---
category: Crime & Abuse Networks
created: 2026-09-23
location: New York, New York
relations:
- fn: 1
  role: distributor of his 1973 feature, according to Horsch
  type: partner_of
  with: '[[R.C. Horsch]]'
summary: New York pornographic film distributor, named by R.C. Horsch as the head
  of Mature Pictures, to whom Horsch said he sold his 1973 feature for 50,000 dollars.
tags:
- Person
- Pornography
- FilmDistribution
- NewYork
- RCHorsch
updated: 2026-09-23
---

Sam Lake was, according to [R.C. Horsch](/people/rc-horsch/), a [New York](/places/new-york-city/) distributor of pornographic films working through the company Mature Pictures. Horsch said that his 1973 feature *[The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig](/misc/the-erotic-memoirs-of-a-male-chauvinist-pig/)* was sold to Lake for 50,000 dollars, and his website credited the film's distribution to "the legendary Sam Lake (Mature Pictures, Inc.)."[^1][^2]

### The 1973 Film

In Horsch's account, the sale was arranged through [Salvatore "Sam the Barber" LaRussa](/people/salvatore-la-russa/), the Philadelphia bar owner he said had financed most of the film, and through Philadelphia organized crime.[^1] Contemporary trade sources name the company but not Lake. The magazine *Take One* reported in the spring of 1973 that "Bob Sumner's Mature Films in New York followed up Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig (starring Ms. Spelvin) with High Rise, which was budgeted at an astronomical $75,000," and the Canadian edition of *Boxoffice* in February 1974 listed the film's distributor as "Mature," with a booking date of October 15, 1973.[^3][^4] No source located explains the relation between Lake and the Bob Sumner named by *Take One*.

[^1]: West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 2: Performance," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 172, September 20, 2026, audio (republishing interviews recorded in 2013). https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/09/20/ray-horsch-3/
[^2]: Horsch, R.C. [Commentary on *The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig*], eroto.com, archived November 5, 2016. http://web.archive.org/web/20161105022433/http://eroto.com:80/commentary/64-mcp-commentary
[^3]: Morthland, John. "Porn Films: An In-Depth Report," *Take One,* vol. 3, no. 6 (March-April 1973), pp. 11-15. https://archive.org/details/take-one-1973-03
[^4]: "Boxoffice Bookinguide," *Boxoffice* (Canadian edition), February 4, 1974. https://archive.org/details/boxoffice-canadian-1974-02-04