Comments for BackInTheGays.com

Comment on BITG Extended Family by Macedonia

Macedonia — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 02:08:27 +0000

I see a lauderdalebob, so I guess I am not the only guy in Ft. Lauderdale from New York City who remembers the good old days!

Comment on Remnants of Past Christopher Street 2011 by Macedonia

Macedonia — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 02:04:32 +0000

From 1965 to 1995 I lived on Manhattan Island, and even between 1995 and 2005 went back for weeks and sometimes month at a time. Today I only go back once a year, as you can see everything I can remember is closed, changed, or lost. But the same is true of the 1980s and 1990s gay neighborhoods of South Beach on Miami Beach, and I am told of Hillside in San Diego, California and Georgetown around Michigan Avenue in Washington, D.C., even DuPont Circle has lost a great many of hits “gay hangouts” since 2002.

Rise in real estate prices, “B&Bs” or guesthouses in former permanent cheap housing in American cities, like in European cities like Berlin and Rome, conversions (which killed gay permanent rentals for gays on South Beach) make having a gay bar, restaurant, disco, book store, theater, or retail store unprofitable, and without them, why have a gay neighborhood as Greenwich Village, Chelsea, and parts of the Upper West Side, end Murray Hill around Third Avenue were? I am able to travel anywhere, in 2003 I found Madrid and in 2007 Sydney Australia still had “Greenwich Village” like gay areas. Berlin’s Wittenbergplatz neighborhood near “Connection” on Fugger and Ansbach and Nuernberg Strasses, not so much. Muenchen, which limits landlords under its left wing government from pushing out little retail operations and controls development in the inner city, still has a gay neighborhood that actually is coming back a bit after declining 2002/2006.

I was in Philadelphia for the Blue Ball three years ago and found the City center actually full of gay places, and gay residents said that housing wasn’t as high as in other places.

But, for those of us who remember New York in the 60s, 70s, and 80s before AIDS, it really was something to remember, although for FAR TOO FEW OF US!!!!

Comment on Join the “Club” nYc 1971 – 1983 by Macedonia

Macedonia — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 01:35:47 +0000

It should also be remembered that on the first floor were vending machines and I think two tables with chairs, I think built into the floor like picknick tables. On Friday and Saturday nights several groups of “friends” who take over this or that table for an hour or longer. It was the only chance for a lot of under 30 gays to socialize in the 70s outside of bars. The “baths” of the the 70s and 80s were not just sex places, even disregarding the nightclub/restaurant “Continental” in the Ansonia Hotel. St. Marks Baths was pure sex, as was the Everhard in the main, but The Club really was a “Club” for gays, especially under 25 who were still living in at home in the 70s.

One of the sad things for those of us, now in the 60s, who remember New York before AIDS, skyhigh prices for rentals let alone buying apartments or houses in not only Manhattan, the Miami Metropolitian Area, San Diego, Washington, D.C., and drinking legally not at 21 but at 18 and without ID, is that in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, people of different ages from 16 to 70 were all around everywhere. Today, much more than before, bars, discos, nightclubs, restaurants are usually very much older than 50, or if there is a younger crowd, it is minority of one kind or another and poor. The internet has completed what started with expensive housing, loss of low income white collar jobs in the cities where gays used to have “neighborhoods”, a segregating of gays by age and income. The Club Baths really was a free-wheeling, friendly place separate and apart from the best sex in the city.

Comment on The Ninth Circle Steakhouse by Tom Hogan

Tom Hogan — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:07:03 +0000

skipnyc – i Went to PA during that time 65-68 acting dept., bet I knew you…went to the Ninth Circle all the time

Comment on The Night I Met KURTZ by Cisco

Cisco — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:52:11 +0000

Hello liapadila, welcome to our BiTG extended family.

None of the items shown on back in the gays are for sale.

These memorable contributions will be held for BiTG’s future Vision Statement to come soon.

Great to meet you and look forward to reading more of your stories of back in the gays.

Comment on The Bike Stop Philadelphia 1974 – 1982 by Robert

Robert — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:54:17 +0000

Thanks Bob for joining us on our journey through gay history. Philadelphia has so much LGBT history it is insane. We love the Gayborhood, I myself grew up in Philly and both of us living there from 1996 to 1999 right in the area. Any info you can share on the LGBT history of Philadelphia would make a nice addition to backinthegays.com
Thanks again for your support.

Comment on The Bike Stop Philadelphia 1974 – 1982 by BobSkiba

BobSkiba — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 01:30:39 +0000

Robert –
The Bike Stop was one of the first bars I went to when I moved here to Philly, too, so it has a lot of meaning for me. I’m the archivist at the William Way LGBT Center in Philly and do a lot of presentations on the history of the city’s Gayborhood. Thanks so much for the time and effort you put into to maintaining this blog. It’s web spaces like this that keep our stories and memories alive. Bravo to you!

Comment on Played @ KURTZ Philadelphia 1987 by liapadila

liapadila — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:40:58 +0000

I was listening to that song ALLLL day today. Oh my gosh!

Comment on The Night I Met KURTZ by liapadila

liapadila — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:21:40 +0000

I wonder if there is anyone willing to sell the Kurtz button?

Comment on Continuing My Evening at KURTZ by liapadila

liapadila — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:17:48 +0000

I remember the year Kurtz opened. It was 1986. I was just a mere twenty and at times was not allowed in because I was not 21 yet. I remember the manager Gary Samm. I wonder whatever happened to Gary. But none the less that’s where I would spend my summer nights twirling around the dance floor. Dancing to Bronski Beat, The Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode and the list goes on. Disco was no longer the beat but now New Wave was the in thing.

The dance floor was humongous. Smack dead right in the middle if the room.
I can still see the faces and see Jaime( I think he was one of the managers there) I miss those days. After wards the guys would go down to Judy Garland park,I guess they don’t do that anymore.

Times have definitely changed everything. Now its up for a new renter. I know one thing who ever opens up at that location will see me just taking a casually stroll down memory lane. I hope I don’t start dancing during my tour!

Comment on The Bike Stop Philadelphia 1974 – 1982 by Cisco

Cisco — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 11:18:57 +0000

We were actually contacted by one of the original owners via e-mail and he mentioned giving more information on the story. Hope he did not forget about us here, because we would love to read more information as well about this neighborhood leather bar called The Bike Stop.

Thanks again for the contribution of information.

Comment on Brief History of the Everard Baths and Video of the 1977 Fire by Cisco

Cisco — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 21:32:18 +0000

This was the soul purpose of creating backinthegays, to preserve our individual history and not letting the “winners” dictate what history should be seen, read or heard. Thank you for sharing yours and sorry for your loss.

Glad you found us and welcome to back in the gays. Where aLL our history is important.

Comment on The Bike Stop Philadelphia 1974 – 1982 by Robert

Robert — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:40:18 +0000

Bob this has us wondering and researching the scene in Philly in the 70′s and early 1980′s. We have never heard of the Forrest bar, except for the Forrest theater (which would make sense) since the bar sits across Quince Street from the Forrest theater.

The other names are foreign to me also, but I’m grateful to you for keeping their memory alive. The Bike Stop was my first leather bar to visit. It became sort of a second home for me in the late 80′s and early 90′s.

Thank you for sharing these memories and welcome to backinthegays.

Comment on Brief History of the Everard Baths and Video of the 1977 Fire by Robert

Robert — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:34:32 +0000

Thank you Bob for adding this comment. With this Jimmy Stuard who was lost in the Everard Baths Fire in 1977 will live on in our memories and in our hearts.

Comment on Brief History of the Everard Baths and Video of the 1977 Fire by BobSkiba

BobSkiba — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 13:56:25 +0000

I was living in Boston in 1977. My boy friend’s ex, Jimmy Stuard, was a DJ in NYC at the time. We had gone down to visit him that weekend and waited all night at his apartment for him. He never showed up. He had died in that fire. I still recall it as if it were yesterday.

Comment on The Bike Stop Philadelphia 1974 – 1982 by BobSkiba

BobSkiba — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 13:40:57 +0000

That’s a great story about Joey O’Neal and the motorcycle. The Bike Stop, however, didn’t open under that name until 1983. It was the Forrest until 1976, then Scarlet’s for about a year, then After Dark from ’77 to ’80. Finally, it was the New Forrest, featuring drag shows and cabaret acts, from 1980 until 1983, when it became the Bike Stop. I was under the impression that Ron still managed the Bike Stop long after 1983. I’d love more info.

Comment on Those Were the Gays My Friend (I Thought They’d Never End) by skipnyc

skipnyc — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 14:56:42 +0000

I am so happy to have found this site. I was only 16 when I was hanging out at all these great bars in the 1970′s. I thought I was the only one left who remembered these great times in nyc.

Comment on The Ninth Circle Steakhouse by skipnyc

skipnyc — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 14:34:25 +0000

Oops forgot to mention Julius – Great hamburgers and cheap….. and lot’s of Hustlers to look at while you were eating. LOL

Comment on The Ninth Circle Steakhouse by skipnyc

skipnyc — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 14:31:02 +0000

Wow I grew up in the ninth circle. Had a big crush on Stormy (bartender – his real name was Norman) and one of the waiters named Jimmy (I still have a photo of him in a Halloween costume.) I started hanging out there when I was 16, also at the time attending The High School Of Performing Arts… This was a place you could always find someone, all types of men.

I fell in love so many times at that bar, one guy I remember who looked like Geraldo Rivera his name was Steve Chaplick he was an artist and lived on Hudson Street, I wish we could all get together as a group…. There will never be another bar like it…….. Peter Rabbits, The Ram Rod, Charlies on Christopher St, The International Stud, and who can forget Choo Choo’s on west street…..

I loved the 70′s and early 80′s……. but time has passed by……… We were so lucky in those days………..

Comment on The Ninth Circle Steakhouse by Charlie

Charlie — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 21:23:21 +0000

I hung out at this bar all the time and just had the best time of my life… Well one of them! It would be amazing to find some of those people who were there in the mid 80′s when I was. Remember Tree downstairs and Sonny! I was so young and got sooo much attention there lol.

I remember the bouncer who wanted to take me home to Brooklyn but I was a little scared to go there.. at the time lol! I had long blondish rock hair and very skinny.. I met this really cool guy who I can remember and wish I dated him but I can’t remember his name he hung out at the end of the bar near the door.

One night we stayed out all night together, we went to the bath house to get a room but we didn’t have enough money left lol. Well I was there all the time and it was a blast! Also, the back patio outside was cool too!