On this episode of The Rialto Report, we’re joined by Uschi Digard – legendary star of 1970s sexploitation films and magazine spreads, and frequent collaborator of Russ Meyer.

This episode running time is 67 minutes.

Uschi Digard always seemed to be larger than life.

She was an indestructible, formidable pin up beauty who was emblematic of the sexual revolution in California. From the late 1960s through to the early 1980s, she was in hundreds of magazine spreads, had many issues dedicated to her, and appeared in countless softcore films.

Her Amazonian features and natural good looks meant that she was always in demand as she proved popular with fans.

Or in the words of director Russ Meyer, her close friend and frequent collaborator, she was a buxom cantilevered barracuda who was a Trojan at work.

Russ was a man’s man, a World War 2 veteran, and a tough task master, and in Uschi he met his match and found the perfect foil. The combination of her sex appeal with her unsentimental, tireless work ethic resulted in a close friendship that lasted decades.

But for someone with such a larger than life presence, Uschi was also elusive and deeply private. Her face and body may have been all over the magazines but her own voice was notably absent. Throughout her long career as a nude model and actress she revealed everything, but revealed nothing.

She rarely gave interviews, and the scant biographical information that was published was often fabricated. It was said that she was an interpreter at the United Nations, she came from Sweden, she had a perfume line that was big in Asia, and if her published birth date is to be believed then she recently celebrated her 65th birthday.

All this is false.

And as it turns out, the wealth of untrue information bothers Uschi herself as well. So, in order to set the record straight, she recently wrote a biography called ‘I Used To Be Uschi’ just to finally set the record straight.

The trouble is how do you correct so many misconceptions without drawing attention to yourself? How do you go public but stay private?

On this episode of The Rialto Report, we’re very happy that Uschi Digard has agreed to talk about her life. For someone who never wanted the attention of being a star, we’re truly grateful to her.

The Rialto Report is indebted to photographer, Paul Johnson, for the first three pictures below. For more excellent photos by Paul and information about his life, visit Paul’s website at Paul’s Fantasy.

The post Uschi Digard: SuperSoul – Podcast 19 appeared first on The Rialto Report.

On this episode of The Rialto Report, we’re joined by Bob Chinn – director of the Johnny Wadd series of films starring John Holmes, as well as the man behind films such as Candy Stripers, Little Orphan Dusty, and Hot & Saucy Pizza Girls.

We’re also pleased to welcome Jill Nelson – author of John Holmes: A Life Measured In Inches, and Golden Goddesses: 25 Legendary Women of Classic Erotic Cinema as our guest co-presenter.

This episode running time is 98 minutes.

When Paul Thomas Anderson was asked which ten films influenced his break-out movie Boogie Nights, he mentioned films by Scorsese, Kurosawa, Altman and Truffaut.

And Bob Chinn’s The Jade Pussycat (1977).

Of course he did.

Whilst a number of people claim that characters in Anderson’s film were based on them, in reality Boogie Nights borrowed most heavily from Bob Chinn’s experience making the Johnny Wadd series of detective films with John Holmes.

Anderson even copied some of the scenes directly from Bob’s films.

Bob was one of the first directors to work with Holmes and he’s still best known for the series of successful films they made over the best part of a decade. But there’s much more to him than just this.

He was there in the 1960s, making clandestine beaver girl loops to support his family in the late 1960s.

He was there in the 1970s and 1980s, making hugely profitable feature length films in LA, San Francisco and Hawaii with stars like Rene Bond, Desiree Cousteau, and Jesie St James.

And he was still there at turn of the century making films with yet another new generation.

Bob Chinn’s a walking encyclopedia of the West Coast adult film scene over these decades, and one of the most self-effacing people you could meet. And maybe that’s been to his detriment – as he’s always preferred to remain in the background and let others do the talking.

Fortunately that’s about to change with his soon-to-be published autobiography, which finally tells the story from his own perspective.

On today’s show, I’m pleased to be joined by my co-presenter Jill Nelson – an expert in the golden age of adult films who has written extensively on the subject.

Please support Jill by buying her books and following her at –

John Holmes: A Life Measured In Inches (out in hardback soon!)

John Holmes: A Life Measured In Inches – Blog

Golden Goddesses: 25 Legendary Women of Classic Erotic Cinema

Do you remember first meeting John Holmes?

Yes I do.  He came into our office one day looking for work as a gaffer, but my three-man crew was already set and I told him I didn’t have a job for him.  Then he told me that he was also an actor.

What were your first impressions of him?

He was tall and skinny and his hair was done up in an Afro which seemed totally inappropriate for him since it gave him a sort of goofy appearance.  I really didn’t see any potential in using him as an actor until he lowered his pants.

How did the situation arise for you to see how well endowed he was?

As I said, I didn’t really see any potential in using him as an actor but we were obligated to be gracious so I had my partner Alain take his application and finish the interview while I went back to work in the next room to finish editing a trailer that had to be done before the end of the day.

After a few minutes my partner came out and said, “Bob, you got to see this guy’s dick.”

I said, “That’s about the last thing in the world I want to do – look at some tall skinny guy’s dick.”

But my partner insisted so I humored him and went back in the room. John had pulled up his pants at that point but when Alain said, “Show him,” he let them down again, and I was suddenly staring at what happened to be the biggest cock I had ever seen in my life.  The guy was hung like a horse.

Well, I didn’t have to think twice.  I said something like “Maybe we can fit you into the shoot this weekend.  You free on Sunday?”  He replied, “Sure I’m available. But  I’m never free.”

I said, “Oh, so we have a comedian, do we?  We pay fifty dollars a day.”  He pulled up his pants and said, “Well I get seventy five.”

We were making these films on a $750 budget and every buck counted so I said, “No way,” and he came back with “That’s what everybody pays me.  I won’t work for less.  Besides,” he continued, “I can do four sex scenes in one day.”  After quickly calculating that if he did four sex scenes I could save money by not hiring another actor I said, “Ok, Bro – seventy five it is, but the Afro’s got to go.”

Was he ambitious?

He was interested in working.  He showed up at the location on time and ready for work. I think, like us, he liked to make money.

But he was, in the beginning at least, very serious and professional about what he did.

Did you become friends?

We gradually became friends after getting to know each other but we weren’t close friends.  We would go on trips to Las Vegas together, things like that, but he was never invited to my house.  I’ve always preferred keeping my personal life and my professional life as separate as possible.

The post Bob Chinn: West Coast Pioneer – Podcast 18 appeared first on The Rialto Report.

On this episode The Rialto Report is joined by Susan McBain – star of the 1970’s New York adult film scene.

This episode running time is 42 minutes.

Susan McBain was one of the instantly recognizable actresses in 1970s New York adult film.

She was a talented, witty actress, whose presence always enhanced the movies in which she appeared. And she acted with nearly all the notable directors of the time – including Gerry Damiano, Radley Metzger, Carter Stevens, and Chuck Vincent.

She looked elegant, spoke well, and had the appearance of a private, well to do girl next door.

As it turns out, she did come from an affluent family.

And she was and is private too. In fact since she left the industry in the late 70s, she’s not spoken about it with anyone – not even her family or friends.

As a result Susan McBain is not easily persuaded to be interviewed – and there are areas of her life that are off-limits. She worked in the music industry and mainstream movies for example – and is unwilling to kiss and tell about either period.

But she has agreed to talk with us about her time in adult films – even though she probably can’t quite understand why anyone would still have an interest. She doesn’t regret her involvement – she’d just rather not be talking about it.

After all it’s been over 35 years since she made her last film appearance, and today she remembers few of her 30 or so films. A few do stand out for her however – Odyssey, Barbara Broadcast, The Farmer’s Daughters, Obsessed, and Rollerbabies, as well as the loops that she made with the New York husband and wife team – Peter and Iris.

Her life hasn’t been an easy one and in recent years, she’s suffered from multiple debilitating health issues – but today she remains the same happy and gracious presence she always was.

We’re grateful she agreed to speak to us in what may be her only interview about her life as one of the stars of the golden age of adult film in New York.

The post Susan McBain: A Personal Odyssey – Podcast 17 appeared first on The Rialto Report.

On this episode The Rialto Report is joined by Gloria Leonard – the grand dame of the 1970’s New York adult film scene.

This episode running time is 60 minutes.

She started her career in the 1970s as an actress appearing in films by the likes of Radley Metzger and Gerard Damiano – but was soon managing men’s magazine High Society, presenting some of the first adult cable access television shows, and helping pioneer hugely commercial ventures like phone sex lines and celebrity skin.

She served on the boards of free speech and adult industry organizations, and travelled the country to appear on every chat show there was to discuss feminism and pornography.

What makes her achievements all the more remarkable is that she was a 35 year old single mother when she entered the industry – whose previous work experience had included doing PR for Johnny Carson and an impotent bull, trading commodities on Wall St, and writing some of the first liner notes for Elektra Records. Even Radley Metzger once commented that he would probably be best remembered for the person who discovered Gloria Leonard.

So how did a girl from the Bronx who was a teenager in the 1950s go on to become the grande dame of the adult film industry? How does she remember her experiences? And what is she doing nowadays?

On this episode of the Rialto Report, Gloria Leonard talks of an altogether different age; where adult films tried to emulate Hollywood and the difference between pornography and erotica was just the lighting.

The post Gloria Leonard: The New York Years – Podcast 16 appeared first on The Rialto Report.

On this episode of The Rialto Report, Wakefield Poole talks with remarkable candor about his life as a independent filmmaker and pioneer of gay rights, and Jim Tushinski talks about his new documentary, I Always Said Yes: The Many Lives of Wakefield Poole. It’s a story of great highs, tragic lows, dance, films, drugs, acclaim, censorship, Fire Island, bath houses, AIDS, the mob, and much more.

This episode running time is 97 minutes.

As a dancer he was a child prodigy, and in the late 1950s, he joined the Ballet Russe before going on to be in demand as a dancer, choreographer, and director on Broadway and in television for much of the 1960s.

By the late 1960s, Wakefield had started experimenting with film, producing a number of acclaimed multimedia shows in New York, and then in 1971, he made his directorial film debut with the groundbreaking Boys in the Sand.

Forget Deep Throat and porno chic for a moment. Boys in the Sand came out earlier, was critically acclaimed, and was a huge and artistic commercial success. It provided a template on how to market a sex film. It also launched the career of Casey Donovan, an iconic vision of gay masculinity.

Not bad for a gay porn film that cost less than $5,000 to make.

Wakefield’s cinematic style was immediately was immediately evident; here was a filmmaker who used his dance and theater background to create beautiful, erotic art films that engaged your mind as well as your senses. This was an era where making pornographic films meant that you were liable for prosecution and jail time. But Wakefield remained open, honest and outspoken – probably because he didn’t think of himself as a pornographer. He believed that films could be artistic as well as sexually explicit.

In 1972, Wakefield went one step better and made Bijou – a surreal, psychedelic vision of sexual decadence that was an even more impressive film. It was another big hit.

And then disaster. He and producer Marvin Shulman attempted to make a crossover film. It was called Bible! and was based on a trio of Old Testament stories about famous Biblical figures. It even starred Georgina Spelvin as Bathsheba. This time the production was lavish, the budget was extravagant, the film’s reception was cool. Wakefield’s life was turned dramatically upside down by the experience.

2013 sees the release of a documentary about Wakefield Poole’s life called I Always Said Yes: The Many Lives of Wakefield Poole.

It’s directed and produced by Jim Tushinski, who also directed the excellent 2005 film That Man: Peter Berlin. His new film is an important work about an important filmmaker; please visit Jim’s website and consider becoming a donor. The chances are that whenever it is that you’re reading this, Jim is probably still paying for this excellent and worthwhile project. We need smart documentarians like Jim just as much as we need lyrical fimmakers like Wakefield Poole.

I Always Said Yes: The Many Lives of Wakefield Poole – Official Website

I Always Said Yes: The Many Lives of Wakefield Poole – Facebook

Jim Tushinski website

The post Wakefield Poole: Theater, Dance and Porn – Podcast 14 appeared first on The Rialto Report.

Shootings, murder plots, psychics, boat chases, fights – and that’s only what happened behind the scenes on the adult movie Captain Lust (1976). But what really happened on set? On this Rialto Report, we speak to the Steven Barry – the scriptwriter, Carter Stevens – the production manager, and finally Beau Buchanan – the film’s director, about the events of August 1976 and the shooting of Captain Lust.

This episode running time is 64 minutes.

I’ve always been intrigued by this 1976 film; it’s an entertaining porn, musical, pirate film – costing well over $100,000 to make – that was inspired by the 1976 American bicentennial celebrations where scores of tall ships convened in the New York harbor.

It tells the story of Captain Lust who discovers the lost treasure map tattooed in Latin on the member of a dumb monk (played by Bobby Astyr). So he kidnaps a nun to read the map for him – but finds himself pursued by Wade Nichols, Jamie Gillis and a host of pirate women including Sharon Mitchell, Ming Toy and Veri Knotti – who demonstrates exactly why she’s called Veri Knotti.

But that’s only half the story.

For years, wild rumors circulated about the making of the movie.

The film’s huge budget was supposedly funded by a psychic, who knew the director because she was in touch with a recently deceased friend of the director.

The lengthy shoot all took place on a boat miles out to sea, where they were said to be chased by coastguards, customs officers, and swarms of fishermen.

One actress was allegedly shot in the chest, whilst another actor fell off the rigging into the water amidst rumors that he never re-surfaced.

At one stage, the director was even said to have locked the cast below deck where they were almost suffocated by the smoke machines that were being used to create atmospheric effects for the filming.

There were rumors that the cast and crew discussed bumping off the director whilst they were out to sea.

And then after the end of the shot, much of the footage mysteriously disappeared at the lab, meaning that it had to be shot all over again.

Forget Pirates of the Caribbean, what really happened during the making of Captain Lust?

On this Rialto Report, I speak to the Steven Barry – the scriptwriter, Carter Stevens – the production manager, and finally Beau Buchanan – the film’s director, for the first time about the crazy events of August 1976.

Three different versions of the truth. One Rialto Report.

As a postscript, the original camera negative of Captain Lust has recently been located by the film preservation company, Vinegar Syndrome.

It is in pristine condition, and is being prepared for a possible future release in association with the film’s director, Beau Buchanan.

Correction:

When talking about the movie Snuff in this episode of The Rialto Report, reference was made to Walter Sear being the person that came up with the idea for Snuff. Steven Barry now remembers that it was in fact Jack Bravman who first thought of the idea.

The post Captain Lust: The Truth Behind the Myth – Podcast 13 appeared first on The Rialto Report.

Robert Kerman, star of Debbie Does Dallas and scores of porn films in the 1970s and 1980s, joins the Rialto Report to talk about his life as a struggling actor in New York, driving a cab to make ends meet, his move into adult film work in New York, how he nearly broke into the mainstream – and how he feels about it all nowadays.

This episode running time is 55 minutes.

Robert Kerman is an actor. Plain and simple. And he’s good at it too.

He’s been in movies like The Goodbye Girl with Richard Dreyfuss and No Way Out with Kevin Costner, and a surprising number of 1980s TV shows too.

It’s just those adult films that he made that he’s not sure about.

Not that he’s against porn. He enjoyed working with directors like Joe Sarno, Joe Davian, and Gerard Damiano, and actresses like Vanessa Del Rio, Veronica Hart, and Bambi Woods. Who wouldn’t?

It’s just that, why did it have to be him that made almost 200 films, not to mention countless loops, between 1975 and the late 1980s?

Somewhere in a parallel universe, Robert Kerman is a successful character actor, regularly employed in theater and film, and appreciated for his craft.

The problem is that in this world, he’s R. Bolla, and he’s still recognized for being Mr Greenfield in Debbie Does Dallas rather than for his Hamlet.

There’s no such thing as an ex porn star.

In this episode of The Rialto Report, R. Bolla talks with Ashley West and April Hall with great honesty about his love of acting, the porn years, the cannibal films, the attempts to go legit, God, drugs, hitting rock bottom, and much more…

The post R. Bolla: Adult Film’s Method Actor – Podcast 12 appeared first on The Rialto Report.

Georgina Spelvin, the star of The Devil in Miss Jones, talks about her upbringing in Texas, her Broadway career, her political activism, and her adult film work in New York.

This episode running time is 74 minutes.

In 1973 she starred in Gerard Damiano’s landmark film The Devil in Miss Jones, playing Justine Jones, a lonely, depressed spinster who kills herself to escape her dull, sexless existence.

Her suicide prevents her from being accepted into Heaven, so she begs to be allowed to return to earth once more – so she can catch up on lost time by becoming the embodiment of lust. Allowed back in the real world, she takes full advantage of her temporary reprieve by engaging in a number of increasingly adventurous sexual encounters.

Georgina Spelvin was an unusual sex star. For a start she was 36 when she appeared in Miss Jones, and had originally only been hired as the cook on the set of the film. In fact, she’d only applied for the job as the anti-war film collective that she’d started needed the funds to pay the rent on their editing space.

Before all this, she’d enjoyed a long career on the stage, appearing on Broadway in The Pajama Game, and touring the world with various musical productions throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

 In 2006, Georgina Spelvin published her critically acclaimed autobiography, The Devil Made Me Do it where she wrote eloquently and candidly about her life in and out of the adult film industry.

On this episode I talk to Georgina about her memories of the early part of her life – the New York years, where she lived and worked for two decades before moving to California in the mid 1970s.

Georgina’s book can be purchased here.

Georgina’s blog can be found here.

The post Georgina Spelvin: The Devil, Miss Jones and the New York Years – Podcast 11 appeared first on The Rialto Report.

Larry Revene, prolific director and cinematographer in the adult film industry in the 1970s and 1980s, joins The Rialto Report to talk about his start in the business: making 8mm loops with Bob Wolfe in the ‘dirty basement’ studio on 14th St in New York.

This episode running time is 61 minutes.

And in the beginning there were loops.

Hard core sex on short, silent 8mm strips of film. Made for the peepshows in Times Square. Or for sale in a brown paper bag under the counter.

Deep Throat hadn’t yet been released. Couples hadn’t started going to see sex films together. This porno wasn’t chic.

These loops look grimy, illicit, often primitive. They were made cheaply without much artistry, and yet their spontaneity and self consciousness often has a charm.

And watching them today, you can’t help but have questions: Who made them? Who watched them? And who appeared in them?

Sure you see appearances by future stars like Harry Reems, Eric Edwards, even Linda Lovelace, but more often they feature a wide range of fresh looking people making their one and only appearance in front of a pornographer’s camera.

Who knows what was considered obscene and therefore illegal at this time? But these explicit loops definitely seemed to fall the wrong side of the law – especially when the sex acts extended beyond the straight forward vanilla.

And all this attracted the mob – who targeted the labs, the book stores, the distribution channels – and the filmmakers themselves.

Many of the early pioneers of hard core loops in New York have passed into legend; men like Sam Menning, who started out by taking photos of Bettie Page in the 1950s, or Sal Sodano, who fled New York in 1972 when a contract was taken out on his life.

But the most notable loop maker was Bob Wolfe.

Bob worked out of a notorious basement studio on West 14th St in New York, where people like Jamie Gillis and Tina and Jason Russell got their start in the business. For several years from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, Bob’s operation was the epicenter for loops.

On this episode, The Rialto Report is joined by Larry Revene whose long career in the adult film industry started as Bob Wolfe’s assistant. Together they made hundreds of loops over a three year period.

After years of silence about this part of his career, Larry recently published the first volume of his biography – called Wham Bam Ba Da Boom in which he remembers this time.

Larry Revene’s book can be purchased here.

Larry Revene’s blog can be found here.

The post Larry Revene: Loops and Organized Crime – Podcast 10 appeared first on The Rialto Report.