The Cockettes, a group of performance artists with a psychedelic slant were founded in the late 1960s by George Harris Jr. (aka Hibiscus) and based in the North Beach district of San Francisco. Because of creative differences, the Cockettes divided into two troupes by the early 1970s: the Cockettes and the Angels of Light — the latter of the two did not charge admission to patrons.
We were part of a truly unique sub-culture that’s only beginning to be recorded in books and documentaries. A scene that, like so many culture-shifting movements, was born of inspiration and transcendence, but eventually burnt itself out on too many drugs that numbed rather than inspired.
Starving Artist
I started doing avant-garde theater and singing in jazz clubs and all of the training I’d done with my dance and my art, I started using in free style ways now. I was selling art in galleries and I was performing, but not making a lot of money. It wasn’t about money or “materialism” back then.
The way I got into the adult industry is that I needed to make extra money. We would put on shows and never charge admission; we did it for the love of it. I needed to start making some money obviously, and I answered an ad for nude modeling. I’d gone to art schools and drawn from nude models for years though I was always very shy about taking my clothes off publicly. The agent asked me if I wanted to be in an adult movie and I was horrified! I hadn’t even seen one and I stormed out of his office. My boyfriend at the time, a musician, decided that it sounded like a great way to make money, and he went and auditioned. He was so cute that he got the lead role in a big Anthony Spinelli feature called Cry for Cindy (1976). The movie opens with him on a motorcycle with the girl [Amber Hunt] who played “Cindy” on the back. I thought, “I’m going to go visit him on the set and check out what this is like”. Like most people, I thought it was a sleazy industry, but I went there and I really had my head turned around. The people in the cast were beautiful; it was a large and professional crew. There were scripts. Anthony Spinelli was a doll. Auditions to get into these top tier adult movies were not easy, and the money for a struggling young artist was great. That’s what really drew me in.
The late Anthony Spinelli (Samuel Weinstein, aka Sam Weston), one of the masterful, adult film directors of the porno chic era, is the brother of Hollywood character actor Jack Weston. Spinelli is known for producing quality X-rated features with character development and evolved plots. Cry for Cindy starred two of the most talented male actors of the golden age, John Leslie and John Seeman opposite Amber Hunt in the lead female role.
By the mid-1970s, imaginative filmmakers eager to jump into the burgeoning adult market were inspired and encouraged by the immense success of the trio of hit films: Gerard Damiano’s Deep Throat (1972) and The Devil and Miss Jones (1973), and Jim and Artie Mitchell’s Behind the Green Door (1972).
I did actually try two loops in one day to see if I could handle it. Fortunately, the actor that I was set up with was very sweet and kind. The woman that I was set up with for the other one was completely disinterested so that was not such a great experience. The guy who was shooting the loops was everything you might presume about someone making adult movies. I mean, he was nice, but he was just sketchy and I look back and I wonder, “Oh, my god, how did I go on in front of him?” The money was great. He had actually been known for creating those light shows they ran behind the big rock concerts. He also made features — so yeah, it was The Analist (1975). I don’t really like to talk about it because it was not a good experience for me and I don’t like to give the movie any promotion.
I wish that I had refused [certain aspects of performing]. I definitely got facials in some of those films and I should have refused. I went along with some of that stuff — I mean, you had to, to be in those movies — that’s what you had to do. It was not easy.
I think that, in general, it’s not easy to see yourself on film. Even mainstream actors will often say that. Of course, when I went through the process of doing a lot of work on myself and making sure that I was comfortable with having been in movies, it was confrontational. I still had to go through my process of coming to terms with my choices. Once I did that, which was during the 1980s, I took out some movies and looked at them. I had done so much work on myself and thoroughly explored my feelings about having been in the movies that it was okay. It was fine to watch. In fact, I distinctly remember feeling like one would feel if you looked at pictures of your children because it was so removed by then. I was much older so I would look at it and think, “Oh, look how pretty I was back then!” What I marveled at is that I didn’t know how pretty I was. It was a good lesson because it was something that said to me, appreciate who you are now because twenty years from now, you’re going to look back on the “you” now and think, “Oh, what an attractive woman.”
There is a prevailing presumption by anti-porn feminist groups such as NOW (National Organization for Women) who made this statement in 1980: “sadomasochism and pornography constituted violence, not sex, and were inherently dangerous,” that women didn’t and don’t have the option to make their own choices and had marginal input once they agreed to appear in a sex film. As far back as the late 1960s when hardcore loops became popular as a mail order item, generally, a mutual agreement and contract existed between the actor and the agent/production company as to what acts would be required of the performer once the cameras started to roll. Suffice to say, that doesn’t mean agents, producers, and directors didn’t sometimes push for more ultimately leaving the decision up to the performer. Ironically, in many respects, the work was far less demanding for women during Royalle’s era when the production of adult films was still illegal than it is today with many restrictions in place.
In those days, it wasn’t the same as today. You didn’t get paid for sex acts. You got paid a day’s wages. It changed because once they started shooting on video they began cramming so many scenes into one day, the performers had to charge for each sexual performance in order to protect from being overworked. Back when I was in movies, you would do one scene or at the absolute most, two scenes a day. Back then, there were lists of what you would and would not do. It wasn’t as if you were going to get more money for one or the other. It was sort of like a contract. You would audition for the movie, and you would get a deal memo stipulating how many days you would work and how much you’d be paid. They would also hand you a sheet of paper with a list of various types of sex acts, and you’d check off what you would and would not do. I’m sure there were probably some girls who did feel railroaded, but [it boiled down to] how strong you were and what your level of self-esteem was.
I had one experience very early in my career in a movie for Alex de Renzy. Of course, he’s very well known. I got hired for a big party scene and I hadn’t been in very many movies yet. I didn’t get into adult movies because I liked having sex on camera, I got into them because I liked performing, and I liked dressing up, and getting made up, and it was good money.
I went to do this two-day shoot [at night] and there was a lot of stuff going on in it. There was supposed to be this wild party, and it was really quite a production. Alex de Renzy was known for big, outrageous movies. It was about this huge Albino [Ken Turner] — this very nasty guy who would beat up prostitutes. They threw this big party to get back at him. The script called for the girls to get him drunk and they were supposed to do all of these things to him. At a certain point, they started handing out beers to all of the actresses. I’ve never liked the taste of beer and I didn’t take any. Finally, they said, “You have to drink something,” so I asked “Why?” That’s when I found out that all the girls were supposed to degrade him by standing over him and urinating on him. I immediately went into my rebel-rousing feminist ways — I was always the leader and I’d get all of my girlfriends involved politically! I gathered everyone around and I said, “Look, I am not going to do this. I never agreed to this. None who doesn’t want to do this should be pushed into doing it. We should stand together.�
�� I should say that only about four women in all ended up willing to do it. de Renzy was very angry with me and said, “You’ll never work for me again” — which I didn’t, but that was fine with me. They’d really tried to push me. He was so incensed that I would stand up to him and not do what he said.
Royalle is referring to is Femmes de Sade (1976) which encompassed a lengthy list of actors (many uncredited) including John Leslie, Joey Silvera, Lesllie Bovee, Annette Haven, Linda Wong, and Desiree West — to list only a small cluster of names. Ken Turner, a giant of a man who played the perpetrator in the story, was urinated on and possibly defecated on during the scene that Candida described.
Six years earlier, in 1970, de Renzy’s groundbreaking movie Pornography in Denmark paved the way for aspiring directors and financiers of controversial sexual-themed films to take the necessary risks involved to produce pornographic material that was illegal to make, but not to purvey. Denmark is the first country in the world to have lifted their ban on pornography in 1967 which compelled de Renzy to travel to Copenhagen in 1969 where he attended the world’s first adult oriented trade show, “Sex ’69.”
Royalle, who is certainly not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, preferred to participate in adult films on the west coast that were more comical in nature in contrast to some of the edgier and often darker features that were being produced on the east coast during the 1970s.
“Hot & Saucy”
I would say my fondest memories as an actor are when I did some of the silly movies for Bob Chinn and producer Richard Aldrich like [Hot & Saucy] Pizza Girls (1979) and Hard Soap, Hard Soap (1977). They were great guys and very sweet. As environments go those were some of the nicest, especially Pizza Girls where we all had so much fun learning how to skate board around the parking lot of the motel we were staying at during the shoot.
Candida Royalle and her real-life best girlfriend, Laurien Dominique, appeared alongside onscreen pals Christine de Schaffer and ditzy bombshell Desiree Cousteau in the comedy Hot & Saucy Pizza Girls. The film is enjoyable fun and frolic. It follows the pizza delivery girls through the steep, windy streets of San Francisco as they skateboard their way into the bedrooms of lonely horny men and women looking for a little extra topping. After much prodding by the cast, even director Bob Chinn was part of the ensemble cast in a non-sex role as Holmes’s cohort in the dough making business at Shakey’s Pizza Parlor, while Paul Thomas and Richard Pacheco teamed up as business partners of a rival take-out restaurant conniving to steal business away from the thriving Shakey’s. Adult actor, John Seeman, is funny as a private investigator hoping to put Shakey’s out of business, and in the process, falls head over heels in love with Cousteau’s character, Ann Chovie.
Royalle often worked with the most popular talent during her years as an actor which occasionally meant those with the biggest egos would dominate the sets. While attending a script rehearsal for Hard Soap, Hard Soap Candida recalled that John Holmes “made eyes” at her from across the table. The rehearsal was the first time she’d met the legendary star, and Candida was flattered by his attraction to her. Shortly afterward, Holmes took Royalle by the hand and led her into a tiny room where he made love to her while the rest of the cast and crew remained outside.
John Holmes wasn’t one of my favorites to work with really because of his emotional problems. He really was a nice guy. He was sensitive to me, you know, but he made the set unpleasant sometimes throwing his weight around and being the prima donna. You end up making it difficult for everyone. Since becoming a director, I tell you, he wouldn’t have lasted with me. I don’t care how big of a name someone is. Even what he did with me was rude while making everyone wait outside! That’s terrible! It really was. Of course, we were just doing a day of rehearsals, we weren’t ready to shoot, but still it wasn’t nice.
In the hilarious send up Hard Soap, Hard Soap, a satire of the seventies soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Royalle and Dominique team up as scheming girlfriends, Linda Lou and Penny Holmes in their attempt to resolve the sexual hang-ups experienced by their families and their community. Linda and Penny extend libidinous services to those with the greatest needs including the mailman and the custodian. They even help a blind woman to regain her sight in the most unusual way as the film builds toward a fitting slippery-wet finish. The rest of the cast list is filled out by Paul Thomas, John Holmes, Joey Silvera, Jon Martin, John Seeman and Joan Devlon.
Proactively, Candida furnished her life with lasting friendships formed during her early years in the industry. She gives kudos to her tight band of friends who constitute Club 90 — a small group of elite women that toiled as pioneers throughout the early days of erotic filmmaking. Royalle still communicates with the girls on a regular basis through telephone and e-mail.
I’ve made wonderful friends in the industry, very, very close friends, many of whom I’m still close with like Veronica Hart and Annie Sprinkle, Veronica Vera, and Gloria Leonard — all of whom make up the support group that we formed almost thirty years ago. Of course, I don’t see her often, but also Samantha Fox, and I’m still very close to Merle Michaels. It’s funny that I have to try to come up with their stage names that I hardly ever call them.
John Leslie was wonderful. We had a little affair and he took me under his wing when I started out as an actress. We always held one another in high esteem. He directed one of the few adult movies I really liked called Dog Walker (1993), a very well done film. Sadly, he passed away from a heart attack this past year [2010]. He was much loved in the industry.
John Leslie, one of the most admired leading men and directors to have worked during the golden era, was a mesmerizing presence and performer who appeared in more than three hundred movies during his tenure as an adult film actor. Royalle also spoke affectionately about Jon Martin, another one of her favorite male co-stars.
Jon Martin played my husband in Hot Rackets (1979), and he was the other actor I dated for a while. I generally didn’t date actors from the industry, but he and John were the exceptions. I ran into him a few years ago in Manhattan and we had a very nice visit.
Hot Rackets is a humorous story about a day in the life of a wealthy couple (Royalle and Jon Martin). The two uncover various ways to spice up their sex lives at the local tennis club where nudity and sexual favors are offered as membership amenities. Many familiar faces pop up in highlighted scenes: Rhonda Jo Petty and Mike Ranger portray Royalle and Martin’s best friends and engage in some steamy sex while the club masseuse/oral queen, played by Laurien Dominique, encourages Candida to experiment in some girl/girl exploration. A blonde seventies mainstay, Cris Cassidy, in the role of Royalle’s housekeeper and Turk Lyon as the chauffeur, partake in a memorable sticky encounter in a greenhouse. Desiree Cousteau (billed as Desiree Clearbranch) is her cute bubble-headed self, as she is tag teamed by Martin and Ranger in a Jacuzzi. What is striking about Hot Rackets, which could pass as a mainstream picture without the sex (true of many of the features of the seventies decade) is the playful and innocent flavor of the storyline and sexual situations. Royalle, always a joy to watch, has impeccable timing creating a perfect bookend to her fun-loving, extroverted personality.
Candida remembered a few more of her former associates.
The other one I’d say I enjoyed working for was Henri Pachard who has since passed away. He was lovely. I did October Silk (1980) for him and he was a doll. Even Ronnie, Ron Jeremy. I didn’t actually perform sexually with him, but I played his sister in Fascination (1981). You know, he was very sweet. I even met his parents in Queens, way back when we worked together, must have been 1980. You know who else was very nice to work with was Jack Wrangler. He was so professional. I worked with him in my last movie; a beautiful period piece called Blue Magic (1982) that I wrote and had a starring role. It was directed by Larry Revene and produced by my ex-husband Per Sjostedt. I really wanted Jack as the lead because of his professional acting and comedic skills. He also passed away, not long ago. He had marri
ed the famous singer, Margaret Whiting, and returned to directing and producing theatre in New York. Sadly, he was still young and thriving.
Blue Magic starred Candida as an alluring woman with a mysterious past spanning hundreds of years. Upon inviting several couples into her gothic mansion for a dinner engagement, the group soon finds itself involved in an erotic adventure far surpassing the light banter preceding the sexual experimentation. The orgasmic evening inevitably and dramatically alters the lives (possibly eternally) of all participants.
Empowered…to a fault
Thoughtfully, Candida addressed questions regarding preconceived ideas and generalizations regarding women working within a primarily male governed environment.
There’s no black and white way to respond to it. I think that, on the one hand, the industry probably does have more of a tendency to attract young women who have a fractured sense of themselves or who have been overly sexualized as children, or who have been given the impression that their true value is in their sexuality. Because it is something that is still scorned upon in our society, if you go into something that will bring scorn, it makes one wonder why someone would do that to oneself. On the other hand, I would balance that out by saying not every girl does come from a traumatized, abused, sexualized background. That has to be said first. Then I would point out that the statistics that I recall state that a full third of the female population of the United States has been sexually assaulted or abused or are victims of incest. That’s what they figure. That’s the entire population, that’s not the adult industry, that’s the big picture. So, that said, I think that we as a society have a vested interest in making sure that women don’t see performing sexually for public consumption as a viable and respectable option to follow.
GOLDEN GODDESSES: 25 LEGENDARY WOMEN OF CLASSIC EROTIC CINEMA, 1968-1985 Page 24