Houston Forum & Texas Forum
  
1985 - 1987
137 issues
   

This section of this site will feature the late 80's Houston gay newspaper Houston Forum,
begun January 1985, by publisher Ron Bilbo, and consisted usually of 16 pages, 11"x15."
It ran until October 1987.

The paper, whose competition was the Montrose Voice, began like the Voice with a more
hard news focus. After only four months Jack Adams took over as publisher (with Jeff Bray
as Editor) but Jack didn't last even a month before the Publishers were listed as "The Texan Yuppie"
(the original paper name) and Randy Brown. Bray continued as Editor until September 1985, when Brown
was listed as sole Publisher and Stewart McCloud became Editor. Brown pretty much ran the show
by himself for the rest of the run. When Brown came on board he quickly changed the front covers
to a less news emphasis, electing to go for the appeal of good looking men, with photos taken by
photographer Ken Rabelais. And in general there was much less news focus by that time...and more
fluff columns, a shame, in my opinion, but tastes vary.

With Issue 3-18, 5/1/87, the name was changed to Texas Forum, along with Brown buying
out the Austin Mirror and Texas Mirror, which ceased publication, leaving the Texas Forum
free to try to serve the entire state. However the state also had formidable coverage by This Week in
Texas, though that magazine had a different scope and format. The change to the Texas Forum
also included the appearance on the covers of many more women, as more diversity was desired.

Toward the end Billie Duncan became Editor in May, 1987, but only for a few weeks. Other well-known
people involved included Bar Wilson, Nancy Ford and Elroy Forbes. The last issue, as far as I can determine,
was Volume 3-41, 10/09/87. Access to these publications is courtesy of U of H LGBT Resource Center,
except for a few near the end (notated with asterisks). Those I only had access to several years ago,
and were digitized with my old scanner, unfortunately in a two-pass format, all I could then do.

Houston Forum, 1/85 - 4/87

Volume 1-1
03/01/85, PDF

Volume 1-2
03/08/85, PDF

Volume 1-3
03/15/85, PDF

Volume 1-4
03/22/85, PDF

Volume 1-5
03/29/85, PDF

Volume 1-6
04/05/85, PDF

Volume 1-7
04/12/85, PDF

Volume 1-8
04/19/85, PDF

Volume 1-9
04/26/85, PDF

Volume 1-10
05/03/85, PDF

Volume 1-11
05/10/85, PDF

Volume 1-12
05/17/85, PDF

Volume 1-13
05/24/85, PDF

Volume 1-14
05/31/85, PDF

Volume 1-15
06/07/85, PDF

Volume 1-16
06/14/85, PDF

Volume 1-17
06/21/85, PDF

Volume 1-18
06/28/85, PDF

Volume 1-19
07/05/85, PDF

Volume 1-20
07/12/85, PDF

Volume 1-21
07/19/85, PDF


Volume 1-22
07/26/85, PDF

Volume 1-23
08/02/85, PDF

Volume 1-24
08/09/85, PDF

Volume 1-25
08/16/85, PDF

Volume 1-26
08/23/85, PDF

Volume 1-27
08/30/85, PDF

Volume 1-28
09/06/85, PDF

Volume 1-29
09/13/85, PDF

Volume 1-30
09/20/85, PDF

Volume 1-31
09/27/85, PDF

Volume 1-32
10/04/85, PDF

Volume 1-33
10/11/85, PDF

Volume 1-34
10/18/85, PDF

Volume 1-35
10/25/85, PDF

Volume 1-36
11/01/85, PDF

Volume 1-37
11/08/85, PDF

Volume 1-38
11/15/85, PDF

Volume 1-39
11/22/85, PDF

Volume 1-40
11/29/85, PDF

Volume 1-41
12/06/85, PDF

Volume 1-42
12/13/85, PDF

Volume 1-43
12/20/85, PDF

Volume 1-44
12/27/85, PDF

Volume 2-1
01/03/86, PDF

Volume 2-2
01/10/86, PDF


Volume 2-3
01/17/86, PDF

Volume 2-4
01/24/86, PDF

Volume 2-5
01/31/86, PDF

Volume 2-6
02/07/86, PDF

Volume 2-7
02/14/86, PDF

Volume 2-8
02/21/86, PDF

Volume 2-9
02/26/86, PDF

Volume 2-10
03/07/86, PDF

Volume 2-11
03/14/86, PDF

Volume 2-12
03/21/86, PDF

Volume 2-13
03/28/86, PDF

Volume 2-14
04/4/86, PDF


Volume 2-15
04/11/86, PDF

Volume 2-16
04/18/86, PDF

Volume 2-17
04/25/86, PDF

Volume 2-18
05/02/86, PDF

Volume 2-19
05/09/86, PDF

Volume 2-20
05/16/86, PDF

Volume 2-21
05/23/86, PDF


Volume 2-22
5/30/86, PDF

Volume 2-23
06/06/86, PDF

Volume 2-24
06/13/86, PDF

Volume 2-25
06/20/86, PDF

Volume 2-25
06/27/86, PDF

Volume 2-25
07/04/86, PDF

 

 

yes, there were three issues #25, and no #31

Volume 2-26
07/11/86, PDF

Volume 2-27
07/18/86, PDF

Volume 2-28
07/25/86, PDF


Volume 2-29
08/01/86, PDF

Volume 2-30
08/08/86, PDF

Volume 2-32
08/15/86, PDF

Volume 2-33
08/22/86, PDF

Volume 2-34
08/29/86, PDF

Volume 2-35
09/05/86, PDF

Volume 2-36
09/12/86, PDF

Volume 2-37
09/19/86, PDF

Volume 2-38
09/26/86, PDF

Volume 2-39
10/03/86, PDF

Volume 2-40
10/10/86, PDF

Volume 2-41
10/17/86, PDF

Volume 2-42
10/24/86, PDF

Volume 2-43
10/31/86, PDF


Volume 2-44
11/07/86, PDF

Volume 2-45
11/14/86, PDF


Volume 2-46
11/21/86, PDF

Volume 2-47
11/28/86, PDF

Volume 2-48
12/05/86, PDF

Volume 2-49
12/12/86, PDF


Volume 2-50
12/19/86, PDF

Volume 2-51
12/26/86, PDF

Volume 3-1
01/02/87, PDF

Volume 3-2
01/09/87, PDF

Volume 3-3
01/16/87, PDF

Volume 3-4
01/23/87, PDF

Volume 3-5
01/30/87, PDF

Volume 3-6
02/06/87, PDF

Volume 3-7
02/13/87, PDF


Volume 3-8
02/20/87, PDF

Volume 3-9
02/27/87, PDF

Volume 3-10
03/06/87, PDF

Volume 3-11
03/13/87, PDF

Volume 3-12
03/20/87, PDF

Volume 3-13
03/27/87, PDF

Volume 3-14
04/03/87, PDF

Volume 3-15
04/10/87, PDF

Volume 3-16
04/17/87, PDF

Volume 3-17
04/24/87, PDF
Texas Forum, 3/87 - 10/87
going for a wider reach with coverage and advertising

Volume 3-18
05/01/87, PDF  

Volume 3-19
05/08/87, PDF

Volume 3-20
05/15/87, PDF

Volume 3-21
05/22/87, PDF

Volume 3-22
05/29/87, PDF


Volume 3-23
06/05/87, PDF

Volume 3-24
06/12/87, PDF

Volume 3-25
06/19/87, PDF

Volume 3-26
06/26/87, PDF

Volume 3-27
07/03/87, PDF


Volume 3-28
07/10/87, PDF

Volume 3-29
07/17/87, PDF

Volume 3-30
07/24/87, PDF


Volume 3-31
07/31/87, PDF

Volume 3-32
08/07/87, PDF

Volume 3-33
08/14/87, PDF

Volume 3-34*
08/21/87, PDF

Volume 3-35*
08/28/87, PDF

Volume 3-36*
09/04/87, PDF

Volume 3-37*
09/11/87, PDF


Volume 3-38*
09/18/87, PDF

Volume 3-39*
09/25/87, PDF

Volume 3-40
10/02/87, PDF

Volume 3-41
10/09/87, PDF
Were there more issues? If you know, or if you can provide
access to them or other missing ones, please let me know Thanks!
Publication Info
Issue / Date
Publisher
Editors
Volume 1-01, 03/01/85 Ron Bilbo Hollis Hood / Terrence Reed / TL Myers
Volume 1-17, 06/21/85 Ron Bilbo Robert Hyde
Volume 1-22, 07/26/85 Jack Adams Jeff Bray
Volume 1-25. 08/16/85 The Texan Yuppie / Randy Brown / Wes Gambill Jeff Bray
Volume 1-30, 092085 The Texan Yuppie / Randy Brown Jeff Bray
Volume 1-31, 09/27/85 The Texan Yuppie / Randy Brown Stewart McCloud
Volume 2-34, 08/19/86 Randy Brown Stewart McCloud
Volume 2-37, 09/19/86 Randy Brown Randy Brown
Volume 3-18, 05/01/87 Randy Brown / Nick Loutchaninoff (from Austin Mirror) Randy Brown
Volume 3-22, 05/29/87 Randy Brown / Nick Loutchaninoff Billie Duncan
Volume 3-25, 06/19/87 Randy Brown Billie Duncan
Volume 3-33, 08/14/87, to end Randy Brown Randy Brown

 

  

  
 

In a converstation (on 11/9/20) with Publisher Randy Brown I learned that
"the Texan Yuppie" was not a person, but the original name intended for
the paper, and it was wisely decided to instead use Houston Forum.
They used their own photographer, Ken Rabelais, for the covers. Also,
many publications fail for financial reasons, but it this case Randy's
lover, James Lester, was sick with AIDS and that on top of trying to do
almost all the jobs on the paper was too much.