Says a key organizer of the forthcoming Say Boo to Censorship march in Hollywood - apathy, greed, and a "mistaken" craving for legitimacy and moving away from controversy could actually wreck the adult entertainment industry despite its current economic boom.
Say Boo to Censorship is still in the formative stages, says Bill Margold, but the march on behalf of free speech and free expression will still step off as planned at 9 a.m. 31 October. Marchers will go from the Hustler Store to the Hustler Building and back.
"We're not expecting much more than a hundred people," says Margold, an outspoken avatar and critic of the business he has made his career, "but I think, I hope we'll have at least a noticeable impact.
"I think even a hundred people marching down the street in a somewhat unified group will have a marginal impact," he continues. "It's a tongue-in-cheek attack on censorship. If we get more, I'd be very, very happy. But I see apathy abounding in the industry now."
How, Margold was asked, could there be apathy in the adult industry when indications are that it's enjoying perhaps its highest profitability yet? He says it's a combination of complacency, stagnation, and - his words - the lack of controversy and a common enemy.
"The only enemies we have now are ourselves," says the one-time adult actor and talent agent whose discoveries include adult film star Amber Lynn. "We're greedy, apathetic, and don't often care as we should, and the public is (becoming) equally apathetic and equally culpable. Meaning, we're no longer in the golden era of X."
He says the adult industry's apparent efforts to move into the entertainment mainstream are actually working against it. "And it's not even sex anymore," Margold continues. "It's more like digging a ditch with a different kind of shovel. I think pride has left the building. They're not getting away with anything anymore, so they're not interested. Now that this is legal, and ordinary, and normal, even, it's like who cares, we're just another letter in the entertainment alphabet."
He says the current economic boom in the porn industry means nothing except a Pyrrhic victory. "When we stop being controversial, we stop being worthwhile. This industry is clamoring to become legitimate, which is the biggest mistake we can make. Our place is in the gutter."
A pamphlet outlining the march route and purpose is being sent to the Free Speech Coalition board by designer Phil Berman. He says it will also include an application whereby those making the march can sign up sponsors for it, even if it's only as he calls "a five mile march or so."
Asked whether Margold's estimate of about one hundred marchers was too low, Berman said he wasn't entirely sure how many the march would end up attracting.
