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

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New York film distributor, head of Gotham Releasing and Sam Lake Enterprises, placed at Mature Pictures alongside Robert Sumner and named by R.C. Horsch as buyer of his 1973 feature. New York, New York
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partner_of R.C. Horsch distributor of his 1973 feature, according to Horsch 1973 1
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head_of Mature Pictures named by Horsch as head of the company; placed at the company by Alilunas, citing Revene 1
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participant_in The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig 1973 distributor, according to Horsch 1
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employed_by Paramount Pictures salesman, New York exchange 1942 1947 5
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employed_by Selznick Releasing Organization sales representative, New York territory 1948 6
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employed_by Edward Small Productions assistant to sales manager Harry Kosiner 1948 6
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founded Premier Pictures Corp. 1953 formed by Lake, which acquired seven pictures 8
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employed_by Screen Gems general manager, as reported in a 1952 Variety column 1952 7
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head_of Onyx Pictures 1958 1960 president 9
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head_of Premier Pictures Co. 1959 1960 president 9
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head_of Gotham Releasing Corp. 1960 1964 executive and president 10
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head_of Sam Lake Enterprises 1963 1965 president 11
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participant_in Scorpio '70 1970 producer, and writer from an idea by Lake 17
2026-09-23 2026-10-15

Sam Lake was a New York City distributor of theatrical films who worked in the trade from the early 1940s through at least 1970. R.C. Horsch named him as the head of Mature Pictures, and said that his 1973 feature The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig was sold to Lake for 50,000 dollars.1 Horsch's website credited the film's distribution to "the legendary Sam Lake (Mature Pictures, Inc.)."2 The media historian Peter Alilunas describes Mature Pictures as the New York company of Robert Sumner, and, citing the cinematographer Larry Revene, places Lake there as well.34

Trade Career, 1942 to 1953

In June 1942 the trade paper Variety listed Lake as a salesman for Paramount Pictures at its New York exchange, and reported that he was to enter the Army that July.5 Paramount trade listings in 1946 and 1947 name him again as a Paramount salesman in New York.5

In November 1948 Variety reported that Lake had resigned as the New York sales representative of the Selznick Releasing Organization to become an assistant to Harry Kosiner.6 The Motion Picture Daily announced the appointment the same autumn and described Kosiner as sales manager for Edward Small Productions.6

In February 1952 a Variety column of Los Angeles television items reported that Screen Gems, the television subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, had a new general manager named Sam Lake.7 In 1953 Motion Picture Daily reported that Premier Pictures Corp. had been formed by Lake, who had acquired seven pictures produced by William Goetz and Leo Spitz and formerly released by RKO Radio Pictures, and that he would distribute them.8

Distribution Companies, 1958 to 1965

In March 1958 Variety described Lake as "head of the indie distributing firm of Onyx Pictures," a company that had acquired rights to a 1935 British production.9 The trade weekly Motion Picture Exhibitor listed Lake as president of Onyx Pictures Corp. and of a Premier Pictures Co., both at 630 Ninth Avenue in Manhattan, in 1960.9 The same listings carry Lake as executive and president of Gotham Releasing Corp. at that address from 1960 through April 1964.10

The Film Daily Year Book for 1963 listed Sam Lake Enterprises, Inc. at the same address, with Lake as president.11 In April 1965 the magazine CINE World described Lake as the head of Sam Lake Enterprises, "one of the foremost distributors of sex-exploitation pictures in the world." Its profile gives his earlier posts as a Paramount sales representative, a division manager for the Selznick Releasing Organization, and a producer's representative for Edward Small Productions and Gross Krassne Productions. The same profile lists the company's current releases as Vice Girls Ltd., French Without Dressing, Tonight For Sure, Naked in the Night, and For Lovers and Others, and names Sam Lake Enterprises as the exclusive United States distributor of Room for a Stranger.12

Mature Pictures

Horsch's account names Lake as the head of Mature Pictures, the company through which the 1973 film was distributed in New York.1 In the same account the sale was arranged through Salvatore La Russa, the Philadelphia bar owner whom Horsch said had financed most of the film, and through Philadelphia organized crime.1 Horsch said that Lake complained that the film made no money, and said that he had heard Lake made four or five million dollars from it, adding "I don't know how true it was or not."1

The film magazine Take One named the company in its March-April 1973 issue. In an article by John Morthland titled "Porn Films: An In-Depth Report," the magazine reported 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."13 The same article named "the Mitchells, Mature Films, etc." among "the few who are in the business in a highly visible way," and said that most of the trade kept no records.13

The Boxoffice (magazine) booking chart of the Canadian edition, dated February 4, 1974, lists the film under the distributor "Mature," with a booking date of October 15, 1973.14 Take One attributes the company to Bob Sumner, and Horsch attributes it to Lake.

A New York corporation named Mature Pictures, Inc. appears in the state registry under the alternate name Mature Pictures Incorporated. Its status is listed as inactive, with the dissolution type "Dissolution By Proclamation / Annulment Of Authority." Its registered address is in care of the law firm Kassner & Detsky at 350 Fifth Avenue.15 In Walt Disney Productions v. Mature Pictures Corp. (Southern District of New York, No. 75 Civ. 394, decided February 14, 1975), Judge Kevin Thomas Duffy granted The Walt Disney Company and the Walt Disney Music Company a preliminary injunction over the use of the "Mickey Mouse March" in a film titled The Life and Times of the Happy Hooker or The Life and Times of Xaviera. Kassner & Detsky, by Seymour S. Detsky, appeared for the defendants Mature Pictures Corp. and Robert Sumner.16

Scorpio '70

The American Film Institute catalog lists Sam Lake as the producer of Scorpio '70 (1970), directed by Ron Sullivan from a script by Dario Finelli, with a writing credit to Lake "from an idea by." The catalog lists the distribution company as Sam Lake Enterprises.17

Robert Sumner and Quality X

Alilunas wrote that Robert Sumner premiered Deep Throat at the World Theater in New York in 1972 "to record crowds," and that in spring 1977, as "president of Mature Pictures in New York," with his World Theater lease expiring, he put his film library on videotape, licensing titles from the Mitchell Brothers, Alex de Renzy and Radley Metzger as well as his own. The initial investment was 75,000 dollars; the first stock was thirty cassettes at 110 dollars each, sold at the East World Theater. The label was Quality X, advertised in Screw from October 1977.4 By October 1978 the Sweetheart's Home Video Center stores of Arthur Morowitz, in the lobbies of the World Theater and the Manhattan Twin, carried Quality X tapes supplied by Sumner.18 In 1979, Alilunas wrote, "Sumner's Mature Pictures" released Gerard Damiano's People and Misbehavin' to theaters and on video at the same time, the first use of that release pattern.19

In a note based on his 2012 email correspondence with Revene, Alilunas wrote that the Swedish producer Per Sjöstedt, investor for the director Joe Sarno, kept connections to the New York adult-film trade "particularly with Sam Lake at Mature Pictures, where Sarno had made many of his early sexploitation films." Sjöstedt became assistant producer and production manager for Lake alongside the producer Robert Sumner, and Lake's connections "were deep, with links to Howard Farber and Arthur Morowitz's Distribpix." Sumner "also founded Quality-X Video," and the Sjöstedt connection led to the formation of Femme Productions.3

The World Theater and Mature Enterprises

The Boston Globe obituary of the New York judge Joel J. Tyler reports that charges were filed in August 1972 against Mature Enterprises, the company that owned the New Mature World Theater, for promoting obscene material, and that the trial began in December 1972. The obituary says that the film tried was Deep Throat, which had opened at that theater on June 12, 1972, and that Tyler fined Mature Enterprises 100,000 dollars, a sum later reduced on appeal.20

A game designer identified in video titles as "Remedy's Sam Lake" shares the name and is a different person.21

Footnotes

  1. West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 2: Performance," The Rialto Report, Podcast 172, September 20, 2026, audio (recorded 2013; passages at 25:43 to 25:45, 28:59 to 29:09, and 29:19 to 29:42). 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. Alilunas, Peter. Smutty Little Movies: The Creation and Regulation of Adult Video (Oakland: University of California Press, 2016), p. 255, chapter note 77 (citing Alilunas's email correspondence with Larry Revene, December 26, 2012). https://archive.org/details/smuttylittlemovi0000alil ↩︎

  4. Alilunas, Smutty Little Movies, p. 74 (citing Screw, October 10, 1977, p. 29, in note 176). ↩︎

  5. "Sam Lake, Paramount salesman at the N.Y. exchange, goes into the Army early in July," Variety, June 1942. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/variety146-1942-06_0185 Also Motion Picture Herald (September-October 1946), https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motionpictureher1641unse_0370, and (August-October 1947), https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motionpictureher1681unse_0086, both naming Lake as a Paramount salesman. ↩︎

  6. "Lake Aides Kosiner As Sales Rep on Small's Pix," Variety, November 1948, reporting that Lake resigned as sales rep of the Selznick Releasing Organization in the New York territory to become assistant to Harry Kosiner. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/variety172-1948-11_0190 "Sam Lake Is Named Kosiner's Assistant," Motion Picture Daily, October-December 1948, naming Kosiner as sales manager for Edward Small Productions. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motionpicturedai64unse_0_0240 ↩︎

  7. "Screen Gems' new general manager is Sam Lake," Variety, February 1952. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/variety185-1952-02_0179 Screen Gems described as the television subsidiary of Columbia Pictures in Broadcasting (1961), https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/broadcastingtele61unse_0_0333 ↩︎

  8. "Premier Pictures Corp. has been formed here by Sam Lake who has acquired seven pictures produced by William Goetz and Leo Spitz and formerly released by RKO Radio," Motion Picture Daily, April-June 1953. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motionpicturedai73unse_0_0224 ↩︎

  9. "According to Sam Lake, head of the indie distributing firm of Onyx Pictures, he has acquired all rights to a 1935 British production," Variety, March 1958. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/variety210-1958-03_0002 Listing of ONYX PICTURES CORP. and PREMIER PICTURES CO., "Exec: Sam Lake, Pres.," 630 Ninth Ave., New York, Motion Picture Exhibitor, May-August 1960. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motionpictureexh64jaye_0035 Premier Pictures Co. listing with the same executive, Motion Picture Exhibitor, November 1959-February 1960, https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motionpictureexh63jaye_0033 ↩︎

  10. GOTHAM RELEASING CORP. "Exec: Sam Lake, Pres.," 630 Ninth Ave., New York, Motion Picture Exhibitor, August-November 1960. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motionpictureexh64jaye_0_0637 The same listing, April-July 1964. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motionpictureexh71jaye_0_0302 Also September-December 1961 and September-December 1962 editions, https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/motionpictureexh68jaye_0_0460 ↩︎

  11. "Sam Lake Enterprises, Inc., 630 Ninth Ave., New York 36, N. Y.," and "Sam Lake, President," The Film Daily Year Book of Motion Pictures 1963. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/1963filmdailyyea1963wids_0432 ↩︎

  12. "SAM LAKE of Sam Lake Enterprises Inc., New York, one of the foremost distributors of sex-exploitation pictures in the world," CINE World, nos. 6-7, April 1965. https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/cine-world-6-7_0022 Photograph caption identifying "U.S. Distributor Sam Lake," https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/cine-world-6-7_0014 ↩︎

  13. Morthland, John. "Porn Films: An In-Depth Report," Take One, vol. 3, no. 6 (March-April 1973), pp. 11-17. The Sumner passage appears on page 16 and the "highly visible" passage on page 17. https://archive.org/details/take-one-1973-03 and https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/take-one-1973-03_0016 ↩︎

  14. "Boxoffice Bookinguide," Boxoffice (Canadian edition), February 4, 1974, national booking chart, entry for Erotic Memoirs/Male Chauvinist Pig ("Mature 10-15-73"). https://archive.org/details/boxoffice-canadian-1974-02-04 and https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/boxoffice-canadian-1974-02-04_0018 ↩︎

  15. "MATURE PICTURES, INC.," New York (US) entity, status "Inactive," "Dissolution By Proclamation / Annulment Of Authority," registered address "%KASSNER & DETSKY, 350 FIFTH AVE., NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 10001," previously known as "MATURE PICTURES INCORPORATED." OpenCorporates, accessed October 15, 2026. https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_ny/248644 ↩︎

  16. Walt Disney Productions v. Mature Pictures Corp., 389 F. Supp. 1397 (S.D.N.Y. 1975) (No. 75 Civ. 394, Duffy, J., February 14, 1975; counsel Kassner & Detsky, Seymour S. Detsky, for defendants Mature Pictures Corp. and Robert Sumner). https://static.case.law/f-supp/389/cases/1397-01.json ↩︎

  17. "Scorpio '70 (1970)," AFI Catalog of Feature Films, production and distribution credits (producer "Sam Lake, Pres."; writer "Sam Lake, From an idea by"; distribution "Sam Lake Enterprises"). https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20729-SCORPIO-'70 ↩︎

  18. Alilunas, Smutty Little Movies, p. 75. ↩︎

  19. Alilunas, Smutty Little Movies, p. 77. ↩︎

  20. "Obituary of Judge Joel J. Tyler," The Boston Globe, January 16, 2012 (charges filed against Mature Enterprises in August 1972; trial began December 1972; the New Mature World Theater; fine of $100,000 later reduced on appeal). https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/obituaries/2012/01/16/joel-tyler-judge-deep-throat-case/hbiQ0keQ0VW0y26CY035SL/story.html ↩︎

  21. "Remedy's Sam Lake addresses Alan Wake fans," video title, Internet Archive item youtube-k5CRjoQKyY8. https://archive.org/details/youtube-k5CRjoQKyY8 ↩︎