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90 - MISC/Black Mass (1975 film).md

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+---
+category: "Crime & Abuse Networks"
+tags:
+  - Film
+  - RCHorsch
+  - Philadelphia
+  - Satanism
+  - Censorship
+alias:
+  - Black Mass (Hoersch film)
+summary: "Philadelphia film of a satanic mass by Ray Hoersch, later known as R.C. Horsch, withdrawn from the Arcadia Theatre in 1975 after protests led by Cardinal John Krol."
+date: 1975-03-01
+location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania"
+relations:
+  - type: participant_in
+    with: "[[R.C. Horsch]]"
+    reverse: true
+    role: "producer and director"
+    fn: 1
+created: 2026-09-23
+updated: 2026-09-23
+---
+
+*Black Mass* was a film of a satanic mass produced and directed by the [[Philadelphia]] filmmaker Ray Hoersch, later known as [[R.C. Horsch]]. A midnight run at the [[Arcadia Theatre (Philadelphia)|Arcadia]] in Center City was cancelled in February 1975 after what the *[[The Philadelphia Inquirer|Philadelphia Inquirer]]* called reported pressure from the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia|Philadelphia Archdiocese]], and the film was screened instead at midnight at the [[Bandbox Theater]] in [[Germantown, Philadelphia|Germantown]] on Saturday, March 1, 1975.[^1]
+
+### The Film
+
+The [[Religious News Service]] reported that the film was "reputed to be the only literal representation ever made of an authentic satanic rite" and was based on transcripts of the rite obtained by Hoersch, who had "reportedly attempted to film the actual ceremony" and, failing that, obtained the transcripts, "including the mystical incantations." Hoersch described it: "The Satanic Mass is the exact inverse of the Catholic ceremony. Every part of it is reversed in blasphemy, for its intention is a deliberate corruption, a parody of the Mass. Starting with the processional, the ritual uses a nude as the altar piece. The second section is a baptism, in which a girl dressed in white renounces her Christianity and seals her pact with the devil. And the third part is the Invocation to lust."[^2] In an interview recorded in 2013 and rebroadcast in 2026 he recalled it as "a literal Catholic black mass in Latin" that "kind of bombed" because few in the audience spoke Latin, said that he had made it as "something to do that was contrary to the law," and said that he still held the film rights to [[Anton LaVey]]'s *[[The Satanic Bible]]*, which he had bought for about 150 dollars.[^3]
+
+### The Protest
+
+Sixteen Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, and Jewish leaders of Philadelphia, led by Cardinal [[John Krol]], signed a joint statement calling the film's content "a blasphemous attack on the religious rites held in sacred reverence by millions of Christian believers" and "a frontal attack on the sacred itself," and urged "believers of every religious conviction to use every moral force to discourage the showing of this film in the Philadelphia area." They said it was "obviously intended not to be viewed as a film, but as a blasphemous ritualistic observance," noted that current plans called for it to be shown in one theater every Saturday at midnight, and asked everyone in the local film industry "to resist and reject every attempt to market or portray this film." The signers included Rabbi Charles Lacks, president of the [[Greater Philadelphia Board of Rabbis]], and its executive director, Rabbi Harold Goldfarb; Francis G. Brown, general secretary of the [[Philadelphia Yearly Meeting]] of the Religious Society of Friends; the Rev. William J. Brown of the Donegal Presbytery of the [[United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America|United Presbyterian Church]]; and Bishop E. L. Hickman of the First Episcopal District of the [[African Methodist Episcopal Church]], with representatives of the Greek Orthodox community, the [[United Church of Christ]], the Pennsylvania Baptist Association, the Byzantine Ukrainian Rite, the United Methodists, and the Metropolitan Christian Council of Philadelphia. In an addendum the Board of Rabbis said that the film "not only constitutes an obscene travesty of Catholic sancta, but deeply outrages the religious sensitivities of all God fearing people" and that it saw "no redeeming social or aesthetic value whatever in 'Black Mass.'"[^2]
+
+### The Bandbox
+
+[[Art Carduner]] of the Bandbox, who gave the film its new home, booked the screening as a benefit for the Friends of the Bandbox, and Hoersch attended.[^1] The Bandbox had earlier taken over the run of *[[In the Year of the Pig]]* in late 1969, when city inspectors closed Hoersch's [[Underground Cinema 16]] on Sansom Street.[^4] Hoersch said in the same interview that the archdiocese had the run cancelled after one screening, and that after the film he lost interest in the sex-film business and turned to fashion photography.[^3] Eleven weeks before the Bandbox screening, on December 10, 1974, he had been arrested by the [[United States Secret Service]] for counterfeiting ten-dollar bills.[^5]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: [Society and nightlife column], *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* February 28, 1975, p. 21 ("'Black Mass,' the controversial film by Chestnut Hill filmmaker Ray Hoersch, will be shown at the Germantown Bandbox Theater this Saturday at midnight. Originally scheduled for a midnight showing at the Arcadia, the film was cancelled after reported pressure by the Philadelphia Archdiocese, according to the Bandbox's Art Carduner, who gave the film a new home."). https://www.newspapers.com/image/173366667/
+[^2]: "Offensive Material: Leaders Condemn Black Mass Film," Religious News Service, *Lake Shore Visitor* (Erie), March 7, 1975, p. 3. https://www.newspapers.com/image/951794835/
+[^3]: West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 2: Performance," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 172, September 20, 2026, audio at 30:51 to 32:04, republishing interviews recorded in 2013. https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/09/20/ray-horsch-3/
+[^4]: "Mayor Tate's War On [...]," *The Distant Drummer,* no. 65, December 25, 1969, to January 1, 1970, p. 8, Temple University Libraries, Special Collections Research Center. https://digital.library.temple.edu/digital/collection/p16002coll34/id/473
+[^5]: "[...] bogus $180,000 in Bucks raid," *The Morning Call* (Allentown), December 11, 1974, p. 5. https://www.newspapers.com/image/275702319/

90 - MISC/The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig.md

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+---
+category: "Crime & Abuse Networks"
+tags:
+  - Film
+  - Pornography
+  - RCHorsch
+  - Philadelphia
+  - OrganizedCrime
+alias:
+  - Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig
+  - Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig
+  - Male Chauvinist Pig (film)
+summary: "1973 pornographic feature shot in Philadelphia by Ray Hoersch, later R.C. Horsch, and John Butterworth, which Horsch said was financed by the Philadelphia bar owner Salvatore La Russa."
+location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania"
+relations:
+  - type: participant_in
+    with: "[[R.C. Horsch]]"
+    reverse: true
+    role: "writer and director"
+    fn: 1
+  - type: participant_in
+    with: "[[John Butterworth]]"
+    reverse: true
+    role: "co-director"
+    fn: 1
+created: 2026-09-23
+updated: 2026-09-23
+---
+
+*The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig* is a pornographic feature shot in [[Philadelphia]] in February 1973 by Ray Hoersch, later known as [[R.C. Horsch]], and [[John Butterworth]], whom Horsch described as a news cameraman for [[KYW-TV]]. It featured the New York performers [[Georgina Spelvin]], [[Tina Russell]], [[Darby Lloyd Rains]], and [[Helen Madigan]] and depicts rape, bondage, urination, and sex with a character presented as a schoolgirl.[^1][^2]
+
+### Production
+
+Horsch said that the budget was a little over 20,000 dollars, of which 60 to 70 percent came from [[Salvatore La Russa|Salvatore "Sam the Barber" La Russa]], who ran the Bag of Nails bar at 13th and Locust Streets, "money that he had laying around in a shoebox behind the bar. We're talking about organized crime." He said the film was shot in the house of his girlfriend, the wife of a Philadelphia assistant district attorney, and that a hospital scene was shot in the emergency room of the [[Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania]] under permission obtained for a student film; his later website gave the emergency room as [[Hahnemann University Hospital|Hahnemann Hospital]]'s and the house as the Chestnut Hill home of a local assistant district attorney, and listed further locations at the Bag of Nails and on a vintage [[SEPTA]] trolley. The same website credited Paul Taylor as the lead, "Barney," and an actress billed as Any Mathieu or Any Hunter.[^1][^3][^4]
+
+### Distribution
+
+Horsch said that staff of the [[Philadelphia District Attorney's Office]] attended the premiere at the 1812 Theater on Chestnut Street, that La Russa arranged distribution through Philadelphia organized crime, and that the film was sold to the distributor [[Sam Lake]] for 50,000 dollars; his website described Lake's company as Mature Pictures, Inc.[^1][^4] The trade magazine *Take One* reported in the spring of 1973 that "Bob Sumner's Mature Films in New York followed up Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig (starring Ms. Spelvin) with High Rise."[^5] The *[[Boxoffice (magazine)|Boxoffice]]* booking guide of February 1974 listed "Erotic Memoirs/Male Chauvinist Pig," a sex drama of 75 minutes, from the distributor Mature, with a date of October 15, 1973.[^6] Horsch said that the film reached number 42 on a national chart; his website gave number 38.[^3][^4] [[Al Goldstein]] wrote in *[[Screw (magazine)|Screw]]* that the sex in it was disgusting.[^2][^4] La Russa died of a heart attack in 1996.[^7]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 2: Performance," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 172, September 20, 2026, audio. https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/09/20/ray-horsch-3/
+[^2]: "How a pornographer's violent fantasies blurred fact and fiction as cops searched Olney house for missing women," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 2, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/a/raymond-eugene-horsch-olney-philadelphia-missing-women-history-20260802.html
+[^3]: West, Ashley. "Ray Horsch: Sociopathic Villain," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 27, December 15, 2013. Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20260520094947/https://www.therialtoreport.com/2013/12/15/ray-horsch/
+[^4]: Horsch, R.C. [Commentary on *The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig*] and "Art Beat" interview of 1997, eroto.com, archived November 5, 2016. http://web.archive.org/web/20161105022433/http://eroto.com:80/commentary/64-mcp-commentary
+[^5]: Morthland, John. "Porn Films: An In-Depth Report," *Take One,* vol. 3, no. 6 (March-April 1973), pp. 11-15. https://archive.org/details/take-one-1973-03
+[^6]: "Boxoffice Bookinguide," *Boxoffice* (Canadian edition), February 4, 1974. https://archive.org/details/boxoffice-canadian-1974-02-04
+[^7]: "Five takeaways from Philly missing women mystery connected to Raymond and Eugene Horsch," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 4, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/raymond-eugene-horsch-olney-missing-women-20260804.html