Adult Industry Pioneer Eddie Wedelstedt Has Died

DENVER, Colo.—Eddie Wedelstedt (he hated to be called "Edward"), one of the founders of the modern adult industry, died at his home earlier today of stomach cancer. He passed surrounded by his wife Vivian, his daughter Beverly and his other children, who had been caring for him for the last two weeks, ever since his cancer was diagnosed. "Three weeks ago, if you can believe it, Eddie went out to dinner, even though he was not feeling well," explained David Joseph, founder of production company Red Light District and now head of novelty brands Rock Candy and Bedroom Products, and tech company US Arcades, and a close friend of Wedelstedt. "But then, a couple of weeks ago, he went to the hospital because his stomach wasn't feeling good, and then he was diagnosed with cancer at the time, so it happened pretty quick. It wasn't a long thing." Eddie Wedelstedt was a giant in the adult industry. He was the founder and owner of Goalie Entertainment Holdings, a company whose properties included distributor M&M Sales, and the Romantix chain of adult retail stores. It's barely an exaggeration to say that in the 1980s and '90s, anyone who was anyone in the adult industry either knew Wedelstedt or knew of him. Every year, Wedelstedt would gather dozens of retailers, video producers and more than a dozen First Amendment attorneys to Denver for a conference to discuss the future of the adult industry and what actions the governments, both federal and state, were doing to attempt to drive adult companies out of business. Most of that came to a halt, however, in the Spring of 2005, when Wedelstedt, his wife Vivian (who had no involvement at all in her husband's businesses) and three others were indicted in the Northern District of Texas on federal obscenity, racketeering and conspiracy charges stemming from a 23-count indictment handed down on March 11 of that year. In fact, it was his attorneys' inability to get the charges against Vivian dismissed that impelled Wedelstedt to settle the case with the government by pleading guilty to one count of distributing obscene material and forfeiting three adult bookstores which he owned in Texas, in exchange for the Justice Department dropping all charges against Vivian and Goalie. Wedelstedt also agreed to serve a 13-month term in federal prison, and after he was released, to sell all of his adult businesses. After his retirement from adult, Wedelstedt spent much of his time on his Eddie's Kids Foundation, which he had started several years before. "Eddie, through his foundation, would buy hundreds of tickets for kids who couldn't afford to go see professional sporting events," Joseph stated. "There were Kings games, Laker games, Colorado Avalanche games, Denver Nugget games, the Los Angeles Rams, Denver Broncos—because he was back and forth between L.A. and Denver, Colorado where he lived, and he sponsored hundreds of kids to go to those events. What he would do every year is, he would rent out a restaurant for the Eddie's Kids Foundation in Denver and he would raise money for these kids and for the foundation, and he donated his time and everything to this foundation, and it was just really beautiful how much he cared about this and really made it a priority of his life to give back to these children." Wedelstedt was also a member of the Board of the Free Speech Coalition, which honored him several times at FSC events, and was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame in 2016. It is likely that there will be a memorial service for Wedelstedt in Denver, but no details have yet been released. AVN will continue to report on this story. Photo of Eddie Wedelstedt, at 2007 Eddie's Kids fundraiser, by Gia Jordan