Pretty much up until this time, gays in cinema had been treated as self-hating deviants, child molesters or screaming, neurotic sissies. Porn had been no different, until Joe Gage (a.k.a. Mac Larsen) dared to present the scenario that gave us gay men who were not just masculine, but HYPER-masculine. It was one of the first instances in which any filmmaker, porn or "regular," gay or straight, had dared to tell it like it really is: that the butcher, the baker, the tool-and-die maker, the cop on the beat, or the grease monkey down the street could be just as queer as any lavender-wearing interior decorator. But that was the ONLY difference they had from straight men.
KANSAS CITY is part one of the now-celebrated trilogy, continuing with the more-often seen EL PASO WRECKING CORPORATION, and concluding with L.A. TOOL AND DIE. For the collector or even the just-curious, this is a priceless documentation of a time long since passed, of a sense of sexual adventure, and even naievete, long before a big disease with three little letters would change the face of the Sexual Revolution forever.
