Porn Valley- The adult industry lost a very good friend this week in the person of Bill Liebowitz. Liebowitz who was the owner of Golden Apple Comics located at 7711 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, died this week.

If you go to the www.GoldenAppleComics.com website, you’ll find the following: Golden Apple has lost its owner and founder and longtime friend of the comics industry. Bill passed away suddenly early on October 27. All of us are shocked and saddened and we hope you’ll join us in offering our condolences to his beloved wife Sharon and his family at this very trying time. Naturally, we will make an announcement regarding the memorial service for Bill as soon as Sharon and her sons decide. Bill dearly loved the Golden Apple and we thank you again for all your love and support during this difficult time.

I was talking to Bill Margold who has some equally fond recollections of Liebowitz and the part he played in the formation of the XRCO.

Margold: “Big Bill was a huge man and a giant in more ways that one. He took us [XRCO] by the scruff of the neck and kept us in line. He was our production manager and I had essentially gone to him where we created the XRCO. I remembered he had something to do with helping put the production together of the 1984 Olympics. I figured we were a little smaller but we could use his help. His great quote to me is you do it my way or I won’t be involved. He was sort of our patriarch in a strange way watching over us.

We [Margold, Lon Friend, Jim Holliday, Kent Smith, Jim Dawson and Jared Rutter] put the first show on at Gazzaris but we would never have been able to do that show without Liebowitz. He’s greatly mourned. He was an unbelievable friend of the industry. He was a patron. I guess that’s the besdt term. He was very generous with his time, very generous with his insight and he was one of the original people given the XRCO jacket. He was in his late Fifties I would think. He was a huge man, a giant, 6’5″ something like that. I have proposed that he be given an XRCO Hall of Fame induction into that Fifth Estate. That’s the least we could do. I would like to name some form of an award after him in perpetuity. I remember his extemely stern hand in guiding us into the right direction. On the first show Liebowitz took it, constructed it, Holliday and I wrote it but Liebowitz controlled it.

I remember him screaming at me when I was trying to sort of look the other way when things were getting out of hand. He was instrumental in the first five shows, for sure. This year he was so sick, unfortunately, he couldn’t even show up to the event at the Century Club.”