The Rialto Report
Podcast #27 (December 2013)
An extensive (101 minute) audio podcast interview by Ashley West with R.C. Horsch about the making of Male Chauvinist Pig, the 1970's Golder Era of Porn and RC's convoluted and amazing lifestyle.
Introduction
On this episode of The Rialto Report, we track down the mysterious R.C. Horsch, director of The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig.
With tales of drug smuggling, live sex shows, pornography, industrial espionage, forged Picasso etchings, Jayne Mansfield, Viet Nam desertion, counterfeit $10 bills, meth production, controversial art… and sex with a car?
This episode running time is 101 minutes.
In February 1973 Ray Horsch shot his first pornographic film, The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig. Deep Throat had been released only six months before – and America was still fascinated with how far a girl had to go to untangle her tingle. RC’s film was shot in Philadelphia but it stars many of the New York regulars such as Georgina Spelvin, Darby Lloyd Raines, Tina Russell, and Helen Madigan.
But this film was no lighthearted comedy about oral sex. Ray’s not that type. In fact his film is remarkable for the number of taboos it covers. Golden shower? Check. Blood? Check. S&M and bondage? Check. Rape? Double Check. Underage sex? What do you think? If you wanted socially redeeming features, you should’ve been down the block checking out Ryan O’Neil playing in “Love Story”.
What’s more, the film was funded by Sam ‘The Barber’ Larussa of the Phillie mob, it was shot in the house of people working in the local District Attorney office, and when Al Goldstein reviewed it for Screw magazine, he said it was well made but he found it disgusting. Not bad for a filmmaker who’d been working for Sesame Street until then.
And yet, consider this. Male Chauvinist Pig is probably the most conventional thing Ray Horsch has ever done.
He describes himself as a banknote forger, artist, writer, drug smuggler, art forger, army deserter, fugitive, photographer, sociopath, ex-convict. I don’t argue with anyone with a resume’ like that – except in this case, that’s only half the story.
In the 1990s, Ray Horsch returned to filmmaking when he produced and directed a series of erotic “couples oriented” documentaries entitled “Lovers” for Candida Royalle’s women-oriented Femme distribution company.
At this point he was over 50 years old, and also made appearances in front of the camera in the public sex themed films, Streets of New York, before directing a series of increasingly controversial films that drew accusations of misogyny.
I met up with Ray several times a few years ago, and always enjoyed his company. Even though he relished the role of being a villain, and looked the part with his long, wild black hair and an eye patch, I figured that after a life of living dangerously he was probably now happy with a quieter existence, and had left his criminal activity in the past.
Booy, was I wrong!
Apparently when Ray was out running errands one day, his 21 year old live-in girlfriend called the police to report a suspected intruder at his house. The property was checked and nothing was found, but when the officers looked in the basement, they discovered a vast indoor marijuana growing operation. Equipped with gloves, respirators, and body suits, police officers descended and spent the day removing hundreds of high end marijuana plants.
Now four years on, he’s been released from jail, and so I was keen to catch up with him...
--Ashley West,The Rialto Report
Comments
I’ve known RC for over a decade and was married to him for three years and was there when you filmed an interview with him at our house several years back. I also performed as “Samantha Sweet” in Neville’s S.O.N.Y. and Taxi Tales and some other films.
I just want to say that the podcast was great but it probably covered less than 10% of his life! For example, in Europe he is maybe known much more as a controversial artist than a porn guy. I went with him when he had an exhibition in Rome where he was treated like royalty. I met a lot of famous people who collect his work like Michelangelo Antonioni who said that he admired RC since his first acquisition in 1969 which was a picture of a naked woman nailed to a cross.
But what I want to say most is that RC is nowhere near the evil person he makes himself out to be. I know for a fact that he absolutely never, ever hits or abuses a woman unless she really wants him to and asks him politely. I never wanted him to and he never did except when I was in his Evil Master series and also his Slaves film and it was for the camera. Also, life with him was mostly an adventure. I got to spend “quality time” with gorgeous women like Christie Lake and Carly Sparks and Anna Male and since he was always bringing home stray women like some people bring home stray cats I never knew who I would wake up with us in bed in the morning. LOL!!
--Amy McHale (aka Samantha Sweet)
There’s a popular tv and radio ad for a beer, that features a man who is simply referred to as “the most interesting man in the world.” Well….before anyone hands out that title, they should listen to this podcast with R.C. Horsch. Ashley, you asked the right questions, tough questions and Ray was never at a loss for an answer. Like the question about some of his film work being viewed as misogynistic. I’ve been asked a similar question but Ray could articulate would I could not. I completely “get” his answer. Now, to begin with, I’m an R C Horsch fan. I shot roughly 48 sex scenes for a series called NY Video Magazine (not to be confused with my Streets of NY series) and of those 48 scenes, my favorite was a scene that Ray did with an Italian actress named Mania. I liked it for it’s creativity, it’s honesty and the pureness of the sexual energy. As for Ray’s erotic photography, I don’t want to compare one artist with another but RC’s work resonates with me. It’s brilliant. It’s profound.
I created a series called “Streets of New York,” but gave up the series after the 4th volume. Longish story, I suppose. RC worked in subsequent volumes for my former partner, Neville Chambers, and I was very amused, literally chuckling, listening to RC’s response to your question about the concept of the series….I conceived. His answers were humorously fascinating to me, informative, as I’ve never seen any of the volumes that were produced after I left.
In any event, your podcast with Ray is fascinating. One could easily argue, he is simply “the most interesting person in the world.” Thanks so much for that interview.
--Rick Savage
