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

by Nelson, Jill C.

  You know, essentially, I was still raising my kids in my early forties. When you hit your fifties, you become your own person again. I’ve had to accept the whole empty nest syndrome. You really have to accept the fact that we only have a certain amount of time left so better fill it up.

  PHOTOGRAPHY BY KENJI

  Harvey Magazine.

  PHOTOGRAPHY BY KENJI

  Kelly Nichols with Jerry Butler in In Love.

  Swank Magazine.

  Kelly Nichols (pictured top left) is featured with Veronica Hart, Candida Royalle, Annie Sprinkle, Veronica Vera, and Gloria Leonard. PHOTOGRAPHY BY DONNA ANN MCADAMS

  Chic Magazine.

  Over Forty, Adult magazine.

  Kelly Nichols and Tom Byron.

  18.

  Veronica Hart

  Thespian

  COURTESY OF JANE HAMILTON

  “One of my goals when I got in the business was that I would be able to come out of this business and still enjoy my sexuality and making love.”

  — Veronica Hart

  For the self-described, “brainy, teenage nerd,” Veronica Hart probably surprised herself more than her former classmates when she grew up to become a highly regarded adult film actress. Hart, whose poise, warmth, and shapely figure are her trademarks in addition to her inherent ability as an actor, was born Jane Esther Hamilton in 1956. She is one of the few female stars known equally by both her birth and stage names. Raised in Las Vegas, Hamilton gradually morphed from a geek to cheerleader to actor, and was an active member of the University of Las Vegas Modern dance troupe for eleven years. At age sixteen, Jane entered UNLV (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) on a scholarship and graduated with a Theatre Arts degree. For a while, Hamilton student taught at the local high school and at age twenty-two traveled abroad to England where she danced topless at the Stork Club, modeled, and in her words “mismanaged” a progressive rock group.

  While serving beverages at the newly built National Exhibition Centre in London, Jane suffered an unfortunate accident involving a coffee urn which resulted in third degree burns extending from her right shoulder all the way down to her hip. She was hospitalized for two months. The consequences from the incident became a pivotal turning point: Jane returned home to Las Vegas and threw herself into repertoire theatre. A string of successful starring roles and favorable notices bolstered her confidence and Hamilton set off for New York City to make her mark. After a prospective mainstream work arrangement fell through, Jane discovered performing in live sex shows along with her musician boyfriend could not sustain the couple, but her innate acting abilities and natural sexual proclivity proved to be fruitful in the erotic film market.

  By 1980, Jane Hamilton under her pseudonym, “Veronica Hart,” rivaled co-actors and riveted fans with her standout performance in Amanda by Night (1981) directed by Robert McCallum. She won Best Actress award from the Adult Film Association of America for Chuck Vincent’s Roommates (1981) costarring Samantha Fox and Kelly Nichols. With razor sharp acting chops and evocative appeal, Hamilton established herself among an elite class of pornographic motion picture veterans. Excluding non-sex work projects, during the mid-1990s, Hamilton made the switch to director and has worked freelance for various adult companies garnering her Best Director accolades. Contemporary, mainstream movie audiences were treated to Jane’s highly attuned skills in the landmark motion picture Boogie Nights (1997) where she portrayed a judge in a taut scene supporting Hollywood heavy weight, Julianne Moore.

  In 2010, Jane moved back to Las Vegas to take care of her ailing mother (who passed away in the fall of 2011 in her ninety-sixth year) and currently works at the Erotic Heritage Museum. She also assumed directorial duties for the forthcoming biopic on the legendary Marilyn Chambers: Marilyn Chambers, Sex and Life after Porn for Gobos Film and Entertainment.

  With her vitality and care-giving, compassionate nature, Hamilton remains close to her family, lifelong friends and to her animals. She enjoys a tight bond with her two grown sons who share in her sense of humor and lust for life.

  I interviewed Jane Hamilton in the spring of 2010.

  A Scent of Jane

  Jane Hamilton is my real name. It’s not a big secret, but I am “Veronica Hart,” and I am “Jane Hamilton”. Mark Twain had a pen name. The name changes depending upon the job I do. I usually produce as “Jane Hamilton” and if I’m directing or acting, I’m “Veronica Hart”. I’m “Veronica Hart” in straight films too.

  I was born in 1956. I grew up in Las Vegas and I had very nice parents. My childhood was great. My mom was mostly a housewife. I think she went back and watched children of the people who would go out in Las Vegas. She worked for a babysitting service to try to get her social security credit and when she was very young, she worked at a Woolworth’s as a cashier. She was quite smart but her mother died when she was fourteen and her father died when she was fifteen, so college wasn’t meant for her. She started leading an interesting life right away.

  My dad was awesome. He passed away in March [2009]. He started out as a delivery boy and went to electronics school and then he went to radio and television school. My dad was essentially a radio-TV repair guy. I think he had worked at my mom’s TV repair shop. He literally ran away with the boss’s wife.

  I had three sisters and an older brother. I’m the youngest by seven years. My mother remarried my father and then had me. The sister who is next to me, the one who was seven years older, absolutely despised me growing up. You’re the baby, and all of a sudden, this “thing” comes along, but I’m very close with all of my sisters. I’ve got great sisters — I’ve got a great family. It’s a regular family, but I’m probably the black sheep–although I do have a nephew in jail. I’ve always been a successful black sheep until recently.

  I was really loved. I think the nicest thing my parents told me was that I could do anything I wanted to do. My dad would tease me and say, “Oh, that’s not bad for a girl.” Just like that, just to get me riled up and feisty. We worked on cars together and I made doll’s beds, and that’s how I know how to do things in houses and build walls and put in floors and things like that.

  When I was really a young girl I got a picture of a ballerina and on the back of it, under the frame where you couldn’t see, I put, “My dream”. I’ve danced since I was seven until I was about eighteen so that encompassed eleven years in all. I was a part of the UNLV Modern Dance Troupe. My dance teachers were my role models. Dorothy Frankovich, I believe, had a cousin or nephew Mike Frankovich who did some stuff in Hollywood. She was in the chorus line in some films and she had photos from some of the pictures in which she was involved. To me, that was very glamorous. I thought I’d love to do something like that. I was either going to be a veterinarian or I was going to act. I thought that if I didn’t try acting, I’d always be a “what-if?” person. I’m still doing the acting in a half-assed sort of way. That’s what I should be pushing, but I’m doing all of these other projects — producing and trying to raise money — raising money is not something I particularly enjoy.

  Actually, two teachers that had a big influence on me were Mr. Schuman and Mr. Diet. Mr. Diet was ultra smart, but he was a bit of a prick to me, he really was. I was the only girl that was in the Science Club. We were hatching chicks before they should be hatched and carefully watching the embryos. I said, “Oooohhhh” and he looked at me and said, “If you want to say Oooohhhh’ you don’t belong in here. You can remove yourself from the Science Club.”

  I said, “No, I don’t think so,” and we just had that kind of a relationship. What really got me was that all the boys were making noises too, but he didn’t comment about them. Then came Mr. Schuman who was so tough and such a jerk, but he opened me up to the whole world and to the idea that I wanted to travel. He taught sixth grade and his forte was social studies because he’d been all over the world. He showed us pictures of castles and hotels and architecture from his travels. I thought, “I’ve got to do that. I want to see some of tha
t stuff.” He was responsible for influencing me not being afraid to tackle the world. I used to like to go places by myself. I think I find it more difficult to do at my age, but I’d like to take off on my own and go have an adventure.

  I was kind of a nerd as a kid because I was a little bit smart but it wasn’t very fashionable to be smart. I was the kind of girl that you love to hate — that one that sat up at the front waving her arms because she knew the answers. Later, I decided not to do that, and I started being sexual and I became a lot more popular! I was a nerd-geek, but I was a cheerleader in junior high. I still have my megaphone. I went through that cheerleading phase. Then when I got into high school is when I got into the thespian part of it all, so I was in my element. As a kid, and while growing up, I was totally into rock music and completely an anglophile. I was into David Bowie and the blurring of the genders and the theatrical nature of it and androgynous aspect of it all.

  My first big crush boyfriend was Jay Osmond from the Osmond Brothers. My friend [Dorothy Frankovich’s daughter] had a crush on Donny Osmond so I couldn’t have a crush on Donny — we both had a crush on Jay — he was a cutie. We made him pictures and we took them down to him. The Osmond Brothers were the opening act for Jerry Lewis and when we went down to talk to Jay, there was a misunderstanding and they thought that we wanted to talk to Jerry. They brought Jerry to see us and we kind of begged off, we weren’t there to see Jerry. It was stupid because I still should have seen Jerry. Jay was in the coffee shop and we were directed towards the coffee shop, and he was in there with his family. We left the pictures there for him, the things that we’d made. I liked David Cassidy too.

  In high school, I started to become more confident of myself. The football guys would talk to me from around the corner, but then, if somebody more popular would come along they’d kind of just leave. I really was a nerdy thespian. There was also a quality about me where people knew I was going to do something. I was definitely geared toward being famous or known for something. I had a feeling that I was different, I really did. I thought that the only way I could be able to exercise my uniqueness was to hang with different people. That insight first attracted me to celebrity.

  Like Mother, Like Daughter

  One of Hamilton’s earliest sexual experiences as a mid-teen was memorable only because her partner lacked sensitivity and was more aggressive than she expected or is probably acceptable by today’s standards. In hindsight, symbolically, the encounter became an empowering portal for what lay in store for Jane in the years ahead.

  I was fifteen and my first was Patrick Quinlan, I think. He was very sweet and I figured it was time for me. We’d gone to see a concert and smoked a little pot, and gone to somebody’s apartment. I had it all set up, and we were in bed and I was a little high. It hurt a little, but it was life changing. It was like, “Oh, my god, I’m a woman now and all that kind of stuff.” I told him that was my first time and everything, and I asked him, “Was it yours too?”

  He said, “Oh, no, I’ve done it about six other times with different women.” I remember I was crushed. Later, I learned a big lesson. I was in my talent show at school and I was running around in my hot pants and boots at that time. I thought I was hot shit, you know — I was in the school talent show and I thought I was pretty cool. This guy came up and started talking to me and I was like, “Hi, how are you?” but it wasn’t as if I was dying to be too talkative. Then I found out that he was the lead singer in the rock group that was playing in the talent show. I said, “Oh, hey! How are you? I’m Jane and I want to talk to you. Where do you play?” He was nice back and he asked if I’d like to help him pack up his equipment and take it back to his home. We smoked some pot and got high and he kind of took me by the hair and dragged me into the other room. I had panty hose underneath my hot pants. They made it down to my knees. He got me good and it hurt like mad. It was just like, “Whoa. I’m no good at this, man. This is something I’m just not good at.” I was probably the worst lay he’d ever had. I thought, “Wait, I’m a Scorpio, we’re made to be sexual.”

  He raped me in the sense that he didn’t ask me, but I could have said “no” at any time, and I didn’t because he was the lead singer of the rock group and I wanted to be cool. I wanted to go to bed with him. I got him, but it didn’t live up to any hype about it, it was just painful and it was horrible. We didn’t go to the same high school, but I would see him often at concerts and so on and I’d always be running up to him, and waving and saying, “Wayne? Hi, it’s Jane, remember me?”

  He’d be like, “Oh, yeah, yeah.” Later, after I became “Veronica Hart,” I saw Wayne. By then I had a little bit of experience. It wasn’t the second time I’d ever gone to bed, and I’d been in the adult business and I was better. All of a sudden, he was so attentive. We had exactly changed positions. He was now the one going, “You’re so gorgeous; blah, blah, blah.” I ran into him in California. He was working at a studio. I think he was maintaining a studio. He was a good singer, that’s what he had wanted to do. I was determined to fuck him and show him that I was a good lay. I wanted to let him know that I wasn’t some lame lay. I discovered why it hurt had so much — he was hung like a horse!

  We had a history of developing sexuality in our family, as I’m sure it does in any family. I did drugs and I couldn’t talk to my mom about drugs, but I could always talk to her about sex. I would go out with the college president or the hotel manager at one of the big hotels and my mom would get a kick out of it. She’d ask, “Oh, honey, did you have fun?” It was her language for “Was he any good?”

  Jane is pictured below with a high school boyfriend, Stan, as they prepare to go to the high school prom — not the same boy that had played in the band.

  I was like, “Oh, yeah. He was great and we had a good time. He took me here and we had dinner.” I’d just say that it was lovely and mom and I had an understanding that he was good and I probably would see him again. I think that the acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree. Whatever you are, there’s a good chance that’s what your kids will have in them, too.

  Jane’s high standard of excellence in academics seemed as if it might pave the way for her to assume a more traditional and secure vocation as an instructor or a medical practitioner. In the end, she listened to her heart.

  I went to UNLV right here in town. I got a scholarship for ten or twenty thousand dollars. At that point, I was either going to go to med school or acting, and I decided I’d probably just follow the acting. In that case, I didn’t really need to go to one of the California schools. I got accepted at a couple of the California schools, but I chose to go to UNLV. Again, I was on that accelerated path. I graduated my high school at age sixteen and I graduated college in three years instead of four years. I did some summer classes and I did correspondence courses, and I was able to get out in three years. I graduated with a Theatrical Arts Major. I performed in the Eisenhower Theatre at the Kennedy Centre. I played Adela in The House of Bernarda Alda and we won at the American College Theatre Festival. I’d like it documented that I’m not a dummy and I had acting talent. I still like acting and I still do acting. Probably what I enjoy most for work in life is acting. I also student taught at the local high school. It was interesting because I was a nineteen-year old teacher teaching kids that were three or four years younger than I was.

  In the drama program there are kids who try really hard and are so committed and are so lousy at it, and then there are other kids that barely show up but they just have innate talent and they’re good at it. It was difficult for me to try and grade–you’d have to grade them on everything. You had to take all of that into consideration. I did enjoy teaching. We used to have a revue and put on lunchtime shows. There would be a kid who felt the performance wasn’t going real well so he thought if he started cussing and throwing all sorts of swear words that it would elevate the performance; it was actually the blueest Neil Simon play I ever heard.

  When I was in college, one of the cool th
ings I did was travel one summer all over Europe. I was working as a PBX operator at [The MGM Grand Hotel]. I had saved a lot of money and I went on one of the college trips that were chaperoned. There were probably about fifty college-aged kids going around and seeing Europe. We were lead by Dutch tour guides. That was wonderful. This was during the middle of college. I also went to Australia. I had met a guy and went to visit him in Australia. I kind of got the wanderlust, the wonder bug. I really enjoyed travelling around Europe and I spent a week or two after that tour with a friend of my sister’s, a woman by the name of Kay Bailey who was just wonderful. She became my English mom. I really felt strongly that I needed to be in England so after I finished college — I have to credit my mom for this — I was saving money to be able to go back to England. My mom looked at me and she said, “You’re miserable here, aren’t you?” I agreed. She said, “Do you really want to go back to England?”

  I said, “Yeah,” and she said, “Well, go.”

  I told her, “Mom, I don’t have much money.”