LOVED the little piece on Holliday. Must have been written by someone who actually knows that man. 😉
Regarding XRCO an unnamed source sent me the following cryptic information in an email:
evidently a lot of XRCO is being destroyed in infighting. the insider hopes things can be salvaged and told me to keep an eye out for more news. I guess they meant that it’s a bubbling story that’s getting ready to explode.
Thought you might appreciate the heads up.
BTW, I wonder if anyone appreciates the irony that Margold and Holliday — evidently the two instigators of the current (un)civil war within XRCO — are NOT actually qualified to *belong* to that body. Margold stopped writing XXX reviews years ago (and reviewed X in his capacity as a PR Flack) and Holliday had never been published in a legitimate publication prior to the formation of XRCO. If anything, he used his phony title as “historian” to browbeat editors into publishing his crap.
In other words: neither one is a legitimate reviewer of X-rated films!!! Originally, this was supposed to be a club for the regular magazine writers! Neither Bill or Jim actually qualifies, nowadays. Add to that Holliday’s blatant conflict of interest regarding the awards (as a director himself with a vested interest in promoting his product and his company’s product) and you have quite the lack of scruples.
The oft-repeated lie that Holliday and Margold “founded” XRCO is just that: a lie. XRCO was formed by the regular group of critics who used to show up at the Technicolor Building screening room, which was where all the film screenings were held in the mid-80s. These include Bill Rotsler, Scott Mallory, Lon Friend (?? The HUSTLER reviewer at the time), the fellow who reviewed for AVN (name escapes me), a former Adam FILM WORLD critic who now is an award-winning adult director (I don’t know which name he would go by now, but he founded the AFW Directory) Jared Rutter, and Holliday and Margold. But they were NOT the sole founders, nor were they the “power” behind the organization.
XRCO Founding Members:
Lon Friend (HUSTLER)
Jim Dawson (Erotic X-Film Guide)
Carl Esser (Don’t recall mag)
Scott Mallory (ADAM Film World)
Jeremy Stone/Tim Connelly* (associate member)
(was writing for Adult Cinema Review and Video X)
Unknown Fellow, perhaps the AVN Guy* (associate member)
Jared Rutter (ADAM Magazine)
“The Inch” (OUI, Adult Cinema Review, Video X, ADAM Film World)
William Rotsler (ADAM Film World)
Jim Holliday (no magazines, wrote a pamphlet for VCA)
Bill Margold (HOLLYWOOD PRESS, now LA EXPRESS,
but he no longer reviewed X. Very RARELY: Usually
to publicize some new project or actress, which
can’t legitimately be called reviews. )
*Associate members were reviewers without the “longevity” supposedly required.
Technically, they were founding members, no more, no less. But this fact seems to have suffered from “resume bloat” over the years. You would think that these two could rest on their actual laurels and accomplishments without fabricating or gussying up phony claims! Holliday and Margold have
clearly accomplished actual things outside of XRCO.
I have a xeroxed copy of “The X-100; The Greatest X-rated Films of All Time”, and it is utter fanzine garbage. Holliday spent more time conning people into believing that he was the great “authority” on porn than he actually spent writing down what he knew. It, like his book, was financed by Russ Hampshire at VCA, whose ass he has regularly kissed and licked for almost everything that he’s gotten in porn. (If Hampshire’s star ever wanes, watch for Holliday’s to wane as well.)
But Jared Rutter — who has edited the likes of Harlan Ellison, Norman Spinrad, John D. MacDonald, Robert Silverberg and many many more — is supposed to be crucified even though he’s been Chair of the XRCO for nearly 20 years, and has been aware of and covering adult films all the way back to “burlesque” films (titty films) back in the 60s?
Okay meester.
Because Margold and Holliday don’t like Paul Fishbein? (Or, more to the point, because Margold and Holliday don’t like the fact that AVN evolved from a little black and white newsletter at the founding of XRCO — whose reviewer they could patronizingly “allow” into the organization — to the
1000 lb. gorilla that it is today? Are they against success? Or just success other than their own? Stay tuned.)
Thanks man for that well written letter and for the porn history lesson. I too believe that Jared is the best guy for the job and that he always has been. This is little more than AVN bashing, an exercize that both Margold and Holliday seem to relish.
