Porn Valley- When it comes to a photo, David Samms is as bad as I am for keeping new ones current. Samms apologizes. Which is okay. Because when guys get to be our age, people would rather see naked pictures of Kayden Kross, anyway, knowing they’re going to be collectors’ items at some point.
Also after various instances of trial and error, Samms, and I discovered that Monday afternoons were extremely good times for the Tortilla soup at Jerry’s Deli in Woodland Hills.
It didn’t take more than once to try it, and Samms has now become a junky for chicken and grated cheese, and our meetings are scheduled to take advantage of his newly acquired jones. It’s also during these moments of quiet reflection over a shaker of salt that Samms, who describes himself as a workaholic and people-person, will probably bring along one of his latest clients.
Then the customers in Jerry’s will play the game and do the resultant double take, wondering if she’s a porn chick or not. There’s something about the way porn chicks look in public settings. You just know they’re porn chicks.
And Samms, whose Beverly Hills-based company, Impact Public Relations, celebrates its first anniversary in October, represents a bunch of them. Like Stephanie Swift and Paola Rey.
There’s more, obviously, on the roster, but Samms sees to it that he doesn’t take on too many clients. Samms has this strong idea about personal service, and he means that in the most professional sense of the word. Whereas I would associate personal service with being a gigolo. But that’s me.
Samms, believe me, is way beyond that. He’s a pro, and Samms, born and raised in LA, has got 25 years in network, local and syndicated TV news which gives him a lot of colorful stories to tell over Tortilla soup.
Besides the fact that he has credentials hard to overlook which helps in the drafting of his client’s stories. He feels these stories must be newsworthy and placeable. And Samms, mercifully, doesn’t put exclamation points after every one of his sentences. But I didn’t ask him about that.
Samms’ former work has taken him to New York and Minneapolis besides Los Angeles. All over the world as a matter of fact. And he’s held news jobs such as producer, assignment editor, director and writer.
“I think Impact Public Relations is probably the only PR agency in the adult industry run by a former mainstream journalist,” Samms ventures to say.
And new potential clients seem to be impressed. I know I am, and I did mainstream shit like that. So Samms feels, perhaps quite rightly, that he’s also the go-to guy for mainstream contacts.
Fresh out of school, Samms landed a job with KNBC then went to Entertainment Tonight where he produced the Leeza Gibbons show for a number of years. He also worked at the Fox News Channel.
“That talk show background is neat because a lot of my clients request that,” Samms observes.
“Did you ever see Leezza Gibbons naked? Just kidding.”
“She’s one of the classiest women I know to this day,” answers Samms admitting that the question isn’t as goofy as it sounds..
“She was very nice to the staff and very involved with that show.”
Samm’s most memorable time in the mainstream was working for Fox Network’s The Reporters back in 1990.
“But Barry Diller eventually got rid of the show because he didn’t like that it was based in New York and he was in LA,” recalls Samms who was 28 and chasing after his next plane connection.
On the other hand, Samms who had been in New York City at another time, hated working for Montel Williams who’s known to be quite an asshole.
“That was the worst job I ever had,” says Samms. “He’s an unkind man. I remember one time in a meeting, he said if you bring family or friends to this office, follow them to the bathroom because there are people out to kill me. And he had bodyguards. I thought to myself this guy’s nuts.”
Samms had notes to bring to our interview, now he can’t find them and has to wing it.
“I’ve been blessed with a good client load,” he’s saying. Samms makes himself available seven days a week at the beckon.
“Believe me many times I’ll get calls from clients on the weekends,” says Samms who’s on perpetual watch.
I ask if that’s to help make smart choices about nail polish and hair stylists, but Samms says, no, it’s not as frivolous as that. He’s telling me this one story about a client who was in Seattle and needed to make a decision about attending the upcoming Nightmoves Show in Tampa. And this wasn’t one of those things that could wait.
“She wanted me to get her on the list as a presenter,” states Samms. “I worked on it that Sunday and she’s quite excited about the event.”
Samms recently did publicity for the Urban Spice Awards. He describes that project as very labor intensive but one that allowed him to meet a lot of nice people.
“What was the challenge in that project?” I ask him.
“Well the fact that no one knew anything about the awards,” he says. “I had to brand it.”
Which meant keeping the show as a topic of conversation and cultivating sponsorships. The Spice Channel also helped inadvertently when it looked like there was going to be an ugly legal battle over trademark infringement, private investigators and possible custard pie tossing if worse came to worst. But I don’t think that happened. And the matter was settled most amicably.
“We added them as a sponsor,” Samms states quite simply. “That was the end of the story, and a very easy matter to settle.”
I wondered what the deal was with the PI’s. Samms said they knocked on doors and went out to see the organizer of the show at her house in Palmdale. I think I saw that episode on The Sopranos.
“The point was made that there could be problems,” recalls Samms. “They got aggressive from the very beginning but the matter was settled quite calmly.”
With times being slow and the way they are, Samms is also happy with the fact that he’s gotten a few of his clients additional photo layout gigs in prestige adult mags like Hustler and Club.
“In the last five weeks it’s almost becoming like a talent agency,” states Samms, although this is not what he specifically does.
“I work with the needs of my clients and the needs of my clients are to find work. They equate good PR with getting work.”
Samms, who worked for AVN for a time as a reporter, feels his two strong areas of expertise are event planning and publicity. That, plus a strong Rolodex. That’s an old PR expression in case the word is foreign to some.
I’m sure, as well, Samms’ reasons for getting into PR weren’t nearly as noble as mine. I got into the trade due largely do this PR guy I was interviewing for a story, named Joe Lennox. Lennox cultivated a flamboyant handle bar mustache, wore handsome three piece suits and had a blond secretary whose round ass not only stretched the fabric of her skirts but the imagination wondering what it looked like under those skirts.
And she wore black pumps without nylons. A very strong argument which convinced me to go into PR. I got to bang a lot of secretaries like that but I withheld a similar question from Samms.
Samms’ reasons for leaving the mainstream and getting into adult were simply the fact he was bored silly. Or this is what he’s saying.
“The adult industry always caught my eye and I had done stories on the industry as a TV journalist,” he notes.
I was curious how Samms and AVN got together. Samms worked under Dan Miller for a spell.
“They had an ad in Craigslist and I was looking for a change in life,” he explains. “I applied and got hired a week later. It was a very good experience.”
Samms was there less than a year and left when the company began downsizing.
“But that was a good experience,” says Samms whose luck didn’t run a whole lot better with another adult company which downsized permanently. That’s when Samms started his own company. As they say, he rolled the dice and said what the fuck; then he ran it up the flagpole to see who’d salute.
Samms got his first client off MySpace of all places.
“I’m fascinated by the adult industry,” says Samms. “And I’m very well connected in adult. But the alarm went off in my head knowing that there were PR firms out there representing personalities. I said I could do that. I have a lot of friends in the business and I love people and getting result for clients.”
Subsequently, Samms began harvesting other clients through cold calls and later by advertising on AdultFYI. He also passes on referral fees for new clients.
“It was fairly easy getting the first batch of clients- I was surprised, and the business just built,” he says.
Samms refers to the ol’ “tricks of the trade” which he often employs to ferret out secret media telephone numbers, emails, pave a way to the gingerbread house or build a better mousetrap on behalf of his clients.
“And I’m a good snoop,” he chuckles. “I was known in the business as a person who could track down any story or anybody. I did a lot of investigating reporter.”
I mention to Samms that he was probably one step away from becoming a detective.
“Somebody once told me I should be a homicide detective,” he laughs.
Samms still keeps contact with his friends outside the business as well as former mainstream contacts. He’s now known among them as the King of Porn.
“That’s how they react,” he smiles. “That’s my nickname now. And there’s been no negative response. In fact, it tweaks their interest. They want to know who I represent and what I do. They’re very interested in the business. I’ve gotten no negative feedback or comments about me going to the lower steps in life.”
“More like the lower rungs of hell?” I ask.
“Right,” laughs Samms.
I ask him if it’s fair to say that he’d be considered nuts for having left the mainstream to begin with.
“Business isn’t what it is in TV news any more,” he says with a ready answer. “I think I lived the golden years. Now you read of layoffs and downsizing.”
“What a lot of people don’t realize is the seriouscutthroat, backstabbing world it is,” I also remind Samms.
“The trend of TV news is hire somebody for the day,” he comments.
“Bring him in the day for no benefits. I’m not interested in that. With my own business I’m my own boss and I escape the economic pressures of TV news. It changed really dramatically.”
Samms will tell you he’s just having a lot of fun, now, and loves what he does.
“I’m thrilled every day,” he says. “It’s an exhilarating experience.”
[You can reach Samms at 818-907-0509