The whole modern industry started with printed books and magazines with photography's
of mostly European women. The Mob had always held it's self above trafficking in women. That
was another lie, like the ban on drugs. The founder of what today is the Mafia Charles "Lucky"
Luciano was convicted of pandering. The whole sex industry would reap enormous profits for the
mob, because of the taboo nature of the business.
It was really a perfect business for the mob to get into, it was like booze during prohibition. There
was a huge demand for books or magazines with nude women or couples depicting sexual acts.
The mob guys had the printers who would set the type and run the books or magazines at night
or on weekends. They had the trucks and the interstate connections to distribute them.
One of the biggest distributors of modern Porn was Rubin Sturman, a Jewish guy from Cleveland
Ohio. Rubin owned a chain of comic book stores which he converted to Adult book shops
around the Mid West. When Rubin wanted to expand he had his Cleveland Mob contacts set him
up with New York heavy weights. These men were all connected with one of the five families.
They were Terry Zappi,Mickey Zaffrano, Robert "Debe" Debanardo, Andre D'Apice and many
others who would be forever forgotten. These were New York guys, the business was really
located in Los Angeles. I have always thought that reason the whole industry sprouted up
around Hollywood was because there were so many, mostly pretty young women moving to town
to become movie stars. Once they actually were in town they realized that there were thousands
of other small town pretty girls around town with the same dreams. Then there were the other
creative people like photographers and cinematographers who could not make a living in
Hollywood. These people created a ready made talent pool, that along with the available of
equipments and labs made a perfect place for a underground market to flourish.
The book and magazine market was tremendously popular, but the consumer would soon
want to see films. There soon became a market for films that could be shown at a theatre.
There were other less expensive films known as loops, smokers and stag films that were usually
in 8mm and were shown at frat houses, bachelor parties and clubs. The mob soon controlled a
critical part of the film industry and that was the laboratories that processed the exposed film.
The porn film was still technically illegal, kind of like gambling, people watched them, used the
magazines but they were illegal to produce and distribute. This fits right into the mobs business
model of praying on addictions. The 35mm prints of the films were expensive so they only made
a few. One would play at a theatre at say 8pm, then that film would be taken to another theatre
for a 10pm show. The whole time someone would be collecting the cash for the films owner.
You could not sell or show a film without protection in the early days.
The pornographer's in LA gravitated to the San Fernando Valley because real estate was cheap.
They were committing crimes by producing and selling porn but some guys in the Valley
did not feel that they should pay. The LA Family was all over any producers of porn, even those
connected to New York because they were in LA they had to pay something.
The LA Family was caught up in the FOREX sing and they lost the whole upper administration.
Then the FBI sting MIPORN took out some more, but where there is money the mob will eat.
The industry was shaken up by a new change and that was called home video. I think the
regular studios did not see the future in the Videocassette, video was custom made for the porn
consumer, because they could watch the films in the privacy of their own home and rewind,
pause and fast forward. The boom was on! I know a group of guys who sold video mail order at
ninety nine dollars a tape and everyone sent in cash. They amassed so much money that they
put it up in the false ceiling and the ceiling began to fall. There was so much money in the porn
business that people began to die. One guy was beaten to death, another was shot over a lab
debt, anothers son was found in his truck as was another veteran Pornographer.
The porn business was in its golden age and it was a cash cow for the mob. I know some stores
located in Times Square sold a couple thousand video's a week.
The good times could not last and the business would grow because of the availability of
consumer video cameras. The mob had found a more profitable venue by then Strip clubs.