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

by Nelson, Jill C.

  I think that if I’m being totally honest, I know that there have been crossroads in my life where because I had been in the adult industry it cost me things such as relationships. I don’t regret my past and I don’t wish to shut the door on it, but there are a lot of things in my life that have come from my time in the industry. It’s not specifically, because I was in the industry that I wound up in recovery for drug and alcohol addiction, but certainly, the lifestyle I was living supported all of that while I was in it. I had to include it. They lived alongside each other — the persona that I created and the lifestyle supported it. I went out and got sober, took my time away and got into recovery. Then I went back into the industry because I wanted to know what it was, what it felt like, what was different about it.

  I was in a relationship where the man I was in love with had nothing to do with the adult industry, he had actually been a music producer. We had been in recovery together and we both had lived other lives in the past. He wanted to move on from that and form a new life together. It definitely was in his face. Even though we set out with all good intents, he didn’t realize how big it was. I’ve been in Costco or K-Mart with my significant other long after I was out of the industry and had people walk up and say, “I know who you are.” There’s just no way for me to deny and say, “You must be mistaken.” I would never do that anyway, but there are times when you might want to just like any actor who doesn’t want that private moment intruded upon would feel that way.

  Amber Lynn, The Legend Continues…

  I don’t have a lot of photos from anything anymore because when I got out of the industry and I was living with my last boyfriend — we were going to get married. Part of the agreement between us was that I wasn’t involved in the industry anymore and I got rid of everything. I have had people say that if I want to be in a successful relationship then I should just not tell them. I thought it would be shocking to have someone fall in love with me and then find out I’m “Amber Lynn,” or whoever if they hadn’t been told. It’d be horrible. I would feel completely betrayed if somebody hid something like that from me.

  I live in Santa Monica now about a dozen blocks from the beach. It’s a nice little area. I like to go out and I do my own marketing. It is part of my day so lately, I’ve been trying to get out and get more exercise by forcing myself to walk. I sort of wound up here a little while back by default. I had moved over here to be in a relationship with my boyfriend and when the relationship didn’t work out, I ended up stuck in Santa Monica. This is a situation where he ended up being violent, and got arrested. It was very sad, but it does depict again how people sometimes cannot handle the personas that go along with the women in the industry. They meet Laura, yet there’s always this “Amber Lynn” character.

  Since Amber’s career in erotic films began, she has left and returned to the industry several times. In 2008, during the months she attempted to get We are the World XXX off the ground and her brother Buck was still alive, Amber made a strategic comeback rekindling her on screen fusion with Tom Byron as a certifiable MILF in Byron’s Seasoned Players 4 (2008). As is customary in all of the montages in the Seasoned Players series, Byron and Lynn had a sit down before preparing for intercourse to chat about the old days. The long time colleagues discussed how much they’d enjoyed working together when they were both new to the business, and tried to recall their first film together. In jest, Byron made mention of Lynn’s partying ways back in the day, but was quick to add that he had liked cocaine as much as the next person had.

  Of all of the women featured in this particular series, by far, Amber Lynn is one of the most well preserved with her finely tuned body, and long, stylish hair augmented by luxurious doses of blonde. Dressed in a tapered, black business suit (at Byron’s request) with a camisole underneath, Lynn bashfully admitted it’d been a while since she’d had sex and confessed she couldn’t remember how large Byron was when considering condom size. Amber clearly stipulated the terms of their arrangement prior to the session — no anal sex and Tom must wear a condom. Byron teased that her requirements clearly weren’t “old school porn.”

  Once things start rolling, Byron is seated adjacent to the bed where Lynn is positioned. Partially dressed, she begins to deep throat him with enthusiastic precision. They continue to change positions and keep things lively and loud. Lynn rides Byron reverse cowgirl style, and ultimately, he orgasms from in behind her framed in extreme close-up.

  In addition to Seka and others, more recently, Amber was involved in the highly successful documentary After Porn Ends (2010) directed by Bryce Wagoner which examines the lives of several industry luminaries before, during, and after their careers. The compelling and poignant film will be available on DVD August 1, 2012.

  I’ve been working on my transition forever into the real world. Often the real world doesn’t even want this transition as much as they judge us and believe what we’re doing is wrong or immoral. At times, I’ve humbled myself and said, “Okay, maybe you’re right. I’m going to leave this industry behind and I’m going to go into the real world and I’m going to become an everyday Joe.” They don’t want you there, they don’t. I’ve been in business and other careers where they’ve been in shock if they’d have found out who I was. I find that they don’t come out and say it out loud. I’ve been involved in real estate. It comes out as this weird experience that is often hostile and passive aggressive in a work environment that actually, ended up costing me my business at one time. I still work in real estate and have my license, but it’s not my primary occupation. At this time, I work as a PRA which is a Personal Recovery Assistant. I work with people who are in detox so that’s my primary occupation. I’m not working in films today and I don’t do any dancing. I’m getting ready to work on my memoirs. I’m writing my book and doing that so I’m not entirely associated with the industry today. It’s not that I wouldn’t be — I was just writing down some numbers today and getting ready to make some calls about holidays to wish people Happy Holidays [2010], so that’s what’s going on for me.

  In July of 2011 when we met for dinner, Amber had recently resumed her dancing career as a headliner in the San Fernando Valley. Lynn has seen hundreds if not thousands of girls come and go in the industry and she is celebrating almost thirty years as a Hall of Fame woman in the business. During our lively conversation at L.A.’s landmark Silver Spoon diner (which has since closed and recently reopened under new ownership) in West Hollywood, Amber made it known she is pleased to be in a position of power and feels she no longer compromises her personal goals or her career aspirations. Lynn has been the recipient of some cosmetic surgery in recent years, but it is flattering and she appeared to possess a rock hard body beneath her black, fitted, Lycra mini-dress. As compelling in person as she is in movies, Lynn continues to be a major draw on the Los Angeles club scene.

  One of the things I did that I didn’t expect to do is at one point in my career I fell flat on my face. I had to pick myself up and I had to admit that I had problems and issues that had nothing to do with the industry, but that were my own. I had to face those issues and find out that I was only human. We aren’t immortal. These personas that we create are not really who we are. We are actors and entertainers and this life is hard on all of us, and any of us. Our hearts break and our knees skin and what we go through is to find out that we’re just human beings having to get by. It is a very odd industry because it allows you to live in the illusion for such a long time. It has nothing to do with reality through these personas like “Ginger,” and “Amber,” and “Traci,” and “Christy,” and so on. We’re just trying to live our lives.

  For many years when I got into the industry, I could not wait to leave behind the kid from Orange County that I came into the world as. I loved it and wanted only to be known as “Amber”. When I got out of the industry and I transitioned and moved on into my normal life, it became imperative for me to be able to make a distinction between when I was acting or working or pe
rforming, and when I was home and I was myself. I think with any actor or performer they need to have down time. For many years because of the type “A” personality that I am, I wasn’t able to do that. Everything is done in hindsight. If I only knew then what I know now, I would have done things then the way I am doing them today.

  PHOTO COURTESY OF SUZE RANDALL, WWW.SUZE.NET

  Ginger Lynn and Amber Lynn. PHOTO COURTESY OF SUZE RANDALL, WWW.SUZE.NET

  COURTESY OF WORTH MENTIONING PUBLIC RELATIONS

  Rubdown. VCX. PHOTOGRAPHY BY KENJI

  COURTESY OF WORTH MENTIONING PUBLIC RELATIONS

  PHOTO COURTESY OF SUZE RANDALL, WWW.SUZE.NET

  PHOTO COURTESY OF SUZE RANDALL, WWW.SUZE.NET

  Bill Margold. PHOTOGRAPHY BY KENJI

  Amber Lynn. ADULT VIDEO NEWS

  Buck Adams.

  PHOTO COURTESY OF SUZE RANDALL, WWW.SUZE.NET

  23.

  Christy Canyon

  Doubly Delightful

  “I don’t want anybody’s judgment in my life. You’ve lost the right to be in my life if you have any little bit of judgment. I am who I am, and if it’s great, that’s okay. If not, that’s okay too. I don’t have time to be everyone’s friend.”

  — Christy Canyon

  If there was an individual you’d want next to you in a foxhole during battle in enemy region, Christy Canyon (her real name is Melissa) would have your back. Tenacious, loyal, territorial, and not to mention voluptuous with natural 36 double D breasts, Canyon’s determination and overtly feminine attributes have earned her a badge of honor in an industry that unconsciously discriminates the girls from the women. Proud of her mixed Armenian and Italian heritages, Christy has maintained her childhood was not abnormal. Rather, she is a child of the seventies — the generation of divorce and latchkey kid phenomena.

  When her parents’ marriage dissolved while she was still an infant, Canyon and her older sister were raised by her mother and a couple of stepfathers in what would become porn’s mecca, the San Fernando Valley. In order to distance herself from her mother’s husband, Christy moved out of the house at seventeen and worked two part-time jobs to pay the rent in what the squeamish might consider a tawdry L.A. neighborhood. As fate would have it in 1984, Christy met a young, blonde stud, Greg Rome, while waiting for a friend and she was introduced to the forbidden fruits of adult entertainment. From that point, Canyon met with one of the most respected agents and gentlemen in the business, Jim South, at World Modeling Agency. South immediately took Christy under his wing and arranged for her to do exotic photo layouts and her first loop for Swedish Erotica with Ron Jeremy. Canyon had reservations at first, but any opposition she might have felt about working as a sex performer evaporated when she was cast opposite new industry pros Ginger Lynn, Traci Lords, Tom Byron, and Jamie Gillis in back-to-back Paradise Visuals projects The Night of Loving Dangerously (1984) and On Golden Blonde (1984).

  Since Canyon’s entry into pornographic movies, lifetime highlights include her ten-year contractual agreement with Vivid Pictures. She is equally proud to have earned a Marketing degree at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising while on the road dancing. During two decades where Christy dominated the industry as a leading female star (Adult Video News rated Canyon one of the top twenty porn actresses of all time), she is reputed to have dated countless men including celebrities such as Max Baer Jr., Robin Williams, and director Adam Rifkin. In recent years since her retirement as a performer, Christy has customized a rewarding designation as the daily host on the Sirius Satellite Playboy Radio program Night Calls. Since April 2011, Canyon now shares hosting duties with her old friend Ginger Lynn on the newly reformatted Playboy Radio program Spice Sex Circus airing daily in the afternoons. The program also incorporates the popular weekly show Legends of Porn.

  In 2003, Christy wrote a successful tell-all memoir titled Lights, Camera, Sex! Today, Canyon’s new role and responsibility as a doting mother to her three treasured young children supersedes everything else.

  I interviewed Christy Canyon in November 2010.

  Ordinary People

  I was born and raised in Southern California and second generation to boot. I’m half-Armenian and half-Italian. My childhood experience was very seventies. I grew up in that whole kind of New Age “wowie” stuff. My mom was on a macrobiotic diet, and at one point, she had an actual pyramid in our house like a pup tent. She’d put fruit under it and she’d meditate under it.

  My parents divorced when I was one. Dad was in and out. I was never abused and have no sob stories, just the product of a seventies childhood. My dad died in 1990. We did stay in touch with our father after my parents divorced. I have an older sister [Clair] and we stayed in touch with him, definitely. We lived here in the Valley and he lived about two miles from us. Both of my parents got divorced and remarried about three times so it seems like every time he got remarried, he had more step-kids and so on, so we saw him on average about one weekend a month. It was what it was. We don’t harbor grudges. My parents were young when they had us, they were in their early twenties and they did the best they could do. I have no ill feelings; I have no chip on my shoulder. I just realized they were just young. I can’t imagine having two kids at twenty-two.

  My mother is still alive. She had a mental breakdown a couple of years ago and she’s in a home now. I see her about twice a month but it’s tough, because again, I have young kids and you have to prioritize. It’s the kids, me, my job, and I hate to say this, but then it’s my mom; it’s kind of the way it is.

  As a child, I did have a lot of friends. I was a good “C” average student. I didn’t really care about learning — isn’t that horrible? I loved going to school because I loved my friends and I loved recess. I loved making money. In elementary school, for example, I would sell my pencils to the boys. A girlfriend and I would draw stick figures, like nudie figures, and sell them to the boys. Even at a young age, I always knew that I could make money. I was never good at languages; I was never good at instruments. I was good at sports and I was very athletic. I was on the tennis team in high school, but I was more of a social butterfly. My sister is the opposite, she didn’t have that many friends, but she was brilliant — a straight “A” student and fluent in three languages so we’re really opposites.

  I was very close to my mom. I really loved my mom. I was a momma’s girl and she was my world. She was a single mom raising two kids and worked as an accountant. She was so full of love for us. We didn’t have much money, but she was a wonderful mom when we were growing up. We always knew that she loved us and I always wanted to be like her, independent and strong, and able to take care of myself. She was a fine guiding light for me to realize that women could be in charge of their own lives. I really was a happy and contented child. It was tough though with my parents’ divorces and it was hard when my mom had boyfriends over to our house. It certainly wasn’t a rose-colored glasses world, but then again, what is really? For ninety percent of the time though, it absolutely was.

  Until I hit about twelve everything was pretty damn good and then my mom married this guy that didn’t like me and I didn’t like him. At the time, he was the president of a huge music publishing company. It was the eighties and he made good money, but he was a real pompous ass and we just didn’t get along. He was jealous of the time my mom spent with me, and of course, as a fourteen-fifteen year old, I was jealous of him. When I was about sixteen, I really started to rebel. I dabbled in drugs, nothing major, but I got really drunk one night at sixteen at a party and got a DUI (driving under the influence). Thank god back then you only paid something like a fifty-dollar fine. Sixteen is when the trouble really began because I didn’t have my mom the way I did when I was younger. She would say “goodnight” to me and he would say to her, “Jackie, come in here and look at this!” It was almost as if he was competing with me. Now when I look back, that’s when my mom’s mental issues started to kick in. As a mom myself, no motherfucker is going to get
in between my kids and me. I think she thought, “Oh, I’m forty, I should be married,” so she was going through her own stuff, and sadly, it did affect me.

  Christy was an early bloomer and it wasn’t long before the boys at school started to take notice. She was able to channel the male attention using it to her advantage and smartly, Canyon managed to resist sexual exploration far longer than most of her girlfriends.

  With boys, I was a huge flirt. In sixth grade, I had started getting my boobies and I felt like that was powerful. Even in sixth grade, I knew that people would love it. I was very flirtatious. This sounds young for L.A. in the eighties, but it wasn’t young — I didn’t lose my virginity until I was fifteen and a half to a guy from Thailand that I was dating for about six months. I was definitely a flirt, but not a loose girl. I dated him for probably a year and then maybe in my twelfth grade — when I was seventeen, I really started to sow my oats a little bit, but not that much. I slept with probably half a dozen guys. Then I got into the business and I figured out what sexuality was, but before I got into the business, I was not very promiscuous with actual intercourse. Some of my girlfriends were twelve and thirteen when they lost their virginity. My first sexual experience certainly wasn’t a one-night stand. He was my true blue love. It was scary. I knew that I wanted to and I think he was kind of expecting it, but still, it was very scary. I don’t remember much of it, it was kind of a blur, but I certainly don’t remember it hurting. I remember I didn’t bleed and I think he got a little offended and thought that maybe I wasn’t a virgin. The next morning I cried to my sister, “I lost my virginity.” I wasn’t like, “Hey! Hey! It’s gone!” It was more like the ending of my childhood. Then suddenly with this same boyfriend, it was lights out. We did it in cars, we would go to cheap motels; we would do it in bathrooms. It was like, “Oh man, this is awesome.” We were just like bunny rabbits.