The Fight Against Crime: Notes From The Front : To X-Rated Biz, Temblor Was Hardly a Jiggle

For those who contend that the Northridge earthquake was an expression of divine wrath at the San Fernando Valley as the national capital of the sex video business, think again. The studios that produce the adventures of cheerleader nurses were shaken up, but not enough to prevent a swift recovery.

Pornographic tapes are a $3-billion-a-year industry in the Valley. Northridge, Chatsworth, Canoga Park, North Hollywood, Van Nuys, Reseda, Pacoima and San Fernando are home to about 65 production, duplication and distribution companies, many of which suffered damage ranging from cracked walls to trashed video-duplicating equipment.

Hardest hit was VCA Pictures, the Chatsworth-based industry giant. VCA incurred damages of “$1 million and counting� when the roof of its DeSoto Street warehouse fell, according to Russ Hampshire, the company’s president.

But recent reports of a Sodom and Gomorrah-style destruction of the sex-film trade were greatly exaggerated, say industry people and the police officers who investigate them.

“It shut them down for about a week,� said Detective Bob Peters of the Los Angeles Police Department, who heads the five-member Obscenity Enforcement Unit, commonly known as “Porno.�

“I don’t think they’re going anywhere.�

Police estimate that about 80% of the 4 million X-rated videos distributed nationally are made in the Valley, and they account for about 11% of all video rentals nationwide.

“This whole thing that it’s God’s retribution for having the adult video industry in the Valley, well, I don’t think God brings death on anybody,� said Hampshire. “Nobody in the adult industry died. The adult industry is here to stay.�

Consider such very recent titles as “Naked Goddess,� “My She-Male Valentine,� “She Quest� and “Strap-on Sally.� Their release was delayed--but not denied--by the Northridge quake, according to Paul Fishbein, publisher of Adult Video News, an industry trade magazine.

Even though VCA’s home of five years, an innocuous-looking warehouse at 9650 DeSoto St., was red-tagged after the quake, it took only a week for the company to set up housekeeping in another warehouse nearby on Deering Street.

Hampshire said widely publicized reports that a security guard had been trapped in the rubble of his building were untrue. When the quake hit, Hampshire said, the guard “just took off� running. “I don’t blame him. We were just concerned because we couldn’t locate him.�

VCA’s product line includes the popular “Cheerleader Nurses� and “New Wave Hookers� series.

Fishbein said Cinderella Distributors and LBO Enterprises also suffered damage during the quake, mostly to video-duplicating machines. But like other Valley businesses, they cleaned up the mess and called their insurance companies.

“What’s an earthquake, really? Nothing,� Fishbein said. “The government couldn’t put us out of business, so we aren’t going to let an earthquake do it. There’s a certain toughness to the people in this business.�

Nowadays, police keep an eye on X-rated video makers, but they watch from farther away than they did a decade ago, said Detective Robert Navarro, who spent 10 years in the porno detail. The legal standards changed when the home-video boom of the 1980s brought the naughty nurses from the porn-movie palaces to the bedroom.

In jaded Los Angeles, at least, adult videos lost their shock value. Prosecutors became more reluctant to file charges. And the X-rated video makers settled in the Valley, where, despite the occasional earthquake, they are still happily ensconced.

The Valley is, as they say, Hollywood-adjacent, with access to camera technicians, film labs, apprentice directors and the ever-replenished supply of can’t-quite-make-it starlets.

“They’re here because the land is a little cheaper. The rent is a little cheaper,� Navarro said.

And because a sizable segment of the public can’t get enough of cheerleader nurses. Says Hampshire: ‘We’ve had over 500 million rentals. That wasn’t just one guy in an overcoat renting all those.�