Fat Cobra Video
5940 N Interstate 503–247–3425 Second location: 5501 NW Saint Helens Rd 503–222–0180 Years: 2003- 2019
Ad in the Just Out newspaper, March 18, 2005
citations & references:
Per article in https://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/cinema-du-sexxx/Content?oid=34081 2005 Fat Cobra, 5940 N Interstate Fat Cobra gots the fattest glory holes in town, yo. Seriously, you can pass a phone book to your buddy through one. And you better like it--all of the booths (except two) have them. There are 50 channels here (15 gay, three lesbian) and a strict no-smoking policy. Perks include an agreeable staff, one viewing room that holds at least 10, and an old-skool Galaga game.
Per https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2019/05/24/26534640/farewell-fat-cobra-adult-video Fat Cobra, located at 5940 N Interstate, drew attention for its adult arcade (the Mercury reported in 2005 that it had Portland’s fattest glory holes) its phone number, 503-247-DICK, and its close proximity to Ockley Green Middle School. For Fat Cobra’s business owner Pat Lanagan—who, until recently, owned the Lombard gay bar Eagle and the Lloyd-area Sullivan’s Gulch Bar & Grill—didn’t make the decision to close lightly. Lanagan closed his businesses due to personal health and economic factors. Lanagan closed the Sullivan’s Gulch Bar & Grill and Eagle around the same time as Fat Cobra.
Lanagan opened Fat Cobra 15 years ago, its name a reference to the 2003 remake of The In-Laws that he watched with his children. His son, Wade, was a bartender at Sullivan’s Gulch. In a phone conversation, Lanagan said he was diagnosed several years ago with degenerative arthritis, and had blown out two spinal disks after a 2015 car accident. When he underwent disk replacement surgery in early December 2018, he contracted Guillain-Barré Syndrome, which went undiagnosed until late January. During this time, Lanagan celebrated his 60th birthday.
Lanagan is being treated for GBS, but still experiences chronic GBS symptoms, like fatigue and muscle weakness.
“When I made the decision to retire, there was no choice,” he said.
Lanagan said Fat Cobra’s business was declining for several years, part of an industry-wide trend attributed to the rise of gay hookup apps like Grindr and Scruff. But Lanagan said that ultimately, Fat Cobra closed due to the lack of expected tax return money Fat Cobra has relied on for several years —for which, he blames the Trump Administration.
Lanagan sold Sullivan’s Gulch to Tod Bresleau —best known as an owner of the Jupiter Hotel —while Eagle was sold to former manager Dan Henderson. Lanagan still owns the Fat Cobra space, and says it may soon be leased by Disjecta Contemporary Art Center founder Bryan Suereth, who may turn it into a new arts space. Suereth did not return Portland Mercury’s request for comment.
“I’ve had a good enough run,” Lanagan said of his three businesses, “it’s time for me to recover and for someone else to run them.”
Members of Portland's longtime LGBTQ+ community are sad to see Fat Cobra close. Pepper Pepper —a prolific Portland performance artist and drag queen who uses they/them pronouns —fondly recalled getting kicked out of Fat Cobra’s arcade about 12 years ago for staging an unauthorized art photoshoot in the arcade space with Precious, a fellow member of the gender terrorist drag troupe, Sissyboy.
“If we lived in a world where queer affection wasn't demonized, we wouldn't need dark seedy places like [Fat Cobra],” Pepper wrote in an email, “Any time a liminal space for queer sexuality to express itself disappears, it is a loss.”
Per Oregonian website: Castle Superstore's closing means one less Portland porn shop Updated: Jan. 10, 2019, 12:59 p.m. | Published: Mar. 05, 2012, 8:48 p.m.
For a number of the years that I taught Sunday school at West Hills Covenant, the morning drive had two memorable features.
The kids and I would first stop at the Dunkin' Donuts on Southwest Barbur for the donut holes I passed out in my third- and fourth-grade classroom. Then we'd hop in the car and I would try to talk my way around the Castle Superstore across the street.
My adolescent daughters, in particular, were fascinated by the mausoleum. "Castle" conjured up so many possibilities: a playground, a drawbridge, a dungeon. Why in the world, they asked, couldn't we go exploring on the way home from church?
I'm not sure when the girls figured it out. I do know that donut shop shut down in 2004.
And last week, Castle --13,000 square feet of porn videos and sex toys -- was leveled to make way for a new Walgreens.
In the past several days, I'm not the only one who has been drawn to the rubble. The store was a local landmark for 15 years, even if the parking lot was often empty, save for the rinky-dink coffee kiosk. For as long as I can remember, Portland neighborhood associations have wrestled with the arrival of porn shops, not their departure.
"This fell into our laps," John Prouty, the Crestwood board president, said. "Walgreens wanted that spot and negotiated with the owner. We didn't push for it.
"When Castle first came in, the neighborhood looked for avenues to oppose it. With the Oregon Constitution the way it is, we had very few legs to stand on."
Porn outlets, like strip clubs, generally have carte blanche on zoning issues, according to the Oregon Supreme Court. That helps to explain why Fat Cobra Video on North Interstate has been curled up beside Ockley Green School for the past eight years.
San Francisco-based Seven Hills Properties has a soft spot for bowling alleys when developing Walgreens sites, as the Brunswick set in Gladstone knows, but it paid $2.1 million to put the Castle Superstore out of its misery.
I don't think this is a trend. Yes, the recession and Internet piracy are relentless forces in the industry, and the city of Los Angeles now requires that all porn performers wear condoms.
DVDs are toast. "I have some studios telling me revenues have dropped 50 percent," said Diane Duke, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, the adult entertainment industry trade group, who earned her MBA at the University of Oregon.
But that simply means, Duke argues, that stores must give their steady customers more enticing reasons to shop. A week-night party. A wine-tasting. Or -- to quote the window stickers in the Fantasy for Adults Only store on Southeast Sandy -- "Devices! Lotions! Oils! Costumes! Hosiery! Jewelry! Lingerie! Games!"
I'm not convinced all those bells and whistles are necessary. When I stepped inside Fat Cobra on a sunny Sunday afternoon, four gentlemen followed me through the door in the space of five minutes, quickly disappearing into the "arcade" at the back of the store.
Both porn and the porn shop, in other words, will always be with us. Which is why I found myself leaning against a chain-link fence just off Barbur Boulevard Monday morning, enjoying the tableau of broken concrete, twisted rebar and shattered glass.
-- Steve Duin