Shadow Lane is probably the most diversified spanking outfit around. Tony
Elka and Eve Howard produce videos and publish magazines and novels. They create
networks for spanking enthusiasts, sell spanking toys, and hold parties. Often
I hear that someone's introduction to the spanking scene was through a Shadow
Lane ad in Cosmopolitan or another popular publication.
Recently Tony Elka shared some Shadow Lane history, and some personal insights,
with me.
ND: How did Shadow Lane begin? Did the two of you meet socially and discuss the idea
of a business, or had you each been working in the field on your own? I gather that Eve
started out by writing those sexy novels of hers. Did Shadow Lane begin with print
erotica, then?
TE: Eve and I met through a personal ad she ran. I had just separated
from a woman who pretended to enjoy being spanked, until our wedding
night, when she started referring to it as "my sickness." That
marriage lasted 7 months. When I met Eve, I was determined to
experience the scene with a true devotee.
Eve had already been editing a magazine called Spank Hard, for a
mainstream adult entertainment publisher that had no understanding of the scene.
When we met, she wanted to start her own company, and I was supportive. My original
hope was that Shadow Lane would provide a full-time career for Ms. Howard, so
she could drop all her freelance writing assignments and focus on her own stories.
I never dreamed it would become my career as well, or that we would have employees.
ND: How did people react to Shadow Lane at first? It was 1986. Madonna
hadn't come out with "Hanky Panky" yet, and you didn't hear the word "spank"
every five minutes on MTV. It was also before people started searching the Internet
for the word "spanking" and discovering all the communities there. So I imagine
people coming across your discreet little ads and being electrified. But possibly
people were a little scared of spanking too?
TE: Most of them are still scared! I think the majority of our customers
hide their spanking books and videos. But there's less isolation
now, for those willing to seek out others who are into spanking.
We still get new customers from print ads, especially women. We only
advertise in mainstream publications, never adult magazines.
1986 was before "Hanky Panky" but there had been a lot of references to
spanking in mainstream entertainment in the past. In films, everyone
from John Wayne to Ronald Coleman had put his romantic interest over
his knee and spanked her for behaving like a brat. By the end of the
movie, they were always engaged. Those were more innocent times, and
it was viewed as playful rather than sexist.
ND: Would you say -- or how would you say -- things have changed in the last fifteen years for
Shadow Lane, and in the spanking scene generally? Do you think people are overall
more comfortable now about being into spanking?
TE: Almost every person in the scene who I've asked told me that they used to
have difficulty even saying the word "spanking" out loud. They had to
make sure the room was empty before looking it up in the dictionary.
They're more comfortable around one another, but it's still a deep
secret for so many of them. There are only a few casual souls out there
that could care less who knows about it.
ND: Any special difficulties you've had to overcome in the business?
TE: Finding models without tattoos! Otherwise, the difficulties are
common to the entire adult entertainment industry. A bank once
approved our company for a line of credit based on how we handled
financial matters, and then dropped us at the last minute because of
our field, even though it's perfectly legal. It's frustrating.
ND: Do you notice fashions in the world of spanking? For example, I get the sense that
switching has gradually become more popular than it was, say, ten years ago. I also have
the feeling that -- perhaps because of information being exchanged over the Net --
spanking fans are more apt now to branch out into a variety of fetishes such as watersports
or other kinds of SM. Have you noticed any trends like that?
TE: A lot of men who switch would be full-time subs if they could get
away with it. They have to switch because the ladies want to be spanked too!
But there's probably something in the American character that says a man shouldn't
cry or show emotion, let alone have his trousers and shorts pulled down before
he's put over a woman's lap and spanked with a hairbrush until he bawls. But within
the spanking subculture, in a party situation, he can do that, if he's lucky
enough to connect with the right play-partner.
For some people, spanking is just an item on the buffet; for others,
it's the entire meal. Some people experiment with bondage and
whipping out of curiosity, but watersports is a whole other thing. A
lot of spanking people are interested in enemas and infantilism, but
that's something they keep secret, even among other spanking friends.
There are levels of taboo at work here.
ND: People in the spanking community often talk as if spanking is almost
a hardwired fetish: you have it or you don't. Is that true, in your experience?
Or do you meet people who -- perhaps to accommodate a kinky partner -- investigate
spanking and find they get turned on by it?
TE: We know couples where she's into it and he's not, and vice-versa.
Understanding spouses will accommodate their partners, and we've met
a few that get very into it. It probably helps if they already like
rear ends!
I definitely qualify as hardwired. And by that, I mean I was always into giving
spankings, in the over-the-knee position, with something flat, like the hand,
hairbrush or paddle. Spanking is not whipping. I've branched out a bit since
then, but giving spankings will always be my sexual homepage.
ND: May I ask how your personal lives relate to the business? Shadow Lane is clearly a
labor of love. Your videos and print erotica emphasize a very sexy and romantic kind of
spanking. The actors in the videos look like they are really into what they're doing. You
seem to concentrate on heterosexual scenes, with some bi female stuff and some
switching. Would all this be more or less in line with your own personal interests?
TE: It isn't just our own personal interests; we always strive to use models
that share our sensibilities, and we pick the camera crew the same way. Many of them
started out as our customers. We definitely make videos based on what
we are into.
ND: Have you always known you were into spanking? When did you first get involved in
spanking play?
TE: I knew I was into spanking at age five. I was always willing to play
"house" with the girls in my neighborhood, and I was always the
daddy. I wore a belt before I had belt-loops. As a teenager, I
spanked my girlfriends, but I always waited until it was their
birthday. They tolerated it, but I could tell it did nothing for them.
I did sessions with professional submissives at BD houses, but Eve
was the first lady I spanked in real life who was as into it as I
was.
ND: Has running the business changed your interests? Do you learn about new things
through your work with Shadow Lane? Do you (heaven forbid) become jaded?
TE: It's possible to become exhausted from overwork, but the turn-on
doesn't fade. I've learned about some new and strange things, but
rarely anything repugnant. We heard from a fellow who wanted a
custom video of a woman, fully dressed, vacuuming a carpeted
stairway. He wanted her to look like Mary Tyler Moore, as she
appeared on the Dick Van Dyke Show.
ND: Let me be a little more pointed. What are your biggest turn-ons, personally? What is
exciting to you these days? Is there anything either of you hasn't done but would like
to try?
TE: I've never been spanked, not even by my parents, and I've never had
the slightest inclination towards it. I'm a self-indulgent person; if
I wanted to, I would have by now.
As for turn-ons, there are so many of them within spanking itself,
when both of you are into it. There's that look on a lady's face
when she's told it's time for her spanking. Her breathing changes,
she usually blushes and stares at the floor. This is in direct
contrast to the women who like to play at being brats, which I find
tiresome. I'm not into wrestling matches in order to assert dominance.
With the more demure spankee, there's the placement of her over my
knee. Rubbing her bottom over her clothing, making sure she's settled
in. A good spanking takes awhile. I like to start out lightly, over
her skirt or pants. Another third of the spanking is applied to the
seat of her undies, which I like to pull down after I can scent her
arousal through them.
But spanking is more than just sensations. Anyone can learn to smack a behind properly
and safely, but scolding is an art. Spanking erotica, text alone, can do it. Words like
"punish", "naughty", and "bottom" are loaded with power for spanking people.
And for some, the concept of punishment itself is highly erotic -- to be taken in hand, and
seen to. It should be done lovingly, and I go ballistic when I see spanking videos from
companies that take a harsh, woman-hating approach.
ND: I haven't (yet) been to one of your famous parties, but I've read reports and seen
pictures in your print magazine. Can you tell our readers a bit about a typical evening at a
weekend Shadow Lane party? Do you have a lot of people doing scenes in public, or is a
party more an opportunity to meet and do private scenes -- or simply a chance to talk to
other enthusiasts?
TE: A few brave souls/exhibitionists play in the ballroom but most of our guests just
socialize. Spanking people love to talk, and to hear them, you would think you were
anywhere but a fetish party. Politics, technology, feminism, you name it.
But there's a halfway point between public play and private scenes. A lot of couples will
play, and swap spanking partners, in private parties in the larger suites at our events.
Those little get-togethers are by invitation only, and there's definitely a clique
situation going on at our parties now.
ND: Do you yourselves like to play in public, and why? Is there a specific kind of
excitement about it?
TE: Back in 1992, we had our first big "Back to School" theme party.
It was in a large auditorium, we had approximately 300 guests, and at 10:00 p.m.
we sent the DJ home and did spanking skits on stage. A lady named Chelsea Pfeiffer
and I were on first; she tap-danced while I played piano until I came up with
a pretext for spanking her. That had never been done before, and we were both
terrified. The crowd seemed to enjoy it, the ice was broken for those that went
on afterwards, and it was a good time.
But I derive almost no pleasure from playing in public. I like to feel a connection with my play-partners that I can only achieve in privacy, otherwise it feels repetitive and almost meaningless to me.
I cannot concentrate sufficiently during public play.
ND: Can you tell me about any funny, weird or absurd things that have happened at your
parties -- the kind of out of the ordinary experiences that keep people coming back?
TE: We've had non-scene guests of the hotel try to crash our parties, and
the occasional falling-down drunk, but nothing especially absurd.
Unless one counts the fellow who was frolicking around the pool at
3:00 a.m., in a diaper, paddling himself. There was something very Twin
Peaks about that.
ND: What's been the best, most rewarding thing about running Shadow Lane?
TE: Hearing from people who have found one another, and in some cases got
married, who never would have met if they hadn't found us. That and
seeing my partner, Eve Howard's Shadow Lane books in print, in
mainstream bookstores.
ND: A final, very broad question. What's so special about spanking? We all cherish our
kinks, of course, but it just seems to me that spanking fans are especially thrilled by what
they do. Which is great. But I'm wondering what it is about spanking that makes it so
dear to people's hearts.
TE: Spanking folk didn't choose to be into this. And it may well be
that bondage people and foot fetishists are positive they've got the secret
of the universe going for them. I will say that spanking is special because
it's not terribly serious, even if the best punishment-style scenes are. It's
undignified for an adult to be spanked as if they were a disagreeable child.
And even the slimmest bottoms are exaggerated in the spanking position. The
earliest silent film comedies had people slipping on banana peels and falling
on their butts. There's a comedic aspect to this. It doesn't pay to take oneself
too seriously in any case, and spanking does seem more jolly than being suspended,
having hot candle-wax dripped on you or crawling around the floor with more
chains than Marley's ghost.
Read more about Shadow Lane at their Web site.
