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Bryanston Distributing Company

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Bryanston Distributing Company
FormerlyBryanston Pictures
TypePrivate
IndustryMotion pictures
Founded1972; 51 years ago (1972)
FoundersLouis Peraino
Philip Parisi
Defunct1976; 47 years ago (1976)
FateBankruptcy
HeadquartersUnited States
Key people
Louis Peraino
ProductsMotion pictures
ServicesFilm distribution

Bryanston Distributing Company (formerly known as Bryanston Distributors and also traded as Bryanston Pictures) was an American film distribution company that was active during the 1970s. The company was founded by Louis Peraino and Philip Parisi in 1972.[1] It went bankrupt in 1976, amid the company's numerous legal troubles.[2]

History

The company's first title was Deep Throat (1972), a pornographic film which had a $22,000 budget that generated $30–50 million in box office revenues.[3]

Among the company's other notable releases were The Party at Kitty and Stud's (1970), Flesh for Frankenstein (1973), Dark Star (1974), Return of the Dragon (1974), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974),[4] Coonskin (1975), The Devil's Rain (1975) and That's the Way of the World (1976).

In the early 1970s, sons of Colombo crime family member Anthony Peraino, Louis Peraino and brother Joseph Peraino Sr. were the president and vice‐president/secretary‐treasurer, of Bryanston respectively.[5]

On August 28, 1974, Louis Peraino agreed to distribute The Texas Chainsaw Massacre worldwide, from which production manager Ron Bozman and Texas Film Commissioner Warren Skaaren would receive $225,000 (about $1,200,000 inflation-adjusted) and 35% of the profits. Years later Bozman stated, "We made a deal with the devil, [sigh], and I guess that, in a way, we got what we deserved."[6] They signed the contract with Bryanston and, after the investors recouped their money (with interest),—and after Skaaren, the lawyers, and the accountants were paid—only $8,100 (about $44,500 inflation-adjusted) was left to be divided among the 20 cast and crew members.[6] Eventually the producers sued Bryanston for failing to pay them their full percentage of the box office profits. A court judgment instructed Bryanston to pay the filmmakers $500,000 (about $2,700,000 inflation-adjusted), but by then the company had declared bankruptcy.[7] In 1983, New Line Cinema acquired the distribution rights from Bryanston and gave the producers a larger share of the profits.[7]

In 1976, there was a series of federal cases in Memphis, Tennessee, where over 60 individuals and companies, including the Perainos and actor Harry Reems, were indicted for conspiracy to distribute obscenity across state lines for Deep Throat. Director Gerard Damiano and actress Linda Lovelace were granted immunity in exchange for testimony. Federal District Court judge Harry W. Wellford heard the case with the trial ending with a conviction. This was the first time that an actor had been prosecuted by the federal government on obscenity charges (Lenny Bruce had been prosecuted in the 1960s by local authorities). On appeal, Reems was represented by Alan Dershowitz, and his conviction was overturned: the Miller test (the three-pronged standard from the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Miller v. California[8] that determines what constitutes obscenity)[9] had been applied in his case. The Federal Bureau of Investigation case known as "Miporn" convicted and sentenced, on April 30, 1977, Michael Cherubino to five months' imprisonment and fined $4,000, Anthony Novello to six months' imprisonment, Joseph Peraino Sr. to one year's imprisonment and fined $10,000 (including a $10,000 fine to his company, Plymouth Distributors Inc.), Louis Peraino to one year's imprisonment and fined $10,000 (including a $10,000 fine to each of his two companies, Bryanston Distributors Inc. and Gerard Damiano Productions Inc.), Anthony Battista to four months' imprisonment and fined $4,000, Carl Carter to six months' imprisonment and fined $6,500, Mel Friedman to nine months' imprisonment and fined $7,500, and Mario Desalvo to three months' imprisonment and fined $3,500.[10]

In January 1982, Joseph Peraino Sr., who was convicted in Miami on December 6, 1981, of six counts of interstate shipments of pornography, was the target of a shooting that left him injured, and his son Joseph Peraino Jr., dead.[11]

Discover more about History related topics

Deep Throat (film)

Deep Throat (film)

Deep Throat is a 1972 American pornographic film that was at the forefront of the Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984). The film was written and directed by Gerard Damiano, who was listed in the credits as "Jerry Gerard"; produced by Louis Peraino, credited as "Lou Perry"; and starring Linda Lovelace, the pseudonym given to Linda Susan Boreman.

Flesh for Frankenstein

Flesh for Frankenstein

Flesh for Frankenstein is a 1973 horror film written and directed by Paul Morrissey. It stars Udo Kier, Joe Dallesandro, Monique van Vooren and Arno Juerging. Interiors were filmed at Cinecittà in Rome by a crew of Italian filmmakers.

Dark Star (film)

Dark Star (film)

Dark Star is a 1974 American science fiction comedy film directed and produced by John Carpenter and co-written with Dan O'Bannon. It follows the crew of the deteriorating starship Dark Star, twenty years into their mission to destroy unstable planets that might threaten future colonization of other planets.

Coonskin (film)

Coonskin (film)

Coonskin is a 1975 American live-action/animated satirical crime film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi. The film references the Uncle Remus folk tales, and satirizes the blaxploitation film genre as well as Disney's racially controversial film Song of the South, also adapted from the Uncle Remus folk tales. The film's narrative concerns three anthropomorphic Uncle Remus characters, Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Fox, and Br'er Bear. They rise to the top of the organized crime racket in Harlem, encountering corrupt law enforcement, con artists, and the Mafia, in a satire of both racism within the Hollywood film system, and America itself. The film stars Philip Thomas, Charles Gordone, Barry White, and Scatman Crothers, all of whom appear in both live-action and animated sequences.

Colombo crime family

Colombo crime family

The Colombo crime family is an Italian American Mafia crime family and is the youngest of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City within the criminal organization known as the American Mafia. It was during Lucky Luciano's organization of the American Mafia after the Castellammarese War, following the assassinations of "Joe the Boss" Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano, that the gang run by Joseph Profaci became recognized as the Profaci crime family.

New Line Cinema

New Line Cinema

New Line Cinema is an American film production studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and is a film label of Warner Bros.

Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-most populous city in Tennessee, after Nashville.

Harry Reems

Harry Reems

Herbert John Streicher, better known by his professional pseudonym Harry Reems, was an American pornographic actor and later a successful real estate agent. His most famous roles were as Doctor Young in the 1972 pornographic cult classic Deep Throat and The Teacher in the 1973 classic The Devil in Miss Jones. Throughout the 1970s and into the mid-1980s, he was one of the most prolific performers in the adult film industry. He became the first American actor to be prosecuted solely for appearing in a film. He retired from the industry in 1985.

Gerard Damiano

Gerard Damiano

Gerardo Rocco "Gerard" Damiano was an American director of adult films. He wrote and directed the 1972 cult classic Deep Throat, which starred Linda Susan Boreman aka Linda Lovelace. He also directed the smash hit The Devil in Miss Jones, which ranked #7 in Variety's list of the top-grossing pictures of 1973. Damiano is one of the seminal directors of what is known as The Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984).

Linda Lovelace

Linda Lovelace

Linda Lovelace was an American pornographic actress who became famous for her performance in the 1972 hardcore film Deep Throat. Although the film was an enormous success, Boreman later said that her abusive husband, Chuck Traynor, had threatened and coerced her into participation. In her autobiography Ordeal, she described what went on behind the scenes. She later became a born-again Christian and a spokeswoman for the anti-pornography movement.

Harry W. Wellford

Harry W. Wellford

Harry Walker Wellford was a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.

Lenny Bruce

Lenny Bruce

Leonard Alfred Schneider, better known by his stage name Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, and actor. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of comedy which contained satire, politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon in 2003.

Source: "Bryanston Distributing Company", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, January 18th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryanston_Distributing_Company.

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References
  1. ^ Staff writer (October 25, 1972). "Peraino, Parisi Form New Film, TV Indie". Variety. Penske Business Media. 268 (11): 5 – via ProQuest.
  2. ^ Staff writer. "AFI Catalog of Feature Films: Teenage Graffiti". AFI Catalog. American Film Institute. Archived from the original on November 2, 2021.
  3. ^ Hiltzik, Michael (February 24, 2005). "'Deep Throat' Numbers Just Don't Add Up". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 23, 2010.
  4. ^ Bloom, John (November 2004). "They Came. They Sawed". Texas Monthly.
  5. ^ "Organized Crime Reaps Huge Profits From Dealing in Pornographic Films". nytimes.com. October 12, 1975.
  6. ^ a b Farley, Ellen; Knoedelseder, William Jr. (October 1986). "The Chainsaw Massacres". Cinefantastique. Vol. 16, no. 4/5. New York City: Fourth Castle Micromedia. pp. 28–44.
  7. ^ a b Bozman, Ron (Production manager) (2008). The Business of Chain Saw: Interview with Ron Bozman from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (DVD). Dark Sky Films. Event occurs at 0:11:40–0:16:25.
  8. ^ Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (U.S. Supreme Court 1973).
  9. ^ Cohen, Henry (2003). "The Miller Test". Obscenity and Indecency: Constitutional Principles and Federal Statutes. New York: Novinka Books. pp. 2–5. ISBN 9781590337493.
  10. ^ "8 in 'Deep Throat' Case Receive Prison Sentences". nytimes.com. May 1, 1977.
  11. ^ "TWO SLAIN AND ONE HURT IN A MOB-STYLE SHOOTING". nytimes.com. January 5, 1982.


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