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You are here: Home / Culture / Dance / Flashback Friday: Check Out the Retro Gay Culture in This 1989 Manhattan Cable Commercial for the Nightclub Private Eyes

Flashback Friday: Check Out the Retro Gay Culture in This 1989 Manhattan Cable Commercial for the Nightclub Private Eyes

By James St. James on September 22, 2017 10:16 am

Private Eyes was a semi-cheesy Manhattan nightclub that operated in the mid ’80s, down the street from the infinitely hipper Danceteria and around the corner from the Limelight. It was known for being a video bar, with dozens of TVs and larger screens scattered around, which in the ’80s was considered very forward thinking, and made it an ideal spot for music video premieres and things of that nature. Here we see a long-lost commercial for it that ran on Manhattan cable in 1989. It’s mostly just footage from one of their (very whitebread) gay nights set to the Pet Shop Boys “Left to My Own Devices”  – but its a fascinating window into late ’80s gay culture. The crowd is, as I’ve mentioned, decidedly unmixed, and probably skews a bit older than gay clubs today, which is just how things were at the time. (I love the guy at the 1:24 mark surreptitiously doing poppers). Watch it and leave comments, as I’d be very interested in hearing your thoughts.

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Filed Under: Dance, Entertainment, Exclusive, Featured, Gay, History, Hot Guys, LBGTQ, News, Nightlife, Retro, Social Media, TV & Video, Web

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