He purchased Marche Manufacturing, a rubber molding business on Lankershim Boulevard that specialized in Halloween masks. So in 1976 he made the exodus to the Valley. Braverman was running Sturman’s European enterprise when it dawned on him that the booming sex toy market in Europe could be the next big thing in the States. Ron was no spring chicken to the game, previously partnering with the infamous Reuben Sturman, the “Walt Disney of porn.” Sturman was a Jewish gangster with heavy mob affiliations and an empire of pornography distribution channels. Along came a thickset Cleveland man named Ron Braverman. With hidden studios and easy talent, industry professionals concluded that the sun-drenched suburban enclave was the perfect place for the sticky underbelly of entertainment. In the 1960s and 70s pornography offered particularly attractive job prospects as studios began shipping larger productions abroad and the mainstream television and film industries dried up. Located just twenty miles north of Hollywood, the Valley’s proximity helped create a main vein of talent. But when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. The Valley: strip mall bars, good falafel, and porn. It was an unspoken understanding, a mainstay. Growing up in the Valley, we never really questioned its affiliation with porn. So it should come as no surprise that sex toys are a $15 billion industry, one that I feel a special kinship with – not because I myself am a goddamn animal, but because we both spawn from the Porn Capital of the World, the San Fernando Valley. We’ve been frolicking with them in one form or another since first gaining fine motor skills. The penis is literally a physical fountain of life! But at the end of the day, men love their peckers for one simple reason: it’s our oldest toy. From Egyptian obelisks and Greek columns to skyscrapers and rocket ships, the phallic form has represented power since the dawn of mankind. Dicks are the truest extension of a man’s personality. And why shouldn’t we be? Just look at them: equal parts silly and solemn, each shaped with the uniqueness of snowflakes and capable of burgeoning to astonishment or retracting to embarrassment. Even before I had the slightest idea about how it worked, the power it possessed, or the respect it commanded, I was - and still am - obsessed with my cock.
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