I appreciate this happened quite a while ago, but I was reminded of the excellent David Simons TV series, The Deuce this week. Why? The show follows a group of New York men and women in the throes of creating the modern porn film industry.
This ties in with Alex Cohen’s business activity in The Mensch, the final book in the series, although Alex is based further south. In fact, in the early Seventies, there was a push across the country, focused around the major cities, as adult entertainment moved from flickering images shown in private homes and the breakthrough when certain cinemas were prepared to let the projectors whirl.
As the TV show amply shows, the cause of the expansion was the increase in investment in the distribution side of the business. And who wanted to pump the money into the business? The mob, of course.
