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Thinking of the recent closings of both Secrets and the DC Eagle, the loss of two storied bits of Gay history in Washington, has made me reminisce a bit about other places once loved and now lost, passed from our lives and living now only in fond and treasured memories.

 

My first favorite bar in the city was Lost and Found, address at 56 L Street SE, in the same building later occupied by Wet and its beautiful dancing boys. I had only lately left the Navy and settled in the DC area. I had been to L&F a couple of times while in the Service and when I traveled up from Norfolk, and had never seen anything like it. After leaving the Navy, I was fortunate to have spent the night of July 4, 1976 (the Bicentennial) in that place, filled with flashing lights, lots of red, white & blue, and many happy and handsome men.

 

There was a bartender at L&F, the spitting image of porn god Gordon Grant, tall and dark, with chiseled features and muscled arms featuring prominent biceps. Arriving early on one occasion, I sat with several young men at “Gordon’s” bar as they helped to roll up the sleeves of Gordon’s already short-sleeved shirt. One very cute and clever young man, jealous of not getting a turn, asked Gordon, “Can I roll your sleeves down?” I think I snorted some beer.

 

But I didn’t spend the whole night at L&F. Earlier I had been on the rooftop of a Gay movie house, also on L Street, just down in the next block from L&F, and called The Follies, predecessor to the later O Street location. This was another stop on my pilgrimages up from Norfolk, and offered gay porn movies and a dark room for more intimate encounters. On this special occasion, we traveled to the rooftop for soda and chips, to watch the Bicentennial fireworks show. We watched for an hour or more, and I remember getting a slightly sore neck, but this time not from looking up while on my knees.

 

At one point, a whole block of Gay establishments operated along O Street SE, starting with Ziegfeld’s and Secrets at the corner of Half Street, then moving to the Glory Hole, a bookstore with peep shows and other benefits. Next was The Follies, relocated from L Street, and finally, at the South Capitol Street end of the block, La Cage aux Follies, another bar with naked dancing men and showing big – smiles.

 

And now, all these are gone and it seems we will not see their like again. The world has changed, and the city with it, but, for my tastes, not for the better. I miss these places, and others, too, yet visit them often, in a playground filled with reminisces of happier times.

 

Sorry if all this seems something of a downer, but passed on places, like passed on people, live on in our minds and memories, and can still warm our hearts. At least, they do mine.

 

Please add your lost and loved locales as you are moved to do so.

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When I was much younger, my Dad would take my brother and I to an A & W on Woodside Rd in Redwood City, CA, and the root beer came in frosty real-glass mugs. Yup, I miss the old days.

 

(yeah, I know what you meant this thread to be!)

Edited by azdr0710
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I think that the experience of strip clubs, leather bars, and sort of the sexually inviting clubs are a generational thing. I live in Miami and when I go out in Wilton Manors I do notice that the vast majority are people over 40, and mainly over 50. Don't get me wrong they look hot as hell but this mindset is passing this generation. I adopted three gay boys and now they are adults and they have zero interest in the clubs. I have taken them to Secrets, to the Eagle, to Swinging Richards yet it is not for them. They have spent their entire lives out. They prefer to go to some brewery with gay and straight friends. It is an absolute non issue with their friends. So I joke with them that when I am going to the Ramrod I am going to the senior center. I'm 60. PS for fabulous places, the original DC Eagle and the Eagle in Exile. The things that the ground in SE DC could say if it could. That stadium sits on some well enjoyed ground.

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So true what you have said. Buffdaddy lives on Long Island Suffolk county. Population of over a million and a half. Not one Gay Bar. Nassau County which is next door if you're not familiar with the area has a population of over a million five. Has one Gay Bar. 3 million people and one small Gay Bar. The young Gay kids tell me they go to a regular bar with there str8 friends and Girls. They like Applebee's. I guess that's what happens when you go mainstream. I like the old days of sneaking around. Use to stand outside of the Gaiety in Manhattan and make sure not a lot of people looking at me and make a mad dash up the stairs lol. Spend the weekend on Fire Island and tell my Mother I was out in the Hamptons. Yes the world has changed.

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I think that the experience of strip clubs, leather bars, and sort of the sexually inviting clubs are a generational thing. I live in Miami and when I go out in Wilton Manors I do notice that the vast majority are people over 40, and mainly over 50. Don't get me wrong they look hot as hell but this mindset is passing this generation. I adopted three gay boys and now they are adults and they have zero interest in the clubs. I have taken them to Secrets, to the Eagle, to Swinging Richards yet it is not for them. They have spent their entire lives out. They prefer to go to some brewery with gay and straight friends. It is an absolute non issue with their friends. So I joke with them that when I am going to the Ramrod I am going to the senior center. I'm 60. PS for fabulous places, the original DC Eagle and the Eagle in Exile. The things that the ground in SE DC could say if it could. That stadium sits on some well enjoyed ground.

I think the "generational thing" aspect is a quite accurate observation. Those of us of a certain generation, as well as the ones before it, quickly became aware of the need for discretion in our choice of watering holes, the most common of venues to find like-minded others. One of the best friends a gay man could have in those days was Bob Damron and his guide books listing all the gay places in cities all across the country, and in some editions, the world. These listings even provided info as to the type of establishment, such as "drag shows" or "RT" (rough trade, sometimes also called "downtown types"). These categories also include my personal favorites of "Hustlers" and "Go-Go boys."

 

I suppose in a way gay bars became a little like churches of different denominations. True believers don't just walk into any building with a cross on top, but need to know that others inside will be of a persuasion like unto their own, will be birds of the same feather. Going into what you knew to be a gay bar, and even sometimes into one of a particular fetish, such as "leather" or "drag shows," allowed you feel you'd be more readily and naturally accepted by "your own kind," that you'd be with members of your same tribe. It promoted a sense of acceptance, comfort, and security.

 

That young gays are comfortable in mainstream bars, and accepted by their non-gay friends and fellow patrons, is welcomed evidence of a greater acceptance of gay people by the general populace, a thing to be celebrated and encouraged. For me, however, I miss the clarity of former times, if not the bigotry of a world waiting outside.

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When I first arrived in Philadelphia in 1964, I was given a rundown of all the available gay bars and who/what I could expect in each one, which was very useful. They were pretty clearly differentiated, such as the piss elegant piano bar, the semi-leather bar, the western style bar with pool table, the dance bar, the hustler bar, etc. One had to know where one planned to go ahead of time in order to dress appropriately for the night out. The only one you could be comfortable in no matter what your style was the Allegro, so it was usually the most crowded bar at closing time time, which was 2am. The site of the Allegro is now part of the Kimmel Center for the Arts, home today of the Philadelphia Orchestra. I don't know what has become of the other Center City bars, like the Westbury and the Drury Lane. I haven't been to a gay bar anywhere in years, because I am usually asleep by 9pm.

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My stomping ground was NYC in the 70's, 80's, and 90's, a smorgasbord of gay bars for every taste. I also have fond memories of the gay live theaters I knew, the Tom Kat on west 42nd Street, the Eros on Eighth Avenue, and of course, the Gaiety. In the early years the bars were havens from the cruel, judgemental outside world and generated an atmosphere of camaraderie and acceptance. Unfortunately, over time, that atmosphere eroded as the teeth of the negative criticisms and judgements of society in general invaded the gay compounds, gnashing and tearing with equal or greater intensity. Without intending to throw shade anywhere, I feel blessed to have my fond memories of the old days. Were I just now beginning as a young person, I seriously doubt that I could adapt to today's high-tech social shark tank.

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I also meet Wet! Chocolate Tuesdays was a night that has not been topped or matched by any other strippers event around the world. The one other strippers place I miss a lot is Rockhard DC.

 

Amongst bars, I crazily missed Omega DC. As a matter of fact, I stopped going to gay bars when they closed down. I have been a few times at Fireplace, but my circuit was always getting drunk with generous, cheap drinks at The Fireplace, and hooking up at Omega. The parking lot in the alley in between both venues has seen me playing with many men.

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Well if we're going into ancient history I most miss Tito's in Birmingham (Alabama!). All the way back to prohibition it was a gay speakeasy when Bad Birmingham was bigger than Atlanta and by the late 60's was a stopover after Alabama football games even though undercover police in raincoats arrested patrons regularly. The normal gay crowd was mixed with reform school alumni and the further you went back in the narrow bar, the more perverse and active it became. The pool table crowd at the Quest in Birmingham has some of that roughness now.

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This may sound harsh, but the younger generation is also much blander than we were. A whole culture is eroding, and they couldn't care less. And do they have as much fun as we did? A few months back I was talking to two millennials about getting my first boyfriend at age 19, and they were all like "So you finally had someone to talk to! Did you guys discuss gay identity a lot?" And I was like, "No. We never discussed gay identity. We just fucked like rabbits."

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Wasn‘t there an erotic stripclub/theater on 8th Ave and 43rd called “Adonis”. For some reason i recall walking that neighborhood in the 90s and saw some male hustlers nearby. Don’t forget Stellas too!

I believe you are correct about the Adonis theater. As I recall, it was on the second floor. And Stellas was a lot of fun.

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Hi. The Adonis theater was on 8 Ave and 53 St. I would take the E train from Queens and get off at the 50 St station. The neighborhood looked like Berlin after WWII. I arrived there one afternoon and there was a burnt out car in front of the building, when I paid to go in they said it was put on fire the night before. The place was hopping on a Saturday afternoon. Inside was dark, dirty and smelled like cum lol. Lots of action of all ages.

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I have fond memories of SPLASH, a two level gay club on 23rd and 6th in NYC. This was the very first gay bar i visited and have had a lot of fun and happy times there. Good music, nice crowd, go-go dancers, dance contests, drag shows, late night cruising, dance floor.. it was the whole package. A lot of new places propped up in town after Splash closed, however this place remains unmatched... and will be for a long time.

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Thinking of the recent closings of both Secrets and the DC Eagle, the loss of two storied bits of Gay history in Washington, has made me reminisce a bit about other places once loved and now lost, passed from our lives and living now only in fond and treasured memories.

 

My first favorite bar in the city was Lost and Found, address at 56 L Street SE, in the same building later occupied by Wet and its beautiful dancing boys. I had only lately left the Navy and settled in the DC area. I had been to L&F a couple of times while in the Service and when I traveled up from Norfolk, and had never seen anything like it. After leaving the Navy, I was fortunate to have spent the night of July 4, 1976 (the Bicentennial) in that place, filled with flashing lights, lots of red, white & blue, and many happy and handsome men.

 

There was a bartender at L&F, the spitting image of porn god Gordon Grant, tall and dark, with chiseled features and muscled arms featuring prominent biceps. Arriving early on one occasion, I sat with several young men at “Gordon’s” bar as they helped to roll up the sleeves of Gordon’s already short-sleeved shirt. One very cute and clever young man, jealous of not getting a turn, asked Gordon, “Can I roll your sleeves down?” I think I snorted some beer.

 

But I didn’t spend the whole night at L&F. Earlier I had been on the rooftop of a Gay movie house, also on L Street, just down in the next block from L&F, and called The Follies, predecessor to the later O Street location. This was another stop on my pilgrimages up from Norfolk, and offered gay porn movies and a dark room for more intimate encounters. On this special occasion, we traveled to the rooftop for soda and chips, to watch the Bicentennial fireworks show. We watched for an hour or more, and I remember getting a slightly sore neck, but this time not from looking up while on my knees.

 

At one point, a whole block of Gay establishments operated along O Street SE, starting with Ziegfeld’s and Secrets at the corner of Half Street, then moving to the Glory Hole, a bookstore with peep shows and other benefits. Next was The Follies, relocated from L Street, and finally, at the South Capitol Street end of the block, La Cage aux Follies, another bar with naked dancing men and showing big – smiles.

 

And now, all these are gone and it seems we will not see their like again. The world has changed, and the city with it, but, for my tastes, not for the better. I miss these places, and others, too, yet visit them often, in a playground filled with reminisces of happier times.

 

Sorry if all this seems something of a downer, but passed on places, like passed on people, live on in our minds and memories, and can still warm our hearts. At least, they do mine.

 

Please add your lost and loved locales as you are moved to do so.

I wouldn't want to go back to those closeted times, and it would be nice to see some of these places amongst the lists of National Historical Monuments. Thanks for the 1st person description of them. Perfect dialogue for the head set, while on an educational tour.

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