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

by Nelson, Jill C.

  Ron actually had a certain touch, he really did. He was innovative in working with actors if you can call them actors. He did some things in a unique way. He was inventive, not technically, but he’d come up with some interesting ideas. He had some talent. It’s just that technically, he didn’t know anything. As far as editing was concerned, I was obsessed with editing. I wanted to make sure that all of the cuts matched unlike today’s world, which has been influenced by MTV where you don’t see matching cuts.

  Cecil Howard, that’s another funny one. He’s listed as director on Fantasex but he didn’t direct it, I did. I gave him that name. Howard Winters was a friend of mine and still is. We made a couple of pictures with him. Justine is ours. Justine: A Matter of Innocence (1980) if you can believe that, and Platinum Paradise (1981) which he owned. The Playgirl (1983) was one of our pictures with Veronica Hart that was kind of sweet story about writers’ block. Under my desk, there is a giant bag full of stills from all of the films, all of the sex films. They’re color slides.

  All that Glitters, is not gold

  Glitter (1985) is not bad. That was Shauna Grant. Again, we had outtakes from a couple of films that we shot her in before she died. It’s said that someone killed her — okay. No pretty girl would put a shotgun in her mouth, but I have no idea. This shows you my moral ethical code. After she died, I filmed somewhat of a documentary. I pretended it was real and that it was something of homage to her, but it wasn’t. I just put it together figuring we could make some money from it. Joyce James, who was sort of respected for writing for dirty magazines, believed this was an honest attempt to make a documentary, so she did all the on camera narration to tie the thing together. I don’t even remember it.

  Shauna Grant (born Colleen Marie Applegate) was found dead in Palm Springs on March 23, 1984 due to a self-inflicted rifle wound to the head, just two months before her twenty-first birthday. There has been much speculation of foul play surrounding Grant’s death relating to her forty-four year old boyfriend at the time, Jack “Jake” Ehrlich, who had allegedly been Grant’s primary cocaine supplier. (Grant had taken an overdose of pills a couple of years prior to her suicide). At the time of Grant’s death, Ehrlich was serving a five-year sentence for cocaine trafficking, and had apparently terminated his relationship with Grant over the telephone from the jailhouse.

  Some industry insiders believed Findlay’s final adult submission, Glitter, effectively ended her association with the pornographic movie business as the feature resulted in some disgruntled campers when it was perceived Findlay’s intentions to make the Shauna Grant picture were less than compassionate. Not that Roberta or her entrepreneurial constitution was disconcerted by the industry’s reaction to her efforts — quite the opposite. Along with her partner, Walter Sear, Findlay deviated into the Horror genre. Times were changing anyway as the shift to video preceded the legalization of the production of adult movies by a few years in California which served to completely reconfigure the art of presenting sex on film.

  I left the field and was glad to get out. I was happy if I never saw another sex picture again. It is true that most of the world doesn’t respect people who make pornography. It’s not a dignified thing to do. I’d gotten into the Horror genre after the sex films. I stopped making hardcore in the mid-eighties purely for monetary reasons. Video came out and adult theatres were running video so they would rent a cassette or buy a cassette. It wiped out the whole domestic theatrical part of the industry. We made a lot of money theatrically, and then all the small video companies could sell video, of course. Caballero bought all our films and paid very well. Most companies eventually went down the drain or they were bought by other larger companies. In Europe too, they were swallowed up by other companies. We switched over to making horror pictures.

  Horror Show

  Just as Findlay had done while working in the “dirty picture” business, as she referred to it, Roberta applied the same policies and principles when making the crossover to horror flicks. Her instincts as a filmmaker and businessperson were timely.

  The crews got bigger and bigger as we got into horror films — we had fifteen guys or whatever. The horror films are okay; there’s no sex in them. Prime Evil is owned by Crown. You can see the stuff on Netflix. I made up all of the titles.

  Tenement and The Oracle: the first two of Findlay’s horror pictures, were filmed in 1985 and became successful financial ventures prompting Findlay and Sear to produce more films in the Horror genre. Blood Sisters (1987) and Prime Evil (1989) followed the two original releases. That’s not to say Findlay believed she created great art.

  Set in the Bronx, Tenement focuses on the survival tactics of several ethnically diversified tenants after their residence is overtaken by a vicious gang. The film aims for shock value and excels as several gruesome and macabre scenes pepper the feature. The 2004 DVD release of Tenement contains several bonus tracks including a director’s commentary and interview footage with Findlay. Roberta recollected that when she read the script she was reminded of her childhood years in the Bronx, and said that many of the situations depicted in the film: gang war activity, junkies, prostitution, and occasional heated conflicts between tenants, were characteristic of her former neighborhood. Findlay believed her movie told a moral tale of good overcoming evil, and expressed that when the film screened in New York theatres, audiences rooted for the underdog (the tenants) as they put their differences aside and banded together in order to reclaim their homes. The picture received an “X” rating when it was released in 1985 for its graphic violence.

  In Blood Sisters, seven big-haired “eighties” girls are required to remain overnight in a haunted house as part of their initiation into a college sorority. Unbeknownst to the girls, some of the guys booby-trapped the house prior to their overnight visit to add a little more spice to their stay. Before settling in for the evening, the ringleader of the sisterhood, Linda (Amy Brentano), informs the girls the house is indeed haunted. Thirteen years before, the house was a brothel wherein all of the residents were killed. (This is illustrated in the opening sequence when a boy returns home to his mother at their house of ill repute after being called names by a girl he had invited to show him her privates.) Undeterred by her warning, the girls follow Linda’s instructions to go on a scavenger hunt and plan to meet back in the main room of the house along with their findings. Apparitions (both visual and audio) are witnessed by a few of the overnight guests. One by one, four of the girls are hunted down and killed in typical gory fashion by someone dressed in a white gown and heels. The remaining few females are scared right down to their boots, but fear doesn’t prevent them from taking one last look around the dimly lit manse for their missing friends. The psycho killer confesses his insanity in the final scene while wielding a knife over the chest of Linda. After promising he won’t hurt her, he spares no one. Moral of the story: It’s unwise to leave a crying baby unattended.

  In the 2004 DVD release, Roberta Findlay was interviewed briefly about Blood Sisters, in addition to one of the actors, Elizabeth Rose. Compared to the sex films Findlay shot in the seventies and early 1980s, Blood Sisters contains a couple of sanitized simulated sex scenes, but enough bare breasts and innuendo to trigger the hormones of teenage boys. Findlay explained because she is obsessed with photography, she paid particular attention to the lighting of the picture and described how the last scene of the film — “the money shot” — was the one that required the largest financial investment. Walter Sear had even crafted a special dolly dubbed the “Wally dolly” in order for Roberta to have optimum camera accessibility throughout filming. For his part, in addition to production and editing, all of the original music was performed by Sear and Michael Litovsky on a Kurzweil 250.

  A Man’s Woman

  Regardless of her impressive list of credentials as a female cinematographer and director, Roberta doesn’t indulge herself with the notion that she is a pioneer or a trailblazer, as a woman or otherwise.

  I am
unique in that there weren’t many women doing this kind of thing, but a pioneer is someone with a conscious effort trying to make a breakthrough and I was not. A pioneer is someone setting out to do something new and innovative that’s never been done before. I found myself in this field and I never got out. It never occurred to me to think, “Oh, oh, I’m a woman. Are they going to respect me?” It never occurred to me to think about it and I never did. If you know your job and you know what you’re doing, then there isn’t any discrimination, or sexism or anything like that. I never experienced it. I never ran into it ever and I worked on other films apart from sex pictures with other crews and never had a problem. I just didn’t think of it. I figure that in every field, and in any field, if the woman knows what she’s doing in that field there will be respect and the guys will listen to her. The guys always listened to me and there was never a problem. Okay, the grips used to carry me around and put me on the dolly and stuff…

  I did join the cameraman’s union in New York which was 644 IATSE. It was the first union. They accepted me based on a reel of film I put together minus the sex scenes, just based on the photography. That was good. I had two sponsors that were in the real world. I then got busted in New York, the first time, and they asked me to withdraw. I did, and I was ashamed. Who knows what would have happened? The dues were enormous.

  Feminists, they used to annoy me. I found the whole thing very tiresome. I didn’t see it. Again, I’ve never had any experience of hostility or anything like that. The only thing that is slightly relatable is in the studio. I am aware that because we have many foreign clients in our studio they would rather not deal with me which is customary protocol in their countries — Germans, particularly, and the Japanese in the beginning, but not anymore. The Germans and South American men are the same, but we don’t have many South American clients. The men from Spain are fine.

  Once again, it’s the story of my life. I became a studio manager about twelve years ago, I guess. That’s all because I didn’t have anything else to do. We had stopped making films and Walter said, “Why don’t you be the studio manager?”

  Sear Sound, New York, New York

  The name of our recording studio is Sear Sound and it is in Walter’s name. The studio has been in business for about forty years now. He had another studio about two blocks away but we’ve been here about twenty years. The groups that come in here, some of them, you might have heard of. We have lots and lots of rock groups. Yoko did her last album here, and Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney have been here. Norah Jones did her two albums here and many famous people. Roberta Flack is doing her album here right now actually. I can never think of the names of the groups, but Lou Reed did his two albums here. He’s in next weekend. We tend to get older people here. Sony Japan is here all of the time; it’s their New York studio. Tom Waits, Bryan Adams and Rufus Wainwright have all been here.

  The website is SearSound.com and you can read a list of all of the artists who have recorded here over the years, and all of the artists who have recorded here in the last six months. There’s also a page with famous producers and people like that. All of the information is on the website and the engineers who look on the website can see the equipment lists. We have three studios actually, if you count the mastering room and they’re working all of the time.

  Within the industry, there is a distinction. We have very old equipment. It’s analog; it’s not digital equipment. This is now being sought by many freelance engineers in the field. It’s now all digital recording and you need hard drives. A lot of these rock groups are going back to tape. Rufus Wainwright and Sonic Youth did a bunch of albums here. They’re all going back to tape, so we have all of that equipment here that Walter kept in pristine condition. We also have all of the digital equipment for the rest. We have the Beatles’ old machines from Abbey Road studios. Walter bought out the basement. Actually, he didn’t buy it; they gave the stuff away. They were throwing out the old ¼-inch machines and he took all of these machines and reconverted them into ½-inch machines. In fact, we have one 1 inch, machine. The Beatles recorded on these machines.

  I don’t know much about the Beatles except Paul McCartney was here at the studio a few years ago. I barely recognized who he was. Yoko did her last album here about a year ago. It was recorded here by our engineer. This is actually the studio they were recording during the time when Lennon was killed — they had actually worked here. It used to be called The Hit Factory many years ago. This is the studio where Double Fantasy was recorded in 1980. We weren’t here at that time — the original Hit Factory closed.

  Walter was, and is, still quite famous in his field. It’s a very narrow niche field that I don’t expect civilians outside of the field to know anything about, but in the field, he’s known as “The Godfather” of recording studios of analog. He’s very, very famous and well respected.

  Walter died on April 29 of this year [2010], so I’m here alone. It’s not that much to do. I take care of everything. We have a crew of men, of course, who do the sessions, and engineers, and the techs. They were here before he died and they continue on doing sessions. I knew nothing, zero, zip, or could care less about sound when I started becoming a manager, but I learned everything. There I am again. Sometimes we’re booked months ahead and sometimes not. It’s not like the old days.

  The music industry has now fallen apart just like the film business because of the internet, and all of the free stuff, so the labels are not spending the sums they used to spend. We’d get young rock groups who would come in for a month, two months, and the labels would just pay. The studios will eventually close. Most of them have in New York. All of the big studios like us — this is a big studio — have gone bankrupt. There is only a handful left. This is a unique place, which has nothing to do with me. It sort of comes full circle. Sean Lennon did his last two albums here. Julian [Lennon] has been here a couple of times.

  In April of 2011, my husband and I visited Roberta Findlay at Sear Sound in New York City, located at 353 West 48th Street. Upon stepping into the studio located on the sixth floor of the building, we were greeted by stark reminders of Findlay’s former life as a filmmaker, as two large mounted posters of Blood Sisters and Prime Evil loom large in the visitor’s lounge. Beneath her desk lies a tattered paper bag chocked full of film stills from adult productions that obviously haven’t seen the light of day in many years. In person, Roberta is funny, humble, and self-deprecating; you can’t help but like her.

  Findlay took us on a tour of the three studios within the premises that are adorned with wood and oriental carpets lending a homey, warm ambience and hippie vibe to the retro environment. Sting departed just one hour before our arrival, but his keyboard and sheet music were ready and waiting for his return on the following Monday. The smallest studio inside the spacious setting is where Yoko Ono prefers to record. The hallway next to the waiting area contains photos and sketches, cartoons and scribbles by many of the studio’s famous guests. Sean Lennon’s black ink depiction of Walter is remarkably accurate and reminiscent of his own father’s lithographic art.

  During our tour, Roberta showed us the original Moog synthesizer designed by Dr. Robert Moog that gained worldwide popularity amongst the rock and pop world during the late 1960s and seventies after its debut at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. Walter, an engineer and inventor, had been Moog’s partner. It was Sear and not Moog, who implemented the keyboard for the synthesizer enabling the instrument to be played.

  D’Angelo was here for ten months! How about that? I don’t think it’s finished yet. Virgin Records is paying the bill so we were delighted. Ritchie Havens has also been here — he recorded his last album here. We do an awful lot of jazz albums with jazz musicians. As a youth, I assiduously avoided all of this noise. I liked what I played and I only played classical music.

  Two Road Together

  Findlay reiterated that Walter was very well liked and appreciated by the clientele at Sear Sound. In a thoughtful gesture, w
hen Walter was in the hospital for a short duration after falling ill, Yoko Ono, one of his most ardent admirers, sent bunches of flowers not only to wish Walter a speedy recovery, but she also sent flowers to Sear’s nurses and aids to ensure he would receive the best care. Unfortunately, after making a brief recovery, Walter passed away. Since Walter’s death, Roberta has spent a good portion of time alone and at the studio. It is more than evident she admired and respected the genius that was her late partner. Although she would never admit it, Roberta and Walter were equals.

  Having never owned a driver’s permit after a negative experience that arose years ago when Michael had tried to teach her to drive, Roberta walks several blocks to and from work, and takes cabs around the expansive city that has always been her home. Last fall, she went on a Panama cruise with friends, and in the winter of 2012, she and pals went on a Caribbean cruise. Findlay enjoyed herself, but life isn’t the same without Walter. She accepts that she will not meet another man like him, and isn’t interested in trying. In addition to sharing many common interests, Roberta and Walter enjoyed dining together daily and they were political junkies.

  Walter and I used to go to concerts regularly, and to the opera. We always chose our own operas and saw six or eight operas a year. The last opera I had tickets for but I didn’t go. The season ends at the end of May. I still do travel but it’s lonely. Walter and I traveled to a great many places in the world. Generally, we’d go to Europe at least once a year. In 2010, we traveled to Italy on our own personal little tour.

  I don’t do much of anything. I read and do the crossword puzzle. I look at old films. That’s about it. People think I like horror films and crummy old obscure films and that’s not true at all. I’m a great fan of American directors from the 1930s, the forties and fifties. My favorite directors are William Wyler, Billy Wilder, John Ford, and John Sturges. I enjoy them and watch them over again. We have Turner Classic movies and that’s all I watch. Billy Wilder’s films are tremendous to me. He was innovative and a pioneer. Wilder went through the MGM system. His films are all big and expensive like Wuthering Heights (1939).