Billy London’s murder is an open investigation

Billy London?

William Newton, who went by the stage name Billy London, was a gay porn actor who was an adult performer and director for about two years in the late 80’s.  On October 28, 1990, his head and feet were found in a dumpster off of Santa Monica Blvd in West Hollywood, California.  His gruesome murder was never solved.  Wendi Berndt who is now the supervisor for the LAPD homicide unit announced in 2005 that they were re-opening the case.  Berndt was the original detective on the case back in the early 90’s.

I have always been intrigued by the Billy London murder but have never posted anything about it since there is very little information available about him or his life.  For instance, I was not even able to locate a date of birth and the only photo I could find was the box cover of the adult film Head of the Class.  I am not even 100% sure that the actor in the photo is London.  If anyone has any information about Billy’s life or the circumstances that lead to his death please comment below.

http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=1410

Sasha Grey is a hit in GFE

Sasha Grey in The Girlfriend Experience

When adult film star Sasha Grey, who makes a living having sex, was cast to play someone who has sex for a living in ‘The Girlfriend Experience,’ it was seen by many in the biz as both a gamble and a gimmick by director Steven Soderbergh.

To many influential movie critics around the country, though, she’s no fluke. Grey’s deadpan delivery as a pricey prostitute in Manhattan who promises clients a “girlfriend experience” — dates, good conversation with added chemistry and, in the end, sex — has been getting mostly positive reviews.

“The smartest thing director Steven Soderbergh did in the making of ‘The Girlfriend Experience’ was to cast Sasha Grey,” beamed the San Francisco Chronicle.

This is a bit of a coup for the 21-year-old star of over 150 pornos since 2006. Few titles can be printed here, but one can only imagine what ‘Soloerotica 10′ and ‘Black Power 3′ were all about. Since wrapping ‘Girlfriend’ last year, she’s starred in several additional adult films.

Check Out a Smattering of Reviews:

Roger Ebert: “Grey wasn’t hired because of her willingness to have sex on screen; there’s no explicit sex in the movie and only fleeting nudity. I suspect Soderbergh cast her because of her mercenary approach to sex — and her acting talent, which may not be ready for Steppenwolf but is right for this film.”

Village Voice: “Grey isn’t the first porn actress to go straight, but she may be the first to allegorize her own situation — projecting an on-screen self-confidence that’s indistinguishable from pathos.”

San Francisco Chronicle: “The smartest thing director Steven Soderbergh did in the making of The Girlfriend Experience was to cast Sasha Grey … Grey is very likable, if only because she seems so vulnerable.”

LA Times: “Whether Grey, in her first ’straight’ gig, has character chops or not feels inconsequential when her affectless delivery becomes a referenced joke toward the end.”

Entertainment Weekly: “[Grey is] a real-life adult-video star who is not so much a natural actress as a natural-born placid, affect-less Barbie doll (imagine Eliot Spitzer consort Ashley Dupré with a touch of Demi Moore).”

http://www.popeater.com/movies/article/sasha-grey-reviews-girlfriend-experience/495313

An Interview with Kay Parker

Kay Parker Today

Kay Parker is one of the most well known actresses to ever preform in adult film.  She is a classic beauty who starred in numerous adult titles during the golden age of porn in the late 70’s and early 80’s.  Kay was always known for both her acting ability and sexual prowess.  She is most famous for her role in the classic porn flick Taboo and some of its sequels.

I recently caught up with Kay for a short interview to see what she has been up to for all these years.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that she is living a very interesting life and had a lot to talk about.

You were born in Birmingham, England.  When did you first come to the United States?

I arrived in 1965 after having spent two or more years living in Germany. It had always been a goal to master another language, a goal I fulfilled while I was there.

What was your life like as a child?  Where did you grow up?

I grew up post World War 2 in a very cold and depressed England as the country struggled to rebuild after the war. In my memory there were no colors, just grey. I remember food rationing and extreme scarcity. My Father raised us under the banner of “Children should be seen and not heard,” and “Don’t speak unless spoken to.”

Kay Parker early in her career

How did you first become involved in the adult entertainment business?

I met John Leslie who introduced me to Robert McCallum and I took a small non-sex role in “V-The Hot One.”

What factors in your life lead to your decision to perform in adult films?

There were many of which I talk about in my book, but for this interview, suffice it to say that number one, there was a fascination with the art of film-making and number two,  a deeply rooted yearning to get free, to peel off my layers and to know myself. I saw this as an opportunity to do that.

What did you like best about performing in front of the camera?

I had spent a year in an intense acting workshop prior to meeting John and this was an opportunity to put my tools to use, as it were. So, there was great satisfaction in performing and portraying characters for me.

Any favorite actors you enjoyed working with more than others?

Several of the men I worked with were real gentlemen, including Eric Edwards and Herschel Savage, John Leslie of course and the incomparable Richard Pacheco.

Sometime in the mid-80’s you gave up performing in adult films.  Can you tell us what the reasons were behind your decision to quit performing?

There were several factors, my age (even though I could have continued, I opted out,) and of course, the AIDS epidemic. Beyond those reasons, the video age had arrived, film budgets had dropped, and videos were being shot in one or two days and were just sex scenarios. The industry I had known, where we shot on film, had lengthy scripts and multiple takes of a scene with room to develop characters disappeared. I couldn’t bring myself to participate any longer. It was time to leave.

Kay Parker

I also have read that you directed one title before leaving the adult business for good, Tantric Guide to Sexual Potency, in 1994.  What was it like to be on the other side of the camera and why did you not continue to direct?

Yes, this was a project that I cared for because of the content. I had always been concerned with putting love back into sex – this was in fact my logo during those years. In Tantra – which is the yoga of sex, the emphasis is on breathing and the focus is on divine union through sexual interaction. The focus on the orgasm is diminished opening up the space for a deep spiritual union which can be transcendental and beautiful beyond words.  I didn’t continue to direct because it was time for me to get on with my other work…my counseling and spiritual mentoring work.

Do you have any regrets about your career in adult film?

No regrets  – I see every experience as an opportunity and, within that notion, higher purpose prevails. In life, it’s important to see the bigger picture, as if looking at the tapestry of all the events in our lives and their outcome from a higher vantage point. This is challenging for most people, but through choosing to see the bigger picture, one has the opportunity to move out of any semblance of martyr or victim consciousness.

Do you keep in touch with any people from the adult industry?  Any actors, producers or directors?

I keep in touch with a few, those I had a heart connection with…Seka, Mr. Pacheco, Veronica Hart and Kelly Nichols.

When did you first become involved in new age philosophy?

I began to pursue my belief in an alternative reality and way of life over 30 years ago when I lived in Northern California and during the time of my film career.

Briefly explain in general what you belief system is all about.

It’s simple, take care of yourself, and take care of others and the environment.  Beyond that, know who you are as a divine being, as a soul having a human experience on a path which is eternal and focus on that, as opposed to the status quo.

You believe in re-incarnation of the soul.  Tell us more about that.

That’s way too lengthy to talk about here. Suffice it to say that each of us is on a journey that extends way beyond this lifetime. In order to understand this, one has to move beyond fear, doubt, trepidation and our experiences in our lifetime which have wounded us.

Kay Parker

I have had roughly 186 lifetimes in this quadrant of time. While I have documented many of them, there are particular lifetimes that are highly significant and relevant to the here and now.  When I work with individuals I am focused on that aspect of their past – what is relevant to a person’s current life experiences and challenges.

For me, the main focus has been on deep forgiveness of “perceived errors of the past” and releasing those memories, in addition to the realization of the fulfillment of commitments made long ago to be here now and to participate in what truly is a monumental time on our planet and humanity’s transition.

I read a little bit about “star beings” on your website.  What is a star being?

There are a certain number of individuals alive today (in the millions) who have experienced life on other planets before incarnating here. To some way of thinking they are the proverbial “old souls” because they have in fact, had a longer journey than newer souls, culminating here, now.  In terms of their soul contract, they are committed to applying themselves in a very significant way to our planet’s evolution. They will, at some point, wake-up to their soul essence and recognize their true identify, instead of just plodding along, submitting to the conditioning of the cultural, societal and familial mores.

What kind of services do you offer via your website, http://www.starsourceonline.com/

I am a spiritual mentor, meaning that I work with an individual to assist them to recognize their mission and to assist in the healing of their emotional scars, to help them to put their life circumstances in perspective and assist them to move out of guilt, shame, fear, hopelessness, indifference and a multitude of other emotional limitations and/or blocks.

What could someone expect that purchases services on your website?  What type of person should be interested in a session with you?

First of all, they may expect to be surprised. I say that because, for me, my work is  ultimately about love – and offers a person the opportunity to open their hearts to a more elevated way of being where love takes precedence, where love is the guiding force and where love opens doors never opened before. If a person wants to experience that, and is willing to grow in terms of loving themselves by taking the first step towards healing and balancing their past, their life may change in ways that may be extraordinary. Key word here is choice, a person must first choose.

Having been an adult actress for several years, sexuality has played a major role in your adult life.  How does sexuality factor in to your belief system and does it continue to play a major role?

Sexuality has played a role for me in terms of opening doors to my true work, here, now. From my career came a wealth of information about sexuality and, more specifically, a deep understanding of the dynamics of sexual shame. Back when I was acting, the Internet didn’t exist and I couldn’t possibly have known that I would have a website and a global doorway to making available my services.  In my personal life it’s a very, minor issue.

Taboo

You wrote a book in 2001 titled, Taboo: Sacred, Don’t Touch, please tell the readers what the book is about and where they can purchase the book.

I wrote the book (which I began 10 years before I published it) at the urging of others. In public presentations and lectures, I had used anecdotal stories from my career to illustrate what I had learned, not only about myself, but about the entire area of sexuality. It seemed only natural that a biographical book should follow, but when it came down to it, to be true to myself, I had to tell the whole story – the bigger picture – and that meant including past lives. This is why I subtitled the book “A Biographical Journey spanning Six Thousand years.”  The book is available in audio (read by me) or text form on my website www.starsourceonline.com .  At the moment, I don’t have hard copies available.

Are you currently married or have you ever been married?

No and No.

Do you have any children?

No.

Where do you live?

I live in southern California, outside Los Angeles

Outside of your beliefs and profession what do you like to do for fun?  What are your hobbies or interests?

I am a movie buff and I love good music. I love to walk and enjoy the wonderful Pacific Ocean. All my other activities relate in some way to my work, which is my life.

Is there anything you would like to say to your fans?

I am always in awe of the generosity of my fans. Each time someone connects with me, I am grateful.  I encourage you to not be shy about learning more about who you are, to embrace their higher purpose and to be willing to deeply connect to your soul’s mission. I’m here to help.  If my assistance can make the difference between a life lived with quality and meaning, fulfillment and passion, I encourage you to make the investment.  Blessings.

Kay Parker

Kay Parker

Kay Parker early in her career

Kay Parker

Taboo

Former Ms. USA Kelli McCarty turns porn star

Former Ms. USA turned hardcore actress

Kelli McCarty was crowned Ms. USA 1991 entering the contest after winning Ms. Kansas.  Following her beauty pageant days, Kelli worked as an actress.  She appeared in Silk Stalkings, Beverley Hills 90210, Melrose Place and more recently on the NBC soap opera series Passions.

McCarty has done some softcore work but yesterday she appeared on The Howard Stern Show to promote her lastest film which will be released next month and is a hardcore Vivid production.  The film is called Faithless: From Beauty Queen to Porn Queen and will be directed by acclaimed adult film director Paul Thomas.  McCarty also worked as an executive producer on the film.

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977576277&grpId=3659174697244816&nav=Groupspace

Kelli McCarty Faithless Box Cover

Kelli McCarty With Dick Clark

Former Ms. USA turned hardcore actress

Kelli McCarty Ms. USA 1991

20 Questions with Dave Cummings, The Oldest Active American Porn Star

Dave Cummings

I recently contacted Dave Cummings for an interview and he agreed.  Dave is a cool guy who is living the dream… literally.  Dave even included an essay he wrote to help people interested in getting involved in the adult business (see the end of the post).

In a business that can sometimes be dark and disturbing, Dave is a positive force and takes such a light-hearted approach.  This man is a distinguished ex-military officer and seems more likely to be enjoying his golden years golfing or fishing than heading-up his own porn business.  I mean he is performing with women young enough to be his granddaughter for Pete’s sake.  You’ve got to admire what he has accomplished so late in life.  He is pulling more ass than a 25 year-old-stud could imagine, and he obviously has no plans of leaving this Earth without a huge smile plastered across his face.  Dave has such a positive outlook on life and the Porn valley needs more men like him.

Here is the interview …

1. Where were and when were you born?
Saratoga Springs, NY; March 13, 1940

2.  What were you like as a child?
Normal childhood; oldest child, three younger brothers, altar boy, newspaper delivery route, golf caddie, sports, family-oriented, girlfriends, church-going, good student, happy, and frequent masturbator!

Funny!

3. What is your educational background?
Catholic grade school, public high school, Catholic college where I earned a B.S. in Economics and a Regular Army Commission as a Second Lieutenant via ROTC, Masters Degree in public administration at a NON-Catholic university

4.  What branch of the military did you serve?
Army, initially as an Artillery Officer, and later as an Adjutant General’s Corp officer.

5.  How long did you serve?
Two years as an enlisted man in the National Guard, and 25 years as an Army officer.

6.  What was your rank when you retired?
Lieutenant Colonel (retiring in 1988, and began working in the financial world as a licensed options broker, and later as a licensed mortgage senior loan officer

7.  How old were you when you decided to start your porn career?
54 years old, and my first sex scene was filmed and released in Sep, 1994

Devil In Miss Jones Boxcover

8.  How did you get involved with the business?
Via the world of swinging and a Playboy TV program that was being filmed about swinging, which brought me to an amateur set where I was holding a light but was called into action when the porn guy couldn’t do the money shot; the next day I was in two back-to-back sex scenes, and the next month I performed with Juli Ashton in “The Devil in Miss Jones, Part 5”.

9.  What made you decide that you wanted to be a porn star?
It looked like fun, and seemed challenging to access it—being old, and in the right place at the right time in 1994, gave me an edge of sorts!

10.  You were married for many years, did your divorce play a role in your decision to become a porn actor?
No, not at all; I was divorced in 1985, entered swinging in 1986, and started my porn career in 1994.

11.  What was it like performing in your first adult scene?
Fun! Fun! Fun! Since I was a “stunt” money shot stand-in with no warning that I was going to be needed until just minutes before I popped the needed money shot, I had no time/chance to experience “performance anxiety” ;  had I known beforehand, I probably would have been nervous. Certainly, I would have had a fresh haircut – all three pieces!:-)

12.  Have you ever encountered porn actresses that find it difficult, or refuse to perform with a man of your age?
Only once, and that worked out ok. I’ve always insured that the women knew that I was an old guy, and I always ask if their past or anything might make working with me awkward for them. The one time that a porn actress admitted that she had a past problem with an older man I quickly-but-quietly arranged with the Director to switch girls around so that I worked with one whom I had previously “worked with” the previous week, and the original girl was able to work the following scene with a guy who was young enough not to cause flashbacks for her. I try to always be considerate of the actresses.

Very gentlemanly.

Dirty Dave

13.  You have done some directing and have a website, please tell us about that.
In 1996, I produced and directed seven volumes of “Eat at Dave’s” for another company; then I started Dave Cummings Productions where I produced/directed/”acted” in 24 volumes of “Sugardaddy, 9 volumes of “Sex Fun”, and 9 volumes  (thus far—Vol 10 is in editing now) of “Knee Pad Nymphos”. I own 15,000+ Internet domains, 9,300 of which are adult domains, including my two primary websites, www.davecummings.com and www.davecummings.tv . Although I have my own production company, I still perform for other companies like Wicked Pictures, Elegant Angel, Wildlife Productions, etc.

14.  Do your children and grandchildren know what you do?
My children know and have no problem with what I do; in  fact, my 41-year old son considers me a hero, and brags to girls that he’s my son; my 43-year old daughter is glad that I’m happy and having fun. My oldest granddaughters, ages 20 and 18, know but haven’t indicated any objection to my “career”. My 12-year old grandson and 6-year old granddaughter haven’t indicated that they are aware of what “Grandpa Dave” does for his job.

15.  How do you feel about your current profession?
I feel good about the Adult Industry, and the way it helps normal adults enjoy adult entertainment and their own sex lives. Sex is part of life on Earth, and is a God-given gift that’s natural, normal, and healthy (emotionally, sexually, and physically –sex/masturbation provides stress relief, focus, and increased productivity). Some right-wing religious hypocrites don’t embrace the aforementioned all the time, but I suspect they love and appreciate our profession when they are “enjoying” the fantasies and entertainment that we provide for their prurient needs.

Well said.

16.  What is it that you like most about being the “oldest living porn star?”
Actually now that an older guy has surfaced in Japan, I’m merely the oldest still-performing American porn star. I’m happy that viewers seeing me, and noticing that I’m old and ugly and  have wrinkles, baldness, overweight problems, etc are better able to fantasize that if Dave Cummings can have sex with that girl, then perhaps the viewer also could get “lucky” if circumstances allowed it. Bottom line—because I’m old and have physical faults, it makes the fantasies of the viewer (namely, that it’s HIM doing the sex with the porn actress) more available, achievable,  and realistic.

Dave with a couple of babes

17.  Approximately how many women have you performed with?
I’ve been in well over 1,000 sex scenes, some of which include multiple women in orgies like the one in Vol 50 of “Screw My Wife, Please”, but in some cases I’ve done more than one scene with the same girl in different movies; so, it’s difficult to come up with a number. But, one time on a long flight to Hong Kong I spent hours trying to recall and number all the women in the swinging world and in the Porn world—counting updates (like the four women I had sex with last Saturday night at a private swinger house party), I think I’m presently someplace between 2,600-2,625 females.

Lucky fucking bastard!  I am so fucking jealous its not even funny!

18.  Be honest, do you rely on Viagra to perform?
When I entered porn in 1994, there was no Viagra — I had to use the “Hail Mary” and “Our Father” to get ready for a sex scene. For the last 15 years, I’ve had to take a nightly pill for an enlarged prostate (it’s common in older men, and it’s a condition which causes getting up frequently during the night to urinate) which prohibits me from using the other Viagra-like medications because of potential serious side-effects. I tried Viagra, and I seem to be one of those who gets some, but usually only limited help, from it. Thus, for years, I stubbornly refused to routinely use it, especially since it made doing the money shot more difficult for me. Now, however, I take it if I’m doing back-to-back scenes for Dave Cummings Productions (where it’s more effective to shoot two scenes with  actresses who drives from Los Angeles to San Diego for a few hours of shooting), and on some sets where I’m performing for other companies and don’t want to let them down. I will be 69 in early 2009, so Viagra is sometimes needed at my age.

What a lucky guy!

19.  How much longer do you plan on performing in adult films?
Indefinitely! I’ll quit only if, and when, it stops being fun for me—it’s presently too much fun to even think about retiring from performing!

20.  Is there anything you would like to say to your fans?
Yes, at the end of this answer is a comprehensive “essay” I wrote for folks wanting to get inside the porn industry, be it as writers, performers, crew, directors, etc –it might be an interesting “read” for you.  Just like NCOs really run the military, fans are the ones who rule porn, God bless the fans!

See www.davecummings.com , www.davecummings.tv , and this link to a TV Newscast on 11/18/08:  http://www.sandiego6.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=b92b02bb-e714-4bc3-a2ae-76bc73faf205 (see both videos there); and,

This http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Dave+Cummings&fr=yfp-t-501&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8

GETTING INTO THE PORN INDUSTRY

BY: Dave Cummings—-Porn Star/Producer/Director

Many individuals, both female and male, fantasize about becoming a porn star, or somehow finding a way to get into the Porn Industry. Some folks want to be in front of the camera as actual porn stars, while some just want to be involved with porn productions and become an “insider”. Now that the Internet has flourished, it’s become another avenue into porn for those seeking entry. Let’s look at some of the different routes one might travel in their quest to be involved with the world of porn.

For reasonably attractive females with nice figures, it’s relatively easy. Knowing someone already in the Industry might facilitate their journey into porn, otherwise they’ll need to do some Internet research to find and contact an agent or manager, preferably a reputable one in the Los Angeles area where most porn productions take place. In the past, there has been a steady stream of new legal-age girls wanting the adventure and/or money and/or fame of becoming a starlet; but, in the last few years there’s been a significant increase, indeed almost a flood, in the numbers of women hoping to become famous and affluent porn stars and to later return to their high school class reunions and bask in the glow of stardom. The name of the game during recent years is the demand for new fresh faces; this often results in pursuits by producers and directors seeking to hire new starlets as a means of increasing sales. Thus new wannabe porn starlets are in demand. New girls can make a lot of money, especially when they first enter the Industry; but, unless they are especially good at their craft or have extraordinary professionalism and drive to make porn a career, the need for the even newer fresh faces soon becomes a challenge for their longevity as the even “newer” incoming girls seem to nudge some of the existing faces out of the limelight. The exceptional girls who end up making it a longer term career usually are well known for their dependability, punctuality, a solid enjoyment of sex which is exhibited by truly hot sex scene performances, personality, and high standards of all-around professionalism.

Let’s look now at the issue of men wanting to become porn studs. Prior to the days of prescription pills to aid and enhance one’s sexual performance abilities, the number of porn studs in the Industry was much smaller than at present, and viewers had to endure seeing the same core group of us guys over and over. The reason why we were qualified as career porn studs was our “functionality”, something that still applies today; candidly, even some new guys presently masking their use of pharmaceutical assistance still seem to sometimes get “stage fright” and some seem to have difficulty doing a timely “money shot”. I’ll discuss the functionality matter a little later.

Because I (and many other Adult Industry individuals and entities) receive hundreds and hundreds of serious inquiries every month from guys wanting to know how they can become porn stars, I’ve written up this general response. As a Producer and Director, I’d love to have a much larger pool of proven male performers so that female viewers could enjoy watching handsome studs performing with some girl while the female viewer fantasizes about herself actually being the girl in the video. I sense that the porn viewers now include more and more women and couples, unlike the past when most viewers were masturbating men.

The problem here is for me to be candid without hurting anyone’s feelings; there’s no easy way to tell guys that the chance of them getting even a “try-out” or an audition is remote (actually, there no longer is such a thing as an “audition”, let alone getting one with a new applicant’s favorite porn starlet!). The present lack of “want ads” for new studs has little to do with new aspirants, but rather results from the informal system that’s evolved over time based mostly upon past experiences of disappointed Directors who let themselves be talked into using some previous new guys who touted themselves as true studs (which they well might have been in their private life, but unfortunately were not when they got in front of cameras on a set with people watching—new guys with performance difficulties are nightmares for Directors, crews, and everyone involved with the shoot, including the starlet scheduled to have sex on film with the aspirant). Probably, the new guy who wants to get into performing undoubtedly is a true stud with the ladies or his significant other, and/or in a group situation like a swinger’s party, but merely deciding to become a porn star does not get him even considered anymore. The present lack of enthusiasm for giving new guys a shot at a career as a porn stud was informally established when similar men in the past were strongly recommended by someone (perhaps even by someone in the Industry, or by a starlet or female with first-hand knowledge), only to have “performance anxiety” and freeze up in front of the cameras, lights, and sometimes his inpatient co-star as well as the crew/director/producer, other actors and actresses, make-up persons, on-lookers, catering people, magazine photographers, location owners and their “gawking” friends/neighbors/relatives, company owners and staff, Industry media, online gossip or news columnists, etc. A new guy who loses his “functionality” causes loss of production time and filming momentum, and possibly additional expenses in overtime charges for the location, rental equipment, and crew. Resultantly, Directors and Producers usually will not accept new guys, no matter who recommends them or how impressive the new guy or his girlfriend says his penile “credentials” and sexual performance abilities are. It’s been my experience, and that of many insiders, that new guys are absolutely certain and insistent that they can adequately perform in a functionary manner, but most still fail no matter how much confidence they exhibit, sometimes in spite of the prescription pills they might have privately ingested.

If so many serious and motivated “potential porn stud applicants” contact me constantly, can you imagine how many are writing/emailing/phoning the porn girls, insiders and other porn guys like me, studios, magazines, crews, gentlemen’s clubs etc? Yet, even with new guys masking their use of pharmaceuticals and/or sometimes being part of a male-female couple, I see only 5-6 credible new guys a year making it into the business; and, even some of these get “cut from the roster” if they don’t possess adequate and consistent functionality. It doesn’t seem to matter (or be an adequate excuse to the studio owners, producers, directors, crews, starlets, or anyone else adversely affected by delays due to sub-par functionality) if the new guy just ran an exhausting marathon, was taking decongestants or antihistamines for a sinus blockage or a cold, or unavoidably got only a few hours sleep the previous night—-it’s an unforgiving business decision not to take a chance using the new guy ever again. Worse, the word of a new guy’s non-functionality seems to spread like the speed of light throughout the Industry. There’s a lot of pressure on the male performer; unlike his female co-star, he can’t fake sexual excitement nor can he hide climaxing too soon before the director gives him the directive to do the “money shot”. Instead, the guy has to have a solid and almost-constant erection whenever the camera is rolling, and for the hour-plus it usually takes to film the hardcore portion of the scene, and in spite of the constant stopping and restarting for such things as changing a camera battery, relocating lighting, stopping for required photos of the action, shifting back and forth between the hardcore and the cable-television non-hardcore filming, starlet make-up touch ups, potty breaks, cigarette breaks for cast/crew, water, the sound of someone’s ringing or vibrating cell phone, or a passing airplane, or the starting-up of a lawn mower down the street, and on and on!

The key for a new guy is all centered around functionality, namely: getting an erection quickly; not climaxing too soon; and, indeed being able to do a money shot somewhat soon after the Director calls for it. Sometimes, new guys taking prescription medications intended to help them with their sexual performance have difficulty getting the money shot to happen quickly enough. Since “FUNCTIONALITY” is the name of the game for guys, let me reiterate that penis size, looks, muscles, and acting ability mean almost nothing for a guy. What DOES matter is the guy’s ability to get an almost instant erection in front of people on a set, to maintain functionality for the period of the shoot including being able to get “wood” erected quickly after the many stop-n-go interruptions during the shoot, to control the erection so as to not cum before the Director gives the OK, and, upon being directed to climax, the guy should do it relatively quickly without wasting the time of the starlet or the production folks.

Of course, guys must arrive on set on time, bring the correct wardrobe, have perfect personal hygiene in every way, bring their not-more-than 30 days old Adult Industry Medical (AIM) tests done via the state-of-the-art PCR/DNA testing regimen for chlamydia/gonorrhea/HIV, and bring their ID’s, including one government-issued ID showing the guy’s photo and date of birth on it. I always bring my State Driver’s license and my Department of Defense military ID card. Like I teach in my www.howtomakeadultvideos.com classes, in The Adult Industry, there’s real time, military time, and porn time – yes, porn time is usually the latest of them, so be prepared to sit around for possibly hours waiting for your sex scene to (finally) begin!

OK, so other than being a multi-millionaire who buys a porn company, what possibilities exist for a new guy to get paid to have sex with beautiful women in the Adult Industry? Well, one direct way is for the aspiring new guy to “discover” a SUPER-beautiful new girl who will agree to enter the Industry while letting him ride her coat-tails, and demanding that he be the exclusive stud she will ever “work with” on film (“work with” is our term for having sex in porn shoots). This can sometimes work if the girl is truly sizzling hot; it’s important, though, to understand that every year there are many hundreds of new girls entering the Industry seeking a shot at becoming a famous porn star, almost all of whom will work with any of the already-proven porn guys the Producer/Director wants to hire. A new aspirant’s “coat-tail” girl must therefore be so much more attractive than the other new girls, as well as the already-established other girls, that the Director will want her in his production so much that he might agree to her demand of working only with “her” new guy. Candidly, be aware that some new coat-tail girls might sever the deal with new guys at this stage if it means that they might lose THEIR chance to get a shot if the Director balks at hiring the new guy; after all, it means the Director must take a production cost chance on the coat-tail girl and her new guy, a risk he doesn’t have to take if he instead books one of the many other girls who will work with any of the famous star studs of the Director’s choosing. It might help if a new guy has and shows the Director a couple of tapes of him performing with girls in front of 10 or 20 other people to prove that he doesn’t get stage fright in front of lots of people. If the new guy and his coat-tail girl get some initial bookings and do well with them and another 8-10 shoots, perhaps he can then let it be known that he’s available for bookings with other girls in gangbangs and other productions; if the new guy performs successfully and meets the “functionality” criteria consistently, he’ll join the ranks of the already proven porn studs. Unlike the girls who make a lot of money, we guys are merely props to the point that the pay per sex scene is considerably less than what the girls make!

Another possible way to get into porn is via porn productions. Although the bi-monthly classes I teach in adult film-making are comprehensive and include information for couples wanting to film for their own private viewing or for doing “Cam” shows on the Internet, most students want to become producers as a means of making money and/or getting laid! Once a new producer firmly establishes himself or herself as a reputable player in the adult film arena, contact can then be established with agents and managers of porn talent (“talent” is the term for the women and men who appear in front of the camera) and start arranging bookings. It’s not surprising to find that some male producers hire themselves as the male talent, and then hire female porn stars whom they are especially sexually excited about working with. And, some new female producers might inject themselves into sex scenes with either males or females. The AIM testing I mentioned above comes into play, as professional talent mandates the tests, even if a condom will be used for the filming – after all, condoms do sometimes break or malfunction! I’ll return to productions per se in a bit, but first some information about other possible ways to be involved with productions, or to somehow find oneself as an “insider”.

A crew for porn shoots can be as few as a cameraman and a still photographer (to take shots for DVD box covers, as well as for marketing materials); but, some sets have large crews, such as additional cameramen for multi-angle and/or cable version footage as well as for “behind-the-scenes” filming for inclusion into the DVD “extras”. Sets can also have a Director (sometimes in addition to the Producer), Production Assistants, lighting and audio specialists, and ancillary folks for doing make-up, catering, paperwork, etc. Disappointingly, except for the large gangbangs, very few sets have “fluffers” any more (girls who orally “prepare” porn studs to do the on-camera performing). Producers/Directors seem to prefer using the same experienced crewmembers they’ve previously hired. Additions to crews usually come from recommendations from other directors, present crews, and talent, thus providing a basis for experience and professionalism. Directors and crews sometimes hire new crew folks who they find out about from various other sources, but they prefer people who won’t make production mistakes or hit on the girls while working on the set. As an aside, there’s no such thing as “Crew Appreciation Day” where porn girls give oral pleasure to crewmembers, so don’t expect any action if you get lucky and land a job through your Uncle Louie as an Assistant Production Assistant, or whatever. If you’re wondering if crewmembers ever get a shot at performing, I understand that some have had the opportunity to occasionally do “stunt” cum shots for porn studs who were having a bad day—because of the AIM and Industry-mandated testing regimen, such money shots are never to the girl’s face or near her orifices. Yes, crewmembers sometimes get to date porn girls on a personal level.

Script writing opportunities to get on sets or become an insider might offer some possibilities; however, scripts seem to be somewhat favored from an inner circle of already established “insider” authors. I understand that scripts provided by new writers result in payment of only hundreds, not thousands, of dollars. Since porn films and their budgets aren’t usually in the same league with productions such as “Gone With The Wind”, the Directors often write their own scripts. And, since there’s so much non-feature porn presently being produced, dialogue is often determined, staged, and improvised on the spot.

Some folks contact producers/directors agents, talent, and production companies with the offers of production investor funding. Although this sometimes gets outsiders inside, I need to return now to the general matter of productions per se and opine that we presently have a glut of new producers and a lot of excess footage and films looking for Distributors; thus, like the real estate markets have peaks and valleys, this might not be a good time for investing in films. Nevertheless, being involved with productions does offer a way to enter the world of porn. My class and its content at my www.howtomakeadultvideos.com site goes into significant detail about things like distribution, legalities and permits, cameras, lighting, resources, budgets, locations, shooting techniques, production ins and outs, casting, agents/managers, editing, packaging, marketing, happenings and problem-solving on porn sets, revenue sources, and a host of other aspects. Bottom line, getting into some aspect of production is a way for possibly entering the world of porn.

Another possibility is the Internet. More and more, we’re seeing adult Internet companies actually shooting content (photos and video), instead of licensing it from content providers or streaming video feeds. The advantage to shooting such content is the exclusiveness of the content, instead of their sites using some of the same content that can be seen at many other sites. Additionally, their output can later be placed on DVD and/or Video-On-Demand delivery systems, thus making them quasi-porn production folks. I sense that porn companies and adult Internet organizations might someday mix and match, sort of converging into cooperative entities, maybe even consolidating. I think the present adult Internet direction provides another avenue for entry into the porn world. Aspiring porn studs who have contacts with adult Internet folks or who know “Cam” girls who sometimes put on shows with guys might want to explore entry into the adult Internet content business as either producers or talent members as a way to get into porn?

All of the above is my personal opinion, and even though it might not sound encouraging, I had to be truthful and candid.  I think my comments are on target. Keep in mind that you’re not alone in wanting to be a porn stud or production guy or insider—millions of others fantasize about it too, and hope that they personally have what it takes to become the next big-name male porn star. From time to time I’ll add to these comments via my “From The Trenches” or “Getting Into The Porn Industry” links at my www.davecummings.com, so I recommend that you check them out every once in a while; in fact, some past “From The Trenches” columns already discuss the present porn production situation.

Good luck,

Dave Cummings
Porn Star/Producer/Director

Bryan Kocis, Gruesome Murder of a Mogul

Bryan Kocis

By Mallory Simon
Court TV

Two gay porn actors are facing murder charges for allegedly killing a porn executive in a dispute over a coveted actor.

Police believe Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes went to the Dallas, Pa., home of Cobra Video boss Bryan Kocis on Jan. 24 and slashed his throat. After he was dead, they stabbed him 28 times and burned his body and home to hide the crime, according to court documents.

Kocis’ body was found that night when firefighters responded to the fire. The smoke detectors were disabled and there were no signs of forced entry. Police believe Cuadra and Kerekes gained access to the porn executive’s home by tricking him into thinking Cuadra was a new model who was interested in making a movie for Cobra Video.

Cuadra and Kerekes were arrested in May, almost four months after the murder. The pair had been held in the Virginia Beach County Beach Jail while they initially fought extradition. They were extradited Tuesday to Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Police made the arrests after they found evidence on a computer that survived the fire. E-mails showed that Cuadra, pretending to be a new model, arranged a meeting with Kocis on the night of his murder, according to court documents.

Investigators believe Cuadra and Kerekes killed Kocis because they wanted to work with Kocis’ lead actor, Sean Lockhart, 20, known in the adult entertainment industry as Brent Corrigan.

According to police, Cuadra wanted to make a film with the “Every Poolboy’s Dream” star, but because of pending litigation and contractual obligations between production company LSG Media, Lockhart and Cobra Videos, the plan could not move forward.

Regardless of those obstacles, on Jan. 11, the pair met with Lockhart and Grant Roy, a partner with LSG Media, at a convention in Las Vegas to discuss a movie. At the meeting, according to police, Cuadra alluded to killing Kocis if necessary to secure the movie.

“What if Bryan [Kocis] left the country?” Cuadra suggested to the group, according to the documents.

“Harlow knows someone who would do anything for him,” Kerekes allegedly quipped. Roy told police he knew this meant Cuadra could have Kocis killed.

After that meeting, investigators say the plan to kill Kocis was put into motion.

Sean Lockhart, the object of desire

On Jan. 20, Cuadra ordered a background check on Kocis, which he paid for with his credit card, according to court documents. Then, Cuadra bought a prepaid cellphone, which was first activated near his house. The only phone calls made were to Kocis. The last call made was a hundred yards from Kocis’ home the day after the murder.

Cuadra also created a new e-mail address, dmbottompa@yahoo.com. Police say the e-mail address and the cellphone were solely for use in the murder plot.

In the days leading up to Kocis’ death, Cuadra e-mailed the executive, pretending to be a model named Danny Moilin. Cuadra sent the Kocis his own headshot and asked to set up a meeting at which, presumably, the two would have sex, according to the court documents.

“Umm, can we please be alone … at least this first time,” Cuadra wrote in an e-mail, according to court documents.

Kocis made plans to meet the model on Jan. 24 at 7:15 p.m.

Cuadra, 25, and Kerekes, 33, rented a gray Nissan Xterra SUV and a hotel room for their stay in Dallas, Pa.

The day before the murder, surveillance cameras show Kerekes and Cuadra entering the Superior Pawn and Gun Shop and purchasing a lock blade folding knife, a revolver and ammunition. The knife purchased by Cuadra is believed to be consistent with the knife that killed Kocis, according to court documents.

Harlow Cuadra (left) and Joseph Kerekes (right)

Police believe Cuadra showed up at Kocis’ home on schedule, but quickly became nervous that the porn executive recognized him. Shortly after Cuadra’s arrival, there was a knock at the door, according to conversations police later intercepted.

Minutes later, an unidentified witness called 911 to report a fire at Kocis’ house. That person said the gray SUV that had been parked in the driveway was no longer there, according to the court documents.

When the fire department arrived, they found Kocis dead in the living room. They noticed several computer towers missing, although the monitors and keyboards remained. Several video cameras were also later reported missing.

The next day, police say, Cuadra called Lockhart and told him to visit a television station Web site, where he found a story about Kocis’ death, according to court documents.

“I guess my guy went overboard,” Cuadra said, according to documents detailing police surveillance of the conversation.

In the days following Kocis’ murder, police intercepted conversations between Kerekes, Cuadra, Roy and Lockhart. Court documents did not explain why police initially suspected the pair, and Pennsylvania State police would not comment.

In one conversation, Roy asked Kerekes and Cuadra if Kocis had felt any pain.

“Don’t worry, he went quick,” Cuadra said, according to the surveillance.

The foursome were also recorded having a conversation at a nude beach, in which Cuadra talked about being at Kocis’ house during the time of the murder, discussed taking some of the porn executive’s computers, most of which he said he later destroyed, according to court documents. When police searched the home of Kerekes and Cuadra, they found video cameras with the serial numbers filed off, which they believed to be stolen from Kocis’ home.

“Actually seeing that f—er going down, it’s actually sick, but it made me feel better inside,” Cuadra said, according to the documents. “It almost felt like I got revenge and I know that sounds f—ed up.”

Kerekes and Cuadra maintain their innocence. The pair has created a page on MySpace called “2wronglyaccused,” and Cuadra continues to blog from jail by phoning and mailing messages to his friends.

“I just know in my heart that i am innocent and i did not commit this crime and then when i go to trial this will all come out and THE TRUTH WILL PREVAIL!,” Cuadra wrote in his blog.

Both men were charged in Luzerene County, Pa., with criminal homicide, conspiracy to commit criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse, robbery, burglary, theft and two counts of arson.

http://www.courttv.com/news/2007/0717/cuadra_ctv.html?page=2

Deep Throat Director Gerard Damiano Dies

Gerard Damiano, 1927-2008

Legendary porn director Gerard Damiano died October 25th from complications from a stroke he had in September.

Damiano is most famous for directing Deep Throat, one of the most infamous and financially successful adult films of all time.  It was produced for $22,000 and eventually earned over $600 million world-wide.  The film opened in NY in 1972 to outrage over it’s hardcore depictions but was also critically acclaimed.  Deep Throat along with other Damiano films such as The Devil in Miss Jones are credited for launching the modern hardcore film genre and the porn chic craze of the 70’s.

Damiano was born in Bronx, NY in 1927.  He served in the navy and worked as a hairdresser before getting into film production.  He is survived by a son and a daughter, both grown.  He was 80 years old.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/3274884/Porn-director-of-Deep-Throat-Gerard-Damiano-dies.html

Buck Adams, Dead at 52

Buck Adams, Dead at 52

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. – Veteran actor/director Buck Adams died this afternoon at Northridge Hospital of complications from heart failure. He was 52.

Born Charles Stephen Allen on November 11, 1955, Adams was the brother of adult superstar Amber Lynn. A former boxer and bouncer, he entered the industry shortly after his sister began her own adult video career in the early 1980s.

A three-time winner of AVN’s Best Actor award and a member of the AVN Hall of Fame, Adams performed in hundreds of adult movies and directed 80 of them himself. Among his many credits are Paul Thomas’ original Bad Wives (1989), Sin City’s popular Babewatch series, Buck Adams’ Frankenstein, Beach Patrol, and Uncle Buck (2005). His first movie as director was Squirt (1988, Arrow Films).

As director, Adams garnered a Best Film nomination from AVN for his big-budget 35mm Antigua Pictures feature Uninhibited, starring Rocco Siffredi. Originally shot in 1993 at a reported cost of $1.2 million, the movie was rated R by the MPAA and picked up by HBO and USA Network. Hardcore sex scenes were put back into the movie for its release to the adult video market in 2006.

Adams was well-liked in the industry and respected for overcoming his battles with drugs and alcohol. He survived several near-fatal heart attacks in the 1990s, and toward the end of his life had just finished building a studio where he planned to produce Internet content.

“Buck was a great guy,” said close friend Todd Blatt, who worked with Adams on Uninhibited and other Antigua Pictures releases. “He was a guy with a really big heart – he would do anything for anybody if you asked him, and that’s a rare quality. I should also mention that Uninhibited was really the first R-rated feature to come out of the adult industry. Buck was really proud of that, and I think he would want to be remembered for it. He lived a hard life, and he put a lot of hard miles on his body, but he was a good guy. He will be greatly missed.”

Adams passed away with his daughter Christa, his sister Amber Lynn, and his close friend and business associate Harold Jenkins at his side.

“My brother was a great man and a hero to many,” Amber told AVN. “He will be missed by all.”

Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced at post time.

Taken from:

http://www.avn.com/video/articles/33099.html

Max Hardcore Sentanced To 3 Years 10 Months

Max Hardcore

Max Hardcore, 50, was sentenced to 46 months in prison today.  Max whose real name is Paul Little was indicted on 10 counts of producing and distributing obscene material via the Internet and mail.  Little was also fined $7,500 as was his company Max World Entertainment.  Little was ordered to surrender the obscene material and forfeit all profits from the selling of the material.  The conviction stems from extreme videos produced in 2006, depicting women swallowing urine, vomit and other bodily fluids.  Little directed, produced and performed in the videos.  He asked the judge for leniency at sentencing stating,

“It just seems a very high price to pay, I think,” Little told U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew, “and I ask you to understand how much I’ve suffered.”

His attorneys plan on appealing his conviction.

Max Hardcore videos are almost always rough and degrading.  There is a fair amount of urination, gagging, and rough anal sex.  The women in the videos are paid and willing participants but often cry, throw up, and generally appear to be disgusted by what they are being paid to do.  Max contends that the crying is all an act.  Still when watching one of his videos it is very difficult to tell the where the acting ends and pain begins.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/oct/03/040216/judge-sentences-porn-producer-46-month-prison/

Legendary Porn Director Ron Sullivan Dies

Ron Sullivan aka Herni Pachard

CHATSWORTH, Calif. – Ron Sullivan, who directed adult films as Henri Pachard for more than 30 years, has died from complications of cancer. He was 69 years old.

Born June 4, 1939 in Kansas City, Mo., Sullivan became one of the most successful directors of porn’s Golden Age and a kingpin of the New York-based theatrical adult film industry in the late 1970s.

When theaters began to close in the mid-80s, he migrated to Los Angeles and carved out another successful career in video production. His list of titles runs into the hundreds and includes such classics as Babylon Pink, Outlaw Ladies, Public Affairs and Taboo, American Style.

“He was my friend, my mentor, my partner, my inspiration,” award-winning director Paul Thomas told AVN. “He taught me everything I know about set-up, about plot, about pacing – I can’t even say all the things I learned from Ron.”

“He was great fun,” recalled veteran actress Gloria Leonard. “He had a marvelous sense of humor. He and I were both good joke-tellers, so we entertained one another. On the set, he consumed a fair amount of vodka, but that was after filming. It was always disguised as a glass of water or something. And of course, when he and I were having our little fling for about a year and a half or so, it was the days of mucho cocaine, and I used to make jokes about the fact that everything we liked began with a ‘C’: cigarettes, cannabis, cocaine, cognac.”

Sullivan’s career in entertainment goes back to the mid-’60s. He worked as a stage manager in New York and Williamsburg, Va., before getting into the film business, according to his frequent collaborator, screenwriter Raven Touchstone.

Sullivan’s first movies as a producer and director were sexploitation features made for Distribpix, the independent New York distribution company founded by Arthur Morowitz and Howard Farber, later of Video-X-Pix fame. These early grindhouse films include the roughie Scare Their Pants Off (produced by Sullivan and directed by John Maddox), Lust Weekend, The Bizarre Ones and The Erotic Circus.

Sullivan also worked for Robert Downey, Sr.’s company PS Distribution and co-produced Downey’s counterculture satire Putney Swope (1969). During the same period, Sullivan produced The Headless Eyes, a proto-slasher flick directed by Kent Bateman, the father of well-known mainstream performers Justine and Jason Bateman.

“He was a very noir kind of guy,” Leonard remembered. “When we were in New York, he always wore a hat, like a fedora kind of thing. Then he moved to LA and I moved somewhere else; we kept in touch in a minimal level.”

Outlaw Ladies Box Cover

But Sullivan, though married five times, was in inveterate womanizer.
“We were an item for at least a year when we both still lived in NYC; kind of like Bogey and Bacall,” Leonard said. “He called me Toots and I called him Sulli — he considered me a ‘great dame’ and I’d tell him he was a ‘big lug.’ So he comes to my house one day and he says, ‘I had a dream that I packed up all my stuff and I left Joan [Sullivan's third wife] and I came to live with you.’ I said, ‘Ron, first of all, I don’t have any closet space. Second of all, I love you dearly, but my theory is, you’re here, we have a great time, I told you I love you. Now get the fuck out of here.’”

Actress/director/producer Candida Royalle had a similar story to tell.

“I found him to be one of the most charming, charismatic people I ever met; sinfully flirtatious, and just so wonderful and kind and such a delight to work for, and it really made me proud to be in his movie,” Royalle said. “He was one of the best ever in that whole industry. He’s just the kind of guy who made you – whenever I’d run into him, it felt so good because he had a way of looking at you that made you feel like no one else existed, at least for that moment. He just had such wonderful, loving, happy eyes and it’s like he embraced you with his gaze and made you feel so special and so important and that he was really happy to see you and was interested in everything you had to say – and I don’t say that lightly.”

“My affair with him was very short-lived,” she continued. “I was young, I wasn’t even back in New York from L.A. yet; I was very naïve. My style was never to be with married men, and he was married so many times. He just loved women. He had to be married to them, he had to have sex with them, anything. But I remember very clearly – I was still living in L.A. and I was just brought out to work on a movie with Leslie Bovee and at one point, he was dropping me off somewhere, and I had such a massive crush on him, and I turned to him and I said, ‘Do you love your wife?’ And he thought about it for a minute, and he said, ‘Yes, I do.’ And I remember thinking, Well, what the hell am I doing here then? … It’s just that I could never be number two. He just was so wonderful and adorable and special and so incredibly talented, I just feel extremely sad for him and his wife.”

Sullivan’s prodigious sexual appetite seemed to go hand in hand with his creative ability.

“We had a great time working together,” Touchstone, another former lover, remembered. “We worked together for a lot of years, but the biggest years were through the ’80s and part of the ’90s. We were doing movie after movie after movie. He was so gifted; he was so incredibly talented, and sometimes on the set he would be standing there very quietly with his hand on his chin, and people would be saying,  ‘Ron? Ron?’ and Ron would say, ‘Hush. When I’m quiet, I’m thinking.’ And he was just brilliant.”

Touchstone explained that during these meditative moments, Sullivan was picturing the upcoming action in his head.

“Ron was the first director I worked with who really knew how to direct,” she said. “He understood talent; he knew how to get the best out of the players; he knew how to block; he knew the camera – he knew if you put a fan over here and you rigged it so that the blades were going slowly and you shot through the blades, you’d get this or that – he knew all this stuff, and it was such a pleasure to write for somebody who really could actually execute what I was writing.”

“He was very sure of himself as to what he wanted in a  scene, and kind of laid it out,” Leonard agreed. “He was always a very friendly director; never harsh or belittling or anything like that. And if it wasn’t what he wanted, he would just take it over again. In those days, it was okay to have three or four takes in a film.”

Babylon Pink Box Cover

Touchstone’s and Sullivan’s first collaboration was 1986’s Blame It On Ginger, which won the award for Best Couples Sex Scene (Video) at the 1987 AVN Awards show. Sullivan had previously won AVN’s first Best Director – Video award in 1985 for Long Hard Nights, and took home directorial awards again in 1988 for Talk Dirty to Me, Part V and in 1990 for The Nicole Stanton Story, Parts 1 & 2. He was also honored several times by the X-Rated Critics Association (XRCO), first in 1979 for Babylon Pink (his first full-length adult movie), then for Outlaw Ladies in 1981, Sexcapades in 1983, and Taboo American Style 1-4. He was one of the first inductees into both the AVN and XRCO Halls of Fame.

One of Sullivan’s best-known early films was 1982’s The Devil In Miss Jones 2.

“I met Ron in an office, just a standard theatrical office, and he hired me to do a remake of that famous film, The Devil In Miss Jones,” recalled star Georgina Spelvin. “He got Jack Wrangler, a star of both gay and straight films, to play the Devil. To create his director’s vision of hell, he used huge bursts of stage smoke made of dry ice blasted onto the set and made the crowded area a true hell. A delightful gay hair stylist was doing his best to give my character a lofty bouffant hairdo. Between each shot, he would drag me back to the dressing room to set, blow-dry and tease my poor wisps back into the shape of his vision… Nothing deterred Ron. He was an extraordinary director. I never saw him frown, I never heard a cross word out of his mouth. I never knew a director who had as much fun doing the films they did as Ron did; he was just great. It was a couple of films later – well, I was starving to death in Los Angeles at this time, and he called me one day and said, ‘How are you doing, George?’ And I said, ‘Well, to tell you the truth, not very well. The rent’s due and I’m flat busted.’ He said, ‘Will $200 help?’ I said, ‘Of course it will.’ He said, ‘It’s in the mail,’ and indeed, two days later, there was a check, which saved my butt that time… Henri is indeed one of a kind. Ron has been a good friend, a damned good friend for a very, very long time.”

Devil 2, as Sullivan referred to it, was also his first collaboration with his son Jason, now a prolific cameraman and director in the industry, who thoroughly enjoyed the experience, but explained, “I wasn’t allowed to be there for the sex scenes since I wasn’t quite of age yet.”

“Ron and my mom were divorced when I was about 3-1/2,” Jason remembered. “They’d bought a house in Woodstock, NY. We lived there together for a bit, and dad would go to the City to work and visit on weekends, and we’d visit him once a month or so, and go see chop suey movies in Times Square.”

Sullivan is best remembered for his New York hardcore classics, which showed him as a master at capturing boiling-hot sex scenes and creating genuinely dirty, kinky scenarios. One of his well-known directorial signatures was shooting sex in bathrooms.

“Ron flew me to New York, paid me $200 for the day, which was twice the going rate, and I got my first experience in an Henri Pachard bathroom scene,” Spelvin recalled. “I think it was called Babylon Pink. He had me wrapped around all those facilities, trying to get my nether regions to a point where a camera could get a good shot in a very close encounter, until I thought I was going to bust the facilities trying to get myself out of there.”

“Ron let me stay at his house, because when I was filming Babylon Pink, my husband, who was a crazy dentist – he used to beat me – was just always after me for something,” remembered classic adult actress Samantha Fox. “Of course, I was doing porno which he loved and hated – and Ron and his wife were so gracious and let me stay there. Ron was a very handsome, smart, likeable and generous man, just a wonderful person.”

Sullivan lived and worked on both coasts between 1980 and ‘85, before settling in Los Angeles in 1986.

“That’s when my dad married his fourth wife, Deborah Holden,” Jason said. “RSPT [Sullivan's partnership with Paul Thomas] was still flying about then, and dad was showing P.T. the directing and producing ropes, and P.T. was still producing for them, and they were educating each other.”

Hothouse Rose Box Cover

“The work was really drying up in New York,” Jason continued, “and video was taking over the film end of it, and there was no point flying to New York to make a cheap video; the budgets weren’t catering to that sort of thing, and the pretty people were out here.”

Sullivan flew frequently to San Francisco to make movies, during which period he became good friends with acclaimed director Alex deRenzy, with whom he later made the award-winning Hothouse Rose 1 & 2.

Touchstone also remembers the San Francisco days.

“I did a lot of art direction; I did wardrobe, costumed everything, wrote the movie and I would assist Ron in everything,” she said. “I was like the second in command, and worked with talent and rehearsed them, did everything. So he would drive and I would fly, and I would meet the other kids – Randy Spears, or Rick Savage, all these kids – we’d meet at the Burbank airport and fly up to wherever we were going. They were really fun days. We were outlaws; we had this great familial sense with each other, and it seemed that everybody had their [emotional] baggage. It wasn’t like today; it was a whole different thing. Everybody wanted to make a good movie and most of the kids – everybody that Ron used in all of these movies, for the most part, were all people who loved acting, like Randy Spears, Victoria Paris, Jeanna Fine – we did this thing called City of Sin and City of Sin: Street Angels with Jeanna.”

Sullivan had what amounted to his personal troupe of performers, including some of the best-known names in the business.

“We’d say, ‘Okay; who are we going to put in this movie?’” Touchstone explained. “We’d plan a movie and think about the cast before we wrote the role. See, the way we would work it is, Ron would say, ‘Okay, we have to do a movie for so-and-so.’ For a number of years here, we worked together on just about everything, and so he would come to where I was living, and we would sit outside and talk. We had an idea – he had an idea or I had an idea, either one, and we’d start talking about the story and he’d get this and then I’d pull this off of it and then he’d pull that off of it, and bouncing back and forth, putting the story together, putting the idea together, and then, ‘Okay, we’ve got all this cast of characters; now who are we going to use here so that we can tailor the characters to these players?”

“What was so good was that Ron could get so much out of them,” she continued. “We had Rachel Ryan in Kinky Business 2 – she loved performing. She was wonderful. We had Jerry Butler, a wonderful actor; Tommy Byron, who was wonderful in that movie. We used Herschel [Savage]. We had Rick Savage – all these really good players, who were very talented. Jamie Gillis, as far as acting goes, he was wonderful. He was the phantom in Phantom of the Cabaret; Keisha; Sharon Kane – I loved Sharon Kane, loved working with her, and Ron loved her. We used her a lot. Sharon Mitchell – all of the really good players. Nina Hartley, she was wonderful; she was in Talk Dirty To Me Part 6.”

Touchstone has particularly vivid memories of Phantom of the Cabaret, which was shot in and around Paris.

“When we wrote Phantom of the Cabaret, we knew we were going to have Jamie Gillis,” she said. “I knew as a writer that I could write anything for him and he could play it. I didn’t have to keep it small; I could make it as big as possible, and Ron knew, when we were working off the idea, that with Jamie Gillis, we could make the idea as big as possible because we could get as dramatic as we wanted, because Jamie had the ability to act anything.”

“We had six players who were our players that we took with us. The rest of the script, we used French people, a lot of whom could not speak English, so we would give them maybe one or two lines. Everything else had to be written in such a way that the dialog was so simple, we could teach them phonetically or there was no dialog at all and everything could be understood just by action.”

Phantom of the Cabaret Box Cover

“Ron was funny,” Touchstone chuckled. “I had on tape, because I took my Betacam with me – I have on tape Ron making a speech to all of us. The first place we stayed was in Paris proper, in a hotel. Then we went about an hour outside of Paris to a little city called Tours, and we stayed and we shot in a hunting manor that was built in 1750. It was huge. The fireplace was so huge, you could put six people just in the burning part of the fireplace. And we were all gathered downstairs, and Ron says, ‘Okay, now, I know none of you want to be here’ – and we all started to laugh, because this was one of Ron’s typical speeches he would say to the players on the set when nobody would gather at the same time – and he used to say that getting all the talent on the set at one time was like sweeping ants onto a dustpan – and he would always do his speech: ‘I know that none of you want to be here’ – but of course, we all wanted to be there; we were in Paris! It was very funny.”

This author had the good fortune to be on Sullivan’s set in 1995 when shooting the first volume of his series Venom. Always the innovator, Sullivan got the idea to hand the video camera to one of the actors, thereby creating the forerunner of what would become the popular POV genre.

“He would talk to them, and he would simply tell them exactly what he wanted them to do,” Touchstone related. “Sometimes, in discussing the scene, the player, whether it was Joey Silvera or Jamie or whoever, would have a suggestion, and they would say whatever it was – ‘What about if we do bla-bla-bla’ – and Ron’s stock line, if it was a good idea, was ‘That’s such a good idea, I’m going to take credit for it myself!’ He was always willing to allow everybody to participate, to allow everybody to contribute to the best of their ability. His sets were always fun. They were relaxed, they were easy, and yet the work was intense, because he was getting the best out of everybody, but he always made it fun for everyone. Everybody loved working with him.”

“His personal life was always a mess,” Touchstone continued. “He had affairs with people in the industry. He had quite a nice relationship for a long time with Gloria Leonard. He called her Toots. He had a relationship with me for a while. He was the only person in the industry with whom I ever had a relationship of that sort, and he called me Toots also, and I called Gloria at one time and said, ‘You’re Toots 1 and I’m Toots 2.’ He loved to be attached to a woman. He didn’t like to be by himself, and his choices weren’t always great. He was always getting married to somebody else. I knew two of his previous wives, both complete nutcases. I went to two of his weddings – I think he had five. He finally got it right when he married Deloras.”

Even while undergoing treatment for cancer, Sullivan continued to direct and work on sets. His last movie was Hustler Video’s Barely Legal Trouble Makers. An omnibus film designed to raise money to help him defray medical expenses, originally titled We Are the World XXX, was temporarily sidetracked because of disputes among its producers.

Sullivan is survived by Deloras, his wife of ten years, and two sons, Jason and Nate.

http://www.avn.com/performer/articles/32533.html