Porn studies rose to prominence in the 1990s, with classes in hardcore at UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, Wellesley, SUNY New Paltz and other schools.
Linda Williams' 1989 book Hard Core began the trend though porn has been studied by academics throughout history. It's just recently that such analysis has been thought respectable. Particularly good work on porn has been done by the late UCLA psychiatrist Dr. Robert Stoller and Dr. Joseph Slade.
Many academics have come to embrace porn as a form of appropriate rebellion against Puritanism. "[T]here needs to occur a positive, syngergistic relationship between free speech advocates and pornography industry leaders with academics, particularly those must under siege for teaching sexual materials, such as women's studies, gender studies and queer studies faculty," writes Molly Merryman, Assistant Professor and Head of the Women's Resource Center at Kent State.
Cal State Long Beach Professor Barry Dank told journalist Michelle Goldberg that "Pornography offers tremendous insight into the human psyche and the nature of social norms."
Goldberg writes: "Anyone who's ever gotten stoned while watching television knows, if you meditate on it long enough, any cultural product will eventually yield some shred of information about the culture that made it. Cultural Studies professors are more aware of this than anyone, having built careers from torturing the deeper meanings out of Melrose Place, Madonna and Keanu Reeves movies. Today, for professors wanting to catapult themselves to the status of public intellectual, studying porn is a sure way to get attention."
Dr. Williams' book Hardcore, for instance, sees parallels between the Hollywood musical, with its interludes of song and dance, and porn, with its sexual trysts that interrupt the story.
8/6/98, 12:30 PM. Reb Sawitz's Pretty Girl International. Jeff aka El Cid, a muscular handsome new male performer from Britain, lies on the couch. Reb's hungover assistant Shylar sits behind the desk. The TV plays his favorite show, "Little House on the Prairie."
"It evens out my moral corruptness," explains Shylar (married several years to Paul Thomas's production manager), who views such wholesome TV shows as an antidote to porn. "It makes me cry. I also like Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman [and other old fashioned shows]."
El Cid, who's successfully completed four hardcore scenes, still has problems getting it up on camera when he must wear condoms. He recently failed to achieve erection in a condom shoot with Reb's 20-year old assistant Trudie. "I wasn't sexually attracted to the girl," explains El Cid. "No matter what I fantasized about, it [cock] wasn't working."
Jeff, Trudie, Timber, Shylar and his wife, and a couple of other people live with Reb and Geri in their sprawling North Hollywood home.
"We're friends," says Jeff about his relationship with Trudie. "We never have sex at home."
"Reb's wife [Geri] is trying to teach him to masturbate with a condom on," explains Shylar. "He masturbated with the condom on so hard, he rubbed his cock raw."
Jeff: "Geri's a nurse mate… If you have problems, you talk to her and she helps you out. She told me that I need to practice with a condom on, but I can't feel any sensation. Usually, in my private life, I go bareback."
Jeff and Shylar praise a (30yo?) newcomer Tasha, a poised brunette, and a 5'3" 32B-24 Chinese newcomer still making up her mind about entering porn.
I hear that Luc Wylder and Alexandra Silk are getting married. Reb Sawitz wants a $65 agency fee from Luc for setting him up with the intelligent educated Jewess.
(Luc and Alexandra have no comment. They want to keep their private life private.)
Shylar predicts that Herschel Savage will win this year's Best Actor award.
Reb reports that Warren Beatty and Stu Segall paid their bills.
Reb's annoyed with his ad in the New Times. He calls the paper to replace the picture of the girl in the ad. "She looks pregnant," he complains over the phone. "You've got an ad from my competitor [World Modeling] with a good picture."
Luke drives to the Universal Sheraton in Universal City, near the Universal family park, for the World Pornography Conference. For the first time, I meet Dr. Vern Bullough, who read and approved for publication my forthcoming book from Prometheus A HISTORY OF X.
Slow moving and speaking, and serious, he appears deeply concerned about running the Conference efficiently. I spot Jeffrey Douglas, Free Speech Coalition director, wearing a three piece suit and a baseball cap. I shake hands with Dr. James Elias, a huge 300-pound Sociologist who served on Lyndon Johnson's Obscenity Commission.
Conference organizers claim they invited anti-porn activists to appear and all refuse. When pressed, organizers admit that several pastors offered to speak and were turned down. So, in essence, the organizers of the Conference lied. They did not solicit opposing views, but claimed they did. When they encountered those willing to speak against the industry, they refused them the forum. I was scheduled to speak but was hustled off the agenda a few months ago.
On 5/3/98 I posted to rec.arts.movies.erotica:
I was asked by CSUN in January of this year to deliver a paper at its 8/98 World Pornography Conference on the history of porn. I accepted and was scheduled.
I just received the program for the conference, which is being cohosted by the Free Speech Coalition. I noticed that my name has been dropped. I wonder if something I wrote offended Free Speech? (malevolent grin :)
I did indicate that I should not be scheduled to speak on the Sabbath, as this is holy time and I will not be available.
I have to admit that this conference sounds hilarious. It will be a wonderful opportunity for satire. The presenters are chiefly idiots - highly intelligent idiots at times, but idiots nonetheless. The list is chock full of blathering blowhards.
An early 20th Century Roman Catholic English writer, G.K Chesterton, said in effect: The problem with secular people is not that they do not believe in religion. The problem is that they will believe in anything.
I would say that the odds are high that I will be the only person at this conference who actively participates in an organized religion (Christianity, Judaism or Islam). As I read over the program, I agree with the Psalmist: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This conference should set new lows for academic stupidity, with the vast assistance of the porn propagandists at the Free Speech Coalition. Is self-destruction and stupidity an inherent part of pornography or just American porn?
The guide says that the organizers could not find anyone who opposed porn to appear at the conference. I was asked to help in this search, and I was very lazy and never got around to it. But I guarantee you that there would be hundreds of articulate and credible persons who could make a great case for what a destructive industry this is. Instead there will probably be hundreds of pornographers sucking each other off, literally, psychologically and spiritually.
On 5/4/98, I posted to usenet:
It seems that my comments about the forthcoming World Pornography Conference were found to be "offensive" by the organizers. I committed a form of blasphemy! And have been thus thrown out of another "synagogue" (the Hebrew word for synagogue Beth Knesset means literally "meeting place.')
Virtually everyone is orthodox and fundamentalist in their own way, as the following email shows.
What's funny is that so many people represented by the following thinking regard themselves as supremely rational and skeptical. Yeah, except of their own preconceptions and faiths (such as in the basic goodness of human nature).
I feel free to post the following email as it was already widely circulated by the writer, Dr. James Elias of Cal State Northridge. He found my initial rame post on the conference "offensive."
Subj: Re: Luke F-rd
Date: 98-05-03 20:51:29 EDT
From: hcsoc014@email.csun.edu (james elias)
To: Luzdedos1@aol.com (Luzdedos1)
CC: jjdxxx1@gte.net (Jeffrey Douglas), vern.bullough@csun1.csun.edu (Vern Bullough), citwil@primenet.com (Will Jarvis)
Dear Mr. Ford:
I do have several comments to make to you. We had a number of exchanges of correspondence in which you proposed five or six presentations. We selected the abstract on History of Pornography and you received a reply from Dr. Bullough. At no time during all of this exchange did you indicate that there were any RESTRICTIONS on the scheduling of your presentation.
If so we would have taken care of it. As a result, you indicated in your e-mail that you could not participate shabbat. Since you had made the point of shabbat and that you keep it, I made the error is assuming that you were orthodox. I assume then, that you practice your religion seriously.
The preliminary program was already in the hands of the printer and I made a specific trip there to make several changes, including removing your name and presentation in an effort not to cause you any discomfort. I have your name and presentation set aside with another which had to be changed and as I am working on the modification of the program for the final printing, I would have included you in that program.
I now have serious doubts of your intentions with respect to the conference. Your remarks which are directed to me and to Dr. Bullough as well as the participants of the program are a definite reflection of your character.
Since we have never met nor have ever discussed any topics such as pornography, I find the remarks that you put on the internet last night as totally disrespectful. As an academic, I judge a person by their work and their writings. Yours certainly do not reflect those of someone who is interested in the topic or wishes to participate in discussions. In fact your comments:
"The presenters are chiefly idiots- highly intelligent idiots at times, but idiots nonetheless. The list is chock full of blathering blowhards."
..."This conference should set new lows for academic stupidity..." ...
"Instead there will probably be hundreds of pornographers sucking each other off, literally, psychologically and spiritually."
There was a great deal more that you said about the conference participants, therefore I see no reason to work to include you in the program on Friday or Sunday morning as I had been doing. Instead I feel that your comments about the academics, lawyers and participants attending this conference may best be served by providing them with your comments as your contribution to the conference.
With great disappointment in someone who professes to be a religious individual.
Dr. Elias
On Sun, 3 May 1998, Luke (Luzdedos1@aol.com) wrote:
> In a message dated 98-05-03 02:24:38 EDT, you write:
> > Have you forgotten that you sent an e-mail asking that since you were > > Orthodox that you not be on the program on Saturday. As a result I had> > to remove you at the last minute before printing (persuant to your request)
> > DR. ELias
> this is funny..because I know I never asked to be removed from any > program...just asked that I not be scheduled on shabbat...and I have never > ever said I was orthodox because I am not.
> But these are the breaks... I do not expect you to bend the conference to fit> my schedule. I would've liked the opportunity to speak, particularly as I do> not see any opponents of porn on the schedule...
> Good luck, and I will probably see you there anyway, if we do not meet before> hand.
> Luke
8/6/98 3PM
Thanks to the intervention of Harris Gaffin, author of Hollywood Blue - A look inside the LA porn industry - I get press credentials for the Conference at the last minute. Batsford published the positively reviewed book in England last year. It is about to appear for the first time in US bookstores.
I met Harris over two years ago at one of Bill Margold's Sunday morning PAW counselor training sessions. Gaffin and I were racing to get our individual book out before the other. He won.
Harris and I discuss the role of organized crime in the industry, a subject he avoided in his light humorous book. Harris (short, bald, slight, fashionable, jewelry in one ear, smiling, married to a black woman) prefers to entertain. Luke goes for the jugular.
Harris remembers his meeting with Reuben Sturman in a Nevada jail. Harris says Reuben told him that if he [Sturman] could get out of jail for one day, he'd love to go around with a baseball bat and bash "all their [porn peers] f---ing heads in." Harris did not include the quote in his book.
Gaffin met gold-chain wearing, (rich thugish drug-smuggler lookalikes) leaders within the European porn distributor SCALA last year in Amsterdam. "It was like a movie," remembers Harris. "We were in a five star hotel on the coast of Holland. A friend of mine introduces me to the people of SCALA. They're casual, a little too young to be retired, but they're retired. They've got gold chains and open shirts, but no hair on their chests. They're Dutch. Blonde hair. They sported gold Rolex watches. They paid for the drinks. They seemed street savvy. They were rough… You felt like they had an empire that they were trying not to show, but at the same time wanted you to see. With all their gold [jewelry]… It's nice for the waitress to know, 'don't mess with us and make sure our drinks come on time. We'll leave a big tip.' These guys had cash."
I think about a paragraph on page 371 of John Heidenry's 1997 book What Wild Ecstasy. "In September 1995 a mysterious fire nearly leveled the Doc Johnson plant in North Hollywood. Soon after, a bank in the Cayman Islands was blown up. The two events amounted to a last battle for control of what remained of Reuben Sturman's once vast empire, though the circumstances and players in the power struggle remain known only to a very few. According to insiders, three major factions were vying for control of the porn industry, and the retaliatory bombing targeted a place where a significant amount of one of the faction's assets resided. That bombing decisively concluded the struggle, and the three groups - one of them headquartered in Paris - agreed to divide the international porn market into three equal shares."
During the World Porn Conference, I talk with various journalists about organized crime in the porn industry. A couple suspect major European porn distributors are fronts for drug smuggling operations, where they make their real money.
Harris: "Reuben looked well fed [soon after he died of a heart attack]. I read in all these newspaper articles that he exercised every day but he had a paunch… The prison was quiet and dead serious."
Luke: "Your book was industry friendly."
Harris: "It was supposed to be more about me and my personal quirks. I wanted an excuse to write about people. I could've just as easily written about football players. For example, covering Russ Hampshire. What's it like when he offers you a beer and shouts at you… It's very important to him to specify what type of beer you want.
"I was not out to generalize about the industry. If anything, I was out to dispel stereotypes.
"My next book is on coffee. Many people don't see the connection… But don't you think that coffee and cheesecake go well together?"
Ba-boom.
"I'm here to plug the book. It's going to be in Barnes and Nobles in the film section. My interest was to concentrate on the legitimate part of the industry. Not, 'ohmigod, what a sleazy business.' People assume that this is a small illegal business run by sleazy people wearing gold chains."
A young solidly built 27-year old man with short brown hair and a conservative look wanders by the registration desk looking for the media room. I show him the way.
"Matt Labash, Weekly Standard [a right of center opinion weekly edited by Bill Kristol]."
Luke: "I read that magazine all the time. You wrote that great piece of Larry Flynt about 18 months ago."
Matt and I become instant buddies. We hang out together throughout the conference. Matt provides me with generous amounts of food and drink in exchange for my sharing "my expertise."
We sit beside the pool as I drink several diet Pepsis, eat a small cheese pizza and dispense my views on the conference into Matt's vulnerabe tape recorder. I was interviewed many times by many people at the conference which stroked my ego and enabled me to stand with dignity in the face of constant hatred.
Roof Garden. 6:30 PM. I run into Paul Cowan from Canada's National Film Board. A serious earnest middle-aged man who's married with two daughters, Paul's shadowed by his portly boom guy who lives in LA. They attended Stanford Film School in the early '70s. Throughout the conference, Paul and co. videotape Matt and me interviewing porners.
Paul: "We're directing a series of documentaries called Sex and Censorship. Four one hour programs. The [lesbian bookstore] Little Sisters case which is going to the Supreme Court. Most of our censorship comes at the border, through Customs. The Larry Flynt trial in Cincinnati. The Times Square makeover. Four program - a raid against a swingers club in Montreal, L'Orage."
The conference swarms with about 200 representatives of the media, who probably outnumber the pornographers.
I spot Michele Capozzi, Candida Royalle's male producer and a pro-porn New York City activist for the past 18 years. Then I talk with Ed Powers (wearing the black jacket he bought on our shopping spree on Hollywood Blvd two weeks ago) and Roy Karch.
Ed later tells LaBash that he screwed about four women a day from 1988-92.
I talk to Victor, the white-haired husband of Norma Jean Almodar. About 40 years older than her, he's been a swinger since the late '40s. They're starting a whore camp in Butte Montana on the site of an old brothel.
Room fills to capacity (about 500 persons?) for the opening night ceremonies put on by the Free Speech Coalition. Veronica Hart demonstrates again that she's the hardest working woman in porn, bustling around behind the scenes to make sure everything works. It does. Ceremony runs smoothly.
The program ("Pornocopia: Our Body of Work") runs from 7PM - 10PM, featuring performances from Nina Hartley, Veronica Vera (weighs 200 pounds, wearing a tight black dress), Carol Queen (Ph.D., stripper, author of several books), Geoffrey Karen Dior, Candye Kane, Richard Pacheco…
Wearing a tight sequin dress, Candida Royalle is Matt's pick for the most attractive porner of the night. She explains to him the mysteries of fem porn. "The point is to give it more story, build and sensuality… Not just a bunch of pop shots… Try to depict what women feel and want. Adult entertainment with integrity and a sex positive message. That sex is a wonderful part of life. It does not have to be presented in a cheap degrading way.
"Animalistic sex can be a lot of fun. But I want to do it well. Let's get quality and equality up. Let's bring the sexes together. I know that men watch this too. I get a lot of letters from men. My stuff is getting harder all the time. I just don't do boring stupid formulaic porn."
Matt and I run into Dr. Susan Block groupie Lavonne, a spunky 28 yo black exhibitionist who does not do porn. "I'm an actress, singer and dancer. I assist Susie with her show. I'm the facilitator of good vibes. I'm the Blockettes cheerleader. I say, 'GO SUSIE. We love you.' I believe in her mission to stamp out sexual stupidity. If a guy is getting his orgasm the way he wants it, do you think he'll think about killing people? No, he'll go, 'I've got too much to live for. I've gotta go home.' I like to show off my naked body, but I don't want to reveal myself having sex. I admire porn actors for sharing, for letting us into their world.
"I don't dance in clubs. I don't see the sense of getting up in front of 15 horny guys and teasing them. You're creating stalkers. I do private dancing, when it is one on one… "
Lavonne's filmy dress is designed by French blue-haired multiply pierced tattooed Natalie Salome, Dr. Susan's personal designer. Dr. Block's entourage includes her husband Max, an Italian prince who converted to Judaism through the University of Judaism off Mulholland in Los Angeles. Dr. Block speaks Hebrew.
Lavonne: "I liken it [Dr. Block's following] to a cult because I'm one of her followers. She helps change your life. She wants you to have pleasure in your life. I'm doing the same things that I was doing two years ago, but I'm ethical. It's ethical hedonism. Now I'm doing it honestly. Now I can look you in the face and say, 'you're cute. I'd like to have sex with you.' As opposed to being sneaky. Instead of saying, or intimating, that I want to be your girlfriend, when I don't. I just want to have sex.
Dr. Block, who carries a dildo in her purse, leads us all into the ladies bathroom. The Canadian documentarians follow us. Lavonne bares her butt and Dr. Block smacks her. We listen to Dr. Block tinkle in a stall.
Matt: "Are there rules in ethical hedonism about fecal play?"
Lavonne: "If you want to let somebody play with your s---, what's the problem?"
Matt: "That's what I always say."
Dr. Block: "Watch out for microbes. And don't spend too long talking about eating s---, Lavonne."
Matt: "What do you think of the profs?"
Dr. Block: "It's great. You get the pornographers out of the basement, you get the professors out of the ivory tower… You get together in the Roof Garden and you have a good time. And you exchange ideas and feelings. You shock each other and turn each other on, and you open each other's minds and hearts…"
Before he came to the conference, Matt said to his wife of four years, "What do you think they're going to do? Grab my dick?" And in the ladies room, Matt had his schwong grabbed by Lavonne.
Pornographers appear gratified that the professors take them seriously.
Annie Sprinkle and Candida Royalle kick off the show. Annie presents an arty mermaid video on how to make a porn video. Then Candida spends her time sharing pictures of herself and her family (many of whom she' alienated from) to a bored audience.
Then comes Henry Mach, a Jewish communist homosexual formerly based in New York. He wrote over 200 porno books. He wrote numerous hetero-porn books even though he's never had sexual intercourse with a woman. Henry worked with three other writers - two Jewish communist homosexuals and one Irish Catholic who took off Sundays to go to mass.
Candye Kane, who appears to weigh about 300 pounds, sings several songs. A video of her from about 15 years ago plays on the screen. Kane bangs her prodigious tits on the piano in one number to the loudest applause of the evening.
Candye appeared in about a dozen pornos during the mid '80s.
She remembers how she tried to play her guitar during her strip show in San Francisco but the club manager discouraged her from doing it again.
Kane sings about "you need a great big woman."
The conference crowd hate discrimination, be it on the basis of weight, looks, quality, sexual orientation, race, whatever…
Candye: "I've been posing nude for various magazines such as Juggs.
"When I was first getting courted by record companies, they all wanted me to renounce my past.
"Society's attitude towards porn is changing. Europe is much healthier about sex.
"I feel about my porn films. I haven't seen any of them, except the one that played tonight.
"It's taken me a lifetime to overcome a lot of issues about my size. There's so much pressure in society to be thin. My adult career was freeing… I got to fulfill such fantasies as having sex with two men at once, and with women."
Candye is married today to a man and has a female lover.
To loud applause, Veronica Vera dramatically recounts her testimony before Senator Arlen Spector in 1985.
Karen Dior played video clips of himself on TV, sang a couple of songs, and boasted about his rise to "stardom" since he contracted AIDS. He's appearing in several more porn flicks. He sang about "sex on film," and "death on film." Public talk about death was a disturbing part of the evening.
After the show, I talk with Richard Pacheco (Howie Gordon). He recently finished reading (with tears in his eyes) the Herman Wouk novel Inside, Outside.
Richard says he's been trying to publish a book on his porn career since 1984 but mainstream publishers have shown no interest in the topic. "When Malcom X was live," says Pacheco, "he couldn't get mainstream media coverage. When he died, he became safe. A similar phenomena exists with aging. You stop scaring people, especially if you have stopped doing what scared people. That's working in my favor.
"So long as there is AIDS, there will be a [sexually] conservative world. When we see a vaccine, we'll see the '60s all over again. If I want to be a published writer, and not scare people, I should probably write fiction.
"By definition, pornography is that which appeals to our baser instincts. It used to be that greed was pornographic. Modern usage has corrupted the word to mean sexual excitement. The type of answer I'd give you [about how society should respond to pornography] would differ from Alabama to Los Angeles.
"When I came home from vacation, I discovered that two of my old movies are not where they are supposed to be. My 14-year old daughter admitted that she'd violated my private space. She said that her boyfriend wanted to see some X-rated movies. When she realized that I was in them, she made him turn them off.
"We believe in the incest taboo. I do not believe that it is at all appropriate for my daughter to be sexually stimulated by me."
Wesley Emerson, 6' and about 250 pounds, stomps over and thumps my chest with his finger. He tells Richard not to talk to me. "This is the guy who puts everyone's real name on the internet. You better take it down or you will get sued."
Wesley grabs my tape recorder and threatens that he will have my web site shut down if I report on this incident. Then he gives back my tape recorder.
I've known Wesley's real name for about two years but have kept it quiet, along with the real names of more than 100 persons in the industry. Generally speaking, unless a porner's real name is reported elsewhere, I don't report it.
Another huge hulking character walks over to me. It's Hart Williams. After 18 months of communication, we finally meet.
Hart talked about his transition in 1988 from porn to the mainstream. "You learn to be quiet about it [porn] or people will look at you strange. Which is all based on their imagination… Pornography is a world where the subtle sexual games do not take place, because that is what we're selling. And it used to be that your handshake was it. As Bob Dylan said, 'you've got to be honest to live outside the law.'
I spot the widow of John Holmes - Laurie, a petite well-preserved blonde who's at the Conference to hawk her book on her late husband - Porn King.
The Conference was at its most boring and desexualized Friday morning, from 8:45-9:30 AM, when Ph.D. Linda Williams lectured on "obscenities."
9:30 AM. Veronica Hart, Candida Royalle, Annie Sprinkle, Betty Dodson, Nina Hartley and Juli Ashton participate in the panel Women and Pornography: Victims of Visionaries. "I've never been a victim in my life," says Ashton.
Nina Hartley: "To see Juli, who has come after me but has the same high standards and same high self-esteem, is wonderful. One of the best things for me is to be a mentor to the new generation." Hartley disaproves of the "resurgence of negative energies in the business."
Veronica Hart names Rob Black. "There is porn out there that I hate," Hart says, "but I realize that the freedom of speech that allows me to make the pornography that I like is the same freedom that allows others to make what they like. Men are angry at women because they can't get laid. I understand that, but it hurts me. I will never be comfortable with that." (Playboy.com)
AVN publisher Paul Fishbein chairs a panel on video porn featuring Chris Mann, owner of Video Team, Steve Orenstein, owner of Wicked, John Stagliano of Evil Angel and Ed Powers of Ed Powers Productions.
John talks about his trip to Amsterdam and the huge variety of videos they offered.
"The most significant change in video porn have been technological change in the cameras. In the first few years of video porn, you needed large crews…
"Someone was shooting in Budapest recently when I was there, with three Betacam cameras (which cost $50-100,000 each)… And I'm shooting with my one little camera. And I'm probably going to sell a lot more tapes than this guy."
John noted that the government is not prosecuting those pornographers doing stronger material, such as rape, fisting and urination.
In a panel on Boogie Nights, Bill Margold said: "I found that adult performers had the same psychological profile as the juvenile delinquent. And the movie [Boogie Nights] did show that…"
Margold bewailed the hypocrisy of Hollywood where "if you cut a dick off, you get an R [rating]. But if you suck one, you get an X."
I returned to the video panel.
Ed Powers speaking. "Luke, we've just finished talking about you…
"I look forward to the involvement of more women in the industry. I see them getting behind the camera.
"Women like my movies because I'm not threatening. I'm vulnerable. I have a small penis. Pimples on my fat ass…
"I say that what will kill insensitive videos is a lack of viewers.
"When I have a couple come on my set who just want to work together, seven out of ten times they invite me to get involved. I'm blown away… Suddenly, the guy finds me not threatening. Because I'm an average guy. I'm not a porn star."
Paul Fishbein asked the panel about the trend towards nastier videos.
Mann: "What will drive these videos out of existence is federal prosecution for obscenity."
Chris says he watched Rob Black's Miscreants from beginning to end and was blown away by the nastiness of it.
John: "Two issues here. Can we get away with such material? And do we feel any guilt over our peers making such videos?"
Paul says that he's a free speech absolutist and opposes any censorship of material made by consenting adults for consenting adults.
Powers asked that the adult industry create a rating system to separate his type of product from Rob Black's and Max Hardcore's.
John says such nasty material should be defended on psychological grounds - as providing a release for nasty fantasies.
Steve Orenstein: "So long as those guys are making their extreme videos, I don't see how my videos could ever be prosecuted."
Paul: "Max Hardcore is far nastier than Rob Black. Max uses instruments to spread the girls ass as wide as possible. Then when she says 'ouch,' he says 'good.'"
Chris Mann says his kids will not buy a CD unless it carries an "explicit lyrics" warning.
I ask my first question. "Do producers hold any responsibility for performers' contracting HIV on their sets?"
John Stagliano sets to answer when Paul Fishbein interrupts him. "John, be careful. This guy is going to write every word you say on the internet. It will be verbatim."
John: "It's so impossible to prove where one contracted HIV… Though with the Marc Wallice thing, one could imagine a [legal] scenario…"
Producers agreed that the performers were responsible and that producers held little if any responsibility for the transmission of HIV on porn sets.
Pornographers were generally loathe to talk about HIV at this conference, instead concentrating on the happy part of the industry. HIV positive Stagliano was particularly loathe to talk about his health, claiming to me that he was "healthier than 90% of the people in the room."
After the seminar, I asked Paul Fishbein, publisher of the industry trade magazine AVN and probably one of the five most powerful men in porn, his thoughts on Brooke Ashley possibly suing the producers of "The World's Biggest Anal Gangbang."
Paul: "That's her choice. If they did something corrupt or illegal, she has every right… Apparently she wasn't paid all her money.
"I feel for her. I like the girl. I think she made a bad choice making that video.
"You can't prove liability [on producers' part for HIV transmission]. Adults are making choices… If you chose to be in a movie, you know what the risks are.
"Clyde DeWitt's views on independent contractor status are well taken. I don't know what I would do if I were a producer. It's always safer to take taxes out and provide insurance. But if a performer works for a producer one time, they [the performer] are an independent contractor.
"Giving Robert Black "Best Director - Video" award for Miscreants was a bad choice, in my opinion, on the part of people who work for me.
"I like Rob Black. I just don't like his movies. As for the people who write for me, maybe they were moved by it. Maybe they're jaded… In a year where John Leslie, John Stagliano and some others did among their best work ever, I thought it was a shame that one of those guys didn't win…
"I'm a free speech purist. I believe that it is all protected. I'm disturbed [by porn's nastier edge]. I'd like to see more interesting erotic films made. I find Max Hardcore's use of speculums anti-erotic, boring…"
Luke: "Does the internet affect the industry?"
Paul: "Unlike the real world where there's reviews of movies appearing on daily newspaper, TV and radio, in pornography you don't get adulation… They don't know what they're fans are thinking… Now, with the internet, there's tremendous communication… You can better gauge what people are thinking…
"I think the internet affects the adult industry as much as they affect other industries.
"I used to talk to the newsgroups because they trashed AVN… Once I started to talk to them, they'd say, 'we like your magazine. Thanks for talking to us. Could you do this… Could you talk to Ed Powers?' They stopped trashing AVN. Then I stopped talking to them because I didn't have time and they started trashing AVN again.
"The power that the individual has to sit in his own room and impact… Have an opinion, get involved. Its got its good side and its bad side but there's nothing you can do to stop it.
"I don't read the newsgroups much. My guys will print some stuff out. I just don't have enough time to do my job, have a personal life, and to read the stuff I'd like to read about politics, sports… I like crime novels and courtroom drama. John Sanford is my favorite author. And biographies. I have 15 books piled up that I want to read."
Paul, 37 y.o., just had minor surgery on an ear to remove growths.
He says he will soon marry his girlfriend of the past five years.
Matt Labash: "What do you think the academics here do for the industry?"
Paul: "I don't have a feel for it because I think that it has been underpublicized… It snuck up on me. I haven't seen any media or any crowds… I think it's a great thing. I'm disappointed that we had 25 people here [for the video panel] and 20 I knew."
Paul says he's resigning from the Free Speech Coalition board. Mark Kernes is angling to take his place.
Paul: "I started AVN on $300.
"My partner is Stuart in Philadelphia. I got into financial trouble in 1986. He was my printer. He was a guy I grew up with. We were friends in high school. I owed him about $200,000. I tried to go newsstand at the height of the Meese Commission… I was badly misadvised… For relief on the debt, I got rid of my other partner and brought Stuart in as a partner. He watches over the printing and stripping of the magazine. He's not an active partner.
"I own between five and seven video stores in Pennsylvania and Fetish magazine.
"My father works for me in the video stores."
Luke: "What kind of a job do you think the Free Speech Coalition is doing?"
Paul: "A great job…"
Luke: "AIM and Sharon Mitchell?"
Paul: "The jury is still out. I think their intentions are there.
"I like publishing Margold because we've never agreed on anything, and that's the essence of free speech. I would publish any of my critics because that is the true essence of what we're about…"
Paul says he is no longer ashamed to say what he does for a living. "When I was single, I'd say that I publish a magazine about video. 'Video News.' And only when they pressed…
"If you polled all adults in this country on their views on sexual material, 99% of them could care less. They're fine with it. Few people are revolted by it and few are intrigued."
"We're sexual beings and we think about sex 95% of our lives… I know I do."
I ran into Arianna (http://www.ariannaxxx.com), who looks softer in person than I remember her from pictures. I see no tattoos. Wearing a sweater over her incredible set of tits and blue jeans, she appears warm and nurturing. She says she shot her retirement video for Adam & Eve in February called Tattoo.
"I'll still do some fetish work and behind the camera work, but as for hardcore, I'm done. "
Arianna generally keeps to herself, spending her time with her children and work.
"Attitudes are changing towards pornography for the good…
"Marc Wallice worked with me in my first feature film… If everyone acts responsibly, this [AIDS] too shall pass.
"I don't talk to the media about my children. I have an 18-year old daughter and an adolescent son… As they have grown older, they've discovered more about my business. I don't keep adult tapes in my home. I don't shove it in their faces. It's hard because I'm recognized. I could be in the mall on a Sunday afternoon with my children, and someone will say, 'Arianna, could I have your autograph?' I get real protective. I like to keep my private life separate from my industry life. I've been called to do every major talk show in the country but I've never done one. I want to preserve my privacy for the sake of my children.
"Anything that my children chose to do, I'd support… I don't encourage it, but I couldn't forbid it.
"I've not suffered from becoming an adult actress. It's been good for my self esteem. I will always work in the adult industry.
"As a business woman, it is sometimes hard to be taken seriously. But that's because I'm a woman, not because I'm an actress.
"I've always been a sexual person, creative and adventurous… I love men and women… I've had a boyfriend for the past two-and-a-half years. I'm monogamous… I'm a submissive to the core… In my private life, I have never been a top. We did that in a movie once and I was scared to death.
"Being submissive does not mean that I am not strong… Just in certain situations, I will give away the authority.
"Luc Wylder [Arianna's ex-husband] and I still have a good relationship. He was sitting next to me just now. We have a son in common and so we have to have a good relationship. I'm glad he found his niche. He floundered a bit as did I… People change.
"He's continuing my series Arianna's Dirty Dancers, only now he doesn't have me in it and it's not as good."
I have lunch with Matt Labash and Emmanuelle Richard, glamorous gorgeous French chick journalist extraordinaire who's working on a piece for a French daily newspaper on the HIV outbreak.
Friday afternoon, around 2PM, I talk with Jim Holliday for the first time in more than two years. He warns me about using real names and violating porners' confidentiality. His friend Jill Kelly is supposedly suing me over my use of her real name.
Jim also warns me about believing everything that people tell me. And that siding with Gourmet and the Spallones vs Jim South, AIM, Sharon Mitchell and Bill Margold, is a bad decision.
I talk with Jim about Sorority Sex Kittens 3. "I don't discuss budgets. They spent a lot of money on it. In his smarmy attack in Hustler Erotic Video Guide, Mike Albo wrote 'how could any video company be so stupid as to give this maniacal eccentric egotistical asshole [Holliday] to make a movie?' They did it because the movie shipped enough pieces that it shipped in the black. It was already ahead of the game.
"The best selling movie I've done to date is the compilation tape Only The Best for Cal Vista. That is probably in the top ten of the all-time selling movies, over 100,000 copies. My movies have legs. My biggest selling movie is Sorority Sex Kittens 1. The biggest sellers in the last three years would be Car Wash Angels, Sorority Sex Kittens 3… My favorite movie, Not the Loving Kind, with Shayla LaVeaux and Jill Kelly, with a real plot, is my least successful movie… Every one of my movies is guaranteed to reach the established AVN figures for blockbusters."
Jim says his best movie ever appears in February of 1999 - Brown Eyed Blondes. It's a female surf punk rock band.
"I have a legendary guy from the early '60s, the true cult king of the surf guitar… Eddie Bertrand… 50yo came out of retirement to play his big hit. The tag line - "Gorgeous tanned bodies. Long blonde hair. Beautiful brown eyes. All three of them." I ran it by the girls and they didn't quite get it, but every guy gets it. That's a polite way of tipping America that this is an all-anal movie.
"That women buy a lot of these adult movies is horshes---. Go to some bookstore in Baltimore and if you see three broads in a week, you're lucky.
"I don't do splash shots in the face because when I was in mail order, women told me that they found that objectionable. I'll try to do something creative, like spunk off into the wall…
"The new thing over the past two years is A2M (Ass to mouth unedited). I won't do that. Welcome to ecoli. That's unsanitary and stupid. I try to get tastefully raunchy. I show a lot of monster closeups… Women aren't going to get offended, and lonely guys can still get what they're looking for.
"I have the titles that the feminists love - Cheerleader Nurses, Car Wash Angels, Sorority Sex Kittens…"
Holliday's search is finally over. He's always been politically incorrect and hates terms like co-hostess, because he finds them demeaning to women. He has finally selected Jill Kelly as his permanent hosting partner for contemporary and historical projects. Jim and Jill did track two running commentaries on a dozen DVDs of classic movies as well as two completely different current tapes. Holliday selected Jill "because she's the prettiest girl I know who can think on her feet. And I hate scripts and cue cards. I won't use them and she can think with me on the fly."
"We have to give casting priority to condoms only people. I've been condoms only since May 1st [just after Marc Wallice tested positive for HIV].
"I was one of the staunchiest no-condom guys because I make movies for fans and fans don't want to see condoms. But when you analyze the bigger issues…
"I'm wholly honest. The main girls are in my movies because I don't horses--- them. I'll never do the last minute switcheroo. 'Oh Suzie, I promised you $600 for this scene. You were going to be working with Marc Davis. No, you're getting $400. You'll be doing an anal scene with my friend, this black guy.
"People ask me why there aren't a lot of blacks in my movies. I don't believe in tokenism. I'll either hire none or two. Then they ask me how come there aren't any black girls in your movies? My answer: How come you don't see any ugly white girls? Show me some gorgeous black girls and I'll put them in my movies. It's my judgement. Up until this year, there were no black girls who looked like Jill Kelly or Shayla Laveaux. I found two and they will be in my next movie - Solveig and Dee…
"There are two dozen people in this business who can make a better movie than I can, because I don't care about the technical end… I do care that the lighting is as bright as can be… I use K-Mart flood lighting. I have the two best cameramen who aren't under contract. I've got the top females in the business. Only a handful of guys can make as good a f--- film as I can, and only one or two that can outsell me."
Luke: "What do you think about the trend towards nastier porn in the last few years?"
Jim: "I can't stand misogynistic porn. I think the adult press should do a better job letting buyers know. 'This is a female friendly movie.' Or, 'this is your raincoater's delight.' I know critics who've been around as long as me who aren't satisfied unless they're watching this nastier porn.
"I've never used anything mainstream's done as my source material. I've written all my own scripts. In my last half dozen, I've cowritten them with my leading ladies."
Holliday then elaborated on 25 landmark pornographic movies, beginning with 1970's Mona. 1972's Deep Throat, Behind The Green Door and The Devil in Miss Jones. 1974's Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann, "Radley Metzger's first explicit film and the first great comedy…"
1975's 3 A.M., Honeypie. 1976's The Opening of Misty Beethoven. 1977's Baby Face by Alex deRenzy. Barbara Broadcast, "Metzger's glossiest an the ultimate glamour movie." Desires Within Young Girls, Haold Lime's prototype…
1978. Candye Stripers, Debbie Does Dallas, The Other Side of Julie, Sex World, Take Off and Easy.
Holliday says Stripers is Bob Chinn's best, but when you take out the fist f---ing scenes, you lose one third of the movie. "I don't understand why you can use a carrot but you can't use a toe [inserted into the vagina]. Check with female Catholic judges in LA county.
"I wrote Only The Best with an angry and arrogant tone, because I knew ten times more about the industry… But now there are fifty pinheads who think they know something (Pat Riley and Bob Rimmer)… That's why I've been reclusive the last few years. The only questions I never answer are 'Whatever happened to…?' Because, in porn, they don't want you to know. And I won't play trivia unless you plant $2000 cash on the table first."
1979. The Ecstasy Girls. Babylon Pink.
1980. Insatiable, Talk Dirty To Me.
1981. Bad Girls, The Dancers.
1982. Café Flesh.
1983. Nothing to Hide. Suzie Superstar, "Shauna Grant's tour de force."
1984. Every Woman Has a Fantasy. New Wave Hookers. Dixie Ray Superstar.
1992. Chameleons Not the Sequel.
Three foreign films - Felicia, Kinky Ladies of Bourbon Street, Education of the Baroness.
Videos - 1985's Dangerous Stuff, "Cecil Howard's best video." 1983 Aerobisex Girls, 1987 Nightshift Nurses, John Leslie's directorial debut. 1989's The Adventures of Buttman. 1989's The Cat Woman. 1996's Shock.
Holliday credits Bob Chinn as his mentor, and the Harold Lime - Robert McCallum team who pioneered putting 10-15 girls in a movie…
"John Leslie was the most popular male performer ever [with women]. American women wanted John to be a greasy gas station mechanic. I'd think that either Eric Edwards or Paul Thomas were most the handsome but they did not have the John Leslie magnetism. John would watch something in the real world, become inspired, and create the adult equivalent. Chameleons Not The Sequel owes Catwoman."
I walk the lush halls of the Sheraton Universal, talking about sucking and f---ing with other porners as families including children wander alongside of us. Following the World Pornography Conference, the Sheraton hosted a conference on family values entertainment.
At 3:50 PM, I meet Mike Ross for the first time. Bill Margold reproves me for not checking my stories with him before I publish them. He says that he won't talk to me anymore. He's annoyed with my coverage of the Kristen-Matt Zane-Dr. Bonura-AIM-PAW controversies.
5PM I sit in the sun beside the pool with Matt Labash, Mark Cromer, the LA Weekly journalist working on their forthcoming porn-HIV cover story, Bruce David of Larry Flynt Publications and Al Goldstein. Matt wants me to explain my theory on the number of Jews in the industry by Al Goldstein who patiently listens for a minute as I mumble about "alienation."
Al: "Now where were you born, Luke? Australia? You don't know a flying f--- about anything. You're an ex-felon. If you weren't, your father was. You're a bunch of refugees from a penal colony. The only reason that Jews are in pornography is that we think that Christ sucks. Catholicism sucks. We don't believe in authoritianism. We know that the anti-porn stuff is a bunch of claptrap to make us feel guilty. We have a clean slate when we look at the world. We see opportunities…
"Here comes the wench. My property [girlfriend]. I piss her off when I tell her that I own her.
"Four marriages. I got my last divorce four years ago. Marriage is like John Bobbit saying, cut it off again."
Al's blonde girlfriend Rose H. Robbins joins us. A group plays South American music beside us. Rose is Screw's corporate counsel. http://www.rrobins.com
She and Goldstein appear in last Sunday's Miami Herald magazine.
Luke: "Do you believe in God?"
Al: "I believe in me. I'm God. f--- God. God is your need to believe in some super being. I am the super being. I am your God, admit it. We're random. We're the flea on the ass of the dog."
Luke: "What does being Jewish mean to you?"
Al: "It doesn't mean s---. It means that I'm called a kike. Rose is more of a Jew than I am. She speaks Hebrew. "
Al was not raised in Judaism but Rose was.
Luke: "What did you think of Screwed, the movie?"
Al: "It was a piece of s---. The guys who made the movie were a bunch of retarded adolescent punks who did not know how to make a good movie. They had a great subject."
Bruce David, self described LFP's official gopher, says it was surface, shallow and a big disappointment. "I've known Al for 30 years. I know the depth and the issues and they just treated him like he was a pussy eater."
Luke to Rose: "What does being Jewish mean to you?"
Rose: "I feel like I am part of a worldwide spiritual community."
Al: "Jews and blacks are together. Us kikes and coons… Like a chocolate mouse."
Luke: "What attracts you to Al?"
Rose does not like to answer that question.
Al: "It's my big Jewish dick. My circumsicion."
Rose: "Who do you write for?"
Luke: "My website l-keford.com."
Al: "Internet s---. Who cares what they say. You can't take them seriously.
"I spend no time on the internet. My son is in to that. I'm not.
"I only look at porn now to get me on target before we make love. It's flesh music. I like Ed Powers and Private."
Al invites me to his big Screw party in New York September 14.
"Don't write about Bill Margold. Write about Goldstein, Goldstein, Goldstein. Tomorrow when you wake up, your first thought should be what can I do to favor Goldstein. That's what Bruce did and now he blows Larry Flynt.
"Can I give Al my wife? Can she blow him? Can he eat my wife? These are the things you should think about."
Matt leaves to dress for the FSC's Night of the Stars.
Bruce David now writes Hustler comics.
He was a starving journalist in New York in the late '60s. Then he started a sex paper to make some money. As he dropped it off at newsstands, he was followed by Mafia in trucks trying to intimidate him. The mob controlled newsstand distribution. Then Bruce folded his paper and joined Screw. He started Al's cable TV show Midnight Blue. In 1974 he reviewed the first edition of Hustler, congratulating it for edging out Refrigerator Monthly as the most boring publication in America. Larry Flynt phoned him and hired him in 1975 to edit Hustler.
"I understood what Larry was trying to do and I knew that magazine was going to be successful. I knew that I could show him the way to do it. I bought in good writers and artists.
"I was an absolute slut. After work I'd go down to Harry's Bar in Century City and drink until I picked someone up."
Bored, Bruce left in 1982 to write for TV (Family Ties, Alf…). In 1983, he became introspective and started meditating. Bruce married in 1985. He had kids. Needing a steady pay check, he returned to LFP in 1996.
"I thought the Larry Flynt movie was great, and very accurate. Everything in it was true. You might argue about some of the stuff left out. But if I were writing my movie, I would not necessarily include the negative things."
Mark: "I just ran into Vanessa Del Rio buying cigarettes. I wanted to tell her that I've always admired the size of her clit, but it didn't seem to be the place to do it."
The Bruce David character in the movie is portrayed by Chris Glover?, the guy with the lazy eye. "He was going to be the editor but we had our lawyer send a cease and desist order.
"People attracted to work in the porn industry tend to be damaged people. They're making a calculated gamble. Nobody is forcing them. We're all free to choose our own path to self destruction.
"Pornography has no power over me. Working at LFP, I see naked women all the time, but it's rare that I see a photo set that is a turn-on.
"I can't comment on Hustler magazine. Alan MacDonell and I don't get along. We don't communicate. Larry does not ask me for my views on Hustler."
It's 6:30 PM. I stop by the cocktail bash outside the Grand Ballroom. It's like Oscar night for the porn industry, with the guys dressed up, frequently in tuxes and the women in gowns. Bill Amerson's date is AIM flebotomist Stephanie. Mike Ross's date is DK Stanton. I drive away to synagogue and the Sabbath.
During Friday's Night of the Stars dinner, AVN's Mark Kernes told adult industry lobbyist Mike Ross that AVN would no longer publish him because of his "political differences" with the FSC.
I return to the World Pornography Conference Sunday morning to listen to two academics evaluate commercial porn films. Dr. Russell Wilcox from San Francisco State University said that good films, pornographic or otherwise, are those where you can lose yourself and identify with the characters.
Dr. Gary Schubach writes on his web site http://www.doctorg.com:
Since childhood I have been a fan and historian of "straight" films. As an undergraduate, my minor area of study was film history where my favorite genre was the movie musical. When adult films began to appear openly in the late 1960's, I judged their quality by using the same standards that I had learned from straight films. I looked at such things as production values, the composition of the scenes, script and dialogue, as well as my subjective feelings about the sensuality of the sex scenes. For this genre of film, I had no coherent integrated theory from which to work.
It wasn't until I read Linda Williams' book, Hard Core, which compared the sex scenes in adult film to the musical numbers in a movie musical, that things began to click for me. I started to understand why I had found certain adult films to be effective in their presentation and others not. My interest then became studying the choreography in the movement of bodies and how that stimulates viewers by the creation of images in the viewers mind.
Dr. Schubach was concerned that the distribution system in porn is closed to many talent directors. "Betty Dodsen and Candida Royalle have far greater difficulty distributing their work than Juli Ashton and Veronica Hart at VCA. Is the market driving the product or the product driving the market?"
Luke: "Why are there so many bad films? I know of no other business where most of the product sucks."
Juli Ashton and Lucky Smith behind me laugh heartily.
Dr. Schubach: "I've gotten into trouble at the Institue [For the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality] with [director] Ted McIlvena for saying that 99% of the stuff is artistic crap.
From www.playboy.com:
Sunday morning at 8:30 is no time to be confronted with Al Goldstein, but nevertheless the publisher of Screw is on a roll in Al Goldstein Presents: Al Goldstein on Al Goldstein as a Porn Star.
Although the visuals include a video of Goldstein performing cunnilingus on assorted women, sometimes between puffs of a fat cigar, what he really wants to talk about is on the medical chart propped up on the table -- a clinical diagram of the vagina.
...Bill Margold's heroes are the fans. He of the vicarious money-shot revenge allowed himself to go soft in the heart by founding FOXE, Fans of X-rated Entertainment, to thank the people he calls "the reason we're all here." A four-man panel called Masturbatory Catharsis for the Masses -- Fanspeak attracts only a half-dozen people, half of which are media, but delivers a poignant message nonetheless.
Moderator H. Douglas Kaplan revels in a sexual relationship with a woman in which "I can't mess it up" and momentarily loses his composure as he ponders the generosity of the women who bring him pleasure via celluloid or videotape. Brothers Paul and Ray Wilson, who with Paul's wife form what Margold calls "the First Family of porn," enjoy the films as "just another form of entertainment" and maintain a relationship with the stars that includes occasional dinner parties. And Jay Molnar, voted Fan of the Year at the most recent FOXE Awards, relates the story of an unhappy life in which porn movies were a welcome escape and of his recent conversion to Christianity, which he says helped get him off drugs but so far has not conflicted with his choice of entertainment. Kaplan wraps up with a suggested chant, "I masturbate. It feels good. I am proud," that the others do not join.
9:40AM. Veronica Hart shared her only bad experience with porno fans. "I was living in Brooklyn. I had my youngest boy in a stroller and my other boy holding my hand. And a gentleman came up to me. 'Oh Veronica, I love you. I'm such a great fan of yours. What would I have to do to get a f---ing blow job from you?
"I was so mad that he was so insensitive in front of my children. Luckily they were so young that they did no get it. It hurt me more than them. I took him aside 'Don't you ever use that kind of language in front of children again.'"
Shayla LaVeaux and her husband James Wieser spoke. Shayla broke into tears at one point. "I had a lot of rude awakenings. A lot of things were hard for me to deal with because I was not honest and upfront with him. Coming into this business gave me a strength and confidence. It's given people that I can learn from. I know of nowhere else that I'd rather be."
Jane says that in 1996 she thought Shayla was going to leave porn. "For her [Shayla's] first two years in the business," said James, "we lived in Denver. She'd come out here two weeks at a time. That strained the marriage. She hit a point where she could not continue. Then we found out that Shayla had ADD [Attention Deficit Disorder]. She got on medication and has been fine ever since."
Shayla: "I've been putting this business and my personal life more together than it ever was. I've always wanted an open relationship. In this business I've acquired wonderful teachers like Nina Hartley, the big sister I never had."
Sunday, 8/9/98, 10:40 AM. Ballsy Weekly Standard journalist Matt Balash interviews conference co-chair Dr. Vern Bullough about yesterday's child pornography presentation which included photos of a boy holding the photographer's cock (from the presentation by David Sonenschein).
Dr. Bullough thought it was ok as long as the photographer was a professional and had obtained permission from the parents. Dr. Bullough related how his kids used to pull on his schwong in the shower. Matt asked if Dr. Bullough invited other children into the shower to pull on his schwong. A conference organizer, hospitality lawyer (Mark Roysner) stepped in to reprove Matt for asking inappropriate questions. Matt's dying to know how many profs scored with porn stars this weekend.
Mark Roysner: "This has been a scholarly endeavor… People's [sexual] relations are not an issue."
Matt: "Did you see the live sex? Same room where you held panels."
Mark: "What people care to do on their own time is none of our business."
Matt to Mark: "Do you like porn?"
Mark: "I don't think that's a relevant question. I'm a big believer in the First Amendment…"
Matt: "How do you know that nobody scored with porn stars?"
Mark: "I'm not interested whether anyone scored…"
Sample quotes from the final panel:
Gloria Leonard: "What's the difference between erotica and pornography? In my opinion, it's the lighting."
Annie Sprinkle: "I'm aware that we're the happy pornographers. There are people who haven't had the wonderful experiences we've had, and I just want to acknowledge their part in the total picture of this vast multi-faceted business."
Matt and I talk to Lasara, a witch who features full milky breasts. She gave birth 18 months ago. She participated in an orgy at Dr. Susan Block's cable TV taping Saturday night - Sunday morning… Carol Queen and her husband Robert, Kat Sunlove, Kiss [busty English blonde porn star], Betty Dodsen… "I heard that Richard Pacheco got anally penetrate by Kat Sunlove with a dildo."
For Bill Margold, the conference helped complete a circle. About 30 years ago, he graduated from Cal State Northridge with a degree in journalism.
Free Speech Coalition executive director Jeffrey Douglas told the crowd that the last few days have been among the happiest of his life. Jeffrey beamed. He believed every word and had much to be proud of - the Conference went off smoothly. Most of the participants appeared happy with it.
Luc Wylder says his distribution company Fallen Angel is not wavering in its commitment to condoms. "Not at the moment. I don't know what the future holds."
Annabel Chong attended the conference. Speaking in an English accent, she tells me that she will soon receive her second degree from USC. The first one - Fine Arts. The second - gender studies (in a semester).
Chong left porn in 1996 to concentrate on school. This summer she returned to porn, appearing frequently in fetish and hardcore. "The most recent one is shot in a fraternity house at USC for Jim Powers. My first time in a frat house. I do condoms-only scenes. I'm allergic to latex, so I have to bring my own (polyurethane) condoms.
"When I was younger, I wasn't as educated about safe sex. I'd go through panics. 'Ohmigod, did I catch HIV?' Now I can have sex with peace of mind.
"I had a wonderful time doing my gangbang. It's still bizarre looking at the video. I really pushed my boundaries. I can't imagine two normal guys doing a double anal on me. Porn is my playground.
"I never got paid for the gangbang. Nothing. John Bone and Matt Zane blame each other. I did it for the experience. Over time it has ceased to bother me. They did a good job checking HIV tests. They did a good job with security, making sure it was condoms only. I liked the way it was run."
Chong understood that many of her peers resented her wild sexual antics, climaxed by the gangbang. "I never felt the brunt of the resentment because I don't socialize with the industry. I go to work and I go home. Some of the girls are snotty, and so I stay away from them.
"My friends in the industry are mainly from the older generation, the crew and the writers.
"The industry has been in denial too long about HIV. It's good to have condoms in videos because it shows that safe sex can be pleasurable. It's time for us to catch up to gay porn."
Chong showed me her PCR DNA test 7/1/98 which reads "not detected."
"I went through a period when I was the textbook speed freak. Then I came to the realization that I don't need speed because I'm naturally hyper."
Veronica Vera, formerly married to an Australian, now operates in New York City, "Miss Vera's Finishing School For Boys Who Want To Be Girls." In Judaism, it is a huge sin, prohibited by the Torah, for a man to wear a woman's clothing.
Vera: "It's the world's first cross-dressing academy. We get students from all over the world who want to dress like ladies. My book provides all the details… Most of the students are married and 95% identify themselves as straight, though they learn that it is a blurry line between straight, gay, and bisexual. They can study with us for several hours or several days. We have a whole faculty… A dean of high heels… Sex ed courses… Make up. We take students out on field trips.
"Most of the children have been dressing as girls since they were children…but they have never seen themselves totally transformed.
"There's nothing that I said [1985] to Senator Arlen Spector that I wouldn't say today, though that exploration of bondage and submission is not something that I am into today. But modeling for those photos was right for me at the time, when I was repressed Catholic school. Today I'm much into acknowledging personal responsibility for sex. So I'm not into anything that requires that someone else give permission. That is also the philosophy of my school. There's no domination.
"I don't watch many porn movies. It's more fun to be in them than to watch them. But I do watch the work of my friends. I just watched Candida's One Size Is Enough which I liked. I'm curious to see Debbie Sundials Female Ejaculation series. My lover and I began to watch a porn movie a couple of weeks ago, then we made love, so I guess it worked.
"I'm mostly heterosexual. I've had bisexual experiences as opposed to bisexual relationships. Bisexuality is coming more into public awareness.
"My favorite video that I made is [the documentary] Portrait of a Sexual Evolutionary [about Vera's life as a sex worker]. It has clips from movies, and the testimony [before Specter] and still photos by Robert Maplethorpe and Annie Sprinkle. The other favorite would be my first [porno], Consenting Adults.
"Religion represses sexuality, which inspires exhibitionism. So you have a lot of people in porn from strong religious backgrounds. It's less so now."
Luke: "Is it tougher for a beautiful woman to grow old?"
Vera: "It depends. If you get caught up in wanting your body to be the same as it was when you were younger… I was never satisfied with my body. Once I learned to accept it, I became happier. So many great things have happened through maturing that the trade-off is well worth it. Life is easier now. I have everything I want now. I have a great lover and fulfillment in my work."
I asked Annie Sprinkle for her opinion of John Heidenry's 1997 book on the sexual revolution, What Wild Ecstasy, which describes her life in depth.
"There were a lot of errors," said Annie. "The most prominent one… He said I faked orgasms in my show. I never did. If you read my book, you can read about the masturbation ritual I did in my show. That was the worst. There were a lot of little things. I adored the book.
"The Conference was fabulous, orgasmic and ecstatic."
Annie tries to pull Ron Jeremy away from conversation to have lunch. He's talking with a short Jewish woman two years his junior. They each had their first sexual experience behind a rock in a park near Public School 46 on a lot on 65th Avenue near Springfield, in Bayside, Queens, New York. They each grew up in Bayside. Ron went to school with the ladies' sister.
"It wasn't screwing," remembers Ron. "We didn't go all the way, but I did come in my shorts. I was 14. The girl was Margie.
"Our parents were always home so you had to find rocks. Did other kids use the rock too? Yes. Oh, I thought I was being creative."
The woman lost her virginity behind the rock. She was penetrated at age 15.
Ron: "My first screw took place at age 17 in Littleneck in an alley beside a school. Same girl, Margie."
Ron tells me about his T-shirt put out by Porn Star Clothing. A cigar company in downtown Los Angeles, La Plata, wants to put out the Ron Jeremy ten inch cigar. $10. And a liquor company wants Nina Hartley and I to have our name on a beer. I have a penis mold and the rap song CD Freak of the Week."
Ron says he's close to becoming a millionaire.
"A month ago the Jay Leno showed played a commercial I was in with Samuel Jackson and Taylor Wane for MTV's movie awards. That was my second plug on the Tonight Show."
Ron has been cut out of a couple of mainstream movies on the distributors insistence. Test audiences recognized Ron, causing executives to act. Ron does appear in Orgazmo and Studio 54.
Ron served as a technical consultant on Boogie Nights. "It was an accurate representation of a select few [LA crowd]. They [Boogie Nights stars] all came to my sets. Julianne Moore seemed more comfortable watching sex than Heather Graham. Burt Reynolds did not come. He felt that he knew enough about porn that he didn't need to come on a set.
"Los Angeles porn did have people like John Holmes who were into drugs. The kiddie pornographer did not exist. Jane Hamilton questioned the director. Paul said, "it's a story… exciting." Paul could've done worse… He could've shown the John Holmes character catching a virus…
"Paul Thomas Anderson knows a lot about adult films. I helped them get Veronica Hart, Nina Hartley… I told Paul to go to World Modeling where they got a hold of Tony Tedeschi and Little Cinderella. Rob Spallone gave them Summer Cummings and Skye Blue for the jacuzzi scene."
Annie spots my press pass which reads "Sydney Morning Herald."
"About six months, they wouldn't let me bring my show [Annie Sprinkle's First Street Porn] to Australia. My show is art, art about porn. I was all booked then the Censor Board would not allow it. Australia is backwards and they are missing out.
"I've shown thousands of people my cervix."
1:40PM: I'm eating lunch (avocado sandwich, fries and lemon tart) courtesy of Paul Cowan and the National Film Board of Canada. Georgia Miles (industry groupie and journalist) and Mike Horner sit across from us. Georgia stands almost 6' tall, and weighs about 200 pounds. Her face is deeply pockmarked. In front of families and children, she starts screaming at us that Luke F-rd is full of s---. That what he publishes on his web page is full of s---. That I am the last person at the conference they should interview. Georgia demanded to know how I had obtained a press pass to the conference. She thought that I'd been banned.
Paul and company are astounded how almost every person they interview hates me.
Later, Paul and I find a quiet place so that he can interview me. Georgia Miles finds us, and walks up wanting to know which organization we're with. Paul says, and then she leaves us alone.
Brandy Alexandre writes on rec.arts.movies.erotica:
I called Russ Hampshire at VCA this afternoon to ask him not to speak to Luke F-rd anymore. He said he always makes Luke correct his crap, but I explained that just by accepting his calls he lends some form of credibility--even if he only picks up the phone to call him an idiot.
Some said Luke F-rd was there [Night of the Stars, I was not], but none could point him out. They all said that he was a moron, and each said that he had agreed to take the stars names off his website after their conversations. By my count that makes about 15 times he lied.
Rezolution@mindspring.com writes on RAME:
While I find Luke's "reporting" to be amateurish, I try to look beyond his technique or lack thereof and focus on what these people are saying or attempting to say. I trust Luke to be able to trancsribe what's on his tape deck and that's about it.
However, there's hope that Luke will improve and possibly even learn to write. If not, he can keep on scarfing taco's & hitting "record" and I'll keep on tolerating his lack of skills and whatever agenda he may have.
As far as industry spokesmen go, I trust them to promote their industry because that's their job. What I find amusing about the AVN boys is their inept defense of their industry. The Ed Powers fiasco was much more revealing in respect to them than it was to Luke who we all know is an amateur.
You can go on railing against Luke & I'll take my shots at both Luke and the industry spokesmen. In the meantime, I get MUCH more interesting info from the taco man.
By Mark Egan
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - America's leading porn stars were hailed Friday as champions of human rights by the head of the country's largest civil liberties group.
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) President Nadine Strossen told porn stars and adult filmmakers at a conference that their work defended the most fundamental of all human rights -- freedom of speech.
"I want to underscore how extremely essential your efforts are. I want to thank and applaud you for your fight and contribution for First Amendment freedom, and to galvanize you to 'keep it up,' so to speak," she added.
Strossen, author of the book "Defending Pornography," was speaking at the World Pornography Conference, also attended by academics and freedom-of-speech lawyers.
"Your vital work on behalf of freedom of sexual expression is incredibly important for the free-speech cause," Strossen said.
"Once we cede to the government the power to violate one right for one person, or group, then no right is safe for any person or group. So when we defend sexual expression, we really are making a stand not only against a specific kind of censorship ... but human rights in general."
By D.K. Stanton
>From: wmz@hartwilliams.com
>Oh, and Bill Margold announced in a panel after lunch>that he's the "St. Francis of Assisi of porn." >And that his "kids" (the performers) were sad lost >puppies, or something to that effect. Perhaps >he meant that he was the ASPCA of the Industry>now, I'm not certain. But Maestro was sitting>right behind me, and I would request that she>PLEASE give us her take on that very odd>interlude.
I've often pondered that specific parable of porn since first encountering it several months ago (Bill Margold). May I add that the actual anthropopathism is not nearly as cuddly as the diplomacy of Mr. Williams recounts--
<<I also look upon myself as the St. Francis of Assisi of X, taking care of all the dumb animals>>
What was glaringly, yet perhaps judiciously, missing from Friday’s utterance was the usual follow-up clarification of exactly who these "dumb animals" are; ie: the performers and the fans. (I’ve never been certain whether this is a commentary on the collective IQ of the groups in question or a statement of conviction that they have no voice.) Free Speech Coalition president and workshop panelist, Gloria Leonard, also took exception to the comment.
Margold then explained that although fans and performers are the two definitive groups which allow the adult industry to exist, they often have no place to turn. He, through PAW (Protecting Adult Welfare) and his affiliation with FOXE (Fans Of X Entertainment), serves to fill this void.
The whole "damnation/dumb animal" perception disturbs me. Personally, I would hesitate to crawl into the open arms of any individual who viewed my existence in such a negative light.
One of Margold’s more well known statements, uttered as recently as yesterday’s panel, condemns America’s tendency to beat off with one hand while pushing the industry away with the other. Perhaps Margold has accurately diagnosed this societal condition because he is so personally acquainted with the symptoms. St. Francis-and-the-animals may not be so bad as a stand-alone bedtime story; however when viewed alongside other Margoldian metaphors, such as the "two great unwashed masses of the business" and the allegorical posture that "two three-legged dogs have a greater chance of surviving than one three-legged dog"--both of which refer to the symbiotic relationship between performers and fans--I can't help but wonder who has the hairiest palm.
FORD CALLED ON THE CARPET
8/8/98
Luke F-rd, the so-called Matt Drudge of Porn, was publicly chastised for lack of journalistic integrity in the lobby of the Sheraton Universal Hotel during the Friday session of the World Porn Conference. Multi-faceted porn veteran and erstwhile industry journalist, William Margold, attacked Ford’s account of the controversy surrounding the adult industry’s recent HIV false positive, citing two specifically reported allegations as being untrue. Margold, well known for his personal interest and cultivation of industry new-comers, offered Ford the benefit of his experience, expressing a willingness to review future interviews for verification of content prior to publication.
Greg Zeboray writes on www.feedmag.com about Luke:
As the insurance coordinator of the Free Speech Coalition, I handle the insurance for the majority of those in this industry, and I am very aware of what's going on.
The trouble with Luke is very simple: he is a mental case. I really enjoy his new belief that the "mafia" is involved in porn. Luke, you are about 10 years behind. If at any time there was "mafia" participation, they left when the profit margins disappeared.
As for Marc Wallice, Luke did not "break" the story.
The truth is, after Caroline's positive test (early April?), we determined that Marc was the only person who had worked with all those who tested HIV positive. Around the time Marc was contacted (to come in for a test), someone within our organization told Luke of the concern. Trusting him was, as always, a big mistake. He ran straight to his computer, and rather typing the true information hewas provided, he instead told the whole world that Marc was HIV+. I know Marc; I still work with himon a reguler basis; He did NOT know he was positive until our test results came in at the end of April. And if Marc didn't know, how in the hell would Luke have known?
I have never spoken to Luke. From the outset, I made it clear I would not speak to him. I refuse to give credibility to a man who writes speculation as fact.
Let's talk about his "souces": I know most of them, and they are using Luke to promote their own agenda.
In closing, Luke's actions indicate a really stupid person. But his success in generating publicity indicate a very smart person. To me, he is an enigma.
8/6/98 REUTERS:
...Then there's "Visionary Erotica and Pornography" featuring performance artist Annie Sprinkle, who wrote "Herstory of Pornography - Reel to Real"; Deborah Sundahl, aka Fanny Fatale, former publisher of "On Our Backs": and Nan Kinney, owner of Fatale Video, a lesbian sex video company.
Friday's keynote address "In Defense of Pornography" is to be given by Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union.
However, the conference should also appeal to those with a less cerebral approach. How about: "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Actors and Actresses in Erotic Films and Video From the People Who Were There." The round-table session includes a veritable who's-who of X-rated videos, including Sprinkle, Ron Jeremy, Nina Hartley and others who make their living from sex on screen.
And what would a conference be without souvenirs?
Participants can browse at booths displaying the latest the sex industry has to offer -- from dildos and condoms to CD-ROMS and videos.
"We want to try and break the thinking on the subject of pornography, " said Jeffrey Douglas, Executive Director of the Free Speech Coalition, a trade organization for the adult entertainment industry.
"A lot of the discussion will revolve around the definition issue. If you look it up in the dictionary, pornography is 'any written or visual work intended to elicit a sexual response.' But it is the interpretation of what constitutes porn that has fired the debate, Douglas told Reuters.
"The opposition likes to say there's a difference between erotica and pornography, which they say is erotica you don't like. That definition is absurd.
"Pornography is not my favorite term but we chose to use it to clarify the thinking. People think of erotica 'that's literature, not smut' But we are thinking smut," he said.
In fact, several anti-pornography groups were invited to attend the conference, but they all declined, said Douglas.
The Center for Sex Research has held several conferences on sexuality, including those on prostitution and cross-dressing.
"Their goal is to address issues surrounding sexuality. They have dealt with a lot of interesting and controversial issues, and you would be hard-pressed to find something more controversial at the moment than pornography," said Douglas.
"We invited law enforcement to speak, but they chose not to," he said. "It was predictable and disappointing, but they will probably be there -- undercover."
8/6/98 AP:
Anti-porn activists criticized California State University, Northridge, for co-hosting the conference with the Free Speech Coalition, a trade association for the adult entertainment industry.
``They're using the credibility and respect of the California State University system to promote pornography,'' Steve Frank said on the opening of the conference Friday. ``This is as embarrassing to education as can be imagined.''
Conference organizers dismissed the criticism.
``We're not endorsing pornography any more than if we held a conference on the news media or serial killers,'' said James Elias, director of university's Center for Sex Research. ``If I were doing a study on serial killers, would that mean I support serial killers?''
The daughter of Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt said the porn industry's defense of free-speech rights was a charade.
``They're really exploiting the First Amendment,'' Tonya Flynt-Vega said. ``My father didn't give a damn about the First Amendment. He's not a First Amendment freedom fighter. None of this has anything to do with the First Amendment.''
8/8/98 LA TIMES:
Tonya Flynt-Vega, daughter of Larry Flynt, held a news conference at the nearby Universal Hilton to denounce the event.
Elias said the center had decided to hold the conference at the Sheraton Universal because it was the scene Friday night of the adult entertainment industry's answer to the Oscars, the Night of the Stars. The Valley is also the center of the adult-entertainment business.
Elias said he had tried but failed to get some distinguished opponents of pornography to participate in the conference.
"That's the one disappointment I have," he said.
Several local ministers called and offered to argue against pornography, Elias said, but he chose not to include them because he thought they would have been at a disadvantage in a debate with such high-powered defenders as Strossen and free-speech attorney Stanley Fleishman, both honored at Friday's lunch.
Elias said he was unfazed by the occasional angry confrontation with those who object to programs such as this and last year's conference on prostitution, which he also chaired.
"I get unpleasant phone calls all the time," he said. "If I wasn't displeasing people sometimes, I'd feel that I wasn't doing my job."
While professors read sometimes dry treatises on explicit magazines and Victorian porn, X-rated films rolled nonstop in a nearby room.
Among the enthusiastic participants from the industry was Annie Sprinkle, performer and performance artist.
"I'm orgasmic to be here," she said. "It's a wonderful experience to be taken seriously. I love the combination of low-brow and high-brow."
Sprinkle, who grew up in Granada Hills, said she prepared for the conference by sending away for a $295 mail-order doctorate. "I definitely deserve a PhD, having devoted 25 years to this."
At a session titled "Outlaws on Movie Posters: The Real 'Boogie Nights' from Those Who Were There," veterans of the industry discussed what many regard as its Golden Age.
Gloria Leonard, president of the Free Speech Coalition and a former star, said she thinks today's performers have less personality than those of the past.
"We were all very distinctive," she said, noting that breast implants and other cosmetic improvements give today's female performers a characterless cookie-cutter perfection.
"I refer to them as the Stepford sluts," she said.
As they swapped "John Holmes war stories" and other collective memories, they spoke nostalgically of the era, before porn on video, when their images appeared on big screens in real theaters.
Paul Thomas Anderson's recent film "Boogie Nights" failed to capture the renegade spirit of that era, most said. They criticized the scenes in which porn movies are being shot in rooms with wide-open windows--something that was never done because the filmmakers were always at risk of arrest.
Laurie Holmes called the movie, whose main character was inspired by her famous husband, "Bogus Nights."
Quantity over quality is ruining the business, said writer, producer and former actor William Margold. In the old days, he said, the filmmakers were "a family of happy children."
Today, he said of his generation, "We are dinosaurs in our own time. The San Fernando Valley is the La Brea Tar Pits of porn, where the business has gone to die."
8/8/98 Dallas Morning News:
LOS ANGELES - In a dimly lighted hotel ballroom, Kat Sunlove, an ex-dominatrix once known as Mistress Kat, suddenly finds two worlds at her feet.
One is populated by suggestively dressed sex-trade workers, a sphere the Texas-raised Sunlove conquered years ago. The other is new to her - an international community of rumpled academics and jargon-spouting researchers.
"This conference is really groundbreaking," she said brightly. "We're on a mission here - a mission to free the world sexually. And the academics do bring a certain legitimacy."
She spoke as porn stars and college professors mingled at the conference' s opening-night reception. Thursday's soiree was in the Sheraton Universal' s rooftop ballroom, 20 stories above the valley floor, where most of the nation's sexually explicit films, magazines and Internet materials are made.
The reception featured a large-screen presentation of porn films that ran the gamut from grainy black-and-white reels to full-color clips highlighting the careers of veteran performers such as Candida Royalle and Annie Sprinkle, both of whom narrated their footage from a makeshift stage.
But by welcoming the likes of porn legends Nina Hartley, Ron Jeremy and Al Goldstein to the conference, Dr. Elias also invited criticism from valley civic leaders. The latter have never been comfortable with the valley's role as the U.S. smut capital, even though porn generates an estimated $5 billion to $8 billion in annual sales nationwide, more than the music industry.
"They are not the mainstream," Northridge Chamber of Commerce executive director Dick Hardman said of the local porn factories. "We in the chamber don't recognize them and would not take them in as members."
Mr. Hardman said he feared that Ms. Sunlove just might get her wish - that the university's imprimatur on the conference will lend some measure of respectability to the porn purveyors. "I bemoan the fact that the university is condoning this," he said.
The conference organizers were clearly aware of its potential for embarrassment and titillation, however. Parking signs in the Sheraton lot, next door to Universal Studios, discreetly labeled the affair as the "CSUN Convention." And outside the ballroom, professors doubled as bouncers, shooing away looky-loos who lacked conference credentials.
"It's bizarre," said Patrick Reynolds, 39, a Portland businessman who was hustled out after sneaking a peek at the film screening. " A typical Hollywood happening."
Ms. Sunlove, who changed her name 20 years ago and refuses to reveal her original one [Kilgore Rangerette], is the industry's point woman on the road to greater esteem. She became the Free Speech Coalition's lobbyist last year and spends most of her time trying to reach state lawmakers in Sacramento, usually in hopes of heading off porn crackdowns.
"I've had no doors slammed in my face, I'm happy to say," she said while sipping wine at the reception. "Oh, I had one state senator who refused to make an appointment with me . . . but most political people understand votes and money."
It helps that Ms. Sunlove, who grew up in Kilgore, is better-educated and more polished than the typical porn promoter. Before assuming her Mistress Kat persona, she says, she earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a master's in political science from the University of Hawaii.
In the early 1980s, she began writing an S&M column for the Spectator, a San Francisco-area magazine devoted to sex, and conducted workshops in female sexual dominance. She also developed a stage act as Mistress Kat but says she never engaged in explicit sex as a performer.