The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion

Copyright 1981 is a gem. The inside cover describes our titular hero thusly:

Tory Bacher- Young, gay and gorgeous he worked his way up from one night stands to running the city's most sensual nighttime palace. But there is no pleasure without pain.

The story of a hustler's rise to nightclub superstar, this book makes me sad that I can't quote entire chapters: "Tory kicked off his Dr. Scholl's and grabbed his glass of chablis.""I hear the boys downtown do unimaginable things with their fists!" Really, the excellence goes on and on.

As Tory's rise from waiter, to boy toy, to disco diva to nightclub entrepeneur (finally opening the aforementioned pleasure palace named, of course, Tory's) he becomes more and more of a cocaine and Pouilly-Fuisse addled monster. His friends Brett and Mae and Mona try and rein him in, but his ego is not to be contained. At last, the promise of love with fellow hustler George helps Tory evaluate the opportunities and possibilities of his life.

I've read worse books, to be sure. This book's storyline is entirely adequate for a pulp read, and has a bit of sexiness dashed in here and there. The best way to read it, though, is as a picture of this place and time, and the men who made it magic.


This cheaply produced paperback book also contains a delightful sprinkling of typos. There's more than one reference to 'life in the fast land', but my favorite is when Tory goes to the disco, pays for his entrance, checks his 'coat and pate' and dances the night away. I hope they had a fridge in the coat check room. Nothing's worse than spoiled pate.

Amanda wrote: "Copyright 1981 is a gem. The inside cover describes our titular hero thusly:

Tory Bacher- Young, gay and gorgeous he worked his way up from one night stands to running t..."

Love your take on this Amanda. Would you say this could be a Dancer From The Dance remake complete with disco ball, neon coloured strobe lights, vintage epaulette/pilot shirts, tight cream slacks and John Travolta hair?

Yes, it's very much a low(er) rent Dancer From the Dance (a title which, ever time, I hear in my friend Jeff's voice as Dancer From His Pants). It's not bad, really, I mean as I've said, I've certainly read worse. It's got some sexy, it's got a fairly accurate (if slightly OTT) picture of NYC gay life in the late 70s/early 80s and at that time, those sorts of books were fairly rare, so yay.

Actually I've decided to make an informal study of the Avon/Signet paperbacks of this time, all of which have similarly awesome covers. Stay tuned!!

Oh, I'm waiting on tenterhooks now Amanda.

Amanda wrote: "Copyright 1981 is a gem. The inside cover describes our titular hero thusly:

Tory Bacher- Young, gay and gorgeous he worked his way up from one night stands to running t..."

I read this book when released in paperback about 1982. I would love to reread but have never been able to find it again. Have you found anywhere it's available?

I bought it at a used book sale, so I consider myself really lucky. I've never seen it anywhere else.

Except Amazon of course, where you can get one for $1, or $165, as you choose. ;)

http://www.amazon.com/Torys-William-S...

Amanda wrote: "http://www.amazon.com/Torys-William-S..."

Don't suppose an ebook has been released with this title?

I can't imagine. It's long out of print, I don't see why anyone would bother converting formats.

One would think if the novel was a big seller long ago and so many wonderful GLBT books out of print are now coming back as e-books, such as all Michael Nava's Henry Rios mysteries; Dorien Grey's Dick Hardesty private investigator series,John Morgan Wilson's Benjamin Justice series and Patricia Nell Warren's incredible dramatic novels, to name a few...

Well, according to Amazon, they're looking for the owner of the rights to release a Kindle version, so I guess that's a no. How big a seller was this back in the day?

Amanda wrote: "Well, according to Amazon, they're looking for the owner of the rights to release a Kindle version, so I guess that's a no. How big a seller was this back in the day?"

I have no clue if it was a big seller; back in '81, there were far and few GLBT centric novels, especially like Tory's, published with a large, well respected mass-market publisher. I only know that during the late '70s and early '80s, it was a struggle to find mass-market paperback books dealing with MCs and plots of GLBT protags; we were relegated to be sex feigns, rapists, killers, psychos, serial killers, retarded, alien, etc...so, finding a novel that dealt with GLBT subjects, perhaps more lesbian-themed then than gay, but alas, very little...I used to go to my local Walden books and literally read the backs of each paperback to find a novel dealing with GLBT subject matter. When I found one, it was a treasure!

Yeah, there wasn't much. I was talking to a friend of mine about how, once upon a time, we'd watch any movie, any episode of any tv show that had any gay characters in it, and how now entire series go by and we just think 'Nah.'

I hope you do get another copy of Tory's and come back and share your memories and impressions of the second time through.

Jon wrote: "Amanda wrote: "Well, according to Amazon, they're looking for the owner of the rights to release a Kindle version, so I guess that's a no. How big a seller was this back in the day?"

I have no clu..."

Okay - I ordered it in used paperback. It'll be the first paperback I've read since getting my first e-ready four years ago!