The Colonel has called a news conference for Sunday.
Mondo Video has been a hangout for the perverse for about 20 years. It specializes in porn and gore. Many (or all?) editions of Khan Tusions’ Midnight Prowl videos were shot there.
The store is located at 4328 Melrose Ave Los Angeles, CA 90029-3511. Phone: (323) 953-8896.
I’ve talked to the Mondo crew many times over the years but only visited their establishment once.
It was the evening of July 18, 2005.
I’m told Mondo Video (4328 Melrose Ave) is next door so I wander over and find Colonel Rob, who used to work as a PA for Russ Meyer.
The Colonel is excited that he got a lawsuit threat this afternoon over the new book on Meyer — Big Bosoms and Square Jaws: The Biography of Russ Meyer by Jimmy McDonough. Amazon link.
"Welcome to the hallowed halls of Mondo Video. Ask these people. Mondo Video is a sacred temple. We’re like a cult. Take a picture of my Satanic cult members.
"I’ve finally opened up about Russ [who died last year]. I started with Russ when I was 15. That’s how I got the name Colonel. I raised in the ranks all the way to Colonel. All of us and Russ were like family. We stick together. We still talk to each other. There’s Russ’s obituary over here."
The Colonel with an article on Russ Meyers.
"All the years I’ve known you, you finally get your ass down to Mondo Video. You’re finally here. McDonough got sued by Neil Young for his book Shakey.
"I just got off the phone with [Russ Meyer starlets] Kitten Natividad, Erica Gavin, Tara Fantana, Jimmy Ryan. They all check in with me. Everyone’s doing great. They’re very upset that they’re [Russ Meyer’s estate] coming after me and Jimmy over the book. Jimmy printed the will in the book.
"Jimmy also did a book on Andy Milligan, the transvestite director. I never worked for [Andy] because he never paid unlike Russ, Harry Novak, and David Friedman (who I all started out with). I’m waiting for my copy of the book so I can see what I’m being sued over.
"The Colonel has a good band of lawyers and they’re loyalists to Mondo Video and The Colonel’s new way of making porn.
"There’s a scoop for you, buddy. Don’t you always get a scoop from The Colonel?
"I’ve got a bunch of s— for you. I just had surgery. I was in the hospital for two weeks. I’ve had ulcers for years. It split open. Internal bleeding. I was bleeding to death. They have a great new way of taking care of it. They can go in through your mouth and hydro-seal it. They put dissolvable stitches in at 7am on a Tuesday. I was in the hospital for two weeks getting the blood poisoning out of me. They sewed up my stomach. I come out of anesthetic. I said, doctor, I need to go shoot a film tonight. He said, don’t do it. But I did it, Midnight Prowl (Kahn Tusion directs the shoots [about one night a week] at Mondo Video while customers look on). I was good, dude."
Ryan Knox works for Midnight Prowl. "They take a porn girl," he says, "and drive her around in a limo. They take her to a video store. They take four or five guys and play it like they are strangers and she has sex with these strangers in a video store while everybody’s yapping and it’s a big joke. It’s not hardcore like Meatholes. It’s comedy. It’s not all psychological and crazy."
Duke: "I’ve never seen Meatholes."
Ryan: "If you look at it, it might scar you psychologically. Because you meet all these people and then you see that and it’s no fun."
Boogie Nights had a hardcore Colonel. Just goes to show you how bad the research was for that porn trash film. Mondo Video has Titus Moody’s ashes. What will they do with them and all the other nostalgic odds and ends? That place is a shrine. It’s sad to see it become history.
Check out Mondo Video… So far the only video store with a “Jeremy Steele” section. I miss the good ol’ days like that Easter celebration where a giant bunny got nailed to a cross and then set on fire in the back parking lot and the contest of how many peeps candies a girl can stick in all her orifices.
Yeah the jeremy steele section is great. All the movies are free and you must make a donation to a homeless shelter to enter. Funny thing, but with all the movies being free you never ever see anyone in there. One weekend Mondo had a “Pay you to rent a Jeremy Steele” promotion. This one junkie came back in, threw a Jeremy Steele video on the desk and asked for his money back. The clerk reminded him that the store paid HIM to rent the video.
A few years back before she got stomach cancer or something I saw Eden Rae in the section but she scratched out “jeremy steele” and put “crazy loser stalker”
Hey BigRetardDudley, why don’t you take care of your kids instead of commenting on lukeisback all the time? Is this site your replacement for your crack pipe? Your jokes dont even make sense, although I’m sure you think they’re funny. You’re obviously void of a meaningful purpose in your sad life, have low self esteem and believe that making constant insulting comments proves own self worth or that you’re clever but it only shows you’re an idiot troll, angry loser. Apparently alot of people who comment on lukeisback suffer from a bitter self-loathing and take it out on the workers in the industry, who they can never stop calling “whores”, all the while can never get enough of. Stop spouting out negativity and hatred. It’s old, it’s stupid, it’s worthless, boring and it serves noone, not even you. Try reading a book or cultivating a mutually positive relationship with someone/thing(s).
Jeremy Steele, Just make sure you are at the bukkake tomorrow so you can pay the rent at your weekly hotel.
Oh well, I say. Whats the point of having a battle of wits with an unarmed person, anyway? Que la paix soit avec vous.