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Jody Maxwell, legendary erotic film and stage star, began her career in porn after being discovered at a University morality symposium by one of the speakers, Deep Throat director Gerard Damiano.
Beyond just being a major fuck-film figure throughout the 1970s, Jody also performed stand-up comedy, cultivated a live cabaret act, and wrote for national men's magazines such as Cheri, Escapade, Capers, Partner, and Adult Cinema Review.
After many years plying her trade as a phone-sex cum-queen, Jody has written a book detailing the highlights (and low points) of the trade in her book My Private Calls and is now working on a sequel to the book. Jody has also been slated to be inducted into the Legends of Erotica Hall of Fame next January in Las Vegas. Cinema Sewer's Robin Bougie caught up with the busy Miss Maxwell recently, and this was the shit that was slung.
You were one of the stars of this bizarre little satanic XXX roughie called The Devil Inside Her, which was a nasty, scuzzy little ass-blaster directed by Zebedy Colt back in the 1970s. For those not familiar with Zebedy Colt, can you give us a little rundown on who he was?
Zebedy Colt, who both wrote and directed the movie as well as acted in it, is a terrific guy. He is so very talented in all aspects of theater because of his own legitimate theater and off-Broadway background. He enjoyed surrounding himself with trained actors as much as possible, and several of us in the movie came from legitimate theater backgrounds as well. Zeb was pretty persuasive, talking the producer into spending more to get the people he wanted. Ultimately it was a pretty good-sized cast.
I enjoyed working with Zebedy. He had a lovely home up there that he shared with his companion, who was pretty cool too. Val worked behind the scenes, cooking and such. Great cook! The one thing, which excites some people and disturbs others, is that Zebedy had a propensity to write on the dark side. He just liked to stretch himself that way. However, he isn't really dark like that. I recently heard he is currently acting in off-Broadway plays again.
And you worked together as well in Unwilling Lovers. That was a freaky little movie too. I loved it!
That was another movie I loved when I read the script, and it was one of the most challenging movies I did. We shot on location in the Poconos and in New York, and I loved getting to work with Rod Dumont again. He was so damn nice and so hot too. He could always give John Holmes a run for his money and was more attractive in every which way.
We had a threesome--Zeb, Rod, and me--in the film, which introduced a little bit of male-male erotica into a heterosexual movie, which was considered a no-no up to that point.
It was an incredibly hot scene where Zeb plays a mentally challenged person who mimics people throughout the movie. Rod and I are making love, and he comes in and watches us, which initially bothers my character. He mimics us, and eventually, as a lark, Rod's character lets him join us. Rod figures he can show him how to pleasure a woman, however, Zeb's character sees me sucking, so he attempts to copy me. Rod's character is clearly hetero, and Zeb's character doesn't know any better.
I found the whole scene actually quite erotic. Of the three of us, I was the only one not nervous about the scene! I guess we know why. Seriously, I like the movie a lot.
This particular threeway scene caused some theaters not to run the movie, but I slipped into a theater in San Diego and watched the audience watch that scene, and they loved it! Of course, I was doing some pretty hot things myself!
I nearly died for real in this movie. We have a chase scene where I am running for my life and they give me these little ballet-type slick flats to wear while running through a forest, ending up on the top of rocks above a waterfall over the Delaware River. I had warned Zebedy and the costumer that anyone, especially me, running in these shoes through the forest and across wet rocks was an accident waiting to happen. They just laughed, not taking me seriously. Well, being a professional, I said okay. They said, "Be careful!" Yeah, right.
The day the scene comes, I have on stockings, a dress, and these damn shoes, I run for my life. I tripped as I ran but kept running. So far, so good. Then I hit the first wet boulder, and zoom! Down I went, and I slid all the way over to the edge of the cliff about to go over.
The cameras are still running and somehow I stayed in character. My clothing was torn, I was bruised and battered and even a little bloody. I still stayed in character and I remember to this day what I was thinking: They had better get this all on camera because I am either going to die, or if I don't die am not doing a second take on this!
Anyway, then comes the killer who is pushing me further over and trying to keep us both from going over and didn't realize what had happened to me before he caught up with me, because he was still behind the trees. I was supposed to be on my feet until I got closer to the edge, but not that close! He had no idea that I body skidded over to and partly over the edge, fighting not to go over. Then my hero comes and rescues me, and he knows I am really injured. So he resolves the killer and carefully rescues me. Both these men were professional actors before porn and kept in character as well.
Chuck, the head cameraman, was very happy with us. Rod Dumont gave me a marvelous massage afterward and cleaned all my wounds too.
And that all shows up on screen too, doesn't it? That must have been pretty freaky. It's too bad that Unwilling Lovers is so damn hard to find. You don't see a lot of porn movies about retard killers. Zebedy is still too racy for America. We still haven't caught up to him even thirty years later.
Most of it shows in the movie, but not all. I remember to this day, thinking at the time that would be one hell of a headline, dying in the Delaware River, doing my own stunt work in a porn movie! The movie's working title was Mama's Boy, by the way. It was originally released under that name.
The movie has a strong story line, a good plot, and a lot of sex. However, the movie broke a lot of rules and barriers. I loved the script. I loved the role. It was strong and interesting. It was an acting role with good sex. This movie could have been a book or an R-rated movie, taking out the hardcore sex, and it would have held up well.
There is a lot of excellent sex and some necrophilia in the movie. That was daring then. The producers had hoped the story line and movie were so strong that the homosexual content wouldn't matter. Of course, it did matter in some theaters, especially in the South.
For Zebedy there weren't any restrictions. Of course, we had all kinds of great sex in the movie. Rod and I had an outside sex scene I really liked a lot! Again, he could give Holmes competition in size, only Rod got a definite erection. He also had interesting testicles (which I have never said in an interview before). He had deliberately stretched them over the years and they hung down about five-and-a-half inches. I had never seen anything like that previously. I was amazed the first time I saw them when we were filming The Devil Inside Her.
I'm always hearing from older porn stars that Holmes had problems staying hard. Actually, everything I've heard about Holmes says that in real life he was pretty pathetic and detestable. Have you seen Wonderland? It's pretty great and kind of got overlooked by a lot of critics and moviegoers.
I haven't seen Wonderland, so I cannot comment on it. In fact, you are the first person to tell me you have seen it. Perhaps I'll try and see it in the next few months and get back to you on it.
My experiences with John Holmes are pretty limited. I met him on the East Coast in the late '70s. He had seeked me out and said he would like very much to work with me. He told me he had watched my sucking abilities in some movies and he thought it was the greatest he had seen. He said he had experienced Linda Lovelace, but he was convinced watching me that I was better and wanted to experience it first hand. He also asked me out to dinner, but I very nicely turned him down, so that wasn't a problem.
We discussed making a Roberta Findlay movie together. John absolutely begged me to co-star with him, and I was seriously considering it. However, John and I were both expensive, and the producers and I could not come to financial terms that I found acceptable so I turned it down. The two of us together were more than they could afford, although they really did try. John was very disappointed.
I would be too! Roberta Findlay was awesome! I love her old porn movies. A Woman's Torment is great. So Holmes wasn't a total fuck-face to you?
John was very nice and polite, very friendly, and very pleasant around me, but I never spent any intimate or private time with him.
While on the West Coast in San Francisco in about 1980, I was approached by a West Coast producer about doing a movie with him, and I had heard rumors from friends about how tough it was working with him at that point. He was using drugs and having weird problems. I wasn't interested, so I said, "No thank you!"
On reflection, I am definitely glad about that! I have friends who filmed with him in the '80s and spent ten years worrying about their health when the word got out on his condition.
You did double anal penetration scenes back during a time when it was pretty rare to see that. You didn't use a stand-in, did you?
Actually I have a double penetration of the pussy while at the exact same time I have an anal penetration in The Devil Inside Her. The guys were all very well-endowed, and I have always been noted for having very tight orifices. So to say it was interesting is to put it mildly.
It was also the most difficult sex scene, logistically, I did, I think. It's on the altar, outside, in the middle of the night in the woods, and it was difficult to get all the bodies in place. Coincidentally I received a fan letter only yesterday about that specific scene. My fan said it was far and away the most fascinating scene he's ever seen in an erotic film.
I did a double anal penetration in Satisfiers of Alpha Blue. I never used a butt double or stand-in for anything. That would have been against my own self-set rules! I felt my own sexual abilities were certainly what people were expecting and what they should get, or I simply wouldn't do the scene.
I've seen it mentioned online that you have one of the biggest clits in classic porn, but I never noticed that it was particularly huge or anything. Was I not paying attention?
Many have fallen in love with my clit. I was born with it and came by it naturally. The first time I saw my clit on the big screen was at the world premiere of Portrait in Philadelphia, and I couldn't believe it! I knew it was larger than others, but that drove it home to me.
It always was an advantage I thought, because it was right out there and so easily accessible! I have never heard any complaints, and I can assure you I have never complained! I think I was very lucky to have such a wonderful clit.
I found it to be way more sensitive to turn on than the average woman's, by my own observations, as well as conversations with other women too. Nor did "lickers" ever have to "dig" to find it. My clit was never into "hide and seek".
Tell us about Expose Me, Lovely.
Expose Me, Lovely was an Armand Weston movie. Unfortunately Armand was filled with talent and died too young.
I star in this movie with Ras Kean and others, and it's a really good mystery of the Raymond Chandler type with many twists and turns. I play an artist named Terry Lawford, and I do erotic sculptures of things like men's penises. This movie has to be on the list of the all-time great X-rated films. It's an excellent story and has great sex scenes.
Speaking for myself, I feel I had one of the hottest sex scenes ever. I recently re-watched the scene and I was blown away all over again. Ras and I were really, really hot and versatile too, at the same time. We got so into it that Armand stopped breaking into the sex and let us continue on. We already knew what all he wanted included anyway, and we managed to surpass the "requirements".
Only a non-breathing person wouldn't enjoy our sex scene big time! I'm happy to see it's out on DVD now. You can buy it all over the Net.
The guy credited as Brother Theodore whom you co-starred with in Gums from 1976, is that the same Brother Theodore who was infamous in New York for his spoken-word performances?
There was only one Brother Theodore, and yes, he was infamous for his spoken word in New York and all over the country. He was in Gums, as were a lot of comedic people.
Gums was a very expensive movie, made by a Hollywood group who had only been involved with non-X-rated movies previously. We filmed all over the place, New York, New Jersey, Miami, Key West.
The movie is a satire of Jaws and is totally outrageous beyond your wildest imagination. The late Terri Hall played the mermaid who "ate" her victims to death. There was underwater photography as well. Everything, literally, in the movie became subject to some kind of humor. Sometimes, perhaps, they went extremely far.
Is there any movie that in hindsight you wish you hadn't done?
No, I don't think there are any I regret doing. Someone close to me in the adult publishing business who was really street smart told me after my second movie to not make all the movies that came my way. He pointed out all the potential pitfalls if I did. He was so adamant about it I always remembered what he said, so I diversified. I wrote for magazines, and I developed a stage show for myself. I spoke professionally.
Eventually I had an agent who was constantly mad at me because I kept turning movies down. I chose my movies for multiple reasons. Zebedy Colt's had strong scripts with strong roles, and they were quirky--but I like quirky.
I have a degree in theater and speech and I liked doing interesting roles in addition to the hottest sex possible. The bonus to not doing all the movies is it always made the sex fresh and really sizzling for me.
Sometimes I kind of regret turning down certain movies. If I really wanted to do a movie and turned it down, it was generally because they couldn't afford me, and that was too bad, but I didn't feel I had any choice in those cases.
I once saw this old photo of you with Warren Beatty at the Democratic National Convention. What were you doing there? Which election was that?
Oh, Warren Beatty and me! That was taken at the Democratic Convention in 1976. That's when I was a baby in the business. I was on the staff of Cheri at the time, and I covered both national political conventions as feature stories for the magazine. Strangely, I discovered the Democrats liked to party, but the sex went to the Republicans, hands down.
How connected with the adult industry are you now? I've often wondered how former porn celebs are treated after the industry moves on and their careers are over.
When I left the adult industry I stayed peripherally connected for years, by the fact that I began doing fantasy phone-sex calls as an erotic film star for a company that had a few other stars.
I had calls for twelve years, which has to be some kind of record! The stars did the calls from wherever we pleased, not from some office. So it was easy to keep it up, no pun intended.
I had become close friends with certain people and we have always stayed connected, whether in or out of the industry. I also stayed connected to some of the filmmakers and dancers and all. I was treated well by the people who I previously knew in the industry, and I was treated with respect. Occasionally I would get a call for a quote for some particular incident, like Linda Lovelace's passing. I have some friends from the industry who deliberately broke off all contact with everyone but me when they got out. That's their business, of course.
Of course, since I have now come out with my book, My Private Calls, on fantasy phone sex, I find myself somewhat more connected to the adult industry again. It's a strange feeling. I have been hearing from fans all over the world, some quite a bit younger, who have been enjoying the resurgence of my movies, which are some of the truly great movies of the X-rated genre. So my fan mail, which never ended anyway, has increased again.
And you've got a website?
My website is www.jodymaxwell.com, where people can order my book and/or contact me. I'm very proud of My Private Calls. I kept detailed notes of all my calls that I had, which filled over sixty large journals. I picked some out and wrote in total detail about those calls, with nothing censored or left out except the callers' real names. I tell about the person who's calling, what he does for a living, et cetera, before I get to the sex. Then there's the sex!
I definitely tell what the calls are really like, not what people assume they are like. I also wrote some autobiographical material in every chapter, in between the calls, exposing some of my professional life and some of my personal life. Some is really hot and some is funny or outrageous, or all three!
People who have read it keep telling me that it is very entertaining and very interesting. One woman at a book fair told me she couldn't put it down once she started it, that it's now her favorite book. I heard the same thing from a radio guy. He also said parts of it had him laughing so hard he almost got sick. I've discovered women love the book as much as the men. It's probably a real eye opener for a lot of women.
Also, I have a bunch of autobiographical material in the book. I talk about my experiences swinging from coast to coast, and in the Midwest, including sharing tales about Plato's Retreat during its top days. I share some of my entertaining experiences on stage too, including one show in Davenport, Iowa. With all that's happening in the world today, it makes for good escapism. Readers can get it through my website, www.jodymaxwell.com.
All photos of Jody Maxwell courtesy of JodyMaxwell.com
Beyond just being a major fuck-film figure throughout the 1970s, Jody also performed stand-up comedy, cultivated a live cabaret act, and wrote for national men's magazines such as Cheri, Escapade, Capers, Partner, and Adult Cinema Review.
After many years plying her trade as a phone-sex cum-queen, Jody has written a book detailing the highlights (and low points) of the trade in her book My Private Calls and is now working on a sequel to the book. Jody has also been slated to be inducted into the Legends of Erotica Hall of Fame next January in Las Vegas. Cinema Sewer's Robin Bougie caught up with the busy Miss Maxwell recently, and this was the shit that was slung.
You were one of the stars of this bizarre little satanic XXX roughie called The Devil Inside Her, which was a nasty, scuzzy little ass-blaster directed by Zebedy Colt back in the 1970s. For those not familiar with Zebedy Colt, can you give us a little rundown on who he was?
Zebedy Colt, who both wrote and directed the movie as well as acted in it, is a terrific guy. He is so very talented in all aspects of theater because of his own legitimate theater and off-Broadway background. He enjoyed surrounding himself with trained actors as much as possible, and several of us in the movie came from legitimate theater backgrounds as well. Zeb was pretty persuasive, talking the producer into spending more to get the people he wanted. Ultimately it was a pretty good-sized cast.
I enjoyed working with Zebedy. He had a lovely home up there that he shared with his companion, who was pretty cool too. Val worked behind the scenes, cooking and such. Great cook! The one thing, which excites some people and disturbs others, is that Zebedy had a propensity to write on the dark side. He just liked to stretch himself that way. However, he isn't really dark like that. I recently heard he is currently acting in off-Broadway plays again.
And you worked together as well in Unwilling Lovers. That was a freaky little movie too. I loved it!
That was another movie I loved when I read the script, and it was one of the most challenging movies I did. We shot on location in the Poconos and in New York, and I loved getting to work with Rod Dumont again. He was so damn nice and so hot too. He could always give John Holmes a run for his money and was more attractive in every which way.
We had a threesome--Zeb, Rod, and me--in the film, which introduced a little bit of male-male erotica into a heterosexual movie, which was considered a no-no up to that point.
It was an incredibly hot scene where Zeb plays a mentally challenged person who mimics people throughout the movie. Rod and I are making love, and he comes in and watches us, which initially bothers my character. He mimics us, and eventually, as a lark, Rod's character lets him join us. Rod figures he can show him how to pleasure a woman, however, Zeb's character sees me sucking, so he attempts to copy me. Rod's character is clearly hetero, and Zeb's character doesn't know any better.
I found the whole scene actually quite erotic. Of the three of us, I was the only one not nervous about the scene! I guess we know why. Seriously, I like the movie a lot.
This particular threeway scene caused some theaters not to run the movie, but I slipped into a theater in San Diego and watched the audience watch that scene, and they loved it! Of course, I was doing some pretty hot things myself!
I nearly died for real in this movie. We have a chase scene where I am running for my life and they give me these little ballet-type slick flats to wear while running through a forest, ending up on the top of rocks above a waterfall over the Delaware River. I had warned Zebedy and the costumer that anyone, especially me, running in these shoes through the forest and across wet rocks was an accident waiting to happen. They just laughed, not taking me seriously. Well, being a professional, I said okay. They said, "Be careful!" Yeah, right.
The day the scene comes, I have on stockings, a dress, and these damn shoes, I run for my life. I tripped as I ran but kept running. So far, so good. Then I hit the first wet boulder, and zoom! Down I went, and I slid all the way over to the edge of the cliff about to go over.
The cameras are still running and somehow I stayed in character. My clothing was torn, I was bruised and battered and even a little bloody. I still stayed in character and I remember to this day what I was thinking: They had better get this all on camera because I am either going to die, or if I don't die am not doing a second take on this!
Anyway, then comes the killer who is pushing me further over and trying to keep us both from going over and didn't realize what had happened to me before he caught up with me, because he was still behind the trees. I was supposed to be on my feet until I got closer to the edge, but not that close! He had no idea that I body skidded over to and partly over the edge, fighting not to go over. Then my hero comes and rescues me, and he knows I am really injured. So he resolves the killer and carefully rescues me. Both these men were professional actors before porn and kept in character as well.
Chuck, the head cameraman, was very happy with us. Rod Dumont gave me a marvelous massage afterward and cleaned all my wounds too.
And that all shows up on screen too, doesn't it? That must have been pretty freaky. It's too bad that Unwilling Lovers is so damn hard to find. You don't see a lot of porn movies about retard killers. Zebedy is still too racy for America. We still haven't caught up to him even thirty years later.
Most of it shows in the movie, but not all. I remember to this day, thinking at the time that would be one hell of a headline, dying in the Delaware River, doing my own stunt work in a porn movie! The movie's working title was Mama's Boy, by the way. It was originally released under that name.
The movie has a strong story line, a good plot, and a lot of sex. However, the movie broke a lot of rules and barriers. I loved the script. I loved the role. It was strong and interesting. It was an acting role with good sex. This movie could have been a book or an R-rated movie, taking out the hardcore sex, and it would have held up well.
There is a lot of excellent sex and some necrophilia in the movie. That was daring then. The producers had hoped the story line and movie were so strong that the homosexual content wouldn't matter. Of course, it did matter in some theaters, especially in the South.
For Zebedy there weren't any restrictions. Of course, we had all kinds of great sex in the movie. Rod and I had an outside sex scene I really liked a lot! Again, he could give Holmes competition in size, only Rod got a definite erection. He also had interesting testicles (which I have never said in an interview before). He had deliberately stretched them over the years and they hung down about five-and-a-half inches. I had never seen anything like that previously. I was amazed the first time I saw them when we were filming The Devil Inside Her.
I'm always hearing from older porn stars that Holmes had problems staying hard. Actually, everything I've heard about Holmes says that in real life he was pretty pathetic and detestable. Have you seen Wonderland? It's pretty great and kind of got overlooked by a lot of critics and moviegoers.
I haven't seen Wonderland, so I cannot comment on it. In fact, you are the first person to tell me you have seen it. Perhaps I'll try and see it in the next few months and get back to you on it.
My experiences with John Holmes are pretty limited. I met him on the East Coast in the late '70s. He had seeked me out and said he would like very much to work with me. He told me he had watched my sucking abilities in some movies and he thought it was the greatest he had seen. He said he had experienced Linda Lovelace, but he was convinced watching me that I was better and wanted to experience it first hand. He also asked me out to dinner, but I very nicely turned him down, so that wasn't a problem.
We discussed making a Roberta Findlay movie together. John absolutely begged me to co-star with him, and I was seriously considering it. However, John and I were both expensive, and the producers and I could not come to financial terms that I found acceptable so I turned it down. The two of us together were more than they could afford, although they really did try. John was very disappointed.
I would be too! Roberta Findlay was awesome! I love her old porn movies. A Woman's Torment is great. So Holmes wasn't a total fuck-face to you?
John was very nice and polite, very friendly, and very pleasant around me, but I never spent any intimate or private time with him.
While on the West Coast in San Francisco in about 1980, I was approached by a West Coast producer about doing a movie with him, and I had heard rumors from friends about how tough it was working with him at that point. He was using drugs and having weird problems. I wasn't interested, so I said, "No thank you!"
On reflection, I am definitely glad about that! I have friends who filmed with him in the '80s and spent ten years worrying about their health when the word got out on his condition.
You did double anal penetration scenes back during a time when it was pretty rare to see that. You didn't use a stand-in, did you?
Actually I have a double penetration of the pussy while at the exact same time I have an anal penetration in The Devil Inside Her. The guys were all very well-endowed, and I have always been noted for having very tight orifices. So to say it was interesting is to put it mildly.
It was also the most difficult sex scene, logistically, I did, I think. It's on the altar, outside, in the middle of the night in the woods, and it was difficult to get all the bodies in place. Coincidentally I received a fan letter only yesterday about that specific scene. My fan said it was far and away the most fascinating scene he's ever seen in an erotic film.
I did a double anal penetration in Satisfiers of Alpha Blue. I never used a butt double or stand-in for anything. That would have been against my own self-set rules! I felt my own sexual abilities were certainly what people were expecting and what they should get, or I simply wouldn't do the scene.
I've seen it mentioned online that you have one of the biggest clits in classic porn, but I never noticed that it was particularly huge or anything. Was I not paying attention?
Many have fallen in love with my clit. I was born with it and came by it naturally. The first time I saw my clit on the big screen was at the world premiere of Portrait in Philadelphia, and I couldn't believe it! I knew it was larger than others, but that drove it home to me.
It always was an advantage I thought, because it was right out there and so easily accessible! I have never heard any complaints, and I can assure you I have never complained! I think I was very lucky to have such a wonderful clit.
I found it to be way more sensitive to turn on than the average woman's, by my own observations, as well as conversations with other women too. Nor did "lickers" ever have to "dig" to find it. My clit was never into "hide and seek".
Tell us about Expose Me, Lovely.
Expose Me, Lovely was an Armand Weston movie. Unfortunately Armand was filled with talent and died too young.
I star in this movie with Ras Kean and others, and it's a really good mystery of the Raymond Chandler type with many twists and turns. I play an artist named Terry Lawford, and I do erotic sculptures of things like men's penises. This movie has to be on the list of the all-time great X-rated films. It's an excellent story and has great sex scenes.
Speaking for myself, I feel I had one of the hottest sex scenes ever. I recently re-watched the scene and I was blown away all over again. Ras and I were really, really hot and versatile too, at the same time. We got so into it that Armand stopped breaking into the sex and let us continue on. We already knew what all he wanted included anyway, and we managed to surpass the "requirements".
Only a non-breathing person wouldn't enjoy our sex scene big time! I'm happy to see it's out on DVD now. You can buy it all over the Net.
The guy credited as Brother Theodore whom you co-starred with in Gums from 1976, is that the same Brother Theodore who was infamous in New York for his spoken-word performances?
There was only one Brother Theodore, and yes, he was infamous for his spoken word in New York and all over the country. He was in Gums, as were a lot of comedic people.
Gums was a very expensive movie, made by a Hollywood group who had only been involved with non-X-rated movies previously. We filmed all over the place, New York, New Jersey, Miami, Key West.
The movie is a satire of Jaws and is totally outrageous beyond your wildest imagination. The late Terri Hall played the mermaid who "ate" her victims to death. There was underwater photography as well. Everything, literally, in the movie became subject to some kind of humor. Sometimes, perhaps, they went extremely far.
Is there any movie that in hindsight you wish you hadn't done?
No, I don't think there are any I regret doing. Someone close to me in the adult publishing business who was really street smart told me after my second movie to not make all the movies that came my way. He pointed out all the potential pitfalls if I did. He was so adamant about it I always remembered what he said, so I diversified. I wrote for magazines, and I developed a stage show for myself. I spoke professionally.
Eventually I had an agent who was constantly mad at me because I kept turning movies down. I chose my movies for multiple reasons. Zebedy Colt's had strong scripts with strong roles, and they were quirky--but I like quirky.
I have a degree in theater and speech and I liked doing interesting roles in addition to the hottest sex possible. The bonus to not doing all the movies is it always made the sex fresh and really sizzling for me.
Sometimes I kind of regret turning down certain movies. If I really wanted to do a movie and turned it down, it was generally because they couldn't afford me, and that was too bad, but I didn't feel I had any choice in those cases.
I once saw this old photo of you with Warren Beatty at the Democratic National Convention. What were you doing there? Which election was that?
Oh, Warren Beatty and me! That was taken at the Democratic Convention in 1976. That's when I was a baby in the business. I was on the staff of Cheri at the time, and I covered both national political conventions as feature stories for the magazine. Strangely, I discovered the Democrats liked to party, but the sex went to the Republicans, hands down.
How connected with the adult industry are you now? I've often wondered how former porn celebs are treated after the industry moves on and their careers are over.
When I left the adult industry I stayed peripherally connected for years, by the fact that I began doing fantasy phone-sex calls as an erotic film star for a company that had a few other stars.
I had calls for twelve years, which has to be some kind of record! The stars did the calls from wherever we pleased, not from some office. So it was easy to keep it up, no pun intended.
I had become close friends with certain people and we have always stayed connected, whether in or out of the industry. I also stayed connected to some of the filmmakers and dancers and all. I was treated well by the people who I previously knew in the industry, and I was treated with respect. Occasionally I would get a call for a quote for some particular incident, like Linda Lovelace's passing. I have some friends from the industry who deliberately broke off all contact with everyone but me when they got out. That's their business, of course.
Of course, since I have now come out with my book, My Private Calls, on fantasy phone sex, I find myself somewhat more connected to the adult industry again. It's a strange feeling. I have been hearing from fans all over the world, some quite a bit younger, who have been enjoying the resurgence of my movies, which are some of the truly great movies of the X-rated genre. So my fan mail, which never ended anyway, has increased again.
And you've got a website?
My website is www.jodymaxwell.com, where people can order my book and/or contact me. I'm very proud of My Private Calls. I kept detailed notes of all my calls that I had, which filled over sixty large journals. I picked some out and wrote in total detail about those calls, with nothing censored or left out except the callers' real names. I tell about the person who's calling, what he does for a living, et cetera, before I get to the sex. Then there's the sex!
I definitely tell what the calls are really like, not what people assume they are like. I also wrote some autobiographical material in every chapter, in between the calls, exposing some of my professional life and some of my personal life. Some is really hot and some is funny or outrageous, or all three!
People who have read it keep telling me that it is very entertaining and very interesting. One woman at a book fair told me she couldn't put it down once she started it, that it's now her favorite book. I heard the same thing from a radio guy. He also said parts of it had him laughing so hard he almost got sick. I've discovered women love the book as much as the men. It's probably a real eye opener for a lot of women.
Also, I have a bunch of autobiographical material in the book. I talk about my experiences swinging from coast to coast, and in the Midwest, including sharing tales about Plato's Retreat during its top days. I share some of my entertaining experiences on stage too, including one show in Davenport, Iowa. With all that's happening in the world today, it makes for good escapism. Readers can get it through my website, www.jodymaxwell.com.
All photos of Jody Maxwell courtesy of JodyMaxwell.com
