Escort advertising B.I. (before the Internet) and the gay press

[Lankypeters]

Where did working guys advertise before the existence of the Internet and gay press ads? How did prospective clients find out about escort agencies and how did they obtain pictures? In particular, does anyone know what agencies existed in NYC before the 'net and gay papers?

[Lankypeters]

Following up on my on post: I wonder if "modeling agencies" fronted as escort agencies, placing pictures of escorts in their books and handouts. A friend once told me that the International Male catalogues were a front for an escort agency. But said friend was quite a fabulist, so I don't know if this was so.

[KentuckyBoy]

The underground and radical newspaper, The Berkeley Barb, was a popular source of escort and modeling ads in the early 1970s in the Bay Area. I believe the Berkeley Barb preceded the Advocate classified pages.

[body2body]

In Los Angeles during the 70s you could find ads in "The Advocate" back when it was a black and white tabloid on newsprint. Then you could also find ads in the classified sections of the free weeklies that were handed out in gay bars and usually called "bar rags". When Frontiers arrived they were notorious for their "Yellow Pages" which carried personals, escort, and masseur ads. The yellow pages were in the middle of the magazine, at first with no photos, and later with black and white photos (there are still a couple of aging professionals who are using the same pics they were using back in the 80s). There were agencies and a bustling street hustler scene on Santa Monica Blvd. I used to hire from all the above. Back in the 70's a hook up with a guy from the Boulevard it would usually set you back 50 and a guy from an ad 100 or less.

[uwsman2]

During the 1960s and 1970s an "alternative press" emerged in major cities where "classified ad sections" would include "personals" and, occasionally, "escort" and "model" ads. I think here of the Boston Phoenix and, in NYC, the Village Voice. But the main source of escort ads in the 1970s was the classified ad section in The Advocate. An escort ad might be as short as a few lines and a phone number. Rarely at first were there photos. I also don't recall that amounts charged were mentioned; one would have to ask with the phone call. This was before email, of course, so the telephone was the only means to communicate, unless the publication provided a mail forwarding service.

[Michael Wayne]

I have actually posted a thread about this very subject. I think it was called, " the death of print advertising." The first stage of my career (and that is what it is despite some escorts not wanting to admit that...lol) I advertised in South Florida in a publication called , "Hotspots," and also in , "David." Both of these bar guides still exist. Hotspots in ft. Lauderdale and David in Atlanta. simply put , both mags were a GOLD MINE! After I was, "discovered," and I did several nude magazines (also a thing of the past with the internet) I started advertising nationally in a publication called, "Unzipped." Clients started flying me all over the country. "Frontiers," was also big for me. It is pretty lonely at the top of the escort world though. The pressure to always perform and the sheer demand on my time and my cock led me to retire and get, "a real job...lol" So I moved as far away from escortland as I could and ended up , of all places, in San antonio, tx. (before ben nicholas! actually before anybody) It was a wasteland. I met a guy who became a friend and he ran a local escort service for guys and ladies. He told me, "No independent has ever made it in san antonio." I did some calls for him out of boredom. It is hard to get away from the biz. I started dating a drop dead gorgeous 18 year old and my libido started coming back. To make a long story short he and I used a publication called , "The TWIT...This week in texas" , and we pretty much put my friend out of biz. He and I flew what we called the Texas triangle from san anton to austin to dfw to houston and back. I was back on top but again the fame and the stress became too great so my second retirement happened. After laying around for a year and spending my money I developed a relationship with a former travel client and he was my sugar daddy for a number of great years. This is how I ended up moving to new orleans. Now during this time is when rentboy and men4rent really took over the business and it passed me by totally. I could barely turn on a computer. lol! So them my partner went broke big time (thank you Katrina- you bitch!) and I needed to unretire my cock or i would go through my saving pretty fast. Thank God I had never stopped working out. I used a publication in nola called, "Ambush," published by my good friends Rip and Marsha . The response was good but not what I had expected. I had to LEARN how to work the web in order to compete because very few clients saw the mag. To reach my target married male with kids demographic I started a profile first on men 4 rent which was an immediate smash. Then craigslist erotic servives (may it rest in peace) and finally rentboy and rent men. I got so incredibly busy and had a nice long run in nola. The pics and video ads make getting clients easy however it makes more guys get in the biz and the recent bad economy is making the biz very competitive. Just this week I spoke to a young man who is quitting because the biz is , "too stressful." Well, I have been there and I have just learned to relax and enjoy the ride while it lasts. http://www.rentmen.com/mikeyusatop

[+ Charlie]

The "pink pages" in the national magazine "The Advocate" were my first introduction to escort ads in the 1970s; they were a pull-out section of classified ads that included "escorts" and "models" and "masseurs," all offering the same services but at different levels of discretion. Agencies also advertised there, which is how I made my first escort contact. "The Advocate" eventually turned these into a separate glossy publication called "Unzipped," which could be bought separately but was bundled with the regular magazine for subscribers. Free giveaways in bars, like "Next" magazine, also had ads starting in the 1980s. Some bars in NYC also had escort ads posted on their bulletin boards. Local gay newspapers like the "Bay Area Reporter" (BAR) and "Philadelphia Gay News" usually had a few ads for local escorts or models in the back. As has been mentioned, the only way to contact the agencies or individuals was by phone, and I spent many frustrating evenings making calls and sitting by the phone waiting in vain for callbacks.

[Nvr2Thick]

The "pink pages" in the national magazine "The Advocate" were my first introduction to escort ads in the 1970s; they were a pull-out section of classified ads that included "escorts" and "models" and "masseurs," all offering the same services but at different levels of discretion. Agencies also advertised there, which is how I made my first escort contact. "The Advocate" eventually turned these into a separate glossy publication called "Unzipped," which could be bought separately but was bundled with the regular magazine for subscribers. Free giveaways in bars, like "Next" magazine, also had ads starting in the 1980s. Some bars in NYC also had escort ads posted on their bulletin boards. Local gay newspapers like the "Bay Area Reporter" (BAR) and "Philadelphia Gay News" usually had a few ads for local escorts or models in the back. As has been mentioned, the only way to contact the agencies or individuals was by phone, and I spent many frustrating evenings making calls and sitting by the phone waiting in vain for callbacks.

 

Ahh! The Advocate Classifieds! There was also an alternative newspaper in NYC that had a "Second Section" with escort ads. Geezer alert -- in those days you were calling their home phones, which they might actually answer, or you'd leave a message on an answering machine. Then came pagers, before cell phones. And it was a real trip to screen these picture-less ads by physical description. You never knew what you were getting into until he arrived or you arrived at his door. I met some real losers in those days as well as some incredible men.

 

You could always drink straight from the faucet (so to speak) and hit one of the places where hustlers cruised. I didn't hear about the upscale escort bar until after it closed, but I picked up a few rough and raw black or latin men at the adult bookstores and peep shows in Times Square. There was a tall, lanky muscular black man, incredibly hung and uncut, who cruised one of the peep shows and would let me suck him for $20. For another $20 on a slow night he could cum on demand. I can also distinctly remember a short, muscular, young, dark and hairy Latin man who was just so easy-going and friendly that it was a pleasure to be with him. He'd open his shirt when I'd suck his dick in the booths. Twice he talked me into renting a nasty, filthy by-the-hour room so he could upsell from a quick BJ to an hour of rough naked play. He was even happier and friendlier when he was naked and showing off his pride and joy -- one of the fattest uncut dicks I've ever seen. As an inexperienced bottom taking his dick was a chore, but seeing how excited and pleased he'd get was worth the price and the struggle.

 

What was the question again?

[+ Charlie]

Ahh! The Advocate Classifieds! There was also an alternative newspaper in NYC that had a "Second Section" with escort ads. Geezer alert -- in those days you were calling their home phones, which they might actually answer, or you'd leave a message on an answering machine. Then came pagers, before cell phones. And it was a real trip to screen these picture-less ads by physical description. You never knew what you were getting into until he arrived or you arrived at his door. I met some real losers in those days as well as some incredible men.

 

?

Actually, I found it more exciting not to know, until you met the escort, what he really looked like--I started to lose interest when there was no longer any mystery, because one had already seen plenty of high def color photos of the guy long before the meeting. For me, hiring escorts didn't give the same thrill of adventure once it became more conventionally consumer business-like.

[Nvr2Thick]

Actually, I found it more exciting not to know, until you met the escort, what he really looked like--I started to lose interest when there was no longer any mystery, because one had already seen plenty of high def color photos of the guy long before the meeting. For me, hiring escorts didn't give the same thrill of adventure once it became more conventionally consumer business-like.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfcBl_Eps_c

[Lankypeters]

Does anyone know how one found out about escorts before the gay press existed, say in the '40s and '50s. We know it's the oldest profession. So where did one find market information?

[+ Charlie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfcBl_Eps_c

 

Loved it!

[+ deej]

The "pink pages" in the national magazine "The Advocate" were my first introduction to escort ads in the 1970s; they were a pull-out section of classified ads that included "escorts" and "models" and "masseurs," all offering the same services but at different levels of discretion. Agencies also advertised there, which is how I made my first escort contact. "The Advocate" eventually turned these into a separate glossy publication called "Unzipped," which could be bought separately but was bundled with the regular magazine for subscribers. Free giveaways in bars, like "Next" magazine, also had ads starting in the 1980s. Some bars in NYC also had escort ads posted on their bulletin boards. Local gay newspapers like the "Bay Area Reporter" (BAR) and "Philadelphia Gay News" usually had a few ads for local escorts or models in the back. As has been mentioned, the only way to contact the agencies or individuals was by phone, and I spent many frustrating evenings making calls and sitting by the phone waiting in vain for callbacks.

 

"The Blade" in DC had a separate pull-out Pink Pages section. "Gay Chicago" magazine just included a separate section in the classifieds right in the magazine.

 

Actually, I found it more exciting not to know, until you met the escort, what he really looked like

 

This is where "Gay Chicago" did things a little different. The publisher (and editor, and porn reviewer) Ralph Gearhardt got tired of hearing complaints that the escort who showed up didn't match the ad so he started requiring all new escort ads to be placed in person. They'd take renewals through the mail or over the phone, but not new ads. Of course, Ralph got himself laid quite a bit in trade but since the ads tended to match the advertiser, Gay Chicago's ads ruled the roost in Chicago well into the rentboy.com era.