I’m not forgetting Jeffrey Epstein. No wonder he’s been surrounded by conspiracy theories for years! Enough blog material for eternity, so “Epstein Files” will hopefully become a semiregular feature as I process the released material (hello, Lolita Express flight logs!) and find related stories.
Epstein’s lawyer, Alan Dershowitz is a anti-American Jew if there ever was one. One of his early success stories was Harry Reems, an early porn actor in an infamous Supreme Court case on obscenity.
Very large irises denote a personality that loves to take in information, from books to pure novelty to extreme sports.
A post-recovery picture. Notice that vertical “determination” lines appeared between his eyebrows.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Reems
Reems was born Herbert John Streicher into a Jewish family. He attended the University of Pittsburgh for a year before briefly serving in the United States Marine Corps, from which he received an honorable discharge following hardship leave. He then elected to pursue an acting career, principally in off-Broadway theater for La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, New York Theater Ensemble and National Shakespeare Company. …
Looking for ways to support himself, Streicher appeared in dozens of short silent stag films, often referred to as “loops,” during the early 1970s. He eventually went on to appear in approximately 140 feature-length sexploitation and hardcore films between 1971 and 1989, with Deep Throat (1972) and The Devil in Miss Jones (1973) being the best known, as well as grindhouse roughies like Forced Entry (1973) and Sex Wish (1976); in the former he plays a sadistic Vietnam veteran hellbent on rape and murder – later described by Streicher as the one film he regretted appearing in – while in the latter he plays a husband-turned-vigilante seeking revenge over the rape and murder of his wife.
Not a man I would ordinarily give a single thought to.
Reems’ appearance in Deep Throat led to his arrest by FBI agents in New York City in July 1974 and his indictment in Memphis, Tennessee, in June 1975 on federal charges of conspiracy to distribute obscenity across state lines. Reems called it forum shopping. He was convicted in April 1976 with 11 other individuals and four corporations.
His conviction was overturned on appeal in April 1977 because his activities in making the film occurred before a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on obscenity in 1973 (Miller v. California), and Reems was granted a new trial. The charges against Reems were dropped in August.
Per Wikipedia, Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973), is a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court where the court redefined its definition of obscenity from that of “utterly without socially redeeming value” to that which lacks “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value”.
Legislating from the bench is a criminal act and porn should have qualified by either definition anyway. Meanwhile, it’s still in living memory that California was a land of decency and good conduct.
The defense argued he was the first American actor to ever be prosecuted by the federal government merely for appearing in a film… His successful appeal was handled by Alan Dershowitz.
Himself an outspoken proponent of legalizing porn and other immoral media.
In 1982, after an 8-year hiatus from porn, Reems returned in the porn film Society Affairs, and reportedly received a six-figure salary for doing the film. He retired from performing in porn in 1985.
And to nobody’s surprise, became a coke-sniffing homeless loser wino bum.
After years of drug abuse, Reems began his recovery in 1989. He married and converted from Judaism to Christianity. “Being the low-bottom drunk that I was, I started going around to churches,” said Reems. “I called myself a church gypsy.” Reems credited his conversion to Reverend Mark Heiss, a former pastor with Park City Community Church in Park City, Utah.
NOW I’m interested.
Born-Again Porn Star
https://people.com/archive/born-again-porn-star-vol-35-no-18/
By Steve Dougherty, 13 May 1991
THE RENTED TRACT HOME IS LIKE many others in Park City, Utah. There are funny little magnets on the fridge, simple landscapes on the walls, a Jeep parked in the driveway outside. The gray-haired fellow parked in the living room seems unremarkable as well. Married for the first time last November, he is a trustee for his Methodist church and works locally selling houses. Just look at his business card: HARRY REEMS, REALTOR.
Despite the title, this is the only mention of Christianity in the entire article.
At 43, the former star of Deep Throat, The Devil in Miss Jones and countless grunt-and-grind porno films of the .70s has slipped off the big screen and into this little Utah town of 2,823. “As far as I’m concerned, Harry has become a pillar of the community,. says Park City police sergeant Bruce Bennion, who just two years ago threw Reems in the pokey for public drunkenness. For Reems, such praise is no small achievement after his long spiral from Deep Throat to deep, deep bottom.
Unable to make a transition into straight films, Reems sank from $30,000-a-week paychecks in his heyday into alcoholism and cocaine addiction. By 1985 he was sleeping behind a grocery-store Dumpster in Malibu, where he would “wake up in the morning and start drinking because I didn’t want to face the failure I felt I had become.” With his two-quart-a-day vodka habit spawning drunken brawls and blackouts, .I remember being in New York one day, and the next thing I knew, I was in jail in South Carolina,. he says. .I had no idea how I got there..
Chased by tax problems, bad debts and outstanding arrest warrants, Reems bounced in and out of detox centers, mental institutions and jails between 1983 and 1988. Looking for work, he moved to the ski-resort town of Park City that year, but his drinking continued, as did bouts of alcoholic hepatitis, pancreatitis and delirium tremens. .He was about as far down as anyone I’ve ever seen,. says Dr. Patrick Griffin, who treated him in New York City.
Finally, in 1989, after five days in an L.A. jail and another arrest in Park City, Reems sought help in a 12-step recovery program. .I knew that if I didn’t stop, I would die,. he says.
No, the 12-Step program did NOT save him. Double shame on People Magazine for click-bait and treacherous reporting! But fortunately, I was about to find an article written by the very pastor who saved a wretch like Reems.
Harry Reems. legacy far more than porn films, says UM pastor who saw him change
By Mark Heiss, Special Contributor, 23 March 2013
Reems died of pancreatic cancer on 13 March 2013. This article is his eulogy, written by the pastor who introduced Reems to Christ Jesus.
Most people over 50 probably recall the name Harry Reems, the movie he starred in, .Deep Throat,. and the numerous moral and legal battles surrounding issues of pornography and free speech in the early 1970s. Harry died the other day. From fame and celebrity, and $30,000-a-week paychecks making porn movies, Harry’s life took a steady nose dive over the years into alcohol addiction, cocaine abuse, blackouts and the destruction of his health. Legal battles, jail time, mental institutions, and major debt owed to the IRS, plagued his life and helped sustain thoughts of suicide.
In 1989, Harry was arrested for public drunkenness in Park City, Utah. His arresting officer gave him the opportunity to attend an AA meeting, and he took it. It changed him. Unable to manage his life, he gave it over to a .higher power..
I’ve never liked that phrase. If it’s Jesus then say so. If it isn’t then who are you giving your soul to?
AA met in our church basement and one day Harry said, .I knew what was going on downstairs. I decided to see what was going on upstairs.. He came to worship one Sunday morning. An excited usher came to me asking me, .Do you know who that is? Do you know who that is?. I said, .No.. He said, .It’s Harry Reems, the porn star.. I jokingly asked the usher how he recognized him.
Hah!
That week Harry and I met and he told me his story. We talked about the power of God to change our lives. We talked about the “higher power” and the one called Jesus.
THANK YOU! Finally, a priest does the work of God.
Although raised an atheistic Jew, he wanted to learn more about this person called Jesus and the God he proclaimed. I gave him a Bible and pointed out some verses and sections he could read. We met several times after that over coffee. We discussed what it meant to be a Christian. One day, he called me on the phone and said he wanted to be baptized. And soon he was, in the creek behind the church.
Atheist Jews are, IMO, complete scum, mostly totalitarian Communists and generally infected with much blacker evil than is the human norm. Balancing that, however, are some very positive stories and personal experiences concerning Messianic Jews. Not least of which is harsh ostracism from their atheist/Orthodox brothers.
I can suspend my racial prejudices for any man that the devil spits on in disgust.
Harry joined our little United Methodist Church, was very active, and at one point was even a trustee. Some trivialized him and his experience as one more “born again” celebrity looking for personal redemption.
A healthy suspicion. How far the Church has fallen!
But Harry’s faith wasn’t that simplistic “me and Jesus” kind of experience. Harry’s new birth was more profound and his God more complex. He considered himself more spiritual than religious. God had changed his life, but it was not an end in itself. Harry’s changed life, sobriety, renewed health and new relationship with God could not be contained. He realized that God’s love had come to him on its way to others.
All positive developments that can confirm genuine repentance.
His new mission in life became helping other addicts and alcoholics. Much of his time, money and energy went toward those whose lives were being strangled by the addictions Harry was so familiar with. When Harry showed up in Park City in 1989, there were three recovery groups in town (including the one in the church basement). Today there are over 40. Harry started or was involved in starting every one of them! His ministry in helping others to find sobriety through .letting go and letting God,. has touched the lives of hundreds of people.
Eh, that’s also not a phrase I like. But he did change and much for the better.
No doubt history will remember him for his role in “Deep Throat.. I think his greater legacy is his faith and outreach to fellow addicts and alcoholics. His life was his message: .If God can change someone like me, what can he do with your life?.
The Rev. Mark Heiss was pastor of Park City Community (UMC) Church in Utah, and currently is pastor of United Methodist churches in Platteville and Meade, Co.
Bravo, Reverend Heiss! I can’t say that often these days.
And some confirmation that Reems left porn behind:
https://www.deseret.com/2006/12/24/19992441/from-porn-to-pillar-of-society
The one thing Harry Reems hasn’t changed from his seedy past is his stage name.
Most people who meet the white-haired Reems probably don’t know he starred in the controversial X-rated movie “Deep Throat” nearly 35 years ago. They don’t know he made hundreds of adult films spanning three decades. They don’t know he nearly drank himself to death.
And that’s fine with him. He’s not that way anymore.
“The only thing I had to change about myself was everything,” says Reems, 59.
Getting sober, finding God and marrying a good woman are the highlights of his transformation from a hard-living porn star to a mild-mannered real estate agent.
“Living the public life I had lived was my downfall,” he said. “I’m a private person now.”
In his heyday, Reems had black hair, a black mustache and tight abs. He hobnobbed with movie stars and partied in the Caribbean. That has given way to white hair, a clean-shaven face, the hint of a belly and quiet nights at home with his wife.
The marriage beat the odds. I found no mention of a divorce.
Reems was the first actor ever prosecuted for his work, due to his appearance in “Deep Throat,” which co-starred Linda Lovelace. The federal government in 1976 indicted him on charges of conspiracy to distribute obscenity across state lines. He was convicted, but the conviction was overturned on appeal a year later. During that time, alcohol became his escape.
Lovelace went on to become an anti-porn activist.
Reems made it clear during an interview in his Park City home, with its Currier & Ives view of a red barn in a snow-covered field, that he didn’t want to talk about his days in what he calls a “nefarious industry.” The only reason he said he agreed to an interview was to let alcoholics know that they can change.
“I literally should be dead. I know a lot of people who drank a lot less than me, and they are dead,” he said. “God has left me on this Earth for a reason, and I think it’s to save lives.” …
He [recalls] being a public menace over the next two years, urinating in the streets, fighting and breaking into houses. He also entered a 12-step alcohol recovery program. The police picked him up on the way to a meeting one day. While driving him to the Summit County Jail, a police sergeant told Reems he had no idea how useful he could be, that he could save lives if he gave up drinking and drugs.
“That was the first time anyone had ever said I have value,” Reems said.
Well done, sergeant. Well done.
Along with sobriety, Reems found God. An atheist who thought of religion as a crutch, he soon became a trustee in the local Methodist church. “I put God in first position, not me, because anything I had ever done almost killed me.”
Dershowitz can go to Hell for pushing smut and snuff upon the American people… and God only knows what else he pushed during his work as Epstein’s lawyer. But this one flew the devil’s coop.
For a postscript, here’s Dershowitz revealing his motivations for legalizing obscenity:
When it was my turn to speak [in a debate against feminist Andrea Dworkin], I tried to explain . over the booing and hissing . that what I support is freedom of choice about pornography. I informed the audience that a recent law in Iran prohibiting pornography also required all women to keep their faces covered.
They passed two different laws at the same time and Iranian standards of decency are not Christian standards. Or should I say, Moral Majority standards?
I reminded them that efforts by the Moral Majority to “clean up” television included feminist programs within the definition of pornography. I told them that the same district attorney who had attempted to ban Deep Throat had succeeded in censoring a beautiful film about lesbianism, by invoking the same anti-pornography statute. I quoted Gloria Steinem to the effect that “the long history of anti-obscenity laws makes it clear that such laws are most often invoked against political and lifestyle dissidents..
That’s what the feminists wanted to do, weaponize anti-obscenity laws against their enemies. But Dershowitz wanted obscenity legalized so Christians wouldn’t be able to use it against him. Unfortunately for him, he failed to legalize it to the point of raping children before justice caught up to Jeffrey Epstein, his close associate.
I cautioned that if any group of Americans could succeed in taking the law into its own hands it would be the Moral Majority, who far outnumber the radical feminists. They would destroy the presses that publish books they deem offensive: books advocating birth control, abortion, and sex outside of marriage. “Among the first books they would want to ban,. I warned, “are the writings of Andrea Dworkin.. Dworkin scoffed, and then gave me the finger in an obscene gesture.
Au contraire! We Christians don’t want to cover up the psychotic insanities of feminists. We want to expose them to the light of day. We want their lies remembered so they can be revealed as liars. Andrea Dworkin will be studied forever, that future generations might recognize evil when they encounter it. Or until future generations go blind:
History has proved both Dworkin and Diamant wrong: there is now more porn than ever . much of it watched by women . and less rape than ever in the US.
That’s a lie. Child rape has skyrocketed as fathers have been hunted to extinction. We even have mothers sexually mutilating their kids’ bodies with drugs and surgery, at taxpayer expense even! Nobody is left to protect the innocent from… from Alan Dershowitz’s most recent client.