harry reems
Deep Throat Sex Scandal to Begin NYC Run Aug. 31
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Deep Throat Poster
From www.playbill.com - David Bertolino’s The Deep Throat Sex Scandal, a new play about the most famous X-rated movie ever made, www.xxxdeepthroat.com will get its Off-Broadway premiere starting Aug. 31 at the newly renovated HA! Theater on West 46th Street.
Opening is Sept. 14. Full casting will be announced soon.
Jerry Douglas directs the true story about how in 1972 “a hairdresser from the Bronx made a little movie that grossed over $600 million — possibly the most profitable film of all time — and ignited the sexual revolution.”
According to When Harry Met Linda, LLC, “The Deep Throat Sex Scandal takes you behind the scenes, into the secret world of adult filmmaking and introduces you to the legendary Linda Lovelace and Harry Reems.
Follow the bizarre journey from the creation of the movie, through the raids, arrests and the banning of the film, to the political fallout of the ensuing courtroom drama, which launched the career of Allen Dershowitz.”
The play marks Boston native Bertolino’s first time working in New York City theatre. Bertolino became intrigued with theatre having operated Boston Costume, a landmark theatrical super store catering to theatre in Boston, for over 25 years. He created his first theatrical venture, Spookyworld, a Halloween theme park that ran for 14 years and showcased the talent of over 200 actors each evening. Guest stars included Linda Blair, Elvira, Alice Cooper, Robert Englund, Willard Scott, Bill Mahar and Jerry Springer, among others. He also produced the comeback career of Tiny Tim, presenting Tiny’s wedding live on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” from Spookyworld and hosting an episode of MTV’s “The Real World.”
Sharon Carr will serve as associate producer.
HA is at 163 W. 46th Street, just east of Broadway. Tickets will go on sale at a later date. For more information, visit www.deepthroattheplay.com.
Actor Joseph Viterelli Would Have Made a Great Butchie
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 | From Gene Ross | No Comments
| 6/25/2008 |
06:09 AM PST |
Actor Joseph Viterelli Would Have Made a Great Butchie
DEEP THROAT NEWS
|
–Gene Ross |
Except, Ray Pistol, who took over the company, gave full blessing to the Vivid deal. Which sounds strange on the face of it. But since Showtime is doing a behind the scenes reality series about the making of the project which stars Sasha Grey, any cable show publicity is probably good publicity.
However this isn’t stopping Arrow from going ahead with its own plans to remake Deep Throat. And, although Pistol’s been on a hunt for the new Linda Lovelace for years, that’s where Interlandi, the company’s marketing director, now comes in.
He got laid first time at the age of five- the next door neighbor girl was seven- but this doesn’t preclude Interlandi from being a very bright guy and a very creative and inventive one. I see this as Interlandi’s showing me some of his latest projects.
We meet at Jerry’s Deli in Woodland Hills, and Interlandi’s got some samples of the Deep Throat energy drink, www.deepthroatenergy.com for Ryan the bar manager. Ryan, who’s an energy drink hop head, thinks this is a pretty good drink and wants to order a few cases.
On his lap top, Interlandi’s got the draft for the Deep Throat comic book. And the one for Candy Stripers. There’s a Johnny Wadd comic book also being hashed out and Interlandi shows me the rough outlines for that as well.
Interlandi explains how he dictates his thoughts for the stories and how the comic artists take it from there. Pretty amazing stuff, actually, as you see the process being fleshed out.
But what Interlandi’s doing with Arrow’s new Deep Throat movie makes it one any porn historian or fan would want to see. Script in hand, Interlandi figures what he’s got is a 130 minute movie.
He shows me the story boards.
“Story boards? I’ve never seen one for a porn movie,” I tell him.
Interlandi’s equally amazed over my amazement. He assumes any substantial porn project would have them. The panels he shows me are rich in background leading up to the making of the actual film.
There’s the original meeting between director Gerard Damiano and Butchie Peraino.
And in one scene, Eric Edwards’ character [Edwards never got to play in the original because of some summer stock commitment] barges in on Lovelace who’s in bed with the fabled German shepherd. Although Edwards, who had shot loops with Lovelace, later said it was more like an Afghan. But German Shepherd seems a lot funnier in the retelling.
“You’re going to show the German Shepherd?” I ask Interlandi.
Interlandi says yeah, and exactly how and it what context, has to be worked out with the lawyers.
Interlandi tells me a somewhat famous TV name would be willing to play Harry Reems. And here’s the part I’ve always mentally masturbated over - who would play Butchie.
I met Butchie on a number of occasions and liked him a lot. Of course there was the time that I attended the open house of his Cine Citta studios in the Valley and almost went home in the trunk of a Cadillac, but that had more to do with his guests who were loaded out of their skulls, than Butchie. It’s a funny story now looking back on it.
As far as playing him in a movie, there was a character actor named Joseph Viterelli who made a career out of playing mob guys. And I always though he’d make a great Butchie. Except Viterelli died of a stomach hemorrhage a few years ago. Which leads me and Interlandi to conclude that James Gandolfini would be the logical choice, but Gandolfini agreeing to something like this is less than remote.
Except, perhaps, if Deep Throat were made along the lines of what Rene Estevez did with the Mitchell Brothers for Showtime.
Of course, who plays Lovelace continues to go unanswered.
Interlandi’s laughing about how he drove out here from Vegas in Pistol’s truck. Funny in that sense because Interlandi might be seeing someone later and he’d be pulling up in this truck.
Deep Throat the Play Scheduled to Open in New York in April
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 | From Gene Ross | No Comments
| 10/16/2008 |
15:54 PM PST |
Deep Throat DVD
DEEP THROAT NEWS
|
–Gene Ross |
“Ron Jeremy who has roots in Broadway was asked to do it and was so excited,” states Robert Interlandi director of marketing for Arrow Productions, www.xxxdeepthroat.com
“And we were talking to Thora Birch.”
Which would be a press agents dream since Birch is not only a recognized mainstream actress but her mother Carol Connors appeared in the original Deep Throat movie and played the nurse.
“We were in talks with Thora to be the new Linda Lovelace,” Interlandi tells me. “We were in negotiations but there’s nothing concrete. It would be nice to have her in there.”
Interlandi mentions that one of the cast from The Sopranos is also in the play and is leaving it up to guessing games as to who.
From the way Interlandi describes it, the play’s told from Harry Reems’ perspective.
“The play’s going to open with him being a real estate agent in Utah and he reflects upon his life- it’s a really cool read,” says Interlandi, noting that Reems had denounced the porn industry from the time he sobered up.
“I tried to talk to him about licensing and he was no way,” says Interlandi.
“But the guy who wrote the play, David Bertalino, contacted him and said I want to do a play about your life. Reems said he used to be an actor and performed on Broadway before porn and that he would love to have a play written about him.”
Which sounds like a change of heart on Reems’ part.
“Reems sees it as a really cool project,” says Interlandi.
The story, according to Interlandi, also includes events when Reems was prosecuted and jailed by the Feds. In one scene actors portraying Johnny Carson, Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson pitch in for Reems’ defense. Jeremy is slated to play the prosecuting attorney.
Porn’s Pied Piper: Deep Throat Director Dies at 80
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 | Time Magazine | No Comments
Story from www.Time.com
DEEP THROAT NEWS
The movie had no-name stars — in fact, fake-name stars: Herb Streicher was going by Harry Reems, and Linda Boreman by Linda Lovelace. The writer-director, a Bronx hairdresser who’d never done a porno feature before, called himself Jerry Gerard. This was early 1972, and the people making hardcore sex movies considered themselves lucky to exhibit their wares legally, let alone have their real names on them. All “Gerard” had was a cute idea for a porno comedy, and a leading lady with a special talent. He also wanted to change the movie’s title, from The Sword Swallower. The producer objected that no one would understand the new title. “Don’t worry,” the director replied. “Deep Throat will become a household word.”
Every once in a while, an artist gets an inspiration that changes pop culture. Even if he’s a slop artist, and the inspiration is a movie about a woman with a clitoris in her throat. Such a one was Gerard Rocco Damiano, aka Jerry Gerard, who died this weekend in Fort Myers, Fla., at 80, from complications after a stroke. With Deep Throat and his second film, Devil in Miss Jones, Damiano launched the 1970s movie craze of porno chic.
Deep Throat — whose $25,000 budget was covered by Louis “Butchie” Peraino, the son of a made man in New York City’s Columbo mob family — went on to earn tens of millions of dollars. Maybe more: the 2005 documentary Inside Deep Throat puts the take at an extremely improbable $600 million. Anyway, it was quite a haul. One federal agent quoted a Peraino underling as saying of the Deep Throat take: “We’ve got so much money … we don’t even count it any more…. We weigh it.”
As important as the profits were to the Mafia boys, and to FBI sleuths tracking their loot, Deep Throat did more. Long before home video, it took the recently legalized porn films out of the gutter and into the mainstream. It was the Citizen Kane of porn. Because of Deep Throat, the hardcore movie became a must-see item for the glamorati, a topic for serious debate in newspapers and magazines (including TIME; see the 1973 article “Wonder Woman”) and a fun date for ordinary couples who’d never seen a sex movie.
For TV comics, Damiano’s film was a grail: a Buttofuoco- or Lewinsky-like solid laugh line. “This is kinda strange country, isn’t it?” asked Johnny Carson at the time when the movie was challenging Watergate as the topic du jour. “Judges can see Deep Throat but they can’t listen to those [Nixon] tapes.” Bob Hope said, “I went to see Deep Throat cause I’m fond of animal pictures. I thought it was about giraffes.” When Bob Hope makes a joke about your porno movie, you’ve arrived.
What was all the fuss about? An hour-long raunch fest that was part slapstick comedy, part carnal carnival: it’s a burlesque routine (Reems as a doctor, wisecracking like Groucho Marx) wrapped around a sideshow freak stunt (Lovelace’s bedroom trick of controlling her gag reflex so she could perform glottal fellatio — a glo-job). “You had to be there,” he said in Inside Deep Throat. “I’m thrilled that I was there. And I thank God I had a camera.” Damiano gave this movie the tone of a mildly bright comedy, with an underscoring full of broadly ironic pop music, including a version of Mickey and Sylvia’s “Love Is Strange” with naughtier lyrics. The movie, for which Lovelace was paid $1,200, and Reems $250, made both of them famous/notorious. Reems was found guilty of obscenity by a Memphis jury; the conviction was overturned on appeal.
Lovelace, who died at age 53 in 2002 after a car crash, later claimed she performed under duress, telling a 1986 Congressional committee that “virtually every time someone watches that movie, they’re watching me being raped.” (These claims were widely disputed.) But Damiano did his best to make his leading lady look good. He gave her an alliterative, movie-star name and devised costumes, lighting tricks and cagey camera angles to hide her abdominal scar, a memento from an earlier car wreck. Linda was no goddess, but neither was she your standard porno skank; she was slim and freckled, and her inexperience on screen played like freshness, innocence. Moreover, the movie itself had such an easygoing good nature that audiences could enjoy it without feeling dirty — more startled and amused.
The Deep Throat millions never got to Damiano — how does a director put muscle on the Mafia? — but it did allow him to pursue his dream of being a respected film auteur, though still in hardcore. Most directors with a left-field mega-hit would instantly crank out another picture in the same genre. Not Damiano. He used his cash, and cachet, from his silly porno comedy to make a super-serioso drama: Devil in Miss Jones. And this time under his own name. Reading the script, Reems told his friend: “Gerry, it’s a steal. This is No Exit in its thinnest disguise.” To which Damiano replied: “Well, what do you expect? I wrote it in a weekend.”
Georgina Spelvin (again, not her real name) plays Justine Jones, a lonely woman who slits her wrists in a bathtub. After dying a virgin, she tells a gatekeeper to eternity that she wants to live out her sexual urges, to be “filled, engulfed, consumed by lust.” She briefly gets that wish — which includes intimate contact with bananas and grapes, a snake and (Damiano’s favorite marital aid) a water tube. With plenty of boy/girl, girl/girl and orgy “action,” Devil still takes itself solemnly enough to risk being laughable. But heaven knows it’s intense, and an honorable attempt to blur the line between porn and “real” films. As for Spelvin, she isn’t a slut; she is a theater-trained actress giving her all for her art.
Damiano said that after the success of Deep Throat, “If people wanted to interview me because I was a porno filmmaker, I just was not interested in talking to them.” There had been gifted directors — Radley Metzger, Russ Meyer — making softcore in the ’60s, but Damiano had higher ambitions. He wanted to be Ingmar F—in’ Bergman.
He made a couple more ambitious porn films: the psychodrama ghost story Memories Within Miss Aggie (1974) and the dreamy, Marienbadesque The Story of Joanna (1975). But by then, porno was an industry, and it relied less on artistic pretension than on grinding out product. In the next 20 years, Damiano put his name on another three dozen or so hardcore movies, none of which made much of an impact. Like silent-film director D.W. Griffith in the talkie era, Damiano was a pioneer whom new trends left behind. According to the local News-Press, he “lived out his final years in Fort Myers quietly, enjoying theater, attending art openings, appearing at charitable events and reveling, especially, in the accomplishments of his two children….artist and filmmaker Gerard Jr., and performer, Christar, with whom he shared a vintage home.”
This maker of indecent films was, by all accounts, a decent man. “He was…always very charming and dapper and suave,” writes News-Press columnist Stephanie Davis, “always there with a kiss and a ‘Hello, Gorgeous.’” In a 2005 interview, Damiano described himself as “just a nice guy, which is why I think I did pretty well. I mean, I’d meet an actress and have to say, ‘Sit down, take your clothes off — I’m going to ask you to do some nasty things.’ You have to be pretty nice.” On his 80th birthday, adult-film stars flew in from around the country to surprise their old friend.
Sometimes it takes a smart softie to make a hardcore phenomenon.
“Deep Throat” director Gerard Damiano Dies at 80
Monday, October 27th, 2008 | From AVN.com | No Comments
‘Deep Throat’ Director Gerard Damiano Dies at 80
By: David Sullivan
Posted: 10/27/2008
FORT MYERS, Fla. - Pioneering adult film director Gerard Damiano died Saturday of complications from a stroke. He was 80.
A former hairdresser from the Bronx, N.Y., Damiano is best known for directing the adult film classics Deep Throat and The Devil in Miss Jones. The theatrical release of Deep Throat in 1972 created the phenomenon of “porno chic,” making it acceptable for couples and celebrities to attend X-rated movies and changing the way the public viewed explicit sex on screen.
Gerardo Rocco Damiano was born Aug. 4, 1928 to an Italian-Catholic family. His father died when he was six, and his mother never remarried. Damiano joined the Navy at 17 and served for four years, later studying X-ray technology on the G.I. Bill.
Damiano opened a beauty parlor in New York City in 1956. Looking back on his career, he told the Fort Myers News-Press that he became interested in movie-making in 1959 when his accountant introduced him to an industrial film producer who was shooting a low-budget horror film.
During the late ’60s and early ’70s, Damiano directed sexploitation docs and “marriage manual” films including We All Go Down (1969), Changes (1970), and Sex USA (1971). These and other early films made Damiano part of a circle that included XXX performers Harry Reems, Jason and Tina Russell, Jamie Gillis, Fred Lincoln, and Shaun Costello (who was later credited under Damiano’s name as director of the infamous enema-bandit epic Waterpower.)
But it was Deep Throat that defined Damiano’s career and revolutionized adult cinema. Shot in six days on a shoestring budget in Miami, the Linda Lovelace classic became an instant box-office smash and a cultural phenomenon whose impact continues to be felt today.
When he met Lovelace for the first time, Damiano told the News-Press, “I thought, ‘Stop the presses!’ I spent the next couple of days writing a film just for her. That film was Deep Throat.” In retrospect, the director characterized Lovelace as “someone who had to be told what to do.”
By the time Damiano made his follow-up film The Devil in Miss Jones in 1973, he had become the adult film world’s first real auteur. “They invented a new word, filmmaker,” he recalled in the 2005 documentary Inside Deep Throat. “Suddenly, there were independent filmmakers.”
Actress Georgina Spelvin, who played the part of Miss Jones in the seminal film, met Damiano through Harry Reems. Spelvin wrote about her first encounter with “a real fuck-film director” and the experience of making the movie in her recent memoir The Devil Made Me Do It.
“What’s a nice girl like you doing in a porn shop like this?” Damiano asked Spelvin. It was the beginning of a warm, close friendship that would last for 35 years.
Devil was another hugely influential success that shaped the trend of porno chic. Damiano went on to direct other high-profile adult features including The Story of Joanna (1975), The Satisfiers of Alpha Blue (1981) and Night Hunger (1983). Outside the XXX genre, he made the little-seen ’70s horror film Legacy of Satan, which featured actress Sandra Peabody (the lead in Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left.)
Other notable Damiano credits include the cult classic Let My Puppets Come (1976), Odyssey (1977), and People (1978), a docu-style experiment that might be considered the forerunner of modern “reality-porn” movies such as Tristan Taormino’s Chemistry.
The director married Paula Morton in 1975, and the couple had two children, Christar and Gerard, Jr. The family moved from New York to Fort Myers in the ’70s, and although Gerard and Paula divorced, the couple remained close until his death.
Damiano flew back and forth to New York to work until he retired from the business in 1994, having directed a total of 47 movies. According to the News-Press, the legendary director “lived out his final years in Fort Myers quietly, enjoying theatre, attending art openings, appearing at charitable events and reveling, especially, in the accomplishments of his two children.”
Spelvin and other close friends joined Damiano’s family to celebrate with the director at a surprise 80th birthday party this summer.
“When the lights came up and we all yelled ‘Surprise,’ I feared my favorite director was going to bolt,” Spelvin said. “He later said, ‘I haven’t been that surprised since I was arrested.’ He just couldn’t believe his loving former performers and pals had traveled from New York and California just to nuzzle and hug and kiss him to pieces.”
There are no plans for a memorial service. “That 80th birthday party was a celebration of his life - while he was still alive,” Gerard Damiano, Jr. told the News-Press.
