“Swinging, exclusively single social events”

In 1970, the whole idea of a singles scene was still pretty new. The first bar officially known as a singles bar—a T.G.I. Friday’s on East 63rd Street and First Avenue—opened in 1965, packing in young unmarried professionals and turning First and Second Avenues uptown into a singles zone in the late 1960s and 1970s.

Soon ads like these, from the March 28, 1970 issue of Cue magazine, began springing up, hoping to attract New Yorkers looking for a mate. And the era of the desperate, Looking for Mr. Goodbar single was born.

Considering that they make a point of accepting anyone 18 to 50, this social events group doesn’t look especially promising. I wonder just how “elegant” the “swinging night clubs” Plaza 9, Act 1, and The Roundtable really were!

Dating in the ’70s meant more than singles bars

I wonder how many people signed up for Compramatics, a Manhattan-based dating service that blended “comprehensive psychological testing, professional counseling, and high-speed computer matching” to help “single, divorced, and widowed men and women” find a mate. 

The ad comes from the March 28, 1970 issue of Cue:

It’s kind of like the 1970s version of eHarmony, with an insanely long list of questions to answer, partially excerpted in the ad.