CARNAL NATION

I love visiting thrift stores and garage sales, and when you live in a predominantly gay neighborhood, you'll eventually find someone's gay porn collection for sale on the sidewalk. I am also a big supporter of recycling, because men are fickle, especially with porn. It doesn't take long for your favorite stroke magazine to end up on the bottom of the pile and eventually out in the garage sale or dumped in the trash. At the same time, any magazine you've grown tired of could easily be the hottest thing ever seen by someone else. I feel it's my duty to rescue forgotten old gay erotica magazines and movies for the next generation to enjoy.

On one of my many thrift store adventures, I recall buying a small stack of old physique magazines from the 1950's. At the time, I wasn't specifically looking for porn, but I figured that anything 50 years old and in good shape would have some value as a "collectable," and porn has the added appeal of being something you can jack off with.

When I built my first website back in 1995, I didn't know what kind of content to include on it. Out of necessity I decided to scan a couple of old physique magazines and put them on my site simply because they were kitschy and funny.

I've been working full time in the adult entertainment industry since 1996, so porn is on my mind all day. After a lifetime of junk collecting, I've had to scale back on buying big items. (Maintaining a collection of vintage console televisions and record players was quickly getting out of hand. I'm glad I got out of that phase!) I decided to focus my thrift store skills to searching for vintage gay porn magazines from the 1950's through the 1970's.

During one of my weekly visits to my favorite thrift stores a few years ago (Don't ask me where it is; I won't reveal my sources!) I checked the spot behind the counter where they keep the most valuable items as well as the "adults only" material. Instead of finding a stack of old magazines, I spotted a box of gay porn movies on 8mm film. (For youngsters reading this, 8mm and Super 8 film was the format that preceded VHS tape.) I stood there for the longest time examining the 30 or 40 little reels of film, some with colorful box covers and many in mysterious plain white covers. I decided to buy a couple reels just for the kitsch value, but as soon as I got to the car, I turned right around and went back to buy the rest.

A few weeks later I was back at the same store. I've had several instances of clairvoyance in my life, and that moment proved to be another example. I saw a medium-sized box behind the counter with the flaps completely closed. I asked to see the box and opened it to find 40 or 50 reels of vintage gay porn movies on 8mm! Do I have psychic abilities or x-ray vision? I don't know, but I now had a good start on a real collection of gay porn movies from the 1970's.

That second box of movies really tipped the scale. I've become obsessed with collecting everything in gay erotica prior to 1979. I soon discovered the joys and pitfalls of eBay. I've rounded out my collection significantly by careful shopping (and not so careful shopping) online to find items to complete the various series. I've discovered that even in the days when gay porn was completely illegal or underground, there was a vast amount of product produced. There is no one source to find everything in gay erotica produced in that 30-year period, but I keep trying!

My collection of vintage gay porn magazines and films is now large enough to warrant a website of its own, hence the launch of VintageBareback.com.