SEXIS WRONG

But as we talk further, he appears to soften. He knows that
everybody wants to see the stuff and that managing it is a
massive chore.
“It hasn’t been used well,” he admits. “There’s so much
there. We’re just discovering 16mm films we didn’t even
know we had. We definitely need help. I would hope people
start coming along to help us. It’s so much better
than what you see on the Internet.”
I press if there are plans to display any of it,
and surprisingly, he agrees. “It really ought
to be available to people. We have enough to
open a museum now. We’re talking about it.
We can do it anytime. We have the financing.
The problem is finding the place.”
Over the years, the Institute has dribbled out tiny portions
of the Archive. Several items were displayed in a late-1960s
erotic art museum in San Francisco. Videos have been produced
using excerpts from the bank of porn films. More recently,
100 vintage posters were shipped off to the Smithsonian
for an exhibit.
He firmly believes that the Archive is important, even sacred
history, whether it’s old posters, brochures from 1920s
swinger groups, or 8mm loops of gay porn. One reason why
he chooses to spend a lifetime surrounded by smut may
come from the fact that his church originally assigned him
to stamp out this very material. Turning one’s back on strict
religious devotion often manifests in sexual ways—count
the numbers of failed Catholics in strip clubs and porn films,
for example. Perhaps collecting and preserving smut has in
some deeper way become McIlvenna’s way of releasing the
binds of the church. And then there’s the pride of possession,
of simply having more than anyone else.
His weariness for most everybody else in the field is obvious.
Researchers and filmmakers have borrowed countless items,
he says, and never returned them. Or never paid for them. Or
returned them damaged, as was the case with props used in
He firmly believes that the Archive
is important, even sacred history,
whether it’s old posters, brochures
from 1920s swinger groups,
or 8mm loops of gay porn.
the film Boogie Nights. The current crop of porn-film producers
and stars, in his eyes, doesn’t compare to yesteryear’s.
It’s changed for the worse. The older people who gave the
industry some depth aren’t around any more.
We continue chatting. The conversation turns to the topic of
celebrity actors and actresses appearing in porn films—Barbra
Streisand, Sly Stallone, Marilyn Monroe being the most
well-known. Who is in possession of such artifacts? Ted Mc-
Ilvenna is. He knew the Los Angeles man whose life goal
was to collect all such footage, and he has since come into
possession of these films and more. The Institute supposedly
has all of them—every one of them—locked away in the
Archive. It’s hard to imagine a safer place.
Endnote
1. In fact, as of May 2005, he’s still there.
THE ARCHIVE 89