Comments on: 70's + 80's Photographs USA

70's + 80's Photographs USA

peacay — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 12:25:40 -0800

Some Photographs:
New York club scene in the 70's
Mingle's America in the 80's
NSFW (first link is a biggish load on dialup)

By: homodigitalis

homodigitalis — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 12:37:59 -0800

Amazing images - thanks for this gem.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 12:51:05 -0800

Double that thanks, partly out of nostalgia and also for some historical pics, like the one of Roy Cohn, Halston and Steve Rubell together.

By: Mr Bluesky

Mr Bluesky — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 12:57:10 -0800

My eyes, make its stopppppp!!!!!

By: gleuschk

gleuschk — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 12:58:10 -0800

Here are the 90's.

By: faceonmars

faceonmars — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 13:01:31 -0800

For those of us at work, these are NOT SAFE.

By: rolypolyman

rolypolyman — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 13:02:48 -0800

In that 1970s club, what are all those people doing nowadays?

By: mischief

mischief — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 13:14:53 -0800

From the 70s set, New York may have had the names and the glamor, but the NYC clubs did not hold a monopoly on the indulgences. I lived in the northwest Pennsylvania at the time, and the club scene was just as happening in Buffalo, Erie and Cleveland, as well as many of the smaller towns in between. The drinking age in New York state and possibly Ohio (that one's blurry) was still 18 and getting a fake ID was fairly simple. Many places were 'open bar' for the price of admission. Cocaine was EVERYWHERE, and really good stuff too. Marijuana was smoked openly in the parking lots, and sex with multiple partners was fairly common over the course of one night, from the back seats of cars, to the privacy alcoves and into the restrooms. The club scenes I see today in Atlanta and Las Vegas approach what I experienced in the 70s, albeit a bit more discreet and not nearly as widespread, but a few clubs are still willing to let their patrons let go.

By: caddis

caddis — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 13:21:03 -0800

Another awesome peacay post. The '80s photographs are stunningly good photography. Thanks.

By: juggernautco

juggernautco — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 13:40:22 -0800

The 70's Allan Tannenbaum images are awesome. It is great to see some images that are flat-out pornography (completey NSFW) interspersed with an image of Jackie O out and about. One life, one world.

By: Item

Item — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 14:14:07 -0800

Brilliant post, peacay. To've been young, rich, and swinging in the NYC 70's...

By: Kellydamnit

Kellydamnit — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 14:20:44 -0800

and the club scene was just as happening in Buffalo Wow... I never, ever thought I would read something like that! (I live in Buffalo, never what I thought of as happening) All I can think of when seeing these is how much AIDS has changed things.

By: ackeber

ackeber — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 14:22:23 -0800

The drinking age in New York state and possibly Ohio (that one's blurry) was still 18 and getting a fake ID was fairly simple. Many places were 'open bar' for the price of admission. Cocaine was EVERYWHERE, and really good stuff too. Marijuana was smoked openly in the parking lots, and sex with multiple partners was fairly common over the course of one night, from the back seats of cars, to the privacy alcoves and into the restrooms. GOD I wish I were in the 70's. Too many diseases nowadays.

By: caddis

caddis — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 14:27:24 -0800

We probably had aids back then and just didn't know it yet, and then there was always herpes, your friend for life.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 14:33:13 -0800

To've been young, rich, and swinging in the NYC 70's... Gimme the grime and honesty of CBGB over the velvet rope of Studio 54 any day of the week.

By: caddis

caddis — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 15:21:13 -0800

The music was better, no doubt.

By: kuujjuarapik

kuujjuarapik — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 15:35:18 -0800

"Bob Mould"

By: Eekacat

Eekacat — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 15:52:36 -0800

Man, I can't believe all the photographers in the '70's pictures. A guy couldn't get a public blowjob in a crowded club without the paparazzi....

By: StopMakingSense

StopMakingSense — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 16:19:44 -0800

This is really, really cool. But the burning question this leaves me with (oh god, at least I HOPE it's a question that's burning) is: Where are these people now? I mean, you gotta think, that guy covered from head to toe in gold body paint getting, shall we say, serviced on the dance floor, is probably somebody's father now. Ick.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 16:47:26 -0800

I mean, you gotta think, that guy covered from head to toe in gold body paint getting, shall we say, serviced on the dance floor, is probably somebody's father now. That's assuming an awful lot.

By: alumshubby

alumshubby — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 17:17:45 -0800

Hell, if he's straight, he's probably somebody's grandfather now...he doesn't look like a teenager in that photo.

By: gimonca

gimonca — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 17:44:58 -0800

Oh, Canada!

By: zerokey

zerokey — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 18:42:28 -0800

Incredible. Thanks peacay! The 70's were kind of hot, in a distorted and biologically unsafe way. All I got in the 70s were brown octagon shirts and clogs (thanks Mom :P ) There's also other incredible night life shots. The darkness is still so vivid in my memory.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 20:35:00 -0800

Check the captions. The guy getting serviced both in and out of gold paint is porn star Marc Stevens, who died of (probably) AIDS in 1989 [NSFW url]. Also note that the Jackie O photograph was at an entirely different party and location (the Met). By then she was a doyenne, and I don't think you'd catch her at the High Society magazine party. Still, you never knew where LeVar Burton would show up. Related: Rethinking the Dancing Mania. Long classified as mass hysteria, they have much in common with modern concert culture.

By: madamjujujive

madamjujujive — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 21:29:52 -0800

Awesome post, peacay - most enjoyable.

By: Ayn Marx

Ayn Marx — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 21:52:15 -0800

To've been young, rich, and swinging in the NYC 70's... Shit, even being young and poor in the '70s was great. Had a band, played CBGBs, fucked around, times were good. No one was thinknig of sex as something that might kill you.

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 22:42:46 -0800

Oh my God, I want this and this.

By: miss tea

miss tea — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 04:10:15 -0800

Where are they now? To answer from my admittedly limited experience, a lot (tragically, probably not the gay folks) are definitely normal people. My own parents met in the back room of Max's Kansas City; at the time my father was a part-time pot dealer. My mother was in graduate school. Now? Dad's retired from a career as a therapist and mom's a curriculum coordinator in a big public school system.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 04:15:25 -0800

Incredible breadth and quality. Loved the 80s far better, both photographically and musically. This shot of Rick Ocasic is killer.

By: Rawhide

Rawhide — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 08:16:22 -0800

Based on these photos there seems to be a lot less nudity in the 90s. Which is pretty much exactly how I remember it.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 08:20:49 -0800

Based on these photos there seems to be a lot less nudity in the 90s. The 90's were a neccessary reaction against the glamazon celebrity culture that Studio 54 epitomized. It was a different world. It wasn't glamour and excess, it was a world of lowered expectations. So less nudity would kind of come with the territory. Plus for a fleeting moment in the 90's I was fashion forward. *sniff*

By: peacay

peacay — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 08:59:26 -0800

jonmc writes "it was a world of lowered expectations" Well I think that's really the epithet of that decade and is a perfect emblem for that world of disco. It was like us and them. Rock v Bee Gees &c. There was a lot of great music produced definitely, but jesus h kryste in a pickup truck there was some disgusting pap, often dominating mainstream world. It was like a conspiracy of mediocre. I was growing up and precociously finding my way into the world of music - thank fuck for my older brothers who instilled some (yes, what I believe to be) taste to wash out that odious taste of Abba and all the freakin' other talentless gold chain wearing, moustachioed discoball bobbing floor light flashing puke.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 09:12:48 -0800

jonmc writes "it was a world of lowered expectations" I was saying that the 90's were a world of lowered expectations, not the 70's, but hey run with it. And I kinda like ABBA.

By: peacay

peacay — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 09:36:51 -0800

Just coughin' up my 70's furball.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 10:50:28 -0800

You can find this tradition continue at Burning Man. The NY scene was the baby boomer "dirty thirties", GenXers do it in the desert.

By: tarantula

tarantula — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 13:18:30 -0800

really amazing-thanks!

By: mayfly wake

mayfly wake — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 17:00:38 -0800

Here is today's version.

By: Outlawyr

Outlawyr — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 18:05:48 -0800

nice one. thanks peacay

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 21:45:45 -0800

Mayfly gets the prize.

By: sophist

sophist — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 01:22:50 -0800

This one labeled mudd club rock suicide janis really caught my eye. Is that an overdosed Janis Joplin on the bed? Because wikipedia says "Joplin died of an overdose of unusually pure heroin on October 4, 1970 in a Los Angeles, California motel room", not in a club. Just curious.