Swamptrash, Moon Publications, Dallas TX, 1974, magazine and ephemera, Gay Interest, VG+

Cappell, Bob (ed.), Swamptrash, Dallas: Moon Publications 1974, Very Good 8vo staplebound magazine, 5 ½” x 8 ½”, 80 pp., black-and-white photographs and ads throughout.

Digest format, staplebound in black-and-white pictorial wraps, tiny section cut from page 65, interior pages otherwise clean & complete. Early (2nd?) issue of obscure, somewhat primitive gay ‘gossip rag’ from Dallas, Texas packed w/ news items, drag pageant reports, male nude ‘pin-up’ type photographs (by Primus of Houston & Algren of Houston), a hot music playlist, and advertisements. Loosely Inserted at center is an angry (explicitly detailed) typed letter, printed on blue paper, from ‘PACT of Texas’ (apparently a gay bar owner’s association) decrying the recent brutal murder & castration of a 17-year-old LSD dealer at The Farmhouse in Houston, calling out the bar’s owner for ‘catering to straights’ and not respecting the community. Numerous contemporary advertisements and listings feature a wide array of gay bars, adult bookshops, radio stations, and bathhouses. A Dallas bar called ‘Swamp Trash’ was one of more than fifty establishments in Texas and Florida owned by nightlife impresario Frank Caven but this publication is apparently unrelated.  A very rare slice of Texas LGBTQ+ nightlife history, scarce in the trade.