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American Exxxtasy: My 30-Year Search for a Happy Ending
How does a young man from a small New England town become one of the most influential makers of exploitation films in the 1960s? How does the same filmmaker come to be a pioneer of hardcore sex movies in the 1970s and 1980s, including groundbreaking gay features? And how does that very same director move into mainstream productions for television networks like NBC in the 1990s?
In American Exxxtasy, John Amero charts his remarkable life and career at the forefront of the sexual revolution, while sharing what it was like to be a gay man living in the heart of New York City through the eras of Stonewall, LGBTQ rights and AIDS.
It's a memoir that depicts his close bond with his brother Lem, with whom he formed a thirty-year filmmaking partnership. It details his friendship and collaboration with notorious exploitation director Michael Findlay and his wife Roberta. And it explores John's relationships with notable names such as
Andy Warhol, Montgomery Clift, Anthony Perkins, and Olympia Dukakis.
American Exxxtasy is an engaging personal story told with candour, emotion and humour, and a portrait of an industry and a city that were rapidly changing. And it's the only first-person account that provides intimate insight into a singularly unique journey from porn to primetime.
In American Exxxtasy, John Amero charts his remarkable life and career at the forefront of the sexual revolution, while sharing what it was like to be a gay man living in the heart of New York City through the eras of Stonewall, LGBTQ rights and AIDS.
It's a memoir that depicts his close bond with his brother Lem, with whom he formed a thirty-year filmmaking partnership. It details his friendship and collaboration with notorious exploitation director Michael Findlay and his wife Roberta. And it explores John's relationships with notable names such as
Andy Warhol, Montgomery Clift, Anthony Perkins, and Olympia Dukakis.
American Exxxtasy is an engaging personal story told with candour, emotion and humour, and a portrait of an industry and a city that were rapidly changing. And it's the only first-person account that provides intimate insight into a singularly unique journey from porn to primetime.
224 pages, Hardcover
Published December 1, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 20, 2021
John Amero was a pioneer in the world of porn films. He and his brother Lem began making softcore sexploitation films in the 1960s, working with Michael and Roberta Findlay. As soon as it became viable to screen hardcore pornographic features in American cinemas, the Amero brothers made Bacchanale (1971). It had been shot as a softcore film, but when they saw that the market had changed, they shot hardcore inserts using other performers. This was a year before Deep Throat (1972) (dir. Gerard Damiano) brought porno features into the limelight.
The Amero Brothers are most famous for their porno comedy Blonde Ambition (1981) which follows the adventures of show biz sisters Sugar and Kandy Kane, who, at one point perform in a porno remake of Gone With the Wind. John, using the pseudonym, Francis Ellie, also directed many gay porno features. Lem was only editor on these films. Another Amero Brothers film was Passage Through Pamela (1985), centring around a transexual performer.
Anyone fascinated with the history of "adult" cinema in the U.S. will love this book. It takes us behind the scenes and gives a sense of what it was like to be a part of a renegade entertainment industry at a time when censorship was crumbling but those who took advantage of the new opportunities still risked prosecution. And they were making something out of next-to-nothing. The films weren't great art, but they were the means to the next feature and a chance to try something different next time. And they were a means of self-expression. Amero gives a fascinating example of one of his films which had its inspiration in a nerve-wracking personal experience.
But you don't have to have a special interest in the porn industry to find the book an engaging read. It's full of remarkable anecdotes, some involving famous people, and Amero really brings you into his experiences as a gay man living through a turbulent period marked first by wider acceptance but later by the AIDS which robbed him of his brother Lem.
Ashley West and April Hall, of The Rialto Report website and podcast, assisted in bringing John Amero's memoirs to us. Once again they have encouraged someone to share their memories in a way which enriches us.
The Amero Brothers are most famous for their porno comedy Blonde Ambition (1981) which follows the adventures of show biz sisters Sugar and Kandy Kane, who, at one point perform in a porno remake of Gone With the Wind. John, using the pseudonym, Francis Ellie, also directed many gay porno features. Lem was only editor on these films. Another Amero Brothers film was Passage Through Pamela (1985), centring around a transexual performer.
Anyone fascinated with the history of "adult" cinema in the U.S. will love this book. It takes us behind the scenes and gives a sense of what it was like to be a part of a renegade entertainment industry at a time when censorship was crumbling but those who took advantage of the new opportunities still risked prosecution. And they were making something out of next-to-nothing. The films weren't great art, but they were the means to the next feature and a chance to try something different next time. And they were a means of self-expression. Amero gives a fascinating example of one of his films which had its inspiration in a nerve-wracking personal experience.
But you don't have to have a special interest in the porn industry to find the book an engaging read. It's full of remarkable anecdotes, some involving famous people, and Amero really brings you into his experiences as a gay man living through a turbulent period marked first by wider acceptance but later by the AIDS which robbed him of his brother Lem.
Ashley West and April Hall, of The Rialto Report website and podcast, assisted in bringing John Amero's memoirs to us. Once again they have encouraged someone to share their memories in a way which enriches us.
September 28, 2022
John and my late father are first cousins. I had never heard the whole story or met John. It was great to read the story of John and Lem's involvement in the adult film industry as well as some of his family history.
May 17, 2025
An emotional rollercoaster from exploitation through to hardcore and finally the big TV call up. Wish I'd have read this around the same time I read Sleazoid Express and first started getting into some of these films. His encounters with Tony Perkins and Montgomery Clift killed me.
September 12, 2022
Very entertaining book, but would have liked to go deeper on how these movies are made. This book is written for a very particular reader and it did work to a point.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews