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

by Nelson, Jill C.

  I travelled to Japan and married Bob, and stayed there for two years with him. We agreed that when we came back to the United States we’d get a divorce because we didn’t want a traditional marriage. I’d made a vow not to get married or to have kids because of the Crohn’s disease. We agreed to get a divorce when we came back to the States because we wanted to remain friends and not end up as a bickering couple. I’ve always been very independent anyway and he loved that in me. Here we are still friends after all of these years.

  Bob is in prison for life for a crime he did not commit, in New York. He has been incarcerated for thirty years. They will not let him out. He doesn’t have a family to return to; I communicate with him through letters. He has no place to go. He has one daughter, but she does not want or can afford to support him or have him come there, and there’s nobody else to take him in or anything. They’re not going to just put him out on the street. It costs thirty thousand dollars per year, per inmate. Life is not fair.

  Given the fact, her ex-husband was awarded the maximum sentence for his crime; I asked Juliet if Bob was convicted of first-degree murder. While recounting some of the circumstances of the trial in her mind, Juliet did not wish to elaborate further.

  I do believe him when he said what happened, I really do. I went to the trial and when I heard how rigged it was — what had happened, I was thoroughly disgusted. That’s enough. After that, I was in California, and then I went to Europe just for a trip. I checked out some countries to see if there was somewhere I wanted to live, I had come back, and things had not changed here — the same thing about pouring all kinds of money into senseless wars and my tax dollars were going to the military to support immoral wars against people all over the world. I just couldn’t justify that. I left again in the late 1960s.

  I lived in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece and I stayed two and a half years in each place. Each time I would come back to America to see if things had changed. I was teaching conversational American English, because in Europe, they learn formal British English, but it doesn’t prepare them for visiting the United States and actually being out amongst the people on the street. I taught privately and I made money, frugally, and I enjoyed the country. I learned the language of each country and had a good time — and a lover. I’ve always been serially monogamous except in the films. I’ve always had a lover. I like to say they stand in line, but anyway…I lived in Greece, and then the last country I went to was Finland where I worked for the Finnish Broadcasting company. It was a fluke how I got the job.

  One of the main tenets of my philosophy is all of life is timing and inspiration. The timing has to be right and then you have to be inspired. I happened to arrive right at the time when somebody decided to leave the Finnish Broadcasting Company. It was the Foreign Service Department in that people spoke English. They were mainly from England. They all spoke English and they needed somebody to make radio programs in English about Finland. They would go all over the world to educate any small English speaking population anywhere about Finland. They would get people to visit Finland and get them to understand Finland. As it happened, I was so naturally good at it that I moved to the top just like that. Here I was, only a few hours off the plane, and I got invited to this meeting and somebody said, “Oh, I’ll take this opportunity to say I’m quitting and going back to Canada.”

  The person who brought me said, “Well, I think I’ve found somebody who can take your place.” They asked me if I’d be willing to give it a try, and I said, “Yeah”. I’d always been good at English.

  Juliet thoroughly embraced her assignment with the Finnish Broadcasting Company which eventually enabled her to personally fraternize with locals in various communities at a grass roots level. Anderson’s work options abroad totaled approximately eighteen years.

  When I got to these countries, I realized that I had a niche there. What I always did was go to the Embassy right off the plane and I’d say, “Here I am. What do you think I could do?” “Where could I fill in with these requirements — these skills?” I found out that nobody else was doing that. In Finland, I got paid for being nosy. I loved to talk to people and find out what inspired them in life, how they’d gotten to where they are, what their talents were — like what you’re doing. It was a form of journalism, but it didn’t include photos. I had a few words that I needed in Finnish that I could take out and around the country when I was interviewing a farmer or a sailor, or that kind of thing. More often than not, I took someone with me who spoke Finnish. They would tell me, “Don’t try to learn Finnish, it’s too difficult. Even we don’t speak it.”

  There’s no other language like it. I learned enough Swedish [the second official language in Finland] and spoke English. I’d travel all over the country and interview these fascinating people and even foreigners who were visiting, and in the cultural arts, theater groups and symphony orchestras, and find out what their experiences were. I had so much fun. I also contributed to a magazine about the same thing and on the side, I taught a little bit of conversational American English. I stayed there for a long time.

  I came back here to California and settled in the San Francisco Bay area. I had never lived there, but I chose it because of its culture and its multi-ethnic, multi-generational diversity. I moved there with that in mind and I knew I could grow old there and still be accepted. I moved to the Bay area not knowing what in the world I was going to do, but I had faith my past experiences would help me. I was a total film virgin. This was the end of 1978.

  I was quickly running out of money. I found a place in downtown San Francisco — a studio apartment which was great. I paid first and last month’s rent and then I had only two hundred dollars and I thought, “My Gosh! I’ve got to get some work here. What am I going to do?” I had a neighbor, a man, and he had a Swedish accent or something so we laughed about the fact that I had been in Finland and it was close to Sweden and his parents were from Sweden and so on. I was very horny and I was used to having regular sex so I quickly propositioned him at the beginning and said, “Hey, how would you like to have some sex? I’m really feeling horny and I’m attracted to you.” Of course, he wasn’t about to say no. As you saw me in my films, I was very pretty. I’m just naturally very sensual. We had some great sex. I don’t mean just lie back and spread my legs missionary position. I’ve always been very creative with lots of different positions and it was good. It was fun. We did that a couple of times, and later, I said, “Eric, could you give me some advice — I need some help. Could you point me into a direction of what kind of work I could do? I need some money and I have no idea what I could do.”

  He said, “Well, you’re so good at sex. I’d certainly see if I could get some work in the area of sex.” I said, “What? Get a job by using sex?” I said, “I don’t want to go out on the streets and be a prostitute.”

  He said, “No, no, no”. He said, “I just saw something in the newspaper.” He went back to his apartment, and got his paper and came out and just showed me the classified ads. It was a little two-line ad, no picture or anything, just a tiny advertisement. Talk about fate for him to be looking through there and see this and it said, “Attractive women over eighteen wanted for softcore sex show, short hours and lots of fun. Good pay.”

  He told me, “I don’t know what it is, but the theatre is right down the street three blocks from here in downtown San Francisco.” He said, “You have nothing to lose by going to check it out.” He was right.

  Juliet’s Pretty Peaches

  I called the number, made an appointment, went down there scared to death and there was this young woman down in the basement of this theater. It was a regular movie theater. She was eighteen years old and I’ll never forget her name, Milvia. You have to understand, I knew nothing about professional sex other than the prostitutes of course. I understood prostitutes and brothels. I understood sex for pay brothels because of having lived in Europe. I went in to apply for the job, and Milvia looked at me and I introduced myse
lf. She said, “Lift your shirt.”

  I said, “Really?”

  She said, “Yeah.” I’ve never worn a bra. I have these lovely large natural breasts. It was just a little cramped cubicle in the cellar of the theater, so I lifted my shirt up and she said, “You’re hired.” She told me what it was going to be. She said, “We have movies. We also have a short little stage show and you’ll work with other gals, but you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.” It wasn’t a lot of money, but it was something. I certainly wasn’t prudish. When she said I was hired and I said, “That’s all?”

  She said, “Yeah.”

  I said, “No, I want to show you something else.” I turned around, and lifted up my skirt and showed her my behind. She started laughing and said, “You’re doubly hired.” She added, “Oh, my god, Alex [de Renzy] will love this.”

  I said, “Who is Alex?” and she said, “He’s the owner of the theater. He’ll also want to meet you, but he’s in the middle of shooting a movie right now and so it’ll be a little while, but you’ll get a call.” I went home and that evening I got the call. He said, “I’ve never heard Milvia so excited. Can you meet me tomorrow?”

  I said, “Yes, sure.” I wasn’t doing anything. I went down there and he agreed. He said, “You’re definitely hired for the show, and by the way, I’m shooting a film and there’s a part that hasn’t been cast yet,” which was true, he wasn’t making it up. He told me, “I was wondering if you might like to be in it. It’s not difficult or anything. It’ll only take a short time and it’s just for one day, but I’ll give you two hundred dollars.” Now, see that was a lot of money. Nowadays, ladies get eight hundred dollars for a fourteen-hour day. I’m talking about the girls who are no one — just starting out. Then the stars, they get thousands, you know. Apart from that, I know nothing about it. I don’t keep track of anyone and I know zero.

  Within the hierarchy of the adult movie industry, it is generally understood first-rate actresses are the faces consumers see on a cover. Up until a few years ago, these females were the highest paid performers comprised mostly of contract girls who made approximately four to five feature films per year. At one time, their earning potential was around the one to two thousand-dollar mark, excluding any outside income earned while on the road. Prestige female stars were afforded the luxury of selecting onscreen partners and could approve or nix a specific sex scene, while “B” and “C” list girls were often hired for more specialty work such as fetish roles or sex acts involving anal/double penetration. One of the top four male performers of all time (and rated the #1 porn star by AVN), “Porn’s Ambassador” Ron Jeremy commented a few years ago on the pay scale for all categories of X-rated performers. He confirmed that typically, women could earn up to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars per year. In contrast, men might earn an average of three to four hundred dollars per scene, and one hundred dollars per scene if the male is a novice. If those numbers are indeed accurate, not much has changed since the infancy of hardcore in the late 1960s and into the early 1970s when aspiring male actors earned on average approximately fifty to seventy-five dollars per scene or per film. Up until recent years, women ruled in the sex industry and it is because of the women that pieces of product were/are sold. However, in the current market with increasing competition stemming from live webcam sites and amateur productions sold over the internet, most major companies have dropped all contract actors.

  Anyway, [de Renzy] said, “Well, I’ve got to make a couple of calls, but here’s the script. Your part would be that of the maid. It’s near the beginning.” I opened it up, I was reading through the maid and I came to the part where the maid has sex. The sex part was that the maid jumped on the bed and dove into a woman’s pussy and started licking her. Up to that point, I’d never been with a woman. I read that part, I screamed and Alex covered his mouthpiece of the phone and said, “I’ll be right with you.”

  My heart was pounding and I said to him, “Oh, my god! What is this? I’ve never done — do you mean to tell me there are movies like this?” I’d never heard of the X-rated film business in my whole life. I’d been living abroad. He was very patient and he explained. He said, “This is the X-rated movie business,” but he said, “Look, you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. You’ll still have the job here.”

  I said, “Well, I believe I was given this opportunity for a reason and it would be really foolish of me to pass it up because I like to learn new things.”

  He said, “Atta gal. Good for you.” He sent his assistant over to pick me up the next day and we went out and bought a wonderful French maid outfit for me: black stockings and a sexy black slip with a little white apron and a cap. They picked me up and took me there, and I did that one scene and I absolutely loved it. I did it with the gal. They had to pry me away from her when it was my time to have my scene with John Leslie. It was Pretty Peaches (1978), of course.

  Anderson claimed her knowledge of sex films was next to nil, but to the naked eye, it’s hard to believe Pretty Peaches [aka Alex deRenzy’s Pretty Peaches] is Juliet’s hardcore debut. Anderson conducts herself as a pro in the film considered by Alex deRenzy his best all round picture which presents buxom beauty, Desiree Cousteau, in the lead role as a ditzy amnesia victim following a car accident. A calamity of sexual scenarios result as Cousteau tries to restore order to her memory. In an uncredited role, Juliet appears as the Swedish maid Katia and becomes entangled in a threesome with (bearded) John Leslie before devouring an actress by the name of Flower. Anderson goes at it with gusto, eagerly lapping Flower’s limber body all over while Leslie penetrates her through the back door.

  John Leslie was my first man I worked with and throughout my entire career; he was my favorite. We had the most incredible chemistry. We absolutely had a ball. I went on to make dozens of films and I was in the industry for six and a half years, but John Leslie was my very favorite. He was intelligent and funny, a good actor, and we just had so much fun; it was extremely obvious on screen. I was having real orgasms. I tried different positions and I made up the dialogue on my own. They just let me make up the dialogue. They’d give me the basic premise of the story and then tell me to just follow through with what I’d say to people. I had that reputation.

  Shortly after her star power was recognized in Pretty Peaches, Juliet was thrilled to have an opportunity to perform with John Leslie again in Anthony Spinelli’s Talk Dirty to Me (1979). Considered one of the finest 1970s porno productions, high praise credited to Talk Dirty to Me is largely due to Leslie’s sexy swagger, and cool, confident style as a lothario looking to outdo his less fortunate buddy Lenny (Richard Pacheco) in the art of wooing women. When Jack (Leslie) sets his eyes on lovely Marlene (Jesie St. James), he bets Lenny he can seduce her in three days, but first, he must pinpoint exactly what it is that ignites her loins. Jack quickly discovers through his liaisons with other willing females (Cris Cassidy, Sharon Kane, and the dazzling Juliet Anderson) that the key to Marlene’s heart is dirty talk and lots of it — something she secretly fantasizes that he does to her.

  Once again, Anderson’s sexual appetite is voracious. She doesn’t hold back in her scene with Leslie — matching him every nasty step of the way as if she owns his member. Their chemistry is palpable with the two actors bursting out in laughter immediately after Juliet rubs Leslie’s juices all over her lips. The mega success of Talk Dirty to Me spawned several sequels with John Leslie starring in the recurring title role.

  I recently looked at an old film and I can see it from those early days and I thought, “Oh boy, were we ever a great couple.” We didn’t see each other outside of the films. John Leslie and Mike Horner — those two were my favorite male co-stars.

  “Aunt Peg”

  I never had to do anything I really didn’t want to. Once when I performed with John Holmes was one time I didn’t enjoy my experience and another one was Johnny Keyes. The chemistry was not there with Johnny, and then John Holmes would be forceful with
women and hurt them with his large cock so I chose to tell him right at the very beginning, “Let’s do this scene and make it good and do it the first time through. Let’s enjoy ourselves so that we can get it done and go home. Let me tell you, if you try to force your big cock in and hurt me, I’ll cut it off and I mean it. So be gentle. You’re more than a big cock and I know that so don’t act like an asshole. Don’t tempt me.” He was gentle.

  Juliet’s reservation about performing with Holmes is undetectable as the two immediately get down to business in a three-way Swedish Erotica segment with Sharon Kane playing Juliet’s wide-eyed niece. The scene was groundbreaking as it simultaneously launched Anderson’s brand new persona “Aunt Peg,” as the aggressive forty-something sex fiend who consumes men and women with equal exuberance. The landmark ménage-a-trois loop with Holmes and Kane was later incorporated into Aunt Peg’s Fulfillment in 1981.

  I really liked Sharon Kane who played my niece in the Aunt Peg series. Because Sharon was blonde and I was blonde, I suggested that she be my niece coming to visit her aunt on school holiday. That was the story line. She came to see Peggy Norton which I took out of a hat: Peggy Norton. I was “Aunt Peggy”. While she was visiting me one of my boyfriends/lovers came over and it was John Holmes. I can’t remember exactly how we got into it, but I think maybe he and I were making love in the next room and she came in and got down on her knees. I was down on my knees, probably licking his balls and stroking him and sucking. Suddenly, she just looked at his big cock and said, “Oh, my god! Aunt Peg, it’s so big!” You know, more to enjoy. Then we both started to suck it. Well, you couldn’t really suck his cock, it was too big, but we started licking and tonguing his cock. So here I was, corrupting my niece. The name “Aunt Peg” stuck. That was probably 1979-80. It just took off. I mean, that name “Aunt Peg” was America’s favorite aunt. I was an original. It was not only the name, but it was also the trademark of the black stockings and garter belt — the garter belt could be a different color. I would go and buy garter belts that were purple or pink or whatever, but if I couldn’t find the color I would buy a white garter belt and dye it to match my outfit. I had a scarf around the neck, a garter belt and black hose — always sheer black hose and high heels. That was Aunt Peg.