Circus of Books: behind a Netflix film about a mom-and-pop gay porn shop
In a charming new documentary produced by Ryan Murphy, a film-maker explores her parents’ business: a Los Angeles store selling gay porn
Rachel Mason always remembers her parents telling her as a teenager not to let anyone know what they did for a living. “They used the same codes the mafia does,” Mason said. “My mom had five different ‘official’ job titles as one point. She’d say, ‘I’m in real estate’ or ‘I’m a manager’.”
Both of which were, in a sense, true. Karen and Barry Mason – two quiet, middle-aged and, in the mother’s case, devoutly religious, people – did, in fact, own a commercial property and did run a store. What they kept hidden was the fact that their store happened to be the largest purveyor of hardcore gay pornography in Los Angeles, a place unknown to the general public but legendary among gay men across the US. At one point, through their mail-order business, the couple became perhaps the biggest distributors of gay porn in the US. In the 80s and 90s, the Masons’ store, named Circus of Books, was the place to pick up explicit gay magazines and movies, some of which the couple even produced, along with such useful accoutrements as lube, dildos and cock rings. It was even a good place to find sex, with the friskier patrons ducking out back to an area teeming enough to earn the nickname “Vaseline Alley”.