LAS VEGAS — AVN Hall of Famer Bill Margold has selected Ron Jeremy as one of six performers to be inducted at the Legends of Erotica Wall of Fame ceremony on Friday, Jan. 11 at Showgirls Video (631 S. Las Vegas Blvd., Las Vegas, NV).
Co-inductees with Jeremy will be Debi Diamond, Midori, Mimi Miyagi, Brittany
Andrews and Kitten Natividad.
"I'm trying to surround [Jeremy] with as many flavors, sizes and shapes
that appropriate the Hedgehog's position," Margold told AVN, "and I
at least was lucky enough to land one of [Jim] Holliday's Angels, which was
Debi Diamond. I try and get an Angel every year to honor Holliday, because
Holliday was one of the people that helped create the original hall of fame
when we were doing the XRCO. And this takes the place of all the halls of fame,
because this is the real one. The other ones have started to put too many
people in, and it's devalued the hall of fame."
Started in 1994 by Margold and Arrow Productions' Ray Pistol, the Legends of
Erotica ceremony is held every year during the Adult Entertainment
Expo. Past inductees include Georgina Spelvin, F.J. Lincoln, Paul Thomas,
Veronica Hart, Henri Pachard, Rhonda Jo Petty, Alicia Rio, Herschel Savage and
Serena.
"I've put in a whole lot of the original people," Margold said.
"I'm still looking for certain people — I know some of them have died, but
I'm looking for Constance Money and Leslie Bovee and Barbara Dare ... even
somebody as current as Ashlyn Gere knows that I would like to have her come
there and be honored and be given the cement block, which is an official,
300-pound block of cement with whatever body part they want to put into it.
"The thing that's always made me want to go back and do it again,"
Margold continued, "is the incredible reverence from the fans toward the
performers. I have said it many times: you could hear a pubic hair drop. And
it's so satisfying to see the adulation and the constant series of standing
ovations. When I originally designed it, I came up with a concept that the pro
football and baseball hall of fame have — you have to choose a person important
to you to induct you. A couple of times I've used people inducting to fool them
to get them there so I could induct them. Probably the classic example of that,
and the first example, was Gloria Leonard, who wanted Jamie [Gillis] to come —
and Jamie would never have come to be inducted himself — and after he did the
induction, he said to me, 'This is really sorta cool.' And I said, 'I hope you
like it, 'cause now I'm inducting you.' And he's my idol. So it was sort of
fitting that I had the chance to do it. I have no surprises like that this
year; all these six people do know they're going in. Six is too many sometimes,
anyway, but I wanted a Hedgehog and his quintet — one for each finger."
One highly controversial figure Margold said he'd like to eventually induct
into Legends of Erotica is Marc Wallice, the performer accused of causing the
first industry outbreak of HIV in 1998 by knowingly shooting scenes after being
diagnosed with the virus.
"I'll be very happy to induct Marc Wallice," Margold said.
"Wallice should only be inducted for one reason: he was one of the greatest
studs of a certain era, and that's what we're acknowledging him for. If nothing
else, the analogy is the Pete Rose of porn, Pete Rose being the greatest hitter
of all time, Wallice one of the great studs, ranking in the same breath as
Byron and North. I want Wallice in the Legends of Erotica, I want his block of
cement. There are people who'd like to put him in face down, but there's never
been any proof that he knew. I was there in '98, when all of it took place.
Maybe on his deathbed, he's like, 'Yeah, I knew,' but he's never admitted to
knowing, and there is no proof that he knew."
Proceeds from the Legends of Erotica ceremony will go to Margold’s Protecting Adult
Welfare (PAW) foundation.
"It's very, very reverential," he said. "And there'll be tears.
People cry on that stage. I have cried many times. And the audience also cries.
This is the real thing, and it's very gratifying. It's just what I believe in;
it's based on one of my more famous lines: there is no future if in the
present, we fail to pay homage to the past."
Tickets to the 2008 Legends of Erotica ceremony are $20 and will be available
for purchase at Showgirls Video and the Arrow Productions/PAW
AEE booth. Capacity is between 250 and 300 people, and tickets are expected to
sell out beforehand.
