Apart from Georgina’s incredible breadth as an actor, her final scene with Damiano provides the ultimate thrill as the two are sequestered in an infinite life sentence, locked together in a cell/hell consumed by their own anxieties, fears and desires — never to be quelled. Throughout her performance, Georgina carries herself with grace and sophistication which is quite remarkable considering the sensitive nature of some of the sexual activities in which she takes part.
It was very much like, “Let’s get together and do a show in Daddy’s barn.” It had that feel that everybody was working together toward an actual end. The fact that it was a sex film was because that’s what it was. That’s what they gave him the money to do. If it had been a film about baseball, we’d have been out there playing baseball. It was a film about sex, so we were in the barn doing sex. Still, there was this incredible feeling that I hadn’t really experienced since the days of doing summer stock which was that everybody had a specific role to play, whether it was coiling cable, or fixing the casserole, or adjusting the lights, or picking up the trash and keeping the place clean. We were all together in this remote location somewhere — in either New Jersey or New York.
Doing the film was an adventure that everyone was equally invested in and I thoroughly enjoyed that aspect of it. There was a great deal of camaraderie and it was just a lot of fun. We were laughing and scratching, and having a good time. I honestly thought no one would ever know I had done such a scandalous thing as fornicate in front of a camera. I had no idea I would have to create the character of “Georgina Spelvin,” and live with it for forty years. Later, I had to go before the Grand Jury and explain that I was not taken across state line for immoral purposes, but I don’t know if I was taken across state line. I certainly wasn’t taken across state line against my will.
Spelvin appeared in court in Memphis, Tennessee for her involvement in The Devil in Miss Jones and was not required to serve any time. The authorities had no grounds to prove she’d distributed the film across state lines which she hadn’t. Georgina’s co-star, Harry Reems, wasn’t so lucky. One of the most recognized male stars of the golden age, Reems (born Herbie Streicher) assimilated into adult films as a starving artist/part-time cab driver, much the same way his young contemporaries had. Reems made a big splash while creating controversy in the hit picture Deep Throat the year before “Devil” was released. After an arrest in New York in 1974, Reems was indicted in Memphis, Tennessee in 1975 for conspiracy to transport obscene material across state lines. In 1976, he was convicted in conjunction with four production companies and eleven other people. On an appeal that was facilitated by renowned attorney Alan Dershowitz, Reems’s conviction was overturned in April 1977. Eventually, after being granted a new trial, the charges were dropped. During the trial, Reems was supported by eminent Hollywood actors Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson.
Georgina happily worked with Reems again in 1974 when the two were hired for Wet Rainbow.
One thing that’s not mentioned in my book is when Herbie Streicher and I were doing Wet Rainbow (1974). We’d just finished doing some rather down and dirty, quick, get it done sex and we were looking forward to our scenes coming up that were much more dramatic and not just “let’s get the cum shot, fellas”. We had this scene where we were supposed to get in an argument in a taxicab or something. I think it was Herbie’s idea. He said, “Let’s show them how good we are. Let’s really get into an argument and just shake them to their boots that we’re not going to finish this film.”
I said, “Okay, let’s do that.” We got into this spitting fight, and we looked like we were going to tear each other’s throats out and the director was just almost in tears, he was just shaking. I didn’t learn until many years later that the guy who was directing the film had sunk his life savings into the movie, and unfortunately, the distribution people just screwed him royally. He did get his money back, but he never made any money off of it. At this moment, we’d had the crew and everyone else ready to pack up and leave the set. They thought they’d never get the love scenes between these two characters. Then we finally cracked each other up to the point that we laughed and I don’t think the director ever quite forgave us. It was a nasty thing to do. Talk about regret. I regret doing that. It was fun though to have the affirmation to show everybody that we could really do it.
Harry was, like the rest of us, an out of work actor, and we had several mutual friends in the business beyond the porn business. He was a very good actor and still is. We’ve kept in touch and e-mailed back and forth for a while and we’ve talked on the phone a few times. He said, “You know, I’m not going to be able to keep up e-mail with you because I’ve got so much arthritis in my fingers.”
I said, “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that.”
It’s interesting; I simply don’t watch myself on screen. It’s not because of the sex, it’s just that I’ve never been able to not watch myself without saying “Why the fuck did you do that?” I’m always a bit embarrassed to see myself on screen, porno or not. I’m always awful. It’s either what I’m saying or the way I look. I’m very critical so it’s agony to watch anything I’ve ever done; that’s why I like stage work — you don’t have to look at it later. Nobody likes to look at our own warts.
Peccadilloes
Despite her newfound fame with “Devil,” and offers for an experienced actor on the bargaining table, Spelvin continued to be paid the going rate for female erotic performers at the time: one hundred dollars per day. In her book, Georgina credited Annette Haven for being one of the first women in porn to demand and receive more and believes Haven helped to change the status quo which eventually allocated more money and opportunities for women working in sex films.
Spelvin recalled how well into her career she met fellow porno chic star, Linda Lovelace (of Deep Throat fame), for the first time on a television show. Coldly, Lovelace turned her back after Spelvin introduced herself. Marilyn Chambers on the other hand, was much friendlier and instigated a meeting between Spelvin and Sammy Davis Jr. The song and dance man had become friendly with Marilyn through her husband Chuck Traynor (formerly married to Linda Lovelace). Chambers was astonished to learn Spelvin had already met Davis Jr. several years earlier and the two stars were reacquainted.
During the early 1970s while her fame was on the incline, Georgina became involved in a mutually tender relationship with her best girlfriend, Claire Lumiere, who sometimes performed along with Spelvin in acclaimed adult features including The Devil in Miss Jones. Claire had been a part of the “Pickle Factory” commune and, like Spelvin, was often hired to provide craft services on set as a sideline. When the affair ended, Georgina packed Claire off on a bus to Florida where Claire planned to resume her academic studies. Three months later, Claire returned to Spelvin’s life and the two moved to California. Shortly afterwards, Claire and Spelvin parted ways. Spelvin spoke of her mother’s reaction upon learning of her daughter’s employment during the years when she and Claire were still involved.
I was not close to my mother really, as I grew up. I was during the dancing and that whole area, but as I tried to kind of show in the book with selective pieces of conversation between us, I was totally uncomfortable with her about sex. I’d never had close girlfriends in my life because of moving around a lot. At one time, I remember I was standing at the sink during a visit home and I, at the time, was in this relationship with Claire which is a peculiar thing to me. She’s known mostly as Claire. I always talk about her as Claire and I don’t reveal her real name because she’s trying to overcome those peccadilloes of her youth. She’s very straight-laced and has converted to certain viewpoints I’d shunned so as a youngster. Anyway, I was home visiting and mother turned to me at one point and said, “Well, I don’t know. Maybe it was the water in Jasper. Your cousin became a lesbian and you’re a nymphomaniac.”
I said, “I’m not a nymphomaniac.” Really, I’m not. I was trying to be good humored about the whole thing.
The
re will always be a negative stigma attached to women and sexuality as long as we are totally confused about our sexuality as human beings. I don’t really see that going away in my lifetime. I have my own prejudices. I look askance at people working the streets and at the same time say to myself, “Hey, you’re the one who says you shouldn’t be judgmental.” My instinct is, whether it’s a natural instinct put there by God or whether it’s manufactured: civilization says if you’re going to have a stable community you have to have females who reproduce, and you have to be able to know who your children are. That means if you reproduce you only have sex with one person. Their lord and master or whatever, reproduces the children he can recognize as his own, and therefore, passes property on to them. Civilization is based on property ownership, and property ownership requires identification of lineage which means that anything that doesn’t contribute to that, or slanted into that slot of activity in civilization, is superfluous. When I say “superfluous” that’s not entirely true because obviously prostitution is needed, otherwise it wouldn’t exist. People say, “Of course there have to be whores,” but you don’t want your daughter to be one. It’s hardly anything new. During Belle Époque, women were beautiful enough, or smart enough or lucky enough to have had a sponsor to be paid by only one man outside of their marriage. The heroines and stars of their day were not an unattractive little girl sucking dicks on the street corner of town to get money to eat, scorned and probably always will be. Even when we’re living in self-contained spacecrafts there will be that element somewhere.
Hitting the Mark
Throughout the bulk of the early to mid-seventies, Spelvin’s film work encompassed leading roles illustrated in pictures such as the 1973 grindhouse extravaganza The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig (released by Video-X-Pix in 2010) and also accepted minor, but significant parts. She played the hooker in the magnificent Radley Metzger feature The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann (1974) starring Barbara Bourbon and Darby Lloyd Rains, and starred and worked in costuming for the1974 mainstream exploitation film Girls for Rent (aka I Spit on Your Corpse). Georgina continued to develop a reputation as a sought after character actor in several other adult-oriented projects.
In 1975 Spelvin gave an arresting performance in esteemed director Robert McCallum’s first hardcore picture 3:00 A.M. which featured a scene with Claire Lumiere in a small supporting role. Born Gary Graver, McCallum had previously collaborated closely with Orson Welles on An Evening with Orson Welles: a six-part series developed for Sears Department store, in addition to other worthwhile projects. Moving fluidly between mainstream and adult film/television worlds as a first class cinematographer and director, Graver used the handle “Robert McCallum” when directing sex films.
3:00A.M. stars Georgina as Kate, a woman secretly in lust with her brother-in-law Mark (Frank Mauro) while residing at the home of her sister Elaine (Rhonda Gallard) and their family. One evening at precisely 3:00 a.m., Kate accidently kills Mark after a lover’s quarrel on his sailboat. Devastated by her loss and frightened that her sister, niece and nephew Stacey and Ronnie (Clair Dia and Charles Hooper) will find out what she’s done, Kate tries to atone for the drowning mishap by tending to the psychological needs of the family. One by one, they begin to act out their grief through aberrant sexual behavior. Lonely and suicidal, Elaine finds herself in the arms of an unknown lover while her teenage son Ronnie embarks upon an affair with the family’s neighbor Vicki (Sharon Thorpe who is exquisite as the seductress). Later, pent-up sexual tension is consummated between siblings Ronnie and Stacey, yet Kate’s conduct is the most extreme. While taking a shower one afternoon, she is ravished by a complete stranger (Claire Lumiere) who makes a surprise appearance. Later, after tucking in her young niece, “Aunt Kate” violates Stacey during her slumber. Engulfed by her guilt over the events of the previous few days, Kate departs from the family home leaving behind a cassette recording describing her role in Mark’s death. In a semi-comatose state, she walks out toward the ocean to meet her own fate. Although the film itself is at times choppy, poorly lit and slow-paced, Spelvin’s performance as the other woman emotionally paralyzed over bringing about the sudden death of her lover, and the impact on his family, is disarming and exact.
Throughout a pilgrimage of exposure in the medium of adult films, it seemed apparent by the mid-seventies that Spelvin had found her calling. I wondered at this point if Georgina believed her chosen vocation supported or opposed the omnipresent feminist movement in full swing at the time she was at the height of her film career.
If someone offers me a certain compensation for a particular job of work, I do that job to the best of my ability. If they did NOT pay me the amount they said they would, I would feel exploited. I’ve never had that happen. If standing up for one’s rights and demanding respect as a female human being is being a feminist, then I suppose I am one. I don’t understand why one has to be a feminist in order to stand up for your rights. Rights should be granted to everyone and the sex of the person involved shouldn’t be a consideration. At one time women did have to get together and say, “Hey, we’re people too. We’re human beings and we should have a say in the government.” If men should have a say in the government then we should have a say in the government. I’ve encountered so many feminists who were anti-porn that probably made me hesitant to join the club and become a card-carrying member of some sort.
“You Gotta Have a Gimmick”
By the mid-1970s, Georgina’s reliance on alcohol became a dominating force in her daily existence and began to compromise facets of her life. After making a permanent move to California and continuing film appearances, Spelvin was invited to parlay her “Miss Jones” persona into a stage act as she embarked upon a supplemental career as a stripper. Her new friend and confidante, Dee, was assigned the task of costumer and dresser for Spelvin’s burlesque shows where she was hired as a headlining act accompanied by a friendly snake. Georgina incorporated select musical numbers from The Devil in Miss Jones into her stage show and removed her clothes while dancing to the famous burlesque number “The Stripper.”
Spelvin admitted in her book that the booze helped her to get through the peeler performances which she felt, by comparison, were a demotion from performing sex on camera within the intimacy of a smaller group of spectators. Georgina made a habit of getting clean whenever film work was available, but the trend would not continue. In 1976, Spelvin sobered up and worked to get into respectable physical condition in order to prepare for the New York production Take-Off released in 1978, a big budget feature directed by Armand Weston in which she assumed the part of a Roaring Twenties socialite. Spelvin and Wade Nichols (aka Dennis Parker) a bisexual actor who debuted in the 1975 film Boynapped and who also played Police Chief Derek Malloy on the soap opera Edge of Night, assumed the leads in the triple-X adaptation concerning perennial youth. Based upon the book The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), by acclaimed writer and poet Oscar Wilde, the sensational epic, Take-Off, is set in the present day (late-1970s) at the home of Darrin Blue (Wade Nichols).
During Blue’s summer afternoon party, one of his guests, Linda (Leslie Bovee), enjoys a sexual conquest with a hot Texan by the name of Roy (Eric Edwards as Rob Everett). Afterwards, they discover an old black and white reel to reel depicting a handsome man and his aristocrat girlfriend making love during a picnic. Upon returning to the party, Linda is introduced to Blue who takes her for an afternoon drive and begins to share a story about the old film reel. The viewer is suddenly swept back in time to the 1920s and reintroduced to blue-eyed Blue, frolicking with his sophisticated lady friend Henrietta Wilde (Georgina Spelvin). It is made clear Henrietta is the same woman previously shown in the black and white film, and the intricacies of the tale begin to unfold within the story through flashbacks: We learn that Henrietta believes youth, beauty, and pleasure are the most important essentials in life. Wilde confides to Blue, that at her own request, her chauffeur secretly filmed their lovemaking session. She inv
ites him to observe his own specimen of physical elegance so that he too will understand the importance of eternally preserving one’s prime of life. Darrin can’t help but marvel at his own embodiment of human excellence and he is convinced Henrietta’s philosophy is correct. When Wilde eventually disappears from his life, Blue gains not only a substantial inheritance, but also a lifetime of youth — he is forever twenty-five yet, his image captured on eight-millimeter film will deteriorate gracefully and naturally.
Take-Off proceeds to move through several decades chronologically as Blue learns through his own introspection, and during his many encounters with some notorious historical characters: John Dillinger, Virginia Slimms, Jean Harlot, and the not so notorious, that perpetual youthfulness is an illusion and a curse. When Blue eventually experiences the free spirited 1960s, he begins to feel alienated and craves the sentimental romantic he once was. Suddenly, Blue is transported back to present day. Darrin finishes sharing his story with Linda and they culminate their afternoon with a sexual romp that inevitably brings things full circle.
Enough praise cannot be bestowed upon this enormously entertaining and intelligent undertaking that is truly a presentation where sex (as good as it is in this film) takes a back seat to the fundamental plot. Georgina and Wade Nichols are positively outstanding in their corresponding roles as the grand Gatsby-esque, carefree couple. All of the supporting talent (Annette Haven is wonderful as Virginia Slimm) including the non-sex players, are invaluable and integral arteries to the central story. For her fine work, Spelvin racked up another Best Supporting Actress at the 1978 AFAA awards.
GOLDEN GODDESSES: 25 LEGENDARY WOMEN OF CLASSIC EROTIC CINEMA, 1968-1985 Page 10