Adult Video News – The Sixth Year (1988)

In 1988, Adult Video News (AVN) started its sixth year with a political bang. It was a couple of years after the publication of the final report of the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography, but AVN’s managing editor Gene Ross was still fighting mad:

“I woke up New Year’s morning. That alone is an extraordinary accomplishment considering New Year’s eve. I was having bad dreams and cold sweats. It wasn’t the DT’s. It was Meese. 

My optimism told me 1988 was chock full of possibilities for the adult industry. I’ve been watching some pretty slick productions come out of the industry as of late. Some lower courts have been tossing out Meese-inspired legal razzle dazzle against video retailers and distributors, and Meese himself is taking the last lap on the Gipper’s merry-go-round. 

I figured by now, Meese, being a ragtag product with an ability to perpetuate its own self-destruction, would have self-served his won extinction. Given Bork, the embarrassment behind the Ginsburg investigation, that minor little flap over a Meese “subsidiary” that was the recipient of extraordinary government grants in the form of contracts, and his latest foot-in-mouth gestures in the Cuban inmate horse manure (the metaphors are mixed, but the mouth is another orifice where the sun don’t shine), you’d figure school would be out for Edwin. 

But, consider this. Reagan is now atotally ineffective commodity, and Meese is a gross disaster. It’s too late in the game for any major roster changes in the administration, and the only thing cither of these two guys will accomplish is go for the cheap goal on the power play. Exhibit Oner Reagan unveils an 11-point legislative package that would expand federal authority to combat child pornography and obscenity.

Reagan said this anti-porn package was based on the findings of the Meese Commission. You know how exhaustive and accurate that monument to bureaucracy was. 

There isn’t a normal thinking person alive who doesn’t detest the thought of kiddie porn. And the scum who perpetrate it, should rot in jail. But the trick, here, is to confuse, by terminology, scum sucldng Faginism with product produced by the adult industry and lump it all under one inclusive prosecutorial umbrella. Isn’t it evident by now that juries are on to that? 

Here’s where it stinks. On just about any obscenity level you can beat Meese and the government. They know it, so now they’re going to use RICO, the all-purpose organized crime buster, to freeze your assets while you’re busy in court protecting your First Amendment rights. It’s happened in Virginia, they can do it in Illinois, and it’s coming to a theater near you. Recent stirrings in Columbus, Ohio and Kansas City, Missouri are displays of the Meese trickle in strategem. Move in, move out and move on. They’ll never know what hit em … they think. 

I wonder what was going through Meese’s alleged mind when he woke up the other morning to find a class action suit filed against him and his buddy RICO by the adult industry.

1988. The fun begins.” 

But don’t worry, the publication still spent the year covering everything in the adult industry, including plentiful film reviews and profiles of industry personalities such as Jamie Summers, Chuck Vincent, Shanna McCullough, John Holmes, and much more…

Copies of the magazine’s early editions have been difficult to find since their first publication, and The Rialto Report is happy to re-publish them and make them available again.

You can find The Rialto Report‘s ever growing library of digitized resources by clicking ‘Library’ in the menu.

Click on the covers below to access the full magazines. Due to the fact that the magazines are scanned in high definition, allow a little time for each page to load. If you are viewing on a phone, view in landscape orientation.

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Adult Video News: The Complete 1988 Issues

January 1988 (Vol 3, No. 1)
(click on cover to view full magazine)

Contents:

-Confidential news line -Feature film reviews including Angel’s Got to Have It, On the Wet Side, and Young and Innocent -1987 AVN Award Nominations -Top 20 sales and rentals –Jamie Summers: How Green Was My Valley -Gay reviews -What’s new this month

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1988 Adult Video News Buyers Guide (Vol 3, No. 2)
(click on cover to view full magazine)

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February 1988 (Vol 3, No. 3)
(click on cover to view full magazine)

Contents:

-Confidential news line -Shot-on-video feature film reviews including Rites of Passion, Lust Weekend, and Ginger Does Them All -Top 20 sales and rentals -The beauty and the beast experiment -AVN: the first five years -A look at softcore video -Gay reviews -What’s new this month

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March 1988 (Vol 3, No. 4)
(click on cover to view full magazine)

Contents:

-Confidential news line -Shot-on-video feature film reviews including Babylon Pink II, Jamie Loves Jeff, and The Night Before -Top 20 sales and rentals -Winners: 1987 AVN Awards -The films of Veronica Hart -Gay reviews -Working the Night Shift with John Leslie and company -What’s new this month

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April 1988 (Vol 3, No. 5)
(click on cover to view full magazine)

Contents:

-Confidential news line -Up the creek with Meese’s paddle -Film reviews including A Taste of Pleasure, Divine Decadence, and Keisha -Top 20 sales and rentals –Chuck Vincent profile –Ron Jeremy at large –Shauna: queen of the adult video jungle -What’s new this month

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May 1988 (Vol 3, No. 6)
(click on cover to view full magazine)

Contents:

-Citizen Holmes: the life of John Holmes -Confidential news line -May releases and reviews including The Wild Brat, Sensual Escapade, and Making Ends Meet -Top 20 sales and rentals -Gay news & reviews -What’s new this month

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June 1988 (Vol 3, No. 7)
(click on cover to view full magazine)

Contents:

-Quality vs Price: at what cost? -Confidential news line -June reviews including Dy-Nasty, Good Evening Vietnam, and Satisfaction Jackson -Top 20 sales and rentals –Robert Bullock: quality actor -Wet water bikini high heel babe -Gay news & reviews -What’s new this month

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July-August 1988 (Vol 3, No. 8)
(click on cover to view full magazine)

Contents:

-Bisexual video: a new genre emerges -Confidential news line -July-August reviews including Conflict, Outlaw Ladies II, and Dirty Laundry -Top 20 sales and rentals –Pachard vs. Seven -Gay news & reviews -What’s new this month

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October 1988 (Vol 3, No. 10)
(click on cover to view full magazine)

Contents:

-Gossip -Confidential news line -October reviews including Fistful of Bimbos, Screwdriver, and Real Men Eat Keisha -Top 20 sales and rentals -United States of America vs. free expression -Gay video -What’s new this month

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November 1988 (Vol 3, No. 11)
(click on cover to view full magazine)

Contents:

-Gossip -Confidential news-line –Senator Heinz, are you awake, are you alive? -AVN top 10 free speech assassins -November reviews including Sweet Spurt of Youth, So Deep…So Good, and The Pillowman -Top 20 sales and rentals -What’s new this month –Ona Zee: last in the phone book, first in love with the industry -Gay video

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December 1988 (Vol 3, No. 12)
(click on cover to view full magazine)

Contents:

-Gossip -Confidential news-line -AVN top 10 free speech assassins -December reviews including The Nicole Stanton Story, Power Blonde, and Prom Girls -Top 20 sales and rentals -What’s new this month –Megan Leigh profile

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