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1
00:00:09,092 --> 00:00:10,135
Mom.
2
00:00:11,219 --> 00:00:13,054
Mom, turn around!
3
00:00:13,596 --> 00:00:16,433
Mom, turn around!
You're on Totally Hidden Video!
4
00:00:17,851 --> 00:00:19,519
Say hi. Scream!
5
00:00:19,602 --> 00:00:22,522
We've got a house full of company.
Can we call you back? Okay.
6
00:00:23,314 --> 00:00:25,066
Hello. What's your name, sir?
7
00:00:25,608 --> 00:00:27,110
"You're on Candid Camera."
8
00:00:27,193 --> 00:00:29,946
Look at that little camera hidden
in that corner behind the cabinet.
9
00:00:30,030 --> 00:00:32,574
- Aren't you too close right now?
- Yes, that's a camera.
10
00:00:32,657 --> 00:00:34,534
- I'm not focused, Rachel.
- Scream.
11
00:00:35,827 --> 00:00:37,662
Five cans of water?! Holy-moly!
12
00:00:37,746 --> 00:00:38,580
Five cans of water.
13
00:00:38,663 --> 00:00:40,665
Rachel, this is gonna be
such a boring tape,
14
00:00:40,749 --> 00:00:43,126
watching somebody put five cans of water
in a pitcher.
15
00:00:46,337 --> 00:00:49,758
Okay, Mom, Dad,
can you introduce yourselves?
16
00:00:49,841 --> 00:00:52,010
- You start.
- Okay.
17
00:00:52,677 --> 00:00:54,512
So, I'm Karen Mason.
18
00:00:55,722 --> 00:00:57,098
I'm Barry Mason.
19
00:00:58,099 --> 00:01:01,561
And we own Circus of Books, since 1982,
20
00:01:02,020 --> 00:01:03,855
so 33 years ago.
21
00:01:04,397 --> 00:01:06,775
Which is a long time to do anything.
22
00:01:06,858 --> 00:01:09,778
Can you say what the Circus of Books is?
23
00:01:14,991 --> 00:01:19,662
All right. So, Josh,
can you describe our family for me?
24
00:01:20,830 --> 00:01:23,083
Like, what are Mom and Dad like?
25
00:01:23,166 --> 00:01:24,542
Um...
26
00:01:25,502 --> 00:01:26,586
I think our family...
27
00:01:26,669 --> 00:01:30,215
There's a level of conventionality
in our family. I think, um...
28
00:01:30,298 --> 00:01:33,468
we're a normal, tight-knit family.
29
00:01:34,302 --> 00:01:35,512
I just mean to take us.
30
00:01:36,054 --> 00:01:39,307
Hey, Micah, stop it. Micah! Come on.
31
00:01:39,390 --> 00:01:42,393
We were striving
for the perfect family look.
32
00:01:42,894 --> 00:01:44,270
Micah, you moved.
33
00:01:47,690 --> 00:01:51,152
Mom, she's definitely the alpha woman
34
00:01:51,236 --> 00:01:53,238
but still quite soft around the edges.
35
00:01:53,321 --> 00:01:54,531
♪ Oh, Hanukkah ♪
36
00:01:54,614 --> 00:01:58,660
♪ Come light the menorah ♪
37
00:01:59,369 --> 00:02:00,369
Do it again.
38
00:02:01,121 --> 00:02:02,872
She is strong-willed,
39
00:02:02,956 --> 00:02:05,583
and she goes for what she wants
with force.
40
00:02:06,209 --> 00:02:07,794
How would you describe Dad?
41
00:02:09,838 --> 00:02:11,214
Don't bang into the bars.
42
00:02:12,423 --> 00:02:16,094
Dad is one of the few people
whose default state is happiness.
43
00:02:17,053 --> 00:02:18,763
He's just kind of a happy guy.
44
00:02:19,222 --> 00:02:21,391
What does the red light
in this thing mean?
45
00:02:22,433 --> 00:02:24,561
- Daddy, can I go in here?
- Yeah.
46
00:02:25,979 --> 00:02:26,979
Daddy!
47
00:02:28,231 --> 00:02:29,566
The description is always,
48
00:02:29,649 --> 00:02:31,569
"Look for the bald guy
with a smile on his face,"
49
00:02:31,609 --> 00:02:33,695
whenever he was lost in a shopping mall.
50
00:02:35,238 --> 00:02:38,241
It was definitely a good cop/bad cop duo.
51
00:02:40,118 --> 00:02:41,995
You know, here I was, this, uh...
52
00:02:42,078 --> 00:02:43,997
I would never call myself a soccer mom,
53
00:02:44,080 --> 00:02:48,668
but I was certainly a working mother
with three children.
54
00:02:50,628 --> 00:02:53,298
We didn't want them
to know what we did at all,
55
00:02:53,381 --> 00:02:56,509
because we thought maybe
people wouldn't, like, play with them.
56
00:02:56,593 --> 00:02:58,595
I think that's a very tough piñata.
57
00:03:00,847 --> 00:03:02,473
We never talked about it.
58
00:03:03,016 --> 00:03:05,935
It was just known
that's how the family worked.
59
00:03:06,019 --> 00:03:08,646
You don't talk about family business
in the family.
60
00:03:09,314 --> 00:03:11,274
If anyone asked us what our parents did,
61
00:03:11,357 --> 00:03:13,484
the official answer was,
"Run a bookstore."
62
00:03:13,568 --> 00:03:15,111
"We own a bookstore."
63
00:03:15,195 --> 00:03:17,655
That's what you tell people.
64
00:03:18,656 --> 00:03:20,696
There were times
we had to get to the store,
65
00:03:20,742 --> 00:03:23,995
'cause Mom was driving us home
and needed to stop by.
66
00:03:24,078 --> 00:03:27,207
We were under strict instructions
to stare down at the ground
67
00:03:27,290 --> 00:03:30,126
the entire time we were passing
through certain areas of the store.
68
00:03:30,210 --> 00:03:31,836
"Don't look around. Look at the floor."
69
00:03:32,420 --> 00:03:33,588
But obviously...
70
00:03:34,047 --> 00:03:35,757
you know, wandering eyes.
71
00:03:37,050 --> 00:03:40,303
There was one time
I found a VHS tape
72
00:03:40,386 --> 00:03:42,263
in the back of Mom's car,
73
00:03:42,347 --> 00:03:45,391
and I grabbed it, and hid it,
and waited for months.
74
00:03:45,850 --> 00:03:47,894
Finally, everybody was out of the house,
75
00:03:47,977 --> 00:03:50,939
and I run to my hiding place,
and I pull out this tape...
76
00:03:51,606 --> 00:03:54,442
and it turns out it was a Beta,
and I couldn't watch it.
77
00:03:56,819 --> 00:03:59,989
So, Circus of Books is a bookstore
78
00:04:00,448 --> 00:04:04,744
and a hardcore gay, adult business.
79
00:04:23,554 --> 00:04:25,556
I would always see Circus of Books,
80
00:04:25,640 --> 00:04:29,602
and I thought
it was just... a bookstore...
81
00:04:30,019 --> 00:04:31,771
with a circus theme.
82
00:04:32,355 --> 00:04:33,731
And I went in and realized
83
00:04:33,815 --> 00:04:37,151
that it was so much more
than just a regular bookstore.
84
00:04:38,778 --> 00:04:41,948
It had this whole section
that was just, like, porn,
85
00:04:42,031 --> 00:04:43,866
P-O-R-N, you know.
86
00:04:43,950 --> 00:04:44,950
It was great.
87
00:04:45,994 --> 00:04:51,124
A purveyor of gourmet sexual material
for every pervert in America,
88
00:04:51,791 --> 00:04:54,711
that was Circus bookstore's claim to fame.
89
00:04:55,295 --> 00:04:59,007
It made all these men comfortable
exploring their own sexuality.
90
00:05:00,925 --> 00:05:03,720
Circus of Books was a safe place
to find other gays.
91
00:05:04,554 --> 00:05:07,181
There was cruising going on
in the book stacks.
92
00:05:08,266 --> 00:05:12,061
It was the center of the gay universe
in that neighborhood.
93
00:05:16,024 --> 00:05:18,744
A regular feature here
on 2 on the Town is to take a look
94
00:05:18,818 --> 00:05:22,113
at some of the famous and infamous streets
of Southern California.
95
00:05:22,196 --> 00:05:24,324
And tonight,
Lou Lauren takes us along with him
96
00:05:24,407 --> 00:05:25,825
to Santa Monica Boulevard.
97
00:05:26,743 --> 00:05:29,162
This is the face of Santa Monica Boulevard
98
00:05:29,245 --> 00:05:31,289
that is familiar to most outsiders.
99
00:05:31,372 --> 00:05:33,833
But the street also has a private side,
100
00:05:33,916 --> 00:05:37,086
perceived by outsiders
only if it dawns on them
101
00:05:37,170 --> 00:05:40,590
that almost all of the people
they see here are men.
102
00:05:42,050 --> 00:05:44,594
In the first year I moved to Los Angeles,
103
00:05:45,178 --> 00:05:47,388
I found a place that was accepting.
104
00:05:48,556 --> 00:05:52,268
West Hollywood was mainly
very young, gay people,
105
00:05:52,352 --> 00:05:54,479
and it was called Boystown.
106
00:05:54,562 --> 00:05:57,899
Back then, if you were out,
you were an outlaw,
107
00:05:57,982 --> 00:06:00,318
and you did outlandish things, you know?
108
00:06:01,569 --> 00:06:05,031
That whole, like,
toe-tapping, and cruising,
109
00:06:05,114 --> 00:06:07,450
and like, bandannas and flagging...
110
00:06:08,451 --> 00:06:11,371
People don't say,
"Well, maybe I'd better get into a corner.
111
00:06:11,454 --> 00:06:13,164
My boss might see me here"?
112
00:06:13,247 --> 00:06:17,251
No, no, I think gay liberation is here,
and there's no problem at all.
113
00:06:28,554 --> 00:06:30,515
My name is Alexei Romanoff,
114
00:06:30,598 --> 00:06:35,103
and I happen to be one of the last people
who are still alive
115
00:06:35,186 --> 00:06:38,022
from the demonstration at the Black Cat.
116
00:06:42,026 --> 00:06:46,030
On New Year's Eve, 1966,
117
00:06:46,948 --> 00:06:50,410
there were police raids
on two of the bars.
118
00:06:52,995 --> 00:06:55,331
Two or three seconds after midnight,
119
00:06:55,415 --> 00:06:59,377
after the song "Auld Lang Syne"
was playing at the Black Cat,
120
00:07:00,545 --> 00:07:03,798
the police started
to arrest people who were kissing.
121
00:07:07,135 --> 00:07:08,386
They were afraid,
122
00:07:08,469 --> 00:07:12,306
because if they got outed,
they could lose their job,
123
00:07:12,974 --> 00:07:14,809
lose their homes.
124
00:07:20,398 --> 00:07:25,361
From that incident, came demonstrations
against police brutality
125
00:07:25,445 --> 00:07:28,573
outside of the oldest gay bars
in Los Angeles,
126
00:07:28,656 --> 00:07:31,033
the Black Cat and the New Faces.
127
00:07:33,035 --> 00:07:36,622
It was the largest demonstration
in the country at the time,
128
00:07:37,206 --> 00:07:40,835
and it was two and a half years
before Stonewall.
129
00:07:43,838 --> 00:07:47,383
The New Faces became the Circus of Books.
130
00:07:50,219 --> 00:07:52,638
That bookstore was really important,
131
00:07:53,389 --> 00:07:58,060
because there was literature in them
that had to do with our lives.
132
00:07:58,853 --> 00:08:01,898
I mean,
we were the unspoken, hidden people
133
00:08:01,981 --> 00:08:05,026
that you never talked about
because they were disgusting.
134
00:08:06,944 --> 00:08:09,614
I can't even explain how different it was.
135
00:08:11,616 --> 00:08:15,870
To be a homo was unspeakable, basically.
136
00:08:18,080 --> 00:08:21,083
Porn has always had a place
in the gay community,
137
00:08:21,876 --> 00:08:25,254
because, you know,
we didn't see anything like that.
138
00:08:26,255 --> 00:08:30,468
To see men, you know,
naked and unafraid...
139
00:08:31,636 --> 00:08:33,763
that gave us a lot of pride.
140
00:08:34,722 --> 00:08:37,016
Circus of Books was my first glimpse
141
00:08:37,099 --> 00:08:40,394
into the fact
that I wasn't alone as a gay person.
142
00:08:41,812 --> 00:08:44,649
Being gay back then was not easy,
143
00:08:45,066 --> 00:08:46,817
and this bookstore, you know,
144
00:08:46,901 --> 00:08:50,071
it kept me safe.
It kept me out of harm's way.
145
00:08:59,205 --> 00:09:01,123
How are the sales today?
146
00:09:01,207 --> 00:09:02,667
They're on the slow side.
147
00:09:02,750 --> 00:09:03,751
Then up.
148
00:09:04,252 --> 00:09:05,461
Like every day, huh?
149
00:09:06,045 --> 00:09:08,881
Oh, looks like some
of the VHS might have sold, huh?
150
00:09:08,965 --> 00:09:10,174
- Yeah.
- Did it?
151
00:09:10,883 --> 00:09:12,343
- Yep.
- Somewhat, yeah.
152
00:09:13,553 --> 00:09:16,097
So, I mean, I just see this this morning.
153
00:09:16,180 --> 00:09:20,893
Somebody brought in straight VHS tapes,
and these are in really good condition.
154
00:09:20,977 --> 00:09:23,604
I don't know who's gonna buy
the straight VHS tapes,
155
00:09:23,688 --> 00:09:25,189
but we didn't pay anything.
156
00:09:25,273 --> 00:09:29,110
We traded for books
that we sell for a dollar.
157
00:09:30,403 --> 00:09:33,322
These are pills.
These are called cock rings.
158
00:09:34,115 --> 00:09:36,117
Why is this going over there?
159
00:09:37,118 --> 00:09:39,328
I don't know why this is going over there.
160
00:09:40,496 --> 00:09:41,330
All right.
161
00:09:41,414 --> 00:09:43,791
We got a report of a rat.
162
00:09:44,917 --> 00:09:47,878
So one of the employees this morning
happened to see it
163
00:09:47,962 --> 00:09:52,049
way back here where there is no food,
but we just want to catch it
164
00:09:52,133 --> 00:09:56,721
before he decides to go up front
and grab some of our snacks.
165
00:09:57,847 --> 00:10:01,017
Well, the front of the store
has our most merchandise.
166
00:10:01,726 --> 00:10:06,397
So this guy here, Handjobs magazine,
just stopped publishing.
167
00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:09,025
Now, he does organic chicken farming.
168
00:10:09,108 --> 00:10:12,361
So when I order from him,
we catch up on his chickens.
169
00:10:15,114 --> 00:10:17,283
Okay, so this is our adult section.
170
00:10:18,492 --> 00:10:19,577
Famous.
171
00:10:20,703 --> 00:10:23,289
So, this is
one of our best sections of all.
172
00:10:23,372 --> 00:10:25,625
This is called "Previously Viewed,"
173
00:10:26,250 --> 00:10:28,169
and these are...
174
00:10:29,211 --> 00:10:31,547
hardcore gay DVDs
175
00:10:31,631 --> 00:10:35,051
that customers bought from us
over the years.
176
00:10:35,134 --> 00:10:37,762
I don't know
that this is one of the really good ones.
177
00:10:37,845 --> 00:10:41,807
For a while, we were just doing
buy-one-get-one-free with this sale.
178
00:10:42,433 --> 00:10:46,312
It's called Nude and Rude,
directed by Carl Stanyon.
179
00:10:46,395 --> 00:10:48,814
But even at $3.95,
180
00:10:49,315 --> 00:10:52,026
they're not flying off the shelves.
181
00:10:53,653 --> 00:10:55,446
Some days, I go to work,
182
00:10:55,529 --> 00:10:59,075
and I feel like I'm just moving
the deckchairs on the Titanic.
183
00:10:59,158 --> 00:11:03,120
I take a seven-dollar movie
and reduce it to three dollars,
184
00:11:03,204 --> 00:11:06,832
and I move it from this side of the wall
to that side of the wall.
185
00:11:07,625 --> 00:11:11,545
We're just an aging, ailing business.
186
00:11:13,422 --> 00:11:14,965
She set off to be a journalist,
187
00:11:15,049 --> 00:11:18,219
so she did not set off
to go chart a different course.
188
00:11:19,428 --> 00:11:22,640
But I guess circumstances changed her
from that path.
189
00:11:24,141 --> 00:11:26,352
But if you look at Mom's early reporting,
190
00:11:26,811 --> 00:11:30,272
she interviewed Larry Flynt.
She wrote about smut raids in bookstores.
191
00:11:30,356 --> 00:11:31,356
- Really?
- Yes.
192
00:11:31,399 --> 00:11:32,900
- That was her early reporting?
- Yes.
193
00:11:32,983 --> 00:11:34,360
I had no idea.
194
00:11:34,443 --> 00:11:36,904
Me neither until I found her articles.
195
00:11:40,700 --> 00:11:42,618
Oh, this was our little, um...
196
00:11:43,202 --> 00:11:45,788
staff in Dayton.
197
00:11:47,540 --> 00:11:49,625
Whoa! You dressed kind of sexy actually.
198
00:11:49,709 --> 00:11:52,586
Yeah, I did.
I had a nice figure. Look at that.
199
00:11:54,672 --> 00:11:56,173
Whoa!
200
00:11:57,007 --> 00:11:58,092
What?
201
00:11:59,093 --> 00:12:00,386
- Yeah.
- What?
202
00:12:01,637 --> 00:12:04,432
See, but, Rachel, what are you
gonna do with stuff like this?
203
00:12:04,515 --> 00:12:08,102
I mean, this is just stuff
that I happened to be involved in.
204
00:12:08,185 --> 00:12:11,272
Okay, well, you're not somebody
that makes documentaries.
205
00:12:11,355 --> 00:12:12,565
Well, neither are you.
206
00:12:14,024 --> 00:12:16,444
Well, if you want to take it
and make a collage or...
207
00:12:16,527 --> 00:12:18,607
Mom, I don't know
what I'm gonna do with it.
208
00:12:18,654 --> 00:12:22,616
Just stop criticizing
every little possible turn of events.
209
00:12:23,284 --> 00:12:25,161
I want to find that Flynt article.
210
00:12:27,288 --> 00:12:28,956
Oh, look at this.
211
00:12:29,039 --> 00:12:31,709
"Six arrested in smut raids."
212
00:12:31,792 --> 00:12:32,792
Oh...
213
00:12:33,169 --> 00:12:34,795
So, this could be...
214
00:12:35,629 --> 00:12:38,591
"The judicial system moved
with unusual speed Friday
215
00:12:38,674 --> 00:12:42,678
in the cases of six men charged
with selling obscene material
216
00:12:42,762 --> 00:12:45,765
in downtown Cincinnati
adult book stores."
217
00:12:47,349 --> 00:12:49,560
Karen and I met in high school.
218
00:12:50,519 --> 00:12:53,731
She was outgoing, inquisitive,
219
00:12:53,814 --> 00:12:55,649
interested in everything.
220
00:12:56,275 --> 00:12:59,528
Karen always wanted to be a reporter.
221
00:13:00,821 --> 00:13:05,117
My first real newspaper job was
at the Wall Street Journal in Chicago.
222
00:13:05,201 --> 00:13:08,120
And then I got hired
at the Cincinnati Enquirer.
223
00:13:08,537 --> 00:13:10,289
The editor has arrived.
224
00:13:10,372 --> 00:13:12,958
It's a start of a typical work day
at the newspaper.
225
00:13:13,042 --> 00:13:15,753
I specialized in criminal justice.
226
00:13:17,546 --> 00:13:19,799
My special project was to interview
227
00:13:19,882 --> 00:13:22,802
a Supreme Court Justice
named Potter Stewart,
228
00:13:22,885 --> 00:13:27,223
who's particularly well-known
for his obscenity decision, which said,
229
00:13:27,306 --> 00:13:31,602
"I can't really describe obscenity,
but I know it when I see it."
230
00:13:33,270 --> 00:13:38,234
I interviewed Larry Flynt
for a series on these Hustler bars.
231
00:13:38,317 --> 00:13:40,903
I'm a very unlikely person to be in this,
232
00:13:40,986 --> 00:13:45,449
because if I hadn't have ran away
from home when I was 12 years old,
233
00:13:45,533 --> 00:13:47,576
I'd still be looking a mule up the ass.
234
00:13:47,660 --> 00:13:51,163
It was clear
that he had a pretty big concept,
235
00:13:51,789 --> 00:13:54,625
and it looked like
he was gonna be pretty successful.
236
00:13:56,836 --> 00:13:58,921
What was happening in that picture
237
00:13:59,004 --> 00:14:01,215
where you are looking around a car?
238
00:14:01,924 --> 00:14:04,134
There was somebody in a house,
239
00:14:04,218 --> 00:14:06,470
and they were trying to get him out,
240
00:14:06,554 --> 00:14:08,389
and I think shots were fired.
241
00:14:09,723 --> 00:14:12,852
She always wanted more exciting stories.
242
00:14:13,853 --> 00:14:16,230
She likes things to be hard.
243
00:14:18,399 --> 00:14:21,443
I never expected
to be burned out of journalism,
244
00:14:22,403 --> 00:14:26,907
but a good newspaper story
is very often somebody's tragedy.
245
00:14:28,450 --> 00:14:30,911
I covered plane crashes.
I covered murders.
246
00:14:30,995 --> 00:14:32,788
I covered car accidents.
247
00:14:33,455 --> 00:14:36,333
At some point, you either get very jaded,
248
00:14:36,417 --> 00:14:38,002
or you say, "That's enough."
249
00:14:40,921 --> 00:14:43,215
I came out to LA to visit my parents,
250
00:14:43,299 --> 00:14:47,261
thinking I was gonna go to Alaska
and be a freelance writer.
251
00:14:47,636 --> 00:14:49,430
I never went to Alaska,
252
00:14:49,513 --> 00:14:52,391
and I never did anything
with freelance journalism.
253
00:14:52,850 --> 00:14:54,476
And is that when you met?
254
00:14:54,560 --> 00:14:58,272
We met at a Jewish singles party
in Woodland Hills.
255
00:15:00,190 --> 00:15:03,235
It was pretty dark.
I don't know why it started so late.
256
00:15:03,819 --> 00:15:05,154
As I got to the party,
257
00:15:05,237 --> 00:15:08,282
there were some women leaving,
and they said, "This is terrible party.
258
00:15:08,365 --> 00:15:10,034
Why don't you come with us?"
259
00:15:10,117 --> 00:15:13,829
I said, "Well, I drove all this way.
I think I'll stay for a bit."
260
00:15:15,456 --> 00:15:19,543
I just happened to notice
the light from the end of a cigarette.
261
00:15:20,044 --> 00:15:23,505
I said, "That looks like
it might be a girl up there."
262
00:15:24,757 --> 00:15:27,426
He came over to me,
and we just started talking.
263
00:15:27,968 --> 00:15:30,638
It was a very interesting conversation.
264
00:15:31,347 --> 00:15:33,027
The whole time, I couldn't see her.
265
00:15:33,098 --> 00:15:35,768
I mean, I couldn't see her face.
It was so dark.
266
00:15:37,353 --> 00:15:39,521
He suggested we go for coffee.
267
00:15:39,980 --> 00:15:42,191
When she walked in,
that's first time I saw her.
268
00:15:42,274 --> 00:15:43,567
She looked fine to me.
269
00:15:45,444 --> 00:15:47,905
And then, from then on,
we just went out all the time.
270
00:15:50,616 --> 00:15:52,117
He had a motorcycle.
271
00:15:53,452 --> 00:15:55,496
Mother wasn't crazy about that.
272
00:15:56,330 --> 00:15:58,499
And we got married in seven months.
273
00:15:59,750 --> 00:16:00,876
I had a blue dress.
274
00:16:01,377 --> 00:16:04,171
He had a jacket
that we paid five dollars for.
275
00:16:04,672 --> 00:16:05,899
- It was on sale.
- Yeah.
276
00:16:05,923 --> 00:16:08,258
A lot of stripes, colored stripes.
277
00:16:09,051 --> 00:16:12,262
I remember she said
he's this kind of genius,
278
00:16:12,346 --> 00:16:14,264
inventing gizmos.
279
00:16:16,266 --> 00:16:19,520
I started in UCLA's
Motion Picture Department.
280
00:16:20,145 --> 00:16:24,566
Jim Morrison and his friend Ray Manzarek,
281
00:16:24,650 --> 00:16:26,443
those two hung around together.
282
00:16:26,527 --> 00:16:28,654
And since we were all
in the same department,
283
00:16:28,737 --> 00:16:30,447
we shot movies together.
284
00:16:30,531 --> 00:16:31,573
But what happened?
285
00:16:31,657 --> 00:16:35,619
How come my parents, or the state,
or the university didn't look ahead?
286
00:16:35,703 --> 00:16:39,164
I got my first job in the movies
with Linwood Dunn.
287
00:16:39,665 --> 00:16:41,333
When I first got to work with him,
288
00:16:41,417 --> 00:16:46,088
we were just finishing up special effects
for 2001: A Space Odyssey.
289
00:16:46,171 --> 00:16:48,382
Light it up.
Okay, lights up, gentlemen.
290
00:16:55,723 --> 00:16:59,977
And then Star Trek came along,
and we did that for three years.
291
00:17:05,941 --> 00:17:08,068
They used these optical printers.
292
00:17:08,152 --> 00:17:10,863
That was a very common thing
in special effects.
293
00:17:11,321 --> 00:17:13,991
And since I knew a lot
about color and light,
294
00:17:14,074 --> 00:17:17,161
I invented an accessory
for dialysis machines.
295
00:17:17,244 --> 00:17:20,497
We have to back up
and say his father was a kidney patient.
296
00:17:21,123 --> 00:17:24,126
Okay. So, I invented things for him
and then...
297
00:17:25,044 --> 00:17:27,921
Well, you have to say why.
In those days,
298
00:17:28,005 --> 00:17:32,051
Barry trained running his father's blood
through the machine.
299
00:17:32,134 --> 00:17:35,054
The first night he was home, a tube broke,
and he could have died.
300
00:17:35,137 --> 00:17:36,638
Yeah, he could have died.
301
00:17:36,722 --> 00:17:38,962
I said, "There's no reason
I can't make a little detector
302
00:17:39,016 --> 00:17:43,604
that would detect when the tubing
turned red instead of white."
303
00:17:44,146 --> 00:17:47,608
And so I... figured out a way to do that.
304
00:17:50,235 --> 00:17:54,948
So you actually just applied
your special effects technology skills
305
00:17:55,032 --> 00:17:56,909
to medical devices,
306
00:17:57,618 --> 00:17:59,495
and you had no experience with that?
307
00:17:59,578 --> 00:18:00,578
Yeah.
308
00:18:06,502 --> 00:18:09,963
The technician who had trained me
calls me, and he says,
309
00:18:10,047 --> 00:18:11,840
"Hey, Barry, you gotta quit your job.
310
00:18:11,924 --> 00:18:13,509
Your thing works so good
311
00:18:13,592 --> 00:18:15,803
that I went out,
and I showed it to a company
312
00:18:15,886 --> 00:18:17,721
who makes actual kidney machines,
313
00:18:17,805 --> 00:18:20,891
and they're gonna order 325 of these."
314
00:18:22,518 --> 00:18:27,773
We made a very modest living
as an inventor of dialysis equipment.
315
00:18:28,941 --> 00:18:33,862
But then malpractice insurance
went up $35,000.
316
00:18:33,946 --> 00:18:36,115
Well, at that time,
that's about what I was making.
317
00:18:37,533 --> 00:18:39,326
These doctors, they said,
318
00:18:39,409 --> 00:18:43,080
"Well, if you can't afford the insurance,
we're out."
319
00:18:45,249 --> 00:18:47,334
We were not in a good place at all.
320
00:18:48,919 --> 00:18:53,507
We were starting a family
and needed to make a living somehow.
321
00:18:55,676 --> 00:18:57,803
The basic unit of society
322
00:18:58,262 --> 00:18:59,263
is the family.
323
00:19:01,140 --> 00:19:02,683
And if you destroy that,
324
00:19:03,725 --> 00:19:05,477
you destroy society.
325
00:19:06,019 --> 00:19:09,982
And I'm firmly convinced
that pornography, obscenity
326
00:19:10,357 --> 00:19:11,817
attacks the family.
327
00:19:11,900 --> 00:19:15,612
I decided a long time ago.
If you're gonna be a bear, be a grizzly.
328
00:19:15,696 --> 00:19:17,176
I'm not rolling over and playing dead
329
00:19:17,239 --> 00:19:19,366
for him
or any other prosecutor in America,
330
00:19:19,449 --> 00:19:23,287
because this country belongs to me
as much as it belongs to them.
331
00:19:24,079 --> 00:19:27,332
I spent most of the '70s and '80s
332
00:19:27,416 --> 00:19:30,669
putting out censorship fires
all over the country.
333
00:19:30,752 --> 00:19:33,380
- Hi. It's so good to see you.
- How you doing?
334
00:19:33,463 --> 00:19:36,633
You put out an ad in the L.A. Times
335
00:19:36,717 --> 00:19:38,427
looking for small distributors.
336
00:19:38,510 --> 00:19:43,182
Well, because
the establishment distributors
337
00:19:43,891 --> 00:19:46,852
would not distribute the magazine.
338
00:19:47,269 --> 00:19:52,274
So I went direct to a lot of bookstores
and secondary distributors.
339
00:19:53,192 --> 00:19:57,779
The very day after I sold
all our rights to these machines,
340
00:19:57,863 --> 00:19:59,489
Karen came in.
I hadn't woke up yet.
341
00:19:59,573 --> 00:20:02,784
And she shows me a full-page ad
from Larry Flynt
342
00:20:02,868 --> 00:20:05,954
that says he's looking for distributors.
343
00:20:06,038 --> 00:20:09,166
It was just something else he could do,
because we didn't...
344
00:20:09,583 --> 00:20:12,169
He didn't... have anything to do really.
345
00:20:12,252 --> 00:20:14,129
Yeah, I was...
I was sleeping late, you see,
346
00:20:14,213 --> 00:20:16,215
'cause I didn't have anything
to do that morning...
347
00:20:16,298 --> 00:20:17,841
until she woke me up with the ad.
348
00:20:18,926 --> 00:20:20,260
I spoke to a woman, and she said,
349
00:20:20,344 --> 00:20:24,932
"You just need to send us an order
for 2,500 magazines,"
350
00:20:25,015 --> 00:20:29,144
and they would put us on as a distributor
as long as we had a truck.
351
00:20:29,228 --> 00:20:31,355
And so, I said,
yeah, I had a truck.
352
00:20:31,438 --> 00:20:33,857
Of course, I didn't,
but I could rent a truck.
353
00:20:36,526 --> 00:20:39,988
You don't have the luxury
of not earning a living.
354
00:20:40,072 --> 00:20:42,699
You have to figure out
what you're gonna do.
355
00:20:46,119 --> 00:20:50,040
Barry took our little station wagon
out to the liquor stores in our area.
356
00:20:50,123 --> 00:20:52,963
I would say, "If you can't get it
from your regular distributor,
357
00:20:53,001 --> 00:20:54,044
would you buy it from me?"
358
00:20:54,127 --> 00:20:57,798
And at the end of the day,
I had 2,500 orders.
359
00:20:58,715 --> 00:21:02,678
Your mom and dad
were one of our very first distributors
360
00:21:02,761 --> 00:21:04,179
in this area.
361
00:21:04,263 --> 00:21:06,473
And they grew, and they did very well.
362
00:21:07,391 --> 00:21:09,142
I told Karen, "This was so easy.
363
00:21:09,226 --> 00:21:11,687
Why don't I just see
if I can get more customers?"
364
00:21:11,770 --> 00:21:14,940
We made enough money
that we could just function
365
00:21:15,023 --> 00:21:17,192
while we figured out
what we were gonna do.
366
00:21:18,360 --> 00:21:21,780
Meanwhile, Flynt took over
other magazine companies.
367
00:21:21,863 --> 00:21:24,741
So, now, we had several gay titles.
368
00:21:24,825 --> 00:21:26,326
One. We had Blueboy.
369
00:21:27,035 --> 00:21:32,416
Blueboy was one of the first
really successful gay publications
370
00:21:32,499 --> 00:21:34,251
that was not underground.
371
00:21:35,002 --> 00:21:37,296
They had trouble finding a distributor,
372
00:21:37,379 --> 00:21:38,880
and they came to me.
373
00:21:38,964 --> 00:21:41,008
Then he got other ones,
Honcho and Mandate,
374
00:21:41,091 --> 00:21:43,552
which were all the top gay magazines
at the time.
375
00:21:44,136 --> 00:21:46,221
We had even thousands of titles:
376
00:21:46,305 --> 00:21:49,433
knitting magazines, woodworking, guns,
you name it.
377
00:21:49,516 --> 00:21:51,935
- New York Review of Books.
- Yeah, but fine, good magazines.
378
00:21:52,019 --> 00:21:54,062
We would try
and get the better magazines,
379
00:21:54,479 --> 00:21:56,599
- and they sold it to us.
- What do you mean "better"?
380
00:21:56,648 --> 00:21:58,734
- Like New York Review of Books.
- No.
381
00:21:58,817 --> 00:22:01,903
The New York Review of Books
never sold very well.
382
00:22:01,987 --> 00:22:03,405
What sold well was Hustler.
383
00:22:06,241 --> 00:22:09,453
I remember hearing that
Barry was distributing Hustler magazine,
384
00:22:09,536 --> 00:22:12,622
and Circus of Books, or Book Circus,
was on his route.
385
00:22:13,623 --> 00:22:17,377
The store was taking 600
of all the gay titles.
386
00:22:17,461 --> 00:22:19,588
I mean, I would load the whole truck up
just for them.
387
00:22:19,671 --> 00:22:22,382
Book Circus was not paying
their bills very well.
388
00:22:22,466 --> 00:22:26,094
And so, Barry saw an opportunity
and pounced.
389
00:22:26,636 --> 00:22:29,890
When he stopped paying,
I ran into his manager.
390
00:22:29,973 --> 00:22:32,684
He says,
"He's become a terrible cocaine addict,
391
00:22:32,768 --> 00:22:34,603
and he's not paying anybody."
392
00:22:35,479 --> 00:22:39,524
I got the idea to call the landlord
and offer him half the rent.
393
00:22:40,150 --> 00:22:42,944
So then, we actually were in business,
and there was no more problems,
394
00:22:43,028 --> 00:22:46,823
other than the old owner threatened
to kill me one day, and that was...
395
00:22:46,907 --> 00:22:49,076
But that didn't happen fortunately.
396
00:22:51,828 --> 00:22:54,748
There was this big, fluorescent sign.
It said, "Book Circus,"
397
00:22:54,831 --> 00:22:56,541
and we had to rename it.
398
00:22:56,625 --> 00:22:59,378
I said, "You know what?
We could just cut that sign right in half,
399
00:22:59,461 --> 00:23:04,132
and flop the words around,
and just pay for "of," and...
400
00:23:04,216 --> 00:23:06,301
I didn't know that you switched the sign.
401
00:23:06,385 --> 00:23:09,805
I mean, that's kind of like
our whole philosophy of retail.
402
00:23:09,888 --> 00:23:14,351
How can we do this cheap?
Because it may not work.
403
00:23:15,352 --> 00:23:16,895
I mean, if you look at the store,
404
00:23:18,021 --> 00:23:20,273
it's all kind of falling apart now.
405
00:23:22,818 --> 00:23:26,613
Don't Drop the Soap.
Let me see what it says about that one.
406
00:23:27,447 --> 00:23:28,949
What are you looking for?
407
00:23:29,032 --> 00:23:31,326
I'm just trying to find
408
00:23:32,077 --> 00:23:35,997
something that isn't quite as explicit.
409
00:23:36,081 --> 00:23:37,165
What does he want?
410
00:23:37,249 --> 00:23:42,129
He wants a white man
and no penetration, he said.
411
00:23:43,797 --> 00:23:46,091
Do these guys look white to you, Jorge?
412
00:23:47,843 --> 00:23:50,095
- Yeah, they're white, all of them.
- White? All of them?
413
00:23:50,178 --> 00:23:51,388
Okay, good.
414
00:23:52,097 --> 00:23:54,558
Okay, so we'll take this one.
415
00:23:55,308 --> 00:23:57,060
Do these guys look white?
416
00:23:59,020 --> 00:24:03,191
See, all these boxes are full of DVDs.
417
00:24:06,319 --> 00:24:09,739
We made all the titles in this list here.
418
00:24:09,823 --> 00:24:13,076
- You guys made all of those?
- Yeah, those sent you to college.
419
00:24:13,160 --> 00:24:15,412
These are the videos
that sent me to college?
420
00:24:15,495 --> 00:24:17,080
They certainly helped.
421
00:24:21,001 --> 00:24:22,711
What year were most of these made?
422
00:24:22,794 --> 00:24:25,130
Oh, you can't photograph
those model releases.
423
00:24:25,213 --> 00:24:27,299
Mom, I'm just photographing
the title names.
424
00:24:27,382 --> 00:24:29,301
Okay, you gotta stop filming, Rachel.
425
00:24:34,347 --> 00:24:35,932
So, now, Mom?
426
00:24:36,016 --> 00:24:38,059
So, where we're going now is to this...
427
00:24:38,143 --> 00:24:42,898
It's called Adult...
ANME, Adult Novelty and...
428
00:24:44,483 --> 00:24:46,568
something Expo. ANME, yeah.
429
00:24:47,319 --> 00:24:50,197
And then I'm not going to this ever again.
It's the last time.
430
00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:51,114
Why?
431
00:24:51,198 --> 00:24:53,241
Because I don't like it.
432
00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:58,872
She said we're gonna meet in the lobby,
but I don't know where the lobby is.
433
00:24:58,955 --> 00:25:02,083
Can you just stop for one second,
so I can put this mic on you?
434
00:25:04,127 --> 00:25:07,380
You can't just keep telling me
what I can and can't do.
435
00:25:07,464 --> 00:25:09,549
I run a little business,
436
00:25:10,133 --> 00:25:13,929
and I don't usually
have to answer to people.
437
00:25:21,770 --> 00:25:23,897
- Ellen's here.
- Oh, hey, Ellen.
438
00:25:24,314 --> 00:25:25,732
I brought you an order.
439
00:25:26,650 --> 00:25:27,484
Excuse me.
440
00:25:27,567 --> 00:25:30,737
Yeah, I came...
This is a bigger camera than last time.
441
00:25:31,196 --> 00:25:32,864
I didn't wanna poke myself in the head.
442
00:25:32,948 --> 00:25:34,991
Okay, this is an order.
443
00:25:35,075 --> 00:25:36,159
- Okay?
- Okay.
444
00:25:36,243 --> 00:25:38,161
What kind of a special
do you have this time?
445
00:25:38,245 --> 00:25:39,680
- I got a big special for you.
- Okay.
446
00:25:39,704 --> 00:25:41,344
This gets rid of herpes, destroys herpes.
447
00:25:41,414 --> 00:25:44,584
Okay, we didn't do good with the...
We didn't do good...
448
00:25:45,043 --> 00:25:47,170
Just give us the stuff we always sell.
449
00:25:47,254 --> 00:25:49,756
We're not doing good with new stuff.
450
00:25:49,839 --> 00:25:51,800
The other thing that I have
that everybody likes,
451
00:25:51,883 --> 00:25:54,135
it's the lube, is the anal lube.
452
00:25:54,844 --> 00:25:57,847
- Which one is that?
- It's this one.
453
00:25:58,473 --> 00:26:00,433
I mean, it's doing really well.
It's our silicone.
454
00:26:00,517 --> 00:26:01,717
It's anal lube. It's silicone.
455
00:26:01,768 --> 00:26:03,520
It's got clove in it,
so it's kinda numbing.
456
00:26:03,603 --> 00:26:04,603
So it's not gonna tear...
457
00:26:04,646 --> 00:26:06,486
- Okay, but do you have a smaller size?
- Yeah.
458
00:26:06,523 --> 00:26:09,609
- Okay, so send me, like, 12.
- It comes in a fishbowl.
459
00:26:09,693 --> 00:26:10,569
Okay, all right.
460
00:26:10,652 --> 00:26:11,796
- You want a fishbowl?
- Yeah.
461
00:26:11,820 --> 00:26:13,420
- Okay, so just add that.
- I'll do that.
462
00:26:13,446 --> 00:26:15,532
Okay, that's a nice order, Ellen.
463
00:26:16,116 --> 00:26:18,827
We're placing an order
for those pills from China.
464
00:26:18,910 --> 00:26:20,870
I guess you only have 200 left.
465
00:26:20,954 --> 00:26:23,164
We got lots. I bought lots.
We received a lot.
466
00:26:23,248 --> 00:26:25,792
Okay, is that still selling okay?
'Cause, uh... Hello.
467
00:26:25,875 --> 00:26:27,127
- How are you?
- Okay.
468
00:26:27,210 --> 00:26:29,212
- Good to see you. How's everything?
- Okay.
469
00:26:29,296 --> 00:26:30,213
Yeah?
470
00:26:30,297 --> 00:26:31,464
How's Barry doing?
471
00:26:31,548 --> 00:26:32,882
He's good, yeah.
472
00:26:32,966 --> 00:26:35,010
What happened to Frankie?
473
00:26:35,093 --> 00:26:37,363
- Are you Circus of Books in LA?
- Yeah.
474
00:26:37,387 --> 00:26:38,805
I've been to your stores.
475
00:26:38,888 --> 00:26:39,973
- You're the owner?
- Yeah.
476
00:26:40,056 --> 00:26:41,516
- Whoa! Good for you!
- Yeah.
477
00:26:42,350 --> 00:26:43,350
Hello.
478
00:26:43,852 --> 00:26:47,105
All right, so what do you have
besides a good name?
479
00:26:47,522 --> 00:26:50,025
Yeah, this is gay, right?
480
00:26:50,108 --> 00:26:52,819
- Or not necessarily?
- Uh... Not necessarily.
481
00:26:52,902 --> 00:26:54,279
- Clamps...
- Okay.
482
00:26:54,362 --> 00:26:57,198
Don't explain anything to me. Just, uh...
483
00:26:57,282 --> 00:27:00,869
If it's not for gay, then that's
the reason we didn't do any business.
484
00:27:00,952 --> 00:27:03,014
What's something
that would do well for you?
485
00:27:03,038 --> 00:27:05,832
Here, like this whole wall of stuff.
486
00:27:05,915 --> 00:27:08,293
But I don't particularly enjoy
looking at it,
487
00:27:08,376 --> 00:27:11,796
so I can notice it without looking at it.
488
00:27:12,756 --> 00:27:15,383
So, this wall
would probably do well for us,
489
00:27:15,467 --> 00:27:16,676
whatever it is.
490
00:27:17,927 --> 00:27:19,929
- That's it. Now, can we go?
- Yeah.
491
00:27:23,516 --> 00:27:26,811
We hired the people
who ran the store for the old owners,
492
00:27:26,895 --> 00:27:30,106
and they really taught us
what we needed to know
493
00:27:30,190 --> 00:27:34,152
about how to get the merchandise,
which was the key to the whole thing.
494
00:27:34,861 --> 00:27:38,490
I'm one of the buyers
for the condoms, the lubricants,
495
00:27:38,573 --> 00:27:40,325
and some of the sale video.
496
00:27:40,742 --> 00:27:43,036
They pretty much let me decide.
497
00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:46,081
You know, and if I make mistakes,
it's no big deal.
498
00:27:46,164 --> 00:27:49,417
Karen and Barry were the absolute best.
499
00:27:50,001 --> 00:27:51,920
They were so good to me.
500
00:27:52,420 --> 00:27:55,590
It was always my dream
to work in a porn store.
501
00:27:55,674 --> 00:27:59,844
I'm a weirdo
and kind of a pervert, I guess.
502
00:27:59,928 --> 00:28:02,972
The heyday of this place
was really, really jammin'.
503
00:28:03,556 --> 00:28:06,893
People spent money on books,
magazines, you know,
504
00:28:06,976 --> 00:28:08,478
whatever they wanted to.
505
00:28:08,561 --> 00:28:09,813
Within the month, we opened,
506
00:28:09,896 --> 00:28:12,816
and the first day,
the store did over $1,000.
507
00:28:16,361 --> 00:28:18,655
You got your magazines
on that side of the store,
508
00:28:18,738 --> 00:28:21,700
and your real graphic,
adult magazines were on this side.
509
00:28:25,328 --> 00:28:28,998
There was an alley behind Circus of Books
called Vaseline Alley.
510
00:28:29,082 --> 00:28:31,876
Every community
that has a big gay population
511
00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:33,753
has a Vaseline Alley.
512
00:28:34,587 --> 00:28:37,549
It was a place where gay sex happens.
513
00:28:38,091 --> 00:28:42,345
I lost my virginity in the alley
behind Circus of Books...
514
00:28:42,429 --> 00:28:43,847
with a cop in training.
515
00:28:43,930 --> 00:28:47,142
I mean, this was, like,
every queer boy's wet dream.
516
00:28:47,767 --> 00:28:49,310
On my first night here,
517
00:28:49,394 --> 00:28:51,146
there's this guy in that corner...
518
00:28:51,229 --> 00:28:53,481
This is not even on the adult side.
519
00:28:53,565 --> 00:28:56,568
...with his pants down, stroking.
520
00:28:57,318 --> 00:29:00,405
And I'm like,
"Son of a bitch! My first night here,
521
00:29:00,488 --> 00:29:01,488
and this happens."
522
00:29:01,948 --> 00:29:04,159
You could walk back to the back room,
523
00:29:04,242 --> 00:29:07,495
and there were some steps to the attic,
524
00:29:07,579 --> 00:29:08,579
and...
525
00:29:09,456 --> 00:29:11,249
I had sex in the attic.
526
00:29:11,332 --> 00:29:13,793
Not full-on sex in the attic, but...
527
00:29:13,877 --> 00:29:15,628
I've never even been up there.
528
00:29:16,546 --> 00:29:18,923
I didn't even know that existed.
529
00:29:19,466 --> 00:29:21,092
I missed out, man.
530
00:29:21,843 --> 00:29:23,843
Did you ever hear
about any of that stuff?
531
00:29:24,721 --> 00:29:28,308
You know, I heard about it,
but I didn't think they were so crazy.
532
00:29:28,391 --> 00:29:30,435
The whole operation was a little goofy,
533
00:29:30,518 --> 00:29:33,271
so it would have
to be something incredible
534
00:29:33,354 --> 00:29:36,441
for me to find it really crazy.
535
00:29:36,524 --> 00:29:39,110
When Barry walked in, you didn't change.
536
00:29:39,194 --> 00:29:41,321
You still continued reading a magazine.
537
00:29:41,404 --> 00:29:42,947
"Hey, Barry, how's it going?"
538
00:29:43,031 --> 00:29:45,158
When Karen walked in, phew,
539
00:29:45,241 --> 00:29:47,660
that magazine flew to the back.
540
00:29:48,161 --> 00:29:49,921
Your dad has always been
the very mellow one.
541
00:29:49,996 --> 00:29:52,582
He's not the one
that wears the pants in the family.
542
00:29:53,416 --> 00:29:55,043
I shouldn't say that on camera.
543
00:29:55,543 --> 00:29:59,422
They were very, like,
no-bullshit, no-nonsense.
544
00:29:59,506 --> 00:30:03,176
"If you steal from us, you will be fired,
and that's that."
545
00:30:04,260 --> 00:30:07,305
In the '80s, adult material was expensive,
546
00:30:07,388 --> 00:30:09,849
and it was illegal in some places,
547
00:30:09,933 --> 00:30:12,227
and if you could sell it,
you could make a lot of money.
548
00:30:15,730 --> 00:30:17,482
A manager said to us,
549
00:30:17,565 --> 00:30:21,069
"You should open a Circus of Books
in Silver Lake,
550
00:30:21,152 --> 00:30:24,447
and this will become your biggest store,"
and it did.
551
00:30:26,533 --> 00:30:29,202
They're not offended.
They're not scandalized.
552
00:30:29,285 --> 00:30:30,161
It's their job.
553
00:30:30,245 --> 00:30:33,248
It's like they're selling apples
at an apple cart.
554
00:30:34,833 --> 00:30:37,544
I don't think we had
any misgivings about doing it.
555
00:30:37,627 --> 00:30:40,463
We just felt
it was gonna be a very temporary thing
556
00:30:40,547 --> 00:30:44,676
until something came along that was, um...
557
00:30:46,553 --> 00:30:47,553
more substantial.
558
00:30:47,595 --> 00:30:51,933
Because, I mean, we're college graduates,
and we had careers.
559
00:30:52,851 --> 00:30:55,854
That was, like, not anything
anyone would do,
560
00:30:55,937 --> 00:30:58,773
and we certainly wouldn't tell anyone
we were doing it.
561
00:30:59,274 --> 00:31:02,610
So then what led you
to start making the adult movies?
562
00:31:03,611 --> 00:31:04,445
Oh...
563
00:31:04,529 --> 00:31:07,490
This way just a tad.
There you go. Yeah, that's it.
564
00:31:07,574 --> 00:31:12,161
Somebody knew a very famous
hardcore gay movie producer,
565
00:31:12,245 --> 00:31:13,371
Matt Sterling.
566
00:31:14,247 --> 00:31:16,541
He was looking
for a legitimate distributor
567
00:31:16,624 --> 00:31:17,750
who he could trust.
568
00:31:17,834 --> 00:31:22,088
And he was coming out with this new movie,
which no doubt was gonna be a hit,
569
00:31:22,171 --> 00:31:24,731
because it was also gonna star
that, at that time, very famous...
570
00:31:24,799 --> 00:31:26,593
- Jeff Stryker.
- Jeff Stryker.
571
00:31:26,676 --> 00:31:29,196
- Who was already famous.
- Who was very famous.
572
00:31:29,220 --> 00:31:33,099
I mean, Jeff Stryker was, like,
a superstar of gay porn.
573
00:31:33,224 --> 00:31:35,268
He was one of the biggest, you know.
574
00:31:35,351 --> 00:31:36,603
No pun intended.
575
00:31:37,812 --> 00:31:39,731
♪ Lookin' so good, feelin' good ♪
576
00:31:39,814 --> 00:31:41,983
♪ When you know things are going right ♪
577
00:31:43,943 --> 00:31:46,279
Are you willing to give me
whatever I want?
578
00:31:46,654 --> 00:31:47,654
Anything.
579
00:31:48,698 --> 00:31:51,409
♪ 'Cause I know who I am ♪
580
00:31:51,868 --> 00:31:54,412
♪ I'll do all I can now ♪
581
00:31:54,996 --> 00:31:58,249
♪ I'm a new man, dreams have come true ♪
582
00:32:00,001 --> 00:32:01,586
♪ Bigger than life ♪
583
00:32:03,755 --> 00:32:05,089
♪ Yeah! ♪
584
00:32:07,842 --> 00:32:11,721
Hello. My name is Jeff Stryker, and...
585
00:32:13,014 --> 00:32:14,933
here I am.
586
00:32:15,016 --> 00:32:17,936
This is the Jeff Stryker action figure.
587
00:32:18,311 --> 00:32:21,814
It's 12 inches tall, anatomically correct,
588
00:32:21,898 --> 00:32:24,275
and the penis is pose-able.
589
00:32:26,152 --> 00:32:29,697
That's what I got over... an edge on Ken.
590
00:32:30,740 --> 00:32:33,409
You would never expect these people
591
00:32:33,493 --> 00:32:36,788
to be distributing adult movies worldwide,
592
00:32:37,163 --> 00:32:40,291
but they looked at it
the same way I looked at it.
593
00:32:40,375 --> 00:32:42,043
You're creating a product,
594
00:32:42,460 --> 00:32:44,671
and it's the supply and demand.
595
00:32:44,754 --> 00:32:46,631
It's just business sense.
596
00:32:47,423 --> 00:32:50,343
It was strictly an opportunity.
597
00:32:50,802 --> 00:32:53,763
So we started a business, um...
598
00:32:54,597 --> 00:33:00,520
that made hardcore gay... films.
599
00:33:07,110 --> 00:33:08,528
They made Stryker Force,
600
00:33:08,987 --> 00:33:11,280
and it was hard to keep up
with the demand.
601
00:33:13,908 --> 00:33:15,410
People were calling us
602
00:33:16,035 --> 00:33:18,746
and insisting we ship them
the tape already.
603
00:33:18,830 --> 00:33:21,290
I said, "I don't even have it yet.
I can't ship it to you."
604
00:33:21,374 --> 00:33:23,251
It was like a panic to get this tape.
605
00:33:25,336 --> 00:33:27,880
In fact, we had him at our store
signing the tapes,
606
00:33:27,964 --> 00:33:29,716
and there's a big line of customers.
607
00:33:29,799 --> 00:33:33,511
Barry would bring stack after stack
of these boxes,
608
00:33:33,594 --> 00:33:36,723
and I would sign
as long as they could supply them.
609
00:33:38,725 --> 00:33:41,227
Other people,
when they knew we were distributing,
610
00:33:41,310 --> 00:33:44,022
they would come to us too and say,
"Would you do ours?"
611
00:33:44,105 --> 00:33:48,192
Of course, by then, we'd hired
another fellow to sell the tapes.
612
00:33:48,276 --> 00:33:50,587
Barry and Karen were behind the scenes,
613
00:33:50,611 --> 00:33:53,031
they wanted somebody like me
to be their front man for them.
614
00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:55,408
When we first started,
615
00:33:55,491 --> 00:33:57,910
we might have been releasing one movie
every six weeks.
616
00:33:57,994 --> 00:34:00,121
And somewhere in the middle of that,
617
00:34:00,204 --> 00:34:02,165
we were releasing two movies a week.
618
00:34:03,416 --> 00:34:06,127
It was like riding a tiger,
we used to say.
619
00:34:09,213 --> 00:34:11,841
So many companies wanted
to do business with them
620
00:34:11,924 --> 00:34:15,011
because they're good, honest,
trustworthy people,
621
00:34:15,094 --> 00:34:17,722
and in the adult industry,
622
00:34:17,805 --> 00:34:20,475
that was a rare bird at the time.
623
00:34:20,558 --> 00:34:23,394
This is one of the compilations
I made for Barry and Karen.
624
00:34:23,478 --> 00:34:26,147
It's called Rimnastics Gold Part 2.
625
00:34:26,230 --> 00:34:29,734
"Video 10 Distributors has uncovered
even more hot rimming scenes
626
00:34:29,817 --> 00:34:32,612
to bring you Rimnastics Gold Part 2.
627
00:34:32,695 --> 00:34:35,865
It's more than fantastic.
Its rim-tastic."
628
00:34:35,948 --> 00:34:38,201
Sorry. Oh, my God!
629
00:34:39,118 --> 00:34:41,954
It never felt like
we were getting into pornography.
630
00:34:42,038 --> 00:34:44,248
We were just getting
into a different business
631
00:34:44,332 --> 00:34:46,709
that was related
to the business we were already in.
632
00:34:47,210 --> 00:34:48,795
We never saw any of those movies.
633
00:34:54,634 --> 00:34:57,887
At one point,
we were probably the biggest distributor
634
00:34:57,970 --> 00:35:01,682
of hardcore gay films
in the United States.
635
00:35:03,226 --> 00:35:06,979
It was a very lucrative market,
636
00:35:07,063 --> 00:35:09,816
but you really took major chances,
637
00:35:09,899 --> 00:35:13,361
major chances of imprisonment
638
00:35:13,444 --> 00:35:18,199
in any part of, uh, the adult movies.
639
00:35:19,408 --> 00:35:21,702
Adult material, especially at that time,
640
00:35:21,786 --> 00:35:24,372
was a pretty polarizing thing.
641
00:35:25,331 --> 00:35:29,085
There were always people on the right
642
00:35:29,168 --> 00:35:32,839
who looked out
for things they could demonize.
643
00:35:32,922 --> 00:35:37,093
Obscene publications are socially harmful.
644
00:35:37,176 --> 00:35:39,804
The Department of Justice says
that pornography is a problem
645
00:35:39,887 --> 00:35:42,056
that pervades all levels of society.
646
00:35:42,140 --> 00:35:44,934
Should therefore be solved
by all levels of government.
647
00:35:45,017 --> 00:35:49,605
Their anti-porn plan is expected
to involve state and local participation.
648
00:35:49,689 --> 00:35:53,818
This was led by Meese,
the Attorney General for Ronald Reagan.
649
00:35:55,862 --> 00:35:57,321
This administration is putting
650
00:35:57,405 --> 00:35:59,991
the purveyors of illegal obscenity
on notice.
651
00:36:05,705 --> 00:36:08,666
I never felt free
to let anybody know what we did.
652
00:36:10,585 --> 00:36:13,588
I don't think you would have cared,
but I didn't want it.
653
00:36:13,671 --> 00:36:16,716
Right, I just didn't talk
'cause she didn't want me to.
654
00:36:17,258 --> 00:36:19,343
She preferred that I not tell people.
655
00:36:22,054 --> 00:36:23,848
If you went somewhere,
and you said,
656
00:36:23,931 --> 00:36:25,183
"Well, I own Circus of Books,"
657
00:36:25,266 --> 00:36:28,227
people would say to you,
"Oh, I don't have any problem with that."
658
00:36:28,311 --> 00:36:30,521
So, it was like you were being judged.
659
00:36:30,605 --> 00:36:33,691
I mean, you don't go up to somebody
when they say they're a teacher
660
00:36:33,774 --> 00:36:36,068
and say,
"I don't have any problem with that."
661
00:36:36,152 --> 00:36:38,352
Or, "I'm a lawyer."
"I don't have any problem with that"
662
00:36:38,404 --> 00:36:41,574
But they would say that to us.
"I don't have any problem with that."
663
00:36:41,657 --> 00:36:45,036
And they probably did have a problem
with that. I had a problem with that.
664
00:36:46,621 --> 00:36:52,001
Karen's problem with the whole
sexually-explicit inventory,
665
00:36:52,084 --> 00:36:55,588
a lot of it, I think,
has to do with her faith.
666
00:36:56,547 --> 00:37:00,092
She was raised
in a conservative household.
667
00:37:00,927 --> 00:37:04,680
She loves to be
in synagogue all day praying.
668
00:37:07,642 --> 00:37:09,977
Well, I always say we're a mixed marriage,
669
00:37:10,061 --> 00:37:13,147
because I'm the religious person,
and he's not.
670
00:37:13,231 --> 00:37:16,692
He doesn't particularly like
anything very spiritual, I don't think.
671
00:37:17,276 --> 00:37:18,903
- Pretty accurate.
- Yeah.
672
00:37:22,823 --> 00:37:24,700
We've always belonged to a synagogue.
673
00:37:25,243 --> 00:37:27,995
Although, the synagogues never knew
what we were doing.
674
00:37:28,746 --> 00:37:31,958
She was very afraid
that the business, if it got out,
675
00:37:32,041 --> 00:37:34,377
would impact those relationships.
676
00:37:38,256 --> 00:37:42,426
Do you feel like we had a lot
of, like, religious education or...
677
00:37:42,843 --> 00:37:44,720
So, I feel it was really complicated.
678
00:37:46,722 --> 00:37:47,640
Mom was kind of caught
679
00:37:47,723 --> 00:37:51,852
between this stuffy,
conservative synagogue.
680
00:37:53,145 --> 00:37:54,897
But that's what she was born with.
681
00:37:55,815 --> 00:37:58,192
And us growing up in West Hollywood,
682
00:37:58,609 --> 00:38:01,153
which is just really secular
and liberal...
683
00:38:02,655 --> 00:38:06,951
So, I feel like
it was kind of forced on us...
684
00:38:07,952 --> 00:38:09,537
and not in a soft way.
685
00:38:10,288 --> 00:38:12,164
Mom's usual force of nature,
686
00:38:12,248 --> 00:38:14,333
"You are going to Sunday school"
kind of way.
687
00:38:14,417 --> 00:38:17,297
Just go ahead. You have
the Torah out. You have to be respectful.
688
00:38:17,336 --> 00:38:20,089
Now, come on. Find your...
Come back here and find your spot.
689
00:38:20,172 --> 00:38:21,465
But, Mom...
690
00:38:21,549 --> 00:38:23,634
Find your spot.
691
00:38:25,928 --> 00:38:29,181
My reaction
to a lot of the pressure was to be quiet.
692
00:38:30,975 --> 00:38:32,268
I know you fought with Mom a lot
693
00:38:32,351 --> 00:38:34,729
'cause you wouldn't dress
the way she wanted you to.
694
00:38:35,688 --> 00:38:37,023
Definitely did your own thing.
695
00:38:41,152 --> 00:38:43,279
But I'm guessing Josh's reaction was,
696
00:38:43,362 --> 00:38:45,922
"Fine, I'm doing what I'm gonna do,
and I'm gonna do it perfect."
697
00:38:48,617 --> 00:38:55,082
I think I absorbed the most
of Mom's ambition towards perfection.
698
00:38:57,126 --> 00:39:02,381
I was always looking
to give a positive image to them,
699
00:39:02,465 --> 00:39:03,841
to everyone else.
700
00:39:04,550 --> 00:39:06,427
Use your power! Kick the thing!
701
00:39:06,844 --> 00:39:09,388
Just spread out, Joshua. All right!
702
00:39:09,472 --> 00:39:11,474
Get the ball!
703
00:39:12,516 --> 00:39:14,727
I wanted to be perfect.
704
00:39:18,522 --> 00:39:21,817
Do you remember writing this book
when you were a kid?
705
00:39:21,901 --> 00:39:22,735
Don't remember it.
706
00:39:22,818 --> 00:39:26,280
It's called Boy by Joshua Mason.
707
00:39:27,656 --> 00:39:31,118
"In the future, my family would consist
of my beautiful wife,
708
00:39:31,827 --> 00:39:32,995
me, and my three kids.
709
00:39:33,537 --> 00:39:37,083
I would live in a world so close to heaven
it would be unreal."
710
00:39:37,875 --> 00:39:38,875
Oh, my God!
711
00:39:43,130 --> 00:39:47,301
I distinctly remember
"gay" being a bad word.
712
00:39:49,637 --> 00:39:52,556
It was one of those words
that you used about bad things.
713
00:39:56,185 --> 00:39:59,522
I definitely perceived that it was wrong.
714
00:40:08,656 --> 00:40:09,657
All right.
715
00:40:10,741 --> 00:40:12,159
Keys for her store.
716
00:40:12,827 --> 00:40:15,788
- Tom's gonna pull another 100 today.
- Oh!
717
00:40:15,871 --> 00:40:16,956
And over the weekend.
718
00:40:18,249 --> 00:40:20,334
This used to be ten times more than this.
719
00:40:20,418 --> 00:40:22,420
I know. It seems like it's hardly any now.
720
00:40:22,503 --> 00:40:24,672
That's it. There's still a lot,
721
00:40:24,755 --> 00:40:26,966
but it's not nearly as much
as it used to be.
722
00:40:27,049 --> 00:40:30,428
Yeah. Did you know
many of the people in these films?
723
00:40:30,511 --> 00:40:33,305
Uh, I know some of the more famous ones.
724
00:40:33,389 --> 00:40:35,599
The Matt Sterling one,
that was a very famous one,
725
00:40:35,683 --> 00:40:38,769
and Jeff Stryker,
he was a very famous guy.
726
00:40:38,853 --> 00:40:41,730
- What happened to Matt Sterling?
- Died. He died.
727
00:40:41,814 --> 00:40:44,108
Yeah, I know a lot
of the producers of them.
728
00:40:44,191 --> 00:40:46,527
How many people would you think died
729
00:40:47,027 --> 00:40:48,821
in, like, a lot of these movies?
730
00:40:48,904 --> 00:40:51,949
A lot. When AIDS was going around,
a lot of them died then.
731
00:40:52,032 --> 00:40:55,161
How old were a lot of them?
Like, what would the average age be?
732
00:40:55,244 --> 00:40:58,038
In their 20s and 30s maybe.
733
00:40:58,539 --> 00:41:00,749
Those would be the ones
I would see in the hospice,
734
00:41:00,833 --> 00:41:02,501
those guys I knew or...
735
00:41:03,419 --> 00:41:05,754
But a lot of them didn't do that.
I didn't even know.
736
00:41:05,838 --> 00:41:06,838
They would just go home,
737
00:41:06,881 --> 00:41:09,383
maybe back to Wisconsin
or wherever they were from,
738
00:41:10,009 --> 00:41:12,428
and, uh... that was it.
739
00:41:14,472 --> 00:41:20,186
Barry and Karen enjoyed
a strange, freakish vantage point
740
00:41:20,269 --> 00:41:24,190
to bear witness to the epidemic
without being part of it.
741
00:41:24,815 --> 00:41:26,817
I mean, my God! They ran a sex business.
742
00:41:27,818 --> 00:41:31,363
That was the locus of the population
of the people that were dying.
743
00:41:33,199 --> 00:41:37,328
Nobody knew
what it was caused from at first,
744
00:41:37,912 --> 00:41:39,872
and people were avoiding each other.
745
00:41:42,333 --> 00:41:44,293
We just didn't understand it.
746
00:41:46,587 --> 00:41:50,424
We were afraid of each other.
747
00:41:50,966 --> 00:41:52,801
More than 800 cases nationwide,
748
00:41:52,885 --> 00:41:56,680
and yet still
surprisingly few people are familiar
749
00:41:56,764 --> 00:41:59,266
with the Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome.
750
00:42:00,017 --> 00:42:02,561
The reason for that may lie in part
751
00:42:02,645 --> 00:42:05,314
in the character
of its most common victims,
752
00:42:05,397 --> 00:42:09,443
homosexual males
who frequently change sexual partners.
753
00:42:15,533 --> 00:42:17,618
We lost so many of our employees,
754
00:42:17,701 --> 00:42:21,038
and nice people.
I mean really nice people.
755
00:42:21,914 --> 00:42:24,375
Talented, bright, young.
756
00:42:25,918 --> 00:42:28,379
It was a real, real tragedy.
757
00:42:29,713 --> 00:42:32,883
Ninety percent
of the people I knew at that time
758
00:42:33,551 --> 00:42:34,969
are no longer here.
759
00:42:37,513 --> 00:42:43,185
I remember Barry
visiting an employee who was in bed.
760
00:42:45,312 --> 00:42:49,275
We would call the parents and say,
"Hey, your son is sick.
761
00:42:49,358 --> 00:42:51,068
Don't you wanna come and..."
762
00:42:51,151 --> 00:42:53,279
A lot of them would just say,
"No, I don't.
763
00:42:53,362 --> 00:42:56,490
I kicked him out.
I never wanna see the guy again."
764
00:42:56,949 --> 00:42:58,409
I'd say, "But he's your son."
765
00:43:00,703 --> 00:43:02,496
I was just so surprised
766
00:43:02,580 --> 00:43:05,165
that the parents could be so bad
to their children.
767
00:43:05,749 --> 00:43:07,668
And I didn't think
about the gay part of it.
768
00:43:07,751 --> 00:43:09,587
It was just their children.
769
00:43:15,926 --> 00:43:20,806
The employee who worked
so closely with us to open that store
770
00:43:21,432 --> 00:43:23,601
went home on a Friday
771
00:43:24,143 --> 00:43:25,894
and died on Monday.
772
00:43:26,520 --> 00:43:29,773
We were working with him until...
773
00:43:30,524 --> 00:43:34,403
literally, until he passed away.
774
00:43:36,155 --> 00:43:40,993
And I remember taking a call
from his mother after he died.
775
00:43:42,119 --> 00:43:45,331
She wasn't in touch with him
during that period,
776
00:43:45,414 --> 00:43:49,043
and I think she was feeling bad.
I don't know what she wanted from me.
777
00:43:49,126 --> 00:43:51,086
But she should have visited him.
778
00:43:51,920 --> 00:43:54,840
- It was a horrible, horrible time.
- Yeah, really bad time.
779
00:43:57,343 --> 00:43:59,345
I remember going to the store
780
00:43:59,428 --> 00:44:03,599
and being like, "Oh, where's so-and-so?"
"Oh, he just died."
781
00:44:05,351 --> 00:44:06,477
Something seemed...
782
00:44:07,519 --> 00:44:09,730
like a horror about that to me,
783
00:44:09,813 --> 00:44:11,940
but I didn't understand it
till much later.
784
00:44:12,024 --> 00:44:15,069
I know they supported the gay community.
785
00:44:15,152 --> 00:44:17,321
I mean, they didn't set out to,
but they did.
786
00:44:17,404 --> 00:44:22,451
They were not gonna let
other forces tell them what to do.
787
00:44:24,036 --> 00:44:27,331
I think what we did was
small, human kindnesses
788
00:44:27,414 --> 00:44:28,832
in a very small way.
789
00:44:32,419 --> 00:44:35,923
Government officials
will very often use pornography
790
00:44:36,006 --> 00:44:41,345
as a means of deflecting attention away
from their failures to do something.
791
00:44:43,472 --> 00:44:46,934
Attorney General Meese
accepted the pornography report today.
792
00:44:47,017 --> 00:44:53,065
Obscenity, that illegal activity,
it is not the kind of thing
793
00:44:53,148 --> 00:44:56,151
that is subject
to the protection of the First Amendment.
794
00:44:56,235 --> 00:44:59,321
When that Meese commission was on,
I would read about it all the time,
795
00:44:59,405 --> 00:45:02,366
and it was a totally stacked deck.
796
00:45:02,449 --> 00:45:05,994
Everybody that testified
was anti-pornography people.
797
00:45:06,995 --> 00:45:11,166
So, the outcome was absolutely assured.
They were just gonna say it was no good.
798
00:45:11,250 --> 00:45:13,001
Opponents say the commission
799
00:45:13,085 --> 00:45:15,629
is using a half-million dollar report
to moralize.
800
00:45:15,713 --> 00:45:19,967
The government is attempting
to obtain self-censorship
801
00:45:20,050 --> 00:45:23,470
by the threat
of these draconian sanctions.
802
00:45:23,929 --> 00:45:26,557
They had a multi-million dollar task force
803
00:45:26,640 --> 00:45:28,559
with all the money they needed
804
00:45:28,642 --> 00:45:30,561
with one mission, you know,
805
00:45:31,103 --> 00:45:34,273
to control people's reading
and viewing habits
806
00:45:34,356 --> 00:45:37,693
and their sexual habits if they could.
807
00:45:37,776 --> 00:45:40,946
Isn't it about time
we remove the profit motive
808
00:45:41,029 --> 00:45:43,490
from activities that are sick and obscene?
809
00:45:49,747 --> 00:45:51,832
One of the things you did in those days,
810
00:45:52,624 --> 00:45:56,962
was you only sold movies
to people you knew.
811
00:45:57,045 --> 00:46:00,382
So, we sold movies all over the country,
812
00:46:00,466 --> 00:46:02,676
but only to companies
we'd been dealing with.
813
00:46:03,844 --> 00:46:08,098
One day, somebody called up
and ordered three films
814
00:46:08,182 --> 00:46:12,352
to, like, Joe's Video Store,
in Lebanon, Pennsylvania.
815
00:46:12,436 --> 00:46:16,523
And our guy entered him in the computer
and shipped them out.
816
00:46:17,191 --> 00:46:19,276
Unbeknownst to us,
817
00:46:19,359 --> 00:46:22,988
the prosecutor begins this process
818
00:46:23,071 --> 00:46:28,619
of illegal transportation
of adult material over state lines.
819
00:46:29,828 --> 00:46:31,663
They were running a sting operation.
820
00:46:33,791 --> 00:46:37,169
The FBI comes in,
like you see on television
821
00:46:37,252 --> 00:46:38,879
with FBI on their...
822
00:46:38,962 --> 00:46:42,382
- Jackets. Big letters.
- ...jackets, and their guns drawn.
823
00:46:43,759 --> 00:46:46,637
We made some
undercover purchases of this stuff,
824
00:46:46,720 --> 00:46:49,181
and after consultation
with the Prosecuting Attorney, uh,
825
00:46:49,598 --> 00:46:51,266
they issued us a search warrant.
826
00:46:54,937 --> 00:46:58,524
We were charged
with shipping obscene material.
827
00:47:00,692 --> 00:47:03,904
It easily could have been
a five-year jail sentence or maybe more,
828
00:47:03,987 --> 00:47:07,157
and the fines could have been
very, very large.
829
00:47:10,452 --> 00:47:14,957
One of us was gonna have to go to jail,
and I thought it had better be Barry.
830
00:47:16,834 --> 00:47:19,002
That lead prosecutor had
831
00:47:19,086 --> 00:47:22,798
put together a staff
of very religious people,
832
00:47:23,340 --> 00:47:26,468
and he himself was very anti-porn.
833
00:47:27,094 --> 00:47:29,972
So they said
Barry has to enter a guilty plea.
834
00:47:30,597 --> 00:47:33,308
He has to be convicted
and made guilty of a felony.
835
00:47:35,686 --> 00:47:39,690
Jail is the worst place
in the world you can be, but...
836
00:47:39,773 --> 00:47:42,401
fearing jail is...
837
00:47:43,068 --> 00:47:44,486
even worse.
838
00:47:46,238 --> 00:47:49,324
It was like a knife
over our heads all the time.
839
00:47:50,534 --> 00:47:53,871
We never ever talked about it
with anybody.
840
00:47:54,746 --> 00:47:56,748
Our parents didn't know what was going on.
841
00:47:57,416 --> 00:47:59,710
The kids didn't know what was going on.
842
00:47:59,793 --> 00:48:02,754
Our friends didn't know what was going on.
843
00:48:04,006 --> 00:48:07,009
I felt like I was going down
in an elevator
844
00:48:07,092 --> 00:48:10,345
and was losing everything
that was inside of me.
845
00:48:17,144 --> 00:48:19,730
Did you know about the FBI charges?
846
00:48:19,813 --> 00:48:22,190
I didn't know about the prosecution.
847
00:48:23,400 --> 00:48:24,484
I think I'd heard...
848
00:48:25,319 --> 00:48:30,741
something about a video being mailed
to Pennsylvania.
849
00:48:31,325 --> 00:48:33,493
They completely hid that
from us growing up.
850
00:48:33,577 --> 00:48:35,746
I don't remember knowing
about that at all.
851
00:48:36,622 --> 00:48:40,250
We just were completely kept in the dark
because... you know, we were kids,
852
00:48:40,334 --> 00:48:42,461
and we're not supposed to be
anywhere near that stuff.
853
00:48:42,544 --> 00:48:43,837
So because of that,
854
00:48:43,921 --> 00:48:46,131
I didn't have much of a connection
to the business.
855
00:48:49,343 --> 00:48:52,220
Did you feel any connection to the store?
856
00:48:52,304 --> 00:48:57,184
I think the store definitely operated
in its own sphere outside the family,
857
00:48:57,267 --> 00:48:59,603
but I think that's fairly...
858
00:48:59,686 --> 00:49:01,939
There's a conventional element to that.
859
00:49:03,065 --> 00:49:04,066
Parents go to work.
860
00:49:04,149 --> 00:49:07,069
They don't necessarily talk
about what they do all the time.
861
00:49:08,111 --> 00:49:09,947
Stop rubbing your eyes!
862
00:49:11,907 --> 00:49:16,453
I think the family at home
fell into a conventional pattern.
863
00:49:16,536 --> 00:49:18,681
- Did Josh say that to you?
- Really?
864
00:49:18,705 --> 00:49:19,998
Yeah, he did.
865
00:49:20,749 --> 00:49:24,878
We all talked about kids,
getting married, and being straight.
866
00:49:26,630 --> 00:49:28,590
Nobody sort of questioned it.
867
00:49:31,843 --> 00:49:34,346
I think even my understanding of...
868
00:49:35,389 --> 00:49:39,267
um, gays and gay life was through...
869
00:49:40,185 --> 00:49:42,437
through the business in a strange way.
870
00:49:43,480 --> 00:49:47,359
And I would like to say,
you've been a pretty good kid.
871
00:49:47,442 --> 00:49:49,528
I really like being your mother.
872
00:49:52,572 --> 00:49:54,282
Realizing I was gay
873
00:49:54,366 --> 00:50:00,038
was a kind of long, ambiguous period.
874
00:50:02,749 --> 00:50:05,502
I was keeping that secret
from the world...
875
00:50:06,837 --> 00:50:10,007
'cause being gay was not acceptable.
876
00:50:14,052 --> 00:50:16,722
But did you ever know or see people
877
00:50:16,805 --> 00:50:18,682
that just were gay, like,
878
00:50:18,765 --> 00:50:22,144
and that, you know, you recognized
and like, "Oh, that's gay.
879
00:50:22,227 --> 00:50:24,980
- That's cool. That's like a thing."
- No. Definitely not.
880
00:50:25,063 --> 00:50:28,275
I think I was kind of actively ignoring...
881
00:50:28,900 --> 00:50:29,943
um...
882
00:50:30,652 --> 00:50:32,779
all the gay issues in the world...
883
00:50:33,363 --> 00:50:36,658
much like my straight high school friends.
884
00:50:36,742 --> 00:50:41,038
You just didn't talk about gays
or, you know, what it was like.
885
00:50:43,540 --> 00:50:45,792
It was very archetypal,
886
00:50:45,876 --> 00:50:47,753
jocks picking on the gays.
887
00:50:48,128 --> 00:50:50,130
Idiot!
888
00:50:51,048 --> 00:50:54,384
I did what I could to keep myself
out of the gay category,
889
00:50:54,468 --> 00:50:57,971
but I wasn't good enough
to be heterosexual.
890
00:50:58,055 --> 00:51:01,516
So I was just asexual
as far as they were concerned.
891
00:51:04,269 --> 00:51:06,313
I put a lot of pressure on myself
892
00:51:06,396 --> 00:51:10,692
to be the more conventional,
rule-follower child.
893
00:51:11,109 --> 00:51:12,235
You ready, Dad?
894
00:51:14,905 --> 00:51:15,989
Whoa! Yeah!
895
00:51:16,448 --> 00:51:19,618
I think I filled every available gap
896
00:51:19,701 --> 00:51:21,870
in the day with some sort of activity.
897
00:51:22,579 --> 00:51:24,539
So I had diving,
898
00:51:24,623 --> 00:51:26,166
gymnastics team.
899
00:51:33,715 --> 00:51:37,928
Did you feel, like, pressure
to pretend that you were straight?
900
00:51:38,720 --> 00:51:40,931
There was a lot of pressure
towards dating.
901
00:51:42,432 --> 00:51:45,936
There were kids that lost their virginity
and stuff like that.
902
00:51:46,353 --> 00:51:48,271
Um... Not me.
903
00:51:52,234 --> 00:51:53,527
It's just so weird to me
904
00:51:53,610 --> 00:51:56,530
that you wouldn't have thought
that I would have cared, right?
905
00:51:56,613 --> 00:51:58,782
I mean, I didn't care. I wouldn't...
906
00:51:58,865 --> 00:52:01,034
I mean, my world was gay anyway.
907
00:52:01,118 --> 00:52:03,995
Like, why wouldn't you have wanted
to jump into my world?
908
00:52:04,079 --> 00:52:06,665
Your world was too gay.
909
00:52:06,748 --> 00:52:08,708
Your world was too gay.
It was too artsy.
910
00:52:08,792 --> 00:52:11,461
I didn't connect with it.
I think that was...
911
00:52:12,462 --> 00:52:13,672
That wasn't where I was.
912
00:52:13,755 --> 00:52:15,590
It's not where I am, I don't think.
913
00:52:20,929 --> 00:52:23,682
So, Fernando,
can you tell me how we met?
914
00:52:24,224 --> 00:52:26,184
So, we met in ninth grade.
915
00:52:27,144 --> 00:52:29,271
At that time,
you kind of recognized those people
916
00:52:29,354 --> 00:52:31,815
that were living
to the beat of their own drum,
917
00:52:31,898 --> 00:52:34,025
I would say, um, through...
918
00:52:34,860 --> 00:52:37,737
you know, hair, and clothes, and music.
919
00:52:37,821 --> 00:52:40,532
And you were one of those people
920
00:52:40,615 --> 00:52:44,327
that had the whole package
of what I was looking for in a friend,
921
00:52:44,411 --> 00:52:47,998
you know, someone that just, again,
walked to the beat of their own drum.
922
00:52:50,083 --> 00:52:52,210
Ooh!
923
00:52:52,294 --> 00:52:54,171
Always looking for attention!
924
00:52:54,254 --> 00:52:58,175
Pssht!
Oh, nice coming from you, Miss Green.
925
00:52:59,926 --> 00:53:05,056
Do you feel like our friend group
identified as the queer group at school?
926
00:53:05,140 --> 00:53:09,603
We didn't really identify as queer.
927
00:53:10,020 --> 00:53:16,193
In the '90s, we identified as weirdos,
artists, punk rockers, rebels.
928
00:53:16,276 --> 00:53:19,988
Like, that was our identity,
and that's what drew us all together.
929
00:53:20,071 --> 00:53:23,825
That's why it was so accepting
for all of our friends
930
00:53:23,909 --> 00:53:27,454
to experiment with their sexuality.
931
00:53:27,537 --> 00:53:31,041
Can I come over
and, like, hang out with your computer?
932
00:53:31,625 --> 00:53:32,625
Okay.
933
00:53:33,960 --> 00:53:36,296
Do you remember
when I found out about the store?
934
00:53:36,379 --> 00:53:37,379
Yes.
935
00:53:38,590 --> 00:53:41,259
You had said,
"My parents own a bookstore."
936
00:53:41,801 --> 00:53:44,346
And I said,
"Oh, what bookstore do they own?"
937
00:53:44,429 --> 00:53:46,348
You're just like, "They own a bookstore.
938
00:53:46,431 --> 00:53:48,831
You probably never heard of it.
It's called Circus of Books."
939
00:53:49,517 --> 00:53:53,521
And we were like,
"Circus of Books? What?"
940
00:53:53,605 --> 00:53:55,899
"Rachel, Circus of Book is a porno store!"
941
00:53:58,443 --> 00:54:00,654
I just remember being really confused
942
00:54:00,737 --> 00:54:03,657
'cause it didn't align
with who I thought my parents were.
943
00:54:05,116 --> 00:54:08,870
It was sort of an interesting, fun secret,
but also kind of a dangerous secret,
944
00:54:08,954 --> 00:54:11,456
'cause I could definitely tell
it could easily be a problem.
945
00:54:12,540 --> 00:54:14,793
As rebellious and as precocious
as we were,
946
00:54:14,876 --> 00:54:16,586
we were still pretty innocent.
947
00:54:18,630 --> 00:54:20,674
What's funny to me is that
948
00:54:20,757 --> 00:54:25,136
I didn't think my parents got my world
with artists and queer kids.
949
00:54:26,096 --> 00:54:28,682
But they were actually intersecting
with my scene
950
00:54:28,765 --> 00:54:30,517
without me even realizing it.
951
00:54:31,309 --> 00:54:34,688
Yeah, it felt like
we had seen Karen and Barry one way,
952
00:54:34,771 --> 00:54:37,274
very parental
and a little bit more strict.
953
00:54:38,400 --> 00:54:40,068
Certainly not subversive, you know?
954
00:54:40,151 --> 00:54:42,696
Certainly not part of the counterculture.
955
00:54:44,322 --> 00:54:48,159
But when we realized
they were invested in Circus of Books,
956
00:54:48,243 --> 00:54:51,371
it started to become clear to us
957
00:54:51,454 --> 00:54:54,958
your parents were more layered
than we had previously thought.
958
00:54:56,209 --> 00:54:59,754
It allowed us to realize
959
00:54:59,838 --> 00:55:01,965
that you can live as an adult
960
00:55:03,675 --> 00:55:05,343
without following the path
961
00:55:05,427 --> 00:55:07,429
that everyone's telling you
you need to follow.
962
00:55:10,640 --> 00:55:14,102
I think that
when your parents acquired their business,
963
00:55:14,185 --> 00:55:19,024
they really didn't know
what they were potentially facing,
964
00:55:19,107 --> 00:55:22,193
and the terrible thing about it was
that nobody could know.
965
00:55:23,653 --> 00:55:26,740
There was no way
to look at the obscenity statute
966
00:55:26,823 --> 00:55:29,617
and predict whether something
that one was selling
967
00:55:29,701 --> 00:55:31,411
might trigger a prosecution.
968
00:55:32,495 --> 00:55:36,499
We knew people who had been
in this business and had gone to jail.
969
00:55:36,583 --> 00:55:41,713
But what I thought initially was,
"We'll just go out of business,"
970
00:55:42,130 --> 00:55:45,800
and when we finally sat down
with John Weston,
971
00:55:45,884 --> 00:55:48,470
he said that is a terrible, terrible plan.
972
00:55:49,387 --> 00:55:52,223
Government always wants
its pound of flesh.
973
00:55:53,016 --> 00:55:56,227
So, if at the very beginning of something,
you close it down,
974
00:55:56,853 --> 00:55:58,980
then you've got less to offer.
975
00:55:59,814 --> 00:56:02,233
If the war on drugs ever goes away,
976
00:56:02,317 --> 00:56:06,696
all these people who fight drugs
are going to lose their jobs.
977
00:56:06,780 --> 00:56:10,825
Well, it was the same thing
with people who fought obscenity.
978
00:56:10,909 --> 00:56:13,203
They needed somebody to negotiate with,
979
00:56:13,286 --> 00:56:16,748
and so we were advised
not to close at all,
980
00:56:16,831 --> 00:56:19,167
but to stay in business and fight.
981
00:56:20,543 --> 00:56:23,380
I mean, it's scary
when the government comes after you.
982
00:56:23,463 --> 00:56:25,882
That is just really powerful...
983
00:56:26,841 --> 00:56:29,010
and for basically religious reasons.
984
00:56:30,136 --> 00:56:32,180
It's pretty scary stuff to me.
985
00:56:33,431 --> 00:56:36,101
I got a communication
from the government, saying,
986
00:56:36,184 --> 00:56:38,895
"We need Barry Mason to say, 'Guilty.'"
987
00:56:40,021 --> 00:56:43,400
He has to be convicted and made guilty
of a felony.
988
00:56:45,443 --> 00:56:48,905
Just at a human level, the idea
that Barry Mason should be a felon
989
00:56:48,988 --> 00:56:50,323
was just unacceptable.
990
00:56:50,407 --> 00:56:53,660
I mean, that's just not part
of any world that I'd wanna live in.
991
00:56:54,661 --> 00:56:57,997
And so I implored them to reconsider.
992
00:56:59,624 --> 00:57:01,668
To see who he was as a person,
993
00:57:01,751 --> 00:57:04,587
and what the impact on him,
and his family,
994
00:57:04,671 --> 00:57:06,589
and to some extent, you, would have been
995
00:57:06,673 --> 00:57:08,633
if your dad had been forced
to stand up in court
996
00:57:08,716 --> 00:57:11,886
and say, "Yes, I'm guilty.
I've committed a federal felony."
997
00:57:14,639 --> 00:57:18,810
The reason it was resolved was
that Bill Clinton got elected.
998
00:57:18,893 --> 00:57:21,771
The President of the United States,
Bill Clinton.
999
00:57:22,355 --> 00:57:23,648
All right.
1000
00:57:23,731 --> 00:57:24,732
Thank you.
1001
00:57:25,733 --> 00:57:28,736
So, the prosecutors got switched.
1002
00:57:28,820 --> 00:57:30,780
There was a different attitude
towards obscenity,
1003
00:57:30,864 --> 00:57:33,158
and I'm sure that created a climate
1004
00:57:33,241 --> 00:57:40,206
which allowed my earnest request
for reconsideration to be evaluated.
1005
00:57:40,623 --> 00:57:44,377
They were able
to see the fineness of your dad.
1006
00:57:47,755 --> 00:57:50,842
They accepted the guilty plea
by the corporation.
1007
00:57:51,384 --> 00:57:54,637
Corporation pleads guilty.
They let you out on parole.
1008
00:57:55,263 --> 00:57:57,765
I had to just go down
to the Federal building once a month,
1009
00:57:57,849 --> 00:57:59,225
sign a little piece of paper
1010
00:57:59,309 --> 00:58:02,854
that said I didn't commit
any crimes that month,
1011
00:58:02,937 --> 00:58:06,774
and then that ended the whole situation.
I was off.
1012
00:58:07,984 --> 00:58:12,739
It turns out our First Amendment rights
are really protected
1013
00:58:12,822 --> 00:58:18,703
by the most extreme kind of speech
and the most extreme kind of material.
1014
00:58:20,121 --> 00:58:24,250
The greatest right
that any nation can afford its people
1015
00:58:24,334 --> 00:58:26,127
is the right to be left alone.
1016
00:58:27,337 --> 00:58:29,339
Josh needs a perfectly round head.
1017
00:58:29,422 --> 00:58:30,422
Say hi.
1018
00:58:36,137 --> 00:58:37,472
So what did you just say?
1019
00:58:37,555 --> 00:58:42,644
So, in June, both stores had
the worst month they've ever had.
1020
00:58:43,102 --> 00:58:44,102
And...
1021
00:58:44,562 --> 00:58:48,650
it's still profitable, but it's not, um...
1022
00:58:48,733 --> 00:58:50,652
It's not sustainable.
1023
00:58:50,735 --> 00:58:53,571
At some point, it's just...
1024
00:58:53,655 --> 00:58:54,906
Like yesterday.
1025
00:58:56,115 --> 00:58:57,742
I was leaving the store,
1026
00:58:58,326 --> 00:59:00,203
and I'm trying to get out, and I can't,
1027
00:59:00,286 --> 00:59:02,622
because the man there
just bought something,
1028
00:59:02,705 --> 00:59:04,624
and he's got a walker.
1029
00:59:04,707 --> 00:59:07,085
And he's sort of looking
at what he bought,
1030
00:59:07,168 --> 00:59:08,545
so he's not opening the door.
1031
00:59:08,628 --> 00:59:11,047
And because he's got the walker,
he's stuck there.
1032
00:59:11,130 --> 00:59:14,884
And this is our customer base.
They're aging, uh...
1033
00:59:15,510 --> 00:59:16,886
mostly men...
1034
00:59:17,428 --> 00:59:19,430
who can barely even walk.
1035
00:59:19,514 --> 00:59:21,683
Are you, like, mixing it in as a cereal?
1036
00:59:21,766 --> 00:59:24,286
Yeah, 'cause otherwise,
you can't eat the little pieces.
1037
00:59:24,310 --> 00:59:25,710
This way, I can eat all the pieces.
1038
00:59:25,770 --> 00:59:28,856
So, I think
instead of a business decision,
1039
00:59:28,940 --> 00:59:32,277
I have a psychology problem because...
1040
00:59:33,111 --> 00:59:35,989
you know, I've run this business
for all these years
1041
00:59:36,072 --> 00:59:37,865
without knowing what I'm doing,
1042
00:59:38,449 --> 00:59:40,368
and...
1043
00:59:40,952 --> 00:59:43,079
I need to close it,
1044
00:59:43,162 --> 00:59:48,751
but I still got people working for me
who won't get as good a job if they...
1045
00:59:48,835 --> 00:59:52,088
- That's cheese.
- Cottage cheese, yeah.
1046
00:59:52,171 --> 00:59:54,299
- If they, um...
- Cheese.
1047
00:59:55,133 --> 00:59:57,176
...you know, if we close.
1048
00:59:58,344 --> 00:59:59,554
I don't know.
1049
00:59:59,971 --> 01:00:01,639
You know, that's... I don't know.
1050
01:00:03,933 --> 01:00:07,061
And I don't know why you think
this is worth documenting.
1051
01:00:08,438 --> 01:00:11,774
Because, I mean,
this happens in small business.
1052
01:00:11,899 --> 01:00:15,987
It's just...
It's a different, um, business model.
1053
01:00:16,070 --> 01:00:17,488
I don't like all this filming.
1054
01:00:17,572 --> 01:00:20,450
I don't know what
you're gonna come up with from this.
1055
01:00:22,744 --> 01:00:25,872
Karen and Barry were in a constant state
1056
01:00:25,955 --> 01:00:30,251
of... panic
about the collapse of their business.
1057
01:00:32,003 --> 01:00:34,172
And so, it was constantly like,
1058
01:00:34,255 --> 01:00:37,634
"Oh, this is it.
We're closing the doors this week.
1059
01:00:37,717 --> 01:00:39,844
This is it. This is the end."
1060
01:00:39,927 --> 01:00:41,512
That was always the case.
1061
01:00:41,596 --> 01:00:44,182
So, that's why I'm sort of in disbelief
about it closing.
1062
01:00:44,265 --> 01:00:46,726
I'm like,
"Well, it was always about to close."
1063
01:00:53,399 --> 01:00:55,026
These are letters of reference.
1064
01:00:55,109 --> 01:00:58,404
It just says, "He's worked for us
for over 25 years.
1065
01:00:58,488 --> 01:01:01,991
And if you need a good, honest,
reliable, hard-working employee,
1066
01:01:02,075 --> 01:01:03,826
you've found him in Ben."
1067
01:01:03,910 --> 01:01:06,704
- Oh, I'm so sorry, but good for you.
- Thanks.
1068
01:01:09,123 --> 01:01:11,793
Today is my last day. I'm retiring.
1069
01:01:13,419 --> 01:01:16,047
So, I'd say it's kind of a depressor,
1070
01:01:16,631 --> 01:01:18,007
but it's time.
1071
01:01:19,509 --> 01:01:23,388
The worst thing in the world
is laying off a good employee...
1072
01:01:25,431 --> 01:01:28,434
because you can't afford
to keep them anymore.
1073
01:01:28,518 --> 01:01:30,812
It's a terrible thing to do.
1074
01:01:33,022 --> 01:01:34,649
The past will never come back.
1075
01:01:35,817 --> 01:01:38,236
And unless you're willing
to invest in the future,
1076
01:01:38,319 --> 01:01:40,988
there's no use even trying to...
1077
01:01:41,447 --> 01:01:43,533
exist anymore.
1078
01:01:45,618 --> 01:01:47,036
"As I'm sure you can see,
1079
01:01:47,120 --> 01:01:51,749
business at the store is slowing down
despite our best efforts to improve sales.
1080
01:01:51,833 --> 01:01:53,000
This is to let you know
1081
01:01:53,084 --> 01:01:56,462
that I have listed the store for lease
with a real estate agent.
1082
01:01:56,546 --> 01:01:59,173
I welcome any suggestion
of new merchandise
1083
01:01:59,257 --> 01:02:02,051
and any ideas
for a different use of the space."
1084
01:02:03,970 --> 01:02:06,305
Post it here by the time clock.
1085
01:02:07,807 --> 01:02:08,808
Let me see.
1086
01:02:09,434 --> 01:02:10,768
Okay, so this is...
1087
01:02:12,145 --> 01:02:13,896
That's gonna go... They'll see it.
1088
01:02:19,736 --> 01:02:23,865
Can you describe that day
that you came out to Mom and Dad,
1089
01:02:23,948 --> 01:02:28,202
and what led you to feel
that you could be more open about it?
1090
01:02:28,286 --> 01:02:31,247
What led you to really think
that you should be?
1091
01:02:31,330 --> 01:02:35,376
So, it probably wasn't
until after high school
1092
01:02:35,460 --> 01:02:39,338
that it even started
to enter my mind as an option.
1093
01:02:39,422 --> 01:02:43,509
And it wasn't really until college
that I sort of started transitioning
1094
01:02:43,593 --> 01:02:50,057
from, um, who I was outwardly
towards who I felt like I was inwardly.
1095
01:02:52,935 --> 01:02:55,605
I came home a number of times from college
1096
01:02:55,688 --> 01:02:59,484
expecting to come out,
and it didn't happen.
1097
01:03:01,444 --> 01:03:04,989
I put a lot of pressure on myself
to kind of make it happen.
1098
01:03:07,617 --> 01:03:10,203
I made sure I had my flight...
1099
01:03:11,120 --> 01:03:12,163
booked and paid for,
1100
01:03:12,663 --> 01:03:17,084
'cause it wasn't an impossible thought
1101
01:03:17,168 --> 01:03:20,505
that, um, you know,
I was gonna get thrown out.
1102
01:03:22,548 --> 01:03:23,548
Yeah.
1103
01:03:25,051 --> 01:03:26,052
Are you okay?
1104
01:03:32,391 --> 01:03:34,185
Should I read the questions to myself?
1105
01:03:34,268 --> 01:03:37,396
No, I'm sorry.
It's just upsetting to me to hear that.
1106
01:03:42,151 --> 01:03:43,271
Friday night dinner,
1107
01:03:43,319 --> 01:03:46,113
just before he was going back
to school at Columbia.
1108
01:03:46,781 --> 01:03:48,783
He was at one end
of our dining room table,
1109
01:03:48,866 --> 01:03:50,034
and I was at the other.
1110
01:03:51,244 --> 01:03:56,082
Someone was having a conversation
that required a Post-It Note and a pen.
1111
01:03:56,999 --> 01:04:00,211
And I just started scribbling
on the Post-It Note, "I'm gay."
1112
01:04:02,505 --> 01:04:05,299
I flung the pen and paper on the table.
1113
01:04:06,843 --> 01:04:10,304
And I'm trying to see who wrote this note,
'cause it didn't have his name on it.
1114
01:04:12,139 --> 01:04:15,393
Finally, his mother and him went upstairs,
1115
01:04:15,476 --> 01:04:16,978
and I said, "Wow! It's Josh."
1116
01:04:19,564 --> 01:04:22,233
I said, "Are you sure?
Why are you doing this?
1117
01:04:22,650 --> 01:04:24,360
God must be punishing me."
1118
01:04:25,653 --> 01:04:28,281
God would punish her
for having this business,
1119
01:04:28,656 --> 01:04:32,034
and I think she was thinking
this was a punishment.
1120
01:04:35,538 --> 01:04:37,290
Up until that point,
1121
01:04:37,373 --> 01:04:43,796
it had just existed somewhere
outside any of my core values.
1122
01:04:43,880 --> 01:04:45,256
It wasn't, uh...
1123
01:04:45,339 --> 01:04:48,593
It wasn't something
I really needed to think very hard about.
1124
01:04:49,135 --> 01:04:53,514
I was fine with anybody who was gay
as far as I was concerned,
1125
01:04:53,598 --> 01:04:57,768
but I really wasn't prepared
to have a gay child.
1126
01:04:59,520 --> 01:05:02,023
I was actually expecting Dad
to be more upset about it,
1127
01:05:02,106 --> 01:05:05,902
just 'cause it's usually the dad
that throws the gay son out of the house.
1128
01:05:06,819 --> 01:05:09,488
And he was...
Yeah, he was really good about it.
1129
01:05:11,032 --> 01:05:13,910
When he told us,
I was just simply surprised.
1130
01:05:14,368 --> 01:05:17,371
The only thing
that I was even slightly upset about was
1131
01:05:17,455 --> 01:05:19,790
that he had kept it a secret,
1132
01:05:19,874 --> 01:05:22,793
because it would have made
absolutely no difference to me.
1133
01:05:26,797 --> 01:05:28,799
His plane was the next morning,
1134
01:05:28,883 --> 01:05:31,677
so we didn't get a chance
to talk much about it.
1135
01:05:33,054 --> 01:05:35,056
As we were driving to the airport,
1136
01:05:35,431 --> 01:05:37,767
he said, "You know...
1137
01:05:38,935 --> 01:05:40,853
men can take advantage of other men
1138
01:05:40,937 --> 01:05:43,439
just as much as men can take advantage
of women."
1139
01:05:44,231 --> 01:05:47,193
Which I thought was actually quite astute.
1140
01:05:51,739 --> 01:05:54,951
Why do you think
Mom had any issue whatsoever
1141
01:05:55,034 --> 01:05:57,244
when she was so deeply in this world?
1142
01:05:58,162 --> 01:06:04,585
Everything about the business was really
in support of family, ironically.
1143
01:06:06,128 --> 01:06:08,965
The gay part of it fell
on the business side
1144
01:06:09,048 --> 01:06:11,384
of that mental dividing line.
1145
01:06:14,261 --> 01:06:16,764
I never thought of my employees
1146
01:06:16,847 --> 01:06:20,768
in the same way
that I thought about my son.
1147
01:06:22,812 --> 01:06:25,564
I was fine working with gay people,
1148
01:06:26,148 --> 01:06:31,487
but when it came to my own family
and what I had absorbed in the religion,
1149
01:06:31,570 --> 01:06:33,322
I was not fine at all.
1150
01:06:35,116 --> 01:06:36,659
When it came to my own son,
1151
01:06:36,742 --> 01:06:42,623
I realized that I had some thoughts
about gay people that needed to change.
1152
01:06:52,717 --> 01:06:55,886
Well, I don't know why he didn't come,
the trash.
1153
01:06:55,970 --> 01:06:57,388
What day does he come?
1154
01:06:58,097 --> 01:07:00,975
- I think Thursdays, but I can check.
- Well, that's today.
1155
01:07:11,819 --> 01:07:14,405
Why were you saying
that you wanna close in June?
1156
01:07:14,989 --> 01:07:16,991
You know, if it's... Sales are bad.
1157
01:07:17,074 --> 01:07:19,160
We're trying to keep our staff.
1158
01:07:19,243 --> 01:07:22,038
It seems, because the business is so slow,
1159
01:07:22,121 --> 01:07:25,708
they're not even doing
kind of minimal straightening.
1160
01:07:26,667 --> 01:07:27,667
So...
1161
01:07:29,253 --> 01:07:31,922
You know, everybody's kind of done here.
1162
01:07:32,840 --> 01:07:34,133
So, goodbye...
1163
01:07:34,925 --> 01:07:36,218
to this box.
1164
01:07:38,429 --> 01:07:42,349
You know, if I thought
it was a viable business for anybody,
1165
01:07:42,433 --> 01:07:44,602
then I would put it up for sale,
1166
01:07:44,685 --> 01:07:47,688
but I don't think
that anybody will be able to make it
1167
01:07:47,772 --> 01:07:49,273
more than what we make it.
1168
01:07:49,732 --> 01:07:53,319
But, you know, it may go another year,
say, or something.
1169
01:07:53,402 --> 01:07:56,155
Or not. It's hard to know.
1170
01:07:57,323 --> 01:07:59,075
Which is why I wish your movie was done,
1171
01:07:59,158 --> 01:08:01,869
so I could see how it would end too.
I would like that.
1172
01:08:04,455 --> 01:08:06,749
This is a statement about this business.
1173
01:08:09,794 --> 01:08:12,213
It kind of all ended up in the dumpster.
1174
01:08:19,470 --> 01:08:20,304
Here.
1175
01:08:20,387 --> 01:08:22,473
I just think it's kind of interesting.
1176
01:08:23,974 --> 01:08:25,684
That's, like, a sales, you know...
1177
01:08:26,393 --> 01:08:28,020
It tracks it.
1178
01:08:29,688 --> 01:08:32,066
Okay, so this is 2008,
1179
01:08:32,525 --> 01:08:36,904
which is, like, the recession
and also the Internet,
1180
01:08:36,987 --> 01:08:39,907
and then you can just see it going down.
1181
01:08:42,034 --> 01:08:46,080
When people started selling
on the Internet, we didn't.
1182
01:08:46,163 --> 01:08:48,791
We have a website,
but it really doesn't sell anything.
1183
01:08:48,874 --> 01:08:52,002
Well, it just tells people what we have
and they come into our stores.
1184
01:08:53,838 --> 01:08:57,925
I've wondered how they could survive
with the Internet,
1185
01:08:58,008 --> 01:09:00,928
because porno was devastated.
1186
01:09:01,720 --> 01:09:04,473
You can't sell
what people can get for free.
1187
01:09:05,224 --> 01:09:07,560
Pornography is pushing the limits online.
1188
01:09:07,935 --> 01:09:11,397
Sexually explicit material
is increasingly available on the Internet.
1189
01:09:12,648 --> 01:09:16,485
The Internet totally devastated
my business.
1190
01:09:16,569 --> 01:09:18,195
It robbed me of my income.
1191
01:09:19,363 --> 01:09:23,367
It also could be considered
the death knell of the gay bar,
1192
01:09:23,450 --> 01:09:25,930
because you don't need to go
to a bar anymore to meet somebody.
1193
01:09:25,995 --> 01:09:27,663
You can meet them online.
1194
01:09:27,746 --> 01:09:29,373
Grindr or SCRUFF.
1195
01:09:31,625 --> 01:09:34,587
In a lot of ways, the Internet has helped,
1196
01:09:34,670 --> 01:09:37,548
because we don't have to live,
like, in the shadows
1197
01:09:37,631 --> 01:09:40,509
and so, like, oppressed
and afraid anymore.
1198
01:09:40,593 --> 01:09:42,386
But I also think it's, you know...
1199
01:09:42,469 --> 01:09:45,014
I mean, it just sucks
that the younger generation is...
1200
01:09:45,097 --> 01:09:48,392
It's so hard to just talk face-to-face
with one another.
1201
01:09:49,935 --> 01:09:52,897
They weren't just places of commerce.
1202
01:09:52,980 --> 01:09:55,417
They were places of gathering
where people could get together.
1203
01:09:55,441 --> 01:09:59,320
They were places where people could meet
in all the best senses.
1204
01:10:00,029 --> 01:10:01,989
The material may be delivered,
1205
01:10:02,072 --> 01:10:05,409
but it's not going to be a substitute
for human interaction,
1206
01:10:05,492 --> 01:10:07,132
and to the extent that's what's going on,
1207
01:10:07,203 --> 01:10:09,622
I think that's a tragic
and irreplaceable loss.
1208
01:10:19,256 --> 01:10:22,051
I don't think they're gonna want
any of these papers.
1209
01:10:23,302 --> 01:10:24,982
I don't know what I'm giving them anymore.
1210
01:10:25,054 --> 01:10:28,307
It's been such a long time
since I put this stuff in here.
1211
01:10:30,768 --> 01:10:32,808
- I've heard his name, though.
- Yeah.
1212
01:10:32,853 --> 01:10:35,439
So, those are some of his covers.
1213
01:10:35,522 --> 01:10:37,358
He was really a nice guy.
1214
01:10:37,942 --> 01:10:40,486
You know, I would like...
If he's not in ONE Archive,
1215
01:10:40,569 --> 01:10:42,613
I think he would like to be in it, so...
1216
01:10:44,323 --> 01:10:45,908
I think you have to sign this.
1217
01:10:47,117 --> 01:10:49,203
- Oh, what?
- It's a deed of gift.
1218
01:10:49,286 --> 01:10:51,431
Just basically saying
that you're giving the materials.
1219
01:10:51,455 --> 01:10:52,665
- Right there.
- Oh, okay.
1220
01:10:52,748 --> 01:10:57,127
And if you don't want it,
just throw it away, 'cause, um...
1221
01:10:57,211 --> 01:10:59,814
You don't know who you're talking to.
We never throw anything away.
1222
01:10:59,838 --> 01:11:02,198
But whatever it is that you have,
we're happy to look at it.
1223
01:11:02,258 --> 01:11:04,426
I don't think
we have anything you want there.
1224
01:11:04,510 --> 01:11:06,550
But as long as I'm here,
I'd just like to look at...
1225
01:11:06,595 --> 01:11:09,807
I just think this is really
where it all started.
1226
01:11:09,890 --> 01:11:13,602
So, where the erotica was,
or where the pulp fiction was,
1227
01:11:13,686 --> 01:11:16,188
they would basically put it
behind a big curtain.
1228
01:11:16,605 --> 01:11:19,775
So, there was the problem
of being caught by the police,
1229
01:11:19,858 --> 01:11:22,361
or there was, alternatively,
the problem that...
1230
01:11:22,444 --> 01:11:23,737
the good problem, perhaps,
1231
01:11:23,821 --> 01:11:26,633
that you could meet somebody else
who was looking for the same material.
1232
01:11:26,657 --> 01:11:30,202
So, it was actually a really great thing
to be able to go get them.
1233
01:11:30,286 --> 01:11:32,329
I remember going to Circus of Books,
1234
01:11:32,413 --> 01:11:35,791
and it was a place where you could go
and find other people like yourself.
1235
01:11:35,874 --> 01:11:37,584
The store served its purpose,
1236
01:11:37,668 --> 01:11:40,212
and it's just not...
1237
01:11:42,172 --> 01:11:43,966
I'll be happy when it's closing.
1238
01:11:44,049 --> 01:11:46,135
Thank you for your donation.
I really appreciate it.
1239
01:11:46,218 --> 01:11:48,846
Well, it's just some stuff.
1240
01:11:51,140 --> 01:11:55,394
This is important, I think.
Much more than our store, this is...
1241
01:11:56,186 --> 01:12:00,649
I mean, the courage that it took
to put these out month after month.
1242
01:12:00,733 --> 01:12:02,443
They had to go in secret.
1243
01:12:02,526 --> 01:12:06,780
But can you imagine some kid
in Iowa or someplace
1244
01:12:06,864 --> 01:12:10,534
getting a copy of this and thinking,
"God! I'm not the only one."
1245
01:12:11,452 --> 01:12:12,786
It's just amazing.
1246
01:12:14,371 --> 01:12:16,623
Should be doing the documentary
about this.
1247
01:12:19,418 --> 01:12:20,919
When Josh came out,
1248
01:12:21,003 --> 01:12:24,089
the next morning,
we took him to the airport,
1249
01:12:24,173 --> 01:12:27,343
and the rule was
that when he got to his dorm,
1250
01:12:27,426 --> 01:12:29,928
he had to call
and say he got to his dorm.
1251
01:12:30,012 --> 01:12:33,849
And so we waited and waited,
and he didn't call,
1252
01:12:33,932 --> 01:12:36,101
and finally, I picked up the phone,
and I said to him,
1253
01:12:36,185 --> 01:12:37,603
"You know, no matter what you are,
1254
01:12:37,686 --> 01:12:40,773
you still have to call your mother
and say you got to your dorm."
1255
01:12:42,441 --> 01:12:46,695
It was much harder for me
to then begin talking about it.
1256
01:12:48,864 --> 01:12:50,991
Karen did not, could not,
1257
01:12:51,533 --> 01:12:55,037
tell any of her friends for a year.
1258
01:12:57,664 --> 01:13:00,959
I was sitting there in the congregation
1259
01:13:01,043 --> 01:13:03,128
just trying to find
1260
01:13:03,212 --> 01:13:06,757
how I was gonna get through
this struggle that I had with who he was,
1261
01:13:06,840 --> 01:13:08,258
my wonderful son.
1262
01:13:09,843 --> 01:13:14,390
The idea that he was homosexual
was an abomination in our religion.
1263
01:13:16,100 --> 01:13:18,060
In a marriage like Daddy's and mine,
1264
01:13:18,143 --> 01:13:21,480
the non-religious spouse
has much less trouble
1265
01:13:21,563 --> 01:13:23,774
accepting their homosexual child
1266
01:13:23,857 --> 01:13:25,943
than the religious spouse.
1267
01:13:29,154 --> 01:13:32,074
Why didn't you ever just drop religion?
1268
01:13:32,616 --> 01:13:35,369
You know, it's just not an option for me.
1269
01:13:36,745 --> 01:13:39,790
If your way of being in the world is
to be religious,
1270
01:13:40,249 --> 01:13:42,543
accepting God is just easier.
1271
01:13:43,669 --> 01:13:47,089
But being religious is not easy.
You have to work at that, too.
1272
01:13:51,385 --> 01:13:57,057
I needed to rethink my theology
in order to be okay with it.
1273
01:13:59,143 --> 01:14:01,562
I took Bible study classes.
1274
01:14:01,645 --> 01:14:04,273
You know, what does
the word "abomination" mean?
1275
01:14:04,356 --> 01:14:07,234
Why do they say that
in relation to homosexuality?
1276
01:14:07,317 --> 01:14:10,404
And what were they really saying
in the context of the time?
1277
01:14:12,823 --> 01:14:17,202
It was a long time of searching,
and acceptance, and learning
1278
01:14:17,286 --> 01:14:23,292
that there was a really profound group
of thinkers, and leaders,
1279
01:14:23,375 --> 01:14:26,003
and people who happened to be gay,
1280
01:14:26,086 --> 01:14:29,673
and were forming these wonderful,
vibrant communities.
1281
01:14:31,091 --> 01:14:32,676
We got involved with PFLAG,
1282
01:14:32,759 --> 01:14:35,721
and she met other women
that had similar experiences.
1283
01:14:36,889 --> 01:14:40,851
It's called Parents, Families, and Friends
of Lesbians and Gays,
1284
01:14:40,934 --> 01:14:43,687
and it's a support group for people
1285
01:14:43,770 --> 01:14:48,192
who need help understanding
what gender issues are.
1286
01:14:49,443 --> 01:14:53,739
She really went through
kind of a transformation after that.
1287
01:14:54,823 --> 01:14:59,620
I was not not gonna be
his best mother that I could be.
1288
01:15:01,330 --> 01:15:05,167
Your children have their own path,
and you can't direct it.
1289
01:15:06,418 --> 01:15:10,589
You can only take them
the first few steps on their way.
1290
01:15:12,424 --> 01:15:15,886
But it sure took a lot of work
to come around.
1291
01:15:16,929 --> 01:15:21,058
So we're gonna start
with the Masons telling their story,
1292
01:15:21,141 --> 01:15:22,059
and you...
1293
01:15:22,142 --> 01:15:25,103
Would you like to go first, Karen,
since Barry went first the other time?
1294
01:15:25,187 --> 01:15:28,398
I think let Barry go first.
He has the better story.
1295
01:15:28,482 --> 01:15:31,318
- That'll compensate for you.
- Well.
1296
01:15:32,027 --> 01:15:33,237
Okay, so...
1297
01:15:35,030 --> 01:15:37,324
About 15 years ago,
1298
01:15:37,407 --> 01:15:40,744
our son was coming back
from college in New York.
1299
01:15:41,620 --> 01:15:44,039
Now, we're big shots in PFLAG,
1300
01:15:44,122 --> 01:15:46,792
and we just talk about it to them,
1301
01:15:46,875 --> 01:15:48,919
try and make them feel
more comfortable with it.
1302
01:15:49,002 --> 01:15:52,464
And I didn't have a clue that he was gay,
not a clue.
1303
01:15:54,633 --> 01:15:58,720
I'm a trained facilitator,
so I can lead support groups.
1304
01:15:58,804 --> 01:16:02,349
I'm kind of the poster child, I think,
1305
01:16:02,432 --> 01:16:06,270
for somebody
who had a really bad reaction to it.
1306
01:16:06,353 --> 01:16:10,566
And I'd like to take back everything
I said to him the night he came out,
1307
01:16:10,649 --> 01:16:12,693
but it doesn't go away,
1308
01:16:12,776 --> 01:16:15,779
and unfortunately, I speak a lot,
so I have to remember it.
1309
01:16:18,240 --> 01:16:20,867
Their involvement
in PFLAG has been amazing.
1310
01:16:21,577 --> 01:16:22,953
I think at some point...
1311
01:16:24,037 --> 01:16:28,458
Mom said that it's the parents' role
to fight for change,
1312
01:16:28,542 --> 01:16:30,335
and it's the kids' role
1313
01:16:30,419 --> 01:16:34,548
to have as normal a life as possible
and just get on with things.
1314
01:16:38,677 --> 01:16:42,139
You just always think
you know what's best,
1315
01:16:42,222 --> 01:16:43,390
and you're wrong.
1316
01:16:44,975 --> 01:16:46,602
Yeah, parents, uh...
1317
01:16:47,352 --> 01:16:50,314
are only smart
for a very small window of time.
1318
01:16:51,648 --> 01:16:54,693
I'm happy with who I am because of them.
1319
01:16:55,527 --> 01:16:57,195
So, um...
1320
01:16:58,697 --> 01:16:59,697
Yeah.
1321
01:17:00,032 --> 01:17:02,200
I'm not very good
at finishing my sentences.
1322
01:17:05,037 --> 01:17:10,667
I've spent the last 20 years helping
other people understand and accept
1323
01:17:10,751 --> 01:17:16,632
the gender variations in their children,
and there are a lot of gender variations.
1324
01:17:17,424 --> 01:17:18,592
And they're all okay,
1325
01:17:19,301 --> 01:17:21,261
and I hope you put that in this movie.
1326
01:17:32,105 --> 01:17:33,105
Mom!
1327
01:17:33,774 --> 01:17:36,401
Now I wanna find my, uh, husband
1328
01:17:36,485 --> 01:17:38,445
so that we get a group picture.
1329
01:17:38,528 --> 01:17:41,073
- Okay. Yeah.
- You guys will be at the end.
1330
01:17:46,119 --> 01:17:49,122
We're taking a picture?
You're here to take a picture? Good.
1331
01:17:52,334 --> 01:17:54,419
Dad, give me the camera.
You should go in.
1332
01:17:54,920 --> 01:17:56,254
Okay, I'll get one.
1333
01:18:00,425 --> 01:18:02,145
Okay.
1334
01:18:03,762 --> 01:18:07,432
Well, you organized a really big picture.
That was hard.
1335
01:18:08,558 --> 01:18:10,644
I know, and don't keep calling me,
1336
01:18:10,727 --> 01:18:12,729
'cause this is like my job
at PFLAG to do this.
1337
01:18:12,813 --> 01:18:14,013
I'm not. That was it.
1338
01:18:14,064 --> 01:18:15,273
Hi again!
1339
01:18:17,401 --> 01:18:20,529
Parents and Friends
of Lesbians and Gays, PFLAG!
1340
01:18:22,948 --> 01:18:24,783
Forty years,
ladies and gentlemen,
1341
01:18:24,866 --> 01:18:27,077
Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays,
1342
01:18:27,160 --> 01:18:29,162
moms, dads, brothers, sisters,
1343
01:18:30,038 --> 01:18:31,957
proud parents.
1344
01:18:36,086 --> 01:18:37,337
If you watch the parade,
1345
01:18:37,421 --> 01:18:39,923
you'll see nobody gets
this kind of cheering.
1346
01:18:40,006 --> 01:18:41,675
Just the PFLAG,
1347
01:18:41,758 --> 01:18:44,469
and it's for the parents
who came before us,
1348
01:18:44,553 --> 01:18:48,181
the people who were there
when there was nobody standing up
1349
01:18:48,265 --> 01:18:50,183
for the people who came out as gay.
1350
01:18:52,894 --> 01:18:55,021
I wish my parents were here.
1351
01:18:58,942 --> 01:19:01,778
- Dad, look, there's your store.
- I know!
1352
01:19:03,113 --> 01:19:04,489
Whoo, Barry!
1353
01:19:15,709 --> 01:19:21,089
No one has ever given us
anything we haven't had to fight for.
1354
01:19:25,719 --> 01:19:29,431
I have seen so many changes in this world.
1355
01:19:31,516 --> 01:19:33,059
For the better and for the worse.
1356
01:19:36,354 --> 01:19:38,899
But I have hope, and there is hope.
1357
01:19:39,441 --> 01:19:42,652
I'm not gonna end this on a sour note.
1358
01:19:43,195 --> 01:19:44,446
This is a good note,
1359
01:19:44,529 --> 01:19:48,575
because people are more together today
than they ever have been.
1360
01:20:09,012 --> 01:20:10,806
It's our last hour, so shop quick.
1361
01:20:10,889 --> 01:20:12,557
- Last hour?
- Yep.
1362
01:20:12,641 --> 01:20:15,185
We're gonna put up
the closed sign pretty soon.
1363
01:20:16,394 --> 01:20:18,563
You can be the last customer maybe.
1364
01:20:19,064 --> 01:20:20,064
Okay.
1365
01:20:21,066 --> 01:20:24,361
Owner of the last item
sold by Circus of Books.
1366
01:20:24,444 --> 01:20:25,444
Yeah.
1367
01:20:25,946 --> 01:20:28,323
Well, I always like
to be anonymous, but...
1368
01:20:28,406 --> 01:20:31,117
Well, you could sign it "anonymous"
if you really wanna be a purist.
1369
01:20:31,201 --> 01:20:33,870
No, at this point,
I'm pretty public about it.
1370
01:20:33,954 --> 01:20:34,788
All right!
1371
01:20:34,871 --> 01:20:36,164
Okay.
1372
01:20:39,626 --> 01:20:43,672
Barry and Karen have always been
like Mom and Dad almost.
1373
01:20:43,755 --> 01:20:46,341
You know, we've always had...
1374
01:20:46,424 --> 01:20:49,344
- Our surrogate. Like family here.
- Yeah.
1375
01:20:49,803 --> 01:20:51,555
- Goodbye, Karen.
- Bud, you're great.
1376
01:20:51,638 --> 01:20:53,765
Thank you. I'll miss you.
1377
01:20:53,849 --> 01:20:56,852
Well, you're gonna go on
to do good things. I know you are.
1378
01:20:56,935 --> 01:20:58,975
- It was great working with you.
- Thank you, Barry.
1379
01:20:59,020 --> 01:21:01,314
- And I hope everything goes well.
- Thank you.
1380
01:21:02,524 --> 01:21:04,442
- I need to give you a hug.
- Oh, Karen!
1381
01:21:04,985 --> 01:21:07,362
- Thank you so much for everything.
- You've been wonderful.
1382
01:21:19,791 --> 01:21:21,511
It's not an easy trick to be married
1383
01:21:21,543 --> 01:21:24,379
and be in business together
for such a long time.
1384
01:21:24,462 --> 01:21:27,716
- Very hard, actually.
- Yeah, he had to listen to me a lot.
1385
01:21:32,679 --> 01:21:37,976
♪ Who's in the circus? ♪
1386
01:21:38,059 --> 01:21:43,315
♪ Who's on the trapeze? ♪
1387
01:21:43,398 --> 01:21:48,528
♪ Who's in the circus with me? ♪
1388
01:21:48,612 --> 01:21:54,200
♪ Who's on the trapeze? ♪
1389
01:22:12,761 --> 01:22:16,723
♪ Wait on the corner
Till I give you a sign ♪
1390
01:22:16,806 --> 01:22:19,351
♪ Can you see my red bandanna? ♪
1391
01:22:19,434 --> 01:22:21,561
♪ It's set to the right ♪
1392
01:22:21,645 --> 01:22:27,651
♪ We'll get along for the ride ♪
1393
01:22:41,748 --> 01:22:44,918
♪ This is where the sunlight ♪
1394
01:22:45,001 --> 01:22:46,795
♪ Lives on the ground ♪
1395
01:22:46,878 --> 01:22:49,381
♪ It's where lovers meet ♪
1396
01:22:49,464 --> 01:22:51,758
♪ When they need to be found ♪
1397
01:22:51,841 --> 01:22:57,263
♪ It's where you gave me the look
That took me out ♪
1398
01:22:57,347 --> 01:23:02,018
♪ And away and over ♪
1399
01:23:02,102 --> 01:23:05,647
♪ And away ♪
1400
01:23:05,730 --> 01:23:08,566
♪ Let me celebrate ♪
1401
01:23:08,650 --> 01:23:10,860
♪ What you don't understand ♪
1402
01:23:10,944 --> 01:23:13,738
♪ It's where I get the strength ♪
1403
01:23:13,822 --> 01:23:15,740
♪ To be who I am ♪
1404
01:23:15,824 --> 01:23:18,576
♪ And if you give me a look ♪
1405
01:23:18,702 --> 01:23:25,583
♪ I promise I'll always
Give you everything that I have ♪
1406
01:23:25,667 --> 01:23:31,172
♪ Always give you everything that I have ♪
1407
01:23:39,305 --> 01:23:43,810
♪ Cruisin' the alley
With a broken taillight ♪
1408
01:23:43,893 --> 01:23:48,106
♪ Lose a few dollars
But get a good price ♪
1409
01:23:48,189 --> 01:23:52,777
♪ You'll be a friend for the night ♪
1410
01:23:57,490 --> 01:24:03,747
♪ I'll be a friend for the night ♪
1411
01:24:17,719 --> 01:24:20,889
♪ This is where the sunlight ♪
1412
01:24:20,972 --> 01:24:22,849
♪ Lives in the sand ♪
1413
01:24:22,932 --> 01:24:25,185
♪ It's where I want to be ♪
1414
01:24:25,268 --> 01:24:27,562
♪ Whenever I need a hand ♪
1415
01:24:27,645 --> 01:24:33,193
♪ It's where you gave me the look
That took me out ♪
1416
01:24:33,276 --> 01:24:37,947
♪ And away and over ♪
1417
01:24:38,031 --> 01:24:41,659
♪ And away ♪
1418
01:24:41,743 --> 01:24:44,454
♪ Let me celebrate ♪
1419
01:24:44,537 --> 01:24:46,956
♪ What you don't understand ♪
1420
01:24:47,040 --> 01:24:49,709
♪ It's where I get the strength ♪
1421
01:24:49,793 --> 01:24:51,628
♪ To be who I am ♪
1422
01:24:51,711 --> 01:24:54,380
♪ And if you give me a look ♪
1423
01:24:54,464 --> 01:25:00,553
♪ I promise I'll always
Give you everything ♪
1424
01:25:00,637 --> 01:25:05,642
♪ Always give you everything ♪
1425
01:25:05,725 --> 01:25:12,398
♪ Always give you everything
That I have ♪
1426
01:25:14,025 --> 01:25:17,570
♪ That I have ♪
1427
01:25:17,654 --> 01:25:20,532
♪ Let me celebrate ♪
1428
01:25:20,615 --> 01:25:22,826
♪ What you don't understand ♪
1429
01:25:22,909 --> 01:25:25,703
♪ It's where I get the strength ♪
1430
01:25:25,787 --> 01:25:27,664
♪ To be who I am ♪
1431
01:25:27,747 --> 01:25:30,333
♪ And if you give me a look ♪
1432
01:25:30,416 --> 01:25:37,090
♪ I promise I'll always
Give you everything that I have ♪
1433
01:25:37,173 --> 01:25:43,930
♪ Always give you everything that I have ♪
117649
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