Deep Throat Star Harry Reems Revisited

Thirty-three years ago ex-porn star Harry Reems became a legend of an era that reinforced sexual liberalization, however not to his benefit. The famous male porn star at that time was arrested and used as a pawn in the conservative 1970s political arena while Hollywood’s establishment eventually abandoned him. For almost twenty years Harry Reems would be forgotten become an alcoholic and homeless.

However, now as "Deep Throat" has taken on a whole new meaning, Reems can be found alcohol-free, married and a highly successful real estate broker in Park City, Utah

Interest in Reems has resurfaced, thanks to the much acclaimed documentary "Inside Deep Throat," which chronicles the highs and lows of a film and industry that changed the course of sexuality and American politics. Avoiding the spotlight for over 20 years, Reems spent some time detailing a life that is at times funny, tragic and ultimately uplifting, as Paul Fischer discovered when he spent some time chatting to the once infamous actor about a life less ordinary.

Harry was born Herbert Streicher in New York’s Manhattan. Harry studied acting with Lee Strasberg and was a founding member of the experimental theater company, Café LaMama. It was the late ‘60s and the adult world of porn was still in its infancy and not an industry.

Reems recalls when he first started making adult films, it was all very much under the counter, and "little 8mm, 10-minute epics, which would be shown in private homes." By 1972, Harry had already appeared in close to a dozen, underground films and was already getting bored with acting. Then in 1972, Harry was asked to fly to Florida as a lighting cameraman for what he assumed was going to be another small, anonymous film.

He remembers the fun times he had on that set, and scowls when we come to the inevitable mention of star Linda Lovelace. Reems says he had "made movies with Linda prior to Deep Throat, and Linda was never forced at gunpoint to do anything," remarking, angrily, that Lovelace had willingly appeared in "some films that I would never even think of being in," including early bestiality movies.

"The name Linda Lovelace was invented, as was the name Harry Reems, and then she tried to catch a train to fame and it didn’t work." Reems recalls that Lovelace "wasn’t articulate, couldn’t act, and so she went to all the Hollywood parties. So eventually to make money she joined the women’s movement, anti-porn and said ‘I was forced at gunpoint' and of course that lasted for a while, but when she couldn’t make money doing that anymore, or when she wasn’t a good interview anymore, she went right back to porn, or back to nudity.

She was doing nude photographs at the end of her life and films with nudity." As for Lovelace’s literary account of that period in her now infamous book, Ordeal, "it was a total lie. But, she was a nice enough woman and sexually she was fun and when you look at the film you see this big smile, and I was on every set because I was the lighting director, not just the scenes I did, and nobody ever forced her to do anything."

Deep Throat would emerge as more than just a porn film, a theme explored in the Inside Deep Throat documentary. Reems says that nothing could have prepared him for the effect that little film would have on America’s burgeoning sexual revolution. "I was totally shocked, and I think I now know the reason," says Reems. "Deep Throat was the first film to say that it held no social redeeming value; we are going for straight out burlesque comedy, and just have fun. Of course it caught the attention of a few celebrities, the word of mouth spread and the government started to prosecute it because it was becoming famous, which only led to more people going to the theaters"

"So, the Justice Department basically made the film succeed." And succeed it did, raking in the money and turning pornography into a virtual legitimate and almost respectable art form. While Deep Throat would emerge as the most profitable film of all time, life for Harry Reems would also undergo a dramatic change. Initially, the world post-Deep Throat was still his oyster.

"After Deep Throat’s fame I did a few more porno movies, but instead of getting 100 bucks like all of the others I was getting 3, 4, 5,000 a day. They just wanted my name in the credits, on the poster and theater marquees. Reems even got offered adult films in Europe, "so I made several films in Germany which were shoot-em-ups or gangster movies."

Then, Reems’ world began to slowly unravel. "I came home for a couple of weeks to do my laundry, say hello to friends, before I started another movie in Rome, and I got arrested for Deep Throat. The FBI came to my door in the middle of the night, handcuffed me, and took me to the New York courts." While much of this is discussed in the documentary, hearing the actor’s recounting of this entire incident remains an eye-opener, with the whole Deep Throat case emerging as one of the most damaging trials of the 1980s. "They told me to waive extradition, that I’m going to Memphis, Tennessee, to stand trial for distributing a movie," recalls an emotional Reems, who understands why he was going on trial for distributing the movie, referring to it as a conspiracy.

"If you have knowledge of a crime in the United States and you don’t legally disavow and destroy that crime you’re held responsible for it. So, I knew the film was in distribution, but what I didn’t know was that there was going to be eight members of the Columbo organized crime family that I was on trial with. I think the prosecutor was trying to do nothing more than get some press and bring his trial to the attention of the public and maybe build up his name. What he didn’t realize was I went and got more press. This was the first time an artist of any kind was being prosecuted by the federal government.

There were new laws and new obscenity statutes in 1981 and they went back to the ‘76 statutes, and then the broadest use of the conspiracy laws in the history of the United States." Tearfully, Reems recounts going through this trial, every day listening about murders, "about money going in suitcases and the street fights between two families over the proceeds." It was then, that Reems began drinking heavily, as the trial began to bear its toll. "I was told by Alan Dershowitz, who is a law professor up at Harvard, that if the Republicans were reelected I’m going to jail but if the Democrats get into office I’d be scot-free.

Of course, Dershowitz knows a lot of people in Washington so I got calls from Ramsey Clark, who is a past Attorney General from the ‘60s, during the Kennedy era. I got calls from Eugene McCarthy saying, ‘Harry, don’t worry, if we take the White House we’re letting you go‚ because I’d be crying to Dershowitz because I was scared. I mean, I didn’t commit any of those murders. I didn’t steal that money. I didn’t do those things to those people. I didn’t even know it was obscene. It was nothing more than to try to take attention away from the Watergate fiasco."

Reems did not go to jail, but his life was a shambles. " I didn’t get sober until ‘89. His change came when an officer said to him, ‘Harry, if you could only get sober, if you could only fix this problem, you have no idea how many people you could help, how many lives you can save, how valuable your life could become.’

Harry got sober. Reems was finally determined to put the past behind him. "Today I live a very honest and loving life." Now a born again Christian, living a quiet, but successful life in Park City, "I have a wonderful marriage, a beautiful home, a very successful business, and I still go to those rooms and still go to those meetings."

Until recently, Harry had never discussed his past, declined all interview requests and preferred to live the life of an entrepreneur in this ski resort. Then he was contracted about a new film being made, a documentary on a time that he would rather forget. "I was ready to say no. But, when he learned that the directors wanted to take Deep Throat and use it as a thread to show the social, cultural change in America that took place in the late ‘60s and the ‘70s and ‘80s,he agreed.

For Reems, Inside Deep Throat remains but a memory, the glare of the spotlight has once again dimmed, and Harry Reems says that he looks forward to returning to reality. He hopes the documentary and the recently announced re-release of that original porn classic, will remind us of an era that forged a revolution and the beginning of one of the more unique film industries in Hollywood history.

 

Buy Deep Throat On DVD

The most famous of all adult movies! Linda Lovelace's classic story of a young beautiful lady with a special problem: she feels she should be getting more out of sex than a lot of little tingles… and mix her together with a young kookie, horny physician who discovers the whys and hows of getting her bells ringing! Deep Throat is the funniest, sexually explicit romp to ever come along in motion picture history!