Beneath Contempt: The Life of Porn King Al Goldstein

By Kendra Holliday | March 12, 2012

Beneath Contempt, by Jack Stevenson

One of the most villified men in American porn history is Al Goldstein. Check out Jack Stevenson’s book Beneath Contempt (And Happy to Be There): The Life of Porn King Al Goldstein (Headpress) to get the lowdown on how a dirty, insecure cabdriver in NYC became a man with multiple mansions – and how he lost it all. But first, let’s pick Jack’s brain a little.

Out of all the celebrities and topics you could cover, why Al Goldstein and Screw magazine?

Goldstein was a hero to me in the 80s. He was never just only about sex but made himself objectionable to all things “middle class” and I applauded that. He was always in full destruction mode and, in fact, eventually destroyed himself.

What was your first experience with Screw magazine? How old were you? What did you think of it?

My first encounter with the NYC underground press was when I was about 14, living in a small town in the provinces. I was a devoted fan of baseball and read “Sporting News” every week. Then one week I picked up a copy of “The Village Voice” and they had long articles on fist-fucking in the gay community. That was strange. The idea of the underground press, that they had no limits and that there was a place free of middle-class convention (NYC) amazed me. I also slavishly read “Rolling Stone” around 1970-74, back when it was a tabloid and had long unhinged articles on unlikely subject matters. I always wanted to start an underground paper. I became aware of “Screw” in the early 80s. It was far more raw, rebellious and sometimes off-putting than either The Village Voice or the Rolling Stone. It was the missing link between the underground press and the gutter. When I say “gutter,” I mean it positively.

The first page I opened up to randomly in your book was of a woman getting fucked by a dog. Any comments?

That was the picture of Linda Lovelace that Al published in the special Jackie Kennedy issue. Al talked a lot about this picture and I figured my book had to contain some of the boldness that SCREW embodied, and that if I was too cowardly to print it then I shouldn’t be writing a book about Al Goldstein. That picture is very much part of the narrative of the text, or there would not have included it. I didn’t do it just to be shocking – one can punch up animal porn on the internet in two seconds that is much more explicit – god forbid.

Al is Jewish. What’s your opinion on the “Jews control porn” thing?

The “Jewish pornographer” is one of the many negative stereotypes about Jews in the US, that they had no scruples and worked in unsavory professions, pawn shops etc. But in fact, if you examine all the movements in literature and the arts that were bold and enlightened, a lot of the players and participants were Jewish, in large part because urban Jews had a cultural tradition of independent thought, humor and provocation (think Lenny Bruce.) They made up a huge part of progressive movements, and pornography in the beginning was not a commercial industry – it was a rebellion, a progressive movement. Al talks of a certain “Jewish aliveness” in his book, and indeed Jews were pioneers of the progressive struggle.

What kind of topics did Screw magazine cover? Was anything off limits?

Screw covered EVERY aspect of sexuality and Times Square was their happy place. No limits.

Al claimed Screw was about “sex positivism”, but Jules Pfeiffer countered that it was about as “pro sex as the clap.” What’s your opinion?

Al uses the term frequently and it’s kind of a relic from the late 60s when all explicit sexual depictions were considered positive and liberating, when all of American society was still weighed down with sexual guilt and paralysis. But it was always a strange fit for SCREW since the paper, particularly in the end, traded in such dark karma. In the beginning, SCREW represented a movement. In the end, it represented only Al.

Do you think Al was afraid of humanity?

I think humanity was afraid of Al. Seriously, Al was ultra-human to the point of always spotlighting his imperfections. “To be human is to be imperfect” was his motto, and he lived it every day in his life.

In an interview, Al calls Larry Flynt out for being “psychotic.” What kind of mental health issues do you think Al has?

He has EVERY issue. Al called himself much worse things. No writer could say worse things about AL than he has said about himself.

How does one (like Al) go from owning multiple mansions around the world, to being homeless?

Not many people experience such extremes. AL made a lot of bad moves as a business man, but in fairness to him, the whole publishing industry went down the tubes with him. Al just had the talent of making everything worse for himself.

I think it’s interesting that while Playboy put sex on a pedestal, Screw’s approach was to knock sex off the pedestal and laugh about it. Do you find that approach disrespectful, or more authentic?

Well I’m not sure he just laughed about it – laughing about sex kinda denotes an adolescent nervousness, which possibly was always an element in his sexual make-up, but I think rather than laughing about it, he just refused to take it seriously. He rebelled against the fact that it had power over him. A hopeless rebellion to be sure, just like rebelling against death – as he did in his “Death” magazine series. His life was a series of doomed rebellions, and at least he went down fighting. Actually he was fighting the whole time, even after he won the battle. That was his main problem. Deep down he never really felt like he deserved all this success.

Is your book currently available in the United States?

Yes, it is printed in both the US and UK.

How does your biography on Al differ from his autobiography?

When Josh (Alan Friedman) wrote his biography he had to assume Al’s perspective and I think that handcuffed him a bit. (Josh is credited as co-author but he wrote the whole thing) He did a great job and really dug out essential background material and made Goldstein human. Josh is a fabulous writer – everybody should check out his TALES OF TIMES SQUARE, but I feel my book accents different areas and has more freedom to be subjective about the man, to fiercely do Goldstein from my own personal perspective with no pretense of objectivity, although I think an objectivity did emerge. I never met Goldstein in person or worked at SCREW, and I think it was an advantage. People who got close to him are somehow tainted with negative feelings and usually have an axe to grind. I think in this case, distance from the subject was a good thing.

Is Al still alive?

Yes, reportedly bed-ridden and partially mentally incapacitated in a NYC area VA hospital. Nobody knows where. The NY Times has been ready to write his obituary for years but he refuses to die and has outlived several of their obituary writers.

What kind of porn do you like?

I guess porn has a practical function, to put life into an orgy or to give couples erotic ideas to take further, or to give individuals without partners, men or women, a taste of what at this current time the world is not sharing with them. But I think, as Al insinuated, it can become a trap. You can be lying in bed next to the most beautiful nude woman in the world, and she doesn’t do anything for you because your perception of what is stimulating has been so conditioned by porn, and she has no connection to that. It becomes dehumanizing. That was Al’s basic message, to be present in your own sex life, live in a 3-dimensial world as opposed to 2-dimensional world, with all the difficulty that involves. Even though he was a Porn King and “Screw” was a porn publication I don’t think he really liked porn. This can be seen in the way he constantly denigrated the world of porn and those who participated in it. He was basically an idealist and a romantic constantly at war with himself. He was a walking human wreck, bursting at the seams from all his contradictions. Al Goldstein can’t possibly exist. But he does.

Comments

Dubs 2012-03-14 08:50:00

Screw wasn’t a “movement”. It was a profit venture that failed due to the megalomaniac that founded and ran it. There’s nothing wrong with honestly made profits, but things like bestiality (the ultimate coercive sexual act) are not progressive: they’re stupid stunts intended for puerile (but paying) audiences.

(I say the “ultimate coercive sexual act” because 1) last time I checked we can’t communicate with animals, to 2) even determine that they have a free will to 3) give any sort of assent/dissent.)

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mrmirror 2012-04-21 02:25:42

I live in NYC, and a few years ago in a bar I met a corporate lawyer who worked for an airline (forgot which one). She had the unenviable job of going to court whenever someone sued the airline for lost luggage, etc. She said Goldstein was a legend, he was in small claims court every week with some new lawsuit, all of which got dismissed. Her airline was only one of his targets, I wonder how broadly litigious he was. I guess he had nothing better to do with his time.

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