Jack sat in the middle and at some point told me about a drug of some sort that was "used for sex." I thought that that was hilarious since it seemed so ineluctable once it hit the air. I took a cab with them from the wedding at Marble Collegiate Church here in New York to the reception on Sutton Place. I no longer found him particularly attractive, but he was charming and funny. Later,in 1990, I met Jack when his wife, Margaret Whiting, the great 40's and 50's pop singer and I (a pianist) were both performing in a mutual friend's wedding.
It was possible to become a mimesis of Wrangler in the exact theatre seat he is filmed in in the film. It was possible to find the exact parts of the theatre while they were showing on the screen. I thought Wrangler very exciting at the time. This had a most extraordinary effect to go into a theatre and to see a movie about the theatre that was showing it. In 1977, when Jack Wrangler was the top gay male film star, this film was shot inside this thriving den of male furtiveness. It was a vast movie house, very grandiose with a large orchestra area and a big balcony with its own "lobby," which had wicker chairs that gradually were broken down. The interiority of life comes more quickly to some realms than others. Only videotape and DVD is used, never film. There is no such thing as a porno theater-straight or gay-anymore.
In the mid-70's, the Adonis Theatre opened as "The Flagship Male Theatre of the Nation." Such ephimeral folklore of the 70's era pornographic movie houses is unimaginable to most people. That alone should have made it a landmark on 8th Avenue between 50th and 51st.
The Adonis Theatre was originally a legitimate theatre built by Billy Rose for Fanny Brice.