The Other Hollywood

by Legs McNeil

  BOBBY HOLLANDER: The television is gone, the VCR is gone, cameras are gone, jewelry is gone—the bedroom is completely ransacked—the guns were gone.

  And the only person that knew we were going to be gone at that particular time, that day, was John Holmes.

  Later, the neighbors said they saw a van being driven away by a description of a man who fit John. That’s who I believe burglarized the house.

  GLORIA LEONARD: John seemed like such a happy-go-lucky dudeski the day before, you know? Supposed to meet him the next day at noon, and, when we come back at noon our house is empty.

  And of course he never showed up. So what would you make of that?

  Beauty and the Beast

  LOS ANGELES/HAWAII

  1978–1979

  RUBY GOTTESMAN: Norm Arno had all the money in the world, but he just didn’t wanna take care of himself. That’s the way he was. Didn’t think he deserved it or something.

  He had that stuff on his legs—what do you call that? It peels—the skin peels off the legs? Psoriasis. And he’d wear the same pants for a week, you know? So the pants can stand up by themselves? That’s the kinda guy he was.

  And his mouth was terrible. He had bad teeth, but he wouldn’t go to a dentist. I finally sent him to one, and he got new teeth.

  TOMMY SINOPOLI (PORNOGRAPHER): Norm wasn’t too attractive. He had a balding head and a terrible skin rash. What do they call it? Eczema? You know when the skin peels, and you constantly scratch it? He had it on his face and all over his body.

  BILL KELLY: Norman Arno was the ugliest guy you’d ever wanna see. He looked like an American Yasir Arafat.

  CHUCK BERNSTENE: So Norman didn’t score with chicks. No, he didn’t. Never.

  TOMMY SINOPOLI: The first time Norm met Lorene Smith, she was dancing in a topless club in Hawaii. When a woman like that pays attention to a man like that, the guy goes gaga.

  So I guess Norm was enamored of her. And I thought it was great that he would finally have somebody. I mean, had you ever seen Norm, you would say to yourself, “Thank God I look like me.”

  RUBY GOTTESMAN: Lori was a hooker. She was bad news. She fucked everybody in Hawaii—she was fucking four guys when Norman met her—and he fell in love with her. Two-dollar hooker. Piece of shit. Big girl. Ugly, not even nice lookin’. I mean, I didn’t think she was anything nice.

  LORENE SMITH’S SANITY EVALUATION: “While living in Hawaii, working as a prostitute in a massage parlor situated over an adult bookstore, Ms. Smith met her husband, Norman.”

  DAVE FRIEDMAN: Norm was out in Hawaii, Lori was a hooker, and she spent a couple of nights with him. Then, Norm got very sick, and no one ever paid any attention to Norm. When most people saw him coming they’d cross the street. But while he’s in the hospital—out there in Hawaii—Lori came to see him.

  Why? I don’t know. I don’t believe anything about hookers with hearts of gold. But Norm was so impressed that she came to see him in the hospital—that he married her.

  LORENE SMITH’S SANITY EVALUATION: “Norman was twenty-seven years her senior and was reported to be involved in the distribution of pornographic materials. At the time that Ms. Smith met Norman, he was reportedly dying of cirrhosis of the liver. She indicated that she married him in August of 1977 but did not love him, but ‘felt sorry for him.’”

  TOMMY SINOPOLI: I stood up for them at their wedding; I think I was the best man. If I’m not mistaken, Lori later ripped up the marriage certificate—because my signature was on it.

  I guess you could say she disliked me.

  Probably because I was as powerful as she was, and she felt threatened. I was threatening her control over Norman. But Norman just thought it was funny—because she was crazy. But I was just happy he’d finally found someone for his own, you know? That’s always nice.

  CHUCK BERNSTENE: I was in Norman’s apartment on Fountain when Lori arrived from Hawaii. She flew in by herself. Norm had somebody pick her up, if I’m not mistaken. A big girl, tall. Pretty stocky. Long brown hair. I think she was oversexed or something. I noticed it right away.

  Well, Norm left; he went somewhere. I walked over and got a drink, and she came toward me. She got very close to me, and I felt that she wanted to play. She wanted to fuck. I really mean that. She was coming on to me.

  I walked away from her. I don’t mess with people in the industry, and I’d never mess with people that I’m partners with or associated with. So she hid in one of the bedrooms of his condo until he got back about an hour later. I was watching TV.

  And then she told Norman that she wanted to make it with me. Seriously, I got no ego trips, you know? Norman said to stay away from her.

  Weird chick, totally weird. Just everything about her was weird.

  GLEN SOUZA: Norm Arno was a laughingstock because he married a whore.

  CHUCK BERNSTENE: They called her “Norm’s whore.” Everybody hated Lori Smith.

  RUBY GOTTESMAN: Lori didn’t like me. She didn’t like any of Norm’s friends. I came there one day, and he says, “She got me a picture of her on the wall.”

  I says, “Okay.”

  He says, “That’s what I got for my birthday present.”

  I says, “Oh, that’s very nice.”

  He says, “Yeah, it cost her five thousand retail.”

  She bought this painting of herself from some guy for five thousand dollars; it looked terrible. I figured it’s worth, maybe, two hundred bucks.

  LORENE SMITH’S SANITY EVALUATION: “Ms. Smith stated that as her husband’s business grew and became profitable, much of the X-rated business was placed in her name for ‘tax reasons.’ Ms. Smith claims that her husband was once offered ‘eleven million dollars for the business.’ She stated that her husband became increasingly psychologically abusive to her, described him as being critical and non-involved to the extent that she lost ‘sympathy’ for him.”

  CHUCK BERNSTENE: I don’t even think Lori really liked Norman. You know, Norman—in his own way—was a good human being, but he was sick. I mean, sick with trying to find love that was never there. I used to tell him, “Norman, let the woman like you for you. Not because of what you do for a living or because you have money.”

  RUBY GOTTESMAN: One time Norm tells me, “There’s so much money my fingers hurt. I can’t even count it. There’s shopping bags full of hundreds.”

  It was unbelievable the money they had. Unbelievable money. So all Lori did was shop. One day, I come there, Norm says, “She’s just cleaned out a box: two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”

  Norm had a safe deposit box with two hundred and fifty thousand in it, and she cleaned it out. She opened a bar for her father in Columbus, Ohio. Norm told me she used to go back home all the time and take the money there.

  And then he gave her some more money. Norman kept on telling me how much money she was taking from him.

  CHUCK BERNSTENE: Lori was on drugs. Coke. A lot of coke. I guess a thousand a week. And she was sending money back to her father for his failing restaurant.

  LORENE SMITH’S SANITY EVALUATION: “Ms. Smith indicated after her marriage, she began to lead an extremely affluent lifestyle with an inconsistent involvement with her children, specifically relying on nannies for much of the day to take care of her children. As the marriage failed, she became involved in extramarital affairs and relates that one child was born from this involvement.”

  CHUCK BERNSTENE: Norman was a sick human being. Just to be that whipped by a pussy, you know? When there are so many other girls around? But, I don’t know; he just loved her.

  And they had so much money. They threw a party at the CES show in Chicago that musta cost a hundred thousand dollars. There were maybe two thousand people there. I just remember the ice sculpture—“VCX”—melting.

  BILL KELLY: At one of the porno conventions, one pornographer hired a photographer to take a picture of me being embraced and kissed by Norm Arno’s wife, Lori Smith, and Harry Mohney’s girlfriend, Gail Palmer, who u
sed to be his front in Wonderful World of Video.

  So I’m standing there, and suddenly Lori Smith jumps me on the right side and Gail Palmer on the left.

  They throw their arms around me, and they start to try to kiss me, and the photographer stands up with his Speed Graphic–type camera to take a picture.

  Well, I figured, “I don’t think the FBI director would be too happy with this picture, so I better do something.”

  So I gave ’em both a shot in the ribs with my elbows and knocked ’em off, and then I took on the photographer.

  I don’t think that camera worked too well after that.

  Falling Out

  MIAMI/SEATTLE/LAS VEGAS/HAWAII/NEW JERSEY

  1979

  GORDON MCNEIL: My wife had been talking to Pam Ellavsky, so I knew Bruce’s wife was absolutely ripped that MIPORN had gone on this long. My own wife was telling me, “She wants him outta this thing, and he wants out, too.”

  BRUCE ELLAVSKY: When I had to go to Seattle on my wife’s birthday with Lisa, a female FBI agent, it didn’t make my home life real happy, you know?

  Pat was separated from his wife, Vickie, early on in the case, so he didn’t have the same issues I had. Because I still tried to go home whenever I could, whereas Pat was available twenty-four hours a day. You know, “Come on, let’s go, let’s go.”

  PAT LIVINGSTON: Bruce, the family man—right. He slept with more girls than me—before, after, and probably now.

  I don’t know if Lucie and Bruce ever got together or not. All I know is that Lucie didn’t like me.

  LUCIE VONDER HAAR (FBI SPECIAL AGENT): I adored Bruce. I enjoyed him very much. I liked every guy I worked with undercover—except Pat Livingston.

  Pat, in my opinion, was very insecure and tried to overcompensate for it. For example, one night in Seattle it was just us—Pat, Bruce, Lisa, and me—having dinner, and I saw no reason for Pat to order an expensive bottle of wine. I mean, there were no “bad guys” around. There was no necessity for it; we weren’t playing our roles.

  PAT LIVINGSTON: Lucie was kind of a load.

  LUCIE VONDER HAAR: Pat and I had words over the wine. I’ve never been accused of being shy, and Pat decided that he was going to leave the dinner table and go upstairs. So when Pat left the table, Bruce said, “Aren’t you gonna go get him?”

  I said, “No. He’s an adult. Let’s just enjoy our dinner.”

  PAT LIVINGSTON: Lucie was harsh.

  LUCIE VONDER HAAR: When we left Seattle, Pat was adamant that he needed more legroom on the plane. Based on his stature, I can’t imagine he would have to wait for a DC-10 airplane for legroom—especially since I was probably five inches taller, and I didn’t need to wait for a DC-10.

  So I said to him, “You wait for your DC-10. I’m getting back to Miami as soon as possible.”

  If you don’t have a good self-image, you probably shouldn’t be working undercover.

  PAT LIVINGSTON: It seemed perfectly logical and normal at the time, you know? See, I would not give up being Pat Salamone. I loved that character because I could do things as Pat Salamone that Pat Livingston could not do. And that was a great vehicle for me. It was a lot more fun to be Salamone. At the time, of course, I didn’t see the downside.

  BILL BROWN: On a typical day Pat would make thirty phone calls to the West Coast, make a half dozen deals, set up a half dozen appointments, con a half dozen people, and Jesus, you know, that’s praiseworthy. So I didn’t notice Pat was a little neurotic.

  PAT LIVINGSTON: Before we went to Seattle for the convention, Norm Arno—Marty Bernback’s boss—had screwed us by not providing us with pirated videotapes of some straight movies that we ordered and paid for. Norm had substituted X-rated movies for the pirated ones. So to get back at him, we ordered twelve thousand dollars worth of tapes—and then bounced the check on Marty. On purpose.

  MARTY BERNBACK (FBI WIRETAP): “Pat, when I saw ya in Seattle, I says to whoever was standin’ there, ‘Nice guys; we do business with ’em.’

  “So I’m askin’ you as a gentleman to pay this bill. Pat, it’s my money. You understand? If you can’t pay it all at one time, fine, send me some payments. But you’re tellin’ me to kiss your ass—and you don’t wanna pay me? You’re tellin’ me you’re gonna fuck me for twelve thousand dollars?”

  BRUCE ELLAVSKY: We paid Marty Bernback with three or four checks dated a week apart. Then we went back to Miami and stopped payment on all the checks. We thought that would probably get his attention.

  MARTY BERNBACK (FBI WIRETAP): Well, I’m gonna tell you something, pal—I ain’t gonna take this layin’ down. I’ll be in Florida this coming week, okay? And I’m gonna tell you something right now—I’m gonna get my money!

  PAT LIVINGSTON (FBI WIRETAP): All we do is try to make a dollar. And I’ll tell ya, it goes right back to Norm—he fucked me on the straight film deal we’ve tried to put together, and that was like five or six months ago. I paid him money up front for it. He made me sit for two or three months, and then he gave me some X-rated films—which was GOOD, you know, and I’m moving that. But we made the deal for the straight films, and then he held my money for, like, two or three months. Norm put it to me—that’s the way I see it.

  MARTY BERNBACK (FBI WIRETAP): Norm put it to you? So you’re gonna fuck me for twelve thousand dollars, huh? You paid us, and then you stopped payment on the checks? We didn’t think you’d pull any kinda shit like this, not in my wildest dreams. And now you’re tellin’ me you don’t wanna pay me? Okay, I’ll be down there with three fucking goons, and we’ll do this the hard way.

  You don’t know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna be down in Florida, Pat, with a coupla people to see ya, and I’ll get it outta ya one way or another, okay? If I gotta take your fucking leg off, I’m gonna take your leg off. You’re not gonna fuck me outta twelve thousand dollars!

  BILL BROWN: Pat played the tape back for me, and his reaction was, “I think we got the son of a bitch. Sounds like extortion to me. That’s a threat. We got him.”

  Pat was thinking like a law enforcement person. He won; he succeeded in doing what he was trying to do. But as Pat and Bruce’s ability to manipulate and fool the bad guys increased geometrically—their personal relationship deteriorated incrementally.

  PAT LIVINGSTON: Bruce met Kathy early on in the operation. She had just the right look—blond and beautiful. That’s what we were looking for. Then Bruce could say to the porn guys, “Why would I wanna go with somebody else when I can be with her?” And she was working for an airline, so she could fly anywhere and meet us free.

  But I’d get pissed at Bruce because he would want to stay and screw around with Kathy instead of going out with me. One time Teddy Gaswirth needed me—he’d had a falling out with Eddie and Joey; so I was going to be his South Florida distributor, moving fifty thousand dollars at a time through Eddie.

  So Teddy Gaswirth wants to meet us in Vegas to talk about the deal, and Bruce gets pissed because he’s with Kathy, and he doesn’t want to go to Vegas.

  BRUCE ELLAVSKY: When you’re living the role of an FBI agent, a father, a husband, and an undercover guy, you have a lot of things to juggle. So you start thinking less about your real identity and more about your undercover identity. But the danger is that you get too deep into it. And a lot of bad things can happen when you get too deep into an undercover role.

  PAT LIVINGSTON: Bruce and I just looked at things differently. I’m all jacked up to go to Vegas and meet Teddy Gaswirth, and Bruce has made a date to see Kathy and wasn’t going to break it. Bruce’s priorities were different from mine.

  We hollered back and forth. I go to the airport about eleven o’clock—Gaswirth’s there—and Bruce shows up with Kathy, who didn’t mind going to Vegas. She was great, so it worked out perfect.

  PAM ELLAVSKY: I think the scariest time came when Bruce crawled out of bed at nine o’clock one morning and poured himself a Bloody Mary.

  A Bloody Mary in the morning scared me to death. I
wondered, “Is this how it’s going to be? Is this the new Bruce Wakerly, who needs a drink in the morning to calm his nerves? Or is he so strung out that he just has to have something?”

  BRUCE ELLAVSKY: Pam was thinking, “Will I get my husband back a little different from what he was when he started?”

  PAM ELLAVSKY: We just went on not communicating, and then I was sitting in the kitchen, and Bruce came in and said to me, “I don’t think I love you anymore.”

  PAT LIVINGSTON: Pam found out about Bruce’s girlfriend—she found a picture of her. That was kinda stupid of him.

  Do I think Bruce fell in love with Kathy? Oh, absolutely. I mean, he wanted to tell Kathy that we were agents. And that drove me fucking nuts. I threatened to go to Gordy McNeil and get Bruce off the case if he did that. I think that was around the time he told Pam, “I don’t think I love you anymore.”

  PAM ELLAVSKY: I gagged on my food. I couldn’t swallow it. I just took off and went back to my parents in New Jersey.

  BILL BROWN: Bruce and I talked very freely and openly about Pat. At first he was concerned about my relationship with Pat because I was friends with Pat first. But he came to see that I cared about both of them.

  So Bruce trusted me, and I would confirm for him that he wasn’t being unreasonable or disloyal because he was disappointed in some of the things Pat was saying and doing—things like Pat lying in his personal life when it was totally unnecessary—and lying to Bruce.