CHATSWORTH, Calif.—Each year AVN selects a handful of individuals who’ve left a perennial imprint in the history pages of the adult entertainment industry to be honored by way of induction into its exalted Hall of Fame.
The following inductees comprising the Hall of Fame class for the 30th anniversary AVN Awards join the ranks of such industry legends living and dead as Marilyn Chambers, Jamie Gillis, Juliet Anderson, Paul Thomas, Nina Hartley, John Holmes, John Leslie, Amber Lynn, Georgina Spelvin, Tom Byron, Veronica Hart, Seka, Belladonna and John Stagliano.
Without further ado, AVN proudly presents and congratulates the inductees for 2013 into the AVN Hall of Fame:
Kandi Barbour
Kandi Barbour was discovered in the mid-'70s by photographer Diana Hardy and got her start posing for men's magazines before making the leap into adult movies in 1978 at age 22. Her 43 titles included blockbusters like Small Town Girls, Bon Appetit, Ultra-Flesh and Pandora's Mirror, and her coy expressions dominated the box covers of Neon Nights and Sweet Cheeks. Her final adult film was in 1987: Ron Jeremy's X-Effect. The industry was shocked at her reported death, homeless, on the streets of San Francisco in January 2012.
Ashley Blue
One of the few X-rated stars, if not the one and only, in AVN Awards history to be nominated simultaneously for the illustrious titles of Best New Starlet and Female Performer of the Year, which she pulled off in 2004 (and walked away carrying the latter), Ashley Blue has gone on to cement her footmark in the industry annals as one of its all-time most provocative and unforgettable personalities. From co-creating the endlessly riveting, tragi-comic Girlvert character with director Jim Powers to recording the true tales behind that blue screen alter-ego in her much-hailed autobiography Girlvert: A Porno Memoir (published under her real name, Oriana Small), Blue has time and again challenged the porn star stereotype, and in so doing, risen to the ranks of that higher class, the porn legend.
Vanessa Blue
Since breaking into the industry in 1996, Vanessa Blue has garnered admiration and respect from her peers as a fiercely well-spoken and quietly strong-minded woman with a lot more to offer than mammoth tits and a succulent pair of dick-sucking lips … something she proved when she ventured into directing in 2003. First helming titles for Mercenary Pictures, she subsequently donned the director’s cap (sometimes using the name Domina X) for Hustler Video, DVSX, Justin Slayer International, Adam & Eve Pictures and more, all while continuing to perform. In 2005, Blue told AVN, “I only hope that the work I do is going to open up more doors for other women who want to direct and are serious about it.” With the strong contingent of female porn directors working today (just look at the current nominees for Director of the Year—nearly a third of them are women), we’d say she accomplished that goal. So in turn, here’s to Vanessa Blue for paving the way.
Mary Carey
Mary Carey has been a larger than life personality since she began her career in adult entertainment in 2002. The star of close to 100 adult videos, the tall, statuesque blonde is perhaps best known to the public as a former candidate for the governor of California in the 2003 recall election, placing 10th in a field of 135. She ran on an 11-point platform that included somewhat tongue-in-cheek promises of taxing breast implants, making lap dances tax-deductible, and creating a "Porn for Pistols" exchange program. Carey's campaign's tagline? "Finally a politician you want to be screwed by." Carey's political acumen and well-spoken persona led to a variety of appearances on political TV talk shows, most notably on Fox News when show co-host Alan Colmes was utterly gobsmacked by Carey's beauty. Post politics, Carey laid herself bare before VH1's cameras to appear on Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew in 2008. In 2009 she appeared on VH1's spin-off, Sober House, further cementing her status as a pop culture star. In the adult arena Carey made an immediate impact. In 2003 she became a contract performer for Kick Ass Pictures, and perhaps most notably starred in the Mary Carey Rules series, which she also directed. Carey also starred in productions from many major adult studios including Vivid Entertainment, VCA, Hustler Video, Danni's Hard Drive and Red Light District.
Francois Clousot
Francois Clousot first got into the adult business in 1992 by having given his résumé of European work to directors Jace Rocker and Britt Morgan, who lived in the same building as Clousot—and one day they needed a production assistant for a shoot they were doing with director Jim Enright, and hired him. He has since been the camera operator on hundreds of adult movies and directed, sometimes uncredited, 150-200 movies for such companies as Private, Sin City, Wicked Pictures, Adam & Eve, VCA and others. He also has directed mainstream movies and TV shows.
Manuel Ferrara
Making his American debut in John Stagliano’s landmark feature The Fashionistas, Manuel Ferrara introduced U.S. porn fans to a type of male sex performer the likes of which they’d rarely if ever seen—with his brooding good looks, his lady-melting French accent and his breathtakingly passionate carnal stylings, this was not the triple-X troll of the bygone raincoater era. No, this was a bona fide Adonis, a real porn answer to Brad Pitt or George Clooney. And what that meant, of course, was that any scene with Manuel was likely to be every bit as exciting for the ladies to watch as it was for the fellas. No wonder he’s won AVN’s Male Performer of the Year trophy more times than anyone else (four, to be exact). Other heartthrobs have followed in Ferrara’s footsteps—Jean Val Jean, Danny Mountain, James Deen—but Manu continues to set the bar. Add to that his distinguished directorial résumé, and it’s plain to see he is truly one of the greats.
Jesse Jane
Where does one begin to start listing the accomplishments of Jesse Jane, without a doubt one of the biggest stars in adult entertainment for the past decade. An irrepressibly infectious personality and a dynamite sexual performer, Jane has won seven AVN Awards, in addition to a veritable boatload of accolades from other organizations. A Fort Worth, Texas native, Jane quickly signed an exclusive contract with Digital Playground in 2002 and has gone on to star in some of the most memorable adult productions in the past 10 years, most notably Pirates and Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge. As a Digital Playground girl Jane launched into superstardom with global exposure on hundreds of magazine covers including: FHM, Maxim, Front, Strip Las Vegas and Arena. She has earned leading roles on HBO's Entourage and in the feature Baywatch: The Movie, among others. Jesse has also starred in a multitude of music videos for artists from Drowning Pool to Robbie Williams. Jesse's exuberant love of life and bubbling personality have made her a favorite and frequent radio guest on Howard Stern, Bubba the Love Sponge, and hundreds of Clear Channel stations nationwide. She has been syndicated weekly with football picks on The Adam Carolla Show. Jesse's skills as a personality led her to hosting gigs on VH1, Much Music and CTV, as well as character roles on shows like Celebrity Uncensored, Celebrity Fit Club, Gene Simmons Family Jewels, Family Business and The Bad Girls Club, earning her worldwide recognition. From the moment her adult career began Jane made an immediate impact, making the decision to induct her into the AVN Hall of Fame the first year she's eligible a no-brainer.
Rebecca Lord
One of the biggest stars of the booming ‘90s, Parisian beauty Rebecca Lord left an indelible impression upon all who encountered her work during that second golden era. Between her exotic sultriness and her unabashed sexual fervor, she was always the girl you remembered long after any movie in which you’d seen her. Whether it was a major work like Antonio Passolini’s Café Flesh 2 or a Z-grade trasher like Buck Adams’ Beaver and Buttface, she stood out. Though she left the business in 2002, Rebecca has continued to keep in touch with fans via Twitter and Facebook, and she made a semi-mainstream return to the screen in the 2005 indie film I Am a Sex Addict, in which she played a prostitute opposite director/star Caveh Zahedi, at one point giving him a real-deal blowjob. For him and anyone else who’s ever gotten a gander at those searing blue eyes, it’s an image likely to remain burned into the mental banks forevermore.
Shy Love
Sicilian and Puerto Rican spitfire Shy Love made big strides in the adult entertainment industry. A popular performer who had a penchant for anal scenes, Love was nominee for Female Performer of the Year at the 2006 AVN Awards, as well as a former Hustler Honey. Love performed in more than 300 adult movies during her career for virtually all the big production houses. She's also a director who's most recent movie, El Gordo y La Flaca XXX, is up for five AVN Awards including Best Parody - Comedy, while Love herself earned a nomination for Best Director - Parody as a result of the project. After she stopped performing, Love founded Adult Talent Managers (ATM/LA), which in quick succession has turned into one of the industry's largest adult modeling agencies due to her business acumen. Love's agency currently represents a plethora of A-list stars.
Anna Malle
Anna Malle, who was proud of her Native American ancestry, entered the adult industry in 1994 at the age of 27 with both guns blazing. She appeared in 26 hardcore movies during that year, often with her actor-husband, Hank Armstrong, but quickly showed an aptitude (and affection for) bondage and other fetishes, which formed the majority of her work from 1998 until her untimely death in a car accident near her home in Las Vegas in January 2006.
Katie Morgan
You can't help but be mesmerized by the blonde and bubbly Katie Morgan. Of course there's her trademark high-pitched voice, but don't let that fool you—Katie is smart as a pistol. Making her debut in 2001 in Dirty Debutantes 197 for Ed Powers, she went on to shoot over 250 adult titles during her career. Morgan was a bit of an unsung performer during her career on camera, but made the most of her opportunities, parlaying her blue screen career into a bona fide mainstream one. She has been featured in a variety of HBO specials including A Real Sex Xtra: Pornucopia—Going Down in the Valley, Katie Morgan on Sex Toys, Katie Morgan: Porn 101, Katie Morgan's Sex Tips: Questions, Anyone?, and in the HBO documentary Katie Morgan: A Porn Star Revealed. In 2008 Morgan made a guest appearance on HBO's Entourage playing herself. She made her first mainstream feature film appearance in Kevin Smith’s 2008 comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno, starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks. For her mainstream efforts, Morgan won Crossover Star of the Year at the 2009 AVN Awards. She currently hosts Having Sex, With Katie Morgan every Friday night at 9 p.m. PST on S.I.R. at Smodcast.com.
Ralph Parfait
The multi-talented offspring of the late adult director Henri Pachard, Ralph Parfait vividly recalls being introduced to porn on the set of Devil in Miss Jones II at the age of 18, though he'd already helped his father at the editing station for some of Pachard's prior movies. While it's difficult to discover how many movies Parfait has shot as a camera operator, the Internet Adult Film Database credits him as director of 47 movies, the vast majority for Vivid ... with plenty more to come.
Mike Quasar
Without a doubt one of the funniest people in the business of adult entertainment, Mike Quasar, or Quasarman, has a long and colorful history in porn. After moving to Los Angeles from his native Canada in 1994 hoping to be a rock star, Quasar soon found himself immersed in the world of pornography. During his initial salad days, Quasar was the go-to shooter at Metro before moving on to the Zero Tolerance/Third Degree Films/Black Ice conglomerate. One of Quasar's greatest strengths is his versatility; he can shoot gonzos, dramas, comedies, parodies—virtually everything—with equal aplomb. After directing hundreds of adult titles, Quasar has put his stamp on signature series including Ass Cleavage, Double Decker Sandwich, Finger Licking Good, Dreamgirlz, Girlvana, Fishnets, Mother Load, Tits Ahoy and Zero Tolerance's Interactive Sex series. In recent years Quasar has moved into the parody realm, helming such titles as Official Howard Stern Parody, Official Sex Rehab Parody, Official To Catch a Predator Parody and Official Taxicab Confessions Parody.
Julie Simone
Julie Simone has been a photo and video model for 14 years, has appeared in more than 350 videos, served as a bondage consultant for mainstream films, and appeared on G4TV's Attack of the Show and Playboy TV. She's graced numerous runway stages, glamour and fetish websites, magazines and books. She is one of the leaders in BDSM porn, specializing in latex, smoking and SM. "Aside from wanting to make a living, it's really important to me to create a safe and pleasant atmosphere for women in the business. Being a performer myself, I know how hard it can be,” she says. “That, more than anything, makes me feel good about what I'm doing. As an artist I can create in any medium; I choose this one because there is a greater good that can be achieved, a greater visibility I think is important."
Chris Streams
“I think Chris is the best photographer in the business,” Jules Jordan gushed to AVN of Chris Streams when the veteran gonzo performer/director became a Jules Jordan Video contract helmsman in 2007. That’s high praise from easily one of porn’s most awarded gonzo auteurs. But Streams has lived up to it with his output of consistently gorgeous, high-gloss fare like his Oil Overload and Young & Glamorous series, earning him plenty awards notice of his own. First wetting his beak in the craft with a couple volumes of titan gonzo series Shane’s World in the early 2000s, Streams went on to hone his lensing chops as a house director at Zero Tolerance/Third Degree Films before Jordan brought him over. All the while, he’s remained true to his artisanal aim, which he himself described at the time as making “movies that I like to jack off to, it’s as simple as that.” A glorious goal, to be sure, and one that has undoubtedly resulted in millions of loads blown.
Vaniity
Mexican-born Vaniity is perhaps the best-known transsexual in adult movies today, having recognized her gender issues at an early age. She got into porn in 1998 at age 25, doing most of her early work for Devil's Film, but quickly became a favorite of director Joey Silvera. She has appeared in more than 50 movies, and has consistently been nominated for Transsexual Performer of the Year, a category she won in 2004.
Internet Founders Branch
Danni Ashe, Founder of Danni's Hard Drive
Genuine porn performers of major star caliber have always been scarce on the internet, where the proliferation of pretty girls has yielded few bona fide sensations. But more young women than ever are starting up their own sites and running their own careers, and whether they realize it or not, in a very real sense they all owe their success to Danni Ashe, who, despite having retired from the industry years ago, remains one of the most recognizable names in adult lore. A former exotic dancer who invested $8,000 in computer equipment and taught herself HTML, the relentlessly entrepreneurial Ashe began posting photos of herself on adult Usenet newsgroups in the early ’90s, immediately building a loyal fan base before exploding with the creation of Danni’s Hard Drive in 1995. (The site later became simply Danni.com.) Her unprecedented success led to her inclusion in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most downloaded woman in the world, and earning her the nickname The Billion Download Woman. Ashe's legacy continues to this day. The company she founded eventually became a subsidiary of Penthouse Media Group in 2006, and billing company DHD Media, which still sports the initials of her original company, is still processing for adult online merchants.
Anthony J, Founder of NetVideoGirls.com
The founder of the original audition/casting couch site, NetVideoGirls.com, may prefer to remain behind the scenes, but Anthony J's legacy as a content visionary for the internet age remains unparalleled in its influence on those who came after him. Few have been able to match NetVideoGirls' track record, however. Founded in 2000, and remaining true to its roots ever since, the site is still updated regularly. As Anthony told us, "We've never strayed. Fair and honest, with regular payouts over 10 years. I still have a few of the original members from 12 years ago. We just keep to ourselves and try and keep our members happy." That decade-long dedication to consistency, quality and customer service is what sets NetVideoGirls apart and above, and is what earned Anthony J his place in the Internet Founders Branch of the AVN Hall of Fame.
Bill Pinyon and Steve Wojcik, Founders of Badpuppy.com
When discussing adult internet pioneers, the herd thins out considerably when you get to 1995-6, which makes the longevity of the iconic Badpuppy brand all the more impressive, especially when you consider that the Badpuppy BBS was started by Bill Pinyon in 1992! About a year later, Pinyon, a NASA administrator, met Steven Wojcik, and the rest is history. Within a week of meeting, the two were an inseparable couple in both their work and personal lives. In May of 1995, Badpuppy.com was born as the first gay membership site of its kind. It was an immediate success, and by 1996 the company had 23 employees, 30 individual contributors and a growing list of extremely happy members. The Badpuppy Network is still going strong, comprising 30 websites owned and managed by producers and webmasters.
Inductees into the Pleasure Products Branch of the AVN Hall of Fame will be announced in a separate story next week.
