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Avon

Avon porno, shot on 16mm for $5-10,000 per film, played first at Avon adult theaters around Times Square in the 1970s. Then was distributed across the world. These were particularly nasty films which won few if any adult awards. Directors and cast were shunned for their wild ways.

In an article for Alpha Blue Archives, Bill Landis and his wife Michelle Clifford write that Chelly Wilson, a gay Greek émigré with a husband in Puerto Rico, owned the Avon chain which boasted such 8th Avenue theaters as Venus, Eros and Adonis.

Chelly's assistant Murray ran the Avon chain. A tall, pale man around 70 yo, Murray built the Avon empire by taking cheap longterm commercial leases on various grindhouses in Times Square. During the mid-1970s, the Avon chain encompassed the Doll, Avon 7, Paris, Bryant, Avon 42nd, Avon Love, Park Miller, and Avon Hudson theaters. Landis writes that Murray's trusted bookkeeper and office manager was former cheesecake model Stella Stevens.

Stella directly ran the theaters with help from Puerto Rico brothers, the Martinezes and Torreses, who spent most of their adult lives as cashiers, bouncers, projectionists and maintenance men.

Avon Theaters gave Andy Warhol films like My Hustler, Vinyl and Flesh their first big runs in the mid 1960s. Avon opened New York's first all-male theater, the Park Miller, on 43rd Street between 6th Avenue and Broadway.

Avon's lead straight premiere house, the Hudson, located a block north of the Park Miller on 44th Street, featured "San Francisco Shorts." These sex loops came from West Coast's Graffiti Productions and were directed by Howard Ziehm.

Next came live sex acts, simulated at first, by such future porn stars as Jamie Gillis, Marc Stevens and Tina and Jason Russell (frequently photographed by Sal Sodano).

Avon developed such interracial porn as Black Gold and Black Neighbors.

In 1975, the company moved into "roughies," graphic combos of sex and violence that had been popular since 1963.

A graduate of Avon's live sex shows, Jason Russell (star of Defiance), split from his wife Tina, began shooting low budget roughies for Avon (frequently with help from Sal Sodano).

To get the full scoop, check out the excellent zine by Bill Landis and Michelle Clifford, METASEX, available at POB 620, Old Chelsea Station, NY, NY, 10011.