PORTER RANCH, Calif.—Saturday was a day of remembrance for the friends and family of producer/distributor Larry Field, who died on September 10 of kidney disease after a long illness—but it was also a day of communion, bringing together Larry's closest friends and those who hadn't seen him for several years, both those in the adult industry and those with whom Larry had shared one of his favorite pastimes: golf. So it was only natural that the event would be held at the Porter Valley Country Club, where Larry had spent so much of his free time.
"From my mom, my family, this means a lot," said Larry's son Scott, who eulogized his father from the podium, pausing occasionally as emotion overcame him. "You know, I've never had to do this. It's tough. I talked to my dad every day; every day, for as long as I can remember, whether it be for 20 minutes or 20 seconds. ... He's not there, but I still talk to him now, and he would be very, very thankful for everybody being here. My father loved his family, but he loved his friends, and I appreciate that a lot, and he appreciates that a lot."
Scott Field went on to talk about his father's last days; of how within 30 hours of Larry being placed on hospice care, he had passed away.
"When he was in the hospital, he was pretty much—couldn't talk, couldn't see; he was out, sleeping the whole time," Scott later added. "On Tuesday, my mom was walking out of the room, and he opened his eyes and looked at her and clear as a bell said, 'Sheri, I love you,' and that was it. Prior to that, he didn't hear anything, see anything, couldn't talk, couldn't speak, nothing, so that was pretty powerful. But all in all, everything is good, and now, I think we just need to—shit, I think I'm even gonna have a drink, and I don't drink.
"I want to thank my friends, my family, my father's friends for being here for my dad; you'll never know," he continued. "And again, for the people that I've never met, the people here who I've never met, thank you for coming out. The people who, like I said, I've haven't seen in 30 years, thank you very much; and people that I see every day and talk to every day, that means a lot. Thank you. I'm blessed. ... There's enough people from the industry here; we might as well have a show, so that's awesome. To all my family, I appreciate you guys coming; some have come a really long way, so I definitely appreciate that. Your friendship means a lot. I can remember my father told me, 'If you have one good friend'—he had a lot of good friends, and so do I."
During the ceremony, several of Larry's friends reminisced about their lives with him, and much of it centered on gambling, as Larry loved to hit the casinos with his co-workers, friends and relatives, and golf, with Scott stating that his father had played courses from Reno to Pinehurst in North Carolina.
"You know, everybody knew my dad," he said. "My dad loved Vegas, my dad loved playing golf, my dad loved the industry that we're in; it meant the world to him. Great friends from everywhere. So that being said, we're here; we're gonna try to have a good time. I know there's tons of stories that I could tell you; some he probably wouldn't want me to tell you. ... He was married to my mom going on 52 years, and if you know my mom, that ... (laughter) People who are laughing know my mom. But he loved her and she loved him, and he spent many, many, many days here at this golf course, playing golf and hanging out with his buddies and being with friends, and for everybody here who's here from Porter Valley, his friends here, thank you very, very much. This, I think, of anything that he missed, it was golf.
"Everybody who knows my dad knows he was a gambler, so anybody who went with him to Reno, went with him to Vegas, I'm sure I can guarantee you guys had fun somewhere along the line, and as far as the industry goes, growing up with my father in this industry, we knew when he had a bad weekend because he would come back and go, 'We need to have a sale.' And next thing you know, we would try to sell stuff like crazy because we had people coming from Vegas with suitcases. Am I lying? [To which the audience responded with a resounding "No!"] Okay. So it was pretty wild and crazy, but this was his life."
Several other friends of Larry's also spoke, including Jim Burrow, who had lived across the street from the Fields and had known Scott since the two were in Cub Scouts together.
"I've known Larry for a long time, and Sheri, and as kids, Scott and I were the terrorists of the neighborhood, and I tell you, couldn't go to my house for your trouble; he went to Larry and Sheri and hid there, and they would lie for us to keep us out of trouble," Burrow recalled. "One incident, we'd spend the night at each other's house all the time, and we were coming out of my house and there were some kids knocking off all the mailboxes with a bat, and all of a sudden, he hits Scott's. 'Let's go chase him!' Jump in my Mustang, chasing these guys all around the San Fernando Valley and Larry and my dad get in the car and they're chasing us and it was just crazy. Our whole life was like that."
Bonnie Kail, who'd worked under Larry and sold videos at VCA with her father Ed, who died in 2013, and their pal Marty Turkel, also had a few words of remembrance.
"Larry would always let me do deals and sign off on them," she recalled, "and then Marty would ixnay them, so that kind of sucked. I have great memories, like Scotty. The only reason I'm standing up here, Scotty, is to show you that you're gonna be okay, because anybody that knows me like you do knows that two years ago, I couldn't have done this, so you're gonna be okay, and he is with you. My vision in my head, and it keeps me sane and I hope it keeps you sane, is your dad and Marty and my father out on the most gorgeous golf course in the world, and when they're done, winning everything. So I know they're together and I know they're okay and I know they're gonna be okay. The end. I love you."
The next person to take the podium was Mike Majors, one of Larry's golfing buddies.
"We first met about close to 20 years ago, and Larry touched so many people," Majors said. "Anybody he came in contact with loved him. He just was the most fabulous person. I have so many beautiful thoughts of things we've done and gone places, went to eat ... Brent's [Delicatessen was] one of his favorite places. When he was in the hospital one time, I had called him in the hospital and I asked, 'Larry, what can I bring you?' He said, 'Bring me a corned beef on rye.' I made the mistake of going to Weiler's, and when I got there, I showed him the sandwich; he took a bite of it. 'This is not Brent's!' He bitched at me like no tomorrow. But I'll never forget one time we were at Brent's; we were sitting there having breakfast; the waitress, Kathy, at the counter, she looked over; she hadn't seen him for a long time. The place was crowded. She looked over at Larry, said 'Hey, you old fucker; what are you doin'?' Larry touched people, and he was such a gentleman to get to know and love."
Joey Wilson, another of Larry's industry friends whom he had hired as a salesman, recalled how Larry began his production company.
"This was back in the day when Vivid was in its stride, and there were things like Caballero, Cinderella, VCA," Wilson detailed, "and Larry looks at me, he's got me in his office, he goes, 'I'm gonna start production; that's what I'm gonna do.' He goes, 'We're gonna call it Fat Dog.' I went, 'What?' I thought he was kidding. I was on my ass; almost fell out of my chair. I went, 'Now, that's funny.' 'No, seriously.' He had this beautiful logo with the Sharpei dog, and he's gonna call it Fat Dog. 'I don't care what anybody says. They're gonna buy it. You watch. They're gonna buy it.' And they did, and we did well."
Wilson also noted that pretty much everywhere Field went in Las Vegas, people knew him, and even had a nickname for him: Mr. F.
"One thing about Larry that I don't think a lot of people know, he was an incredible dancer," Wilson added. "That guy could dance! I remember he threw a 50th birthday party; he and Sheri got out on that dance floor, and Travolta had nothing on him. I'm telling you, that guy, and just the energy and the happiness inside him. You know, he taught me to play craps, and he'd tell you what to roll and what to do. He said, 'Joey, just roll an eleven. Elevens never hurt anybody.' And in my book, Larry's an eleven."
The final speaker was another longtime friend of both Larry's and Scott's, Tom Amato.
"There was one time that kind reminds me of Larry," he began. "Me, Scotty, Jim and Jim, we went to a Dodger game; we were in Scott's car, and well, we crashed the car getting there. We were all okay; fortunately; the car was beat up, but we go to the game, we come back, and Scott's got the car, the whole side's all smashed in and Larry comes out and goes, 'What the hell happened?' We tell him what happened, so he winds up taking the fall for it. It was just one of those things that Larry was: he was one of those kind of guys that—we couldn't get in trouble; he would protect us to a certain point; he'd just be, 'Ah, you kids'; you know, that kind of stuff, so he was always good like that. That was one of the things I always liked about Larry. I could ask him anything; he was always great."
After everyone who wanted to speak had had a turn, Scott Field and his wife Sue walked through the crowd, speaking with both close friends and people they hadn't seen in years, offering food from the buffet and drink, and despite the sadness of the occasion, the camraderie of so many like-minded people, many with their own tales of their interactions with Larry, lifted everyone's spirits until the gathering ended in the early afternoon.
