Blue Vanities Returns Under New Ownership

CHATSWORTH, Calif. - Following a change in ownership, vintage porn label Blue Vanities is preparing to release an amazing collection of adult film rarities, many of which have never appeared on DVD.

For over 20 years, Blue Vanities has been a well-respected source for classic stag films and loops ranging from the silent movie era to Golden Age hardcore of the '70s and '80s. Former Caballero owner Howie Klein recently purchased the Seattle-based company and has moved the operation to the San Fernando Valley, where partner Wesley Emerson is now cataloging and restoring the films with new digital transfers.

“Blue Vanities' previous ownership transferred less than 10% of their total library to video, and there are well over 10,000 films in the collection, many of which have not been seen in years,” said Emerson, the AVN Award-winning director of Wadd: The Life and Times of John C. Holmes.

For Klein, the Blue Vanities collection represents a piece of his own history.

"I sold these films in the late '60s and '70s," Klein told AVN. " I’ve been in the industry a long time, and that stuff is really dear to me. I was the sole distributor of Swedish Erotica in the country. I had my own line called Twin Fish, and I saw some Twin Fish films in the library! Some of the older films are so much better than what we see today. It’s just unbelievable; the girls, they’re all natural, with real tits, no shaved pussies. The industry changed so much, and I got burned out on it; this is the part of it that I enjoyed."

 

The Blue Vanities archive is so massive that it took a 16-foot truck to transport the cartons of original 8mm, Super-8 and 16mm film to Los Angeles.

"It was amazing," Emerson said. "The truck was so tightly packed that not one box shifted en route from Seattle to Los Angeles."

The contents of those boxes represent a history of X-rated film, from the earliest stags to '50s burlesque shorts, nudie-cuties, '60s sexploitation and hardcore loops from the New York and San Francisco scenes. The nostalgic footage features such stars as Vanessa Del Rio, Seka, Tina Russell, Linda McDowell, Serena, Candy Samples, Terri Hall, Jamie Gillis, John Leslie, Paul Thomas and Joey Silvera, among others.

"I really think there’s a niche market for this," said Klein. "Customers have been following Blue Vanities now from all over the world. People have been ordering and enjoying the site from every continent- it’s like going home again."

Emerson noted that the numerous labels manufacturing loops were very much like today's glut of gonzo companies. For every Swedish Erotica, there was another low-budget imitator cranking out imitations. A tour of the Blue Vanities warehouse revealed lavish Euro-porn loops directed by Lasse Braun (Deep Arse, The Vikings, Love in Scandinavia), roughies from "Satan Quality Film Reels," and a series from Danish Films International, the precursor to Swedish Erotica.

And that's just skimming the surface. Emerson pointed out stacks of cardboard boxes filled with reels of various gauges, much of it unlabeled; he is now tasked with going through that mountain of smut to mine the gems.

" We've already tested out the wet-gate transfer process, and the results are amazing," he said. "I'm going through multiple copies of the same loops to get the best possible quality on each one."

Klein has already compiled material for the first in Blue Vanities' forthcoming series of DVDs.

"I picked out the bestselling 8mm films of that time," he said, "and a couple of the movies that were the biggest selling 8mm titles ever have never been seen on DVD before. There's one with Linda McDowell and John Holmes- she takes him up the ass, and that’s when he used to get a real hard on – you could hang a wet towel on it!"

Along with the movies, the collection includes thousands of vintage hardcore magazines and stills. Titles such as "Junkies and the Nightmare" and "Invitation to A Cunt" offer a feast of sleazy thrills for the collectors' market, and Emerson has already begun the painstaking process of scanning and transferring the collection for digital consumption via the Blue Vanities website.

 

As the work begins, Blue Vanities will be in operation as before the change in ownership. A new site is presently under construction, and a sale will continue on existing products with prices that will never be repeated. Memberships will also be available, ensuring fans the opportunity of viewing and purchasing new releases as they become available.

"I really think there’s a niche market for this," said Klein. "Customers have been following Blue Vanities now from all over the world. People have been ordering and enjoying the site from every continent- it’s like going home again."

For further information and updates, visit www.bluevanities.com or call 1-877-702-PEEP (7337) or 1-818-734-PEEP (7337). The company can be reached via email at [email protected] or write us at: Blue Vanities, 9424 Eton Avenue, Suite G, Chatsworth, CA 91311.