Source: Tod-Hunter.net
By: Tod Hunter
From the man with the Red Notebook, Tod Hunter: I was talking with Roy Karch at Porn Star Karaoke last week and he told me that he was hitting the 40th anniversary of his participation in the adult business.
I thought that it was worth marking and offered to put this together for him and distribute it.
Roy Karch Celebrates 40 Years in Adult
(HOLLYWOOD, CA) — Producer/director Roy Karch is celebrating 40 years in the adult business next week.
”It was January 3, 1970,” Karch recalled. ”I began a two week stint in live simulated sex shows at the Paradise Club on 42nd Street.”
In 1971, after performing in some loops shot in Bob Wolfe’s 14th St. basement apartment in NYC, Karch moved on to produce and direct ”the Underground Tonight Show,” the first XXX-rated cable-access talk show which led to FCC action and the Supreme Court’s upholding of its ruling that public access cannot be censored by cable TV companies.
The ”airwaves now officially belonged to the people.” ”The Underground Tonight Show” featured guests including Marilyn Chambers, Betty Dodson, Jason and Tina Russell, and director Gerard Damiano and accounted for over 150 hours of programming shot over a three-year period.
During this time, Karch also produced ”Eros ’75”, the first American sex festival. It was modeled after the European sex faires of the ’70s and attended by over 4,000 people. Eros ’75 included the presentation of the first adult awards ever given on U.S. soil, called the ”Tonguey Award” by the New York Times. Winners included rock performer Mick Jagger, Playboy executive Christie Hefner and ”Joy of Sex” author Dr. Alex Comfort.
In 1979, Karch directed the first direct-to-videotape adult production, ”the Reincarnation of Serena,” for Gourmet Video Corp, where he later became sales manager, running a four-man salesroom as well as producing and directing videos.
Starting in 1980, Karch established Roy Karch Productions. Producing some 5000 sex scenes, all written, produced and directed under the Roy Karch Productions or the JellyRoll Company banners. Karch has produced as many as three videos per month for clients including Adam & Eve, Wicked Pictures, Sin City, Bad Seed, and many other major adult labels. Roy’ s company has provided content for broadcast, pay-per-view and VOD markets, including the Playboy Channel, Spice Networks and Hustler TV during the past two decades.
As sales manager and producer/director at Gourmet Video, Karch opened up both Adam & Eve and Tower Video to their very first XXX-rated product. He directed the first animated pop shot in a live-action feature (”Leave it to Cleavage Part 2”); produced and directed the first XXX-rated 3D video (”the Roll-X Girls”); and wrote articles on the adult industry published on three continents.
From 1995-1997, Karch was involved in producing ”Radio Sex TV,” two one-hour specials for HBO in conjunction with cable TV’s acclaimed sex therapist Dr. Susan Block, and ”the Encyclopedia of Sex and Fetish,” an eight-volume set of sex positive, pro-women and fun instructional videos focusing on topics including ”Feet,” ”Foreplay,” ”the New Bi-sexual Female,” ”Vibrators,” ”Spanking” and ”the Art of Cunnilingus.”
In 2009, Karch produced and directed ”I’m Good at Freaky,” an R-rated independent production fictionalizing and reimagining the last confrontation between a major record producer and an aging actress. Also, he directed ”Jack Me Up,” a music video for Solomon King; viewable on YouTube.
In the last 10 years, Karch’s contributions to the adult industry have been recognized by the Halls of Fame of Adult Video News and the X-Rated Critics Organization, and has received the first presentation of the Lifetime Recognition Award from Xfanz.
Karch operates a membership site, www.roykarchproductions.com, and a mainstream production site, www.roykarch.com. Karch can be reached at roykarch@pacbell.net.
