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Harry Reems aka Herbert Streicher
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photo: Kenneth Turan |
In a recent Times
obit “Harry Reems,Star of ‘Deep Throat’ Film, Dies at 65," Margalit Fox
describes Reems’ odyssey from Jewish born porn star alcoholic to converted
Christian 12 step program adherent and successful business man. Fox
quotes from a 2005 interview in the Ottawa Citizen where Reems equates his
present and past careers. “I’m still selling dirt,” Reems pithily remarks.
There are many myths surrounding sexuality and the one that Jews are not
well-endowed was belied by both Reems ( renamed by the porn director Gerard Damiano, after being born Herbert Streicher, according to Fox) and Ron Jeremy, another
major porn star. Actually the cultural significance of Reems and Jeremy was
fusing the borscht belt sense of humor (both loved to ham and mug for the
camera) with the sexual technique and equipment of famous stallions like Man ‘O
War. Fox’s obit is instructive since it exhumes earlier Reems efforts like Erecter Set, Mondo Porno and The Altar of
Lust, which you don’t hear much about today. Still in all there is
something very American about Reems’ career. It’s a new version of the Horatio
Alger story, with a little bit of Saint Augustine and the Apostle Paul thrown
in. On his road to Damascus, Reems finds his higher power who turns out to be
Jesus and finds his calling which happens to be selling real estate. Future
biographers of Reems might want to look into his attitude towards sub-prime
mortgages. “Deep Throat” would of course go on to have even greater
significance as the pseudonym for Mark Felt, the FBI associate director, who blew
the whistle on the Watergate
conspirators.
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