LAS VEGAS—The 2013 induction of the Legends of Erotica at Showgirl Video started casually, with inductee Bob Chinn on stage in a casual conversation with Bill Margold as the audience came in. During the chat, Chinn revealed that every Johnny Wadd film was shot on 16 mm. "It kept the costs down." When he got a bigger budget, he shot them two at a time.
"He's what legendary eras are all about," Margold says, pointing out that Chinn is the fourth director to be honored, after Henri Pachard, Gerard Damiano and Fred Lincoln, as Chinn retreats to the audience. Asked if he was starting a porn industry in New Mexico, where he lives now, he responds: "I may. I keep coming back. I'm like D.W. Griffith now."
Honoree Rebecca Bardoux comes to the stage, purring, "I'm not wearing panties. Trust me." Asked by an audience member who was her least favorite co-star, she replies, "No one was ever bad to work with. When I did single girl, by myself, that was the worst person to work with."
Honoree Alexandra Silk pretends to fellate the mic. "When I have one of these in my hand I can't think straight."
Addressing the fan-star relationship, Margold tells the assembled fans, "You made them famous, and they made you happy."
The night's first honoree, Elizabeth Starr, says her husband, the original Tommy Gunn, had a heart attack three days ago, and he's here. "He's a trouper." She speaks of her family background in performing: Her mother danced with Tempest Storm at Minsky's.
Asked about what she's going to do wit the cement slab, she replies, "My youngest son is here, so if you're going to put my tits in cement, please blindfold him." She takes off her dress and gently lowers one basketball-sized boob into the cement slab, leaving a two-inch depression. "It didn't do anything at all," she pouts. Signing the slab, she labels the craters Mopsy and Flopsy, her names for her breasts.
Brian Sebastian inducts Ron Hightower. Hightower says he started on a show on Manhattan Cable, which got the attention of Rick Savage, then he showed a tape to Henri Pachard, who told him, "Get your ass out to California, son. We could use you." Asked about racial problems in adult, Hightower recalls the joke about the girl who won't do blacks, animals, or Ron Jeremy, then relates a story about a girl being intimidated by a producer into not doing a scene with a black man, then getting told, "Hightower, you understand."
Bob Chinn is inducted next, stepping from his front-row audience seat to join the performers on the stage. He was inducted by Margold, who remembered two radio DJs talking about Johnny Wadd in 1969. "He was making people immortal before most of us could spell X."
Chinn modestly says, "Thank you for remembering me," before Margold invites a standing ovation. The crowd complies, and Chinn smiles.
Photographer J.R. Reynolds is surprised with the Carnal Medal of Honor. He points out that he started as a layout photographer, and moved to editorial after a stint with video. "This is a great surprise. Thank you."
"This is a moment for happiness," Margold says, introducing Luc Wylder to induct Alexandra Silk. Luc points out Raymond Pistol, saying that he had no idea that when they met it would come to this point. He says that he and Alexandra "stalked each other" for a year, and they got married in Las Vegas December 31, 1999: "A million and a half people attended our wedding reception on the Strip."
Silk takes the mic, calling Wylder "my best friend in the whole world." She talks about her work as a sex surrogate: "Very rewarding. But my clients don't know that I'm Alexandra Silk." She puts her feet, then her hands into the wet cement, then smiles and flashes her breasts at the photographers before inscribing her name in the cement. Margold announces that as a surprise, Alexandra will now induct Luc Wylder. She says he's a wonderful role model and she loves having him in her life, "and I like the orgy parties too ... I look forward to many, many, many, many more years together."
Wylder announces that Margold has succeeded in embarrassing him. He recounted the arrests of 20 years ago at the Pure Pleasure Adult Store, with charges of interstate prostitution and "infamous crimes against nature," which were argued up to the Nevada Supreme Court, where the defendants won. "I'm proud to be a part of what Vegas is today," Wylder said, concluding the history lesson. "I want to thank everybody for this honor." He puts his handprints in cement, signs and dates the slab, then gets a flogger from the store stock to press into the wet cement.
Rebecca Bardoux is honored for her opposition to Measure B and her activism for the adult industry. Margold points out that he gave her the spelling of her name (she wanted "Bardot" initially) and hands over the microphone. Bardoux says that she was not treated nicely when she retired from adult and worked in mainstream. "This is where I belong. This is where I am meant to be. I'm happy with who I am and where I am." She puts her feet ("I have a lot of foot fetish fans") and hands in the cement, then signs the slab. "I'm gonna put my name, that's it."
The evening concluded with a group photo-op of the honorees, including Reynolds, as fans and press shot pictures in a blizzard of flashes. The previously announced Nikki Charm did not appear. Margold announced that Rob Black and Lizzy Borden will be among those inducted into Legends of Erotica next year.
