2008.15.1

Book. Cover shows a barechested man in jeans and a leather jacket, and the words "Gay Capitol of the World" in red. It contains the subtitle, "The homosexual and how he lives," and a quote calling the book "Intimate...revealing...a real turn-on to the real gay scene!" Description of book on back cover: "Carefully, in great detail, the author leads over every path of the homosexual community. He names places and people...he reports what's new in fashions and entertainment. The sex practices of the gay crowd are documented as never before. It's exciting! It's a new type of guidebook to homosexual life." The author discusses various aspects of gay life in Hollywood in a pseudo-journalistic way - he covers fashion, entertainment, bar and dating scenes, "high brow" life, gay organizations and activism, gay church life, and legal considerations of being openly gay. He also gives guidance to gay visitors to the area. In many parts of the book, he characterizes Hollywood as the biggest and first place where it is acceptable, and even admirable, to be gay. Note the misspelling in the title: "Capitol" is the spelling of the another sense of the word, and it should have been spelled "Capital."

L. Jay Barrow is the pseudonym of Victor J. Banis, well-known as a writer of gay pulp fiction under various pseudonyms (including Don Holliday, who supposedly wrote the foreword to the book).

Used: homosexual | Lesbian and Gay Community | Tourist | Travel