For VCX, The Past Is Prologue... And Barbeque

VCX, the classic porn company that until last year was located in Northridge, is now in what some might describe as "the boonies" of North Las Vegas – but those who made the trek last night to the company's first party at its new headquarters at 3430 Precision Drive, were treated to some of the state's finest barbeque with all the fixin's, and close looks at two of XXX's most famous stars, Ginger Lynn and the returning Rhonda Jo Petty.rnrn

"Since I took over," said Bob Augustus, who manages the company for its seriously-ill owner Rudy Sutton, "We've gone from 150 titles to over 600. And of the over 800 recognized classics, we have 460 of them. We have films in here that gross 100 grand per year."rnrn

Actually, the ladies hadn't yet arrived when we cruised by at about 6 p.m., but they were expected, and VCX's latest DVD releases will include a Rhonda Jo fourpak: Little Orphan Dusty, Babycakes, Country Comfort and Rhinestone Cowgirls.rnrn

The company isn't about to slight Ginger, however. Already on shelves are Pink Lagoon (with its "prequel," Surrender In Paradise, Ginger's very first movie, due within days), Girls On Fire ("The picture that made her famous," according to Augustus) and PhotoFlesh, with plenty more in the offing.rnrn

But that's only the beginning.rnrn

"We're the exclusive for Video-X-Pix and Quality X Video now," Augustus informs. "We should be out with them sometime in the next 90 days. Arthur Morris [the owner of the companies' reproduction rights] has to make a decision on the DVDs. He's made the decision to do it; we just don't know when. And I've got all of my old films coming out – Country Comfort, Downstairs Upstairs, Through The Looking Glass, Titillation, and all the old TVX titles, which were Essex."rnrn

VCX also has the rights to the Collectors Video line, and will be releasing five of those titles – the above-noted Surrender In Paradise, The Blonde Next Door, E3 (The Sextraterrestrial), F (And Lots Of It) and Jubilee of Exorcism ? within the month.rnrn

"We're the only company with the original negative and prints of all our movies, as well as 250 more masters of the old S&L and Humphries titles," Augustus stated, pointing to a series of boxes on shelves in the company's massive warehouse. "What we're doing here is remastering all the films on our Sony DV system."rnrn

The company's marketing strategy is also unique. On top of a projected 10 new releases per month, they're really into multi-paks, which has proved to be a real sales booster.rnrn

"What we do is, we put eight blockbusters and four other classics in a 12-pak," Augustus explained. "And those four aren't lesser titles; they're just not the blockbuster types. For instance, one of them will be Charli [starring Jesie St. James], which is not a super, super, super triple-X. We'll put out Girls On Fire [with Ginger Lynn and John Holmes] in a pak with Downstairs Upstairs, which is the picture that made Seka famous."rnrn

But what about some of the frills customers have come to associate with DVDs, like commentary tracks'rnrn

"We've talked about it," Augustus admitted. "VCX will, within 90 days, have all of its titles on VOD, and we're going to be doing a real promotion for the Internet with all the gals we can get our hands on. We've already got Vanessa Del Rio, and as you know, we reintroduced Rhonda Jo Petty at the [AEE] show."rnrn

Right about then, we had to leave for a previous engagement, and the ladies hadn't yet shown up. We'll assume that they eventually did, and that a good, stomach-stuffing time was had by all – but we'll be anxiously awaiting more of VCX's classic DVD releases.