The Chain-Smoking, Jewish Grandma Who Ruled ’70s NYC Porn
Survival often requires boldness, and no one proved that more than Chelly Wilson, a Sephardic Jewish Greek grandmother who became the empress of Times Square pornography during the 1970s. Queen of the Deuce is an affectionate portrait of Chelly as a one-of-a-kind trailblazer who lived life to the fullest, and always on her own iconoclastic terms, all while also providing a vivid snapshot of New York City during its daring and dangerous pre-sanitized era.
Directed by Valerie Kontakos with warmth and humor, it’s a documentary that celebrates its subject and the metropolis she loved—and which loved her back in kind—with the very sort of warts-and-all acceptance that Chelly herself showed to everyone in her orbit.
A non-fiction biography about “the most un-grandma person that anyone could have,” Queen of the Deuce (in theaters and on Apple TV and Amazon May 24) opens with anecdotes from Chelly’s grandchildren Dina Pomeranz and David Bourla, who have fond if bewildered memories of visiting her as a child at her NYC apartment.