Serve the People Porno

Memory: September 12, 1987

In 1987, I held an auction in my living room. It started out as a housecleaning crisis and turned into the most efficient way I could get rid of over two hundred X-rated videos.

I’d collected a surplus from my two years of work as Penthouse Forum’s movie reviewer, and I couldn’t stand them cluttering up the house any longer.

“Let’s give them away!” I said to my lover, Honey Lee. “We can make an event out of it.”

Back then, you designed a paper flyer and went to the print shop when you were ready to throw a party!

“Serve the People Porno,” my invitation read.

“You are part of a select clique of sympathetic pornophiles invited to clear out my video surplus. Be prepared to be discriminating. We’ll play you excerpts from all the tapes and provide dicey commentary to assist in your choices.”

I divided the tapes into industry-genre categories: Amateur, Bimbo, Yuppie Couples, Gay, Interracial, Kinky, Spanish, Japanese, Star Vehicles, Auteur, and Transsexual. Yes, that was really what they were …