More stories about last week's Summer Expo to come
It All Started in a 5,000 Watt Radio Station In..
Andrew Steele writes: "Gene, I read about some one starting a "porno radio" show. I'm already doing one of sorts. I always talk about the porn industry on the air at WCLG-FM/WCLG.com. I have srippers on all the time. I even secured an interview with the very charming Lisa Lipps, ask her if you don't believe me. I give porn reviews and talk about what's new from almost all the companies. All the video store managers know me for this. Yeah, I know right now I'm some little piss ant, by standards of Howard Stern and the big league porn players but everyone has to start some where, and WCLG-FM/WCLG.com in Morgantown, WV (65 miles south of Pittsburgh) is that place.
For all the Lisa Lipps fans, the interview will be simulcast on our web staion WCLG.com, details comming soon. I will interview anyone in the porn industry, anytime. Do you want air time with me? Contact me at the station via e-mail [email protected].
Tampa Rules voyeurdorm.com's House is not a Home
According to the Tampa Tribune, The Tampa city board ruled that a "voyeur dorm" for young women is an adult business, not a private residence.
The city's Variance Review Board yesterday upheld a city decision that the house, the beaming point for a Web site called ``Voyeur Dorm,'' must obtain an adult use variance to stay in business. The home, according to reports is equipped with 34 video cameras which monitors the daily hygienic habits, etc. of its six occupants. Every time the six women living here take a shower, eat Wheaties or catch a tan in the back yard, their images are beamed live into the computers of hundreds of Web surfers. Board members brushed aside an argument that the young women aren't conducting commerce in the house. Web surfers, however, must pay $34 per month to view the site, according to the Tribune
"I don't know too many people who live their lives with 30 video cameras watching them," said board member Ana Wallrapp. ``These women are basically taking their clothes off for profit.'' Residents from the community applauded the decision. They have blanched at the notion that just next door, naked college students are having their images zapped to points all over the globe.
Alex, a 20-year-old Hillsborough Community College student who gets free room and board, tuition and a stipend in return for living in the house, sees hypocrisy in the neighborhood tussle.
"If someone drove here from downtown Tampa, they'd have to pass 10 prostitutes, a dozen strip clubs and a few massage parlors," she said. "This is not a brothel; it's a home." Alex said applying to live in the voyeur dorm meant her mother didn't have to pay tuition. She is currently taking voice lessons, and plans to resume classes in the fall. "I thought it was a neat concept," she added. "I don't know why people are making such a big deal out of nothing."
Mark Dolan, Entertainment Network Inc.'s attorney, said his client would immediately appeal Tuesday's ruling and take the case to circuit court if necessary. The city's occupational license code, Dolan said, simply doesn't address the notion that a business can be run from home on the Internet without disrupting a neighborhood.
``No members of the public ever go to these premises,'' Dolan said. ``The code was written before people could envision a business operating without people ever coming to it.''
David Bralow, a media lawyer with the Holland & Knight law firm, said the case is similar to hundreds of others in an age where commerce can be conducted from the home as easily as the office.
``The issue of how you regulate Internet commerce and conduct is a huge one, and it's quite unresolved,'' Bralow said. City officials say they will wait for the appeals to end before taking action against the house. Neighbors admit they didn't even know what was happening next door until they saw it featured on television tabloid shows. But they still want the place shut down.
Howard Stern devoted a huge segment of his morning show recently to voyeurdorm, the report of which appeared on geneross.com
The assignment now, is, to combine the two above stories - one about porno radio shows, the other about live camera feeds and come up with a fresh twist. That's relatively easy because this is what Sandy Margot aka the actress formerly known as Tyffany Million is up to these days. Margot [that's the name she goes by, now] has been itching to return to the adult wars. She's been out of the business several years, but here's what she's been up to in the meantime.
Margot: "I've been working in radio for almost three years. I have my own show. I don't have my own station, it's not syndicated, so what I have to do is travel the circuit. Two weeks out of every month I go on the road live to some of the bigger stations, and I do in-studio appearances. The other two weeks I do phone-ers to the smaller stations. I do it from my home. I have this little circuit I work, and my agent [Sheri Spillane, Mickey Spillane's ex] takes care of it all. I've been really successful, I'm number one in the category in our agency.
"My show is kind of a love line style. I'm kind of like a generation X version of Dr. Ruth. I give love and sex advice. It combines real factual information with campy humor and cutting witticism. I was just on KJLH 102.3, a black station [in Los Angeles]; Power 106, I was on Conway & Steckler. I've done some radio in LA, but the major part of the demand is in the midwest and the east coast. Like my name is really big in the Chicago area, all down the center strip of the country. I did Mankow for a whole week. I co-hosted. I did Stern, finally, in May.
"I have all kinds of stations in Connecticut and Massachusetts. I have a huge name in Boston. I have six stations I do regularly, and I do a lot of New York City stations.
Margot says she's burned-out on radio.
Margot: "I've been successful, but I'm not happy. I got this idea a couple of months ago to take my entire career, porno, wrestling, my B-movies, my radio and make a website. I get so much fan mail from people, not just from porno, but my entire career. I thought, shit, I could be cashing in on everything I've done. So I got this idea for a website to sell my stuff [memorabilia], then I thought, shit, I'll just install some webcams in my house and let my fans watch me 24 hours a day. At the time when I came up with the idea I didn't know it was already being done. I thought I was the first one to think of it.
Margot said she's going to have the webcams installed on the 30th of this month after Pacific Bell installs her DSL line. She's also been talking to Michael Ninn about a possible comeback.
"Michael's always been a good friend and we always stay in touch. One day I happened to mention to him, you know if you guys were to bring Latex out of mothballs, I would actually come back and do it." Margot said the happiest times of her life was when she was making porn. "The happiest times of my life, period, were when I was in the business. I haven't been happy like that since," she says. "My favorite projects were Latex and Shock. Michael said let me talk to Russ and Janey. He talked to them and came back at me and he said they can't even think about shooting anything until August or September. They're trying to finish that 3D project he's been working on.
"After speaking to him about it, I thought, even though I'm very successful at what I do and financially I'm doing really well, I'm just not happy. I was happiest when I was making dirty movies. I was in total control of my life. I was making my own money, my own schedule, it was fun going to parties and hanging out. People in the mainstream world do not understand where I'm coming from. The people in the biz do. Even though I'm accepted in mainstream, I feel like there's this barrier...hard to explain. I don't feel at home. Once you've worked in porn you have this invisible mark.
"You can find a cure for AIDS, you can win the Noble Peace prize, you can save a million starving children in Rowanda, but all anybody's going to focus on is the fact that you sucked dick on film. To them you're this character. A lot of people aren't happy being that character. In retrospect I was. It was my family and friends telling me you got to get out of that business, it's not good for you, it's not good for your daughter, you can do better than that. That's all subjective, anyhow. I made the break and got a mainstream agent."
Margot casually mentions that Joet Buttafuoco is her car mechanic. "He's a great guy," she says. "He didn't do any of that shit. The media really blew that out....
Margot: "I'm a different person now inside, and I look better than ever. I've gone on this most extreme eating program, working out program. I look totally different. I cut off all my hair. My skin lookes better than ever. I look younger than I did when I first started, thanks to some life extension things I'm taking. My return is worth a lot to me, it would help the website. I'm going to come back as my real name. I'm not Tyffany Million anymore. That was a character I played. I want to lay that to rest.
"I have a couple of publicity stunts planned for the website, and I'm trying to hire a publicist right now. I need someone with clout who's tied to the mainstream and bridges the gap. I need someone who can sit on the fence between porn and mainstream. My agent Sheri Spillane was going to handle it, but her lawyers for the agency came down on her and said no way. They said if I was going back to porn they would probably have to drop me altogether. They'll represent Divine Brown, Kato Kaelin and Joey Buttafuoco, but...see what I mean about saving starving children?"
G.Ross: "Whatcha gotta do is punch out somebody and fix cars, once you've got that thing going for you..it changes everything."
Margot: "If VCA doesn't come back with an offer, then I'll be open to a contract. I'd like to limit to a max of six features per year. And only nice stuff. I'm proven that I can do it. If I don't get the offer I want I'll just do it myself."
[Margot actually did when she formed a company, Immaculate Video Conceptions, and did such titles as Jailhouse Cock, Dirty Little Mind, Generally Horny Hospital, TheTriple X Files, Lust in Space, Mind Games and I Touch Myself. Million wound up selling her titles to In-X-Cess when she left the business.]
"I was one of the first women back then to get up and do the whole thing by myself," Margot notes. She says she still has the Immaculate name which is going to be incorporated and will own the website evilhole.com
"I've been using my radio tours to promote my new website," she says. "I'm bored, but I want to break out and do some cool stuff."
Producer/director Jim Gunn, jimgunn.com , at last week's Expo:
Gunn: "I've been living in south Florida and shooting line. I've been doing a lot of different lines. I'm continuing with Strap-on-Sally for Pleasure Productions, due to popular demand, as they say. I now have my own line coming out for Jim Gunn Productions which is in development. I have a couple of new girl-girl series, Lesbian Cheerleader Squad and Lesbian Bikini Bash. I have all new talent in them, a lot of 18, 19 year-old girls from Florida. [Gunn had Dené Dreams and Ashley Heart signing for him at the show]
"I think the future really is on the Internet so that's why I'm gearing myself up between this website [ ContentForSale.com ] which these guys are running with me and the things I'm doing for licensing content; my own lines which will be coming out, definitely by the East Coast Video Show - I'm taking things under my own control and going to shoot a lot of things for myself.
"I like living in south Florida. It's just a whole different experience than LA. There's a lot of new talent there.
G.Ross: "You look like you're spending a lot of time indoors, man."
Gunn: "I don't tan like you do...I only shoot outdoors. I never shoot indoors."
G. Ross: "You must use a helluva sunblock."
Gunn: "I get a little medium color and that's it....I went to Brazil this year. I shot two or three movies down there. I loved it. I'm going back in September and November. I got to have a whole series devoted to Latin girls under my label. The Latin-thing is very popular now. I'm trying to combine the things I'm personally interested in with the things that are marketable. I've always done well with the girl-girl stuff and the new girl aspect. Lately I've been discovering a lot of girls and running with that.
"The video business likes it too, but the Internet likes the whole teenage-thing. And that's how I'm going to gear it. The Internet is going to be the future, especially when the broadband connections come off. You can shoot a movie and repurpose the material four, five or six different ways between streaming, tape, DVD, still images...I'm going to have a magazine coming out..you can do so much with it...it's easy with all the new technology."
Jimplasti turns Expo reporter for one brief second: "Hey Gene- Of all the shit published and submitted to your site, I'm kinda surprised that nobody has mentioned anything about the emergence of the new giant. It seems in a day of scaling down and cutting back on expenses, K-Beech brought out a booth that looks like they picked up a strip club and dropped it in the convention center. I know, I'm loyal and a bit partial, but tell it like it is.....Erotic Angel's Farrah was by far the most exciting dancer at the show. She was shakin all over promoting her newest release, Deep inside Farrah, and she is putting some serious pieces on the board once again. Anna Malle was there doing her tease on Friday before running off for some real fun at the lifestyles convention in Reno. She is promoting her new stuff, Wildlife #5, which is based upon her actual life as a swinger, while introducing newcummers to the biz.
The BIGGEST, LOUDEST, and BADDEST ( No, not Kevin.....the booth) also showcased Gina Ryder and Angelica Sin ....while Shay Sweet popped in during every break from her paying gig across the aisle. The times may be changing and things are getting tough, but the boys at BEECH are doing their share of promoting product, and more so, the industry. And NO, I don't get paid to write this shit!
Russ Pasquale who's in charge of production and distribution at Wildlife Productions had this to say at the Expo.
Pasquale: "We started in January and I would have to say we're doing pretty damn good. I joined up with the company about four months ago. I was running Fleshtone at the time..he went out of business, and I knew Bobby [Rinaldi] from Tight Ends for a long time and we just hooked up. It all came together perfectly.
"Layla [Wildlife's contract girl] is doing great. She's a good kid, young, but she's incredible. She's hot. But this doesn't give us contract girl fever. We're too new for that. Basically what it comes down to is a trial run for us with the contract girl-thing. We've got a six-month contract with her. We want to see how we do, how she does. We're producing and putting out a movie a week. We're pretty much okay with that.
"We're pushing [at the show] everything we got. We bought out the old Tight Ends line, so we own all the old Tight Ends stuff, too."
Partly because of his celebrated Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf relationship with Montana Gunn, Pasquale, at one time, had had it with the adult business and wrote AVN a letter to that effect. But times and attitudes change.
Pasquale: "I got everything here together in my head. I got away from the, uh, insanity I was involved in. Let's put it that way."
G.Ross: "In other word you're not going to be dating any more porn girls."
Pasquale: "I want to find myself a girl that's clean and sober...and not into this business. This is a job to me. I've been doing this a very long time, many years. I just happened to run into the wrong girl at the wrong time. I fell right into the mix of it.... I give this job my all. Right now our [Wildlife] immediate goal is to survive. There's a lot of new people out there. We want to be out there with the Wickeds and the VCA's. We want to be a player. That's what we're striving for. We've got good product lines, the Screw My Wife and Slut Searches, and we're concentrating on Layla...we're not new, our name is new, we're all veterans. That's all we want to do is grow."
Howard Levine, national sales manager for Vivid Video comments on the show.
Levine: "I thought the show was done well. For a recovery show, it was well done. We had a great turnout at the booth. We'd do it again next year. If AVN has an adult expo in summer, we'd take a booth. But I'd like to see it done more like the ANME show - the real buyers come through there. Let the retailers in on one day; the other two days make it available only to distributors and real buyers of chain stores that qualify; or buyer groups."
Levine said he opts for Las Vegas. "I think it was Custer's Last Stand for LA."
Levine: "The only thing I would change is, I'd do the seminars prior to the show or after the show, not during show hours. That way you'd get more people to come and not take away from the show floor. There's a couple of seminars I would have liked to attend or be part of. But I have to be at the booth doing business. I think there's a lot of stuff we could have offered."
Vivid, according to Levine, was pushing vividvideo.com at the show. "There was an incredible amount of interest in what we're doing there."
Ed Kail of VCA assesses the Summer Expo. Be it understood that the VCA booth was smack dab in the front hitting visitors as they waled through the doors of the convention floor.
Kail: "It was very slow. I can't remember any major crowds around the booth or through the aisles. The booth never got crowded. If we didn't have the girls up there signing there was nobody around the booth. If we had the girls up there, there were four or five people in line. But never huge lines like at CES. I think Marilyn [Chambers] maybe had ten people in line at one time. We never had a problem in cutting off the lines. I know I was disappointed and I think Russ [Hampshire] was completely disappointed.
I looked at other peoples' booths, I didn't see a lot of crowds. As far as business was concerned, there was a very small amount of business written. What we wrote we probably could have done on the phone.
"I looked down the aisles, usually during a successful show you got to fight your way through. [Bearing in mind the aisles were set up much wider.]
"I think having it in LA had a tremendous effect. The impact of Vegas is business, a vacation, gambling, night life. What are you going to do here? I talked to a lot of my customers and many of them said they weren't coming out to the show, that they were going to wait until January. Vegas I think would have been much more successful.
Lysa Stone of Astral Ocean has a much different take on events at the Expo.
Stone: "We had great foreign sales. We couldn't believe how many foreign deal we made - Canada, Brazil, England, mostly on the Jill Kelly stuff. Everybody was asking for Jill Kelly. [Astral also had Bonita Saint and Devon Davis signing.]
"A lot of people knew about the Jill Kelly gangbang, that it was live, on-line and they were very interested. We got a good lead time to promote it, and it will be out the end of August. The Skin series and Lil' Women were very popular. We got a ton of re-orders. I ran some good specials ,and a lot of my distributors took advantage of them. I thought the show was terrific. I go into these shows with a very positive attitude, and that always brings in business. You're there for a reason, to sell videos. I thought it was an excellent show. I can't figure out what people are complaining about. I think we made it happen, and Jill worked really hard at the show. We're really good as a team.
"We're filming Skin 17: The Succubus next week. It's along the same lines of Cuntrol except it will be a little bit bigger and a little bit crazier."
