It was in 1969 that the company that founded the Bijou (along with many other Adult Theaters and businesses) was formed. Today Steven Toushin one of the original founders is still actively running the businesses.
Born in Brooklyn N.Y. in 1946. Toushin in 1966 being 18 years old left N.Y. on his bicycle and traveled to Montreal to see Marlene Dietrich at Expo. During the next two years, he traveled and worked at odd jobs digging graves, short order cook, picking potatoes, cutting pulpwood throughout New England. Steven left New England in the summer of 1968 landing in Chicago, where he got a job managing the Aardvark Theater that showed underground experimental art films. This was the beginning of his unusual career.
With over 40 years of experience owning a broad range of adult businesses, Toushin has managed to survive (starting with his first obscenity arrest in 1969 for Jack Smith's "Flaming Creatures", the first of twenty-one obscenity arrests and trials (others were "I am Curious Yellow" and "Deep Throat) has flourish longer than anyone else in the adult industry despite 35 arrests, 200 busts to his business's, five federal trials, three federal appeals (winning two) and numerous state and local trials.
Toushin has defended numerous civil and criminal lawsuits in building courts, zoning problems, and local licensing problems that have led up to the Federal court system. He has been a defendant in the legal system continuously from 1970 to the present and has had the opportunity to change a few repressive local laws. His last obscenity bust was in 1991; last police raid 1996 last federal trial 1998. Toushin has been incarcerated twice spending three years in federal prison for being in his chosen profession.
Toushin is the owner of the Bijou Theater (1970) the oldest gay theatre/sex club in the U.S., and Bijou Video a gay adult mail order company (1978). His businesses have included theaters, sex clubs, gay bathhouses, massage parlors (prostitution), and adult bookstores in Chicago, San Francisco, Indianapolis, and East Chicago. Toushin made and produced both gay and straight adult films from 1971 to 1996 as well as S/M films in the 1970's and Slave & Master films in the early 1980's. In 1987, several of his Slave and Master films were indicted on Federal obscenity charges in Tennessee, Utah, and Nebraska as a result of Attorney General Meese's Commission on Pornography. This resulted in an extraordinary SM trial that included many well-known people from the Leather community. Steven's book, The Destruction of the Moral Fabric of America, is centered on this trial.
Toushin published The Bijou Video Catalog, the bible of gay video, from 1980 to 1995. In 1987 he made a censorship commercial that was put on 80% of all sex tapes till 1993. He has written for several weekly gay magazines, and has authored four books, The Puppy Papers, Puppy's Tales, The Destruction of the Moral Fabric of America, and the Bijou Cock Coloring Book. his websites are bijouworld.com and steventoushin.com. Toushin has been the subject of numerous newspaper and television news stories. He has been on the board of the Free Speech Coalition and has continuously fought for First Amendment rights since his first arrest in 1969 to the present day.
In 1989 at the Adult Video Awards show in Las Vegas Toushin received (while he was in prison) the Reuben Sturman Award "For Legal Battles on Behalf of the Adult Industry. In 2007 at the GayVN award show in San Francisco, Toushin was awarded the "Life Time Achievement Award" from the Gay Adult Industry. He is the 3rd person to ever receive this honor. In the June 2008 AVN (Adult Video News) magazine's 25th anniversary edition Toushin was acknowledged as one of the 25 pioneers who developed the Gay/bi Adult Film Industry. In January 2009 at the AVN award show in Las Vegas Toushin was inducted into the prestigious Founders Branch. This award recognized Toushin's (starting in 1969) contribution as a major player in developing the modern Adult Industry.
In Dec 2007 Mr. Toushin was elected to the board of the Free Speech Coalition an organization that represents the Adult Industry. In January of 2009, Mr. Toushin holds the distinction of being the first person to be voted off the Board of the FSC. Toushin felt the FSC did not represent the needs and interests of the current Adult Industry. The reason Mr. Toushin was voted off the FSC board was that he created an outline for establishing an organization for business owners and sent out that proposal to select members of the Adult Industry. His proposal included a code of ethics, mission, vision, and philosophy for establishing an organization that would best represent the interests of the modern adult industry in the U.S. This did not sit well with the FSC.
For Vintage/Classic gay porn and erotica (Gay Magazines, Gay Gay Porn Mail-order Brochures, Gay Porn Movie Posters, Gay Pulp Jerk-Off Books etc), please go to Bijouworld.com
