A story about Harry Reems which appeared in the NYC Daily News is making its rounds on the Internet. Thought you might enjoy some of the highlights.
It begins with Reems' bust by the Feds in July 1974 when the feds barged in on Reems' apartment at 433 W. 24th St. in New York. It was 4 am. Reems told his date to stay in bed and he went out to see what all the clamor was about. Reems asked who it was and the Feds replied,"We have a warrant for your arrest." Seconds later, two FBI agents, guns drawn, burst inside. Two more waited outside, keeping the neighbors, drawn by the noise, at bay. Reems told them it was all a mistake. "But authorities weren't buying it," the story reports. Reems was slapped in handcuffs.
"Then they all marched off into the very center of a legal battle that would test the limits of free speech and make Harry Reems, 26-year-old porno star, an unlikely Hollywood hero," the story reports.
The story describes Reems as a Bronx boy from 168th St. and Grand Concourse who grew up dreaming of becoming an actor. After a stint in the Marines, Reems landed in a Shakespearean troupe, making $38 a week in Off-Off-Broadway productions, sometimes supplementing his earnings with the occasional Wheaties commercial.
Soon, Reems discovered there was money to be made performing in front of a camera. Although he would later insist he was never a "porno person," Reems at age 21 found employment in the blue-movie business, thanks to a remarkable physique and an efficiency rate he put at "up around 95%."
Reems would admit that he loved sex and was very promiscuous, though the stint of his acting was confined to silent stag films until he got his big break when he found himself in Miami, an extra on the set of a movie called "Deep Throat."
When the male lead failed to show, Reems stepped into porn history, playing one Dr. Young, opposite Linda Lovelace. According to the Daily News piece, Reems was paid a scant $100 for his romp with the porn princess, but "DeepThroat" became a blockbuster that made Damiano and his backers a fortune and turned the once obscure Reems into a superstar.
Reems wnr on to making "thousands" playing studs in such porn classics as "The Devil in Miss Jones" and "Wet Rainbow." Pinnacle Books even gave him an advance to pen his life story, "Here Comes Harry Reems." And in interviews, Reems spoke of porn as therapy.
"I entered this business a shy kid with all the usual sexual hangups," Reems is quoted as saying in the Daily News piece. "Now I can really relate to women."
A federal grand jury in Brooklyn in 1974, however was investigating whether the mob was getting a cut of "Deep Throat" profits. Damiano and Lovelace escaped indictment by testifying. But 101 film distribution types and Reems were named as unindicted co-conspirators. Reems was subsequently charged with conspiracy to transport "Deep Throat" to Memphis, where he had never been. He wass the first actor ever slapped with federal obscenity charges.
Soon Reems was sitting in the same Tennessee courthouse where in 1925 a high school teacher named John Scopes had been convicted of teaching evolution. The conspiracy-to-distribute charge was dropped, but Reems was convicted of obscenity, which meant five years in the slammer and thousands of dollars in fines.
"If it weren't for actors like Mr. Reems, we wouldn't have movies like 'Deep Throat,' Judge Harry Welford said at the time. Federal prosecutor Larry Parrish, who told jurors he would "rather see dope on the streets than these movies," proclaimed that the conviction would be the porn industry's death blow. "It sets a new precedent because there's never been a conviction on a conspiracy case where you had people from all levels of the operation," Parrish said.
Boston defense attorney Alan Dershowitz, who was hired for Reems' appeal, said the ruling would have a "chilling effect" on the entire film industry.
"Initially it was seen as joke, ha, ha, porno star gets busted," Dershowitz said. "But now people are going around seeing it as a very serious issue." A Reems Legal Defense Fund was set up and as Reems, who was out on bail, pleaded his case the movers and shakers in the industry quickly signed on.
"This is the first time that a performer has even been subjected to federal prosecution," Reems told anyone who would listen. "Even Lenny Bruce was charged in local courts." Personalities like Ben Gazzara, Mike Nichols, Colleen Dewhurst and Stephen Sondheim hosted an invitation-only party at Ted Hook's Backstage to raise money for Reems' defense.
In Hollywood, Jack Nicholson urged fellow actors to give with everyone from Stacy Keach, Gregory Peck, Lorne Greene and Louise Fletcher to Rod McKuen and Buck Henry chipping in to save Reems from prison.
"Today Harry Reems, tomorrow Helen Hayes," Warren "Bulworth" Beatty warned. Actors Equity, the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America filed legal briefs to aid Reems. And Dershowitz came up with a compelling argument that Reems was unfairly convicted because the legal standards that applied when he made "Deep Throat" were different from those when he was charged.
Under increasing pressure, Judge Welford set aside Reems' conviction, and while he ordered a new trial, he never set a new trial date which put the Reems case in a legal limbo, where it remains to this day.
Meanwhile, Reems went on to make his legitimate debut in a Canadian picture called "The Squad" and was featured in "National Lampoon Goes to the Movies." And that was that. Reems, according to the News piece, sought solace in drugs and booze. One day in 1987 he woke up in Park City, Utah, got sober, found God and wed a woman named Jeanne, who had been one of his fans since his "Deep Throat" days. Reems went on to open Reems Realty, a successful Park City firm.
