Rööperi’s Porn Emperor

Dildos, plastic vaginas, porn magazines, films, old headlines. Tom Sjöberg, 70+, sits in the backroom of King’s Sex, a legendary sex shop located in the heart of Punavuori. Ex-gangster Sjöberg has stayed in the porn business for more than five decades. He’s seen what most haven’t – including the old Rööperi. 

Hello Tom, how are you?

Haha, I’m good! I’m the last calcified memory of the old Rööperi, which had charm but also violence, crimes, guns, all sorts of things. Now we have Punavuori – a nice, calm area for rich people. 

We’d love to hear about those old, crimey days. 

Rööperi used to have so many movie theaters, and bars… Prostitutes were all over the place, and women could only get into bars with men. Life was busy: dancing, home parties, cabarets, and crowds, like in old gangster movies from Chicago. 

When did all that change?  

Around 1969, when Rööperi’s old wooden houses were taken down and poor people vanished. My first porn shop in Albertinkatu used to have jazz bar Mäyränkolo upstairs, with Laila Kinnunen, Carola, Lasse Mårtenson and many others performing. In those times, the police were pretty involved, making raids and so on. 

How did you get into porn business in the first place?

I loved a Swedish woman, who said it’s either drug business or her. Love won, and I chose porn instead of drugs. It wasn’t the longest marriage, though. I was still wild, interested in other women and so on.  

Women have been some sort of a driver in your life?  

At times, too much of a driver. I’ve lost a lot of money, houses, apartments and so on. But it’s been wonderful, and I don’t regret a thing. If I could do it all over again, I think I’d do the same, it’s been exciting, and I’ve gotten it easy in the end. And I’ve also made a lot of money. I’ve been to a jail only once, and that was an arbitrary decision. 

We’re all ears. 

I got two years’ sentence for smuggling, although I tried to do my stuff legally. My lawyer got so angry about the decision that he marched to the judge and said it was the biggest judicial murder in his 38-year career, and that he’ll stop his job right at the spot and moves out of the country. Which he did, he moved to Spain. And I went to jail. 

How did jail years treat you? 

I was placed to Katajanokka and worked as a scorekeeper. I had money, so I gave it to the guards, and they got us nice steaks from Stockmann’s Delicacy. It was quite pleasant in the end. 

Cool. Now let’s jump to King’s Kakadu, your legendary sex cabaret bar. 

King’s Kakadu’s years were crazy times. Brian Adams, Toto, Village People and Nancy Sinatra came over… Also Vladimir Zirinovski, known as Finnslayer.

That made big headlines.

Yea, news reporter Jorma Kalliokoski told us Ziri is coming to Finland, and that we should take him to Kakadu. We took a long white limousine and went to the airport. Ziri told us he can’t come to the limo, as he has “these jealous people with him”, but evening would be different. We said we’ll pick him up – he stayed in Hotel Helka – which we did. That visit made it to the worldwide news. We had 32 newspaper reporters, 3 radios and TV in the house that night. 

Big stuff. Why did King’s Kakadu stop?

Taxes. Taxes killed us, and everyone else, except one place, which was Alcatraz. Police blamed me for tax fraud but didn’t find any evidence even after years of research. They got Kakadu down, though. Anyways, I wouldn’t do that business anymore, it was tough times, in the morning we fucked, then lots of work, then more fucking later on in the night.

How’s your life now? 

Well this is it, here I am. Reporters and everyday people come over. People chat me up, this is some sort of a museum. These days, most of the customers are actually women, and they’re openly buying sex toys. That makes me happy. 

That’s new? 

Yep. Decades ago, men came in, saying they need something for their “friend in a hospital”. Bit by bit, men started openly buying things for themselves. After that, women started coming in and buying toys for their “friend in a hospital”. Now everyone’s completely open. 

Your thoughts on internet porn?  

I don’t really watch it, I’ve seen enough. For a time, we were making porn in Sweden with Heikki Mattinen. I hustled girls to the magazines and was also involved with Hustler coming to Finland, because I knew Larry Flynt from my American years. In the first issue, I was in the centerfold lying naked. Tiina Jylhä was the cover girl. 

Your businesses have had a lot of “fleshy” stuff in them. On top of porn, you’ve also organized over 40 boxing events and managed your own King’s Talli with e.g. Tony Halme in it. 

Yea, that stuff sells. I’ve been taking care of sex hungry Finns for 60 years – I could be rewarded for that someday. Won’t happen, but you gotta have a sense of humor. Rock’n’roll is also big for me. We just released a new LP. In Estonia, they gave it 9/10, it’s quite good. We first pressed 300 copies and they were sold in a flash. More is coming. 

Your future plans? 

I’ll get out of this country, it’s so stupid here with politics and all. My little girl was born 2006, so in 3 years when she’ll turn 18, I’ll leave the country. She just popped in to get money before you came in, that’s what it is to be a daddy. 

All good in the kingdom then. Thanks Sjöba, stay iconic! 

Ps. Before we leave, Sjöba sells our photographer Antti a King’s Sex T-shirt.