About Roller Boy

Many of us have seen the the great P. T. Anderson film "Boogie Nights", a fantastic character study paying homage to porn stars from the 70s and 80s. One of the them, known as roller girl, famous for putting almost anything in her mouth and never taking off her roller skates (played by Heather Graham) was actually based on a man.

Harvey Wheeler, born Hank Prescott Bush III, in Grove City, Ohio near the end of the Korean war, a star quarterback, debate club champion, two time student body president, and first viola in the Ohio State University Symphony Orchestra. Hank was an all American and, at heart, a true Bush.

Tragedy, befell the Bush's, when at the tender age of seventeen, a sailing accident left Hank comatose, paralysed, and partially devoured by Mako sharks. Hank would spend the next year of his life alone in a hospital basement.

In all the time Hank spent at the hospital his one and only visitor was none other than German film maker Oliver Klosshov. Oliver was a former performance artist who had purposely contracted the AIDS virus as well as syphilis by sharing needles with lemurs and koala bears. His one man show on Broadway, where he would unicycle around the stage cutting himself and spitting all over the place while singing Joan Bias tunes was shut down by the board of health, and he was blacklisted in Hollywood for his obvious ties to communism. The only steady work he could get was directing pornographic films. "On golden blonde" and "Full Metal Jockstrap" each had won several awards and earned him a place among the inner circle of porn directors.

Oliver had been looking for a healthy liver when he secretly bought the semi lifeless body of Hank Prescott Bush III, from a first year security guard at the hospital, but what he found was a true gold mine! You see, just moments after Hank was transferred to the abandoned warehouse where Oliver was going to remove his liver and toss the rest of him in a tub of ice, he sprung back to life muttering incoherently and flailing about as if someone were holding his head under water and he was fighting for air. And seconds before Oliver injected him with morphine he noticed that Hank had an erection. Oliver looked at Hank and said "son, I'm going to put you in the movies!" And he did just that. In the first few films they would just throw hank on to a bed with some naked people and film what ever happened. After a while Oliver had a budget to hire writers like Penny Marshall and Ron Howard who would add plot story line and some dialog.

The rest is history, so they say, with the use of wires and other special effects Oliver and Hank made 84 films together before video tape, Compact discs, and the Internet ruined the porn industry.

There are some who say that it was wrong to exploit a severely handicapped individual like Hank, yet still some others who believe that being in porn must have been better than to just die alone in a hospital basement. In a recent interview, Hanks last before he passed away after choking on a ham sandwich, when asked "do you feel like you have been exploited in any way during your career?" Hank, throwing his arms in the air and jerking his body about, said "pancakes... firetruck...shine, shine, shine."