IRONY OF "THROAT" RUNS DEEP

Ahhh; 1972!
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Think-or say-what you want about heterosexual porn, it has, since Deep Throat, become almost (that's almost) mainstream with not much chance to shock or make one stand in awe of the superstars of filmed/videoed sex. VCRs and the Internet make it available 24/7, no questions asked. (Well, maybe your Visa number.)
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But, of course that proliferation came about (partly) to the innovations and sacrifices made by a small cadre of actors, directors and producers who turned "smut" into what was called at the time, "porno chic."


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And this is on my mind today after reading some of the incredible material contained in a 400 page plus FBI dossier on Deep Throat, just made public last Friday.
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To say that the FBI-courtesy of the religious right wing and Richard Nixon had a hard-on for the perps of porn, is to understate.
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The fact that Nixon and his gang of state Attorneys General tried to throw Harry Reems-the male lead in Deep Throat-in prison for 5 years should say it all. Even theatre owners were indicted in the "conspiracy."
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Not even sure the bearded black-robed boys in Iran would go for that one.
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And notwithstanding that porn was shown in (public) movie theatres back in the 70s, even at drive-ins, creating Jurassic pricks, Deep Throat, with only a half dozen rather tame sex scenes that seem almost quaint by today's standards and was considered by the authorities to surely be the end of western civilization as we, or they, knew it.
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Plus the delicious irony of Nixon being brought down by a Watergate informant who was not only a senior FBI agent, but whom also went by the nom de phallus, "Deep Throat," could not have been written by a dime store novelist worth his starving artist bona fides.
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But if you were not around during the day, and want to really get a flavour of what it was like to get eaten alive by a pop culture phenomenon, I highly recommend you seek out the 2005 video doc, Inside Deep Throat.
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Not only is the film itself superb, there are copious bonus features and two sets of commentary tracks that fill in gaps not discussed in the film. (Sadly, two relevant voices, Deep Throat director Gerad Damiano, and Behind The Green Door deb, Marilyn Chambers, have passed since the documentary was made.)
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My fave is when Reems recounts how after being led away in the middle of the night in 1973 from his apartment by beefy FBI agents, the cops actually asked for autographs and posed pictures back at HQ.
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Linda Lovelace, she of the film fabled clitoris in her throat was at the time of her death in 2002 still signing Deep Throat items despite having claimed in 1986 that she had been "raped" during the film.
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As I said, deep irony as well as throat.