We are far enough into the 21st Century and the transformation of the adult industry into a fully digital endeavor, that the popular media of decades past has achieved a golden, nostalgic glow. But for gay, bi and queer men and women, particularly those of a certain age, the beefcake books and magazines they treasured and bought with cash at brick-and-mortar adult bookshops and newsstands often served as a literal lifeline to a desperately needed sense of camaraderie and community.
Lee Watson of Gay Vintage Magazines, or GayVM.com, is fully aware of the special significance of those publications. His online store, launched earlier this year, put dozens of rare gay paperbacks and adult periodicals into a searchable database and offers them for sale.
GayVM currently features select periodicals from the 1950s through the ‘90s, including an array of titles that will delight aficionados of the genre: “Bear Magazine,” “Beau,” “Butt,” “Drummer,” “First Hand for Men,” “Guys,” “In Touch for Men,” “Men,” “Physique Pictorial,” “Playguy,” “Skinflicks,” “Stallion,” “Torso” and many others. The collection is constantly growing.
“Through our vast archival online catalog, you can trace the history and evolution of myriad aspects of LGBT history and culture, including gay historical stories over the decades, legal contexts, health, lifestyle, politics, social attitudes, activism, gay rights, arts and literature and, of course, gay nude art,” Watson explained.
“We aim to provide access to books not typically offered by libraries or bookstores to ensure that this valuable history stays both available and accessible to today’s generation,” he continued. “These publications are of historical importance to the LGBT community; they have charted the key developments in LGBT history and culture for over 50 years. Some of these LGBT titles pre-date the 1969 Stonewall riots and span the history of the gay rights movement. GayVM prides itself on making these historical publications available and accessible for everyone to enjoy.”
Watson’s own journey in adult began in 2001 when he took on the role of office manager for boutique studio Hot Desert Knights (HDK) in Palm Springs, California. “They were looking for a person with diverse business acumen to take over management of their growing business, and as a former business owner myself in the U.K. in the catalog industry, I had the experience they needed,” he recalled.
Progressing to VP in 2003, he assisted in the growth of HDK’s library. Two years later, he became the company director and finally president and CEO in 2009 (HDK’s storied founder, Bill Atkinson, passed from cancer in 2010). Watson then formed CWC Corporation on November 11, 2011 and one of its first moves was the acquisition of HDK’s content and copyrights to ensure the continuity of the company. The creation of GayVM.com came about from “our desire to offer an alternative to the traditional gay adult bookstore, which in many places are declining because the youth of today are mostly online,” he said. “We simply wanted to make bedtime reading fun again!
“We believed we were in an excellent position with our knowledge and resources in the adult industry to help keep gay history alive and relevant in today’s quickly changing world.”
The concept of GayVM was devised quickly: a gay-owned and -operated online bookstore offering gay collectible literature and art. And having grown up in the United Kingdom in the 1970s and ‘80s, Watson was an avid follower of gay literature, magazines and books. “It helps the mind grow,” he quipped.
“They were fairly hard to come by. They were only really available in the largest cities that had a gay district or in underground gay nightclubs, who had stores inside their clubs. Dating back then was done through ads in magazines. When you managed to find any magazines or books you kept ahold of them for dear life. I’m making myself sound really old but I’m actually only 54 years young!”
He cited “The Advocate,” “Gay Times,” “Playgirl” and “regional gay newspapers” as his favorites growing up.
“If I had to have a favorite of my youth back then it would probably be Playgirl because it eroticized the male form in a clean, natural, sexual manner, making one’s own desire for the male body a natural, lustful endeavor,” said Watson. “I also loved the ‘Advocate’ because it came across like the ‘Reader’s Digest’ of natural gay living and enabled you to dream of a world where being gay was quite normal.”
Today, however, like most of us, Watson’s reading habits are web-oriented. “I get most of my gay business news through XBIZ.com or the like and I get my gay social news from Out.com or Pink News, so most of my reading now is online,” he said. “Creating an online source for acquiring old gay literature was a natural progression.”
Their inventory is largely acquired from book auctions and private sellers. Watson is particularly proud of their collection of Physique Pictorial spanning the 1950s to the ‘90s.
“They are quite the collector’s item for any gay man to have in their possession because these magazines, in particular, encompass and document major events in gay history,” he noted. “These periodical pictorial magazine publications are of historical importance to the LGBT community. In the aftermath of the partial decriminalization of sex between men in 1967, these small magazines with gay news became the primary vehicle for news of the growing liberation movement. It also played a key campaigning role in arguing for legal reform in response to matters such as the disparity between the age of consent for homosexuals and for heterosexuals, the hostility of the church and the medical profession’s pathologizing of homosexuality, while also leading pioneering campaigns for equal employment rights. Hence these magazines are not only valuable in terms of being rare and no longer published, but also for their historical place in history for the LGBTQ community.”
Watson and his team are emboldened by positive early feedback to the launch of GayVM. “The direct responses and comments and feedback we have received thus far have all been exceptional,” he enthused. “We have received nothing but words of encouragement with hopes and desires that we build on this, which we are in the process of doing by adding more and more different artists and types of publications within the gay arena, as well as within the ‘rare’ and ‘highly sought-after’ categories.”
Beyond serving as a nostalgic trip down memory lane, Watson is also pleased to reintroduce these important tactile materials to digital consumers.
“They are great reflections on the changing times, not only in gay art, like illustrations from such as Tom of Finland, but also the change in photography styles from such infamous photographers like Bruce of Los Angeles, and also in the changing times of gay stories and gay life, to advertisements and dating ads, over the ages,” he said. “These are by far the greatest source and highlight of gay literature and art.”
Visit Gay Vintage Magazines at GayVM.com.
