One night in 1978, Lesllie Bovee changed the life of NY bathing suit buyer Stuart Allen, a secular Jew. "We went on one date and then she moved in with me," he recalls. "She came for an evening and stayed two years."

The 27-year old soon quit his job to produce and market porn. He became the first person in America to market X-rated films to cable TV companies. In 1980, he began producing. Bunny's Office Fantasies was his debut. Stuart made about 40 more before retiring in 1985 afraid of AIDS. "The government was predicting a literal holocaust among heterosexuals and I didn't want any part of killing somebody just to make a buck," Allen told Swank's Kent Lamar.

After the scare turned out to have little foundation, Allen sought to return to porn. It took him a while to figure out a niche. "Jamie Gillis did a bunch of films where he would just ride around in a limo with a girl and then film lher having sex with guys off the street. And that was it. That's what I wanted to do, let porn fans f--- their favorite porn stars, and make it into a video."

Stuart finally made Every Porn Fan's Ultimate Fantasy starring Shanna McCullough and Micky Lynn. Allen plays the paper-bag-over-the-head Anonymous Fan. "He's every guy who ever held up a men's magazine with one hand. Wherever guys drop quarters into peep show booths, he'll be there. Wherever guys hit slow-mo on their VCRs, he'll be there. Wherever guys stuff dollar bills into a porn star's g-string, he'll be there." (Swank 1/98)

Allen placed newspaper ads looking for volunteers. "Would you like to attend a very special party? One where real fans of the world of porn get to have 'hands on' experiences with their favorite X-rated stars?"

I interviewed Allen over the phone Sunday night, 7/2/01.

Stuart: "I started this series in 1997 called Every Porn Fan's Ultimate Fantasy. And I'd fly girls into New York, get a bunch of fans, put them in a room, and see what happens. It didn't work out particularly. I did six here in New York. Some of the fans, the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak. Others would show up and leave at intermission before the hardcore began or not show up at all. Meantime, I'm paying for all these people's [HIV] tests and it's running into a lot of money.

"The second tape was Anna Malle, Lovette and Timber. Third tape was Alexandra Silk. One of the great bonuses of my life was meeting her.

"I was talking to my dear friend Reb Sawitz one day and he's telling me a story about this girl who's interceding in a dispute Reb's having with Jim South over who is supposed to get commission for this girl. I knew that it would be awkward for a girl to do that and that it requires a degree of character. I wanted to hire the girl and it turned out to be Alexandra Silk."

Luke: "What have you been best known for in the last five years?"

Stuart: "Failing miserably at shooting videos. Right now I have six on the shelf that I can't sell. I tried to do something different. Everybody says, 'We're tired of the same stuff. Show us something different.' I shot something different nobody wants to buy it."

Luke: "What is it?"

Stuart: "It's reality. It's not just gonzo but it's real. It's people really having a good time. I got what I wanted but it is not commercial.

"What I find most interesting about sex is reality. That's why I like gonzo as opposed to scripted tapes. I like people being themselves rather than being a character. I did some shoots where people liked the people with whom they were working and put them in a situation where they could be free and relaxed. No sharp corners or strange positions. Just let the people go. It turned out great. It's just too relaxed.

"I used Alexandra Silk, T.J. Hart... I was sleeping at Reb's [on one of Stuart's regular trips to Los Angeles where he shoots his porn] and in the front room were three brand new porn stars. I hadn't planned to use them but as long as I was staying in a house with these people... They were all out of the business within three months.

"Then I shot with Kate Frost and T.J. and Alex and I shot a gangbang tape with Porsche Lynn, her first gangbang. I can't give that away. I've sent out screeners to 20 companies."

Luke: "Over the course of your career, what are you best known for?"

Stuart: "Inventing adult hardcore in cable in 1979. I'm living with Lesllie Bovee and selling bathing suits to Saks Fifth Avenue. And Lesllie and I are watching an R-rated movie on cable TV and I turn to her and say, 'Honey, you make better movies than this.' A light went on over my head.

"So I went to my friend Tracy Nelson and said, 'Can we sell these things [hardcore movies] to cable?' So I went to Sam Lake of Mature Pictures, who ran the World Theater when they took the bust for Deep Throat. Had Sam not taken that bust, you would've never heard of Damiano or Deep Throat or Linda Lovelace.

"So I told Sam my idea and he laughed at me. He wanted to throw me out of his office. I said, 'Don't pay me, just give me ten percent of the gross.' A year later, I sold contracts worth a million dollars. I sold Playboy their first sex, ON TV their first sex, WHT their first sex. I created the adult cable business."

Luke: "And then it escaped from your hands."

Stuart: "Nobody really understood it. Most of these companies did not have softcore versions. They did not know how to approach these white collar companies. That was my background so I had no trouble doing that. I sold pictures that cost anywhere from $20-$100,000 to shoot except for Take Off which cost $250,000. Still the most expensive f--- film every made. The marketplace we competed with were Hollywood films that cost a million dollars and up. So when I got $25,000 for a licensing fee, that was almost the production cost.

"The companies we sold to were competing with HBO which was in its infancy. As HBO proliferated, the pay TV systems closed up. For a year or two, we made money like bandits. And then most of our accounts went under. And then I segued into a production company with Chuck Vincent. Chuck and I were partners and we made a deal with Playboy to shoot ten pictures for a million dollars. The first one was In Love starring Kelly Nichols. The movie did terribly theatrically and the cable revenues were insufficent, so that deal fell apart. But the deal got Playboy into the hardcore business."

Luke: "How do you make your living?"

Stuart: "I do porn to have something to do. I live simply. I don't have tremendous bills and I have certain family money.

"T.J. Hart and I are just friends. I've used her in most of my pictures. I can honestly say that with the exception of a couple of minutes in a parking lot, I've never been alone with her for five seconds."

Luke: "Aside from Lesllie Bovee, have you had porn star girlfriends?"

Stuart: "I had a thing with Shauna Grant for four months. I knew Bobby Hollander through Gloria Leonard. Bobby was her manager. She was coming to New York working a picture. I was involved with everything that went on in New York, be it casting, production or distribution or consulting for cable sales.

"Bobby called and asked me to pick her up at the airport. She was a nice pretty girl about 20 years old. They lost her luggage. I was impressed that she didn't get upset about that. We drove into the city and I dropped her off at her hotel and gave her my card and said, 'If you need anything in New York, give me a call. Goodbye.'

"A few days later, I get a phone call. She's finished her shoot. She's back in the city. Would I like to have dinner with her? So I take her to a nice place for dinner. We talk. We walk outside and I'm getting ready to call her a cab to go home. And she goes, 'Are you teasing me? Why haven't you made a pass at me?' For some reason, that intrigued her and we started going out.

"She was exquisite. She was every Jewish boy's dream of a beautiful blonde shiksa. She had a smile that lit up the room, like T.J. Hart."

Luke: "Did she have drug problems when you knew her?"

Stuart: "Not that I'm aware of. I read an article after her death that she contracted herpes, which I would've appreciated knowing. But I never saw her do any drugs.

"I didn't catch herpes. I'm completely clean."

Luke: "How many porn stars have you had sex with?"

Stuart: "Under a dozen."

Luke: "Do you get in front of the camera?"

Stuart: "I did a couple of scenes in my last tape. Lesllie wanted me to do a scene with her but at that time they weren't shooting gonzo. And I was partners with most of the people she worked for. When I shot my own series, I tried to do a couple of scenes and I was terrible. I would not hire me again. I realized that the secret is not to have to stay up all night and whack two times to try to go to sleep the night before a scene. I learned that and did some scenes. I was pleased with my performance and I would hire me again.

"Sandy Fox (Lyons) was the big porn agent in New York, representing Darby Lloyd Raines and that generation. I introduced Sandy to Bobby Wolf. She married him and became Sandy Fox Lyons Wolf. And Sandy introduced me to Lesllie Bovee. How else would a nice Jewish boy at Saks meet a porn star?"

Luke: "How do you reconcile being Jewish and being in pornography?"

Stuart: "I'm culturally Jewish. I'm a devout agnostic. I don't see a conflict.

"I immediately noticed [upon] entering porn a sociological skew - everyone was either Jewish or Italian. There were women running companies then, there was no glass ceiling. That was one thing I always liked about this business, if you could do your job, it didn't matter what you looked like.

"Living with Lesllie, I met all her friends. I was friends with talent before I became management. I learned from them and they'd come up to me after working for me and say, 'Gee, you really listened to what we told you.' It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if you treat people like machines, you get mechanical sex scenes.

"Bonny Atlas (distributor, shot movies with Jack Braverman) Ava Leighton, Ron Sullivan's mother in law, ran one of the major companies in New York, Bobby Sumner, president of Mature aka QualityX Video. Mature was the Rolls Royce of the industry. They produced and distributed films. We couldn't make them fast enough for QualityX. They were retailing for $99 and every week we'd put another dozen slaves in the duplication room.

"I shot the first videos in New York. I hired Ron Sullivan to direct his first video, in 1983.

"After cable, I got into video duplication. I became friends with Arthur Morowitz and Howie Farber at Distribupix. I became their house producer. I shot six features and about a dozen videos. Since 1997, I've shot another dozen or so videos. For the most part, they're boring."

Stuart Allen runs the web site StrokeBookVideo.com.

Stuart: "The people in this industry have open minds and feel free to pursue whatever their desires may be. I find that healthy. There are certainly people who've been hurt by this industry, such as Shauna Grant. Many people blame the industry for her death. She tried to kill herself in highschool, before porn. It's not an industry that attracts the most level and rational individuals. It attracts people who've stepped back from mainstream America. I tell Alexandra Silk that we should write a book together. I told her, 'It's a shame that you do not know what it's like when you're not around. There's a magic that follows her.'

Stuart writes: I am friendly with Candida Royalle, the most successful ex-x-star, and once a year we ask each other, "Have you heard from Leslie?" When last heard of, in 1990, she wrote me to tell me she had just had a baby boy. I wrote back and that was it. If I had to guess, I'd say happy, healthy and living life in Long Island.

I have dinner periodically with Candice and they who used to be Samantha Fox and Bobby Astyr. Sam looks great and is devoted to Bobby who is battling cancer for the second time. He also looks well and his spirits are high. Another friend lives near to Susan McBain and he says that time has not been kind to her and that she is unwell. Just about everyone else from the old days is either dead, vanished, or in LA. I make no comments.

7/4/01

Stuart Allen writes Luke: I am a low level player in this great industry but I thought my most recent difficulty might be of interest to you. I live in NYC but shoot all my x rated tapes in LA. On Tuesday, I got a call from Craig Amabello, my editor, informing me that he wanted $1000 in cash by the first of July for "storage" of my work tapes( all of which could fit inside of a large shoebox). If I didn't pay him the money they "might get ruined". I hung up the phone and called the LAPD to report the attempted extortion. I will be speaking with the DA this week but the police said that this sounded more like a civil matter than a criminal one. Craig is amazed that I prefer to go to the expense of hiring an attorney instead of paying him his "fee". I have hired him in the past and there is no question that I do not owe him any additional amount for the work he has already done. He just wants a storage fee, or else. I won't pay blackmail. I realize that there are always three sides to every story; mine, his and what really happened. Admittedly, these tapes have been in his possession for 6 months due to my inability to sell them and my wish to have them ready for reediting, should the need arise.

RESPONSE FROM: CRAIG AMABELLO
RE: Your phone call to me about Stuart Allens Strange accusations against myself.
Time: 3:36 A.M.

Once again, I've had a long hot f---in day shooting for the Insane but highly entertaining, Jim Powers, on his latest opus for Gabor & Heatwave Entertainment titled, "Baby Doll". I still can't shake the image from today of Gabor, Intensely explaining that he heard on talk radio that the size of the average white American males penis is the same size as a Nextel Cell Phone, while the average Black males is the size of a Nextel phone, with the Antenna Extended!

After a 15 hour day the last thing I want to do is check my phone messages, But I do. As I'm listening to my answering machine I realize that I can once again chalk up another name in my ever growing list of random late night porn calls. I hear the very clear & lucid voice of yours truly asking if I would like to make a statement about a one: Stuart Allen & his charge that I am Blackmailing him! Since YOU asked...... Here is my side of the story: & a brief history.

I am 39. Been in show biz all my life. Living in LA. for the last decade. Been in Porn for over 6 years now, Directing, Shooting, & Editing...( Hey, wanna hire me?........ e-mail me: amabello@wgn.net). ( But please, don't email saying you want to kill me, I have an agent now that exclusively handles all my Death threats). Everyone knows me, & yet no one knows me. What's crazy is that I just may be up for "the most hated man in porn" award. Even though I work hard, I'm easy to get along with, & I get the job done.

It seems like I don't have the right connections, & can't advance myself to a better level, but yet on an average day I may have Buck Adams calling me, telling me, "He's gonna kick my ass Texas Style". To that loser/Lying/thief/Punk, Johnny Toxic Screaming messages repeatedly into my machine that I would be sucking his dick forever, to Alec Metro telling me he was going to kick my ass because HE owed me money, to Paul from Notorious telling me that I am Banned for all eternity for doing editing for the 10 network because I had the gaul to call someone there & ask a question. To the absolutely Intensely Insane, Jack Hammer, who on any given day vacillates between wanting to make me his bitch or his buddy.

To Jim Powers constantly screaming into my message machine at 8:10 A.M. to: "Put down the bong/ & or Crack pipe & get my ass down to the set" when we all know that not even the production manager is out of bed yet. Let alone the girls who haven't yet gone to bed because they're still snorting lines from the night before, which was the day before, which started a week ago....You get the picture.

To my buddy, Dave Hardman who always calls & reminds me, "Hey, you think You got a hard life, try being me for a week". To a couple days ago when an L.A.P.D Detective from the Robbery/Extortion/Blackmail Division called my home & said he had some questions about Stuart Allen & that hey, "We don't have your house surrounded by Police cars, we just only wanna talk to you bit". I sit & wonder how this all comes to Stuart Allen & his Fantabuluse, Phantograzmitical, Bulls--- tale of my Blackmailing him. But here we are.

Stuart Allen is a very sad, confused, pathetic little f--- who I believe needs to learn how to treat people with some kind of courtesy & respect. This twat picked the wrong year to f--- with me. Your web sight claimed that Stuart Allen created Cable Porn? Please. If this be true. Then maybe that explains why it sucks! To many f---in people... To full of them f---in selves. Stop the madness! This man can't even direct his way out of a douche bag, let alone, create something that is even vaguely watch able. I could grab a crack head off the street & get a better director than this "Screwy Stuey".

I know this, because I worked for that psychotic f--- last year. This loser was flying out to LA once a month dropping about $15,000 a pop, just so that he could try & get laid. And I had to tape this pathetic attempt at sex that he referred to as a New Ground breaking style. ( Yeah, if you consider a very disturbed, skinny little, limped dick, red headed, white guy, jerking off, & calling it a porn series, well then, sure.) Stuarts lame attempts at making his Ultimate porn series was a nightmare shoot from hell that just about turned the cast & crew into shell shocked war victims. When little people, of small minds, don't have a clue as to what they're doing, & won't let anyone help them, madness usually reigns. And madness it was.

This nice, sweet, kind, mild mannered director turned into a spitting, purple faced, She devil of a bitch in drag who has no concept of the word Cut, let alone the word, Action. This man ruins anything vaguely erotic. He is so f---in uptight he makes Tipper Gore seem like a party girl. Which brings us to the present.

This man is now calling up everyone he knows, (Does the Insane Asylum let you use the phone?) & telling them that I am Holding his tapes Hostage (from these shoots) for Blackmail. This is an absolute lie! He is just another f----up I've had to deal with. I have had his tapes/Crap/Garbage/ for over 9 months now.I have repeatedly begged him to get his tapes out of my hands since January. They are not my responsibility to hold if I am not working on them, I don't want them. He wont come & pick them up. He wont return my calls. I have told stuart repeatedly that I am many things, Director, Cameraman, an editor, But I am not a storage facility. If these tapes are not picked up I am going to bill you for storage charges ( I told him this in January).

I talked to Stuart on the phone & in person a dozen times about these storage charges & picking up his tapes. He just kept blowing me off saying, " Yeah, yeah, I'll get back to you on this". Of course he never did. When I finally told him, that's it, these tapes must be out of my hands by July 1, 2001 & a bill for storage must be paid, he went ballistic. Yelling & screaming & Threatening me with ominous statements that 3 different men were going to come to my place & take the tapes by any means available, & then he hung up. I called him back 4 times & spoke very politely to him that this matter must be resolved & that I was even willing to work out some kind of compromise, Stuart just screamed, "f--- you...f--- you...f--- you!" & kept hanging up on me.

By this time I figured, f--- it, he's insane, I don't need this s--- in my life, I'll just take care of it later. So then I find out he's not only called the L.A.P.D to try & have me charged with some Felonious act, but he's also obviously called you to try & spread some more stupid f---ed up stories & lies about my character. Why would some one call you up Luke about something that has nothing to do with you? Does Stuart Allen actually think this is going to affect me? What, am I going to be Black listed from the glorious world of porn? My first month in Hollywood I was told that I would never work in this town again. I'm still here. I'm still working. & I've found that its only the real f---ed up losers like Stuart Allen who have watched to many bad B-movies who say stupid s--- like that.

I am an easy going guy. A professional. I wouldn't have lasted this long in the business if I was some kind of scam artist/Thief that Stuart is claiming I am. Hey, if Rob Spallone was happy with my work then how bad of a guy can I be? The buck stops here. I have got to start standing my ground & be a Cunt like so many other people have been to me. I'm tired of always being the nice guy who gets screwed in the end. If I let a moron like Stuart f--- with me, & get away with it, then I might as well pack my bags & run home to the hills. I just want a dead beat to pay his bill & get his product out of my hands. Does that make me a cunt? If so, then I wanna be a right Nasty little cunt & show that I wont get fooled again & take any s--- from weasels like Stuart Allen.

Stuart Allen writes Luke: Gee, I thought I was a nice guy. I must be a real prick to have forced such a forthright individual to have endured such privation. At least Craig seems to have gotten a commercial out of this. Maybe he can get some more work. The only comment I can make regarding his statements, is that I am skinny and the reason he had the tapes as many months as he did is that it took him four months to finish the job he agreed to do in six weeks. Such is life in PORNLAND> Thank you for your time and interest and as the sun slowly sets in the west we bid a fond farewell to the world of smut. Stuart aka the skinny f--- who cann't get it up.

Two thoughts I'd like to share with you. 1) All things in life are relative. Einstein defined relativity thusly: a minute spent sitting on a park bench with a pretty girl is a lot shorter than a minute spent sitting on a hot stove. 2) Two goldfish in a bowl. One says, "Do you believe in God?" The second replies, "Of course, who do you think changes the water." Will Rogers used to say that all he knew was what he read in the papers. Imagine if all he had read was your column?