I was reading the book “Lords of Chaos” which is a biography of sorts on the origins of black metal.
During the part about the band Mayhem which was late 80s and early 90s, they had a short section about how band member Euronymous had a very vulgar selection of pictures and videos. Even in today’s age with the amount of x-rated stuff out there I think you would be hard pressed to find scenes this disgusting.
My question is, how did these people/groups share, and gather before the Internet?
They didn’t just post ads in the classifieds did they?
Back in the day there used to be “underground newspapers” where all sorts of “non-standard” things could be bought and sold. Here in LaLa land, we had the “LA Free Press.”
Men’s clubs used to be a very big deal. I don’t mean stuffy gentlemen’s clubs like in old British movies, but social clubs ranging from the national like the Elks or BPoE to small local organizations. They were for every social class and of every description. A lot of them were a way to conduct activities, drinking, gambling, watching porn, that weren’t allowed commercially. Many, probably all, of these clubs had a guy who knew where to get stuff, or knew a guy who knew a guy. These trade routes were more extensive than the Silk Road. Admittedly, most groups’ depravities were mild even for their times, let alone ours. But other stuff existed.
Additionally, lots of magazines existed that were sold literally “under the counter” long before underground newspapers existed. They had ads, too. Getting to the coarser stuff took some effort but it could be done.
My sister was an accountant specialising in liquidations. As the new girl in the office she was given a job in Soho, London, which caused some amusement to the more experienced staff.
The job turned out to be a small shop which served a niche market for rubberwear, chains, whips, handcuffs and many other BDSM paraphernalia, some of which were pretty surprising. It turned out that the shop was actually quite profitable but they had tried to start a magazine and were conned by a printer to print a thousand copies which were never going to sell. She had to make an inventory and I can only imagine how the proprietors would have amused themselves at her expense:
She did such a good job, that they asked her to do their books, which meant making a monthly visit to the shop
You weren’t paying attention. They certainly had them in the weekly papers (like the Reader) personal ads although they were mildly coded. If they had them there, I am sure that they had them in the “underground” papers that you could buy in news racks or sex shops.
There was always an area of town in any large city that had the shops that specialized in this. I remember several general magazine stores which carried thousands of different magazines, but also had a back room. I think where you had to show ID and/or pay a fee (I assume) to get through the gate into the back area where the more interesting stuff was to be found.
I think it was Harlan Ellison who was describing once trying to make a point about the old Times Square shops (before the area was cleaned up). Someone had claimed the area sold kiddie porn. He went in quite a few shops, and asked for some. He said guys who sold the most disgusting sick and twisted porn looked at him like he was dog shit on their shoe… Conclusion, some things were only available “through a friend” or surreptitious mail order.
Although it’s not a documentary watch the George C. Scott movie ***Hardcore ***sometime to see what the porn business was like in the 70s (i.e. technically legal, but still underground). Although it’s mainly a serious drama it has a few really funny dark comedy scenes (Scott meeting with the sleazy porn producers, the sleazy porn skank, the sleazy porn actor guy etc.) In fact, this scene is an absolute classic riot!