Bill Margold to Dirty Bob: The West Coast is Going to Take Back the XRCO

–Gene Ross

Dirty Bob, the current Chairman of the XRCO, raised a few eyebrows this past week by admitting that he had accepted sponsorship of the XRCO Awards from the highly controversial .XXX Domains not realizing until it was too late who they were.

[The XRCO is funded and supported strictly by sponsors, so one half of the argument says Dirty Bob was correct in accepting .XXX Domains money. The other half that decries .XXX domains as a money-generating scam, not working in the best interests of the adult industry, would be less forgiving.]

That controversy notwithstanding, Bill Margold is now telling Dirty Bob flat out that the west coast is going to take back the XRCO. Dirty Bob lives in Ohio, and it’s been argued that he’s totally out of touch with the workings of the adult industry.

“I told Dirty Bob the XRCO is coming back to where it belongs on the west coast,” states Margold.

“While we won’t eliminate him from it, we’ll just put him in a minor role. Dirty Bob has now overextended his stay. Dirty Bob is not the XRCO. He just happens to be a man who was given the XRCO and now it’s time to take it back. But how do you not know what’s going on?”

Margold then answers his own question: “Dirty Bob’s a whore. He’ll sell out to anybody.”

According to Margold, the XRCO was never meant to be some kind of clandestine organization “with secret handshakes and members licking each other’s assholes.”

Margold says this having been told once by Dirty Bob that “I’m about the last person in this business that still likes you. ‘I said oh please hate me. I prefer those who do.’”

Talk to Margold today, and he voices regret that he and the late Jim Holliday began taking a less active involvement in the organization.

“In 2004 when Holliday was really sick and unhappy he said I don’t want it any more. I didn’t know what to do. The XRCO meant well when it began. It was about truth and honor.”

Margold is also highly critical of this year’s XRCO Hall of Fame. And at Thursday night’s John Stagliano-Belladonna induction into the Hustler Walk of Fame, he was openly questioning the selection of director Miles Long to the XRCO.

“I have no idea who Miles Long is,” repeats Margold.

“To this day, I still don’t know. I’ve looked at his picture. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that man. This is not one of the stronger classes of inductees I’ve ever seen, but if that’s what they want, that’s what they get.”

Margold honestly would rather have seen the induction of John Keeler aka Jane Waters who died this past year.

“He’s an award-winning cinematographer and director; and he’s not in.”

Then, again, Margold was less than bowled over by Belladonna’s Thursday night induction believing that such industry luminaries as Amber Lynn and Georgina Spelvin should have been accorded that honor by now and haven’t been.

“Belladonna is indicative of the modern era but she needs to wait another ten years to get the walk of fame,” Margold believes.

Margold refers to Dirty Bob’s explanation about the .XXX domains sponsorship as “an unnecessary blathering mea culpa” about XRCO economics.

“I hate to break it to Dirty Bob, but when we had the XRCO shows we didn’t pay much at all.”

Margold remembers collecting $50 annual dues from the members with no problem underwriting the show, except from one member who refused to pay dues and was kicked out of the organization.

Margold says by bringing the West Coast influence back into play, he’d like to see the return of Jared Rutter.

“He’s in the Hall of Fame, justifiably, being one of the founding members of the XRCO. I miss him and his leveled sensibilities.”

Margold remembers another time when Dirty Bob wanted to put Viper into the XRCO Hall of Fame.

“I told him she was dead. He said I guess that’s not going to happen. In fact I begged him to not put her in the program as passing away. Of course what does he do? He puts her right in the program.”

You are right too about porners being asleep at the wheel on this issue, they were making so much money they didn’t see the internet as a threat and they weren’t interested in spending any money to protect their intellectual property…Then it was too late.

I hear you loud and clear Mike and DWB and totally get where you are coming from because I lived this ‘cancer’ in two careers so please do not think I come from a place of zero knowledge or “that mindset” as you suggested. I understand the issues and have suffered economically too right there with you and many others. However, I am not going to beat up Bob on this issue.

If you or anybody can come up with some sponsors so that Bob can eliminate ICM Registry from the show then count me in for some cash too. However, it would have to happen in the next few days I would think for Bob to be able to make any changes. It might be too late already I don’t know as I have not talked with him. Feel free to email me if anybody can bring some juice to the table. Thanks. [email protected]

Well said brother.

And spot on.

“We are all intelligent adults and I do not think a sponsor be they good or bad speaks for us as an industry just because their banner is up on a wall or their name is in the program.”

That is the exact mindset that has led this business straight into the shitter where thieves and unethical people run (and ruin) what’s left of it, all while being praised by one half of the industry in a sad attempt to get scraps, and the other half looking the other way because they are “intelligent adults” who know such people do not speak for them. The ironic part is, the more everyone ignores them and/or fights for scraps, the closer to being out of a job they become. The sad part is, most are too desperate to even realize it.

Enjoy the show. I’m sure at best there are only a few more of them anyway.

You said, “But by then it was too late. Trophies were ordered etc etc.”

So I asked, how much does it really cost to make new ones? Of course that’s not all that is involved. The point was, if the show is under funded and there is no real interest this year, perhaps the show is over. And if the ordering of 40 trophies was really an issue, maybe you should have just bought new ones. They can’t be that expensive. Claiming not to have known .XXX was the sponsor is a weak attempt at covering your ass. For as long as you’ve done this I’d think a little more due diligence would be put into knowing exactly where the checks came from that you are cashing.

Whatever the case, this is what happens when you do deals with shit bags. We’ve all made a bad deal somewhere along the line. Take your lumps like a big boy. Luckily, the business is incestuous, incredibly desperate, and has the memory of a gold fish, so all of this will be behind you in just a few more days. It may not even take that long.