1972 marked the year Bible thumpers and porn freaks ate popcorn and dug porn without shame. Deep Throat’s (rumoured) mob ties, the infamous Linda Lovelace and a $600 million gross would change the world forever.
The world’s most famous porn star Ron Jeremy talks to Fused about the skin flick that introduced him to the world of adult entertainment.
1972 marked the year Bible thumpers and porn freaks ate popcorn and dug porn without shame. Deep Throat’s (rumoured) mob ties, the infamous Linda Lovelace and a $600 million gross would change the world forever.
The worlds most famous porn star Ron Jeremy talks to Fused about the skin flick that introduced him to the world of adult entertainment.
Where did you first see Deep Throat?
I first saw Deep Throat as a little kid. Well, not really that little. I was with my dad when I first turned 19 back in Queens College. We saw it at the Mayfair movie theatre in Queens. It was my first time seeing a porn film and it was kind of goofy. I thought it was not a very good movie ’cause I was comparing it to mainstream films. That’s all I had seen. However, when I think about how it compares to adult movies it was actually very, very good. As a porn film it’s definitely among the best, especially back then as the movies were shot on film.
Did you ever jerk off to Deep Throat?
No, in all fairness I never jerked off to Deep Throat I. I never jerked off to any kind of porn film. But I did jerk off to Gilligan’s Island and I Dream of Jeannie. I got to tell you I did prefer Mary Ann over Ginger.
What has been your involvement in the Deep Throat series?
I would have been in Deep Throat 1 had I been in the business back then, but Harry Reems was in Deep Throat I with Linda Lovelace. I had a major role in Deep Throat II (remake), IV, V and VI starring…oh gosh… the butt woman? I forgot her name. And I have been used as a judge every so often when they do a search for a new “Deep Throat Queen”.
What’s your opinion on the rumoured mafia connections in early porn?
In all honestly, I won’t totally deny it. There were rumours that the producer was involved with certain families in New York. And it’s a pretty known fact that the families were involved in porn back in the old days. But when the market went video they pretty much got out of it. There was no point, if you needed 100k to make a movie, you might need a loan and they’ll get back a quarter million from you, they got involved in distribution. Gangsters, to be involved, want to have control. So they can control film releases, so their theatre gets it in Chicago, NY, LA…down south. When the market went video they had no way to control it….anybody can open up a video store and sell regular videos. Plus when you can make a film for 5k, you don’t need a loan for that. You have that in your pocket.
I liked the Producer a lot. I’d go to their house for Italian dinners. They were so much fun. They would make their spaghetti with sausage meatballs. Like all Italian guys that were gangsters, they can all cook real good. That’s when you know a guy is truly a gangster, when he can cook like a son-of-a-gun.
What was the trick behind Linda’s technique?
Well, the producer loved the way Linda Lovelace would do the deep throating – when it would get stuck in her. She’d do this little pause and then took it all the way. She would put her mouth around it, she’d take it down as far as she could go until it hits the epiglottis…the uvula and then all of a sudden she would go ‘uhh’ and take it one step further. So there would be like a pause, and he really got a kick out of it because no other woman ever before, and actually since, has deep throated quite the way Linda Lovelace did. She would take it and pause and then boom shoots down. There was the little break period where you know, it’s pretty bizarre, she takes it down, it hits bottom and then half your shmekula is still outside and then all of a sudden boom right to the balls.
When you were involved in the Deep Throat series did you try to find girls who could continue Linda’s technique?
Yes, in 4, 5 and 6, I had girls that could deep throat right to the balls. I learned a lot from a woman who could take any size – me or John Holmes right to the balls – and you wonder where in the heck is it going. You wonder why her scalp isn’t popping out in the back. It is truly a masterpiece, she is like the sword-swallower, so what she would do, is she would take like butter or margarine and lubricate her gums, polysaturated margarine, so I did that in my movie. I added to the series the girls lubricating their gums with butter, just something to make it goofy.
How did Deep Throat affect society?
Well, what is interesting to note about Deep Throat is that a lot of major celebrities came to its aid. I think it was Warren Beatty and his sister, Shirley McClain. I think Linda Redgrave might have come to their aid and Alan Goldstein and Jack Nicholson. I know that a lot of famous directors wrote an amicus brief to the court case when Harry and Linda were on trial. These celebrities all gave amicus briefs to court and they really worked hard to defend Harry Reems and Linda Lovelace. What made this film kind of interesting out of society’s point of view anthropologically and socially is that they were trying to indict actors for a performance that they did in a movie. A lot of the other actors said while we don’t find porn films that exciting, we don’t like them, you know, we find them disgusting, however, don’ t ever indict an actor for a performance they do in a movie. That is very dangerous grounds to play with. That is very unconstitutional, very much against freedom of speech. And that you don’t play games like that. They were trying to make it like paying for sex was a crime, like prostitution or philandering, obscenity, whatever. They have indicted us since, ya know, in many cases we’ve all faced the music.
It put porn into conversation. All the celebrities said Deep Throat made porn chic to talk about.
Before then it was like men in black socks wearing masks, don’t talk, don’t think, just go to a little private peek show booth and look at it. With Deep Throat it became a thing with theatres, you can go to theatres that serve popcorn, try to make it classier. It was the beginning of the more mature era of porn. Deep Throat was a very, very important landmark of that aspect, now you can see porn, and go, oh what the heck. Somebody might laugh at you, not everyone is going to accept it if they’re religiously oriented. It made it chic. In fact, it made such amazing headlines all over the country – you know when it played – it was stopped.
I’ll never forget the famous headlines in Queens, New York ‘Judge Cuts Throat, World Mourns’.
During the making of Deep Throat 2 (1974) and with the FBI on their backs, Arrow was forced to make two different film reels. Somehow in the lab the X-rated film reels were stolen, leaving the film company to release an R rated version. Did you see it?
Yes, it was very bad for business. Who wants to see an R rated film like that? I actually remember seeing it in a drive-in theatre in the Catskills Mountains and being all pissed off because you couldn’t see any sex. I would die to see a copy of that film again. I was actually in another Deep Throat 2, which was released years later, around 1979 or 1980. They probably should’ve given it a different name, but they just acted like the other one didn’t exist. It’s very bizarre.
What’s your take on the Deep Throat soundtracks?
I remember that the music in Deep Throat 1 was campy and adorable. Porn films always had that boom-chicka-boom-chicka-boom music, but Gerard Damiano (director of Deep Throat I) always had the desire to go straight, so he put in music that was unlike typical porn music. Not just bouncy stuff, but more fun-goofy-crazy music. There’s the scene where the guy orgasms in Linda’s mouth. Rockets and explosions are blasting off, and they play all this patriotic music. Gerard Damiano edited the film to its music, so the actions would match and the beat would match…like up and down strokes on the old shaft…it was pretty clever.
During Deep Throat, the Producer wanted to put in real songs that had lyrics – songs that would match what was going on in the action. They put on real soundtracks. Now days you can make a porn film for like $5k, some little pro-amateur where you interview the girl and have sex with her. You know….Where you from? Here’s a cup of coffee, blow me. There’s your dollar.
The woman who scored Deep Throat 2 went on to do the music for The Incredible Shrinking Woman, starring Lilly Tomlin. She was actually a legitimate musician. I believe the director was hooked up with recording artists in New York, which was one reason it was so good. When they were editing Deep Throat 2, the entire building was full of studios and recording artists doing their demos for various record labels. The director was friends with a lot of them, therefore by sheer accident, Deep Throat 2 has very professional music. Both 1 and 2 have better soundtracks than the vast majority of films that were made before or since.
‘La La La’ from the Deep Throat Soundtrack
