Bill Amerson

Starting circa 1969, Bill Amerson became a pioneer and a mogul of sorts in the world of hardcore adult filmmaking. Up until then, adult films were mild by even today's television standards, and were sold in back alleys and shown in seedy storefronts. Amerson's work took hardcore to the next level. In 1970, at an office near the Crossroads of the World in Hollywood, Amerson met a young, scrawny actor by the name of John Holmes and a 20-year partnership was born. He became manager, mentor and ersatz "big brother" to the budding porn king. A couple of years later, pioneering director Bob Chinn came on the scene, and Holmes' breakthrough role as the infamous detective Johnny Wadd was born, a role that changed the industry. Behind most of Holmes' successes was Amerson, charting the path. Later in 1985 Amerson and Holmes led the industry, kicking and screaming, into the practice of mandatory AIDS testing. Sadly for Holmes, this all came too late for him, and he passed on in 1988 from the disease. Amerson, one of the founding moguls of the adult film industry, eventually dropped out completely, and served for a while as a drug abuse counselor in California. He is now serving as manager of a club near Hollywood.