|
"When I got into the exploitation distribution business in the late '50s, there were four of us in the country - Bill Mishkin and Joe Brenner in New York, myself in Chicago, and Dan Sonney in L.A. - and the total output in the whole United States was about eight to ten pictures a year, so that the sixty theaters that had to play this stuff every year played each one ten to twelve weeks, gave you a fair percentage, and you made a fortune with it. "I bought a drive-in in Joliet and I had one of the first Nudie houses in Chicago back when Chicago had a tough police censorship board. And it was more profitable than that it is today when you don't have to submit anything and they're playing hardcore in Chicago." Friedman later made such flicks as The Adventures of Lucky Pierre, Trader Hornee, and The Erotic Adventures of Zorro. In 1965, the producers of The Notorious Daughter of Fanny Hill sold the movie to Friedman for $75,000 and thought themselves lucky to get rid of it. David however made a million dollars with it, showing it uncut in drive-ins in the '70s. Along with Dan Sonney, the son of Louis Sonney who started the exploitation genre in the 1920s, Friedman bought a rundown theater on Fifth and Hill that became the flagship of the Pussycat Theaters. The men later sold out to Vince Miranda and Jimmy Johnson.
"On the opening day of a new film you could almost call roll," Friedman remembers. "The same guys were there, week after week. They'd stand out front reading the one-sheets so long you'd think they were studying the Gutenberg Bible." The Adults Only market exploded in the 1960s. "In 1960 there were maybe 20 theaters around the country that showed adult pictures exclusively. By 1970 there were 750. The Pussycat chain built 25 theaters, from the ground up, to show X-rated movies. There were 47 Pussycat theaters in California alone. "I've exploited the basest human emotions," says Friedman. "But the one I exploited most was loneliness. That's who was paying my way, a lot of very lonely men." Realizing that the nudie-cutie was running out of steam, David became one of the first producers to add violence to sex films. He paired up with director Gordon Lewis to "make three films that set the tone for the likes of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th." (Porn Gold) For a budget of $24,000, they shot Blood Feast in three days. It appeared in 1963, inspiring hundreds of imitators, and grossing about $35 million. "Am I ashamed of them? Yes, I am - I'm ashamed at the appalling crudity of them. I used to go to the butcher's shop and buy sheep and chicken entrails for the effects. Now you see retrospectives of these things on college campuses." "Unlike the Friedman and Meyer films," writes Sinema, "which dealt in violence but had some artistic merit, the Roughies and Kinkies of the middle '60s generally represent the nadir of the sex-exploitation film, ugly in spirit and appealing to the worst instincts of humankind. The death rattle of the woman with the severed leg replaces the unfettered cry of ecstasy, and blood rather than semen becomes the symbolic fluid of erotic expression. Paradoxically, these grotesque films, featuring neither complete nudity nor loving sexual contact, were largely exempt from the wrath of the censors, possibly because the United States has traditionally been a country that censors sex but tolerates violence." (Sinema p.25) In 1972, Friedman produced an adult version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde which is soft on sex but explicit with violence. Rene Bond and Linda McDowell star. Dr Jekyl picks up a pretty whore and takes her home. "In the wildest sex you've ever seen in adult films, he not only whips her, drawing blood, until she faints, but then he ties her wrists to the bedposts, f---s her wildly and when she becomes conscious again takes a red hot poker from the fireplace and shoves it into her vagina. This is only the beginning." (Bob Rimmer, X-Rated Videotape Guide 4) Grindhouse says producer Bob Cresse never cast an actress he didn't want to whip. His most notorious film, Love Camp 7 of 1968, declared "Everything you are about to see actually happened." The movie tells of a Nazi concentration camp where Jewish women become sex slaves for the Reich. Inspired by Love Camp 7, David Friedman produced 1974's Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS which was shot on the sets of Hogan's Heroes - a popular TV sitcom about hijinks in a Nazi prisoner of war camp. "Sergeant Schultz never saw anything like this," notes Grindhouse. "Castration within the first minute; a drunken gang rape; a victim impaled on an ominous electro-charged dildo; maggots inserted into the open wound on a prisoner's arm; nipple clamps; gouged-out eyeballs; the slow hanging death of a nude woman standing on a block of ice; another boiled alive in hot oil, and Ilsa urinating on a depraved Nazi general." The opening of Ilsa says that the producers felt obligated to show the historical truth, and that the film was "Dedicated to the hope that these atrocities never happen again." But the atrocities do occur again in such films as Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks and Ilsa, the Wicked Warden. The Ilsa films based themselves on the true story of Ilse Koch, "The Bitch of Belsen," who was executed by the International War Crimes Tribunal for "crimes against humanity." One of Friedman's first brushes with the law came in Alabama. Deputy Governor Albert Brewer ran the state at the time while George Wallace was running for reelection. "Brewer decided it might be good for votes to try to shut down a local movie theater. They were showing one of my films, Pussy Galore. The judge was called Johnson and he was what passed for a liberal in those parts. Prosecuting was a man called Carter of the law firm Hill, Carter and Hill. His partners were Senator Hill and Congressman Hill, so Carter got all the jobs. In this case he was defending the governor's decision to close the movie house. Fighting the case with us was the manager of the movie theater, the 81 Drive In in Selma, Alabama. "In presenting his case, Carter refers to a character in the movie called 'Phil Latio.' On hearing this the judge breaks up. He asks Carter if he knew what the name meant. Carter says 'Yes' and the judge says 'What?' But Carter says he couldn't possibly say in open court. Then I'm called as a witness and the judge asks 'Did you produce this movie?' 'Yes, your honor, I did.' I used my Alabama accent. 'Yes, your honor, because I thought up the name.' 'I suppose you also thought up the title of the movie - Pussy Galore?' 'No, your honor. I stole that one from a James Bond movie.' The judge broke up again, he was really enjoying it. Anyway, the police didn't act legally in the raids and we won the case." In 1968, Friedman helped found the Adult Film Association of America (AFAA). "At that time there were about a hundred of us involved in the production, distribution and exhibition of adult films. We were getting a lot of heat at that time from the south and the south-west of the country. The stuff was really tame - today most of it would be judged 'R' or even 'PG13.' We could show no pubic hair and no male genitals. So, we said 'We must hang together or we surely will all hang separately. "We appointed three top First Amendment lawyers to represent us throughout the country. They were Stanley Fleishman, Tom Cudgel and Harrison Graves. The problem was that an exhibitor would get busted and his local lawyer would have no idea how to proceed. So we got these three lawyers on retainer and they produced an 'advice kit' for use in the defense of obscenity trials. The AFAA grew and prospered. In 1968 we held our first convention in Kansas City." (Porn Gold) The AFAA expanded through the 1970s, holding twice-yearly conventions in New York and Hawaii. Friedman edited the AFAA Bulletin to keep members up to date with the latest industry gossip and legal cases. He published verbatim the opinions of those opposing the industry, including long articles from the Moral Majority. "Sex movies are even more rigid in their construction than medieval morality plays," says Friedman in the 1973 book Contemporary Erotic Cinema. "You must have an orgy scene, you must have a lesbian scene, you must have a heterosexual scene, you must have a Sadie-Max scene. "I have no desire nor any intention of making a porno, because I have no respect for any of the people who make 'em. For one reason - it's no real challenge. Anybody that can find people who are willing to do it on camera - so what? Although a few of these characters take themsselves seriously, think they are really making a picture - everything I have seen doesn't even measure up, in my department, to the average 35mm sexploitation picture. But these guys are really taking themselves seriously - the Dakota brothers, McCord, RObinson - who are they kidding? Themselves? They are selling merchandise. It's the same position I was in in the carnival business - you have a three-legged calf or a two-headed woman or a guy with three penises - yeah, people will pay money to see it. There's no big trick in doing that. It's like a geek show. You find some guy that will bite the heads of chickens, you can make money with it! "But when I was in that business I didn't say I was a big theatrical entrepreneur! But these guys are saying that. But let me see one time a pornie film really developed! The best I've seen is probably Mona. And it's an absolutely impossible situation. The first time you see Mona, she says to the first guy she meets, "I want to suck your cock." I don't care how big a nymph the broad is, it isn't going to happen that way. "Put some mystery to it, put some chase to it. It's better dramatically. Well, hell, these guys are making a lot of money grinding this stuff out so I won't belabor it. But if I ever did make one I can only tell 'em - watch out. "I hope and pray they never do [legalize pornography]... We are in the forbidden fruit business. The minute the fruit is no longer forbiden it is no longer going to be that sweet. "Oregon has no obscenity laws... There's a porno shop on every corner and business gets worse all the time! Portland used to be one of the best towns in the country for an exploitatoin film. Now it is perfectly legal to purvey pornography in the state of Oregon as long as you purvey it to an adult...and nobody could care less. "So they started live acts on stage. Well, that didn't mean anything then, so the girls were coming down into the audience and taking volunteers and that didn't mean anything..." Five year later, Friedman did make porno. He produced Seven Into Snowy, an "erotic takeoff on Snow White contains some classic sex scenes and a cast of stunning women." (AFW) The 1977 movie opens with the finest adult theme Holliday has ever heard. Director Antonio Shepherd wrote the soothing beginning "Once Upon A Time, Dream". In 1980, David produced The Budding of Brie. "If it's possible for the plot, sets, costumes, music and dialogue to overwhelm the sex footage, this is one film that has succeeded. The adult version of All About Eve is a wonderful period piece." (Holliday, Only The Best, p.99) David wrote and produced 1985's Matinee Idol, directed by Henri Pachard. "Two porn stars plot to inject life into their fading fame. Glossy photography and gorgeous f---ers fill this inside porn story with sexual credibility." (AFW 96D p.261) In 1987, David Friedman estimated the theatrical gross of Deep Throat at over $100 million. "I was partner in the Pussycat chain at the time and we opened Deep Throat at the Pussycat theatre on Santa Monica Boulevard. The Los Angeles Times would not allow the title of the movie in our ads. So we had 'It is here!' I think we took $24,000 in the first week. The next week, it was down to $18,000 and by the third week only $15,000. Vince Miranda, the president of Pussycat, said 'You know, this is a big disappointment.' "Well, Time magazine that week came out with a whole page about Deep Throat - this phenomenon! The guy from the LA Times calls me up and says, 'Ok, if it's good enough for Time magazine, it's good enough for the LA Times. If you want to put Deep Throat in your ads this week, fine.' So, that Friday the ad read: 'Deep Throat. 4th Week. Now.' The gross shot up to about $50,000 - in a 450-seat theatre. The following week it went up to $90,000. "I know that Pussycat paid the Peraino brothers [the distributors of Deep Throat] $3 million in film rentals. Those figures are good because Pussycat is a very legitimate operation - they paid checks. And that $3 million was only for showing the picture for about a year in one cinema and about six years at another. "I would say that the total amount of film rental paid to the Perainos was somewhere in the neighborhood of $35 million. If an established distributor had handled the film, it would have been more like $50-$60 million. Now, 60 per cent rental translates down to 40% after publicity and distribution costs. The net figure is about 40%, so Deep Throat must have taken at least $100 million at the box office by now. That excludes video. "I represent the Chicago Mob in Los Angeles, according to the FBI. Boy, if that were the case, I'd be living in Bel Air and driving a stretch limousine. For ten years an FBI agent named Finney seemed to do nothing but watch me. I used to take him to lunch. He told me I was on the list of prime targets because I knew two guys who had vowels at the end of their names. Sure, I knew one of them, I used to stop off in his bar from work every night. But that was twenty-five years ago. "I also knew Mike Thevis. After the war when I was Paramount's distributor in Atlanta I used to eat 65-cent 'blue plate specials' in the Ship Ahoy, his father's Greek restaurant. Mike was a bus boy and his sister minded the cash register. Then Mr Thevis put Mike in charge of a newsstand he owned. So that's how Mike got started. "I've also done business with Reuben Sturman. He is well-spoken, polished gentleman. A brilliant man." (Porn Gold) Bill Margold: "There are only a finite number of major companies in the X-rated industry in America. There are lots of little people. But all the little people have sharks looming over them. And all the sharks have whales hanging over them. And all the whales sleep together. They all announce how viciously they hate each other but they are all buddies. So it's all controlled. It's like the juke-box industry in the old days. The distribution is all taken care of." Friedman disagrees. "The whole idea of this industry being organized is so stupid. We are the most competitive people in the world. Naturally, we know one another. Naturally, if it becomes profitable, we will do business with one another. We will trade things off. It is true that we stake out territories, but the [conventional] film industry has done that for years. "The FBI think that the American pornography business is one huge cartel. It's not. This is the last vestige of independent, rugged individualism." (Porn Gold) A staunch conservative, Friedman voted six times for Richard Nixon. "This is a free country, and if they don't like someonthing, they don't have to watch it. But, damn it, they don't have any right to dictate what you or I or anybody else wants to do." Hardcore dulled Friedman's enthusiasm for the business. "The old con was working just fine until a few assholes decided to go hardcore and show the last act right up front." Dave eventually retired rich to his ranch in Alabama.
|
|
|
|