{"product_id":"landis-the-story-of-a-real-man-on-42nd-street-9780578304809","title":"Landis: The Story of a Real Man on 42nd Street","description":"\u003cp\u003eAt the dawn of the 1980s, there was one serious name in horror and exploitation film criticism: Bill Landis. While other magazines were concerned with behind-the-scenes information, tributes, and SFX tutorials, Landis' \u003cem\u003eSleazoid Express\u003c\/em\u003e was one part film journal and one part anthropological study, seriously critiquing the grindhouse movies that played the theaters of 42nd Street while also documenting the dying subculture that had grown up around them. Profiled in \u003cem\u003eFilm Comment\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eRolling Stone\u003c\/em\u003e for his pioneering work, Landis' over-the-top \"Mr. Sleazoid\" persona and double-life as an adult film star masked the pain behind the excess: a child genius whose intellect alienated him from his peers; a sexual abuse survivor who numbed his trauma with drugs; a consummate outcast who only felt at home among other outcasts. After settling into life as a husband, father, and author in the 90s, it seemed that Landis had turned a corner-but the ghosts of Times Square were never far behind him.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDead at the age of 49 on the eve of what should have been a successful comeback, his legacy has nominally been forgotten, most of his work lost, and his memory relegated to a footnote in journalism history. Now, award-winning author and journalist Preston Fassel \u003cem\u003e(Our Lady of the Inferno; Fangoria \u003c\/em\u003emagazine\u003cem\u003e; The Daily Grindhouse\u003c\/em\u003e) pieces together the full story of his life for the first time, from his turbulent childhood, to his meteoric rise in the New York vice scene, to his tragic demise on the streets of Chicago.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFeaturing exclusive interviews with Kurt Loder (MTV; \u003cem\u003eRolling Stone\u003c\/em\u003e), Michael J. Weldon (\u003cem\u003ePsychotronic Video)\u003c\/em\u003e, Art Ettinger (\u003cem\u003eUltra Violent\u003c\/em\u003e Magazine), Carl Abrahamsson, Mike McPadden (\u003cem\u003eHeavy Metal Movies; Teen Movie Hell), \u003c\/em\u003e and others, plus excerpts from Landis' unpublished autobiographical novella \u003cem\u003eLast Exit in Manattan \u003c\/em\u003eand a reprint of Landis' seminal \u003cem\u003eFangoria\u003c\/em\u003e interview with Andy Milligan\u003cem\u003e, Landis\u003c\/em\u003e at last pulls back the curtain on one of genre writing's most influential-yet unknown-figures.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn that lost, damned, golden age called the 80s, there was a movie star named Bobby Spector and a writer named Mr. Sleazoid. Most importantly, there was a man named Bill Landis. This is his story.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Encyclopocalypse Publications","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50645813297426,"sku":"9780578304809","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_f4b52857-880f-4db8-a492-635fe0381171.jpg?v=1733162680","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/landis-the-story-of-a-real-man-on-42nd-street-9780578304809","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}