(cont'd)

Bob Chin: After John showed me his credentials, my partner and I sat down and said, "We can make a film with this guy."

And my partner said, "God, what a wad that guy has."

I said, "Let's call him 'Johnny Wadd,' make it a private-detective thing."

So we wrote the first script on the back of an envelope. And then we shot it two days later. I hired John Holmes to play Johnny Wadd at the unheard-of rate of $75 a day, since at the time we were only paying actors $50 a day. We shot the film in one day and then sent it out, just like we sent out all the other films.

New York was our biggest market. And within two weeks of us sending it out, our distributor in New York called and said they wanted more films with Johnny Wadd. I said, "Okay."

It took one day to shoot the next one, Flesh of the Lotus. We developed it the same night, and then we cut the original. Within a week after it was shot, it was playing the theaters.

Bill Amerson: I'm not sure why people were so fascinated by the size of his penis. I just know that they were. And it was a great marketing tool, if you will.

At first John didn't really like the name "Johnny Wadd," but it stuck, it went over big, and John became a star behind that name. We'd run into people at different places, and they'd call out to him, "Hey, Johnny Wadd!"

So that was the start of the star system in the adult-film industry, and the Johnny Wadd series became famous throughout the world.

Bunny Bleu (seventies porn star): We went on a promotional tour in Texas, signing autographs in adult-book stores, and it was really wild because the women would line up around the block. And they would actually piss their pants, they were so excited to meet him. One lady actually came back for more autographs. She went home, changed, cleaned up, came back, and said, "I want another autograph."

I was like, "Wow."

That takes a lot of balls. I don't think after peeing my pants from meeting somebody, I would come back and see them again.

Bob Vosse (former porn producer): By the mid-seventies, John Holmes was getting $1,000 a loop, which was more -- quite a bit more -- than anyone else in the industry. And in all fairness, he deserved more, because his loops and his films were outselling the competition by at least ten to one. It didn't matter who the girl was -- if John Holmes was in it, it would outsell everything in the line.

So his prices kept going up, and he deserved it.

Bill Margold (former porn star and porn historian): John Holmes became the single most recognizable name in the history of the adult-film industry and proof that all men are not created equal.

There is an orgy scene in Disco Dolls where I'm being blown by Leslie Bovee and John's being worked on by four people next to me -- and all of a sudden his dick popped out over my head, and I looked up at it and it was like the opening shot of Star Wars.

I had the feeling that if I got hit in the head by that thing, I'd get a concussion. So my dick, which was happily ensconced in Leslie's mouth, was no longer interested in working. And she laughed, and he laughed, and I had to laugh at myself.

Such was the legacy of the King.

Sheri St. Clair (porn star): The way he was built, John couldn't help but be put on a pedestal. People couldn't quite believe that he was so endowed; they were rather amazed.

You know, you go to the awards ceremonies, and you're constantly being bombarded by people asking you to sign autographs. You were the girl working at the coffee shop one day, and suddenly you're bigger than anybody else.

And I think that John fell into that. He became a celebrity and lived and breathed that 24 hours a day.

Annette Haven (porn star): What was interesting was John Holmes really only worked on camera. His cock was impressive visually, but let's face it, as the joke goes, if John ever got fully erect, he'd lose consciousness due to lack of blood to his brain -- because his dick really was that big.

And it's true that his cock was never hard. It was like doing it with a big, soft loofah sponge. You had to kind of stuff it in. For me, personally, I prefer something in a smaller size that's actually rigid and functions really well. Being stuffed full of loofah is kind of interesting, I guess, but not exactly a turn-on.

Joel Sussman (still photographer): When John started making $1,000 cash a day, he got real spoiled. And I think that was what propelled him into insanity more than anything else. It was that "too much, too soon" thing. You know, where you start with cigarettes and go to smack. And what do you do after smack? And then you start doing even weirder things to yourself.

He was like a rock star. He did the same things rock stars do. Go up high and burn out. And then you can't get back into the atmosphere. His life was like a cartoon, and then it became real. I think when it was a cartoon it was fun, but when it was real, it was ugly and scary.

Bill Amerson: When I first met him, John wouldn't do any drug except marijuana. He was afraid of everything else. Then around 1975 or 1976 he got turned on to cocaine by a producer. There was always cocaine around. It was a commodity in the adult-film business. People were paid in cocaine.

So John started doing cocaine. He lived with me at the time, and I would see him two hours after he had finished on the set and he would still be buzzing.

He was doing things like waxing his car, washing the dishes, cleaning the floor. And this was like two in the morning, and John thought this was the greatest discovery of his life.

That was the first time John snorted cocaine. And then for a few years, John snorted cocaine almost on a daily basis.

Sharon Mitchell (porn star): Everyone had cocaine, everyone had some heroin, everyone had whatever they did; P.C.P., speed, people carried it around.

I'm not necessarily saying we needed it to perform in the movies, I'm just saying we preferred it. We carried it one step further than the sixties. It was free sex and a lot of drugs. It was a sign of the times, and everyone was packing whatever their preference was.

And we would all share. We were good that way.

Bob Chin: At that time, just shooting an X-rated film was bad enough, was subject to a bust. So if you had drugs on the set, that would definitely mean jail. So I wouldn't tolerate drugs on my shoots.

But one day I caught John with cocaine on the set. I flushed it down the toilet and said, "John, you can't do this!"

He became petulant and wouldn't work. It cost us a lot of time. I said, "John, I haven't paid you yet. Finish the film, get your money, and do whatever you want."

From that point on I just couldn't work with him. It was just too difficult.

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