Reviewed by Scott Axelrod
Those not around during the “Golden Age” of porn (the mid 70s to early 80s) missed out on the chance to see many a stroke-film play out on the big screen as theatergoers played with themselves in their sticky seats. This was a time before porn was virtually everywhere and when only certain porn performers were deemed "stars." These actresses/actors became celebrities in their own right, and are now often considered legends. With the invention of the VHS cassette, the “art” of the porn film slowly seeped away towards low-budget plot-lacking quickies that could be shot and on shelves within weeks, while the “porn star” moniker was able to take on a life of its own as a clichéd title given to anyone having sex in front of a running camera.
RetroRaw.com is a site that seeks to fill in the blanks to those who need a little tutelage in porn history, while attempting to bring back that good ole’ time feeling of nostalgia for those who were there to see it, and stroke it first hand. With over 30 full-length and downloadable DVDs, members can watch John Holmes, Seka, Vanessa Del Rio, Amber Lynn, Sharon Mitchell, Peter North, (a younger and thinner) Ron Jeremy, and some other well-known nom-de-porn suck and fuck their ways to cult status, while paving the way for today’s seemingly infinite amount of starlets and stars.
Each DVD is set up to include the front and back of its box cover, while a dozen or so thumbnail screencaps act as the links for the particular segments of the film that you’d like to look at. Each is viewable in high or low speed Windows Media format with excellent picture quality and sound. The length of the films vary, as do the single scenes, but the webmasters here didn’t cut any corners, managing to include each film in its entirety without editing out the parts that many would normally fast-forward through.
Much of the content on here features or includes John Holmes aka Johnny Wadd, such as “Sexual Rage,” “King Cock,” “John Holmes: Exposed,” “Boogie Down on This,” “The Adventures of Peeping Tom,” “Candy Girls,” and several others. The legendary swordsman (whose penis was said to be 12-15 inches long) supposedly performed in several gay scenes, and in a number of Swedish skin-flicks under assumed names and disguises, before succumbing to AIDS in 1988. A page-long bio of the actor is included on the front page of the site. Seka, a former x-rated bookstore owner, is considered to be the most popular porn star of all time, or at least the Jenna Jameson of her day. This blonde beauty is celebrated here in both a page-long bio and a handful of films including: “Seduction,” “Reflections,” “Depraved,” and “Curious Housewives,” a few of which happen to find her getting filled by Holmes himself.
This site makes for a great old-school porn archive, but it could actually be a much more comprehensive reference source if it included more content. Not only more films, but photo galleries, interviews, press materials, and other various odds n' ends on the cavalcade of old-school performers (many of which are not even mentioned here at all) that we have often heard of or read about, but never had to the chance to see in the proverbial flesh.
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