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Jim Holliday

"Jim Holliday has forgotten more about porn than anyone else will ever know." (Bill Margold)

Jim Holliday (real name William Carleson) died Wednesday, December 15, 2004, of complications from Type II Diabetes. I believe he was 56 (born in 1948).

Remembering Jim Holliday

Bill's college buddy at Ohio University, Dino, writes 4/22/05: "I was able to obtain a few pictures from some of the Yellow Snow brothers that include Jim Holliday/Jack Nash. I thought you might get a kick of these. these brought back some good memories of the old boy. There are some more on the way that I will share with you once I receive them."

Walks writes:

Here's a few pics that should honor our dearly departed. These were taken circa 1977 (I believe).... in the heyday of The Yellow Snow Broomball Dynasty and bad teas with the Chi-o's. So without further adieu, a trip down memory (or the breakdown) lane, whichever you prefer!!!!!

Photo_1.jpg This was taken on the ice of Bird Arena (either before, or after) our Championship Broomball game. Can't remember is it was The Greek Championship, or All Campus. I want to say "All Campus". Hell, with time and embellishments, let's call it "All State"!

Photo_2.jpg Bill in the DU Dining Room. Hard to tell if this was during a tea, or just hanging out with the boyz.

Photo_3.jpg Classic picture of the '77 Championship Broomball Team (I forgot how we had a "ringer" in Bobby Joyce ---- didn't he play O.U. Hockey too!)

Photo_4.jpg Here's witness to perhaps the UGLIEST TEA ON RECORD......with The Chi-O's!!!! I believe naked guitarist with shaving cream on privates (....except for Joyce), broken glass dancing, and having a HUGE woman stuck in a downstairs window were just a few of the highlights. Notice the banner behind Bill...DISCO IS MY LIFE!!!! Also the dual turntables for seamless segues of Bee Gee's to Del Shannon. (I can still hear "Little Runaway" echo in my head).

Denise LaFrance's painting of Jim Holliday.

Jim Holliday entered porn by accident. "There was then, and there still is now, a need for accurate documentation and information about the people and projects that turn so many Americans on.

"It was to silence a lifetime of "when are you going to live up to your potential" busybodies that I hit on being an adult film historian. At least I could try to become the best in the world at something, without having to suck up to or suck off anybody."

Jim regards himself as separate from and superior to the masturbation industry. He claims to have never jacked off to dirty pictures and is "fascinated by people who do."

Despite an AVN column years ago where he came out of the closet to admit he was a pornographer, Jim still acts above the sleaze of the industry he devotes his considerable talents to. One of his favorite comparisons is "Industry-think versus Jimmy-think..." And Jimmy-think is always right.

"Rather than pop off from the outset, there were years of study, something the instant expert MTV era breed of journalists are unfamiliar with... Since know-nothing, instant-expert stroke bookers [Michael Albo] call me a "self-proclaimed" historian, I'll use the "100,000 of f--- off" clause. That means until you can document conversations with at least that many fans, your opinion doesn't mean s--- to me. ...I am a pornographer. And a much better person than the vast, vast, vast majority of mainstream America."

Dr. Robert Stoller describes Holliday in his book Porn. "Jim Holliday is like Bill [Margold], which helps account for their being friends. Both are intelligent, articulate, filled with humor and chuckles, self-contained, and free of long-term intimate commitments; contemptuous of establishments, institutions, orthodoxies, and pomposities; salted through with a twentieth century version of frontier America.

"Jim is accepted as the historian of porn - the bibliographer, the scholar who knows every publication, references it with great accuracy, knows its contents and can quote what was said by whom where and who did what to whom when.

"Like Bill, he is porn not for money or free sex but for immortality, and like Bill, he impresses his version of our erotic myths into the world.

"He is a Santa Claus - bearded, burly, proud of being straight forward, energetic, a raconteur, with an optimism about his unending smoking that would make a tobacco-state senator blanch. He comes to my office dressed like a logger."

Critic Selwyn Harris understands the difficulty of describing Jim Holliday to those outside porn for there are only so many ways to say "f---ing pompous beyond belief. Holliday is the self-described "yardstick of porn," a true "historian of erotica," an athlete, a scholar, a man who wishes you would call him "White Moccasins." Jim may be less visible to the porn consumer than Bill Margold, but he's just as self-important."

Jim says he's animated "by animosity." Like Margold, Gregory Dark, Bruce Seven, Robert Black, Reuben Sturman, Chuck Zane, and numerous other pornographers, Holliday lives off hatred. Nothing gives him more joy than humiliating someone.

"There aren't many intelligent people in this industry... There is no way I can discuss art, literature or music with most people in the adult film world, because you're talking over their head. One of the true joys I have in life as a commentator on the human condition is playing humble farm boy from the Midwest.

"Invariably it's a New Yorker who thinks he knows more than he does. I come in as a humble "aw shucks" guy. I play it nice until its time to go for the throat. I want him to walk out of there humiliated in front of his friends.

"I love to bait people," says Holliday, "just to bust someone's balls."

Jim gets off on humiliating people. Like Margold, he lives to kick you out of his life. Not surprisingly, neither "of the two spines of the X-rated industry" have close friends.

"I take great pleasure in baiting people," says Jim. "I bait people all the time, to get whatever response I want to get from them. And I don't do it for personal pleasure or satisfaction. I do it just to bust someone's balls. The honest statement would be: I hate people. With fraternity brothers...I used to start in with, "I hate people who...," and they would say, "Cut it off right there. You hate everybody.""

Holliday has met "some of the greats in America and come away shocked" at how badly they measured up to him.

"I met one of the five great sexologists at his institute. They're accredited; they have degrees. They're a bunch of mid-forties-to-mid-sixties middle-aged crazy people who want to climb into a hot tub because they can't get much sex on their own..."

Journalist Harris Gaffin met Holliday at the 1996 VSDA convention in Los Angeles:

While I'm visiting Margold's booth, a big fat guy dressed in white, wearing wraparound green reflective sunglasses, comes over to Margold. He looks very serious. All he lacks is the fez hat to look like Sydney Greenstreet in Casablanca.

"Have you interviewed Jim Holliday, porno historian," Margold asks.

"Never heard of the guy," I say. "What does he look like?"

"Never heard of me," the big guy thunders. "Writing a book and not have me in it! What kind of book would not have me in it?"

I assume he's joking but it's hard to see through the sunglasses. He's not smiling, that's for sure.

"How did he know about it?" I ask Margold.

"I bet Albo set him up," he seethes. "I despise Albo. He's one of my own children gone bad. He forgot his roots. He suddenly, unprovoked, attacked the fans."

"I told him you were famous," Margold says to Holliday.

"OK, I'll interview you right now," I say.

"No. If you never heard of me, you don't deserve to interview me," he says, then adds. "I'll make sure the book gets a bad review!"

"Who the f--- do you think you are?" I scream at the top of my lungs. People circle around, ready to watch a schoolyard fight. I'm ready. He's ready. Actually, neither one of us is ready because, without saying a word, we part ways.

"Well, it will probably be difficult to interview him now," Margold says with regret. I thought he loved fights.

"What's with him?" I ask.

"You didn't genuflect to his greatness fast enough," Margold says. "I feel sorry for him. I've never met a man who takes himself more seriously. Life for him is a quest for supreme recognition. I care for him. But he is a bully because he uses his perceived fame as a bludgeon."

***

Holliday says the Kuder Preference Test showed he had criminal tendencies and should excel in sales.

"Before I got into this business, I was a con man. I worked in the carnival. We sold circus tickets for handicapped kids; that was one of the scams I worked on."

Because Jim's spent his life in the carnival, he fears that others will take advantage of him. The moment he suspects someone taking advantage of him, he tosses the person off his video set and out of his life. When Holliday found Hustler photographers shooting girls from his production outside of his prescribed scenes, he threw them off the set.

"I've always lived by my wits. It's easier for me to sit in an office and work as a telephone salesman... I talked to people phoning in orders... A guy would call in and I'd learn just one or two things about him: that he was a stamp dealer and lived in South Carolina. So because of my memory, he got the personal touch...

"I mistrust most video companies. Inevitably they try to pour s--- down your throat... I go through life: "It's all one big game and see how much wool you can pull over people's eyes."

"The vice-president of Cal Vista engaged my services... He knows Jim Holliday is a magic name...

"The [porn] magazines are self-serving, self-promoting. Whoever pays for the advertising, they want their films treated kindly. I won't do that. I have made concessions... I wrote for Hustler...

"The standard old thing is from North Carolina." Holliday mimics a North Carolina accent. "Jim, we have a tape club here. A bunch of the fellows get together." That means you're all bachelors and never could relate to women or you're all frustrated married guys and instead of going to the Elks or the Moose and shooting the s--- about North Carolina basketball, you get together every Thursday night and watch porn. You're all looking for jerk-off material..."

Though Jim devotes his life to the beat-off biz, he, of course, never beats off. He lives on a higher plane, in a kingdom of his own imagination, out where the buses don't run no more, galaxies beyond the tawdry lives of mere mortals.

"Let's say you're calling from Athens, Georgia. The first thing out of my mouth would be, [Southern accent] "How about them dawgs".... I listen to his frustrations that "we all went south with Tom Payne," which is my cue to become his racist buddy and say, "Yeah, the minute Kentucky got them niggers, boy, we all went down hill, didn't we?" (Porn)

When dealing with most outsiders,  Jim rarely says anything negative about the industry. To do so would damn himself and his life choice.

"I may be a cardboard man but it's all carefully crafted. To give you an example of racism. The guy in Georgia said, "I'm looking for a film [Jim puts on an accent again]. Is there a film where a white guys screws a nigger chick doggie-style?" I said, "Let me think. There are all kinds of films like that." "How about in the snow?" To condense it, there was a foreign film called White Heat with a black female and white male. He screws her doggy style in the snow. "Does he come in her mouth?" I open the drawer and whip out my chart. I've got my symbol for the ejaculation, cum on the back or the ass cheeks. I said, "No, I'm sorry he doesn't." "Well, s---, I don't want that movie." "Goodbye, f---er." " (Porn)

"Goodbye, f---er" is Jim's basic response to humanity.

"The guy has asked me a question that only I can answer and when I tell him he doesn't pop in her mouth, I have to reflect on what is going on in this yo-yo's mind. What kind of pent-up frustrations?

"Let's say their fetish is lactating? "A film does exist with a woman lactating, and yes, if you want to know medically, a woman doesn't have to be pregnant to lactate. The woman's name is Chris Cassidy. She does it briefly in this film, but you're going to shell out sixty dollars...

"This is the 20 percent that are so frustrated that no porno is going to satisfy them. They want the Linda Lovelace dog movie... They want a movie with a pig and a woman...

"Over years I've found that whether writing for national magazines or for much smaller cult newsletters, adult fans respond best when I get pissed off and angry or when I get into self-revelation. Rarely does the latter creap in due to personal belief in staying private... A hell of a lot of industry people still don't know what I look like..." (AVN 1/95)

In the 11/96 AVN, Jim wrote:

"When people see the all-white attire, many (particularly idiot strangers) feel compelled to inquire about the occupation of the guy. This unsolicited inquiry has resulted in an interesting correlation observation directly related to the intelligence level of the questioner.

"The higher the monetary level of the occupation, the more intelligent the person seems to be and eventually turns out to be. Those who guess doctor, surgeon, vet, dentist or pro golfer seem to be the brightest. Upper middle class jobs like chef, butcher, x-ray technician, zookeeper or medic indicate a bright individual also.

"Middle or lower middle gigs such as Navy/Coast Guard guy, milkman, baker...mean there's a spark. But the bulb seems dull around ice cream man, soda jockey... I take offense at men's room attendent, asylum attendent or janitor, but I realize a borderline moron is asking...

"The two "no comment" cases involve plantation owner and my pal Zenke's assertion [HEVG Editor Michael Louis Albo] that I'm Jimmy the Patient - short for mental patient.

"In 90% of the cases, smart folks guess better jobs and dumbass dolts guess minimum wage s---.

"Jim South recently told me that young ladies are asking about how to get into my movies... It was better when nobody really knew who I was..." (AVN 11/96 p.44)

Holliday's columns drove Mike Albo to write to AVN which published his letter in its 3/97 issue. "I used to consider myself a reasonably well-educated person... Unfortunately, the last five columns written by Jim Holliday have left me confused, bewildered and dumbfounded. What the hell is this guy talking about? Don't your editors look at what he submits before shipping it off to the printer? I enjoy reading your magazine every month, but Holliday's columns do nothing to further that enjoyment. Perhaps you should dump him in favor of a writer who knows how to write a cohesive sentence."

Holliday responds: "Take the letter as humorous since the signee has been recruiting me for over a year to write for his rag... For the first time, I'll call on the advice of my good friend Dino Ninn. A couple of years ago he said to me, "Holliday, don't be bothered when someone gives you s---. You don't need to answer. Just look 'em in the eye, smile, and say, 'Hey, man, I'm Jim Holliday'."

The Albo-Holliday grudge match escalated when Michael questioned Jim's directing expertise in Hustler Erotic Video Guide.

AVN 5/96: "The comments prompted Holliday to tell Albo what he could do with his dangling participles, which, in turn, prompted Albo to tell Holliday where he could stick his white moccasins. Then it got interesting at the XRCO Awards... which produced a flurry of cerebrally-challenging verbal exchanges between the two."

"I like to goof on people," says Albo. "Holliday's not the fun-loving Jim I used to know. I was trying to take a little bit of the wind out of him."

AVN: "Refusing to take the matter as lightly, the arcane Holliday said he was preparing a deposition to be read in the event his moccasins are discovered grazing in a New Jersey landfill."

"Just as there's a difference between reviewing and inaccurate, sniping attacks," says Jim, "there's also a difference between goofing and unnatural obsession. Bitter, hypocritical, sandbagger fidgets aren't as intellectual as they think."

Jim tires of the way Albo's Hustler Erotic Video Guide pokes fun at porn.   Holliday particularly dislikes HEVG's attitude towards "angels" - Jim's name for his favorite porn girls.

"I'll cop to calling a few females "cunts" and "bitches" during 'boys in the back room' sessions," says Holliday. "But I have never dismissed all female talent as money hungry, greedy, stupid, useless, conceited bimbos. As one angel put it, I'm part of the five percent of men in porn who look upon females as women and equals and respect them. Doesn't say much for the industry."

Jim is well-liked by female performers, partly because his VCA-funded productions pay so lavishly.

"I love Jim Holliday to death," says Tammi Ann. "I'm in all his movies but I don't understand a thing he does."

"He's found his own niche," says Joey Silvera. "Nobody makes movies like him. He throws so much at you, there's something for everybody."

Jim Holliday: "The key reason that I've made so many multiple-day, 10++ babe cast movies with not one person of... importance shining me... is that I adhere to the rule... No prima donnas and no attitudes."

Of course Jim is no prima donna and never has an attitude.

"The ladies should understand that if I'm jumpy about the possibility... I'll pass on the prospect of a monumental attitude, temper tantrum, hissy fit, screaming match or walkout."

"My sex scenes are the cleanest dirtiest scenes the law will allow," says Jim. "If I'm going to make a movie, I'm not going to risk getting busted."

Jim is too wise for that.

"I'd be among the last to get hauled away.

"Still, my movies outsell those of most other directors two-to-one. I invert the proportion. In thirty seconds, a lot of movies will give you a 15 second wide shot. I'll use the monster shot (gynecological close-up) for 15 seconds, four seconds on the wide shot and then go back to a graphic monster monster. My editors have a hard time changing from the typical formula but I won't accept that. I try to choreograph [sex] differently. I may throw the blowjob in the middle, after he's banged her for a while, then finish with another position and the proof shot (the cum shot).

"In the old days, the so-called raincoaters could go six or seven minutes between sex scenes. Now this MTV generation can't last beyond two minutes without reaching for the FF button on their remote control.

"I have an advantage [making X movies] that most people don't have. I've watched over 7500 explicit movies. I could pull back to some piece of s--- 16mm grinder shot in New York in 1973, but it had one magnificent scene of say, Jamie Gillis and Helen Madigan. I can recreate that.

"...One of the key ways to determine enthusiasm in erotica is to study the performer's EYES. That tells you whether they even want to be there in the first place."

When Jim interviews women new to the business he usually begins with this question: "What won't you do aside from the big three - blacks, anal and Ron Jeremy?

"One woman [Traci Love] took me seriously. She said she's been in the business for two movies and had already done all three."

Jim began directing in the late '80s when he worked with a group of female performers known as the Pink Ladies - Jeanna Fine, Porsche Lynn, Angel Kelly, Sharon Kane, Nina Hartley - who wanted to produce a movie and ultimately a performer's union. When the budget left no room to hire a director, Jim stepped in.

Ernest Greene aka Ira Levine tells this story. "Jim sits down with an old buddy, the guy with the money. They have a premise: "We'll make a picture about a bunch of sorority girls. The hicks'll love that."

"Jim and I had a tough week. He wrote the script [Stairway to Paradise] that Sharon's [Kane] going to direct. I'm the Assistant Director. I sat in with him and Sharon when we did the budget breakdown and decided who to hire. I agreed with every choice. His numbers were right on the line. Then he brought in the script. Bad jokes. "They'll love that in Peoria," he says.

"They will not. I'm a high school drop out from Denver, Colorado, and I know as much about middle America and the redneck porno audience as Jim Holliday and Bill Margold do. I don't treat the material as junk and the audience as stupid. I hated the tone of condescension in the script [Stairway to Paradise]. Toward the material. Toward Sharon [Ira's roommate of the time], because she had given him the original idea, and he turned it into a joke against the audience and the players. My view is that the audience overall does not care to have its intelligence insulted." (Coming Attractions by Robert Stoller)

Jim's Stairway to Paradise script reveals Christians as morons. Character Reverend Deacon Peabody in 17th Century Salem screws the protagonist Susan Moore (Nina Hartley) in more ways than one, screaming "Vile spunk! Satan's semen!" as he ejaculates.

In the credits, Holliday credits himself "Source of Sanity". Jim uses the name Abigail Beecher for his Producing credit. It's a deliberate misspelling from the Freddy Cannon song "Abigail Beacher, Our History Teacher."

The title Stairway to Paradise combines the names of two hit songs - Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven and the Tony Orlando tune Halfway to Paradise.

Holliday got the flick off the ground. "I made a phone call. I got a [financial] guarantee. This sounds easy but it's the result of years of cultivating business, friendship, trust... It comes about because of who I am, what I've stood for, and that quality has always been associated with anything I've been with...

"I merely said, "Hey, I've got a good track record, right? Consider this marketing angle. Female director, Hall of Famer, loved by the Industry and by fans, Sharon Kane'll make a movie for you."

"Then, incorporated in the conversation was the clear-cut notion that Jim Holliday would protect their ass... so that what was produced was quality.

"I don't care how other people write adult scripts. When I write one, even infinitesimal details are preplanned. I want to maneuver, motivate, and challenge the audience.

"At the CES, Sharon was bouncing off some walls... I thought, "Oh, brother, at any minute it can all go down the drain, because all these [important] people need to see is someone acting like a porn bimbo, just another flake."

"When I do a script, I don't do conventional spacing. I tighten things so that when something comes out at 32 pages, they'll say "Good, it's only 32 pages," when had I spaced it, it would have been 48. So it was a bulky script with all the nuances... Unfortunately, Sharon felt at the last minute, it was too much for her to do...

"Porn comedy is stuff I would be ashamed to take to The Comedy Store and present to normal people as funny, but I know it works with adult porn audiences.

"People can say what they want about the content [Paradise]. Nobody can say there is the slightest technical flaw. The soundtrack, the music, the voices, nothing's out of kilter. Not a mistimed edit. Part of the Jim Holliday involvement in projects is, "Give 'em a perfect tape."

"We whip Hollywood's ass. I'll put our five man crew [Paradise] against any ten-man crew Hollywood can muster. They'll get it done quicker and probably better.

"Bill Margold will call this a piece of s---, but he's lost all sense of porn reality." (Coming Attractions)

Margold wound up calling it "Stairway to Nowhere."

AFW gives Stairway to Paradise four out of a possible five stars and rates the sex as hot.

"Nina Hartley plays a woman on a metaphysical journey to discover who she really is. She encounters a series of characters and situations that help her find self-fulfillment. Sharon Kane's first time at bat and she almost hits a home run with this funny, sexy and ethereal excursion into the erotic natures that shapes who we are. The sex is grounded in the ol' pump and grind - proving that Kane knows where she comes from as well. Nina and Randy contribute believable performances and ball-busting sex scenes, as do the rest of the cast. A surreal approach adds a decidedly different feel to the picture. Kane consistently challenges one's outlook, yet delivers one sex scene after another that hits the sweet spot. Well shot, produced and executed, it shows great promise for Sharon and for the future of women directors in porn." (AFW 1996 Dir. p.269)

Coming Attractions reveals Porsche Lynn's history of abuse, and Sharon Kane's dislike of onscreen sex. Rich Leather reviews the book for AVN (10/93 p.114) :

Almost everyone comes off as sane, likeable, capable and professional. Two glaring exceptions: Bill Margold and Jim Holliday. Margold's stream-of-consciousness riff opens the transcripts in the book, and what an ugly consciousness is revealed: juvenile, egotistical, crude and full of hate. Holliday comes off badly as well, not so much convicted out of his own mouth like Margold, but in the comments of the other players. Jim's considerable, impenetrable ego is on display, as always; the public porn image of Holliday is that his ego and pride of accomplishment is entirely justified. No doubt, it frequently is: Holliday is not just our historian, he is a man of considerable wit, charm, intelligence, talent and genuine curiosity. The other players in the book almost unanimously criticize his script as overlong, pompous, impractical to produce within any reasonable budget of time or money, and chock-full of impenetrable mystical and musical references. To be sure, the script is not the man, but what comes blaring through is Holliday's unwillingness to consider criticism, or any other point o view. Jim's great stylistic signature is to assert opinion - grand, sweeping opinion about superlatives in particular - as fact, and to assert further that anyone who disputes him lacks his unique perspective.... A legion of sane, calm professionals in the making of this video state clear, objective reasons why he is wrong - and he apparently cannot and will not accept their assessment. Holliday's ego is transformed from an instrument of grand entertainment and enlightenment to an unpleasant arrogation of personal superiority.

Patrick Riley reviews Coming Attractions:

He [Dr. Stoller] picks the grand old dames [Nina Hartley and Kay Parker] of the porno world who are likely to support the overall tenor of the work that all in the industry are dysfunctional and somehow a lower species of human being. Predictably they bitch and moan about the low budgets (not like the good old days), the inferiority of the new talent and how they (the grand old dames) are not appreciated. He even uses Levine whom he says has "bipolar (manic depressive) disorder" as his guide through the jungle.

The movie that is the centerpiece of the book was Stairway to Paradise, an ego trip by Jim Holliday consisting of lots of psychobabble but having the advantage for Stoller of being populated by lots of those grand old dames. The only females of any interest in the movie were Heather Lere and Aja who, mysteriously, Stoller and Levine fail to interview.

[Stoller and Levine] deliberately avoided Heather, probably because she would have appeared as a drug-addicted bimbo and Aja because she's successful on the dance circuit and would show up the grand old dames as "has-beens." Their inability to get actors (except Randy Spears) to speak is seen as somehow a character failure of the actors in general rather than a more probable "How much are you willing to pay?"

As to Bob's [Rimmer] harping on why people get into the porno business and how they feel about having sex for the edification of you and me...he can't accept the most logical and simple explanation: it pays more and the conditions are better than working at McDonalds. (X-Rated Videotape Guide 4, p. 21-22)

Cameraman Jane Waters: "Stairway to Paradise was a collaborative effort between five people. We were handed a 67-page script [written by Holliday] that was absurd. Like a seven page dialogue about Jesse James reincarnated before a hand even touches another human. I said, "Sharon, I can't do it in two days; so I won't do it. It would take four to do it. I can't even say I'll try and do it in two days."

"We told Sharon [Kane] that we would support anything she wanted to do: "Go ahead and make this script workable. Rewrite it." So we supported each other while Mr. Holliday stayed in the hallway making sure the actresses' bras were on straight."

Nina Hartley: "Some of the scenes were impossibly long and obscure...and unnecessary. And bad writing. We fought to get some of it removed. In this lesbian scene, there were six pages of complete s---... Jim gets his feelings hurt easily.

"As I look at it [Stairway], I see stiffness and uncertainty and blank spots. When Jim looks at it, he doesn't see that. I'm hoping the audience has his view of things. With porn, you are preaching to a converted audience.

"If I was a film critic, I would tear it apart at many levels.

"The biggest problem with the film is the script. Hokey. Clumsy. A man's romantic idea of making a woman's script. Jim Holliday thinks he's being sweet and modern and evolved, when he's not. He can't have a relationship of equality with women, and so he is ultraromantic and mystified by them."

Holliday describes his humor as "out there where the buses don't run no more." When suffering through his "zany-koo-koo" material, many porn fans such as Selwyn Harris wish that Holliday would step in front of one of those buses. "But then he (f---ing finally) gets to the schtup action (he's is especially good with lesbianica), and you'll want to pat Holliday on the back for the one odd second that he's not doing it himself."

Jim's made 30 flicks, taking advantage of his strong suits such as rapport with female performers and his knowledge of the X-rated genre.

"We're in the middle of an anal craze. Most people don't know that this is the third anal craze. The first one occurred between 1970-74 when you had pissers, s---ters, fisters, rape...when every sort of boundary was being crossed.

"There used to be children in X-rated movies. I'm not talking child porn. Angela Fireworks Woman - the most prosecutable film of all time - opens with a man and a young child walking naked down the beach.

"But after the MIPORN Valentine's Day raid of 1980, things cooled down, though you can go into New York today, and if you know the right places, you can get pissers, fisters, child porn, animals, etc.. San Francisco is also more liberal but you can't get this stuff in L.A.. There's more child porn in Camden, New Jersey than here. I don't know of anyone ever shooting child porn here.

"Coming into this business I did not believe, for example, that white women fantasized about black men, that women fantasized about being taken by force or raped. But once I talked to a nurse who ordered tapes for the doctor. She might order him ten at a time, and she'd occasionally stick a couple on that she wanted to see. One day I asked, "What's your fantasy?" "I fantasize about a big, black cock in my mouth. What woman doesn't?"

"I have what might be the ultimate Hustler's scale: a film is rated from totally limp to totally erect. Totally limp, one-quarter erect, half, three-quarters, fully erect. Because of corruption and advertising and special interests, they rate many films as fully erect. But I am the ultimate Hustler. Jaded as I'm supposed to be, if I have an erection, that is a world-wide turn-on.

"Margold is my cosmic brother. We are two cosmic brothers who speak the truth. There was a time that I seriously considered - I don't like messing with religion, but there were times when people were pushing me into being a minister."

Jim Holliday is a minister to the porn world - a rare man who speaks the truth.

"There have only ever been a handful of leading male performers. They are part of a most unique fraternity because they can f--- in front of a camera. I've watched three husbands cry because they failed with their wives under the lights, even though they've never had a problem behind closed doors.

"Adult performers are risk takers to fulfill American's fantasies.

"Couples films are the invention of Adult Video News. These don't make it with the general porn audience, but with today's sophisticated marketing, they can find a niche.

"Vivid makes kindergarten porn, to quote Stephanie Martin's term for Candida Royalle's work. They excel at marketing. Their production values are brilliant but their sex is not erotic.

"If you're telling me that Victoria Paris even does marijuana, this interview is over." At least a dozen times through our first three hour interview, Jim Holliday kept coming up with phrases that finished with "this interview is over." He's sensitive to being misquoted because he says it's happened so often. He's particularly suspicious of outsiders writing about porn because they so often get it wrong and almost always give a negative slant.

"I'm not interested in talking about abused women in porn... I'm not interested in talking about AIDS...I'm not interested in talking about Linda Lovelace. She was a plain-looking woman who could do a circus trick. She amounts to nothing in this biz... I'm not interested in talking about porn suicides..."

Holliday was not interested in talking much about anything that could give a negative view of the industry. When he would say something that could be understood negatively, he'd frequently say, "I'll give you this..." Jim maintained a harsh defensive tone through most of our first talk.

"That's because I'm talking as Jim Holliday the historian and not Jim Holliday the person. But by no means should I be considered an industry apologist unless someone wants to talk to me for a solid week."

"You didn't behave with the proper subservience," Bill Margold told me later with a smile.

Jim Holliday knows he knows porn and he says most everything with perfect assurance. He writes in AVN 1/92, p.86-87. "I regard this book [North Dallas Forty] as near gospel and have always likened the adult industry to the way [Peter] Gent describes Texans....as a nation of outlaws loosely aligned with the United States, that survives...by breaking all the rules. The adult industry refers to outsiders as "the real world" and as many reporters have discovered, the industry is its own little world and has its own set of rules.

"Gent also referred to sportswriters as people who became sportswriters because they didn't know s--- about anything and tried to understand a game far too complex for their minds. His "sportswriter" is the way I see the mainstream media, the government and nearly all of the general public. They don't know s--- about this industry, but smugly and glibly assume that they do."

Ernest Greene offers this perspective. "The X-rated world has many structures that parallel those of the greater culture surrounding it. It has its own aesthetic, based on our culture's worship of the physical ideal, of youth, beauty, and bodily perfection. It has its own ethic, in which personal loyalty, professional dependability and coolness under fire are the most admired virtues. It has its own etiquette, which emphasizes personal fastidiousness, an appropriate sense of physical intimacy, and respect for the differing preferences of others. X-rated society has its fads and fashions, celebrities and scandals, its inside jokes, its odd pruderies, even its own language." (Coming Attractions)

Holliday: "In the same way an Olympic diver visualizes going off the ten meter board, a week before the shoot I visualize everything that's going to go on. It's a piece of cake shooting a movie with 17 girls. Any number from ten to twenty five I seem to specialize in and most other directors wouldn't touch it. But I just know on the big day when we have all this dancing to do, that I'm going to be screaming at the twenty extras. 'Shut up. Start behaving yourselves or I'm going to throw you all out of here.' I can't afford a second wasted on disruptions or we'll be there all night. I'm visualizing saying that though I hope I won't have to. I've got everything covered because I always expect the worst. That way nothing can sneak up on me."

Female performers, particularly the stars, generally like Jim, and even those who don't, respect him. As a director, Jim is best known for the quantity and quality of the girls he assembles for his shoots. One scene of the shoot I attended in June, 1996 featured a 17 girl orgy. A few days later, I received this message on my phone from Holliday. "Now you saw first hand why I have to be the biggest blessing in this business. Nobody does what I do with all those girls, keeping them that happy. You could go on 15,000 sets and you'll never see so much joy. Now you know why I can get up every morning and look myself in the mirror and know I'm only the best."

Mark Kulkis writes in the 1/96 AVN.

My assignment was clear.

Jim Holliday was sick and tired of being misquoted, miscaptioned and misunderstood by our editorial staff. Nobody at AVN, he confided to me, had gotten Jim Holliday right yet. That's why he was inviting me, "the new guy," to the set of his new 18-girl epic Car Wash Angels.

He was especially proud of his script for Car Wash Angels. Nobody else's scripts, he was fond of reminding me, are as densely packed with pop trivia, in-jokes and arcane esoterica as a Holliday script.

Kylie Ireland: "You're not going to understand anything you'll say in his movies. Don't ask questions, just wait for the beep."

As I depart the set, Holliday hands me the script for Car Wash Angels to read at my leisure - all 32 pages of it. How is it? Let's put it this way: Jim's a hell of a nice guy, and I had a great time on his set. I hope I did right by you, Jim!" (AVN 1/96)

In the 1-98 AVN, virgin porn reporter Avie Chute covers Jim's production Timeless:

"He's chainsmoking Parliament 100s and introduces himself as Ed. Thinks he can pull one over on the New Girl. Tells me right off the bat that he has no use for anything I might write about him, that all journalists are incompetent, can't even count cum shots precisely, et cetera… Then I receive a lecture about what I should say in this piece.

"I'm unswayed. I may be a girl, but I've got balls the size of Texas. I cast my evil eye right through his ever-present sunglasses and tell him that if he wants to write the article himself, to have it faxed to me by the next morning."

I spent hours with Jim, recording his perspective on porn.

Jim Holliday: "Jim Enright is the best comedy director and Jace Rocker is the best comedy writer. I don't know what category I might fit into. I don't think in terms of comedy. The stuff I do is out there where the busses don't run no more. My stuff is either too cryptic for most people to get... When they say there's nothing there [in Holliday's films], there's stuff there they don't understand. It's the old Bob Dylan, "Don't criticize what you don't understand." I dance on everybody's head in my movies. My editor says I have a knack for vaudeville. Who knows?

"I gave up a long time ago thinking in terms of best. I don't compete with anyone at any time. I only compete for the attention of the American public. As long as they buy my movies, I'm happy and I know I'm doing something right. Every critic can rag on every movie I make, but as long as it doesn't affect my sales figures... The one critic who is closest to understanding where I'm coming from is Rich Leather. He's written negative things about me in the past. But he's the one guy who understands most of the Hollidayisms [pop culture trivia through Jim's movies]. They separate my movies from anything else in porn.

"I'm still amazed that no one's brought up the subject of politics and religion as pertains to Jim Holliday's porn movies. It's just far too deep for them to understand.

"When it comes to knowledge on the history of adult cinema, I have, through the cooperation of persons in the industry, been fortunate to become the best there ever was. It's a blessing and curse. Often you feel like that top gun fighter that every little hired gun from Piss Ant, Nebraska, comes looking for. They all want a piece. I've just retreated and become reclusive. It's like Michele Silverstein's song, "Any one of these half-assed misinformed useless clucks can call themselves the winner, because deep down they know that I am the man and they aren't."

"To borrow from Animal House and their favorite college slogan, "Knowledge is Good," porn is good. Dr. Robert Stoller, through no pressure or influence on my part or Bill Margold's part, concluded that porn is basically harmless. And I would've been out of this business 17 years ago if I didn't realize that a helluva lot of Americans get a lot of sexual educational benefits from porn. And I'm in a position where I can control what goes on deep within the industry. People aren't being routinely hurt and victimized and shattered and ruined... At least not to any higher percentage than this country at large.

"I'm the first critic to look at a director's body of work, just like mainstream critics do. You've all got your favorites about which girl you jerk off to... These directors have a certain style and I got so good that despite the different pseudonyms and phony names, whether it was men or women, I could tell you which director did the movie. I've been wrong, but I'd get into a director's head and write from that perspective.

"Hollywood gives Martin Scorcese his due. They rave about Spieldberg and his body of work. And I started doing that in porn because they just don't go out and make f--- films. The better directors say something. Nobody had looked it at that way before.

"I'm often told "Who cares?" A lot of people buy movies based on knowing what they can expect from the director. The leading directors attract fans, though not as many as leading female performers attract fans. After you get past the top dozen female stars, I don't think people get movies based on...[lesser known female performers].

"I used to call Gregory Dark the poor man's Rinse Dream, and it pissed him off. He's got a distinctive style and he's making some statements. You could make the cute quip that Greg always wanted to be a pimp. Gregory Dark's girlfriend Sherese was my secretary before she ever met Greg. Some say his movies seem misogynist, but men and women can be treated like s---. They do it in Hollywood all the time. They do it in porn. I tend these days not to make any such judgments. He's innovative. He's out there like I'm out there, in a different direction.

"People can categorize me as fun and fluff and I tend to stay within sanity. But those people that take the time to listen to the lines in my movies and some of the absurd situations...The interpretations that could be put on the end of The Return of the Cheerleader Nurses... There are half a dozen acceptable explanations on who the characters Kelso and Kilroy were, ranging from aliens from outer space to reincarnations of Christ. I don't care. Someday I may tell people what I had kinda in mind. But so long as people want to speculate, let them.

"The average American fan must think that I live in some kind of Hugh Hefner place with thousands of porno tapes on the wall. I may have 20. Ten movies that I love and respect and a couple that are there because someone asked me to take a look at them and a couple of mine that I'll give to my mechanic..."

Holliday wrote 1982's Top 100 X-Rated Films Of All Time and 1986's Only The Best which sold 40,000 copies before going out of print. It took me hours of searching and dozens of phone calls to get my hands on a copy.

"Everything I ever needed to know about film reviewing," says Holliday, "came courtesy of a caller from Indiana who told me Teenage Pony Girls was a much better film than Misty Beethoven. He probably couldn't name the governor of his own state, but who am I to argue with his opinion? Film evaluation involves the most subjective judgments and there is no right or wrong, just personal opinion. However, I live by the 'any 25 - any 25' principle. More than any other reviewer, I reflect the 'everyman.' Take any 25 films and any 25 random viewers, have them watch and then have them read short and anonymous opinions. I contend that invariably more people will agree with me than with other critics - not because I am a genius, but because I am more like them. Over the years, I have learned what films appeal to what viewers.

"There is no way I know more history than the people like Dave Friedman, Dick Witte and dozens of others who lived through the early days. But they and hundreds of others have allowed me to absorb incredible amounts of information. I now hold more film facts and knowledge of the people than anyone. No brag, just fact.

"A sex film should never lose sight of the fact that it is a sex film. The primary purpose is arousal, not entertainment. Plot, production, acting and entertainment values are wonderful additions but not as important as constantly erotic sex."

Bob Rimmer reviews Jim's Cheerleader Nurses. "Holliday milked a dry cow when he squeezed out this one, it's udder nonsense... His male creations are Joey Silvera as a half-witted Dr. Elvis T. Melbe (who never heard of Elvis Presley) and Ron Jeremy as Doctor Quisling who tells jokes with subtitles so that you can understand them. Example: "Why is a camel called the ship of the desert?" Answer: "It's full of Arab seamen (semen).""

Pat Riley: "Clearly Bob Rimmer is a pin-head, sap-head, alleged film critic who can't understand the superb, subtle brilliance of Jim Holliday's inteligence and should be immediately put out to pasture for not making obeiance at the shrine of Holliday's superior knowledge which is not only representative of "everyman" in his evaluation of porn but extends to rock music. The names in this are deeply thought out allusions to faded music stars or inside jokes that only someone who has spent the last twenty years in the porn business could get... Holliday even gives us (via Debi Diamond) a lecture on who Quisling was and a run down on a series of sports stars via Joey's stolen card collection." (X-Rated Videotape Guide 4)

Rame's Imperator hated Pajama Party 3. "Jim Holliday's latest load of bollocks proes that he has no idea what he's doing when he sits on the director's chair. He may be a decent porn historian ("World famous" says the box - sure, they told us all about him in high school) and he knows more trivia than I, but he can't direct. He sucks. He means well by getting huge casts of good stars - for example, all those "Nurses" disasters - and he gets grandiose plans of showing group scenes, but in practice he destroys it. Pajama Party 3 showcases how Jim squanders a good cast which includes Juli Ashton, Sunset Thomas, Kylie Ireland and Rebecca Bardoux.

"First off, he hypes. After Juli Ashton is off the shot, Holliday starts blabbing... His beard dye job is so bad it looks as if he used shoe polish... The only good thing about this excrement is that I can go back to hating VCA with no remorse."

Adam Film World gave Jim's Stripper Nurses a four out of a possible five star review and a V for volcanic sex. "We explore the goings on at a school for stripper nurses which also seems to be a hospital for amnesiacs and penis enlargement candidates. Another one of Jim Holliday's wacky scripts that works due to the tease elements and relentless hardcore action with an anal emphasis" (AFW 1996 D. p.271)

VCA released Sorority Sex Kittens in 1993 starring Ashlyn Gere, Victoria Paris, Bionca, Madison, Selena Steele, Angela Summers, Melanie Moore, Alexis DeVell, Kelly O'Dell, Shayla LaVeaux, Malia, Teri Diver, Lacy Rose, Tiffany Minx, Summer Knight, Stacey Nichols, Tim Lake, T.T. Boy, Jon Dough, Peter North, Mike Horner, Tony Martino, Sharon Kane, Giselle Climax, Joey Silvera, and E.Z. Ryder. "When fraternity brothers turn up missing over a period of years, it takes an old frat boy (E.Z. Ryder) to sniff out a secret that lurks beneath the surface of this uninhibited sorority where sex and freewheeling love seem to rule the roost. Here's a chance to relive your college days, or fantasize about what college was like (not this, unfortunately!). There's an infectious good-time spirit at work here, making each scene breeze along with tons of energy and heat… There are too many bodies for the finale to connect wit h your groin, but the whole effect is one hell of an erotic good time not to be missed. One of the ten best films of the year for 1993." (AFW 1996 Directory p. 269)

Patrick Riley writes: "You should be watching these movies for the sex and if it tries to succeed on another level it should be evaluated as such. On a mystery level, I don't care what happens so it's a failure there. On a sex level I suppose it depends on how you feel about hard women and multi-girl gropes." (X-Rated Guide 4 p.534)

In Sorority Sex Kittens 2, "We go back to the college a secret sorority seems to be controlling things, much to the dismay of Easy Ed (E.Z. Ryder) who feels the women are hiding something. The prequel is one of the ten best adult films in recent memory. This however is a typical porn sequel. Padded out sex scenes follow one right after the other till the obligatory wrap-up precedes the final big scene. The all-girl orgy that has dozens of stars doing a daisy chain has all the intimacy of a panning surveillance camera. We never stop long enough to lock into what is hot about this pile of pussy putting out…" (AFW 96 D. p.269)

Rimmer: "You have to give Holliday credit, he has tried to give this series a Hollywood style and flair, including a complete story name cast listing at the end of this episode... Jim has tapped an original porno idea." (X-Rated Guide 4, p. 534)

Selwyn Harris says Sorority Sex Kittens 3 carries on the Holliday standard of unfunny comedy mixed with blistering f--- action. No one stages an orgy as skillfully, or no nearly so grand a scale, as Holliday and Sex Kittens 3 boasts his biggest and best yet: 31 naked women mounting and mouthing one another in glorious heaps of pink, a spellbinding avalanche of sapphic mass-carnality..." (Genesis)

Plush released Candy Factory in 1995 and AFW advises "See this one for the sex because the story is patently dumb. Too much unnecessary dialogue."

In Sloppy Seconds, Holliday tries to deliver six encounters and thirteen characters in 75 minutes. It doesn't work. "Holliday has yet to learn that sometimes less is more," notes AFW.

Bionca directed Holliday's Return of the Cheerleader Nurses. Rich C. Leather gives it four out of a possible five stars in AVN 5/94: "While a fair chunk of credit goes to director Bionca and to editor Eric Edwards; scripter/assistant director, and eternal frat boy Holliday's conception and writing of a feature has become a brand-name recognition factor for retailers and fans to rely on for quality X. There is no formula, but there are unmistakable Holliday elements that make for winning porn. There is an air of camaraderie on the set which results in a genuine sexual enjoyment and heat that the viewer can feel. Jim's cardinal rule - "never forget it's a sex film" - is never forgotten. There's also the trademark Holliday mix of erudition and wackiness - when it comes to pop-cultural references, delivered with an engaging mix of zingy laughs and dead-on seriousness, Holliday is the Dennis Miller of porn."

Adam Film World gave Car Wash Angels five out of five stars and a Super-Volcanic rating for its 13 torrid sex scenes. "Holliday could've made two great videos out of this one. He must love giving the people what they want."

Sorority Stewardesses. "It's another chapter in the ongoing saga of the Burton Allen Institute where women are trained for all manner of service employment, here working their way up to stewardesses when they aren't having sex.

"Jim Holliday continues to churn out gash-crammed sexathons with topnotch trim in silly stories.... Plenty of inside jokes and middle American humor with tease, flashing and f--- and suck scenes with no build-up. Just the pud packing facts." (AFW)

Jim Holliday wrote about me in the 9/97 AVN:

"The internet and the s--- associated therewith was suggested. Don't wanna go there yet, other than to say there is only one authorized situation. With all of the geeks and nerds running rampant trying to impress one another by showing off just how much they think they know, while proving the exact opposite, the timing is not right for Jimmy's website… But misinformation is out of control, particularly with all the erroneous female HIV postings. Selena Steele was not and is not positive, no matter what some may try to tell you [a false internet rumor in the Spring of 1997]. I have spoken with her… Even got cosmic brother Margold involved. Rather than rush to judgement, 'tis better to wait, buckos.

I am not referring to adult info gatherers and trivia buffs like Bill Caits and his "son James Foxe in the next sentence. Too many idiots think they comprehend an industry far beyond their frail grasp. I have authorized Bill Margold and only Bill Margold to deal with me and the net for the present.

He may have already posted some kind of challenge to the trolls and toadpatrollers who think they understand more than they do. Margold wanted the two of us to tag team any and all comers on the porno industry and its history. Even though the challenge was issued without my prior approval, I'll gladly back it. My humble guess is that the aftermath would leave all comers emotionally bloodied, bewildered and humiliated beyond belief…

All of those ideas are on hold. But coming soon to this spot: "The disease that won't go away." This particular affliction is not HIV or some type of STD, it's a guy [Luke F-rd]. Actually, more worm than man, a guy who totally violated the code and still doesn't get it. A clue? Has to do with internet abuse, misinformation pushed to the moronic power, absolute and blatant copyright infringement of this magazine and other adult sources. He's past forgiveness and still doesn't get it.

At present, the transgressions and egregious errors are being tabulated for possible future actions, but this treacherous insect, this limelight seeking poseur still doesn't get it. Probably unaware that those who violate the code of privacy get no second chance in pornoland.

Anyone dumb enough to believe that there is a giant conspiracy to hide the supposed fact that many industry women are HIV positive (involving an alleged massive cover-up), or that there are legitimate death threats on his miserable life. Much of the industry is now hip to the smarmy groveling act, the complete insincerity, the posturing of phony blithe innocence to hide the deviousness, and the squirrelly, absolukely (sic) plagiaristic mindset methodology of this dumb f---. Rave on, idiot. And lose the funny little hat, bozo, for just as the rolling stone gathers no moss, your yarmulke garners no sympathy.

In his 7/98 column, Holliday writes:

Attention, Holliday Bashers, particularly mistake a minute and one per review Riley and everyone's least favorite junkie and his fashion fairy sidekick who routinely confuses cashmere, linen and exotic cottons for polyester. I thrive on your contempt or jealousy or whatever, but could y'all answer a couple of questions?

It was brought to my attention that in Riley's latest "King Of Misinformation" tome, appearing among my many pseudonyms is one Martin Brimmer. That could only stem from the fact that I once did my friend Chad Bailey a favor by appearing in a cameo in Dirty Little Lies opposite P.J. Sparxx playing a writer named Brimmer. The real Martin Brimmer won't go on camera since he's a legitimate Hollywood screenwriter. So if Riley, the guy who calls me "industry blowhard" and is responsible for all the venomous spew and judgmental mysoginism toward women in his oft inaccurate star guide, would accept a mild correctional breeze, dozens of movies I've barely heard of could be removed from my humble entry. At least he admits to making mistakes, but still has no idea how wide ranging the errors are.

12/16/04

VCA Director Jim Holliday Dies

I hear Jim Holliday (AKA Jack Nash) died Wednesday of complications from Type II diabetes.

He was taken from the hospital and he died there. I believe he was 56 (born in 1948?).

An announcement about Jim's funeral should come Friday.

Holliday was the industry's premier historian as well as director of many popular porn films that featured ten or more porn girls.

Jim put on an enormous amount of weight in his final years. He weighed over 300 pounds and suffered from diabetes. He would not follow his doctor's instructions.

Over the past couple of years, he had his budgets dramatically cut by VCA. But no other company was interested in hiring him. Many others, such as journalist Mike Albo, critic Pat Riley, and director James DiGiorgio, did not share his inflated view of his directing abilities.

XPT thread

Before he met Rob Spallone, Jim Holliday would tell me Rob was a nut and that I should side with Jim South (then Rob's rival). Then Holliday and Spallone met in the summer of 1999 and Rob became Jim's production manager and buddy.

"Jim Holliday is an institution," AVN president Paul Fishbein told me years ago when I asked him why he published Jim's off-beat columns.

"I've lost my best friend," said Bill Margold at 5:11pm.

"The last time I cried over the phone to you was about Stagliano [on February 9, 1998].

"You're the third person I've called, only because they called me first [VCA, AVN]. Fishbein and Connelly called. That was very touching. I congratuled Connelly for his story. I called [Gene] Ross and congratulated him for his story. Your story is just the way you write.

"How is Rob taking this?"

Luke: "I think he's ok."

"I've been dealing with this since this morning. Eventually I would like to have a service for him, complete with eulogies, probably up in the high desert where he used to like to go and make his movies.

"I've called a couple of his angels. I've spoken with Shayla [LaVeaux] and I've spoken with Selena [Steele?]. I think that will be a form of dominos of other angels [Holliday called his favorite girls "angels"].

"There isn't anybody [in porn] who isn't moved by this. He was bigger than life in more ways than one. The diabetes. He just wasn't going to pay attention to anything like that. He allowed it to eat him up.

"I've had crying jags throughout the day. As Gene [Ross] was perceptive enough to realize we knew it was going to happen."

[I remember in the Spring of 1999, Jim Holliday and I would talk on the phone for hours about how to bury Gene. Jim would allow me to quote him on things to try to hurt Gene. For a while, I was Jim's favorite Internet columnist, then he switched over to Gene. It was more a matter of who Jim hated more at the time than who he liked more.]

"I guarantee you that they are handing out earplugs in heaven.

"He left behind a large body of work that nobody will ever equal. He made marshmellow rainbows with the pot of gold ending in VCA. He understood the purpose of eroticism was to comfort as well as arouse.

"I suggested this to the VCA PR man. He's very nice. Named Shawn. I don't know who he is. Perhaps there should be a scholarship fund for the perpetuation of adult industry studies. We're going to be taught in colleges.

"The guy at VCA seemed so overwhelmed by the story, I needed to deal with him. He's all alone there.

"Jim was a starmaker. Everyone of them was an award winner and some of them are living legends -- the Ashlyn Geres, Victoria Paris, Selena Steele, Porsche Lynn, Angel Kelly, Felecia, Jill Kelly, Sharon Kane...

"I found out at 8:30am. I was called by a detective who I had met at PAW and he wanted to know more about Holliday.

"It's a sad day in the history of this business because he was the history of this business. He was the historian. For him, this industry was a fraternity based on friendship, loyalty, truth and honor. Holliday ranks among the highest of all.

"It makes me scared for the first time. I've been making these laments over people for a long time. I've lost Titus, John Holmes. What the hell are they going to write about me? This is going to be interesting. I have something that Holliday wrote about me. I have to track it down. It's going to fulfill that truth, honor, friendship mentality."

Bill says his last conversation with Jim was Monday. It was about sports -- about Bill's Lions and Jim's 49ers. Jim left a message on Bill's PAW phone number Monday night inquiring about that night's game. Jim wanted to know who was playing. He no longer had a television.

"It's appropriate that the last thing I heard about from him was football.

"Anybody who comes after him now is going to have to answer to me."

Margold would speak to Jim up to a dozen times a day.

Luke: "Did Jim need an intervention?"

Bill: "We would have all liked to have thought about doing it. I even said I might. He was the most private man I ever met. I don't know where he lives.

"He never thought he'd get to 40 and he was surprised he got to 50."

Luke: "Did you ever meet his family?"

Bill: "He had none. The X-rated industry was his family. As the X-rated industry is my family.

"He once said cryptically to me, before you got into the business, that as a team, we were absolutely unbeatable. Woebetide anybody who did anything wrong to this business because they would have to answer to both of us.

"He was irreplacable and irreproachable.

"If you watched his movies, he had an arsenal of cryptology that the greatest codebreakers in the world couldn't figure out. When I was acting in his movies, I would make up my own cryptology on top of his cryptology."

Luke: "Did he have girlfriends within the industry?"

Bill: "I don't know. I don't think he became emotionally involved within this business because I think he knew better."

Luke: "Has he had a significant other since you've know him?"

Bill: "No. He was his own significant other. The best company he ever kept in his life was with himself."

Luke: "Why do you think he was so private?"

Bill: "The industry in general, and you are too, you wear your heart on your sleeve, we are all lonely people in a crowd. He took it to a different level. We are very scared. Our number one fear is rejection. We build up wall after wall to prevent the rejection. Anybody who might reject us, we just prefer to not deal with them at all.

"It's been a tough year for me. This whole thing with Free Speech [Coalition, from which Margold resigned under pressure] and losses of friends. Bill Liebowitz's death...

"You didn't really get to know him. Because of your reputation, you fell out with him. You said once that one of the things you regretted the most was [the loss of] our relationship. If you had not done that [written about Bill's comments on Stagliano February 9, 1998, Bill believed they were off-the-record] things would've been different. Stagliano didn't deserve it. Stagliano is the only person I've referred to as a genius in this industry.

"We've bookended our conversations with tears. I cried the day I told you about Stagliano. This is even more painful. This is 25 years..."

Luke: "Tell me about the day you met Jim Holliday?"

Bill: "I was working at 6912 Hollywood Blvd [at Reb Sawitz's Pretty Girl International] as an agent. Jim came in and admitted to me that he was a fan. He wanted to meet me because he was going to be doing this book about the business. You know me when people are doing books about the business. As the sainted Kat Sunlove [of the FSC] refers to me, I'm a media whore. I'll talk to the devil.

"Jim and I hit it off immediately based on our mutual admiration of sports. We became inseperable. We went to screenings together. When he needed a place to say, he moved into an apartment at the back of 8231 De Longpre.

"He and Viper [the love of Bill's life] had an interesting relationship. They would go into conversations that would last hours.

"Then he couldn't arrange for her to be in the first Sorority Pink or the second Stairway to Heaven. I was disgusted. I eliminated him from my life about the same time Viper left. He went to the Valley. I've always said that people go to the Valley to die."

Luke: "How is your living situation?"

Bill: "I don't like it. It is more of a prison than an apartment because it isn't where you met me [in January 1996]."

Luke: "How is your health?"

Bill: "It is better than Jim Holliday's."

We laugh.

Bill: "He was not in any way, shape or form foreboding. You should've gotten to know the man."

I spent about 50 hours of my life talking to Holliday.

"It's going to be a long time until we stop seeing Holliday's name in print."

Video Team owner Christian Mann said to AVN, “I’ll never forget his eulogy at John Holmes’ funeral. The opening line was: ‘John was a liar.’ Classic Jim Holliday. I wonder what the opening line will be in his eulogy, or who will deliver it?”

Former porn journalist Hart Williams responds to my email:

I didn't know that he'd died. These are my instantaneous thoughts: Jim Holliday irrationally and maliciously engaged in a campaign to assassinate my writing and film career within the industry within hours of my meeting him in Bill Margold's living room in April of 1984. I never understood why -- nor did Margold ever explain it, except to make sure that we were never at his place at the same time.

This was odd, since I'd been writing for men's magazines since 1978, and Holliday had, at that time, *never* been legitimately published. "Only The Best," was published by his employer, who was not, normally, in the business of publishing. [He also published the pamphlet: "The top 100 X-rated films of all time: The first handbook of its kind."] His career as a "writer" only began a couple of years after that. I think at the time he'd written a Shauna Grant screenplay, but, as I am continually reminded, writing porn scripts isn't exactly "writing." (Fifteen pages interspersed with "SEX SCENE: A & B" isn't exactly G.B. Shaw.)

This isn't unusual in writing, as many a tyro spends a lot more time building their "rep" as a writer and impressing those around them with their literary chops before actually seeing that paycheck for writing, which I always took as the essential validation of this odd profession. Lots of people talk the talk, but if somebody pays for your writing, then you're walking the walk.

During the entire time that I knew Holliday, I paid my rent and clothes and food with writing money, and he never did. Still ...

His quoted remarks over the years that I saw seemed to indicate that he was never a man afflicted with humility, and loved to state that he believed himself superior to most everybody else in the world -- a stance not entirely guaranteed to win friends and influence people. He had some fetish about "Skull Mountain" where I take it he used to get drunk in high school or college. There is an "in-group" reference to it in the pamphlet "Only the Best."

His film career and columns in AVN came later, so I never had any professional interaction with him.

His various attacks on my career were legion between 1984 and 1987. In fact, at the first meeting of XRCO (which I missed because of an emergency), Holliday made certain that the admission requirements were carefully tailored to exclude me. I ignored it, and never bothered trying to fight it. He spent several years disparaging James Avalon, dismissing him (when he created and edited the ADAM FILM WORLD GUIDE) as "the Inch." Something on the order of how if He, Holliday, was the "Yardstick" by which porn history and criticism was measured (his self-appointed title) then Avalon was "the Inch."

Margold evidently forced the XRCO to accept Holliday as their "Historian" since he was far less qualified than I for membership, but, as I say, it was a non-issue to me. It irked, but not being in the "boys club" never caused me lost sleep.

I think you get the idea. I tend not to like people who try to destroy me professionally, but he seemed a personable fellow at the time, and intellectually gregarious. I never had the opportunity to know him better, except via the various slanders reported to me over the years.

I was amused to see him inducted into the XRCO Hall of Fame a few years ago.

Beyond that, I am loathe to speak ill of the dead (I have tried to be factual here, but you can probably guess my feelings), except, perhaps to quote Sun Tzu:

"Sit by the river long enough and the body of your enemy will float by."

I imagine that his mother loved him, but I don't know who else might have.

I just read Connelly's Holliday obit on AVN. Dear Lord: Does he realize that quoting himself kind of sort of undermines his self-serving quotes from Holliday on Connelly's "integrity"?

Well, porn journalism will never approach journalism, I suppose.

I look forward to seeing more trees sacrificed in the name of "Saint Holliday." Or, as Mark Weiss (who Holliday continually disparaged and put down, but whose pencil-box Holliday was not fit to carry), called him: Jim-Jack-Holliday-Nash. (His real name was Jack Nash.)

Gene Ross reports:

Holliday would usually call me at 11 pm or so but over the months his golden vocal chords- one of his great gifts- were shot. Holliday's speech had been reduced to a cracked, hoarse whisper and he was telling me about how Health Services had come to visit him that morning, how he was confined to bed unable to move, his feet swollen. Holliday couldn't even drive- he had someone doing that for him. I could tell that Holliday was sinking fast and it was only a matter of time.

Malachi Ecks from VCA writes on ADT:

Slightly unhinged and mysterious, yet beloved director Jim Holliday passed away, yesterday. He died in a hospital of a heart attack.

Jim Holliday was a mysterious character who has been in the business for over 15 years. His features, mostly bizarre sex romps featuring numerous girls, helped to make him the man he will be remembered as.

His method was to shoot three features at one time, with no one really knowing exactly how they would end up except for him. Young girls, anal, rimming, toe sucking, pigtails, cheerleaders, nurses, sororities, and pink nail polish interjected with oftentimes off-kilt, strange dialogue about sports, politics, grifitng and anything else, was his style.

I was always straight-up with Jim and in return he gave me respect. I for one will miss him.

Rob Spallone calls me at 3:39pm: "I speak to him about ten times a day. Every day. And every day, I keep telling people this guy is going to die. Two days ago, I spoke to him about ten times. He'll be on the phone and he'll start snoring.

"He'll call me up and say there are people in his room. 'Rob, I can relate to you because you believe in that stuff, right?' Yeah, yeah, yeah.

"Last week when he called, he told me there were a whole bunch of cops in his house. I asked him, what are they doing? He says they're standing here. I was believing him. 'They're not saying nothing. They're just standing here. And the VCA art department is in my back room.' That's when I know he's nuts.

"The other day, there was a girl sleeping in his closet and another guy sleeping on his couch. They built him a thing to sleep on the floor.

"Nobody knows where he lives, not even Bill Margold. He never drove home twice the same way. A few weeks ago, I called Bill Margold. 'I think he's drinking or he's dying.' Then last week Jim called and said they wanted to have an intervention. 'You've got to stop them.'

"I said, Jim, how are you feeling? He says, I'm fine. I said, maybe we can help you. No, no, no. Then I found out he died."

Luke: "How long was he crazy for?"

Rob: "For the past three months. He calls me ten times a day."

Luke: "What do you remember from your last conversation with him?"

Rob: "He was talking sports. He wanted to know how he could get me back in on his shoot because they gave him a movie to shoot next month. I said, Jim, you can't. He said, why? I said, because the orders came straight from Larry Flynt."

Luke: "Was he a drunk?"

Rob: "I heard he was years ago. I didn't know him then. I've been with him 20 times and I've never seen him drink. But when he called me with these conversations three months ago, I said to Margold that I think he's drinking. Margold said no, his liver or his kidneys are failing. That's what makes him hallucinate.

"I'm talking to the guy and he's slurring and can't even talk. Bill hasn't seen him. Jim was calling me the other day -- 'I haven't heard from Bill all week.'

"Nobody even knows anything about this guy. I think he was a fugitive."

Luke: "Did he ever talk about family?"

Rob: "No. He talked about his college days. His best friends were me and Margold. He was lonely. He hadn't left his house in five months. The other day he told me his legs were bothering him."

Luke: "He got really fat."

Rob: "We have no clue. He was huge the last time I saw him. Now for five months just sitting in the house..."

Luke: "Why do you think he liked you so much?"

Rob: "Because I listened to him."

Luke: "Was he happy?"

Rob: "No."

Luke: "What did he normally complain about?"

Rob: "Hustler. He hated Mark Hamilton. They wouldn't take his phone calls. Do you know who was good to him? Russ [Hampshire] and Jack [Gallagher]. If they could've gotten him into a hospital, Russ and Jack would've paid the bill in a second. Without them, where would he be?

"I remember when I first went to work for them [VCA], Russ said, Rob, I need you to do me a favor. I want you to produce Holliday's shoots because he can't get along with anybody. Maybe you can keep him under control.

"And everyone in the office thought I was crazy. That I wouldn't last ten minutes with him. We were going to the desert with him for the first one for five days. And I got along with him just fine.

"He said that Hamilton has been stroking him along for months. Yeah, we're going to give you a movie. Then finally, the other day, Jim called me and said they gave him a movie."

At 4pm Thursday, I call Russ Hampshire on his cell phone in Hawaii.

A gruff voice says, "Yello."

Luke: "I wanted to get a comment on the passing of Jim Holliday."

Russ: "I don't know what to tell you. I got nothing to say right now. I don't know anything about it. Somebody just called [that was me] and left a message. I've got to call somebody and find out what happened. I'm on vacation."

I called the last number (818-883-0207 in Canoga Park, Pacific Bell) for Jim Holliday. His voice sounds slurred: "No one is currently available to deal with your call. Leave a message. Your called will be returned."

I last saw Jim Holliday on May 21, 2003. He threatened to have me beaten up if I wrote about him. I wrote about him. Jim did nothing except to complain about me to Gene Ross:

11:50AM: I see VCA owner Russell Hampshire driving home from VCA.

I spot VCA's head of sales Marty Turkel. I sit beside him in the sun and get that calm easy feeling. Marty and I have been friendly for years.

Jim Holliday walks out to smoke a cigarette. He's put on an enormous amount of weight. He refuses to let me take a picture. He believes that fans will stop buying his movies if they see how fat he's become.

Luke: "How's Jim Holliday?"

Jim: "Jim Holliday? Who's that? I'm Eddie Cantrell."

Jim's also become increasingly paranoid over the year. He warns me that if I write about him, he will take care of me "old school," meaning I will be beat up.

He says he will sue me if I take a picture because he won't sign a model release. I'm a news photographer not a commercial photographer. I don't need releases to take and publish photos in connection with news stories I report.

Eddie Cantrell is one of Jim's many fake names for himself.

He's been a recluse the past few years. He points out there have been no articles about him in the porn press.

He complains about his enormous workload and how his helpers want to charge him a half-day's pay just to run a script or tape over to another company.

As long as I've known him, Jim's been feeling the load of weighty responsibilities.

Jim starts talking about that "nigger" [Jayson Blair] who made up a bunch of stories at the New York Times. Jim says it will destroy the credibility of the "liberal" New York Times for 50 years.

Holliday starts a harangue about how evil I am, how I'm going to get everybody locked up in the next one to three years.

Jim says I am evil. That I have evil theories on the industry. Jim barrels over Marty who sits back and enjoys his cigarette.

Holliday remembers an argument we had five years ago about interracial. Jim says I argued with him for two hours that the federal government ought to force white girls "to f-ck niggers."

Jim uses the word "nigger" a lot but adamently rejects any inferences that he is racist.

Marty says there are white niggers.

I point out that many black males call their fellow blacks "niggers." Country did that to me today.

Jim says that it is racist to make it socially acceptable for blacks to call blacks "niggers" but not allow whites to do the same.

Jim rarely includes blacks in his movies.

I don't believe the man is racist. He knows what the fans want.

He makes movies that sell phenomenally.

He's phenomenally organized on his shoots. He may have 20 beautiful high-salaried porn girls on his set on one day and he'll move them all through their scenes with haste.

Jim wonders if I'm allowed on the VCA property. Everyone looks at each other. Nobody knows. Russell isn't here. Somebody suggests that Russell be called and notified I'm on the property.

I lie and claim Marty said it was ok for me to be here.

I don't think I've screwed Russell in the past few weeks, so depending on his mood, he might be ok with me sitting here. Jim's not.

Rob Spallone walks out of VCA and he looks at me with a shock that turns to anger. He wants to get me out of here. He has many connections at VCA. He serves as Jim Holliday's production manager.

Rob yells at me: "Don't write about Jim Holliday. Now get out of here. I'll take you to lunch."

We go to San Carlo Italian Deli, a reputed hangout for wiseguys and pornographers. I used to have my picture on the wall here. The folks behind the counter says Vivid's head of sales, Howard Levine, took it down.

Howard says Marty at VCA should call him when the Larry Flynt Publications take-over of VCA is complete and Howard will give him tips on the transition.

Rob: "I told you to get the f--- out of VCA and leave Jim Holliday alone. He makes the best movies in the business."

Rob gets a call from Jim Holliday who tells him not to let me write about him.

Rob: "I will do my best but sometimes he just don't listen to me."

Rob turns to me: "Listen to me. That was Jim Holliday. He says that if you print one thing about him, you're going to get the beating of your life."

Rob tells me not to print a thing about Jim Holliday because then Rob is going to be mad at me and Jim is going to kill me.

I have not spoken to Jim since then. Between 1997-2001, we spent about ten hours on the phone. He wanted to keep that quiet. He complained a lot about AVN. He seemed to hate AVN more than he hated me but he had so many hatreds that things got confused.

Jim was a great talker. He'd get the phone numbers of his favorite porn girls, the ones he wanted to cast, and call them up and talk for hours. Many of them did not appreciate it and fled from his calls.

Jim had many feuds including with myself, Gene Ross and Mike Albo at various times.

The below is an excerpt from an interview on GeneRossextreme.com, dated Tuesday 6/25/02:

Gene Ross interviews Veronica Caine regarding Sorority Sex Kittens 5:

Caine: I'm sure there's a multitude. But I only had experience with one that stands out like a sore thumb in my memory. That would be Jim Holliday- VCA, blonds, all the bulls---. He's a piece of work. The last time I worked for him which will probably be why it's the last time I worked for him, he had a couple of incidents that happened on a shoot. One of them was a personal conversation between the two of us where he was explaining to me why it's not a good idea 'to burn coal' as he claims. For those of you who don't know, that means having sex with black people.
He proceeded to tell me how Jim Kelly has never burned coal and never will. Sure, she might get one or two more black fans bit she would lose 40% of her fans- he had it narrowed down to those exact figures- that it would be 40% of her fans she'd lose if she ever touched a black dick.
This is the guy who's writing me a paycheck in the next couple of days so I'm just nodding my head, thinking you fat, f---ing bigot. But I'm smiling going okay, right. Talk to you later.
The very next day I'm on his set again. I'm involved in this shoot where there's one black girl Diana Devoe in the scene: five girls all told, four white, one black. We're all having sex with Evan Stone who's seated in chair. We're merry-go-rounding around him. Another girl who was sitting behind the monitor with Jim Holliday watching the action got very upset because he turned to her and said we should have the black girl go last because the white girls aren't going to want to touch the cock after the black girl has touched it. Basically after she's put her mouth and vagina on it that it would be "too dirty" for us clean, white girls to be touching. He had apparently made enough of these comments that she stood up in the middle and began screaming at him. She basically told him to the effect that I'm f---ing sick of you. I can't stand you anymore. I don't want to f---in' hear your f---in bulls--- racist remarks anymore. I'm f---in outta her. f--- you. Which of course caught the attention of everyone in the building.
The rest of the afternoon was spent by Jim Holliday trying to approach everyone individually or as a group expressing the fact that he's never been a racist and would never say any racist comment. This is less than 24 hours after the burning coal bulls--- conversation I had with him. And he's just kissing everyone's ass. Because his main cameraman's black. His left hand woman, his assistant is married to the black cameraman. He really wanted to cover his ass and make it seem like he would never say anything discriminatory like that. I noticed he averted his eyes from me because I'm sure he remembered we had this conversation and wouldn't ask if I remembered him saying...because he knew I would be like, well, yesterday....
Gene: And you completed the scene despite those circumstances.
Caine: We completed the scene. Diania Devoe and I are real friendly and we talked afterwards. She just shook her head like what are you going to do. Anyway it was amusing for me to here that among other problems this is one of the things that people seem to be noticing what's lacking in Jill Kelly and I'm sure VCA and probably Vivid too in their cable stuff. Whoever these people are that are buying and selling the cable movies that have this control over exactly what people want to see, they're not in tune with what people want. If you're putting out pure white with no brown or black no nothing mixed , who's really watching that? Just white people. Do only white people like porn? I don't understand. When people get all ignorant on me like that, I'm flustered. I've obviously kept this incident inside. When I go to work with a really cool guy like Daren James or Mr. Marcus, and I think there's people out there that are saying I'm not going to hire him; or we don't do that here, that's just bulls---. People are trying to make a living in this business like we all are. Who's to say what people do or don't want to see.

Jim expressed a lot of skepticism about the Internet to me. For about a year (1998-1999), he said I was to be his Internet representative. He wanted to talk to Viper. I could never find her to hook them up.

Jim talked to me about setting up his own website where people would have to pay to chat with him. He talked about updating his book Only The Best.

I first learned of Jim Holliday in the book PORN by Dr. Robert Stoller. Holliday has been a long time friend of Bill Margold though they had a falling out for a few years.

I first met Jim in March of 1996. We did a two-hour interview and then spoke intermittently. He was gratified that I know who he was and what he knew, but as Margold related to me later, "You did not behave with the proper subservience."

Jim was surly and difficult. Conversations had to be all about him. They weren't really conversations. He would go on and on. He would take his words and pour them down your throat whether you wanted them or not.

Dr. Samuel Stetson did much of the research for Holliday's book Only The Best.

Jim shared a home with Gail Palmer (Harry Mohney's former girlfriend) on a platonic basis for years in the 1980s.

I called Dr. Sam Stetson Thursday afternoon at his home in Arlington, VA. He lives five miles from the Pentagon.

In his 1986 book, Holliday called Stetson his mentor.

Sam is sad to hear the news. "I'm not surprised. The last time Margold talked to me, he said he was over 300 pounds and he had diabetes and he wouldn't follow the doctor's advice. That's a tragedy.

"When I knew him [Holliday], he was a very nice guy. His personality changed.

"We were close. I did most of the background research on the films for the book Only The Best. He did the writing and the selection. He knew the people who I didn't know. It was all by telephone.

"At that time (circa 1984), he was a salesman for Wonderful World of Video (owned by Harry Mohney). Jack Gallagher ran the company at the time. Jack went over to Sydney Niekirk, but their offices were above the Cave Theater on Hollywood Blvd. You had to walk through the theater to get up to the offices.

"Jim was a telephone salesman. When I called there inquiring about a film, we got to talking and he realized that I was more interested in the research than anything. He put out a couple of small books before that.

"I had access to a private collection here of about 300 films. My interest was in identifying people. He knew the people but he didn't know what they were in. There were so many psuedonyms. Identifying women was difficult because a woman could change her hair or make-up and it would make a radical difference in her appearance.

"I was fascinated in tracking down the actresses I liked. I loved this girl. I wanted to get more movies of her. I started sending Jim the cast list of the films I viewed. They were all BETA. The big old BETA machines had no slow motion or still frame. It was a great deal of work, thousands of hours of research.

"In a page on identification, he talks more about me and how we got together."

Sam and Jim had a falling out circa 1994.

Sam: "It wasn't a falling out. He became rather paranoid. When the book came out, I was a little disappointed that I didn't get more recognition."

I remember Jim calling me in 1999 to say he had had a brief telephone conversation with Sam at Margold's house but he didn't want anything more to do with him because, according to Jim, Sam had broken his trust by giving out his phone number.

I gave out Jim's VCA number (with Jim's permission) to several journalist over the years but Jim would never talk to them.

Dr. Stetson (a PhD in engineering) turns 81 next month.

I email Mark Hamilton (he helped run VCA after Russ Hampshire sold it to LFP in 2003) of LFP for comment. He replies:

Hi Luke,

Obviously we're all very sad. A number of people at VCA knew Jim for many years.

Jim was not in the best of health for the last few months, but was really eager to get back to work and full of ideas. In fact, we were chatting only two days ago about a new series that Jim was in pre-production on.

Jim was also a wealth of knowledge about the history of the industry, and was without doubt one of the most popular VCA directors within the last 25 years. Everyone at VCA will miss him greatly.

PS. One other note, Luke. While it's true that his budgets were cut back a little over the last couple of years, Jim was always the first one to come up with a suggestion as to how we could be creative within the budgets. He never took these requests personally, and instead try to find a way to work within the budget given to him.

I walked a fine line with Jim over the years. On the one hand, I valued his knowledge of the industry. On the other hand, he was pompous beyond belief. I usually stayed on the side of staying in his good graces to the extent I could while still telling as much of the story as possible.

From 1997-98, we had a falling out (Jim blasted me in an AVN column for breaking the code by revealing porn stars real names) repaired at the World Pornography Conference in August of 1998.

12/17/04

World Modeling On Friday

I stopped by Jim South's talent agency shortly before noon Friday, December 17, the day after news broke that porn historian and director Jim Holliday had died Wednesday.

I passed the open door of Protecting Adult Welfare. Bill Margold sat alone and glum.

I walked into World Modeling. With just Jim South and Jim Jr. it seemed empty.

Jim Sr is on the phone to TT Boy. "She was only doing girl-girl," Jim says, "but she got offered $1500 to do boy-girl."

Luke: "How did you meet him?"

Jim Sr: "I met Jim Holliday [in the mid-to-late 1980s]. This was when it was just me and [Reb Sawitz's agency] Pretty Girl International. He was on the board of directors of the XRCO. When I joined them, it was a new thing for an agent, he looked at me with a grin... I had met him briefly but I did not remember his face. He stuck his hand over the table on the stage that he was on and said, 'Thank you for coming along on this. I guess now I've met the main agent I'm going to deal with.'

"I was impressed with the guy. He's always been extremely honest and understanding. All the girls love working for him."

Luke: "Why did they love working for him?"

Jim: "Jim could impress them with his movies. He did some great movies. He was an excellent director. He had a way of being truthful with the girl... Girls would make him deals [give him reduced rates] because he would use them over and over again.

"He used to call me the day after a shooting and say he was going to VCA to put in a request for a check. Let me give you the cast list I used. That's unheard of."

Luke: "When did you last talk to him?"

Jim: "Either Tuesday or Wednesday morning. He sounded medicated. He was rambling. I assume he was in pain. He told me that Bill Margold had not returned his call and he had left him several calls. He said he was using his arm now and it wasn't hurting as bad, the position that he had it in.

"I thought, ohmigod. We've gotten to this."

Luke: "When did you last see him?"

Jim: "In the last month of two. I had love for him. I had two conversations with him, like a father, about his weight. I said, Jim, you're killing yourself. You've got to lose weight.

"He was receptive a little bit. Other people had mentioned it. Let us not dwell on it.

"The adult industry has lost a great man. Whether it is on a personal level. The fun that we used to have when he used to tell me who he was betting on, because he bet a lot. All the way up to him making sure I had a complete casting list."

Luke: "Did he hold casting calls here?"

Jim: "Almost always. He was always invited. He used Bill Margold's office and chain-smoked the whole time he was in there."

Luke: "Did you visit his home?"

Jim: "I don't know anybody who knows where he lives. Bill and I were talking about this a month or two ago. Bill said, he's very sick. I'm afraid he's dying. I don't even know where he lives. God forbid if something would happen. Bill told me this morning that the manager of the building found him and she called the police.

"Somebody asked me yesterday if I had heard from Jim lately and I honestly said, he's dying. But it is so hard to accept. Just like when I went to the pre-wake for Bobby Hollander. I think he died three or four days after that."

Luke: "How do you think Jim would like to be remembered?"

Jim: "As a person who loved the adult industry and loved to direct."

I think World Modeling is the only talent agency that does not take fees from the talent. The others charge the talent from 10-50% of their porn earnings.

World Modeling has employed a couple of drivers and is getting more aggressive in keeping and recruiting talent and taking a personal interest in their careers and making sure their girls are seen by those who can employ them.

12:15pm. I sit down with Bill Margold and remember Jim Holliday.

Bill talks about how he likes to unlock the zippers of the mind. "Holliday's zippers were made out of velcro," says Bill. "Mine were made out of barbed wire."

Death takes a Holliday

By Tod Hunter

Jim Holliday, writer, director, historian of the adult film industry, reportedly died this week, according to the predictable-dreck story over at AVN.com.

I knew Jim Holliday, not well – did anybody know him well? – but many were the times that I would come into my cubicle at AVN and see my message light flashing from another wee-hours rant from "Idiot Boy," as he called himself, railing about sports (about which I know nothing), old mainstream movies, old porn movies, who was the best director out there, besides himself, of course, because he would get crowds as big as any of the girls when he went out on a signing. He was the only guy I knew who could go from Howard Hawks to François Truffaut to Gerard Damiano without missing a beat.

I always hesitated to call him back because he was loquacious as hell, and although he was an excellent raconteur it was like being in the Bellagio buffet: This is great stuff but I have to stop eventually. I called him back, many times, and enjoyed the hell out of it, but eventually hung up the phone feeling stuffed, sated, and eager to do it again when I was ready. He also told me that I was the only person at AVN who "got it," which may be another reason I made those return calls.

His movies spoke for themselves: Brightly-lit, filled with his "Angels" (busty blondes with sunny smiles and cheery attitudes), and loaded with snarky in-jokes and clever innuendo, along with the sex. Some people at AVN didn't like his stuff – the absence of brutality, forced throat-f---ing, double-anals, and other such elements that defined "porn" to some reviewers meant that Holliday videos would gather dust in the review closet until I came in – but I enjoyed them, and so did a lot of other people. Even if Holliday overstated his sales and fan base, he was kept on staff at VCA for years, so he must have been selling something.

I was on one of his last sets, over at Skye Blue's studio. A kitten had wandered in, and he shot the girls playing with it. Before setting up a 30-foot tracking shot of a cheerleaders' locker room, he gathered the cast together for the obligatory class picture, and then invited several of the onlookers to pose with the girls, for a keepsake picture of one guy with 20 naked porn performers.

I turned down the offer. Not sure why, now. I would have had a tangible memento of Jim now if I had taken him up on it.

Damn.

Ave atque vale, Jim.

CHIEF JIMMY WHITE MOCCASINS GOES TO HAPPY HUNTING GROUND

Mike Albo writes on AdultStarsNews.com:

Jim Holliday has died due to complications arising from type II diabetes. According to what I've heard, he had been in failing health for over a year, but resolutely avoided taking care of himself. If that's true, it was a typical Holliday move.

Jim was a unique individual, to say the least. I first spoke to him back in 1993 when I had just started working at Hustler Erotic Video Guide. I had turned in my ballot for the XRCO Awards, and Jim called to tell me that I had "got it." What that meant was that my votes met with his approval. Or something like that. It was hard to follow because, over the course of that conversation, Jim ping-ponged from subject to subject like a tweaker with ADD. One minute he was talking about the XRCO, the next he was nattering on about early '60s rocker Del Shannon. And he was relentless. He just kept talking. For over an hour. Still he was entertaining. A real character.

A couple of Jim's movies were reviewed in HEVG around that time, and received positive ratings...opinions not shared by the reviewers at Hustler. Jim would call and rail about the "pinheads" who didn't understand his "fun and fluff" epics. He had a particular dislike for Hustler Editorial Director Allan MacDonell, claiming he'd "bitch slap" Allan if he ever saw him and that Allan only kept his job thanks to Holliday's benevolence. According to Jim, he could have "anybody fired at any time."

Holliday also had a habit of calling at all hours, usually identifying himself by one of his many nicknames: Jimmy White Moccasins, The Velvet Hammer, The Golden Ghost, etc.

But then Holliday took exception to a couple of reviews and comments that appeared in the magazine, and added me to his list of perceived enemies. Oh, well. What are you going to do?

Some things I'll remember about Holliday: Sitting in the bar at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas during CES with Holliday, David Christopher, Bobby Hollander, Howard Levine and others and listening in horror as Holliday rattled on about the Holocaust. "I'm not saying it didn't happen...I just question the numbers." This to a table of mainly Jewish dudes. Oh, and Holliday never bought a round. "When I'm in Vegas, I'm America's guest."

Another year, and another CES show, following the AVN Awards, I bought a few "coke and ryes" for an already drunken Holliday who spent his time buttonholing passers-by and asking them if they knew the name Jim Holliday. Most did not. Holliday was convinced that these midwestern housewives and such were all lying. I don't think they were.

Holliday liked to boast, and he certainly came up with some doozies. According to him, he was once the youngest head basketball coach in the NCAA. He "invented" the trend of wearing painter's pants. He wore sunglasses at night before anybody else did. He had a cult following that numbered in the "hundreds of thousands." He was a certified "genius." He could walk into "any diner and go home with any waitress" to which he took a liking. And on and on he'd go for as long as anyone would care to listen.

Most of Holliday's rap was pure bulls---, but it could be entertaining bulls--- if one was in the right mood to hear it.

But, like I said, Holliday was a character. A real character. Even at his most obnoxious, he was entertaining as only a true character can be. Later, Chief. May your white moccasins tread easy on the happy hunting ground.

Over the past few years, Gene Ross had many conversations with the late Jim Holliday. Now he's publishing them on Adultfyi.

We In Ohio Knew About Jim Holliday

Dino writes 3/1/05:

Luke, I just found out about Jim Holliday's death yesterday. I am emailing you after reading your article about Jim Holliday that you posted on www.lukeisback.com.

I knew Jim in the 70's while he was living in Athens, Ohio. I was able to connect with Jim again over the past two years with Jill Kelly's help. She passed along over the telephone an email message that I sent her that had some cryptic information that only Jim would know just to let him know that he wasn't being pimped.

We were fraternity brothers at Ohio University in the 70's and fellow Yellow Snow. Yellow Snow was a name for our fraternity's sports teams that was created by Jim that we used to pimp on other fraternities and sororities. Actually, Yellow Snow lived on after Jim's departure from Ohio and became a big thing on campus for a few years.

I knew Jim when he was Bill Carleson (his real name) and when his current alias was Jack Nash. He was the proctor of the Delta Upsilon fraternity house and he generally oversaw the goings on of our fraternity. Your article with your descriptions of him reminds me of many memories of the times we had those years in Ohio.

Anyway, I thought I would email you to thank you for putting the information out there about Jim. There were about 6 people from Ohio that Jim kept in touch with. I was one of the lucky ones that he called every month or so over the past two years.

I actually received a call from him while I was in Las Vegas on December 9th. I was at a sports book and could not talk long, but could tell his ramblings were stranger than usual. I was shocked to hear that he passed away only a few days later.