The Styrous® Viewfinder: Beemer Memory 5 ~ Leatherneck, Pillow, a Hungry i

Leather Love Act performance

San Francisco, 1978

photo by Jim Stewart

The Internet is the miracle of our times. It is changing the way we perceive the world, the way we live and the things that happen to us. Here is a case in point. I wrote my last entry, Beemer Memory 4 (see link below), only to try to preserve a moment in time I thought shouldn't be lost, nothing more. I was contacted by photographer, Jim Stewart. Now, this may not sound unusual but the thing was, I had lost contact with Jim almost 40 years ago and have been trying to find and reconnect with him for the last 10 years. I had tried everything I could think of. I wrote the entry and BAM! Within a couple of days, he contacted ME because a friend had read the entry and had told HIM! Now, I call that a miracle.

The reconnection was something I will remember the rest of my life; it was not only completely satisfying (sometimes old-time reunions don't go so well), it was astounding!

We talked about many things, mostly about our lives since we've seen each other: our successes, our failures, our health, you name it. I may write more about our reunion another time. We talked about those crazy days and one of the things he mentioned was, yes, we actually DID drag that Beemer of mine into the bar. I'd forgotten we had not only talked about doing it but HAD done it.

HOT DAMN!

At the time, I was dancing on Broadway at the Hungry i club doing the "Love Act". The Hungry i had opened as a nightclub in the 1950's; it featured top performers of the time. The Kinston Trio began their career there; Jonathan Winters, Shelly Berman, Mort Sahl, to name just a few, almost anybody who was anybody in entertainment performed there. But those were in earlier times. By the time I was dancing at the Hungry i, it had moved from it's original heyday location at 599 Jackson Street to 546 Broadway and had become one of the many sleazy strip joints that featured a male/female "Love Act". The act was what drew in couples (married couples but mostly men with girls they wanted to seduce, get the picture?). The guys figured the sight of a man and woman simulating sex in a dance was supposed to make the women he was with horny. Go figure. It was a great time in my life, though, and I met a lot of interesting people. I'll have some delightful blog entries about that period of my life.

My dance partner at the time was Pillow. Pillow was anything but; in later years she was known as "She Beast". She was a female body builder who competed professionally. She was street smart, intelligent, artistic and could swing a mean upper right. The only thing 'pillow' about her was her heart. She was Miss Exotic World in 1995. She held her farewell performance at Exotic World (the Burlesque Hall of Fame) when she retired in 2000.

Anyway, she and I did a photo shoot of our Hungry i, Leather Love Act (we had many acts, one of which was a Star Wars Love Act; she was Princess Lea, I was Darth Vader. The audiences loved THAT one even though she was 3" taller than I, and with her buns on, well . . .) at the Leatherneck one night and dragged the bike into the bar but it was a closed session and not open to the public.

Jim photographed the session of Pillow and me performing our Love Act. He gave me proof sheets from the shoot; years later I scanned them then forgot all about them. After he contacted me earlier this month, I dragged them out of storage and examined the shots he got that day . . .

. . . and the following are shots from that shoot:

Pillow and me
Leather Love Act performance
at the Leatherneck Bar
San Francisco, 1978

photo by Jim Stewart

Pillow
Leather Love Act performance
at the Leatherneck Bar
San Francisco, 1978

photo by Jim Stewart

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