Harry faced a prison sentence of up to five years and a fine of $10,000. On April 30, 1976, a jury found all the Deep Throat defendants guilty. It was the “buckle of the Bible Belt” as Harry described it, and where Memphis went, New York may have to follow. But have you ever tried to offend a New Yorker?īy contrast, obtaining an easy conviction in the chastest corner of the land, the federal government could create the means to set obscenity standards for the whole of the country.
Logically since the film was being distributed from New York, and since most of the defendants lived there, New York would have been the natural location for the investigation, indictment, and trial. The choice of Memphis as a venue was cynical and creative.
The nine-week Deep Throat trial was one of the costliest endeavors in federal court history in Memphis, with witnesses arriving from New York, Florida, California and New Jersey. The fact was that overnight he become the first actor or artist of any kind to face federal charges for his work. No one disagreed or cared that Harry had no role in the financing, marketing, or distribution of the film. The authorities had been working on the case for two years, and now Reems and eight reputed mobsters were indicted in a Memphis federal court for conspiracy to transport obscene material across state lines. Two and a half years before, he had starred in the landmark adult film, ‘ Deep Throat‘, which was rumored to be funded by Joseph and Louis “Butchie” Peraino, associates of the Colombo crime family. “I looked through the peephole,” says Reems, “and there were three guys holding guns and FBI badges.” On the morning of July 7, 1974, Harry Reems was awoken by a knock at the door of his Chelsea apartment. ‘Blow Dry’ star Victor Colicchio (‘Pepe’)
Billed as ‘The movie Warren Beatty was afraid to make, ‘Blow Dry’ featured Helen Madigan, Victor Colicchio (as Pepe), Jamie Gillis, Peonies Jong (billed as ‘The Oriental Emanuelle’), Ultramax, and Robert Kerman. The premiere was an unusually extravagant black tie affair.īlow Dry star Helen Madigan and Marc Stevens ‘Blow Dry’ was an attempt to cash-in on the success of Hal Ashby’s ‘Shampoo’ (1975) which starred Warren Beatty and Julie Christie. It was this artsy commune that made ‘Blow Dry’, ostensibly to finance a second, more commercial, film, ‘Feelin’ Up’ (aka ‘Getting Together’). He moved to New York, founded a filmmaking commune on the Lower East Side, and revelled in the flamboyantly sexual epoch of the seventies, making underground films few people ever saw. He seemed destined for great things.īut then, just as suddenly as he emerged, Secter disappeared. Hollywood beckoned, and Secter signed with the William Morris Agency to produce and direct films. Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’, ‘Winter’ was thematically ahead of its time, dealing discreetly with homosexuality. The film was directed by one-time enfant prodige of the Canadian film industry, David Secter, using the nom-de-porn, Laser Scepter.īack in 1965, when he was 22 years old, Secter had made the first English-Canadian film ever selected at Cannes, ‘ Winter Kept Us Warm‘ on a budget of $8,000. The adult film ‘ Blow Dry‘ premiered at the Circus Cinema at 1604 Broadway in New York on November 8, 1976. Photographs © Allan Tannenbaum / all rights reserved. Order a copies of ‘New York in the 70s’ here, and copies of ‘Grit and Glamour: The Street Style, High Fashion, and Legendary Music of the 1970s’ here. The Rialto Report recently spent time with Allan and his huge collection of photographs (he retained just about every photograph he ever took), and are grateful to him for allowing us to share some of them here. Most of these pictures have never been published – until now. His photos have graced the covers of Time magazine three times and Newsweek five times.īut his work was not restricted to mainstream celebrities, Allan took countless pictures of the adult film and party scene in New York during the 1970s. Tannenbaum’s works have also been featured in books, exhibitions, and have appeared regularly in publications such as Life Magazine, Rolling Stone, Paris Match, and Stern.
In this capacity, he took thousands of pictures of events and icons such as Jack Nicholson, Mick Jagger and John Lennon – and many of these photographs are in his excellent books ‘New York in the 70s’ and ‘Grit and Glamour: The Street Style, High Fashion, and Legendary Music of the 1970s’. In 1973, upon the publication of the SoHo Weekly News, Tannenbaum became their Photo Editor and Chief Photographer covering the New York City art, music, politics, show business, and nightlife scene until 1982. For the last fifty years, Allan Tannenbaum has been the quintessential New York photographer.