"Blue Skies and Green Lights" In the Clinton era, Porn Flourished

PBS Fronline ^ | 2003 | Editors

[Helms]

"Blue Skies and Green Lights" In the Clinton era, Porn flourished

"Blue Skies and Green Lights" In the Clinton era, porn flourished -- propelled by new technology and new gonzo porn producers.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/porn/etc/script.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/porn/view/

NARRATOR: Law enforcement officials believed they had actually put the pornography genie back in the bottle. Then in the early 1990s, federal porn prosecutions essentially stopped when a new administration with different priorities took over the Justice Department.

JANET RENO, U.S. Attorney General, '93-'01: What we tried to do is to take the resources that we had and establish priorities. I suppose somebody could decide to use all their resources for obscenity prosecutions and not for other matters. It seems to me, clearly, that national security and human life free of violence are two very important priorities.

NARRATOR: Under Attorney General Reno, federal prosecutions slowed dramatically, and the obscenity task force effectively went out of business.

PAUL CAMBRIA, Pornography Industry Attorney: As a result, the industry burgeoned, and numbers and numbers of companies sprouted up everywhere to meet the demand because there's a huge demand, from millions to billions, and to also take advantage of the fact that there really weren't any prosecutions going on.

MARK CROMER, Hustler Video Producer: And when Clinton comes in, it's definitely blue skies and green lights and fat bank accounts.

NARRATOR: Mark Cromer is one of the beneficiaries of porn's new-found freedom and riches.

MARK CROMER: I'm somewhat, I think, of an anomaly in the industry. I am a writer, a journalist by trade, a college-educated journalist, who came to porn just a few years ago by selling Larry Flynt a concept.

NARRATOR: Cromer and Flynt produce a series called Jail Babes.

MARK CROMER: Jail Babes tapped into American's dual fascinations with sex and crimes. We blended that rather seamlessly by using women who had committed- you know, real criminals, and interviewed them about their crimes, what they did in jail, how it worked, and then their sexual fantasies, and then filmed them having sex.

["Jail Babes"]

WOMAN: Everything happened- all the sex happened in-

MARK CROMER: Her cell.

WOMAN: Yeah, in the cells.

NARRATOR: As the adult business flourished in the '90s, many of the new pornographers arose from the Hollywood culture itself. One of the industry's new millionaires is Adam Glasser.

ADAM GLASSER, President, Seymore Inc.: I went to high school with Rob Lowe, Robert Downey, Jr., Sean Penn, Chris Penn, Holly Robinson, Charlie Sheehan, Emilio Estevez. They all went to my high school. So I'd visit sets. I mean, you know, cameras this big, and lights that you had to have cranes operate and crews in the hundreds to make a movie. Forget about it.

NARRATOR: Then one day, Adam went to the set of a porno film.

ADAM GLASSER: This guy walks in, and he has this little hand-held camera, and this old man that barely could see two feet in front of him taking still shots. And they made the whole movie in one day. So for me, it completely changed my view on- you know, it was possible- it seemed possible to me. And so from that day forward, I really- I said, "I'm in the wrong business, and this is the business that I want to- that I want to get into." And I slowly but surely gravitated and made my way into the adult industry.

NARRATOR: Adam's company is a family business. The treasurer is his 70-year-old mother, Lyla.

LYLA GLASSER: To me, it's not- it's a business. I think that, basically, this industry has very nice people, even though people expect differently, for whatever reasons.

NARRATOR: This family business grossed two million dollars last year. All over the San Fernando Valley on the outskirts of L.A., young Larry Flynt wannabees made millions by taking sex to the outer limits.

[Helms]

LIZZIE BORDEN : When I was a child, my step-father was an alcoholic. So I think I had, like, deep issues, and this is kind of therapeutic for me, is to take my aggression out on other people. So in a way, I'm exploiting people. I'm taking all my inner demons and aggression out on them. But it's good for me. So I guess that's all that matters.

[Moleman]

Pictures of Jenna Jameson plase :-)

[SedVictaCatoni]

And 9/11 proved that, yes, law enforcement really did have higher priorities than chasing pornographers.

[antiRepublicrat]

Law enforcement officials believed they had actually put the pornography genie back in the bottle.

Were they really that stupid? The people want it so the people will get it, period. It's just like the drug czar thinking he can stop the drug trade, heavily prosecuted for over 30 years without a hint of success in sight.

[TheBigB]

One that's actually postable...

[Helms]

And 9/11 proved that, yes, law enforcement really did have higher priorities than chasing pornographers.

Clinton failed on both counts.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

JANET RENO, U.S. Attorney General, '93-'01: What we tried to do is to take the resources that we had and establish priorities. I suppose somebody could decide to use all their resources for obscenity prosecutions and not for other matters. It seems to me, clearly, that national security and human life free of violence are two very important priorities.

"But we didn't really want to do that. So we stopped prosecuting pornographers and went after policemen, law-abiding Americans, and that whacko in WACO," Janet added.

[dmz]

What a hoot.

Is there anything that *cannot* be blamed on Clinton?

Wasn't the Atkins diet craze of the 1990's? Clinton's fault.

Rafael Palmeiro leaving the Orioles? Clinton's fault. But with W in the WH, he's back.

Jerry Garcia, a victim of Arkancide?

The rise of Hootie and the Blowfish? Again, narry a word about them on W's watch.

[Moleman]

Good Man!!

[TheBigB]

To each his own. I prefer Kelly O'Dell and Holli Woods. :)

[ThinkDifferent]

Is there anything that *cannot* be blamed on Clinton?

Yeah, this is just silly. Porn has always been on the leading edge of technology. Before the Internet it was VCRs, but I'm not going to blame Reagan for that.