Pryme – with his chiselled looks, wide smile and bleached-silver hair swished back – was every inch a teen heartthrob. But he was also someone with secret life, a gay man in a ruthless heterosexual culture. Yet after his short pop career – all over by 1970 – Pryme successfully turned his hand to management. Tina Cross, Rob Guest and Mark Williams were among many on his roster, and in the early 1980s he became the much respected executive director of an organisation hardly known for its acceptance of gay men: the Auckland Rugby Union.
Lew Pryme had a deep love of rugby, playing fourth grade for University. His sexuality was largely unknown at the Auckland Rugby Union although he complained in the 1960s of repeated 'late tackles'.
Lew Pryme was co-owner of Backstage, one of Auckland's first gay nightclubs, in the basement of what is now the Q Theatre in Queen Street.