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So far, as National Cheerleading Monthheads into its final week, we’ve uncovered cheerleaders as they’ve become increasingly more adult—from high school to college to the pros. Now let’s finish with how the real pros ‘do it’!
“So you didn’t know cheerleaders were porn stars?” headlined an article by former professional pom-pom and current sports reporter Shannon Kelly {below left 2nd from left with teammates}.
“Well I wasn’t a porn star back in my cheerleading days, but today a group of Toronto Sun readers who despise half-naked women are appalled by a recent story showcasing the Toronto Argos cheerleader shoot {Shannon’s at left in both images}.
And Kelly’s not above giving a piece of her mind—after star rival running back Avon Cobourne of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats retweeted the team fans’ chant during a game against Toronto: “How do we like the Argos? On their knees! How do we like their cheerleaders? The same way please!”
“Avon Cobourne, I am shaking my head in disgust at you,” the cheerleader turned blogger blasted him. “Really?! You think that was ok?! Are you single? If not, you should be now. I am certain the league will be doing something about this (which I will jump up and down for, with poms!). Those girls have more talent in their pinky than you have. Done. Moving along ….”
Which Shannon did … rooting for the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL … even when they weren’t X•actly doing great: “So we suck,” Kelly conceded—sounding lots like a cheerleader turned porn star! “Even worse than the Bills suck. Thumbs up for sucking!”
And now she gets to suck up to young stars like Dak Prescott (above left) as a journalist covering the Cowpokes for Canadian TV. Along with fellow 2016 rookie Ezekial Elliot, they were “giving me all the feels”—which harkened back to when she cheered for charity at Toronto’s game benefiting breast cancer (above right). “As a female with ta-ta’s,” Shannon blogged, “this night means the world to me.”
Ironically, an actual porn star with the same name—Shannon Kelly—also rooted hard for the Cowboys!
Unlike the reporter, that’s not her real name … Shannon McCabe is … though she was upfront about her bi-curious nature when she approached Sleuth about posing in 2002: “I love men, but I do find women to be enjoyable to look at and sometimes play with!” the former cheerleader chuckled. “I had my first girl-girl experience with my best friend in college”—almost looks like the other Shannon Kelly (above middle)!
In the words of Wikipedia: “The revamped and provocative Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders of the early 1970s—and the many imitators that followed—firmly established the cheerleader as an American icon of wholesome sex appeal.” Weight … we can think of a few X•ceptions!
“In response,” Wiki continues, “a new subgenre of exploitation films suddenly sprang up with titles such as The Cheerleaders (1973) and The Swinging Cheerleaders (1974).
Though tame by today’s standards—and softcore in nature—The Cheerleaders is considered “the barely-legal bonanza of all such epics,” writes reviewer Gary Hertz. “The movie single-handedly lit the fuse and set the bar for the entire genre. The women are hot, the sex is almost constant and the dialog is often quite inventive” {penned by a well-known Hollywood screenwriter, using the nom de plume Ace Baandige}.
The plot is sure to thicken male viewers: “When reluctant virgin Jeannie (the delicious Stephanie Fondue) joins the Amorosa High cheerleaders, she’s welcomed into their wild world of teenage teases, lesbian love, horny jocks and more.”
Fondue is clearly a ‘cheesy’ stage name—she was actually “a free-spirited actress” from Iceland named Enid Finnbogason, who now manages a Manitoba nightclub.
“Jeannie feels uncomfortable being the only virgin on the cheerleading squad,” the synopsis states, “and clumsily attempts to lose her virginity in one botched plan after another. It turns out the school janitor is also the local drug dealer, pimp and bookie—who makes plans for Amorosa to lose the season’s big championship game against Central High by having the entire football team crash the cheerleaders’ slumber party over at Jeannie’s place.”
As one raunchy reviewer remarked: “The girls, predictably, are so pleased with the unexpected windfall of varsity cock that they proceed to fuck every member of the team unconscious!” (below).
Frontal and center in the pro•seedings is black beauty Jovita Bush—and yes, Jovita Anita Bush is the busty sepia starlet’s real name!
And she’s got a real frame … first revealing her knockers by the lockers (below) before sacking the quarterback.
This part led to a mainstream movie role later that year in Fox Style … though her box style (below right) in The Cheerleaders seems to be in the shape of a heart.
Credit for the victory belongs mostly to captain of the Cheerleaders Claudia—who takes on all comers and inspires the coach to get his team ‘up’ during halftime (below right) … leading to a second half spurt.
She’s played by brunette Denise Marnette Dillaway—whose last known film credit was in 2004’s Who’s YourDaddy?, about a guy who discovers he’s heir to “a vast pornography empire.” He has a crush on school beauty Brittany—who is sleeping with the school jock and is played by Marnette Patterson (below). The actress takes her name from the middle one of her mother … Denise Dillaway of The Cheerleaders ! Marnette used her topless turn to land her breakthrough role—as telepathic teen Christy Jenkins on the TV series Charmed (inset).
“Does The Cheerleaders deliver?” DVD Beaver concludes its review. “Yep. Even if it is shot through with a cast of largely made-up names”—two of which stand out for future fame. Sandy Evans as “Suzie” became better known as Clair Dia—a freckled redhead born Emily Smith who went to City College in San Francisco {whose graduates include Bill Bixby, Danny Glover and O.J. Simpson!}. Poorly paid as a secretary, Emily appeared in the softcore film An Erotic Soap Opera—getting arrested and jailed for obscenity. The next year, she made The Cheerleaders …
… before switching from soft- to hardcore and being selected as a “Legend of Porn” for her two dozen adult appearances.
The other “big name” to emerge from The Cheerleaders was Kim Stanton as “Patty”…
… the only blonde on the squad and one of the first actresses to engage in Sapphic sex onscreen in the early Seventies—as teammate Terri Teague “rubs Kim intensely between her legs during a lesbian scene on an exercise machine” {dykes on a bike, below}!
Two years before, she’d gained mainstream screen immortality using her real name—Kimberly Hyde—and real hair color {north and south} … to tempt shy Cybill Shepherd into joining her for a skinny dip in the legendary Last PictureShow (1971) swimming pool scene. “Whew, it was hot!” wrote the Huffington Post 40 years later.
“Ms. Hyde has one of the most fabulous figures ever seen on film (black and white in this case, alas),” raved one reviewer. “Magnificent, firm, jutting breasts … a slender waist … and a full, trim muff. The effect is devastating!”
Clearly Kimberly had nothing to Hyde.
The Cheerleaders “courted controversy,” writes Wikipedia, “due to its plot and subject matter: the titular cheerleaders are seen seducing, among others, the football coach, a female gym coach [courtesy of Kim] and the school bus driver. In areas where the age of consent was 18 at the time, there was outrage”—so much so that re-releases of the film have been renamed The Eighteen Year Old Schoolgirls in those regions.
The backlash saw the 1974 sequel timidly toned down: “Jack Hill’s The Swinging Cheerleaders is a different set of pom-poms altogether” from its predecessor, sighs reviewer Gary Hertz. Director Hill—a proud “feminist” who discovered Pam Grier for the Foxy Brown and Coffey classics—called the film “a Disney sex comedy” which seemed to emphasize laughs over lust.
Hill wrote the screenplay using the name Jane Witherspoon—to attract actresses aiming for a female perspective –and made the original title Stand Up and Holler so they wouldn’t think it was about cheerleaders. The ploy worked—at least in the casting: “Yet despite their ultra-low cut sweaters,” reviewer Hertz harrumphed, “the cheerleaders themselves—the beloved Cheryl ‘Rainbeaux’ Smith, Colleen Camp (future film star of Apocalypse Now} and ravishing Rosanne Katon (left to right in the locker room below) may not be as swinging as some would hope.
“In fact,” he notes, “The Swinging Cheerleaders boasts greater emphasis on story rather than skin while displaying a curiously conservative morality.” Such as when the head and the hand disappear from view beneath blue (bottom row above)!
“At the local burger shop,” reads a review at Horror Talk, “team hero Buck lets his fingers do the walking on girlfriend Mary Ann’s thighs while she puts her lips around his pretty thick hoagie!”
Alas, she’s played by curvy but careful Colleen Camp—who’d appeared the year before on Marcus Welby,M.D. and two episodes of Love, American Style, so likely knew where she was headed—and wouldn’t simulate giving head on camera. “A major disappointment,” spewed Horror Talk, “is that Colleen Camp does not do any nude scenes, considering how ‘healthy’ she is in this film. [Director] Hill blew a major chance to entertain us!”
“Welcome to Mesa University {we’ve graduated from the high school hot button of The Cheerleaders}, where all the scoring does not take place on the field,” teases the synopsis. “Watch the pom-poms fly when Kate, a reporter for the campus underground newspaper, goes undercover to expose ‘female exploitation in contemporary society.” Speaking of which, the opening shot:
“The film returns to some of the taboo subject matter of teacher/student relations that The Cheerleaders so tantalized us with,” gushes a reviewer. “Rosanne Katon has the role of infatuated student Lisa … but the sex scenes are far less graphic.”
Rosanne rebounded from the lame sexploitation flick to play Denzel Washington’s love interest on St.Elsewhere in 1984 … three years after her ‘big break’ as the first black ever picked to be Miss Golden Globes. A job she was divinely made for …
The next year she landed her first mainstream part … once again as a cheerleader … opposite then-hot Heather Thomas in the 1982 film Zapped! (inset above).
“As for Rainbeaux Smith,” the booklet for the 2003 Collector’s Edition notes, “she had shown up for the shooting of Swinging Cheerleaders in the early stages of pregnancy (check her topless scene in the movie for proof ).”
“Although not as noticeable as in the subsequent Revenge of the Cheerleaders, director Jack Hill does mention in the commentary that her condition does ‘favorably enhance” her bosom’ {com•pair to inset}. Her situation does make Smith’s scene with boyfriend Ron trying to ‘pop her cherry’ and she saying she is ‘not ready for sex yet’ more than a little laughable!
Cheryl—who played drums for the teenage Runaways when Sandy West left the group—never named the famous father of her son … but he was allegedly sired by Eric Burdon, legendary lead singer of rock band The Animals.
Or perhaps this guy …
“Smith emanated a distinctive vacant angel vibe that captivated male audiences and made her a true drive-ingoddess of the decade,” the Cheerleaders collection booklet reflects. “By the ’80s, she had reportedly developed a lifelong heroin habit that destroyed her film career, led to two prison terms and resulted in her eventual death from hepatitis on October 25, 2002.
“The final shot of Revenge of the Cheerleaders features a smiling and luminous Rainbeaux holding her infant son Justin and waving to the camera (inset).
“Today the Cult of Rainbeaux lives on.”
Even though her END arrived 15 years before … {shot from behind to hide her pregnancy}
Coming Soon: “From Pom-Poms to Porn,” Part 2 -- Dallas Cow•Pokes
