Campaign contributions of the REAL porn industry

[mongo]

To counter all the misinformation that the "porn industry" gives money to repubs when it is the CABLE companies and HOTEL chains making the contributions.

This info was kind of hard to find. Many people in the industry publish under pseudonums.

But here are the contributions of the owners of the BIGGEST companies in the industry (from fundrace.org):

Steven Hirsch - owner of Vivid pictures
John Kerry $1,500

Philip D Harvey -owner of Adam & Eve
DNC $10,000
John Kerry $2,000

steve orenstein - owner of Wicked Pictures
DNC $1,000

Larry Flynt - owner of Hustler and LFP productions
Dennis Kucinich $2,000
DNC $1,000

Who knows what they did through the Free Speech Coalition or other venues. My wife recalls reading that Larry Flynt gave the DNC 10K but maybe it was during the previous election cycle.

[bilgewaterbill]

1. Can you provide a link for this info? nt

[mongo]

2. Here's the links

Steve Hirsch http://www.fundrace.org/neighbors.php?type=name&lname=hirsch&fname=steven&search=Search+by+Name

No employer info but the address is in the right spot 2nd entry on the screen

phil harvey http://www.fundrace.org/neighbors.php?type=name&lname=harvey&fname=philip&search=Search+by+Name

Harvey is now a lobbyist and a supplier of condoms to Africa. DKT is one of his companies

Steve Orenstein http://www.fundrace.org/neighbors.php?type=name&lname=orenstein&fname=steve&search=Search+by+Name

SBO pictures is a parent company of Wicked pictures

Larry Flynt http://www.fundrace.org/neighbors.php?type=name&lname=flynt&fname=larry&search=Search+by+Name

[bilgewaterbill]

7. Thanks, Mongo.

This info was totally unexpected. I don't know why, I'm just surprised.

[Tempest]

3. It makes sense

Democrats are pro-free speech and Repugs want to take it away.

But look at the distribution channel of porn, they support Repugs.

You've already pointed out the companies with the largest viewers, cable and hotels, support Repugs.

Viacom, for example, supported Bush and they control several distribution channels for porn.

[mongo]

4. But that's not the porn industry

It's like saying that I'm a conservative if I don't check the party affiliation of my customers before selling them a movie, or that Rupert Murdock is a liberal if F911 is shown on pay-per-view direct TV.

The porn industry are the people whose PRIMARY business is producing, distributing, and selling sexually explicit materials.

It's like saying that the cable companies are liberal because they comedy central and MTV are on their systems.

Or that American Electric power is a renewable energy company because 2% of their generation is wind power when the rest is coal, oil and gas

Here's a thread that paints the "porn industry" as wolves in sheep's clothing because of this report. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3255505

[Tempest]

5. The porn industry wouldn't exist

If there were no distribution or cable deals.

I'm not saying there wouldn't be any porn, but there wouldn't be enough to consider it an industry. It would be regulate to a niche market.

[mongo]

6. There was an established industry before cable TV

Magazines and 8mm film loops go back to the 50's, and naughty postcards were a BIG industry from 1870 - 1930.

In the 40's through 60's there were traveling Stag men, who would exibit these films at your local moose or eagles or lions or what have you mens club. My landlord, a WWII vet remembers this well.

The Golden Age of porn started in 1972 with the movie Deep Throat. At that time there were already established adult theaters and all the adult bookstores had peep show booths.

The mass marketation of the VCR is attributed to porn. As well as the adoption of VHS over BETA.

The industry makes more on video sales than on cable deals. They actually see little of the profit from the pay-per-view deals.

Niche market my ass.

[Tempest]

10. There was no industry before distribution channels

I thought I made that pretty clear.

The distribution channel for porn wasn't created until the 1970s. And it wasn't created by the porn industry.

The very first porn movie which saw mass marketing through non-porn controlled distribution channels was "Behind the Green Door".

Deep Throat wasn't widely distributed until long after it was out. It was only shown in L.A. and S.F. when it first came out, on the Mitchell brother's owned theaters. The Mitchell brothers wouldn't allow it to be distributed until after the success of "Behind the Green Door".

You can go to lukeford.com for porn's entire history, including the distribution and cable deals.


Cable helped increase the market long after the fact.


If you remove the non-porn controlled distribution channels and cable deals, porn wouldn't be as available as it is now. Period.

[mongo]

15. If the point you're argueing is that

"If you remove the non-porn controlled distribution channels and cable deals, porn wouldn't be as available as it is now. Period."

Then I'd have to agree with you. Porn wouldn't be as available as it is now without my 2-bit store either.

But porn had it's own distribution system which was in place before the 70's and it was the VCR that created the industry's explosion. To this day, the hollywood movie distributors (video and DVD distributors, like ingramm) do not handle porn. Porn is distributed through it's own channels, the biggest players in the business being the legacies of Ruben Sturman's empire.

From lukeford.com (not the best authority on the subject)

Still photography began in 1827 and motion pictures in 1894. Five minutes after each invention, claims producer David Friedman, a woman posed naked before the latest male toy. Actress Louise Willy disrobes in the 1896 French film Le Bain. Other French flicks before the turn of the century offered similar fare while in Germany, producer Oskar Messter revealed women taking off their clothes, exercising, dancing or bathing.

As with the development of other forms of communication such as writing, drawing, painting, printing and surfing the Internet, for example, pornographers led the way in the popular application of moving pictures. They made sex flicks known as stag films.

"Stag" as an adjective means for men only. Thus a stag film is a film for men only - meaning a film of graphic sex. Stag films frequently appeared at stag parties - parties for men only.

...
Born in 1924, Reuben Sturman, the godfather of porn, grew up in Cleveland's East Side, the ambitious eldest son of immigrant Russian Jews who ran a grocery. The future leader of "Kosher Nostra" served in the Army Air Corps during World War II, then attended Western Reserve University before marrying and starting his own business. Using his home as a garage, Reuben drove through Cleveland, visiting candy stores and selling comic books from the trunk of his old Dodge. His business grew by the late '50s into a wholesale magazine company with warehouses in eight cities.

At the suggestion of an employee, the company began to sell sex magazines. Once Sturman realized they produced 20 times the revenue of comic books, he wanted to stock every such publication printed. He eventually produced his own nudie periodicals and opened retail stores. By the end of the 1960s, Sturman ranked at the top of adult magazine distributors.

By the mid '70s, Rueben owned over 200 adult bookstores supplied by regional distribution companies with regal names such as Royal News in Detroit, Noble News in Baltimore and the flagship Sovereign News in Cleveland. Though not as well known as Playboy's Hugh Hefner, Hustler's Larry Flynt and Penthouse's Bob Guccione, Sturman dominated porn more than Bill Gates dominates computers. One competitor complained that the Jewish wiseguy did not simply control the adult-entertainment industry; he was the industry.
...
The Adults Only market exploded in the 1960s. "In 1960 there were maybe 20 theaters around the country that showed adult pictures exclusively. By 1970 there were 750. The Pussycat chain built 25 theaters, from the ground up, to show X-rated movies. There were 47 Pussycat theaters in California alone.

From a review of Eric Schlossers book Reefer Madness (which I don't have with me unfortunately) http://www.com.washington.edu/rccs/bookinfo.asp?ReviewID=285&BookID=238

The industry continued to change its bread and butter focus with the development of technology when in the mid seventies the porn film was literally brought home with the invention of the VCR. As Schlosser notes, "by 1979, 75 percent of all the videotapes sold in the United
States were hard-core films" (148).
...

I know that playboy TV was the first cable channel to offer adult entertainment, but I can't find the date it first aired. I believe that it didn't start until the early 80's.

[Tempest]

18. Porn's distribution channel

>>But porn had it's own distribution system<<

Porn's distribution system was peep shows and seedy bookstores catering to the lower echelon of voyeurs.

It wasn't until semi-reputable, non-porn operated video distributors got into the act during the 1970s that pornography took off and became mainstream.


"...by 1979, 75 percent of all the videotapes sold in the United
States were hard-core films"

It wasn't porno companies distributing the videotapes, it was outside (mostly mafia controlled) distribution companies who were behind it.

[mongo]

19. It was mostly Rueben Sturman distributing the tapes

Who, since his business was distributing adult mags, I would have to say was part of the porn industry. He started in comic books but quickly changed to adult. The companies that he started are still around today, and they don't distribute non-adult merchandise. And the mafia didn't get involved until after he had built his empire.

It wasn't until semi-reputable, non-porn operated video distributors got into the act during the 1970s that pornography took off and became mainstream.

Name one distributor (not retail) who carries XXX adult video whose primary business is distributing mainstream hollywood movies. Or name one distributor who carries mainstream hollywood movies whose primary business is adult.

The adult production companies distribute their product though an established chain of adult distributors.

[ultraist]

8. hehe,,,nice work!

Freedom of speech people would NOT support the fundie Repukes. Not sure why people think they would. They also are opposed to the strict codes Repukes advocate for zoning of adult video stores.

[LeftyMom]

9. So instead of donating to the DNC directly

I can just buy porn? I love politics! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[WoodrowFan]

11. buy lots!

just in case!

[WoodrowFan]

12. The Other Hollywood

Mongo, not to hijack your thread, but have you read "The Other Hollywood." If so, is it any good?


http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2005/03/12/porn/index.html

http://mousewords.blogspot.com/2005/03/porn-and-gardens.html

[mongo]

16. Actually I have not read that yet.

[TWiley]

13. Why would anyone in porn support the Moral Supremacists?

I guess I do not understand the "elation" of un-earthing $17,500 in campaign contributions when the last election probably cost $500,000,000, and all this from a several hundred billion dollar industry.

Your whopping discovery pales in comparison to the corporate support of the bushtapo.

Evidently, I fail to see your point.

[mongo]

17. My point

is to counter this thread http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3255505

and 5 or 6 others that have painted the "porn industy" as some sort of wolves in sheep clothing that publicly support dems but give money to repubs, when the report that is cited talks about contributions from CABLE companies and HOTEL CHAINS that happen to show porn.

This is not the same as the porn industry, who are the producers and distributors of adult entertainment.

This especially pains me because I know the trade assocs and magazines actively and financially supported Kerry.

It is another attemp to divide and conqueer, and I'm sick of being attacked by both the right and the left through misinformation and bad science.

[TWiley]

20. I did not know the history.

Frankly, I would have been shocked if any sizable portion the porn industry did support the republicans. That would be like shooting yourself in the foot.

Larry Flint's donaton comes as no suprise. The only shocking part is that the amount is so low.

I would not believe the porn industry would be involved in "sheep in wolves clothing" activities. To me, it would make sense that folks in the porn industry would be very straight-forward.

[WoodrowFan]

14. kick