Show world Legacy Presents:
Harvey Wang: Deep Within the Live Peep
Nowadays its difficult to even imagine the existence of a parallel reality far-removed from the rigid conformity, conservative dogma, and blatant hypocrisy of the present. But now and then historians excavate diaries, contact sheets, discarded memorabilia, and remnants of alternative lifestyles as evidence that sexual subcultures in abundance indeed diversified their surroundings, before being systematically exterminated by the latest reactionary political crusade. That beneath the facade of our society something enticingly visceral existed that enhanced and allowed us to explore the potentialities within ourselves; something that all walks of life were attracted to, regardless of race, religion, or persuasion.
Although a citadel of smut, Show World Center, the pronounced mecca of masturbatory splendor, was simply an adult arcade. In 1977 photographer Harvey Wang gained exclusive access to the inner sanctums within the pleasure dome of pornography on 8th Avenue and 42nd Street. Amazingly he was granted privilege to document a realm rife with indecency featuring perhaps the last descendants of the lost art of burlesk; the dressing room of Show World originally located on the mezzanine level (constructed during Mayor Beame's infamous 'walk' through the streets of Times Square). There he captured a raw corridor deep within hard-core pornography; 42nd Street showgirls on and offstage in various stages of undress, who flaunt and expose themselves for men who crawl in and out of the shadows. Through these stunning portals we witness the distinct backstage camaraderie of the live peep shows, where an underbelly of wanton girls perform and induce the deliverance of men through rites of self-gratification. Thus is revealed a sanctity to the peeps where the accommodations smack of a show business on a less glamorous scale where nudity is condoned and men evade disgrace.
Also presiding over their 'pupils' are two bona fide 42nd Street legends; the sensuous Miss Lee ('Lee's Baby Doll Revue'), and the wicked yet weathered Mama Santana. Images that confirm that the 'family business' of lewdness was indeed a cash cow for women on the fringe, where a girl honed her survival skills under the sexpert tutelage of Santana and the ravishing Miss Lee.