Ron Miller, the Big Kahuna of Erotica L.A., reports that this year's show [the 4th Annual] will be held June 2, 3 and 4 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Miller's also happy to report that cameras will be allowed this year.
Miller: "Of course Wicked is our flagship company, and they will be located right inside the door. I thank Steve Orenstein, Joy King and Seth for their support. I'm very happy this year that Goalie has expanded their space. VCA's also back. They're right next to Wicked. On the other side of Wicked is Hustler. They've doubled their space this year. There's a new project, Go Hustler, the prepaid Internet card, they have a booth this year. There will also be more of the gentlemen's clubs like Deja Vu and Spearmint Rhino. Serenity's company, Las Vegas Novelties, will also be back. Hedonism is back. They'll have one of the larger booths this year. Most of my vendors from prior years are back, and we're getting a lot of support from Vivid which I'm very excited about. The Vivid girls are helping us out a lot with the promotion. Sky and Devon will be making radio appearances from what I've been told. Brooke [Hunter] is under contract to Wildlife, and Wildlife has a 20 x 20 booth this year, and Brooke will be signing for them. Extreme is also new this year. They'll add an interesting flair. It also looks like we're outgrowing the space that we have. And it looks like our 2001 dates will be mid-May dates. It gets increasingly more difficult to book shows that coincides with other things that people are doing in the industry.
"We also have Adam & Eve this year. The word spreads across the country as we go. But the big thing is that we have cameras back. I think the fans should be able to bring in cameras."
G. Ross: "It's amazing what you had to go through on an issue like that."
Miller: "It's incredibe. Interestingly enough, it was the general manager of the Convention Center who I met with after last year. LAPD has never been willing to sit down and talk to me after the show. Good, bad or indifferent. There was the one incident with Alicia Klass, and, knock on wood, LAPD has never been involved in anything. They won't tell me what we can't do. And they won't tell me what we can do. At the security meeting, LAPD was very happy that cameras are being allowed. We also have a commitment from LAPD, actually a mandate from both the city attorney's office and the Convention Center, that they not have that very intimidating uniformed presence lined up across from the doorway. It was very interesting that at the security meetings, it was pointed out that the Las Vegas Metropolitcan Police have such a horrible time at the CES adult show. They don't look at the revenue side of things. I will be dispatching a letter to his honor, Mayor Riordan, this coming week extending an invitation."
G. Ross: "Like he'll take you up on it."
Miller: "I kind of think he would. Along with being an incurable cynic for all the years I've practiced law, there's that optimistic side that I have..."
G. Ross: "The S.W.A.T. team attended a Dr. Susan Block Show."
Miller: "But it's pretty clear that the mayor of the city of Los Angeles has very little knowledge of what the Los Angeles Police Department is doing. His great defense is he can disavow any knowledge. It sort of reminds you of the old Mission Impossible introduction. Last year when Mayor Riordan was interviewed by the LA Times who saw fit to run that story on the front cover about the Dirty Little Secrets of Porn Valley, Brooke also went on ABC News to respond to the mayor's comments. After those responses the mayor had nothing to say. Basically the response was how much in police resources are devoted to the adult industry. What is it netting? What criminal activity have you found? The answer is virtually none. By the same token, the industry is contributing tax revenue to the city of Los Angeles on a regular basis. The city, on the other hand, sees fit to subsidize what I consider is pornography like Natural Born Killers and Pulp Fiction. They obviously have an impact on our kids. I have yet to see a high school suffer a tragedy like Columbine that was sexually-related....anyway, this is going to be an open letter and we'll see if his his honor comes out to see what this industry is all about. In our security meeting, LAPD pointed that that they have more problems with the Cinco de Mayo celebrations."
"My goal with Erotica L.A. is that I've envisioned it as falling into the sequence of the big seasonal events. We kick off the springtime, and you folks at AVN picked up the slack where VSDA gave the industry the cold shoulder. It amazes me that we have an industry that created home video when the film studios says, no, we're not letting movies on videotape. People aren't going to take our movies home. Now there's this huge video market. It took the insidght of Paul Fishbein and AVN to say, no, we're not going to be pushed back into the corner, we can stand on our own because we created this industry, you didn't. Now we're moving into DVD. About two years ago I got a call from someone who's now at Microsoft designing high end audio software. He asked me for adult DVD, particularly Vivid's multi-angle and interactive products, to design the very high end DVD player. Mainstream didn't offer the multi-angle. When adult comes out with a new mousetrap, mainstream will follow. This industry from every angle has to be inter-supportive to survice and grom and I'm happy to be a part of that with Erotica L.A.
Brooke Hunter, Miller's squeeze, says she signed a non-exclusive contract with Wildlife Productions. "This gives me an opportunity shoot my own series and host a series of theirs, the Dirty Newcomer series," she says. "That's a lot of fun. We're just getting ready to shoot the third volume of the Brooke Hunter series. It's almost like a day-in-the-life kind of thing. I'm also out on the road dancing, and on May 18 I'll be at Bob's Classy Lady on behalf of Zoning Out Censorship. That should be a pretty good time. Things are moving along really well for me in my career. I've been doing this a little more than a year, and I've gone from doing my very first video with Dave Cummings to having a contract and featuring dancing. Ron has been really instrumental in a lot of the things I've done. He's been my greatest supporter and my greatest critic. It's been a good team. I try to help him as much as I can with the things he's doing. I've been at every one of the Erotica L.A.'s, and to watch it grow has been great. It's great that cameras are back. The guys really want to take home a little piece of something. I look forward to it."
[Miller says the $5 discount admission cards are available at all of the Goalie stores in southern California; college campuses around L.A., gentlemen's clubs and will be replicated in publications New Times, L.A. Weekly, O.C. Weekly, L.A. Xpress. "We're also advertising for the first time this year with Tom Leykis and the [Howard] Stern Show. KLSX is also taking part of the event and they will be announcing various spots will the cards will be available," Miller said. See erotica-la.com for more details.}
