Jill C. Nelson's Blog, page 5

Spotlight on Seka: "The Platinum Princess"

Seka: Courtesy of Worth Mentioning Public RelationsContinuing with spotlight excerpts from Golden Goddesses, I am pleased to post selected segments from my profile on Seka, one of the most influential women in the history of erotic cinema. Seka's participation in Goddesses holds special significance for me because she was the first interview I conducted and she is responsible for introducing me to some of the other women and legends featured in the book. With gratitude, I thank you, Seka, once again, for being instrumental in helping me to ignite this project.

     “I met my first husband while I had a job selling shoes. He played pool across the street all the time and he was eleven or twelve years older than I was. He was 6’6” or 6’7”, and I was like, ‘Wow, that’s a really tall guy and he goes in and drinks beer and plays pool! He’s a bad boy! I think I’m interested in that!’ The person I was dating at the time was from the same church that I went to and he was shorter than I am. Everyone always wants the taboo. Anything that you can’t have, you want, because if you can have it, then there’s no challenge to it. 
     After I got married, my husband wanted kids and I said, “No, I’m not having kids, at least not now.” It was about, “Well, we need to start having children,” and I’m like, “No, no, no.’ That was probably what broke the marriage apart. He was sort of demanding that I have children and his parents wanted children and I said, ‘I’m not going to do that.’ That’s the worst thing you can say to me is, ‘You have to do that,” because I’m going to do everything in my power not to do it. I’m very defiant! I was still a baby. I was only eighteen. Really, the reason I got married was to get out of the house because I knew there was more out there than just the various minute parts that I had already experienced. That’s another reason why I probably got divorced too. I had started to listen to rock and roll music – you know, the devil’s workshop – bad girl – and I’d had sex for the first time. It wasn’t until the day after I got married that I had sex the first time. I didn’t even have sex on my wedding night because I was scared to death and I locked myself in the bathroom. Suddenly, it was sex, drugs, and rock and roll. I was like, ‘Wow! This could be fun! I think I need to be single!’”
     “I think most people know that I owned six or seven adult bookstores at one time after separating from my first husband. That was eight-millimeter films. You had the peep shows at the back that were the quarter machines. The way that I had my store set up, I could see all the way down the back so I could see all the projectors running. I’d never really watched adult films before. I wasn’t offended by it – just didn’t know that much about it.”
     The platinum hair was a mistake. In the beginning, I just wanted a few streaks of blonde in my hair and when the lady finished it was pretty much all white. I was devastated. Afterwards, I thought, ‘Hmmm… I like this. Maybe God messed up.’ After all, there’s the avocado and the platypus. I think that maybe he forgot to add the blonde hair for me. This was somewhere around 1975, 1976.”
     The first time that I said, ‘No, I’m not doing that’ happened in Dracula Sucks. There was a particular actor, who decided that he wanted to work with me before John [Holmes] got to work with me and he wrote a scene in. It was the first feature film for me and I was scared to death. The scene he’d written wasn’t in the script and I said, ‘I’m not working with you.’ It was a very demeaning thing that he wanted to do and he got a little nutty and said, ‘Oh, you’ll never work again.'
     I said, ‘I don’t care. It doesn’t bother me.’ He finally pissed me off enough that I took off my shoe and I winged it at his head, and told him to go fuck himself and walked out. The shoe was a Saddle Oxford and they weighed about five pounds apiece. They were huge, they were heavy, and I was glad because I really wanted to hit this person in the head with the shoe and I walked off the set. I would not work with this person until he apologized to me on set. I didn’t do the scene and they finally took it out of the script. He pouted for two or three days about it. He refused to work with me because he thought it was going to hurt me, but as most of us know, the women are the ones that draw people to watch these movies more so than the men do. Finally, he had to apologize before I would ever work with him.
     “I liked John Holmes, Jamie Gillis, Mike Ranger and Randy West. What I liked about John is that he was respectful of me. He always treated me very kindly and he treated me like a lady. So did Jamie Gillis. There was something intriguing, and dark and kind of sinister, sexy about Jamie. Mike Ranger was just like the All-American California boy. Cute, very cute, and very nicely built. He knew how to use everything he had. I liked Randy West just because he’s Randy and he’s gorgeous. He looks better now than he did before. I also liked working with Serena, Kay Parker and Jesie St. James. I enjoyed working with Jesie St. James because she was easy. She was easy going; she wasn’t a prima donna. She wasn’t prissy or “I’m the star here, I’ve been here longer than you have”. She treated everyone equally and so did Kay Parker. Serena was interesting. She was very quirky—hippie-ish. She liked everybody and she was very kind, and still is very kind. She’s just a very sweet human being. I absolutely love Veronica Hart. She’s my all-time favorite person in the business—Veronica and Kay. I think that’s a good line-up of people.
     The old saying goes, ‘There’s a new one at the bus stop every day that has run away.’ There were a lot of runaways back then too, but the people I worked with weren’t like that. We were just a small group of people. Little did we know that they needed us more than we needed them; we were already established and helped build their inventory and their empires.”

Book Club Recap

The March 2, 2013 Golden Goddess Book Club was a resounding success, thanks to the wonder women (and avid readers) in attendance who were enthusiastic, smart and fun. These girls were well prepared with questions, comments, quips and queries. One member of the group even watched Taboo so that she would be ready for a chat with our very special guest, Kay Parker, who joined us for an hour on skype. (For readers who are interested in participating in a session with spiritual counselor and guide, Ms. Parker, please contact Kay directly through her website at this address: Kay Taylor Parker. She will be pleased to enlighten your outlook and help you to understand yourself in new and defined ways.

The icing on the cake (literally) were the array of goodies the girls made or baked in advance -- all in the theme of the book. We topped the gathering off with some delicious vino and other beverages, also created with the "Goddess" theme in mind.

A huge thank you to our beautiful host, Terri Beckwith (who decked out her place with Goddess lingerie: stilettos and other memorabilia which her cat dozed upon), for creating a magical, memorable event, and to all the Goddesses who participated in the exhilarating evening. To the Goddesses who weren't able to join us on the weekend, you were definitely with us in spirit. ♥ Love to you. 

Golden Goddess Book Club with Kay Parker

This coming weekend, on March 2, I have been invited to participate in a book club discussion about Golden Goddesses with sixteen women. We are very excited to  include special guest and Goddess, Ms. Kay Parker, to join the group during the evening via skype. This is a great opportunity to exchange ideas, interact with readers and fans of the book or genre, and have fun. If something of this nature or along these lines is of interest to those who follow this blog, I'd like to invite you to contact me at my email address: nelson4@cogeco.ca and we can discuss options. Many of the ladies featured in the book are happy to be involved providing schedules allow. We are open to ideas. Thank you! :)

XXX Wasteland Exclusive Interview

The following interview was conducted by fellow Canadian colleague and friend, Adam Wilcox, on Tuesday February 19th. Thanks so much, Adam, for posing some thought provoking questions and for providing excellent coverage for both books. It's also a treat to chat with you. Please visit Adam's excellent blog, XXX Wasteland, for additional interviews, news, editorial and opinions at this link: XXX WastelandXXX Wasteland Exclusive Interview: Jill C. Nelson
Fans of adult starlets of yesteryear look no further than Jill C. Nelson’s latest book, Golden Goddesses: 25 Legendary Women of Classic Erotic Cinema, 1968-1985, for a comprehensive documentation of their favorite performers from porn’s “Golden Era.”Nelson, who earned adult industry historian status by co-authoring 2008’s John Holmes: A Life Measured in Inches  along with Jennifer Sugar, provides readers with an equally in-depth look at the lives and careers of erotic actresses from the late-60s to mid-1980s time period with Goddesses, a 946-page tome written over the course of three-and-a-half years.Nelson’s high regard for her interview subjects is clear and unmistakable within the pages of Goddesses, offering readers a refreshing presentation of the ladies’ personal lives as well as their impact on the world of adult entertainment.Among the ladies profiled in Goddesses are Marilyn Chambers, Julia St. Vincent, Amber Lynn, Nina Hartley, Veronica Hart, Christy Canyon, Georgina Spelvin, Gloria Leonard, Rhonda Jo Petty, Ginger Lynn and many others.Jill kindly spoke with XXX Wasteland on the afternoon of February 19 to discuss the conception and creation ofGoddesses, the book’s highly publicized launch party this past November in California, a possible future project pertaining to the adult industry and more.You can visit the official Golden Goddesses blog at this link and follow Jill on Twitter under the handle@HolmesInches. The book may be purchased at the following links:AmazonBarnes & NobleBearManor MediaChaptersCheck out Jill Nelson’s June 2011 with XXX Wasteland discussing Inches at this link.(Photo #2 courtesy of Amanda Brooks. Photos #3 and #4 courtesy of EMM Report)As many people are aware, you co-authored the Inches biography on John Holmes several years ago along with Jennifer Sugar. Can you tell us how the idea for Golden Goddesses came about?Yeah. I remember Jennifer – who actually initiated A Life Measured in Inches – and I, we were in Las Vegas to promote the book. It was probably about six months after we finished the book and I got thinking that there is just this wealth of information that the women we had talked to for Inches, I just knew there was a wealth of information to tap into. And I thought it would be really interesting to get their stories because I know that several of them have been interviewed over the years and so on, but I don’t think really recently and not as in-depth as I thought they should have been interviewed. And that is sort of what my idea was – to allow them to share their stories, from the childhood years, throughout their careers and up until the point of what they are doing today.Two key differences between Inches and Goddesses are a) You wrote the new book yourself and b) Goddessesfocuses on the lives and careers of 25 performers – more, actually, if you take into account the “Honorable Mentions” section – rather than profiling one individual as with the Holmes bio. Can you talk about the differences in regard to those two aspects?That’s a good question, Adam. (Laughs) Both books had elements that were difficult or challenging and both books, I guess you would say, had easier elements. In a way, it was easier doing Inches just because we were focusing on one individual. So, everybody that we talked to only had to give us information about John and we really only had to dig up information on one individual and watch movies on only one individual.But on the other hand, when you are doing a book on one person and trying to make it as informative and in-depth as you possibly can, you really want to do a lot of digging. And I know we did – we obviously did. ButGoddesses was tricky because you are trying to do 25 mini-biographies and still you want to make it enjoyable, you hope that you are revealing some new information, and again, you want to treat the subject with a great level of respect – especially when you are writing about a subject that is so taboo. I think then you really have to kind of … not go out of your way, but you really have to take care to present your subjects respectfully if you want to do a book that is worth reading. In both cases, we could have sensationalized these people and we chose not to.But there are pros and cons. It’s kind of nice to do a book about 25 people because you know that you can’t go into the kind of depth that you can with one. But on the other hand, it’s harder, like I just said, because you’re trying to condense a lot of information into what you hope is sort of a readable mini-bio.And as you said, the profiles would probably be classified as mini-bios, but they are pretty comprehensive. I wouldn’t consider them “small” profiles, especially considering there are 25 of them contained in one book.Well, I’m glad you say that because I don’t think they are, either. Obviously, some chapters are longer than others because, say, for Ginger Lynn, we had three (interview) sessions. And Amber as well – Amber Lynn. I don’t know why it was. It’s just that they just had a lot to share and they wanted to use this opportunity to really be able to tell all, so to speak, whereas I guess Jody Maxwell’s chapter is relatively small, (as is) Laurie Holmes’, Kitten Natividad. Laurie has been interviewed a lot in the past, mostly about John. So, I thought it was a really good opportunity for her to be able to talk about herself and her own career. But again, because she had been interviewed a lot, she didn’t feel a need to go on and on.But I kind of just let them lead the way and when we started opening up the conversation, I let them take me to where they wanted to go. I had a set list of questions, but I still let them take me where they wanted to go, which is why the chapters are varying lengths.You wrote Goddesses over the course of three years, is that right?Yeah. Really, from start to finish, it was about three-and-a-half years.Obviously, during that time, you travelled extensively to conduct interviews in addition to all the research – film viewing and reading up on interviewees – and then the actual writing and structuring of the book. Throughout that entire process, are there any experiences that stand out in your mind?Yeah. Actually, there are a few. I should say that really, I only interviewed Seka in person. I did go to Montreal – she happened to be coming to Montreal with her husband, who was going to be there on business – and because we don’t live very far away, I went and interviewed her in person. But what I ended up doing was I interviewed everybody and then I made trips – to California a couple of times and New York – to meet some of the women after the fact because I wanted to be able to include a personal experience with as many of the ladies as I could. So, I didn’t necessarily interview them in person, but I at least did get to meet most of them – I would say 20 of them – after the fact or even throughout the course of working on Inches.One of the real fun things: my girlfriend and I went to New York in June to visit her son, who lives in Brooklyn. I had not yet met Gloria Leonard or Candida Royalle before and I really wanted to because I had already written their chapters and I had interviewed Candida for A Life Measured in Inches as well. I’d had an ongoing conversation with her for about five years and I wanted to meet them. As you noticed in the book, Gloria was going to be in town from Hawaii the same week and it just turned out that a friend of theirs, Veronica Vera – who is a friend of Annie Sprinkle’s and worked in porn for a little bit and is an activist – they were going to have a reunion because Veronica was getting married and it just happened that it was going to be the same weekend that I was going (to New York) with my girlfriend. I really didn’t plan it to be that weekend. Candida said, “We’re going to be meeting up on the Sunday. A friend of mine has this little boat in the marina” – West 49th Street, I think it was, in Manhattan. We met up and we just had an absolute ball. We were only there for a couple of hours, but Gloria is just outrageous and so funny. They are just a riot. We just missed Veronica Hart by about an hour; she was coming later. We just had such a great time; we had a little bit of wine and fruit and veggies. There were, I think, seven or eight of us on the boat and it was like I’d known them for years. It was just so much fun. And my girlfriend – she works as a nurse and has had no exposure to this at all except for the fact that she knows me and I’ve written these two books – she and her daughter-in-law just had a blast, too. It was really great and it was a beautiful day. It was in June and here we were. I thought, “Here I am with these ladies and they are just so incredible.” It was just lots of fun. That just stands out for me.Also, meeting Roberta Findlay was really a trip. I’m pretty sure you are familiar with Roberta’s films. She has a reputation for being somewhat of a recluse. She really isn’t, but the thing is, she just doesn’t really embrace her past in porn. So, some people might interpret that as being that she is reclusive, whereas she just doesn’t really get off on talking about it like some of the other people I interviewed – they enjoy their careers and they kind of embrace it and they revere some of the people in the industry, where Roberta has really moved on and she’s very involved in the recording industry in New York, which is equally as fascinating. My husband and I went – this was a different trip to New York and I had already interviewed her, but I wanted to meet her in person – and she was just so self-deprecating and very witty, very dry, but I thought, “I can see how people would take her the wrong way.” If you don’t “get” her, you are looking for something she really is not.  She is not what people conjure up in their mind. She is just very different and very down-to-Earth and very Roberta Findlay.But I really enjoyed her. She took us on a tour of the studio and I mentioned Sting had been there the day before. But it was just so fascinating talking to her. I actually called her a couple of weeks ago and I said, “The book is out now. I’m sorry I haven’t sent you a copy yet, but I’m going to be sending it to you.” So, I’m going to be calling her next week just to see. She did read her chapter – the interview before the book was published – but I’m really interested to see what she will have to say about it.Rhonda Jo Petty, too – I visited her at her ranch. She is just so down-to-Earth as well and she is just so unpretentious – that is what really strikes me about Rhonda. She’s just a wonderful person. She’s had a lot of demons to battle and continues to battle. But you just cannot help but love her. She’s just a terrific girl.Yeah. I remember way back before the book was released you posted a preview of her profile – I’m not sure if hers was the first you put up, but I think it was one of them – and even just reading that was pretty powerful.Yeah. And I’m sure when you were reading through the whole chapter, then you really get the true picture – the whole picture.Yes.She’s been through a lot. These ladies have been through a lot of stuff and come up on the other end. They don’t denigrate the industry. Laurie has had a lot of things to say about the industry – she said to me just a couple of weeks ago, “I hope I didn’t come across as too harsh.” I said, “You have a right to say what your experience is and don’t worry about it.” And I think that’s okay, I think that’s perfectly fine.And I think much of Laurie’s criticism of the business goes way back to when her husband, John Holmes, was dying of AIDS and she felt many people in the industry did not support him.It does. It goes back to that and that’s really where it all started. Plus, she’s grown up a lot over the years. She said to me recently, “Sometimes I just wish that I had gone to university, met a really nice guy and gotten married.” She said, “I think about that more and more now.” She’s going to be 50 this year and although she’s happy in her life, you cannot help but be retrospective about your life even if you are not in the industry.Right. Going back to Roberta Findlay for a second, that was actually one of my favorite chapters reading about how involved she is with her studio – in Manhattan, I believe?Yeah.There are many famous artists who record there regularly. It was very interesting.Yes. That was just incredible. I remember her saying to us, “I don’t even know who half of these people are.” She sort of said, “As long as they pay the bills.” (Laughs) But she respects them and they respect her. Yoko Ono – who does record there quite frequently – she absolutely adored Walter (Sear), who started the studio. Roberta said because of that, sort of by osmosis, Yoko now tolerates her. (Laughs) It’s funny.Yeah. The official book launch was this past November at Hustler Hollywood in California, is that right?Yes.It was well-covered by the media and adult industry news outlets and attended by not only many of theGoddesses interviewees, but also other members of the business. I was wondering if you could talk about that evening because I’m sure it was a pretty amazing night.It was. It was an absolutely amazing evening and far exceeded anything we ever expected or anticipated. Even though I know how popular these women are – they all have their following and fans – I realized that night when you assemble fifteen or sixteen of them together for one evening, you are going to have a powerhouse of a turnout. And it really was. They were supporting me as much as I was supporting them and all of the fans and press were supporting all of us.It was quite an overwhelming moment to stand there at the mic. All I did was read my introduction because it was too much of a crazy house to try and read excerpts, but they are all sitting and their eyes are all up at me as I’m standing there reading. It was just so weird. (Laughs)It was a really ironic and profound experience for me because (the ladies profiled) sort of got their … I would say just rewards or just desserts. I really felt like things had come full-circle for them. They were being honored and recognized in a very respectful way, a very classy location – the Hustler store really is a beautiful location – and we had, of course, cake and champagne and they were being interviewed throughout the evening and the fans just came out in droves.The next night when we did the smaller event at Larry Edmunds – which (the interviewees) really liked because they liked the fact that they were at an “authentic” book store – we had a panel set up that evening and there were ten of them there. That was really great because we had a fabulous Q & A, they again got to interact and people just had love in their eyes for these ladies. It just amazed me.It’s always nice to see adult performers held in that kind of regard.It is. And like I said – and I may have mentioned this on Facebook or in another interview – we’re not saying that they’ve found a cure for cancer or they’ve won a Nobel Peace Prize or anything like that, but in their own way, they are essential and they are significant to their genre and to their era because they were renegades and they were doing this when it was illegal. And despite what a lot of people think, they made their decision to do this – they were forward-thinking. It wasn’t like somebody was bullying them into it. I really don’t believe they were exploited. There might be times when they were exploited, but what really bothers me about that – and I have to say this, Adam, because this always irks me – is for people to say that these women are exploited, or even the men, which they don’t tend to do; it’s usually the women who (critics say) are exploited. It’s sort of like saying these people don’t have a brain and that they don’t have the ability to make their own decisions. It drives me insane. You meet these people or read this book and tell me they are exploited.I feel the exact same way. I’ve used the phrase before: “The term ‘degrading to women’ is degrading to women.”Yeah – I love that. That is very aptly put.It implies that men are capable of making their own decisions, but women aren’t.Right. And nobody ever turns around and says the men are degraded. Well, why? And I think I made that point in my book at some point. I thought, “I need to get this out somewhere.” I didn’t want to dwell on it, but I did make a point how there is never any concern given for the men. It’s always the women. And I thought, “Why?”(Laughs) What’s good for the goose should be good for the gander. If you are concerned about the women, then be concerned about the men.When you pick up Goddesses as a reader rather than the author and have a look at the book, do you have a particular favorite profile?I was asked this once before and it’s really hard because – and this term is used a lot – a book is like your baby. And it’s like they are 25 little babies because I nursed each one of these little chapters along. I don’t know if I have a favorite, but if I look at the back of the book and I see the faces, I sort of smile because I can remember the interviews and what the experience was like of interviewing a specific person. So, it brings back really fond memories. If I flip through the book randomly and I see a quote, I can remember the way it was said.Barbara Mills – who doesn’t get a lot of play because she started her career earlier than a lot of these women – she was a sexploitation actress and then she got out of the industry in the early-70s. I really enjoyed talking with her because she’s really the quintessential hippie. And she died six months after I interviewed her, which was really sad, of hepatitis C. I don’t know if you knew this, but Carly, her daughter, she came out both nights (the book launch and Edmunds event) and joined the panel of women the second night, which was so great.You probably would have to be a diehard fan to have heard of Barbara Caron Mills, but Bob Chinn hired her a lot in the early years. When the heat was on in L.A. and he would sort of switch and do softcore for a while, Barbara would work for him. She had some acting chops and she was really stunningly beautiful. I have a little bit of an affinity for that (chapter), I guess because she died shortly after our interview.The same with Marilyn Chambers. I had interviewed her for Inches, so that interview is from that book. Material was used for Goddesses that we didn’t use in Inches because we only used the portion where she talked about John in Inches. But I’m so glad that I interviewed her, especially when she passed away in 2009 before I even started this book.That is one of my favorite chapters, I would have to say, because I can remember our discussion. It was a hot summer day in July and I called her. For probably the first 20 minutes, we just talked about her daughter, McKenna. McKenna wasn’t able to come to the launch, unfortunately, but Marilyn’s best friend and husband came, who are also the godmother and godfather of McKenna. So, that was really great.Juliet Anderson, of course, passed away after I interviewed her as well. I think it was four months after. So, it was really interesting talking with these ladies and having the chance to speak to them before they passed on. I might have even conducted some of the final interviews with them.But I love all the chapters. Julia St. Vincent is a good friend of mine, as is Laurie. I got to know both of them through the first book. I don’t know if you remember Julia’s chapter very well – it was “From Exhausted toBoogie Nights” – but she didn’t really think she should have been in the book. And I said, “You made the very first porn documentary that I can think of. And also, because of its significance, and becoming the inspiration for Boogie Nights, I really think it’s important that you are included in the book.” And when I read through her chapter, I chuckle because I know her so well and her sense of humor. She’s just a very boisterous, funny person.So, yeah – I can go through the chapters and tell you reasons why I have favorite moments.One thing that sort of crossed my mind when I was reading the book is how we as a society tend to think of the decades of yesteryear as being more conservative and less tolerant than modern times. But one thing I noticed in Goddesseswas the number of rape scenes featured in adult films of that period. I think if content like that was released today it would be highly controversial, but it appeared to be pretty prevalent back then.You’re right. I think that’s true. I think what they’ve done is … yeah, it’s legal, but still, there are a lot of restrictions now. Restrictions weren’t enforced (during the Golden Era) because (making porn) was illegal. It’s really a gray area to me, still. But they would have these rape scenes and these fisting scenes, but then the theatres would get busted. So, they would put them in on purpose to guarantee that they would get publicity for their films, which is why Rhonda went into hiding for two years – because of the fisting scenes and then the publicity that resulted from the film.I agree with you, Adam. I don’t watch porn – I don’t watch modern-day. I watched it to do these books and I enjoyed a lot of the films, but I did review a couple of contemporary films in Raven Touchstone’s chapter. What struck me is how clinical it all seems to be. It seems to lack emotion. I don’t know if that’s really true, but that’s just the impression I got when I was watching the few pictures I did see that are made today.I guess, like you say, there are a lot of things they can’t do. I remember even when we were working on the Holmes book, one of the loops that John made in the early-70s was called Big John and the Girl Scouts. Mark Novick – the company, I think was called Pretty Girl … Claudia Grayson did a lot of loops, if you are familiar with her name – Linda McDowell, she is one of (the book’s) “Honorable Mentions.” Mark’s father’s company shot a lot of loops. Big John and the Girl Scouts, there is no way that would even get made today. (Laughs) Just the title alone. If you see it – and we reviewed it for Inches – two girls come to the door and they’re selling John Girl Scout cookies. One of them was played by one of his girlfriends, Gilda Grant. She was obviously 18 at the time, but they look so young. I mean, they look like they are about 14 years old. So, that kind of thing, you would never see that today. I think they probably do have some restrictions. I don’t think (women in adult films) can appear to be high school age or anything like that now, could they?Well, there are schoolgirl-based plots today, but there are no actual titles that I’m aware of such as Big John and the Girl Scouts. (Laughs)Yeah, that just conjures up all kinds of … (Laughs) political correctness. Good or bad, it’s there.Obviously, when writing the Holmes book, you were immersed in the adult industry and got to know many people in the business. Having researched the lives of the ladies profiled in Goddesses, do you feel you learned anything new about the industry?I would say the one thing that really comes through is that a lot of them told me – and it’s in their chapters – a lot of them are not financially stable. That’s the one thing that I think really became prevalent to me. When they worked, they didn’t ask for residuals. And it’s not only in the adult industry because it’s in the entire entertainment industry at that time, I think. That’s one thing that really struck me. The women who came along in the 80s and later – Ginger (Lynn), Christy (Canyon) and Nina Hartley – I think they are a little more solvent financially. But the ladies like Candida and Gloria … I think Annie is doing okay. But I think it’s just been a real struggle for them financially. And that’s sad to me because they really risked themselves – their reputation and their family’s reputation and all of that – and what do they have to show for it? They are legends and that’s terrific and wonderful, but I wish that they had something more to show for it financially. Some of it is their own fault, I guess – they may have squandered money – but I don’t believe that’s really the case. I think it’s just the fact that they were paid well for the time, but if you compare it to mainstream Hollywood, it was really a pittance what they were paid.Yeah. I also don’t know if there was as much money in it back then, especially with it being illegal, although I don’t know if that would make any difference.I think there was. I guess it goes right down the line with the producers and directors. But there were people lining their pockets. The people who owned the production companies were certainly doing okay. But I guess that’s the one thing when you ask that question that really comes into my head.Yeah. I guess legalities don’t really matter when it comes to making money. There are plenty of illegal operations that are quite lucrative. (Laughs)For sure, for sure.I find it refreshing that if somebody were to pick up a copy of Goddesses and read only the introduction, the regard you have for not only your interview subjects, but also the adult industry as a whole comes across very clearly. I think it’s nice when anyone can open their mind in that way, but especially someone such as yourself who is outside the porn business and somebody who I suppose most people wouldn’t expect to write about subject matter like this.Thank you. I think it’s just because, like you said earlier, I had gotten to know these people. In the beginning – and I know I was asked this when I was working on the Holmes book – “What are these people like?” I was probably a little leery. I’m sure I was a little bit tentative about getting my feet wet, so to speak. But when I got to know them – and some of them, as I said, became close friends – these women have really opened up to me and I’ve really learned who they are as people and it’s very hard to just look at them as being … I use the word “depraved” because I think that’s how society looks at these people – as sort of being depraved and being where we don’t want our children to associate with them.A couple of them have taught. I think Jane (Hamilton) mentioned it in her chapter that when she was supply teaching in New York she was just terrified that somebody was going to find out.Jody Maxwell, the same. She does supply teaching. She has given her legal name and so far she has been fine, but there is always that fear. I can’t imagine living that way and I always say this: We like to think we are very liberated as a society, but we really aren’t. I think Seka hit the nail on the head – she said, “They don’t mind if you are fraternizing in their bars as patrons and so on, but they don’t want you working for them.” I think that’s really true.I agree. There is an industry writer named Gene Ross who runs a website called AdultFYI and he likes to poke fun at the fact that porn often considers itself accepted by the mainstream – which I personally feel it should be, but I don’t think really is, unfortunately – with headlines such as, “From the ‘Mainstream Loves Us Department’ – Another Teacher Fired After Porn Past Outed” or something along those lines. (Laughs)Oh, I know. I remember that.There have actually been quite a few of those cases in recent months.I know! And what is really ironic and contradictory about it is that the trilogy Fifty Shades of Grey … I haven’t read it – I started twenty pages into one of the books and I thought, “I don’t know about this.” I didn’t think it was very well written, first of all. But I thought, “There’s the hypocrisy right there – the fact that you’ve got people probably trampling over one another to get Fifty Shades of Grey when it was first released, yet they are the same people who are probably saying that people who work in the porn industry are whatever they want to call it.” I don’t understand that.That crossed my mind as well when I heard about the popularity of the series.I guess it was written in a way that made it “safe” for women to embrace their sexuality or whatever. But still – it is a hypocrisy. It’s funny: the girl who cuts my hair, I mentioned that to her because she said she had read it. I said, “Isn’t it about S & M?” (Laughs) And her eyes went wide. She said, “You’re the first person who has actually come out and said that.” I said, “Well, that’s the impression I’ve gotten from people.” It was just really funny. I said it and she was like, “Oh, yeah – it is.” It was almost as if she was afraid to acknowledge that. She knew she could say it to me because I’ve written these two books. (Laughs)(Laughs) Do you have any upcoming projects in the works that you would like to put out there?Well, I don’t have anything right now. I’ve had a couple of people say to me that they hope I’ll do a follow-up in the same genre or interview more women. And I never say never. I don’t know if I’m going to do this, but I am considering writing sort of an equivalent about the men.Oh, wow.Yeah. I don’t know for sure. I go with my gut and I said when I wrote this book that I wasn’t going to write another book on this subject just because I felt I had said everything I felt I could say. But when we were down in L.A., Rich Pacheco and Jon Martin were there and Joel Sussman - who took a lot of the beautiful photos in the book - and Kenji and Bill Margold and Cass Paley. They said to me, “Why don’t you write a book about the men?” I said, “Well …” Doing the Holmes book, you kind of feel like you’ve covered all the bases because, as Bill says, “He’s the king.”Right.But then I thought, “It would be kind of interesting to find out how the men got into (the adult industry) during that time.” Kind of learn their stories and see what they have to say. So, it’s something that I’m considering.Very cool. And that would be of the Golden Era as well?It would be, yeah. It would cover sort of the same time period. I would love to talk to the people who knew Jamie Gillis. Actually, I did interview Jamie for Inches and I have to go back and look at our interview because I’m sure he said some things that, if I were to do a project like that, I could use. He probably did say a few things about himself that would be interesting to kind of use as a starting point.And John Leslie and Ron Jeremy .. it would be really interesting to talk to some of these people. But I would like to cover photographers, too, like Joel and Kenji and maybe some directors.I’m the same way – I like to go full-circle as well and speak with agents, photographers, directors and executives. Performers are great to interview as well, but there are contributors behind the camera who have interesting stories also.I think so. That’s why I wanted to include directors in Goddesses – because I thought it would be so interesting to talk to Roberta. And Ann Perry – because Ann was one of the early pioneers of making her own films as a woman and didn’t care what anyone told her. She was going to do her own thing – I just love that.And Julia St. Vincent. And, of course, Raven Touchstone being a screenwriter. I just thought it would be really neat to include the other aspects of the work that the women did in the industry.Absolutely. And (the men of the Golden Era book) sounds like it would be very interesting.I don’t know for certain. I’m not starting anything at the moment, but probably in the fall I’ll be itching to start another book. One of the things – as you know as a writer, too – when you take on a project, you have to go full-bore. So, I really do need a break between the two books because I did them back-to-back and it was a lot of work.Oh, wow. I didn’t know that you did one book right after the other.Yeah. Well, there was a year before I started working on Goddesses, but all that time we were promoting Inches pretty heavily, so it was like there wasn’t a break. And this idea was percolating the whole time, too, to do Goddesses.(Inches) was a four-year project. So, it took four years to do a book on one man and it took three-and-a-half years to do Goddesses. (Laughs)(Laughs)Well, no, because they were min-bios. So, that’s not really true. But (books) are a lot of work. When I wasn’t at work – because I work three days a week – I was working on Goddesses.To finish up, is there anything you wish to say to readers?As I always say, I hope people enjoy the book. If people do read the book and they would like to write a short review, it’s always nice if people want to post a few words up on Amazon. You don’t have to have bought the book there, but you do have to have an Amazon account in order to write a review there.I just really hope that people respect the ladies and see them for who they really are. And I should say that I’m planning to go to the Exxxotica show in Atlantic City in April. I think Bill Margold is going to be there, so we’ll hopefully be sharing a booth. I went to the Exxxtasy show in Chicago a couple of summers ago for Inches and that was really great. I’m hoping that the Exxxotica show will be equally as good. I don’t know if I’ll have any of the ladies with me just because most of them live in the L.A. area, which is why we did the launch there. But you never know.The book will be featured in  Hamilton  magazine in May, which is nice. I like there to be some Canadian exposure. And I really appreciate you, Adam, taking the time to do the interview. And there is a fellow in Montreal who is going to be reviewing the book, Mark Penny. So, it’s nice to have the Canadian-supporting coverage being a Canadian author.I know the book is a hefty price – the paperback is $49.95 – but the Kindle version is $14.95 and you don’t need an e-reader to read the book. You can have it sent to your computer to be an e-book. A lot of people think they have to have an actual device to do it, but they don’t. I think, actually, Amazon explains on any books page on their site how you can go about doing that for Android and iPads, PCs and everything. A $50.00 price tag is a bit scary, but then the book is 950 pages. (Laughs)Right. It was great speaking with you again, Jill, and I appreciate you taking some time out today for this interview. Take care and I wish you continued success with Goddesses.Thanks so much, Adam. Fabulous. Enjoy the rest of your day.

VALENTINE'S D❤Y!

The dictionary definition of  a "Goddess" is one who is "adored or idealized," especially by a male. Valentine's Day is the one special day of the year to express your true feelings to the one you love. If there isn't a significant person in your life at the moment, why not treat yourself? If you are visiting with us today, please take a few moments to peruse this blog, read excerpts about the ladies, sample book reviews, or enjoy one or more of our slide shows. If you are interested in learning more about the book or the legendary ladies profiled within the pages, please take a 'look inside' at Golden Goddesses on its Amazon page to read chapter samples: Golden Goddesses at Amazon
Have a beautiful day. ❤

Hustler Hollywood Footage

Monday, Monday. I am pleased to share this terrific footage recently sent to me from screenwriter, Raven Touchstone, who is also profiled in the book. Her videographer friend shot it on the evening of the Hollywood Hustler Book Launch. Thank you, Penny!

Click on the link above the image to view.

Golden Goddesses Book Launch Footage

Golden Goddesses Book Review by John Harrison

I'd like to thank Australian pop culture writer John Harrison (the author of the Headpress published book, Hip Pocket Sleaze: The Lurid World of Vintage Adult Paperbacks) for composing the following review of Golden Goddesses. John's next project, a biography titled Rene Bond: America's Tragic Teen Fantasy, is due out later this year. Please also visit John Harrison's blog:  Sin Street Sleaze. 
Golden Goddesses: 25 Legendary Women of Classic Erotic Cinema, 1968-1985

"I made it a rule, an absolute rule for all of the films that no women were allowed on the crew except for make-up. The technical crew: cameraman, gaffer, grip and sound — I never hired a woman. I don’t like women." (Roberta Findlay)



There is a continuing, undeniably voyeuristic fascination with people who were involved in the golden age of adult cinema (both in front of and behind the camera). Perhaps it’s the fact that they were both pioneers in a field of phenomenally popular (and perennially profitable) entertainment, yet also looked down upon as outcasts by the majority of mainstream society, who were happy to inwardly look but outwardly condemned. Or perhaps it’s partly because the people then had definitive personalities, looks and styles, unlike the mostly cookie-cutter, fake blonde and siliconed boobed porn starlets of today.

The co-author of the definitive John Holmes bio, Inches, Jill Nelson returns with Golden Goddesses: 25 Legendary Women of Classic Erotic Cinema 1968 - 1985. Told in an oral history format, Nelson has selected a diverse range of names to interview - including not just performers but also screenwriters, directors and costumers - which not only give us a terrific insight into the adult film industry during this rapidly evolving outlaw period, but allows us to know them as women, individuals and human beings. The bulk of the credit for this, of course, belongs to Nelson herself, who has obviously been able to win the trust of her subjects enough for them to open up a lot more than they would have in the pages of publications like Adam Film World back in the day.

Picking out highlights is a tough ask. The interviews conducted with actors who have since passed on (Marilyn Chambers, Juliette Anderson, Barbara Caron Mills) resonate with a certain sadness, but also serve as fitting epitaphs. Likewise, the chapter on actor/director Ann Perry (House on Bare Mountain, The Toy Box, Sweet Savage) also has an emotional timbre to it, since Perry’s battle with Alzheimer’s meant that her son had to do most of the talking for her. Elsewhere, Jody Maxwell (often billed as ‘The Missouri Stick Licker’) talks about losing her film virginity to Jamie Gillis and her unique talent for being able to sing while performing oral sex, and Laurie Holmes remembers her life with John and her disdain at the current state of the porn industry.

If I had to pick a favourite chapter, however, it would have to be Nelson’s interview with the normally publicity-shy Roberta Findlay. Along with her husband Michael, Roberta Findlay was responsible for some of the more notorious of the sexploitation black & white ‘roughies’ that emerged from the New York underground of the mid-to-late 1960s, including Satan’s Bed (1965, starring a pre-Lennon Yoko Ono), Take Me Naked (1966, written by and starring Roberta) and the infamous Flesh trilogy (The Touch of Her Flesh, The Curse of Her Flesh and The Kiss of Her Flesh). They later turned to the drive-in and grindhouse circuits, producing the 1971 Manson-inspired filmSlaughter, which had footage added to it by Allan Shackleton and re-released in 1976 as the notorious Snuff (‘The film that could only be made in South America...where Life is CHEAP!’). After Michael Findlay was killed in a 1977 helicopter crash, Roberta went on to direct hardcore features such as Mystique (1979) and Shauna: Every Man’s Fantasy (1985, a tribute to Shauna Grant, who had committed suicide a year earlier), as well as returning to exploitation and horror with the likes of the grimy Tenement (1985) and Blood Sisters(1987). An impressive oeuvre indeed, and Findlay relays a lot of great anecdotes and memories, from hiding film reels at the bottom of a well to avoid the authorities, getting a cyst in her breast removed (a result of years of filming with a 40 pound Panaflex camera) , and her love for dialogue and disdain at actually having to shoot hardcore sex ("I was always disgusted by the sex scenes so I’d say "Okay, everybody screw". That would be it").

Other names covered in Golden Goddesses include such well-known names (at least within the industry and it’s supporters) as Seka, Kay Parker, Georgina Spelvin, Christy Canyon, Nina Hartley, Annie Sprinkle, Ginger Lynn (whose chapter touches on the industry-changing Traci Lords underage scandal), Veronica Hart, Kitten Natividad and Serena.

At 950 pages, Golden Goddesses is an expansive and exhaustive tome, heavily illustrated with over 300 black & white photos (including many candid and childhood snaps), and an essential addition to the library of anyone with more than a passing interest in its subject matter. I only hope that Nelson returns to the adult genre in the near future, as her two works on the subject so far have provided welcome breaths of fresh air in a field filled with uninspiring, sensationalistic and inaccurate studies.

Review Copyright 2013 John Harrison

"No Agenda" Book Review by Gore Gore Girl

I'd like to thank Gore-Gore Girl (XXX through feminist lens) for composing the following in depth analysis of "Golden Goddesses". No Agenda Book Review: Gore Gore Girl
Hi folks! An exciting book review for you today: Golden Goddesses: 25 Legendary Women of Classic Erotic Cinema, 1968-1985 by Jill C. Nelson, who previously co-wrote the John Holmes biography, Inches. This book is a real labor of love; a collection of lengthy interviews and background stories behind 25 women of the golden age. Each chapter is effectively a mini-biography, with intimate interview responses from the women themselves and occasionally their loved ones (as in the case of those no longer living, such as Marilyn Chambers and Ann Perry), as well as brief analyses of significant works by the women in question and a plethora of photos. At nearly 1000 pages, this is no fluff piece, and Nelson's (and her publisher's) willingness to allow the space necessary for these women to voice their experiences - diverse, unexpected, often inspirational, sometimes sad, occasionally unsettling - should be applauded.Sex work usually polarizes people, as evidenced by the simplistic "pro" and "anti" porn binary, a binary that affects not only writers on the subject, but sex workers themselves when representing their work and themselves. The lack of agenda behind Nelson's project naturally leads to a diversity of stories, some of which are not positive. This, to me, is one of the strengths of the book. When considering the ways in which people write and talk about sex work, I often think about a comment I read from Dutch sex worker Jo Doezema in Wendy Chapkis's fantastic book, Live Sex Acts: Women Performing Erotic Labor. Reflecting on her work, Doezema writes,
"I think for almost everybody I make it more positive than it is, because everybody hsa such a negative idea about it already. So you tend to only talk about the good things or the funny things. With most jobs, if you have a shitty day or a bad client or something, people don't immediately say that it's because of the kind of work you do and that you must stop right away. But with prostitution, I've always felt that if I didn't convince everybody that this work was fantastic for me and that I really loved it that they would all be on my back to quit. Anytime something negative happens in your work, it just confirms peoples' worst suspicions." (120-121).
This insightful perspective can, I think, be applied to all types of sex work, and Nelson's agenda-free approach is refreshing in that it allows for the full spectrum of experiences: good, bad, and in between. For this reason, the book is not always a comfortable read. The project prompts questions, provokes critical thinking, and opens up a space for these women to truly voice themselves and their experiences rather than functioning as a "ventriloquist's dummy," to borrow Anne McClintock's phrase, for whichever agenda-driven group needs them. Through careful structuring, Nelson manages to narrate these women's stories while at the same time never overshadowing or undermining their voices. What peaked my interest about this project, aside from the opportunity to read about the lives of such incredible women who are too often overlooked or dismissed (at best) by mainstream culture, is the fact that Nelson is not a long-time porn fan. For this reason, there is a refreshing degree of subjectivity throughout the book- a lack of agenda, as Nelson puts it - which leads to interviews that are thorough, yet also intimate and often surprising. Nelson explains it in her introduction, "Occasionally, family and friends have been puzzled and queried as to why I have chosen to dedicate much time and energy to developing two books centering on this unusual group often misunderstood and even persecuted by society. I smile and answer, 'I'm not interested in writing a book about Julia Roberts.'" (16). Indeed, Nelson seems drawn to these women for the same reason I am, and her goals for the book are made clear from the outset. "My intention is to escort readers to a clearer understanding of the beautiful and intrepid females who favored an alternative profession in adult cinema that was cultivated at the apex of the 1960's sexual revolution" (17). What sets the book apart is the diversity of women included. While superstars of the screen such as Seka, Amber Lynn, and Marilyn Chambers take up the majority of the focus, women who worked behind the camera are also featured, such as screenwriter Raven Touchstone, writer/director Roberta Findlay, and writer/producer Ann Perry, creating a project that acknowledges a fuller spectrum of female contribution to adult  film than is typical. 
FYI, the 25 women included in the project are: Ann Perry, Barbara Mills, Georgina Spelvin, Marilyn Chambesr, Roberta Findlay, Jody Maxwell, Candida Royalle, Gloria Leonard, Rhonda Jo Petty, Serena, Annie Sprinkle, Sex "Kitten" Natividad, Sharon Mitchell, Kay Parker, Juliet Anderson, Seka, Kelly Nichols, Veronica Hart, Julia St. Vincent, Laurie Holmes, Ginger Lynn, Amber Lynn, Christy Canyon, Raven Touchstone, and Nina Hartley, followed by honorable mentions.
I was naturally more drawn to some of the chapters than others, especially as some of the women featured have had very little written about them. I was particular excited to see a chapter on Raven Touchstone, one of the most prolific and talented screenwriters in adult film. I have long admired her work, especially as I write extensively about one of her films in my ongoing book project, and to be able to read to read an extensive discussion of her life and work was a real treat. Another woman featured whose chapters I jumped to is Jody Maxwell, an actress who I know predominantly as the woman who climaxes after the man in Expose Me, Lovely, which I wrote about in my Subversive Money Shots blog post (though she is better known to the public as "the singing cocksucker" thanks to her unique talent). She also features in classics such as Satisfiers of Alpha Blue, Neon Nights, and Outlaw Ladies. Her filmography is shorter than some starlets of the era, though, and having not read her 2004 book, Private Calls, I knew almost nothing about her prior to reading this book. The same applies to other starlets in the book, most notably Serena and Rhonda Jo Petty, who I adore on screen, yet knew very little about in terms of their personal lives and careers. These chapters were particularly intriguing to me as a result, not only in their details of the industry, but in their wildly divergent and fascinating lives pre-, post-, and during porn. Their work in porn does not define these women, and Nelson deftly allows this truth to manifest in raw and organic narratives.
Even the chapters on women I thought I already knew well were compelling. Georgina Spelvin, for example, whose autobiography I have read did not initially seem to be a must-read section. The same goes for Veronica Hart, Nina Hartley, Sharon Mitchell, and Annie Sprinkle -- all highly visible, frequently written-about stars of adult film. What more could there be to know? Yet, as with all good interviews, Nelson draws out stories and information that built on my existing knowledge and respect for these women, rather than feeling like repetitions on previously read material. The information I had heard before, was still fresh in this new context.Jody reflects at one point, "I honestly don't know what might be considered a typical porn background" (204), and indeed none of the women fit neatly into this societally-prescribed box. What Nelson's book, and others like it can reveal is the extent to which motivations behind sex work and entering the porn industry are complex, and the women who are involved in this work are dynamic, diverse, and human. This book is recommended equally to those familiar with the stars of the golden age as well as those who are not. Golden Goddesses really is as complete an overview of the main female players in adult cinema there is. The very fact that so little material is written about these incredible women speaks to the importance of Nelson's work. I can only hope for a sequel focusing on the men.  

"Golden Goddesses" 2012 Book of the Year: Gram Ponante

Thank you to journalist Gram Ponante for selecting "Golden Goddesses" as one of the best adult-themed books of 2012: Best Books of 2012: Ropey Volley Awards. The following book review is excerpted from Ponante's piece on three selected books.

My favorite adult-themed books of 2012 had no shades of grey within them whatsoever; they were accounts of people who, if they had doubts, made bold choices anyway. Then there was my book, which is chock full of doubt.

I read a number of memoirs, How To books, and coffeetable tomes, but none were as useful or enlightening as Jill C. Nelson’s comprehensive and brilliant oral history Golden Goddesses: 25 Legendary Women of Classic Erotic Cinema, 1968-1985. It is a massive book, and the kind that equally encourages flipping between chapters as it does a front-to-back reading.“Golden Goddesses” was conceived shortly after Nelson finished her exhaustive oral history of John Holmes, “A Life Measured in Inches.”“I met many of these women when collecting interviews for the John Holmes book,” Nelson says, “and if (“Inches”) told many stories while explaining John’s, (“Goddesses”) is much more of a history.”It is an amazing history, and one that is that much more significant by virtue of the subject matter. While people like Veronica Hart, Annie Sprinkle, and Nina Hartley have both the resources and resolve to tell their stories, many of Nelson’s interviews, especially as delivered through the filter of hindsight by people like “Taboo”‘s Kay Parker, “Aunty Peg”‘s Juliet Anderson, or Rhonda Jo Petty, would have likely never been told with such detail had Nelson not happened along.Nelson, a low-key Canadian in her 50s, compiled this 900+-page tome over three years, and I have never encountered a more comprehensive detailing of the gleeful freedom of the porn lifestyle of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s as well as the repressive society that made it inevitable.Petty speaks of getting bullied into a fisting scene.“I let [the director] intimidate me because of where I came from,” she says. “When my father heard about the film, he threatened to break my arms and legs.”Packed with more than 300 photos as well as a selected filmography of the profiled stars, “Golden Goddesses” is a must-have for porn fans as well as a compelling social history.

Book Review: All Tomorrow's Parties by Jeremy Richey

I'd like to extend my gratitude to writer/critic Jeremy Richey for the following piece on my book. Golden Goddesses: All Tomorrow's Parties

All Tomorrow's Parties: A Look at Jill C. Nelson's Golden Goddesses 
by Jeremy Richey (Moon in the Gutter)


Film Critic Mark Cousin's exhausting 2011 fifteen-part documentary The Story of Film serves as a frustrating reminder that mainstream film studies continue to ignore the valuable alternate history of adult, exploitation and genre cinema, as well as many of film's most brilliant fringe filmmakers. The 'Story' of film belongs as much to what many would label 'bad' cinema as it does to what most agree on as 'great' cinema and until filmmakers as far ranging as Borowczyk, Findlay, Franco and Metzger are given their proper place along such esteemed directors as Ozu, Sirk, Welles and Spielberg, then the accepted history of film is false or, at the very least, incomplete.

Thankfully there are an increasing number of film critics, historians and enthusiasts who are becoming more and more vocal about the history of cinema that mainstream authorities have spent decades attempting to wipe out. Author Jill C. Nelson's astonishing Golden Goddesses: 25 Legendary Women of Classic Erotic Cinema, 1968-1985 is one of the best in depth studies yet that delves into one of the most notoriously ignored genres in all of cinema and it stands as one of the most important books dealing with an 'alternate' history of film since Pete Tombs and Cathal Tohill's Immoral Tales and Tim Lucas' Maria Bava: All the Colors of the Dark. 

An epic near 1000 page book, Golden Goddesses is made up of 25 fascinating, and lengthy, interviews with some of adult and exploitation cinema's greatest actresses. Beginning with Ann Perry and ending with Nina Hartley, Nelson offers up portraits of two dozen of the bravest and most intriguing figures in film history that you may, or may not, be familiar with. Golden Goddesses stands in sharp contrast to the endless number of books dealing with recycled information on the same film icons who get covered year after year... Nelson's book is a shockingly new and refreshing work and remains a compulsive read from the first page to the last.
Golden Goddesses is a noteworthy book due to many factors with perhaps the first being Nelson's incredibly refreshing non-judgmental stand and writing style. Golden Goddeses isn't presented with the same 'cautionary tale' stand style as most books dealing with adult cinema. Nelson shows clear care and love for these talented artists and her goal of just letting them tell their stories (while Nelson puts their tales and work into historical perspective) is inspiring. Golden Goddesses offers up a startling portrait of twenty-five strong women all with very different stories to tell... some triumphant, some sad but all unique and very, very real.
While Golden Goddesses operates as a biography on the actors Nelson gathered together, it also operates as the history of this ignored genre film history so greatly deserved and I salute Nelson for her mini-reviews of the films that come up in discussion throughout the book. While most authors would have been content in skirting the films (bad and good) that these actresses appeared in, Nelson understands that one of the most important aspects of each one of these women's lives are indeed the cinematic legacy they left.

While each chapter of Golden Goddesses stand on their own as truly valuable works, there are definite highlights throughout the book. Nelson's chat with Georgina Spelvin is quite an eye-opening look at an incredible life that includes cameos by everyone from The Rat Pack to Bob Fosse and the talk with filmmaker Roberta Findlay is, simply put, one of the most important looks at an important cult-filmmaker we have ever had.

Personal favorites include the section on the glorious free-thinking flower-child Serena, actress turned feminist-filmmaker Candida Royalle and the astonishing Veronica Hart, whose razor-sharp wit and intelligence comes through on every page. Golden Goddesses also includes one of the final interviews conducted with the legendary Marilyn Chambers and what a bittersweet read it is.

While there are tales (Rhonda Jo Petty, Sharon Mitchell, Kelly Nichols and Amber Lynn's in particular) that detail many of the struggles with abuse and addiction that is so often aligned with the history of adult film, the main attitudes that leaps off the pages of Golden Goddesses are defiance, independence, originality and strength. These twenty-five artists are ultimately not anyone's victims... they remain, for the most part, wonderfully rebellious free-spirits who LIVED a life and Jill C. Nelson has served them up a fitting and powerful tribute with Golden Goddesses.