Cycle Sluts
It was 1975 and I was attending Art Center College of Design at the old campus on 3rd Street in Los Angeles. One of our photography classes, was one with Jim Caccavo in documentary photography.
Jim was a former student at Art Center after he had returned from covering the Vietnam war for the Red Cross and Newsweek magazine as a photojournalist.
I still rank this class as the best class we had at Art Center and it was one of the reasons why I eventually made the move to Thailand in 1990 to try and make it at being a photojournalist at all costs.
I was living on Sunset Blvd at the time with my girlfriend Liz and my dog, Jesse. One day while walking on Sunset with Liz and Jesse, I saw a poster for a cabaret show, called The Cycle Sluts. I took the poster of the wall and saw that their show was at the Roxy Theater on the Sunset Strip not far from my place.
That weekend Liz and I went to the show with the intention of asking if I could do my photo project on their show. We were told that they were moving the show to the famous rock club, The Whisky A Go Go, on the Sunset strip and to come to the show the next weekend.
I ended up shooting for over the month period they were at the club, at least 4 times per week. Liz and I were given total access to the shows from front stage to back stage and the dressing room, which was where the majority of the photos were taken.
They had a dedicated following with numerous girls dressed in tight leather outfits, similar to what the guys were wearing.
The club was packed for nearly every show, more so on the weekends, with known celebrities such as Lucille Ball, Art Carney and Sally Struthers.
When the project was due in class, I invited some of the guys from the show to come to class with me. One did and was happy with the results of what I had done. Some of the students were a bit taken back by the photos, but overall the response was positive, including Jim, who was pleased with mine and the other projects from the class.
