Cheri interviewed Liz Renay on the set of John Waters’ film ‘Desperate Living’ (1977) (“I’m not a lesbian,” she murmured reflectively, “but then, I’m not a murderess either.”) Continuing the adult film theme was a photo feature on Veri Knotty – whose specialty was having, in the words of Cheri, “Labes so limber, she can loop ’em and link ’em… tieing up her twanger in a bow is part of her strip act.” Among run-of-the-mill pictorials is a more interesting portfolio by photographer Robin Schwartz, described as “probably the most active portraitist of pussy in America.” Years later, Robin abandoned nude pictures in favor of animals portraits – a field she became a 2016 Guggenheim Fellow in. Her pictures are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, among others. She is currently a Professor of Photography at William Paterson University of New Jersey. In 1977, Distribpix made a short film entitled Box Ball, an unusual effort made to showcase the ‘talents’ of a Connecticut couple into… er, male genital twisting. Just in case you missed it, Richard Milner was on hand to describe the making of the film with head honchos Arthur Morowitz and Howie Farber, and provide a selection of toe-curling photos of the couple doing their thing. Not for the squeamish.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Also included is a report from one of the social highlights of the year, the Midwest Sexual Lifestyles Convention. Iris De La Cruz is announced as a new columnist, writing about street prostitution in New York – a topic she knew well as she’d been a hooker for the previous decade. Iris went on to become a leading AIDS activist in the 1980s. She died of AIDS in 1991 but her name lives on with ‘Iris House’ an organization that saves lives through comprehensive support for women, families, and under served populations affected by HIV/AIDS. My next update is an "On Set" article from Club International 2001/05 (May) covering the making of the movie "100% Silvia": The May 1977 cover dons Rialto Report favorite, Alexandria, the notably flexible star of many New York adult films. The accompanying interview describes her life on the edge of the New York music scene with her musician boyfriend.But the year also started a bizarre trend in the magazine – one that was to re-surface frequently over ensuing months – namely a jokey, light-hearted treatment of racism. Even allowing for our more enlightened thinking nowadays, it is jarring to see how Cheri traded in racist tropes. Peter Wolff frequently added a disclaimer to these pieces, and expressed solidarity with those who suffered from prejudice, but to a modern palate it leaves an uncomfortable taste. Wolff was fired by Ruderman after the first two issues, May and June 1976, but soon found a home at Cheri, the magazine that would prove to be his most lasting success. Finally the issue includes a short article about a downtown New York sex club that catered to Wall Street bankers. This article would supposedly be sourced by vice cops two months later to bust the establishment. The police action is reported in the August issue of the magazine. For the first time, Cheri awards a series of adult film accolades (‘The Clammys’) that focused on a unique set of criteria: apart from Best Actress (the British performer Heather Deeley) and Best Actor (Jamie Gillis), there was a gong for Best Golden Shower Actress (Annie Sprinkle), and even Best Rape Victim (Sarah Nicholson). Jody Maxwell contributed her most detailed article, reporting from the Democratic Convention at Madison Square Garden in New York. And there was a piece which asked one of the most pressing issues of the day: “Is There Sex On Mars?”

Best of all, there was a selection of photos taken by Peter Hurd featuring Jamie Gillis and Terri Hall –“together for the first time since The Story of Joanna“. The location for the shoot was the basement of Terri’s own apartment in the Village. Live sex impresario (and future partner of Wendy O’Williams) Rod Swenson was profiled, with photographs of his ‘Sex Fantasy Theater’ which was playing at New York’s Show World Center. It was described as “the best of old-world burlesque – theatrical, well-executed, and naked – and the coarsest of our mental images.” Swenson also provided photographs for another feature , a nude profile of model Tammy Ward. One of the biggest differences between the early days of Cheri compared to it’s local competitor, High Society, was the stability of the editorial team. Whereas Carl Ruderman, publisher of High Society, seemingly hired and fired his senior team on a monthly basis, Peter Wolff wanted continuity. He surrounded himself by friends, who worked hard, and partied hard – and they helped him make his unique vision for a magazine a reality. Other columnists were less well-known but equally colorful. There was Terry Kolb (founder of the New York Eulenspiegel Society, “dedicated to masochist liberation”), Maureen Murphy (“editor, writer, model, and revolutionary sexual crusader”), Mistress Roseanne (“a prominent New York dominant”), Renee Rousseau (a “journalist at large”), and nudist/swinger Audrey Andrews. Wolff wanted Cheri to feel like an inclusive family party, so he invited readers to correspond with all the columnists c/o Cheri. These two articles caused the December 1976 issue to be banned from many retail outlets, and it was a near-miracle that Wolff held onto his job.

Cheri: The Complete 1976 Issues

We continue our digitization project with the east coast film publication Cheri, looking at the birth of the magazine, and reviewing all the issues from 1976, its first year in business.