Founder of Nu-West Departs
by Eve Howard
I am broken hearted to report that Ed Lee, the founderand owner of Nu-West/Leda videos, left this world on
January 6, 2013, at the age of 74.
Most of your boomers reading this will recall where you
were and what you were doing the first time you got your
hands on a Nu-West video. For me, it was twenty-eight
years ago. And it was a life changing experience.
I was working as the in-house editor for an adult magazine
publisher and free-lancing fetish writing on the side. The
company I worked for, Academy Press, also owned
Parliament News, which put out some of the worst
spanking magazines ever printed. But it’s associate
company, Lyndon, home of HOM (House of Milan) was
interested in putting out a better spanking magazine. They
called their publication Spank Hard and I became the
editor, writing under the penname Lizzie Bennett.
In the course of courtesy-reviewing other material printed
by our parent company London Press, I came across a
magazine called The Bondage Buyers’ Guide, which had the
address of Nu-West in it. I had been hearing about Nu-West
videos from the readers of Spank Hard, who were, at that
time, avid letter writers. What they said made me extremely
curious and I went looking for Nu-West videos at my local
adult bookshops, but none of them had any Nu-West
material, which was only available through mail order.
With no other option for obtaining these videos, I wrote,
and got an immediate answer back from Dave. His stage
name was Ed Lee, but I always called him Dave. I had sent
him some samples of the magazines I edited and due to their
remarkably graphic nature and frankly vulgar content, Dave
instantly suspected that I was a male pretending to be a lady.
I sent him my photo, ordered a video, spoke to him on the
phone.
I got my video. It was Debbie’s Fantasies. It cost $89.95.
My mind was blown. I played it dozens of times. I had never
seen a real spanking video before, with a guy spanking a girl
in an ordinary domestic setting. I began to correspond with
Dave and within a couple of months, we were meeting in
person.I had mentioned to the publisher of Spank Hard that
Nu-West also put out publications. Lyndon immediately
expressed an interest in printing and distributing Nu-West
publications and that was how Ma’am Magazine wound up
getting into adult bookstores nationwide. The day Dave
came to L.A. to meet my publisher and set up the deal, I also
met Dave for the first time. I went to the Airtel in Burbank the
night before and experienced my first spanking from an
avowed enthusiast. I had played before, but never with
someone so completely out in the scene. I spent the night
and the next morning, while Dave went off to meet my
editor at Lyndon, he left me a video to watch, Le Fessee. It
was a French softcore film by Burt Trenabaree with about a
young man’s spanking adventures. What fun, at the time, to
get turned onto something like that in the midst of this grand
spanking adventure.
I recall that during one of our first conversations, Dave told
me about being stationed in Hawaii in the mid-60’s and
going to see a movie called The Libertine. This famous
French film has a wonderful spanking scene at the climax.
Dave said he was so riveted that he sat through the entire
double feature again, that same day, in order to see the
scene again. That’s when I realized that our interest in
spanking was identical.
I’m only a medium submissive when I’m on the receiving
end, but how much you can or will take doesn’t have
anything to do with being into spanking. Dave once told
me that I was more into spanking than any woman he had
ever met. This is probably one of the reasons we remained
so close.Over the next few years I made visits to Nu-West,
taking the train from L.A. to Oceanside. Sometimes I’d go
alone, sometimes I’d bring some of my friends from the L.A.
scene, to perform in the videos Dave shot. Dave encouraged
me when I thought of going to work at my friend Stephanie
Locke’s club, Private Quarters. He thought it would be a
great way to learn about the scene and pick up material to
write about. Other L.A. spanking women who wound up
going to film at Nu-West at the same time as me included:
Stephanie Locke, Simon Devon, “O”, Peaches, Christine
Justice, Mischi, Kyrie Kelly, Tanya Foxx and Chelsea
Pfeiffer.
The two most important things Dave did for me was to run
a personal ad in his publication, which led me directly to my
life partner, Tony Elka, and encourage me to start writing m
novels and producing my own videos. Dave literally handed
me Tony’s first letter, saying, "This guy seems nice. You
oughta follow up on this one." And when the time came to
shoot my first video, Tony and Eve, a College Fantasy, Dave
shot it for me and edited it for me and gave me the master.
I’m still selling that video to this day. In return, I shot a video
for him that day that I was in, but I can’t remember which
one it was.
Dave gave me priceless publicity in his magazine and
catalogs. I think in one of the mailings he sent out, I was in
five of the videos. He shot me about a dozen times in total.
I worked with Ann Bowman, Jamie, Kryrie, Stephanie, Jan
Beckwith Lord and of course, Ed Lee himself. This helped
me so much because it gave me credibility when I began
| producing my own videos. Suffice to say, if it wasn’t for Ed
Lee, aka Dave, there never would have been a Shadow
Lane. And by extension, there never would have been any
Shadow Lane personal ads, which enabled so many couples
to meet or any Shadow Lane parties.
To borrow a phrase from Ayn Rand, (who, say what you
will about her, could write a damned hot sex scene), Dave
was a "prime mover" in our scene. He created, he motivated,
he nurtured, laying the foundation for the scene so many of
us utilize and enjoy to the full today.
Dave went into this business because there was nothing out
there in the late seventies, that he, as a genuine spanking
enthusiast, could enjoy as a consumer. I think back in ’71,
Dave and I actually wound up ordering the same crappy
pseudo spanking magazine from Platinum with ugly people
spanking each other with phone books. I was at Vassar, he
was either still in the marines or just about to retire. We
reacted with equal disgust, throwing it straight in the trash.
As soon as he got out of the service, after two tours in
Vietnam as a master sergeant, he began to produce the kind
of material that turned him on, starting with a male sub
publication called The Cloak Room, shifting into Super 8mm
films of real spankings, then starting up the line of magazines
he became famous for, The Home and School Discipline
Review and eventually Ma’am. When the video revolution
began, Dave was there at the start, offering the first line of
genuine corporal punishment videos. People paid ninety
bucks a tape and were glad to have the opportunity. It was
a revelation. We had never seen the like before. We were
moved, liberated and in some cases, impelled to action. In
my case, it was enough to convince me that I had to dive
into the scene and immerse myself in it completely for the
rest of my life.
Beyond remembering Dave with immense gratitude and
love, I am missing him as friend with whom I corresponded
almost daily. Whenever either of us shot or found a new
model, we’d share our photos and talk about the shoots.
Dave always had the best advice for going on in the scene,
whether you were a dom, sub or switch. I should add that
he helped dozens of spanking ladies with their professional
careers, enabling us, in turn, to continue making our
submissive counterparts happy and satisfied with the scene.
Dave possessed a matchless understanding of his audience
and an enthusiasm for the scene that never flagged until his
final illness took him out for good. Those of us who knew
him well will also miss his keen sense of humor, his creative
energy (he left a legacy of over a thousand videos behind),
his generosity of spirit, his kindness to animals, his
irreverent atheism, his brilliant perceptions about politics,
war and the state of the union. He was absolutely a unique
individual and there will never be another like him.
Eve Howard
Las Vegas 02/14/2013
