stella's

[Guest nk]

I will be visiting NYC in a few week and would like to know where Stella's is located. Also can anyone recommend a escort. thanks

[Traveller]

47th between B'Way and 8th, south side of the street (closer to 8th). Michael Reese (usually there on Fridays). Very, very handsome. About 6' tall with a lean muscular build. Probably around 25 yo. Light skinned latino. Nice cock (about 8 inches). Says he's bi, but he kisses and sucks dick; and I imagine, if asked, I could fuck him. He does top. Pretty cocky also. A lot of fun if you can catch him.

[Guest jeejer]

wondering what time things happen at Stellas. I'm only in NYC for the day and the dancers downstairs usually start too late. I need to catch a bus back. But how about the hustlers? Are they around earlier in the evening and even late afternoon?

[Guest Skeptic]

We all have different priorities, but I've always find the downstairs show the least interesting part of being at Stella's. (As for the scheduling, dancing there used to start at midnight, but I leave it to others to advise how things go these days. There's also a minor bit of go-go action upstairs on certain weeknights, but I'm not au courant on that either.)

 

For me, the real action (buying/selling) has always been upstairs, so when midnight rolls round on a Friday or Saturday, I welcome the fact that some of the revelers go below, clearing the decks for the serious hustlers to strut their stuff in a more visible way at street-level. The kind of talent I'm hunting for isn't likely to go below anyway; I think they're almost embarrassed by the 'gayness' of the show, and find it as irrelevant to the real purpose of Stella's--hustling--as I do. They probably resent it.

 

When Cathy moved 'Trix' into the place we now know as 'Stella's,' she turned over the theatrical side of things to some oldtimers from the drag-queen-as-MC school. This set a tone which, however popular with many if not most blatino regulars, didn't strike me as particularly erotic. Bad enough that the dancers couldn't strip all the way (as opposed that what you get at the Gaiety); many had only mediocre bodies to start with, and when the conventional posing pouches & thongs gave way to those tacky cock-sock contraptions, I just stopped watching. (If I want to see Josephine Baker shakin' her booty in a banana skirt, I can check it out on b&w archival films from the 30s.) Lousy sightlines, Coconut-Grove-type overcrowding, and the constant importunings of banjee 'dancers' between sets finished it off for me.

 

Upstairs, on the other hand, still offers the only kind of 'show' a real hustler bar has ever needed--working boys making themselves available on neverending display at the bar, along the walls, at the videogame machines, and--above all--around the pool table. (A hustler, playing pool, can tell you almost everything you need to know about him, psychologically as much as physically, in ten minutes or less. To my eye, it's still the best possible showcase for macho style, grace & beauty.)

 

As for the comings & goings at Stella's apart from obvious prime time, I'd say you might find the hustler of your dreams at virtually any hour. (Most of these guys don't have day jobs, you know!). While the happy hour crowd (from 5-or-so till dinnertime) is made up mostly of survivors from the early Mesozoic Age of Gaydom (oft-delightful old creatures who are still pretty quick with a Tallulah/Belle Barth/Rae Bourbon comeback when required), there will always be a handful of hustlers, too, to complete the classic picture.

 

Bottom line: some of my happiest 'finds' at Stella's (and its previous incarnations) have taken place on seemingly 'slow' Mondays or Tuesday while 'News at 6' is on the tube. So an alert hunter with traditional goals & values ought to be able to make out pretty well long before 9 or 10 rolls round.

[Traveller]

Skeptic's absolutely right. Upstairs and earlier is when you'll find the best escorts. The dancers are primarily straight.

[Guest paulnyc]

Skeptic, I enjoyed your description of Stella's and agree with almost everything you say. As I am not as experienced as you in these things, I would really appreciate more detailed information on how one can judge a hustler by how he plays pool at Stella's. Just last night, in fact, I was attracted to a pair playing pool at Stella's but both seemed to be playing hard to get and would only acknowledge me periodically. I got tired of waiting for the one I was interested in to make a move. Was he waiting for me to go up to him? I'm a bit too shy for that. I recognized him incidentally as someone who danced at the Gaiety a few weeks ago. He really stood out in the Stella crowd as he was white and blond, and really buffed, whereas most of the other working guys at Stella's are Latino or Black, and not all on a workout regimen.

The dancing upstairs is at 11 PM on Monday, Tuesday, and Sunday nights, when there is no dancing downstairs.

There seem to be different shifts of hustlers at Stella's. The happy hour boys, many of whom are one step away from being homeless; and the heavy South American contingent (who claim to be straight) who arrive from their colony in New Jersey at around 9PM.

One problem with the Stella hustlers is that they don't have their own place to take you. Unless you live in the city or are in a hotel, your only alternative is to go with them to a sleezy hotel on the corner of 47th and 8th or another dive on 42nd street. Unless you have very thick skin, don't go to either place.

I have found that the dancers rarely do private shows, and are part time sex workers, earning their money from tips for their form of lap dancing, which unlike Montreal, is done with dancer and client standing rather than the client being seated. Also, you are correct in stating that most of the dancers have padded cock pieces. I took one home and his 12 inches turned out to be hardly 4. Surprise!!

I digress. Tell me what I can learn about hustlers from their behavior around the pool table.

PS. Skeptic, since you like La Baker, (comme moi) do you know that one of her adopted sons runs a club named after her, not too far from Stella's on 42nd street?

[Paul Revere]

Paul;

 

It sounds like your pool player was the imfamous Kirk from Toronto. The fact that you were too shy to approach him probably saved you some money and an unpleasant experieince.

[Guest paulnyc]

Good guess, but it was not Kirk! I already know that swindler and was, in fact, duped by his brother, Darrin, after encountering him in Stella's.

[Guest Skeptic]

While I'm always happy to have Traveller agree with me, I hasten to say that the prevailing 'straightness' of the downstairs dancers isn't what turns me off that part of the Stella experience. It's just that I've found very few of them to be attractive (from what I manage to see of them in that inadequate performance setting), and prefer to shop among the studs (yes, the straight ones) upstairs.

 

As to Paulnyc's query, my answer should begin by pointing out that, far from being a personal 'theory,' the pool-table bit conforms to a phenomenon known to all: that men typically show lots about themselves in the way they play ANY sort of game. But when locale and context are so richly erotic (hustlers showing off for johns while killing time in a bar), I guess a bit of poetic exaggeration should be allowed me.

 

Shooting pool, for all its outward civility and choreographic form, is a fiercely competitive sport--stud vs. stud at the most archetypal level. Apart from the moves that go with the game itself (the handling of the cue, chalking it, assuming the properly butt-revealing stance for making the shot, the follow-up flourishes, etc.), it lets the player show off his body (and have it openly stared at) in ways that can't be accomplished simply by standing around the bar.

 

Thus, while the active player is displaying grace, equilibrium, control, and strategic savvy, the waiting player can indulge it such thrillingly macho rites as shifting his weight from one well-rounded ham to the other, scratching his balls and/or asshole, slicking his hair back, or limbering up his mighty back & shoulder muscles--and all the while addressing smiles and expressions of natural self-confidence to the watching crowd.

 

Indeed, self-confidence, the central component of the truly masculine personality, finds a perfect showcase in a closely fought game of pool. Faking it is instantly, brutally revealed to be just that--as in noisy disputes about the sign-up sheet, breaking shots that knock the pyramid to kingdom come, and inconsiderate behavior while the other guy is trying to focus on his move. In fact, the most potent proof of genuine self-confidence comes from the player who treats his opponent with generois, manly respect--everything he does in this regard, from the giving and taking of the cue to the way he deals with him when the game is over, in both victory and defeat.

 

I could go on and on in like vein, but guys to whom true machismo and friendly self-assertion is the real turn-on already get the picture. (You know who you are.)

 

Paul, I don't think anyone (not even Aaron Lawrence) can tell you the 'right' way to engage a hustler in a hustler bar--so I won't even try. But I'd venture this guess: that what you seem to fear may be a defect--your native shyness--is precisely what the sort of hustler you're seeking is, in turn, seeking in a john. These are the guys with the easy laugh and dancing eye who'll give you a hundred little pretexts to talk to them unblushing, and, failing that, strike up a conversation themselves, always offering you a graceful out if you really weren't interested in the first place. There will be a natural polarity between your individual temperaments that promotes such initial contact.

 

If I'm right about that, the blond, buff number who seemed determined to play Ice Princess was, I suspect, NOT the pool-player for you.

 

And, in a warning that befits his heroic nsmesake, the other Paul has reminded us that Kirk is not the pool-player for ANYONE!

[Traveller]

Wow, I'm going to agree with you once again Skeptic regarding the attractiveness of the dancers. But, as you like trade and I like mutual interaction, straight doesn't cut it with me. You have to admit, however, that the stage and general decorations downstairs are straight out of a Water's movie, could only exist in NYC, and must be viewed at least once (if only momentarily) by any visitor to Stellas.

[Guest Skeptic]

RE: upstairs/downstairs at stella's

 

Yes, counsel, I'll stipulate to that. So let's see if the court will OK a field trip downstairs so that the jury can inspect the crime-scene for themselves prior to deliberations.

 

Problem is, apart from the matter of altered lighting, the decor has undergone subtle but steady modification since the time the defendant (Ms. Hogan) first opened this area to the public. Your own expert, Mr. Waters, has described the place as looking like "a Puerto Rican bar mitzvah in inner-city Baltimore," making the offense we allege seem less egregious than it in fact was. His testimony, however, is based solely on b&w photographs from 1998 provided him by your office. Please be aware that the state's rebuttal case will include Jane Stern, co-editor of 'The Encyclopedia of Bad Taste' who will point out that the premises, with its recently installed Doric columns and gold-lame swags, more closely resembled the set for the 1961 AMG color epic, "The Emperor's New Slave" on the night in question. . .

 

Footnote to Paulnyc: what's this about an eatery named after la belle Josephine smack in the middle of Disney's Magical Porn Kingdom? I'm shocked.

[Guest bluboy]

skeptic

 

are u a fan of that dashing dyke Camille Paglia..your views on pool mirror what she would say verbatim..i loved it..blu

[Guest Skeptic]

Actually Cam & I used to be an item back when I was still a lipstick lesbian. After the break-up, she kept the Harley but I got both cats. Always read her stuff, though, even now. I guess I'm still carrying a torch. . .

[Traveller]

RE: upstairs/downstairs at stella's

 

LAST EDITED ON May-18-00 AT 06:25PM (EST)[p]It's called, surprisingly, Josephine's, and is between 8th and 9th on the south side of 42nd Street. The son's name is Jean Claude. Is it still around? I haven't been there since Margaret Truman was singing in the White House.

[Guest Skeptic]

RE: upstairs/downstairs at stella's

 

Not since then? I thought you were in your mid-30s! Next you'll be telling me you're not a lawyer. . .

[+ SundayZip]

Believe it or not, I rented several hours with the infamous Kirk a couple years ago and found the experience not at all bad. I set it up so that we first had dinner and drinks, so by the time we got back to my hotel room I felt that Kirk was actually treating me like a person. No, he did not kiss. He did not suck me or let me fuck him. But that was not what I was after. I was into his body and he was into me getting into his body -- in a nice and slow and teasing sort of way. I got to soap him down in shower, from head to foot and then taste every, and I mean every, last inch of him. I liked it and he actually seemed to like it too.

 

But this little story is not actually the reason for this post. I have a question... For those of you who recognize Kirk AND remember him from a couple years ago, does he still look as hot as he did? Is his body still in really good shape or has he gone the route of many dancers/escorts who've been out there a few years and turned a little soft. I'm interested because I still consider looking him up for another go at it.

 

Thanks, Leo

[Guest KJ]

Dear Skeptic,

As one who lives a 3-minute walk from Stella's but finds it way too sleazy to visit (based on maybe 4 trips in as many years), I have to say that I received more pleasure from your paean to the joy of watching hustlers play pool than to any other aspect of the place. Bravo to your perceptive eye and your turn of phrase. It's nice to know we can find beauty in anything if we look close enough.

 

Thanks

[Guest assmaster]

Had A hot experience with Leo.....very versatile!

Great Body.

[Guest paulnyc]

I second your delight in reading Skeptic's description of the pool playing hustler. I was mesmerized by it all and found it so right on target. Can't wait to get back to Stella's and its pool table.

[Michael]

I'm not surprised that you had a good experience with Kirk - it can happen (especially if you know what you are doing), but it is the exception rather than the rule. I, myself, had a quite reasonable encounter with his brother "Darren" on one occasion (not "great", but certainly not the disaster that many others have experienced), but I was lucky and I would certainly never recommend Darren to anyone.

 

I think that I first saw Kirk about 5 years ago - at that time he had a very nice tight hard body with good definition. I didn't see much of him for a couple of years, during which time I heard that he had gotten quite a lot bigger (ie put on more muscle) - I saw him again in Toronto last year and he seemed to be back down to his former size again - still looking good but noticeably older.

 

To be honest, I have never really understood what people see in Kirk - sure he's got a good body, but without even trying I can think of a dozen or more dancers who (for my money, at least) look better than he does.

[+ bigjoey]

saw kirk at the gaiety in feburary and he looked great. had put on muscle and bulked up a bit. one of the escorts i see regulary who was there at the time told me he was using steriods to get a more muscle look.

 

with me kirk kisses(yes, with tongue) and lets me finger(as far as i can go) that wonderful hole of his. he will top if that is desired and he is very good in the shower. still he is a beautiful man. i think he does have some mental problems and may have a bit of a drug problem.

[Traveller]

I don't know what Kirk looked like a few years ago, but in March, with me, his bod looked great, he kissed, we came together and he was a lot of fun. And I know I'm in the very small minority here. Oh well.

[Traveller]

RE: upstairs/downstairs at stella's

 

As a vampire, I'm on my thirteenth century. Didn't I see you at the Battle of Hastings?

[Guest Skeptic]

RE: upstairs/downstairs at stella's

 

Could be, since I'm an ageless sucker (of sorts) myself. But how unlike you, how un-gallant, to press a lady into revealing her age!