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May 29 2024
DEUCE Woman: A Review Of QUEEN OF THE DEUCE, The Improbable Story Of Chelly Wilson Comments (0)

Queen of the deuce boyculture(Image via Greenwich)

Queen of the Deuce, a new doc about the life and loves (which include preserving family and making money hand over fist) of NYC's notorious porn magnate Chelly Wilson, is a fascinating portrait of an immigrant who wrestled the American Dream to the ground and proceeded to pimp it out.

Directed by Valerie Kontakos, Queen of the Deuce — which refers to 42nd Street, as it was known before America's shitty Mayor Rudy Giuliani Disneyfied Times Square — is a surprisingly touching look at an unlikely pornographer, a woman who escaped the Holocaust, married men but was eventually unapologetically a lesbian, and who made her money in a field that seemed to interest her strictly for the financial reward.

Matthew-rettenmundAdonis adsOne of Chelly's joints (Image via Matthew Rettenmund)

It is, among other things, a reminder that queer people should be grateful when we are marketed to.  If you're treated as a viable consumer in America, you're that much closer to acceptance. In Chelly's case, she used her run-down cinemas as porn dens because that is where the money took her, and that thirst gave us films that were sexually gratifying and that also reflected gay life in a time when mainstream movies rarely did.

One of history's most famous gay-porn films was shot on location at Chelly's Adonis:

The touching part of the film deals with Chelly's early years and her devotion to family. More compelling for me were interviews with people related to Chelly and/or who worked for her. Their remembrances of how she ran her business are priceless, gripping and often hilarious. Thanks to them and to Kontakos, Queen of the Deuce truly preserves her legacy as the ballsy dame of the Wild, Wild West Side.

Queen of the Deuce is in theaters and on Amazon and AppleTV already.

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