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CRUISING for SEX - View Single Post - "The Address Book" And Bob Damron
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Old 1st November 2016, 11:03 PM
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Bob S: Administrator / Manager / Editor
 
Join Date: May 2002
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"The Address Book" And Bob Damron

This turned up as a FB Notification for me from ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives. It's actually from KCETLink, specifically KCET Public Broadcasting and of course their web site for Los Angeles and so much more.

I can't save it as a readable PDF and I don't think their Terms of Service allow me to copy it here without asking permission. Here's the link I hope you'll read:

A Guide to Gay Los Angeles, 1965

..and also a short excerpt, like the bloggers do:
Quote:
Written for the Hungry

“He who is everywhere is nowhere.” – Seneca the Younger

Before there was Grindr, there was The Address Book.

This guidebook, like all guidebooks, was written for the hungry. Its slogan, “See America. Find a friend,” hinted at the exact nature of its readers’ appetites while skirting the particularities.

Friends of Dorothy, and Sappho, turned to The Address Book, which debuted in 1965, to map their pursuits. The baedeker advertised via mail order, in-the-know bars sold it, and the initiated flung their bedraggled copies into the hands of the desperate. Butterflies must’ve fluttered in many a hopeful reader’s stomach as they skimmed the guidebook’s list of restaurants, bars, and nightclubs: these addresses offered potential antidotes to sadness.

The guidebook’s author, Bob Damron, gave gay readers hope by fleshing out worlds that would’ve otherwise remained unknowable. His list confirmed that a gay America existed and that within this quasi-nation, many smaller gay Americas proliferated. Each one was bound by unique affinities whose siren songs went muffled. With tact, Damron amplified these calls. His guidebook told where to find doorways flowing towards danger and joyful possibility. It pinpointed thresholds leading to family, community, sex, and love.
It's a great read, going on to explain how Damron first created his "Address Book" of 35 places in the LA area on a mimeographed sheet. Having run a bar himself in the '50s, Damron knew how then as now they changed, appearing and disappearing. After Stonewall through the '70s the Address Book kept expanding on to at least the '80s, my years coming out. I had a couple of Damron's books, different years in college and grad school.

And then there was AIDS, and somehow that didn't make it into the article, nor that the Damron Company still exists, publishing several titles, and has a large web site. The Damron site's Frequent Asked Questions page actually suggests that those looking for cruisy places come here to CRUISING for SEX, presumably the Sex Listings.

So. If you had or used Damron's Address Book, how about sharing your story and recollections of it?

And do read the article. It has some photos of the contents and covers which are remarkable to see now.

A side note: Just as Damron's early Address Books have been preserved for us to see now, I've realized this year more and more the importance of preserving CFS, even all that old outdated information, Sex Listings cruisy places reviews, and Message Board discussions.

Just as Damron showed who we were and a part of how we lived in his time, so did Keith with CFS with the change from print (STEAM Magazine) to the Internet (CFS!) beginning in the 1990s.

And here we are, still with CFS somehow today, not to mention all those other Apps and web sites, too.

~ Bob S., Manager/Editor
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