Book Reading For The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored Oral History of the Porn Film Industry

Book Soup at 8818 Sunset Blvd. 6:45pm. Tuesday. I leaf through the book and see over 20 paragraphs from my Marc Wallice interviews. I turn to the back and note that I'm properly credited.

7pm. Legs McNeil and co-author Jennifer Osborne walk in. A dozen people await them.

Sharon Mitchell, Tim Connelly, Jennifer Osborne, Peter Pavia Sharon, Legs McNeil Sharon Sharon, Peter Legs, Tim Jennifer, Peter Sharon Legs Sharon, Peter Jennnifer, Peter Ron Jeremy in new PETA ad

Legs radiates hostility. Or is just a New York attitude? Or is it just being an asshole?

He berates somebody for owing him money. I overhear say $2,000. Later it's $240. He complains that all his stuff got stolen. He complains about his bad press. He complains about the meager turnout. He says the dozen people who came through the rain to see him count for nothing.

I decide to stand back and just observe before I introduce myself.

Legs' co-writer Jennifer Osborne seems amiable.

McNeil fidgets. He says he hasn't eaten since New York. He wants a smoke. He wants a drink. He's grateful for candy.

He picks on the audience. Who is the woman upfront taking notes? Are there any journalists present? Where are Sharon Mitchell, Tim Connelly, and Veronica Hart who are supposed to read with him?

Legs bags on Inside Deep Throat. He calls it campy crap. He says he'll wait until 7:30 or 7:45 to start. In my head, I curse his delay.

A documentary filmmaker wants to videotape the book reading. Legs seems to have a problem with that. He turns the guy over to Jennifer. A long discussion ensues. Apparently Legs doesn't want to be videotaped but Jenn and Peter Pavia are ok with it.

After 20 minutes, I introduce myself to Legs. I ask him if all this is changing him.

"I'm still an asshole," he says.

Legs is glad to be with Judith Regan he knows how to sell books.

Sharon Mitchell arrives at 7:40pm. Legs yells into the microphone, "It was f----- Sharon Mitchell's fault [that the reading began late]."

Mitch accidentally knocks over Jenn's Coke. AVN publisher/editor Tim Connelly joins the crew up front. Veronica Hart doesn't show.

The reading begins. At its conclusion, the first question comes from a writer asking how Legs assembled the book. Legs calls the guy an idiot for asking him a question about writing when one of the sexiest porn stars of all time is present (Sharon Mitchell).

After a rant, Legs answers the question by saying: "It took me eight years."

If I was the guy who asked that question, I'd hate Legs. McNeil must glory in rubbing people of good will the wrong way.

Sharon Mitchell says she started in porn in 1975 at age 17 (she was legally emancipated after a marriage and divorce). That makes her about 46yo today.

"Nobody cared back then [about age]," said Mitch. "We worked directly for the Mob. Who was going to ask us [for ID]?"

I raise my hand and ask one question (to Sharon Mitchell): "Some people in the industry say that you have become more critical of the industry over the past seven years because of your experiences with AIM (Adult Industry Medicine)?"

Sharon seems to tear up as she answers it after a long pause: "Sitting where I sit, it's made me more realistic."

An old man in the back (Victor Bokris, who wrote for Punk and went on to write books about Keith Richards, Patti Smith, and others) asks Tim Connelly to reflect on the death of Hunter S. Thompson. The man says Hunter wanted to do a book on the porn industry. That Hunter worked as a bartender at the Mitchell Brothers theatre in San Francisco as research. Then Hunter fell in love with a hooker and lost his mind and his desire to write on porn.

Hunter also tangled with Gail Palmer.

A question for Tim Connelly: Do porn stars ever use lawyers to negotiate their contracts?

Tim: "Obviously not successfully."

I've not heard of a porn star in the past 20 years using a lawyer to negotiate a contract. Probably the highest paid porn star of all time per movie was Seka (around $40,000 tops for one of them).

The authors are asked for their favorite section of the book. Jennifer says the Times Square material. "When it was a yes place, not a no place."

Four years ago, Jenn was working on a fem porn documentary. She interviewed Legs. He asked her to come aboard his book. Her documentary was never finished.

First question yelled from the audience for Sharon Mitchell. "Did you f--- Warren Beatty?" That was alleged in the book.

Sharon says no.

A writer asks Legs: "You had all these long conversations. How did you bring it down to?"

Legs: "You just cut and paste and throw it in. It took eight f------ years."

Brett Hudson, Kate Hudson's uncle, asks a self-serving question (Brett produced with Legs and Burt Kearns the Court TV documentary on the history of porn): "There's a new documentary out called Inside Deep Throat. Didn't you do a special on MTV that told that same story?"

Legs: "I did a great special on Court TV. I was blessed with two executive producers sitting right here -- Brett Hudson and Burt [Kearns], who has a very small penis he doesn't want anyone to know about.

"They [Inside Deep Throat filmmakers] were assholes. They made this campy movie making fun of Deep Throat. What's great about Deep Throat, the movie is not that great, but the amazing story of Deep Throat is the whole invention of the modern pornography industry. Also the invention of the Mob's control of it."

The Mob controlled the porn industry long before Deep Throat.

Legs: "The story behind Deep Throat is a much more amazing story than the actual film. And they didn't get that. And they're a bunch of assholes. We had done this three-hour Court TV special which is the highest-rated original program in their history. They buried that so this stupid campy movie...

"In the New York Post, they tried to make me anti-gay by saying, well, these two gay guys made it. I said that because if Legs McNeil and crew had done the uncensored oral history of the gay film industry, they would have crucified me. I am not anti-gay."

Can anyone understand what Legs's critique of Inside Deep Throat? Underneath his hyperbole, I don't understand his complaint other than that he feels they stomped on his turf. And for Legs McNeil to think that Deep Throat is exclusively his turf is pure delusion. Neither Legs, in his book or his Court TV special, nor Inside Deep Throat, break any new ground on the history and significance of Deep Throat. Legs and Inside Deep Throat simply retill the soil that has been broken by others. Please correct me if I am wrong by showing me the scoops in these projects.

Sharon Mitchell is asked if she had any favorite costumes.

"I did this one striptease. It would be my last show of the week. Many times, when I was on the road, I'd do 25 shows in a week.

"I'd have my valet pack my suitcases and have them at the end of the runway. I'd come out completely naked and do a reverse striptease. Nobody understood it. All the guys in the front row thought they were getting the real deal. That I was going to stay naked the whole time.

"I'd put the g-string on, the bra on... I'd pick up my bags, walk offstage and right into the taxicab.

"My second favorite: I learned how to do the fan dance from Sally Rand [born April 3, 1904]."

Old man yells out: "What kind of shape was Sally Rand in?"

Sharon: "Very good.

"I was one of the first porn girls introduced into entry-level striptease and feature dancing. The first gig that I had was co-featuring for Tempest Storm. It wasn't really about how they looked. It was about what they portrayed and the sexual energy they exuded. I was trying so hard to do the bump-and-grind and my body wasn't right for it.

"Tempest Storm told me I could have my own style provided I went with the formula of the tease. I was doing my ballet and stripping to Rhapsody in Blue. And the other girls would come out and pour water on their shirts and do these dollar-a-lick things. I felt out of place. I never compromised.

"I'd say Tempest Storm was the best dancer of that era. She brought her own band."

Question: "Was Sally Rand proud of what she'd done?"

Sharon: "Absolutely. Enthusiastic and proud to pass it on."

Legs talks about the start of his porn book: "Sharon Mitchell was one of the first persons I interviewed. She lived in the Valley. I pulled into her street and said, 'This looks like the witness protection program. I want to live here.' I got a house around the corner from her with a pool and a dog that Tim Connelly stole from me.

"I sent crews out to buy the John Holmes trial transcripts for $10,000 apiece. The transcriber owns the copy unless you're in appeals court, then you can Xerox them.

"I read [Hunter S. Thompson's] Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It changed my life. With the exception of Last Exit to Brooklyn, Fear and Loathing made writing like machine gun fire. It was like rock n'roll."

Luke: "Sharon, some people think you've become more negative towards the porn industry in the last six years seeing all the AIDS and problems that have swept through it?"

Sharon takes a long pause and reflects: "A little bit, Luke. Sitting where I sit with AIM (Adult Industry Medicine), I see all the occupational hazards and the malevolence and it's made me a little bit realistic. I know there are a lot of wonderful things out there, but seeing what I've been seeing, it's almost like porno's version of Fear Factor. How many dicks can you put in a pussy and how goldfish can you make people vomit and what does this have to do with sex? Part of me wonders what this has to do with the wonderful business I stepped into in 1975 where I could show my pussy 15-feet high on the silver screen..."

A guy in the audience: "In your professional opinion, how many dicks can you fit in one pussy?"

Sharon: "I know how many chopsticks you can."

Legs: "That's very humble of Sharon. Sharon is the reason why most of the country has switched over from BNR DNA research from the Eliza test."

I think Legs means "PCR DNA" and I find it hard to believe that Sharon Mitchell changed America's testing procedures for HIV.

Legs: "Sharon pioneered BNR DNA testing and that has seved hundreds of thousands of lives. Sharon Mitchell deserves to be sainted.

"And she got a Ph.D."

Tim Connelly says Hunter Thompson "changed our lives, much like the Ramones did, much like any great artist did... It earmarks a time of passing for our industry. It becomes a time to move on to something else. [Thompson's work] will live on longer than something George Bush says.

"Hunter spent some time at the Michell Brothers theatre and was great friends with Jeff Armstrong and the two Mitchell brothers. He hung out with R. Crumb and was a cashier. He even hung out for a while with Gail Palmer in his hot tub before she filed charges on him. She should've learned that it is ok for Hunter to bring a handgun into the hot tub when he's on mescaline."

Q: Is it true that Hunter fell in love with a whore?

Tim: "I think we all did.

"Hunter called Jeff [Armstrong] after I was at AVN for six months and said, can I get a subscription? I'm starting to enjoy reading it. It pained me to cancel his subscription."

There are a lot of suck-up questions from audience plants such as producer Brett Hudson who asks Sharon: How did video change the industry?

As she answers him, Brett starts talking to somebody else.

Sharon: "Who asked this question?"

Brett snaps back and devotes his attention to Sharon's answer.

Q for Legs: What was the biggest surprise that you found out about the industry?

Legs: "One, that girls had not been abused. I had known that girls got sexually abused and went into pornography. But I've talked to a few girls who only slept with one or two guys. And that to me was shocking."

Legs says his friend since 1975, Mary Harron, is directing a movie of his oral history of punk, Please Kill Me, for Jersey Films.

Legs says they want to do it like Almost Famous (2000), an idea he hates.

Ron Jeremy walks up. He says he has a scene as a bail jumper in Tony Scott's new film Domino (out in May).

Ron says he does about a sex scene a month.

He's spoken before about 20 colleges debating pornography.