The PA system pops to life. "Make some noise!" the announcer screams.
Two hundred well-lubricated fans jump to their feet as heavy rock music pounds down from the speakers. A wrestling ring sits at the centre of the large back room at Bogey's World, a cavernous pool hall littered with big-screen TVs, in Montreal's Rosemont neighbourhood. The crowd is here for an evening of flying headbutts and piledrivers hosted by the International Wrestling Syndicate (IWS), a small but growing wrestling company based in Montreal. The people who fill the front row of folding wooden chairs race toward the ring and pound their fists on the canvas.
Back near the bar, all eyes are on Carol McAlear. She is petite—not quite five feet tall—with blond hair and an easy, wide smile. Her sheer black top offers a hint of her surgically enhanced chest. As three tag-teams enter the ring for a six-man brawl, Carol glad-hands with some of her fans. At one point she pulls down her top to flash the group. A woman gamely grabs one of her breasts. They share a glance and smile. Carol's husband and business partner (their company, Wild Rose Productions, owns half of the wrestling syndicate) stands just a few feet away, but he doesn't bat an eyelash. It's business, after all.
For the past nine years, Danny McAlear has been charging porn enthusiasts up to $19.95 (all currency in U.S. dollars) a month to see much more of his wife's anatomy, watching her disrobe and have sex with hundreds of men and women on her porn site. Ever since he first posted naked pictures of Carol (the mother of his three children) on a website he created back in 1994, she's been known as Carol Cox, amateur porn star, swinger and horny housewife.
Danny and Carol McAlear
Long-time swingers, the McAlears were looking for new couples to socialize and have sex with. Along the way, they created a porn empire. Today, carolcox.com is part of a network of sites that generate more than $1 million a year.
Remarkably, in an industry where anyone can slap up a pay-for-porn site, where customers rarely stay with one site for more than a month, and where there's always someone younger and bustier popping up, the McAlears have managed to take on all comers, adapt and succeed.
During an interview at the IWS show, Carol's outgoing, exhibitionist side—the one you see on-line—disappears, replaced by a shy, giggling suburban mom. She stares at the tape recorder and fidgets as she struggles with each response.
Danny, she says, usually does the talking. And what about her? She motions toward her face with her fist to show she's more comfortable using her mouth for purposes other than talking to reporters. But even in semi-retirement, there's more to porn than being in bed. "We're not just having sex all the time," she smiles. "It's adult, but it's also a business."
The McAlears' business savvy has managed to keep Carol's eponymous "amateur" site pumping out content for 9,000 happy customers, even as the star herself has stepped back from performing full-time. With more than a decade in the business and some 500 porn scenes under her belt, Carol doesn't need the work any more, though she still does admin for Wild Rose. Her husband, however, isn't ready to retire to the sailboat he's always had his eye on. Along with his investment in the IWS (which he says is in the five figures), McAlear recently launched a venture he's betting will establish Wild Rose Productions as a juggernaut in the burgeoning "adult lifestyles" niche—essentially it's a smorgasbord for swingers—just as his wife's site did in the amateur porn category.
Wild Rose's story isn't about sex so much as it's about building customer relationships, establishing a niche and outmarketing the competition in a cutthroat business. It's also about taking a flyer on new technologies to make a buck.
As it turns out, you can learn a lot from a pornographer.
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