(Note: This story appears in the February 2022 issue of SE Magazine)
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame isn’t Cleveland’s only claim to fame — it’s also home to many of adult retail’s earliest pioneers and freedom fighters, including adultmart’s Rondee Kamins.
When you mention Detroit, Motown and the auto industry come to mind. Chicago is known for blues music and deep-dish pizza. But did you realize besides the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland was the epicenter of the adult retail industry?
Reuben Sturman began selling adult magazines in Cleveland in 1959. Within a couple of years, Sturman was doing substantial distribution of adult products. He began opening adult stores in the mid-’60s and funded numerous early legal battles for adult retail.
At age 15, Rondee Kamins’ father, Mel, started sweeping floors in Sturman’s warehouse after Sturman lost a bowling bet to Mel’s father and agreed to hire Mel.
Mel Kamins went on to buy General Video of America-Trans World News (now GVA-TWN) from Sturman and continued to fight important constitutional battles until selling the company to Rondee.
In the tradition of Sturman and her father, Rondee has been a true freedom fighter. Her longtime attorney, J Michael Murray, who has represented GVA-TWN since 1978, explains, “Rondee is an amazing businesswoman and a First Amendment champion who has grown her company to new heights and fought often to preserve the industry’s rights. Rondee’s early battle against 2257 in the Connection Distributing case lasted 14 years and involved four separate trips to the Sixth Circuit. During that case, the government conducted numerous searches of adult film producers and their records under 2257. When the Sixth Circuit struck down 2257 in the Connection case, that stopped any further searches. Rondee’s case set the stage for the Free Speech Coalition case challenging 2257, which achieved important success.
“In the Annex Books case, Rondee’s 11-year First Amendment battle against Indianapolis’s midnight and Sunday bookstore closure ordinance involved three separate trips to the Seventh Circuit, whose ruling struck down the ordinance and permanently enjoined enforcement,” Murray adds. “These are just two of many important cases Rondee has fought. The entire industry has benefited enormously from Rondee’s diligence and dedication.”
Rondee, GVA-TWN owner, celebrates 40 years with the pioneering adult retail distributor and store operator as this issue drops. SE’s Larry Kaplan spoke with her about Cleveland as a hub of adult retail and the changes in the industry she’s witnessed over time.
SE: Tell me about the adult industry’s origins in Cleveland.
KAMINS: Everybody claims they invented adult. But the reality is, it’s a small world. The Steve Hirsch’s, the Howard Levine’s, my father, and my uncle Joel Kaminsky are all from Cleveland. We’re all from the same neighborhood, and we went our different ways.
“The entire industry has benefited enormously from Rondee’s diligence and dedication.” — J Michael Muray
SE: How have your stores changed since you started?
KAMINS: Back then, stores were all male-driven — a raincoat/arcade crowd. When my father sold me the company, all of the male management left. I explained to the staff things would be much different. I immediately put some women into leadership roles. I purchased Good Vibrations to incorporate their training model because we needed that culture shock. They had doctors on staff, which helped formulate company policy and our training manual, which we still use. We ultimately split the company; Joel got the California stores, and I kept the stores here.
SE: You’re still a distributor on a smaller scale. How many stores were you distributing to 40 years ago?
KAMINS: A lot. Back then, my father paid legal bills for hundreds of stores. After funding many costly battles, I decided several years ago to concentrate on our stores and not mass distribution. I don’t want to warehouse every company. We still have a few old-time customers. We make a lot of our own stuff now for our stores.
I continued to fight the battles Reuben and my dad fought until I downsized the distribution. Some of my career highlights were meeting Harry Mohney and Larry Flynt and when Phil Harvey sent me an email after winning with Mike Murray on my 2257 case to go to the Appeals Court. The fact these freedom fighters reached out to me was so amazing.
Larry Kaplan has been the Legal Correspondent for ED Publications for 21 years. Mr. Kaplan is a broker in the sale and purchase of adult retail stores and adult nightclubs and the Executive Director of the ACE of Michigan adult nightclub state trade association. Contact Larry Kaplan at 313-815-3311 or email larry@kaplanstoresales.com.
