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Book Description
Susie Bright, “The Pauline Kael of Porn,” (SFChronicle) rips open the history of erotic cinema before the Internet— from the Golden Age of lavish 35mm hardcore, to the video-inspired “Porno Spring,” initiated by none other than punk, feminist, and lesbian video-makers.
In this first volume of The Erotic Screen, covering 1967-1989, you’ll find Bright’s ground-breaking “X-Rated Advisor” columns from Penthouse Forum, her shocking “killed story” about the history of racism in the Adult Industry, and truly intimate interviews with legendary artists like Russ Meyer, John Leslie, Sharon Mitchell, Jeannie Pepper, and Christopher Rage.
Chapters include: the bizarre beginnings of How-To Sex Videos, the secrets of Erotic Foreign Cinema, The Last of Traci Lords, The Eve of John Holmes’ Departure, the last word on “What Women Want” in erotica, Susie’s blue movie favorites, (both X and R-rated), the never-spoken realities behind a porn shoot, the invention of the “Blatant Lesbian Image”— plus dozens of fan questions answered with Susie’s panache and perceptive detail.
If you want to know why erotic movies were the first independent films to break all the Hollywood Studio rules— if you want to know why sex on screen can change your life— you need to see where it all began in this first volume of “Susie Bright’s Erotic Screen.”
Note: This book is not illustrated. Each chapter is filled with informational (text, photo, and video) hyperlinks for every movie and artist mentioned, plus a complete Source Index for readers to discover more of Susie’s subjects.
"How an innocent young lesbian was hired by Bob Guccione to write erotica, and saw her first X-rated movie."
— Roger Ebert, Twitter
"A gold mine of porn history, and a funny, complicated, sometimes squirming-in-your-seat trip through the beginnings of serious porn film contemplation."
— Cory Silverberg, About.com Sexuality
"Filled with gems...Basically, if you have an interest in the 1980s era of adult movies, this book is a *must*.
Bright exquisitely bangs a keyboard about John Holmes, racism in XXX, interviews Sharon Mitchell and John Leslie, reviews super-rad rarities like SMOKER, TAMPON TANGO, and...aw man, there is just so much good stuff in here."
— Robin Bourgie, Cinema Sewer
"An amazing experience to read the book and learn just how freaking much Susie Bright knows about classic porn."
— Hot Movies For Her
I remembered a surprising amount of this from having seen it in Penthouse during the '80s. Her tribute to a John Holmes best-of compendium as "the women's tape of the year" is as entertaining as any sex writing you've read.
Hate to say this, but your book and kindle together are Better than Sex. lol. It's more than a walk down memory lane; it's allowing me to re-visit those days. I'm on my third read. It's become my background music. Nobody can top your wry humor and the wealth of knowledge and experience you bring. The thumbnail sketches of the directors, performers and every significant film (even some turkeys) are among my fave parts. Major Props Rabdrake
There are many wonderful things about this collection of essays and criticism by Susie Bright, but one of the biggest is the enthusiasm Bright brings to her writing. She is not content to simply go by hearsay, but must seek out not just the videos but the creators and performers to give readers the inside scoop. She isn't trying to demystify porn to the point that people can't get off on it, but rather to give porn fans all the more reason to watch their favorite performer. Yes, she has strong opinions about what she likes and what's shlock, but it's precisely this quality that makes her criticisms so valuable. One might think, only hearing about it after its heyday, as I did, that Deep Throat was the x-rated movie to end all movies, but Bright disagrees.
There's a time capsule quality to this work which you can see from the footnotes; most of the people Bright is writing about here are no longer in the business, and some met tragic ends. At the same time, this writing endures as a contrast to what's happening today in porn and a look at Bright's education and induction into covering the topic, as a pioneering woman standing up for women's desire and voyeurism, and a genuinely curious journalist. And by this I don't mean that Bright casts a "everything was better back in the day" glow on her work; these are simply pieces that you won't find elsewhere and are, in my opinion, companion pieces to her later work. Bright asks questions that extend beyond just the screen and explore elements of sexuality that are relevant to any sexual being, while getting into the nuts and bolts of adult filmmaking and the fascinating characters onscreen and off. I look forward to reading the next volume.