The book, page 11, Jerry Butler and "Channel J"

Even for me this page lacked some finesse. The clear use of staples and I believe "post-its" to attach the pictures could have been improved on from an artistic standpoint. The pictures are all kind of hoo-hum too. Clockwise from the top left the boys are Jerry Butler, Randy West, Cal Jammer and Sean Michaels. Everyone has other appearances in the book, but Jerry Butler deserves some honorable mention for his historical value.

First I'm going to *gasp* break with format skip ahead to show you a larger picture of him from later in the book:



Not a particularly breathtaking guy, but he had a husky, daddy thing going that hit the right spot.

Anyhow, in New York City in the 80's at the dawn of cable TV, the channels above 13 were given letter denominations (MTV was "G" etc.). Channel J was community access, but after 11 pm they showed adult content. All pre-teen boys knew about this quickly, and many a sleepover featured viewings. Its was mostly boring: Naked talk shows, "The Robin Byrd Show", phone sex ads ("970-PEEE...add an extra E for extra pee!") and ads for escort agencies like "Geisha to Go" were their standard fare. Between this unending boring content there where occasional snippets of porn movies to keep you interested. The clips were less than 3 minutes I would say, but through deft use of our VCR, I managed to capture Jerry Butler doing a girl doggie style in a field for about 60 seconds. That grainy, crappy mini scene was the first porn I ever really owned, so Jerry has a space in my heart.

He has an autobiography called "Raw Talent", but it was pretty self congratulatory and I admit I never finished it.

Channel J also showed gay content on Friday nights after midnight. I swear I wasn't looking for it, but one night I happened upon the moment that "made me gay". The scene I stumbled on was two guys in a dorm room talking about girls. They were drinking beer in cut off sweat pants, shirtless, so I suppose I should have seen it coming, but when one guy suggests that its okay for men to "use each other" when girls aren't around and promptly begin to blow the other one, I was shocked. I scrambled to change the channel immediately but it was too late. The hard-on in my pants was all the proof really needed that another fag had been born.