In the third and final instalment of our recent collaboration with esteemed film podcast, The Projection Booth, we discuss the Dark Brother’s influential New Wave Hookers.
Released in 1985, New Wave Hookers featured a cast of established performers from the era and was followed by a number of sequels and a remake. The movie starred Ginger Lynn, Desiree Lane, Kristara Barrington, Kimberly Carson, Brooke Fields, Gina Carrera, Jamie Gillis, Jack Baker, Tom Byron, Steve Powers, Peter North, Rick Cassidy, Greg Rome, and Steve Drake.
Traci Lords appeared in the original version dressed in all-red lingerie, portraying ‘the Devil,’ but this version was removed from distribution in the United States in 1986 when news broke that Traci Lords was under 18 when the film was made. The movie was subsequently reissued with the Lords-Rick Cassidy scene excised and the box cover photo of Lords replaced by co-star Ginger Lynn’s image. This altered film version is the one that is (legally) available in the United States today.
The movie was produced by the Dark Brothers, who featured the slogan “Purveyors of Fine Filth.” Walter Dark was the executive producer, and Gregory Dark produced, directed, and co-wrote with Platinum Fire.
The story begins with Jack Baker and Jamie Gillis telling jokes as they watch porn and talk about women. They fantasize how their lives would be better if they were pimps with women working for them. They discuss opening an escort service featuring “new wave bitches” who would become aroused whenever they hear new wave music. The two men fall asleep to TV static, and much of the remainder of the film depicts them dreaming about different sexual encounters with women who become sexually receptive after listening to new wave.
The movie won AFAA Erotica Awards in 1986 for Best Erotic Scene, Best Musical Score and Best Trailer. The soundtrack includes the song “Electrify Me” by The Plugz, which won for Best Song. The film was also nominated for Best Art and Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design and Best Advertising Campaign. In 1986, New Wave Hookers also won the Adam Film World Guide Award for Best Movie and the AVN Award for Best Packaging – Film. New Wave Hookers went on to be included in the XRCO Hall of Fame and in 2001, Adult Video News placed it 17th on its list of the 101 greatest adult videos of all time. It is widely credited as helping create the alt-porn genre.
You can hear the full podcast discussion – hosted by Mike White – and featuring Ashley West of The Rialto Report and Robin Bougie, by clicking here.
You can listen to our other collaborations with The Projection Booth here: Roommates (1981), Memories Within Miss Aggie (1974), and Blonde Ambition (1981).
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‘New Wave Hookers’ (1984)
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Contains the famous line “Boys Boys Boys“, which Ginger still gets called out to her nearly 40 yrs later.
Having heard the episode previously talkin about Gregory Dark, his porn directing career to his to his post porn career. It’s almost like going to a medium and finding out more through the crystal ball, finding more than the eyes and the ears would be allowed to see and hear. When you want to see and hear more, you find out about Jack Baker, more about Gregory Dark we did not hear about in the previous Rialto report episode featuring Greg Dark. And it’s safe to say what the Dark Bros. brought to the porn table is obviously not written with couples or with the woman in mind. It’s considered to be frat house porn for the guys. Definitely not for couples or for the feminist female crowds. And personally, nobody should watch the original especially with the traitorous Traci Lords, and the fact that she lied about her age to get in the industry.
The Projection Booth used to be a regular listen. To be perfectly honest I do not know why I stopped listening. Many fantastic episodes. Thank you for bringing them back to my attention. Love that Robin was included here. I was a devoted reader of Cinema Sewer. Happy that he is still going strong but I hope he circles back to Cinema Sewer one day. Valentine’s Day is not the same without the annual CS release.
I always found The Dark Bros films to be erotic and creative. Yes they took risks and certainly made depraved films, but there was something very raw and hot about them too. I guess they made slightly surrealistic , raunchy films. New Wave Hookers was fairly tame compared to the likes of others.
Rinse Dream also made arty choices, but more on the tasteful side. I also loved the first dream sequence in Pretty Peaches 3 by Alex de Renzy. With the giant dress and layers of pantyhose. De Renzy also was a pioneer of occasionally surrealistic porn. With Dark Bros they made Art Raunch.
And Kristara Barrington – what a hottie. My fave scenes in this movie involve her.
Thanks for posting. To be honest I never liked this movie. I never understood why everyone has given so much credit to this movie. I was fooled by the cover art (Which I do like, both versions)., thinking the movie would be great. Disappointing to me.
Agreed!
It seems more about fulfilling ‘Greg Dark’, and his abusive fantasies, than making an entertaining film.
Sorry, but some black tarp/plastic skulls/”edgy” music isn’t ‘New-Wave’, or anything else. And what a waste of talent!!
I agree. Nothing sexy or erotic about Dark Bros fare, but well made and somewhat entertaining on some satirical level I suppose. Definitely influential, though perhaps not in a good way.
Yeah I agree. Not sure why it won all those awards.
Do You Remember Savannah Star In 1991 Movie New Wave Hookers 2 Awesome Article Keep Up Good Work Ashley
I’d love to read a lengthy piece about John Bailey (aka “Jack Baker”) . A trained actor who’d made a number of appearances in mainstream TV before working in adult video. I was abit bothered by some of the somewhat racist characterizations Bailey did in the Dark Bros movies, and wonder what he thought of those in retrospect. Sadly, he died in 1994.
What John thought was pretty simple: (1) he was working and getting paid when 90% of the black actors in Hollywood weren’t and (2) he was treated like a star in most of the films he made. No “characterization” John ever performed was any different than what you saw most of the rest of the working black actors doing in “Blaxploitation” movies – except the Dark Brothers weren’t taking it seriously.
The Lords’ story was somewhat familiar to me so I revisited it. It appears she only made one legal pornographic film. Traci, I Love You.
The Rialto Report team was involved in a podcast about Traci Lords called “Once Upon a Time… in the Valley”, which you may want to check out.
Highly recommended. It might be hard to find, as they changed the name of the Podcast when they concentrated on a different story the next season. So look for “Once Upon a Time… at Bennington College”. The Traci episodes are still there, but are hidden as early episodes of a series about a bunch of spoiled brat writers.
I found Traci boring as a performer back when it was legal to see her videos and never understood the interest in her. I was working at an AV store when the Traci story broke, having to go through every tape in our “Adult” section for fear that we would be busted for “child pornography”. That was a long night.
Would love if you guys would do a Piece more in depth of Jack Baker. So Fascinating as I remember him on Happy Days. Great retrospect by the way.
Back in the 1980s a friend of mine told me that he once rented another Dark Brothers VHS Video Tape. At the end of the movie were trailers for other Dark Brothers titles. One trailer was for New Wave Hookers, pre-Traci Lords edited edition. Anyway, that’s what my friend told me many years ago.