This rare 1979 directory offers a variety of different businesses such as clubs like the Devil’s Herd, and the Fickle Fox, restaurants like the Hot ‘n Hunky (a burger joint),...
This rare 1979 directory offers a variety of different businesses such as clubs like the Devil’s Herd, and the Fickle Fox, restaurants like the Hot ‘n Hunky (a burger joint), bathhouses such as the Bulldog Bath (“Where the men are hard to beat!”), sex clubs including The Quarters, which advertises itself as “a place to get handled safely” and “Only for the best - Not just for Bottoms,” as well as performance venues, realtors, legal aid counsel, and much more.
The inside cover credits the design and photography to Tony Plewik. In a 1979 for Drummer Magazine, Plewik sets the tone right away, stating his age as “Older than chicken, younger than beef: good veal.” He notes he was profoundly impacted by the photographer Danny Lyon’s book "Conversations with the Dead,” which documented six Texas correctional facilities, saying that “young/booted/cigar guards on horseback; tattooed cons; weight pens; wet shower rooms; strip searches; sweat; furry blond forearms resting on iron bars of isolation cages. Lyon’s photo-essay masterpiece shows Men as the Ultimate Experimental Animals.” About his own work, Plewik says that, “Shooting a variety of men is a high pleasure. For me and for them. Especially when a high-energy man is willing to play out for my camera his secret fantasies and upfront realities. I search for a LOOK a man projects and try to freeze his male mystique into the authenticity of a single frame, handy at midnight.”
The book was published by Bob Adams whose 1982 obituary states that his proudest achievement “ was founding and publishing the world's first Gay Areas Private Telephone Directory.”