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

by Nelson, Jill C.

  A lot of girls just don’t last in the business. They might be dysfunctional or they are just overnighters. On the other hand, some of them who did have a horrible life were able to make themselves stars. I am so proud of Jenna Jameson. She’s worth forty-five million dollars or something and she’s very smart. You know, one of the strippers I danced with came from a wealthy family and she was given everything and people would say, “Why is she a stripper, she comes from a great family?”

  I’d turn around and say, “Hey! I come from a great family and I’m doing this!” You get my drift. What’s more is that she stripped because she loved dancing and enjoyed it. I’d say the people who were exploited never made it to stardom. They were not stars. To be star material you had to have a little bit of a brain or somebody that had a brain pushing you. Anybody can get into that business, but you don’t necessarily become a star — a little bit of talent helps too. You have to be smart to have survived in this business, period. Oh, my god. Particularly, when you’re older and you’re still pretty much on top of the game and still worth your price.

  Premium Price for Bodacious Ta Tas

  Later, I eventually got into mainstream films. I did The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), and I did Another 48 Hours (1990), and My Tutor (1983). They were all mainstream films. I was also in The Gong Show (1980) movie. If people go to my website, they’ll see I did hundreds of movies, but only about five of them were porn.

  During the early 1970s, Natividad also made an appearance on creator Chuck Barris’s The Dating Game as one of the eligible bachelorettes. In the 1980s, she was hired to virtually play herself in the comical spoofs Airplane (1980), and Airplane II (1982) with Lloyd Bridges and Leslie Nielson. Kitten followed up with a brief cameo in Night Patrol (1984) starring Linda Blair and Andrew Dice Clay. In 1984, fans caught her dancing in the opening of Mitch Ryder’s music video cover of Prince’s composition “When You Were Mine.”

  Despite her work assignments away from the muted lighting distinctive in burlesque lounges and nightclubs, Kitten has proved you can take an exotic dancer out of the limelight, but you can’t take the diva out of the girl.

  I consider myself a liberated woman. I still like men, and I like to take care of them. As far as respect, I believe people have certain roles to uphold, and that applies to both sexes. I will tell you that I am very proud to be a female. I like to show my tits and show off my ass. I like the high heels and I like being a female. I enjoy it, and I like being a cock teaser. Once a cock teaser, always a cock teaser. I actually like doing everything, but that’s why I especially liked stripping. I just LOVED turning men on.

  Knowing I am from Canada, Natividad teased notwithstanding the lack of expected amenities at certain Canadian hotels, performing as a headliner in various Ontario cities actually wasn’t that bad…honest.

  I stripped for three decades throughout the seventies, eighties, and nineties. After a while, I just wanted to stop. I toured everywhere including Japan, but after a while, you get tired of packing your shit. One day, you say to yourself, “This is crap. I don’t like this anymore.” Especially in Canada, they put you into some shitty hotels where there wouldn’t be any hot water. I’d have to go to the girl’s room next door and ask if I could shower. I stripped in Mississauga, Ottawa, Windsor, and Niagara Falls. I loved it and I loved that Canadian beer! I had a lot of fans and made a lot of money there. Let me tell you, come pay day, the Canadian government took a lot off my pay in taxes. I gave them thousands of dollars, but I also got to dance in some places that were in the countryside. It was fun; it was wonderful. I do love Canada!

  I’ve always believed to be the best that you can, and be clever with your costumes and music and movement. Enjoy, and you’ll go far. It shows when you’re enjoying yourself, and if you’re up on stage, everyone will enjoy your show. When I was stripping, I could tell if someone wanted to be there or not. You would see the disgust that they had for stripping in their eyes and on their faces and I’d think, “Why the fuck is she up there?”

  Something that I feel very good about is there were only four girls with big tits. There was myself, Candy Samples, Uschi Digart, and Kelly Everett. We were the ones where the photographers would say, “Your boobs are too big. Don’t you know that most women don’t have big boobs?” We said, “We have to get men to like them and then women will get big boobs.” We were the ones who started the big boob trend. Russ Meyer never liked the phony ones, and then toward the end he even liked the phony ones better. He would love it today. Everybody went to my films or bought my films because they wanted to see my big tits. That’s my claim to fame.

  Natividad’s breast augmentation procedures were a blessing for her career and later, a curse when she was diagnosed with cancer. Kitten endured a double mastectomy surgery in 1999, and continues to remain cancer free today. Formally introduced in 1961-62 and commonly used for years as a breast enlargement application, silicone began to create health risks. In 1992, silicone implant sales temporarily ceased because of a lack of sufficient studies on long-term effects. Silicone appliances utilized for implants today are now in their fifth generation cycle and are believed to have a very low incident rate of leakage or shell rupture. Buyer Beware.

  I had silicone injections which caused my breast cancer. I had gone to Mexico years ago where they had given me industrial silicone instead of pharmaceutical silicone. It was just like fucking gasoline. Some of my friends have died from it because it eventually travelled to their lungs. I’ve had reconstruction surgery and everything’s fine. I’ve got big breasts again. At the same time, if I didn’t have breasts I’d be good to go anyway. I’m very lucky and I’m making the best of my life so I have got to do well.

  Kitten has lost more than a few friends along her journey and some have chosen to age gracefully. Most recently in February 2011, Japanese born Tura Santana, a kick-ass, cult film hero and stunt queen who starred in the 1965 Meyer flick Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, died from heart failure at seventy-two years old. Former Meyer babes and adult feature notables Candy Samples and Ushi Digart have opted to live privately and without a lot of fanfare in Palm Springs. Unlike some of her girlfriends, Natividad is one of the fortunate ones. Kitten is respectful of her quality of life and selective about the people with whom she chooses to fraternize. Financial freedom is integral to her years of semi-retirement.

  I don’t want to be in a relationship now because it’s nice not being in one. I have a dog and four cats, and when I open the door, they’re all waiting for me. I’m thinking “Oh no! Leave me alone! I’ve got to go to the bathroom!” I love my animals though and that’s the important thing. I’m also very particular about whom I fuck, especially in this day and age. I didn’t particularly go for the pretty boys. I go for somebody who is interesting and wonderful and who is crazier about me than I am about them. I do have an active sex life today; everything’s good. I’m in a good place. I really don’t think I want to get married because I have so much to lose. If anyone wants to be with me, I have to have concerns about someone wanting to go after my two apartment buildings unless he’s got more money than I have! I’m not interested in sharing and I’ll just let him know right off the bat.

  Real Love

  During our interview, Natividad was boisterous, vivacious and funny — characteristics one might expect from a gutsy woman worshipped for her hourglass figure. Not only is she an unforgettable presence in movies, but Kitten’s ribald dance routines captured on smoky stages across two countries and throughout three decades are legendary. When speaking of Russ Meyer however, Natividad candidly communicated the details of his last few years. Tenacious until the end, Meyer completed his own autobiography: A Clean Breast: The Life and Loves of Russ Meyer (3 Volume Set, 2000). Meyer was also able to finish off other enterprising endeavors despite being plagued by Alzheimer’s. He eventually died of pneumonia in 2004. A shrewd businessman who owned the rights to almost all of his movies, Meyer bequeathed his entire fortune to rese
arch.

  He did the book. He did a documentary for Playboy and photography. He really had dementia in the end. I would say to him, “God, what is wrong with you?” People can hide it for many years. I think that’s the reason he would start several projects and never finish anything. That wasn’t how he normally was. I knew something was wrong because I also went on to work for him as a secretary, and then I took care of him when he had his Alzheimer’s until he got very bad. When he got so bad that he lost control of his bowels, I was the one who cleaned him up. That was a result of the dementia and his alcoholism. He was never put in a home. He had male caregivers come 24/7. It cost him ten thousand a month to live where he was. I was friends with him and his girlfriend — we became friends after so many years of being together. Then, when I had breast cancer, he financed my medical bills.

  He was probably worth eight million dollars when he died. He had a lot of money, but it all went to cancer research [at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre]. You know his estate will still be raking in big bucks, but his secretary had power of attorney for his company and she hates all of us, although she doesn’t mind the money that benefits her. She thinks it’s awful what we did, but the “dirty money,” she loves.

  Russ was marvelous — he was my dear friend for life.

  Kitten’s Nine Lives

  The two apartment buildings I own in Hollywood today I run with an iron fist. Not that I’m prejudiced, but I mostly rent to gay girls. You can’t have horn dogs around here.

  Since officially leaving show business, in recent years, Natividad earned a tidy income as a phone-sex specialist combined with invitations for special appearances, feature articles, and occasional minor roles in low-budget pictures.

  Years after first noticing her in the driver’s seat of Russ Meyer’s Mercedes, director Adam Rifkin hired Natividad to play Ruby in Night of the Golden Eagle, a 2005 film noir (that also included Ron Jeremy) about two criminals determined to go straight, but without success.

  Along with several X-rated friends, Kitten was a welcome guest celebrity in Pornstar Pets (2005) joined by her pit bulldog and three cats. In 2009, Natividad and Tura Santana were both seen in Sugar Box, a tawdry little story centered in a Women’s prison. Kitten was also one of several former Pin-Up girls to be spotlighted in a 2006 Playboy magazine pictorial “History of Bikinis.”

  Natividad’s website shows a short of the burlesque queen from a few years ago, on stage dressed in a plunging back, sparkling evening gown entertaining fans while in the midst of a seductive dance number. As recently as June 2011, Natividad, along with some of her pals, shared her wares at the Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas for a Russ Meyer tribute.

  I stay in touch with some of the women that I worked with for Russ Meyer and my stripper friends, but none from the porn industry. Occasionally, I’ll see Sharon Mitchell and she’s a very nice person. Sometimes, I’ll see Nina Hartley but she won’t even say hello to me. Does she think she’s hot shit, or what?

  I can’t really hide. All of the information about me is on the internet and it’s everywhere. I’m not making my money doing movies anymore so it’s sort of forgotten. When I meet up with my neighbors, we talk about other things, not about my career. They treat me very normal. I’ve been living here for fifteen years. They kind of know who I am but I’m always doing my gardening. I don’t throw wild parties and they haven’t seen me drunk because I’ve been clean and sober for ten years. I don’t make excuses for the person I am and I don’t brag about myself either.

  I enjoy my friends a lot, and I enjoy hopping on a plane and visiting them, and sitting up and talking. I love to go to the movies with friends or I go out shopping, and if there isn’t anything I want to buy, I’ll just go to a movie. It’s great. I’d love to live anywhere as long as I am happy. When I visit my girlfriends in West Virginia, I love it there, and I want to live there, or Palm Springs or wherever I travel. I get to go visit them and enjoy those cities.

  I would love my legacy to be that I was someone who really enjoyed men. I did it for men. I did it for them, baby. I’ve got all these diamonds and apartment buildings and I owe it all to men! Whatever has happened in my life is fine because I’m in a good place now. I’ve got my shit together.

  COURTESY OF KITTENKLUB.COM

  COURTESY OF KITTENKLUB.COM

  COURTESY OF KITTENKLUB.COM

  COURTESY OF KITTENKLUB.COM

  COURTESY OF KITTENKLUB.COM

  COURTESY OF KITTENKLUB.COM

  13.

  Miss

  Sharon Mitchell

  “It was kind of the best way to say fuck you to the Catholic Church and to the orphanage, and all of the nuns and all that nonsense, and to my parents at the same time. I was an anarchist, so it was a way to cause trouble and mayhem.”

  — Sharon Mitchell

  Sharon Mitchell was the only child adopted from a Catholic orphanage by a police officer and his wife living in rural New Jersey in the mid-1950s. Although Sharon’s year of birth shows 1956 on various internet sites, according to her, the actual birth year is 1958 making her an underage seventeen-year old when she first worked in adult movies.

  Celebrated by classic porn fans for her tough, campy, androgynous persona and daring on-camera predilections, Sharon’s childhood years were stamped with feelings of insecurity and confusion about her own sexuality and place in the world. Before the age of ten, Mitchell’s mother and father divorced prompting her mother to assume a position as assistant administrator of a hospital for the criminally insane. Her Hungarian grandmother was assigned the duty of co-raising the clever and auspicious child. To this day, Sharon claims her grandmother championed her independence, and imparted pearls of wisdom to her young charge.

  Frustrated by her mother’s controlling ways and feelings of neglect brought on by her alcoholic father’s absence in her life, Sharon abruptly married at seventeen, but had the marriage annulled six months later. Never one to be bound by conventionality, Mitchell arrived on the New York scene in the mid-seventies, while still a teen. She signed on with the Dorothy Palmer Agency and began to fine-tune her acting skills doing bit parts in TV commercials, soap operas, and the occasional film. Sharon also studied contemporary dance with the Martha Graham Dance Company.

  One of her earliest appearances in an adult feature is a minor role in a scene from That Lady from Rio (1976) starring Vanessa del Rio. Mitchell easily adapted to prominent parts, such as her starring role in The Violation of Claudia (1977) opposite Jamie Gillis. Sharon continued building her portfolio, alternating between porn and mainstream work. Eventually, she developed a well-earned rough reputation appearing in BDSM movies and/or assuming dominatrix or “butch” roles coinciding with a publicized needle addiction to heroin.

  After working with two generations of performers and sustaining a stalker attack in 1996, “Mitch,” as she is more commonly known by friends and colleagues, eventually cleaned up her act. She was granted an honorary doctorate in Human Sexuality from the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. In 1998, Mitchell became the director of AIM (Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation), a much needed non-profit organization based in Los Angeles that expedited on site STD and HIV testing in addition to providing counseling for adult performers. In 2008, AIM was harshly criticized for its alleged failure to comply with principles and guidelines outlined by California law concerning patient Health and Safety. Mitchell released a statement in December of 2010 claiming AIM had been wrongfully attacked and was the target of a conspiracy campaign waged by AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) and the L.A. County of Public Health (LACPH).

  In May 2011, after succumbing to the mounting pressures exerted upon the organization by AHF along with a pending lawsuit from a former performer for breach of patient confidentiality, AIM closed its doors claiming financial hardship.

  In November of 2010, just six months prior to AIM’s closure, Sharon Mitchell spoke with me from her home in Northern California.r />
  Daddy’s Girl

  I was born in 1958. It says 1956 in my bio because I lied when I first got into adult entertainment. I was adopted from a Catholic Orphanage and I grew up in New Jersey in a very rural area on a farm. My uncle’s farm was very close by.

  My dad was a police officer. My mother and dad got divorced when I was very young and my mother eventually went on to become the Assistant Administrator of a very large state hospital for the criminally insane. It was interesting growing up in rural New Jersey. I’ve just always been one of those people that even as a child I felt I never fit in anywhere, but wanted to fit in everywhere. My parents doted on me to a certain extent but I wouldn’t say I was too spoiled or anything.

  I was out of diapers young and walking very quickly. I learned how to read very, very, young. I was extremely bright and I won some kind of contest when I was four years old for reading books. Other kids used to pick on me for being adopted. It was kind of confusing because my family always celebrated the day that they adopted me it was such a big deal. I always wondered if it was a big deal or if it was a curse. It just didn’t make that much difference to me.

  Interestingly, the Catholic Church, I believe, was the second largest white baby dealer in the United States during the 1950s and they would charge ten thousand dollars for a white baby. They had all of these terms and conditions: you’d have to put the child through the Catholic school and donate lots of money until the child reached a certain age. There were other [alternative] adoption agencies, but apparently, you’d have to wait about ten years to get a white baby. For some reason, my parents wanted a white baby because it was the fifties, I don’t know. Now I don’t think anybody gives a shit because we’re almost all the same color anyway, but back then, I guess if you aligned with the Catholic Church and you were willing to donate a specific sum and promise that you’d convert if you were not already a member — I think my mother had been Protestant. She had to change over to the Catholic Religion and my parents had to send me to Parochial school until I received the Sacrament of Confirmation which is when I was twelve or thirteen. They had to donate a tremendous amount of money to the local parish.