The Magazine: My Summer of Vintage P*rn
Charting an odyssey of classic gay erotica, from Arthur J. Bressan Jr.’s Passing Strangers to Wakefield Poole’s Boys in the Sand.
In this week’s issue, André Hereford recounts his time discovering several adult gay classics from the ’70s, everything from Arthur J. Bressan, Jr.’s Passing Strangers, which has just been meticulously restored by the Bressan Project, to Wakefield Poole’s trippy, culturally-defining Boys in the Sand and Bijou. In all, he looks at 12 films that recall a time when gay adult films were art-house fodder “for mature audiences.”
André watched the films on PinkLabelTV, founded in 2013 by queer feminist producer and director Shine Louise Houston. “The PinkLabel platform,” he writes, “is a treasure trove of indie adult entertainment, with diverse titles grouped into several appealing channels. Practically all genders and tastes are celebrated in a collection spanning decades, up to some brand-new releases. Lured, however, by the men, the mood, and the attitude of the sexually liberated ’70s and ’80s, I stuck with the PinkLabelTV Classics, billed as ‘vintage adult film from the silver and golden age.'”
The issue also features a look at the revamped Helen Hayes Awards, the charitable work Nellie’s Sports Bar during the pandemic, and a conversation with the full-voiced LGBTQ musician Dorian Wood. John Riley reviews #Unfit and Sean Maunier takes a critical listen The Neon, the latest from Erasure. RetroScene travels back to 1999 for the closing night of Tracks and a fond remembrance of Mr. P’s, which was the closest a Washington, D.C. gay bar ever came to being an adult film unto itself.
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