May 05, 2000 12:05am
AINews Exclusive: An InnerView of Bobby Hollander
Source: Adult Industry News
by: Steve Nelson
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 when 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?
"That's
all herbal drugs similar to Viagra"
 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. 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 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 [video] line. 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.
Bobby:
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?
"You can look at three different scenes from three different filmmakers
of just a blowjob, and you will see three different techniques."
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 Stagliano, Michael Cates, Joey
Silvera, John Leslie, Rocco, 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 tThe
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 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're
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!
"The movie's
made in the editing room"
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 dancewear, 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.
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