Larry Levenson certainly feels at male-female ratio for the prowlers home. I spoke with Levenson, who get in as escorts.) Indeed, in dressed only in orange briefs, as he most men there is a mournful space lounged on the mattress floor of his deep down that holds that whatever private party room. A truly happy else one does, keenest fulfillment man is hard to hate, and Larry will never be had unless that fantasy Levenson, proprietor of Plato’s is a if fulfilled To fuck abundantly and happy man. Not merely the owner of anonymously is, after all, the prova booming business, Levenson is ince of the Gods, Zeus’ special nothing less than the King of Swing. prerogative to take whom he would, (Swinging, primarily a couples tradedisguised as the wind; and who off scene, has been around for years, would not be Godlike? At Plato’s, the but ever so discreetly. That is until opportunity is more real than one Plato’s). His business is very much might ever have dreamt possible, his pleasure. Half-dressed, Levenavailable five nights a week for son strolls around Plato’s not so nothing more than the price of much an overseer as a mellow host admission and a minimalist techand fellow reveler. Wherever he nique. ‘ ‘How do I get into so many goes, Platoites beam smiles of women at Plato’s?” one buoyant gratitude upon their sexual Santa. “ I got it all,” Levenson told me, his permanent salmon flush rising to near orange. ‘ ‘What can I say, I got tears in my eyes.” The man’s eyes do not betray him. Naturally sleepy and tilted, they are so saturated with good feeling they seem ready to slide into his cheeks. Deep down, very deep ard faint, there is a con-man glint. But if Levenson’s a hustler, he’s been born again and told he can keep his hustle, that the Lord is a loving Lord who smiles upon those who earn their bread by making others happy. ‘ ‘That’s what Plato’s is all about,” Levenson would say again and again. ‘ ‘The people here just want to have a good time, and we help them any way we can. The hell with the rest. There may be a war out there but in here, we enjoy ourselves. Tell me, is there anything so wrong with that? My God,” Levenson rolled his eyes across the room, ‘ ‘these people are having a ball, and that’s the bottom line, right? Who’s big enough to say no to that?” I set out to try to verify Levenson’s claim that the people at Plato’s were ‘ ‘having a ball.” A preliminary survey seemed to bear out out. I spend hours circling from dance floor to poolside to buffet, watched people go into and come out of the mat room, the steam room and the dozens of private rooms in back, and orgy-room veteran asked. “ I work everywhere I encountered the same through the toes. Everyone responds ‘ ‘this is too good to be true” grin, to that, at least a little, and when the especially among the men. A whole green light flashes, Igo .” truckload of fuck-crazy fantasies There is, of course, something were coming true and lighting up rather disturbing about this kind of faces in all directions. I don’t quite mass fuck joyride. I mean, Zeus this mean to be snide. The dream of guy was not, and somehow, I can’t experiencing a harem, not as a shake the feeling that for us mortals, purchased, whore-strewn situation the joy of sex ought to partake of but as a naturally wrought experisome wee bit of human exchange, ence, to ride through waves of some degree of person-to-person women in a single night, with recognition. Otherwise, why not just absolute access and no guilt, is fuck each other through a hole in the something that gets planted early wall without ever having to know and deep in whatever social soul men which opening or what species we’re have. (Plato’s entrance rules recoginto, much less names, birth dates nize this — women, but not men, and serial numbers. (There is, by the may come alone, thereby controlling way, a club in New York, patronized what would otherwise be a ruinous I hear by the very highest society, lone-wolf population, while at the called The Toilet, which features just same time securing a favorable such ‘ ‘Glory Holes.” ) Dad’s Excuse Tavern friendliest place in town (We try harder, we’re number two) 11 a.m.-2:30 a.m. 2516 S.E. Clinton a six-pack of Schlitz Bull with this coupon Good through April Alas, Levenson’s happy patrons “ Sounds pretty impersonal,” I were happy precisely because of the ventured. anonymity that Plato’s affords — “ Heyy, that’s the beauty of this that was the prevalent turn-on. place,” he exclaimed, “ that’s what Indeed, after about a dozen happy makes it so great. Plato’s is pure, people interviews, I came upon one unadulterated, sensuous, impersonmat-room reveler who was so godalized sex.” damned beamy I wanted to sit on his What, pray, would Erich Fromm face. The guy was taking a breather have to say to that? on the sidelines. I asked him what was up. He grinned. You have to Don’t get the idea that the orgasm watch what you say at Plato’s or numbers game at Plato’s is just a you’ll never get a straight answer. male trip. One lady, reclining on a ‘ ‘You look like you’ve enjoyed lounge chair and fanning her hot yourself, ’ ’ I began again. spot by opening and closing her ‘ ‘Five times,” he replied. knees, remarked gleefully, “ I can ‘ ‘Remember each one?” I asked. get as many guys as I want here, ‘ ‘Oh sure,” he said. “ I never with my husband’s permission.” forget an orgasm.” Another woman, piling potato salad onto a sagging paper plate, bristled angrily, “ What do I remember? Cock size. None of ’em had big cocks.” And then, at the juice bar, I came upon a dead ringer for the Blind Faith album cover girl, the acid child, replete with budlike breasts, vaguely pouting mouth, and flowing, amber hair. Only now she was ten years older and very up-to-date, her one-time flush banished by a Bahamas tan, her weirdly compelling look hopelessly blurred by Quaaludes. Swinging was her movement now, swingers all members of one family, she said, her glass dangling precariously between two slippery fingers. I asked what that did for her, what she got out of her evening at Plato’s. “ Wha’d I get out of it?” she echoes, suddenly realizing and letting me know I was very unhip. “ About twenny comes, that ’s what I got.” To be sure, not all the happy folk at Plato’s were of the above description. Some, like the sixty-two-yearold black retired truck driver and his wife, Friday regulars for the past two months, enjoyed Plato’s just for the visuals. “ When you get old and y ’ gotta body like we got, y ’ come and look,” the fellow explained. “ Course, when we get home, after seeing this stuff, it don’t take much to get us goin’ , ” he added, nudging his thin, severe-faced wife. Others, like a thirty-year-old PR lady, enjoy themselves in a more complex “ What about the women, you manner. Her high point at Plato’s, remember anything about the woshe said, was masturbating with an men?” enormous dildo on the juice bar in “ Like what?” he asked, slightly front of a cheering audience. “ It was suspicious. a goof,” she explained. “ I loved it. I “ A name, maybe?” flipped everybody right out. ’ ’ “ Ahh, what’s in a name,” he But in my nights at Plato’s, easily breezed while shifting to avoid a the happiest person I met, really sudden multibody roll. compellingly happy, was a young “ Well, anything else?” I persistwoman, plain faced but dreamy ed. The guy saw down and scratched eyes, a sophomore at Rutgers. “ This his grayish belly. is the best time I ever had in my “ The first was kinda fat,” he whole life,” she said, with wonderful began, “ and I wasn’t that turned on. sincerity. “ This is the peak.” With The second was a bit older, but she three guys making exploratory dives really loved it. The third was a bit under and between her legs as she older too, and she really loved it too. clung to the side of the pool, she told The fourth was younger,” the guy me she had lost count of the men she clicked, warming to his task. “ She had fucked. She couldn’t help herliked it a lot, though I never saw self, she said. At Rutgers she had what she looked like. And the fifth was pretty much the same thing. Continued onnext page ONE LATE RISER EARLYBIRD $1.10 2 eggs, hash browns and toast at the Stepping Stone Cafe 8am-2:30pm Mon-Fri good through May 31,1979 When you rise late and want a good homemade breakfast at yesterday’s prices, come to theStepping Stone Cafe corner of NW 21st & Quimby and bring this coupon 7
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