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So he began pouring out 8 mm color loops for various New York porn shops, specializing in kinky stuff such as animals, transsexuals, and animals and transsexuals together. One couple volunteered to urinate in each others' mouths, and so he began shooting piss scenes. He edited his material in the attic of John Waters who had just finished Pink Flamingos. In 1979 Carpenter moved from Baltimore to Los Angeles. Around 1980, he shot a successful she-males video series for Reuben Sturman. Carpenter is known for his dumb scripts and sharp closeups. His most erotic early video was 1984's I Want It All starring Ginger Lynn and Janey Robbins. In 1986, Carpenter, raised in Conservative Judaism, left porn to return to Baltimore to spend time with his dying mother. Over the eleven months that followed, he prayed the traditional Jewish prayer for mourners, Kaddish, twice a day at an orthodox synagogue with his father, still alive and hearty at age 85 (6/98). He returned to porn in 1989, but the business had changed forever. Budgets and quality had declined dramatically from the Golden Age. Used to having money, Michael has been poor through the '90s. According to a veteran pornographer, Carpenter is lucky to be alive because he supposedly screwed Reuben Sturman and was lucky he did not get knocked off. Another source, however, says this: "Sturman had been putting off paying Michael for a film he made for Sturman. Reuben had a meeting with Mike at his Valley office and, again, said he couldn't pay him for a while. "Although Sturman and Michael had been friends and business partners for many years, Sturman enjoyed "controlling" people. Michael lost his temper and called Sturman some names (unknown by me). They had such confrontations before, but this time, the office door was open and Michael's words were heard by Sturman's staff. "As a result, Sturman "blackballed" Michael by calling all of Sturman's customers and telling them not to give any work to Michael. Many persons depended on Sturman, and so the blackballing was very effective and Michael left the business for several years." Around 1989, Michael successfully sued Reuben's companies Royce Distributors and Vidco for not paying him. Carpenter made Anal Secrets where Debi Diamond punishes Kitty Yung for her sins, Marc Wallice drives his dick down Diamond's throat and Peter North spouts all over Lana Sands' pouting face. (AVN 97) Though it's run 17 editions since it debut in 1992, Michael's Hot Tight Asses hasn't changed a bit - nonstop sex which varies in heat. In the original, T.T. Boy goes up the bottoms of Persia and Bionca. Bionca has trouble with her video camera in 1993's Vol. 4, so her boyfriend Scott Mallory takes it out to see what's wrong, and "discovers that all their friends like having kinky sex on tape. If you like the idea of men getting f---ed in the ass by a woman wearing a strap-on, then this is your porn meat. It doesn't happen until the final scene, but when Bionca finds out Scott has been directing their friends in kinky anal action, she takes it out on his fat white ass... The rest of the tape is high octane sex with the emphasis on close-up photography... In the hottest anal scene of the year, Beatrice Valle takes T.T Boy in a piledriver ass f--- with a facial finale without a cut." (AFW 97) Davia Ardell takes on Max Steiner in Vol. 11, and Peter North plunges into Kim Kataine's bottom. Carpenter shot his last edition, #20 (starring Davia Ardell), in August of 1997. In 1993's Bossy Babes, the women take charge. "Technically perfect, high voltage sex." (AFW 97) Bionca stars as a personal trainer sidelined by a broken leg in 1993's Kittens IV. Her "troubles are compounded by competitor Tyffany Million stealing her clients. Bionca sends her new charge, Bitch (Francesca Le) to find out how Million moved in on her female bodybuilding business. It's another dumb Mike Carpenter script that is forgiven when some of the foxiest f--- holes in porn start grinding, stuffing and eating each other in a parade of kinky girl-girl sex." (AFW 97) Michael feels amazed at the abundance of poor quality X-rated productions. He feels dismayed as the biz turns increasingly nasty, increasingly degrading towards women. He shoots less frequently, and struggles to distribute his product. His last feature appeared from Sin City at the end of 1997, Limousine, shot for about $26,000. "There's so much cheap catalog stuff out there that many distributors will only take that, and the stuff pushed by AVN. So regular guys who don't advertise have problems selling videos. "I get about one job a year shooting for other people. I'd like to. I don't know why people don't hire me. Perhaps they want younger guys. And I'm not good at bulls---ting them. And I won't kick back money… I know at a couple of companies, guys who head production are getting kickbacks. "I'm disturbed by the amount of hateful product. Box covers that denigrate women. 'I'm a cocksucking whore.' Couples won't watch that." I talked to Michael in August of 1998. He was editing his latest release - Make The Bitches Beg. "This business has reached the point, unfortunately, where you have to come up with tougher and tougher titles. When you look at the things that sell… "Make The Bitches Beg features women crawling around, begging for sex. It stars Felecia Ann, Temptress, Shelby Myne… "The other thing that sells is when the director is in front of the camera… Ben Dover, Max Hardcore, John Stagliano… I have no plans at age 58 to appear in front of the camera." Michael has just released How To Throw A Great Stag Party, featuring girls who've worked many stag parties telling stories about their experiences. "I think they're telling the truth. I'm not telling them what to say…"
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