‘Deep Throat’ star looks back at Pitt

It didn’t take long for Herb Streicher to go from a Pitt dropout who wasn’t so hot with the… It didn’t take long for Herb Streicher to go from a Pitt dropout who wasn’t so hot with the ladies to a legendary porn star. Better known as Harry Reems, the New York native starred in the 1972 film, ‘Deep Throat,’ which later became the pseudonym of The Washington Post’s informant who exposed the Watergate scandal. Before becoming famous for his role as the very hands-on Dr. Young, Reems thought ‘school was hell.’ So, he left Pitt after less than one semester ‘mdash; although there is no longer record of him attending ‘mdash; to join the Marine Corps. ‘I had watched too many John Wayne and World War II movies, so I wanted to shoot a gun and drive a Jeep,’ said the now-61-year-old Reems from his office in Utah. Reems said he never got shipped out and was instead stationed at the Brooklyn navy yards. While in Brooklyn, he caught pneumonia and was hospitalized at St. Albans Naval Hospital for two months, during which he witnessed the destruction of the Vietnam War for the first time. ‘Guys shipped in with missing legs and arms,’ he said. ‘Suddenly, I didn’t want to shoot guns or drive Jeeps anymore. I just needed out.’ After his discharge in 1967, Reems returned to New York to pursue acting, winning parts in off-Broadway productions. But, earning $72 per week was not enough to pay the rent, he said. ‘One of the other actors in the group said, ‘I know where you can make 100 bucks in one hour,” said Reems. The advice he got: ‘Go shoot a sex film.’ However, young Streicher was no Ron Jeremy or Peter North at the time. ‘My sexual life prior to all this was almost non-existent,’ he said. ‘I didn’t have sex ’til I was well out of high school … I was scared of women.’ When he arrived at the audition, Reems was asked to have sex simultaneously with two women. ‘It seemed to be the two gals enjoyed working with me. I wasn’t a rodent, and I wasn’t abusive in any way,’ he said. Reems explained that the women chose their male counterparts. ‘My name got out there as fast as lightning,’ he said. He acted in many X-rated films throughout the late 1960s, but his now iconic mustached face didn’t find fame until ‘Deep Throat.’ Reems, who had grown bored with acting, originally joined ‘Deep Throat’ as a lighting director, but when the lead actor fell through he was asked get back in front of the camera. He agreed and went on to star in what might be the highest grossing pornographic movie of all time, said Reems. ‘Deep Throat’ was different than many porn films that came before because it played freely in neighborhood theaters, said Randall Halle, professor of German film and cultural studies at Pitt. It was a landmark of the sexual revolution of the ’60s and ’70s and drew curious audiences who had never seen a porn film, said Halle. The film even became a topic of common household discussion, he added. Reems enjoyed the unparalleled success of ‘Deep Throat’ for months after its release, until he was presented with a New York Post article that said the government was looking for him. ‘I figured it was a joke,’ he said, but when he returned to New York after shooting another film, FBI agents met him at his door presenting him with an indictment. Reems had been charged by a federal court for conspiring to transport obscene materials across state borders. He was tried in Memphis, Tenn., in a case he calls a precedent. ‘No actor of any kind had been prosecuted by the federal government for merely appearing in a film,’ said Reems. He was also the only actor from the film put on trial. Reems, who was the star of the industry, ascribes the arrest to his fame. He was fined and sentenced to jail in 1976, but with the support of the American public and a successful appeal by attorney Alan Dershowitz, his conviction was overturned. Following the trial, Reems returned to the adult film industry and also tried his hand at mainstream movies. ‘Of course every porno actor says, ‘I’m a real actor,’ but I saw the writing on the wall. No one was going to hire me for a major part,’ said Reems. His acting career might have been over, but the porn-star lifestyle was not. Reems spent much of his time in the 1980s palling around with Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. ‘We did a lot of things together that can’t be put into print,’ said Reems. Eventually, those things caught up to the actor. ‘I suddenly started doing cocaine and Hef said to me he couldn’t have me back until I cleaned up,’ said Reems. He moved to Park City, Utah, in the mid-1980s, yet was still ‘a very low-bottom drunk and drug abuser,’ he said. But, with the support of his wife, the Methodist church and Alcoholics Anonymous, Reems declared sobriety on July 1, 1990. Around the same time, Reems applied for a real estate license. He now sells houses in Park City. He still goes by the name ‘Harry Reems,’ because he knows clients will recognize him. ‘I don’t want people to say, ‘Aha! I know who you are.’ So, I say ‘My name is Harry Reems, and I did adult film for 16 years. If you have a problem with this, I understand,” he said laughing. With the exception of the occasional prank phone call, Reems leads a relatively normal life in Utah. ‘I live in a small town. I don’t swagger. I don’t put on facades,’ he said. ‘I’m just a regular guy.’