What do you give the King of Sodom on his birthday?
The following is an excerpt from “Beautiful Downtown Sodom”by Sam Staggs, former editor of the gay magazines Mandate, Honcho, and Playguy.
Read the book free at sstaggs.substack.comYou give him a temple prostitute, of course. Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.That’s the gift of choice in Sodom and Gomorrah: The Last Seven Days, an adult film produced and directed by Jim and Artie Mitchell in 1975.
It boasted one of the largest porn-film budgets up to that time: a rumored $500,000. (Deep Throat, three years earlier, reportedly cost a mere $22,500 plus an additional $25,000 for music–the latter a most unnecessary add-on.)In 1972, the Mitchell brothers had produced and directed Behind the Green Door, a pioneering work made for $60,000 that is said to have eventually grossed over fifty million–a highly doubtful figure.
Such numbers are wildly inflated, and approximate at best owing to Mafia involvement in distribution and to the sub rosa nature of the genre.
