In 1970s New York, before Disney and glass towers reshaped Midtown, Times Square was a different kind of spectacle — neon, grindhouse marquees, 24-hour peep shows, adult cinemas, and a raw street energy that defined the era.
Among the constellation of male adult theaters and underground venues was Ramrod — part of that unapologetically sleazy, pre-cleanup Manhattan landscape. The name alone fit the decade: bold, blunt, impossible to ignore.
For many gay men in the 1970s, adult theaters in Times Square functioned as more than entertainment — they were coded meeting spaces in a city still negotiating visibility and risk. Before apps, before widespread mainstream acceptance, these venues existed in the margins — controversial, surveilled, but undeniably part of New York’s queer urban history.
