Porn Valley- The box score on Russ Pasquale is one porn star ex-wife, one current wife, three kids and two heart attacks. Pasquale had the two heart attacks when he was working for Metro. Except Pasquale, who has 23 years in the porn business as a salesman, is now working at Acid Rain with Mitch Spinelli.

Pasquale likes the tranquility of Spinelliland and tells me this is his last stop after a sojourn that took him to Metro then to Lucky Distributors in recent years. Pasquale also had a stint at Wildlife that lasted five years and also worked for Fat Dog.

"Lucky approached me and offered me a lot of money to start a DVD program for them, Pasquale explains. "That was it for a couple of years and time to move on to bigger and better things. Mitch has a good company and very good product. He just needed someone to give him a boost."

Pasquale also had an association with the late Danny Carrelli of Fleshtone Productions.

"I did Fleshtone from my house during my paroles, let's say," Pasquale notes. "Danny was a great guy. He didn't bother me none. He always sent me my money when he was supposed to. But he didn't really know what the hell he was doing. Like half the people in this industry have no idea." By his comment, Pasquale explains that it's the sales people, in his opinion, who really know what's going on.

"We know what people want but you have these owners who come up with the bright ideas that sound good to them," he continues. "They do it, but no one takes time to listen to the salesperson. They're the ones who really know this business and what's going to sell for you. Then when it doesn't work out for the company and their ideas, it comes back to the salesperson- it's all your fault, blah-blah-blah. It's always been that way, but the salesperson is the one that knows what's going to sell."

Pasquale has known Mitch Spinelli for a number of years and they have a mutual friend that worked for Spinelli.

"I called Mitch- he was out of town and it took a couple of weeks to finalize something," says Pasquale. "But it worked out well." Pasquale also brought something to Acid Rain in the form of 20 Hour Comps.

"I did that when I was with Lucky and when I came here I brought the idea to his table and it's given us a huge boost." Pasquale says he was doing maybe 700 of a new release at Lucky but when he got to Acid Rain started moving 2,000 of a title out the door.

"I was able to do it my way," Pasquale says, explaining the jump in numbers. "Lucky had to run things their way and do it their way and let me sell what they put out. Me and Mitch got together, and he's open minded. We're selling like crazy. They're beautiful. People like the titles."

Along with the new releases and 20 Hour Comp line, there's also a 50 Hour line to which Pasquale says lends an added boost to sales.

"Another company that's been doing well with them is Future Works," he says. "And I knew I could move a lot more. And we really did well with them. I only sold half the distributors and I'm out of stock with what I have. I don't even have any more to ship- yet."

Pasquale started in the adult business with Mike Esposito.

"That was back in the 10th Avenue Video days," he recalls. "That was when him and Russ Hampshire were partners. I actually started off in the B-movie business working for Michael. He had his little thing with Russ at the VCA building, and I ended up going to Western Visuals from there and staying in the adult business."

There was even a time when Pasquale got in front of a camera. That's when he was married to Montana Gunn.

"I remember that," I laugh.

"So does the whole industry," Pasquale muses. "I'll never forget it. I'm still paying the taxes on that marriage. I did magazine layouts and did scenes with her." Then it was time to move on he says.

"It's okay- life has changed, now. I got a wife, three kids and other goals."

Pasquale, whose wife is a Mormon, maintains a separate business with her which entails financial services for families.

"Mitch knows about the other business me and my wife are doing," says Pasquale. "He supports it- actually a lot of people in this industry have sat down with my wife and gone over financial planning and enjoy what we do. I work with a company called World Financial Group, so we have a lot going on."

His wife being a Mormon, Pasquale says is wife isn't exactly crazy about the porn business but accepts it."This is who I am, and I've been doing this for 23 years, and that's the way it is." he states.

"So when the other business takes off, that'll be our full time job," Pasquale adds. "But that'll take years before we get going with that."

Asked how he met Montana Gunn, Pasquale ascribes it to bad luck.

"I was working for Larry Fields' Fat Dog," says Pasquale. "I went to the show, met Montana; came home from the show- and three days later she was knocking at my bedroom window. She never left from there on. We were married for two years. But a lot of drugs got involved in that."

For his part, Pasquale's been sober over 8 years.

"I had my troubles in the past, of course," he confides. "When I married her [Gunn] I was sober at the time, and there was a lot of stuff that was coming out about her that I didn't know about or was aware of when I met her. Of course I allowed myself to get back on that path. But today I don't mess around. I learned my lesson."

Asked what got him sober, Pasquale says Soledad State Prison.

"I had enough- I've been involved with Alcoholics Anonymous since 1983 as well," he adds. "It was just time to grow up. I wanted to be a normal member of society."

Pasquale admits that he's done a lot of drugs with a lot of industry talent.

"And I sold it to a lot of talent," he says. "And I got lots of people sober at the same time. It was weird." Before he went to Soledad, Pasquale did four years for fraud.

"It was stupid stuff," he says. "I was off parole then they caught me with a gun with no bullets but they gave me 16 months for possession of a firearm. It was really nothing but that's where I got sober and my head together. It was just time."

After he got out of prison, Pasquale began laying carpet.

"When I was in Soledad I got state certified for laying floor tile and carpet. I did things in prison. I didn't just lay around in the yard all day. But that didn't work. Then I went to work for Jimmy and Ruby at Xcitement Video. I was there for a week, but it was a waste of time. Then I ended up with Fleshtone and then I was at Wildlife for five years after that."

But that was back in the day," Pasquale notes.

"I like to stay put- I don't like to switch jobs. I like to find a home and stay there." Of his stint at Metro, Pasquale says, put it this way, he left of his own accord, noting that sooner or later that's generally what happens at Metro.

"I wasn't fired. I quit. Then I got offered more money from Lucky. I was there for over two years, and it was just time for me to part from them because I could not work with a magazine company trying to put out DVD's."Pasquale has known his wife for 15 years.

"She has 17 years sober," he reflects. "I knew her and her ex-husband. He ex-husband was a really good friend of mine. They were both friends of mine from years ago. He ended up killing himself and she moved to Utah to get away. For five years she lived there and I finally got a hold of her number. It took me about a year but I got her to move back. And then it took me another eight months to get in with her. I had been in love with her for years. Then she finally broke down and we got married- at the [AEE] show. January will be our three year anniversary."

Pasquale says he had no intention of making it a trade show marriage, that it just happened that way. Before he got into porn, Pasquale had a company called Source Entertainment.

"The B-movie business was huge back then," he says. "I was always sales- I have a gift of gab- my whole family, everybody's in sales- my grandfather, my father, my brother, me. The B-movie business was huge but now it's gone. Adult is where the money is at- for everybody."

Pasquale's quick to qualify the fact that his definition of gift of gab doesn't entail being a lying cocksucker.

"You have salespeople and then you have bullshitters," he says. " They're going to lie and tell you whatever they want to sell you. If I've got a bad movie I'm going to tell them it's a bad movie. It's all about gaining a customer's respect. And that's how you're going to gain it, by being honest with them. You don't stretch the truth. You don't bullshit. It's all about personal relationships And this is a small business. Everybody knows everybody. I've put in my time. I know everybody. I've eaten dinner with most of them. It comes easy now."

Growing up, Pasquale was active in sports. "I was okay in school and I didn't do drugs for the most part," he says. "Until my dad owned a niteclub- a huge niteclub called The Shot of Gold on Roscoe & Balboa for many years. He actually owned three branches. He had three different niteclubs. So that's where I started getting into trouble. Talk to anybody, they'll tell you about it. Randy Pasquale's was one of the most popular places in the Valley. That was for 15 years." At the same time Russ started hanging out at the bar

"There was cocaine going around," he says. Pasquale says he had a steady girlfriend of four years at the time, so it wasn't about the women.

"She was my first love," he says. But they never married.

Even if there was more money on the table now, Pasquale says he's happy where he is, and that's that.

"It's not about money, it's about loyalty these days between me and my boss," he states. "Mitch is loyal to me; I'm loyal to him. It wouldn't matter if I was offered a whole bunch of money. I have an integrity that way. Money's a lot. But it's not everything.

"We're planning on going to the show in January and we're taking a lot of new things with us," Pasquale continues. "We've got a really huge booth and we're making some noise. We're already making noise. Things are happening with this company."