Page 78 - AVN January 2013

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ut it wasn’t just the production values that got bigger;
the venues did too. What started off in a small
meeting room eventually moved to casinos like Bally’s,
the Riviera, The Venetian and even Mandalay Bay.
“I think the pinnacle was the year the awards were
at Caesar’s Palace,” Byron said. “I think Paul had gone
to the Hot Video awards and saw what they did there, so he
thought the AVN Awards really needed to one-up those. There
was a full-spread buffet; it was at Caesar’s and people were really
starting to take notice. There were Hollywood celebrities that were
starting to come to the awards, and it became kind of the racy
thing to do.”
Byron said it was the 1990s when performers and studios really
started to take stock in the awards and give them weight. They
started to mean something, and helped validate performers,
directors and more.
The AVN Awards have changed throughout the decades, as has
the industry. One tradition Byron misses is being able to receive
the trophies the night of the ceremony, he said. “They were those
big, heavy trophies with those gold winged ladies on them,” he
said, referring to the “Woody” trophies of old. “There was a sense
of satisfaction when you could walk around the casino with those
after the awards. If you won four, you could carry two in each
hand and really feel superior. People knew you won, and that
really meant something.”
Director and company owner Jules Jordan also remembers
those heavy statues well. He first came to the Vegas awards show
and AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in 2000, as he was transi-
tioning from Pleasure Productions on the East Coast to a new life
in Southern California. At Pleasure, Jordan said, “I would whole-
sale DVDs and in my off time I would shoot movies.” When he
went to Vegas in 2000, “I was still by myself, weighing the
options. It was a time of uncertainty.”
What he found at AEE and the Awards show was “a Disneyland
of porno. Everybody had these giant booths. I think half of the
San Fernando Valley was there.”
By the following year, Jordan was working at Evil Angel. This
time at the show, he won his first award. “It was a movie called
Heavy Metal, and it had Lexington Steele,” he said. “All anal, all
interracial and one guy throughout the whole movie, which hadn’t
been done at that point.” The ceremony was in the ballroom of
the Venetian, Jordan recalled. “It was lined with photographers,
you couldn’
t move. It was a huge media event. It kinda like
showed me how seriously people take the industry, by it being this
gala event.”
He added, “One year I won six or seven awards … it was the
second year that I was with Evil Angel. … There were so many I
couldn’t carry them out of there.”
>>
AVN CELEBRATES III DECADES
Winners Circle Hustler founder Larry
Flynt, top left; Debi Diamond, top right.
Belladonna, bottom left; Chi Chi
La Rue, bottom right.
P Pa au ul l T Th ho om ma as s | | P Pe er rf fo or rm me er r/ /D Di ir re ec ct to or r, , C Cl la as ss s o of f 1 19 97 74 4
W Wh ha at t w wa as s y yo ou ur r f fi ir rs st t m mo ov vi ie e? ? CB Mamas , for the Mitchell Brothers.
W Wh ha at t j jo ob bs s h ha av ve e y yo ou u d do on ne e? ? I’ve acted, of course, and directed, and produced, and written. I was the West Coast publicity director for Swank Publications for 12 years.
F Fa av vo or ri it te e m me em mo or ry y o of f A AV VN N A Aw wa ar rd ds s S Sh ho ow w: : Oh, goodness. [laughter]. All those "I won the Awards" and "the clever things I said" are so boring ...
About 15 years ago ... I was there, and I went to my hotel room with one of the actresses and we were going to have a threesome after the Awards. We brought with us a woman who was a
director—she was a highly ranked executive at the time—and we had imbibed this and that, various illegal substances, and we were starting to get it on, and this female executive turned
out to be a male. Which itself was interesting, not necessarily a total turnoff but it affected me. I really knew this person. Knew her for a couple of years. Everyone thought that she was a
she, but she was a he. It led to various interesting repercussions.
FEATURE
L La ar rr ry y G Ga ar rl la an nd d | | C CE EO O, , E El ld do or ra ad do o T Tr ra ad di in ng g C Co om mp pa an ny y, , C Cl la as ss s o of f 1 19 97 74 4
W Wh ha at t y ye ea ar r d di id d y yo ou u s st ta ar rt t w wo or rk ki in ng g i in n a ad du ul lt t? ? In the mid 1980s Eldorado picked up Kama Sutra at the L.A. Gift Show. We then added Topco and Doc Johnson. Eldorado was founded in 1974
selling Indian Jewelry and in January of 1975 we stated selling smoking paraphernalia. By August of 1989 we became a full-on sex toy distributor.
F Fa av vo or ri it te e m me em mo or ry y o of f A AV VN N A Aw wa ar rd ds s S Sh ho ow w: : I remember sitting at the 1998 AVN Awards Show as a guest of Jane Liszewski of Topco. I sat next to Dyanna Lauren, who won Best Actress – Film
that evening. I was impressed with her personality and beauty, of course, but I was most impressed with her voice when she went on stage and sang for the crowd.
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