May 05, 2000 12:05am
Source: Adult Industry News
By: Steve Nelson
May 05, 2000 12:05am
(SAN FERNANDO VALLEY,CA) — No BS! Bobby Hollander tells it like it is. I met Bobby for the first time at a New York style deli in the San Fernando Valley. The first impression of him that stands out in my mind took place while we were waiting to be seated during the lunch rush. As we were introducing ourselves and starting to talk outside in the smoking section, a very fat lady walked by on the way out and said “Why don’t you go smoke across the street” to Bobby and he turned and said – really loud – “FOCK you!” and never skipped a beat in our conversation. It was like hitting the first patch of black ice on the road in the winter. My memory was jolted back to growing up in New York. I knew then, that this was going to be a shoot-from-the-hip tell-it-like-it-is kind of interview! After a 4 hour lunch we went to a quiet room at a near by onestop and I turned on the tape recorder.
AINews: I’m here with Bobby Hollander. How ya doin’ Bobby?
Bobby: Good, very good Stevie.
AINews: This is great. I’ve got a bunch of things I want to ask you.
Bobby: I hope it isn’t more than four hours.
AINews: No, no – it will be about a half an hour. The first thing I want to ask you about, you got an award for lifetime achievement as a director. Tell me about that.
Bobby: Last year at the Bonaventure Hotel, I forget what month.
AINews: August?
Bobby: Was it August? [July 10, 99] That almost makes you feel like they are putting you out into the cow pasture. That was the Anthony Spinelli Director’s Lifetime Achievement Award. I don’t think you get anything else after that unless it’s a fuckin’ gold watch. Nobody with the adult association is giving up any gold watches. But it was very nice. I was very pleased to get it. Very happy to get it. And very proud to get it. There’s a lot of people in there with the lifetime achievement awards. Spinelli is in there. Alex DeRenzy… And I have been in the business a long time. Twenty-five years. Making porno. Started originally making black and white 8mm stag movies, they used to call them. A long time ago, the first people I ever worked with was Eric Edwards and Linda Lovelace. Years before “Deep Throat” was ever made. That was the first stuff I ever did. In New York. On 8mm.
AINews: So Linda Lovelace was doing stuff before Deep Throat?
Bobby: Oh yeah. Linda was doing sex things before she did movies. Ok, so about that award, to answer that question, I am very proud to have received it. Very happy to have it. Very happy to get it.
AINews: I don’t think that is going to be the end of the stuff you do, will it?
Bobby: No. I would like to do some more stuff. It is just that right now I’m taking it easier. Ya know, kicking back a little bit. I have stuff that’s out, that’s out on cable. I have a lot of leg fetish stuff – “A Lot of Booty,” “Million Dollar Buns,” “Hollywood Legs,” “Leg Show,” “Miss Legs USA,” “Leg Show The Movie,” “Give Her 8 Inches, She’ll Ask For A Foot,” – That’s another Foot fetish thing.
I have got a lot of titles that are still out there. I was in Hustler, Larry Flynt’s store out on Sunset Blvd., a couple of months ago and he had a section called “Classics.” An’ I went over to it and I saw all the original classics: “Deep Throat,” “The Devil in Miss Jones,” “Candy Stripers,” and then I saw the “Personal Touch” Part I, Part II, Part III, the ones I did, “Centerfold Celebrities,” you know, the first interview shows. A lot of my early-day stuff. “Breast Works,” “Mr. Peepers,” “Man-Eaters…”
AINews: You started a bunch of that stuff, it had never been done before.
Bobby: The interview stuff, which was “Centerfold Celebrities,” that was when we interviewed the talent similar to the Johnny Carson Show. And spoke about them, did a little shtick, it was very nice dressed up stuff. And then went into sex scenes. As the business became more and more legit that is to say, a lot of them copied the way of the interviews. Before that it was either a story or just a sex scene. It had a plot – or “so called” plot – and a sex scene shock value. It was fun. Yeah. It was fun.
AINews: What about other ventures? What else do you have going on?
Bobby: Well you know with this internet, I got involved with Adult Cinema Review Magazine, Oui magazine and putting stuff up on the internet with that. Getting involved with a live, you know a live house with seven girls in it and doing a live feed, puttin’ it up for Web Masters. I’m working on that now. Trying to do some stuff for Playboy for cable. We have some sort of a series in the works, which is something, that will just be done soft. There won’t be a hard version. Because the way the story figures, ya need people to act that will do the nudity. It isn’t something I wanna to do soft and hard. It’s an original idea, which will just be soft with T&A. A lot of T&A, possibly pussy, but I need acting ability.
Then there is another cable thing in the works, with Fox cable. Similar to “The X-show” that they have on now, and I think that’s a terrific, smart idea that X-show. But it’s like I say, it’s depending on who you know with the connections to get this stuff on because everyone has ideas. It’s just getting the right people to back it, to do the pilot, for them to accept it, because I’m not the only one with the ideas, there’s a lot of other people. Fox happens to be taking these things now. I can see it. Cable is going to open up wide as can be. Ya know everybody is thinkin’ “Oh! DVD’s!” Right. I’m lookin’ at the bigger mass of cable TV, other than DVD’s. Alright? So that’s exactly what I’m doing now. A little bit of mail order, a little bit of chemicals, like stardustdrugs.com…
AINews: What is that?
Bobby: That’s all herbal drugs similar to Viagra, something that will get your penis hard. All natural drugs. There’s some liquid drops, which will stimulate female sex organs, turn them on if your wife or girlfriend is frigid, and you wanna wet her panties, this will turn her on and put her in the mood for sex. “Wacky Weed” which is a synthetic herbal marijuana, supposedly. I don’t smoke grass, so I really couldn’t tell you, I haven’t even tried it. But we’re sellin’ that stuff in pill form and in liquid form. Sexual stimulants, natural sexual approved stimulants.
AINews: Like herbal products.
Bobby: Herbal products, correct.
AINews: Where do you find this stuff?
Bobby: Oh, I can’t tell you that, it’s a secret place. If I tell you that I’d probably have to kill ya. [He was serious] It’s an old ancient secret, from a place near the Chinese restaurant I go to. They gave me the formula. Turned me onto these people. And I promised, with my life that I couldn’t disclose where I got this from. Please respect me that way.
AINews: Sure. Where can People BUY that stuff?
Bobby: Well if they check on the internet under www.stardustdrugs.com, the site will be up or they can send me a fax and tell me they want information, or e-mail to that address, and we will absolutely send out some color brochures on it. The fax number is 818-709-7701 and the e-mail is starman@stardustdrugs.com.
AINews: Are you going to be filming anything soon?
Bobby: When you say soon, nothing right now that I know of off hand, but I was talking to some people recently about doing a transsexual movie, which right now, transsexuals are starting to sell very strong. And some of them look gorgeous, I mean you can NOT tell and the concept of the transsexual movie happens to be selling in the adult stores and renting quite well now. Just because of the quality of the product looking good and the transsexuals look great. I mean you couldn’t tell! You’d pick ’em up at a bus stop on a rainy night… So I’m working on something there, which would be shot soft and hard. That’s the only thing in the immediate [future].
And everybody wants to have a series, but it is so hard today to come out with a series, which is original… Because I mean they’ve covered everything. You have anals, you have tits, you have foot, you have bondage, you have spanking, and now they are coming in with the rough stuff which I’m a little opposed to I respect women, and I don’t think that women should be thrown around or look like shit or be treated like shit in the sex business. I’m certainly not going to do any animals or fist fucking which I hear there’s a lot of fist fucking starting.
Peeing I’m not against because I did peeing 15 years ago with “Camp Beaver Lake.” Arrow distributed that. You know, a girl peed in the bushes, right? I think it is erotic to see a girl take a leak in the bushes or in a toilet. It’s like peeking in. But for some reason that was always against the law. And today you have more peeing videos than anything else! … Shit! But… It’s fun.
AINews: If somebody wants to work for Bobby Hollander, how do they get a hold of you?
Bobby: They can fax me at 818-709-7701. That is the fax number and I’d be happy to get in touch with anyone that wanted to get in touch with me now. Would be a pleasure. An’ anybody new wanted to get in the business, preferably women, because today the market is open for good looking women, strippers, dancers, who wanna get into this business are making a ton of money! And it would only be a pleasure to help ’em out, either shoot them myself or introduce them to some people that I know who are shooting almost everyday. You know it’s nice to start out some good talent. Over my years I started out some good people that are still out there today.
AINews: Who are some of the people you got started?
Bobby: In the men, Ron Jeremy. Did his first piece of work, very first piece for me. Randy West. Yes, Randy West who is a successful actor, and also a successful Randy West Productions. Randy did his first work for me in New York. Sunset Thomas. Amber Lynn, Robin Byrd, Luc Wylder before he had the line. [Adam & Eve line, “Amateur Angels”] He was with Ariana then. I helped out Rodney Moore. When Rodney just started. Sam Shaft. Max Hardcore. Vanessa Del Rio. Seka was already in the business, but I did an awful lot of work with Seka in the early days… An’ she was great to work with. An’ like I said Sunset Thomas, I think I was the very first one to shoot her. We shot her for a while because I knew she would make it. She had one of the greatest asses in the business when she started. A GREAT ass! An’ she was still with her old man at that time. An’ It’s nice to see that they’re still together. Because people in this business if they are married or going together, it usually doesn’t last too long. Because the jealousy factor gets in there and it blows everything out of proportion.
Zach. [Sunset’s husband] Very nice guy. Used to be a shooter and everything, now they probably have three or four kids together, and she looks as good as can be. What else we got? Oh yeah! The other one I just saw in Vegas my old friend Jeanna Fine.
AINews: Do people want what’s being made today, or do people buy it because it’s out there?
Bobby: We have three or four different groups of people. Fetish people will only buy the fetish that they are interested in. The fetish has been out there, it will stay out there, and there will only be more of it. A lot of product is forced upon the people today because there is so much product coming out. You don’t know whether to buy an anal film or a big tit film, a piercing film, a tattoo film, a shaving film… I mean every girl looks the same with a shaved pussy, fixed tits, and a trailer hitch coming out of her pussy lips. They have a piercing, either their nipples are pierced or their pussy lips are pierced and they think that is original. With a bald pussy, it is not original. They are all wearing Frederick’s of Hollywood, platform shoes and a spandex dress. And neither stocking matches on the left foot or the right foot. But they get $800 a scene. (Laughs!) You know that’s the only way they operate!
Like I say, it is both reasons. They want what is being made. Some product being made out there is great. Is REALLY great. Because they’re using the digital cameras. You never had anal scenes like you’re getting today. You never getting the variety of women that you’re getting today. There was one time when there was, shit, only twenty women in the business. Now, at Jim’s [South] office there are 20 women there at 9 o’clock in the morning looking for work. It’s like the long shoreman’s union.
We’re conducting this interview over at Grip Gear, which is a one stop. You know what a one stop is – that’s a company that people who own stores or distributors contact and they can get them anything they want. Any title.
AINews: You mean it’s kind of like a supermarket.
Bobby: It’s like a supermarket, right. Who supplies the stores. They make one phone call and he can get Evil Angel, Elegant Angel, Seduction, Sin City, Vivid, Arrow, VCX, VCA, any of those titles by one phone call. At a decent price, and dealing with one person and knowing who you are dealing with that way. Instead of dealing with five, six different companies and wondering when your order’s gonna get there.
AINews: So if I owned a video store, I could call one place, pay one shipping cost, and then not worry about anything else and I’d get the product?
Bobby: Exactly. I mean it’s a great way to shop for video. The whole thing is price. You wanna get price. You want to deal with somebody who is in our business and you can trust. And here these people at Grip have been in business a long time. They were with the good people. The people who were behind Grip have been in business over ten years. So they know what they’re doin’. You get Fat Dog, Sin City, Vivid, Dreamland, just by one phone call. That’s where we’re doin’ the interview today. Over at Grip.
AINews: In the lunchroom. Because it’s quiet.
Bobby: Exactly! We went to Brent’s [Deli] and it was too noisy!
AINews: It was a great place to eat, though.
Bobby: I’m glad you enjoyed it.
AINews: What makes a film good, Bobby? Is it the idea, the talent, the lighting, the camera work? What makes a film good?
Bobby: The important thing? Camera work is first. Casting it right and having attractive people is important, but knowing how to shoot them is your primary subject. That is the most important to me. And lighting is important. Because you want to make it look seductive, but yet, you want to be able to see every crack and cranny. And every suck and fuck. Where for instance, I have always admired Alex DeRenzy. From the very beginning, when Alex did “Femmes de Sade.” There was a movie he did with Leslie Bovee, Annette Haven – It was a great piece of work, I loved it. And from then on I became like an Alex DeRenzy copycat. I wanted to copy Alex’s angles, the way he did it. And Lasse Braun, European. A couple of those guys, I respected what they did.
If you watch some of the stuff now, the good shooters are [John] Stagliano, Michael Cates, Joey Silvera, John Leslie, Rocco [Siffredi], they’ll get the angles. Five, six, seven different angles and they’ll show the talent what to do besides just suck a cock. It’s with the tongue, it’s with the spitting, it’s with cream, it’s with the jerking. That’s exactly what they want to see. That’s what makes the difference. You can look at three different scenes from three different filmmakers of just a blowjob, and you will see three different techniques. That’s what makes the difference. Look at one from Wicked, look at one from Paul Thomas with Vivid, and then look at one from Evil Angel. You’ll absolutely see the difference like black, white or tan! I hope that answers your question.
AINews: Does there have to be a lot of anal or DP or a three thousand guy cum shot in these movies?
Bobby: No. I’m a one on one or a three-way man myself. I’m never one for like the 500-man gangbang. Because I can’t see what’s so erotic about that. You can’t get ’em all on tape anyway, it’s all bullshit and there aren’t 500 men in this business! Taking people off the internet, to have some porn girl make a few thousand dollars, and put that on the box, “I fucked 500 guys” or “I fucked 1000” or “I fucked 5000,” which I hear somebody wants to do now just for shock value. I don’t know what’s so erotic about it. To me that’s not erotic.
AINews: When you first got in the business, what helped you the most? Who helped you out? Was there anything in particular that kept you on track?
Bobby: Oh. Kept me on track! You want me to mention their names?
AINews: You had to have some kind of a drive to stay in it.
Bobby: You know I did. I worked with a lot of good people in those days. Norman Berkoff, Tommy Sinopoli, Howie Wasserman, Teddy Snider, Jason Russell, John Leslie, Paul Thomas. I mean this is when Paul and John were casting, were being actors. There was a movie I did shooting John Leslie when I lived in New York. We flew out to Frisco and stayed there for ten days and John Leslie was getting married to Phaedra Grant. I played the part of the Priest, Jason was shooting on the camera. I’ll never forget it. I’ve done sex scenes in three films. One was a three way, a double penetration, with a girl from San Francisco, I did that with Jamie [Gillis]. Then I did Kay Parker in “Chorus Call,” which I believe was Kay’s first 35mm film. We did that in New York. Then I did “All About Gloria Leonard.” A scene with Valerie… I forget her name, but this was a long time ago. I did another thing for Jennifer Welles, which was fun. That’s it. Being in front of the camera I think qualifies you to be in back of the camera. Today everybody who buys a camera is a director. It wasn’t that way in the early days of film. I did “New York Babes,” which was a 35mm feature. That I had help with, Armond Weston. He did “Expose Me Lovely,” “Inside Jennifer Welles,” “Seven Into Snowy.” You’re talking about the old days of film, which was great.
When I did the “New York Babes,” about two baseball teams. The girls from the West Coast challenged the girls from the East Coast. We shot it in New York. There were probably 22 girls in the movie. With Bobbie Astyr, Samantha Fox, Vanessa Del Rio, Serena, Gloria Leonard… Ah shit, I forget… Mark Stevens, there was a big cast. We had probably a hundred people in the bleachers that we used for the ball game. We rented buses and I remember we shot it in Sheepshead Bay, the baseball scenes, at a ballpark, which was like for the high school but we rented it for a Sunday. And they didn’t know what we were shooting but the girls were wearing shorts. Then we did the sex scenes in the locker rooms and stuff like that. We also were the first to do a three camera video shoot. It was the stuff for Visual Entertainment. With a truck, switches, no one was using a switcher and three cameras. This was when we were doing “Centerfold Celebrities.”
AINews: As far as the trend in politics that’s coming down on the adult entertainment industry. Are we losing ground, are we gaining ground?
Bobby: This business has gained ground tremendously, with freedom of speech, and what they’re doing today, the girls and the talent, the distribution of product. Just in financials alone. So much money is being made. Now the talent is making big money. They have nothing to complain about. They have their own web sites up. Personal appearances. I just hope everybody is paying their taxes. I mean the DANCERS! Whew! Some of these girls say they’re making three hundred a day. I know some that are makin’ three THOUSAND
a day! It’s amazing! $15,000 a week!
AINews: So we have gained a lot of ground. Is it becoming more mainstream?
Bobby: Oh yeah! I would say so. How many television shows play off of the Adult Industry? Look at The F/X channel, the X show. Where I saw Saturday Night Live with Robin Byrd. I put that show on the air.
I put Robin on the air 18 years ago in New York. I produced her show, directed her show. It was on for about a year and when I moved out here to California I gave it to her and her boyfriend Shelly. And she’s been on for like 15, 16, 17 years continuously. And just a couple weeks ago I thought it was her on Saturday Night Live they did a spoof on the Robin Byrd Show, I almost flipped out! But it makes you feel good. I go back to New York with cable TV with Al Goldstein, when he was doing Screw. What does he have, something midnight, Midnight Blue. That’s what it was called. I had a show called a Stroke at Midnight, The Gloria Leonard Show, After Midnight – another show. It was all live, we did these live.
John Leslie came in and did it, and Joey came in and did it, Vanessa [Del Rio] did it, we all sat on there, Serena, Leslie Bovee, and people used to call up. So you asked if it’s come a long way? Oh yeah, it’s come a long way. People used to call up and tell Vanessa take your tit out, and she would take it out and the guy would be right on the phone with her. We had the phone going right into the studio. We’d put the numbers across the screen, it was over on 23rd street in New York, I don’t know if they still do it today but it was the early days of porn. And Leslie and Serena would dance at the end.
Annette Haven, we had them all. Harry Reems, Samantha Fox, Bobbie Astyr, a lot of people remember the old names. Jennifer Welles, Georgina Spelvin. It isn’t just one video and fucking ten guys that are going to make a girl a star. She has to have her look, her own way, a nice wardrobe, her own sweet way about her. They’ve got to win over the public. It isn’t just being a slut that wins over the public. It’s doing something that is going to turn that audience on. And it matters if the girl is in the business because she enjoys it, other than for money, “Well you gotta to give me $20 more or I am not going to do that scene.” [Is a bad attitude] Do you understand what I mean?
AINews: Yeah.
Bobby: Sometimes it is not in the budget. It’s just like a Hollywood movie. If it isn’t there you will still get actors that will do it. Or “I’ll only do it if I’m on the cover.” There are girls – actresses and actors in the business who don’t appreciate the business. They think it is coming to them because they stripped in some bar in Indiana, in a topless joint or a sports bar and used to give hand jobs somewhere, they think that is what this business is. It isn’t. It’s acting. It’s performing. It’s a business. It isn’t a barroom brawl.
AINews: Are you involved with any anticensorship organizations? Are you involved with anything political now, Bobby?
Bobby: Just the Free Speech Coalition. My ex is the president of Free Speech Coalition. Gloria Leonard. Gloria’s a good chick.
AINews: What’s your advice to new talent or new directors? Do you see any trends that would be dangerous for the Industry to follow?
Bobby: Do what’s legal. Stay within the law. That’s for directors. For actors and actresses – for no amount of money do anything that isn’t legal. Like the fist fucking and the shitting. Animals. Young stuff. Because that tape is gonna be around to haunt you. When they show that tape in court, you’re not gonna be able to defend yourself no matter how much fuckin’ money you’ve paid the lawyer is going to cost you 10 times as much. And for these guys that are just getting in the business and doing videos for shock value, I mean vomit, shitting, pissing, animals, fisting, thousand guy cum-shot in the face – try to think of something erotic. If you think that’s erotic, it’s not. There’s a limited amount of audience that looks for that.
For a guy that just got married and wants to turn his wife on to X-rated videos, can you imagine, if he brought a 500-guy gangbang video home and showed that to his wife? With 90 guys cuming in some girl’s face? Say his wife just came out of Michigan somewhere off a farm. It would embarrass her!
He would prefer to show a P.T. [Paul Thomas] movie. Something sweet and lovely. That’s what the new kids with cameras today, don’t understand. They just want to do a movie. Keep drugs and violence out of it. Make it hot. Good camera work, and shoot a LOT ‘a tape. Because the movie’s made in the editing room. That’s where it really IS made. So shoot a lot of tape. An’ that’s the only advice I can give ’em ’cause I don’t wanna give ’em the true secrets.
AINews: The true secrets? Oh, are you saving them for yourself?
Bobby: That’s for the book. When I write the book, I’ll have to leave the country.
AINews: Well, have a good trip, but for now this [interview] is gonna be right up there with the other interviews of Juli Ashton, Danni Ashe, Ariana, Sharon Mitchell…
Bobby: You just brought up Sharon Mitchell. I’ve known Sharon from the first day she got in this business. And I respected Sharon. And I’ve had sex with Sharon…
AINews: You lucky…
Bobby: …An’ I think Sharon is a fuckin’ peach, a doll. Someone who deserves only the best. I’ve seen her on her good days and I’ve seen her on her bad days. It is so good to see her on her good days. Sharon, I love ya. Sharon is doing a hell of a fuckin’ job with this AIDS stuff, of following it up. It’s a tough job. I give her credit and she’s doing a great job. Sharon, you deserve the best. Love ya.
Oh yeah, I’m putting out two more video lines, “Dreamscape Productions” and “New York West Entertainment”. Both will be putting out soft and hard core videos and DVD’s and you can check the website for my new dance wear, lingerie and bikini manufacturing company which is at bodyshopfashion.com and bodyshopxpress.com.
I’ll also be carrying platform shoes sizes 5 to 11, 5 1/2 to 7 1/2″ heels, waist-high boots and you can see them on the website. Next month I’ll be adding two more sites having bondage gear and gay apparel. You can e-mail me at thebobbyhollander@hotmail.com. I wish everybody well and look forward to a good year coming.
