The Porn Star and the Foodie: Jamie Gillis & Gael Greene in 1978 – Part 3: Backsliding Into The Dark – Podcast 178

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It’s 1978, and Jamie Gillis is one of the most famous sex film stars in the world. Not just that, but he has a well-known girlfriend too – the high-profile restaurant critic for New York magazine, Gael Greene. Their relationship has opened the door for Jamie to New York society – elegant events, exclusive nightclubs, and most importantly for Jamie, the best restaurants. On the face of it, they’re well-suited: their business is sex and their passion is food. Or is it the other way round? And does it even matter?

Jamie is at his peak, darkly handsome, deeply sexual, aloof, and mysterious – but shunned by polite society. Gael is the opposite: a cool blonde, ten years older, and well-regarded in cultured circles.

Gael believes in Jamie and encourages her famous well-connected friends to hire him as a legit mainstream actor: people like super-agent Sue Mengers, or writer Peter Maas, author of Serpico, who is casting for the lead role of the film adaptation of his book, King of the Gypsies.

Gael was obsessed by Jamie’s sexually wanton lifestyle and she decides that she and Jamie will write a book together – and the source material will be a series of audio diaries that Jamie will record detailing his life. She thinks it should be named, ‘The Prince of Porn is a Happy Man.’

There is one problem: Jamie’s isn’t particularly happy, and his life is backsliding.

You see, his age weighs heavily on his psyche, as does a feeling that a fulfilled life is getting away from him.

Sure he’s started therapy sessions with Robert Firestone, a clinical psychologist – but Firestone pursued him to be a client after spending hours admiring Jamie’s pornographic film appearances in Times Square theaters.

Jamie loves the theater and is a regular at Broadway plays, but that also serves as a reminder that he’s an anonymous and failed actor – even though he’s recognized every day on the street as a porn star.

And so, his life goes on: by day, he continues to appear in the city’s low budget sex films, in the early hours he can often be found in the city’s underground poker games, and in between times, he listens to piano concertos, gazing out of his apartment window on West 48th Street at the hookers, pickpockets, and street life.

And then there’s the sex. It’s an all-consuming hunger in his life. He’s recovering from a failed love affair with Lorey Sebastian that had promised so much but went sour so quickly. Now he’s returned to casual hook-ups with a vengeance and an unquenchable desire. A bewildering variety of partners, some including Nelson, a Puerto Rican rough trade boyfriend, who was often his wing-man partner in carnal adventures.

Needless to say, most of these sexual escapades are without Gael. After the initial thrill of their union, Jamie is increasingly conflicted by their relationship: he recognizes that she provides security, safety and opportunity – it’s just that he isn’t sure he really values those qualities. Above all, he’s dissatisfied with Gael sexually, admitting that he needs the added stimulation of a men’s magazine when he’s with her.

It all leads to a spiraling turmoil of self-questioning with occasional flashes of optimism and happiness. And these innermost feelings, thoughts, and reactions are documented in these tapes made almost 50 years ago. They’ve been hidden away for decades, unheard until today. These recordings, after-hours reflections, candid, honest, and unfiltered, are presented here for the first time. Needless to say, turn off now if you’re liable to be offended.

This is Part 3 of the story of Jamie Gillis and Gael Greene in 1978: Backsliding Into The Dark.

You can listen to Part 1 of the series here, and Part 2 here.

This podcast is 37 minutes long.

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