1970s Los Angeles

Studio One was kind of the West Coast version of Studio 54. It began a few years earlier

I stayed at home and kept my leg closed.

R2, just the one dear?

OMG! Does anyone remember all the names Studio One became after it stopped. I went many time to that building in the 1990's but I can't remember the name of the club/s it was?

In the 60s, before it became Studio One, it was The Factory, an invitation only nightclub for A-List celebs.

I think after Studio One it was called The Axis. It's still in business as The Robertson.

Axis was the late 90s and then it was The Factory in the 2000s. I don't know what it is now. I think they are trying to make it into a boutique hotel.

[quote] I think they are trying to make it into a boutique hotel.

With the forever faint aroma of poppers they just can't get rid of.

Is that Peter Berlin, OP?

r2 is Heather Mills McCartney

Can we talk about something else? What’s so great about a Third World hellhole where people live in apartments that look like motels?

Plato's Retreat? The Palomino Club?

I don't know. I stayed home and kept my leg closed, like R2. But I kept my ear open.

We are not talking about NYC, R11, this is about LA. Keep up!

R9, Peter Berlin was never so muscled.

And Berlin was a fixture of San Francisco, not LA.

I know, R15 - that's why I asked.

Not impossible to think Berlin might make a trip downstate.

Anyway, the man in the photo resembles him.

It was great if you were slim and white. If not you were shit out of luck.

That why a couple of Hispanic guys who were denied entry in Studio One decided to open up their own club, Circus Disco further down Santa Monica boulevard.

There used to be an urban legend when I was in college in the late 90's that people were getting stuck with syringes filled with HIV tainted blood on purpose at Arena. We were all too scared to go but would always tell the story if we drove by it.

I wasn't gay in that decade.

I lived in Santa Monica, and had sex on the beach. Literally, where Ocean Park Blvd. met the Pacific Ocean. Every night. The cops were in the parking lot, but they were there to protect us, not harass us. In the daytime, you could meet someone up where Sunset Blvd. ran into the ocean.

I hated disco, so who needed Hollywood? When I went there, I found the Blue Parrot the best place to meet someone.

My gay uncle tells great stories about Studio One: three seconal (reds) wrapped in tin foil called a roll sold for one dollar. Everybody was shitfaced. Sex, drugs and disco!

I'd've been on the floor if I took three Seconals and tried to dance.

I was too young for Studio One. The drinking age at the time was 21. There was an underage cub that we would all go to ,The Odyssey. Weirdly, the articles I have found all make a point of saying that the Odyssey was not specifically a Gay club; yet, it was the first time that I saw women excluded at the door.

I never saw that at Odyssey, r23, but I did see it a couple of times at Studio One, particularly if I arrived a little early—the thing with the open-toed shoes. I'd've thought it was an urban myth otherwise.

R23, with the Odyssey, it was open toed shoes and hair ornaments. There was also something about handbags that I do not remember clearly.

[quote]Studio One was kind of the West Coast version of Studio 54.

Only kind of. It tried to keep women out. Studio 54...well, was nothing like that.

Seconal is intriguing to me (my partying days started in the late 90s R21. Was it just a downer to come off the coke? I can't imagine that it was much fun otherwise, although a few celebrities seemed to have a problem with it. It's the quaaludes that sounded really amazing (or so I hear).

R27, I never took Quaaludes, but they were certainly the drug of choice.

There was a year when I lived on Seconals, Tuinals, and Quaaludes. I reached a point when they felt indistinguishable from each other. But I had to stop taking them by the end of the year, I got so sick...strep infection put me in the hospital, which created a withdrawal situation. People didn't talk much about how addictive these things were. Heroin was supposedly the only addictive drug.

I would occasionally do a Quaalude or two after that, but not that often. Shit will kill you.

[quote]Only kind of. It tried to keep women out.. Studio 54...well, was nothing like that.

Studio 54 kept everyone out. Esp. the B&T crowd.

I always fell asleep on quaaludes. (Or knocked down a couple of supermarket displays.) Back in those days when Ed Davis was still chief of police, he'd send helicopters up to Griffith Park to drive us out of the woods. Everyone was getting laid up in Griffith Park and he couldn't stand it.

Circus Circus was a LOT of fun. And it was jammed all the time. I staggered out of that place so many times. First time I went to Studio One the whole dance floor was doing a line dance. I wasn't even high and it looked like the whole building was moving back and forth.

Is the Four Star still there in WeHo?

Do tell us more about your meth-riddled trailerpark, R11.

Studio One started the headband craze from the late 1970 early 80s.

A couple of guys showed up one night wearing them, the next night more did until it spread. One of the reasons Livy wears one in Xanadu and then moved into the straight community, finally dying out I guess about 1984 or 5.

The cops waited outside gay clubs on Melrose to bust gays leaving as the clubs closed. It was constant harassment.

When I moved to West Hollywood in '93, I was told that the Esprit store (now CVS) on the corner of SM x La Cienega was a roller disco...did any of you go to that?

Were there as many super young runaway hustlers in Hollywood as people say? It blows my mind when I read biographies about the punk scene, they always describe these children casually being hustlers.

R37 maybe the much talked about Flippers?

Pattie Brooks After Dark TGIF I think they filmed this where the Beverly Center is.

Excuse me if this sound like or in fact is a dumb question but why wouldn’t you just take a Valium? Or even just drink?

Was was “special” or different about these comedown drugs? They just sound even more dangerous.

Oh that's right, in the mid 70's, the Beverly Center was Ponyland!

Since I moved back east in the 90s, I miss the two hot dog places -- Pink's and Tail of the Pup.

Were there any all-nude gay strip clubs there at the time?

No r44. Go to bed.

Santa Monica Blvd. was the place for male prostitutes.

Circus Circus is a gaudy casino in Las Vegas, R32. Circus was a night club in Hollywood.

[quote] Excuse me if this sound like or in fact is a dumb question but why wouldn’t you just take a Valium? Or even just drink? Was was “special” or different about these comedown drugs? They just sound even more dangerous.

IMO, the pills were not used solely for "comedown" purposes. You could do the pills without cocaine. It was a different kind of "high," I guess. I remember taking Darvon or Darvocet. Just a way to forget your problems for a while.

Hell, I just took a couple Flintstones chewables and said fuck it

Oh yeah, I remember all those boys on the Boulevard. Santa Monica between Highland and LaBrea. Car accidents were happening with all the neck turning (see, Little Richard!) I was the same age of these kids so I didn't avail myself of their services, but it was definitely a thing.

The above pic was from another crash. He was only a passenger in that one. In the one on SM Bl. he was driving.

My uncle talked about a train engine or something that ran down Santa Monica Blvd. Many guys would jump on it after the bars closed and ride it to Highland where there was an all night restaurant. Was this the rent boy hot spot?

R47 - LOL you're right! I loved the Circus Disco. I heard they're turning it into apartments now. I can't remember exactly where it was. It was like in an industrial area on a side street in HoWood.

I used to spend hours driving my car around Griffith Park cruising for sex after the cops busted the woods near the Greek Theater. I think John Rechy popularized it in his novels.

Was The Daisy over by then?

I remember doing "The Hustle" at the Circus Disco. That place was certainly a more diverse crowd than Studio One was. But Studio One was a class act. I also spent time at the "8709" which was a baths very close to Studio One. And another sex club which was my all time favorite - Basic Plumbing on Fairfax near Melrose.

8709 !!! I remember walking down the hall in back of someone, a door opened, and this kween shouted "Oh my God! It's TAB HUNTER!!!" Slam.

Anyone remember Greg's Blue Dot Lounge? I remember seeing Freda Payne singing "Band of Gold" there.

Used to love to go over the hill into the Valley to see the Campers drag show at Oil Can Harry's.

I used to go to Studio One and The Odyssey when I lived in Glendale. When I moved to Orange County, the best at the time was Newport Station.

An old thread on the '70s disco scene in LA.

R59 are there even any gay bars in Orange County anymore? The last one I remember was the boom boom room in Laguna but that closed about 17 years ago.

OMG. The written description of OP’s photo, literally and virtually under the photo, in black type, is HILARIOUS, especially when considering that many on DL believe almost all A Listers to be closeted homosexuals, lesbians, bi-sexual, or gay for pay.

Did anyone else hang out at the Apache in West LA, near the intersection of the Santa Monica and San Diego Freeways (I'm so old, I remember before they were called the 10 and the 405)?

Remember Evrrybody's on Ventura in Studio City?

R59, The Odyssey had its straight moments, as well as its New-Ro moments (basically Goth).

I remember going there when everyone looked like Marilyn Manson, BEFORE Marilyn Manson looked like Marilyn Manson.

And to the person who said that being Hispanic barred one from entry into these exclusive spots, here’s another perspective: it wasn’t as much about race as it was and remains, about being unique and/or beautiful.

That’s what these places were all about. If you were gorgeous or a visual anomaly, that looked REALLY good as a visual anomaly, you were getting in. Even minors who looked fantastic were getting in.

Life really is different for the wealthy, but it is also VERY different for those who are beautiful, even if they’re broke AF.

Fuck. I’m getting old, just by remembering the Odyssey. Lol!

R61, Good question. Laguna Beach was the place to go. There was also The Pink Shrimp.

There was a town that actually tried to be the West Hollywood of OC for a while, but they could never tip the scales to make the change. It wasn't chic enough for well-to-do Gays to move to, and the homophobic straights were able to squash any real development.