Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

There’s this powerful American politician who’s at the top of his game. Then you’ve got a notorious sex worker with a love of performing. They have a scandalous affair that rocks Washington. And a media storm sweeps the nation. It’s on the nightly news, and all over the newspapers. People just can’t get enough of it.

That’s right – I’m talking about Wilbur Mills and Fanne Foxe. Who did you think I was talking about?

He grew up in the U.S. House of Representatives and had stood for president – and was considered for a seat on the Supreme Court. She came from a small town in Argentina, and was already the mother of three by the time she started dancing on the burlesque circuit in America.

They met in 1973, and even though he was married and almost thirty years older than her, they seemingly fell in love. Then on a fateful night in October 1974, they were involved in a strange incident and their secret relationship risked being exposed to the scandal-hungry public.

Details slowly emerged and it soon became a sensation as the public started asking questions: Like how did a woman from a small town in south America become involved with one of the most powerful men in the U.S.? How could such an influential politician come to be exposed in such a public way? How did adult film actors, Harry Reems and Jamie Gillis, get involved in trying to persuade Fanne Foxe to make an adult film at the height of her fame? And what happened to Fanne, the Argentine Firecracker behind one of the most public political scandals of the 20th century?

Isn’t it strange how in the world of politics, often everything that was old is somehow new again?

This podcast episode is 55 minutes long.

The musical playlist for this episode can be found on Spotify.

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August 1965: Early mention of Fanne Foxe in Baltimore

October 11, 1974: First mention of the Tidal Basin incident

October 11, 1974: First mention of the Tidal Basin incident

October 11, 1974: First mention of the Tidal Basin incident

October 11, 1974: The media investigate Fanne

October 12, 1974: The media investigate Fanne

November 8th 1974: A month after the Tidal Basin incident, Fanne appears on a chat show – with Richard Pryor

November 19 1974: In the wake of the Tidal Basin scandal, Fanne returns to the stage

December 2 1974: Much to everyone’s amazement, Wilbur appears on stage with Fanne

December 2 1974: Wilbur Mills announces his surprising plans for Fanne

December 2 1974: Wilbur Mills announces his surprising plans for Fanne

December 3 1974: Fanne stands by Wilbur but denies they are lovers

December 3 1974: The political fall-out following Wilbur’s on stage appearance with Fanne

December 4 1974: Political problems continue for Wilbur

December 4 1974: Wilbur’s political power is weakened by the scandal

December 4 1974: The effect of the scandal takes it toll on Wilbur

December 5 1974: The media focus their attention on Fanne

December 5 1974: The media reports a backlash against Fanne

December 5 1974: In the midst of media uproar, Fanne cancels a show

December 7 1974: The fascination with Fanne Foxe grows

December 7 1974: Fanne reveals her affair with Wilbur

December 7 1974: Fanne becomes ubiquitous in the newspapers

December 7 1974: Fanne’s notoriety results in higher appearance fees (Hello, Stormy Daniels…)

December 7 1974: Fanne’s notoriety results in higher appearance fees

December 10 1974: Wilbur loses the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee

December 10 1974: Wlibur continues to lose support

December 11 1974: Fanne’s press coverage is mixed

December 12 1974: When Fanne resumes her stripping, she is arrested for indecent exposure

December 12 1974: The reason for the arrest is an alleged ‘bottomless’ dance

December 13 1974: Coverage of Fanne’s arrest re-ignites the scandal

December 14 1974: Fanne announces that she will no longer dance nude

December 14 1974: Wilbur considers his political options while hospitalized

December 16 1974: Everyone has an opinion on Fanne Foxe

August 15 1975: Nine months after the scandal broke, Fanne reveals her affair with Wilbur

August 15 1975: Fanne says her marriage broke down because of her affair with Wilbur

August 15 1975: Fanne’s revelations mean the scandal remains center stage

September 3 1975: A few weeks later, in her tell-all autobiography, Fanne claims she had become pregnant with Wilbur’s child

September 3 1975: Her autobiography recounts how Fanne aborted Wilbur’s child

September 24 1975: The revelations enure that Fanne’s autobiography sells well

October 5 1975: Fanne embarks on a publicity campaign to promote her biography

October 5 1975: Fanne opens her family to the media for the first time

October 5 1975: In the midst of the publicity surrounding her book, Fanne appears in a film, ‘Posse From Heaven’

November 10 1975: A year after the scandal, Fanne declares her continued love for Wilbur

February 9 1976: Fanne’s feelings for Wilbur get in the way of his proposed comeback

January 6 1976: Fanne re-launches her career with a new night club act

February 12 1976: Despite her new act, Fanne runs into trouble when she turns up in Wilbur’s home state of Arkansas

1976: Fanne Foxe in Playboy

July 9 1976: An adult film, starring Fanne Foxe, is announced

February 3 1977: When the previously announced adult film comes to nothing, Fanne appears in a soft-core film called ‘Round The Naked Round’

March 8 1977: Fanne signs on as a columnist with Cheri magazine

March 10 1977: Fanne’s job with Cheri magazine involves reporting from the sex scene across the country

1977: Fanne Fox in Cheri magazine

August 21 1977: Wilbur continues to be rehabilitated

December 3 1977: The scandal continues to dog Wilbur

May 16 1978: Wilbur becomes involved in treatment for alcoholics

May 27 1979: By 1979, Fanne was in the “Whatever Happened To?” file

January 11 1982: One of Fanne’s last public appearances followed the birth of her daughter

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The post The Stripper and the Congressman: Fanne Foxe’s Story – Podcast 82 appeared first on The Rialto Report.

It’s with great sadness that The Rialto Report marks the passing of Jennifer Welles.

She passed away last Tuesday at the age of 81.

Jennifer Welles was one of the last truly old school performers. In the 1950s she was a song and dance lounge club performer, in the 1960s she was a burlesque dancer and then soft core film actress, and in the 1970s when she was 40 she became one of the superstars of hard core films in New York.

Jennifer Welles was one of the first interviews that we published on The Rialto Report, and it is by far one of the most downloaded. But rather than just re-issue the podcast, we wanted to also look back at a mystery that lay at the heart of her life for a long time.

We’ve recorded a new introduction to our podcast interview with her.

This podcast episode is 57 minutes long.

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Ashley West writes:

When I started The Rialto Report as a way of helping preserve people’s memories from the early adult film industry, I really wanted to speak with people who’d been out of the public eye for many years.

And there was no one who’d been out of the public eye more than Jennifer Welles.

Jennifer in her burlesque days, as ‘Lisa Duran’

Every day at The Rialto Report, we get people enquiring about one star or another. The emails often say that the star in question has completely disappeared.

The truth is that 99% haven’t disappeared. They’ve just stopped being part of the adult industry, they’ve gone back to working in more conventional jobs, and gradually they’ve lost contact with their old world. They don’t disappear. They just do something different.

But for 40 years Jennifer Welles really did disappear. And it was completely deliberate too.

I remember interviewing director Ron Sullivan who’d been a huge fan and close friend of Jennifer’s. He told me that in 1977, she’d gone to see him. And the purpose of her visit was to tell him that she was retiring from the adult film business. Not only that but that she was leaving New York, and cutting off all ties with everyone she knew there. In fact, she told him, she would never see him again and he should not try and contact her. Several other of her friends told me the same story.

Obviously this news was a shock to people. Everyone was sad and concerned to see her go, but she appeared determined.

And true to her word, Jennifer Welles did leave New York and she never contacted anyone from the adult film world again.

So what happened?

I found that 15 years before she left New York, she’d got married. It was the early 1960s – and she got hitched to a trumpet player called Manny Duran. I figured that if could find him, maybe he’d know something about why she disappeared so suddenly. I looked him up and found that he was still performing. In fact he was at BB King’s in New York every Tuesday. I called him up, and he invited me to a show to celebrate his 80th birthday. This was back in 2006.

Manny told me that he grew up in San Antonio, Texas and first began playing the trumpet in local mariachi bands. When he was in his teens, he heard Louis Armstrong on the radio for the first time, and it changed his life. He resolved to learn how to play like that, and so in 1956 he hitchhiked to New York to pursue a career in jazz. He had a tough start. On his first day, his trumpet and clothes were stolen, and he lived out of a car for the first year, working as a waiter at a jazz club. But he was talented, and his dynamic trumpet playing soon set New York’s Latin jazz scene ablaze. He recorded with greats like Dizzy Gillespie, and he was in demand all over the country.

Back in the day he had crazy black hair and a Frank Zappa beard, but by  the time I met him, he was bald as a pool ball.

Manny was generous with his time, and he loved to talk about jazz. He also loved to about Jennifer Welles. In fact his tone changed when he spoke about her. He became misty-eyed and talked in a soft whisper. He referred to her as Lisa which had been her given name. Yes, they had been married, very happily, for many years. They were young and in love, and times were good. But they also loved their art, in her case it was acting and dancing, in his case it was jazz, and this created two problems. First they found it difficult to spend time together. Both of them toured, their work was irregular, and Manny said that often they were like ships passing in the night. They tried working together, hiring themselves out to filmmakers as a team; she would star, he would compose and perform the soundtrack music. But it was difficult.

The second problem was money. Or rather the lack of it. This affected Jennifer more than it concerned Manny. He was used to living cheaply and was willing to make sacrifices, but she wanted a better life. She didn’t like not knowing if they’d be able to pay next month’s rent. She was tiring of the struggle.

In the mid-1970s, their financial worries eased a little. Manny’s music career was taking off, and Jennifer received $10,000 for appearing in a fictionalized sex biopic called ‘Inside Jennifer Welles’. They were happy and took a rare vacation together.

Then in 1977, Manny remembers Jennifer met a fan of hers called Philip. He was a wealthy real estate developer, and he’d always be there when she appeared at movie premieres or adult film industry events. Manny remembered him hanging around in the background, but not saying anything.

One day, when Manny got home, Jennifer had an announcement. Philip had asked her to get married. He would give her everything she wanted. A beautiful house, clothes, spending money, anything. Anything except freedom, that is. Manny said that Philip didn’t want her to have any contact with her current life. She would get divorced, she would move away from New York, and she would cut off all ties from everyone she knew.

Manny said he remembered Jennifer started crying, but that she still felt it was the best thing for her to do. Manny was devastated but said he understood. She’d never have to worry about money again. She’d be set up for life.

Manny’s final memory of her was standing on the sidewalk seeing her car leave. Jennifer looked back at him, through the back window, crying. He said that image had haunted him for a lifetime.

He’d often wondered what happened to Jennifer over the years, but he never heard from her again. He just hoped her new life had worked out for her.

Manny died just a few months after I met him.

A few years later, I did manage to track Jennifer down. She was living in a remote part of Arizona in a tiny ranch house powered by solar energy. She was off the grid, had never owned a computer, but had a cell phone and was happy to talk.

She and Philip had got divorced several years before, and now she spent her time raising horses and rescuing dogs that had been abandoned or abused.

She was back to struggling with money as she needed more funds to take care of the animals, but this time she said she was completely happy.

As for her past life, she missed New York and hoped to return some day. She was happy to talk about the adult films too, describing them as tame stuff. She laughed that she’d been living like a nun for many years.

And then she asked about Manny. Had I been in contact with him? What happened to him? Was he doing ok?

I told her of Manny had died back in 2006, and she was upset. He was a good man, and they’d had a good life together. She regretted not reaching out to him before he died. The truth was, she said, she felt such guilt at leaving him that she never had the courage. The marriage with Philip had been the worst mistake she’d ever made, and she missed the days she spent with Manny.

She told me about the day she left Manny. She remembered being driven away. She looked out of the back of the car at Manny standing on the sidewalk. He looked lost and alone. She kept looking at him until he was just a tiny dot disappearing in the distance.

She said that image had haunted her for years.

*

The post R.I.P. Jennifer Welles (1937-2018): Podcast 3 (reprise, with a new introduction) appeared first on The Rialto Report.

Johnnie Keyes passed away this week from complications following a recent stroke in Seattle, Washington. He was 78. He was best known for his role opposite Marilyn Chambers in the 1972 Mitchell Brothers’ film Behind the Green Door.

When you start a podcast series like The Rialto Report, focused on people who were active 30 or 40 years ago, you have to expect that sooner or later they will pass away. It’s always sad, but it happens, and it’s part of the reason we want to help preserve people’s memories and achievements before they leave the stage permanently.

But the passing of Johnnie Keyes feels somehow more significant. The golden age of adult film arguably started with two movies, Deep Throat and Behind The Green Door. And the stars and directors of both these films, Linda Lovelace, Marilyn Chambers, Harry Reems, Gerry Damiano and the Mitchell Brothers have all passed on. Johnnie was the last man standing.

His landmark interracial scene with Marilyn in Behind The Green Door was legendary. Johnnie claimed that it resulted in death threats that affected him personally for the rest of his life. It may’ve taken place almost 50 years ago, but take a listen to how he was still being remembered in a recent episode of Saturday Night Live on the occasion of Black History Month.

I first met Johnnie several years ago at the annual AVN ceremony where he was getting a lifetime achievement award. He was in hilarious form, posing for pictures with people, and breaking into song at every opportunity.

He called me ‘Dog’ when he addressed me. As an impossibly white man, that made me feel great.

Several years later, after I started the Rialto Report, I called him up and said I’d like to interview him. I told him his story was an important one, and that it was critical that it was told in his own words. He shouldn’t rely on others to tell his story for him.

He agreed, and told me that he’d be happy to share his story – but that he had a price.

“I won’t accept less than $2,000,” he said.

I told him that was disappointing because we just couldn’t pay for the interviews we do. However I said that I’d consider an honorarium to compensate him for his time.

“How much were you thinking, dog?” he said.

I told him $100.

“You got a deal,” he replied, laughing his head off.

The interview that you’re about to hear was the result, and what was so gratifying was that his life was so much more than just the adult films he’d made. He’s been a boxer, fought in Vietnam, starred in the musical Hair, and much more. As he said in the interview, “Guys would jump over the Niagara Falls to live my life.”

I kept in touch with him over the phone after that, and he was always sweet, good-natured, and polite.

One of the last phone messages he left me was at Christmas. As usual his gentle and kind personality shone through.

You’ll be missed Johnnie Keyes.

This podcast is 78 minutes long.

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Johnnie Keyes, with C.J. Laing

Johnnie Keyes, with The Rialto Report’s April Hall

The post Johnnie Keyes (1940 – 2018): His Life In His Own Words – Podcast 59 (reprise with a new introduction) appeared first on The Rialto Report.

The Rialto Report tried to interview Lynn LeMay. Believe us, we really tried.

You see, for ages we’d wanted to talk to her about her memories of her adult film career.

She’d started making films in New York in the 1980s, where she worked with many of the golden age greats like Jerry Butler, Joe Sarno, and Jamie Gillis.

Then she moved to California, where she appeared in movies by people like Henri Pachard and Paul Thomas, that featured stars like Porsche Lynn, Ron Jeremy, and Billy Dee.

She was also a big name on the featured dancer circuit where she toured the U.S. and Europe.

In fact she only retired from the business a few years ago.

So we set some time up, and we tried to interview Lynn.

The thing is that Lynn LeMay is a force of nature, and when she gets going the only smart thing to do is to get out of the way. She has a story and an opinion on everything, and it’s all entertaining and revealing. So we decided to let the tape roll and sit back and listen.

Lynn LeMay is her own woman. This is her story, in her own words.

You can find Lynn LeMay at her website and on Twitter.

This podcast is 75 minutes long.

The musical playlist for this episode can be found on Spotify.

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The post Lynn LeMay: Her Own Woman, Her Own Story – Podcast 81 appeared first on The Rialto Report.

The post Seka: The Platinum Princess speaks – Podcast 23 reprise appeared first on The Rialto Report.

We’d wanted to interview Leslie Winston for several years, and judging by the number of requests we’ve received at The Rialto Report, many of you have been curious to hear from her too.

And why not: Leslie started out in the early 1980s as a popular pin-up model, appearing in scores of magazines across the country. She was on the cover of many of them, often with different names. She was Lisa, Lynn, Wendy, Molly, and many others – too numerous to mention.

On the face of it she was a young, happy, pretty girl-next-door type. That is if your neighbor had a rather large chest, a foot fetish, and a fondness for appearing in lactation and enema pictorials.

And then Leslie moved into adult films.

But unlike many of her contemporaries, she didn’t want to be a big porn star, and seemed happy appearing in supporting roles for several years.

Away from the movie set, her life was just as interesting. She lived in a romantic relationship with the adult film star Tigr, also known as Chelsea Manchester, for several years, she partied with OJ Simpson, and collaborated with Timothy Leary, all whilst raising a daughter.

When I contacted Leslie, I realized that someone who’d never wanted publicity may not be interested in being interviewed after all these years.

And it turned out, that was partly true. But there was another more important issue. You see, Leslie had had a second child, a daughter who was now in her teens. And Leslie hadn’t yet talked about her past with her. Not wanting to create any personal issues for her, we were happy to step aside.

In January this year however, the two of them finally had that conversation.

And so, on this Rialto Report, Leslie Winston talks about her life openly for the first time.

The running time of this podcast is 80 minutes.

The musical playlist for this episode can be found on Spotify.

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With Tish Ambrose

After retirment

Leslie Winston – today

Leslie Winston – today

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With Anna Ventura

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The post Leslie Winston: Beyond the Valley of the Ultra Milkmaids – Podcast 79 appeared first on The Rialto Report.

The adult film actor, Jamie Gillis, would have been 75 next month.

Eight years after his passing, he’s remembered for his three decade career as one of the better actors in the industry – and this was the golden age period when acting actually meant something.

I spent a lot of time with Jamie and interviewed him on several occasions before he passed in 2010 – in fact one of the interviews, about his early days in the sex film business, is another podcast on The Rialto Report website.

He was always open, friendly and generous with his time. No questions were off limits, and his answers were thoughtful, contemplative, and often philosophical.

And yet for someone who had bared every part of himself in hundreds of films and countless interviews over the years. there was also something enigmatic and unknowable about him as well.

I once asked him if he had a favorite interview that he’d done. One interview perhaps that stood out in his mind that caught him off guard in any way.

He thought about it, and next time I saw him he gave me a cassette of a conversation he’d had in 1976.

The interview was with a friend, Verna Gillis, who apart from sharing his last name, had known him for years – in fact, since his days at Columbia University back in the 1960s.

Now Verna wasn’t part of the adult film business in any way. She was an ethnomusicologist, specializing in producing music from various cultural backgrounds, and as a result her questions about Jamie’s choice of profession were often naïve and innocent – especially by today’s standards. But their conversation is also more personal and revealing than many other interviews I’ve heard with him.

At the time of this conversation, Jamie was at his zenith. He’d just made The Opening of Misty Beethoven and The Story of Joanna, and Through the Looking Glass was about to come out.

Verna’s line of enquiry has a different slant – yes, she’s interested in the mechanics of how Jamie got involved in the industry, but she’s also concerned about the effect that it may have had on him, his life, and his relationships.

She challenges him too in a way that was unusual at the time. In one exchange for example, she asks why Jamie refers to women as girls. And is Jamie’s choice of words revealing about his view of the opposite sex?

There’s also a recurring theme of what happens next. In 1976, the hardcore film industry was still relatively new. It was still in development, it was still being invented.

Jamie talks about starting to feel too old for the business, and about his fears of looking strange as he ages on film.

“No one knows what happens to old porn stars,” he says.

The musical playlist for this episode can be found on Spotify.

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The post Jamie Gillis in 1976: “No one knows what happens to old porn stars” – Podcast 78 appeared first on The Rialto Report.

This story begins with a single photograph, taken in 1967. It’s a photo of Jimi Hendrix, and it shows him sat on a table in his familiar hat and rock star jacket. Jimi is smoking, and he looks relaxed and happy. He seems to be sharing a joke with a man sat on a chair in front of him.

I first saw this picture in the early days of the internet, and became fascinated by it. And what struck me about it was this: The photograph shows Jimi Hendrix, one of the great guitarists of all time, and someone everyone wanted to hear play. But it’s the man in front of him who’s playing the guitar, not Jimi. And I didn’t recognize this person as any other guitarist I’d ever seen. Who in earth would be in a picture with Jimi, where Jimi wasn’t the one playing a guitar?

I did some digging around, and found that the person Jimi was with in the picture was actually one of the legendary roadies of the 1960s London music scene. It turned out he’d started in Liverpool in the era of The Beatles, and had worked with The Who, the Bee Gees, The Merseybeats, Cream, Lemmy, Mick Jagger, Apple Records, Robert Stigwood, Emerson Lake and Palmer, and many others, not to mention The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

I found out that the roadie’s name was Neville Chesters. I wondered what happened to him, but apparently, he’d left the music industry abruptly in the early 1970s and disappeared from London. I spent years wondering about his life on the road with many of the greatest legends of music history.

Years later, I was talking to a friend about the adult film industry in New York. We were talking about the 1990s. This was a few years after the so-called golden age, and it was the last gasp of the New York pornography business. At this stage, scenes were being shot cheaply on video largely for compilations that were sold for bargain basement prices.

My friend told me that one of the centers of the business at that point was called the ‘New York Fuck Factory’. This was a notorious loft on 38th Street where multiple shoots would take place.

I found that the owner of the Fuck Factory was an Englishman. He produced films using the name Neville Chambers… but his real name was Neville Chesters. Apparently, there were rumors he’d once been involved in the music business in London.

Was this possible? And if so, how did a 1960s roadie with the Who and Jimi Hendrix in London become a porn producer in the 1990s in New York?

On this episode of The Rialto Report, we track Neville Chesters down to hear about life in the swinging 60s, when he had a front row seat to witness some of the most momentous music ever made. And we also hear about how he re-emerged in New York years later as an adult film producer, of series such as Streets of New York, New York Taxi Tales, and indeed, Strap-on Sally 12: Squirting Dildo Soiree.

We also hear about how The Who’s Pete Townsend may recently have actually helped save Neville’s life.

Seriously, is there any other podcast in the world featuring Pete Townsend and a Squirting Dildo Soiree?

The musical playlist for this episode can be found on Spotify.

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The Merseybeats:

The Who:

Robert Stigwood:

Bee Gees:

Robert Stigwood with the Bee Gees:

Cream:

Mick Jagger (still waiting for his driver…):

Jimi Hendrix:

Emerson, Lake and Palmer:

Streets of New York:

New York Taxi Tales:

Neville Chesters himself:

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The post How Jimi Hendrix’s Roadie became a Porn Producer – Podcast 77 appeared first on The Rialto Report.

April Hall remembers Jerry Butler:

This one is a hard one to take.

Jerry Butler passed away last week. It makes no sense, because there was no one more full of life than Jerry Butler.

I first met him a few years ago, and within minutes he was stripped down to the waist to show me his physique, before dropping to the floor and challenging me to a press-up contest. I know a losing bet when I see one, and so declined. Jerry’s only complaint that day was that I wasn’t filming the interview.

He’d traveled across Brooklyn on his bike (he traveled everywhere on his bike), and arrived almost two hours early for our meeting. As I approached to greet him, he shouted, “Hey, do you wanna see my beaver?” as he threw a stuffed beaver towards me before I could answer.

Thereafter I’d hear from Jerry on a regular basis. He’d call breathlessly from the gym (Me: “Jerry, what on earth are you doing?” Jerry: “I’m benching 250!”), or with his mouth full (Me: “Jerry, what on earth are you doing?” Jerry: “Cheese and ham omelette with fries!”)

He was a hard guy not to like.

Last Thursday, I drove out to his funeral in Brooklyn, and his death didn’t make sense to anyone there either.

Apparently he’d had a tumor removed successfully a while ago. Then, a few months later, he was knocked off his bike. He wasn’t badly injured, but he was taken to hospital for routine tests. There the doctors found that the cancer had spread throughout his body, including his pancreas. It was inoperable.

At the funeral, there was a sense of bewilderment. Family members sat with friends in near silence. Former hockey player friends, broad-shouldered, taciturn, granite-like men in their 50s, shook their heads quietly. Jerry’s sister, Linda, held everything together, generous in greeting and thanking everyone individually who was in attendance.

Apart from Cathy Tavel, the co-writer of Jerry’s 1989 tell-all autobiography, Raw Talent, no one from the adult film industry was there.

Cathy remembered that interviewing Jerry was like trying lasso a wild horse with freshly-cooked spaghetti. He was incapable of sitting still, talked manically, ran around the room, binged on Oreos, and paused for a moment only to dry-hump her as she took notes. I remembered a similar experience when I recorded our podcast interview with him.

At the funeral, Cathy was wearing a t-shirt that Jerry had made for her. He would ask people what their favorite cartoon character was, and then show up with a hand-painted t-shirt featuring the animated figure. Several of these t-shirts were on display, as was his painting kit.

He was 58 when he died, but was still the biggest kid in the world.

Jerry was a lovable, crazy, mixed-up, kind-hearted soul.

When he finished his press-up demonstration, I complemented him on his still youthful appearance.

April Hall has recorded a new introduction to her podcast interview with Jerry Butler. You can listen to it, or download it, through the usual channels.

Thanks to Catherine Tavel and Richard Pacheco for the generous use of their photos.

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Jerry, with Richard Pacheco

Jerry, with Catherine Tavel, 1989

Jerry, with his dog, Little Guy, 1990

Jerry, with Catherine Tavel, Coney Island

Jerry, with Alice Springs

At the Abe Stark Skating Rink, Brooklyn, 1991

Jerry, at Harriman State Park, NY, 1992

Jerry, 1992

Jerry, in a photo from his MySpace page

Jerry, in a photo from his Facebook page, 2015

Jerry’s funeral

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The post R.I.P. Jerry Butler: May 13, 1959 – January 27, 2018 appeared first on The Rialto Report.

Imagine this. It’s one night in New York in 1974. You’ve partied with friends. You stumble home at midnight, turn on the TV and flop onto the couch. On screen is channel 35.  This isn’t the Partridge Family or the Rockford Files. Did you really drink that much?

This was Midnight Blue, a one-hour, regular TV show that aired on Manhattan Cable. And it was like nothing you’d seen before. It was a cross between a late-night chat show, a surreal variety review, and a bad acid trip.

You might see interviews with characters like Debbie Harry, O.J. Simpson and Arnold Schwarzenegger, back-stage location reports from strip clubs or brothels, and conversations with adult film stars like Marilyn Chambers, Seka, or Harry Reems.

And interspersed between the features were bizarre advertisements for swingers clubs, prostitutes, phone sex lines, synthetic cocaine, and sex toys. 

So how did a show like this come to exist? And how was it even allowed on the air?

This is the story of the rise and fall Midnight Blue.

We grateful to Alex Bennett and Josh Alan Friedman for sharing their memories with us, and to Blue Underground for the use of the Midnight Blue clips in this podcast.

Blue Undergound has several DVDs featuring the best moments from the show – including a recently released six disc set, Best of Midnight Blue, that comes highly recommended.

This podcast is 79 minutes long.

The musical playlist for this episode can be found on Spotify.

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Al Goldstein in the earlier days of the show

A young Sharon Mitchell interviewed on the show

Alex, Al and Georgina Spelvin

Annie Sprinkle reviewing the latest sex toys

An ad for Plato’s Retreat featuring Larry Levenson and his partner Mary

Marilyn Chambers interviewed on Midnight Blue

Midnight Blue parody ad for the Home Humiliation System

Tiny Tim interviewed on Midnight Blue

Al interviews adult film director Gerard Damiano

Al interviews comic Gilbert Gottfried

Al interviews Veronica Vera

Al interviews Veronica Hart

Al interviews Chris Stein and Debbie Harry

Al interviews Annette Haven

Christy Canyon

Jeanna Fine

Al with R Crumb

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The post The Story of ‘Midnight Blue’: Sex, Lies, and Videotape – Podcast 76 appeared first on The Rialto Report.