Boston’s Colorful Past – The Combat Zone!
Boston’s Colorful Past – The Combat Zone!
By Red Bottoms
Sports bars in the middle of the afternoon are good places for a meeting with Wanda of Waltham, because before 5PM, they’re generally quiet – but not today. The staff and the few customers were aghast at the monumental decision taken by the Boston Bruins to trade Brad Marchand. But the hubbub soon died down, and Wanda and I got down to business, and today’s business was Boston’s once famous Combat Zone.
What’s the Combat Zone?
It was a neighborhood in Boston for Adult services
It’s an area just outside of Boston’s Chinatown that once featured an array of strip clubs and porn shops. It also hosted a fair share of drug dealers and street prostitutes. The area is called the Combat Zone not because it was especially dangerous, but rather because of its popularity with military servicemen from now long-closed bases.
Now, I’ve had little experience myself with this enclave, but in my earlier years I occasionally frequented New York’s Times Square, a larger version of its Yankee Boston cousin. Back in those days, our own “New York City Street Hostesses” had a war cry that went “Don’t You Love Us, Don’t You Love Us?” Well, one day my friends and I were swarmed in a fast moving attack! “Don’t You Love Us, Don’t You Love Us?” they cried, as they jammed their greedy hands down my pants and fondled the goodies.
And before I knew it, nimble fingers had relieved me of $30. But yes, I loved it!
But I digress.
The Glass Slipper
Today, Centerfolds and the Glass Slipper are about all that’s left of the Combat Zone. Back in the day, circa the turn of the 21st Century, our own Wanda was just starting her career as a dancer at the Glass Slipper. Even then, the closing of the military bases, the skyrocketing rents and the creeping gentrification that strips a city of its life and spirit was taking its toll on “The Zone”.
For Wanda, it was actually a bit of a family affair. The owner of the Glass Slipper was, underneath the glamour, an old school Boston Catholic School graduate, who actually went to the same Catholic school as did Wanda’s mom. Little did Wanda know, fresh out of school she was when her boss told her you will never make as much money in you life as you do here. I could have made 10x more on my own. Kind of sinister now that I think of it that he said that to me. But that is another story.
There was a $65 base pay, and she got to keep 100% of her tips. And all the gals would try to get the customers to buy them drinks, making 10% of the tab for themselves.
A Carnival Atmosphere
The DJ holding sway was a dead ringer for Barry White and he always made sure to keep the festivities going with music and ribald commentary. There was a core of regulars, with a real sense of community, with newcomers always made welcome. Most of the customers and the girls did lines of cocaine, but the boss and the bouncers never let it get out of hand.
A happy time was had by all, staff and customers alike.
The Jerk Off Booths
Down the street at the jerk off boots a the DJ would occasionally interrupt the music to make special announcements, most memorably the availability of a range of transvestites available in the jerk off booths. “Half male, half female, the best of both worlds!”
Ah Yes – the Jerk off booths. You sat on one side of the jerk off booth, and after you paid your money, a transparent screen was revealed, allowing the customer to see the woman on the other side of the booth. She talks, and with more money paid, she’ll act out suggestions. The customer is free to, well, jerk off.
Nowadays, thanks to the internet, jerk off booths have been supplanted by Cam Girls. Now, the customer can jerk off in the safety and comfort of his own home, but if you ask Wanda, she’ll say that the sense of community is gone. The money taken away from the working class people of Boston must be millions. A Cam girl might be in Eastern Europe not your local girls. As technology drives a wedge between community and economics between men and women.
The End of an Era
X-Rated movies streaming live on the internet, online porn, Cam girls. No need to ever leave your home, you can live your life alone. No one will even know when you die until the death stink seeps out of your apartment
There was a core of regular male customers who relished each other’s fellowship. A weird sorta family, but a community nonetheless.
All gone now.
If Harvard and M.I.T. were the brains of the city, places like the Glass Slipper were its loins. If strip clubs are creepy, how creepy is sitting at home masturbating by oneself to an image on a computer screen?
And it’s not just strip clubs. Harvard Square is not much different from any upscale mall anywhere in the country. There’s nothing in Kenmore Square that’s the least bit funky or groovy. The friendly neighborhood pothead who sold you weed has been replaced by cloyingly “hip” state sponsored cannabis dispensaries.
The strip clubs of old were a part of life, a part of the culture. And I think we can all agree with Wanda that a colorful, vibrant part of Boston is gone, and we are all that much the poorer without it.
So in the end what killed the combat zone was two things. Well first the naval Base was moved. The naval Base supplied a lot of sailors on leave and supplied lots of men to the combat zone. Rumor has it that President Nixon punished Boston for supporting Kennedy in the presidential election so he moved the naval base.
Secondly and most violently was the internet and home video technology. People didn't have to leave their house to jerk off to see if to see live nude girls. Boogie nights documents this transition from movies to home video and then finally the internet you could just jerk off at home so you didn't have to go someplace to see naked ladies.
They broke the zoning of red-lights districts across the U.S. and instead put Asian massage parlors on every corner. The people who took down times square .. it was mayor Giuliani and the Walt Disney corporation. These people and corporations are still around. They did the same thing the Las Vegas they put Walt Disney in a to make it like more family-friendly. It was a big campaign. Swapping out the U.S. workers for rotating temporary workers from the 3rd world.
The US military came up with the Internet by the way. Sometimes I wonder if the internet does more harm than good. The powers that be seem to revel in using our tax dollars develop technologies to keep us separated and fighting each other.
The world may not be meaner, but it sure is duller.
The Rise and Fall of Boston's "Combat Zone" Veteran journalist Stephanie Schorow talks about the peculiar history of Boston's adult entertainment neighborhood, as detailed in her new book, "Inside the Combat Zone." Interview for BNN News. Aired November 14, 2017. https://youtu.be/nqhkILM5AC4?si=hjBa1ui0ahrrJUIE
Times Square Was Once The Red Light District of New York City | I Was There https://youtu.be/Sn1ggsuE5SU?si=eVf2f2A1Ids9S6Mz
News from time period NYC
NY2K: Rudy Giuliani's "60/40" Law cleans up the Big Apple - New York City 1998 https://youtu.be/TEpZU6NYIio?si=HbNAOswk7Jh2f9MG
Streets of NYC 1980s/times square after hours/peeps shows,strip clubs,drugs, prostitutes https://youtu.be/bnJAXAOcw0I?si=L85PYlc--_bsPV1t
News from time period Boston
Prostitution: Boston Combat Zone - Working Girls (1977-92) https://youtu.be/aFEryYNWHws?si=rm3pRK12W8Gp8VZu