Family histories can be strange and unbelievable at times, but the life story of New York legend Chelly Wilson is stranger and more unbelievable than most. A Greek Jew who raised her children as Christian, a lesbian who loved her husband and a woman who escaped Athens on the eve of World War II only to end up running a series of porn cinemas in Manhattan, Chelly was the very definition of ‘larger than life.’
Featuring archive family footage, interviews with friends and family and evocative period shots of New York in the 1980s and ‘90s, the film charts the life and somewhat dubious career of a fierce and determined woman. She may have ended up a kingpin of sorts in the porn business, but for her it was all about art of the deal.
The film opens with home footage from Wilson’s apartment above a New York all-male porn theatre with Chelly sat next to her Christmas tree beside a series of monitors showing punters heading through the doors of cinema downstairs. As her grandchildren recall: “Chelly was …the most un-Grandma person anyone could have.”
John Colasanti, manager of New York’s Show World Center sex emporium recalls that she was “a known person on 42ndStreet…The Deuce…I admired her.” Adds photographer Barbara Nitke: “She was a force of nature. She was powerful, but you could not not like her.”
The film also uses archive while dwelling on her early days in Greece. Born in Thessaloniki in 1908 Chelly had a very religious Jewish upbringing. Her father arranged a marriage for her and she hated it. “Every kiss he put on my body, I wanted to kill him,” she said of her husband in an audio recording. “He was so repulsive to me, the son of a bitch,” she added.
After having two children she managed to arrange a divorce, but in 1939, as war broke out in Europe, she left Greece without her children – she didn’t have custody for her son, and decided to leave her daughter Paulette with a non-Jewish woman, making her promise not to let anyone else take her. She arrived in New York, becoming part of the ex-pat Jewish community, making money selling peanuts and hot dogs on the streets. She imported the patriotic film ‘Greece on the March’ – paid for from hot dog sales – eventually meeting Jewish projectionist Rex Wilson, who she fell for, especially given he provided her with her beloved cigarettes. A friend recalls: “He loved her right away. She didn’t speak English and they did not communicate, but had great fights.”
She wanted to support the Greek people who came to the US after the war and started shipping in more and more Greek films. Wilson raised money to send to Greece to support their anti-Nazi effort and also helped Greek immigrants obtain legal status in the US. As the market for Greek films declined, Wilson saw another opportunity. She turned to porn and soon owned several cinemas.
“She was very good at recognising opportunities and taking advantage of them,” says her daughter in the film. She ended up also making her own adult films – such as the provocatively titled I Want You, Whip’s Women and Come Ride the Wild Pink Horse – through her company Chellee Films. She also opened a Greek restaurant called Mykonos, and had her lover Noni Kantaraki singing there.
“She couldn’t care less about the content,” said Wilson’s son-in-law Don Walters. “I think she loved the deal and making the deal more than she ever loved what the deal finally led to.”
She stopped making films in the 1980s, and as the authorities started to cracked down on porn cinemas in the 1990s she slowly moved away from the adult business. Throughout her career she crossed paths with the Mafia and organised crime. “She loved people who knew how to talk and get things done and sneak behind things and go around things. She just adored people like that,” Walters adds. “And unfortunately, she got involved with a few of them and got taken a bit from time to time, because they were good at it.”
Though Valerie Kontakos’s film is straight-forward, it is also engaging and insightful, benefiting from great access to Chelly’s extended family and friends, all the time shining a light on a quite remarkable figure who lived an extraordinary life. For Chelly, the adult film business was simply the means by which she could make money. Playing poker with dubious characters; chain-smoking; shouting down the phone, cutting deals and spending time with her family was what she loved. The porn was secondary…
Greece-Canada, 2023, 78mins
Dir: Valerie Kontakos
Production: Storyline Entertainment, Exile Films, ERT, Documentary Channel
International sales: Cinephil
Producers: Valerie Kontakos, Ed Barreveld, Despina Pavlaki
Screenplay: Valerie Kontakos, Despina Pavlaki
Cinematography: Patrick McGowan, Martina Radwan
Editor: Rob Ruzic
Music: Ken Myhr
