Boston’s gay nightlife has certainly had its share of changes and with the advent of sites like Manhunt you will often hear older gay men bemoan the loss of many gay bars in the city. I concur that Boston’s nightlife can often leave a lot to be desired, but a new chapter is being written here in Boston and most likely in other cities around the country as being gay becomes less a stigma and accepted by the mainstream.
Every other Friday night, ROCCA (a popular South End restaurant with one of the nicest patios in the neighborhood) hosts gay parties. For those who like to get their dance on – the bar Roxy goes gay every Saturday. Additionally, it is hard to step into most bars in the South End and BackBay without seeing several other gay and lesbian groups enjoying cocktails. It is true that the subterfuge is gone and certainly many bars have closed their doors, but the GLBT nightlife in Boston is not dead – far from it. It has just changed to keep up with the times.
The photograph to the left is an old adverstisement that I believe dates back to the 1950s or 1960s 1980s. I’m not sure if Herbie’s Ramrod is somehow related to the present day, Ramrod (in the photo on the right). However, the Tom of Finland-like images seem eerily familiar to Boston’s current bar’s image.
BosGuy 
Ya, that advertisement is from the mid or late 70s. I started college and gay adventures in 1983. Old dudes (I am one now) would talk about the name formerly being Herbie’s Ramrod.
I remember an after hours bar in the 80’s in the alley behind Club Cafe. I can’t remember the name, or if it even had a name. You stood outside in a long line just hoping to get picked to go inside. The place was a fire trap. No one ever thought about it. We were shitfaced drunk. No one got in the door unless you were young, hot, or friends with the doormen. One doorman was the reason I was able to cut the line and go right in with anyone with me. (thats another story) I think it was $20 to get inside. That would be the last time you would see your friends again until the next day. Up the stairs took you 10-15 minutes of maneuvering. Stairs made for one person yet 3 were trying to get up. Don’t even attempt to come down. The only way to move around was to squeeze thru sweaty guys. If you were wearing a shirt when you got to the top, it was so soaked you took it off or it was ripped off.. The bigger you were the better at getting where you wanted to go. Me being 5’4″ and 130lbs, I could never get myself anywhere. I’d just get pushed through the bodies until I got somewhere close to the bar. There was no liquor license. so they gave it all out for free. Cups covered the bar and were gone as soon they were filled. Watered down cheap vodka only and splashed everywhere – cranberry at one end, orange juice at the other. Every few minutes the bartenders (if you can call them that) scooped up the bills from one end of the bar to the other and onto the floor behind the bar. Cute little me had no problem getting helped up. I’d grab 2-3 then try to back up before a hand went down the back of my jeans. If I wasn’t careful I’d get pushed into the back corner and then I was in trouble. It’s not like that wasn’t why we were all there anyway. This was just before HIV. A condom? for butt sex??? Crazy. If you were successful getting to your knees to service someone “special”, there was no way you were allowed to get up again, without some help. Your “special” guy was finished and long gone. It was so hot and humid in that corner there was always someone who would pass out. The only way you knew about this place was word-of-mouth. It was secretive at first. You only told guys that were cool. Eventually the word got out. No Fatties, Fems, and over 40. I saw drag queens throw tantrums because they couldn’t get in. I don’ think the place was even open a year. When the police did get word of the ciaos happening inside, they stood a block away and watched. Business did slow down from raid paranoia I heard it was a private club and the police couldn’t do a thing about it; not like now The police found a solution. A few molotov cocktails before it opened and with the firetrucks standing by did the job.
Damn, that was a great place. You can’t understand something like this unless you experienced it; maybe I should write a book…lol
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Buck, thanks for sharing. I’d love to hear more about these places. Some of them I’ve heard before and others like the place on Stanhope Street behind CC I’ve never heard of before.
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My boyfriend and I (in our 40s and early 50s) so miss the gay nightclub scene that used to thrive in Boston in the 80s and 90s. Reminiscing about it, we decided to bring back the fun of going out to dance and have a few drinks on Sundays, you know… Tea dance. So we started a monthly tea dance in Roslindale where we live at a place that is straight but very gay frindly, Robyn's. Its a pub kind of place with a big room for the dance floor. DJ Harrison, my partner, plays great disco and retro music (the songs you know and love) on the last Sunday of the month at Robyns in Roslindale Village (4195 washington St). Come on out we have been packing the place. The next tea dances are August 30 and Sept. 27. For more info, email me at rickward51@comcast.net
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Hi,I like your blog and your take on Boston's changing gay nightlife and social scene. One thing I get tired of, is hearing people attribute it to Manhunt, et. al. Sorry to amaze anybody, but not all gay men and women always have gone out to a club looking for a hookup every time. If it happens, cool — but I've always enjoyed also just the fun of people-watching, dancing, dressing it up, and so on.I think what HAS changed "the scene," is that when I came out in the 80s for instance, the only social outlet we had were the "underground" bars.. Now gay people are rightfully more part of the social fabric, and we have more options to be and do and go more different places and things and experiences.But there will always be that aura of the gay bar, and the atmosphere of camp and make-believe and fun and nostalgia, which I hope never fully die in Beantown and, like you alluded, live on in places such as Roxy — a place I like because it's more upscale and where you can mix with and meet all different types of people, enjoyably.
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The very earliest that ad can be is from the late-'70s but probably early-'80s. An even older queen than me would have to verify. Not sure when Herbies first moved to Boylston, before it got there it was located in a building that was torn down to make way for what is now the Transportation Building behind the Colonial Theater.It's the same thing as the present-day Ramrod. When I first moved to Boston in the mid-'80s there were many people who still instinctively referred to the Ramrod as Herbie's.Chris Wittke
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i'll be visting boston soon (i'm from singapore) and stumbled upon your blog accidentally while looking for things to do while in boston. lots of interesting info here. :)i wonder. how hot can boston get in summer? any worse than singapore or bangkok? cheers
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