vault backup: 2026-09-23 16:47:02

10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Sam Lake.md

@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+---
+category: "Crime & Abuse Networks"
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Pornography
+  - FilmDistribution
+  - NewYork
+  - RCHorsch
+summary: "New York pornographic film distributor, named by R.C. Horsch as the head of Mature Pictures, to whom Horsch said he sold his 1973 feature for 50,000 dollars."
+location: "New York, New York"
+relations:
+  - type: partner_of
+    with: "[[R.C. Horsch]]"
+    role: "distributor of his 1973 feature, according to Horsch"
+    fn: 1
+created: 2026-09-23
+updated: 2026-09-23
+---
+
+Sam Lake was, according to [[R.C. Horsch]], a [[New York City|New York]] distributor of pornographic films working through the company Mature Pictures. Horsch said that his 1973 feature *[[The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig]]* was sold to Lake for 50,000 dollars, and his website credited the film's distribution to "the legendary Sam Lake (Mature Pictures, Inc.)."[^1][^2]
+
+### The 1973 Film
+
+In Horsch's account, the sale was arranged through [[Salvatore La Russa|Salvatore "Sam the Barber" LaRussa]], the [[Philadelphia]] bar owner he said had financed most of the film, and through Philadelphia organized crime.[^1] Contemporary trade sources name the company but not Lake. The 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, which was budgeted at an astronomical $75,000," and the Canadian edition of *Boxoffice* in February 1974 listed the film's distributor as "Mature," with a booking date of October 15, 1973.[^3][^4] No source located explains the relation between Lake and the Bob Sumner named by *Take One*.
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 2: Performance," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 172, September 20, 2026, audio (republishing interviews recorded in 2013). https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/09/20/ray-horsch-3/
+[^2]: Horsch, R.C. [Commentary on *The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig*], eroto.com, archived November 5, 2016. http://web.archive.org/web/20161105022433/http://eroto.com:80/commentary/64-mcp-commentary
+[^3]: 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
+[^4]: "Boxoffice Bookinguide," *Boxoffice* (Canadian edition), February 4, 1974. https://archive.org/details/boxoffice-canadian-1974-02-04