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Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.erotica Bob Tremont, the gay man who was co-owner with his lover of straight-porn colossus Odyssey Video and its gay porn subsidiary, Men of Odyssey, died on Sunday, March 10. I don't know cause of death, memorial arrangements, or anything. Tremont's death couldn't have come at a worse time for Odyssey. Private Video recently cancelled its contract with Odyssey, taking away the company's primary source of revenue. (Private intends to set up its own offices in the U.S. and distribute its material directly rather than through Odyssey or some other company.) Odyssey's straight porn arm is moribund, and the gay porn arm puts only only a few (under five) big-budget films a year. No word yet on the future of the company. Tim Now watch what you say, or they'll be calling you a radical, liberal, fanatical, criminal. Won't you sign up your name? We'd like to feel you're acceptable, respectable, presentable, a vegetable.
From AVN.COM: http://avn.digitalod.com/query/index.cgi?eid=10351&for=news Odyssey Founder Bob Tremont Remembered LOS ANGELES -- Robert Tremont, the founder of Odyssey Group Video and Sundance Associates who may be best known for importing Private into the United States, has died at the age of 58. He passed away on Sunday morning. Tremont had been convalescing in a West Los Angeles hospital for the past two weeks, being treated for pneumonia and liver problems. No cause of death has been announced. Bob East, president of Odyssey, says Tremont will be cremated and there will be no services. Tremont started his career in adult in Denver with the Rocky Mountain Connection, a swinger's magazine about 25 years ago, and the business for Odyssey grew out of interest from readers of the magazine wanting to purchase videos of other swingers in 1990, East told AVN.com. "All of a sudden there were over 400 tapes of amateurs, which then spawned Odyssey as a wholesaler," East says. He adds Tremont had begun to distribute videos from Private Media Group in 1993, despite warnings from those in the industry that European product would not do well in the U.S. (Private has since bought back their distribution rights for the American market.) East says Tremont will also be remembered for fighting for the First Amendment such as allowing one of his features, Body and Soul, a feature done under Odyssey's Pinnacle label, as a test video to determine obscenity, and fought labeling and compliance notifications for personal ads. Arthur Schwartz, Tremont's attorney, says Tremont saw his First Ammendment fights as more cognitive than emotional because of his education. He adds, "That set him apart from most people those days that were involved in the business." Schwartz says he knew Tremont before he was in the adult business, employed a Spanish teacher. "I met him though my daughters who raved about this wonderful Spanish teacher who had really turned their lives around by taking extra time to help develop their skills and personalities and set goals for themselves, so they held him in very high regard," he says. Schwartz adds that he felt Tremont's true love was teaching, and the adult business was an after thought. More important than his business acumen and championing free speech was the respect Tremont held within the adult industry. East says, "The world loved Bob Tremont . . . Everybody [at Odyssey] loved him, and wanted the best for him, because he's one of the most fair, nicest bosses you'd ever have." Shirley Fisher, a receptionist for Odyssey, adds Tremont was "just so real; he wasn't a phony." "Bob is possibly one of the sweetest, most gentle souls in the business," Christian Mann, head of Video Team, says. "He was self-effacing to a fault� but he was really one of the good guys� I really enjoyed his friendship." AVN Hall of Famer Gloria Leonard, who worked for Tremont, says, "He was generous. It happened on the premises of our office, and I was out for six or eight weeks, and they paid me my entire salary, the whole time I was out. There was nothing they didn't do for me; they showered me with flowers, and anything I needed. Bob was the most considerate, genuine, golf-loving character I had ever met . . . He fought the good fight." "A lot of people talk about how someone is the nicest person, or the sweetest person, or the warmest person when they die," Paul Fishbein, publisher of AVN, says. "It's like a cliché. In the case of Bob Tremont, it was all true. He really was one of the nicest, sweetest, most intelligent people you'd ever want to meet. Selfless, giving, all true . . . we all said that while he was still alive. He had one demon - that was alcoholism - and even throughout his alcoholism, he was still a warm, engaging and amazing person." |