For the last few months I've been so busy I'm dangerously close to burning out, but somehow I still make time for something fun. This past weekend, with my husband and our friends, I watched the documentary "American Swing." It chronicles the rise and fall of the famous New York swing club Plato's Retreat.
New York is known for its famous clubs. Studio 54 and CBGB's are two of them. The third is Plato's Retreat, opened in 1977. In the late 1970's and early 80's disco music and cocaine were everywhere. Sex in a club out in the open - not so much, unless you frequented gay male clubs. Larry Levenson, the owner of the orginal Plato's Retreat, wanted to change that. He desired to create a place for heterosexual couples to have sex with each other. And lots of lesbian sex was encouraged also - the same way most American swing clubs operate today.
Is that right or wrong? Gay male sex in American swing clubs seen as taboo? I don't know, that's not really the focus of my entry.
What is the focus of my entry is that Larry Levenson was one of my heroes. In the documentary, I watched him being grilled by Phil Donahue. (If you're as old as I am you remember that Donahue was king way before Oprah was queen.)
If swingers are still considered "sickos" today, you can only imagine what it must have been like in the late 70's and early 80's. It doesn't take courage for me to put together a swinging erotica anthology today. It really doesn't. It's because of people like Larry Levenson who showed true bravery that I'm able to do this at all. It's because of great swingers clubs like Plato's Retreat where ordinary people, and plenty of celebrities, could enter those walls and have honest sex (sex without cheating) that swingers clubs of today are able to thrive.
Sex is as natural as breathing. Attempts to prevent people from having sex, or to force people to have sex only in monogamous situations, have proven to be pointless. In the documentary, we hear from not only Levenson and his girlfriend Mary, but Betty Dodson, Annie Sprinkle, Helen Gurley Brown and others who have always exhibited a positive attitude regarding sex.
Where would people like me be without the actions of those before me? The AIDS epidemic overtook the United States, beginning in the early 80's, forcing the city of New York to order Plato's Retreat to close as they had done with gay bath houses. However, the legacy of Plato's Retreat will forever live on in the history of sex in the United States.
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Bill Brent says, "Swing! is a fun and frisky flip through the pages of planned non-monogamy."
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3 comments:
"Sex is as natural as breathing"
Oh so true, Jolie, oh so true. I was too young (honest!) at the heydey time of clubs like Plato's Retreat and, besides, we didn't really have clubs like that in the UK anyway. Not that I knew of! ;-)
The world as a whole still has a long way to go to accepting freedoms like consentual non-monogamous sex. Still we are a fair way forward from where we used to be.
SWING! on, I say :)
Jim Brown
http://www.logical-lust.com
http://logicallust.wordpress.com
Ditto your great comments on the documentary, Jolie. I also thought Larry Levenson was brave in those interviews as we watched it. Swinging absolutely would not be where it is today without the pioneers. And we (my husband and I and our partners) were fortunate enough to experience Plato's on several occasions. For those of you who haven't gotten Swing! yet, get it, and don't forget to read my story, Plato's Retreat!
Thanks for visiting my blog Jim and Karmen! I love looking at all the old photos and footage of Plato's Retreat!
Jolie du Pre
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