The Colonel has called a news conference for Sunday.
Mondo Video has been a hangout for the perverse for about 20 years. It specializes in porn and gore. Many (or all?) editions of Khan Tusions’ Midnight Prowl videos were shot there.
The store is located at 4328 Melrose Ave Los Angeles, CA 90029-3511. Phone: (323) 953-8896.
I’ve talked to the Mondo crew many times over the years but only visited their establishment once.
It was the evening of July 18, 2005.
I’m told Mondo Video (4328 Melrose Ave) is next door so I wander over and find Colonel Rob, who used to work as a PA for Russ Meyer.
The Colonel is excited that he got a lawsuit threat this afternoon over the new book on Meyer — Big Bosoms and Square Jaws: The Biography of Russ Meyer by Jimmy McDonough. Amazon link.
"Welcome to the hallowed halls of Mondo Video. Ask these people. Mondo Video is a sacred temple. We’re like a cult. Take a picture of my Satanic cult members.
"I’ve finally opened up about Russ [who died last year]. I started with Russ when I was 15. That’s how I got the name Colonel. I raised in the ranks all the way to Colonel. All of us and Russ were like family. We stick together. We still talk to each other. There’s Russ’s obituary over here."
The Colonel with an article on Russ Meyers.
"All the years I’ve known you, you finally get your ass down to Mondo Video. You’re finally here. McDonough got sued by Neil Young for his book Shakey.
"I just got off the phone with [Russ Meyer starlets] Kitten Natividad, Erica Gavin, Tara Fantana, Jimmy Ryan. They all check in with me. Everyone’s doing great. They’re very upset that they’re [Russ Meyer’s estate] coming after me and Jimmy over the book. Jimmy printed the will in the book.
"Jimmy also did a book on Andy Milligan, the transvestite director. I never worked for [Andy] because he never paid unlike Russ, Harry Novak, and David Friedman (who I all started out with). I’m waiting for my copy of the book so I can see what I’m being sued over.
"The Colonel has a good band of lawyers and they’re loyalists to Mondo Video and The Colonel’s new way of making porn.
"There’s a scoop for you, buddy. Don’t you always get a scoop from The Colonel?
"I’ve got a bunch of s— for you. I just had surgery. I was in the hospital for two weeks. I’ve had ulcers for years. It split open. Internal bleeding. I was bleeding to death. They have a great new way of taking care of it. They can go in through your mouth and hydro-seal it. They put dissolvable stitches in at 7am on a Tuesday. I was in the hospital for two weeks getting the blood poisoning out of me. They sewed up my stomach. I come out of anesthetic. I said, doctor, I need to go shoot a film tonight. He said, don’t do it. But I did it, Midnight Prowl (Kahn Tusion directs the shoots [about one night a week] at Mondo Video while customers look on). I was good, dude."
Ryan Knox works for Midnight Prowl. "They take a porn girl," he says, "and drive her around in a limo. They take her to a video store. They take four or five guys and play it like they are strangers and she has sex with these strangers in a video store while everybody’s yapping and it’s a big joke. It’s not hardcore like Meatholes. It’s comedy. It’s not all psychological and crazy."
Duke: "I’ve never seen Meatholes."
Ryan: "If you look at it, it might scar you psychologically. Because you meet all these people and then you see that and it’s no fun."