The Rialto Report

The Rialto Report episodes:

• 04.07.2024

  NYC Starlets – Part 3: An Afternoon with Geri Miller, Warhol Super-Groupie and Sexploitation Actress – Podcast 138

  Geri Miller may not be the most famous name from 1960s sex films, but she may well be the most interesting. With a story that includes Andy Warhol, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Joe Sarno, the Peppermint Lounge, Ringo Starr, Joe Dalessandro,...

  
• 03.31.2024

  Pat Barrington in ‘Orgy of the Dead’ (1965) – Unpublished Photographs and Podcast (reprise)

  The Rialto Report recently acquired a collection of behind-the-scenes photographs and stills from the Stephen C. Apostolof/Edward D. Wood Jr. film Orgy of the Dead (1965) which we are sharing below.  Many of them feature Pat Barrington, which gives us...

  
• 03.17.2024

  Svengali – The Chuck Traynor Story: Part 7, Endgame, Podcast 137

  On the previous episode of Svengali – The Chuck Traynor Story: On the heels of a very public divorce, Chuck Traynor and Linda Lovelace were finally separated and began to forge their own paths. Chuck wasted no time partnering with up-and-coming...

  
• 03.03.2024

  Svengali – The Chuck Traynor Story: Part 6, The Marilyn Chambers Years, Podcast 136

  On the previous episode of Svengali – The Chuck Traynor Story: To everyone’s surprise, the sex film Deep Throat (1972) had become a financial hit and a cultural phenomenon. And everybody involved was determined to capitalize on the film’s success –...

  
• 12.10.2023

  F.M. Bradley: Hiding in Plain Sight – Podcast 113 – Reprise

  F.M Bradley died last month just a few weeks shy of his 70th birthday. I can’t say I was surprised – Bradley had been in a nursing home ever since I found him in 2021 after years of looking. He was...

  
• 12.03.2023

  Flesh! The Untold Origin of the Findlays and the ‘Flesh Trilogy’, Part 2 – Michael’s story

  Michael Findlay was a young New Yorker, fascinated with film and the mechanics behind it. Julian Marsh was his alter ego, a movie director possessed with a singular twisted vision. Richard Jennings was a sadistic, deranged movie character, one-eyed, confined to a...

  
• 11.19.2023

  Flesh! The Untold Origin of the Findlays and the ‘Flesh Trilogy’, Part 1 – Roberta’s story

  Sex and violence have been part of movies since the very beginning. Ever since Thomas Edison made and exhibited ‘The Kiss’ in 1896, an 18 second clip of a couple embracing, moviegoers have been shocked by onscreen depictions of lust. The...

  
• 11.05.2023

  Lisa Cintrice: Not Being Afraid, Part 2 – Podcast 133

  In the first part of The Rialto Report‘s conversation with Lisa Cintrice, we heard about her colorful upbringing, from a mobster father, to becoming pregnant as a teen, and then a shotgun wedding to the brother of a notorious New...

  
• 10.29.2023

  Lisa Cintrice: Not Being Afraid, Part 1 – Podcast 132

  Lisa Cintrice had a colorful life: for a start, her father was a New York mobster who was related to the most famous Italian priest of all time, Padre Pio, a man so terrified of God that he manifested stigmata,...

  
• 10.15.2023

  R.I.P. Herschel Savage (1952 – 2023)

  Seventy is no age to die. Especially not for a man as decent and good as Harvey Cohen. But last week, Harvey, who used to be the adult film star known as Herschel Savage, passed away in his home in...

  
• 08.06.2023

  Cop Porn: When the NYPD made a Porn Film – Part 2 – Podcast 131

  In the 1970s, New York was a city on the edge: it was on verge of bankruptcy, beset by a crime wave, and overrun by the rampant sex industry that was taking over Times Square. Different people reacted to the...

  
• 07.30.2023

  Cop Porn: When the NYPD made a Porn Film – Part 1 – Podcast 130

  In 1970s New York, hardcore sex films and adult bookstores raged across Times Square like a forest fire. It was great for the sex business, but it also depressed tourism and commerce, and emboldened organized crime in an already deeply...

  
• 04.30.2023

  Neville Chesters R.I.P: How Jimi Hendrix’s Roadie became a Porn Producer – Podcast 77 (reprise)

  As we were preparing this weekend’s post, we received news of the passing of Neville Chesters, legendary figure of the 1960s UK music scene, adult film producer (using the name Neville Chambers), and friend of The Rialto Report. As a tribute...

  
• 03.26.2023

  Svengali – The Chuck Traynor Story: Part 5, Deep Throat Explodes (and so does Sammy Davis Jr.)

  On the previous episode of Svengali – The Chuck Traynor Story: When budding film director Gerard Damiano saw Linda Traynor/Boreman giving head, he stopped shooting the short sex loop he was planning then and there, choosing instead to make a feature-length...

  
• 03.19.2023

  Svengali – The Chuck Traynor Story: Part 4, The Making of Deep Throat… What Really Happened?

  This is Season 2 of Svengali – ‘The Chuck Traynor Story: Part 4, The Making of Deep Throat… What Really Happened?’ Previously on Season 1 of Svengali: Chuck Traynor was born in Connecticut in 1937 to a single mother. Raised by his...

  
• 02.26.2023

  Punk and Porn in New York City – Part 2: Debbie Revenge, The Punk in the Photograph

  New York. Mid-1970s. A new counter-cultural scene emerged. Punk was marked by attitude, antagonism, and angry, anarchic music. It attracted a new breed of musician and fan. Non-conforming, anti-authoritarian. It expressed itself visually in provocative new ways. Ripped T-shirts, leather...

  
• 01.01.2023

  Sue Nero: Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More (Part 2) – Podcast 126

  In the first part of the Sue Nero interview, we heard about her upbringing and subsequent move to San Francisco where she started work in the adult film industry. In this concluding episode, Sue remembers her move to New York, where...

  
• 12.25.2022

  Sue Nero: Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More (Part 1) – Podcast 125

  Some interviews take longer to happen than others. As for Sue Nero: well… it’s complicated. Let’s start at the beginning: Sue Nero was a larger than life, super-hero of a porn star. She harked back to the golden age of Hollywood...

  
• 11.20.2022

  Jamie Gillis in Europe, 1977 – His Audio Diaries: “Life Is Easy When You Don’t Know How”

  It was early summer in 1977, and the adult film actor, Jamie Gillis, should have been on top of the world. He was perhaps the most successful and recognizable male figure in the relatively new, relatively glamorous, world of adult entertainment....

  
• 10.16.2022

  R.I.P. Kay Parker (1944 – 2022) – The Rialto Report interview

  Kay Parker, one of the biggest names in golden age adult film, passed away this last week. She was 78. Kay was a west coast actor who entered the business through a friendship with performer John Leslie, and an appreciative director,...

  
• 10.02.2022

  R.I.P. Kitten Natividad – La Reina, Her Last Interview – Podcast 123

  Kitten Natividad died in Los Angeles this past week. The cause was kidney failure after suffering from cancer. She was 74. Kitten was a genuine cult pop culture figure who, over the last six decades, had a wild life and a...

  
• 09.18.2022

  The Trials of Chesty Morgan – Doris Wishman, Fellini, The Law and Me, Part 2 – Podcast 122

  In the first part of ‘The Trials of Chesty Morgan’, Chesty endured unimaginable hardships in her life – a Jewish girl growing up in Nazi-occupied Poland, both her parents killed in the conflict, followed by a difficult life in Israel,...

  
• 09.04.2022

  Bionca: The Daredevil Amazon – Podcast 121

  Bionca was one of the more formidable adult film stars of the late golden age. She was a tall, striking performer, appearing in over 350 films and countless magazine spreads for 20 years from 1984 through to the early 2000s....

  
• 06.26.2022

  Deep Throat @ 50: Svengali – The Chuck Traynor Story: Part 3

  In 1970, Chuck Traynor – former Marine, sexploitation dabbler, successful Miami bar owner and less successful drug smuggler, met Linda Boreman – a hippie drifter who’d recently had her newborn taken from her and was recovering from a harrowing car...

  
• 06.19.2022

  Deep Throat @ 50: Svengali – The Chuck Traynor Story: Part 2

  When Linda Lovelace met Chuck Traynor, it would have profound implications for both of them. And it would impact adult film and popular culture in America. If they hadn’t met, there would be no Deep Throat (1972), no porno chic,...

  
• 06.12.2022

  Deep Throat @ 50: Svengali – The Chuck Traynor Story: Part 1

  We all know the story of Linda Lovelace and Chuck Traynor, right? Linda was the star of the groundbreaking adult film Deep Throat, and Chuck was Linda’s husband and manager. When the movie was released, Linda did tons of television...

  
• 04.17.2022

  Deep Throat @ 50: Searching for the Real Harry Reems – Podcast 117

  For a time in the 1970s, Harry Reems was the biggest and most recognizable male sex star on the planet. He was a porn Burt Reynolds, famous for his mustache, his sense of fun, and his sexual prowess. One critic...

  
• 02.20.2022

  RIP Alfred Sole: ‘Deep Sleep’ (1972) – The Short Film

  The film director and production designer Alfred Sole passed away this past Tuesday at the age of 78.  I first became aware of Alfred about 15 years ago when I was looking through the New York Times archives. I came across...

  
• 01.23.2022

  Bill Rotsler’s Gruesome Foursome – Part 3: Uschi Digard

  Charles William Rotsler (1926–1997) was an award-winning artist and science fiction author. Bill was also involved in the burgeoning adult film industry starting in the late 1950s, first as a stills photographer on the set of adult films, and later when...

  
• 01.16.2022

  Deep Throat @ 50: Gerard Damiano – The Director: Podcast 116

  The pioneering adult film, Deep Throat, was shot 50 years ago today. The scene was south Florida, and it was Super Bowl Sunday, January 16th, 1972. The local Miami Dolphins were playing, and so the streets of the city were deserted,...

  
• 01.09.2022

  ‘Crime Scene – Times Square’: The Life of Marty Hodas – Podcast 38 (reprise)

  Last week a new docu-drama premiered on Netflix. It’s called Crime Scene – Times Square – and we were pleased to be Producers on it. The show examines how the environment in New York’s Times Square in the late 1970s and...

  
• 01.02.2022

  Murder Noir: Who Killed June Mack? Who Really Killed June Mack? – Part 2: Podcast 115

  June Mack was dead. And no one was on the hook for her murder. Somehow being shot by Russ Meyer made her almost-famous, but being shot by a mystery killer made her almost-forgotten. She’d come to Tinseltown to escape. To start a...

  
• 12.26.2021

  Murder Noir: Who Killed June Mack? Who Really Killed June Mack? – Part 1: Podcast 114

  Somehow June Mack was a footnote in her own life. She was a footnote in film history after she appeared in a Russ Meyer film, Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens. A footnote for her family who forgot she existed....

  
• 11.28.2021

  F.M. Bradley: Hiding in Plain Sight – Podcast 113

  Let’s admit something: as much as the so-called golden age of adult film was a glamorous era, where sex movies competed with Hollywood blockbusters in theaters across the country, it wasn’t the most racially diverse workplace for a male performer. There...

  
• 10.31.2021

  Wakefield Poole: Theater, Dance and Porn – Podcast 14 (reprise)

  The film director, Wakefield Poole, passed away this week. He was 85. I remember a girlfriend once catching me sat behind a pile of men’s magazines. Playboy, Mandate, Cheri magazine… I was engrossed in them, oblivious to her or anything else taking...

  
• 10.10.2021

  The Secret Life of Dolly Sharp, Part 4: Whatever Happened to Helen Wood? – Podcast 112

  In the first part of the mini-series ‘The Secret Life of Dolly Sharp’, I went in search for the enigmatic Deep Throat actor with the mysterious past, who seemed to disappear from the face of the earth back in 1972....

  
• 10.03.2021

  The Secret Life of Dolly Sharp, Part 3: Whatever Happened to Dolly Sharp? – Podcast 111

  In the first part of ‘The Secret Life of Dolly Sharp’, I went in search for the enigmatic Deep Throat actor with the mysterious past, who seemed to disappear from the face of the earth back in 1972. I spoke to...

  
• 08.29.2021

  The Secret Life of Dolly Sharp, Part 2: Who Is Helen Wood? – Podcast 110

  In the first part of ‘The Secret Life of Dolly Sharp’, I went in search for the enigmatic Deep Throat actor with the mysterious past, who seemed to disappear from the face of the earth back in 1972. I spoke to...

  
• 08.22.2021

  The Secret Life of Dolly Sharp, Part 1: Who Is Dolly Sharp? – Podcast 109

  Much has been written about the film Deep Throat since it premiered in New York in June 1972. You may even know the story by now… how the film was the biggest hit of the ‘porno chic’ phenomenon, how it turned...

  
• 07.25.2021

  Lesllie Bovee, Late Night in 1977 – Podcast 108

  There’s a saying that goes, “Tragedy plus time equals comedy.” We’ve adapted that to say, “Golden age adult film plus time equals The Rialto Report.” And that’s because we’re particularly interested in how people who were involved in the birth of...

  
• 06.27.2021

  Porsche Lynn: The Other Side of Power (Part 2) – Podcast 107

  In part one of our podcast with Porsche Lynn, we heard how she survived childhood trauma, befriended Angel Kelly at modeling school, became a stripper at Michigan’s notorious Cinema X, and made her way to Los Angeles where she quickly...

  
• 06.20.2021

  Porsche Lynn: The Other Side of Power (Part 1) – Podcast 106

  Here at the Rialto Report, we focus on bringing original or obscure content to light. We like to unearth stories long ignored, forgotten or under-appreciated, to complement the narratives we already know and reveal a richer, more human portrait of...

  
• 03.21.2021

  ‘Centurians of Rome’ (1981): The Behind-The-Scenes Story – Podcast 105

  As The Rialto Report heads into an Easter break, we present an all-new podcast about the making of Centurians of Rome, a story we broke a few years ago, but that has been absent from our site since then. The film has been the...

  
• 02.28.2021

  R.I.P. Fanne Foxe (1936-2021) – Podcast 82 (reprise)

  Fanne Foxe died this past week at the age of 84. She was famous for being the stripper that ended the career of one of the most powerful American politicians of the 1970s – Arkansas congressman Wilbur Mills, chairman of...

  
• 02.14.2021

  The Hunt for the Real John T Bone – Part 2: Podcast 104

  Who is John T Bone – and why did The Rialto Report find him languishing in jail when we looked for him? John T Bone was one of the more controversial figures in adult film history. But as we heard in the...

  
• 02.07.2021

  The Hunt for the Real John T Bone – Part 1: Podcast 103

  Who is John T Bone – and why did The Rialto Report find him languishing in jail when we looked for him? John T Bone was one of the bad boys of 1980s and 1990s adult film, a moviemaker responsible for...

  
• 01.03.2021

  R.I.P. Carter Stevens (1944-2020)

  Carter Stevens, one of the adult film industry’s true originals, passed away this week. He started to make his first feature film before the landmark success of Deep Throat, and he was still in the sex business thirty years later. For a...

  
• 10.18.2020

  The Murder of Kathy Harcourt: England’s First American Adult Film Star – Podcast 102

  Kathy Harcourt was an English XXX star in America in the early 1980s. She appeared with Lisa DeLeeuw, Seka, Billy Dee, and Ron Jeremy in adult films and 8mm loops. She featured in magazines, stripped at the Melody Burlesk, turned up at...

  
• 10.04.2020

  Carn(iv)al Love: Sex, Wrestling and the Story of Misty Blue Simmes – Podcast 101

  From 1985 until 1997, Misty Blue Simmes was the biggest female name in professional wrestling. She held belts from the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and the Ladies Professional Wrestling Association (LPWA), was courted by Vince McMahon of the WWE, and...

  
• 08.30.2020

  R.I.P. Jim South (1939-2020): The Last Of His Kind

  Jim South didn’t act in many adult films, and certainly didn’t take part in any sex scenes. He didn’t direct, produce, or finance many movies either. But if you watch any film made in Los Angeles since the mid 1970s, the chances...