It’s a RUSS MEYER World & I Just Live in It

By Josh Eliot

[Originally published 02/14/25]

The year was 1970. I was nine years old and my parents were getting ready to leave for the cinema with my Uncle Normand and Aunt Irene to see Russ Meyer’s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. I actually remember spotting the advertisement for the movie in the entertainment section of the newspaper, which I was known to scale up and down. Looking at the movie ads always got my imagination going, thinking about what they were about. When they told me the movie they were going to see, I recall yelling out to my parents, “Are you going to see an X-rated movie?!” My mother, looking for a good cover story, said the movie was rated X because of the language. With that, they rushed out the door, obviously not wanting to talk about it. Even at nine years old, I knew what an X-rated movie was - well, sort of. They did take me to see The Graduate when I was seven, after all. This would be one of only two X-rated movies my parents have seen, as far as I know, the other being A Clockwork Orange. Oh and one XXX movie, Deep Throat, but that wasn’t really their thing, so I think the list ended there. The next day, my mother couldn’t say enough bad things about “Beyond,” and I think they actually might have walked out. I guess, thinking about it now, if that generation was expecting a real sequel to Valley of the Dolls and got “Beyond,” it would have been a bit of a turn off. I had no idea at the time that this was my first real introduction, in conversation with my parents at least, to the world of Russ Meyer.

The very first Russ Meyer movie I ever saw was Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill! (1965), when our make-up man, Buddy, brought a VHS of it to the Catalina Studio set in 1988. He was surprised that I hadn’t seen the movie, even though it always played once or twice a year at the Castro Theater and also at the Strand on Market Street. When my roommates and I watched it, I was sold the moment Tura Satana appeared on the screen. Russ Meyer's cult favorite follows sadistic go-go dancers Varla (Tura Satana), Rosie (Haji) and Billie (Lori Williams), who escape the nightclub where they perform and head out to the desert to start random acts of violence. Varla, a karate expert, kills an innocent man, and then along with her two friends takes his girlfriend hostage. They run into an old man and his brain-damaged son and problems erupt when they try to rob them blind. The movie is shot in glorious black-and-white, even though the movie poster says it’s shot in “Black-and-Blue.” Blue movie, get it? Russ Meyer’s trademark nudity is nonexistent, but the movie is filled with campy performances, sexually-charged bad-ass vixens and a ton of brilliant one liners! I think the incredible dialogue was what pulled me head-first into the world of Russ Meyer more than anything. I’d be totally lying if I didn’t admit to lifting and rewording a bunch of Mr. Meyer’s “one-liners” at least a dozen times over the years, especially in my bisexual movies. With a budget of only $43,000, Meyer’s stylish camerawork and flair made Pussycat look much more like a big budget movie. Japanese born actress Tura Satana’s original movie debut was a cameo as Suzette Wong in Irma la Douce with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. In Pussycat, she did her own stunts and received critical acclaim for her aggressive character portrayal of “Varla.” She also designed her own costumes, make-up and martial arts sequences. For me, I found the strong sexual female character on screen a role model for the type of female lead I would like to create for my first bisexual movie, which I knew one day my producer would approve for me to make.

Over the years, I literally watched every Russ Meyer movie ever made. I fell in love with Lorna, Up!, Mudhoney, and Blacksnake, but I would say the two standouts were Vixen! and Beneath the Valley of the Ultra Vixens. They were the most influential to me when developing my bisexual movies. Vixen! (1968) is a softcore sexploitation film starring Erica Gavin. Gavin plays the nympho wife of a pilot who flies tourists around on wilderness expeditions in Canada. While he’s away, she has a bunch of adventures with a Canadian Mountie, a married couple, and even her biker brother. In my personal favorite, Beneath The Valley of the Ultra Vixens (1979), Meyer pulls out all the stops with a cast headed by starlets Kitten Natividad, Uschi Digard and Anne Marie and a cameo by Candy Samples. Candy Samples, during the 1970s, was a mostly R-rated starlet with roles in Prison Girls 3D (directed by Tom DeSimone), Super Chick (1973) and Flesh Gordon (1974). Candy Samples went on to make hardcore adult films from 1980 to 1989, most notably John Homes and the All Star Sex Queens (1980) and Inside Candy Samples (1984). I would say I watched this movie more times than any of the others because of the downright campiness of its female leads. Little did Sharon Kane know that I would be taking elements from all of these ladies and sprinkling them into the characters she would play in future roles for Cracked, Switchcraft, The Rascal and especially for the three different characters she played in Night of the Living Bi Dolls.

I had very mixed feelings when I first viewed Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) many years after its release, but I can say that it grew on me over the years. I bought a VCD copy (from Japan, on two discs that also play in DVD players) of the movie and still to this day I’ll pop it into the DVD player to play in the background because of the incredible musical soundtrack! Especially the song “Look On Up” I would let it play while doing my “spring cleaning” or some other projects, stopping every now and then to watch the scenes. The music by The Sandpipers, Strawberry Alarm Clock and Stu Phillips is the best, and quite addicting to listen to. In fact, I found most of those songs on Spotify and now have my “Beyond Playlist” for when I am really feeling nostalgic. The Vixen, herself, Erica Gavin joins lead Dolly Read, Cynthia Meyers and Edy Williams in this “Psychedelic Sexual Shocker” that couldn’t be any further removed from Neely O’Hara, Jennifer North or that big screen bore Anne Welles.

A decade or so ago, there was a full set of DVDs from Japan that I purchased on eBay, which contained all of the Russ Meyer movies. The packaging was Japanese-designed, but the movies were great beautiful prints with and without Japanese subtitles. It was a bargain for around $50, but now I see that fantastic offering is no longer available anywhere and the individual movies are selling substantially higher, which is great for the Meyer legacy. Back in the day, we would see Russ Meyer in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show personally selling the VHS, then DVD versions of his movies at a premium cost of around $79. I remember stopping to talk to him once with co-worker Chet Thomas (Sal). He was incredibly nice and was very open with all of our questions. He personally signed each copy he sold during the convention and was on the same floor as the adult companies. I’m pretty sure that’s where Chet purchased his Beneath the Valley of the Ultra Vixens movie poster that he had hanging in his editing room at the Catalina offices. Bosomania was the company name Russ Meyer used for the VHS / DVD / Laser Disc packaging of his library of movies.

A true one-of-a-kind filmmaker whose work has undoubtedly influenced and molded not only myself, but also both the mainstream and adult industries. Passing away in his home on September 18, 2004 at the age of 82, Russ Meyer became one of the first moviemakers in his particular genre to move to mainline cinema without altering his style. Credited with inventing the "skin flick," he also drew praise for the artistic vision and raw energy he brought to his films, many of which are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

Bio of Josh Eliot:

At the age of 25 in 1987, Josh Eliot was hired by Catalina Video by John Travis (Brentwood Video) and Scott Masters (Nova Video). Travis trained Eliot on his style of videography and mentored him on the art of directing. Josh directed his first movie, Runaways, in 1987. By 2009 when Josh parted ways with Catalina Video, he'd produced and directed hundreds of features and won numerous awards for Best Screenplay, Videography, Editing, and Directing. He was entered into the GayVN Hall of fame in 2002.