Say what, r92?

sorry. Contented. Happy, at peace.

I blew Daddy Warbucks at the Adonis after an Annie matinee.

Tell me about the Samson in Philly.

R107 for the WW!

R98 I remember the Jewel, later the Bijou or was it the other way round, but I don't remember the strippers. When abouts was this?

[quote]I blew Daddy Warbucks at the Adonis after an Annie matinee.

It's the hard-on life for you!

There was a gay porn theater on west 54th street, I think it's a bar now. It had a room behind the screen and was there one afternoon, all the guys were going at it! In the center away from everyone was a tall handsome businessman in an overcoat not turned on but seething. A guy walked over to go down on the businessman. Businessman politely stepped away and said, "No thanks, I'm straight." The guy asked, "Then why are you here?" The businessman said, "I'm getting this raw male energy to take into my next meeting". That sums up the 80's.

R110 Late 70's early 80's

The Gaiety that was over the Howard Johnson's at 46th Street & Broadway. They had live dancers shows MC'd by the DJ in the projection room. Friday & Saturday nights were the big shows with about 10 dancers. Guest could meet the dancers at the side room. In between shows they would show gay porn. I would go a few times a year, it was different than any other place in NY. It was in business from the late 1970s through 2005, when the building was demolished. We lost bother the Gaiety and Howard Johnson restaurant at the same time.

"Did the seats crunch..."

No, R102, they squelched.

[quote]The Gaiety that was over the Howard Johnson's at 46th Street & Broadway.

Before it was The Gaiety the place was a dance hall called The Orpheum where guys could get a dance for a dime and was the inspiration for "Sweet Charity".

That was my first HoJo's. Fittingly, I dropped in after the Gaiety. Great pic r114 thank you!

Reid Shelton?

I liked the one at w54 or w55, near what’s now the David Letterman Theatre. Someone on this thread suggested the name was The David.

Did that had bathrooms behind the screen and stair that took you upstairs?

I met so many absolutely beautiful men there. I was a twinky thing so attracted everyone. Love it!

The dancers / hustlers at the Gaiety would come out and "dance" awhile, then go backstage and come back with raging hardons - the elderly crowd would applaud very politely.

What was upstairs r119. I loved the David too. Wasn't there a New David too?

[quote]the elderly crowd would applaud very politely.

Only those whose hands weren't otherwise occupied.

What was the Adonis before it became a porn palace? It was magnificent. It really should've been landmarked and preserved.

I recall visiting The Garden Theater in Pittsburgh a few times back in the early 2000's. Total sleaze fest. There was the main theater that showed straight porn, then two smaller theaters - one to the left which showed trans porn, and one to the right which showed gay porn. There was a small hallway off to the right of the gay porn theater, that was unlit and completely dark aside from the Exit sign, and guys would gather back there to hook up. You only caught an occasional glimpse of who you were hooking up with when someone used their lighter to smoke.

The Foster Art Theatre in Youngstown, Ohio I believe it still open, though it's not listed on that Cinema Treasures website. Some of the reviews on Google are hilarious...

"Just stopped by to ask for directions to a church, and to use the bathroom...very clean."

"Went to the Foster a few weeks ago for the first time. As a cd (cross dresser) I was a little nervous about going. However a nice lady on the phone assured me I was going to be fine. Wow. Was she right. After walking in and sitting on the left side; many came up to me and sat around me. Never had so much fun. I was there for the guys entrainment and had multiple partners. After a couple of hours; my outfit was a mess. My make was a mess. And there were plenty of satisfied men leaving there marks (cum lol) all over me. When I was in the theater I kept seeing the woman from the counter when you come in checking me out or watching (lol) to make sure I was fine. I was. Thanks to all that I served inside and out (lol). See you all sometime soon. Michelle"

The Adonis was the Tivoli theater and was built for Silent movies, There is a porn film set in the adonis (a night at the Adonis?) and you can see the interiors.

Who owned and operated these theaters? The mafia?

The Strand in Kansas City is still going strong, although the building is a firetrap and the place is filthy in a sleazy kind of way. Straight theater downstairs, gay theater upstairs. Lots of action in both and you can move back and forth between them. There are video booths outside off the lobby Have sucked more cock downstairs than up. Gotta love those straight married dads!

The theaters in Buenos Aires are still going strong and sleazy.

The Cinema Follies in DC is where Congressman Hinson got caught.

R130, according to his obituary, he was caught in a federal office building

Mr. Hinson resigned on April 13, 1981, early in his second term, after being arrested in a men's restroom in a Federal office building on Capitol Hill on a charge of oral sodomy. He was taken into custody along with a male employee of the Library of Congress.

I came of sexual age at a complex in a bad part DC (can't remember the name).

There were three spaces, one a movie theatre that had male stripper shows with a backroom (and guys would have crazy sex with the strippers back there between shows); the second space was a large floor of glory holes; the third space was a bathhouse.

Anyone remember the names?

R121, the staircase took you to a large, dark space upstairs with tons of men getting it on, of course.

I don't remember if that was the David but it was in a similar location in NYC

[quote]What was the Adonis before it became a porn palace? It was magnificent. It really should've been landmarked and preserved.

The Tivoli went sleazy early and was raided in '69 for showing a softcore feature. A few years later it was the first theater to show a hardcore feature that had a story and not a documentary called "Mona".

r131, I believe there was a fire there which Hinson escaped. There was tremendous pressure on him to testify because I believe there were casualties, as I recall.

Intrigued, I looked Mona up r134

Mona the Virgin Nymph

Mona (Fifi Watson) and her fiancé Jim (Orrin North) are having a picnic, and they both strip and began to make love, but she halts him claiming that she had promised her mother (Judy Angel) that she wouldn't have intercourse until marriage. However, she joyfully performs fellatio on Jim. Afterwards, Mona also has cunnilingus performed on her by a prostitute (Susan Stewart). In a movie theatre, Mona masturbates and provides oral sex to a nearby male patron (Gerard Broulard). After mother and daughter confess their full-on sexual indiscretions, Jim ties Mona to a bed, and all of her previous partners surround her and engage in a very long, intense oral sex party.

Mona is already more interesting than anything on "Deuce"

R126 I believe I saw A Night at the Adonis at the Adonis. If memory serves. Kinda foggy.

If only Pirandello were alive to write about that!

[quote]Mona (Fifi Watson) and her fiancé Jim (Orrin North) are having a picnic

"Fifi Watson" is such a great name for a vivacious soubrette!

I fondly remember the action in the shadows of the vivid tavolo vivente at the Baths of Diocletian

I think the Adonis had a large cut out oval in the floor lobby of the balcony that looked down onto the last few rows of the first floor seats.. The balcony was huge.

So much fucking in the balcony I remember.

I can't imagine the scenes described in this thread, though I'm sure they were fun. Going to a bathhouse seems much cleaner. And I guess that's the difference I notice between New York and Chicago. In Chicago, you can always go to Steamworks and have safe clean fun, and not have to worry about getting your clothes dirty. New York City doesn't have a decent bathhouse.

R144 We did have good bathhouses in New York when these porn theaters were open.

[quote]Intrigued, I looked Mona up

google Mona the Virgin Nymph xhamster and you should find it although it needs a good historical restoration.

R145, why did the bathhouses in NYC close down?

There was AIDS and our Mayor was a closet Queen.

r132 Follies, Glorious Health and Amusement, Club Washington.

Fond memories of early visits to the Garden Theater in Pittsburgh.

It was a pit, of course, but in the 90s it attracted a steady stream of businessmen, and I had quite a few hot sessions there. I remember blowing a guy that looked like Chad Douglas in a little side room. (Bushy Italian dudes like that are quite frankly a dime a dozen in Pittsburgh.) A hot balding guy in sweats who looked like a coach walked up to the other side of me, pulled his sweats down, and I got a faceful of two cocks.

Literally within a few years it all went to hell, prob due to the Internet. Now it's going to be some coffee shop with white subway tiles.

r132 and now those spaces (as well as Tracks, Secrets, La Cage, Wet and Zeigfields) have become Washington Nationals ballpark.

I also remember the theatres and bookstores that were near the McPherson Square metro stop in the late 70s.

[121 and 133] Yes, there was that metal staircase that took you upstairs at the David. I nicknamed it "backstage at the Winter Garden". And, don't forget the David was a few doors away from Studio 54. Used to fool around there with a turbaned Sikh who was covered in black silky hair except for a hairless Buddha belly. The Kings Cinema was the pits. It was on 50th Street across from Circle in the Square Theater. Met Broadway/Hollywood costumer and 7th Avenue couturier legend Donald Brooks there in 1972 or 73. Does anyone remember Pearl's on West 48th? Was the place to go on Sunday evenings for Chinese food. Miss Pearl wore only Donald Brooks' couture clothes. Think very briefly in the mid-70s there was on Broadway and 48th Street the Big Apply Baths as well as a Big Apple Cinema.

R151 Secrets was sleazy fun. The dancers on the bar were all nude. Tips were tucked into their sweat socks.

It was more of they squatted down and let the eldergay gentlemen sitting at the bar take their semi tumescent cocks in their mouths.

Sad to hear it is gone.

Public bacchanals like this just sound so scummy to me. Bathhouses, public restrooms, video booths, porn theaters....yeech.

I want a hazmat suit just reading this!

R128 do any women go to this "straight" theater?

The Internet has ruined everything most of all gay porn theaters and bathhouses. Bring them back!

Because everyone just sits at a computer jerking off now. But people don’t see how creepy that is in reality now.

Also why no one has social skills any longer.

R156 and R157 I agree, nothing’s better than group of horny men wanting to have sex. You can have safe sex or just watch or touch or go all the way. It’s the physical human contact there is the most important thing. I was just in Paris and there is this huge oriental spa full of good looking guys and hot action.

Still small underground theaters in Manhattan?? Where?

R159 I visit this one in Brooklyn sometimes.

If I were to go into a place like that my OCD would be cranked to 11!

The BEST thing about those porn theaters were the unsuspecting types you could find there. The Adonis had so many wedding ringed businessmen pass through. Guys who just wanted to cum before going home to the wife and kids.

It was heaven.

[quote] The Adonis had so many wedding ringed businessmen pass through. Guys who just wanted to cum before going home to the wife and kids. It was heaven.

I loved those days. Beautiful men, uncomplicated fun.

I'm sure their wives and children greatly appreciate your years of service R162

If wives gave blow jobs, married men wouldn’t go to places where men give blow jobs.

The theaters were always more immediate than the saunas - no checking of clothes, towels - less of a commitment - quick in n' out.

More closeted people went to the theaters.

Does anyone remember a married Wall Street type (had his own brokerage firm) who lived on Park Avenue and did all the mid-town hotel johns, and Bloomingdales too, cinemas and baths? First name was David. Very aggressive and truly sex-crazed. and always aroused.

Not a theater, but does anyone remember Stellas? Multi-level hustler bar in the theater district. Fascinating - the stage shows downstairs were bizarre, and the boys would come up to the potential johns standing around watching and try to feel you up.

There was a theatre, I believe, near Port Authority, around 8th and w42nd with large balcony. I went there a few times but the instance remember most is when a hot hairy guy from Cologne Germany sucked me off for a nice long time.

What was the name of that cinema?

[quote]I also remember the theatres and bookstores that were near the McPherson Square metro stop in the late 70s.

Yeah, but those places were mostly straight. I moved to DC in 1978, never having been east of Reno prior to that. My office was at 14th and K. The first day I went to work, I got out of the Metro at McPherson Square and saw all of those places and wondered what I'd gotten myself into.

I remember meeting a stunningly handsome 30 something Italian guy on the West St. Theater at Christopher. Blue shirt, jeans, breathtakingly beautiful and he wanted me to bareback him. This was 1992. I declined and he begged-I figure he was poz and the little bit of pleasure was a release from his fate. I again said I couldn't, and gently kissed him and gave him a hug.

I wonder if he made it.

I'm sure blowing married men put me at risk of garden variety STDs and possibly more.

But I always felt like my risks of bigger things like HIV were reduced with those married guys. They didn't want trouble and neither did I. And when I was a twentysomething, they were looking for me and I was looking for them, those DILFy types with rings. They wanted oral pleasure and I loved to provide it. Fuck, it was like shooting fish in a barrel in those days.

I loved the video arcades because I could always search out the guys watching straight porn there. I always wanted the guys who just wanted that release. It worked for me, and worked for them. All in all pretty symbiotic.

r171 and others, DC was glorious back in the late '80's with the Wet. They had two dancers there that were planning to e profootballers, several gorgeous marines, and other knockout dancers. I had this coworker who ranted all day about gays (called them hoo-hoos) who would hang out at the stalls of the glorious Plain Brown Wrapper near McPherson Square. No wonder he drank himself to death.

R49, I've went to the Pilgrim many times and it was exactly as you described it. I can't add much to your perfect description except that several times I'd be sitting in a seat in the theater and some guy would walk by stark naked and wearing only his construction boots. I always wondered where they hid their clothes. How would they get home naked if someone stole their clothes?

[quoute] I wonder if he made it.

You're kidding, right?

[quote] There was a theatre, I believe, near Port Authority, around 8th and w42nd with large balcony. I went there a few times but the instance remember most is when a hot hairy guy from Cologne Germany sucked me off for a nice long time. What was the name of that cinema?

Probably The Cameo/Adonis/Playpen. When The Adonis up 8th Avenue was demolished they took over The Cameo and later it died as The Playpen.

[quote] I wonder if he made it.

I hope so!

R177 Sadly today there is a very large office building it it's place with a Shake Shack on the ground floor.

R169 I remember Stella's but never went downstairs.

R176 Anti retrovirals arrived on the scene less than 4 years later.

Ever hear of a Long term survivor?

If he made it to then. Maybe.

Not seeing any posts from England. We're there no porn theaters in London?

This is fascinating history.

There's so much mention of married men, though, I can't help wondering how many of those clueless wives ended up with STDs and even HIV. Not trying to be a buzzkill or anything. But there's no way it didn't happen all the time.

The closet is just fucking toxic for everyone.

R184 I don’t even think they were closeted. Most of them don’t want sex. Intercourse with a man isn’t what they want. They just wanted their cocks sucked. And when a man is horny enough a mouth sometimes just is a mouth.

[quote]The closet is just fucking toxic for everyone.

The husbands getting their dicks sucked were not (necessarily) gay. They weren't in the closet. The just wanted a release....quick and easy. No fuss. No conversation. The sex was not reciprocal.

Used to love going to the TomKat back when I was in college.

It was always a fun experience...not just by getting sucked off by a hot latino guy but all the fuckin' funny shenanigans going on like the ever-present homeless bum who would be snoring in the back row. Watching an 80+ year old man run up and down the aisles....stark naked.

I used to laugh myself silly there.

What was happening back then couldn't happen today because of cellphone cameras.

It couldn't happen today because married men have a million other resources and outlets they didn't necessarily have then.

And because everything's digital now.

And because those kinds of places are almost completely out of existence now.

And because most millennials under 35 are afraid of their own shadows and couldn't manage an interactive moment like going to a theater and having a brief conversation/negotiation as to who's doing what to whom.

They'd fall apart, run home and take half a bottle of Zoloft.

R189 All true

So I've seen several questions about women in adult theaters--as a teen-ager I saw newspaper ads for adult theaters featuring films with an all-male cast and I would think, "What, they show 12 Angry Men on a continuous loop or something?" Of course I knew better, but--you know--teen-age humor. I can't say that I've been to theaters showing big screen adult movies, but--as both a marketer for adult companies and a sometime fan--I have been to adult stores that had booths and private rooms showing gay and straight movies.

My experiences were mixed and mostly more humorous than hot. I've approached video and magazine racks only to have the men beside me run in fear or try to cover up what they were looking at--I would mostly allay these fears by pointing to the vid or mag and saying, "Hey, that model is hot--can I look when you're done?" By contrast, the women clerks who worked there absolutely loved my presence; one time when I encouraged a very sweet young lady clerk to tell me what she did and didn't like about the adult industry, she got very vocal and we got into a spirited discussion--then when a man stuck his head out of a booth and said, "Hey, Chick, could you change the film?" she said, "Say please!" I smiled and thought, "My work here is done."

I only went once with a partner, a hot bi British guy I was dating, but he mostly just complained about how the Florida adult stores paled in comparison to what they offered back in London and how our cock ring selection over here reeked. While alone, I did I have two male/female couples try to pick me up as a third wheel--both of the ladies were very pretty but the men sleazy and kinda creepy, plus one of the women was a 50-year-old dom and porn actress who demoed a new whip to jarring and frightening effect. I politely declined.

I pretty much stopped going after having a manager aggressively try to get me to go into the back room of the store with him when I didn't even know his name and had been there for 5 minutes--the dude was hot, and if he had chatted me up a bit it might have been different, but I do think that--overall--women are a bit different when it comes to this kind of experience. Things can get a little scary in an environment when you're outnumbered by men 10:1.

If a woman does have a curiosity about going to an adult store or theater, I'd suggest she go with a partner or in a group--be careful and have fun!

R192, Lido Theater in Dallas has a theater on the second floor that shows straight porn. Sometimes a male/female couple, or on occasion a lone woman, comes in, and like hawks, men will swoop in and sit around the couple, watching them play. Outside the main theater are large video booth rooms with beds where group play can take place in private. Saturday nights are 'couples night'; only male/female couples can enter. A guy can enter solo but I think they charge like $100. The first floor theater plays gay porn. The rest of the week, paying the entrance fee gives you access to both main theaters.

Jeez, R181. You were clearly not a gay adult in 1992. Four years was a long god-damned time for a person with AIDS in1992. Plenty more than a lifetime.

One of the conditions for a major law firm to move into Worldwide Plaza (50th Street and Eighth Avenue, at the edge of Hell's Kitchen) was the closing of The Adonis. A few years later, the lawfirm partner who brokered the deal was found murdered in the Bronx by a young man with whom the older man was alledged to have a longterm relationship. The New Yorker covered the scandal in a lengthy investigation piece.

Does anyone remember the YMCA that was located north of The Adonis at 51st Street? Good times.

I've been to one in Vienna recently- plenty of sex, with booths and cubicles and gloryholes. Mostly guys, but some men brought in their women partners too. It's almost like a sauna but without the wet areas and nudity. Very active. Berlin theatres much the same. Went to one in Athens, and like the US theatres of old. Full of hot young Middle Eastern and Greek twinks on the hustle,

R195 I was not aware that the Adonis was closed because of a law firm's condition. I recall there was construction going on to the stores on the left of the theater, that was before the theater was closed down.

Yes, I'm sure it's all the wives fault. R165.

R175. R49 here. I must have seen you at the Pilgrim Theatre in Boston. An era sadly gone by. But such good times while they lasted. The Internet has ruined human interaction.

R195 I don't remember a Y near there on 51st? How far back are you going?

The Adonis was a casualty of Giuliani and the big biz Times Square BID. I missed the Worldwide Plaza angle on its fate. Any link to the New Yorker article? I googled but couldn't find.

It was the Clark Center at the Westside YWCA on the east side of Eighth Avenue. It was a center for dance and Playwrights Horizons started there.

Here's the building.

Photo of the building.

When did the Clark Y close?

1989

I loathe Giuliani but why did gay guys expect him to save a bunch of peep shows and sex theaters when that property could be put to far better use?

^^^ And now it looks like any parking lot mall in America.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

True R207 but it's still being put to better use than it was as a place where random guys could go to hook up and swap loads.

^^ Not true. There were many signs indicating girls were stripping to earn their way thru college.

Yeah...of course, there were. R209

I knew a city attorney who had to help draft the city ordinances re. what was acceptable in a burlesque show and they argued for hours over what constituted a nipple and how much of that and the surrounding area could be unclothed.....all driven by a serial womanizer who changed women like one would change clothes. Fascinating to look at the Giuliani and to see the nasty inner identity manifest itself in his face as he ages. A real ghoul.

R206 isn't there a cvs or Duane reade where the Adonis was? Street side facing wwplaza? Some of us would question if that's better use. I don't think Duane reades and chain restaurants would inspire Delaney to write a follow up to Times Square Red, Times Square Blue.

Even a CVS is more useful than a crusty porn theater.R212

R200 The article is from the June 13, 1993 issue of The New Yorker and is entitled "Death of a Partner."

I'm fascinated by the one out in Queens - it's like something out of a Fellini film. How does it make money? And how do they get away with smoking inside???

R215 it’s always busy I heard.

[quote]isn't there a cvs or Duane reade where the Adonis was?

Yes the entire block was raised as posted above at the insistence of the World Wide Plaza developers across the street. There was nothing up that part of 8th Ave and the new stores helped sell the WWP condos.

[quote] I've went to the Pilgrim many times

Oh, dear.

R213 = Rudy

R219= Cumdump

R213 is Miss Prissy Prigg.

And who are you R213? Miss Load Lapper USA?

This is so fascinating.

The Fair Theater

[quote]Yes the entire block was raised

I'd love to know how they did that! Was it anything like the High Line?

I will take a crusty porn theater over a CVS or Duane Reade or Starbucks or Chipotle ANY DAY. Move back to Nebraska R213.

[quote]I will take a crusty porn theater over a CVS or Duane Reade or Starbucks or Chipotle ANY DAY. Move back to Nebraska

Actually it's the Nebraskans and tourists that pine for the old 42nd Street as a quick thrill and back to boring Bumfucke, no true NY'er who had to battle that trash daily longs for those days anymore.

I, for one, like Times Square the way it is now than with all those porn theaters on the 1970's and 80's.

A world class city like NYC needs a landmark tourist center and Times Square is it.

Really? A "True" NY'er wants another Starbucks? I don't thinks so babe.

R227, you need to start an I Love a Sanitized NY campaign.

R228 Go back to Ohio, man.

[quote]Really? A "True" NY'er wants another Starbucks? I don't thinks so babe.

Well, I hope you don't get paid to think because I'm born and raised and I stand by it.

Here's ya go, hope you get the warm and fuzzies. I'll take the gorgeous restored New Amsterdam and New Victory any day.

So sick of FAUX Yorkers claiming to be the real thing.

I liked the sleaze. The city was a haven of all kinds of people then including the degenerate, rootless, lost, dreaming, failing, dying, the diseased. The mess of humanity, strangers all. Yes, I liked it. I was one of them.

R228 has a vagina, which hasn’t seen use in 15 years.

Die frau.

Poor old sluts always longing for the days when they could get sucked and fucked in public.

Nyc had subcultures then. That was what made it vibrant. Something for everyone. Now it's everything for some people. Naturally that leads to impoverishment.

Does New Haven, Connecticut still have that porn theatre?

I visited in 2012 and hardly anyone was there. It seemed some action was going on in the seats.

Called The Fairmont?

[quote]I liked the sleaze. The city was a haven of all kinds of people then including the degenerate, rootless, lost, dreaming, failing, dying, the diseased. The mess of humanity, strangers all. Yes, I liked it. I was one of them.

I lived right off Times Square in the 1970s. For a young gay man it was a wonderland but the truth is, the very center of NYC couldn't continue in that condition.

There were probably better ways to revitalize the area, but it was inevitable that something would be done.

( grammar trolls: is that last sentence correct? Or should it be: ".... something would have been done.")

Cleanup is a good idea in itself.

The solution was problematic r239. Rather than strengthening small businesses and neighborhood life, they created the Times Square BID. they were all real estate people interested in maciminzing their own profits only.

That's why the refurbishment has been dissatisfactory - because a city and city life are built by its many residents making many small decisions.

There would have been no investments in the area if the porn theaters had been allowed to remain.

Are you one of the investors r241?

What's your point R242?

Wondering what your interest was in investors r243. You don't have to answer.

[quote]I lived right off Times Square in the 1970s. For a young gay man it was a wonderland but the truth is, the very center of NYC couldn't continue in that condition.

And good for you for surviving as many guys didn't. I knew one Bug Chaser as they were called who actually went to the gay theaters to get infected.

(I'll just pass by the lame stupidity of R244)

R245 I dodged quite a bullet. I know that... and I'm grateful.

R245 I will never understand bug chasers. Or people who deliberately sabotage condoms, etc so as to infect themselves/their partners.

A bit judgemental, don't you think R236?

That's quite all right r246. It's personal information you're or none here has to share.

Sounds gross. Relationships are one thing. We all have the right to them but this is just vile. Glad it’s dying out. So many guys died from taking strangers loads in these places.

No wonder AIDS spread like wildfire in our community.

The problem with the sleaze was it made NYC look like a dump overall.

[quote]We all have the right to them but this is just vile.

Some of you sound like Mormons.

Sounds like a lot of posters have problems with sex. Delete your Grinder!!!

NYC is a dump. It’s always been a popular dump.

Yet these Porn Theater haters are on Grindr and waiting ass up in a motel room for their next hookup...

Haters = straight women

Their opinions and their lives are worthless.

Seriously, what's the difference between an encounter in a theater/sauna/backroom or an anonymous grinder/scruff hookup? it's still just sex.

Prude dudes here need to stop clutching their pearls and gasping at anything that they don't consider vanilla.

R258 those prude dudes are unfuckable, and their shrill judging is the only way they can feel “superior”. Nobody buys it, of course.

Since when is not wanting to have sex in public with strangers "prudish"?

R260 That's about exhibitionism. A lot of the prudish comments here are about the sex. So r257 has a point.

The idea of having sex with a stranger does nothing for me so I guess I'm a prude then.

R262 That doing nothing for you doesn't make you a prude.

What a lot of people are missing here is their youth. It was fun to be young in those kind of places, but it would be depressing as hell to be 65 and cruising a porn theater.

Even when I was young the idea of anonymous sex wasn't appealing to me but maybe I'm just weird I don't know.

maciminzing, oh my r240!

Oh dear me!

R262 and R260 - If you don't want to put yourself out there, then fine. But it's the people that clutch their pearls and declares that anyone that doesn't share their puritanical views on sex are "WHORES" and such - those people are prudes. Don't wanna do it? Fine. But don't come down on others who may want to.

Didn't we go through this with the religious right in 2004 when it came to marriage equality? And now we go through it within our own community.

[quote]No wonder AIDS spread like wildfire in our community.

Well, yes. And all these years later, there are still those who choose to be in denial about it. It boggles the mind.

My favorite was the Barb Wire in Toronto. Gah, all that amazing DILFy Canadian cock. I'm hard just thinking about it.

"WHORES" I say!

The Campus theater in San Francisco's Tenderloin was a combination porn theater/strip club - with a maze in the basement. Was alway pretty interesting, but scary as hell to get to. That area was ROUGH.

R269 Back in the 1970s and 1980s a large percentage of heterosexuals were also very openly promiscuous. Free love was a across the board cultural phenomena. It just happened that the gay community was first exposed to the HIV virus and that anal sex was more susceptible to transmission. If the straight community were hit first, the response by government would have been infinitely different.

Free "love" doesn't exist R273...it never has and it never will.

Yes, R269, but promiscuity among hets was more like picking somebody up at a bar or club a couple of times a week, or going to a key party, or one woman having sex with all the guys in the band, one by one. It generally wasn't anything like the large scale orgies on the docks every Saturday night, or the bacchanalia of the theaters being discussed here, or the baths. If straight men could get women to go along with stuff like that en masse, they would - but when women are involved, there's a level of caution at play that didn't exist among men then. Women have to worry about pregnancy, or issues of physical safety. Few of them would have been game to go to a porn theater and take a dozen cocks in a night. It was not just the type of sex being had that made AIDS spread so virulently in the gay community, but also the circumstances under which a lot of it occurred.

^^Sorry, that was for R273.

The gang at Plato's Retreat begs to differ

I haven't been to the Cinema Kings Highway in a couple of years, but last time I was there it was Night of the Living Dead writ large...

Cinema Kings Highway attracts mostly the locals. The locals being older Jews.

Sounds hot.

Kings Highway is a cemetary. Too bad, it had potential. But I guess it's the location and the demographics of the area.

[quote]Kings Highway is a cemetary

Oh, dear.

Portland, which has a large number of adult spaces, only has one actual porn theater (if I'm remembering correctly), and it just shows straight flicks.

Porn theaters were pre Internet.

R283, it doesn't matter what's playing on the screen...

Thank you so much for correcting my spelling, R282. You must be a joy to be around.

Exactly R285

The amount of straight married cocks I’ve had down my throat...

The amount of BI-SEXUAL married cocks I’ve had down my throat... you mean. Straight guys don't have sex with guys, just like you don't go to clandestine places looking for pussy.

[quote]Straight guys don't have sex with guys,

I'm not that poster but there's a difference between a sex act and sexuality.

Yes, plenty of men who are straight have no problem with getting their dick sucked by a guy.

That's a gay guy's fantasy.

No, it's reality.

I liked the one near Houston street on 7th Avenue. or the one on the west side highway. Sadly all gone.

What is it with some guys that can't seem to enjoy sex unless it's sleazy and in public?

Why is it some people can't let other people be and get hung up on stupid shit because it's not what THEY like.

The Hollywood theater (a few blocks down from the Adonis) was a revival house (split screen) but it became a porn house - gay on one side, straight on the other. After the bars closed, Gay guys used to go over to the straight side, give quick head to junior execs or a college kids then return to the gay side to talk about it with their friends. It'a now a tourist center, I believe,

RE: The Hollywood theater

The empty lot next to it was used for the "You Can't Win" number in the film "The Wiz".

Let R289 dream on, if it makes him happy.

R297 You know little about sexuality.

R298 Not R297, but what did they get wrong? A horny straight dude in a bookstore booth with a gloryhole isn't going to care what genitalia is attached to the mouth on the other side. And that doesn't make them gay.

The poppy scene in "The Wiz" was in the parking lot between The Eros 1 and the Caprice on 8th down the street from The Adonis. The Eros was gay. That was a real parking lot with prop cabs. The smoking thing was attached to the side wall of the Imperial theater. Victor Borge was appearing in a one man show and the entire theater was full of smoke during his performance and made the papers.

The Hollywood Twin scared the hell out of me when I came to visit in the early 80s, decided to see a double bill from MGM. Some freak sat behind me and started doing laughing gas (from a metal cannister, like a fire extinguisher). It felt so NYC. Years later visited it when it turned to porn - lots of jerking off but not an exciting crowd on 8th avenue.

The Hollywood Twin marquee is seen in the background of "Taxi Driver" one sheet and ads

FYI The Hollywood Twin was built as a porn theater, a first , later a legit revival house and died with porn again.

Went to the Hollywood Twin once, Hot lean Mediterranean guy early 20's walks around then sits next to me. Thought we were going to go at it right there, but he kisses me. We end up making out for a half an hour. He whispered "Do you have someplace to go?" I took him back to my place. we dated for a year and a half. Till he moved back to Spain. He was in college. A Porn theater story even a Frau could love.

Weren't people always getting mugged and murdered in those places?

No R305 the worse thing that happened is you were pickpocketed when your pants was down.

R305 It would probably be dangerous today... but not back then. I never had or saw any problems.

As far as pickpocketing goes: city savvy people know where their wallet is.

It wasn't that dicey, a lot of men in suits. No homeless people..

R304! I had a similar experience there too, a beautiful young Italian guy from Staten Island, fresh from his construction job, so handsome and BUILT, a little short though, but my lordie! Immediately started kissing me, his fear mixed with horniness made for a hookup dream! We ended up spending the next weekend together, his girlfriend was away, oh what times.

I met a young student from Colombia at the theater on 7th Avenue South theater (now a restaurant). He was getting his masters at Rutguer's - adorable. We dated a couple of times.

I bet a lot of married men had some explaining to do when they had to report their wallets stolen.

[quote]I bet a lot of married men had some explaining to do when they had to report their wallets stolen.

It's NY Sweetie, not Hooterville, you can get pickpocketed at church.

I got the best blowjobs at those theatres

A follow up to Mario the Spanish student. On our last might together we had a drink in our favorite spot and then we went back for the first time to the Hollywood. I bent him over the seat and fucked him while about seven amazed guys watched on.

Back in Spain he got married and had a kid. Then dicorced his wife and is married to a guy and has joint custody of the son who, Jesus, must 19 or 20 now.

You are old Father William ...

I remember that in the porn theaters and sex clubs, intrepid pickpockets would put up signs that would say "watch your wallet," which would cause people to feel for their wallet, alerting the pickpocket to its exact location and making for easy pickings, LOL

R312 No matter where you live it would still be a problem Sweetie.

I once had sex with a guy at one of the theaters in hell's kitchen - he wanted me to cum on his chest so I did but neither of had any tissues to clean up. I guess he used his tee shirt.

Fascinating, R317.

They weren't theaters but I used to like the 2 or 3 porn bookstores just off the interstate in Kenosha, Wisconsin - lots of midwest dick.

R(319) I remember those bookstores very well!

Pigs! All of you!

I used to go to those when I was in school in Milwaukee. Are those bookstores still open along the interstate?

There were several bookstores/peep stores around the Times Square area. I would go from time to time but I was very selective only engaged a handful of times. No matter how hot a guy was I was concerned about AIDS and STDs. Fortunately I never caught anything.

[quote] No matter how hot a guy was I was concerned about AIDS and STDs.

Too bad, only the ugly guys had AIDS.

R324 I was trying to say that I watched their behavior. Many of the guys in these places were too promiscuous so I avoided those regardless of how hot they were.

I've seen videos online, the sleaze must be the big draw cause those places look nasty.

[quote] There were several bookstores/peep stores around the Times Square area. I would go from time to time but I was very selective

Yes, going to Times Square porn stores for sex, you sound very selective indeed.

I used to walk around the Kings All Male Cinema in Times Square as a twink with a hanky daintily held to my nose.

And the hanky was drenched in poppers

The Seventh Avenue South theater was the worst. I loved it.

Boston had a few of these theaters advertising in the former weekly Boston Phoenix. One was South Station Cinema, directly across the street from South Station. Went only once, but the ticket guy was drooling over my 20-year-old self. Was wondering why there were so many people making frequent trips to the rest room.

There were others, one was right on Tremont Street across from the Common, but very dim memories of that place...I think I went once and hated it. Might have been the over-eager clientele.

R330 Where exactly was the Seventh Avenue South Theater? I knew it was just south of Bleecker, but I can't remember where.

It was at Seventh avenue and Leroy - on the west side of the street. It's now a restaurant.

Did the restaurant remove the nacreous layers of permacum?

Not sure, but they had New England clam chowder on the menu.

This link might be of interest about what was the last gay porn theater in Chicago.

R333 Thanks. I had passed that area a couple of times and could not remember the exact location of where the theater was.

I got crabs at the one in Queens.

The Tea Room in San Francisco was the most disgusting, dirty, sleazy, awful ghoulish theater I'd ever set foot in. Once. I think i was there ten minutes total before disgust overwhelmed me. Most of the customers must have been from out of town because I couldn't imagine anyone local making a second visit.

[quote]I got crabs at the one in Queens.

Soft shell or hard?

I went to the Tea Room once - it was so fucking scary. And getting there on that street (Eddy) you literally had to step over the crackheads.

There was a tiny porn theater in NYC at 44th and 8th next to Dyke's Lumber. It's now an Irish pub. Is it wrong I refuse to eat in restaurants that were once porn houses?

[quote] There was a tiny porn theater in NYC at 44th and 8th next to Dyke's Lumber. It's now an Irish pub. Is it wrong I refuse to eat in restaurants that were once porn houses?

Not at all, especially if they feature their cream of mushroom soup prominently.

I want cream of mushroom soup ... on my chest!

[quote] They weren't theaters but I used to like the 2 or 3 porn bookstores just off the interstate in Kenosha, Wisconsin - lots of midwest dick.

I think one is still there. I wondered if it had an arcade, I'd never gone inside.

There's one stretch of the frontage road along the highway that has a bookstore and "Club Icon" which I assumed was a gay bar.

[quote]There was a tiny porn theater in NYC at 44th and 8th next to Dyke's Lumber. It's now an Irish pub. Is it wrong I refuse to eat in restaurants that were once porn houses?

What the hell was the name of that place? That was the one the bug chaser I knew succeeded in his quest.

Eros 1?

Eros1 was on 8th Avenue

The pos theatre near Dykes lumber (and around the corner from Straight Hardware) was closer to 9th Avenue, No idea of the name.

I think that was the Kings theater? The main floor was a medium size theater showing porn, and then you'd go behind the screen to go downstairs to the maze/booths. It may have had an upstairs as well.

I found this interesting about adult theaters in NY. They list some of the gay theaters.

I can understand gay guys engaging in that kind of thing in the past when being open was far less acceptable but guys into that scene now seem to almost always be barebacking messes.

FUN for the hole family!

Did anyone actually watch the movies?

go to the one in queens - they show "real" movies (like caddyshack 2 or the last dragon) along with gay, straight and trannie porn!!!

SF Bay Area- Palm Theater Remember many BJ's on the back wall,so much trade,

There was a bookstore/theater somewhere in the garment district back in the 90s - I think Banana Video? Three floors of antics.

R359 can't see it

Are any of the Gay Porn theaters Shubert houses.?

No but The Hudson Theater on 44th across 7th was a gay porn theater called Avon-At-The Hudson for years in the 70's. It was restored and the first production was Jake Gyllenhaal in "Sunday In The Park With George"

And The Helen Hayes next door to Sardi's formally The Little Theater went gay porn for a few days until the Broadway neighbors swatted them away.

Why I love DL!!!

Were the New Amsterdam and the American Airlines theater pornos at all. An older gay pal of mine used to say he used to have sex on 42nd street all the time, but I can't imagine what theater?

[quote]Were the New Amsterdam and the American Airlines theater pornos at all. An older gay pal of mine used to say he used to have sex on 42nd street all the time, but I can't imagine what theater?

No neither (American Airlines- The Selwyn) went porn. Both are beautifully restored and Broadway houses now.

Gentlemen Only Please.....

[quote]No but The Hudson Theater on 44th across 7th was a gay porn theater called Avon-At-The Hudson for years in the 70's. It was restored and the first production was Jake Gyllenhaal in "Sunday In The Park With George"

Were they able to completely remove the nacreous layer of permacum?

Was the victory porn?

Yes, the legitimate movie theaters that turned to porn were the Rialto, (and later its basement), the Victory, and later the Anco.

There were some smaller porn houses that opened that way, often carved out of existmg spaces, such as the Harem and the Roxy Burlesque.

The majority of the 42nd Street movie houses (most were built as legitimate playhouses starting around the turn of the 20th century) played Hollywood and/or independent exploitation movies until their redevelopment or demolition, including on the north side the Lyric, Times Square, Apollo and Selwyn and on the south side the New Amsterdam, Cine 42, Harris, Liberty, and Empire. (The Anco had a steady decline from playing third run, to Kung Fu, to porn...)

Thanks -- that's a huge help. I just always avoided that block (I was 12)

[quote]Were they able to completely remove the nacreous layer of permacum?

Nope

R365 no theaters. The sex was ON 42nd Street.

at third ave porn theatre south of 13th on third ave the Bijou?/ always saw David Michael Wojnarowicz , an American painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, songwriter/recording artist and AIDS activist prominent in the New York City art world.

The Bijou as a theater dates back to the Nickelodian days, it is now an event space I believe.

Its now called VNYL -- it was called the Lyric in silent movie days and there is a great Bernice Abbot Photo I can't find on line

also known as the Jewell, early 80s....

R375 that theater was called the Jewel

Ok -- now I am just gonna spend hours on Cinema treasures -- thx for the tip

PS a great site R380, not just porn theatres.

Love CinemaTreasures, you can get lost in there for hours

Love old porn theaters. You can get lost in there for hours.

I was on an 8 hour layover when I was taking Amtrak once so I made my way to Times Square and fell off into one of those skeevy theaters. 10 hours later I made my way back out and had missed my train and had to wait until the next day to catch another. I fucked,I sucked,I got sucked and fucked ,had drugs literally shoved down my gaping maw,I was a hot mess when I emerged ! I had never seen anything like that place,though I was a semi veteran of bath houses. The variety of men was astonishing and I did as many as my greedy little heart desired. Its a MIRACLE I never got aids.

R384- I went to lots of gay porn theatres but never saw anyone openly take drugs. I've definitely seen it in bathhouses.

"They weren't theaters but I used to like the 2 or 3 porn bookstores just off the interstate in Kenosha, Wisconsin..."

Yes, in the mid-1980s there were three porn shops along I-94 in Kenosha County.

One, which still stands, is called Superb Video. It was built around the early 1980s. It had a small arcade with glory holes and they rented porn, sold mags, and sold "novelty" items. I don't know how in the world they stay in business since no one PAYS for porn anymore. And, of course, there are no glory holes, either.

Another one was called Crossroads. It was at I-94 and Hwy C. It was much larger and had A LOT of action. They did the same: rented/sold. Bigger selection.

The other one was a little further south of Crossroads, it didn't really have a name that I can remember. Larger video arcade/mag/novelty selection. It was the first to go.

Crossroads is now a vacant field of weeds.

At one time in the early 1980s, there were also three porn shops in Kenosha itself. Small operations. Two of them are now empty lots and one has been a small restaurant for quite a while. I always wonder what it would be like to eat regular food in a place where I once "dined" on cock...

"Memories...light the corners of my mind. Misty, water-colored memories...of the way we were..."

R385 Really ? When I walked into that place it reeked of pot ,and we ended up doing lines of coke off the arm rests. I got so fucked up I even took a little snooze in between festivities. Ive never seen anything like it before or since,it was so wide open and nasty as fuck !

Do you remember which one it was? The ones showing gay porn were a little wilder, but the ones with straight porn were a little more discreet.

[quote]I was on an 8 hour layover when I was taking Amtrak once so I made my way to Times Square and fell off into one of those skeevy theaters. 10 hours later I made my way back out and had missed my train and had to wait until the next day to catch another. I fucked,I sucked,I got sucked and fucked ,had drugs literally shoved down my gaping maw,I was a hot mess when I emerged ! I had never seen anything like that place,though I was a semi veteran of bath houses. The variety of men was astonishing and I did as many as my greedy little heart desired. Its a MIRACLE I never got aids.

What was playing?

For the longest time the film at the Adonis was "The pizza boy ,,, he delivers"

An old English actor did a show at the Virginia, returned to London for the summer. Upon his return to the Alvin the next fall. he replied"And the Pizza boy is still delivering!"

this looks pretty good actually

[quote]What was playing?

"Terms of Endearment," Rose.

Such free love making, I miss it.

R393, Oh please, one should hardly call it "lovemaking." Let's call a spade a spade, shall we?

The Tea Room Theater in San Francisco was all that everyone has said, and I loved it.

Still remember one of the best BJs of my life being administered ever so skillfully by a guy who looked like a Hell's Angel.

What happened to all the gay theaters?

I was more comfortable in the porn shops/theaters than at the bars.

I don't drink nor smoke, so being in a place full of non-stop drinkers and smokers was quite a turn-off for me.

The porn places had a more relaxed (and sober) crowd. And I made some friends and acquaintances, too.

Plus, the porn palaces gave you the option of rejecting people. If he wasn't my type I could just ignore him or walk away. At the bars, it was more personal. And, if you went home with a guy, you were stuck with him. Plus, maybe you were going home with a nutcase.

So many adventures at Chicago's gay porn palaces: Second Story Emporium, The Bijou, and The Ram.

I went to an adult bookstore once just to see what it was like and it was virtually empty save for one creepy old guy that starting following me around and rubbing his crotch, my curiosity was satisfied and I never went back.

What happened to all the gay theaters?

An invention called the VCR, and later, the Internet.

I think what the youngsters don't get is that some were huge. The size of Broadway theaters.

Another vote for the Pilgrim in Boston. A real faded movie palace, with sex and debauchery in every nook and cranny.

I was drunk/high during my one visit to Boston, in the mid-80s, and found myself in the combat zone, checking out the adult entertainment, but there was nothing obviously gay, so i asked a clerk in an adult bookstore if there were any male entertainment spots, and he said try the Pilgrim.

Well, needless to say I went straight over there, and entered the most wonderfully sex-charged atmosphere in a grand old movie house. Big screen entertainment, and guys coupling in the seats, in the boxes, and the balcony, in the men's room, on the stairs…

While I did enjoy the Adonis (both locations) in New York, and the Tivoli, and the show palace, there was nothing quite like that magical and memorable night in Boston.

[quote]I think what the youngsters don't get is that some were huge. The size of Broadway theaters.

The Hudson WAS a Broadway theater and the original studio for The Tonight starring Steve Allen. It was built by someone who died on Titanic.

The little theater on E4th street is still there - very strange mix of people but kinda fun.

is that the basement place? By LaMama?

Its called the Bijou. also club 82

Tomkat

i believe club 82/bijou opened early 90s/ can't believe it is a still a goin'...

Blow jobs and hand jobs are one thing but guys who fuck in public are just gross.

Never got to experience gay porn theater. The reason is I was of age in the 1980's when VCR's were coming to the fore. You didn't have to go to a seedy theater you could just watch porn in your own home. Now of course the net is a finely curated porn service.

Curated is one of my trigger words...

I hate to deflate any fantasies, but...Straight men don’t go to theaters where gay sex is happening. They don’t partake in gay sex no matter how horny they are (they masturbate, envisioning PUSSY). You all thought they were straight just because they were married or had kids?! Most people were closeted in the 70s. Many people today are still closeted.

Please don't ruin my French Vanilla Fantasy, Debbie Downer, aka R411.

Christ, you need a condom just to look at the photos of Club 82/Bijou.

[quote] I went to lots of gay porn theatres but never saw anyone openly take drugs.

It probably depends on which ones you went to. Back in the day I saw guys openly smoking crack (not meth) with their pants down and stroking.

[quote]Blow jobs and hand jobs are one thing but guys who fuck in public are just gross.

r408 has stated her boundaries!

I think some people are mistakenly calling these places on 42nd street "porn theaters".

I have indeed R415.

Club 82! Liz was known to stop by? And Errol Flynn played the piano with his penis? Sensational.

There was once a waiter my friend was desperate to get out on a date, but the waiter always refused, I was baffled because in my opinion the waiter And my friend are in the same league looks. To get my friend off his moaning about the waiter I took him out to Club 82 to get over it. A bit of sleezy fun. Well who should be there in his underwear blindfolded? Yup, the waiter. My friend walked over, got head, we went out for a drink laughed and never spoke of it. Take that O. Henry!

R408, are straight people into swinging and going to swingers clubs gross? My former DOCTOR and his wife are swingers.

R408 = Judgy

Speaking of swingers...

R421= Whore

[quote]r308 It wasn't that dicey, a lot of men in suits. No homeless people..

I love the idea of the homeless arriving and some DL queen huffing, [italic]"I want to speak to a manager!"

Judgy Whore

I once saw a gentleman come into one of the old porn houses, take out a can of lysol and spray down the seat, then unfolded a newspaper to protect himself from whatever might still be living in there.

Campaigning for president, John Kerry made history by being the first candidate to seek the gayporn theater vote.

Each year, in pre internet days, I would by a copy of The International Spartacus Gay Guide. I'd drive around Europe and visit a different city. I remember visiting a cinema in Milan, Italy. Oh my god, there were so many hot guys in there. I would be in my 20s. Got a lot of attention.

There were so many places like that, or small cute bath houses you could go for a couple of hours and have some fun.

Now guys sit at home on Grindr, I doubt they have as much fun nowadays, than I did. I learnt so much then about attracting guys, interacting and learning about sex. Those were magic days.

Philly had one right by Woodies. All the queens would be so snotty and not speak to one another in the bar. Come closing time the'd be down the block in the movie theater or in the video booth basement throwing themselves at one another. Oh those gays!

R422 Those are stunning photographs

Ah, the good ole days of cruising in gay porn theaters.

Tell us your experiences R431

Bumpage

I'm glad we don't have to resort to that to meet each other now.

Yeah, who wants to meet in persn. yuck.

R435 This is what worries me aboit young people wanting to meet guys for the first time.

Where do they go now?

The Vatican

[quote]I hate to deflate any fantasies, but...Straight men don’t go to theaters where gay sex is happening.

You understand nothing about sexuality.

R437 You're right!

Guys really liked to live dangerously back then didn't they.

Straight porno places were just as gay.

My first gay experience with a non-relative was at the Bijou. He was actually a priest-professor from Notre Dame. I liked it in the days before they made the second floor into a type of bathhouse type situation. There was more action in the seats.

But the hottest guy I ever had was at a straight porno theater in Inkster, MIchigan called the "Melody." Wow. And he was so into me I kept thinking I knew him from somewhere.

The first Adonis, the one on 8th at 51st, was terrificly sleazy and tons o’ fun. The second one was no fun at all ( it was down 8th, maybe around 43rd or so).

R442 "My first experience with a non-relative"

Whoa! Rewind! More information required here please.

The Pilgrim Theatre in Boston was the mother of them all. Forget New York City, Chicago or San Francisco. Boston's Pilgrim was a huge movie palace and Ground Zero of porn, debauchery and jizz-filled fun. For those who had been there, well, you know what I mean. For those who missed out, Grindr, Scruff, whatever, it's a sad state of affairs nowadays. The glory days are gone. We can only hope they come back in some form. We can at least start by bringing back the bathhouse. Today's gay connections are a vast void that can never serve as a substitute.

I still can't believe it but at one time I had been to 10% of all the gay bars in Damron's USA.

The Adonis played for couple of months a 3D movie staring Wade Nichols and Jamie Gillis called "Manhold". They both starred in another film called "Boy-Napped" and both were directed by the guy who made the horror cult classic "I Drink Your Blood". I always thought the film on screen didn't matter but they went to all the trouble to actually make it in 3D so someone cared. Apparently it's a lost film, no trace of it anywhere since there weren't alot of prints in existence at the time and the director has died.

There will never be another place like the fabulous Pilgrim Theatre in Boston's Combat Zone. By the way, the Combat Zone was safe. It got its name when it became the entertainment area when the fleet was in and the Navy and other military frequented the bars and nightclubs on lower Washington Street bordering Chanatown and the Theatre District. Thus, the Combat Zone was born. Only later did the area become prostitution central, hooker bars, porn movie house and adult bookstore hub.

Now even the Combat Zone name has faded. It's just lower Washington Street and totally gentrified with lofts, condos, and office building and Tufts New England Medical Center. There may be one adult bookstore left. The porn movie houses, hooker bars, ladies of the evening, straight and gay men of the Pilgrim and much smaller Adonis Theatre and kung foo movies are gone. Chniatown and the Theatre District are still adjacent, but the Combat Zone is sadly a memory.

There was a porn palace in Wichita which was hopping well into the 90s. I wonder how many of the Kochs had their cherry popped there.

The Pilgrim in Boston had gays and straight. But the smaller Adonis Theatre around the corner in the Combat Zone was all gay. It was a little perverted gem of a porn hideaway. It was total porn, but back in the 70s, the titles of the movies were suggestive, but not explicit. So, to drive home the point, there was a small sign in the window near the box office: "All Male Cast." I went to high school not too far from the the Combat Zone and theatre district. It was such a turn on for gayling at the time. Once I turned 18, I became a customer.

I remember sitting in the RItz 2 gay pron theater in Yor City Tampa. The Ritz1 was a regular straight porno, and the Ritz2 was a little room with 10 folding chairs and a super 8 projector for the "all male films"

What was the name of the porn theater in Philly that had the booths in the basement? A block away from Woody's.

[quote]Guys really liked to live dangerously back then didn't they.

There was no danger back then. It would be dangerous today.

It was safe back then

sure a wallet would get swiped here or there. But people were sleeping all the time.

Wasn't the first of all the Peerless in san Francisco? Granted I haven't searched all of this very long thread.

[quote]It was safe back then

And then it wasn't

I loved the gay porn movie theaters - and yes, I was safe. Jerking off mostly. But it was fun.

I never had an issue with them. I always left my wallet at home. Put enough money in my sock, so I could just relax and have fun.

Safe unless you made the mistake of hitting on a cop and had your life ruined for some anonymous dick.

Undercover cops? I haven't heard that one. I figured once you entered the place, you wouldn't have a problem. Not like Central Park where the cops pretended to be on the prowl (even sporting hard ons)

[quote] Undercover cops? I haven't heard that one. I figured once you entered the place, you wouldn't have a problem.

ya think ?

That's such a sad career crushing incident. Let a guy jerk off in peace.

"On February 5, 1981, 150 police raided four gay bathhouses in Toronto. The raid resulted in the arrests of 268 men."

For nostalgia's sake, I guess I kind of get it to some extent. I started to come out in the 90's and went to these theaters occasionally. The ones I went to usually had a "straight" theater, a "gay" theater and a "trans" theater. It was fun occasionally gathering around a straight guy jacking off who didn't seem to mind the crowd gathering around him and feeling him up. It was also fun fucking and sucking in the "gay" part of the theater. I dunno these days really, it's just much safer, more convenient, and cheaper to connect with such guys online via video.

Gay cinemas are very popular in Berlin still.

They tend to be individual cubicles, but they're still in existance.

Philly still has some. Thanks to cheap real estate and a decent size population.

452: the name of the theater was the Tomcat. It was a movie theater upstairs, with a bookstore and booths in the basement

It's a shame they are dying out as they were one of the hubs of gay life.

You're such a romantic R468

[quote]Safe unless you made the mistake of hitting on a cop and had your life ruined for some anonymous dick.

I lived in NYC during the 70s and early 80s. I never heard of any theatre being raided by cops. And there was no fear about that at all. The city was teaming with movie theaters, bath houses, bars, rest rooms, parks, piers... no one gave a shit.

And funny this is: I met an undercover cop at the Adonis. We went back to my place and he placed his gun on the dresser. It was strapped under his jacket. I was more than a little shocked. We hooked up a few times.

I once went into a sex shop with booths on or near 42nd st because I had to pee so bad.

I went into a booth and peed. And left

Maybe for you R468.

[quote]Safe unless you made the mistake of hitting on a cop and had your life ruined for some anonymous dick.

The only time I met a cop in NYC in a gay sex place was at the NYBC, he was there to play and get fucked. I was happy to do that.

Probably dead now.

Most probably R474.

I blame the internet.

The availability of porn everywhere means places like these, part of our cultural heritage are going.

I think the city authorities need to seriously consider listing gay porn cinemas and protect them from closure, before they disappear from our cities.

Well those booths all smell like piss anyways so why not.

Last Paris porn theater closing.

The story those seats could tell!

[quote]I blame the internet

Oh Brother. Are you paying attention?

The internet exists now so...

You have to be attractive enough to get some. Can't desparado yourself into getting laid like before.

R473, what is NYBC

R482 New York Bondage Club

Were we supposed to somehow know that?

There's nothing more tedious than the reminiscings of an old slut.

These places need preserving for generations to come. City authorities need to preserve these buildings.

Sleazy cinemas are part of our LGBT history. They are just as worthy of preservation, as our churches, libraries and other historic monuments. They tell the story of when gay men, persecuted in open society, would meet clandestinely, out of public glare. We should defend them.

[quote] Sleazy cinemas are part of our LGBT history. They are just as worthy of preservation, as our churches

Yeah rows of gay guys down on their knees. Yeah I can see the church comparison.

[quote]These places need preserving for generations to come. City authorities need to preserve these buildings.

Seriously? What are you smoking?

R488 If you take a look at our built environment, sure cathedrals, castles and classical buildings are worthy of protection, but so are those buildings that play a part in our social history.

Cinemas like the Bijou, are not of architectoral importance, but then neither is Ellis Island or the Lorraine Motel. But each of those plays its part in the rich tapestry of our social history. Places like the Bijou are just as deserving as the Lorraine Motel or Rosa Parks's bus!

The Adonis really was a beautiful old theater. My friend called it the "Radio City of Gay Porn."

[quote]Places like the Bijou are just as deserving as the Lorraine Motel or Rosa Parks's bus!

In what possible way? Are you really equating public sex with the Civil Rights Movement? What the fuck is wrong with you?

Were they singing "we shall over cum" ?

R491 I'm saying exactly that. Cinemas like The Adonis sprung up to to cater for man on man sex, because at that time the state repressed homosexual activity.

Just in the same way that Rosa Park's bus is preserved as a symbol of repression, so should gay cinemas like The Adonis. The principle is exactly the same.

Bye R493.

Hiya! R494

To correct the record: In NYC there were far more straight sleaze places than gay ones. The straights were getting their freak on too. A friend of mine used to go to a straight place and tip the sluts a dollar to finger their twat through the hole in the roundabout booths.

Wether you participated or not, the theater/bath house/peep shows were a definite part of gay life in the 60s-90s. Sorry if you're offended.

A part of (some) gay men's lives R497 not enough to make a seedy wank and blow theater a historical or cultural landmark and please stop bringing Rosa Parks into this, that poor woman endured enough.

[quote]Are you really equating public sex with the Civil Rights Movement? What the fuck is wrong with you?

Maybe he’s not a frau.

R497 makes a great point about bath houses too.

Those should definitely be on the preserved list.

One day none of these facilities will exist. We preserve roman baths, why not bathouses from the 60s and 70s?

Gay cultural history is just as important as any other. We should never accept that we are second class.

The guys who went to these cinemas and bath houses, didnt have access to mobiles, smartphones or the internet to get their jollies. These buildings are the missing link between outdoor cruising and the Grindr of today.

With them gone, that link will be broken and our understanding of gay sexio-social history a little more vaguer.

who hasn't been on their knees in a dirty porn theater at some point in their life?

Most people R502.

R503 is a frau.

Some of my happiest times have been on my knees with Casablanca playing in the background!

cgrts on still being alive

Sorry to disappoint R504 but R503 is a man under 70 who doesn't need to get on his knees in a public place to get any.

That’s doesn’t mean you’re not a frau, r506

Woman sues sex store for flooding her townhouse after clogging drains with condoms

This sex shop likes it really dirty.

A Chelsea woman is suing a neighboring erotic emporium for $2 million — claiming it clogged their shared drains with condoms, diapers and rubber gloves so badly that her furnished basement flooded with 6 feet of stinking sewage.

Lawyer and playwright Susan Haar hit Sexy Boutique and its owners with a Manhattan civil suit on Tuesday, claiming her townhouse at 304 W. 18th St. turned into a house of horrors on Nov. 15, when sewage began flowing out of her shower drains and toilet and into the basement, which is fitted out with a kitchen, bathroom and living room.

The entire 600-square-foot basement was “inundated” with 6 inches of sewage — containing, “among other things, feces, sludge and human waste” — and the fetid fluid soaked 6 feet up the walls, she alleges in the suit.

Haar called in plumbers, who found rubbers, diapers, steel wool and other construction debris inside the drains, and cleaned out the pipes.

But when the backups continued, she called the city Department of Environmental Protection.

A DEP inspector poured red dye into the sink of Sexy Boutique’s bathrooms and found it then bubbled up from the grates in Haar’s floor, while a plumber later probed the pipes with a camera and confirmed their sewer lines are indeed connected — and condoms and other junk are still floating in there, according to the suit.

[quote]They tell the story of when gay men, persecuted in open society, would meet clandestinely, out of public glare. We should defend them.

These places only began to exist in the 1970s. Men in NYC at that time were far from being "persecuted in open society".

And I had to laugh at this line: "....would meet clandestinely, out of public glare. ".

Sex was happening out in the open...parks, piers, abandoned buildings, public rest rooms. It's all very hard to imagine today, but that's the way it was.

I can't believe the Bijou in the East Village is still open!

That space that has quite a history. It was a "transsexual revue theater" or something back in the 50's & 60's, mafia-run, when drag was very subversive. Then later it was a rock venue where people like the New York Dolls and Holly Woodlawn performed and hung out. Elizabeth Taylor and Warhol would go. You can find the info online I'm too lazy to google it. It was called "Club 82."

I remember when I lived in NYC in the 90's it was quite the messy East village boy cruising spot. There would always be a rush at 4AM when the bars on the "habitrail" (Tunnel Bar, Boiler Room, The Bar, Crow Bar) closed and all the drunk boys stumbled in with their tokens. It was run at the time by some Iranian or Pakistani guys? They didn't care and just took people's money, and were polite and respectful I remember. I always felt sorry for the guy who had to clean the booths with a mop and bucket.

We always laughed because they made such a big deal with "wheelchair access" and "handicap seating" signs in the makeshift theater section... but to get inside there was a steep long set of stairs going straight down! Also the theater wouldn't show porn... there would be like a blurry projection of some old Dallas re-run or something. Meanwhile boys were all int he booths fucking and sucking. It was really weird. I think it all had to do with zoning laws.

One night I remember Marc Almond and Jimmy Somerville were wandering around cruising everyone and we joked, "It must be New Wave night."

Also there was a weird thing where whenever I left there's be some jerk in a running car with Jersey plates right outside the entrance who would follow you as you walked down the sidewalk, going, "Hey! Hey is it crowded in there? What's it like in there?" And you'd just ignore him. He did it to everybody.

Also, does anyone remember mid-90's that weird case where someone was using a long knife to stab guys in the rectum in the booths in that place? I never found out what happened but he seemed to do it several times and was never caught that I knew. No one died but they ended up in the hospital. I remember the Anti-Violence League was passing around flyers about it. Real creepy.

It means I'm not a sad old slut R507.

Not having sex made you not a slut.

Coming on here and shaking your finger at those who do makes you a frau.

R510 makes a very strong case there for the preservation of the sex establishments. They point to the long history and historic nature of drag in the 50s and it's evolution into a sex cinema.

R508 points to the deteriorating state of these places, crying out for intervention to repair and restore sex cinemas to their rightful place.

What are we going to tell our children about the history of the LGBT movement if they disappear altogether?

[quote]What are we going to tell our children about the history of the LGBT movement if they disappear altogether?

You can tell them these were the places an entire generation of gay man caught and transmitted a deadly disease even after it was well know how it was contracted and died horrible deaths in the their twenties an thirties all for an orgasm. How's that?

R514 Surely, not everyone barebacked? I remember my local sex cinema having jars of condoms all around the place.

And, what about the ones who just went there to jack and be sucked off? I would have thought there would be a great many survivors still alive today.

In the 1970s there was no fear of AIDS. Why should there have been? It was unknown.

Great point R516 you sock it to R514

Truth hurt R517?

layers and layers of permacum

Would there be enough room for the National Parks Service to install a Visitors' Centre at The Adonis if it was listed?

I was just thinking that they could put on an exhibition about the importance of of cinema in the gay community in the 60s and 70s.

[quote]A part of (some) gay men's lives [R497] not enough to make a seedy wank and blow theater a historical or cultural landmark and please stop bringing Rosa Parks into this, that poor woman endured enough.

Did Rosa give handies for tokens at Show World or something?

No, R521 I thought that was your mom's job?

If Rosa Parks was alive today, she wouldn't have to give up her seat in Show World. That's the synergy between the black and homosexual rights movements.

Rosa would be shoulder to shoulder with us in our struggle to get these landmark buildings preserved for future generations to masterbate in.

I cannot believe there's an idiot posting here who is equating the significance of porn theaters with Ellis Island.

Porn theaters, where a primal urge for sexual gratification led to grown men hiding from society due to their inability to cope with, accept, and deal with who they really were. Hiding in the shadows so that even their sex partners wouldn't know, recognize, nor remember them.

The booths in the basement of Christopher St and Hudson St. Couldn’t ask for a better location. But it was disgusting. Not sure there were any sober people in there. Lasted until about 2000. Replaced by Brooklyn Industries. A perfect summary of the West Village.

[quote]Porn theaters, where a primal urge for sexual gratification led to grown men hiding from society due to their inability to cope with, accept, and deal with who they really were. Hiding in the shadows so that even their sex partners wouldn't know, recognize, nor remember them.

No, you moron, we hid from society because people beat you with a baseball bat if you came out.

R526 Makes the point elequantly.

There were few places for guys to go to meet other like-minded men. Back in the day guys would go cruising outdoors. This was dangerous, because of the reasons R526 makes. The development of technology brought movie houses and film. As mainstream TV grew, some of those movie houses fell on hard times, but in order to stay open, they sold a commodity that brought gay men off of the streets and through their doors, namely sex movies. As technology moved on, and VHS tape appeared, so did individual cabins with glory holes develop, then DVDs came along, but technology moved on with the Internet. Now we dont have to visit these sex cinemas, because we all have our own sex cinemas in our pockets, on our phones. So these sordid, dirty, filth, wonderful places will either close down or be repurposed or gentrified. And they will be gone forever. And another part of LGBT history will be lost. Many gay men had their first experience of sex in them. They were influential in how men's lives. Hell, I'm sure some met boyfriends and friends in them. So they are just as worthy of preservation as any other building.

[quote] Many gay men had their first experience of sex in them. They were influential in how men's lives.

To say the least

[quote]Many gay men had their first experience of sex in them. They were influential in how men's lives.

I gave and got my first bj in a gay porn theater in SF.

Love the Frau AIDS hyperbole. Not everyone who went to bars bookstores and porn theatres died. And some people even contracted AIDS and didn't go to these places. And yes a lot of people didn't bare back when we discovered safe sex. But put up the Quilt picture anyway to make your Frau point.

No R348, I'm afraid you do not. The gay fantsy straight men go to gay places for sex is just that: fantasy. You'll get guys who don't want to be gay, and if wearing wedding rings, well …. so what if a guy likes his dick and wants a wife and kids. So, not for you, but get of a high horse that you're so much better, more pure,than they. You're in the same place where you see them, sucking the same cocks.

In NYC the Empire was simple. Pay money, go up in the balcony, have sex. Men gathered there. I you wanted to rob a bank you went to a bank. If you wanted quick gay sex, you went to a known porn palace. No all were seedy, none wete unsafe, All the Miss Prisses sniffing here, if you got out of your tight little lives you'd know.

And please stop with the porn house knowledge you do not have. Ever go to a "porn palace"? Note you did not see it full of women, No women roaming around doing sex. Straights went, got turned on, went home. Only gays got into one another. No old farts warning around worried about "health" …. oh, oh, oh, this place is such a mess. Often the projector houses, the 25¢ booth dives, reeked of air spray, sometimes wet mops as the boys mopped up cum in booths. No lives were ruined by anonymous dick. And there were no "straight guys" jacking off who didn't seem to mind a crowd of straights gathering around and feeling him up. All involved were gay, Rose

The mother of them all...the Pilgrim Theatre in Boston--should have been placed on the National Historical Register as a landmark. It was a vaudeville theatre and then a spectacular movie palace with spacious seats, balconies, marble bathrooms with marble floor to wiast-high urinals and no urinal dividers. The sex was everywhere. The cops looked the other way. It was Ground Zero, the gay mecca of all gay porn palaces. Yes, back many years ago, a long forgotten rule was that gays from all over the world would have to make a pilgrimage to Boston to pay sexual homage at the Pilgrim. It was jizz heaven. Penises everywhere...gay, straights, Brahmins, blue bloods, blue collar, white collar, business men, working men, jocks, nerds, feminine men, students, guidos and suburban dads. It was the Acropolis, Colisuem, Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower, Tower of London, Empire State Building, Golden Gate Bridge, Palace at Versailles, Machu Picchu and the Great Wall of China of gay porn theatres. Instead, after more than a 100 years, they tore is down. Sad.

R531, what was the Empire and where was it located?

[quote]Porn theaters, where a primal urge for sexual gratification led to grown men hiding from society due to their inability to cope with, accept, and deal with who they really were. Hiding in the shadows so that even their sex partners wouldn't know, recognize, nor remember them.

What on earth are you babbling about?

We went to porn theaters because there was plenty of dick to suck. On the spot. No fuss, no bother.

It was a blast.

Can anyone remember what it was like to go in for the first time?

I can. Very well.

I lived in a small midwestern town. When I was 14, I was already adult height and growing facial hair. One day I put on sunglasses to hide my young eyes and ventured into an "Adult Book Store" (this was, literally, the name on the sign out front).

I knew what I was: g-a-y, and knew I wanted to see naked men. I walked in, said a quick, "Hi" to the clerk, and made my way around the plain, rather undecorated store looking for the "All Male" section.

After a little strolling, I saw the movie booth area. It was very dark with a bunch of 8mm movie projector booths. I once again searched for the "gay stuff" and watched my first gay porn.

I thought the "holes in the walls" were some kind of ventilation or a design (lol!) but soon discovered their true purpose. Got and gave my first blowjob courtesy of those little "avenues of oral pleasure".

I remember visiting my first sex cinema in Boulogne in France in 1980s. I'd be 17/18. It was a small place with 2 cubicles at the back. You selected your movie and the guy on the desk would load it for you. I'm pretty sure it was Sky Dawson in Bikers Revenge. I think it was a super 8 movie although it might have been VHS, but I think it was on film. I was so shocked. I had never seen anything like that before. I shot my load in about 30 seconds. I still remember it to this day.

Bikers Liberty I meant!

[quote]r476 The availability of porn everywhere means places like these, part of our cultural heritage, are going.

Is it part of our "cultural heritage" if you never went ... or just historic fact?

Are straight men cheating on their wives part of the heterosexual "cultural heritage"?

R539 Yes, to both.

They were cock palaces, not museums.

[quote]The availability of porn everywhere means places like these, part of our cultural heritage, are going.

Going? They're gone. The Adonis was torn down years ago for a mega residential/office complex. All of those theaters have been either torn down years ago or repurposed.

It's a great shame.

Hopefully one of them can be saved for generations to cum.

I was in porn theaters a few times when the lights came on at the end of the night.

Now, we all know there's dried cum everywhere but seeing it was quite shocking.

R544 This is before the invention of steam cleaners too.

Must have been difficult to get some of that staining out.

Imagine being the cleaning lady just in from Mexico at her first day on the job.

R546 Oh god can you imagine that!

I remember that my local one had those big wall mounted paper hand towel dispensers. It came in a roll and you'd tear off some to clean yourself up.

Some people would tear off too much and discard it on the floor. Because it was so dark in there, you could hardly see it on the floor and on more than a few times I've seen sexy guys suddenly tumble ungracefully to the ground tripping over this stuff. Horrible for the cleaners to dispose of when the lights went up.

Has anyone been a cleaner in any sex cinema?

Does anyone here honestly believe that any of these dumps were ever cleaned? How quaint.

r548 a friend of mine worked in a local porno store when we were in undergrad. he loved the job because ccustomers never asked question or even really spoke, just walked up and handed him their purchases while staring at the floor.

he pretty much did homework on the clock... until the end of the night when he had to mop the video booths. he said it was disgusting.

The ones in Berlin are very clean.

We need to preserve our historic sex cinemas and to promote new, high quality ones for future generations.

Bump

There's a place that I've been a few times that is a regular porn shop, but they have a "community room" that's basically two rooms with a thin wall between them (but with space so you can still walk between sides) that shows straight porn on one side and gay porn on the other. There's a bunch of seats, with guys jacking off. A few times I've seen people getting fucked, and I've sucked off (and fucked) a few guys in there.

I miss the Sansom Cinema in Philly. Saw really crazy stuff in there. The only thing left is the Adonis on 20th street, and that place is a pickpockets paradise.

What was the ambiance like of the places you've visited?

Ambience? In a porn theater - wear old shoes and don't sit down on the seats.

I'm so surprised that a few keep hanging on in this internet age.

How do they pay their way?

Most of the single screen places are gone. More and more porn shops are opening up little mini theaters that's just a big screen TV with a few chairs around it. Not the same as the old days, but still hot.

That's why the old style 2 or 3 screen cinemas need preserving.

You would move from room to room to position yourself near to some hotty before surepticious hands would wander.

If ever there was a was a type of building that needed saving, that is a prime candidate.

[quote]surepticious hands

Is this some kind of reptile from Jurassic Park?

R560 Haha!

You're thinking of when someone pulls out their Godzilla!

The seats must make an audible crunch when someone sits in them.

R562 The American State Society for the Preservation of Porn Picturehouses and Interactive Cinema Sites recommend lemon pledge.

ASSPPPICS have produced a number of handy guides for sex cinema owners to keep their historic properties in tip top condition.

Guide number 4 entitled - Dealing with Excessive Cum - clean or reupholster? covers the subject extensively.

Casey Donovan did a gay porn in '73 called "The Back Row" that took place in a gay porn theater yet they didn't even film it in one. It was filmed in the 42nd ST Cinema a hole in the wall that showed "underground" films. But it did play The 55th.

Very interesting that link R564

Bleach. Bring lots of bleach.

R564, I think that 42nd Street Cinema started out playing independents but eventually switched to porn

Forget bleach R556 bring a blowtorch!

R568

Bring a blowjob you mean!

No R569 I mean bring cleansing fire.

R570 These cultural establishment, with their deep LGBT social history, need preserving, not burning.

The one on 7th Avenue South became a restaurant. I think about how many times I blew my load there every time I pass by.

Happy memories R572

As we near the end of this thread, do any of you others have happy memories you wish to share?

Where on 7th Ave South was tehnporn shop. Was there in 90s and don’t remember it. Near Crazy Nanny’s?

Can any of our New York cinema goers help R575?

The 7th Avenue South cinema was just north of Leroy, on the west side of the street.

R577 Is it a chippy now?

Turning down John Gielgud.

Only in America. Philistines.

Wrapping up, I'd say that the pilgrim and the Adonis take top honors in this category.

Likes sands through the hourglass these are the days of old whores lives.

R581 Sucking dick in a theater doesn't necessarily make one a whore.

R582 is quite right.

A lot if patrons that went, went for the avant garde movies they showed too.

Ummm...That's exactly the kind of activity that indicate one was a whore R582 or do you prefer the more technically correct "slut" since no money is/was exchanged only fluids?

I hope Hollywood does a movie based on porn cinemas of the 70s and 80s.

Hell, we could write a script on here!

[quote]Ummm...That's exactly the kind of activity that indicate one was a whore [R582] or do you prefer the more technically correct "slut" since no money is/was exchanged only fluids?

Uh...so if sucking dick in a gay porn theatre makes you a whore (or a slut), what does sucking dick in a bedroom make you?

Could you please list the places that you approve of for sucking dick?

R586 has a point. If you suck dick from Grindr hookups does that make you a "romantic"???

R586 Does have a point.

Where on the list would sucking dick from a Craigslist meet come on the scale?

Sucking cock in the privacy of your or another's home makes you a sexually active adult R586 whereas sucking the cock of some guy you never speak a word to in a public place with an audience makes you a slut.

But what if a “Hello. Want head?” was exchanged?

[quote]Sucking cock in the privacy of your or another's home makes you a sexually active adult [R586] whereas sucking the cock of some guy you never speak a word to in a public place with an audience makes you a slut.

Calling a gay movie theatre a "public place" is a bit disingenuous. They were spaces for sex.

"With an audience "? Only if you wanted one.

"With some guy you never speak a word to" That was entirely up to you. There was no ban on speaking to someone.

Meet R584

Can someone think of a suitable, high energy thread title for Pt2 please?

Relax, It's Just Sex.

Sometimes you want to go where no one knows your name. Or Sometimes you want to blow where no one knows your name.

It would be good to hear from any staff, like the receptionist or projectionist about their experiences of these places.

I wonder if a lot of them had long established staff or just temporary students just passing through?

Sorry R591 but just because someone chooses not to suck strange cock in a public theater doesn't make them a frigid church lady as much as you'd like to think so.

Maybe not, r596, but looking down on those that do sure does.

R596 are you still wearing that purity ring given to you by daddy?

That's sweet.

Good, now I have R596 blocked on both my browsers. Oh how I wish block lists were global, and not specific to a browser...

Believe what you want but an old cock depot is never going to be preserved as some historical monument. Oh and R599 I win.