LOS ANGELES — Veteran adult film director and performer Carter Stevens passed away in Pennsylvania today, his son reported via social media.
Leading industry archivists The Rialto Report dubbed Stevens, "a porn Renaissance man" and "one of the adult film industry’s true originals."
He was noted by contemporaries as a meticulous craftsman who had genuine respect for his performers and for the filmmaking process.
"He started to make his first feature film before the landmark success of ‘Deep Throat,'" The Rialto Report explained, "and he was still in the sex business thirty years later."
His work displayed his wit, humor and a very 1970s sensibility that merged porn and new-wave art punk. Some of his early films include "Teenage Twins," "Punkrock" and "Rollerbabies" (1976-1977).
In the 1970s and '80s, he directed what the Rialto Report described as "a series of increasingly popular and ambitious films," including "Lickity-Split" and "Honeymoon Haven."
"He made loops, directed a series of films for the Avon Theater chain," they continued, "and fought battles with drugs and charges of obscenity and of hiring an underage actress, before re-emerging in the 1990s with a successful fetish newspaper and publishing business."
In more recent years, Stevens had worked on director-approved DVD transfers of his work.
The Early Days of New York Porn
Stevens shared his experience in the early days of the adult film business in New York for an oral history published by the Village Voice.
"All of us made our money on loops — 8mm stag films back in the 1970s," he told the legendary alt-weekly. "We were doing eight loops a day. We shot one day a week, every week for years. We did thousands of loops and they would go right into the peep shows. What went into making a loop? Two people, a bed, a cameraman, an assistant and 10 minutes of film. There was no plot at all. There was a set-up and then people screwed."
Even back in the '80s, Stevens explained to the Voice, the industry was underground. "You were always afraid of being busted," he said. "We were outlaws, and we were having a ball being outlaws. Nobody made much money. Half the time you had no idea what part you were playing. If you were lucky they told you what suit to bring. You learned your lines sitting in the green room. We came in, they gave us our dialogue — if it wasn’t completely improv. I got a lot of work because I could improv, not because I looked like Robert Redford."
In "Crack of Dawn," he reminisced, Stevens "played a character who was a rip-off on Willard Scott — 'Dillard Twat.' Scott Baker, who was also in it, has done some of his weirdest videos for me. I have a video of him dressed up as Mr. Clean and we had him screwing a refrigerator, a stove and a sink. We had him saying things like 'Defrost, bitch'."
"It was hard to keep the crew from ruining the takes with their laughter," he added.
