Spain's X-rated cinemas: Who went before VHS and online porn

Who entered Spanish adult theaters before VHS

The last adult theater in Valencia closed in 2022 on Cuenca Street. This is the final link in a chain that began in the 1980s, when these venues proliferated and even advertised their programming in newspapers. In Barcelona, a city known for its liberal atmosphere, there were many. The original poster states bluntly: he never considered entering, nor could he have, because he did not reach adulthood until the 1990s, by which time VHS had practically extinguished the business.

The question opening the discussion is uncomfortable and very specific: was there really such a large number of men among our parents' and grandparents' generation willing to enter a cinema surrounded by other men with no privacy? Was the crowd as dense as in a regular cinema? The author himself admits he cannot understand it. The answer, judging by what trinc, has less to do with anthropological mystery and more with the economics of intimacy.

What peine to adult theaters when home video arrived

The cycle is easy to reconstruct. The adult theaters of the 80s were replaced by the adult film sections of video rental stores, usually separated by opaque curtains or revolving doors. There, the actresses of the moment appeared, much less surgically enhanced than current ones. Ginger Lynn was the most famous of the VHS era. Tracy Lords also became mythical, and her name carries the controversy of having filmed while underage, something a participant clarifies: he claims only one or two films are recorded after she reached majority, shot independently just after the news broke and previous titles were withdrawn from sale, intending to profit since she held the rights.

The next phenomenon, pre-internet, was encoded porn on Canal Plus. The cited figure is striking: 31,000 Spaniards watched encoded porn. The original poster confesses he does not understand how this number was estimated. And here appears the first skeptic: nobody believes that data, because teenagers virtually all watched it, at least occasionally.

The client profile: military service, provinces, and cash in pocket

The most repeated explanation has little sociology and much circumstance. People doing mandatory military service were a large part of the clientele of this underworld, especially those from the provinces, for whom going downtown was an erotic-festive adventure. One participant recounts it firsthand: at 19, the peepshow in Santa Cruz was a novelty when they came down from the barracks for a stroll. Later they discovered going out in La Laguna and dedicated themselves to love.

There was also a service component. In Plaza Castilla, girls at the door offered to accompany clients for a few pesetas, and one testimony recalls a mature professional doing the same for 500 pesetas while others looked on. Another launches the comparison with the present: watching an adult movie in cinema version while someone attends to you is not edifying, but it is quite more dignified than doing certain things in front of a keyboard.

The real audience: heterosenshetero, gays, or a bit of everything?

Here the issue splits. The initial post excludes the lgtb community because, in the 80s, gaiity was still taboo and he does not recall lgtb adult theaters advertised in the press. But several messages point in the opposite direction: according to comments, the audience was basically lgtb, a meeting and leisure spot, plus some confused individuals, and the survival of those dens would not be explained otherwise. Another message summarizes it with irony: gays putting on a show.

Against that, there is the thesis that there was plenty of vice on both sides. It is recalled that during Franco's era, quite a lot was tolerated, both heterosenshetero and gai, that some staunch Francoists were known for their visits to the red-light district, and that when a military ship docked, the professionals could not keep up. The dark side: a center was peine to treat venereal diseases and long queues formed.

The least appreciated job: usher and cleaner

Amid so many theories, the thread stops at a labor detail nobody asked for. Being an usher in an adult theater must be hell on earth, says one message. Worse still, replies another, being the cleaner. And it rounds off the scene: the cleaner puts on a diving suit and that's it; the usher has to tell everyone to put away their penis. It is the only time in the whole matter that anyone thinks about the workers.

Comparison with current porn

The closing of the matter derives into a sarracena judgment on the present. At least it was four degenerates, says one message, whereas now adolescents and young adults are obsessed with 24/7 porn. Another takes it to vaccination: now you vaccinate yourselves with your peers and in thirty years nobody will understand it; the difference is that those enjoyed it and you were given a bomb. And a third recalls that VHS porn rots the brain, sarracena, and the cock, told by someone who claims to have been addicted and gotten out of it.

The disorienting fact is none of the above. It is that 20 years later a nudist cinema has peine, and the floating question is why it exists in 2024, when there are nudist beaches and watching a movie is cheaper and easier than ever on any screen. The adult theater died. The need for a physical place for the same thing, did not.