CARLOS THE (SILENT) JACKAL

Finally got around to watching my DVD of Rene Cardona, Jr’s 1979 opus Carlos the Terrorist today. Loosely based on the life of notorious terrorist Carlos the Jackal, I expected it to be another inept but enjoyable trash-fest from the South American filmmaker and director of sleazy genre faves like Tintorera (1977) and Guyana: Crime of the Century (1979). However, I wasn’t expecting it to be as strangely surreal as it was, considering there is literally no dialogue throughout the entire film, the only voices heard being those of a narrator and occasional voice-overs from the lead character as he reads instructions left for him to follow. Great weird stuff, well worth the $5.00 I paid for the DVD (came on a double-sided disc with Guyana: Crime of the Century).

VINTAGE 42nd STREET

Fantastic vintage 42nd St marque dipslay set up for Umberto Lenzi's classic 1981 Italian gut-muncher Make Them Die Slowly (aka Cannibal Ferox).

VALE KANDI BARBOUR

Sad to hear of the passing of veteran adult film actress Kandi Barbour (born Linda Jean Smith). The 56 year-old starlet of such 70s & 80s flixxx as Ultra Flesh, The Pink Ladies and Neon Nights was reportedly homeless and living on the streets of San Francisco, where her body was discovered on February the 1st. No cause of death yet given.

The following was taken from the Adult Video News website:

Born in 1956 and originally from Kansas, Barbour was a popular actress during porn's golden age, appearing in 42 adult movies, several softcore releases and at least 20 hardcore compilations. The majority of her work appeared between 1978 and 1981, though she gave her final XXX performance in 1987 in X-Effect, directed by Ron Jeremy. She was perhaps best known as the poster girl for Cecil Howard's landmark '81 film, Neon Nights, which was named by AVN as one of the 101 greatest adult videos of all time.

According to the Rotten Tomatoes website, Barbour was first discovered by photographer Diana Hardy and had appeared in "virtually every men's magazine by the mid-1970s." Other sources say that she also appeared in several mainstream ads, notably for K-tel International, which sold compilations of popular music, and was rumored to have appeared in some mainstream TV series, including Magnum P.I., which was shot in Hawaii where Barbour lived for a time.

Barbour's other notable credits include Chuck Vincent's Bon Appetit (Video-X-Pix, 1980), Richard Mahler's Pink Ladies (VCA, 1980) and Warren Evans' Pandora's Mirror (Caballero, 1981).

In 2009, Barbour was inducted into the Pioneers branch of the X-Rated Critics Organization (XRCO) Hall of Fame.

"She never worked for me," said golden age director Carter Stevens, who said he had provided some information to the San Francisco Coroner's Office, "but it knocked me for a loop when I got that call. I guess they found me because I had written something about Kandi on the internet a couple of years ago. She lived in my house for a while when we had 'Carter's Home for Wayward Women.' She lived in my loft for about three months. I never charged her rent, but I did charge her a $200 deposit on telephone because she was the type who would literally call up California to find out what time it was there. She was just a bit scatterbrained. But also, she would walk around with thousands of dollars worth of uncashed checks in her purse. She did all this modeling work besides porn; she did a lot of work for advertisers like K-tel music, those TV commercials. She did a lot of modeling work because of her face, and she never cashed the checks until she needed money; then she'd reach in her purse and pull out a check and have somebody cash it for her."

According to Stevens, after leaving his house, Barbour lived with Stevens' production manager, Curt Cressler, for two years in Los Angeles.

"When I went out to California to make Tinseltown (1979), my apartment was across the courtyard from them," he recalled, "and so she used to come down and hang out with me a lot when I was home."

Attempts to contact Cressler for comment were unsuccessful.

"The last time I saw her—actually, my wife saw her—was in Hawaii," Stevens continued. "This goes back 22 years. She was living above the Club Hubba Hubba, which was a very famous strip club in Honolulu. She was living above the club and working there, and as my wife says, she had a drinking problem. She had gained a lot of weight and was living in a muumuu and never took it off. She did have some mental problems, even at that point. She had this dysmorphic body image. She had this thing about her nose being crooked; was always talking about having her nose fixed. There was of course nothing wrong with her nose."

Steve Morowitz of Distribpix, which owns several of Barbour's titles, including Sizzle and Centerfold Fever, was also taken aback at the news of her death.

"She was very striking," he recalled, "and out of a hundred classic porn stars, she's certainly one I could name without having to look at anything to refresh my memory. It's sad—it's always sad when we lose one of the classic performers."

PAPERBACK PARADE

Another interview with me has just been published in the new issue (#80) of Gary Lovisi's terrific, long-running magazine PAPERBACK PARADE. Published by Gryphon Books, PAPERBACK PARADE is available from their website and is must reading for anyone interested in the world of vintage pulp paperbacks.

GRYPHON BOOKS

There is also a scan of the article/interview posted on the Headpress website at:

HEADPRESS: PAPERBACK PARADE

Headpress also have an archive of HIP POCKET SLEAZE reviews posted on their Press page at:

HIP POCKET SLEAZE: PRESS

SKIN-TERVIEW

New interview with me has been posted over at the Mr Skin website, discussing HIP POCKET SLEAZE and some of my favourite moments in adult sinema:

MR SKIN INTERVIEW: JOHN HARRISON

MONSTER MASH

New issue of COLLECTABLES TRADER magazine (Jan-March 2012), featuring my article on 60s monster movie memorabilia, is now on the newsstands (in Oz, at least)!

HIP POCKET SLEAZE REVIEW

A new review of HIP POCKET SLEAZE has now been posted on the Polari Magazine website at:

POLARI MAGAZINE - HIP POCKET SLEAZE (Review)

HUMAN CREEPY CRAWLIES

Survived a midnight viewing of Human Centipede 2 - nice to see a horror sequel try something a little different, a brave play on the perceived 'horror film as evil influence' themes which the safe media often love to play-up. Stark, bloody and disturbing, very evocative in B&W and dominated by an incredibly unsettling (and virtually silent) performance from Laurence R. Harvey - one of the great performances in modern horror cinema. Despite its confrontational visuals and themes, does NOT deserve its Australian banning - although that will only help to increase the film's notoriety (though on the negative side the filmmaker's pockets will unfairly suffer thanks to online downloads).

THE BOOK SHOW

My recent appearance on ABC Radio National's The Book Show, discussing Hip Pocket Sleaze and the vintage paperback genre, is now available to listen to/download at the following link:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2011/3364026.htm

MAIL-ORDER MYSTERIES

MAIL-ORDER MYSTERIES:
REAL STUFF FROM OLD COMIC BOOK ADS!
by Kirk Demaris
(2011 Insight Editions/USA/156 Pages)

Growing-up as a kid obsessed with American comic books, I was always fascinated by the advertisements for strange and cool gizmos, gadgets, toys and other goodies that would fill the pages of every new Marvel and DC title I would pour through. From x-ray vision glasses and miniature spy cameras to hypno-calls and 100 piece toy soldier sets, it seemed as if there was a lifetime of fun and adventure to be had, and all for usually less than a couple of bucks a pop.

Of course, living in Australia, these products always seemed so exotic and agonizingly out of my reach. There were never any ordering instructions for people who lived outside the US, and even if there were, the coupons were so tiny I don’t know how anyone could have fit their whole address on it. Eventually, as I reached my mid-teens and started an after-school supermarket job, I did start sending away some of my hard-earned cash to Captain Company, the mail-order department of Warren Publications in New York, who sold a plethora of great monster related merchandise through the pages of their classic Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. But over the years I would still look back over some of the ads from my collection of old comic books, and wonder just exactly what kids received when they bought these items.

Now, I need wonder no more, thanks to Kirk Demaris' marvellous new book Mail Order Mysteries: Real Stuff from Old Comic Book Ads!, which blows the lid on the reality behind more than 150 of these far too good to be true items. Divided into eight categories (Superpowers and Special Abilities, War Zone, House of Horrors, High Finance, Better Living Through Mail Order, Top Secret, Trickery and Oddities), each item covered includes the original advertisement accompanied by at least one photo of the actual item being hawked. Text is kept to a minimum, with each item receiving a brief ‘What they promised’ and ‘What they sent’ blurb, as well as a brief, satirical summation of imagined customer satisfaction (or, usually, dissatisfaction).

Needless to say, the majority of these items could not live up to their promise. The classic x-ray vision spex were nothing more than cheap plastic (later, cardboard) glasses with bird feathers pressed between the lenses (which created a ghostly outline around objects when held up to bright light). The seven foot long Polaris Nuclear Submarine was a couple of painted cardboard boxes that usually fell to bits as soon as it touched some dewy grass, while anything that was advertised with a ‘You control it!’ blurb usually meant that the item came with a long piece of string for you to pull it along with. Sometimes, however, the companies did deliver on their promise. The famous miniature spy camera did indeed work (although finding replacement film was apparently a pain the ass), while anyone who ordered the six foot tall ‘Monster Size Monsters’ received a beautifully rendered colour portrait of either Dracula or the Frankenstein monster.

In many ways, these products were no different to the exploitation and drive-in films being produced at the time, where the advertising and ballyhoo was always much more important than the actual product delivered. In the words of pioneering sexploitation film producer David F. Friedman: “Sell the sizzle, not the steak.”

Mail Order Mysteries is a wonderful trip down memory lane, and rather than spoiling some of the magical memories of my childhood, it has only made me appreciate these items all the more. In fact, I’m off to trawl eBay for some of them right now...

Review Copyright John Harrison 2011

X MARKS THE SPOT

Really enjoyed Jon Hewitt's new film X, an intense, violent erotic thriller set in the seedy underworld of police corruption and the red light district of Sydney's Kings Cross. In turns grimy and slick, it features great performances by the two female leads, a nice ambient soundtrack, some impressive cinematography and editing, and a pretty tight script by Hewitt and Belinda McClory. Hewitt's best works since 1999's Redball. Proof that Australian filmmakers can still do great things on a tight budget. Starting in a limited release in Aussie cinemas this week...check it out!

Trailer:
http://youtu.be/lA_PLMaB7wo

ED WOOD PAPERBACK EXHIBITION

Sounds like this would be well worth checking out if you are in the New York area over the next few weeks...

ED WOOD'S SLEAZE PAPERBACKS

CURATED BY MICHAEL DALEY AND JOHAN KUGELBERG
EXHIBIT OPEN EVERYDAY 11AM-6PM
Wed, Nov 2nd to Sun Dec 4th

Boo-Hooray
265 Canal St, #601, New York, NY 10013

For press inquires contact: Heidi Sanders press@boo-hooray.com

The antiquarian mystique surrounding Edward Davis Wood Jr.’s career as an author of pornographic pulp fiction is legend. He wrote under a variety of pseudonyms, books were published and re-published under different titles, and occasionally under different author names. Multiple authors would share the same pseudonym, and the companies that published the titles weren’t the kind of operations that kept any kind of records, nor paid royalties, nor really existed in the manner that most are to expect of book publishers.

The paperbacks are truly rare, even in an age of mass-searchable used book engines, and google ferocity. Ed Wood’s sleaze fiction is also as strange, idiosyncratic and out of step with his times and mores as his infamous movies. Wood would write porn inter-spliced with lengthy philosophical, sociological and psychological discourse, he’d write first person narratives of life as a transvestite in the buttoned up America of the 1950’s. He’d riff on psychosexual themes, and unleash his id, his ego and his superego in turn, sometimes in the same chapter. He’d write about sex and the human condition without veneer or filters, offering up the damaged and anguished voice of a desperately soul-searching drunk with a sense of self-worth that would stand in dichotomy to his self-pity.

His descent into alcoholism and poverty was mirrored by the publishers that employed him. Towards the end of his life he wrote pornography with decreasing amounts of the strange flourishes of his eccentric personality. He died in 1978 of an alcohol-induced heart attack. His friends say the porn killed him. For further information see Rudolph Grey’s masterful biography Nightmare of Ecstasy.

This is the largest assembly of Ed Wood publications exhibited to date. Boo-Hooray has tracked down roughly seventy of his books and publications. Some collectors claim that he wrote dozens more. Entrepreneurial book dealers often indulge in Ed Wood pseudonym speculation. A ten dollar paperback can thus become an antiquarian rarity, even with flimsy or non-existent evidence. A handful of these are in the show.

The collection has been sold to the Cornell University rare book library where it will become a part of their human sexuality archive.

The exhibition is curated by Michael Daley and Johan Kugelberg.

An illustrated and annotated exhibition catalogue is available in a regular and deluxe edition. The deluxe edition of 250 numbered copies comes in a silk-screened slipcase with a 7-inch vinyl record of Chain Gang vocalist Ricky Luanda performing two homages to Ed Wood.

The exhibit will be open everyday 11-6 from November 2nd to December 4th. Closed Thanksgiving weekend Nov. 24 - Nov 27.

Exhibition opening night will be Nov. 2nd 6-9. Attendance for opening night is limited, an RSVP is required for admittance. Please RSVP to attend at this link: http://boo-hooray.com/rsvp

Catalog and Deluxe Edition available in Webshop
ORDER NOW

This exhibition is dedicated to enthusiast and scholar

Robert Legault 1950 – 2008

For more info please visit the Boo-Hooray website at: boo-hooray.com

HELLO DOLLY

HIP POCKET SLEAZE REVIEWS

A couple of early reviews for Hip Pocket Sleaze:

It's hard to believe time really happened; under tall oaks the text-covered leaves... Is then is then and now is now? When I contemplate the spellbinding Mysteries behind old school adult exploitational pulp-print I'm not so sure... I go there with them. Anyhow, if you share my obsession with this lovely garish genre you will thrill to Hip Pocket Sleaze, a "celebratory overview" of said genre from the 1940s onwards. It's truly a wonder, a marvel. Evoluting out of the author's digest fanzine that he began in 1999, the most capable Mr Harrison has cultivated nearly 400 pages chock full of fascinating reviews of choice examples, interviews and essays concerning the major pulp writers, artists, imprints and collectors, and useful lists of what's out there, augmented by many b&w reproductions of the fantastic front covers of these publications and the advert-smut they contain.

It's wide in scope: a short history of the phenomenon; lesbian and gay material, Armed Services Editions, drugs and counterculture, horror tie-ins, gore novels, witchcraft and the occult, offbeat and esoteric titles, the sex film mags, plus a look at porny Super-8, photo sets and audio. It also confirms the organised crime involvement in this murky trade, including rumours of people snuffed for demanding withheld payment - art imitating life and vice versa as the characters step out of and into the magic pages.

Hip Pocket Sleaze is a top notch tutelary goldmine that will gift hours of fruitful delight to the newcomer or seasoned connoisseur alike. A pervert's bible kind of trip, surely destined to become (or already be) a standard reference work.

Reviewed by Mark Reeve

http://www.okok.org.uk/Articles/Hellhound/HellhoundReview.htm#HipPocketSleaze

People interested in the world of adult paperbacks and trashy novels (most not really porn) have had to glean information from obscure journals, and quite a few of those accounts end up in John Harrison's excellent book. But there is also a tremendous amount of original research. You'll find checklists, writers, artists and publishers. It's really a look back at the way America used to be, back in the days when it was possible to be sleazy; now, all the strictures of society have fallen away. What's taboo anymore? This is a wonderful examination of a time when our morality was delineated by what we kept under the counter or in plain brown wrappers. This book is a great resource for both the collector and the social historian.

- Ralph Vaughan (70s/80s adult paperback publisher)

MANSON MADNESS

My review of the tacky 1970 Manson-inspired paperback The Hippy Cult Murders now posted over at Headpress as the first instalment in their Hip Pocket Sleaze Files. Check it out at the link below...

THE HIPPY CULT MURDERS