Back in 1985 I was offered a 'clerks' job (at the age of 60) in a bookstore in San Diego. Turned out the bookstore was a hard-core porno shop. In those days San Diego had over a half-dozen such mainline hardcore sexshops - all of them belonging to the same national distribution of printed-matter ''syndicate' owned and operated out of Toledo (Ohio). What an education that was!

I had worked in non-sex publishing and film-making jobs prior to San Diego. So I was keen to learn to what extent the hard-core porno business was utilizing these legitimate techniques and art forms to enhance the newly thriving SEX TRADE. Frankly I found the makers of hard-core books, magazines and films (i.e. videos actually) pretty much the JUNK END of publishing and film-making trades. `Most of the hard-core productions were manufactured out of Hollywood by nonprofessional writers, photographers and directors. Junk for Junks sake more or less.

About a year later I found myself living back in London (England) where I had lived mostly throughout the '60s and '70s. Being of a ''retiring age' by then I didn't attempt to find new work but lived manly off my old-age pensions (military and social-security). However I did voluntary work at the local 'library' where I lived; they needed someone to operate their video-equipment to cover ''social events' (such as putting up of a plaque on a house where someone famous had lived or died).

During weekends I was allowed to keep the video camera at my flat in South West London. The UK at that time had NO hard-core-sex industry of its own to speak of. The Brits were unlike the rest of Europe and only dealt with soft-core porn. Whereas, for instance, in Hanover (Germany) they were producing much of the sex-production products that circulated throughout Europe.

I took advantage of this lack in the UK of any hard-core productions and began making my own homemade productions for personal use with the equipment loaned to me by the local library . My experience with sex for most of my adult life was primarily with grown males. So I began recording these private sessions on simple VHS tapes.

The type of male that I was usually attracted to were generally 'happily married' males with 'families' who happened to enjoy SEX on the side with other MALES - if and when convenient and possible. None of these partners seemed to object to my 'taping' our sessions because there was no PORN INDUSTRY as such anywhere in the UK. So it was unlikely that anyone would ever know or see these tapes except those who appeared in them.

A Capricorn friend of mine named Ray who lived on the South Coast of England in Bournemouth began subscribing to a new hard-core magazine emanating out of California called CHIRON RISING. Ray suggested one day that I send a sample video tape copy of my home-productions to that magazine. This was because CR was dealing with MATURE MALES and not the silly younger TWINKS that were normally used in the porn Industry.

It was the late 1980s by now. CR contacted me when they saw the first videos made in my flat in London and requested a full-length compilation (possibly 90-minutes). So I proceeded to edit what I had recorded up until then and sent it to them.

CR 'reviewed' the first ever 40-Plus Production Volume 1 tape positively. That began the whole business from this end. We soon got some video-equipment of our own and began making better productions. But ours were not like those FACTORY type videos the porn industry were mass producing. Rather ours are still in the homemade style using older and mostly 'married' males who are mainly middle-or-older aged.

Centaur magazine also reviewed our productions favorably. Over the past decade or so we've managed to record over 10 Volumes. Most of our customers are from the USA - with a scattering elsewhere in places like Japan, Australia etc.

One of our early, younger close friends who has known us since the San Diego days named Victrola has now taken over the reigns of 40-PLUS Productions. Victrola continues to promote and supply our productions (from his San Francisco base) and take it into the digital age.

Keep in touch. You won't be sorry you took an interest in our all-male hardcore Entertainments. Although I am pretty old by now (almost 80 ) but I'm still around and available for any inquires or suggestions you may have about 40-Plus tapes we've made in the past and those to come in the future. Best wishes from FRANK GARBO.