Shai Shahar
Shai Shahar was an American man who moved to Israel in 1980. He met an American documentary producer who needed an English-speaking connection with the army in Palestine. He asked the director for credit as one of the producers in the film, if he could connect them with the Palestinian army, and he succeed. He basically finessed his way into scoring this movie gig, and he was invited to some of the after-parties when the film was finished. He met a rich woman at a lawn party who treated him to a new suit, and she gave him some cash, along with a business card for a male escort agency. She believed his personality and good looks would be great as a professional gigolo. He was already 35 years old at that point, but he thought it may be fun to see what it was like. He had sex with over 500 women, and participated in 40 threesomes with couples. He charged $150 for the first hour, and $100 for every additional hour. If a woman wanted him to fly somewhere to be their date, he was paid $1,000 for his time, plus travel expenses.
Amsterdam’s Red Light district is famous for prostitutes displaying themselves in glass windows of their homes so that potential customers can very literally window shop before they decide to pay for a sex worker. For years, the district only displayed women, until the early 1990’s, when Shai Shahar went down in history as the very first male sex worker to sit in a window and offer his services. Since he was straight, he only took on female clients, who he says were mostly married women who wanted to have a fling without any emotional attachment.
After working as a gigolo for five years in Amsterdam, he says that he no longer saw women as individuals, but just a way to get money. He recognized that this was a very unhealthy mindset, and he knew he needed to retire if he ever wanted to actually fall in love and have a proper relationship. He succeeded in properly dating, and got married to his wife. He later became a burlesque performer, and starred in off-broadway musical performances.
Where Do we get this Stuff? Here are our Sources.
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