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Gordon Grant

Adonis


“The hottest gay movie palace in New York: orgy in the orchestra, ball in the balcony, or make-out in the men’s room.”

oh, what the heck – If we’re gonna mix our Gordon with our Jack, let’s do a Jack promo:

5 replies on “Adonis”

Oh, how lovely to do this. I’ve written so much about my gorgeous Life there I shouldn’t add too much more, but I got 13 years of it at this theater and then about 2 at the “new Adonis” on 44th Street, which wasn’t nearly as nice, although I did get one of the best cocksuckers of my life there, and he later came to my apartment and did it again. I think brilliant cocksuckers are rare and are geniuses.

For a second, you see the “bar” on the second floor, which usually had no purpose and was surely left over from the house’s years as a legit theater, originally gifted to Fanny Brice by Billy Rose. In the whole film, though, the guys all sashay over for drinks while the old Glenn Miller “Moonlight Serenade” is playing.

Behind the bar on the carpet was one of the best places. I fucked and sucked off a gorgeous plump Puerto Rican and then brought him home…and later we fucked again at the Adonis without mentioning that we’d already known each other. This was different from the one I mentioned above, because I never saw him again after he came to my apartment. But the Puerto Rican had the most beautiful asshole I’ve ever seen, much less fucked, and there were several others I did this with. It was very magical to actually get to know them and then go back and have what felt again like “anonymous sex” but with a twist.

One of my most fabulous days at the Adonis was Christmas Day, 1979, where I sucked and fucked all day till I was so exhausted I couldn’t even suck off the last fat uncut Dick offered me. This was all before A Night at the Adonis, which also had the African-American ticket-seller Bertha who did that as a real job before and after the film. Surprised you haven’t seen the whole movie.

The Adonis was pure Paradise sometimes. Not always that hot, but very often I just thought of it as Home.

This was one of the films I did those youtube clips for a few years ago, before my channel was so rudely and permanently terminated. Great film, I did a little research on the place then and so I wanted to just leave a few notes here if you don’t mind.

The Adonis was located at 839 8th Avenue in Manhattan, which placed it between 50th and 51st Streets. It opened in 1921 as the Tivoli theater showing Hollywood films until the mid 70s, when it became the Adonis and began its run as a porn emporium. It closed in 1989, and the building was razed in 1995. What stands there now is apparently an apartment or condo tower called Longacre House, and there is (or was as of a few years ago when I did all this digging around online) a Rite Aid on the street level.

It starred Jack Wrangler, Malo, Jayson McBride and others, including a guy known as Big Al Little who played “the Jingler” with a set of keys dangling from his belt loop. Also a legit actor by the name of Tommy Ruscica who played a hustler named Fred who is annoyed by his unseen sugar daddy (he is seen talking on the phone with this guy numerous times during the film) though Tommy never does anything more than grope himself a bit while watching all the sex around him. One employee is working his first night as the new manager and being shown the ropes by a more experienced one. There’s also Eartha Hugee, who worked the ticket booth (and apparently did in real life too, as Parisian mentioned).

On the screen at the theatre director Jack Deveau showed scenes from some of his earlier films, inlcuding Sex Magic, Bagdad and the film / loop with Roger in a split screen where it looks like he’s seducing himself (Narcissus?) Adonis used what was called a ‘steady cam’ that was being used to film the sequel to Rocky elsewhere in NYC at the time, Jack Deveau sweet talked someone on the crew of that film and got permission to borrow it for the one night when Adonis was filmed, likely in 1977. This is what allowed them to have those sweeping shots going up or down stairs, for example, without the camera bouncing around so much.

The music I have confirmed comes from later versions that were released on video, and may differ in spots from what was heard in the original print. Among the stolen songs heard are: Down Down Down by Sylvester (7:26 to 8:16 in my copy); Annie Doesn’t Live Here Anymore by Marlene Dietrich (23:38 to 26:35, while Malo in his jockstrap makes a few phone calls); Dinga by Art Blakey (27:00 to 28:15, during one of the films playing at the theater); Two Hot For Love by the THP Orchestra (40:04 to 56:00); Sing Sing Sing by Benny Goodman (73:40 to 79:00); and then a disco-fied version of Moonlight Serenade by Tuxedo Junction (82:01 to 83:24 at the end). And likely more, but as I said this is all I have confirmed.

Corrections welcome, or thoughts on any of the trivia and details about the movie or theater. Sounds like it would have been an adventure.

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