Jill C. Nelson's Blog, page 8

"Golden Goddesses" ready for pre-order!

"Golden Goddesses" is now available for order at BearManor Media's website. All pre-orders will receive a 10% discount plus shipping. Coming soon to all major online retailers!

Book synopsis: Golden Goddesses vibrantly casts light upon twenty-five significant women involved in the erotic film industry during its Golden Era, between the years 1968-1985 when participation in adult productions was illegal. Profiling performers, directors, scriptwriters and costumers, Golden Goddesses is a palate of insights, intimacy, vulnerability and strength, as it immerses readers into the lives of these celebrated and audacious females.  
     Featuring the author’s own interviews with Marilyn Chambers, Seka, Kay Parker, Rhonda Jo Petty, Serena, Georgina Spelvin, Juliet Anderson, Candida Royalle, Sharon Mitchell, Gloria Leonard, Annie Sprinkle, Ann Perry, Jody Maxwell, Barbara Mills, Veronica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Ginger Lynn, Kitten Natividad, Amber Lynn, Laurie Holmes, Christy Canyon, Julia St. Vincent, Roberta Findlay, Nina Hartley and Raven Touchstone, Golden Goddesses also includes film highlights, more than 300 photos, and fifteen "Honorable Mentions".     These fascinating women of classic adult film are presented with depth, sensitivity, and historical scope while capturing the quintessence of a rebellious spirit from days gone by.

http://www.bearmanormedia.com/index.php?route=product%2Fproduct&product_id=537

Spotlight on Rhonda Jo Petty

In light of the pending release of "Golden Goddesses," at Rhonda Jo Petty's request, I am updating her spotlight page. It is no secret that Petty is one of the most popular ladies of the classic era, and she is preparing to put herself out there in the coming months. Simultaneously, Rhonda is currently experiencing some struggles in her personal life. She contacted me last night to ask that I share the news she is going through difficult divorce proceedings but that she is happy and doing well. Rhonda Jo also plans to attend the official "Goddesses" book launch in Los Angeles which we are planning to schedule before the end of this year. We wish Ms. Petty all of the happiness in the world and look forward to her future endeavors. Without further adieu, for those of you who have yet to read the following quotes excerpted from Rhonda Jo Petty's chapter, please do enjoy.  

Rhonda Jo Petty might not quite have achieved the status of elite female performer as some of her contemporaries like Seka and Ginger Lynn, but she has clearly etched out a place as one of the sexiest and most provocative "B" ladies of the Golden Era.  A Chatsworth, California native, Rhonda Jo gained notoriety as a Farrah Fawcett clone during the promotion of her first starring role in Disco Lady (1978) because of the remarkable resemblance she bore to her Hollywood counterpart.  Petty quickly magnetized a cult fan base who appreciated her inclination for some of her raunchier onscreen activities that became synonymous with her name after her second adult feature Little Orphan Dusty (1978).  Petty has wrestled with her share of demons, and in recent years, she has worked on making peace with her past as she still feels the lingering effects of a traumatic childhood.  Petty is proud of her reputation as a pioneer and she remains one of the industry’s most noteworthy and personable feature female stars. 
Although it was difficult at times for Rhonda to share certain painful memories during our interview, her candor is palpable and sincere:   
     "The first time I was busted in junior high, I had taken some downers and I ended up passing out in class. When I woke up, everybody was gone except for the teacher sitting at her desk. She said, ‘Rhonda?’ I said, ‘Oh shit.’ I took off running into my locker – I don’t know why but I was really messed up, and had taken too many downers. Next thing I know, the principal is in my face, the teacher is there, and there’s security. They dragged me into the office and they called my mother. They called the police and I’ll never forget the principal sitting there with a pencil telling me to follow the pencil with my eyes. My mom picked me up and brought me home. It was my father’s birthday. She paced back and forth in the living room and kept saying, ‘Your father’s going to kill you.’ It was at that point that I couldn’t take it anymore. This was going to be a really big beating. I thought, ‘I don’t care anymore.’ That was the day that I disconnected -- I cut my head off from my body. I mentally just disconnected. It’s funny down the road when I did films I was able to do that."

     "You know, I always felt when I was working that a lot of the girls were there to prove their sexuality. It would just be the biggest turn-off to me. I couldn’t stand it. Some of them were really screwed up. They just couldn’t wait to work and they loved it, and they were just idiots in my eyes. I saw it as a job and you were there to work. I always had a good reputation for showing up on time. I was always a good worker and there was never a problem. I did pride myself on that fact -- I always suited up and showed up. My dad instilled really good work ethics in me."     "I view myself as a person who has her own opinion, and who has had her own experiences. This is who I am. I took a serious approach to the business and I liked the money. I think another reason that I got into the business is because of my attitude. My parents were not there for me at all. I feel like I got dropped off at the end of the world. By the time I left the house, they didn’t give a shit if I went to college. There were no offers like, ‘Oh, Rhonda, what are you going to do with your life?’ I thought to myself, ‘Fuck my dad. I’ll show him. I can take care of myself.'"     “My mom is the sweetest thing in the world. She has never judged me; she is very religious. She’s always been supportive of me and had an open door. My dad was angry in the beginning, of course, but nowadays he’ll make comments that surprise me. One time he said, “Oh, Rhonda, me and Uncle Bobby were on the internet and I told Bobby you were in Debbie Does Dallas (1978). Weren’t you in that movie?” It blew me away because it has been something we don’t discuss. Here he was coming off as if he was a little bit proud of me. He knows that I made it big in the industry and he’s made a couple of comments here and there to let me know.”       “I stay in touch with Ronnie [Jeremy] and I’m very close with Johnny Keyes. He comes down, and stays with us and cooks for us. He and my husband are the best of friends. They talk all the time. He’s more of a character than Ron Jeremy is. He lives up in Washington and he’s a jazz singer now. Johnny is godfather to my kids, and his son is very close to my daughter – they text each other all the time.”       "I’ve had to deal with the bad side of it and the good side of it. But I’m fine with it, today. I did make a name for myself, and I have a real good reputation in the business. They finally put me in the Hall of Fame."

Back Cover Preview

Presently, "Golden Goddesses" is in its preparatory stages of production at BearManor Media. Providing all goes according to schedule, we are still looking at a fall release for the book with plans for an official launch in Los Angeles. Once everything is finalized, an announcement will be made. In the interim, I would like to share a preview of the book's back cover image. Thanks to Kenji, JSV Designs, and to all of the beautiful ladies featured. You look mahvelous!

Spotlight on "Aunt Peg" Juliet Anderson (1938-2010)

     Juliet Anderson is one of the most ferociously seductive temptresses to have entranced golden age audiences. Anderson swiftly moved up the echelon of adult performers in her fortieth year after accepting the role of a housekeeper in Alex de Renzy’s Pretty Peaches (1978). With the subsequent unveiling of her alter ego, the insatiable, shoot-from-the-hip, “Aunt Peg” Norton, Juliet became an instant sensation and recurring screen character following a scene whereby Anderson instructed her virginal “niece” (Sharon Kane) on the finer points of sexual gratification during a ménage à trois with John C. Holmes.       The eldest of two daughters, Juliet Anderson was born Judy Carr. Raised in Burbank, California by a Big Band trumpeter and his wife, money was scarce for the small family, but love and affection was bountiful. Juliet spoke with humor and awe when recounting her parents’ uninhibited sexual compatibility vividly recalling how they would often sneak away and make love. She credited her mother and father for instilling in her a carefree and healthy attitude about her own sexuality.     Contrary to her later years as an indomitable blonde Cougar, Juliet’s childhood was often lonely and isolated after she was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. The illness produced debilitating symptoms that sent her to hospitals and prevented her from participating in regular girlhood activities. Vowing to not allow the condition to consume her, Juliet eventually studied art and English in college, and taught conversational English abroad to foreign students for several years before settling in San Francisco. There, she proceeded to hook up with a friend for some casual sex and the encounter became the impetus for her job search. Shortly after answering an advertisement in a newspaper seeking to hire nude performers, Anderson made the acquaintance of director Alex de Renzy and her fate was sealed.  ‘“[de Renzy] said, “You’re definitely hired for the show, and by the way, I’m shooting a film and there’s a part that hasn’t been cast yet,” which was true, he wasn’t making it up. He told me, “I was wondering if you might like to be in it. It’s not difficult or anything. It’ll only take a short time and it’s just for one day, but I’ll give you two hundred dollars.” Now, see that was a lot of money. Nowadays, ladies get eight hundred dollars for a fourteen-hour day. I’m talking about the girls who are no one―just starting out. Then the stars, they get thousands, you know. Apart from that, I know nothing about it. I don’t keep track of anyone and I know zero.  Anyway, [de Renzy] said, “Well, I’ve got to make a couple of calls, but here’s the script. Your part would be that of the maid. It’s near the beginning.” Up to that point, I’d never been with a woman. I read that part, I screamed and Alex covered his mouthpiece of the phone and said, “I’ll be right with you.”      My heart was pounding and I said to him, “Oh, my god! What is this? I’ve never done—do you mean to tell me there are movies like this?” I’d never heard of the X-rated film business in my whole life. I’d been living abroad. He was very patient and he explained. He said, “This is the X-rated movie business,” but he said, “Look, you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. You’ll still have the job here.”      I said, “Well, I believe I was given this opportunity for a reason and it would be really foolish of me to pass it up because I like to learn new things.”      John Leslie was my first man I worked with and throughout my entire career; he was my favorite. We had the most incredible chemistry. We absolutely had a ball. I went on to make dozens of films and I was in the industry for six and a half years, but John Leslie was my very favorite. He was intelligent and funny, a good actor, and we just had so much fun; it was extremely obvious on screen.’     ‘I told my parents how it happened and that it completely surprised me. I didn’t even know that the adult industry existed because I’d been out of the country for so long. They looked at each other and looked back at me – I can see it right now – with big smiles on their faces. They said, “We know it already.” Somebody they knew came to them and told them. They had actually gone to a theater. In those days, you had to go to a movie theater. It was before video. My parents told me that some friends of some people they knew went and saw me. I said, “Oh no! I’m sorry.” They just started laughing. They said, “Don’t worry about it. You’re a grown-up gal and if you can’t take care of yourself at this point then it’s too late.”’     ‘I was my own manager and I booked myself all over the country. I would create characters like “Carol the Cook,” “Elaine the Engineer,” “Helen the Housewife,” “Nurse Naughty,” and my favorite, “Elaine the Executive”. These were parodies to dispel the myth that there was any separation between being sexy, and intelligent, and funny, and older. That’s what I did in the films – dispel those myths and that’s what I did with this show. I had fun creating these characters. I created these great shows. I was my own agent and booked myself in, and I had them find me a hotel room.’     ‘If women let themselves be exploited, I imagine they were. I can’t really speak for the other women; I just know that I never was. I never allowed myself to be. The directors who wanted to do that didn’t hire me because I had a reputation for being independent and not putting up with nonsense. I did a very good job when I was in front of the camera and I made it easy for everybody because my scenes could often be done in just one take.’     ‘I had a positive attitude, but I also saw it as corporate America. The big boys were making lots of money and we working folk were not. That went for the directors and the crew as well as the cast. The rumor is that I made three producers millionaires. That’s just a rumor, but I certainly lined the coffers of the corporate people who financed these productions. It’s big business.’ 

Front Cover Image!

The BearManor Media logo, ISBN, and price still need to be affixed, but thanks to the beautiful artwork of the expert folks at www.agenius-marketing.com this will be the front cover image for "Golden Goddesses" the book. I must recommend agenius to anyone who appreciates creativity and efficiency. I'd also like to thank Joel Sussman once again for granting me permission to use this stunning photo of Serena for the book's cover image, and also to Kenji for allowing me to use the beautiful photos of Marilyn Chambers and Kay Parker shown at the top of the cover. I am very pleased.

Modern Mousai Women

This week, after a summer long double editing process, I've re-read and returned my manuscript to the hands of the good folks at BearManor Media who will (thankfully) incorporate an index before the book goes off to typesetter extraordinaire Brian Pearce. With a final proof to go, I've been assured if all goes well, "Golden Goddesses" will be published in the fall as hoped. I'm very excited by this news, and will be soon be making plans for the book's official release. In the interim, I'd like put the spotlight on a fellow female author and friend, Heather Drain. For those of you who don't know her, Heather (aka Mondo Heather) is a gifted professional writer with expertise in fringe art, particularly in the areas of film and music. She is a contributor to several magazines, websites and forums. Heather also composes regularly on her own blog where she provides readers with flashes of brilliant insights and analysis into the world of film, art and various other musings. Her sensational reviews are personally stamped with wit and extraordinary style. http://www.mondoheather.blogspot.ca/2012/05/dont-you-know-that-im-2000-man-or-my.html  A superb wordsmith, Drain writes from the gut; she masterfully scrapes down to the core of a subject or character throughout her retrospectives and is a positive role model for anyone who has ever dared to let their fingers do the talking. I mention Heather today in part because I would like to give credence to the magnificent modern day Mousai she is: In Greek mythology, ancient Goddesses that inspired music and the artistic cultures of dance, writing and poetry were named "The Mousai" or "Muses". Not unlike the Goddesses I have chosen to feature in my book, Heather clearly fills the shoes as one who inspires and as one who is inspired. She is a great supporter of Golden Goddesses, but also a friend and colleague who has propped me up when occasionally, I've felt overwhelmed. Recently, I asked Heather to contribute something personal for the back cover of the book. I am honoured and encouraged by her words and can only hope the book lives up to her kind praise:

"There have been very few writers who have managed to write about this revolutionary era of cinema with such a level of respect, warmth and intelligence like Jill Nelson. Golden Goddesses is a present to the curious, converted and most importantly, to the pioneering women who bucked the status quo concepts of what "nice girls" should or shouldn't do. The women featured here are artists, writers, mothers, sisters and daughters, each of whose stories are unique and human. Nelson has captured all of this and more, beautifully with Golden Goddesses." -- Heather Drain, Film Writer www.mondoheather.blogspot.com/

Thank you, Heather: "Mondo Mousai". ♥

Spotlight on Sharon Mitchell

     Celebrated by classic porn fans for her tough, campy, androgynous persona, and daring on-camera predilections, Sharon’s childhood years were stamped with feelings of insecurity and confusion about her own sexuality and place in the world. Before the age of ten, Mitchell’s mother and father divorced prompting her mother to assume a position as assistant administrator of a hospital for the criminally insane. Her Hungarian grandmother was assigned the duty of co-raising the clever and auspicious child. To this day, Sharon claims that her grandmother championed her independence, and imparted pearls of wisdom to her young charge. Frustrated by her mother’s controlling ways and feelings of neglect brought on by her alcoholic father’s absence in her life, Sharon abruptly married at seventeen, but had the marriage annulled six months later. Never one to be bound by conventionality, Mitchell arrived on the New York scene in the mid-seventies while still a teen.     "I was out of diapers young and walking very quickly. I learned how to read very, very, young. I was extremely bright and I won some kind of contest when I was four years old for reading books. Other kids used to pick on me for being adopted. It was kind of confusing because my family always celebrated the day that they adopted me it was such a big deal. I always wondered if it was a big deal or if it was a curse. It just didn’t make that much difference to me. Interestingly, the Catholic Church, I believe, was the second largest white baby dealer in the United States during the 1950s, and they would charge ten thousand dollars for a white baby. They had all of these terms and conditions: you’d have to put the child through the Catholic school and donate lots of money until the child reached a certain age. There were other [alternative] adoption agencies, but apparently, you’d have to wait about ten years to get a white baby. For some reason, my parents wanted a white baby because it was the fifties, I don’t know. Every single month a nun would come around until I was about nine years old. You never knew when she was going to come, day or night. If they did not sufficiently believe a child was being cared for properly, they would take you back and reboot you out to somebody else."       "I got married at seventeen to get out of the house. He was a local guy who was a couple of years older than me. We were married for six months and then I left. I got the marriage annulled. However, I was legally emancipated. I could do whatever I wanted to do and went to New York on my own. I started working with Dorothy Palmer Agency and Dorothy Palmer would book me on soap operas. Over the next seven years, I did a tremendous amount of bit parts in movies; talking parts in television and commercials. I did a lot of that while I was doing the adult entertainment. I was also a back-up singer, primarily in a band. I did a little bit of singing and a little bit of percussion."     "I did one of my first scenes with Jamie Gillis and another young man (Russ Carlson) in Vanessa del Rio’s film That Lady from Rio. The director was trying to talk me into a double penetration or something and I had never even fucking heard of it you know. Jamie was like, “This girl just walked on the set. She has no idea.” I remember him arguing with the guy about that and he just kept saying, “You know what? Just listen to me. I’ll take care of you for a couple of months.” He could see that someone could have taken advantage of me. From that day forward, I worked with him in tons of films. He always watched out for me, and he was always a sweetheart and never judged me. We lived together from time to time and with other folks, and we shared apartments. I loved Jamie. Jamie was like the perverted father I always wanted to have. Jamie represented nothing but pure love for me: absolute, unequivocal, pure love. We all really looked out for each other. I used to babysit for Gloria Leonard. John Leslie, Jamie Gillis, Eric Edwards (Rob Everett), John Holmes, and Hershel Savage as well—those guys were just sort of my big brothers. We were the core of the industry. We were the Air Corps, the Marines, the fucking Navy, and everything else. We were it."       "There was a ton of money around in porn and I made up my mind that I was just going to stay working regardless of the type of work there was. There were two things I knew I didn’t want to do: one of them was prostitution, and the other one was being a waitress. I wanted to fucking avoid those two things. I was getting a lot of work as well. There wasn’t enough money to become a fulltime mainstream actress. I would have done it sure, but back then, porn was kind of a rotten thing to do. You had to walk into a theatre to watch porn because it wasn’t on TV back then; it wasn’t even on videotape. It was really a shocking thing to do porn which was part of the appeal for me. I was an anarchist, so it was a way to cause trouble and mayhem. It’s very funny, because at the same time I always maintained this sort of code of honor that I wouldn’t do certain things and I wouldn’t work for less than this, and so on and so forth. Those things got difficult to maintain especially toward the end when the industry was changing, and I was doing drugs and things like that, but I managed to not cross that line."       "You know people always ask me, “Was it heroin that drew you into porn?” It really wasn’t about one or the other. It’s just that I was experimenting with drugs ever since I could probably walk. I had been working every night literally, so when cocaine came along it kind of helped me stay awake. Heroin was the perfect drug for me and the good thing about it I was very careful, thank god. I never shared a needle and I was so secretive, I didn’t want anyone to know. There was nothing like heroin. There’s nothing that can compare to it before and very little since. It was something that took away any kind of anxiety or pain that was emotional or physical, or any type of chaos going in inside of my head ─ any type of feeling that I didn’t fit in. When I found that to go with the cocaine, I eventually dropped the cocaine."     "I became lonely for two reasons: I was a career porn star and that’s what I was. Pretty much everything legitimate had dropped off. I did a lot of adult films, but I would go out on the road dancing because you just can’t do that to your body. You can’t work in porn every day for months at a time. It’s exhausting and it’s just not healthy. I’d go out on the road for a while, and give myself a break and come back. The burlesque gave me a nice porthole to rest my other body parts and just stay toned, and stay in good shape, and obtain a fan base ─ all that good stuff. Today, doing porn is a stepping-stone toward prostitution as it used to be for women who wanted to get into the feature stripping business."        "We know that we are nice people, probably some of the nicest fucking people you’ll ever come across. We’ve raised each other’s kids and we’ve loaned each other money. We’ve been pals all these years. We’ve made our living; we didn’t hurt anybody. We’re not a bunch of fucking gangsters. We’ve evolved through a very tough period to struggle for what normalcy means to us. Whatever that means individually or collectively to us, and those of us who have survived it ─ you can’t find a better group of people."

Spotlight on Laurie Holmes/Misty Dawn

     At forty-nine years old, Laurie Holmes (born Laurie Rose) is an apt example of what it is to be a survivor although she’d be the first one to proclaim she’s nobody’s victim. As the youngest of three children from a nuclear family in New Mexico, Laurie was not unlike any other little girl growing up in the South Western United States during the late 1960s and 1970s. The daughter of a military man and kindergarten teacher, admittedly, Laurie grew rebellious in nature during her teen years. She was sent to live in foster homes before becoming pregnant by her boyfriend at age sixteen. When she was unable to reclaim the carefree years she’d lost before becoming a young mother, Laurie entered adult movies in 1982 to support her young son and chose the stage name “Misty Dawn.”      "I had many dolls and I was into gymnastics and took various lessons during my childhood years. I was a cheerleader in YAFL [Young American Football League] in New Mexico. I was a Blue Bird and a Camp Fire Girl—the whole works. My family went on many summer vacations together. It was the seventies and it was all grand. During my early years, I had problems in school though, and I wasn’t very popular in grade school. Then one summer I blossomed into something that I wasn’t ready to be. The attention I received was a little overwhelming, but I enjoyed every single bit of it. In the eighth grade, I was expelled from one school and in the middle of the year, I started attending another."      "By the time I reached high school I was totally out of control; I hated any kind of authority. I was going to do whatever the hell I wanted to and nobody was going to tell me any different. I was sixteen going on thirty something, or at least I believed that at the time. By the time I was sixteen, I was living in foster homes because my parents didn’t know what to do with me. Shortly afterwards, I moved to a different state with my boyfriend, and it wasn’t long after we’d started living together that I became pregnant at the age of sixteen. I was far too young for motherhood; I know that now. It was during this time when a girl friend of mine and I reconnected. She told me that she had been shooting porn movies and making good money. For a young mother living at home with her parents, it sounded like an exciting lifestyle as well as an opportunity for me to make enough money to get away from the homestead. My first movie was called The Best Little Cathouse in Las Vegas (1982) with Rhonda Jo Petty, who was starring in the lead role. Rhonda became one of my favorite actresses for the longest time."      "In the early years, I was star struck and found it all to be extremely exciting. After a while, I found that it wasn’t what I had initially thought. I didn’t get as much work as when I first started working just like everyone else, and there was always someone new or prettier coming along. I found it was hard to cope with feelings of rejection at such a young age. It was very difficult. You are so young and you try to hide those feelings. I know I did, but still, they are there inside of you to deal with."     "Later, I danced from age twenty-nine to thirty-five, and even at that age it was rough. I needed the speed to get me there and keep me dancing throughout the night. I needed the alcohol to cut the chase of the speed. The sugar in the alcohol also gave me a false sense of energy and security. In my experience, ninety-nine percent of the girls were in the same boat I was. There was usually one girl in the entire bunch that didn’t need the drugs or alcohol, and usually she was the youngest one. I think it’s extremely sad that many of the girls don’t know how to become normal working people after porn, and they have such little self-esteem they think they can’t do anything else but rely on their aging and abused bodies. It’s a vicious, psychological cycle enhanced by your over-the-hill aging body. Again, I stripped for roughly five years and I would never do it again. I feel sorry for those girls. Porn was much easier and prettier. Women are stripping because they can no longer get work in the movies. It takes a lot of energy to dance all night, so like I said you have got to have something to get you there and keep you there. You know in your mind that you’re not the same hot sex object that you used to be and the competition is fierce, yet when you come out on stage everyone is expecting to see the way you were, not the way you are now. It takes even more drugs and alcohol—and some tips—to make you feel like “you’ve still got it,” until the next day when you wake up, look in the mirror and your reality and mortality is staring back at you. Then you turn around and do it all over again."

WorldHeadPress Q&A

Recently, I spoke about Golden Goddesses and John Holmes: A Life Measured in Inches with writer John Harrison, author of a forthcoming biography on Rene Bond who will be featured in the 'Honorable Mentions' section of "Goddesses". The interview in its entirety is available at Headpress.com  through the following link:
http://www.worldheadpress.com/john-holmes-264 Thanks to John Harrison for his time, effort and excellent questions, and to Headpress.com for publishing the lengthy Q&A.
As you can see by the portion of the book's cover photo depicted in this post, we are nearing the final stages of the unveiling in the weeks to come.  :)

July News!

I'd like to share the news that I have completed "Golden Goddesses" and the manuscript was sent to my publisher on July 1st. The attached photo of Marilyn Chambers is courtesy of Mitchell Brothers Film Group and will appear in the book. I will continue to post excerpts from the book over the next few months and announce the publication date once I have that information. In the meantime, the following is an excerpt from my book's introduction. Enjoy!

     "In this book, I have accentuated twenty-five resplendent women of the Golden Age of erotic films who worked on both the east and west coasts of the United States between the years 1968-1985. My intention is to escort readers toward 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 1960s sexual revolution. By the early 1970s, porno was chic, and performers helmed by artful directors were personified in genuine scripts, supported by costuming and make-up departments in quality film projects that often culminated in red carpet premieres. Several individuals, and particularly women who began working in loops and sexually oriented films prior to the porno chic juncture, and/or up until the mid-1980s video boom, became legitimate silver screen stars. To suggest that their chosen path has been comfortable or without debris would be false, for as each unfolding story will reveal, experiences for a female employed in the adult entertainment industry during the generation when it was illegal to participate in the production of sex films, were anything but ordinary.

     My interviews with twenty-five incisive female personalities: performers, directors, costumers and scriptwriters, are documented in the following pages. They range in age between forty-six and seventy-six years. Starting with their childhood years and closing with the present day, each woman has communicated her story through honest reflections and multifarious assessments of life and work within the adult motion picture community. Some of the featured women pursued assorted roles during the Golden Era of X-rated films, while others were occupied in a single capacity. A handful of females presented in this account are still actively involved in a facet of sexual entertainment. Because this book has its lens on women who worked for the erotic film industry, each chapter also contains film highlights.

     These eccentric, imperfect women, who dared to walk on the wild side, are also some of the most gorgeous, vivacious, outrageous, intelligent and ethical people anyone would ever want to meet. I don’t profess to have familiarity with today’s trends in pornographic movie productions, but I have been made well aware there is a vast difference between the caliber of performer and content available today and yesteryear. Without question, my expedition has been incredible, and I believe it has reaffirmed for me that I am bolder than I might have been had I chosen a safer sojourn. It is my hope that I have presented each woman’s story respectfully, with dignity, and without agenda." ~ Jill C. Nelson