magazine editors:
tony schwartz
marty porter
contributing editor:
laura herman
inside:
Sunday
magazine
hooks-page four
A move toward pence-page five
the news in review-page five
Number 4 Page Three
October 7, 1973
Weir d,
By JO MARCOTTY
IMAGINE: One afternoon while sit-
ting quietly at home, there is a
tremendous knock at the door. You
open it. Before you stand two huge,
hairy gorillas who immediately pick
you up,, carry you gently to.the bath-
room, and stick your left foot in the
toilet.
They dash madly about your house,
eating food, overturning wastebaskets
zany, a
and creating general chaos. And then,
just as suddenly, they depart, leaving
behind a gold engraved invitation to
a dinner party at their home.
For William Anthony John Bosco
Carroll (the Magnificent), and Ram-
sey Najm (the Obtuse) this bizarre
scene was all part of a day's work.
The dinner party was planned to
entertain friends. The invitation
method was just one part of a style,
bsurd:
an organization and an overall phi-
losophy directed to one purpose: the
absurd as a life-style.
FRO4 GREEN space men to a space
ship landing at the Ann Arbor art
fair, the aim as Bosco sees it, is con-
stant: "We want to interest people
in becoming creatively and spontan-
eously involved, and as enjoyably as
possible."
The private dinner party was an ex-
ample of absurd imagination at its
best. It began with the dramatic en-
trance of the main course; a roast
pig on a platter, dressed in a tuxedo,
a top hat and a wink, followed by a
roast turkey named Naomi. And after
Naomi came a human skeleton filled
in with spare ribs to replace its own.
To complete the entree orgy, a roast
duck arrived - still quacking.
With obvious relish, Bosco recount-
ed the dinner sequence to a friend at
a picnic table on a recent sunny Sep-
tember day in Michigan's Irish Hills.
And to get there, he personally landed
the twin-engine plane which he pi-
lots, and in part owns, on a tiny grass
landing-strip.
"IT WAS INCREDIBLE," Bosco be-
gan as he traversed the sky be-
tween Ann Arbor, Saginaw Bay and
finally the Irish Hills. "There were so
many incredible reactions." In the
course of an afternoon, Bosco man-
aged to run down his ideas on life-
st'yle, art and the purpose of his Ann
Arbor-based organization, Spectacle
Unlimited.
Absurdity has been a part of Bos-
co's life since grade-school, but he
first developed it as planned enter-
tainment when he arrived in Ann Ar-
bor. Bosco and cohort Arthur Frisk
combined music and their own absurd
he
world
of
Spectacle
tacle, and became rock stars in South
Africa for a time.
"The first time we played they were
just blown away," Bosco remembers.
"We pulled down our pants on stage
A spectacle can be a wide range of things . . ,. "We choose
the absurd by deciding what is out of the n o r m for others
and using it," says Bosco. "But what is out of the ordinary for
others is not necessarily out of the norm for us."
sesmeagmmssmmaemssmasemasamnaemasememas;::aa
Advertisements for Mllyself
sey (the Obtuse) to organize Spec-
tacle in the U. S.
Ramsey, for his part, started his
career managing Rodeo, an "ape and
folk show" which toured the United
States. He left it when he began to
itch for something new.
AFTER DECIDING that the sense of
smell was one facet which enter-
tainers seldom play to, Ramsey de-
veloped a "smell show" in Columbus,
Ohio. It included a black woman who
smelled like licorice, pizzas tacked to
a wall and - the, biggest attraction
of all - a "smell haze" in which peo-
ple could test the sensitivity of their
noses by picking a smell and follow-
ing it through the maze.
WHEN THE show closed, and Ram-
sey met Bosco again, Spectacle
was a natural. Spectacle Unlimited
deals with absurdity as art and as a
means of entertainment. They spe-
cialize in green men and space ship
landings, and they are great at get-
ting a gorilla to smash three hundred
watermelons.
A "spectacle" can be a wide range
of things, so long as it is spectacular
and imaginative. "We choose the ab-
surdity by deciding what is out of the
norm for others and using it,' says
Bosco. "But what is out of the ordi-
nary for others is not necessarily out
of the norm for us."
Ramsey describes Spectacle as "de-
signed to help this technologically
confused world. The public is jaded
by society, and vicious rock music is
one indication of it. We want" to do
the same thing a Alice Cooper, but
we want to do it in a positive way.
- (Continued on Page 6)
Balloons for all: A grinning
organizer exudes success
Porno
By STEPHEN HERSCH
ED. NOTE:
HlARRY REEMS is a porno film star.
He has appeared in, produced, di-
rected, edited, and photographed -four
hundred pornographic films, includ-
ing "Deep Throat," "The Devil in Miss
Jones," and "Spikey's Magic Wand."
He has a c.t e d off-Broadway and in
stock, and has done Wheaties com-
mercials. He presently plays short-
stop for the Lambs Club slow-pitch
softball team, which recently won the
Broadway Show League champion-
ship. He now divides most of his time
between buying and selling antiques,
and "mellowing out" with friends in
r u r a 1 Pennsylvania. His permanent
address is in Chelsea, on the lower
West Side of.Manhattan.
We were lucky enough' to catch up
with Reems (a pseudonym, of course.)
The following is an edited transcript
of a rambling, hour-long, often very
personal monologue, w h i c h Reems
launched into almost immediately. In
an era when porno chic (Linda Love-
lace, Georgiana Spelvin, Xaviera Hol-
lander) his replaced radical chic and
panthermania, Reems began his con-
versation predictably:
"EVERY TIME I'M interviwed, the
reporter t e 11 s me, 'No, I won't
star
has
forms into a spectacular show which
they named the "Arthur Bosco Bone
Spectacle".
THE TWO ended their first brush
with the entertainment world to
travel around the world, ending up in
South Africa with seven dollars be-
tween them. Out of financial 'ieed,
they recreated the Bosco Bone Spec-
nothing
more stimulating than a bare breast
with flat lighting on. it. The taste of
the director, the cameraman, and es-
pecially the editor, determined what
went into the films. In later films,
there were scripts with dialogue, and
with camera work planned out, but
earlier films were b a s e d on either-
sketchy outlines or just ideas. One
reason I got a lot of work was because
I could improvise in front of a camera.
"I never found out what my finan-
cial potential was. I was always paid
a flat salary, and I asked for more
money as my reputation grew.
to
and made all the papers in the coun-
try."
They toured the continent of Af-
rica, "blowing away" more audiences,
and climaxed with a bizarre show in
Johannesburg in which "the whole
audience got involved in a garbage
fight."
After returning to the states, the
two split up, and Bosco joined Ram-
hide
ually, be it love and tenderness, or be
it a fantasy-perversion trip, he finds
it. If he's good, he finds it and con-
quers it, and knows how to use it
when he's called to.
"I was a legitimate actor, a union
actor, and- I found myself broke one
winter. Someone in the field told me
where I C o u 1 d make seventy-five
bucks doing eight mm stag films. So
I jumped in front of a camera. The
people I worked with liked me, and
got me more jobs. Before I knew it, I
had a reputation as an actor, a sexual
performer. I didn't do anything phe-
nomenal; I don't consider myself a
"Whether I'm having sex on-camera or off, my emotional re-
sponse is the same. I tried to relate to the people I worked
with, to make them feel comfortable. I've had as many good
sexual highs on-camera as I've had off."
all good people; there are no hookers
or junkies. And the one or two who do
come along are wiped right out. I'm
very friendly with the k i d s in the
business, but I don't socialize with
them. There are very touchy egos, you
can't pick favorites.
"As far as my personal sex life: I.
have someone who I love, who I've
been seeing for the past eight months.
Whether I'm having sex on-camera or
off, my emotional response is the
same. I tried to relate to the people I
worked with, to make them feel com-
fortable. I've had as many good sex-
ual highs on-camera as I've had off-
camera, because I can dissociate my-
self from the lights and the crew.
That's an acting exercise, a difficult
one, but one you develop.
"But it's all ended now. The Su-
preme Court obscenity decision has
not only eliminated the whole exploi-
tation film industry, it has also af-
fected the publishing industry. Peo-
ple suddenly find that they can't dis-
tribute a Philip Roth novel in certain
areas of the- country.
"The Supreme Court decision is, I
think, a ruling of an antiquated mor-
ality existing in our top government
officials, and not in a majority of
our population. Our leaders think
that if they show a little conserva-
tism after blowing our finances. Viet-
superb sexual acrobat. This was in
1970, and over the next three years I
continued in the exploitation field,
making friends, contacts, and money.
I also learned film making.
"Until I started to work as a film
maker, I didn't go to see porno films.
When I began shooting, producing,
directing, and editing, I began going
to screenings to see what the eomne-
"Ninety-nine per cent of the people
who backed the films were in it strict-
ly for the m o n e y. And they were
seedy, degenerate, creepy distributors
and exhibitors who a) wanted to get
laid, and b) wanted to make a lot of
money and not let anyone else make
any. And they robbed and stole from
producers and fron anyone who own-
ed narts of the films.
i