Beautiful historic footage, showing NYC LGBT youth culture before it surrendedred to the internet. Ru is magnificent.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 47 | February 23, 2019 6:24 PM |
nyc was a vibrant place back then, nothing like it
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | February 16, 2019 4:05 PM |
I miss 70s/80s NYC so much. God. Things were rough at times but EXCITING and fun and diverse and seedy and most importantly, MYSTERIOUS.
All that’s gone now.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | February 16, 2019 4:06 PM |
i Live In NYC And Have To Disagree. The City Is More Diverse Than Ever, And While Its Grit Has Lessened, It Is Much Safer Now Which All Us New Yorkers Appreciate.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | February 16, 2019 4:09 PM |
You know he had to prostitute to survive there, just like any other tranny or drag queen. They may have a cashier job in a porn shop or something, but turning tricks is their bread and butter.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | February 16, 2019 4:10 PM |
R4 it’s not gritty at all. And you aren’t a NYer if you appreciate what it’s become.
It’s not more diverse. At all.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | February 16, 2019 4:13 PM |
Here is the videographer, Nelson Sullivan.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 7 | February 16, 2019 4:18 PM |
great energy back then, not all of it positive.
nyc today is flatlined
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | February 16, 2019 4:24 PM |
Did Nelson Die Of AIDS Or Did His Heart Really Just Give Out?
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | February 16, 2019 4:25 PM |
I watched his videos awhile ago with great interest. My favorite is his Mom and Aunt visiting the WTC, Auntie is dressed up head to toe for the tour.
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | February 16, 2019 4:29 PM |
NYC had an energy like nothing else in the world. Not anymore. It’s sad to see how sanitized it is now. Full of white suburban people making it a suburban city. Smh.
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | February 16, 2019 4:43 PM |
He carved a nice niche for himself. He was so unassuming and sweet. Shame he died so young. Who was his bf? Would have loved to get his impression on today's social media onslaught.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 13 | February 16, 2019 4:58 PM |
Who's the driver? Vincent Van T? So hot.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | February 16, 2019 5:15 PM |
OP, you're why GAY culture is on the decline.
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | February 16, 2019 7:43 PM |
The gang take a trip to Washington.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 16 | February 17, 2019 2:48 PM |
Does anyone else find these videos moving? I mean I was only 6 in 1984, but I can recognise the look and feel if that period. Factor in that it was the point that Aids was kicking in , also seeing a young Ru Paul. I dunno if just kind of gets me somehow.
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | February 17, 2019 2:58 PM |
Was Ru Paul really as just let back when this was filmed? He would have been 23 at the time.
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | February 17, 2019 3:02 PM |
Sorry was Ru Paul really *a hustler at this time?
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | February 17, 2019 3:03 PM |
[QUOTE]I miss 70s/80s NYC so much. God. Things were rough at times but EXCITING and fun and diverse and seedy and most importantly, MYSTERIOUS. All that’s gone now.
Yeah, NYC needs another good crack epidemic. Need to bring back the daily machine gun shootouts between drug lords and cops to restore that warm feeling in R3’s heart.
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | February 17, 2019 3:12 PM |
The 1980s was also the last decade before soyboys started to replace men.
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | February 17, 2019 3:16 PM |
Thank you Miss OP. These are wonderful. I wish SF had similar time frame YT to view.
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | February 17, 2019 3:22 PM |
Interesting how many people view that period through the filter of crime and uncleanliness. That is the reason it ended. People prioritized safety and cleanliness over freedom. Which is why it’s become Singapore-lite. It was made safe and clean for the wealthy - at the expense of the creatives and non-wealthy.
I moved to NYC in the 80s for that vibe. I accepted crime and dirt - and was subject to it. But I preferred the freedom, fun and creativity - and most importantly, the people - to the sterile playground for the rich it’s become.
I remember the turning point clearly - when we elected a prosecutor as mayor (Giuliani) who proceeded to shut down spaces and people of freeedom, decadence and unstructured creativity. And allowed the cops to run rampant and assume you were guilty until proven innocent.
| by Anonymous | reply 23 | February 17, 2019 3:35 PM |
There is some fat ugly drag queen saying “get those nuts away from my face.” On Logo. Like any nuts would go near it.
| by Anonymous | reply 24 | February 17, 2019 3:36 PM |
When did drag get so generic? At least they don't actually claim to be women.
| by Anonymous | reply 25 | February 17, 2019 3:42 PM |
Who finance the bus trip? Did they all crash at some queen's Maryland townhouse after the club closed?
| by Anonymous | reply 26 | February 17, 2019 6:28 PM |
^^ Just accept the fact that you don't understand how things worked back then. The logic and reason that was allowed to exist then defies what exists now. It made more sense then, but if you weren't there you wouldn't understand. The sense of freedom, despite the danger, was far greater than what we have today.
| by Anonymous | reply 27 | February 17, 2019 6:52 PM |
This old footage shows Ru in a positive light. He's comes off as very sweet an always upbeat.
| by Anonymous | reply 28 | February 19, 2019 6:53 PM |
London has gone the same way with gentrification.
Most of the gay clubs that were housed in warehouses on railway sites have been demolished to make way for shiny posh apartments.
The vibe of a city suffers when that happens. Where we carved a life for ourselves on the periphery, big business has moved in and eradicated that creativity. It's gone. But what happy memories.
| by Anonymous | reply 29 | February 19, 2019 7:01 PM |
R7 Nelson was pals with Michael Alig and filmed some intimate footage of a few of his private shindigs... I totally forgot that Ru was associated with them as well.
| by Anonymous | reply 30 | February 19, 2019 7:38 PM |
Nah OP, it wasn't showing "LGBT culture" because that bullshit hadn't been forced on us yet.
| by Anonymous | reply 31 | February 19, 2019 8:15 PM |
Each person was their own culture back then. And thanks for posting the video, OP. It does capture the mood of the time very well.
| by Anonymous | reply 32 | February 19, 2019 10:34 PM |
They look and sound just as vapid as anybody else.
| by Anonymous | reply 33 | February 20, 2019 4:27 AM |
Michael Alig spat in Ru's mouth one night at Limelight.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 34 | February 20, 2019 4:40 AM |
[quote] The sense of freedom, despite the danger, was far greater than what we have today.
Can you elaborate on this freedom?
This is all before my time, and the only NYC I've ever known is the one that exists now, so I'd love to hear more about this overwhelming sense of loss for the NYC that was.
Can people who lived there during that time give more concrete examples?
| by Anonymous | reply 35 | February 20, 2019 5:59 AM |
Every person has a sense of unlimited freedom when they're young.
| by Anonymous | reply 36 | February 20, 2019 6:01 AM |
RuPaul is awesome, but he's affected this kind of OPRAH was of speaking. Hard to describe- it's all has to do with speaking in a lower register, with the nose pinched and pointed downwards. I think it's supposed to give gravitas. I notice many African-American women have that Oprah speech influence.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 37 | February 20, 2019 6:07 AM |
He was very cute when he was younger.
| by Anonymous | reply 38 | February 20, 2019 7:22 AM |
Has no one else commented about hearing Pac-Man being played inside one of the storefronts?? Those sounds bring me right back!
| by Anonymous | reply 39 | February 20, 2019 7:27 AM |
LOL! And Rebbie Jackson's "Centipede" starting up on the radio!
| by Anonymous | reply 40 | February 20, 2019 7:28 AM |
[quote]Every person has a sense of unlimited freedom when they're young.
Good point. Is this sense of once unbridled freedom now lost mere nostalgia or real?
| by Anonymous | reply 41 | February 20, 2019 3:20 PM |
Examples of freedom - being able to smoke pot or do coke in the club, not being body searched at the door (started in Giuliani era), none of the “broken windows” policing stuff that allowed cops to arrest you for stupid stuff, less intense capitalism meaning cheaper to do things and work was not assumed to be the sole purpose of life, dancing wherever (Giuliani banned dancing witjout permits - seriously). It feels more like a police state now run for the benefit of the super wealthy.
| by Anonymous | reply 42 | February 20, 2019 6:32 PM |
Vapid idiocy. For all of the caterwauling about culture being so much better before, they're about as deep as a rice paddy field.
| by Anonymous | reply 43 | February 21, 2019 9:54 AM |
You had to be there, R43.
| by Anonymous | reply 44 | February 21, 2019 11:03 AM |
[Quote]LOL! And Rebbie Jackson's "Centipede" starting up on the radio!
That made me laugh too.
| by Anonymous | reply 45 | February 22, 2019 11:47 PM |
This kind of grit and freedom is dead in NYC today, but does it live on elsewhere, perhaps in smaller rust-belt cities? Philly, Baltimore, Chicago? Is there anywhere left to go?
| by Anonymous | reply 46 | February 23, 2019 5:53 AM |
Philly has it - though it’s smaller and less intense than NYC was. It I’ve found it’s the last gritty city that isn’t totally gentrified - but also not hopeless - like Detroit and Baltimore
| by Anonymous | reply 47 | February 23, 2019 6:24 PM |
