X is for X-rated.
Who hasn’t had experience with something X-rated at some point in their life.
Tearing down the Cinema Art marquis
I get people looking for it on my blog. I wrote a post last summer called “I like big butts and I cannot lie, real not fake” that generated more hits daily than any other posts. Apparently there are a lot of people out there looking for big butts.
When I was a teen I ventured once into the local porn theater, Cinema Art in Troy, New York, with a boyfriend. Tuesdays were couples night. Two for $5. Great deal! I was mesmerized by all that fornicating on the big screen. I didn’t understand why people kept getting up and leaving and coming back though. It baffled me.
This theater was originally built in 1917. Here it is advertising talking pictures with sounds in 1928. Who could have believed what kind of sounds would be on the screen years later? It closed in 2006. The theater was raided and padlocked—several customers and the manager were arrested and sadly the grand marquis was torn off. Officials said it “had become a seedy gathering spot for adults who engaged in public sex acts.” Here are the original porn features from the early 70s.
Then there was the time my parents and I vacationed across Europe when I was a kid. We found our hotel in Madrid to be in the XXX section. I recall the fancy montauk-monster.com/pharmacy/xenical looking women, flashing neon, and funny pictures. I dropped my doll out of the hotel window by accident once. My dad was propositioned three times before he got back to our room after rescuing my toy.
I can’t forget the porn shop not far from my town now, Adult World. My friend, Christopher Scott Grimaldi, featured it in his new book called – what else: Adult World.
I went in there once with a girlfriend. I made her park in the back. They had just re-done the entire building and it really looks nice. Classy. Not like a cheesy sex shop.
Oh, but what things I saw in there I had no idea existed. I wondered how some things could be used but didn’t dare ask for a demonstration. Things that buzzed and twinkled and throbbed and squeaked. And what if you had to 
make a quick getaway? How would you get untangled that fast and pack up and go with all your equipment?
I’m glad I didn’t venture in on the day the male protestors picketed out front. They carried signs that read, “Real men don’t use porn.”
I don’t know if that’s true or not but whenever my husband is winning a debate and I can’t think of a good retort I just tell him “Well, real men don’t use porn, you know!”
Do they?
🙂
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Good post. Back in the day, my hubby and I sometimes would troll around on 42nd St, ogling all of the seedy action. And I clearly recall when it all got shut down. Emptied. I remember looking out of a 12th story window onto all of the emptiness when an artist friend had a temporary studio for cheap in one abandoned building there. I also remember the year a children’s theater moved in, and then other squeaky-clean venues, and colorful, shiny restaurants and clothing stores. I hate the pron industry, but something was lost in that transformation.
Catherine, its funny as I had a friend take me into NYC years ago. I wanted to see a real live prostitute. We drove around forever and never saw one – or maybe we just didnt know it! Where are they now? I recall when Times Square got cleaned up. It became so much nicer. When I moved to Nutley, NJ outside the city I would drive in alone all the time and walk around. Felt safe and loved being in the big city all alone. Actually, had friends who owned a bus service from my hometown Albany. And when they had group trips in to NYC for the theater, I would help them hawk the extra tickets on the street in exchange for a free seat on Broadway.
Do real men watch porn?
No idea about “real men”, but my wife and I will pop one in every so often. We enjoy them together.
I am trying to read all the A to Z blogs, but coming back to the ones I really like.
Tim
The Other Side
The Freedom of Nonbelief
Thanks for stopping by and being my token male commenter! 🙂 You are daring to do the A to Z on two blogs.
When I lived in Durango, CO, I would drive to Farmington, NM to go shopping at Target. There was an adult store there. There was a billboard very near the shop that said “Jesus is Watching You.” It cracked me up. I always wanted to take a picture but I didn’t. Well, one day my kids were watching “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and the person who won had taken footage of that sign and the porn shop. I wanted to kick myself.
I used to own a party bus business in SF called Three Babes and A Bus. I didn’t come up with the name, but my website was http://www.threebabes.com I got a TON of traffic and lots of interesting inquiries from foreign travelers wanting to know what exactly the three babes “did” on the bus:)
Pamela, thanks for the laughs! That would be a good photo idea. I can imagine why you got so much traffic to a site called ThreeBabes…wonder what people thought would be there indeed? LOL
I know nothing about porn, sorry I can’t add to this discussion. I did not know, for instance, that my Dad kept piles of old Playboy magazines in the crawl space that could be accessed through an upper built-in cupboard in the basement. Never knew that you could crawl up in there where it was cool and damp and quiet and that no one would fever find you while you looked in leisurely wonder at centerfold after centerfold, wondering what it was like to have that kind of body, and what affect it would have on men, and if anyone actually read the articles.
Nope, sorry—I got nothin’.
Kathryn, it is funny what we can find out about our parents later in life…and how clever he hid them! We lived out in the country and I often found old bottles, machinery in the woods. I once found a potbelly stove stuffed with Playboy magazines. You just made me remember that with your story!
Bahhhhhhhh…I can’t stop laughing. That sign is priceless. So is this post. SO awesome. I love it. Probably on of my fav ones. If we had a vote…I’d chose yours’. 🙂