With most being in the closet, local gay people frequented bars and discos to meet friends, make hook ups (consenting partners called “tricks”) and bask in an environment with others who were like them. Gay entertainment centers were critical to the social fabric of gay Clevelanders.
This was a pre-AIDS time of glitter rock and disco, when people dressed up, danced their cares away and had sex when they could, usually without condoms. There were a multitude of bars, clubs, and bathhouses in Cleveland and its inner ring suburbs. NIGHTLIFE. The 1970s gay bar and entertainment scene is often referred to as the “golden era” in American gay history. Individual gays in these enclaves were often involved in their respective neighborhood associations and contributed mightily and aesthetically to neighborhood projects.
While not exclusively gay, these neighborhoods had the highest concentration of gays at the time. These included SHAKER SQUARE, OHIO CITY, COVENTRY in CLEVELAND HEIGHTS and the Gold Coast in LAKEWOOD. In the 1970s, though, there were four gay enclaves in and around the city. NEIGHBORHOODS. Unlike the Castro District in San Francisco or Boystown in Chicago, Cleveland never had one highly concentrated gay neighborhood. This article provides details on various aspects of the community in the critical decade following Stonewall. The 1970s marked an important period in the history of the Gay Community of Cleveland. Leather contest.GAY COMMUNITY IN THE 1970S. Dom’s personal and business partnership with Chuck led to other successful ventures which are landmarks of leather history-most notably the Gold Coast bar, Man’s Country bathhouse and International Mr.
#Gold coast gay bar detroit full#
At the time Renslow was working full time as a manager at Walgreens and Dom (having graduated two years early from high school) had the time and talent to handle many of the Kris management details. Together they started Kris Studios-one of the first male physique photography modeling houses, unique in its leather appeal. They became lovers and life-long partners-their business and personal lives entwined. Renslow, cruising the beach and “thunderstruck” at first sight of Dom “lying on his stomach, in a blue bathing suit, with his beautiful butt up in the air.” Chuck, who had started taking physique photographs, immediately signed Dom to a modeling contract. Their meeting shares elements reminiscent of an early Etienne painting. His vision lives on.ĭom met Chuck Renslow when he was 16 and Renslow was 20. Survived by his brother Gill Orejudos, and partners Chuck Renslow and Bob Yuhnke. After a long battle with AIDS, he died at his home in Boulder, Colorado, in 1991 at the age of 58. Family name pronounced “Orjudos.” A world traveler, Dom was stricken with pneumonia while traveling in a 1987 delegation to China and Tibet. Born in Chicago on July 1st, 1933, of Italian and Philippine ancestry. He was up for it all, he lived the leather life, and through his art-under the names of Etienne and Stephen-he took it to another level. Sorry for being graphic, but that’s part of what Dom was all about. Dom was also an acclaimed ballet dancer and choreographer, Emmy Award Winner, and writer and illustrator of s/m story books that have cum stains all over them. Dom’s personal and business partnership with Chuck Renslow (Leather Hall of Fame, 2009) influenced leather history through establishment of Kris Studios, the Gold Coast Bar, Man’s Country, and International Mr. Measures 11” x 17”.ĭomingo Orejudos, Dom, is known for artwork depicting the male body in all of its leather straining heroic proportions-creating fantasies of domination and submission that most leather men try to remember and remember and definitely can’t forget. Gold Coast contest in the experience he had managing AAU physique competitions.
Chuck was also the founder, in 1979, of the international Mr. He was the lover of Dom "Etienne" Orejudos for more than 40 years and by encouraging him and publishing his work, he is partially responsible for the art of Etienne. He was also the owner of the Chicago Eagle. He was the founder of many bars and sex clubs since the 1960s including the infamous Man’s Country which survived for more than 30 years. He was a founder of Second City Motorcycle Club, the first club not on the West Coast, in 1965. He was the publisher of Triumph, Mars, and Rawhide Male magazines. Rare Original Bar Poster form the United States very first gay leather bar, The Gold Coast, c.1970's, artwork by Etienne.Ĭhuck Renslow, 1927-191, opened the United States first leather bar, the Gold Coast, in Chicago in 1958.