#You hear a car door slam or keys jingle and you'd press the eject button so quick!

[bairenalenko]

Since I'm ancient to Tumblr standards let me tell you that this wasn't just a 50's thing. In the pre-internet 90's this is how I also got my hands on gay erotica in my youth.

I'd go to any place that sold magazines (book stores, convenience stores, etc.) and buy a muscle magazine. Not all fitness magazines were just about fitness like they are today, there were some that had a lot fewer fitness articles and a lot more spreads of nearly naked men.

Most importantly on the last few pages there were ads for video cassettes you could order through the mail about "fitness" (which were guys oiling themselves up or completely wet and flexing), dramas about an unforgettable summer that just happened to have two men on the cover, or even medical tapes about "men's heath" (read: masturbation) that taught you things like how to use a condom correctly.

Magazines and tapes like these were the first gay porn and gay stories I ever saw even though most of it was soft core stuff (the actors were having sex but nothing x-rated was shown in the frame). The only erect penises were from the "men's health" videos, you know, for scientific purposes.

Alan Parker, Joe Leitel and Bruce Reed Ben-Hurry (1959) dir. Richard Fontaine