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I much
thank San Francisco historian/book seller Gerard Koskovich for passing
along these scans,
of a very early gay guide. He graciously sent me the Texas pages, Part
2. It was in the back of an
erotic novel called "Chicken Pickup," by Raymond Benson. And
now that I knew where to look,
I found the entire guide, and also Part 1. That was in a different Benson
book, "Rape."
Neither had copyright dates given. They were about 40 pages of crudely
illustrated novels...
(can a novel be only 40 pages?), and they each added about 17 pages
of the Gay Guides.
I can't speak to the writing quality, didn't read them, I was after
the Guides.
And
the Guides were of interest to me, as this is a VERY early look at gay
listings. As I was able to
compare Part 1 and Part 2, well, actually they were in two parts, at
least for Texas.
Guide
1 begins in TX in Amarillo and stops mid-way through Houston, (to Numbers
bar)
and Guide 2 starts Houston anew, through the rest of the state. Both
pages are below.
With my knowledge of Houston, I tried to "date"
the Guides, but I will acknowledge that
Gay Guides in those early years were often short on accuracy, including
Damron's,
and they were charting a moving target.
 
 
View
All of Part 1 View
All of Part 2
Just
Texas Pages
Comparing
the data between the two, they are very similar. Comparing to Damron's
for 1971 and 1972,
I notice that Damron's correctly spells the name of the Galleon. The
Palace Club was only open
in 1970-1972. And Club Houston opened in April 1973. So, there's a conflict
of data just in those
two alone, a data gap.
But there are also in the Guides for Texas some
interesting bars/restaurants that catered to gays but were
not really gay, such as Simpson's Diner, and Prufrocks Tavern. The Woodrow
Hotel was located in the block behind
the Exile and Simpson's. I think this is the first time I have seen
those in a Guide.
Several
I wasn't familiar with include: Harrigan's, Keys Lounge (though, at
a different address),
Les Quater Saisons, and Michael One. and morel, though with a little
research on my site I could verify them.
I had previously mostly only found those mentioned in a self-made
guide by Steve Brown
Again, there are major difference in the two guides. For example, NY
State is only in Part 2, etc.
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