from www.adultcybermart.com – Another fine idea I attempted to run by the powers-that-be was the one involving the creation of a porn bar/restaurant in Chatsworth. That, or some place nearby.

Granted,it wasn’t exactly a well-hatched scheme. After all, Vegas had the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino going, and I thought Porn Valley should have something comparable, perhaps on a less extravagant scale, to salute its own industry. So I threw the idea up for grabs. No one had a fielder’s mitt.

In this master plan, there’d be the requisite memorabilia adorning the walls, but the whole idea was to have a colorful and convenient facility to hold award shows and signings and Hall of Fame inductions. Besides the standard restaurant 8 by 10 glossies, back when “slicks” were the rage, personally autographed copies of them would have also been part of the landscape. Lack of imagination would have been the only thing limiting this joint’s scope and character.

Performers and worker bees in the business could congregate in a relaxed atmosphere, talk shop and have food or a drink in a place pretty much to call their own. Instead of going all the way to Burbank for Porn Star Karaoke, this establishment would have been right in town.

[Note: this idea was inspired way before PSK].

Perhaps on sentimental par with Babe Ruth’s No. 3 jersey, the first piece of porn memorabilia to witness enshrinement, had I been calling the shots, would have been Buck Adams’ red frilly formal shirt.

There was never a trade show when Buck [pictured right with Tony Montana] wasn’t wearing it. Redder than a Bloody Mary, if you spotted that thing from 300 yards, which wasn’t a hard thing to do, good chance Jerry Butler was somewhere in the vicinity.

Butler and Adams were joined at the hip. Because you never knew what was going to come out of his mouth, Jerry, wild card that he was, was great company; but Adams would always be my favorite interview. Buck’s stories, particularly the near-death experiences, went way beyond the norms of credibility. Only they were all true.

I’d have also memorialized the papier-mâché octopus that attacked Buck’s wife of two or three days duration, Aspen Brock. The extremely talented Eric Brummer, aka Slain Wayne, designed the prop for a Jim Power’s movie on location, and the cops raided the shoot when neighbors heard Aspen’s screams.

That may have been the last porn movie Aspen ever did [Powers told the cops it was a Sci-Fi film]. It would have been all part of the Porn Valley museum.

And if that group-effort movie memorializing the late Ron Sullivan ever re-surfaces, that would also have been ripe for the collection.

Not necessarily in the spirit of good taste, but no less significant an item, would have been the original copy of Marc Wallice’s controversial HIV test, if only to put the argument to rest, once and for all, that it was forged. It wasn’t.

A curiosity piece though it certainly is, the Louisville Slugger Jim Raphael Mitchell used to send his girlfriend to the ballpark in the sky might be pertinent to Cooperstown, but because of its grim circumstances, it would have been less than welcome at the Porn Valley Museum Bar & Grille. Same goes for the machete belonging to Stephen Clancy Hill.

Sure, the Erotic Heritage Museum in Las Vegas contains 17,000 square feet of items significant to the history of pornography. Except I’ll bet there’s no Buck tuxedo shirt nor an octopus to be found. And certainly no machete.

Just days after owner Harry Mohney slams the former assistant curator with a lawsuit over the appraisal of its inventory, CNBC just happens to do a piece on the value of porn memorabilia.

Paraphrasing the IRS which apparently took Mohney to the woodshed thus prompting the lawsuit in the first place, one wonders how you can even assess or validate the worth of porn memorabilia. Especially in today’s glutted market.

Except the glut is what’s inspiring the nostalgia for porn’s past, according to the CNBC story.

Especially the interest in one-sheet movie posters and press books for porn films from the 1970’s and early 1980’s.

According to Ted McIlvenna, most collectibles hover in the $200 to $500 range, but rare items, such as the original poster for 1972’s legendary film “Deep Throat,” sell for up to $5,000.

“A lot of the films people are rediscovering is happening because so much of the stuff they’re making now is fast and furious,” states McIlvenna, a Ph.D. and president of The Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. McIlvenna is also curator of the Erotic Heritage Museum in Las Vegas, by the way.

McIlvenna, an 80-year old former theological professor, claims to have over 3 million items, filling 34 warehouses.

Another piece that would have remarkable collector value is contained in the World Erotic Art Museum in Miami Beach. Naomi Wilzig is the founder and president of that collection which is said to be worth in the neighborhood of $30M, the most significant item being the giant dildo murder weapon that was used in A Clockwork Orange.

Another curiosity piece is a German-made four-poster bed where the posts are tree trunks carved to resemble the male sex organ.

“It’s definitely a new market, but it’s an evolving market,” says Wilzig.

“People are realizing how important erotic art is to both own and display. People used to cast it aside as sordid, but are now realizing it’s important. There’s no doubt it’s escalating.”

According to the article, a pair of sex toys thought to be more than 200 years old fetched more than $5,300 at auction earlier this year in Essex, U.K.

Today’s manufacturers of high-end sex toys say there’s the potential for investment returns in some of their products, as well. Lifestyle-product makers Lelo and JimmyJane both have offered gold-plated and platinum-plated vibrators, and musician Dave Stewart, co-founder of the band the Eurythmics, has worked with the JimmyJane company to create a limited edition toy.

Although there’s some interest in the Super-8 and 16MM loops, as well as in turn-of-the-century films, it’s generally not a lucrative field for investors, states CNBC.