Meet the Jewish grandmother who ran New York’s gritty 1970s porn scene

New doc highlights 1970s NYC porn scene – and the Jewish grandmother who ruled it

An unlikely figure dominated the adult entertainment theater scene in New York City in the…

The Independent

An unlikely who dominated the adult entertainment theater scene in New York City in the 1970s and 80s: a Jewish grandmother who’d fled the Holocaust

From the late 1960s until the mid-1980s, adult entertainment films dominated the theaters along 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenue in New York City, earning it the nickname “The Deuce”. Throughout the week, those theaters played hardcore pornographic movies for those brave enough to walk the chaotic and disruptive street.

And the person who ran those theaters was Chelly Wilson, a Jewish Greek grandmother.

Wilson, a Holocaust survivor, became one of the most influential figures during the era, eventually producing and distributing adult films in theaters that she owned.

Bunkered in an apartment above the all-male Adonis Theatre, she regularly held court with entertainers, poker players, female lovers and more all while her grandchildren ran at her feet.

A new documentary, Queen of the Deuce by Valerie Kontakos, explores Wilson’s life from escaping Europe during World War II to becoming an unlikely influential figure at the height of the golden era of adult entertainment, with interviews from both friends and family.

“Grandma Chelly was, to us, larger than life. Going into her apartment was always an interesting experience — she was living over a pornographic movie theater,” said one grandchild in the film’s trailer. “She owns most of the porn theaters in New York — and then I’d get that right note, what does your grandmother really do? I was like ‘no, that’s the truth actually,” said another…