Gold Cup
The Gold Cup in Hollywood was "a notoriously sleazy dump of a coffee shop on the corner of Hollywood and Selma"[1]. It was a hangout for homosexuals and young male hustlers. Jackson Browne sang of it in Boulevard
- "Down at the golden cup
- They set the young ones up
- Under the neon light
- Selling day for night"[Jackson Browne, Boulevard, 1980]
In the scandal which brought down Lyric International, the Los Angeles Times claimed that “Many of the youngsters involved were recruited at hangouts for homosexuals particularly a Hollywood Blvd. coffee shop and a motel in Hollywood.” [Los Angeles Times Oct 27, 1973, p. B1]. On-line advertisements for a game offering a "Fabulous 3-D Action walk-through of Hollywood Boulevard, circa 1968" mention one of the landmarks being the owner of Lyric "over at the Gold Cup". [2]. The Chicago Tribune’s May, 1977 series on child prostitution made reference to the Gold Cup.
Online rumour says that boys as young as 12-16 could be found in the Gold Cup or on the sidewalk outside. A retired fire captain recalls, "I have been there on medical aid calls many times. I remember one little boy, approx 11 years old, painted up like a vaudeville hussy, wearing girls' clothes, and beat bloody to a pulp." [3]. Another source (now offline) called the Gold Cup "central casting" for the pornographic film industry.
The 2004 film The Hillside Strangler[4] includes scenes of the Gold Cup, which online commentary describes as accurate.
Habitué of The Gold Cup
A "Fabulous 3-D Action walk-through of Hollywood Boulevard, circa 1968" mentions one of the landmarks being "Billy Byers, Jr [sic] over at the Gold Cup". [5]. The Gold Cup was a notorious hangout for male hustlers. A Lyric producer in a 1975 interview said that two of the supposed victims in the 1973 scandal "were just hustlers the police had dug up ... they had worked for Lyric a good little while ago." [6]
