With the upcoming release of the video Inside Deep Throat, ~ the video that tells the back story behind Deep Throat and the controversy surrounding the film ~ Harry Reems is just as energetic and youthful and exuberant now as he was some thirty odd years ago when he played a major starring role in the film Deep Throat, the “first real pornographic film of our time,” he tells me. Before that, Reems says, “They were 8mm black and white ‘stag films’ that permeated American homes in the 50s and 60s.”
Harry Reems was hired by former hair-stylist-turned-porn producer Gerald Damiano to serve as Lighting Director for Deep Throat even though he had been on both sides of the camera before as both actor and many other jobs one can think of for on a film production. For his part, Damiano noted in the documentary that he already felt like he knew the dirt on everyone as a hair stylist and was in a way a kind of “confessor” and so all he did was take that information and put it out there - in short, listening to people talk about their lives, their love lives especially. Damiano says he knew what people did or thought about. And so in turn, what he did then was essentially “out” it. He went public with what he knew and without giving specifics, Damiano, this swinging stylist who was working with his wife in Queens became the Director of the largest grossing and first pornographic film of our time.
Harry Reems had featured in adult films before, and had even worked on a few stag films with Linda Lovelace. Before Deep Throat, he tells me, he had already made some one to two hundred stag films and had a series of different names he used for various roles including Tim Long, Herb Bob Waters and a host of others. He has been in some popular films both before and after Deep Throat, but it was Deep Throat that would put everyone, including pornography, on the map and on trial, as it would turn out.
With Deep Throat things started out a little differently. Reems had been offered an altogether different role from the one that would make him famous. As he tells me, “[I] wasn’t even supposed to act in the film, but after a year or two of doing the films, my interest started to perk behind the camera and so I did lighting work, camera work, sound work and was then hired to be the lighting director on Deep Throat. So Jerry Damiano said ‘Do it one more time for me and have fun,’ and that’s how Deep Throat was born,” Reems says recalling his own involvement.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Bob A. Booey
Sadi likes porn. That's hot. Just kidding, Sadi. Good job. You write some interesting stuff -- you're a cool chica.
That is all.
2 - Jones Violet
I think Bob is channeling his Paris Hilton side there with his "that's hot". Heh. Just kidding Bob.
3 - Bob A. Booey
Jones Violet adores me :) But I think I'll have to fix your name to be more human, like Violet Jones. And I hate Paris Hilton and all the women who now clone her at clubs.
That is all.
4 - Jones Violet
Bob, you know yourself that I'm not completely human.
Silly humans.
5 - Bob A. Booey
Jones Violet is like Natalie Davis without the PTA mom side to her.
One of my girlies in LA just met and partied with Paris at some club recently -- apparently, they know a couple of the same people.
She said how sweet she thought Paris was and said that I should so call her cell because we'd get along. I thought about it for a second and then I really wondered why this girl was my friend. She's hot, but I don't even hit it anymore, so I think it's time for me to lose some trash. Know what I'm sayin, humans?
That is all.
6 - Jones Violet
"without the PTA mom side"
Ha Ha Ha. You have permission to suffocate me in my sleep if that ever happens. Geesus.
Bob, are you one of those older fellas who still gets around with the college crowd? Who actually says "I'd hit that"? Just askin' :)
7 - Bob A. Booey
Older? Hell no, honey.
I'm still young enough. I'm not as young as I once was, though.
Guess how old I am in your planet's Vulcan years.
That is all.
8 - Bob A. Booey
Anyone else is free to play the "guess how old BABsie is" game as well.
And my apologies to Natalie. I meant to say "polyamorous, married-to-a-man with a kid but still a lesbian PTA mom."
That is all.
9 - gonzo marx
since you know what a vulcan is, i would venture to guess over 30, if you actually know the hand greeting they use, over 40
Excelsior!
10 - Bob A. Booey
You insult me greatly, Gonzo. Over 40? Over 30 was bad enough.
And I don't know anything about Star Trek, other than both Jones Violet and Natalie Davis think aliens and dead humans are way hot.
Excalibur!
Why did Chelsea Lou stop saying "Alka Seltzer" after each comment, by the way? That was clever. What was your opinion of her parody, Gonzo? I think she's lost esteem for you.
That is all.
11 - Jones Violet
I'd say 40's..early to mid. AM I RIGHT? What do I win?
12 - Jones Violet
Hilarious
13 - Bob A. Booey
I hate you all. I'm going to go cry now.
No, not mid 40s!
I'm glad to see my sense of humor translates across the galaxy, humans.
That is all.
14 - Jones Violet
Look, you're calling us humans. What planet do you come from, Bob? Obviously it's a planet like Earth where men are free to wear pink shirts. The horror. My planet put a ban on that a hundred years ago.
Ok, you're 29.
15 - gonzo marx
well Bob, i was just guessing based on a tiny bit of data...no worries
as for the parody, it was definately funny
as for any concern over "respect" i ask only for what i earn..anything else is someone else's problem...not mine
and i guess we insulted Bob here by only guessing 30 or 40...i think we aimed too low...
93 and 4 months?
Excelsior!
16 - Bob A. Booey
Still too old, baby :) And you LIKE my pink shirt! Admit it.
I come from ... (drumroll please) Uranus. That joke should automatically subtract the right number of years for you to guess my age right.
That is all.
17 - Bob A. Booey
I stole the "humans" bit from one of the greatest comic minds of our time, Natalie Davis. I think she stole it, in turn, from her fellow alien Ralph Nader.
How old are you humans?
That is all.
18 - Jones Violet
I do not.
What the hell..are you below 25? With the Uranus joke, I'd guess 13, but seeing how popular you are with the ladies *snicker* you'd have to be at least over sixteen. I hope.
19 - Bob A. Booey
I'm 26.
You're calling me 13 years old? :) You were all "*snickered*" just now. And I were 16, then you'd be in jail:
"Ha Ha Ha. You have permission to suffocate me in my sleep if that ever happens. Geesus."
Did anyone else catch this? I think Jones Violet loves me and wants to be a PTA baby mama :) That's funny stuff, but I'm too cool for school, baby.
And I'm not popular with the ladies at all! I wish. I don't know whoever gave you that idea, but they lied. I think it's the pink shirt I wear out to the clubs.
And you DID say you'd make an exception for ME wearing the pink shirt, darling.
How old are you, human?
That is all.
20 - Bob A. Booey
I'll take the wild variance in age guesses as a compliment.
I have the intellect of a 40 something, the emotional maturity of a 13 year old, and the continence and sex drive of a 94 year old. Hot? Hot? Hot!
That is all.
21 - Jones Violet
Oh, that's right. I did say I'd make an exception. Just don't add a pink tie to it.
"I don't know whoever gave you that idea" - it must have been our conversation about men waxing and shaving the boy-bits that gave me that idea.
I officially turn old next month. I'm expecting gifts.
22 - Jones Violet
"sex drive of a 94 year old"
That doesn't sound so good, Bob. May I suggest some Yohimbe Bark?
23 - Bob A. Booey
Yohimbe Bark? Hippie :)
OK, more like a 17 year old. I lied. But I wasn't lying about the continence of a 94 year old.
Pink shirt with a pink tie? Who do you think I am? Some lame singer of an 80s retro band like The Killers? I'm gonna change my name to BABsie Flowers.
How old do you turn next month? Happy birthday, however your people celebrate such events on your planet :)
That is all.
24 - Jones Violet
Never Trust A Hippie - they do have good herbal advice, though. You know, if you're into that kinda thing.
Babsie, men are out there right now with pink shirts and pink ties! Walking the streets and actually meeting women, and even worse, they are endangering other men of the world and encouraging them to follow in their footsteps.
Speaking of the guy from the Killers, I saw him on tv the other night, he's kind of cute. What is it your type says.."I'd hit that". Just kidding. Kind of.
I turn 23 in October. October 30th, to be precise. and thank you! :)
25 - Bob A. Booey
I'm so not herbal, although I drink lots of tea and gave up milk for soy milk recently. Does that count? I'm still not a hippie. The high school punk in me would never forgive that, but I think almost all punks I've met were really closet hippies.
No woman takes a matching shirt-and-tie man seriously anymore. That trend died after the one year it was popular when Regis friggin Philbin started it on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?"
I'm cuter than Brandon Flowers. I don't like his band being so popular, but I must admit I love "Mr. Brightside," but I'm a sucker for 80s synth pop.
Are you hot for an alien?
Here's an early birthday song for Jones Violet, from before Ministry become heavy metal and when they were artsy Goth weirdos:
Well I live with snakes and lizards
And other things that go bump in the
Night cos to me everyday is halloween
I have given up hiding and started to fight
I have started to fight well any time,
Any place, anywhere that I go all the
People seem to stop and stare they say
’why are you dressed like it’s halloween?
You look so absurd, you look so obscene’
O, why can’t I live a life for me?
Why should I take the abuse that’s served?
Why can’t they see they’re just like me it’s
The same, it’s the same in the whole wide world
Well I let their teeny minds think that they’re
Dealing with someone who is over the brink and
I dress this way just to keep them at bay
Cos halloween is everyday it’s everyday o,
Why can’t I live a life for me?
Why should I take the abuse that’s served?
Why can’t they see they’re just like me it’s
The same, it’s the same in the whole wide world
O, why can’t I live a life for me? why should i
Take the abuse that’s served? why can’t they see
They’re just like me I’m not the one that’s so
Absurd why hide it?
Why fight it? hurt feelings best to stop feeling
Hurt from denials, reprisals it’s the same it’s the
Same in the whole wide world
That is all.