GOLDEN GODDESSES: 25 LEGENDARY WOMEN OF CLASSIC EROTIC CINEMA, 1968-1985

by Nelson, Jill C.

  Traditionally, the garter belt, silk stockings, high heels and dainty scarf fastened delicately around the necks of female performers were customary touches first introduced in Swedish Erotica loops. The marketing brainchild was conceived in the mid-1970s when Swedish Erotica (owned by Caballero, one of the largest producers of pornographic material in the mid-late 1970s) decided to glamorize the steady stream of females showcased in their numerous vignettes. Evidently, the aesthetically appealing costuming trend later became a popular grooming trait for various adult feature productions.

  Anderson played Hollywood producer Peggy Norton in the primary offering of the “Aunt Peg” series titled Aunt Peg (directed by Anthony Spinelli as Wes Brown) illustrating her involvement in numerous liaisons with the most popular performers of the decade. With various Swedish Erotica loops melded together to create this montage feature, Juliet is partnered up with Seka, Serena, Jamie Gillis, Mike Ranger, Mike Horner, Billy Dee, and others in impressive and vivacious displays of copulation. Aunt Peg’s Fulfillment is a continuation of the established trademark “Aunt Peg” series as Peggy Norton (Juliet Anderson) personally auditions prospective actors for an upcoming film project starting with Johnny Keyes as Tyrone Tips. Peg handles Keyes’ manhood aggressively, and shows no mercy while giving the startled job applicant head as her niece Sheila (Sharon Kane) sleeps in the next room. Later that day, Peg arrives at her office and proceeds to chew up the furniture and a few unsuspecting co-workers and friends (Richard Pacheco, Erica Boyer, and Suzanne French are all featured) before retiring for the evening. At home, Peg is up to her tricks again as she entertains two male companions played by Mike Ranger and John Leslie, each one unaware that the other is in her apartment. Humorously, Peg dashes between two rooms to effectively service her pals. In each and every segment, Anderson commands the screen with confidence and diabolical flair. The previously filmed three-way interlude between Anderson, Holmes, and Kane appears in the middle of the film.

  I have a compilation: The Best of Aunt Peg that I’ve been selling for a long time because I get it from the owners of the Aunt Peg films. The owner [Ted McIlvenna] has the largest collection of pornography in the world. It’s the Institute for the Advanced Study of Sexuality [IASHS] in San Francisco. I’ve known them for a long time. I give talks there periodically and they’ve been making this compilation for me and duplicating it for many years. There is Aunt Peg (1980), Aunt Peg’s Fulfillment (1981), and Aunt Peg Goes to Hollywood (1981).

  “Aunt Peg” does Hollywood

  Lisa DeLeeuw and Rhonda Jo Petty, along with their (on-camera) boyfriends, Jeff Conrad and Kevin James all vie for spots in Aunt Peg’s Hollywood porn project titled Aunt Peg Goes to Hollywood (aka Aunt Peg Goes Hollywood, 1981). With a couple of embedded Swedish Erotica clips utilized to bump up the sex scenes (including a hefty dose of anal scenes), everyone wants to get in on the action, from directors (Ron Jeremy) to cinematographers to projectionists — in this final submission of the “Aunt Peg” franchise. Anderson is her usual feisty self, but only appears in one scene, along with Jeff Conrad and Little Oral Annie who is introduced. Conrad travels with Peg to her Mexico hideaway, and after he is greeted by Annie (smiling like the Cheshire cat), the two horny women entice him into the bedroom and put on a stimulating show leaving him no choice but to join in.

  Again, I created the stories. I collaborated with the director [Paul Vatelli] and said, “What do you think?” We had this background because we’d shoot them in people’s houses for the most part and at different locations. I’d ask, “Who are my co-stars?” We’d sit down the three or four of us, and put our heads together and we’d talk about what kind of fun we could have today and, “How about this?” or “How about that?” The ice-cream truck would be out front and we’d say, “Oh, well, we could have ice-cream and spread it all over our bodies…” We’d have fun.

  I remember I also liked Jodie Maxwell and I liked working with Kay Parker. I can’t remember the others. I didn’t like Marilyn Chambers because she had a very nasty attitude from day one. She walked into the set — she strode in and pushed everybody aside and said, “Get out of my way, I’m Marilyn Chambers.”

  When I went up to her and said, “Oh, I’m so glad I get a chance to meet you.”

  She said, “Get out of my way, I’m Marilyn Chambers.” Here, we were meant to be in a film together. She had bodyguards, security guards who came with her. She was very spoiled with a very nasty attitude, but you’d never notice it in the film that we were in together because I made a point of being good at stopping it at that. I never would have chosen to do another film with her. I wasn’t alone, other people said to me, “Don’t take it personally, that’s just the way she is.”

  In the sequel to Insatiable (1980), Insatiable 2 (1984) Juliet played Morgan Templeton, a writer spending quality time with Sandra Chase (Marilyn Chambers) in order to gain better insight into Chase’s sexuality and the many taboos to heighten her sexual experiences. During her research, Templeton is enlightened about her own sexual fantasies and learns inventive ways to achieve gratifying orgasms through her personal interaction with Sandra.

  Although Juliet was in her fortieth year when she made a career choice that was life changing, I wondered if or how her decision affected her small, closely knit family.

  My parents always supported me in anything I did because they knew that I would make all the right decisions. Even if they weren’t the best ones, they knew I would learn something. I’d gone to other countries and I’d lived in other countries, and they knew I had quite a few lovers. They just said, “Be responsible, don’t get pregnant, and don’t hurt people.” When I decided to get into films, I realized that they were going to find out at some point and I didn’t want them to find out from somebody. I made an appointment to go down to San Diego.

  Anderson took a proactive approach when she decided to be upfront with her mother and father about her porn career. If Juliet’s conference with her parents unfolded exactly as she described it, truth is indeed far more surprising than fiction.

  I flew down from San Francisco and I asked them if they would sit down when it was convenient, I’d like to have a little meeting with them because I had something to tell them. The three of us gathered in the living room of their small apartment. They sat down and I said, “I have something I want to tell you because I don’t want you to hear it from somebody else and it’s bound to get out. I know you made me promise not to get into films.” They made me promise not to get involved in regular films, or be a musician or singer or something like that because they knew that even though I probably had some talent, women always had to provide sexual services to the men who would hire them. They didn’t want me to have to go through that, so I promised them I wouldn’t. I said, “I know I promised you I wouldn’t, and I haven’t all of these years, but then something came up just recently. I had no idea what I was getting into, and nobody forced me by insisting upon any kind of sexual favors. I didn’t have to put out for anybody. I am in adult films and I don’t know if you know what that means. It means explicit X-rated films — sometimes it’s called “porno.” I have very quickly become a superstar. Believe me, I had no idea it was going to happen.”

  One can only speculate whether Juliet truly had no previous knowledge of the adult film industry in 1978 as she indicated during our interview. Wikipedia and Juliet’s own autobiography (on her former website) documented that in 1963 Anderson was employed as a receptionist for a filmmaker of Nudie films in Florida. She had also appeared in a sexploitation movie in 1963. The Internet Movie database (IMDb.com) lists Anderson in the credits for two sexploitation films directed by Barry Mahon in 1965: The Beast that Killed Women (uncredited), and International Smorgas-Broad. Mahon’s first production, Cuban Rebel Girls, released in 1959 was the last picture for Hollywood star Errol Flynn which also co-starred one of Flynn’s girlfriends Beverly Aadland.

  I told my parents how it happened and that it completely surprised me. I did
n’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.”

  One Woman Dynamo

  For the longest time after her movie debut, Anderson didn’t see herself onscreen until one day she eventually bit the bullet and went to a theatre incognito.

  I remember I got a wig to disguise myself and go with somebody to see the film. It took a while for them to edit and all that. But what I quickly figured out is that I couldn’t live on what I was making in the films — still, that was very little money so the way that I supported myself through those six and a half years was creating one woman stage theatre — not strip shows, but theater.

  Spurred on by her reputation as a fêted celebrity, Juliet decided to kick things up a notch and spread her wings as an actor by exposing extensions of some of the personalities she had developed within the framework of her films to a broader audience.

  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.

  While Anderson continued making films and traveling with her stage show, she cleverly managed to take advantage of other profitable sideline opportunities such as personal appearances and phone sex, in addition to operating a mail-order business selling her own product.

  They’d feature my films at these events — they’d show my film and even women came. Then, they’d have the live show. I had to do five shows a day. They were an hour and then I’d stand out in the lobby for Polaroid photos — the line would be around the block. I was the biggest star the Mitchell brothers ever had at their theater in San Francisco. The line was clear down to Market Street of people waiting to get into the theater. They would wait in a long line to get their picture taken of me wearing a garter belt and hose and heels sitting on their lap. Then I’d autograph it and I’d charge ten dollars. With the shows and the films, I was able to make three thousand dollars a month. That’s what we did, about one film a month or something like that.

  I was very much an anomaly in that industry. I wasn’t aware of it at the time. It was later that I found out how very different that I was. Not only being older, but being unafraid to show that I was intelligent and funny, and really enjoyed what I was doing and having real orgasms. The other women didn’t like it at all. They were there to make some money. They didn’t really enjoy sex. They had to have other jobs, or they had boyfriends or husbands who would support them because you didn’t make any money. No, they didn’t like it at all and they were in it for a very short window of time.

  For those fortunate enough to have witnessed Juliet Anderson in action either as the feisty man-eater “Aunt Peg,” or as another one of her ball busting cast of characters, it would be futile to suggest she didn’t seem to enjoy her work, and definitely more than the average actress. Consequently, it is not difficult to accept that Anderson did experience authentic orgasms on camera. “Exploitation” is not a word found in Anderson’s vocabulary when referencing her own experiences in adult entertainment.

  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. They just gave me the basic outline of the story, and I created my own dialogue and I immersed myself in the feeling of just being there. I wanted to enjoy myself and I wanted my co-stars to enjoy it and have some fun, too. 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.

  The term “big business” with respect to the pornographic film industry since the advent of hardcore movie productions is putting it mildly. In the mid-1970s, it is estimated in the United States that approximately five-ten million dollars of revenue was realized from the production of X-rated films. By 1979 (one of Anderson’s primary years in the business), gross annual revenues of upwards to 100 million dollars were yielded in the state of California alone. Today’s global figures encompassing everything from adult oriented films to internet sales and magazines are close to a staggering ten-fifteen billion dollars.

  I like men and I like women. It doesn’t mean I like all of them. I think women should not be objectified. Women are as intelligent as men are. There are intelligent men and there are intelligent women. There are also men and women that are not so intelligent, but it is a man’s world unfortunately. Women are often objectified and they’re not really supposed to like sex. I have never really understood feminism other than to say, “Hey, just because I am a woman doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have equal rights.” A person’s sex is irrelevant to me whether they’re gay, lesbian, male or female — it’s what’s inside of a person. In other words, people are not their labels. Let’s not label people, but accept them for what they really are and what’s inside.

  No matter who she was paired with, Anderson maintained a high level of professionalism at all times thinly veiled through her assertive and domineering MILF personas leaving audiences wanting more. Prominent appearances by Juliet in films that followed the aforementioned productions are Taboo (1980), Fantasex Island (1984), Reel People (1984), and innumerable others. In the ambit of directing, Anderson’s name will always be synonymous as the brains behind the succinct success of Nina Hartley and her eminent virtuoso performance as an acting student studying the effects of fantasy upon one’s sex life in Educating Nina (1984).

  Ageless Desire

  After I got out of the business, I tried to figure out what I was going to do. I was exhausted, and it was quite by accident that I was at a place called Wilbur Hot Springs: a natural hot springs, along with a woman friend, just relaxing. I saw an announcement that a lecturer at a school of massage was going to be giving an intensive three-day workshop on massage at Wilbur coming up soon. It was going to be ten to twelve hour days. We both looked at each other and thought, “Hmmm, why the hell not?”

  I thought, “Until I figure out what I’m going to do next this would be really worthwhile, just to be able to give to family and friends.” That was all I intended to do. I somehow had sensed that during whatever last film I made, it was time to quit and I always paid attention to instincts. We signed up, and returned and took the training. Instead of my keeping things non-professional, both of my teachers took me aside and told me I had the gift of touch and for me to use it wisely. I thought, “Oh, my god, maybe this is what I should do next,” but I quickly found out that you can’t support yourself just doing massages. It’s very, very hard work. I wasn’t going to have anybody sharing my expenses and that’s when I added the Tender Loving Touch. I’ve been doing
the two for twenty-two years.

  While teaching, counseling, and providing massage therapy to customers utilizing her customized techniques, Anderson additionally offered sexual healing for those from her select group of clientele requesting extra attention and willing to pay for her special services. As another means to strive for financial independence, Juliet cleverly launched a line of educational videos preaching the virtues of sex after sixty. One of the more well known from the list is Juliet’s Masturbation Memoirs Volumes 1&2 costarring Annie Sprinkle and Scarlet Harlot (1995), where she explains how orgasms provided relief from the pain she endured as a Crohn’s and rheumatoid arthritis sufferer.