Director: Joe Gage (1982)
cute lil’ Bob Shane as the clerk who won’t let “over-the-hill” John Steele into a sex club. Rejected and dejected, Steele slowly leaves, but is joined by another rejectee, Bud Wallace (too preppy). A brief commiseration leads to, of course, hot sex! Don’t let this social commentary on the emerging gay scene of the early 80’s distract too much, as the sex scene that follows isn’t just a couple of guys helping each other, this one has real passion, including a good deal of kissing that is sometimes missing from other Gage scenes (usually related to the specifics of the sex dynamics of the particular scene). Inter-cut with Rory at the rodeo, these men make out, grope, and slowly undo pants and have great oral sex. And of course, the Man Parrish soundtrack really makes the scene, and film, complete.
10 replies on “Private Club”
I’m sorry, I am distracted. I can’t help it! I remember this scene, but I forgot that sign. Did they really have signs like that at sex clubs and bathhouses? No preppies? Too clean-cut? No one over 35? I don’t even wanna’ talk about “no fats or femmes.” I’ve seen that one before. Wow. I’m a little outraged, but I guess it just is what it is. I’d love to think that we’ve evolved beyond such prejudices, but I dunno.
I love that here at BJ Land the comments section is not a nasty place. I mean, it’s nasty, but in a good way.
I agree that this is a great scene, I remember when I first saw it I was like, “Wait, where is this gay rodeo that’s so close to a sex club?” First we’re in the porn shops in the city, then on a ranch, then in the woods, and we end up at the drive-in. But that’s classic Joe Gage, right? I love that you hear the sounds of the rodeo over the scene, although I would have loved to hear the sex sounds that the men were making also. I love the kissing before and after the sex. It’s a very sensuous and evocative scene. I forgot how much I loved this film.
Thanks, BJ!
I certainly remember dress code sign at The Eagle (or was it The Spike – or both) – no cologne, no Izod shirts, possibly no sneakers…. made sense for Leather/Levi bars…probably other stuff – I also remember being able to check your motorcycle helmets at the bar for free (occasionally I’d go with a pal with a bike) – but certainly the leather bars would have dress codes. While ostensibly meant to create the right “vibe” – they were certainly also used to keep People of Color, or women, or the str8 but curious out.
The early Eagle let me in with friends when I barely knew what *leather bar* was. I just couldn’t get that interested, and may have gone with them back once more.
The several times I went to the Mineshaft, I was let in with more or less ordinary clothes, but once the guy said “I really shouldn’t let you in at all”. I must have truly had nothing to do if I went to the Mineshaft alone–I hated the stink of that place, but it was interesting when I went with my friend who was addicted to it.
While ostensibly meant to create the right “vibe†– they were certainly also used to keep People of Color, or women, or the str8 but curious out.
You really think all that? I think they were trying to create the “right vibe” with the leather, even much earlier than purple ropes at Studio 54. I didn’t think they were trying to keep black people out, and saw some there, nor str8 curious if they didn’t make waves. As for women, they had no business whatever there–and I doubt many tried to get in anyway. Lesbians in full leather regalia were of no interest to the clientele, but I never heard of any there. The 2 Lesbian bars I know of in the Village are different in their vibe. The Cubby Hole is a lesbian bar that lets men in and is fairly social, although I can’t stand it. The Dutchess, there a very long time, is very strictly lesbian–I have that on the word of one whom I abhor. I guess there are a few ‘male’ types that entice them there. Even back in the late 90s, Pat (now Patrick) Califia wrote about fucking gays with strap-ons and either (s)he also fistfucked them. I’d forgotten that, and am not interested in such people personally in the slightest. But there’s some kind of new kink sprouting up every day.
I just think there are Male Bars and Clubs and there are Female Bars and Clubs, and they should respect that with rare exceptions. I don’t know about transgender people. Probably depends on the place, and sometimes either sex will welcome them. I have nothing to do with them–it’s impossible to talk about anything else in most cases, and the gender-fluid business can all be taken care of by younger generations. Physically, I can’t even tolerate the thought personally. In fact, they probably *do sex* in ways that normal heterosexual and homosexual people do not do, because they have to. That’s fine.
I don’t remember any restrictions at all at bathhouses, although there may have been. “No fats, femmes…” etc., was something I only say in the *Personals* sections of old papers–no different from physical requirements on Grindr, is it? (I don’t use any kind of dating service and never have.) Never saw “No one over 35” myself.
There was the old Basic Plumbing in L.A. as far back as the 70s, where you had to check at the door for them to see if your Prick was big enough for their standards.
I go to younger-person’s sex clubs sometimes, but not young gay bars–doesn’t work. Shouldn’t be refused, but it’s obvious they don’t want a “wrinkle bar” type and you’d get nowhere unless filthy rich.
on the keeping people out – I meant that as a general remark on gay bars and clubs that had such policies – not necessarily The Spike or Eagle – but yeah, and there have been lawsuits…. I like having a “vibe” and even an all-male one, but too often, definitely in the 80’s in NYC, it was too exclusive beyond that in some bars. There was one short-lived one on 14th st, College Bar or something like that, that got shut down fairly fast after some bad publicity about their door policy.
Yes, I see what you’re saying, and I also was not that much of a “bar person”, here and there, but never a regular. I think I was mainly thinking of the extreme leather bars, where they wouldn’t have the “show” without the codes–and they would certainly have had every right to not let me in. Bars “in the middle” can accommodate more, but a gay bar that is really a sex bar shouldn’t have women, and they usually never have to say it. The venerable old Julius’, which is probably the only one that will last forever, is not really like a sex bar–some of the best burgers in the world, and Jack and I used to go there every week. I think it’s owned by a lesbian. I think Ty’s is gone, but women in there wouldn’t make any sense, and would rarely even want to go there. I think you’re talking about bars and bar scenes I had very little contact with. I just loved the theater fucking. Loved it in Central Park too, paid no attention to queen friend who said it was “too dangerous!” Of course it was, and it was always exciting when the cop cars would come up in that area where the Forever Yoko Ono place is now and everybody’d have to run off and stop sucking. There was one gorgeous Puerto Rican and we sucked in a children’s playground, thought nothing of it.
I thought all those restrictions was a modern thing., But they seem to be age old.
Loved reading the link to your blog 1.0 above, that was the way you were communicating during those years when I first found you online. Naturally, it felt like it was just a glimpse inside your everyday life and was very inviting (not to mention all the dick pics you’ve always posted of course). I was wondering about the Man Parrish remix of Total Eclipse you mentioned, is this the one you were jamming that day? Sounds like a mashup of the original song with I Feel Love:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMUp1RGob50
I like being reminded that “no fats, no fems” was an established problem within the gay community well before the age of phone apps. So gays have always been nasty **** about body type and masculinity LOL
So gays have always been nasty **** about body type and masculinity
Superb line. Isn’t it interesting that in the current growing cheap communism, it’s actually okay to call gays “nasty ****” (I know you were not doing that except very humourously, of course, and it works), but not okay for HOMOSEXUAL MEN to police Body Type for a particular club. As if being homosexual is not primarily physical to many of us (or used to be, and still is for me, in that I might *love* someone I find physically unattractive, but I’d never pretend I’d learn to find him attractive, fuck that), and of course clubs for particular types of bodies make sense. I read some listings on squirt.org about current Paris clubs, or clubs there a couple of years ago, and one was very explicit at letting in “only very beautiful men”. But the *super-woke* will kill off all the Male Beauty. I mean, I can’t even show basket outrageously in jeans in New York the way I could 20 years ago, and I see maybe 2 Distinguished Bulges even in my neighbourhood of Chelsea (top of W. Village) in a whole year. I hate the drabbing down of male exclusiveness–that’s what we love about the best porn stars–they were not ordinary.