New Kid on the Block
I moved out at seventeen and never finished high school. In June, I turned eighteen and three months later is when I got into the adult business. My life just started to downward spiral from the time I was sixteen and started spinning out of control. At sixteen and seventeen, I didn’t really know what my emotions were. At seventeen, I moved into an apartment in Hollywood by myself. It was a dump, but it was my dump. I didn’t have to put up with anyone; it was my own place. I was working part time at a clothing store and part time at a health food restaurant on Sunset Boulevard called The Source. I just couldn’t survive. Two part-time jobs at minimum wage — it was expensive.
I had some crappy little MG Midget that was breaking down all the time, so I was standing outside my apartment waiting for my friend to pick me up and I met this guy Greg Rome. He was a cute little blonde boy, a surfer type, and he pulled over in a white Trans-Am with the gold eagle decal on the hood. He said, “Hey baby, you’re so cute. What are you doing?” He was around nineteen. I told him I was waiting for my friend and that my car had broken down.
He said, “Why don’t you wait in my car where it’s air conditioned?” I was so ballsy. Here I am at seventeen living in the centre of friggin’ sleazy Hollywood. It certainly wasn’t cleaned up like today, and yet, I never felt in danger. I’d walk to my apartment building at two in the morning after going to a club. I know that there were hookers and pimps. Everyone was fine, thank god. No one ever tried anything on me that I didn’t want to have tried on me. Anyway, Greg told me I should be a figure model. I was truly naïve. I thought figure modeling was hand modeling or body parts like feet. I didn’t know that much about the adult world but I had seen California Valley Girls (1983) and thought it was awesome.
He said he would show me what figure modeling was, and he pulled out a Hustler magazine that had photographs of him. This was the kind of magazine where the guy’s dick was three inches away from someone’s mouth and very soft core compared to the stuff now. I just remember thinking I was kind of excited. I just sat there and looked at it. It was a pretty girl in the photo and he was good-looking. It was a Ron Vogel shoot — there was a pretty girl with a tree and a boom box in the back and I thought, “Wow.” I remember thinking I wasn’t afraid or grossed out. He gave me Jim South’s card from World Modeling. He said, “If you ever want to do it, it pays two-hundred dollars a day.”
I sort of said, “Okay” but I put that business card in my drawer. It wasn’t like, “Great, thanks!” and then I shredded it.
About two months later I had pennies to my name, I was like a hamster on one of those rusty wheels. I just couldn’t catch up to myself. I remember late one night I called the number on the card and there was Jim South’s southern drawl and I just left a message saying I’d met Greg Rome and he told me to call him. The next morning Jim called me back and I went to see him the next day. That was the beginning of “Christy Canyon”.
I love Jim South. I have nothing bad all these years later to say about him. I hear about all of these horror stories on my radio show that these girls have with their agents. I just thank my lucky stars that I was in the business at the time that I was. There was clearly a level of class to the industry during that time and mystique when it was kind of a hidden thing. Hush, hush and underground. I love the people from my era, I really do. They’re a great group of people.
I started with magazines first: layouts for probably the first couple of months. It was the boy, girl, girl, girl thing, and a couple of hardcore shots, but it was with Greg Rome and I felt comfortable with him. When I called him and told him I’d gotten into the business, he asked me if I knew all of the positioning. I really didn’t. I knew the missionary position at the age of eighteen. He took me to this goofy place that they used to have in the eighties before the health department kicked in. They were these buildings on Santa Monica Boulevard and you could rent a Jacuzzi room. There was a Jungle Room, and a Medieval Room, and you could rent Jacuzzis. Greg rented one and he showed me all of the different positioning: doggie style and spoon. I didn’t even know these existed. We had a bottle of champagne. It was tough and I wouldn’t want to go through it again, but damn, I look back on it and I really had a great experience. I really learned a lot about sex though making films. This was toward the end of 1984.
Loving Dangerously
Like many of her sister newcomers who had already started into the adult entertainment business as it melded into the video-age by the early-mid 1980s, one of the very first brand name performers Christy worked with was Ron Jeremy. Their friendship and onscreen compatibility was immediate and they were paired together many times over the course of both careers.
I believe my very first piece of filming was a loop for Caballero with Ron Jeremy. I think it was shot on Beta-Cam. It was the new high-def of that era. It was a little more expensive to rent. I was scared to death. Oh my god, I was scared. Jim told me it was a loop. I said, “Okay” not even thinking what a loop was. I thought it was some new kind of layout or something, and then I saw the camera. I called Jim and I was going on. He said, “Well, I told you it was a loop and you have to do it because they’re already there and they have a budget.” He didn’t try to trick me because I could have walked out. I’ll never be a victim, but I told myself, “I can do this.” If you see that first loop, I think it was Swedish Erotica #57 with Ron Jeremy and I in bed, and then another couple in bed next to us. A big, buxom, German girl named Stevie [Taylor] and I don’t remember who the guy was [possibly Rick Cassidy]. We were having sex in the same bed. Up until that point, I’d never shared a bed with anybody. It’d be lights out, in the dark, doing missionary, so it was scary.
Ron was adorable. He made it fun because he’s just a hoot, but I remember I came home crying. I wondered if I’d crossed the line because I’d done sex on film. It was even different from doing stills. There was something about going to live film. It was almost the ending of this footloose and fancy-free modeling thing. I knew I’d entered into a whole new dimension.
At that time, I wasn’t talking to my family. My sister was in London going to college and she was always my ally and friend. I really felt alone. I called Jim South and said, “I don’t want to do that again.”
He said, “Well honey, I’ve lined you up for something else for Paradise Visuals, but after the next two films On Golden Blonde (1984) and The Night of Loving Dangerously (1984) in tandem, you don’t have to continue”.
I said, “I can’t do it again.” I didn’t want to disappoint him because Jim was like a dad to me. It was kind of a tough time. I asked myself, “Do I do it?” I didn’t want to do it, but this man had been so kind to me. I really was very conflicted at that point, not only about films, just about life! The other thing too was that the money was just so nice. Here I was working two jobs making one hundred dollars for each job for the week, and suddenly, I was able to make five hundred dollars a day. I just remember thinking, “I’m going to do it. I’ve made the choice to do it.” I didn’t want to alienate him. He was somebody stable in my life at that point. It’s not as if I felt like it was gross; it’s just that I knew I’d entered a different dimension and that my life would never be the same.
I asked Christy what she believed might have happened at that point had she been insistent with Jim South about not returning, or if South explained the ramifications of what Christy had chosen to do. Canyon was emphatic she was determined to make up her own mind and that no one coerced her or influenced her decision. In her autobiography, Christy admitted Jim South represented to her the father figure she longed for after her own father had put his girlfriends and various relationships ahead of Christy and her sister.
I don’t remember if he had gone into detail about anything at all. If he hadn’t, I still would have done it. That was my new chosen path in this world. There was the money and I knew I couldn’t go home. I just knew that wasn’t an option. Working two jobs obviously wasn’t an option because I ne
ver had any money. Suddenly, they were like my family. The reasons the girls got into it back in the eighties is different in comparison to what I hear on my Playboy Radio show. They get in it now to cross over to mainstream. They get into it now for whatever reasons. We got in it because we were rebels. It was the best “fuck you” to your family. We were rebellious! You couldn’t get more rebellious than that. “Hey, I’m making porn.”
The next films I promised Jim I would do was for Paradise Visuals: The Night of Loving Dangerously and On Golden Blonde. I’ve got to tell you, I showed up on the set after having conflicting thoughts about it and then I met Ginger Lynn and Traci Lords and Peter North and Tom Byron, and suddenly, it was like a whole different vibe. It was fun and we had catered food, and it was really an amazing experience. Ginger Lynn, bless her heart, the first scene of the day was with her and then Jamie Gillis was coming in — he was a good man and I remember telling Ginger, “I’ve never been with a girl.”
She was so fabulous and said, “Don’t worry, Christy, I’ll take care of you.” She really put me at ease. She put this raspberry lip balm on her puss lips, and suddenly, it was an amazing feeling. Between Swedish Erotica and Paradise Visuals’ two movies, it was like day and night. I said, “Jim, book me. I love this.” I mean, Peter North…come on, how fucking hot is he. You didn’t need much time to either sink your chops into it or realize, “You know, this isn’t for me.”
The initiative for the 1984 Paradise Visuals feature Night of Loving Dangerously is derived from the 1982 Mel Gibson vehicle The Year of Living Dangerously. Since the original hardcore movie contained scenes with Traci Lords, it is a rare occurrence that anyone might still have an original VHS copy in his or her possession. The plot outline (compiled from a series of online reviews) is as follows: Peter North portrays George, a disabled, retired police officer earning a new living as a private detective. George is hired by his ex-wife Janice (Lords) to assist in tracking down someone blackmailing Lords’s husband-to-be Greg Harrison (Jamie Gillis). After a meeting and some nookie with Harrison’s daughter Louise (Canyon), George further investigates the situation at hand while participating in several erotic sketches with various partners. Christy’s spotlight with Peter North is followed by a girl-girl scene with Ginger Lynn, and later, with Lynn and Jamie Gillis. She does not appear with Traci Lords. Night of Loving Dangerously was directed by Michael Phillips.
Canyon’s second official feature On Golden Blonde (1984) is loosely inspired by the storyline in Heaven Can Wait (1978). Having borrowed its title from the poignant Hollywood hit On Golden Pond (1981) starring Henry Fonda, Katherine Hepburn, and Jane Fonda, Christy plays Alice, a gorgeous young woman furious that her young life was cut short as a result from a mix up in heaven. Through means of atonement, Alice is sent back to earth in order to test drive different bodies, each of which is blonde-headed much to Alice’s displeasure. Alice proceeds to encounter various sexual experiences before deciding upon the chassis that she likes best. Apart from the obvious gratuitous sex and audacious Canyon breast exposure, this movie is fairly typical of efforts made to sexualize popular Hollywood films. Also featured in the Paradise Visuals production (directed by Michael Phillips) are Ginger Lynn, Jamie Gillis, Gina Carerra, Peter North, Marc Wallice, and Tom Byron.
I don’t recall seeing myself on screen right away. I don’t think I could afford a VCR at that time. I went to a local newsstand though and I remember seeing myself on a box cover and thought, “Oh my god. That is so cool. I’m on a box cover [for Dirty Shary, 1984]. I’m a star.” I remember going to the newsstand with a girl name Lora Lee [aka Heather Wayne], and the director who went by the stage name [Harold] Lime took the two of us to Musso and Franks on Hollywood Boulevard in the heart of Hollywood. Afterwards, we’d go to the newsstands and look at our magazines — it was a rush. It was a thrill; it was fun. I felt like this was my family and I felt pretty once again.
The one year I wasn’t getting along with my step-dad and my mom was picking him over me and my dad was out of the picture, I really felt like I wasn’t pretty. I felt that no one wanted me and it was as if the adult community loved me. They weren’t abusing me. It was just friggin’ sex back then. It wasn’t friggin’ fisting and double dildos. I look at what I did and I am proud of everything I did. I wouldn’t take one thing back.
Canyon quickly adjusted to life within the X-rated terrain. Due to increasing demand for her presence, she worked continuously almost immediately after her career began as she vied against Ginger Lynn and Traci Lords (still in the running) for chief female spot in the adult market. Releases such as Dirty Letters (1984), Hollywood Starlets (1985), and Wild Things (1985) represent a modicum of Christy’s prodigious filmography directed by Michael Carpenter, Bruce Seven, and Alex deRenzy, respectively.
In the early days of Christy’s calling, she and Traci Lords were often paired in films together which served to bolster Christy’s career once controversy surrounding Lords’s age began to swirl. Most of the features co-starring Canyon and Lords were able to be salvaged with Lords footage removed and replaced with new material excluding one known title Battle of the Stars 1 (1985).
Christy continued working for Paradise Visuals, and received considerable screen time in W-Pink TV, a 1985 production featuring Canyon and Ron Jeremy as the two leads. As television news hosts, Christy and Jeremy are in cahoots when they take over their network and turn it into a late-night sex show. The network’s secret agent, Scorpio (Harry Reems), arrives incognito on the scene determined to get to the bottom of the mutiny. All hell breaks loose in the studio when Canyon eventually seduces Scorpio, followed by an orgy with participation from the bulk of the cast including Marc Wallice. W-Pink TV is an orchestration of veterans and freshmen together in various sexual acts, including a notably steamy scene between Jeremy and Canyon. Christy also appeared in a masturbation exhibition. The 20th Anniversary Special Edition DVD of this title (re-released in 2005) presents an interview with Christy Canyon and Ron Jeremy facilitated by Bill Margold. The stars enter into a lively discussion with Margold about the 1985 shoot with a special appearance by Laurie Holmes.
Here’s the deal, you had about three actors to choose from back then. I loved them all, but my favorites were Ron Jeremy, Peter North, Tom Byron, and Marc Wallice. I loved Marc Wallice with that banana dick. He was totally stoned out of his mind all of the time, but he was a great guy. The only real drugs I ever did and it was for a very short time, was coke. It was maybe only for a month or two out of that part of my life. I was friggin’ doing it when I was sixteen at our prom for school. It was such a 1980s type of thing. I certainly wasn’t an addict, but I’d do it on weekends and things. Toward the end of the eighties there was a period where Heather Wayne and I were totally into it — we were doing it hard and heavy. I’d still show up to work and I’d know my stuff. Actually, the only time my sister was ever worried about me [being in the business] was when she came over one time in 1984. I was doing drugs with Heather Wayne and she said, “Just don’t go over the edge.” It was a little warning but she never cut me off, and was never too worried that maybe I wouldn’t survive what everyone perceived in the eighties — that it was a dirty business. Anyway, one morning I remember waking up and saying, “Okay, I’m done.” That was a very short period of my life. I never drank on sets, never got into pot, just coke for a tiny period of my life. Not my porn career, but my life. I don’t blame my drug use on the business and I didn’t get it from people in the business except maybe one time from a director. I had my own source on the side and I would just do it on my own, and go to a club and dance all night. I was a weird loner. It certainly wasn’t to get through work. I never did it on set, except one time when the director gave it to me. I haven’t done drugs since I was probably nineteen. It was great; it was fun. I can’t even imagine doing it now, but I got it out of my system long before I became a parent. I feel like if a person doesn’t experiment with certain things, it might come back to bite them at a point. I
f it doesn’t come back, then good for the people who don’t experience that. I learned not to worry about what other people do.
Going Straight
Unlike many of her girlfriends and fellow 1980s adult actors who achieved the echelon of stardom rapidly after making literally dozens of films, Christy took a break from performing for a few years starting in 1985 and decided to re-enter the straight working world. Since Canyon’s filmography shows several releases between 1986 and 1989, one can safely assume the videos were produced prior to her departure and released later. Canyon’s decision came on the heels of a toxic relationship she experienced with boyfriend Michael Paulsen. According to Christy’s memoir, Lights, Camera, Sex! Paulsen didn’t appreciate the fact his girlfriend was a porn star.
GOLDEN GODDESSES: 25 LEGENDARY WOMEN OF CLASSIC EROTIC CINEMA, 1968-1985 Page 80