Hi folks,
Every year Halloween brings out the festivities & fun amongst us and while I do enjoy and indulge, it also reminds me of the loss of a friend & one of the great pioneers from the WAM world. Rob Blaine started Messy Fun back in the early 90's & since this was pre internet/website/download stores, he would send out quarterly newsletters in the mail. Robs work touched everything: Gungings, mud, foodplay, wetlook & of course pies in the face. He had a high standard for models he used & was very meticulous about editing the content in his videos. Which of course, caused many delays for those awaiting the newest volume on VHS tape.


Rob was a class act in the fact that he ran his biz single handedly and listed his home phone number on the newsletters. He always had time to chat with wam folks but also, for many of us, was the first person wammers spoke to as many felt they were crazy & the only one who was aroused by seeing women hit in the face with pies or sinking in mud or pouring pudding over their faces. he assured them no, you are NOT alone, as his mailing list was in the thousands.


Rob passed away on Halloween 2000 from a heart attack & the wam world hasn't been the same since.

I wonder if he would be happy or sad to see how wam has evolved the past decade, now that technology offers HiDef cameras to anyone plus a bounty of pay to view download sites that host stores, but also shady producers etc.. I like to think I'm continuing Robs tradition of getting hot models, using the best pies available, upgrading cameras & editing, but also, pushing the envelope & raising the bar of standards for quality wam.


I'm posting this because every year UMD gets new wammers just discovering this genre & have never heard of Rob or his work, but also for all us old timers to think back & reflect on Rob's work that set the standard. Please feel free to post any memories you have of Rob or his videos or even a "coming out" experience that Rob was a part of.


Happy Halloween to all & RIP Rob, we miss you.


Lenny

Thanks for the reminder!

In the pre-net days, I wrote to him, got his newsletter ("A messy job, but. . . ), got several of his tapes, and called him on occassion. Hew was a genuinely nice guy, and one of the first to embrace the WAM fetish, along with Splosh.
RIP, Rob.

I remember driving up to my college post office during spring break because I'd ordered one of his catalogs and couldn't wait to get it. Best possible guy to have running a company back then, when I was first realizing "Oh hey, this is a fetish" and "Oh hey, it's not just my fetish".

I remember when Rob died. I can't believe it's been 14 years! Thanks for the reminder, Lenny!

RIP, Rob!

Norman

I had the pleasure and honor of visiting with him over a weekend sometime in the 90s. He was a gracious host (let me see a filming) and a fine human being. I miss you Rob.

R.I.P. Rob Blaine

Nice tribute. Thanks Lenny and thanks Rob.

I can't believe it's been 14 years... I was new to this world way back when, but for at least 2-3 years before he passed away, I remember Rob Blaine and his various works being talked about a lot. Still to this day he's mentioned with respect. He was a BIG part of the scene and it's a shame that his work isn't really available for others to enjoy as a foundational part of this communities collective history.

Might sound silly, but he was a ground breaker and changed the way many of us thought about ourselves and our proclivities in a real and tangible way.

I first discovered of Rob via a print ad for Messy Fun in the back of a journal published out of Northwestern Univ that focused on literary erotica while I was in FL. I'm guessing this had to be the mid 1990s. I was, as they say, "gobsmacked". (I don't drop "gobsmacked" nearly enough in my day-to-day.) It showed his model Victoria totally covered in mud. Needless to say, I then had my "Oh, well, look at that. I'm not alone" moment.

After signing up for his newsletters, I remember they came out with frustratingly capricious regularity. His first tape/VHS I bought was "Ariel's Pie Shop" and it still holds up great to this day. Sexy AND ridiculous.

Never got the chance to meet him. Just imagine all the outstanding material he would have produced had he lived. And I'm not sure how his legacy ended up so botched (recall emails here where some guy fell on his own sword owning up to it, but what a shame.)

At any rate, he was one of the true trailblazers and, Lenny, your note is really eloquent and heartfelt, doing the man justice. Thanks for the post.

Nice tribute Lenny, I still miss him too, he was my friend. Almost every week I drive by the complex he used to live in, indeed he was the father of WAM, he introduced me to my wife. Many UMD members probable have no idea who he was or what he did for this community. Many also probably don't know that Rob died very young.

I do not believe he would be still making movies if he was alive today, Rob's tapes were $60+ Like me his productions were high end, paid his models really well (too well actually) He would never have sold scenes for $10! or less. He would love all the high end equipment you can get these days. But just like many producers who have stopped production this year we just can't compete with a high end product, crew, modeling fees, post production etc. With models producing their own content wit ha $300 camera from Best Buy! Just never going to happen, Rob would have been in the same position.

Rob was very depressed towards the end of his life, he was already struggling to make ends meet financially, had declared bankruptcy and his Supra had been reposed. His health was bad too, Rob weighed 300lbs + and was a stage 3 diabetic, he had gout in his right leg and still would not quit the junk food and pizza. My girlfriend at the time Mary (Chase - On of Robs most popular models) was an aerobics instructor and we both tried to get Rob to exercise, hell she even said she would wear skimpy outfits if he went to the gym. He did for about a week!

I left Austin for Cali early 2000 and like Lenny said he died 8 months later. Rob was a hopeless romantic, he just wanted to be in love and make movies, makes me sad he never got the chance. I just turned 57 my self, I guess time waits for no man. Rest in Piece my old friend.

Here is a rare pic of Rob and a rare pic of Chase that I am sure none of you have ever seen before:

Thank you Lenny. That was nice.

And like Phil, I have also speculated from time to time about how Rob would have fared with how things have evolved. Can't really say how things would have turned out, but I agree that he would have found things extremely frustrating.

He had his hangups, for sure. But Mud Puddle Visuals would not exist if not for the connections I made through Messy News and the inspiration born from shooting with him. So, thank you Rob. RIP.

I got to meet Rob Blaine one time in Florida in 1996.
One thing I will always remember him explaining to me:
the difference between "messy" vs "dirty". He said,

"Messy is...messy. " (said with a look of joy)

"But, dirty is just... dirty." (said with a look of disgust)

Miss you Rob. You were/are the best ever.

I discovered Rob's "download store" in the early 90's when the "internet" was no more than a collection of independent servers which one could dial into one at a time. Until then, I thought I was the only person with an odd fetish involving total coverage with messy goo. I immediately ordered Rob's paper catalog and began ordering his VHS tapes via the postal service. I had the opportunity to speak with Rob on the telephone several times and, as others have said, he was gracious enough to invite me down to watch a shooting. To me, Rob will always be the father of WAM and a pioneer in both internet sales and messy fun. I was shocked and saddened when I learned of his passing. Rest in peace Rob Blaine and thank you.

That is a fine tribute Lenny to a great man.
Mud Mad Phil knew him well and sums it up as it was.
I met Rob at an Aquantics convention in Tenby, South Wales.
He brought model Daisy with him from the States.
What major characteristic did Rob insist with his models?
It was long hair!
WSM has a small Tribute permanently posted under Tributes at the foot of our Home Page. It is the least I could do as you see how I summed him up!
Oh so sadly missed!
RIP Rob Blaine

This is a great tribute to a great guy.

Like so many others here, I discovered Rob's work back in the mid-'90s. It's hard to believe it now, but there was a time when the Internet *didn't* necessarily cater extensively to every single variant of every single fetish. Discovering Messy Fun back then taught me two important things: first, that I wasn't the only person turned on by WAM, and second, that I was going to need to earn a lot more money so I could buy all those videos.