Tim Wood papers

Title: Tim Wood papers

Dates: circa 1920-1991

Collection Number: 1996-18

Creator/Collector:

Extent: 3 cubic feet (7 boxes)

Repository: GLBT Historical Society

Abstract: This collection contains both written and visual erotica, including promotional ads for erotica and sexual devices, both hand-typed and printed written erotica, erotic jokes and ephemera, black and white photographs, negatives, color slides, and erotic movies.

Language of Material: English

Collection is open for research.

Copyright to published manuscripts is not held by GLHS. Rights to images is rather complex, as some fall under the public domain while others are held by living individuals, particularly producers or heirs to physique photographs.

[Identification of item]. Tim Wood papers. Collection Number: 1996-18. GLBT Historical Society

The papers of Tim Wood (#96-18) were given to GLHS in segments by Wood over a period of 3-4 years as he slowly went through his papers to locate items he thought were related to sex and erotica. Papers from each deposit have been incorporated into this collection.

Tim Wood was born in 1924, growing up in a ranching and oil town in West Texas. After graduating High School in 1941, Wood attended the University of Texas (UT), obtaining a business degree while enrolled in the Naval ROTC program. Shortly following commencement in 1945, he was placed on active duty and was shipped to Honolulu in preparation for joining the war against Japan. The war ended shortly after he arrived in Hawaii, but Wood decided to stay and live on the island most American Servicemen couldn’t wait to leave. He secured a job in retail sales with Sears in Honolulu where he worked for nearly ten years. In 1953, after being passed over for an expected promotion, he approached the head of the local store to protest. When asked what he needed to do to get a promotion, the manager “...removed his glasses, looked me straight in the eye, and stated ‘Mr Wood, when you become married, we’ll talk about a promotion.’ Stung at this none too subtle reference to his homosexuality, a frustrated Tim Wood returned to Texas where, in a strange twist, he was again hired by the Dallas, and later the Wichita Falls Sears stores. Fed up with the regressive political and cultural climate in Texas, a transfer was arranged to the Oakland Sears outlet and he moved to Oakland in 1958. He continued to work at that Sears store until his retirement in 1984. In 1962 he bought a home in the Berkeley Hills in the prosperous unincorporated town of Kensington, where he continues to live today. Wood’s initial entry into gay life in the Bay Area was through going to Jack’s Baths on Post. He was a regular habitue of gay bathhouses until they closed in the early 1980s. When Dave, one of the more popular employees at Jack’s, opened his own bathhouse on Washington Street in 1959, Wood was one of many who moved his patronage to Dave’s. This bathhouse moved to the foot of Broadway in 1967, where it remained popular with many locals and, due to a European advertizing campaign, a steady stream of European visitors. Dave’s closed in 1983.

While a small number of personal documents is present, this collection is primarily focused on male/male erotica. This material was slowly collected by Wood over his lifetime, and partially represents his personal sexual interests over this span of time. In addition, it documents the type and quality of erotica that was available to an urban-based gay man over this fifty year period. The collection contains both written and visual erotica, including promotional ads for erotica and sexual devices, both hand-typed and printed written erotica, erotic jokes and ephemera, black and white photographs, negatives, color slides, and erotic movies. The majority of photographs, both legal and illegal, were produced from the 1960s. Many of the illicit photos were taken or copied by two Bay Area photographers, Bob Gianni and Gerry Coleman, both of whom were well known by Wood. All photos whose source is identified are so attributed. Others marked in distinct ways are also grouped together. Those remaining are located in generic folders arranged by type or activity.