August 18, 2019

"I have bawdy house coins from whorehouses in the 1860s... One coin says, '10 cents for lookie, 25 cents for feelie, 50 cents for doie.'"

Said Ralph Whittington, quoted in "Ralph Whittington, erotica collector extraordinaire, dies at 74" (WaPo). What do you have to do to become noteworthy for your porn collection? Whittington — whose job was as a curator at the Library of Congress — amassed and carefully catalogued a huge collection of pornography.
For years, he stored his trove — which included thousands of items, from 19th-century 'bawdy house coins' to magazines, videotapes, photographs, dolls and devices — at his Clinton, Md., home, which he shared with his mother..... Mr. Whittington noted 86 separate categories.... "To be blunt, most people buy for their own gratification. But I would spend money on stuff I didn’t even like. I like high heels and big legs, but I collected everything — except gay porn and child porn."
Maybe there's a Ralph Whittington of gay porn somewhere.
"I have one film from 1913 called ‘Free Ride,’ which is supposed to be [the] oldest film they’ve found in the U.S.” He had a copy of the first commercial sex videotape sold to the general public, a version of “Deep Throat” playable only on an obsolete Betamax machine. ...
He didn't collect — I don't want to use the word "digital" — computer porn.
In 1999, Mr. Whittington sold most of his materials to the Museum of Sex, a professionally curated institution in New York. Before three 16-foot trucks hauled away almost 10,000 items in 848 boxes, his house was packed from floor to ceiling. Videotapes shared space in the pantry next to cereal boxes, and sex tapes were stacked in his mother’s closet....
Mr. Whittington, who was a consultant to the Erotic Heritage Museum in Las Vegas and the now-defunct Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco, sometimes mocked academics as people who “will read nine books on brothels and write the 10th one and never go to a brothel.”...

For a fee, an adult-film star named Chessie Moore offered members of her fan club the opportunity to make an explicit videotape with her. As Moore’s husband ran the camera, Mr. Whittington directed and took part in the action. Moore later autographed her spike-heel pumps, which Mr. Whittington added to his collection.
Here's a little documentary about him:


King of Porn from Jeff Krulik on Vimeo.

24 comments:

Ralph L said...

100% inflation from a 2 bit whore. She'd better be good.

rhhardin said...

I'd think the king of porn would be Larry Flynt. He said on Imus that commercial porn is very successful and nine of ten of those movies are his. High production values.

Or what's-his-name, Al Goldstein.

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/20/nyregion/al-goldstein-pioneering-pornographer-dies-at-77.html

"Al Goldstein, a publisher who took the romance out of sex, dies at 77"

Karen of Texas said...

"What do you have to do to become noteworthy for your porn collection?"

Looks like he did it; and come on. Lived in Clinton? That is too perfect.

tim maguire said...

For a fee, an adult-film star named Chessie Moore offered members of her fan club the opportunity to make an explicit videotape with her.

Hmm.... Not on tape, illegal prostitution. On tape, art.

rhhardin said...

Hmm.... Not on tape, illegal prostitution. On tape, art.

The distinction is probably that it's actually work, retakes, shot out of sequence, retrials, in making porn. Neither of the couple is interested in the other even if they were at first. It's actually a movie production problem.

The deal would be to get in under that as a pretense. And have a memento.

David Begley said...

He lives with his mother. Government employee. Not surprised.

Darrell said...

And since about 2000, nobody had to spend a cent to view more porn than they can ever make use of. The internet makes a fool of Ralph Whittington.

rhhardin said...

Dagen McDowell claims that commercial porn is much higher quality than internet porn, the latter being good for nothing. But that's a woman.

Low standards vs high standards probably works out better than medium standards all around, for survival of the species. At least before low standards looked like the best choice to the one side.

Howard said...

Blogger rhhardin said... The deal would be to get in under that as a pretense. And have a memento.

Special Guest Staring... Robert H "Bob" Hardin

bagoh20 said...

Worthington and his home looks like what happens if a man's mental development stopped at 14 years old.

bagoh20 said...

Once I had a girlfriend who for our first date planned by her took me to the Museum of Sex in Las Vegas. 5 years later, we're still together.

buwaya said...

Imagine the trouble liquidating that collection.
We are having enough problems with our stuff.

William said...

I've heard of dumber hobbies. On their deathbed, no one ever said I watched too much porn. Many rock climbers, while not saying it on their deathbeds, felt that they spent too much time rock climbing.

tim maguire said...

rhhardin said...The distinction is probably that it's actually work, retakes, shot out of sequence, retrials, in making porn

I never understand why some people think adding details makes it different. It doesn’t.

Krumhorn said...

An oldie but goodie....

“Sketchy Guy Who Works at the Adult Bookstore says:

Every day I see people with no Purpose and no Happiness. Society dangles its various baubles in front of them, but just always out of reach. Porn is not theirs for a brief moment of Happiness: it is their way to say I Exist: these people, in these films, they are doing this for ME. I give THEM Purpose…

You can tell where people are at on their Slow Descent by the amount of Anger in the Porn they choose. Simple sex with smiling women mostly devoid of tattoos: the man has not completely given up Hope. Hell, these could be College Girls, on a lark. All Good Fun. Perhaps something could Change for these men, just maybe…

Then comes the tattooed girls with the scared eyes and the sloppy deep-throat gagging: Change, it ain’t coming for them. THIS is how Life is: a giant cock forced down your throat, farther than it ever should decently go. The man can watch this, and for a brief moment, feel HE is the one with the relentless cock: he is the one forcing it deep into another’s throat. This is not Happiness or Purpose, this is a temporary relief from Anguish, a relief that ends as soon as the used Kleenex is being thrown away…

Then there are the ‘rape fantasies’ and the ‘gang-bangs’: abandon Hope Ye Who Watch This. Though they probably do not recognize it as such, these men have entered Existentialist defeat: the World IS an endless series of cocks forced into every orifice, the World Is a Face pushed down hard into a stained pillow…

I see this, and I ring them up. When I don’t see them anymore it is generally one of two things: they have died a lonely death, or they are at home on the Internet, searching out even harder and harder shit, and vaguely worried about the FBI finally coming to their door…

Making these transactions does not give me Happiness or Purpose: it just gives me the money necessary to stay out of Prison — which is Purpose enough for me. As far as Happiness: there is almost always a woman at the bar at the end of the night who is fascinated by the ex-con bad boy allure. And while our night together isn’t True Happiness, it will do until Change comes…

There is a reason why I tell customers the bathroom is Out of Order...


I am Laslo.”

- Krumhorn

mockturtle said...

You can always tell a woman who's had her lips enlarged. They don't fit with the rest of her face.

Sebastian said...

"The internet makes a fool of Ralph Whittington."

Among others.

Birkel said...

Nobody needs to collect those two categories.
The FBI has it all.

Krumhorn said...

But I would spend money on stuff I didn’t even like. I like high heels and big legs, but I collected everything — except gay porn and child porn.

A new version of Dumbo was recently released. Maybe he could add a copy of that to the collection. Here’s how the inimitable Laslo Spatula put it awhile back:

“Sketchy Guy Who Works at the Adult Bookstore says:
This sweaty young hipster comes into the Store, and asks if I have any 'films' of someone who looks like Lena Dunham getting fucked. He's hoping for anal, but will take whatever we got...
I tell him I don't know, he is free to peruse the 'Fat Chicks Fucking' aisle -- it's right under the sign that reads 'Fat Chicks Fucking'...
"She's not THAT fat," he says in an admonishing tone.
"Sure," I say, nodding. "There's a perfectly fine girl there. Underneath the emotionally-comforting layers of fat."
The customer turns on his heel and heads to the aforementioned 'Fat Chicks Fucking' section, and reviews the many 'films' available. I don't spend much time straightening the shelves of that aisle: I just alphabetize the 'A' section -- Anal, Ass, ATM -- at the front and let the customers sort out the rest. Maybe they would like it organized by ascending weight, I don't know...
So the hipster comes back, disappointed. "All those girls are FAT" he says, shaking his head. "Lena is only chubby."
"It's a fine line, I guess. But it looks like you found something."
"Yeah," he says, putting his 'film' on the counter for purchase. "This girl kinda looks like a chubby Natalie Portman," he says -- and she kinda does, if you replace the word 'chubby' with 'fat'...
I look at the cover, and tell him it looks like she does indeed do anal, but with a black guy: some people have a problem with that, I've found since working here.
"What does that matter?" he says, eyes narrowing. "I'm not a racist."
"I didn't say you were a racist. "I'm fine with black hairless balls bouncing off a fat Natalie Portman's chin. Just some people don't want the peas and carrots to touch."
"Can you just complete my purchase, please?"
"Sure," I say, ringing him up. "Do you want to be on our email newsletter? It'll let you know of any new 'Fat Chicks Fucking' items that come into the store."
"I told you, it's not about fat chicks fucking."
"That's right. Chubby is the word: got it. Well, enjoy your purchase," I say, as he leaves in a scrawny-ass huff...
Hipsters: they're going to ruin porn, I can tell...

I am Laslo.”

- Krumhorn

Krumhorn said...

And while we’re on the subject of high heels and big legs, here are some further observations of Laslo Spatula on the subject:

“Sketchy Guy Who Works at the Adult Bookstore says:
I have sympathy for the guys who go straight to the 'Fat Chicks Fucking' aisle: they keep their fantasies in touch with the lowered expectations of their circumstances -- not a bad trait to have, really. Of course, the Adult Bookstore isn't really the place you go to find people full of self-esteem...
Here's the thing: these guys are prepared to find a fat woman sexually attractive, and the sad thing is even fat women will have nothing to do with them. Sure, they may be losers, they may occasionally smell of semen and piss and greasy fast food, but I bet a good woman could clean most of them up...
No doubt many of these fat chicks cry into their pint of mocha chip ice cream at night over how no one wants to be with them, and yet they'll turn their nose up at the guys who actually DO want to be with them: even at the bottom of the pecking order there is ferocious pecking...
One evening at the bookstore there was a guy in the 'Fat Chicks Fucking' aisle who wasn't that bad, at least by guys-in-the-'Fat Chicks Fucking' aisle standards. Meanwhile, there was an obese woman two aisles over, looking at dildoes. They were SO close, and yet they made their purchases and went their separate ways, to their lonely apartments for a night of listless mechanical release and sublimated self-loathing...
All this said, I don't judge, except for the guys who like the shitting-on-girls-in-pigtails videos: I'm afraid they are on their own...

I am Laslo.”

- Krumhorn

Bill Peschel said...

I guess we know now what Krumhorn collects....

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

I was taking a walk the other day and a big white diesel pickup, driven by a pinkish chubby man about my own age, pulls alongside me, and the dude asks me in a low voice if I’m from here and can I give him directions to the nearest adult video store. Well, sure I can. I drive by it on the way to work. It bothered me a little, though. What is there about my appearance that made this guy think I’d be a good person to ask?
I told my co-workers about this and they were insistently pragmatic. The guy probably just lacked decent wifi.

Bunkypotatohead said...

Brave of him to admit being homophobic.

Rosalyn C. said...

From the looks of his bedroom he was more interested in watching porn than in actually having sex. Still, what he did was all legal. Academic even.

I was thinking about Jeffrey Epstein and how his wealth and his egoism was his undoing. How he was able to indulge his fetish for young women because he had the bank account and no one in the elite circles wanted to go against such a wealthy guy. Turns out Epstein could have run his own porn company as a hobby, starring himself and hired actresses who were made up to look like underage girls. That would have legal and he could have called himself an "artist exploring social mores," and donated the films to the MOMA, right?