Ann Perry-Rhine -- In Memoriam

Last week, the world lost one of the most beloved and iconic women of classic erotic films, Candida Royalle. On Friday September 11, one of the very first female directors, producers and entrepreneurs associated with classic adult pictures, Ann Perry-Rhine, died peacefully in Los Angeles. In recent years, Ann suffered from Alzheimers symptoms and was unable to participate directly when I approached her for an interview in 2010.  Fortunately, Ann's son, Greg Yedding, stepped up and was happy to provide accounts of his mother's fascinating life and history in the erotic movie industry for the book. Other interview material that appears in Perry's chapter is excerpted from Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes (1999), a documentary on John Holmes by Cass Paley.

   Virginia Ann Lindsay was born and raised in Spokane, Washington. Ann, who attended a private Catholic school, had set her sights on becoming a nun. While attending the convent, Perry met her first husband, Ron Myers, and soon abandoned a life of celibacy and devotion.
   In the 1960s along with sexploitation queen, Marsha Jordan, Ann began acting in moderately successful nudie cutie pictures for Don Davis, but had her eye on greater prizes Determined to compete in a male dominated business, Ann began appearing in softcore films, that eventually positioned her for more coveted roles as a writer, director, and ultimately, producer of hardcore movies under her own company Evolution Enterprises. Attracted to the illegal nature of the business and a strong proponent of free speech, Ann was arrested on morals charges on more than one occasion. As the very first woman president of the Adult Film Association of America (AFAA), Perry exercised her status to sway members of the media, and like her contemporary, Candida Royalle, strategized methods of bringing a better quality product to fans of adult material. Perry received accolades and positive notices for two of her best known films, Count the Ways (1976) and Sweet Savage (1978).
   Perry, who was married four times, has left behind two grown children and several step-children. During the filming of Sweet Savage, Ann married the love of her life, San Francisco attorney, Joseph Rhine, who represented such illustrious individuals as Timothy Leary, pornographers Artie and Jim Mitchell (who acted as "best men" at Ann's marriage to Rhine), and members of the Black Panther Party during the 1970s. Rhine was deceased in 2003 at the age of sixty-seven.
   In honour of Ann's life and work, below are excerted passages from my profile on Perry in Golden Goddesses titled "First Lady."

Ann Perry: "When I started in the film business, I worked for [late exploitation producer] Bob Cresse a lot and various other guys that were shooting. I worked my way up through all the transitions in the business to a little more explicit, as far as being an actress.
   In the films, in the beginning, oftentimes, you'd be jumping on trampolines or in a swimming pool. Most of it was bare breasts and you couldn't show pubic hair. That was forbidden -- very no, no to show pubic hair. There were certain rules that you had to follow. You couldn't touch a man by the hand. Then things eventually progressed. I had a mail order company and I actually got arrested by the FBI for selling film and shipping it across state lines. It was a brochure showing a man and a woman sitting on a bed holding hands, and underneath the picture it said, 'What do two people do when they fall in love?' Nowadays, it would probably be on the Disney channel.
   Once I started directing and producing the thirty-five millimeter films, I really didn't often work as an actor anymore. Although there were some people in the business who were friends of mine like Walt Davis [David Stephans] that I did work for when I wasn't doing work for anybody else, just because I liked him. I didn't do any hardcore scenes -- whether they added them in later or not, I could care less. There was a time when I cared but I didn't care later.
   I worked my way through one film called Teenage Sex Kitten (1975) that starred Rene Bond. As I'd mentioned, people started adding hardcore to films that had initially been shot that weren't hardcore. You would shoot your soft version and then use inserts. That was commonly done."
    I think that the first thirty-five millimeter film that I made was Count the Ways. It was a romance story and women liked it, which was great, as far as I was concerned. There was a little poetry in there and it was handled delicately. It did very well. I kept taking the money that I would make on one film and roll it into the next film.

Ann Perry-Rhine with son Greg

A couple of major magazines contacted me and we did interviews, very extensive interviews. I did a big interview for Playboy magazine; the Japanese version came out and they took photographs of me and they had a big spead [in the Japanese Playboy magazine]. So all countries were getting interested in what was happening in the United States -- X-rated-wise. I called up reviewers that reviewed general release films for Variety and I actually got them to come and review my films. I would get screening rooms and serve little goodies. It was done professionally, just like the major people were doing, and so it started to be accepted like that. There was always a lot of interest and I think they saw money. Of course, we always had two or three versions of our films."

Greg Yedding: "You know, it's a big stepping stone for women to make a name for themselves in the the adult entertainment industry. I adore and know these women, and I respect everything they've done and gone through in their lives. I think my mother is very proud of what she did, and what she achieved in the industry. She started something and then the girls went farther with it. She never regretted it a single day in her life."
~Excerpted from Chapter 1., "First Lady," Spotlight on Ann Perry-Rhine, Golden Goddesses: 25 Legendary Women of Classic Erotic Cinema, 1968-1985. © 2012 Jill C. Nelson

  

Remembering Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers - Photo by Kenji

Marilyn Chambers passed away suddenly five years ago today. She is missed and remembered fondly not only by her fans, but by all of those who knew her well. In the summer of 2007, I interviewed Marilyn over the telephone for our biography, John Holmes: A Life Measured in Inches. Marilyn's memories of Holmes were overwhelmingly positive -- she understood him. A year after "Inches" was published and Marilyn sadly passed away, I reread our interview and realized there was enough material that could hopefully serve as the foundation for a Chambers profile/chapter in Golden Goddesses. Though the book was still in its infancy stages, my conversation with Marilyn Chambers is what became the impetus to highlight twenty-five women from Marilyn's era. 
     When we spoke, Marilyn's honesty, her spirit, her introspection and her love for her daughter, McKenna, were the factors that came through, and I wanted to honour those elements when I began to piece together Marilyn's profile. Thanks to McKenna, and to documentarian Valerie Gobos, because of their input, I was able to finish the chapter.
     One of the most touching aspects of launching Golden Goddesses in Hollywood in November 2012, was having the opportunity to meet Marilyn's long time best friend, Peggy, and her husband Darcy. Peggy and Darcy are wonderful, salt of the earth people. I am happy and pleased that Marilyn and Peggy were able to share in one another's lives for as long as they did, and I greatly appreciate their support of the book, in addition to McKenna and Val.
     The following excerpts are condensed from chapter four, "Marilyn Chambers: Girl Next Door Goes Behind the Green Door." I'd like to thank Valerie Gobos for suggesting the chapter's title. It's what Marilyn would have wanted.

    Of all of the female stars to resonate with aficianados of the golden era of Adult, Marilyn Chambers towers above the rest. Legendary for her unbridled, sexual  eccentricities onscreen, Chambers' early years  offer a glimpse into her potential as a maven in her field.

     Born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1952, Marilyn Ann Briggs came from good stock. Chambers was actively involved in gymnastics and trained as a junior Olympic diver as a young teenage girl. At seventeen Marilyn travelled to New York and enlisted with the Wilhelmina Talent Agency where she was promptly sent on auditions for commercial and film work. Chambers won a small role as Robert Klein's girlfriend in The Owl and the Pussycat, a Barbara Streisand that also co-starred reputable actor George Segal. During this period, Marilyn was photographed for the now infamous Ivory Snow soapbox advertisement that surfaced just as her career as an adult actress emerged after she agreed to appear in Behind the Green Door (1972) for brothers Artie and Jim Mitchell. When the pair made her an offer to star in their production and engage in real sex on camera, Chambers flatly turned them down, but reconsidered when they agreed to pay her an impressive sum of money for her efforts. She never imagined that the filmmakers would meet her demands and terms.

Marilyn Chambers: "I did that because I didn't want to do the film. I thought, 'Okay, I'm really going to give them something they're going to say no to.' I said 'I'm from New York, Don't you know who I am? I'm not going to do that!' They were cool guus and and they were very foxy, very sly, you know? They had their shit together for a short period.
      I loved the Mitchell brothers. I loved Artie and Jim and still do today. They're like brothers. Tey gave me an opportunity to do something and I thought 'Okay, I'll do a couple of films for them and then I'll get out of it, and I'll be able to do stuff in Hollywood.' I agreed [to do the film] and I got a percentage [of the film's gross] for approximately ten years, and then it was over. That part of the contract I forgot to look at."

 "It's an interesting thing. For a very long time I've been obsessed about wanting to write a book or  doing a documentary about why people go into the porn business and is there a type of person. Whey did they do it? What was their childhood like? If you were getting your master's in psychology, this would be a great thesis. I have a lot of questions about my own life, but I had a great childhood. Something interjected in there though, to propel me in that direction whether it was outside forces or inner stuff. It would be an interesting topic to explore."

 "In Insatiable, I did the last scene with John [Holmes], and I remember Stu Segall, the director -- we were shooting this film in San Francisco. Stu days, 'We're going to pick John up at the airport.'
     I said, 'Okay, great.' I'm not sure if another person was there, but we got into the car and we drove to the airport, and we picked up John Holmes. I was so totally nervous. I'd heard so much about him. I was no afraid, but just totally shy like, 'Oh my god.' [John] and I were sitting in the back seat and we were talking, and I was just kind of looking at him in awe, going, 'God, this guy is really smart. He really is reasonably articulate.' He said that he was just kind of a country boy and that he was doing all of this so that he could live a normal life. He was so not the John Holmes that I thought he was going to be. He didn't come marching up going 'Hey! Move over bitch!' He was a meek, kind of  a gentle man. I thought, 'Oh, okay, is he going to be able to take control here in the scene?'"

"Insatiable is my favourite film. I looked the best. I felt the best. I felt the sexiest. It was like the prime of my life right there. That was a time when you saw me being totally sexual, everything was great. Everything was going my way and I just felt sexy, and I felt happy. I wasn't into drugs and alcohol. We partied, but that wasn't my life. I love that film, but the problem with the film industry is that they got so into 'Let's make it a story for women, so women will watch.' They they went overboard and the fims had too much story and too much talking, and these people can't act. Then it evolved into vignettes. There's a beginning -- a middle and an end. There's not this big, long story that you have to sit through. The filmmakers went from stag films to loops, to Behind the Green Door, which was very experiemental to an Insatiable type thing. -- back to almost loops, which were sort of life vignetters [as in] Marilyn Chambers' Private Fantasies, five fantasies in one film."
 

"When VHS came out that was a huge turning point. Because then people started shooting on video. You could be the straightest, staunchest person in the world, but this is a person’s human nature. They are curious about sex. Everybody has sexual fantasies. And the older I get, I believe you don’t want those fantasies. That’s a private thing that you do in your own home, or behind closed doors, unless you’re a swinger. Everybody doesn’t have to know what your sexual fantasies are. We are different people in this world. We are different people when we go to work. In a straight job, around the water cooler, you can’t say, ‘Oh yeah, we did this and that’ because it’s going to haunt you. Our generation, we just wanted to be free and live the way we wanted to, but that’s not how life works."

"The best thing that’s ever happened to me is my daughter. To be a Mom is the best thing in the world. You know, that’s all I ever really wanted to do after I had finished doing films."

Golden Goddesses: 25 Legendary Women of Classic Erotic Cinema,1968-1985 © 2012 Jill C. Nelson

The Rialto Report: Interview with Bob Chinn

Rhonda Jo Petty in Disco Lady directed by Bob Chinn

During the past several months, adult film documentarian, Ashley West, has interviewed several legendary personalities from the Golden Era and through his extraordinary podcasts titled The Rialto Report, has presented their fascinating life stories. West's credentials in this field are nothing short of impressive. In conjuction with The Rialto Report, Ashley has also contributed liner notes, commentaries and more for the re-release of Distripix films under the name Benson Hurst and is currently working on a documentary about the origins of the New York adult film scene. (See: Ashley West.) Until recently, West's comprehensive episodes have centered on men and women involved in sex films on the east coast of the United States. Yesterday, Rialto Report's latest offering highlights the voluminous work of pioneer filmmaker Bob Chinn, who became familiar to adult audiences through his partnership with John Holmes particularly via the innovative and highly popular Johnny Wadd film series, with nine releases spanning between 1971-1978.
 
This podcast will be of special interest to fans not only of Bob Chinn, John Holmes, and the films they created together, but most significantly, in his usual disarming manner, Bob discusses in great detail and with impeccable recall many of  thetalented actors and actresses he had the pleasure to direct throughout his extensive career spanning four decades. Several of the ladies who were fortunate enough to cross paths with Bob (one of the most admired and respected men in the business) are featured in Golden Goddesses. All were quick to sing his praises and respect him very much. Check out Bob Chinn's page for his first novel, Flesh of the Lotus, inspired by the film by the same name: Flesh of the Lotus



Bob Chinn's Jade Pussycat with John Holmes and Georgina Spelvin

I am delighted to have been invited by Ashley West to co-present this special two hour episode as Bob Chinn is clearly one of the most intelligent and intriguing individuals to have left his mark in the golden age arena, and I'd like to personally thank Ashley for doing a masterful job in preparation for this show. Your tireless work and professionalism are simply outstanding.
 
So grab a refreshment, kick back and enjoy the ride as you time travel with Bob Chinn back to the late 1960s and into the present day. You definitely will not be disappointed. The podcast (#18) titled, Bob Chinn, West Coast Pioneer may be accessed here: Rialto Report: Bob Chinn

News about Ebay Sale!

I hope everyone is enjoying the summer weather! I've been taking some time off this summer from promotion for the book and also working on a new writing project but will be posting news soon about an upcoming podcast. In the meantime, I'd like to bring your attention to a major Ebay sale with several John Holmes films and material available to own. John Holmes worked with many of the women featured in Golden Goddesses. This very special collection is the first of its kind and will go quickly. Please read details below:

(P.S. This is not my sale.)

Ebay Link

Ebay description

Alright, the motherload is here! This collection of videos is as large as John Holmes himself... These videos were used in the research for both the documentary Wadd and for the John Holmes biography, A Life Measured in Inches. Val Kilmer also used some of these videos as research for his role in the film Wonderland.

Included is a ton of VHS tapes along with a large collection of classic Blue Vanities loops on DVD. Basically every star of the Golden Age of Porn is featured somewhere in this collection. Also included is Georgina Spelvin's autobiography The Devil Made Me Do It as well as an unproduced screenplay for the film Wonderland. This collection is huge so the shipping is really expensive.

VHS:
1. Undulations
2. Girls on Fire
3. Tell Them Johnny Wadd is Here
4. Four Women in Trouble
5. Bedtime Video #1
6. New York City Woman
7. Around the World with Johnny Wadd
8. Pizza Girls (2 copies)
9. Candy Samples Video Review
10. John Holmes Exposed
11. John Holmes E! True Hollywood Story
12. Hot Nurses
13. Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes
14. Strangers When We Mate
15. Autobiography of a Flea
16. Jade Pussycat
17. John Holmes Superstar
18. The Seka Story
19. Flesh & Laces Part II
20. Honeysuckle Rose
21. Lottery Lust
22. The Best of Gail Palmer

23. Cream Rinse
24. Spirit of Seventy-Sex
25. Prisoner of Paradise
26. Flight Sensations
27. The Erotic Adventures of Candy
28. I'm Always Ready
29. The Rise of the Roman Empress #1
30. The Devil in Mr. Holmes
31. Flesh & Laces Part I
32. Marina Vice
33. The Grafenburg Spot
34. The Angel in Mr. Holmes
35. Garters & Lace
36. Rockin' with Seka
37. Bedtime Video #10
38. Oriental Kitten
39. The Kowloon Connection
40. Saturday Night Beaver
41. Sex as You Like It
42. Barbara Broadcast
43. John Holmes is Supercock
44. John Holmes: Master Cocksman
45. Taxi Girls
46. John Holmes: 60's Loops
47. Great Tits Of Our Time
48. John Holmes Interview
49. Extreme Closeups
50. Court TV: Wonderland
51. Cheri
52. Tropic of Passion
53. Dracula Exotica
54. Singlehanded

DVD:
55-72 Blue Vanities Loops From the '60s-80s

DVDR:
73. The Opening of Misty Beethoven
74. XXXL The John Holmes Story
75. Exhausted
76. China Cat
77. California Gigolo
78. Young John Holmes Collection

John Curtis Holmes: In Memoriam 1944-1988

I am taking a brief detour from the tone of my regular postings at this blog to remember the passing of John Curtis Holmes, 25 years ago today. If it weren't for John and the complexities of his life, feature Hollywood films such as Boogie Nights and Wonderland would not have been made. The superb documentary, Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes, directed by Cass Paley would not have been conceived. Nor would director Julia St. Vincent's outstanding 1981 docu-film, Exhausted, John C. Holmes, The Real Story, have taken shape. It is because of Wonderland that my John Holmes: A Life Measured in Inches writing partner, Jennifer Sugar, a twenty-one year old university student, was inspired to compose the first and definitive book on John Holmes. In 2006, she invited me to collaborate with her and our book was published in 2008. "Inches" is responsible for instigating the inception of "Golden Goddesses," and the circle of life continues on. The following excerpt is from a short piece I wrote and posted today on our other blog, John Holmes -- the book!

****
In memory of John, we've posted a link (below) to a very rare interview John gave in 1986 where he discussed his new company, Penguin, and various other aspects of the adult industry, in which he had been a part for more than twenty years. At this stage in his life, John was in good health, in good spirits, and was very hopeful about his future. Thanks to Laurie Holmes and to John Holmes Enterprises for granting us use of this 1986 audiofile in which John discusses the adult entertainment business and his company, Penguin: John Holmes audioclip.

To read more, please visit this link: John C. Holmes: In Memoriam.

Spotlight on Julia St. Vincent

Julia St. Vincent: From Exhausted to Boogie Nights

     When filmmaker Julia St. Vincent decided to direct the first erotic documentary about legendary porn star John Holmes in 1980, she never imagined her movie would become the inspiration for Boogie Nights, the critically acclaimed motion picture that enlightened mainstream audiences about the hardcore film industry during its glorified golden era. 

     In the early 1970's during summer breaks from secondary school while living just outside of San Diego, the teenage St. Vincent left her family home to work part time as a filing clerk, and eventually, became the bookkeeper for Freeway Films, an independent Los Angeles adult company owned by her uncle Armand Atamian. Atamian, known primarily for the success of the Johnny Wadd dynasty was an enterprising and ingratiating figure in the 1970's adult entertainment scene. Atamian passed away suddenly in 1980 leaving his niece to assume full control of business operations. Faced with the task of ensuring Freeway’s survival, St. Vincent shrewdly took stock of the company’s greatest resource and prepared to produce and direct an original documentary featuring John Holmes in Exhausted: John C. Holmes, The Real Story (1981).

     In the winter of 2010, I convinced St. Vincent to relive her experiences with Freeway, and as a twenty-five year old female entrepreneur in the adult business.

     My Uncle Armand was an engineer at Litton Industries [specializing in electronics and early computers] which was a big company back then, and my other Uncle Gil—I’m not sure how but he got involved in pornography and ran sixteen millimeter films, eight and sixteen millimeters through New York. He had theaters there where he would run these films and he’d go through the alleys or whatever and deliver them. He earned a ton of money from doing this illicit activity and he was a millionaire. Gil owned a huge home that had eleven rooms with a pool and a sauna room, and it was out in the country outside of Boston. My other uncle was an engineer too, but Armand ended up getting involved here in L.A. making the films. He had a friend out here that he probably met through his brother Gil. So it was kind of family helping other family members to get involved in this business.

     Armand was involved in film production with his associates before he had his own company. He was involved with sexploitation producer Bob Cresse. That’s where Armand got started, with Bob and director Lee Frost. They were all buddies. Gil had been involved first and he knew people ―it’s likely that he came out and they went to the racetrack or whatever. Armand met these guys, quit his job, and started doing those kinds of films.

     We’d go up there for a week or so in the summers to work in the office. My sisters would go and then I’d go. It seemed that we all took turns. Anyway, we’d go up there and do filing and box stuff up and all kinds of miscellaneous things. Armand had the office on Cordova Street, and next door to him was Dave Friedman. Originally, I worked as a file clerk at the back and then I’d leave because I had boyfriends or I’d go back home. I would end up working there for a summer doing theater records where they’d order something and they’d put it on a card, and you’d put it into a machine. It was the first of its type, a computerized system using cards because back then they didn't have computers. We happened to have one of the first derivatives of a computer for the business. 

     Armand was like my refuge. He was the one I went to when I didn't want to go home to my mother; I’d go to Armand. I worked for him at Freeway Films when he was making Liquid Lips (1976) and Tell Them Johnny Wadd is Here (1976) ―that was a summer job for me. It just so happened that they were making those films when I was there. I was working at Freeway that summer when those two Johnny Wadd films were shot, and then I came back and they were making China Cat and The Jade Pussycat in 1977. I think Armand would be in production and he’d call me and say, “Come up here.” I’m not sure how I happened to end up there every time they were doing a film, but I believe it’s because he called me.

     Originally, the reason I made Exhausted is because my uncle had died and I was really floundering around trying to figure out what to do. I was going to the producer meetings and hanging out with some very ambitious people. One day it hit me, “You can’t call yourself a producer if you don’t ever produce anything.” I hired a management consultant to help us to figure out what to do with the company, and we all kind of brainstormed the idea and tried to determine what we had for assets in the company. It turned out that what we had the most of was Johnny Wadd [footage]. That turned into, “Well, we should make a film.” That really incubated for a long time. We didn't immediately make a film. I started shooting these interviews with John mainly because I realized he was going to die one day soon. As far as the process goes, originally, it was shot on sixteen-millimeter film with this camera guy, Kenny Gibb. I paid him to shoot interviews with me and with John in the back of this studio.  

     The film was really a way to give John a thousand dollars and to give me something to do. In the back of my mind, I realized that a bunch of situations would be involved: John would realize he’s not a bad guy and he would get out of the dumps. In the case he died I would have that footage of him and I’d become rich, but there were lot of little things going on and that was how it was shot. Then it was put in the can until the next year, at least four or five months. We started editing in some of these other movies [Johnny Wadd clips] to it but we really didn't have enough to do anything with it. I had hired a few people to help me and one of these guys said, “Let’s go and shoot some more footage.” We ended up going to Chicago and we did “man on the street” interviews there because we had already done them in Hollywood. We got more out in the open with regular people footage. We also interviewed Seka in Chicago. Then we came back and edited all of that together.

     It was an unlikely scenario. When I made Exhausted, people said it was just a fluke, and in a way, it was just a fluke. It really was a case of being in the right place at the right time to make a film. I had to figure out how to survive the world I lived in. It was kind of incredible that it went as far as it did, and I was able to accomplish that with literally nothing. That film grossed over a million dollars in 1982.

     At the time, it had the biggest video contract ever done. It played outside of the pornographic film world. It went into Georgetown University and other regular theaters. It was a hardcore movie! When Boogie Nights came out [in 1997], that was the second fluke of the whole thing. Why would you think after sixteen years something as obscure as that film would come back into anyone’s consciousness? Most people would put it away as I did and think, “Okay, that was fun and maybe someday you’ll do something else with it.” That was just something in my closet. How do I view it in the bigger perspective? I don’t really think this was up to me at all. It was just a weird set of circumstances.