A fixture of L.A.’s leather and cruising nightlife, the Manhandler Saloon was part of the city’s hard-edged, post-Stonewall bar scene, operating through the 1970s and into the 1980s. Its name said everything: blunt, provocative, and coded for the men who knew exactly what kind of room they were walking into.
Like many leather bars of the era, Manhandler favored darkness, discretion, and ritual over polish. It drew bikers, leathermen, hustlers, and regulars who found community in spaces built on shared language—boots, denim, eye contact, and unspoken rules—at a time when queer life in Los Angeles still lived largely out of sight.
