09 EDITORIAL
AIN'T LIKE IT USED TO BE
10 FICTION
THE INFINITY INCIDENT
14 CARLO ARMANI
BIG VIDEO
24 Vince Rockland
CENTAUR FILMS
36 SANDOR & ALEXEI Chantelle-stevens-porn-star">Kristen-bjorn-porn-star">Chantelle-stevens-porn-star">Kristen Bjorn
46 BRIAN SHEA
BIG VIDEO
54 JACKSON DEDEAUX
FORUM STUDIOS
64 REVIEW
MERCURY RISING
68 FICTION
HEAT WAVE
72 Rod Barry
FALCON STUDIOS
EDITORIAL NOTE
When you are as close to 50 as I am you can look back at the fifties,
sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties and remember what it was like
to walk into a bar in the fifties and compare it to today. My first gay
bar was in Boston, Massachusetts and it was called the PUNCH BOWL. It
was stuffed with men in their late teens to almost dead. Pants were
tight and everyone had a basket. If you groped one you got a smile and
an erection. The D.A. haircut was everywhere on the young being
belittled by the older men near death, still wearing their 3-piece suit
and tie, tie-tack, cufflinks and winged-tipped shoes. It was after
5:00pm so offices had closed and the older were having a martini before
getting home to the wife and kids but hoping for a blow-job to finish
their day before the "white picket fence" evening. Some of them talked
about going over to the Lincoln Club for a drink. The Lincoln club was
very elegant and catered to the more sophisticated Kennedy aides and
State House personnel. The high ranks and titles would astound you.
The more affluent Filene's ribbon clerks and hairdressers from Jordan
Marsh were gathered around the jukebox singing along to the latest
Broadway Musical...West Side Story. When "I Feel Pretty" began, the
boys around the juke box knew every single word. And the show had just
opened. If only Carol Lawrence and Chita Rivera knew how famous they
were in a little gay bar in Boston. Larry Kurt was a big hero with his
songs from the musical until the Johnny Mathis versions hit the jukebox.
The Punch Bowl was a bar where couples stuck together and singles
groped each other. No one had a condom in their wallet and if someone
walked in wearing a leather cap, they were instantly shunned and soon
they left. Couples who were lovers did not use the word, "lover" they
used the word "friend" but emphasized the word so you got the picture.
The word "gay" still meant "happy" to most of the country and was still
used in movie titles, song titles and lyrics. Among the homosexuals the
word "gay" was revered and was such a stamp of approval. Most customers
had a real name for family and work and a bar name for being out in the
world. There were no cell phones or answering machines. Answering
services were so outrageously expensive only surgeons and senators
belonged. You didn't have or need a car until summer when you went to
the Cape. You rode the subway unless you met a 3-piece suit who drove
you home after he took you to dinner and then to his abode where he
poked your ass with his little dick. He would even have the audacity to
ask you if it hurt. But you got a ride home and a promise to be taken
to New York to see West Side Story. Only to discover that some other
hot little ass was heading for New York with your date. He was
considered "ROUGH TRADE" and had a 12 inch cock. My how those older men
loved to exaggerate in front of we little puppies huddled around the
juke box singing, "/ Want To Be In America."
As you may suspect, there were no Blacks, Hispanics, Orientals, etc. in
the bars. Little Rock was just that...a little rock. It was okay to
love Harry Belefonte, Johnny Mathis and Nat King Cole on the juke box
but it stopped there.
A weekend escape took us to New York where the Anvil and the Mine Shaft
were places to see. I will never forget walking into the Anvil and
seeing a naked man standing on the bar, smoking a cigarette with his
cock. Due to the laws in force I am not permitted to talk about what I
saw in the Mine Shaft. One thing for sure, it was filled with "ROUGH
TRADE!"
Chuck Edwards
