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David Grant (producer)

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David Hamilton Grant (born Willis Andrew Holt; 1939–1991) was an English porn producer during the late 1960s and 1970s.

Biography

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Willis Andrew Holt was born in Uxbridge in 1939. He changed his name by deed poll on the 22 January 1982 to David Hamilton Grant.

Grant's first film was Love Variations (1969), a sex education film that was based on a 'marriage manual' Grant had photographed/published a year earlier. Grant's sex film empire grew in the 1970s; he opened up a number of adult cinemas, the first being The Pigalle in 1974,[1] distributed foreign sex films through his Oppidan company, and produced his own featurette length British sex comedies (Girls Come First, The Office Party, and Under the Bed). He also produced Snow White and the Seven Perverts (1973), a pornographic animated short parodying "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs".[2][3]

Grant's featurettes were often released on the lower half of cinema double-bills with popular European sex films in order to capitalise on the Eady Levy tax situation. For example, Girls Come First was paired on a 1975 double bill with Enter The 7 Virgins, the Grant produced The Over-Amorous Artist was retitled Just One More Time and re-released as the support feature to a 1975 release of Just Jaeckin's Emmanuelle (1974),[4] The Office Party was paired on a 1976 double bill with Linda Lovelace for President, and the Grant directed Sensations starring Cosey Fanni Tutti and Genesis P-Orridge was the support feature to Le Sexe qui parle (1975).[4] Described in a 1978 profile in Punch magazine as "a chubby, boyish forty-year-old, with a youthful, uncorrupted face enfolded in two glossy skull-caps of hair and beard",[citation needed] Grant liked to refer to himself as the "King of Sexploitation",[citation needed] and enjoyed giving himself Hitchcock-like cameos in his own films.

During the making of The Office Party (1976), Grant got into a row with actor Johnny Briggs, after Briggs refused to bare all for the film. Briggs feared such exposure could damage his reputation, and a furious Grant threatened to fire him. After the intervention of Briggs' agent, a compromise was reached and Briggs performed the offending scene with his underpants on. Briggs later recalled this story in his autobiography, noting that after the film he vowed never to work with Grant again.[5] As well as his sex films, Grant also produced X-rated cartoons like Sinderella (1972), and comedy shorts like Escape to Entebbe' (1976), a parody of Idi Amin featuring a browned up John Bluthal as a Pakistani TV reporter.

In the early eighties, Grant turned to video, forming the World of Video 2000 label with fellow 1970s sex film mogul Malcolm Fancey. Grant held the position of company secretary, while Fancey was head of marketing. The company launched onto the video market with several soft porn titles in December 1981. In 1983 Grant noted that Steven Spielberg's film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial had yet to be released on home video in the UK, and responded by releasing an old sixties B movie called Night Fright (1968) on video under the title E.T.N - The Extra Terrestrial Nastie, with video artwork that parodied the E.T. poster. Universal International Pictures threatened legal action, and the tape was withdrawn then later re-released with different artwork.[citation needed]

On 3 February 1984, Grant was imprisoned for distributing "video nasty" Nightmares in a Damaged Brain (1981) on video. Grant was sentenced to 6 months in prison for being in "possession of over 200 copies of an obscene article for publication for gain", he was found guilty under section two of the obscene publications act. Grant's defense lawyer during the trial was Geoffrey Robertson. After Grant's imprisonment, World of Video 2000 (and its parent company April Electronics) were placed into liquidation.[citation needed]

The Slough Observer alleged that Grant had been a drug dealer, and had "corrupted thousands of children"[6] during his time in Northern Cyprus.

An article in The Independent claims that Grant is "thought to have been the victim of a contract killing in 1991," though no evidence is provided to substantiate this rumor.[2] Damaged, a 2023 documentary about Grant, floats the theory that he is still alive.

Filmography

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Year Title Role Notes
1969 Love Variations Director (as Terry Gould)
1970 Sex, Love and Marriage Director (as Terry Gould)
1972 Sinderella Co-producer, writer
Au Pair Girls Story
1973 Snow White and the Seven Perverts Co-producer, writer
Secrets of a Door-to-Door Salesman Producer
1974 The Over-Amorous Artist Producer Re-released in 1975 as Just One More Time
The Great McGonagall Producer
1975 Pink Orgasm Uncompleted, footage later edited into Who Bears Sins
Girls Come First Co-producer
1976 Dear Marjorie Boobs Producer
The Office Party Director, producer, writer
Escape to Entebbe Co-director, producer
1977 Under the Bed Director, co-producer
Submission Director
Over Exposed Footage later edited into Who Bears Sins
The Kiss Co-producer
Marcia Co-director, script
1978 End of Term Producer
You're Driving Me Crazy Co-writer, director
Love is Beautiful Unfilmed
1979 The London Programme Interviewee TV
1980 Electric Blue 001 None Video, includes Snow White and the Seven Perverts
1987 Who Bears Sins Director Video compilation

Films distributed by Grant

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Titles marked "rejected" were refused classification by the British censor and therefore banned. Dates refer to the year of distribution, rather than the film's actual production dates.

Year Title Notes
1972 Easy Virtue Rejected
1973 Succubus
The Apprentice Rejected
1974 Wet Dreams Rejected
Confessions of a Sex Maniac
A Man of Our Time
The Last House on the Left Rejected
The Growling Tiger
1975 Best of the New York Film Festival Rejected
Woman's Best Friend Rejected
Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS Rejected
Take an Easy Ride
Far Gone- Too Far Gone
Crimson Acceleration
Submission (also known as Pets)
The Bruce Lee Story
The No Mercy Man
1976 My X Wife Rejected
The Coming of Seymour Rejected
The Best Way to Walk
Late Night Trains Rejected
The Younger the Better
Divine Obsession
Only in Denmark
Depraved
Exhibition Rejected
Linda Lovelace for President
1977 Cathy's Curse
What a Performer
Dreams of Thirteen
Sensations
Draws
Through the Looking Glass
Private Collection
Good Taste
Desperate Living Rejected
Pelvis (also known as Hard Up)
Pussy Talk
1978 His Model Wife
The Young Tycoon
Memories within Miss Aggie
Dark Star
Days in London
Soft Places
Shock Waves
Lebanon Why?
1979 Take Off
Feel My Love
Big Ones
1980 Video Blue a.k.a. The Double Exposure of Holly
1982 Nightmares in a Damaged Brain

References

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  1. ^ Punch. 274. 1978.
  2. ^ a b Sweet, Matthew (29 January 2006). "X appeal: Britain's oldest living sexploitation star tells all". The Independent. Archived from the original on 20 January 2019. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  3. ^ "Snow White and the Seven Perverts (Short 1973)". IMDb. Archived from the original on 2 June 2024. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  4. ^ a b "Cinema Listings". Time Out: 35. April 1977.
  5. ^ Briggs, Johnny (1998). Johnny Briggs: My Autobiography. Blake. ISBN 9781857822069.
  6. ^ houdret, eveleen (5 August 1988). Slough Observer.
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