Yearnin’ for Learnin’ — part 1
by Lucky One
[With the next AVN Adult Entertainment Expo less than a month away now, we decided to run an article out here that appeared in the risqué members’ section over a dozen years ago. As it turns out, Stormy Daniels did in fact make a substantial name for herself in the industry, and as you prepare to meet the new stars in Vegas, it might be fun — or even useful, perhaps — to read about a success story back when she first got started.]
I hate to start out one of our typically wildly entertaining articles with “educational background,” but I don’t see any way around it here. You’ve come to expect relevance, insight, pithy observation, and overseeing benevolence as we guide you through the swarthy and occasionally sacrosanct world of Adult Entertainment. Or, at least, you’ve learned to just click on the camera at the top of the page and skip all this wordy excess.
That said, let us to the consideration of the Adult Video Contract Player go.
It remains the rare exception, rather than the rule, that a woman decides upon a career in adult movies, travels to Los Angeles, examines her options, and then decides upon a company for which she will provide X-Rated entertainment exclusively. Much more typically, a woman gets convinced (usually by a “Feature Entertainer” or a traveling “Director”) to venture to LA to “test the waters.” She often works for a few months before seeking out a company and offering exclusive wares, or more accurately, not-wears. Contrary to popular belief we’ve run across, a company almost never approaches the performer. This first few months will then become the albatross that the aspiring starlet will carry with her for the rest of her career.
You see, we’ve mentioned before the “Mayberry” nature of our business, and in this small town it doesn’t take more than a few weeks to pretty much meet 80% of the “players” — those being in front of the camera. Well, after convincing one company or another to embark upon an exclusive contractual relationship, the poor girl often doesn’t understand the all too usual reaction from the other actresses in the business. A little bit of our usual insightful brilliance here: The only woman in this business that ever said she didn’t want a contract was one that didn’t have one. Everyone wants security. Everyone wants special recognition. Everyone that chooses to be in front of the camera in our business wants giant posters, and banners, and buses proclaiming to the world their uniqueness. Despite the growth in the manufacturing end of our business, “getting a contract” still means something special.
