The Racy Life and Dazzling Times of John C. Holmes

Super Young Super Hung

John C Holmes was the leading light of the erotic movie industry from 1969 when censorship was relaxed, the sexual revolution was in full-flowering and everyone was high on the heady days of the Hippy revolution. His main talent was his large appendage that made him unique in the annals of erotic film-making. The young John Holmes came from simple, sadly aggressive agrarian beginnings in Ohio.

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His mother, a typical Christian woman, married an abusive alcoholic, whom she then divorced, taking a new step-father who also attacked John. John, as soon as he was sixteen, enrolled in the army, telling his mother, “If I stick around here, I’ll kill him (his step-father).” Three years in boot-camp usually sets you on the straight-and-narrow yet at nineteen, John landed in Los Angeles with no job, and bulging pockets.

The Erasable Johnny Wadd

These days plots are non-existent in the erotic film industry. Forty years ago, they had substance – characters, plots and resembled mainstream movies. John, as it was recalled, did the rounds of auditions with little more than a wing and a prayer. Daffy, fluffy and gangly he cut no figure compared with the style of actor of the day. It was when he dropped his jeans the directors took notice casting him in the role of a Private Investigator that springs the loot and gets the girls. It was his entree – one which ran for several, “episodes,” on Super 8 film format – long before video tape was around.

 Show Me The Drugs!

Girls, money and cars – it is every man’s wildest dream. Things were in full-swing for the gangly porno star and it seemed the palms of Santa Monica cut a heavenly highway straight into his bank account. But, let’s not forget his first wife. The bespectacled Sharon Gebenini, a nurse whom he met in 1964 and wed just prior to auditioning for porn. She was his rock, his good girl to whom he turned and was turned away toward the end.  Young John, now twenty-one, was also caught up in his own fakery in a nest of drugs and booze that only the best could muster for those fabulous days.   To this day, Sharon has never once seen one of John’s movies decrying it all as a horrid sham. Her opinion meant nothing – John started to taste the crystal joys of cocaine.

I Wish He Had Viagra

John C Holmes has been described by many of his fourteen thousand paramours as lovably, easy-going and cool. In all the accounts, but one, he was gentle with the giant organ he had been given by Jesus. The Johnny Wad series whirring in the old home projectors were placing a grand a week in his already stuffed trousers. Satan was keeping him in check though, tempting him with looser girls and more toxic chemicals. One thing for sure as he aged his appetite for vice increased and the appendage decreased. It was not a cool picture. Around this time his wife had laid down the gauntlet, John’s roles became thin on the ground and he was keeping a poor wraith, “Dawn,” in a van pimping her and him to satisfy coke craving.

The Wonderland Murders

It was 1981, the age of video tapes had arrived and porn was pumped out at cost.  John had not yet been nominated for an Oscar instead living a desperate life with “Dawn.”  John became a regular of drug dealers on Wonderland Ave. He also was friends with director Eddie Nash who kept coke at home.

John told the Wonderland drug dealers about a possible stash of cocaine at Nash’s. A robbery was done, the drugs taken – Eddie Nash suspected John. Next, Nash got John to admit his trickery. A deal was done, “You let me into the Wonderland lair and you live.” Mr. 13-and-a-Half (John) had access to the building on Wonderland Way. He let Eddie, and possibly others, into the den where the coke gang lay sleeping like babies.

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The next day four bloodied, bashed and dead cadavers were found in the Wonderland building. Police fingered Nash and Holmes. Both were arrested, with John being released six months later, due to lack of hard evidence. Upon release, John and Dawn fled Los Angeles for Florida the only place they imagined would be beyond the reach of Californian Courts. This sure was an unenviable situation that the legend of erotica found himself in; on the run, without funds and in an old van.

The long arm of the law reached even to Melbourne (Florida) catching Dawn and John. Upon return to Los Angeles Mr. Holmes was recalcitrant. The police charged him for the four killings. He was acquitted after the trial innocent of any murder.

The Golden Age

The Eighties and their flood of cheap videos were casting a pall across the erotic film industry but John was will-o-the-wisp. He was innocent. It was now that he met, “Misty Dawn,” his second wife.  John fell in love again. They had a fabulous relationship; they married and things were looking good. John was making films again.

Then the Grim Reaper came knocking. John was diagnosed with HIV / AIDS. Images of John of the day show the new-found confidence but the images lied. John was effectively unemployable once news of his diagnosis spread. It was John’s battle now and stateside no-one would go there. Misty was very supportive. John suddenly received a letter from Italy. “Come over… Ciccolina (Famous Italian erotica-movie queen) is dying to meet you. You have to work with her, she’s heard much on you.” Ron Jeremy, the rising star of the American scene, was flabbergasted. “You know, why didn’t they say, “Hello! AIDS coming over!”?” But it wasn’t so. John was off to Rome in the next 747.

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Was John on a selfish murderous rampage? Was he bitter as his Golden Age wasted away?  No-one will ever know but one thing is for certain, that personal Golden Age ended in Europe in the mid-eighties. By 1987 John was back home in a Los Angeles hospital with serious complications he named, “Cancer.”

The End

The end came on March 13th 1988 with John’s second wife, Misty Dawn, with him. All family was banished except John’s mum and half-brother. His last wish was that his manhood be cremated with him lest the unscrupulous attempt to pickle it in a jar, as a freakish display. A quiet memorial for John was held for other family members at the Forest Lawn Memorial Garden a few weeks later.

The Legacy of John C Holmes

Despite leading a life of vice John’s life was very important for several reasons.

1. His films and life constantly invoked the First Amendment of the US Constitution – the right of free expression
2.  He was loved. He is survived by two loving god children despite not having children of his own
3.  He was every man’s star; not too good-looking but able to please
4.  Two films, “Boogie Nights,” and, “Wonderland,” sprung from his life.