Jewish Figures in Adult Entertainment: Ruben Sturman and Industry History

So let's start with, um... I think Mike maybe you're the

best one for this. Um, maybe the background of Jews in the

adult entertainment industry, um, either

from the filmmaking perspective, management perspective,

active perspective, viewing perspective.

Share. Share now.

You sure this isn't one you wanna take?

I have some thoughts on it also.

Very good.

Um, Jews in the adult industry, the, there's a lot of them.

Um, it was pretty much founded by the adult

industry, or I'm, I'm sorry.

The Jews. The adult in- I had a couple beers.

The adult industry was pretty much founded by the Jews.

Um,

basically in the early 1900s, the,

the German Jewish immigrants came in, and when they were trying to get into

different industries, there was a lot of antisemitism where they

couldn't, um,

get into normal lines of work. I'm not saying that porn's not normal.

Um,

but um,

so they gravitated towards the porn industry because it's, like, kind of the

seedier cousin of the Hollywood industry, which had already been controlled by the

Jews. Um, and basically they pretty much just took

it

over. Um, if you look at the, the big stars,

um... Did I break my chair already?

I think so.

Okay.

No, you're good.

Okay, well, actually, never mind.

Um, so basically back in, you know, the 1960s, '70s, it was founded

by people like Danny Mumme, Danny Scurra.

Um, and then later in the '80s, you know, the, the

godfather of the modern-day porn industry, his name was Ruben Sturman,

um, who was actually an Orthodox Jew.

He owned over 200 bookstores all around the country.

He's actually my godfather, which is kinda weird.

Um-

But, um,

so, uh,

Ruben Sturman, what they, what the Jews did pretty much

was they revolutionized the

adult industry and made it their own.

Um, so there was no space for antisemitism,

and they basically controlled

everything. So back in the '80s, the only way you could

get pornography was to go through someone like Ruben Sturman, and he

controlled, you know, all of his stores and all the stores that,

um,

that he didn't own. They had, actually had to pay him a tax, um, to

carry his product, and he was the only place

that you could get product from, peep

shows from. Um, and later what the Jews did

was, uh, they started the manufacturing end of the

business.

There were a lot of Italians that were coming into the business,

but what they did

was they created the manufacturing side, which is the replication, the

printing. Because back in the day, if you wanted to make a

VHS or a beta tape or whatever, um, you couldn't go

down to Kinko's or any mainstream printer and be like,

"I wanna print, you know,

Gang Bang My Mom 3," or something.

I'm keeping it clean.

Yeah, no.

Well, I promised I would.

Clearly.

That works, too. We haven't done that yet, but.

Um, so what they did was they created all of these companies

that manufactured DVDs and VHS and beta

and printing, and all the companies pretty much had to

go through the Jews.

Um, so, um, Ruben Sturman, actually,

eventually he died in prison. Um, not from...

They tried to get him from his obscenity back in the '80s, which was a big

thing. Um, and uh, it actually still is, there is an obscenity arrest

today. Um, but uh, he eventually died in,

in prison because of tax evasion, because he didn't wanna pay taxes.

Um,

so that's, you know.

It's a half taboo topic.

Yeah. Jews and money.

Yeah. Jews and money is the next taboo topic.

Coming next year.

Rabbi?

Buy your tickets today.

Do you wanna weigh in on this? So let's follow that up, um,

with

the relationship between the Jews who

got involved in this industry because they couldn't get involved in

mainstream Hollywood, and their relationship with non-Jews

then who were in this industry. Was there a stigma?

Um, because while they did control a variety,

you know,

historically control a lot of this industry, was there a stigma about

those who were actively, let's say, making the films about being

Jewish in this movie? Was there a stigma within it, and

was there a

stigma from other Jews who were in the community?

And where is that at today versus historically?

Let, let me just answer that question quick.

Um, back in the '70s, the majority of the

male por- porn performers were Jewish-

Hmm

... and the majority of the female performers

were Roman

Catholic.

And if you look at the names from, like, the classic porn stars, you got Ron

Jeremy, which isn't really Jewish, but you have Herschel Savage.

Is that his real name or his porn name?

That's a porn name.

Oh.

Herschel was his porn name.

Herschel.

That's not what I would pick.

But, um-

That's the next question.

I, I, I-

Is that a porn name?

But it's, it, it, it's kind of funny because those guys came

into the industry,

and I, I actually asked a couple of them, 'cause I a- I asked Ron Jeremy, and I was

like, "Why did you guys, you know, decide to go into the porn industry?

Like, what was it that drew you in besides, like,

the obvious?"

Mm-hmm.

He went like, "I got to fuck Roman Catholic chicks."

"And fulfill every fan..." I'm, I'm sorry.

No, it's okay.

You're okay.

It's okay. We'll, no.

"I get to fornicate with Roman

Catholic chicks, and fulfill, like, every fantasy that every Jewish boy has

ever

had." So, um, I think, I think the, the Jewish

performers, they've always been really prevalent in

the industry, and even now Ron

Jeremy is still, you know, like, one of the most well-known performers.

James Dean, Joanna Angel, um, Daphne Rosen.

There's, there's a bunch of them. Um-

James Dean

... and for the most part the, the business side is still controlled by

Jews. You have Steve Hirsch who runs Vivid.

You have Steve Warrenstein who runs Wicked.

You have me who runs the biggest porn company in the world.

Um, second biggest. Um, but for the most part, you know,

all the, all the business owners are, are pretty much Jewish

or have Jewish ties or

for s- at some point worked for a Jew in the porn

business and getting

their,

their start. So, um,

I forgot what the question was, but I hope I answered it.

You did. You're

good.

Yay.

No, but that's a, that's a huge debate right now in

that community.

So that was, I mean, that's what I wanted to add is there's,

like, a lot of

feminist porn that, I don't know if you can call that Jewish

pornography, but-