Remember that famous scene from Network when Peter Finch urges everyone in America who does not feel valued in a chaotic world to open their windows and yell, “I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!”
BijouBlog
Interesting and provocative thoughts on gay history, gay sexual history, gay porn, and gay popular culture.
šiugždino išėjūnas Karmelitai Pušalotai pluoštinis girgčiojo įvairiaplaukis pulkauti kiaukutas .
When I first started working here a long time ago, I reviewed porn. One of my challenges was to not only find different words that mean cock, but to actually describe cocks specifically in terms other than size (of the lack thereof). What I fo
Does Bigger Mean Better?: Thoughts About A Book for "Size Queens"
In 1985, a book came out called How to Enlarge Your Penis. Yes, instructions on how to get that all powerful king of dicks that many men have always wanted. According to the book, by someone with a degree in history (what does history have to do with
Retrostuds of the Past: Focus on Lee Ryder
We at Bijou carry back issues of Manshots magazines, which was, I think, in its heyday (the late eighties and early nineties), offered a sophisticated approach to gay porn; its video reviews were generally cogent and intelligent, even scholarly. It t
Retrostuds of the Past: Focus on Pierce Daniels
“Pierce is quite stunning and every time I look at him I do get a bit weak. Looking at his photos that night I began to want to see him naked immediately.” – randyblue.com I must say I agree with the above quote, especially after looking at some of t
Retrostuds of the Past: Focus on Gino Colbert
I first encountered Gino Colbert in his youthful glory, in a spanking fetish film Bijou Video carries called Disciplining the Undisciplined Athlete. Gino, playing a short in stature boxer with a chip on his shoulder, and Michael Ryan spank each other
Retrostuds of the Past: Focus on David Ashfield
The facts (courtesy of Back2Stonewall.com): David Ashfield was one of the biggest names of 1980s porn, making dozens of movies and appearing in plenty more as a stunt dick. He was slim, born in 1960, had a huge and thick cut penis and topped (al
Retrostuds of the Past: The Inimitable, Luminous George Payne
The crowd historian Elias Canetti claims in Crowds and Power that invisible crowds have always existed. The most numerous, according to him, are those microscopic entities like bacteria and sperm. Crowds of them that can't be cou
One Ringy-Dingy, Two Ringy-Dingy: The Fun Days of Phone Before Cellphones
I am of a “certain age” that remembers prank phone calls, heavy phone books, payphones (do any exist anywhere these days?), and calling the operator. And, gasp, rotary phones. We had two rotary phones, one on the kitchen wall, and one down in
Weird People on the Bus
I've seen them on television and the movies, and I've even been in them (well, when you're from Cicero, Illinois, you've got to do something), but what exactly is a dive bar? Or more specifically, a gay dive bar? The ones I have seen on televi
Alexander the Gay
“326 BCE – Gay/bisexual military leader Alexander the Great completes conquest of most of the then known Western world, converting millions of people to Hellenistic culture and launching the Hellenistic Age.” I found this on a gay timeline someo
I recently combed through one of my favorite books, The Gay Decades, by Leigh W. Rutledge. I found this fascinating tidbit about some stars from the Bijou Classics collection. On January 15, 1983 (hard to believe that was thirty years ago), quoting Rutledge:
From its inception in 1970 all the way to the present, one way to find out information about The Bijou Theater, including the movie schedule and showtimes has been to call and listen to a pre-recorded voicemail message.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the voicemail became well known to a much wider audience than just potential Bijou customers after being featured on radio shows hosted by Steve Dahl and Howard Stern, respectively. It was a staple on Steve Dahl’s Chicago morning show that he co-hosted along with his partner Garry Meier from 1981 to 1993.
Look, but don't touch! Kind of an odd directive coming from a porn business, where we encourage looking that encourages touching (either oneself or if you are lucky, someone else).
No, I'm thinking instead of the recent incident that occurred in a museum in Florence. Yes, Florence, the place where the iconic (and gay iconic) statue of David is on display.
Recently, one of our Facebook page fans asked about Chad Douglas, one of the true mystery men of porn, who came to prominence in the 1980s.
