By J.R. Taylor
He's walking to get lunch when Ugly George is stopped outside the offices of The New York Times. He's certainly known at the newspaper. The Times did an article on George just a few months ago. This time, though, Ugly George is being hailed by Times chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. That's no surprise. Ugly George--born into this world as George Urban--has always been news as the man behind The Ugly George Hour of Truth, Sex, and Violence.
Between 1976 and 1982, savvy New Yorkers tuned in at midnight to watch George on public-access cable station Channel J. The quick-talking charmer would hit the streets of Manhattan with a humble video camera and manage to talk any number of hot everyday babes into stripping for him. Sometimes, they'd go back to his basement apartment--which George referred to as "the Polish penthouse." More likely, George would convince the gal to sneak into a nearby office building, where his new friends would bare their bods in supply closets or under staircases.
Contrary to popular belief, Ugly George never put down his camera. He's continued to build a library of nude women over the years. The relentless videographer has also occasionally loaned his talents to lesser adult productions as a correspondent and performer. And he's remained a major NYC icon--as seen by the admirers who stopped by while Ugly George talked with Mr. Skin at a Manhattan diner.
So at what point did you become famous enough to make it easy to get women to strip?
See, that's a normal question asked by a normal person. When I started out, I had what the Greeks call charisma. The girls liked something in me. They thought it was silly that I had a camera. It was like an excuse: "Okay, he wants to pretend to take nude pictures. There probably isn't even any film in the camera." It was more like a gimmick or a prop. As I started to get more famous, the camera became a liability. They'd think, "Oh, there's film in that camera. I'll be seen by hundreds of thousands of people." My ratio started to go down. Girls would say, "I'd be happy to go into a hallway and fool around with you, but no camera." Once in a while, if a girl was hot enough, I'd lower myself to fool around with her and not use the camera.
Were you taking advantage of those crazy liberated times?
Sure. I played the hippie if I had to and talked about world peace or stopping the war in Vietnam. During the hippie era the girls were a lot freer and had less guilt. That doesn't mean just any guy could do what I do. Every Sunday I'd go to the fountain in Central Park. These guys would see the girls going into the bushes with me, and they'd decide it wasn't because of me. It had to be the camera. So they went and got these expensive Nikons with 400mm lenses, but they still couldn't get the girls. They'd say, "I just saw you go into the bushes with that guy, and he's got that cheap camera that's all taped up." The girls would say, "Yeah, I liked him. I don't like you."
You still managed to get a lot of girls off the street. How often did you have sex with them?
You never knew what was going to happen. Sometimes they'd let me shoot them nude and then just storm out after signing the model release. Other times it'd be, "Well, we had fun in this hallway--why don't we make a date? We'll go out to dinner and maybe I'll fuck you." The date would never happen. Other girls would say, "I won't let you touch me," but things would develop, and I'd see my cue to touch them, and we'd get it on right there. Occasionally I was able to put the camera down so you could see me having sex.
Did any of your subjects go on to become celebrities?
Yes and no. Most of the time they'd become so guilt-ridden that they'd drop the whole career plan. That's why there are so many psychiatrists in New York. Girls would come up to me and say, "You ruined my career with your trashy show. It's because of you that I've been held back." I'd say, "I didn't keep you back! I got you on television!" They were just repeating what they'd been told by their boyfriends or acting teachers.
One star that I did try to pick up was a young woman named Dana Delany (Picture: 1 - 2). A few years after rudely turning me down because she's going to be a big star, there she is on ABC on China Beach, opening her shirt every week. Then she made a movie where she's partially nude called Exit to Eden. She starts to make the publicity rounds, and someone on some big talk show asks her, "You're a good-looking girl. Did you ever meet a guy in New York named Ugly George?" Suddenly the story got bigger and bigger, with me groping her and taking her bra off. It turned out to be that's what got all the publicity for Exit to Eden--me talking her into going into a hallway.
You still must meet a lot of celebrities while you're roaming the streets of Manhattan.
Oh, all the time. I just met Stephen King, and Richard Belzer said hello to me the other day. The producer of all those Law & Order shows is Dick Wolf, who used to watch my show. He admitted that when I ran into him at a trade show. There are a lot of people who went on to become things like big-time producers who'd never admit watching my show. Someday I hope to get to show the last interview with the famous playwright Arthur Miller. I met him on the street right before he died. He denies knowing me, but why else would a guy like Arthur Miller stop in the street and talk to a guy like Ugly George?
Years ago I almost rescued a guy from committing suicide. His name was Gig Young. I filmed the last interview he ever did. He was so depressed. He was at a big premiere, and I was the only one there who recognized him. That very night he went home and killed his wife and then killed himself.
Did you get to feature many celebrities on the public-access show?
Ted Knight, who was big on The Mary Tyler Moore Show as the news announcer. He met me on the street, and I filmed him. He looked in the camera and said, "If I'm elected, I'll put a house of prostitution on every street corner!" I ran that on my show several times. Hugh Downs came out of the closet and actually came up to me on the street. I think that helped his career a lot. I'm trying to find the tape of me interviewing Jerry Orbach. He had just closed a play called 42nd Street on Broadway in the '80s. He did a very funny interview with me about sex. Not too long after that, he was a regular on Law & Order.
How about rock musicians?
The most famous interview I ever did was John Lennon and Yoko Ono. I had been invited to the opening of some big disco where they were having a party for The Great Gatsby. Everyone was very well-dressed. I notice this guy with long stringy hair, and he's with a girl with long stringy hair. They're both wearing field jackets. Then they come over to me, and I hear that British accent saying, "Hey, are you the guy from Channel J? Me and Yoko would like to talk to you."
I mean, who the hell am I? So we did an interview that's somewhere in the archives. Yoko later told me that one of the reasons John was so happy to be interviewed by me--besides helping his career--was they lived in the Dakota with all these rich people. John got a big kick out of them knocking on his door, saying, "Hey, John, were you on that dirty show on Channel J that I wasn't watching?"
So what's the status of the Ugly George empire today?
We're going to turn UglyGeorge.com into some kind of moneymaking site. I'm still trying to update all my old tapes to make them look better. See, today's porn stars are what I call "post-op." They've been operated on about fifteen times. Even Pamela Anderson admits her boobs aren't real. Girls that are created don't interest me that much. I've got all these real stewardesses, college students, actresses, or waitresses waiting for their big break. These are all girls who'd never posed nude before and never did again. That's where the guilt and the New York psychiatrists come in.
