An Interview With Jody Maxwell, The Singing C---Sucker
Jody Maxwell appeared in about 15 porn films from 1974-1981, including Portrait, Outlaw Ladies, and Satisfiers Of Alpha Blue. She was best known for her oral abilities, including her aptitude for singing while her mouth was otherwise engaged with her work.
She's now published a book entitled My Private Calls.
LOS ANGELES (Wireless Flash) -- It looks like phone sex operators have at least one major hang-up -- customers who hang up right after their climax.
That's the naked truth from former porn star-turned-phone-sex-worker Jody Maxwell, star of movies like "Thrilling Drilling" and "Bucky Beaver's XXX Dragon Art Theatre."
She spent 12 years in phone sex and says all operators hate getting hang-ups because they often keep talking for several minutes before they figure out their client is gone.
Maxwell says she understands why the guys do it but says it's more polite to say "goodbye" or "thank you" afterward -- otherwise, the phone sex worker may try to ring up additional charges from the call.
Besides hang-ups, Maxwell is constantly surprised at her customer's kinky requests. For example, one man told her his fantasy was to spy on his son having sex with an older man. Maxwell discusses the ins and outs of the phone sex field in a new book, "My Private Calls" (Stealthcat Publishing).
I interview Jody by phone Friday, January 21, 2005:
Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
J: "A trail lawyer. I come from a long line of attorneys. My grandfather and father were famous attorneys. I know the day I decided I wanted to become a lawyer. It was when my father threw a fraternity party at our house."
Q: So how did you get into porn?
J: "I got married at age 18 while in college. He decided to become a lawyer. I got tired of going to school. I got my degree in Theater and Speech [at age 19]. In my senior year of college [1974], my marriage broke up [after two years, though divorce took another four years]. Gerard Damiano of Deep Throat fame came to my college to speak on a morality panel. They showed an erotic film. I was going to interview him.
"During our conversation, I told him my father was a prosecutor. He said, oh.
"When I met him, I was starring in Death of a Salesman on stage. He asked me what I did. He said he'd like to talk to me about doing one of his films. I said, I don't think so.
"He took me to dinner that evening. He persuaded me to come to New York to do a screen test after graduation. I called him the day after I graduated.
"Meanwhile, I went home and discussed it with my father. He said he no problem with it."
Q: Your father had no problem with you doing a porn film?
Jody: "If that was what I decided to do, no, he didn't. Not with Damiano. There had just been a story about him in Playboy. My father subscribes to Playboy. They were talking about how he was the king of porn. My father said to go for it if I felt good about it.
"Damiano said he didn't know if he was going to do a straight film or a porn film."
Q: What did the screen test involve?
J: "It was very straight. I was fully clothed the whole time. I said different lines. They shot me from different angles. It was G-rated.
"When I was in New York, [Damiano] decided to make [his next film] X-rated. Portrait. He decided to write me my own movie. Between the making and editing of Portrait, he got busted [for obscenity]. He got paranoid. He took all our names off the credits (and put a statement instead), even though we had done all this press. Roger Ebert interviewed me.
"Because of that, people don't realize that's me in all the character roles. I play a woman with multiple personalities."
Q: What was it like to do your first adult film?
J: "He was so high-class, it was cool. He hired Jamie Gillis to do several days on set while I was doing non-sex stuff. So we could get to know each other and I would feel comfortable around him. Obviously this is not how these filmmakers generally work.
"I loved making love to the camera. I really got off on it.
"I turned down many hundreds of adult films. Early on in my time in the business, I became friends with somebody who was the editor of an adult publication. And he told me, don't overexpose yourself. Don't make all the films. You'll get screwed up.
"I turned down films that I later wished I had done, such as The Opening Of Misty Beethoven (but the money wasn't there).
"I'm a graduate of the Young Republicans National Leadership training school. I got to meet President Nixon (circa 1973). It's the best picture I've seen of Nixon. He's happy. He's smiling. I did the parties for both his daughters.
"I was in office for Young Republicans when I got into porn."
Q: Are you a life-long Republican?
J: "Yes [in the sense that she has always been a member of that party]. How do I vote now? I vote all over the place. I've always voted a split-ticket. I try to vote for the candidate. The Republicans who rule right now, such as the ones in California, are way too right-wing."
Juliet Anderson got Jody into doing phone sex in 1983 and that was a large part of Jody's income for the next 12 years.
"My main stage show... Do you know anything about my oral abilities?"
Not really.
"In my private life, I was a creative person sexually. When my marriage split up, I got into swinging. I developed singing and f---ing. With words and all. I made a Christmas record for Cheri [magazine] one year of singing and f---ing. No one had ever sucked two people at the exact same time. I had tried that in my private life.
"I was quick-witted. I would go on stage and I'd have a bowl of water. And I'd get a volunteer to come up and sit in the bowl of water and I'd suck their fingers.
"The manager at Show World says I was crazy. No self-respecting New Yorker would ever go up on stage and sit in a bowl of water to get his fingers sucked. I said, watch me!
"I got up on stage. I'd show my breasts. Dance. I'd try to amuse them. It was nothing hardcore. And then I'd ask for a volunteer.
"It was lunch time. The first guy wore black slacks. He took off his pants. He was wearing a black tie, black socks, black shirt. He climbed up and sat in the bowl of water. I sucked on his fingers and he got an erection like you wouldn't believe.
"The man who managed Wendy O. Williams wanted to take me to Las Vegas [to do shows] because the show is funny. It is sexy. It's hot. Sometimes people took it too seriously. I just wasn't ready to take it to Las Vegas. I regret that."
Jody says she's never worked as an escort.
"I would never fake an orgasm on-film or in real life. It's insulting."
Since 1995, Jody has worked as a public school English teacher.
Q: Did any of the kids figure out that you had been a porn star?
"No. I never gave them a clue about that.
"I relate well with kids."
Jody says nobody in porn tried to get her into bed when they offered her roles while that happened to her frequently in non-adult productions.
"My least favorite [porn] film, even though I made lots of money on it, was Gums. The reason was that these people were Hollywood people who tried to make an X-rated film. It cost over a million dollars. It took four-to-six weeks to make it. They shot in New Jersey, New York, Miami, Key West. It's a satire of Jaws. Brother Theodore is in it. But the filmmakers were strange. They didn't know porn. It was an attitude thing. There were people on the crew having sex with different actors and actresses right and left. It was just goofy.
"I always like that the [porn] crews were so professional. I did get involved with a cameraman.
"The pay was outstanding. You made thousands of dollars a day. They insisted on eight-hour days. You got paid overtime for even a minute over. One day I did 30-minutes of work. It was all talking."