DBWI: So porn mogul Eric Galt died...

So, Eric Starvo Galt, the American expat who enjoyed about a controversial long run as "Mexico's Hugh Hefner", the porn mogul and producer of much of Mexico's contributions to exploitation cinema, among other things, died recently. To nobody's shock, he died of sexually-contracted hepatitis.

The man has proudly mired himself in controversy for decades, from his support for Rhodesia, to the firestorm he sparked in the late 70s when, as Martin Luther King was touring the USA as part of the Moral Majority, speaking in favor of helping the poor and needy, and speaking out against, among other things, pornography, Galt said in an interview "Somebody should have shot that n***** sonofabitch." His reputation never quite recovered, though being one of the first to take advantage of the rise of internet porn probably helped his fortune recover somewhat.

While few will mourn his passing stateside - even as someone who enjoys some of the less-pornographic shlocky exploitation films he financed, I admit I have trouble separating the fact they were paid for by an infamous bigot - he enjoys an odd reputation in Mexico and Latin America, loathed for being a perveyer of smut, loved for the money and jobs he brought to Mexico - his impact on the Mexican film industry and small tech industry is substantial, as are his investments in places like Tijuana.

Most though, will remember him as "Hugh Hefner's racist Mexican counterpart" or "the Col. Sanders of porn".

What about you guys?
 
For all that he was a complete bigot, he did bring a lot of money into Mexico. The Mexican film industry would not be anywhere near the power it is today if not for his money, and the high tech development that came along with that investment in the film industry has helped the Mexican economy immensely. That investment was also the foundation for the sci fi renaissance that came out of the Mexican film industry in the late seventies and early eighties. Films like I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream would never have been green lit in Hollywood, even if Galts influence meant that the female lead was turned white for the film. That doesn't even get into how the Mexican film industry's lower personal cost saved the epic from obscurity, how else besides the lower wages for extras would such epics as Tai Pan and Shogun have been filmed? admittedly it wasn't a long revival, but having such epics made was a godsend for people like Peter Jackson who wanted to use real people for their movies rather then going with cheesey and fake looking CGI.
 
This would make a really great timeline. Set it in the late 1970s/early 1980s and have the US divided between the King faction (Christian economic and social policy) and the Galt faction (indifference to the poor, dismissive of religious people, pro-libertinism).
 
For all that he was a complete bigot, he did bring a lot of money into Mexico. The Mexican film industry would not be anywhere near the power it is today if not for his money, and the high tech development that came along with that investment in the film industry has helped the Mexican economy immensely. That investment was also the foundation for the sci fi renaissance that came out of the Mexican film industry in the late seventies and early eighties. Films like I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream would never have been green lit in Hollywood, even if Galts influence meant that the female lead was turned white for the film. That doesn't even get into how the Mexican film industry's lower personal cost saved the epic from obscurity, how else besides the lower wages for extras would such epics as Tai Pan and Shogun have been filmed? admittedly it wasn't a long revival, but having such epics made was a godsend for people like Peter Jackson who wanted to use real people for their movies rather then going with cheesey and fake looking CGI.

Porn has the potential a lot of money - who knew?

I will say this much for Galt's bigotry - the joint proclamation from Martin Luther King, Jerry Falwell and Billy Graham it sparked was very moving. I'm an atheist myself, and hardly a fan of some of the Moral Majority, but the video of their speeches is wonderful.
 
I remember the biopic of him in 1999, Rey de la Basura, where Sam Rockwell plays him. It definitely wasn't a tribute. His racism was on full display, as was the implication that he had ties not only to Rhodesia and South Africa, but Mexican criminal elements.
 
One thing I never got - what the hell was the guy's fixation with Martin Luther King? Even for your bog standard bigot, the man had a special hatred for the Reverend Doctor.
 
Jesus, Galt is dead?

I still remember that statue outside his Tijuana studio. I saw it once when I was down in Tijuana on business. Is it still there? With it's shining gold and stupid bulge?
 
Porn has the potential a lot of money - who knew?

I will say this much for Galt's bigotry - the joint proclamation from Martin Luther King, Jerry Falwell and Billy Graham it sparked was very moving. I'm an atheist myself, and hardly a fan of some of the Moral Majority, but the video of their speeches is wonderful.

And for those three to come together, Galt must have been a real sack of shit.
 
And for those three to come together, Galt must have been a real sack of shit.

I mean it wasn't unheard of - the three worked together on anti-poverty programs and Christian charity organizations, were active in the Moral Majority, albeit in different ways and directions, and Graham and King were for the most part lifelong friends - Graham worked with King during the Civil Rights Movement and worked together in King's following crusade against poverty. If memory serves, Graham was one of King's pallbearers when he passed away in the 90s.

Jerry Falwell, he had his flaws, and politically, he was far more to the right, while Graham remains non-partisan and King was all over the map politically, but in his own words at the podium that day they stood together against Galt, "The Reverend Doctor and I have had our differences, and we have had our disagreements, but Reverend King has always been a righteous man, has a good heart, and has always been as faithful a servant of the Lord as I have ever known."

Again, not a man of faith myself, but when you have the three most dominant religious figures in America on stage together firing on all cylinders, the results tend to be powerful stuff.

I like to think hearing those words, Galt felt a cold chill go down his spine.
 
His influence on cinema - Mexican, the global sci-fi boom et al - is massive but let's not overlook the dark side of it. It's not just No Mouth he tried to whitewash, it was primarily white Mexicans (or light enough to pass) or expats who got the starring role in his films. Alejandro González Iñárritu and others have been extremely scathing about the 'colour bar' Galt put in not just his films, but competitor's exports. It's better now but now is decades later.

I remember the biopic of him in 1999, Rey de la Basura, where Sam Rockwell plays him. It definitely wasn't a tribute. His racism was on full display, as was the implication that he had ties not only to Rhodesia and South Africa, but Mexican criminal elements.

Isn't it near-confirmed that Galt was sending money to, ah, certain people in the apartheid regimes?
 
Top