“BijouBlog – Interesting and provocative thoughts on gay history, gay sexual history, gay porn, and gay popular culture.”
Website and home to bazillions of vintage gay porn movies, and unfortunately the former gay porno theater where I spent my last year of high school and summers home from college practically living at. But this blog? talk about ramblings! how does he take Spock, leather boots, Carol Burnett, Old Reliable and make it into a post? don’t ask, just visit bijouworld.com/GayBlog
some highlights:
10 replies on “bijouBlog”
I think Rawhide lasted well into the 00s, maybe as late as 2007 or so. I never went there, but was always going to the Chelsea restos with my late lover then, and started using the Blue Store some around then too.
He wasn’t asking exactly what happened to the Adonis, but what did happen, is that the theater, originally a legit theater built by Billy Rose as a gift to Fanny Brice, was razed some time in the 90s, and just left vacant for awhile. I went there 2-3 times a week from 1976-1989, when it closed and moved to 44th St. for a few years, but you could really see the difference between the Old Times Square and even just a few blocks up to 50th St., where the Adonis was: The old one was very clean for a few years and wonderfully spacious. There were movie stills of A Night at the Adonisafter it played there. The ‘new Adonis’ was lovely for about 6 months, then succumbed to the violent filth of that area, then was still a peep show place for awhile even after the New Times Square began to explode and became so garish as it is now. I’ve got a metal glory hole from the Old Adonis that looked so dangerous I got the manager to let me go out and get a screwdriver and dismantle it. I string it with rosaries so it’s sort of Genet, has a few phone #s scrawled on it. But some psycho could have actually killed somebody with the sharp metal exposed on one side.
I remember skimming Gooch’s book, he had a number of inaccuracies of the period I was sure of because I was more familiar with some of the places than he was. It was all right, not great, a lot of people read it.
Forgot to mention the Old Adonis and all the other small shops on the block were razed, and a high-rise apt. building put there. I visited someone who lived there once, and it felt terrible, the loss. I’d adored that theater.
Rawhide disappeared 2013 – ( Jeremiah’s
Vanishing New York) after its rent was nearly doubled.
Adonis – amazingly, having lived from 1983-2017, never been to the Adonis, or for that matter, very few of the Times Square theaters – downtown, East and West Village, had enough porn to keep me below 14th street most of my years!
Did you use the old Bijou that was (I think) at 13th and 3rd? In the mid-late 80s, it had fuckrooms all over–the only really big space besides the Adonis. I remember going there a lot in 1986 and 1987, it was fabulous. By the late 90s, it was still there, but hugely cut down and severely policed. Was still open in 2001, but I didn’t bother with it anymore.
Then there was another Bijou which may have closed rather recently itself, was down by E. 4th or so. That had booths with more than one man, like at a few of the theaters still, but none of the glory hole stores–except Vishara, also in Times Square now–surprisingly nice, but too many hustlers, as all the TS places have. yes, just checked that ‘Bijou’ in the basement on E. 4th has been closed for some time too.
The 3rd Ave. Bijou had had spaces behind the screen, and many, many rooms you could it anything out in the open, just as at the Adonis. By 1983, the Adonis was still good, but not as good as in the 70s, and stayed so till the balcony fell–never got the story on that, but they kept it open.
I think I actually first heard of The Cock from your very old archives, you were going there, it seems. I had a wonderful time 6 weeks ago, although I didn’t consider it ‘safe sex’ mostly. And I imagine, like me, that guys are avoiding it as a ‘crowded situation’ (to say the least in the basement) during the coronavirus crisis as it builds up here.
Oh yeah, that wonderful 3rd/13th Bijou was, I think, the very last to still show actual movies on the screen while others had moved to those depressing small video screens with Jeff Stryker movies (mostly) that were just stood up in front of the old wonderful real movie screens. When I first went to the Old Adonis, they still actually drew the curtain, had the rainbow effects on it in between, and played ‘Fly Robin Fly’ by the Silver Convention between shows.
it was actually called the Jewel Theater for awhile, then back to Bijou – but yes, 3rd Avenue between 12th and 13th – there was another up the road, briefly in the late 80’s I think, next to (or in a former) pet store – didn’t last long. This one actually closed, re-opened as a 2nd-run legitimate theater, and I remember going, leaving an answering machine message for a friend to see if he wanted to meet up with us; didn’t hear back. As a joke, he got there late, snack in, sat behind me, and reached into my lap which had me jump out of my seat practically, then died laughing when I saw who it was. But yes, that was it – found it not long after I landed in the summer of ’83.
then, at some point, it, or something like it, moved down to the basement off 2nd Avenue on 4th street – “Club 82”
Thank you for documenting your amazing memories of this lost era; it really was a fascinating read.
Belated thanks to you, for these links. I meant to respond earlier, but I kept on being distracted, by so many of your great posts. That and work, took priority. I can’t keep up! : )
The interview with director, Tom DeSimone, was endlessly fascinating. His influence and legacy to all-male porn can’t be underestimated. He truly was a pioneer – one of the greats.
I know holding on to grudges, can be pretty silly. As you said, porn is an escape. It isn’t really something; one should take so seriously, no matter how much you may love it.
For sentimental reasons, Gordon Grant will always be my absolute favorite porn star. I feel as protective of him, as you do for Al Parker. Not that he needs my protection. He can obviously take care of himself. I mean, look at him! LOL!
Everyone’s entitled to their opinion. But I sheepishly admit that it burns me, when anyone dares to disparage His Majesty. “Them’s fighting words!†– Just kidding! LOL!
DeSimone gave two interviews in 1993, to the fabulous “Manshots†magazine, which I’ve never really forgiven him for. He was pretty dismissive about both “Hot Truckin’†(“Just a loop film.â€) and Gordon Grant in general. A number of his comments regarding Gordon’s porn career, were also inaccurate.
So it’s pretty eye-opening to discover this detail, from his interview with Bijou Blog. I didn’t know that he was sexually involved, with one of the co-stars of “Hot Truckin’â€, who had the hots for Gordon!
Of course, you’re familiar with Bob Damon. Bijou and GEVI, wrongly identifies him as Bob Snowdan:
http://bijouworld.com/newsletter_temp/d00053_hot_truckin_web_image_18.jpg
Wow, this kind of puts things in perspective. Could DeSimone, have simply been jealous? This now makes the hostility, rather understandable. Anyway, it’s time for me to move on – water under the bridge. LOL!
But before I do, I want to thank Bijou Blog, for this wonderful picture of Gordon Grant from “Hot Truckin’â€. I’ve seen the film of course, but I’ve never seen this particular still before. Look how great his hair looks – finally, a decent cut!
As I’ve said before, it delights me that his facial features get more pronounced, when he smiles or grins. *SIGH* you can click for an enlarged close-up:
http://bijouworld.com/newsletter_temp/d00053_hot_truckin_web_image_20.jpg
; )
i find that while its fascinating to read interviews with directors (models, not so much) – I like to take them ALL with a grain of salt – I swear Joe Gage has changed his story of why he quit the business in the mid-80’s several times; as well as why Django never got made, for example.
You do have an excellent point there. With some interviewees, you need more than just a grain of salt. You need the whole carton. Sometimes, the whole salt mine. LOL!
Still, I wish so many of my porn favorites had been interviewed. That’s why “Manshots†was so incredible. Did you ever read or buy a copy? I would have loved to hear for example, all the background stories, involving all the Colt and Target models, among others. I wonder why, Jerry Douglas, never thought to do that?
That’s why I see so many parallels between Gordon Grant and Greta Garbo – G.G. and G.G. : )
In my opinion, he really was the Garbo of all-male porn. She hated publicity. Like her, he had a mythic presence and grandeur, and a proud, exotic mysteriousness – both originals.
In the five years he was in the spotlight (1975 -1980), he never gave any interviews, then “Poof!†he was gone. Any information about him was divulged, in third person. And even then, you can’t totally trust it. : (
You’re probably sick to death, about hearing my obsession with His Majesty. But he was pivotal, in my development, as a pornoisseur. I was quite familiar with all-male porn, before my discovery of G.G., but he and Jim French, took me to a whole different level. : 0
That’s why chronologically; I describe my porn time span as “B.G.†and “A.G.†– before Gordon, and after Gordon. ; )
I love Gordon, and have grown in my appreciation through you, and my own researching and posting – but i know little, nor care, about Miss Garbo (and thay silly advertising angle in one of Peter deRome’s films!) – MANSHOTS – ooooh, 90’s porn magazines, ewwwwwwww! and then, in the blog years, it’s like “I got outbid on eBay again for that Manshots I need!” so now I have a few, and a bunch on a wish list.