Comments on: Deep Throat director six feet under

Deep Throat director six feet under

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:29:48 -0800

Back in 1972, there was a fellow who had a novel idea for a porno flick. But when his producer objected to the movie's title, fearing no one would understand it, Gerard Damiano reassured him: "Don't worry, "Deep Throat will become a household word." And indeed it did. Now, 36 years after the infamous and influential film's release, director Gerard Damiano, aka Jerry Gerard, has gone on to that deep, deep throat in the sky.

Deep Throat opening credits and first few minutes. Dig the groovy soundtrack, it's like a garage band Booker T and the MGs. Who are they? Unknown artists. Damn. Previous FPP featuring link to a very interesting article about Deep Throat actor Harry Reems.

By: gomichild

gomichild — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:39:48 -0800

So you're saying that producer had to eat his words then?

By: dunkadunc

dunkadunc — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:40:37 -0800

Worth mentioning: Deep Throat: The ASCII version!

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:41:25 -0800

Yup. And I reckon he swallowed.

By: Divine_Wino

Divine_Wino — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:42:18 -0800

Do you think if I write a really emotional letter to google they would be willing to permanently destroy any records of the search query "Ascii Penis" that originated from my IP address?

By: Senator

Senator — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:42:29 -0800

. .

By: vhsiv

vhsiv — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:44:43 -0800

'Jerry Gerard'? Seriously? That sounds like more like a porno-name than the ficticious one the used for his credit. "That's Jerry Gerard, From Joisy."

By: Marisa Stole the Precious Thing

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:47:53 -0800

Ah, another legend of Mafia-funded pornography passes on. Why must all the good ones die this year? WHY? *runs to the beach, crying* Do you think if I write a really emotional letter to google they would be willing to permanently destroy any records of the search query "Ascii Penis" that originated from my IP address? Next time, try CustomizeGoogle, and go to the Privacy entry.

By: Lemurrhea

Lemurrhea — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:03:27 -0800

Ahhhh, preview ruins my nbsp work! Screw this, I'm leaving to go watch porn. Y'know, in memoriam.

By: chillmost

chillmost — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:03:43 -0800

... .... .

By: louche mustachio

louche mustachio — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:03:58 -0800

.!.

By: chillmost

chillmost — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:04:03 -0800

dammit

By: fleetmouse

fleetmouse — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:06:16 -0800

:-O=w=8

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:20:56 -0800

Too bad the film is such an unfunny and unsexy piece of shit that is now better known as a document of abuse suffered by Linda Susan Boreman at the hands of her husband than for being a good film. I have nothing against 70s porno -- a lot of it used sex to explore social anxieties, and there were some clever satires from the era, and some of it was pretty sexy. But this is a miserable film and I have never understood why it was the crossover hit it became.

By: Sailormom

Sailormom — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:21:52 -0800

The cause was complications of a stroke I'm not sure what technique he was using but I gotta be more careful.

By: Pope Guilty

Pope Guilty — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:23:24 -0800

No periods, please. The man shot pornography at gunpoint. He deserves to be thrown to wolves.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:23:57 -0800

I have never understood why it was the crossover hit it became. Obviously, it was the garage band Booker T and the MGs that played as the opening credits rolled.

By: pardonyou?

pardonyou? — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:26:49 -0800

"Flying at half staff"

   |
   |
   \
 |  \
 |\  \
 |~\  \_
 |  \_/ )
 |  (__/\
 |    \_/
 |      .
 |      .

(sometimes I embarass even myseslf)

By: allen.spaulding

allen.spaulding — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:30:34 -0800

Astro Zombie and Pope Guilty have it right. It's so bizarre that this man is seen as a freedom fighter in any sense of the word. He was a kidnapper, a rapist, and an overall scumbag.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:36:13 -0800

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. mind, er blowing. 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. Didn't know that. (Lovelace's bedroom trick of controlling her gag reflex so she could perform glottal fellatio — a glo-job). ha! Sometimes it takes a smart softie to make a hardcore phenomenon. ♂ ☼

By: Sijeka

Sijeka — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:41:29 -0800

Thanks, Catharine MacKinnon.

By: stinkycheese

stinkycheese — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:44:28 -0800

Damaino's real masterpiece was not Deep Throat IMO but The Devil In Miss Jones. Written by Damiano in a single weekend and obviously inspired by Sartre's No Exit (seriously), this film created a star in Georgina Spelvin and has a classic soundtrack besides. From the Guardian link: 'I liked to cut my films to music,' says Damiano, a sprightly 78-year-old, long-retired from the sex trade and living in Florida. 'Each scene had to start in one place, build to a crescendo then move on with a kind of ebb and flow. So I would often get a piece of music ahead of time and cut to it.' If you see only one Damiano film in your lifetime, try & see TDIMJ. It is serious where DT is silly and looks accomplished where DT looks cheap. Avoid the sequels. Also: One of the most notorious pornos ever made - Waterpower, based on the real life exploits of the Enema Bandit - was marketed as being a Gerald Damiano film due to his name value on ads. It was actually shot by Shaun Costello (who also shot the Harry Reems roughie Forced Entry), and this is a great series of comments made by Costello on the making of porn at that time. RIP Mr. Damiano.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:44:45 -0800

Actually, my complaints about the film are aesthetic -- I think it's a bad film. I read Miss Lovelace's autobiography, and, while she herself became an anti-porn activist, the narrative pretty clearly lays the blame for her abuse at the feet of her husband Chuck Traynor. She acually describes Chuck getting thrown off the set when his abusive behavior became obvious, and other performers offering to help her get away from him. When she writes about the other performers in the film, and other sex workers she met, she often describes them in a way that suggests they're in it for their own reasons, and not because they have been kidnapped or coerced (except, perhaps, by economics.) I'm not defending Gerard Damiano -- I don't know enough about his biography. Perhaps he was a rapist and kidnapper. I just don't know enough about him. He did produce one really interesting adult film, The Devil in Miss Jones, which starred Georgina Spelvin, who really did represent the porn chic of the era, and was certainly not forced into the industry by an abusive relationship. I've always wondered why that film never had the sort of cache that Deep Throat did; there was a time when Deep Throat was almost treated as being respectable.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:45:37 -0800

Ah, Stinkycheese, I can see we're on the same page.

By: cjorgensen

cjorgensen — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:47:18 -0800

Boy. Gosh. Darn. Shucks.

By: chococat

chococat — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:47:19 -0800

Obviously, it was the garage band Booker T and the MGs that played as the opening credits rolled. Playing Ode to Joy, Beethoven's 9th Symphony, no less.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:48:56 -0800

Playing Ode to Joy, Beethoven's 9th Symphony, no less. I was wondering who was gonna notice that!

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:52:37 -0800

AZ, Thanks for the er, heads up. Went to read about Linda Boreman on Wikipedia. That Chuck Traynor guy she married, truly a monster. My god, she had such an incredibly tragic life. May she rest in peace, at last. .

By: tiger yang

tiger yang — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:53:03 -0800

Going to save my condolences for someone who wasn't involved in a mafia-backed rape film, thanks.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:04:24 -0800

Back in the 70s we were all involved in mafia-backed rape films. It was a weird time for America.

By: stet

stet — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:08:52 -0800

Huh. You're not wrong about that soundtrack. I love that the 'Ode to Joy' became a pr0n soundtrack. In retrospect, I suppose we could have seen that one coming. But, as others have mentioned, what could be a moment of campy sleaze awesomeness if kind of fucked up by the fact that the film is an extended rape. So, you know, see you in hell fucker. On a better note, does anyone know where I can get a recording of that soundtrack?

By: Knappster

Knappster — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:09:41 -0800

Ebert's review.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:14:33 -0800

He did produce one really interesting adult film, The Devil in Miss Jones... I've always wondered why that film never had the sort of cache that Deep Throat did; there was a time when Deep Throat was almost treated as being respectable. It did have that sort of cachet; in fact, in the '70s it was considered more respectable than DT. I know, I was there and knew a lot of people who did not normally go to porn movies but went to see it. (I was also friends with a porn projectionist, which was fun and educational.)

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:16:33 -0800

I was also friends with a porn projectionist, which was fun and educational. That reminds me of my favorite scene from the David Friedman nudie cutie Starlet, in which an actress looks approvingly at an actors groin and then declares "Just by looking at you, I can tell you're a projectionist!"

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:22:48 -0800

That Chuck Traynor guy she married, truly a monster. In her autobiography, Linda claims that she and Chuck spent a lot of time debauching with Sammy Davis Junior, watching porn in his darkened home theater, while she performed alternately on both men. Sammy began to express interest in the bio-mechanics of the operation, and with some coaching from Linda, Sammy learned about technique. Then one day, when Chuck was kind of out of it in the darkened room, Sammy switched places with Linda, and took over for her. She stood off to the side eagerly watching for what Chucks reaction would be, when he came to realize what was going on. She said she forever savored that moment and the look on his face, and that it was one of the only times she extracted effective revenge from Chuck.

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:32:41 -0800

No periods, please. The man shot pornography at gunpoint. He deserves to be thrown to wolves. posted by Pope Guilty at 10:23 AM on October 30 Astro Zombie and Pope Guilty have it right. well, Astro Zombie does, Pope Guilty does not. the unfortunate fact is that Linda Boreman's story has changed rather dramatically during the 4 autobiographies she wrote, and this has made it difficult to determine precisely what the circumstances of her involvement in these movies was. There's little doubt that Chuck Traynor was a monster who abused her, but there's ample reason to believe that Linda's treatment by everyone else in the production was fair, and that the coercion she suffered was neither on the set, nor by Damiano. Further complicating things is the fact that she only ever claimed to have been raped during the production of that movie after having had extensive contact with Andrea Dworkin, whose position on pornography is that all porn is rape. The end result, unfortunately, is that Linda Boreman's life story for that period in her life is clouded by reversals and questions about the influence other people have had on her perceptions. That she endured inexcusable abuse at the hands of Traynor is undeniable. The rest of the details will probably never be fully known. It's a shame that she suffered as she did, and that the running theme of her life would seem to be her being used by the people close to her, even after she left the porn industry. As for Gerard Damiano, however: .

By: rokusan

rokusan — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:35:18 -0800

(Any comment made by StickyCarpet in this thread is automatically eponysterical.)

By: Kabanos

Kabanos — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:43:38 -0800

Are we sure this isn't some kind of gag?

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:49:32 -0800

better known as a document of abuse suffered by Linda Susan Boreman at the hands of her husband See also: Linda Syndrome.

By: stinkycheese

stinkycheese — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:51:34 -0800

Yeah, this is an obit thread for Gerald Damiano, not a thread about what an abusive jerk Chuck Traynor was, thanks. Perhaps he was a rapist and kidnapper. No one, including Linda Lovelace, ever accused Damiano of rape or kidnapping. This kind of speculation, even for a (horrors!) pornographer, is kind of gross in an obit thread (I'm not picking on you specifically, AZ). What was that about Metafilter doing sex threads well again? Sheesh.

By: Pope Guilty

Pope Guilty — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:55:15 -0800

No one, including Linda Lovelace, ever accused Damiano of rape or kidnapping. So sex at gunpoint isn't rape now?

By: stinkycheese

stinkycheese — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:56:55 -0800

Please find me anything - anything - that backs that accusation up, PG.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:00:32 -0800

It's a shame that she suffered as she did, and that the running theme of her life would seem to be her being used by the people close to her, even after she left the porn industry. This is an interesting point. One of the oddest things about Linda Boreman's first biography is that she includes multiple scenes if Chuck Traynor interacting with other women who simply will not be bullied by him. There is a long sequence in which they drive across the country together and pick up a female hitchhiker. Traynor is prostituting Boreman at this time, and the hitchiker gets in on the act too, not because she is being threatened by Traynor, but because she's just bumming around the country balling guys anyway, and figures why not make some money at it. After Boreman got away from Traynor, he married another porn actress, Marilyn Chambers, and they were married for a decade. Chambers has never reported anything like the abuse Boreman suffered. (Not to say she never suffered abuse; I don't know if she did or not, but Traynor himself once said in an interview that he had no problem slapping women.) This is not to suggest that Boreman herself is responsible for the abuse she suffered at her husband's hand. But I suspect he was like a lot of bullies in that he was terrible to the people he considered weaker than him and dialed it back when he was with people he didn't think would let him bully them. And Boreman's powerlessness around Traynor was very real -- he separated her from her family and friends and created a circumstance where she was unconditionally reliant on him. I recall from reading Ordeal that one of the benefits of doing porn was that it finally gave Boreman the opportunity to extricate herself from Traynor once she began making her own money and her own friends. It's a sad, strange, ugly story, and an awfully complex one. And it in certainly a tale of abuse. It's just not as simple as "porn is nothing but a world of abused women" narrative that anti-porn activists latched onto in the 80s.

By: pracowity

pracowity — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:04:50 -0800

Are we sure this isn't some kind of gag? Finding it all a little hard to swallow? I'm not a student of this genre, but I'm looking at some online obituaries and wondering why they don't make him out to be a bad guy if it's so obvious that he was.

By: cowbellemoo

cowbellemoo — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:06:47 -0800

shmegegge: you just rock, man.

By: stinkycheese

stinkycheese — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:08:50 -0800

I'm looking at some online obituaries and wondering why they don't make him out to be a bad guy if it's so obvious that he was. Because he wasn't. Because some people here cannot differentiate between Damiano and Traynor, and/or just want to express their disgust at porn?

By: cowbellemoo

cowbellemoo — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:09:17 -0800

(astro zombie already knows he rocks)

By: Pollomacho

Pollomacho — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:18:29 -0800

Back in 1972, there was a fellow who had a novel idea for a porno flick. Wouldn't a novel idea in porn be no fucking and actual acting, plot, budget, etc...? Long before home video, it took the recently legalized porn films out of the gutter and into the mainstream. Porn left the gutter? When was that? Sure a lot of people saw Deep Throat, but that isn't "mainstream." A lot of people drank in the 20's too. A lot of people read blogs, but they aren't the "mainstream" media are they, nor are they necessarily not the gutter? It was the Citizen Kane of porn. No, no, surely at best it was the Birth of a Nation of porn.

By: Zambrano

Zambrano — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:19:16 -0800

By: crapmatic

crapmatic — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:20:35 -0800

And the guy even brought down Nixon... how do you top that off in a career?

By: kittyprecious

kittyprecious — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:22:07 -0800

...that deep, deep throat in the sky. I'm, uh, not sure I want to believe in the afterlife anymore.

By: fungible

fungible — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:33:52 -0800

All I can say is, porn watchers in the 70s sure had a lot of patience.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:36:21 -0800

Wouldn't a novel idea in porn be no fucking and actual acting, plot, budget, etc...? You're confusing "novel" for "contradictory." Good acting, plot, budget, etc. would certain make for a better product, but no sex would be like making a horror film in which nothing scary happens or a musical in which nobody ever sings.

By: Inspector.Gadget

Inspector.Gadget — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:38:49 -0800

Ebert's review. I hope that's a thumb.

By: shakespeherian

shakespeherian — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:43:20 -0800

It's true, Dude, industry standards have fallen.

By: Pecinpah

Pecinpah — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:49:09 -0800

Metafilter: a horror film in which nothing scary happens. sorry...

By: SpiffyRob

SpiffyRob — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:52:26 -0800

a musical in which nobody ever sings. You mean like [popular musical that is not appreciated critically] Thanks! I'll be here all [length of time] Please, try the [food we have too much of]

By: spicynuts

spicynuts — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:26:07 -0800

Nobody has done this? Fine I'll do it: THIS POST SUCKS! get it?

By: spaltavian

spaltavian — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:34:24 -0800

No, can you give me a hand.

By: tehloki

tehloki — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:09:04 -0800

It takes a great debater to win over my opinion while technically defending a rapist. *terrorist fist pound shmegegge*

By: Senator

Senator — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:25:59 -0800

This was a guy a head of his time.

By: SPrintF

SPrintF — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:39:14 -0800

It takes a great debater A master debater.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:43:46 -0800

To those of you who are just using this thread for a series of purile and infantile oral sex jokes, I hope you choke on them.

By: Ber

Ber — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:42:16 -0800

For pron with a sense of art to it, I prefer Cafe Flesh. Devil in Miss Jones is something I should revisit though.

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:13:22 -0800

"I have never understood why it was the crossover hit it became." I saw something on A&E (at the gym, so intermittent sound/ attention so forgive me if I'm wrong in the particulars) generally saying that it was the right time and place and the film had a more playful tone and culturally people were ripe for it. Given the sexual revolution and whatnot. I guess folks were really repressed before that. On the broad social level, I mean. Individuals varied (thinking of Kinsey). I think it'd be kind of funny to bring a modern internet savvy 16 year old back to comment on those times. "What, she's just giving him head. This is boring, she's not even crying! No analz?" etc. Then, deep throating was nearly unknow. Now there's a slew of web sites dedicated to sub and subsub-variations of it. It's been not only a sexual more shift but a transformation of medium, several I think (vcr, etc.), since then. Not to mention communication. I mean you can talk to, and watch in real time, someone masterbating in Japan. I think 'Deep Throat' type of porn is as (relatively speaking) trite as those Victorian finger books, y'know? Where you'd stick your fingers through holes and pretend they're ladies bare (gasp!) legs? Very hard indeed to see what all the fuss was about from here, how one finger book might be considered 'better' than another regardless of their intrinsic quality. But I understand lust (sometimes plus alcohol) often clouds judgement on quality.

By: Restless Day

Restless Day — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:39:49 -0800

I haven't read any of the links, if they explain the premise of the movie bear with me, for those who haven't seen DT supposedly Linda Lovelace's character was born with a clitoris in her throat instead of in the usual place, so the only way she could experience orgasm was by, uh, deep throat sex. So I had a girlfriend back in the 70s who told me this joke: Did you hear they're making a sequel to Deep Throat? It's about a woman who's clitoris is in her ear. The name of the movie is Come Again?

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:18:14 -0800

It takes a great debater to win over my opinion while technically defending a rapist. *terrorist fist pound shmegegge* ... I have... no idea how to respond to this. help?

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:18:52 -0800

I think it'd be kind of funny to bring a modern internet savvy 16 year old back to comment on those times. "What, she's just giving him head. This is boring, she's not even crying! No analz?" etc. just to be clear, there is totally analz in Deep Throat.

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:06:54 -0800

Well, yeah, but not in the first 10 seconds.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:21:21 -0800

Well, yeah, but not in the first 10 seconds. Good point. Hell, that slamming wah wah guitar doesn't even enter until 55 seconds in!

By: drjimmy11

drjimmy11 — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:48:50 -0800

I want to say something really clever and meaningful about this, but then the thread won't have 69 comments anymore.

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:04:46 -0800

One of the reasons for the films financial success was the way it was released. The mob maintained complete control of the receipts by renting a theater, installing their own cashiers, and carrying in one of just a few 35mm prints. It traveled from city to city as the press reaction and general scandal snowballed. So it was an "event" when it showed in your city, and there were lines and new editorial scandals in each city as it arrived, so: 5 prints, free advertising and cash receipts, enviable conditions that have never since been equaled.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:21:02 -0800

Yeah. I don't know why I am so surprised. When has something ever become an artistic or financial success purely on the basis of it being great art?

By: stinkycheese

stinkycheese — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:47:10 -0800

Thoughts on the passing of Gerard Damiano by those who knew him.