Deep Throat (1972) - Gerard Damiano
Related: 1972 - American cinema - fellatio - Gerard Damiano - Inside Deep Throat (2005) - Linda Lovelace - porn film - porno chic - USA
The year is 1972. Outside a swank first-run Manhatten cinema [the New World Theatre], a line of well-heeled sophisticates queue expectantly outside a marquee with three large X’s proudly proclaiming: "Linda Lovelace IS Deep Throat!" A few miles uptown on the infamous 42nd Street strip, the traditional raincoat brigade shuffle into a theater past posters for Terrorized Virgin, Perverted Passion and Girl In A Basket toward their waiting stain-covered seats. Both crowds have three things on their minds, and they ain’t Surf, Sand and Sun. --Andrew Leavold, "Adult Industry Review", published by the Eros Foundation in Canberra.
Linda Lovelace in Deep Throat (1972) (available at [Amazon.co.uk])
Intro
Deep Throat is a pornographic movie released in January 1972, written and directed by Gerard Damiano and starring the erotic actress Linda Lovelace. A huge success, it was shown in many mainstream movie theatres.
After Behind the Green Door it was the second hardcore pornography feature film to be released in the United States. It received an X rating as defined by the MPAA film rating system, which had been instituted in 1968. It was then shown in many mainstream theatres all over the US, starting a brief period of 'porn chic' when it was considered cool in some circles to go see porn movies, even in company. Already in 1973, the movie was marketed on videotape.
In various communities, the movie was shown to juries to determine whether it was obscene according to the Miller test; the outcomes varied widely. In 1976, there was a series of federal cases in Memphis, Tennessee, where over 60 individuals and companies, including the Parainos, director Gerard Damiano and actor Harry Reems, were indicted for conspiracy to distribute obscenity across state lines. The initial convictions were overturned on a technicality. The Perainos and some other major players connected to organized crime were tried again, convicted and given short prison sentences. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Throat_(movie) [Oct 2004]
Deep Throat (1972) - Gerard Damiano
Linda, frustrated that her hugely energetic sex life leaves her unsatisfied, seeks medical help. The doctor informs her that the reason for her problem is that her clitoris is mistakenly located at the back of her throat - but there is a very simple remedy, which the doctor, and various other men, proceed to demonstrate...
Porn's- cross-over hit
Damiano's Deep Throat (1972) became porn's cross-over hit, as Damiano recognised that, with changes in structure and publicity, its explicit content could be rendered acceptable to a wider audience. Unlike most previous porn films, Deep Throat was feature-length, with a script and a plot, its sex scenes thus being justified by their narrative context. The film played in mainstream cinemas, its success being dubbed 'porno chic'. --Matthew Hunt
Gerard Damiano [...]
Deep Throat opened to the raincoat crowd in June, 1972, at the New World Theater on 49th Street. Raincoaters are men who, according to the stereotype, arrive at adult theaters wearing raincoats to allow access to their genitals while they fantasize about the women on screen.
Over the next few months, millions of Americans for the first time watched explicit sex. Frank Sinatra, Spiro Agnew, Warren Beatty, Truman Capote, Nora Ephron and Bob Woodward (who used "Deepthroat" as the name for his key Watergate source) took in the film on its first run, and eventually more persons saw Deep Throat in theaters than any other porno. --source unidentified
Linda Lovelace on Last Tango in Paris
Linda's arrival in a Rolls limo created a sensation at the Hollywood premier of Last Tango in Paris. She thought the movie "disgusting. The sex scenes weren't believable. Hollywood should stick to comedies and Westerns and stay away from sexy, romantic stories."
Gloria Steinem
Linda became friends with Gloria Steinem who introduced her to other feminists. The Deep Throat star then found Jesus and experienced an epiphany. All that fucking and sucking in her past had been forced on her. She hated it. She was a victim. She wasn't responsible for her behavior. Evil pornographers forced her to do disgusting tricks at the point of a gun.
"When you see the movie Deep Throat, you are watching me being raped," Linda told the 3/20/81 Toronto Sun. "It is a crime that movie is still showing; there was a gun to my head the entire time."
Porno chic
For reasons that still baffle me, Deep Throat became the one porno film in New York chic to see and to be seen at, even before the court case, even before Earl Wilson wrote about it.--Vincent Canby
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