Source: William Margold
By: William Margold
Cinema Seen by William Margold
It’s hard to be humble when one has been thought worthy of getting the chance to fondle a Golden Flying Penis. The delicately hand crafted Lifetime Achievement Erotic Award will be presented to me on Friday, May 20 at the Night of the Senses Ball in London, England by Dr. Tuppy Owens, and is emblematic for those who “counteract negative attitudes to sex and sex workers by honoring artists and activists who have devoted their lives to making the world a sexier, more liberated place.”
Although toying with the concept of flying over there to accept the honor in person, I trust that whomever does latch onto it for me will care for it long enough to package it up safely, and then post it over to me, so that I can I place it in a prominent position on my stylishly swollen “awards” shelf.
Acquiescing to “commonsensorship”… I fully realized that displaying the trophy on this page might rattle the fragile cages of readers with delicate sensibilities, so I’m running the event’s website instead – www.eroticawards.co.UK – in the hope that bolder readers out there might take a peek at trophy as well as learn considerably more about Dr. Owens, the Grand Jury of Conspicuous Sensuality, and the charity – www.outsiders.org.UK – that will be benefiting from the Night of the Senses Ball.
(In place of a shot of my latest award are shots – with many of my all-time favorite X-rated friends – from adult industry events – that should provide indelible proof that my being honored is fully justified.) What follows are parts of a press release from Dr. Owens’ organization, wherein the basis (dare I say, “justification”) of my award is overwhelmingly delineated.
William Margold’s involvement in the American adult entertainment industry has spanned almost four decades: actor (in over 160 films), scriptwriter, director, agent, critic, activist, welfare counselor…and the voice of conscience… in an industry commonly thought to lack one.
He has devoted his life to the letter X, with an uncompromising honesty and passion, earning him the nickname “PA Bear” from those who he refers to as his “kids” – the overage juvenile delinquents who populate the world of hardcore entertainment. He calls this world “The Playpen of the Damned”…and states, with a great contempt toward a hypocritical society, “That my kids are jacked off to with one hand and then denied with the other.”
In October 1985, he began his testimony in front of the anti-porn Meese Commission with “In a society that is drug-infested, violence-wracked and polluted by chemical greed…no one has ever died from an overdose of Pornography.” He has been a tireless fighter against censorship, serving for over 15 years (1988-2003) as a director of the Adult Video Association and the Free Speech Coalition, for whom his imaginative fund raising items (including the iconic – currently celebrating its 20th anniversary – “Freedom Isn’t Free” flag-raising image) have been the high spot of numerous adult industry trade shows.
Tired of the favoritism that he saw in the early adult film award ceremonies, in 1984 he co-founded, with the late Jim Holliday, the X-Rated Critics Organization (XRCO) to present honors untainted by commercial bias.
And when, in 1989, he recognized that the adult industry frequently had no respect for its consumers, he conceived, with his great friend and love Viper, Fans of X-Rated Entertainment (FOXE), to give the viewers – through legendary annual shows – a chance to meet and mingle with their favorite performers.
But perhaps his most significant creation is Protecting Adult Welfare (PAW) www.pawfoundation.org – a non-profit outreach organization (established in 1994) that provides an umbrella of support for anyone in the adult industry.
His current campaign is “21 in 2012” through which he hopes to persuade the adult industry to raise the age of performing hardcore sexual activities on screen to 21.
Since the passing of X’s first historian, Jim Holliday in 2004, Margold, faithfully adhering to his motto – “There is no future, if in the present, we fail to pay homage to the past” – has proudly accepted the role of XXX’s preservationist, making himself freely available for interviewers and documentary film makers who want to learn about “The Golden Era of X.”
In their book “Once More, with Feeling” Victoria Coren & Charlie Skelton declared of William Margold: “He is pornography.”
