Porn Valley- Bill Margold gave a great 90-minute interview with the Paul & Mike Show on PervertRadio this week. Apparently the Internet station has resolved some of the problems accessing its archives, and the Margold chat is well worth the investment of time to listen to it. Margold notes that he'll be launching www.billmargold.com shortly but fans can also log in to www.margoldsworld.com as well. Noting Dave Cummings 10th anniversary in the business Margold said Cummings was a very good man who served his country in the armed services. "And is now serving his country again." Margold was asked how many cherries he's popped in his own career. Margold says he takes credit for about 500 sex scenes and about 500 that he doesn't take credit for, that in the Seventies he was a "stud stick" until he got tired of doing it.

"It was very depressing to watch the guy I was working for stand there, and feel totally inadequate." Margold made the decision at the end of 1979 not to do it any more. "I earned my keep and I knew that I was good enough not to have to worry about doing that function to do it on cue. That was cool and I had nothing more to prove." Margold noted that when he started directing movies he'd demand that male performers hang in there until they got off. "There's very few things more psychologically shaming than failing in front of your peers." Margold went on to say that he couldn't remember the last time he's had sex with the lights off that he and Viper used to fuck during the day which was much more fun, that she was quite spontaneous.

Margold said it was more of a matter of Viper discovering him. "She came into my life April of 1986. She is the most important person. She was so incredibly special in my life. She taught me that I had a heart because she broke it." Margold admitted that when he took a gander of Viper's tattoos that he'd have problems doing things for her, i.e., getting her work.

"But as the industry learned about her they realized she was something way ahead of her time." It's Margold's opinion that had Viper come into the industry now, with all it's aberrations, she'd be the queen. "Now the industry has gone back in the gutter where I feel it belongs and Viper would be captain of the ship. She was so far ahead of her time." With her capability of doing double-anals, and double-vags, Margold said Viper was Gumby. Paul thought that Viper was the first tattooed lady but Margold corrected him that it as Janey Robbins who preceded her. "I always wished that Janey and Viper got together in at least one scene to see whose tattoo would rub off."

Neither did Viper have an opportunity to work with Tori Welles who Margold believes is the hottest woman ever in the business. "She's the most incendiary and volcanic woman in the history of this business." As far as the premier stud, Margold's of the opinion that there was none better in the modern era than TT Boy. "The man is Neanderthal in his sexuality and that's exactly what you need to be in today's market."

Margold was also quick to point out that he's not the historian of the business, that that distinction goes to Jim Holliday. "I'm the practorian," said Margold. "I'm the only person who can practice what I now preach. I did the hardcore that I now talk the history of. But Holliday know more about the history of it- the legends, the stories and the anecdotes. That's Holliday's forte. He's my cosmic brother. It may well be an analyzation but the best friend I've ever had. I'm lucky to know this man for over a quarter of a century."

Asked if it was hard to make friends in the porn business, Margold said it was more of a matter of being hard to keep them. Margold notes that proteges and disciples will turn on you. "When they think they know more than you know, that no longer need you." Margold said he was "allowed" into the business by people like Reb Sawitz and the late Titus Moody. "They allowed me to learn without asking anything for the lessons."

It was Paul's contention that a lot of listeners might not know who Margold was talking about. Margold explained that Sawitz who ran PGI until her retired, used to run an agency called Sunset International in Hollywood. I met him in the Summer of '72. I said give me your office and go away. In March of '73 he did and I established my own legend by running his office." Margold mentioned some of the performers who came through there- Amber Lynn, Bunny Bleu, Pat Manning, Jennifer West, Tiffany Clarke, Kelly Nichols, including Serena "my first great love and became my adopted sister." But the biggest name of all, said Margold, was Seka. "She walked into my office and said I want to be a star." Margold recalled saying to her that he'll start her off as hamburger and work her up to filet mignon.

"Seka was as good as she looked," said Margold. "I had the opportunity have sex with her a couple of times on camera. They were exquisite adventures. I worshipped Seka." Margold was also quick to point out that first and foremost he's been a fan. "I'm absolutely intimidated- in many cases- of who helped make this business what it is. I'm humbled in the presence of a person like Jamie Gillis, John Leslie, Paul Thomas. I'm certainly in the presence of Marilyn Chambers or Annette Haven or Kelly Nichols or Vanessa Del Rio. These are legends. The modern people I'm not as humbled in front of.

"There are no real legends that are working today that I know of," Margold continued. "Except for the publicity-created legends. Tera Patrick is a very nice lady. Jenna Jameson is a great kid. But they're not Ginger Lynn and they'll never be Ginger Lynn." That's because, said Margold, the people who made the business what it is, "took the time to give a damn." Margold said today's performers are coming in and giving nothing back.

"Occasionally one of them may or may not donate something to it or look like she's doing something magnanimous for the business."

Margold's of the opinion that the problem with the business is that it's no longer quality. "It's all quantity." With the hallmark of video, Margold's also of the opinion that the business lost touch with its creative edge. Margold then started talking about the Freeman decision and noted that he wrote the movie Caught From Behind that got busted thus prompting the court fight that resulted in the decision.

"I booked the location that got busted," he said. "Freeman wanted to be busted. Freeman wanted to be a martyr and he became a martyr. It cost him his life." Margold said that during the trial, Freeman contracted stomach cancer. "That corroded him inside. He died shortly after. He shriveled up and died." Margold described Freeman as being in the wrong place at the right time. "But he did wonderful things for this business." On another occasion, Margold said he and Freeman had fights all the time in the making of California Valley Girls. "I was directing it and he was getting in my way. I didn't like that. I was working to get that damn film done."

Paul noted, quite rightly, that Margold fights with a lot of people. Margold agreed that he'll fight with anyone who gets in his way. "I'm trying to get my job done, and a lot of people are horribly jealous of the fact that I can't be bought."

In one illustration Margold pointed to a fiasco last year involving the Free Speech Coalition. "There were people on the board who said that if I resigned, they would get a $100,000 from my enemies." Margold felt he did the right thing by resigning. "And they haven't gotten a penny and I'm coming back with a vengeance." Margold said there's some extremely insecure people on that board. "They're frightened of me for God knows what reason because I don't want anything that they have. I just want to be left alone to make them money and create for them." Margold claims anything the FSC has done in the past 15 years has come out of his mind. "With a few minor legal situations I've created everything of any value for the Free Speech Coalition, asking nothing for it."

Margold notes that in 1998 they forved him to accept money but he resisted. "Which I gave back but then I got used to it. I didn't like getting used to it." If he comes back, Margold said it will be at a modest rate. "But there are people on that board who are just there to see their name in print." Margold said he once referred to one of the former board members as "an avaricious bovine."

"She knows who she is," he stated. "She's not even the executive director any more but she's truly out for herself and to see her name in print. And she referred to me as a media whore."

As far as Margold's concerned, it's better to be a whore than a has been. Margold said he's done nothing to the Free Speech Coalition. "But they're ruined a year of my life. And I am not happy." According to Margold, all he does is tell the truth and a lot of people can't handle it. "I have no reason to lie."

Another good thing about telling the truth, according to Margold, is not having to remember your true statements. "Once you start telling lies you get tripped up literally in your lying mistakes." In one of his patented Playpen of the Damned philosophical spiels, Margold, referring to Max Hardcore as a tragedy waiting to happen, stating he had a conversation with Max about who was going to hell. Margold's belief is that it's people who damn the industry that'll be there first.

"Max is truly a tragedy waiting to happen," says Margold. "It'll be interesting to see what happens in the next couple of months no matter who wins [the presidential election]."

Margold also pointed out that he's promoting a campaign called Porn Needs More Bush. "I want to put the fur back in fornication. I'm a great fan of pubic hair. I'm calling for a regrowth within the industry. I'd like a contest where- if people want to stage it- I will give teddy bears to each of those contests." Margold also talked a little about PAW, an organization he created when Savannah killed herself. "I was really taking care of the kids way before that." A sidebar developed as to whether people in the industry hate the industry. Paul was of that opinion. Margold's view was different. "They hate themselves, not the industry," he states. "And the Internet is layered with people who despise themselves. That's the unhappiest group of people that I've ever met in my life."

Margold has often voiced the opinion that the porn age limit should be raised to 21 and has felt that way ever since he spoke in front of the Meese Commission in 1985. Overlooking the fact that he lost a debate on KSEX a couple of months ago to Quasarman, Margold also said he was willing to challenge anyone in the industry to a "write-off" on a given topic. "The loser has to leave the industry." Among his other bold notions, Margold wants to propose a national day of dueling. "On July 4th, you get to choose and enemy and get to fight a duel without any form of legal ramifications."

Margold's of the opinion that people hate him out of a sense of jealousy.

Back on the subject of Viper, Margold admits that was his one area of vulnerability. "She's been gone for 13 years and I miss her every day," he says. "I worshipped her because she was my best friend." Asked what happened to her, Margold said, for one thing, Viper insisted on having implants and feels she became infected with implant schizophrenia. "When you start sticking rubber balls and bags of water...and stuffed animals and leave them there for over nine months, the body and the mind says what are you doing here."

According to Margold when the body tries to spit the foreign material out, the person becomes schizo. "And Viper went mad. Absolutely mad." Not to mention the speed she was on. Margold said Viper also got tits because she wanted people to think that she was stupid, a bimbo.

The argument was offered that people would hate an industry that would cause people to think that way about themselves. It was also Margold's belief that because he and Viper was so perfectly matched, it led to a lot of jealousy. "A lot of people were very unhappy that we were so perfectly matched."

Paul asked Margold if he had a hard time with women in his personal life. "I don't have a personal life," Margold replied. "My personal life is the industry. I've long since given up the concept of another relationship. My primary function in this business now is protecting adult welfare. Once I find out a weakness about somebody, it would be incestual, and quite frankly, perverted. If I'm taking care of them, I certainly can't have sex with them. Perhaps I'm doomed to a life of contented masturbation which is what I live through on a regular basis. My left hand has been my best friend since I was 13 years old. It's a cheap date."

Margold figured he was throwing enough soundbites out there for his enemies to jump on, but probably wouldn't give them the benefit of the doubt of responding. "My enemies- there's enough of them to go around. Gene Ross and I have been through the wars together, and at this point in time seem to have an amiable truce.

"I loathe, understandably, Mark Kernes," Margold went on to say. "That's a name I'll put out there to kick around like the deserved rubber ball that he is. I refer to him as Humpty Dumpster. He is a tragedy waiting to happen."

Freely volunteering Kernes information, Margold talked about a recent review Kernes wrote involving a movie directed by Jim Holliday. "Holliday allows me to play mentally deranged characters. I played, essentially, Mark Kernes as blowhard twins, Dexter and Lyle Bellows in a movie called She devils in Pink."

Margold said in its lack of intelligence, AVN assigned Kernes to remove the movie. "Kernes watching the movie, wherein it's so obvious who I am, never mentions me in the review. There's something wrong with that logic- that you would either accept it as a perverse compliment that I'm playing him so brilliantly- of course, as an incompetent boob. But that's what he is. Or, take himself out of competition reviewing it and give it to somebody else."

It was then suggested that because maybe with word limit constraints, that might have been what happened.

"But you wouldn't leave someone out playing you," Margold argued. "Not the way I played him. That's the specious value AVN has, because here's a role that I'm very proud of and a role that I played so well that I almost had a heart attack playing it because I got so locked up in the role and couldn't get out of it. I was a stammering, nervous, suspender wearing bloated man with a toy camera, ashamed of being caught in a girls' locker room. And I think I was very good."

Repeating the fact that Kernes was a tragedy waiting to happen, Margold recalled an instance where Kernes made the fatal mistake of telling Anita Cannibal, who Margold has supreme regard for- "Kernes has the audacity to tell her that I go out of my way to hurt the performers," he continued. "She came to me with tears in her eyes saying is it true? Of course it's not true."

Margold said he went so far as to attempt an mediation with Kernes over it with both Cannibal and Paul Fishbein present. "To which Kernes said to Cannibal, 'why should I?' That's an essence of contempt that not only deserves a day of dueling but a thorough beating out in the middle of the street. There are certain people you can no longer reason with- you just beat."

There was way more in the Margold interview but we'll continue that for another day.

story in progress