# How "adult" did entertainment go in your city/town... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 23, 2018, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637 "2018-06-23T20:27:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2018, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637/41 "2018-06-24T14:38:00Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > I grew up in Towson, north of Baltimore. At the time, Baltimore’s area for this type of entertainment was The Block but I don’t recall they had anything like live sex shows (real or simulated). They certainly had strip joints, where Blaze Starr became famous. A friend and I went down for an adventure in the 70s. We stopped in a $0.25 peep show place, where I saw my first porn flick. Then we went into a strip club, where we were approached by a couple of scantily-clad women. One asked me if we were interested in the “back room action” which I suppose was prostitution although could have been something more like a private strip show or lap dance or something. We were only 16 but looked older (we didn’t get carded). She said, “Mind if I have a drink?” and I figured she could do whatever she wanted so I naively said, “Sure go ahead” and the bartender looked at me and said, “That’ll be six dollars.” Not wanting to get thrown out head first by a bouncer I paid it and we slinked out. BTW $6 was substantial in 1975. LOL, I was a college student in Bawlamer in the 70’s, and had my first Block experience at age 18 in 1976. It went pretty much like yours, only the dancer’s drink was $10! ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2018, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637/42 "2018-06-24T15:20:58Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > LOL, I was a college student in Bawlamer in the 70’s, and had my first Block experience at age 18 in 1976. It went pretty much like yours, only the dancer’s drink was $10! Memory is fuzzy. Maybe it was my own beer that was $6 and her drink was $10 🙂 At that time I think you’d pay maybe $2 for a beer anywhere else. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2018, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637/43 "2018-06-24T16:32:00Z")
In this area, the law used to be that you couldn’t sell alcohol in a club that featured full nudity. So the majority of strip clubs were topless only with a few being full nude but non-alcohol. The other option was to cross the border into Canada, where strip clubs could feature both full nudity and alcohol. Rochester used to have a law on stores that sold “adult entertainment”; at least half of the store had to be devoted to sales of products that weren’t porn. Some stores addressed this by selling drug paraphernalia in the non-porn half but I believe there were other laws that restricted those sales. So a lot of stores just set up a large section of their store to sell used mainstream books or movies. Most customers were just there for the porn so they’d walk past the non-porn section to get to the stuff they wanted. But I found these were great places to shop for books and movies. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2018, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637/44 "2018-06-24T16:39:52Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > I literally LMAO because I remember Taro Patch dolls. > > Sometime during the late 70’s or so, the newspapers stopped carrying adult ads, possibly tied to the Chinatown cleanup and I believe the live sex shows stopped before that. > > BTW, Kamehameha Hwy runs through Pearl City, Kalanianaole Hwy is on the other side of the island towards Koko Head. Perfectly understandable since I still don’t know where Kamehameha Hwy becomes Nimitz Hwy which in turn changes to Ala Moana Blvd somewhere along the way. And I’ve live here all my life! Thanks for the correction (no wonder I couldn’t get my bearings on my last trip :D). I THINK (but don’t go publishing any maps on the strength of my memory) that Kam Hwy becomes Nimitz as it approaches PH Naval base, and Nimitz changes to Ala Moana as you proceed Diamondhead past Sand Island. Anyhow, late 70s is about the time that the LA Times also announced that they would no longer carry advertising for X-rated theaters. It seems that the decision became a trend. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2018, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637/45 "2018-06-24T16:48:49Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > In this area, the law used to be that you couldn’t sell alcohol in a club that featured full nudity. So the majority of strip clubs were topless only with a few being full nude but non-alcohol. The other option was to cross the border into Canada, where strip clubs could feature both full nudity and alcohol. > > Rochester used to have a law on stores that sold “adult entertainment”; at least half of the store had to be devoted to sales of products that weren’t porn. Some stores addressed this by selling drug paraphernalia in the non-porn half but I believe there were other laws that restricted those sales. So a lot of stores just set up a large section of their store to sell used mainstream books or movies. Most customers were just there for the porn so they’d walk past the non-porn section to get to the stuff they wanted. But I found these were great places to shop for books and movies. Back in 1980, that was also the case in San Diego. My first excursion after Navy RTC (boot camp) was to a pair of clubs next door to one another. One had naked girls and soda pop; the other had topless girls and beer. And in Hawaii, for a certain period of time, the adult bookstores wouldn’t sell you anything unless you could show them documentation that you didn’t live in Hawaii (a service member’s home state driver license would work). I think that law changed around 1989. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2018, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637/46 "2018-06-24T17:27:46Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Back in 1980, that was also the case in San Diego. My first excursion after Navy RTC (boot camp) was to a pair of clubs next door to one another. Man, I should’ve tried holding out for San Diego instead of the very next opening, which was Great Lakes. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2018, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637/47 "2018-06-24T17:47:28Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Oh, and there was an adult movie theater down on Duke Street somewhere. Four screens, IIRC. [Found it!](http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/8491) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2018, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637/48 "2018-06-24T18:44:45Z")
I grew up in Green Bay (which was, and is, fairly conservative, and not very big) in the 1970s and 1980s. At that time, there were two “adult clubs” (The Wolf’s Den, and, IIRC, Tropics), which I assume had topless dancers – I’d be surprised if there was full nudity there. There was another club, “Stairway to Heaven,” above The Wolf’s Den; in our teenaged perceptions of things, we assumed that there was prostitution which went on there, but I now suspect it was probably something more along the lines of lap dances. A couple of the theaters there would run X-rated movies a few times a year; as someone else noted upthread, those were mentioned in the theaters’ newspaper ads, with tiny ads with no pictures. I don’t recall any adult bookstores, but the newsstands did carry the bigger adult magazines (Playboy, Penthouse, Oui, etc.) ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2018, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637/49 "2018-06-24T19:07:28Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Thanks for the correction (no wonder I couldn’t get my bearings on my last trip :D). I THINK (but don’t go publishing any maps on the strength of my memory) that Kam Hwy becomes Nimitz as it approaches PH Naval base, and Nimitz changes to Ala Moana as you proceed Diamondhead past Sand Island. > > Anyhow, late 70s is about the time that the LA Times also announced that they would no longer carry advertising for X-rated theaters. > > It seems that the decision became a trend. I think you’re right on both counts Nimitz and Ala Moana. I always get a chuckle when tourists in another car on Nimitz Hwy ask, “How do I get Ala Moana Blvd.” and I say just keep going straight. If I have time, I’ll ask “Where are you going?” and they answer “Kalakaua Ave.”. The look on their face is great, when I say “Just keep going straight on Ala Moana and it will change to Kalakaula.” 😕 ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2018, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637/50 "2018-06-24T19:29:45Z")
When I was in grade school in the 60’s, there was a little Mom and Pop store, John’s Groceries (but we called it John’s Store) that had the comics and magazines on a rack in the front of the store, immediately as you entered. The register and John, were in the back of the store, maybe 20 or 30 feet from the front. The comics were on the top, regular magazines in the middle and on the bottom shelf were the men’s magazines. Never Playboy, but small b/w digest sized magazines with titles like Stag and Men’s World. It was a sign of the times that the most we would ever do need a quick peek by pulling back the pages while John was busy with a customer. Stealing anything from the store was unheard of because we all loved the store and John. The few times someone did steal a magazine (usually a new kid), we made him throw it away or return it to the rack the next day. It didn’t dawn on me until much later, that John must have known what we were doing, but never said anything about it. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2018, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637/51 "2018-06-24T20:26:20Z")
My hometown had 28,000 people. It had the typical bars you’d find anywhere. The local newstand had a couple pinball machines in the back. There were a complete assortment of magazines. Stuff like Life, Look, Newsweek, Time etc. Playboy was behind the counter. They checked Id and I couldn’t buy it in high school. Had to be 18. High school friends told me about a small grocery & gas station that had porn mags. Most definitely behind the counter and hidden. They’d only sell to customers they knew. I saw a couple of the mags at a friend’s house. My first experience with porn. I never tried buying any myself. I would have needed to go with a friend the store knew. I assume there were a few local prostitutes. But they didn’t work the streets. You really had to seek out any adult entertainment in my hometown. It was pretty tame. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2018, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637/52 "2018-06-24T20:30:36Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Des Moines also had a Playboy Club for a very short time; it didn’t last in large part because it simply didn’t have the population base that other Playboy Clubs did. The Playboy Club was an interesting phenomenon. While the magazine certainly featured nudity (though it was far tamer than even many of its contemporary adult magazines, much less what’s prevalent today), as far as I can tell, the Clubs really featured little-to-none of that. They were designed to be nightclubs, with the feel of a bachelor pad (part of the Playboy brand image); from what I’m reading now, they may have had some pictures of centerfolds on the walls, but that was probably it, as far as nudity goes. The entertainment was more along the lines of jazz groups, magicians, and comedians (who may well have done “blue” acts). While the Bunny waitresses were meant to be attractive and a bit titillating, they wore more than a server at, say, Tilted Kilt does today, and they were strictly forbidden from actually dating or sleeping with patrons – it was meant to be about selling a fantasy, not a reality. (That said, apparently, VIPs for whom the Club wanted to show appreciation were allowed to date Bunnies.) When I was a little kid, my father (at that time, a senior salesman for a printing-press company) had a Key for the Playboy Club. It was, at that time, simply seen as an upscale, attractive place to entertain clients…maybe a little risque, but in what was, at that time, a style that was generally pretty socially acceptable. Here’s an article from Vanity Fair from a few years ago about what it was like at them: > **[A Bunny Thing Happened: An Oral History of the Playboy Clubs](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2011/05/playboy-clubs-201105)** > > When Hugh Hefner opened the first Playboy Club, in 1960, he was selling men the chance to walk into the pages of his magazine. As a 21st-century Playboy Club opens in London, Bruce Handy hears from Hef, his execs, and a hutchful of former Bunnies... ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2018, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637/53 "2018-06-24T21:31:40Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > We asked the staff, “Hey, where’s the show?” “No show tonight. It’s Christmas.” !!! Both our jaws hit the floor. “But this is a Buddhist country!” Turns out the police had gone around to all the bars that day and informed them there could be nothing too lewd for fear of offending Christian tourists. We were wondering just what the hell devoutly Christian tourists would be doing in Nana Plaza on Christmas night, let alone in G Spot Bar. But there you had it. LOL! Doing research, I guess. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2018, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637/54 "2018-06-24T21:34:40Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > The Playboy Club was an interesting phenomenon. While the magazine certainly featured nudity (though it was far tamer than even many of its contemporary adult magazines, much less what’s prevalent today), as far as I can tell, the Clubs really featured little-to-none of that. They were designed to be nightclubs, with the feel of a bachelor pad (part of the Playboy brand image); from what I’m reading now, they may have had some pictures of centerfolds on the walls, but that was probably it, as far as nudity goes. The entertainment was more along the lines of jazz groups, magicians, and comedians (who may well have done “blue” acts). While the Bunny waitresses were meant to be attractive and a bit titillating, they wore more than a server at, say, Tilted Kilt does today, and they were strictly forbidden from actually dating or sleeping with patrons – it was meant to be about selling a fantasy, not a reality. (That said, apparently, VIPs for whom the Club wanted to show appreciation were allowed to date Bunnies.) > > When I was a little kid, my father (at that time, a senior salesman for a printing-press company) had a Key for the Playboy Club. It was, at that time, simply seen as an upscale, attractive place to entertain clients…maybe a little risque, but in what was, at that time, a style that was generally pretty socially acceptable. > > Here’s an article from Vanity Fair from a few years ago about what it was like at them: > [A Bunny Thing Happened: An Oral History of the Playboy Clubs | Vanity Fair](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2011/05/playboy-clubs-201105) The father of two people with whom I went to high school opened a bar called the Black Playboy Club around this time, but it was hardly high-class; it was basically a dive bar that catered to black people. (The family was black.) The Black Playboy Club lasted a lot longer than the “real” Playboy Club did, that part I do remember. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2018, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637/55 "2018-06-24T22:03:44Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > LOL, I was a college student in Bawlamer in the 70’s, and had my first Block experience at age 18 in 1976. It went pretty much like yours, only the dancer’s drink was $10! ah… The Block before video porn, those were the days 😃 (and all that literally around the corner from City Hall and one block up from police HQ, too…) Shadow of its onetime self, it became. Back home in SJ… San Juan up to c. 1970 had a Navy Station right on the port at Isla Grande, so you can imagine the sort of fine establishments that sprung up around the lower side of Fernandez Juncos Avenue. Crown jewel was the Black Angus, which lasted into the mid-1990s when the whole zone got leveled for redevelopment - a strip club/restaurant with “private rooms” (an attached by-the-hour inn) where what was not supposed to be going on at a licensed establishment went on. In the 1970s and early 80s there also was the Lorraine Theater, in Santurce, where fine productions of the time when they bothered with fine production used to be shown on the big screen. It would run its ads and showtimes in The San Juan Star, our English-language daily. Alas I left for US college before being old enough to do research and by the time I returnned a decade and a half later almost all that had been swept away by VCRs and urban renewal; the 1990s saw in its place the rise of “couples’ shops” basically places where you could stop for adult toys, fetishwear and DVD porn. In the current century a handul of more modern-style “gentlemen’s clubs” have arisen, but never to see the same glory of old. Meanwhile the conglomeratization of periodicals distribution and the disappearance of true independent newsdealers, which we share with the mainland, took away from the racks anything but the most corporate adult publications. In my current relocation site in The Nation’s Capital, in the mid and late 70s the peep shows, porn theatres, Adult Bookstores and other such establishments used to be thick on the ground along and around 14th St. NW past I, where the old black business district had burned in the late 60s. Today, the area has been gentrified beyond recognition (and beyond rent affordanility!) ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2018, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637/56 "2018-06-24T22:28:09Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Another story. I graduated from college in 1988 at a school where the big week-long spring festival was tied to student elections. It was also a big nerd school with a majority male population. One of the regular events during that week was called, simply, “The Movies”. And this was pornographic films that were shown on campus, in the same 500-seat lecture hall used during the week for the big freshman lectures and on Friday and Saturday nights for second-run Hollywood movies. > > The first time I attended, I thought the movie I saw was awful so one year (I think my senior year) I volunteered for the selection committee. This meant sitting in a room in the library watching a pornographic movie on a TV and VCR borrowed from the library. Weirdly enough, that one movie seemed acceptable, so I only had to watch the one movie. But, I was told, most years many movies had to be screened before an acceptable one was found. Because this was a semi-sanctioned school event, there were rules about what sort of movie was acceptable. Nothing involving “sorority girls” and no BDSM. And those were just two of the rules. (I asked but never was able to get a complete list of the rules.) We screened the movies on VHS but in the theater, the movies were shown on actual film. Apparently when you rent movies, you can request custom edits, if something in particular is objectionable. And I was fortunate to be in an era when these movies were available on film (for public performance) and VHS (for prescreening). A few years before that they were only available on film, so prescreening them was more complicated. I’m guessing RPI and I was a decade plus before you. It was live strippers handing out pencils and pens emblazoned with the names of candidates for Big Man on Campus that had been blessed by the gals (I leave the location up to you). Lots of policemen to keep the peace and dignity and catch a view themselves. As a nerd freshman, it was eye-opening! Bands, costumes, gals, cigars all up at the Field House. Huntsville and most Alabama cities can be prudes (within city limits) so bars and Adult Toy and Novelties stores were usually just outside of incorporated land. The cities would expand to remove some of those affronts to common decency - their demise was not due to lack of customers. There was some fanatical religious scripturing going on in the newspapers whenever someone would open a bar or store with forbidden fruit. You’d think we were about to be thrown out of Eden from the tone of sermons. A big attraction was a strip club along I-65 just over the stateline into Tennessee. I can’t dredge up the name (neurons are slow this morning) but it was “World Famous”. Just past Ardmore near Elkton. Since closed down. Nashville was/is wide open which killed business. We’d go there for bachelor parties and birthdays on occasion (very seldom - hardly ever). ETA - Memories flooding back - It was the World Famous Booby Bungalow. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2018, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637/57 "2018-06-24T22:36:58Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > As I stated above, I only ventured there at night once in the late 70’s / early 80’s, but it much wilder before that. Despite the police substation on the corner of Nuuanu and Hotel, there were still lots of hookers on the streets. > > AFAIK, there aren’t any stripclubs in Waikiki anymore and the few adult stores cater to the Japanese tourists. There’s still rows of stripclubs lining Keeamoku St and and Kapiolani Blvd. It’s been years since I’ve been to Waikiki, but there were still hookers on Kuhio St. the last time I passed through. > > An excerpt from “Chinatown’s rejuvenation” > > [http://www.hawaiihistory.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ig.page&PageID=552](http://www.hawaiihistory.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ig.page&PageID=552) > > “During the 1970s and '80s, the area around Hotel Street - the city’s “red light” district - still served as an image for the whole of Chinatown. One writer enjoyed the ambiance: “The bards, night clubs, adult film and book shops which comprise this sub-area are concentrated on Hotel Street, forming a colorful and gaily-lit night scene.” But many found the area repugnant. Slowly, more upscale businesses began to take over the area. The installation of a new police substation in Chinatown helped decrease crime in the area.” I live in Waikiki, and there has been a huge effort in recent months to clean up the shadier areas after all those murders last year. The last strip club shut down just a few months ago. I think it was called Alley Cats, back in that complex on the corner of Kuhio and Seaside where all the businesses have been kicked out, even the restaurants and regular bars. Just empty shells now. Never went to Alley Cats, as from all accounts it was too twisted even for the likes of me and a total waste of time and money. During our visit in 2005 there were a few other strip joints, but there was none when we were in grad school here 25 years ago. I am downtown every day during the week, and the hookers are not out like they were 25 years ago, when as part of my master’s thesis I was working needle exchange and distributing free condoms on Hotel Street, in what was called the Rubber Room. It was at that time the only officially state-sanctioned needle exchange in the country. I continued to volunteer even after I had fulfilled my practicum. Still lots of sleazy bars on Hotel at that time but nothing like back in WWII days. The hookers now are largely transvestites who walk the streets in the wee hours of the morning. There is an ongoing effort to gentrify downtown/Chinatown, although there is still a long way to go. But we could see the transformation starting back when we visited back here in 2005. Nowadays there are some pretty trendy bars in the area including right on Hotel Street. But also on Hotel Street remains Smith’s Union Bar, aka Smitty’s, the oldest bar on Oahu, opened I think in 1934. It was popular with sailors back in the day, and it is certain that a lot of sailors including quite a few on the Arizona had been in Smitty’s the night before the Pearl Harbor attack and were sleeping off another wild Saturday night. A nearby shuttle used to transport sailors back to the harbor at night. I was in Smitty’s not too long ago, and it is an interesting place. The beer is cheap and COLD. > [@lingyi](#): > > The next time you visit Hawaii. Drive down Nuuanu Ave. at night and look down Hotel St. (only Buses are allowed through). You probably won’t recognize it. There are nightclubs and restaurants on Nuuanu Ave. and “real people” walk around the area. I see cars driving down Hotel all the time. Not sure if they’re really not allowed or if drivers know it’s generally not worth the hassle, because the street is so narrow that you can easily get stuck behind stopping and starting buses. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2018, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637/58 "2018-06-24T22:54:17Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > I’m guessing RPI and I was a decade plus before you. It was live strippers handing out pencils and pens emblazoned with the names of candidates for Big Man on Campus that had been blessed by the gals (I leave the location up to you). Lots of policemen to keep the peace and dignity and catch a view themselves. As a nerd freshman, it was eye-opening! Bands, costumes, gals, cigars all up at the Field House. I was on the student newspaper and once when looking through the photo archives, came across a full-frontal nude photo of one of those strippers. (I hope someone preserved those archives.) ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2018, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637/59 "2018-06-25T00:19:26Z")
The newspapers were pretty prudish in Kansas City back in the seventies. For instance, the Dove Theater was playing a strange French porn parody of the film _[La Grande Bouffe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Grande_Bouffe)_ marketed in the US as The Kinky Ladies Of Bourbon Street, where three women who have failed to commit suicide, take the advice of a 4th and screw themselves to death. The newspaper refused to allow the term “Kinky” and changed to to “Lovely”. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2018, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637/60 "2018-06-25T02:42:53Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > We had a soft-core porn drive-in theater in West Texas that we routinely sneaked into in high school. (I looked 18, so would drive in with a bunch of buddies hidden in the car.) That was on the edge of town. It closed eventually, then another one inside town changed to that format before being burned down in a mysterious arson fire. > > There was also a hard-core porn theater called the Flick Theater. It was the subject of the occasional protest from the Christian Crazies. News cameras would shoot the theater’s name from an angle so that it would look like the Fuck Theater. In addition to those, there was quite a lively strip-club scene in my West Texas town. The clubs were dotted around, not all in one area. One or two were even owned by the local Bandidos Motorcycle Club. It was largely topless and G-strings, but there was one odd case in which this one Bandido chick got busted for showing too much. And there was some sort of legality – this was 40 years ago, so I don’t remember exactly what it was – where the police could not arrest her again for the same offense until her case was decided. So for quite a while, she was able to prance around buck naked while all the other ladies had to stay covered up the extent mandated by law. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-adult-did-entertainment-go-in-your-city-town/816637.md?page=4)