YearMonthDayTextMedia
"After approximately 4 years of gathering information from various sources, I am finally prepared to show others what I call my scrapbook. This incorporates the majority of the work that Tony De Blasé included in his original version of the leather history timeline. Portions of his timeline have not been used and information from other sources has been included. The information from other sources is indicated at the end of each item. If the item has not been referenced to another source, then it is from Tony De Blasé’s timeline.

This has been my attempt to join both the heterosexual and homosexual history of the BDSM/ Fetish/Leather Lifestyles. What originally started out as a personal interest hobby turned into a major project. Though this project does not cover all aspects of the BDSM/Fetish/Leather lifestyle, it does include a majority. This project will continue to grow as I stumble across more and more information.

The words on these pages are not my words, but instead those of others who have researched this lifestyle. Again, my main focus was to combine the information that had been obtained from both the het and homosexual sides of life. As I have found information as well, I have included that in this scrapbook as well. But as you thumb through all the pages of this scrapbook, you will see the difference between this and anything else you have seen in the past. It indeed is a scrapbook of our history." -- Gwen Hardy on the original Colors of Leather website.
1960Eddie Mishkin was a publisher and distributor who operated retail outlets in the Times Square area in New York City. At one time he was a business partner of Moe Shapiro and according to J.B. Rund was tightly connected with the Mafia. From the early 50;s through the 60’s, Mishkin published a variety of materials ranging from “borderline” materials to “hard core” pornography. Included in this portfolio were a number if cheaply produced sadomasochistic texts. The most infamous was a series entitled Nights of Horror, which depicted grotesque tortures and were linked in the press to a juvenile’s murder in 1954. (Robert Bienvenu)
1960Publication of La Plume by Moe Shapiro. The first American fetish contact magazine, which served as a model of Burtman’s contact publications. Shapiro was the proprietor of Gargoyle Sales and later Waron Books of Brooklyn, NY. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service listed Shapiro as a major pornographer as late as the late 1960’s. (Robert Bienvenu)
1960Publication of Savaged Studs. (GHardy)
1960Gordon’s was a Canadian publisher and distributor that resold merchandise originally produced by Leonard Burtman and others. Gordon’s also used the corporate titles: Phantasy Foto enterprises, Joan and Judy, Domestic Services, G.M. Enterprises and Mme.Eva. The company operated circa 1960-1966 and sold a variety of products including pseudo-academic books, novelettes and photosets addressing bondage, female domination, spanking and bizarre costumes. It was perhaps the major Canadian distributor of American Fetish material during the 60’s. (Robert Bienvenu)
1960Satellite Publishing Company published works very similar to Irving Klaw, sufficiently similar, in fact that the postal inspection service assumed in 1964 that there was likely a business connection between Satellite and Klaw. In addition of photographs, Satellite also produced a magazine entitled, Bound. (Robert Bienvenu)
1960Selbee (new company of Leonard Burtman) publishes Exotica, Pepper, High Heels, Fashion Fantasy, Lynda in Leather, Midnight Nurse and Santana magazines. (GHardy)
1960At various times, English producers of leather and rubber clothing are sued. (DACHS Timeline)
1960316The Gold Coast, Chicago’s first leather bar, (opened June 1958) is purchased by Chuck Renslow and Associates.
1960910Actual postmark
1960112Penguin Books in England prints off and sends 12 copies of Lady Chatterley’s Lover to the Director of Public Prosecutions challenging him to prosecute, which he duly does on this day. After a six day trial the prosecution is unable to prove the book is obscene. On November 10th, Penguin’s first run of 200,000 books sells out on its first day of publication. Within a year Lady Chatterley’s Lover sells two million copies, outselling even the Bible. (http://www.eroticabibliophile.com/censorship_history.html)
1960In the connubial book, Five lessons of Love by Allan Baxter advises that all sexual practices, that might have any relation to sadism and masochism, should be avoided, as not to awaken hidden Sadomasochistic desires. (DACHS Timeline)
1960Publication of Bizarre Sex Underground by Michael Leigh
1960Publication of Christ and the Homosexual by Robert Wood. Includes a rather accurate description of one of the many SM parties hosted by Bob Milne at his home in NYC in the early 1950’s
1960Publication of Dominate by Continental Publications, located in Hollywood, California, they also issued ephemera that advertised Klaw Nutrix booklets. These were printed pirated versions. In 1960, Klaw expended considerable effort in tracking down Continental Publications as the source of the pirated versions of his work. Continental Publications also used the corporate titles of Bizarre Books, Pagan Books and Hamilton Publications. The Los Angeles police raided Continental Publications in June of 1960. (Robert Bienvenu)
1960Publication of Fort Frederick by Francoise des Ligneris
1960This publication, Run Girl, Run Hard by Justin Kent, was used as evidence in People vs. Mishkin. This one is about flagellation and female domination. (GHardy)
1960The Why Not (518 Ellis St.) in the Tenderloin is San Francisco’s first leather bar. The owners hire Tony Taverossi to create an atmosphere that will attract the leather crowd. The bar closes shortly after opening when Tony propositions a vice squad cop.

The name “Why Not” was a reversal of the owner’s first name: “Y (Why) – NOT, Tony Taverossi (as reported in Black Sheets Issue 15) (GJHardy)

NOTE: Tony DeBlase’s history timeline reports that Tony was hired as a bartender, but Black Sheets magazine reports that Tony was the owner. Tony Taverossi
1960Owners of San Francisco gay bars revolt against police pay-offs and the “Gayola Scandals” result. Police retaliate with a vengeance and close most Gay bars in the city.
1960Leonard Burtman and Himmel engage in a large and novel project that was a milestone in the history of American Fetish style, the production of a 35mm feature film with explicit bizarre content, entitled Satan in High Heels and is the first feature film created by sub-cultural producers. It was the first mass-distributed, popular culture film to employ explicit American fetish imagery. (Robert Bienvenu)
1960D.A. Frank S. Hogan, prepared a 198-count indictment against Eddie Mishkin, calling him “the largest producer and purveyor of pornographic material in the U.S.” Mishkin was convicted in 1962. (GHardy)
1960A British court rules that D. H. Lawrence’s novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover is art not porn.
1960DL Sterling, The Leathermaker, makes his first pair of motorcycle chaps.
1960Formation of California Motor Club San Francisco
1960Formation of Warlocks MC Southern California
1961612Coutts sends a letter to his customers announcing that he would close his business as of June 25, 1961. Coutts also stated in his letter that his mailing list would be destroyed. (Robert Bienvenu)
19616Two days after returning to Los Angeles, Postal Inspectors visited John Coutts regarding his material. Coutts informed the postal inspectors of his decision to close and why but was not admitting that his material was obscene. The postal inspectors gave Coutts until June 30, 1961 to close up his business. (Robert Bienvenu)
1961Publication of Folie et deraison (Madness and Civilization) by Michael Foucault, claiming that the role of psychiatry in modern society is to remove people who refuse to conform to its norms. A shortened English version is published in 1965.
1961Publication of Sexual Masochism by Edw. Podolsky.
1961Publication of The Kiss of the Whip, shortly after the Lady Chatterley’s Lover obscenity trial and two years prior to The Profumo Affair, which would initiate the great sexual revolution of the nineteen-sixties.

Written as an anti-corporal punishment work (as the morals of the time dictated), its real purpose was given away by the fact it was originally offered by a publisher renowned for works of a more risqué nature.

Judicial flogging of both sexes; floggings in the armed forces; wife beating and parental punishments; ‘educational’ flogging in fact and fiction; flagellation in brothels; the whipping of male and female servants; religious flagellation of monks, nuns and novices; whippings caused by superstition and persecution around the world; sadism and masochism; and the physical, sexual and psychological effects of whipping are all covered in precise, and often grisly detail! (GHardy)
1961Publication of The Leather Boys by Eliott George aka Gillian Freeman. (GHardy)
1961Publication of Variations in Sexual Behavior by Frank S Caprio M.D.
1961Publication of Moe Shapiro’s War on Press 1961 reprint of George Riley Scott’s treatise, Into Whose Hands. The British edition had a much less provocative dust jacket. (GHardy)
1961The Hideaway, a leather friendly bar at 438 Eddy in San Francisco’s tenderloin raided and closed.
1961The Tool Box at 339 4th St. at Harrison in San Francisco opened. It took what Tony Taverrosi had created at the Why Not and developed it into what became the classic SF leather bar design. The bar featured the Chuck Arnette mural of masculine men, which was made famous by the June 1964 Life magazine. The Toolbox closed in 1971.
1961In Great Britain, the spy series The Avengers starts, in which at first Honor Blackmen, then Diana Rigg, and finally Linda Thorson play the role of the leather-clad agent Mrs. Emma Peel. The first design draft, a leather costume with laced boots, corset and mask, is discarded by the producers as too erotic. Nevertheless, especially Diana Rigg becomes a leading figure of the British fetish and S&M subculture in the following years. The name “Mrs. Emma Peel” is reportedly deduced from Miss SM-Appeal. (DACHS Timeline)
1961John Coutts became ill in early 1961 and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He traveled to England for medical treatment during the summer of 1961, and then returned to Los Angeles. Being extremely ill, Coutts reached the conclusion that it was impossible to continue his business. (Robert Bienvenu)
196211Effective this date Illinois repealed its sodomy laws and behavior between “consenting adults in private” is no longer subject to criminal prosecution.
196285John Coutts returned to Britain in early 1962 and stayed with family members until he died in his sleep during the morning of August 5, 1962. (Robert Bienvenu)
19621019Movie start of The Counterfeit Traitor. In this spy thriller, based on the novel of Alexander Klein, Ingrid van Bergen plays a spy that works in the red light district of Hamburg St. Pauli in the forties. On a promotion photo, one can see her as domina with riding crop, boots and gloves. (DACHS Timeline)
196211Birth of Phil Andros as Sam Steward writing for Eos and Amigos magazines of Denmark, uses this pseudonym for the first time.
1962Publication of Feticshsim: Sexual Nature of Erotic Symbolism by Edward Podolsky
1962Publication of Furtive Fraternity Mattachine Reprint series
1962Publication of King Rat by James Clavell Explores dominance in men’s relationships in a Japanese prison camp during WWII
1962Publication of Lash by Olympia Press
1962Publication of Masochism in Sex and Society by Theodor Reik
1962The Publication of Psychopathologie de Sexualitat by the German sex researcher Hans Giese with the intent of continuing Krafft-Ebing’s Psychopathia Sexualis. In the medical textbook, which dedicates the first 30 pages to the importance of Christianity in sex therapy, he quotes the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sarte’s theories on SM as research, and links sadomasochism to the rise in abortions. Giese’s school of thought continues to dominate sex research in Germany until today. In 1992, three of the four professors for sex research in Germany will be former students of Giese.
1962Again, in response to the Gayola scandals and their aftermath San Francisco bar owners and employees form the Tavern Guild, to wield political influence.
1962Fisting is “invented” in a San Francisco basement.
1962Satyr MC holds it’s first Badger Flats Run. The annual event continues uninterrupted for 33 years, until 1994, and then resumes in 1998.
1962Ad for Kaysey Sales (Leonard Burtman)
1962The 1962 decision of MANual Enterprises vs. Day added the criteria of “patent offensiveness” to the “prurient interest” test from the Samuel Roth decision in 1957.

Patently offensive material was defined as works…. deemed so offensive on their face as to affront current community standards of decency.

Both the prurient interest test and the patent offensiveness had to apply in order to be deemed obscene.

MANual was a homoerotic physique magazine suppressed by the Post office under 18 U.S.C. section 1461 and under this two part test was found to be not offensive.

This was a decisive ruling against censorship and contributed to a proliferation of new homoerotic publications, including those by producers in the gay leather style, with far more explicit representations. This included full frontal nudity with “deliberate erotic overtones.” (Robert Bienvenu)
19635Publication of Mars magazine, a male physique publication with leather leanings. It is designed and edited by Chuck Renslow and Dom Orejudos of Kris studios
1963627Klaw’s final major legal battle began when Klaw’s Nutrix company in New Jersey was raided by U.S. Marshals and Postal inspectors. Klaw and his business associates were indicted on 85 counts of violation of U.S.C. title 18, section 1461 based on an investigation conducted by Postal Inspector Harry Simon. (Robert Bienvenu)
1963Physique Pictorial begins to print a scribbled code of astrological symbols along with its photographs. The symbols give Bob Mizer’s ideas about the personalities, and sexual proclivities, of the models. A code sheet to decipher them is sent to favored customers. In 1967 the symbols are used as part of the sexual pandering case against Mizer. He destroys all copies of the code’s meanings.
1963Publication of A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. A look at sex, violence and mind control in a future age
1963Publication of City of Night by John Rechy Takes a close look at the underbelly of gay life: hustling as it was
1963Publication of Fanny Hill, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland
1963Publication of Flagellation - The Rod & the Whip by George Bishop
1963Publication of Our Lady of the Flowers by Jean Genet. First English Edition
1963Publication of Pleasures of the Torture Chamber by Jonathon Swain
1963Publication of The Velvet Underground by Michael Leigh
1963The movie Scorpio Rising is released, featuring a motorcycle gang that Anger met in Brooklyn; Scorpio Rising is perhaps the most influential film from the American underground. Exploring the rituals and lifestyles of motorcycle cultists through montage, found footage, and pop songs; this is the ultimate underground biker film, from a time when motorcycle clubs were synonymous with S/M.
1963Denmark becomes the first modern state to drop virtually all censorship.
1963Formation of Second City Motorcycle Club Chicago, Il
1964Publication of The Spankers Monthly magazine by Flag Publications begins. The Spankers Monthly is credited with a purview that covered the spectrum of bizarre topics including, “adult and juvenile discipline, transvestism, home movie and Polaroid hobbyists, exotica, sunbathing groups, male models, leather and rubber apparel, restraint, male and female domination and bondage." (Robert Bienvenu)
1964128Following Operation Yorkville, an anti-smut campaign, a 66-count indictment was filed against Burtman, Himmel and Grasberg and various corporate titles used by them. The case was eventually dropped on February 26, 1968, by this time, in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Fanny Hill decision; legal prohibitions on fetish material were virtually eliminated. (Robert Bienvenu) Father Morton A. Hill led Operation Yorkville
1964626Life magazine features “Homosexuality in America,” an article by Paul Welch that includes a two page spread on the Tool Box, San Francisco’s premier leather bar, and sparks a migration of eager leathermen to “Baghdad by the Bay.”
196474CMC Rainier Creek July 4th Field Meet
1964Publication of A History of Torture by Daniel P. Manix
1964Publication of Bizarre Life by Leonard Burtman, under the corporate title S-K Publishers, it is issued a digest-sized magazine. This was a single issue (Robert Bienvenu)
1964Publication of Boys in Leather.
1964Publication of Experiences in Flagellation Compiled by an Amateur Flagellant
1964Publication of Flagellation Curiosa Pt 1 & 2 by H.T. Buckle.
1964Publication of History of the Rod and other Corporal Punishments by Gilbert Oakley
1964Publication of Justine by de Sade
1964Publication of Male Deviations and Bizarre Practices by Robert Bledsoe
1964Publication of Male Sexual Deviations and Bizarre Practices by Dr Leonard A. Lowag
1964Publication of Pussy Cat, the London rubber fetish magazine, for the first time. Publisher is N.A. Burton. Pussy Cat is only stopped 25 years later in 1989, when the publisher retires. (DACHS Timeline)
1964Publication of Rough Trade by Lou Rand
1964Publication of Sadism and Masochism, Sexual Aberrations and Peculiarities of Behavior by Wilhelm Stekel
1964Publication of Stockade by Jack Pearl. Focuses on abuse in a military prison
1964Publication of Sublime of Flagellation Pt 2 by H.T. Buckle
1964Publication of The Thief's Journal by Jean Genet
1964Publication of With Whip & Rod, A History of Flagellation Among Different Nations by Valhalla Books
1964Klaw was found guilty of 65 counts and given a 2-year sentence and a $5000.00 fine. The judgment was appealed and on July 15, 1965, reversed by the U.S. Court of appeals. Nutrix ceased operation after the conviction. Klaw died shortly there after from appendicitis. (Robert Bienvenu)
1964The first appearance of Al “A. Jay” Shapiro’s cartoon creation, Harry Chess, in the Philadelphia based gay monthly Drum.
1964Formation of Empire City MC New York City
1964Formation of Recon MC San Francisco
1964Foundation of a gay Leather Regulars’ Table in Cologne, which takes place in private surrounding and has a regular number of six to eight visitors. This is the first known S&M meeting in Germany. (DACHS Timeline)
1964House of Milan, initially and briefly called Futura Fashions, was formed as a fetish clothing company in Chicago. House of Milan evolved into a company that today is called HOM. The principal founder of House of Milan was Yogi Klein, a cousin of Leonard Burtman and Barbara Behr. Behr slowly assumed control of House of Milan and in the 70’s moved the business to California changed its name to HOM. During Behr’s creative leadership in the 80’s, house of Milan developed into one of the best bondage companies in the U.S.

Behr sold her interest in HOM and the company is now owned by Lyndon Distributors limited and continues to publish material. Some of House of Milan’s best selling titles were:

Bondage Classics (1971-1991), Bondage in the Buff (1982-1999), Bondage Photographer (1982-2000), Bound to Please (1972-1999), Captured (1975-1999), Hogtie (1972-1992), Hogtied (1993-1999) Hush (1993-1999), Knotty (1971-2000), Latent Image (1972-1995), Now Darling (1983-1992), Punished (1978-2001), Slave Auction (1985-1992), Strict (1982-1997), Tied and Tickled (1985-1998), Ties that Bind (1985-1999) and Tight Ropes (1980-2001).
196574CMC Rainier Creek July 4th Field Meet
1965815Uknown Club Field Meet
196512"Baroness" Monique von Cleef, a professional dominatrix was raided at her home/dungeon, by police in a widely publicized case that was the first SM sex scandal in the U.S. The case, which was initiated by a postal inspector, evoked rabid media attention. For months, newspapers fixated on lurid details of Von Cleef’s “House of Horrors”. Von Cleef was a Germanic blonde and her clients included many (unnamed) powerful and famous men. When arrested in 1965, Leonard Burtman’s attorney, Hubert Monte-Levy, initially represented her. (GHardy)
1965Publication of Buttocks Fetishism by Alfred Kind
1965Publication of Female Perversions
1965Publication of Flagellation Komplex by Joachim Pauly
1965Publication of Leather
1965Publication of Madame DeSade a play by Yukio Mishima, first English publication in 1967
1965Publication of Male and Female Sexual Deviations by Michael Wolfgang
1965Publication of MANege, a Danish magazine
1965Publication of Masquerade in Leather by Masque-Selbee.
1965Publication of Olympia Reader by Grove Press
1965Publication of Quatrefoil by James Barr. A novel of sex among men in the US Navy
1965Publication of Sadism in the Movies by George De Coulteray
1965Publication of Sexual Abberations by Norman Winski
1965Publication of Sexual Fetish in Today’s Society by Hugh Jones
1965Publication of Stocking Parade by Unique Publications (GHardy)
1965Publication of The Lonely Sex – Mail Order Vice by Carlson Wade
1965Publication of The Story of O by Pauline Reage. First English Edition by Grove Press
1965Spanking: Sex or Sadism by Hugh Jones
1965On the Levee a bar at 987 Embarcadero in San Francisco becomes popular with the leather crowd. Closed in 1972.
1965After several years of legal battles, Irving Klaw finally closed the fetish component of his business and destroyed much of his inventory, just before the erotica market burst open in a wave of unprecedented explicitness. (Robert Bienvenu)
1965In New York City, Steve Masters (real name Mike Miksche, a highly respected fashion artist) one of the most talented homoerotic, and leather oriented, artists, and publisher of the Physique Magazine, BIG, commits suicide. His wife finds the studio where he worked on his erotica, and had SM scenes with other men, and burns most of his art. Fortunately he had already donated much work to Kinsey, for whom he had performed SM scenes with Sam Steward.
1965The Japanese rope artist, Osada Sensei, performs for the public in Tokyo for the first time. He performs still in 2000 at the age of 75. (DACHS Timeline)
1965Formation of Saddlebacks of Orange County California
1965Formation of Saddlemasters MC California
1965Formation of Sixty-Nine Club London, England
1966321Ginzburg et al vs. United States

Petitioner Ginzburg and three corporations, which he controlled, were convicted of violating the federal obscenity statute 18 U.S.C. section 1461 by mailing their publications, an expensive hardcover magazine dealing with sex, a sex newsletter and a short book purporting to be a sexual autobiography. The prosecution charged that these publications were obscene in the context of their production, sale and attendant publicity. (Robert Bienvenu)
19665Detour bar’s 1st annual run, May Day is held
196674CMC Rainier Creek July 4th Field Meet
1966725FeBe’s opens on Folsom in San Francisco and quickly becomes one of the leading leather bars, particularly for members of motorcycle clubs. The bar’s Leather David logo (the original a plaster sculpture by Mike Caffee) becomes a leather icon. A Taste of Leather, upstairs at FeBe’s, opens in 1967 as one of the first in-bar leather shops. FeBe’s closes in 1986.
1966The artist Andy Warhol, together with the musicians Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker, found the group The Velvet Underground, named after an S&M novel by Michael Leigh. The first album is published in 1967. In gross contrast to the flower power movement, the group performs in black leather. Several songs with S&M context come from The Velvet Underground. The best known is probably “Venus in Furs:” (DACHS Timeline)
1966Bizarre Life (Leonard Burtman) re-appears as a new and recognizably different Burtman publication. Volume 1, number 1 of Bizarre Life, published by Unique publications. Bizarre Life cited a publisher’s address in Toronto but listed its “editorial offices” at 1733 Broadway in New York City – Burtman’s Office. This was the first known publication in an 8.5 x 11 size format, which replaced digest size as the standard in the pornography industry in the mid 60’s. (Robert Bienvenu)
1966Publication of Bottoms Up by Unique Publications
1966Publication of Boys of Boise by John Gerassi
1966Publication of Hellbound in Leather by James J. Proferes
1966Publication of Human Sexual Response, study by the American gynecologists William H. Masters and Virginia Johnson.
1966Publication of Miracle of the Rose by Jean Genet
1966Publication of Psychodynamics of Unconventional Sex Behavior and Unusual Practices by Paul J. Gillette
1966Publication of Sadism by Andre Tarade
1966Publication of Song of the Loon by Richard Amory. First of a trilogy of erotic novels that took fascination with cowboys and Indians to a whole new level.
1966Publication of Stud by Phil Andros.
1966Publication of Tarnsman of Gor by the American professor for philosophy, John Frederick Lange Jr., better known under the pseudonym John Norman. In the following novels, the planet Gor is described in detail, on which women are subjugated to men. Fantasy artist Boris Vallejo makes the jacket design of the first editions. Sadomasochists adopt some terms of the Gor universe. (DACHS Timeline)
1966Publication of The Image by Jean De Berg.
1966CMC (California Motorcycle Club) rents Sefarer’s International Union hall for their annual CMC Carnival, thanks primarily to Don Rotan who was a member of both CMC and the Sefarer’s union.
1966Jose Sarria, “The Widow Norton,” becomes the first Empress of San Francisco, and the gay Court System has begun.
1966Saytyrs MC Badger Flats Field Meet
1966The first complete male to female genital confirmation surgery in the US takes place at Johns Hopkins University Hospital.
1966John Cleland’s Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure vs. Massachusetts, also known as the Fanny Hill decision, The U.S. articulated a 3-part test that significantly changed the legal landscape in regards to obscenity. The court ruled that, fully elaborated, the Roth criteria contained 3 elements.

The court wrote: 3 elements must coalesce. It must be established that:
1) The dominant theme of the material taken as a whole, appeals to a prurient interest in sex.
2) The material is patently offensive because it affronts contemporary community standards relating and the description or representation of sexual matters and
3) The material is utterly without redeeming social value.

The Fanny Hill decision was accompanied by two additional rulings, both sustaining obscenity convictions against publishers of pornography, but nevertheless from this point convictions on charges of obscenity became much more difficult for law enforcement agencies. (Robert Bienvenu)
1966The publisher and late founder of the Olympia Press, Jorg Schroder, buys the German rights for the Story of O for the Melzer Verlag. It is very difficult to find a print center for this book. (DACHS Timeline)
1966Formation of the Barbary Coasters
196711Los Angeles Police raid the Black Cat; the incident “boosted the modest Pride Newsletter into The Advocate.
1967315Publication of Freies Forum Fur Erziehungsfragen (Free form for Educational Questions), the German flagellant magazine. (DACHS Timeline)
19674Koalas Teddy Bear Picnic
196758In 1965 a New York City new-stand clerk, Robert Redrup, sold two pulp sex novels, Lust Pool and Shame Agent, to plainclothes police; for which he is found guilty in 1965. He appeals his case to the Supreme Court where his conviction is over-turned by 7-2. The court’s ruling affirmed that consenting adults in the United States ought to be constitutionally entitled to acquire and read any publication that they wish — including concededly obscene or pornographic ones — without government interference.

For more information see: Redrup v. State of N.Y. (386 U.S. 767). After this decision, the Supreme Court systematically and summarily reversed, without further opinion, scores of obscenity rulings involving paperback sex books, girlie magazines and peep shows. . (http://www.eroticabibliophile.com/censorship_history.html)
196774CMC Rainier Creek July 4th Field Meet
1967726The United States Federal Court for the District of Minnesota upholds a landmark decision affirming the right of all persons to receive materials dealing with the nude male figure.
1967727The Sexual Offenses Act, removing criminality from sexual relations between consenting adults, an action which had been recommended by the Wolfenden Report in 1958, finally becomes law in England and Wales.
19678The newsletter of PRIDE (Personal Rights in Defense and Education) becomes The Los Angles Advocate.
1967109The film I am Curious - Yellow premiers in Stockholm. It will become a major example of sexual liberation in the US.
19671117The Oscar Wilde Book Shop, the first gay and lesbian store of its kind, opens in New York City. For years all SM publications are banned from the store.
1967Publication of Brutality Through the Ages by John Swain.
1967Publication of Christine Jorgensen, A personal Autobiography by Christine Jorgensen.
1967Publication of Cruel and the Meek by Walter Braun M.D.
1967Publication of Erotic Variations by John Barry.
1967Publication of Eustace Chisholm and the Works James Purdy
1967Publication of Numbers by John Rechy. Exploring gay male obsessions with accumulating tricks
1967Publication of Rugged 1 begins by DSI. (GHardy)
1967Publication of Sadists in Skirts
1967Publication of Sado Masochistic Compulsion by Albert Reissner.
1967Publication of Sadopaoderia by Grove Press.
1967Publication of Sex and Sadism by Val Vane.
1967Publication of Sexual Sadism – The Pleasure of Inflicting Pain by Edward Podolsky MD and Carlson Wade
1967Publication of The Compulsive Erotic by Carlson Wade
1967Publication of The Flagellants by Carlene Hatcher Polite.
1967Publication of Whipped Women by Grove Press.
1967The Melzer Verlag publishes the first German translation of the Story of O. Buyers have to show their identity card as well as to confirm in writing that they have attained the age of 21 and will not make this book available for others. (DACHS Timeline)
1967Nick O’Demus opens his A Taste Of Leather shop upstairs at FeBe’s, one of the first in bar leather shops.
1967Barbary Coasters present their first annual San Francisco Motorcycle Awards
1967Fort Bragg Run Pin from Warlocks MC per (Marcus Hernandez)
1967Recon MC Annual Run
1967Buddy MC Benefit
1967Buddy MC Spring Scramble
1967A survey that questions 643 Germans on their attitudes towards sexual deviant groups shows that sadists are seen as egotistical, aggressive, revolting, unsympathetic, wild, unbalanced, strict, dominating, hard, active, cold, sick, introverted, pedantic, and close-mouthed. They are associated with the stereotypes of murderers and pimps. Homosexuals, themselves still considered deviant, and students have slightly less negative attitudes. Attitudes towards masochists are not examined.
1967After a 20 year tenure with Humorama, Bill Ward, whose work crossed genres, began contributing to adult and fetish magazines like Club, Juggs, Screw, Reflections and Fetish Times as well as the Eros Goldstripe line of adult paperback books. Ward’s work was cruder, involving partial and full nudity, and every deviant act imaginable.

Despite the volume of Ward’s output, there exists no comprehensive catalog of his work (GHardy)
1967Formation of Buddy MC San Francisco
1967Formation of the Constantine's of the Bay Area
1967Formation of Cheaters MC San Francisco
19681Der Kreis, the world’s oldest known homophile publication, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, ceases publication after thirty five years.
19681Under pressure to abandon its militant roots, PRIDE was dissolved by its founders, who sold The Advocate to Dick Michaels, Sam Winston and Bill Rand for one dollar.
196810Unknown Club Discovery Run
196812The New Jersey Supreme Court rules that homosexuals have the right to assemble in public, overturning the revocation of three New Jersey bars licenses for permitting apparent homosexual to congregate.
1968Publication of The Pearl
1968Publication of Bondage: The Slave Traffic in Women Today by Stephen Barley.
1968Publication of Flagellation, the Story of Corporal Punishment by G. Scott.
1968Publication of Flagellation by Simon DeFont
1968Publication of Fruit of the Loon by Richard Amory.
1968Publication of King’s Leather Men, Lesbo Review, Sappho and Whippet.
1968Publication of Listen the Loon Sings by Richard Amory.
1968Publication of Pain & Pleasure: Exposing Sexual Flagellation as Erotic Behavior by Dr Harvey T. Leathem.
1968Publication of Sadomasochistic Lesbian by Nicholas Strange.
1968Publication of The Agency by David Meltzer. Explicit SM.
1968Publication of The Agent by David Meltzer. Sequel to the Agency.
1968Publication of The Figa by Paul Mariah. Poem to Fisting.
1968Publication of The Real Thing by William Carney (birth Dec 29, 1946). One of earliest explicit gay male SM novels.
1968Publication of The Undergrowth of Literature by Gillian Freeman.
1968Publication of newsletters - Wheeles by Cycle MC and Scimitar by Nine Plus, while Black and Blue by New York Motor Bike Club publishes last issue.
1968Alan Selby begins Mr. S Leathers in London, England.
1968In New York City several leather friendly bars, restaurants and private clubs open. These include: The Hayloft private club; The International Stud bar, JB’s Restaurant, OK Corral dining room; the Skull after hours bar; the Tool Box bar; and the Nine Plus clubhouse on 21st St. Louie’s Bar is renamed Louie’s Spartan Lounge.
1968Ritch Street Baths opens at 330 Ritch Street, the Poshest of the San Francisco baths, opens. (GJHardy)
1968The owner of the leather bar “On The Levee” opens Off the Levee at 527 Bryant in San Francisco. This location later becomes the leather friendly bar and restaurant Chez Mollet.
1968The Ramrod at 1225 Folsom in San Francisco, opened and quickly succeeded FeBe’s as THE leather bar, at least for the SM crowd, while FeBe’s remained the prime bar for MC club socializing.
1968Cycle MC holds first annual Bass River Run.
1968The Gay Leather Regular’s table in Cologne moves into the coal cellar of a pub. For fear of the police, invitations are delivered orally, in the doorway to the cellar; there is always a guard. (DACHS Timeline)
1968Valley Knights Comanche Dam Event
1968Aquila’s Trip-Out event
1968Recon MC Annual Run
1968Formation of Blue Max Los Angeles, CA
1968Formation of Buddy MC CA
1968Formation of California B&B Corps Los Angeles, CA
1968Formation of Cycle MC New York
1968Formation of Nine Plus Club New York
1968Formation of Rocky Mountain Power Exchange CO, Denver
1968Formation of Rocky Mountaineers MC Denver, CO
1968Formation of Serpents MC San Francisco
1968Formation of SMC LA (Later became the Lost Angels) DC, Washington
1968Formation of Spartans MC Baltimore, MD/Washington, DC
1968Formation of Texas Riders (formerly Warlocks and later the Cobras) Houston, Texas
1968Formation of V-Senses Rubber Club (Later Rubber Mans Club) New York
1968Metropolitan Community Church founded in Los Angeles by Rev. Troy Perry, a leatherman.
1968Formation of Warriors MC CA, Los Angeles
19694Publication of Chain Male #1, one of the BEST gay male SM/bondage photo books.
1969628New York City Police raid the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on Christopher St. near 7th Ave. triggering riots that last several nights, and becoming the seminal event in public awareness of the fight for gay rights.
1969Time magazine declares 1969 “The Year of the Newly Militant Homosexual.”
1969Publication of Encyclopedia of Sexual Instruments by Centurion. (GHardy)
1969Publication of Fetisism and Sadomasochism by American anthropologist Paul Gebhard, an article placing SM in a cultural context. SM is seen as a result of cultural forces and as a form of scripted behavior. Gebhard’s break with the view of SM founded by Krafft-Ebbing and Freud paves the way for sociological studies on SM.
1969Publication of Flagellation & The Flagellants – A History of the Rod (American Edition) by Rev William A. Cooper
1969Publication of Forbidden Colors by Yukio Mishima.
1969Publication of I want it All by Dirk Vanden
1969Publication of Kiss of Leather by Larry Townsend
1969Publication of Leather Lover by Ron Wilson
1969Publication of Leather Queens by Dirk Vanden
1969Publication of Leather by Dirk Vanden
1969Publication of Oralism and Pain by Anthony Crowell
1969Publication of Return to the Chateau by Pauline Regae, sequel to Story of O.
1969Publication of Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan, the first fundamental works of a religion in which today’s S&M is mentioned and accepted. (DACHS Timeline)
1969Publication of Spanking by Volitant Books
1969Publication of Stud by Phil Andros, first novel written by Sam Steward
1969Publication of The Second Tijuana Bible Reader by Greenleaf Classics.
1969Publication of The Tijuana Bible Reader by Greenleaf Classics.
1969Publication of several club newsletters - The Longship from Vikings MC (ceases publication 1970), Innertube from V Senses Rubber; and Tread from Wheels MC.
1969The Den bar opens in New York City.
1969The Leather Cell (a leather and toy shop) opens in the basement, The Pit, of the Gold Coast in Chicago.
1969The Shed becomes Boston’s leather-levi bar.
1969The Sound of Music, opened in the Tenderloin District at 162 Turk St, in San Francisco. According to Henri Lelue, the owner chose the bar’s name so that he could put the initials “SM” into the bar sign. The original owner was into rough trade and opened the bar for a kid who was later murdered there.
1969Aquila’s Trip-Out event
1969Serpents MC of San Francisco, Ca. holds their Winter Field Meet, an annual bike skills competition usually held in late October or early November. It was mandatory to own a motorcycle by this club in order to become a member. Bike clubs from Northern and Southern California competed in various biker events with and without buddy riders. It was a very colorful and promoted bike safety and biking skills event. (Marcus Hernandez)
1969Oedipus MC holds their Grecian Games
1969Saytyrs MC Badger Flats Field Meet
1969The British pop artist Allen Jones exhibits the sculpture Hatstand, a woman in fetish clothes, which should be used as furniture. To the series there also belongs a woman as table and chair. The sculptures cause protests from feminists. (DACHS Timeline)
1969Fred Halsted meets Joey Yale at the Black Pipe, a Los Angeles leather bar. They make the film LA Plays Itself, with explicit SM scenes, and begin a lifelong relationship. 1969Theodor Reik dies in New York, where he worked as a psychoanalyst until his death. (DACHS Timeline)
1969Formation of Apollos New York
1969Formation of Atlantic Midwest Coordinating Council (AMCC) Later the Atlantic Motorcycle Coordinating Council
1969Formation of Border Riders Seattle and Vancouver, BC
1969Formation of Commanders MC New York
1969Formation of Kaspars MC San Francisco, CA
1969Formation of Rubber Man’s Club of London (Originally V Senses Rubber Club) ENG, London
1969Formation of UYA MC New York
1969Formation of Vanguards MC Philadelphia
1969Formation of Vikings MC Boston
1969In Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Lutz Reinecke LGS founds a shop for “latexmode and bizarre accessories” (rubber fashion and bizarre accessories). The shop is probably the oldest one in all German-speaking countries. In 1986, Reinecke is asked by Peter W. Czernich what he thinks about the latter’s plans for publishing a fetish magazine (the German version of Skin Two). Reinecke declares that there were a maximum of 3000 people in Germany who would be interested in this, an assumption that is soon proven wrong. (DACHS Timeline)
1969Wheels MC merged with Chicago MC, New York

Back to top
Copyright 2020 Suck The Rainbow, Gwen Hardy Colors of Leather All Rights Reserved