Letters to Penthouse

[+ poolboy48220]

Did anyone else have a fixation on the Penthouse Letters section growing up? My dad's stash of magazines under the dresser always had a decent selection, and they usually had one, maybe two, letters about men with other men. For the mid-70's, in hindsight, that was pretty unusual. Growing up extremely closeted, buying Penthouse (or more often, just browsing at the bookstore) was a 'safe' way to find some gay content.

 

I've done a few google searches hoping to find some archives of the letters but have come up with nothing. I thought you could find *anything* on the internet. There are a couple that I still remember vividly to this day.

[whipped guy]

I remember buying a "compendium" of the best of Penthouse letters at a newsstand in NYC many years ago... in the days when I was not sure on which team I was playing.. and recall learning more than a few BDSM techniques in those pages... and yes I remember a couple vividly today as well!

[+ Chris Eisenhower]

Did anyone else have a fixation on the Penthouse Letters section growing up? My dad's stash of magazines under the dresser always had a decent selection, and they usually had one, maybe two, letters about men with other men. For the mid-70's, in hindsight, that was pretty unusual. Growing up extremely closeted, buying Penthouse (or more often, just browsing at the bookstore) was a 'safe' way to find some gay content.

 

I've done a few google searches hoping to find some archives of the letters but have come up with nothing. I thought you could find *anything* on the internet. There are a couple that I still remember vividly to this day.

 

Ah, the times my dad would buy Penthouse and Hustler. :o

 

Try this. http://penthouseforum.com/

[+ Gar1eth]

Did anyone else have a fixation on the Penthouse Letters section growing up? My dad's stash of magazines under the dresser always had a decent selection, and they usually had one, maybe two, letters about men with other men. For the mid-70's, in hindsight, that was pretty unusual. Growing up extremely closeted, buying Penthouse (or more often, just browsing at the bookstore) was a 'safe' way to find some gay content.

 

I've done a few google searches hoping to find some archives of the letters but have come up with nothing. I thought you could find *anything* on the internet. There are a couple that I still remember vividly to this day.

 

My Dad mainly read Playboy. In fact when I was away at school I came home to find him receiving Playboys in my name. He didnt want the Postman or the neighbors to know he was reading it. So he subscribed under my name.

 

 

It was my Uncle who had the Penthouse magazines. I can't remember if be bought them or got them from a neighbor. But as I wasn't interested in women, the Forum was just about the only thing I would read in the magazine at the age of 15 in 1976. I can remember the occasional man on man experiences sent in. The men always said how they were all straight but one time a group of them on a camp out...

 

The other thing I remember is how most of the letters used to start out - Something like- To The Forum, I am a student at a small Midwestern University. I always thought the letters in the Forum were fake until two nights ago when I had to stay late at work with my manager Sharon....

 

Ah, the memories.

 

Gman

[+ poolboy48220]

Ah, the times my dad would buy Penthouse and Hustler. :o

 

Try this. http://penthouseforum.com/

Thanks Chris - that is going to keep me busy for a while. I skimmed through and they go back to 2005. The one letter I had in mind was from the mid-70's, I'd guess. It was about a guy whose girlfriend had him over, and said before he fucked her, he had to win a wrestling contest against her two gay friends. Of course he lost..."I'm a pretty muscular guy, but small, and these two guys were huge". The two gay guys fucked him silly, and of course he ended up enjoying it. One of the first letters on that site is similar, a woman who wanted her boyfriend to get a four-handed massage from two gay guys.

 

Penthouse & Hustler were always better than Playboy because they'd have the couple's pictorials as well as the solos of women. I don't think Mom would have put up with Hustler, though - shame because their guys would have hard-ons. The Penthouse pictorials were more of a "catch a glimpse of soft cock". Still enough for 14-year-old me.

[+ poolboy48220]

My Dad mainly read Playboy. In fact when I was away at school I came home to find him receiving Playboys in my name. He didnt want the Postman or the neighbors to know he was reading it. So he subscribed under my name. :pGman

That makes me think of the father on Showtime's "Shameless" - except he'd probably rip off his kid to pay for the subscription as well.

[doitb4ugo]

Thanks for bringing back some really nice memories....

[Nvr2Thick]

The other thing I remember is how most of the letters used to start out - Something like- To The Forum, I am a student at a small Midwestern University. I always thought the letters in the Forum were fake until two nights ago when I had to stay late at work with my manager Sharon....

 

There was always a lot of talk about how most of the time these letters were written by groups of college guys trying to get some thrills over making up a hot enough story to make it into print. They'd do their best to describe a college in enough detail to pinpoint it, without actually naming it. You could just imagine that they were singling out some hot and much-desired female professor, TA, or local waitress -- and that if the letter made print what an accomplishment it would be and how much local notoriety would come from it. When I was in college I had heard stories of a few guys in a frat who submitted a letter that didn't get printed. To me the whole idea seemed vaguely homoerotic, with a few guys sitting around making up an imaginary sex story. I could identify with what I'd image was the one closeted or repressed gay guy in the group -- the one who offered way too much input and became way too excited when they came up with the fictional letter-writer's physical description.

[orbital sander]

Penthouse actually used to have a magazine called "Penthouse Forum" it was letters primarily letters with a few pictures sprinkled in.