Caldron (sex club)

{{Infobox building

| name = Caldron

| image = File:San-Francisco-Caldron-Logo.jpg

| address = 953 Natoma Street, San Francisco, California

| opened_date = 1980

| owner = Hal Slate, Stephen Gilman

| building_type = Sex club

| closing_date = 1984

| known_for =

}}

The Caldron (often misspelled Cauldron) was a sex club for gay men located at 953 Natoma Street in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood.{{Cite web |title=San Francisco Board of Supervisors Resolution 141-21 |url=https://sfbos.org/resolutions-2021 |access-date=2024-01-18 |website=San Francisco Board of Supervisors}}{{Cite book |last=Schmidt |first=Robert A. |url=https://anth3420.commons.gc.cuny.edu/wp-content/blogs.dir/8305/files/2019/08/Rubin-Gayle-2000.pdf |title=Archaeologies of Sexuality |last2=Voss |first2=Barbara L. |publisher=Routledge |others=Chapter by Gayle Rubin |year=2005 |chapter=Chapter 3: Sites, settlements, and urban sex: archaeology and the study of gay leathermen in San Francisco, 1955–1995}} It opened in 1980 and closed in 1984.Gayle S. Rubin, "Elegy for the Valley of the Kings: AIDS and the Leather Community in San Francisco, 1981-1996", in In Changing Times: Gay Men and Lesbians Encounter HIV/AIDS, University of Chicago Press, 1997, {{ISBN|0226278573}}, pp. 101-144, at page 116. It was called "the epitome of the uninhibited, abandoned, 'sleazy' sex club."Jennifer Brier, Infectious Ideas: U.S. Political Responses to the AIDS Crisis, Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2009, {{ISBN|0807833142}}, p. 40.

Description

Located in a converted warehouse, the site was unabashedly a place where men went to have sex. Patrons were required to be naked except for footwear; a clothes check was provided.{{cite book

|first=Jack

|last=Boulware

|title=San Francisco Bizarro: A Guide to Notorious Sites, Lusty Pursuits, and Downright Freakiness in the City by the Bay'

|publisher=St. Martin's Press

|year=2000

|isbn=0312206712

|page=70}} Like other similar venues, it had no alcohol license; patrons brought their own alcohol, usually beer, and this was stored in a cooler and patrons given chits that they could turn in for a can of the brand of beer they had brought. It was described as "exemplary" as one of the first venues to promote safe sex as the AIDS crisis hit.Rubin, p. 197.Randy Shilts, And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic, New York, Viking Press, 1987, {{ISBN|0312009941}}, pp. 304-305.

The owners were Hal SlateMick Sinclair, San Francisco: A Cultural and Literary History, Interlink, 2003, {{ISBN|1566564891}}, p. 329 and Stephen Gilman.Bob Thomas, interviewed 3/12/77, in Eric Rofes, A Walking Tour of South of Market in the 1970s, n.p., 2005, {{cite web |url=http://www.ericrofes.com/pdf/70s_Walking_Tour.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2014-11-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141031170033/http://www.ericrofes.com/pdf/70s_Walking_Tour.pdf |archive-date=2014-10-31 }}, p. 12, retrieved 11/20/2014. The club had two bathtubs for those who wanted to be urinated on. The lights were not dimmed.Joe Mayo, interviewed 3/28/97, in Rofes, p. 12, retrieved 11/20/2014. There were tables and benches for having sex on, and slings.Rofes, pp. 11-13. The Caldron featured thematic nights, including "J/O party" Tuesdays, "wet Wednesdays" (water sports), and "fist-fucking Thursdays." A poster announcing its First Anniversary Orgy has been preserved.{{cite web|title=The Caldron's First Anniversary Orgy|url=http://www.bolerium.com/cgi-bin/bol48/186675|website=Bolerium|access-date=29 April 2018|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150204145618/http://www.bolerium.com/cgi-bin/bol48/186675 |archive-date=4 February 2015}} The name Caldron, according to owner Gilman, was the I Ching's commentary on itself.

Slate and Gilman were members of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, which after Monday chorus rehearsals sometimes traveled to the Caldron for private parties. According to Eric Rofes, "they played opera music while the sex was going on."{{cite web |author=Bajko |first=Matthew S. |date=2005-09-21 |title=Tour digs up SOMA's gay past |url=http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?article=170&sec=news |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170929045147/http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?article=170&sec=news |archive-date=29 September 2017 |access-date=30 September 2017 |website=Bay Area Reporter}}Rofes, pp. 12-13.

Cartoonist Al Shapiro created artwork for the Caldron{{Cite web |title=A. Jay Papers |url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8fr0256/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=Online Archive of California |series=Collection number GLC 117}} and was known to visit.{{Cite web |last=Fritscher |first=Jack |date=2000-04-06 |title=Drummer Interview: Al Shaprio, A.Jay, & Harry Chess |url=https://jackfritscher.com/Drummer/Issues/107/Al%20Shapiro.html |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=Jack Fritscher |series=Feature interview/article obituary written June 20, 1987, and published in Drummer 107, August 1987}} The San Francisco Jacks, a masturbation club, also met there.{{cite web

|title=San Francisco Jacks Newsletter

|date=January 1984

|url=http://www.sfjacks.com/media/acrobat/sfjnl/sfjnl1984.pdf

|website=Sfjacks.com

|access-date=September 27, 2017

|archive-date=October 11, 2017

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011001527/http://www.sfjacks.com/media/acrobat/sfjnl/sfjnl1984.pdf

|url-status=live

}}