Larry Caye's greatest contribution, as far as I'm concerned, was perfecting the centerfold video. Very few have rivaled his work in this regard--Jim Salyer was in the same constellation--for making videos that were well-shot, captured the model's personality, showed her at her best, and defined the concept of "erotic glamour."
For those of us who came of age in what I call the "magazine era" (as opposed to the earlier "pin-up" era or the later "video era" or "internet era," the video age was something of a disappointment, as there was precious little effort to capture the essence of magazine modeling in a moving form. In fact, all those magazines that attempted to exploit video in one way or another--Playboy, Penthouse, High Society, Hustler, among others--completely failed to capitalize on the possibilities that existed to take what worked in the magazines and transfer it to a dynamic stage. It was almost like they didn't even believe in the pictorial concept that made them successful in the first place.
So instead of videos that immersed the viewer in a sumptuous moving images of a centerfold, most of us seeking such fare found (1) highly stylized videos devoid of warmth or personality or (2) quickly moving, fast-paced videos full of special effects that could only be appreciated by those with ADD or (3) videos that swiftly devolved into toyfests that sacrificed the model on an altar of plastic and silicone.
Larry Caye's centerfold videos never succumbed to the trite or the convenient, much less those more grievous errors. For most models who appeared in a Larry Caye-produced TLI video, it was the best solo appearance they ever had, and for some, the best video appearance they appeared in period. Certainly, for those of us with a favorite model or actress who appeared in a TLI video, you know what I'm talking about. No one combined class and explicit eroticism better than Larry, nor appreciated more the women he filmed.
Larry Caye's video work holds up to this very day, and I miss receiving those quarterly notices (I still have them all) announcing who was appearing next. I bought the slides too (and no, he didn't shoot the majority of those sets) but nothing beat the excellence of his centerfold videos for those of us whose favored form of erotica is found in well-made solo female productions.
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