Data-Boy Magazine — Replica Promo T-Shirt (1968 – 1994)
Before the internet, before apps, and long before mainstream LGBTQ+ media, queer communities created their own channels — and one of the most vivid was Data‑Boy Magazine and Instant Press.
Founded in 1968 by Data-Boy Instant Press, an early computerized printing service owned by Saul “Fat Shirley” Sufron, Data-Boy was a free gay entertainment magazine distributed at bars, clubs, and hangouts throughout Los Angeles.
With its irreverent name (inspired by Sufron’s Yiddish mother’s encouragement, “Dat a boy”), the magazine was a foundation of queer print culture long before mainstream outlets embraced LGBTQ+ audiences. It mixed local bar and club ads, reviews of plays and films, scene reporting, and cultural commentary — making it both an advertising network and a living archive of queer life in Southern California.
In the late 1970s through the 1980s, Data-Boy expanded into Northern California, with issues bound back-to-back for both regions, reflecting a growing, interconnected queer social world. Eventually, from its Los Angeles base, it evolved into California Data-Boy before its run ended in 1994.
