Twenty years after Lenny Friedlander entered the adult business as a bill collector ("I was too good," he muses. "I ran out of clients") he won the Joel T. Warner "Good Guy" Award. Friedlander was the recipient at this year's Night of the Stars gala. Marty Turkel of VCA made the presentation.
"At first I was going to pull a Lenny and say it was about fucking time," Friedlander mused. "But knowing that when you're on the Free Speech board, you can't receive an award... until I got turned out to pasture last year and became president emeritus, this was the first opportunity for the board to give me an award," said Friedlander, who began New Beginnings in 1986 "with a telephone and a cardboard box."
"As far as the FSC Good Guy Award," Friedlander, a former "Tin Man" (just like in the Richard Dreyfuss movie) continued, "I'm flattered that someone other than my mother considers me a good guy. In all seriousness, while it's nice to be considered for any award, this award is particularly satisfying as it comes from my colleagues in the industry."
Friedlander now divides his time between California and Louisiana, where his wife hails from. "I surrounded myself with a real good staff," he said. "How many people do you know who can literally leave their company that they themselves worked from day one? I was the first one to open New Beginnings and the last one to leave the building. For anyone to be able to leave their company for eight months at a stretch is a rarity."
