Gay Porn Theaters Part II (Prudes Need Not Apply)

Gross! 🤢🤮 Who goes to gay porn theaters but the olds 👴🏻 who don’t have Wifee.

Last time I went to one, there were a bunch of guys, but everyone was standing off on their own, not interacting. Took a new guy to come in to get the crowd going. He was really tight as I fucked him and another guy was sucking his cock. He didn't last long, but damn it was worth it.

In New Jersey and Long Island there’s no proper gay porn theaters, but there’s plenty of these “adult stores” with a small selection of DVD’s and dildos and such, but the cast amount of space is taken up by the “back room” that can be as gross as a few folding chairs in front of a grainy old tv playing vintage porn to a fuck emporium with multiple rooms, gloryholes, couches, slings. They can be a lot of fun!

If a porn shop doesn't have a communal theater, then at least they should have gloryholes.

Do people masturbate in porn theaters (cinema size)? I grew up with internet porn and can't imagine people JUST watching porn in a big public theater. What's the point? Or are there 150 people jerking off all at the same time next to each other?

That's exactly what porn theaters are there for, R5. And I don't think I've ever seen more than 20 people in any of the places I've ever been in.

Oh god, the one I went to R6 had like 50+ guys in it. Mostly it was oral and master lation going on.

The ones in Berlin are more like individual cubicles where you sit and click through various porn channels. Some cubicles have glory holes and some cinemas have a communal space for 5-10 guys.

Athens still has a few Theaters, they are technically straight but mostly gay and Bi guys go there. A cute guy who worked their joined in with me and a hairy greek once, but yeah there is usually some older guy who does not accept no or read any social signs. The last time I went they played straight porn with the worlds most annoying female actress who had a fake British accent, boner killer.

R8 Isn't that all part of the attraction? All these terrible porn movies being played, yet still hot action takes place amongst the participants.

Dreadful scratchy videos or films are projected, terrible dialogue, terribly shooting, terrible accents, but still hot guys get it on.

Grindr doesn't provide that thrill. A bar doesn't, neither does a club. The only place that you can get that raw energy of man on man action like that is in a porn cinema.

Long may they remain.

I went to one in Paris a few years back - I had to leave because the stench of urine was too strong.

The original Adonis theater on 8th Avenue & 50th Street was by far the best gay porn theater for cruising.

The Campus theater and the Tea Room theater are closed? Well there's no need to hang out in the Tenderloin.

It is such a shame that they are closing.

Young gay men just don't have opportunities like we did.

Those were great times.

The porn theater out in the bowels of Queens is still open - it's the weirdest place on earth, like out of a Fellini movie.

Is this the Fair Theatre? R14?

When i was 24 i lived in amsterdam and used to go to them all the time. Usually Americans would be in there. I was a total exhibitionist so men would sit next to me and masturbate me or suck me off. I loved it but it was also dirty as fuck. I was young so would cum 3 or 4 times and stay for hours.

There was one in my city when I was a lot younger. The projectionist was hot so I'd end up letting him fuck me on the floor of the projection booth while the movie was playing. Once, he got two of his buddies to come in so they could all take turns with me.

They'd all yell things like 'Give it to him!' and then flood my holes with baby batter.

Old people are funny.

R16 Did you go to The Bronx on Kerkstraat?

We may have fucked.

Nice, R20 and R16.

Met a hot daddy type at a store once. We fucked; that was one of the hottest random hookups I'd ever had. A few weeks later I'm introduced to the VP of Consulting for the software company I worked at - and it was him. We just smiled and nodded at each other.

Love chance meeting stories like that

I was in Soho, London over the weekend and it is so gentrified now, whereas it used to have porn cinemas on basements all over the place.

Did the arrival of Talkies ruin the ambiance?

I remember the super 8 film days, late 70s early 80s.

there was a small porno bookstore in my hometown - the 8mm loops played for about 90 seconds for a quarter. not enough time to jerk off.

The one I watched was 10 francs for 10 minutes in France.

NYC porn theaters were once the best - now largely nonexistent. Symbolic of the city. Seems mostly poorer cities or mid tier cities still have a few. Amsterdam used to be great. Now so many porn shops and back rooms have closed - a mere shadow of the place I loved.

It is such a shame that the ubiquitous nature of smartphones has driven out these valuable establishments from our towns and cities.

I loved the porn ambience of New York in the 70’s and 80’s. It seemed like the entire place was in heat. Now it reminds me of what I’ve read about Weimar Berlin, though apparently that was much wilder.

With the advent of smartphones, it seems porn is everywhere, and nowhere.

The sounds of crunching and squishing as guys walked across the floor must have been deafening.

For me it was the smell of these places.

They smelt of sex.

You don't get that now. That raw sexual chemistry is totally absent, save for a few events, from the gay scene. R30 is right. Back in the day, it felt like the whole city was on heat. Nowadays, gay culture seems to have lost that sexual frisson. I really feel sad for millenials, not being able to get a sense of those days.

The smell was of sex, poppers, urine, bleach and oranges.

[quote]Nowadays, gay culture seems to have lost that sexual frisson.

Violent eye roll.

Nice to see R33 got his 5 a day in still.

Show me where a cock hungry twink can go to explore their sexuality now R34?

Grindr? Sure? If they can be bothered to hook up. A nightclub? Now that more of them are mixed, really? Gay bars? Dying. Circuit parties, are probably about the last bastion, with cruising. Id just love to know how gaylings get their rocks off nowadays?

Too many people under 40 do not seem to have grasped that a life lived through a phone is a diminished life.

Well said R36.

It's all about physical human contact. It's about flirting. It's about reading the right signs and the wrong ones. The sense of acceptance and rejection. Also, what you see in the flesh is much better than spending 3 hours chatting to someone on Grindr, only to discover when they show up at your place they are 10 years older and 50 lbs heavier than their pictures!

Park cruising! I miss it!

The funniest thing I ever saw was at one in Austin years ago. It had a balcony and when you walked up there a rail like bar was there to hold on to so you could step down into the seating area.

There was this annoying little Queen with her ass hanging over the rail whining to be fucked . So this guy steps up and starts slamming her and she’s squealing and carrying on so much she lost her grip an BAM bitch went down and wig flew off and it was Hilarious hearing her hit that sticky floor!

R39 Oh wow! How dramatic. We're the paramedics called?

I think the gay youth of today will be just fine R36 even without having had the opportunity to be a human jizz receptacle in a dark porn theater.

My comment was inspired by other comments upthread from mine which connected (maybe contrasted is a better word) the loss of cruising culture as we eldergays knew it to the rise of Iphone cruising culture that we know today. That said, perhaps you have also read about studies which show a rise in mood disorders and a lack of social engagement and social skills (including declining birthrates) among millenials, changes which some researchers connect to the rise of computer and Iphone culture.

If you are a millenial or under 40 and have something to say about that it would be interesting to hear it. Your nasty (outsider) comment makes you sound like a resentful, malajusted and probably sex starved prisspot.

R42/R36 here. R42 was directed to R41.

Here’s what I don’t get, r41, honestly.

What makes gays of today think that everyone who stepped foot in a porn theatre was a “human jizz receptacle”? Back then it was NO different than going on Grindr or A4A or whatever app is popular today. It didn’t mean you took multiple loads. Hell, sometimes you didn’t hook up at all, but these were the only places you could go to hook up.

Are there slutty people? Yes. But today they post ads saying they’re in a motel ass up face down looking for anonymous loads. Those are rare.

I just don’t get the thinking that, instead of a screen full of pictures of people who are looking to hook up, going to a place where those people are in person is that much different.

Sorry to burst your bubble R42 but just because I've never been a fan of blowing strangers in a public theater I am far from a resentful maladjusted (well no more than the rest of humanity) or sex-starved and I'm over 40 so your theory that those who disagree with you are out of touch millennials living through their phones is also incorrect.

Remember Larry Kramer sounded just like some of these millenial priss-pots in 1979 - even before AIDS. There has always been different views on sexuality and whoredom based on personal experience, emotional needs and desires. Whatever. I enjoyed gay theater sex and the gay apps don’t work for me (probably because I’m too old). But whatever works for you.

It was just so exciting back then.

I just feel so sorry for millenials nowadays.

r5, The first few minutes during my first visit to a porn theater (in Chicago) I heard moaning from the guy who sat behind me and subsequently go a load of jiz shot into my hair.

It was the 70s and I just bust out laughing.

There was something about me, long before there was something about Mary!

The porn films in the 70s/80s seemed to be made in Sweden or Denmark.

They were very bizarre.

@R45 . Oh, so you're 'not a fan' of sex in public theaters and yet you hang around a thread on that very subject, lapping up every word and then issuing high minded negative judgments on others, no doubt for the benefit of all mankind. That's not an occupation that I associate with people who are 'far from resentful, maladjusted or sex-starved' .

Crawl back in your hole, creep. You're not welcome here.

R48, a friend of mine had a similar experience. When we went outside and put the hood up on his jacket there was a load inside it.

R51 Did he take it home and eat it later?

So sorry I seem to have upset you R50...Just kidding upsetting you gives me a great level of satisfaction.

Who has sex anymore? We have phones now

bump

The Fair Theater in Queens has a huge main auditorium that shows grade B to C movies (Die Hard, Under Siege, and The Ten Commandments). There is a main level, and then very steep stairs up to the balcony where smoking is "allowed". The very back has a small walking area where guys walk around cruising and occasionally there is a small "orgy" that happens. Invariably, some older gent attempts to climb the stairs (most of the dudes here are grossly overweight and/or over 70) and a couple of times they take a spill down the stairs. Don't know about injuries, but there must have been some nasty mishaps.

Is the theatre close to a hospital it sounds dangerous.

How old is the place?

We're fucked!

Wrong thread. Sorry.

Or is it R59?

Loop now you've got me thinking!

Since when is Die Hard a B or C movie?

Have you watched it recently? It's a B movie.

Die Hard should be a D movie because it's star is a festering dick.

R32 R33 the smell I can remember. The hot nasty places had different smell and you could smell it at the door knowing you had come to the place where all the action is.

Smell...So the odor of stale cum gets you hot R65?

I love the Church Lady baiter... Reminds me of Margaret White "and I LIKED it..."

[quote] there was a small porno bookstore in my hometown - the 8mm loops played for about 90 seconds for a quarter. not enough time to jerk off.

When I first discovered porn bookstores, the 8mm loops were being replaced by video (mid-1980s). The first loop I ever saw was two men in heavy mustaches kissing each other deeply. I was 17 and I knew, this is what I want.

I found gay porn theatres about the same time I discovered bath houses. I decided quickly I like the latter way better because you could get the full experience.

R66 No. I wrote you knew it was place of action.

That still sounds like the smell of cum got you hot.

I liked the porn theaters because there was less of a commitment than a bath house - no checking clothes, shoes, lockers, towels. You could have sex, or not, or just be a voyeur...

I have never actually been to one of the old porn theaters, but my first realization I liked guys was because of one...

I would say around 1982 or 1983, my mother decided the family needed to have a little more cultural awareness, so we took the train from Virginia to NYC to see The Tap Dance Kid and the matinee of Cats. If that didn't make me gay enough, the fact that our seemingly very nice hotel was directly across from a porn theater helped a lot. After my parents went to sleep, I sat on the window seat and just watched men go in and out of the theater. At first I thought the "All Male" sign on the marquee meant only men could go to the movie, which I though seemed weird. I was under 10, so I really didn't know what porn was. The movie was called" Brian's Boys" and starred BRIAN HAWKES (in giant red letters.)

The next afternoon, walking home from lunch or something, we passed by the theater and I saw the posters in the cases and I immediately became fascinated. I needed to see that movie! All those guys naked together....that seemed like fun!

I sat up and watched the people going in and out more with a new appreciation.

I told this story a few years ago to some friends, and of course, I wound up getting a copy of Brian's Boys for my birthday.

I went into an adult bookstore because a friend essentially dared me but I admit I was curious but within about 3 of walking in a creepy old guy that looked like a model for a faces of meth poster started following me around the store stopping to rub his crotch every time I looked to see if he was still behind me needless to say my curiosity was very cured.

Great story R73 - I remember wondering what "All-Male" meant. And being curious about it. I used to see the 1" x 1" square ads in the NYT with half naked men.

[quote]so we took the train from Virginia to NYC to see The Tap Dance Kid and the matinee of Cats. If that didn't make me gay enough

I like you, R73! That’s funny.

[quote]You could have sex, or not, or just be a voyeur...

You can do that in a bathhouse, too.

Yeah, but you have to get a membership and a locker etc. You missed his point.

I’m with r72. With the theatres you could stop in after work on the way home, get a load off and go home. A lot of married guys do that because it’s quick and easy, in and out (pardon the pun).

Most self-identifying “straight” guys would not go to a bathhouse, nor have time to hang out for a while.

But, R78, there must have been a lot of guys who got his point.

I have to go to South Bend Indiana for a week for work. Let's meet up at some gay porn theatre there!

Yeah, R80, right up their

I had the same reaction as R73. It seemed logical that it was a movie theater for men only. Like how men didn't go into the women's hair salon.

The cinemas did indeed serve a different client base to the bath houses.

I always felt that the bath houses were more social. They were places you went to have sex, yes, but people talked and chatted in those.

Porn cinemas were completely opposite I found. They were dark places that didn't engender conversation, they were places that patrons came, unzipped, released and left. The only people to stay a couple of hours or so we're the old or the cum hungry twinks.

Anyone have anymore tales of yore?

Ok, so enlighten me here. I have been into a sex shop that sells dildos and all that. It had "video viewing rooms" in the back, but I stupidly did not go back there. Help me navigate - is it very obvious where to go get your dick sucked? If I'm new to the area, how do I know if it's gays only back there?

I will "Oh, dear" myself here. That should have been, "walked into a sex shop," not *been into a sex shop.

Great question R86. I guess the only answer is to just rely on your intuition. Observe what's going on. Then when you've Sussex it out, participate in activities.

No matter where they all seemed to use the same extra pungent air freshener in the attempt to overcome the smell of spent semen and ass that permeated those places. It's an unmistakable smell that you never smelled anywhere other than pornaterias.

Mmm that smell. I remember that.

[quote] I went to one in Paris a few years back - I had to leave because the stench of urine was too strong.

It's Paris' natural scent. That could just have easily been the Louvre.

One time I went to a place in midtown - banana video? - they had an arcade section where guys would cruise up and down the isle, and if it worked out, go into a booth together. It was a slow night, only a few people, and an older guy approached me and said "I shaved my balls for this???"

R92 Did you take a look to check if he was telling the truth?

That's funny r92. The slower nights were sometimes better with fewer distractions.

R94 True. When I've been places with a ton of guys, it can be hit or miss. But when it's just a few, you've got a better chance at some good stuff.

I remember cruising in a bathouse in Frankfurt, Germany in the 1990s. They're was only a handful of guys. One of them was a hot American. We cruised, then played for ages. We left together. He told me he was a Captain in the USAF, had a big American car. I've never forgot him.

I’ll share my very limited experience with porn theaters.

I’m from a repressed red state that isn’t big or tolerant enough to support any porn theaters or cruisy bookstores. When I was a teenager in the ‘90s, I had to go to California for that kind of sleaze, which I loved.

I went to the theater on Santa Monica called Studs — back then, I think it was still called The Tomkat. I was impressed that there were probably 3 dozen men scattered about in the afternoon on a weekday. This would have been 1997 — before internet apps or social networking. There was a great mix of guys from every walk of life, like all cruising spots had back then.

There was one, big auditorium then, with VHS manporn playing on the screen. It was too dark to see the half a dozen men scattered around the seats, jerking off or watching, unless you were RIGHT in their lap.

So I noticed that a lot of the guys were cruising the stairs to the balcony? and restrooms on the upper floor. Their passageways had sunlit windows, and the men’s room had a lot of sunlit windows, so you could see who you were getting i to. That’s where most of the action was going down.

It didn’t take me long to find a handsome, 30something in Business Casual with creamy skin, slightly curly hair and an 8-inch, cut dick. Maybe he was Jewish? I followed him into a stall where we could have some privacy and sucked him off. It was a lot of fun for me and I probably would have visited that theater every week if I had lived in L.A.

I went back a decade or so later when it was Studs. It had lost its magic. It was cleaner and renovated. It was split into like, four, different screening rooms with couches and different kinds of porn playing. But there were only like, 4 guys there on a weekday afternoon. Most of them were elderly and probably homeless. Nobody remotely good-looking. Everyone was probably using Grindr and Facebook by then.

That was also the time I visited the Tiki Theater at the recommendation of cruisingforsex.com. Supposedly for straight people, but where gays and bisexuals sometimes crashed. This is the theater where Fred Willard was famously caught cranking it by some vice cops, which cost him his job on TV. A shame since absolutely NO ONE was harmed or shocked by his behavior, as this is a designated place for that sort of thing. Anyhow, the theater was really nasty and antiquated. There was a staight porn video playing on the tiny screen and nothing but a couple of bums and an elderly Japanese guy jerking solo.

Quite reesty and unpleasant.

Those are the only times I’ve been to porn theaters — I wish I lived near them when they were hot. I wish people still cruised in-person, too.

Here’s a profile of the Studs Theater from the L.A. Times.

R98 Thank you. It's such a shame these historic buildings are closing down or being repurposed.

If walls could talk, I wonder what they would say?

[quote]Quite reesty

??

Apparently The Strand theater in San Francisco (was not porn, but the balcony was all sex, all the time) has been renovated and is now a legit house.

[quote] The next afternoon, walking home from lunch or something, we passed by the theater and I saw the posters in the cases and I immediately became fascinated. I needed to see that movie! All those guys naked together....that seemed like fun! I sat up and watched the people going in and out more with a new appreciation.

When I was just getting sexual urges, I too loved watching guys goes in and out of adult movie theatres and book stores. I was too chicken to go in myself for a long while.

When I was about 15 or 16, like others above have mentioned, I studied those mini ads in the newspapers, advertising all-male adult-only movie theaters.

So one day I mustered my courage and tried to enter the Park–Miller Theatre on West 43rd Street (which I now know was the old Broadway house the Henry Miller Theatre, then temporarily reduced to porno and nowadays the Stephen Sondheim) but the security guy at the door wouldn't let them sell me a ticket. "You don't want to know what goes on in there…!" but I did Blanche, I did.

I never did make it to the Park-Miller, it later became Xenon disco and other uses, but I soon discovered the Adonis and the ultimate sleaze pit the Metropolitan on E. 14th St., but to this day I wonder what I missed that day at Henry Miller's theater.

I loved the ads for the Park-Miller. Lots of beards and and mustaches.

cum for the films

They put such effort into the advertising back then.

Can you imagine if they were around now. They'd have to have their own Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts to advertise their offering.

[quote]If walls could talk, I wonder what they would say?

"Won't someone please give me a good scrubbing with a powerful disinfectant?"

How did the get rid of the nacreous layers of permacum???

It was pickpocket heaven. While you were being blown, they would rifle through your back pockets.

[quote] If walls could talk, I wonder what they would say?

If walls could talk, I wonder what they would say?

Burn me with cleansing fire!!!

I saw a guy pull out a can of lysol and spray down the seat before enjoying the all-male pictures.

The Met on East 14th Street had the most scathingly filthy graffiti on the walls in its basement

R109 These weren't the days of mobile phones and bank cards. You just stuffed your bills in your shoe and didn't mind if they riffled through your pockets, they weren't ever gonna find anything there!

r113 really, Mary Clancy? And what does Marvel-Ann think?

Ohhh, it's positively medieval...!

I guess it's about time we had "The Trouble With Angels" reference...or two.

Personally, I prefer the sequel.

Well then how about this, which could have been posted over the entrance way:

"I may fear for my mortal life but not my immortal soul..."

Feel free to watch the Jack Wrangler classic A NIGHT AT THE ADONIS for a "taste" of the old theater and the culture.

The dialogue is actually witty.

There's an Ed Koch joke in there!

[quote] It was pickpocket heaven. While you were being blown, they would rifle through your back pockets.

I lost a wallet that way once

I didn't carry a wallet for 20 years when I lived in NYC. Not just because of the porn theaters but also the subway, etc.

Don't know whether this story is apocryphal or not, but I heard that the pickpockets themselves would put up signs that would say "guard your wallets" which would lead the patrons to pat their wallet location to make sure it was safe, thus identifying for the pickpocket exactly where it was located on your person, making it easier for them to lift it when the opportunity arose.

R123 That sounds like it could be true.

I just stuffed my money in my socks and had a fabulous time not worrying about my wallet.

In a porn theater in New York, they actually had a public service ad between features, showing two men making out in a similar theater. As the "victim" was shooting his load into the "pickpocket's" mouth, the pickpocket was going for the wallet. They don't make PSAs like that anymore!

One time , I had shot my load and was ready to leave, when some hysterical queen started screaming that someone took their wallet. The police were called and no one was allowed to leave until everyone was searched. All the lights went on , but the movie kept playing. I don't know which was better: the looks on the mortified patrons who just wanted to leave, or the expressions on the cops faces as they viewed the movie while searching patrons.

They were great times, weren't they?

If not great at least they were memorable times.

Was anyone arrested for visiting any of these classic porn cinemas?

Of course not. It wasn’t a crime to be in a movie theatre.

And the cops, especially in that time, had far more important things to worry about than whether someone was playing with his pecker in a movie theatre.

Any links to the public service announcement in R125?

I've searched pornhub but nothing so far.

Pee Wee Herman and Fred Willard were arrested.

I Liked The Adonis in New York City. Some nights nothing happened, other nights I'd get some good head. I was nervous the first time I went there, it was so dark that I had to feel my way quickly into an orchestra seat until my eyes adjusted. Now demolished, it can be seen in the 1978 porno "A Night At The Adonis".

I was gonna say ask Pee Wee and Fred Willard about the cops having better things to do.

Where was that?

I was in the Bijou in Chicago when it was raided by the Chicago PD.

I wasn't taken anywhere, but some were. I ran out of the building to my car after they let us go. I was just grateful I didn't get taken in.

To this day I have no idea why they were there. Drugs? A desire to "clean up" the neighborhood?

This was back in the late 1980s. The Bijou survived until 2015 or so.

Must of been scary.

We're those taken away engaged in fucking or smoking drugs?

[quote]Must of been scary

Oh, dear!

It would put the willies up me!

Anyone been to the theaters in Buenos Aires? Was there a few years ago and they had a multitude of adult theaters still open.

bump

Reubens and Willard were not at gay porn cinemas. And those incidents happened long after the porn cinema heyday. I lived in NYC during the 70s and early 80s and never heard of anyone being bothered by the cops.

I spent two hours in one today, and a blast blowing a range of men.

Anyone on here ever been to Kings Highway Cinema in Brooklyn? I pass it all the time and have never seen anyone go in.

good places to take hore trix u don't want to take home. in many, alas, lots of crack smokiin goin on....icky

Was near Kings Highway yesterday - didn't go in but saw several patrons. one very cute hispanic boy came out as I was biking by.

And they say true love is dead.

@R146 . And yet you are hanging around, lapping up every detail.

What can I say R147 I'm a fan of elderly nostalgia.

What will the "elderly nostalgia" be in 20 years? Scruff memories? Grinder hits and misses?

The Adonis was fabulously sleazy. Actually an old stylr movie palace it really should have been given landmark status. Now it's a very yuppieish rental building called The Longacre (the original name of Times Square), I always thought that the developers should have called the new building The Adonis.

The Adonis's days were numbered once the uber prestigious law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore leased space in a newly built office tower across the street (actually the site of the old Madison Square Garden where Marilyn sang "Happy Birthday and the ending of The original Manchurian Candidate was filmed). The firm somehow fenagled the theater's eviction.

The owners had a sense of humor about it, though. On the firm's move in day, the marquee was blazened with the words "Welcome To The Neighborhood, Cravath,"

[quote]The Longacre (the original name of Times Square)

[quote]actually the site of the old Madison Square Garden where Marilyn sang "Happy Birthday and the ending of The original Manchurian Candidate was filmed

Extremely interesting NY location info! Thanks.

The site of The Adonis today (sob, sob).

The Adonis then.

The Adonis today.

R154 R155 I pass by from time to time and lament the theater being gone. Less from a porn theater customer, but mainly from a architectural and cultural loss.

In its earlier days as the Tivoli

Photos of the Tivoli/Adonis

Some of the movies at the Tivoli seem eerily prescient:

London in the Raw

Mary! Queen of Scotts

Flaming Creatures

The 70s & 80s porn movie titles were funny.

I lived in Manhattan during the late 70's and 80's. Went back recently and the entire city has been completely sanitized.

Yes, I'm old.

Are there ANY porn theaters left?

Brooklyn & Queens each have one. And there is the Bijou on E 4th.

Speaking of Chicago, I remember during the LA Olympics Mike Adamle did a story standing in front of a gay porn marquee in L.A. "The Young Olympians" "All Male Cast" "WIlliam Higgins" "Class of 1984" It was hilarious.

What about the old Les Hommes bookstore on - I think - West 82nd Street?

[quote] Are there ANY porn theaters left?

Manhattan now gets its porn from MSNBC

At the one in queens the trannies go up and down the isles giving blowjobs to the supposedly straight guys.

[quote] Some of the movies at the Tivoli seem eerily prescient: Flaming Creatures

Jack Smith!

I just went to watch the pictures.

Do they sell popcorn?

R169 At least a couple of porn theaters in NYC during the 1980s did sell popcorn, and a few others sold candy either from a concession stand or with vending machines.

Poppers - yes; popcorn - no.

There was a porno theatre in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn called The Deluxe. It showed straight porn and lots of Italian guys there - some realllly straight and others who didn't mind getting bjs. Then they took a part of the lobby, boxed it up and put 4 rows, 4 seats each, in and showed gay flicks. Very rarely did guys go in there but they had no problem getting bjs in the main theatre or bathroom. Now demolished, of course. The whole block has basically been replaced with new buildings.

Recently drove by the porno on Kings Highway. The marquee looks like its going to fall off, and the place almost looked abandoned, but no, there were a few souls walking around. But definitely a graveyard crowd.

Are there any porn theaters left in Europe? I went to several in Paris in the 2000s that were still pretty active.

I quit goin to nyc when the Gaiety shut down.

god dam it was good

them hung Canadians

and Russians that the lady owner fukd on the side....

I sucked more ass there than anywhere in my life

30 dolla toilet sux and fotos.

R175 From the mid 1980s until the early 2000s I would go to the Gaiety every few months. It was enjoyable regardless of whether you mixed it up with any of the dancers or not.

How many hours did I spend at the Jewel, later the Bijou I wonder. I sucked my first cock there. I can still remember his fresh powdered crotch and his Polo cologne.

Anybody remember Stellas? Hustlers upstairs, drag shows downstairs, with more hustlers in the crowd.

[quote]Are there ANY porn theaters left?

I went to one in Colorado Springs a few years ago. Was super dirty and I didn't want to sit on the cloth seats (the one time I've gotten crabs was from sitting down on a couch in a porno arcade). Mostly you only see the arcades, some of which have a makeshift theater with chairs or couches but they're nothing like they used to be.

[quote]Anybody remember Stellas? Hustlers upstairs, drag shows downstairs, with more hustlers in the crowd.

I remember Stella's having strippers (w/full nudity) downstairs. Usually hot black or Latino guys.

How's the porn theater in Kansas City? I've got a trip to there coming up, and thought I might try it if it's any good.

I won't go to the porn theater nearest my home because it's overrun with cackling trannies tramping from the theater to the booths and back again, talking and laughing loudly and aggressively chasing newbies. There was a sign up a couple years ago that said if you have problems enjoying our facility, call ... So I called and left a message. A guy called me back and said, "The cashier is supposed to kick them out! They don't pay!" Next couple times I went, it was tranny-free. Then a couple months after that, new owners, no sign, and a wad of trannies flitting about. Junkies crashing in the theater. I never went back.

Sounds like the Dallas area, r182.

The mother of all gay porn theatres...and it technically wasn't gay except on the inside.

The Pilgrim Theatre in Boston was heaven, nirvana and the end of the rainbow all in one. It was the grandest of them all from the glory days of movie palaces. Big screen, orchestra seating, marble staircases, balcony, elaborate. ornate bathrooms. And sucking, fucking and wanking at every turn. Beautiful floor to waist-high porcelain urinals for pissing, watching and playing and no urinal dividers! Alone, duos, trios, orgies and more. The Pilgrim was ground zero for a nonstop cumfest. Gay, straight, bisexual, white collar, blue collar, businesssmen, construction workers, Beacon Hill gentlemen, Guidos from the North End, city folk, suburban dads, students, butch guys, softer boys, twinks, preppies, doctors, lawyers and Indian chiefs. The Pilgrim had it all. Cock was king. And cock was everywhere for all to enjoy.

The Strand theater in San Francisco had the scariest, steepest balcony of all time.

So true, R184. I've posted this before but a few times at The Pilgrim some guy would walk by completely naked. I always wondered where they hid their clothes. How do you get home if someone takes them?

R184, What were the peak years?

1893-1911

I visited my first one in 1978. It was a big deal because I had never seen gay porn. At that time, $4.00 was expensive in Denver for a movie.

R187. The peak years for the Pilgrim as a "sex playground" was the '70s-'80s-'90s. Unfortunately, Boston's Combat Zone was changing with higher real estate values along with an adjacent and expanding business area, theatre district and residential area and Chinatown not wanting to be neighbors with this sex district--almost like Times Square and 42nd Street has changed in NYC. The Pilgrim Theatre, one of the last of the last of the vaudeville, burlesque and old time movie palaces, was demolished in the late '90s. A sad day and truly the end of a wild era. But it was always active until it was shut down.

The "Combat Zone" name came about because this area in downtown Boston with lots of clubs, bars, strip clubs, restaurants, etc., is where the Navy and Army personnel on leave would come for entertainment. It took on a more ominous feel as and crime area in later years, which made the name of the are seem appropriate, but it was really named the Combat Zone because it was originally a military place for fun. The area was also know as Lower Washington Street to longtime Bostonians. The Combat Zone name has almost disappeared because now it's just a sterile nondescript place of high rise buildings with maybe one or two adult book stores in the area. But in its heyday it sure was fun!! The sex was overflowing. There has never been a place like the Pilgrim. Even in other cities, the Pilgrim was the mother of them all.

The Pilgrim's big claim to fame: The Pilgrim Theater, one of the last old time burlesque houses, was the site of a political scandal in December 1974 when the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Wilbur Mills, seemingly inebriated, appeared on stage with stripper Fanne Foxe, "The Argentine Firecracker". The Pilgrim then ceased to feature live shows, instead focusing on X-rated movies, and became a cruising site for men to have (paid or unpaid) sex with men.

Originally the Olympia Theatre, it later became the Pilgrim Theatre.

Combat Zone, Boston

The Glory Days:

Many thanks, R190.

Did the flow of traffic ebb when the AIDS crisis was in full force during the 1980's?

Yeah R189, $4 in '78 would be about $16 now.

R183, I spent a lot of time visiting a friend in Dallas for a few years not long ago. I was surprised at how many trannies were in the area, in Oaklawn. I even hired a couple temps for a job and one that they sent was a tranny named Paula - little round tits on a muscular man with geek glasses and bad hair. She worked hard and asked me out.

Some guy was on Doublelist last night complaining about all the junkies crashing in his favorite ABS.

Sounds like everything inside would be crunchy.

tried a couple porn theaters in Kansas City a couple weeks back. nobody worth anything in either.

Looking through old issues of New York Times online - seem they started accepting advertising from hard core "all-male" films in June of 1969, the year of Stonewall. Gay lib really hit that year. Page 39.

R195, every one of us is a child of G-d and worthy of respect and a blowjob.

There used to be a porno on E. 4th and 2nd. Guys would go there after the bars closed if they hadn't met anyone. It was still around until recently - now there's a sign that says "under renovation" .

never went bak to nyc after the Gaiety shut down.

whts good strip/ho clubs now??

R192. I don't believe the AIDS crisis had too much of an affect on attendance since the Pilgrim was generally considered a straight place (even though it wasn't). I believe what changed the attendance was shifting demographics and a changing economy. The generation who was used to going to porn theatres was getting older. The younger generation was then catching onto renting porn and playing on your new VCR at home. Rents, real estate and parking also changed as downtown property became more expensive. Porn theatres were the victims of a changing economy just as bars, restaurants and office space were vulnerable. I think it was simply the glory days of going to porn in a downtown theatre was no longer sustainable. All I can say is that going to a porn theatre or especially a bathhouse from my point of view is a hell of a lot more fun, productive, escapist and less time-consuming than trying to endlessly connect on Grindr or some chat room, which is awful and a huge waste of time.

The thrill is gone.

R201, that’s just it.

man it used to be such a gas bak in the day, walkin down polk st in frisco, pickin up hot boys from all over the dam world.

then it died out

all this shit online now, pffft

It was fun not knowing what could happen when you entered one of these places. You have amazing sex or come home with nothing (except crabs).

I just came in my pants!

[Quote] There used to be a porno on E. 4th and 2nd

Downstairs below street level. Club82 at one time I think.

[Quote] There used to be a porno on E. 4th and 2nd

Downstairs below street level. Club82 at one time I think.

The theater in Brooklyn, on Kings Highway, is a graveyard. Walkers and canes.

No thanks

Bump

More details R21

R31, why? I can’t get that thought out of my head no. Yuck.

I met my husband at a porno.

Bijou was about the booths, Nobody was there for the big video screen. It was a modest, dirty little sex club.

I was in the booths part of one in the 90s and it was quite deserted. But I was longing for this surly macho guy. I was about 30, tall, handsome, thin, not unfuckable. But I was way too thirsty for this stud and he got bad vibes. He said nothing for a long time, just avoiding me or glaring at me. Finally he came up to my face and snarled "I wouldn't piss in your mouth if your throat was on fire" and spat on the ground beside my feet.

That's hot, r215

And they say romance is dead R213.

R215 I love this!

Does anyone remember a place in the garment district called Banana Video? It was 3 floors - an arcade area, then upstairs a small theater and another cruising area. Mostly guys getting off after work but could be fun. I remember going there once when it was dead and a guy kept saying (to himself) "I shaved my balls for this?"

There was a backroom place I used to go to back in the mid70’s, Amsterdam and 75th or so. No booths or screens, just pay at the counter, go through a turnstile, then cruise 3 or 4 darkened rooms. Had some hot times there. I used to see Edward Albee, several times. ( Never got it on with him. Each of us wanted something else.)

Around 1979 when I was a twink I remember walking around some theater in Times Square behind the screen. It stank and I daintily held my hankie to my nose. I was insufferable. Does anyone know what that place was?

The Tivoli/ Adonis was grindhouse for decades. In '69 it was raided showing the softcore feature "The Muthers". They arrested the manager, the projectionist and the ticket taker and published their names and addresses in the paper. The Police raided the same film at a theater on Long Island the next night. The Tivoli would go on to play the first hard core feature "Mona". Before that hardcore only appeared in "documentaries about sex and marriage.

The original Adonis on 50th Street was the ultimate gay porn cruising theater, in part because of the grandeur if the classic architecture and in part because of the eclectic patrons.

Thank you for that pic r223

I'm curious if anyone ever heard of the Park-Miller?

I'm envious of the guys who got to enjoy the porn theaters at their peak.

[quote]I'm envious of the guys who got to enjoy the porn theaters at their peak.

Don't be, most are dead.

R225, please see R103, r104, r105

Thanks for the story, R103. I think the most exciting thing about these places is the sense of never knowing what could happen. I guess with Grinder you never know what your hookups apartment will be like.

By 1970, the pornos were advertising in the papers.

A lot of these old pornos in New York are now restaurants where tourists happily eat their mediocre pre-theater meals. The King on 44th was sooo disgusting and wonderful. Now it's a seafood restaurant.

I used to go to one in Elmira, NY. Some trolls, but some pretty hot guys.

The Cameo Theater of 693 8th Avenue, which later became The Adonis and later yet The Playpen is now a ShakeShack.

Well, to be honest, they tore the building down and built something else, where shake shack now is. But across the street at the playwright tavern, and a couple of the others, were definitely the same buildings that jizz palaces occupied

I like to imagine the hot construction workers coming in and seeing the jizz covered seats during the demo phase...

Thanks for the pic R233. I actually walked by that Shake Shack last Sunday and was trying to remember what had been there. Was this later turned into the second Adonis??

[quote]The Cameo Theater of 693 8th Avenue, which later became The Adonis and later yet The Playpen is now a ShakeShack.

I doubt anyone will ever make a gay porn flick called "A Night At the Shake Shack."

Crusty described the seats and floor then and the patrons now.

Pics from the end of the era

R239 That's a great selection of photos.

All this talk about porno theaters is making me hard. Wish the one on Kings Highway attracted a bigger crowd. Want to make that a DL meet-up spot on the third Friday of the month?

That place on Kings Highway is a graveyard. I don't know how it survives. The few times i've took a chance the exact same people were there.

I used to go to the Campus theater in San Francisco, in the Tenderloin. Are there any pornos left in San Francisco?

Oh god R243 that reminds me of time spent in Nob Hill in San Francisco. I remember a 'tryout' night for new strippers where the poor guy's pants wouldn't fit over his shoes. He was so embarrassed that I helped him get out of shoes and pants both.

The Nob Hill finally closed - not too long ago. A lot of 80's-90's stars passed through those doors.

The Cine Iris seems to be going strong

You risked your life getting to the Campus Theater...

Why R247? For most people jerking off isn't life threatening.

You had to walk through the worst area of the tenderloin to get to the place. Once inside, it was fine.

It's with sadness that I report a leader and mentor of our thread has passed away. Mr. Fred Willard was an icon who knew the pleasures of sitting in a porn theater with his pants around his ankles.

l will think of him often and miss him.

RIP, Dataloungers

It's true about the creepy walk to The Campus but it was worth it. i ran into Jon King at the pay phone.

Sad about Fred Willis. Truly disturbing that someone is arrested for "allegedly" jacking off in a porn cinema. Certainly there are much worse crimes to worry about. Like getting pushed on the subway tracks? Storming the Capitol?

I went to an adult bookstore across the state line years ago out of curiosity since I'd read so many stories about them online and the moment I stepped in through the door the place reeked of stale cum and then an ancient creep started following me around the store so I left after about 5 minutes.

Get out your hand sanitizer and masks - The Fair Theater is open.

My first job when we moved to SF was at the Nob Hill Cinema. In 1972 there was only a handful in the entire country. I sold tickets (memberships) and concessions. You had to buy a membership because otherwise we would have been raided. Eventually, I was running the projector. That was after working there for about a month. It was just a small one-room movie theater. I was only there a few months. Jonathan Frid (Barnabas Collins) came in and sheepishly bought a membership. I didn't acknowledge who he was to avoid embarrassing him.

Is the person in the photo posted by R223 a DLer?

There was a place I went to A few years back with a “gogoboy” with a CD player playing electronic music and dancing on a squatty potty like step stool. It was incredibly pathetic.

Please don't confuse your hand sanitizer for lube.

Hazmat suit advised.

The Fair in Queens is open, apparently masks are required*

*except when giving blowjob

Will forever remember being on my knees with five men who were all part of a wedding party standing over me.....tasted every cock and had cum raining down over me and in my mouth all afternoon.

While not a theatre or bathhouse, a place I’ve been to a few times has now been overrun with straights and trans.

Anyone remember the balcony of the Strand Theater in San Francisco?

I used to go to the Garden in Pittsburgh about twenty + years ago. Us Trannys would sit up front on some dirty old sofa and chairs, and chat with some of the gay male regulars, it was really fun-the older guys would tell us stories about being gay back in the 1940s/50s and stuff. I learned a lot there and got fucked by a lot of dick too, but I was always safe and rarely gave bjs. I was in my late 20s then and was pretty choosey, so I spent more time socializing than having sex.

Anyhow, I’m certain that one of the older guys who would socialize upfront was Jerry Sandusky, the now convicted child sex abuser. I often am bad at recognizing people out of context, but I remembered certain people for specific reasons. One, this guy always wore very nice, very clean athletic wear. Most of the older men who were more butch were sloppy-he was not. It was like someone ironed hjs track suits. Second, I remember his teeth were dreadful. (Sandusky’s mouth is a nightmare) which seemed at odds with his neat and clean presentation. I also remember the salt (mainly) and peppery hair. As I recall, I never saw him actually doing anything-he seemed more like a sexual voyeur-but then I didn’t go into the Gay men’s dark room. He did. I do remember one time I had two hot young guys tag teaming me down front, and this old man was standing up against the wall watching. He didn’t try to jump in which I appreciated. Anyhow, I suspect that he was hanging around gay spaces anonymously for years.

I'm not into public sex, and I only fuck with condoms, so I doubt I'd have any luck at these places anyway.

Seems the last porno in Brooklyn on Kings Highway won't be coming back. The place is boarded up with a for sale sign.

The theater in Queens is open, post covid. They require masks, but I'd imagine they are removed when giving a blowjob. The "orgy" room is closed, but there seems to be a big gathering in the front of the screen.

[quote]They require masks, but I'd imagine they are removed when giving a blowjob.

Oh, I don't know about that.

I doubt I'd ever have visited one anyway, but in a post Covid world definitely not.

Is the open mouth face mask a joke, or is this really a thing?

Anyone ever hang at the Palm Theater in San Mateo, CA? (closed 2005)

[quote] I only fuck with condoms, so I doubt I'd have any luck at these places anyway.

What makes you think guys don't use condoms when they fuck other guys in porn theaters?

The few times I did it (15+ years ago) I certainly used a condom.

[quote] Anyone remember the balcony of the Strand Theater in San Francisco?

What do you mean the balcony? There was plenty of action on the main floor, too, at least in it's final years when was 24 hr porn.

Excuse me, is this the proper thread to VOMIT in??

Did places like the Adonis ever get raided?

[quote]r33 The smell was of sex, poppers, urine, bleach [bold]and oranges[/bold]

Did they pull off insurance scams there?

I wasn't aware The Strand became a full-on porn house. When I lived in SF, it showed mostly double and triple bills of classics and second run pics. They had one gay porn night a week. The balcony was always busy, usually jerking off, or if you went waaaay back (it was dark, steep and scary) I'm sure you'd get something more. The Embassy was next door, but that was totaled after the earthquake, along with the amazing galaxy lounge that had a turquoise circular bar. It was truly something.

I don't remember the Strand as a porn place -- where was it located? The only porn places I ever visited were the Campus, the Nob Hill, Circle J, and the O'Farrell.

R278 In it's last incarnation before closure (year?) it became a full-on (straight) porn palace but there was PLENTY of male cruising and there were in-out privileges. Experienced it in the mid-late 90s.

I remember when I moved to SF mid-80s it had a male porn night. Didn't check it out then.

It was located on Market St. (south side), maybe around 7th/8th St?

They sound they'd somehow manage to be both moist and crunchy.

I had sex with a guy in the balcony during a screening of Glory.

Sorry, they have discontinued the buffet at the Queens Porno.