Mike White interviews Susie Bright on the The Projection Booth about vintage porn and her new book The Erotic Screen, Volume 1.
It was such a treat to talk to Mike, who's eminently knowledgeable about the erotic and indie movie history.
Listening to our interview three months after our first meeting, I'm taken aback: this is the most frank and wide-ranging conversation I've ever heard about sex movies, from anyone, anywhere.
Listen to us get down and detailed about our favorite classic XXX films, early erotic video innovation, legendary erotic directors and actors, including:
Greg Dark's Let me Tell Ya Bout White/Black Chicks era,
Rinse Dream (aka Steve Sayadian) with Cafe Flesh and Nightdreams,
Veronika Rocket's Smoker,
Pirates, and why it was produced for Disneyland lovers
Radley Metzger's Score,
Joyce Snyder's Raw Talent, ("the Portlandia of Porn!")
Kink.com,
Directors Michael Ninn, John Stagliano, Andrew Blake,
Jack Baker,
Porn theaters in Detroit and London,
Stalag porn that flourished in Israel in the 50s/60s,
Segregation and race tropes in porn, ("people would talk to me, a reporter, as if it was Pig Night at the Ku Klux Klan rally"),
Bernard Purdy's Lialeh,
The G-spot Fraud Detection Squad,
The veracity of the letters I got to my Penthouse in-box, (all real, handwritten or typed and snail-mailed--- and more than I could ever answer),
Edward Penishands and other porn satires ("It's the same whether it's Catherine the Great fucking her horse or the GOP primaries"),
What it takes to cut it as a Woodsman, ("Viagra doesn't make you come on camera... it's a very particular kind of 'hitting your mark.' To hell with the drugs...There's always been a million ways to hide the soft sausage.")
How the best films of the Golden Era got literally cut to shreds by their own copyright owners, ("You're dealing with IDIOTS"),
And what really matters to me in sex cinema:
"You know how I am, Mike. The girl's gotta come, and I've gotta know it."
Illustration: The cover of Mike White's must-read cult film book, Impossibly Funky: A Cashiers du Cinemart Collection. White is a writer for CinemaScope, Paracinema, Detroit's Metro Times, and Detour-Mag.com. He's jury-served at Slamdance, Cinekink and MicroCineFest, and been featured in the documentaries David Goodis: To a Pulp and The People Vs. George Lucas.
