Good books on porn?

[enandalusiskhund An Andalusian Dog Find all posts View Profile Close enandalusiskhund]

I want to read well-researched and well-written books on pornography, mostly Golden Age era but also the darker side of modern porn. I've ordered The Other Hollywood, don't know if it's any good though. I was looking at a recent feminist scholarly work called Violence and the Pornographic Imaginary, but it is quite expensive, and I don't know if it is any good. I do have the required double bill of porn books, Inside Linda Lovelace and Ordeal, lying around here somewhere, probably in storage. As you see I'm open minded with the study of pornography from different angles, but I don't want any books that are either extremely moralising and conservative, nor overtly glorifying and excusing of this dirty industry.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

David Thompson's Black And White And Blue is a good read.

"The films that society has termed pornographic movies have been with us for over a century now, since the first flickering kinetoscopes stumbled into life in 1889. Yet beyond a handful of scholarly tracts, and a few glancing references in certain Hollywood histories, there is no modern history of the subject available. Black and White and Blue fills that void. Taking as its cut-off point the late 1970s, when the advent of the home VCR irrevocably changed the face of the adult film industry, Black and White and Blue celebrates a world of anonymously masked women and curiously black-sock-clad men, whose movie immortality was attained in the time it took to exhaust a roll of film. There were no artificial breasts when the first stags were made, no tattooed and pierced members, and no concept of trick photography. We revisit a time when dingy back street cinemas aired their wares beneath a “members only” sign, and a climate in which the police waited as patiently to bust the participants as audiences queued to watch them, while “polite society” looked on in (often hypocritical) disgust, unable to believe that filth like this even existed. With exclusive interviews, descriptions of over 300 films, and a conversational style, this book will represent a complete and in-depth survey of the adult film, from shaky, flickering black-and-white silents to the first flowering of the lavish modern-day production."

I enjoyed The Other Hollywood too.

The John Holmes biography, A Life Measured In Inches, is insanely thorough and good (and it quotes an interview I did with Bill Margold!). Jill Nelson, who co-authored that, also wrote Golden Goddesses, which is pretty essential.

I didn't think much of the Christy Canyon or Traci Lords biographies but if you're a super fan, you might dig them. Couldn't finish Jenna Jameson's autobiography.

The Juliet Anderson and Inside Seka books are supposed to be good but I haven't personally read them and can't vouch.

I read Jerry Butler's Raw Talent years ago and remember thinking it was pretty good but a decade or so later and I couldn't tell you why.

Richard Pacheco's bio is gonna go on my Christmas Wish List and I'm curious if the Marilyn Chambers and Hyapatia Lee books are any good (if anyone has any insight please do speak up).

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Oh and if you can find it, the Marc Stevens autobiography is pretty zany.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Oh and it's not necessarily porn specific per se, but Tales Of Times Square by Josh Friedman is great.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Oh and grab Robin Bougie's Graphic Thrills Volume One and Two if you haven't.

[enandalusiskhund An Andalusian Dog Find all posts View Profile Close enandalusiskhund]

Lots of great suggestions, Ian. Thanks a bunch! Will research these a bit more and order a couple with my next book order.

[Thomas Wood Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Thomas Wood]

In addition to what Ian recommended, I would recommend the following:

WHAM, BAM $$ BA DE BOOM and LIFE IN A FILM CAN both by Larry Revene - a look at the early days of NY adult films by one of the best cameraman (and sometime director)
A HISTORY OF X by Luke Ford - Ford was controversial but his history is actual pretty accurate (although it is a short book)
BOTTOM FEEDERS by John Hubner - a look at the Mitchell Brothers empire
SKINFLICKS by David Jennings - Jennings was one of the first to release films on video so it's a good overview of the early to mid 80s
HOLLYWOOD BLUE by Harris Gaffin - interesting look at the early to mid 90s
THE X-FACTORY by Anthony Petkovich - interviews with various stars of the 90s, interesting
THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT by Georgina Spelvin - a good auto-biography
VANESSA DEL RIO by Del Rio and Dian Hanson - same as Spelvin
CONTEMPORARY EROTIC CINEMA by William Rotsler - dated but worth reading for insights on the very early days. Just be warned that Rotsler was great at putting people on and some of the interviews were works of fiction. He even interviewed himself as the "hot new director Clay McCord".
TAKE THIS JOB AND SHOVE IT by Howard Ziehm - worth reading even if he does tend to go on (it's 700 pages and very little goes after the 80s

There's also the X-Rated guides by Robert Rimmer and Pat Riley. The Rimmer volumes are marred by Rimmer getting the summaries wrong sometimes and misidentifying some of the actors/actresses but does have sections on the status of the field. The Riley volumes are marred by Riley's fascination with young girls and thinking anyone over 25 shouldn't be doing any films but they are well worth picking up.

For the Bearmanor books, INSIDE SEKA is worth reading as is BRIGHT LIGHTS, LONELY NIGHTS by Serena. TO ALL MY DEAR CIVILIANS by Rebecca Lord is actually a good read but really doesn't tell you much about the history of adult films but she does have a European perceptive. THE GIRL WITH THE MILLION DOLLAR LEGS by Porsche Lynn is okay but marred by spelling/grammar errors and even fact errors. (She co-wrote it but gets a number of movie names wrong). DIRTY TALK is just a collection of interviews that really doesn't add anything,

There's also Tina Russell's biography that is floating around as a file download. She changed all the names but with our knowledge of the field now, it's not too difficult to figure out who she's talking about.

[Randy G Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Randy G]

Second all the excellent recommendations so far. The Other Hollywood is excellent btw so good first choice.

I wouldn't recommend Violence and the Pornographic Imaginary, it feels unbalanced to me, focusing exculsively on what reinforces her thesis and apparently ignoring any understanding of BDSM.

A far, far better academic book written in an accessible and engaging style is Linda Williams classic HARDCORE.

If you're interested in the history of gay porn Jeffrey Escoffer's BIGGER THAN LIFE is excellent and near comprehensive. William Jones HALSTED PLAYS HIMSELF is an exhaustively researched biography on a very important director/actor.

REEFER MADNESS by Eric Schlosser has an amazing section about the business history of porn in the US and 70s porn mogul Reuben Sturman.

Whitney Strub's PERVERSION FOR PROFIT is more about the anti-pornography movement in the US from the 50s on, both on the conservative right and radical feminist left but is is very good, as are his other writings on pornography.

[Keeth Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Keeth]

I'd recommend Diana E.H. Russell's " Against pornography: the evidence of harm". What makes it different is that it features hardcore pornographic imagery with her feminist rants under each photo! Unfortunately, I can't find my copy so I'm guessing I sold it to a friend. Pornographic feminist ranting can be pretty amazing...

I remember reading Bottom Feeders when it was originally published & Peter Sotos wrote about it.

[enandalusiskhund An Andalusian Dog Find all posts View Profile Close enandalusiskhund]

So many recommendations! Thank you, guys! I wonder if there is a good book written specifically about S&M and extreme pornography, though? I watched Graphic Sexual Horror a while back, and while I'm not particularly keen on the more brutal stuff myself, I'm extremely fascinated by the kind of porn that walks the line of being illegal/unsafe/dangerous.

[Keeth Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Keeth]

This may be worth tracking down:

"The Destruction of the Moral Fabric of America[1] by Steven Toushin: Toushin recounts the story of his 1989 federal obscenity trial in Nashville, Tennessee. Interwoven into his discussion of modern obscenity law are his observations while in prison, his proposal for certifying "masters, mistresses, slaves, and pro-dommes", a chapter on Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed one of Toushin's employees, and Toushin's theory on BDSM and the sexual future."

Toushin is the owner of The Bijou Theater in Chicago & he had some legal issues concerning S&M/scat videos he distributed. Details are on Wikipedia. The videos were by a company called 'Slave & Master Prod.'; most were male-male action involving members of a biker club called The Skulls. I've never seen those but they can be viewed on The Bijou's VOD site. Of the 4 videos that caused the legal problems, I've seen "You said a mouthful" which is fem dom/male sub scat action.

[Randy G Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Randy G]

So many recommendations! Thank you, guys! I wonder if there is a good book written specifically about S&M and extreme pornography, though? I watched Graphic Sexual Horror a while back, and while I'm not particularly keen on the more brutal stuff myself, I'm extremely fascinated by the kind of porn that walks the line of being illegal/unsafe/dangerous.

Well all porn in the US was close to or outright illegal before Freeman but I know what you mean. I assume you've see the DARK SIDE OF PORN documentary series?

Surprisingly no one has tackled the history of BDSM alone but Williams has an excellent section on masochism and discusses some late 80s BDSM videos in the expanded version (can't recall if that is in the first edition).

The aforementioned HALSTED PLAYS HIMSELF has lots on the gay BDSM community, it even reprints Halsted's column and stories from the well known BDSM mag DRUMMER. Daniel Harris' THE RISE AND FALL OF GAY CULTURE has chapters on the histories of gay pornography and gay BDSM. The chapter on BDSM is particularly good.

Serena has written a biography called BRIGHT LIGHTS, LONELY NIGHTS, I haven't read it yet but considering her films she probably touches on this a fair bit I assume?

[willpak Member Find all posts View Profile Close willpak]

Some great recommends there. I second The Other Hollywood and Reefer Madness. Check out Pornocopia by Laurence O'Toole for a 90s perspective and Porn Gold - inside the pornography business for an overview of European porn (pre Mid 1980s). Loads of info on Private and Color Climax.

[enandalusiskhund An Andalusian Dog Find all posts View Profile Close enandalusiskhund]

Thanks again for all your help. I've started reading The Other Hollywood now, and it's fascinating. I like the approach, while certainly not without the downside of making some things a bit fragmented, of letting the whole book be based on quotes from the people involved. I'll start digging through your tips once I'm done with this.

[Anthony A Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Anthony A]

Even though it isn't a book about the industry per se, Only the Best by Jim Holliday is an indispensable reference guide to golden age classics.

Anthony