Wham Bam $$ Ba Da Boom!: Mob Wars, Porn Battles and a View from the Trenches. (Sojourner)

An errant young filmmaker turns a corner in life, and steps into the smarmy subterranean world inhabited by porn stars and gangsters - playpen of the damned. A first hand history by one who experienced the paradigm shift from titillation to penetration in adult films. During the 1970's the mob was heavily involved in porn and making films in NYC meant dealing with some of the toughest customers in town. Porn was profitable, illegal and a loadstone for gangsters and profiteers attracted to the easy cash from 8 mm smut loops. Possibly one of the most influential sociological changes since the industrial revolution, the advent of hardcore sex films in public places, stripped away much of the quasi-moral vestiges of the ninetieth century Victorian era. It was a time when mores, morals and modesty changed inexorably. Pornography was not the only sociological shift; it was happening in the arts, politics and society in general. Whether pornography was a catalyst or a by-product of this change is difficult to cleave, but it certainly played a big part in challenges for first amendment rights.