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Last week a new docu-drama premiered on Netflix. It’s called Crime Scene – Times Square – and we were pleased to be Producers on it.
The show examines how the environment in New York’s Times Square in the late 1970s and early 1980s – a nearly-lawless area rife with drugs and sex work – made it possible for one man to commit, and nearly get away with, unthinkable acts of violence.
Many of the characters interviewed for the show have appeared as subjects of Rialto Report podcast interviews – people such as the filmmaker Larry Revene, adult film actress and writer Veronica Vera, and sex show performer Joseph Stryker.
And then there’s Marty Hodas, the self-proclaimed Porno King of New York. Perhaps more than anyone else, Marty was responsible for the change in Times Square that took place from the 1960s, when the area descended into such a dangerous area. It was Marty who introduced sexual peep shows into the area, and then ran an empire of bookstores, adult theaters, and massage parlors.
I first came across Marty when I read articles in the newspapers from the early 1970s. The sex trade may have been illegal back then, but Marty didn’t hide – in fact, he enjoyed the publicity and regularly appeared on the covers of newspaper and on interview shows.
A few years ago, I got hold of a number for Marty and called him. I said I’d love to meet him – and hear about the old days. He invited me over to his apartment and served me a feast of pastrami, shrimp, and cheeses.
And he talked.
This is Marty’s story – and the story of Times Square.
This podcast is 54 minutes long.
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A Rialto Report dinner with Jamie Gillis, Marty Hodas, and Larry Revene
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Awesome Article And Podcast Keep Up Good work
Thank you Jeff!
Great docu-drama, a true real nightmare. Terrific work, looking forward to more stories.
Thanks so much!
This is not the first time I have listened to this particular podcast, but there always seems to be something new I glean from re-visiting a Rialto Report interview. With the heyday of sleazy 42nd Street almost half a century in the past, an interview like this takes on new importance. As anyone who has followed the site for several years would have noticed, death is taking away the witnesses to the era.
You have a very distinctive voice, Mr. West. Has anybody ever recognized it?
We appreciate it Jeff C!
Yet ANOTHER home run, Ashley!
It always hurts me to find out, after thoroughly enjoying hearing the story being told by the person being interviewed in a manner that ONLY that person can tell it, that that person has passed.
New York City was full of opportunities at that time. As he simply supplied what was wanted and what was indeed needed, it can be argued that Hodas provided a public service.
Thanks to you and April for your endless devotion at The Rialto Report! We who grew up with the actors, producers, filmmakers and others behind the scenes, really appreciate your enabling us to revisit that special time in our lives and finding out more about those days than we remembered or thought that we knew.
Cheers,
Chris Flash
We really appreciate it Chris!
Great podcast! Btw, what is the great jazz piano track that’s playing during the intro?
It’s “I Got It Bad” by Duke Ellington.
Pleased you like it!
Sometimes it’s not just the performers it’s the cast of characters involved in whole. Second time I listened to the Hodas podcast. Rialto Report always brings it. Great job as always
Thank you so much J.D.!
I was a child during that crazy Times Square era. So I never visited those creepy yet exciting places that I would see from the rear window of the family car.
Thank you for explaining in a very humane insightful way, how that scene came to be, and the people behind it.
Thanks AA!
Ashley West had mentioned having conducted a number of interviews with Radley Metzger toward the end of Metzger’s career.
In the podcast on Metzger, Ashley mentioned that he wanted (in that podcast) to present Metzger while he was in the thick of things rather than in reflection mode. That podcast was brilliant, as we have come to expect nothing less from the Rialto Report.
That said, another podcast with the remaining first-hand interview would be as informative, entertaining, and reflective on the career of Radely Metzger. Is that in the cards at all or could it be considered by any chance?
Thank you for everything.
Todd
Ahhh yes, the Marty Hodas podcast. I have a great affinity for this particular podcast. I have listened to it a number of
times already and enjoyed it every time including this latest go round. As always I thank you Ashley and April, and all those that help you for all the work done in telling us the stories behind these amazing pioneers of our (somewhat) post puritan society.I found Marty to be an interesting and highly intelligent individual who lived a life right out of a novel. Although I enjoy all the podcasts and articles this particular one and the Jamie Gillis and Larry Revene podcasts are my favorites. Damn I love the pic of Marty, Jamie and Larry. They are three big icons of the 42nd st. porn heyday. Thanks once again Ashley.
Tony F
Thanks so much Tony!
Great work Ashley, you did his friendship and memory proud with this fantastic tribute.
He was a true pioneer, no doubt about that. I loved to hear his laugh and his New York accent and all the old stories on the podcast. RIP Marty.
Awesome to hear that you guys are being called upon to assist others in making films and documentaries about the subject and people you all know so much about. Just don’t sell yourselves short. The Rialto report and the people who contribute to it are beyond professionals or consultants. You love and care about what you do and that shines through with every article, every podcast and every heartfelt tribute you put together. This is the stuff of legend and history and the story of the Adult Industry in America is as important and relevant as any other so called industry, more so in a lot of ways. Don’t ever forget that and again, please don’t sell yourselves short.
We so appreciate it Don!
Those bookstores, the so-called “dirty” ones – promoted literacy, if nothing else!