I was ready to combat the fascist dictators who had so cleverly destroyed the Adult Entertainment Industry in New York City. On the way to catch a subway into the city, I decided to ask anyone I could about how they felt about the First Amendment and how it related to what had been considered the controversial Erotica USA ‘99 show. Previously held in London and in other cities such as Las Vegas and Los Angeles, Erotica was an important event that had to be covered even if it sucked, which I’m thankful that it didn’t.

On the way down my home block I saw a forty something Brooklyn gentleman and took out my trusty tape recorder and approached the anonymous man.

Marc: Excuse me, I am a Writer and I’m doing a story for a magazine. As a New Yorker I was curious if you had any opinion on the First Amendment as it relates to the Erotica USA show?

Anonymous Man: Well, it’s a two edged sword. On the one hand you should protect freedom of speech, but on the other hand you have a semi-criminal people that are exploiting this very issue, making a profit off of it and giving the other side ammunition to further diminish our rights… You know it’s a two edged sword because of the people exploiting this issue are at the same destroying the same issue they claim they are trying to protect. They are defeating the very issue by pushing the envelope a little too far in the name of making a profit and they’re actually eroding our rights that they claim they are supposedly protecting.

I found the man’s point to be surprisingly articulate as well as feasible. Could the Adult Entertainment Industry be slicing it’s own throat in the name of protecting it’s very survival?

After an hour subway ride to 34^th Street Herald Square, I walked five very long New York City blocks to Eleventh Avenue and the West Side Highway. A place that had become notorious for prostitution and other activities even before the iron curtain fell upon New York. Here I could see the industrial waste across the Hudson River in New Jersey and several boats including a famous air carrier turned museum just a few yards away from the Jacob Javits Center.

New York's Jacob Javits Convention Center

The Javits Center is quite an impressive structure. It looks as if it were made just from glass and steal painted black. The police were not yet out in full force. Inside there were ranger-like troopers that were armed and imposing. They were all at least six feet each tall, muscle bound, and all had "Smokey the Bear" like hats. When I asked if I could speak to them and take their picture, they sternly replied, "We are not allowed to comment and you cannot take our picture."

"Okay!" I said and I quickly scooted off to the press table where I got my pass and then walked up the stairs to the large entrance that had huge banners that read, "Erotica ’99" and signs that asked, "What is sexy?"

Two very cute girls stood at the gateway. Each was wearing green satin that accentuated their body curves and beauty. Upon passing through this final check point I walked into the mall like area that was filled with booths containing sex toys, erotic paintings and music and just about everything else one might imagine. There were men dressed as Arabian knights and women dressed like belly dancers. There were people that had tattoos that seemed to cover most of their bodies and others with enough pierced body parts that I considered hanging my coat on them because it was very hot inside.

The first booth I stopped in was in The Adult Area. There, one could meet the porn stars and take their pictures, etc. I stopped by a pretty woman named Shannon who was Gallery Magazines’ "Girl Next Door" for January 1999. I immediately introduced myself and proceeded to interview her.

Marc: Your name is Shannon?

Shannon: Correct. Shannon.

Marc: Are you mainly a pictorial star or are you also an Adult Film Star?

Shannon: I’m the "Girl Next Door" Winner for January.

Marc: Okay. Can you tell me what that is?

Shannon: It’s for Gallery Magazine. You send your picture to win and it’s like an Amateur contest basically and out of I guess fifteen contestants they pick one to be the girl next store for the month and I happened to win for January.

Marc: Oh, that’s great!

Shannon: Yeah!

Marc: Once you win that honor, what is the award?

Shannon: Well actually it’s a cash money prize of twenty five hundred dollars and then you get to do promo work such as what I’m doing now and then compete for the "Girl Next Door of the Year," which is twenty five thousand dollars. I don’t know if I’ll win yet. If I did I’d be the girl for the year Two Thousand.

Marc: So you have to wait for December to find out?

Shannon: Yeah, I think so.

Marc: In the meantime, are you in any other magazines?

Shannon: No. I’m exclusive with Gallery.

Marc: So do you get paid for everything you do for Gallery now?

Shannon: Absolutely.

Marc: Where are you originally from?

Shannon: I live in South Florida.

Marc: So is this something you always wanted to do?

Shannon: Yeah! Yeah! Somebody approached me and said I should do it and I did.

Marc: One more question, how do you feel about the First Amendment issues relating to this show here today?

Shannon: It’s like television. If you don’t want to watch a channel, turn it.

Marc: That’s a great quote. Thank you very much.

I then proceeded to take my picture of her and get her autographed glossy while I looked on ahead and saw porn actor Ron Jeremy and Howard Stern’s Smallest Penis Contest winner (turned porn star and director), Smally Paulie. I quickly called out to Paul without even thinking exactly what I was going to ask.

Marc: I saw you on The Howard Stern Show!

Paul: Right.

Marc: So have you now made a career in the adult entertainment industry?

Paul: Yeah. After winning the Extreme Trip, I went down there and did a couple of scenes and they made a porno movie called, "Smally Paulie’s Excellent Adventure." That came out last month and I did a movie called "New York Taxi Tales #6."  This is a new one that comes up in May and I just got green lighted to direct my first feature.

Marc: That’s great!

Paul: And hopefully this thing with Howard will still be going on. I’m supposed to be doing interviews for him this Saturday. So I’m having a blast, man.

Marc: What happened to the other guys who won the contest and went with you to Extreme?

Paul: Gary is the lead in my feature and Phillip went back to his regular life so I’m the only one who really sustained this fucking madness.

Marc: So you are directing this?

Paul: I wrote and will be directing it and am going to be one of the stars of it and Ron Jeremy is going to be in it, too.

Marc: How did you get into directing because I can understand how you got into acting, doing scenes out there, but how did you get the chance to direct?

Paul: When I was down in Mexico they gave me the shot to direct a scene so they said get your talent, location, and your set up and I did it all and it came off really well. So I went back to Pleasure Productions a couple of weeks ago and I pitched them the story line I got for the movie and they loved it. So we start actually this weekend with Ron because Ron is in town.

Marc: So you are shooting in New York?

Paul: Yes. I’m doing everything in New York. I still have a "real job" because this is like here and there, man.

Marc: I just want to say I’m very happy for you.

And very jealous too.

I turned to Ron Jeremy who was seated signing autographs and admiring the beautiful women that somehow were attracted to him.

Marc: How does it feel to be here in New York?

Ron: Having a great time. I’m from New York. I was raised in New York.

Marc: What part?

Ron: Queens. I live in Flushing. I also have a place in Hollywood, of course.

Marc: I’ve seen you in a lot of music videos and in the movie "Orgasmo" Can you tell me how you got into those?

Ron: Hustling, hard work and ambition. I’m in a KISS movie this summer, "Detroit Rock City." I have a lot of films coming out. I do mainstream because I can’t do adult forever. Supposed my penis falls off?

Marc: How long have you been in the business?

Ron: Nine and three quarter inches… Oh… Twenty years.

Marc: Would you say you are one of the oldest male performers around in porn?

Ron: Could be. Could be.

At that point Ron turned his attention away from me to this hot girl with a nice flat stomach and belly ring. Can’t say I blame him. Paul interjected and began to tell me more about his film.

Paul: It is about a guy who never gets laid.

Sounds like me.

Paul: He going to be in situations where he just misses it and he’s going to be oblivious to it.

Really sounds like me.

Paul: And it is going to be a comedy. The thing I really want to do is make you laugh and enjoy and I really want you to root for Gary to try and get laid and make a series out of it.

Marc: So he won’t get it on in this one.

Paul: Not at all.

Bet Gary is not happy!

Marc: Who’s distributing that one?

Paul: That is going through Pleasure Productions.

I then moved on to watch the exotic dancers do their thing before leaving the adult area and stepping into an area called Rome.  There I spoke to Countess Vladaimira, a horror personality in the vein of Elvira.

Marc: What do you do?

Countess: I am a Horror personality. I do a character called Countess Vladimira. I’m the daughter of Vlad the Impaler, so I torture and kill people for a living, basically, and I’ve done horror films and been on Cinemax introducing the Hammer films. I do a live magic show called "Tragic Magic: Just Add Blood." I have my second comic book coming out with a new company called Peregrine in July.

Marc: What horror films have you been in?

Countess: I did a remake of "Horror Hotel" and I have a Troma film coming out this May at the Cannes Film Festival.

Marc: What are your favorite horror films?

Countess: I’d have to say the older ones. I really am a big fan of the Hammer Films and if we were to go more contemporary, I’d have to say, "The Shining" and "Hellraiser." That is one of my favorites.

Marc: You don’t like the George Romero ones like "Night of the Living Dead?"

Countess: I like that, too. I don’t like any of these new "Scream" type films like "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and what I did again… Those aren’t horror films.

With that, I moved on to see some of the strange stuff they had for sale. Some of it looked like it belonged in "Hellraiser."

The Penthouse photographers as well as the traditional media were bumping into each other constantly making it hard for a freelance guppy like me to get attention from anyone. Especially when they got professional cameramen and high tech gizmos and all I have is my portable recorder and a disposable camera. Note to self: Buy a real camera next time.

I decided to interview one of these professionals. Anneli Adolfsson has shot pictures for just about every adult magazine around and also does mainstream magazines too. She was seated with a friend and model of hers that had two tits that could feed a nation. I could barely understand what they said sometimes with their Swiss accents. In fact I couldn’t pronounce her model’s name or even spell it so I’m just going to refer to her model as a model for this portion of my tale.

Marc: What men magazines have you shot for?

Anne: Every single one apart from Playboy.

Marc: What about music magazines?

Anne: I’ve shot Marilyn Manson. That guy over there is from Type O Negative. That is a Penthouse girl. This is a guy from Biohazard and that’s a Russian model.

Marc: How do you feel about the controversy surrounding this show here and the First Amendment?

Anne: I think the people are panicking for absolutely nothing. This is a very adult-oriented show, which is really great, being it is the first time that it has been in New York. It had always been in LA or Las Vegas or London, so I think it is a good way for the public and the media and the people to see that what we do is not really that bad after all.

Marc: This is your model?

Anne: Yes! My best girlfriend!

Marc: How long have you been working together?

Anne: We’ve been friends for a long time. Worked together for years. 

I then went on to take their pictures and decided it was time I looked into Erotic Vacation Prospects. I met with Michelle Facey to discuss Hedonism III, which is often advertised on Night Calls with Juli Ashton.

Facey: Hi I’m Michelle Facey. I’m the PR Manager for Hedonism.

Marc: Tell me about Hedonism?

Facey: We’re an all-inclusive resort in Jamaica. We are a total freedom vacation. Live out your fantasies. Anything goes. No rules. No restrictions. We have a nude beach, prude beach. We have a new one opening September first that’s Hedonism III. Hedonism III will feature something’s Hedonism II never had. You’ll have TVs in the rooms. All the rooms will have hot tubs and we’ll have four restaurants. Japanese, Italian, Jamaican, and a buffet. The disco will have a see through water slide going through it. A piano bar. We’ll have outstanding entertainment. Nineteen hours of premium bar service. Twenty-four hour food. All land and water sports. We’ll have massages, sauna’s. Anything you want, we got it.

Marc: I’ve seen Hedonism advertised a lot on Playboy’s Night Calls. Do you have a relationship with The Playboy Channel?

Facey: This is going to be our third year doing this and it just came about by our PR agency in New York hooking us up and we’ve become very good friends with the hosts of Night Calls and we talk with them a lot and we’re hoping to do a lot more. We’re trying to stage the largest pajama party with them. It’s going to be awesome.

Suddenly, Scott Winston of International Tours stepped up to tell me more.

Scott: Hello my name is Scott Winston, International Tours. The reason that we’re doing this is because of, quite frankly, sex. Sex really has been the major reason why people do travel. Yes, it’s stress. Yes, it’s anxiety. But though people might not say it up front, sex is the underlying reason why people to go on vacations. Single, married or whatever the case might be. This show has been causing a lot of talk because of sex, but quite frankly if you look around there’s ties & shirts. Anytime a place charges thirty dollars to one hundred and fifty dollars for an event, you are not attracting a lower level element. You’re attracting a much higher scale consumer. We sell mainstream travel. Hedonism is certainly an opportunity to explore themselves a little bit more. Give them an opportunity to relax a little bit more on their vacation and there is Hedonism II, which has been around for many years. Many people know people who have attended. Hedonism III is going to be a spectacular resort.

After enjoying the friendly hospitality of the folks at Hedonism, I took a short walk to The Free Speech Coalition where Bill Margold and his latest discovery Lynx were more than happy to articulately discuss the finer points of the adult entertainment industry as it relates to the First Amendment and the rest of the entertainment industry.

Bill Margold: I think that we got here too late. I think that the tragedy of it is that we’re here after the cow has already come out of the barn and the bar has burned down. I’m here just to represent the letter X in the entertainment industry and to represent the Free Speech Coalition: the trade organization for the adult entertainment industry. We are the first and last booth hopefully you’ll see coming out. We’re here to raise money.

Bill: We’re here with Lynx. My newest discovery and I feel sorry for New York, which I think should have stood up and fought for its rights because if you don’t fight for your rights, you have no right to have any rights. That’s the nature of it.

Marc: You are a director as well right?

Bill: I’m a little of everything. In addition to everything else, I have done Talking Blue (the tv series and the website) with the Margold Minutes and Margold Megabytes, and those were fun. I’ve done everything there is to do in the business and now is the time to give back. I believe in what I’m doing. I believe in the preservation of the letter X in the entertainment alphabet.

Marc: I am glad I found you. Aja has spoken very highly of you.

Bill: I worship her. I think she is magnificent. She is a very special woman. I’ll tell you this much, she is one of the best blowjobs I ever had in a movie called "From Japan with Love." Extraordinary.

Marc: I haven’t had the good fortune to say that.

He said wistfully.

Marc: How do you feel the media portrays the adult entertainment industry? For instance, I saw a television show called Fox Files a couple of weeks ago and I thought that was the biggest piece of shit I ever saw in my life.

Bill: And you know they spent three hours interviewing me and never used a word of what I said. They only want to have society perceive the worst about us. You know the worse society perceives, the worse society is. It works both ways. The day we are totally accepted is the day we’re doomed. I want us to remain the letter X in the entertainment industry. I want people to come to us. I don’t want to go to them.

Marc: How about Hollywood embracing the adult entertainment industry?

Bill: Hollywood looks upon us still as an oddity. They have no idea about where to stick it. No idea. Let them think the worst about us and we succeed in spite of them. Society still wants to watch us. Nine hundred million tapes a year.

I then proceeded to Lynx who was standing by her husband. Lynx is cute and sexy. She has dark brunette hair and nice eyes. At the time I had interviewed her she still had not had the chance to actually perform in her first adult film.

Lynx: I’ve never done any films before. I met Nina Hartley back in November and she put me in touch with Bill Margold and now I’m here.

Marc: Do you know when your first production is going to be?

Lynx: I have no idea. I still haven’t talked to any of the industry people.

Marc: This is your introduction today?

Lynx: Yes.

Marc: Are you nervous?

Lynx: A little. I was last night a lot, but I’m not anymore. I’m okay. My husband Dan is very supportive of me.

Dan is a handsome man who looks to be in the same age range as Lynx. They make a cute couple.

Marc: Will Dan be working with you?

Lynx: He is thinking about doing some, but not really as much as I’m going to be. This is one industry where women make more money than men, so that is a good thing.

Marc: Was Nina Hartley your mentor?

Lynx: I would say I thought about it before and it just worked out.

Marc: Is there any talent that your are excited about working with?

Lynx: Jenna, Nina, Lexus, Christi Lake, Juli Ashton, and all the great talent. These are the nicest people. I mean nicer than my regular so-called friends. I’m excited about meeting some people that think the way I think.

Marc: Any male talent that you’re excited about working with?

Lynx: Peter North, Alex Sanders, and Marc Wallace…

Marc: He has HIV.

Lynx: He can throw a rubber on.

I turned to her husband and asked him to come over.

Marc: How do you feel about this whole thing?

Dan: It’s wild.

Marc: How long have you been married?

Dan: Three years and together for eight.

Lynx: We’re actually a lot better now than we used to be. We used to be really insecure and jealous people. We are much more mature now.

I was told that Al Goldstein would be present to promote Screw magazine. John Douglas at Talking Blue had told me to get sound bite off of Al. I asked him what if Al says, "Fuck you!" He said, "That would be great!" Well, here is what Al had to say.

Al Goldstein: Marc, you’re a piece of shit and a turd. You have a small cock. You’ll never get laid. In a whore house women will say to you I’m not that kind of woman. You’re a pathetic little twerp so go fuck yourself and your whole audience too.

Al Goldstein: Quite possibly the biggest windbag in porn

If I can’t laugh at myself, who can I laugh at? Al Goldstein allowed me to take his picture and I considered the fact that he even gave me a few minutes to insult me to be a compliment considering it came from Al Goldstein.

My next stop was to Femme Productions whose patriarch, Candida Royalle, had created to offer couples a more sophisticated menu of adult entertainment that emphasized the woman’s point of view when it came to sexuality and not just the man’s.

Unfortunately, Candida was not present when I was there but Bob Christian from Adam and Eve Distribution was there and he gave me a nice synopsis about Femme Productions and the Adult Film Market for Couples.

Bob: We are actually the Adam and Eve mail order catalogue and we are very proud of our association with Candida Royalle. Over the years and specifically in the last three years we have been her production people. We have been financing her films and of course she really invented the Couples Genre for erotic videos. A former performer, her concept is to have films that are for couples. They are very erotic. They are hardcore, but they are with couples in mind from a woman’s perspective. She is a lot of husband’s favorite person because they now have movies that they can take home and watch with their wife, or whomever. Her latest release is "Eyes of Desire Two" with Missy and that’s doing real well. It just came out. We are also sponsoring her natural contours line of vibrators and personal massages. They come in different sizes and they really are different. These look more like cell phones than some other things do. Designer colors and packaging and they are going over real well. The whole idea is bridging the gap between adult and mainstream entertainment. Sex is okay and a very good thing for everyone and we’re hoping in our case that a product like this and our working with Candida will bring our company in the forefront. It’s already the largest mail order company and we’ll be there when the rest of the world says it’s okay.

There were many events at the Erotica USA ’99 Exposition Show at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City that I either never got to see because it was unavailable at the time I was attending or there was simply so much to cover that one single freelance writer with a tape recorder could not possibly cover every single event that was occurring simultaneously around him.