Adam & Eve, the half-century-old adult powerhouse brand, has conquered all facets of adult business from retail to films to the internet. While much of the credit is due to the business-savvy of legendary founder Phil Harvey, for the past 24 years, Bob Christian has played a vital role in Adam & Eve’s expansion into many of the adult industry’s competitive sectors. As a member of Adam & Eve’s senior management/marketing team, Christian first began working with Harvey 35 years ago, for his direct-marketing vitamin operation that sold to individuals through offers in credit card statements.
In his quarter of a century with the company, Christian more than made use of his MBA from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, as he has been involved to some degree in everything from accounting to marketing with Adam & Eve. Christian’s role evolved to include the head of new business, running Adam & Eve’s movie operation and establishing the thriving retail chain. Today, Adam & Eve has 78 store locations and recently crossed over into Australia with the acquisition of Wild Secrets — the country’s biggest online retailer of adult toys and sexy lingerie. Christian, naturally, served as the lead on the acquisition and its interim management until a general manager was appointed.
I treasure my part in starting our Adam & Eve retail stores company.
If Christian’s work at Adam & Eve wasn’t enough, he also has been involved with the Free Speech Coalition for 24 years, and served as treasurer for seven years. During his tenure with the organization, Christian was on the front lines as the adult film industry fought against 2257 and later defeated Prop. 60. He worked alongside other industry legends like Christian Mann to develop and refine the PASS performer testing system.
After more than two decades of tirelessly working to bolster the adult biz in every possible way, Bob Christian is heading into retirement with plenty of memories and lots of love and admiration from all of his colleagues.
“It has been an honor to work with and learn from Bob Christian for the past dozen years,” said Chad Jenny, Adam & Eve’s national business consultant. “The eternal optimist, Bob has been an inspiration in both his career path and the high regard he is held in by everyone in our industry. Always quick with a joke and great advice, I will miss him being just across the room but wish him the best of everything, he’s earned it.”
Among Christian’s many undertakings with Adam & Eve was establishing the company’s public relations department with Katy Zvolerin heading it up.
"Bob has been an amazing mentor, an inspiring manager and a great friend,” Zvolerin said. “He’s also an impressive drummer, magician, and, I hear quite the tennis pro. Throughout the years, Bob has represented Adam & Eve with integrity, making certain that every production, business deal and corporate decision has maintained the company’s strict standards and represented the brand well. His sense of humor and energy will certainly be missed."
If there’s something Christian’s colleagues will remember him for, it’s his cheerful disposition — or as Phil Harvey simply puts it, “Bob has a way of brightening up the day."
PHE, Inc. President David Groves says that Christian’s absence will be felt in the company.
"Bob is a cheerleader, an eternal optimist and he’s absolutely fearless about taking risks,” he said. “Sometimes, I’m the complete opposite. When things get dark, Bob always brings out the positive and finds opportunity. Adam & Eve is a much more dynamic and entrepreneurial company because of it. The world of Adam & Eve will be a little less bright and a little less cheerful with Bob’s leaving — I’m sure going to miss him a lot."
Christian says he plans to keep in touch with all of his adult industry friends; however most of his newfound free time will be taken up doing the things he loves like spending time with family and hobbies like scuba-diving and treasure hunting.
Before he rides off into the sunset, Christian granted XBIZ one final exclusive interview to discuss some of his most memorable moments, accomplishments and what he’s looking forward to in retirement.
XBIZ: Tell us about the many hats that you’ve worn at PHE, Inc. What are some of the most rewarding moments that come to mind?
Christian: Adam & Eve has given me so many diverse opportunities. I have been involved in the movie-making side my whole time. Initially, I was the wholesaling department — selling VHS, then DVD, and licensing movies all over the world, as well as attending shows. When the legendary Mary Gates passed, I became in charge of Adam & Eve Pictures. We have made many fine movies and award-winners — “Pirates,” “The 8th Day,” “Rawhide,” “Babysitting the Baumgartners” (Kay Brandt), “Marriage 2.0,” “Dinner Party,” Love Emergency” (Will Ryder and Scott David); as well as multiple series like “Adult Stars at Home,” “Amateur Angels” and “Sex Across America” (working with Luc Wylder and Fallen Angel), “Naked Hollywood — the REAL Sex in the City” (from Kelly Holland), and many more … it was so much fun.
Among the most rewarding experiences was going onstage to accept Best Picture awards for “Pirates, “Rawhide,” “The 8th Day,” and several other trophies with Will Ryder and Scott David. Walking the red carpet is always fun and exciting for me as well. My role became director of new business development — that was how I got to do all this fun stuff. We produced the 42 “Nina Hartley’s Guide to…” how-to videos, and Candida Royalle’s Femme Productions movies. Working with Nina and Candida has always been very fun and rewarding. When contract stars became a part of Adam & Eve, we partnered with Carmen Luvana, Kayden Kross, Bree Olson, Ava Rose, Sophia Lynn, Teagan Presley, Alexis Texas and others. It was my pleasure to spend time with those folks as well.
XBIZ: Were there any challenges to overcome?
Christian: We opened an office in Chatsworth to aid in movie production and DVD/licensing sales. That was a good move but the timing was off a bit, as after a couple of years, the decline in DVD sales was in full impact, due to the rapid rise of those two huge disruptors — streaming content sites and free content sites. We closed the L.A. office, but have continued making movies the whole time. Our Adam & Eve VOD and membership sites got off the ground and continue strongly still.
For a brief period of time, I even headed up our new division, which was dabbling in that new thing called the internet! This division would later become our flagship AdamEve.com. I was tasked to improve international sales for AdamEve.com a few years ago and we have enjoyed good growth worldwide as a result of having a great team of folks coming together on this. And we entered into the China market recently, as well.
I treasure my part in starting our Adam & Eve retail stores company. We opened six stores of our own to make sure brick-and-mortar would make money for us. It was new, because we were a mail-order company and a fledgling ecommerce company at the time. It worked; and we began franchising and now proudly claim 78 Adam & Eve retail stores across the U.S. and in two countries.
The acquisition of Wild Secrets in Australia was our largest and farthest-away acquisition by far. And this brings exciting growth and markets to PHE. I was fortunate enough to be the lead on the acquisition and the interim management until we hired a great general manager, Will Dobbyn. I think the Wild Secrets acquisition was both the most challenging and most rewarding thing I have done for PHE’s future.
XBIZ: You started as GM of General Vitamin, one of Phil Harvey’s non-adult businesses — what inspired you to cross over into the adult business?
Christian: I knew about Adam & Eve and PHE for many years, first as a student at Duke and UNC, then as a resident in the area, and knew it had a good reputation. Then working with Phil, and with many of the people at PHE due to the vitamin company connection, I was just so impressed with the way PHE was run, the smarts of the folks, the ethics and high principles of the company, that I knew I wanted to stay and do more.
Have I not referred to the fun and the sex? Yep, that was a pull too. An opportunity came up to start the movie and wholesale divisions for Adam & Eve. I did think about it awhile — not sure that the adult industry would be right for me. Then I decided I would be a part of doing more good for more people and helping them in an area everyone wants to enjoy — their sex lives. So I crossed over!
XBIZ: What are some of the most memorable experiences that you’ve had in this industry?
Christian: First and foremost, it has been the people — all of the industry’s characters, independent thinkers and good folks. I’ve made many friends and respected relationships. Of course this wouldn’t be possible without the opportunity to work with Phil Harvey and David Groves — it’s been a privilege to work with them and experience them as leaders, visionaries, managers and role models.
Other memorable experiences include the opportunity to live in different locations, like when I lived in the valley for four years — I loved it. I also lived in Australia for five months.
It has been extremely rewarding to see Adam & Eve retail stores being successful. Going from 0-78, with many storeowners opening additional stores — I see that as a testimony that they are working for the franchise community.
Another memorable experience was meeting with a key California Congressman during the Measure B fight, as a part of the FSC team.
I’ll also never forget all of the eye-opening parties during trade shows, as well as learning the “porn handshake” from Mark Davis while on set! I’ll treasure the quality time spent with my favorite people, such as Candida Royalle and Nina Hartley … or going down a waterslide in Vegas with Janine. My friendships with India Summer, Rebecca Lord, Juli Ashton and Shayla LaVeaux have also been very valuable.
And of course, I’ll never forget seeing Phil Harvey, the founder and chairman of PHE/Adam & Eve play the president of the U.S. in our movie “Tail Gunners” by Nick Orleans.
XBIZ: How did the adult entertainment and retail biz evolve since you’ve been a part of it?
Christian: Boy, it changed a lot. I spanned some great periods of disruption, shifting paradigms and technological revolution. When I started, VHS had happened, but then shifted to DVD, and then to the whole new challenging world of streaming — which blew up when free porn entered the market. We kept reminding ourselves of the huge industry for bottled water whenever we said, “how do we compete with free.”
Adam & Eve was primarily a mail order catalog company when I joined. Then the internet took over and we were fortunate to get onboard fairly early and try it — which led to AdamEve.com as our flagship business today. Movie sales accounted for well over half of our business when I began, but Adam & Eve successfully evolved to primarily an adult toy (and more) business. That is a major shift.
XBIZ: You played a big role in establishing Adam & Eve retail stores — to what do you credit its vast growth and popularity?
Christian: The Adam & Eve brand is a huge part of the success and popularity of our stores. The growth and popularity is primarily because the stores work — the system and the brand and the culture combine to create a friendly, comfortable environment where customers buy fun and well-made stuff, and the owners make profit — which is also fun.
XBIZ: Discuss the valuable relationships that you’ve built in this industry. Who has played a role in the shaping of your career?
Christian: Boy, this is hard to narrow down. I feel that most everyone I worked with has played a role in my evolving, learning and growing. First and foremost, I think of Phil Harvey and David Groves. David is the president of PHE/Adam & Eve. He doesn’t get out much, so much of the industry does not know him, but he and Phil make a great team at the top — always inspiring to take risks, to try new and different ideas and approaches, and to have some fun at the same time. And I must credit Mary Gates as well. I mentioned her previously; she passed away all too soon, but my early years with her were very formative. She was a great risk taker, strong-willed and possessed the ability to see complex issues pretty clearly.
Candida Royalle was another super-valuable relationship. I learned much about the past and present of the adult movie business, and a lot about women’s perspectives on many issues. We travelled together for shows, and were in business together not only with Femme Productions, but also with Natural Contours, the vibe/massager line with our Dutch partners Jandirk and Kitty.
Russ Hampshire, at VCA, was a major influence in my early days with Adam & Eve. Russ took me under his wing and taught me how to run a video wholesale and studio business. I will always treasure my time spent with him, albeit often getting yelled at — he was great!
XBIZ: Tell us about your experience with the FSC Board and your experience as treasurer. Why was it important for you to be involved with the organization?
Christian: My involvement with FSC began 24 years ago, in the era of the “Night of the Stars” show and fundraising events. When 2257 came along and FSC was fighting it, and FSC provided a safe harbor of sorts for all movie producers — that got everyone’s attention about the good that the organization does. I had always been active in trade organizations in other jobs. I simply like that kind of participation because it is an opportunity to learn so much from the people that belong to the organization, and to meet and work with so many others with so many intelligent people. It is also an opportunity to try to make a contribution to the industry we all love. PHE was totally supportive of my interest in the FSC board, so I went for it, and was on the board for about seven years.
Some of the meaningful milestones include working with the legend — and friend — Christian Mann when the PASS performer testing system was developed and refined. I was new to the board, and it was beautiful to see how professional and caring the system was built.
Another significant moment for me was the defeat of Prop 60 — wow, what a David versus Goliath (FSC was David, by the way) story. Seeing the industry coming together with their work and money against Measure B (we lost) and then Prop 60 (we won!) was exhilarating. What great people the industry has.
Also very memorable was the Eric Paul Leue era — Eric Paul Leue’s time as executive director was exciting for me as treasurer. Eric greatly improved the financial health of FSC by very successful recruitment of new members, while at the same time converting dues payments into monthly easy-pay credit card charges. FSC is stronger today because of the improvements Eric made.
XBIZ: How will you be enjoying your time in retirement?
Christian: Learning magic tricks for my grandchildren and my own amusement.
Playing more music (I have played drums in a band for my whole life).
Treasure hunting — that sounds better than “being that nerd guy at the beach with the metal detector.” Loving my family and spending more time with grandchildren and friends. I’ll also be travelling for scuba diving and world exploration, and hoping to stay in touch with the industry through lunches and golf with friends.
XBIZ: Any words of wisdom for those that are just entering the biz?
Christian: Enjoy it and be smart. Live long and prosper. Toast frequently — “To life … as it should be; and as it is today.”
