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Johnny Castano Phones

2002-10-14 18:53:21
Johnny Castano is in his sixties. He's in poor health and lives in Las Vegas. Castano was a porn photographer from the mid seventies until the year 2000. We've had many conversations over the years.

Luke: "How are you feeling?"

Johnny: "I'm crippled. They screwed me up pretty bad [with back operations]. I got noprobyia in my feet. They get numb. Diabetes. You don't get good circulation down there. I take a lot of medicine. I'm probably a drug addict. I can walk on a walker. I go day from day."

Luke: "Are you still taking photos?"

Johnny: "I haven't worked in two years. I wish I was working. It would help me out a lot. I'm living on my Social Security, my Veteran's Disability [and savings].

"I'm trying to find a movie by Alexandra Quinn. She fu--ed a great big black guy, Lexington Steele. She did anal and everything. They wrote it up in the AVN magazine."

Luke: "Gene Ross says she was deported back to Canada."

Johnny: "She was here without a green card [legal residency]. She's about 29 years old now. She told me she would never go back with black guys and she did.

"I'm glad you're out of the business. It's a really bad business. That's why I wasn't very nice to a lot of people. I didn't have any love for a lot of the people in the business.

"If I was smart, I would've gone into the video business. A few people asked me to do it and I said no [sticking with still photography]. I'm sorry I didn't do that because I'd be a millionaire today. I had certain scruples. I love photography. Ron Vogel never picked up a video camera.

"Ron Vogel is a lot smarter businessman than me. Him and Jim South are close. The reason Ron Vogel is successful is that Jim South has always made sure that Ron Vogel got the best looking girls first. Jim and Ron bought a lot of gold at $200 an ounce and they sold at $800 an ounce and made a ton of money. One day I was over [at World Modeling], and Jim had 200 krugerands [gold coins] in a bottle.

"They were both in business with Ron Vogel's studio. Jim owns three homes. Tom Byron used to live in one of them.

"I'm close with Joey Silvera. He sends me a lot of his stuff. He just bought a million dollar home. John Leslie is only making one or two movies a year. When you get older, you get tired of it. You don't want to be involved no more.

"I used to know everyone in Hollywood, before I got into porno, when I had my studio on Hollywood Blvd [in the early seventies]. I knew every producer. Telly Savalas used to send me so many girls to do portraits of. I knew Melissa Prophet, who appears in Goodfellas."

Melissa Prophet is a former beauty queen. She was Miss Los Angeles and Miss California. She was third runner-up in the Miss World Pageant as well as the Miss USA Pageant. She won 14 first place trophies in various contests.

She appeared in a nude pictorial in the May 1987 issue of Playboy.

"Melissa Prophet," Ivan Nagy said, was a "house girl" for international financier Adnan Kashoggi, procuring women for him while living in his home, a statement echoed by former Playboy model Cathy St. George, who was friendly with Prophet in the late 1980s, and by film executive Paul Rosenfeld, who knew Prophet through the man she would later marry, longtime Simpson friend Craig Baumgarten. Producer Joel Silver knew Prophet well, too, but was not actually a customer, though Melissa would set him up on dates. Producer Robert Evans actually went into business with Prophet..." (High Concept, pg. 96)

In 1986, Playboy Playmate Cathy St. George was invited by her friend Melissa Prophet to attend a Malibu beach party. St. George knew of Prophet as "one of the biggest madams in L.A. at that time." (High Concept, pg. 126)

High Concept says Prophet snorted coke with Simpson. (pg. 127)

Prophet eventually married former Columbia executive Craig Baumgarten, who was fired by the company when they found out he produced and appeared in the 1974 porno Sometimes Sweet Susan.

They formed the management company Baumgarten-Prophet Entertainment, which produced TNT.s "The Hunchback," which starred Mandy Patinkin, Richard Harris and Salma Hayek and "Cold Around the Heart," a co-production with Oliver Stone's Illusion Entertainment for FOX, starring David Caruso and Kelly Lynch.

Prophet and Baumgarten eventually split.

Prophet played Nicky's wife Jennifer in the Marty Scorsese movie Casino.

Roger Ebert writes in a crush review of 1985's Invasion USA: "The movie's worst, most thankless role goes to Melissa Prophet, who plays a newspaper reporter. She stands around at the scenes of all the many violent crimes in this movie, snapping photographs and being angry. (Like many photographers in the movies, she acts as if photography consists of pointing the camera in the direction of the action and recording the largest possible view.) This woman is angry at everyone. She spouts off to cops, badmouths security guards, and when Norris saves her life from savage terrorists she brushes his hand off her sleeve and bitterly snarls, "Thanks a lot, cowboy!" Never in the movie does she write or file a story or a photograph, and (this is most amazing) at no point does her presence in the movie make the slightest difference. She never interacts with anybody else for any purpose. She just stands around with her camera, being mad."

From People magazine 8/8/94: "The woman mentioned most often [about having affairs with O.J. Simpson] is actress Tawny Kitaen, 32, cohost of ABC's now defunct America's Funniest People and mother of California Angels pitcher Chuck Finley's out-of-wedlock child. Three sources, who insist on anonymity, claim Simpson carried on an extramarital affair with Kitaen in the mid-'80s. During that time, one source says, Simpson regularly ''showered Tawny with gifts and kept her in hotel suites' that were ''never a long drive away' from wherever Simpson and Nicole were staying. Kitaen's manager, Melissa Prophet, who happens to be the wife of producer Craig Baumgarten, a longtime friend of Simpson's, declined comment in all matters regarding her client's past or present relationship with Simpson."

Johnny Castano: "I used to do headshots for tons of the agencies."

Luke: "Melissa Prophet was a madam."

Johnny: "I shot her nude. She never signed a release. She had a beautiful body. I took several pictures. I gave her one. I blew it up to 10x14. It was a nice figure shot, no spread eagle.

"She used to hang out at my studio [1971-73]. We were very close. I had an affair with her 19-year old girlfriend who committed suicide. She was a beautiful Mexican girl. She was close to Melissa. She went to San Francisco with me many times. She was a quaaludes freak. She was turning tricks.

"I used to kid her about Telly Savalas all the time. I used to say, 'Hey Melissa, is Telly still f---ing you in the ass?' She'd go, 'Oh Johnny, he always wants to do that but I won't let him.'

"Telly used to come up to my studio.

"Her real name is Melissa Prophino. Her old man is a big musician and he was also in the mob. He was a close friend of Sinatra's. They lived in a beautiful home, right on the ocean, near Malibu. It used to be a nude beach. I used to go to it a lot.

"She had a big affair with the guy who owned Nick's Fish House on Sunset Blvd.

"I got really pissed off when Melissa posed for Ken Marcus in [May 1987] Playboy. She said Playboy paid her a lot of money and they wanted her to shoot for Ken Marcus. I shouldn't have gotten mad but I got a little mad at her. She didn't have no choice.

"She was the girlfriend of Bob Evans. She got a lot of girls for that rich guy who ran the guns [Adnan Kashoggi]. I read Bob Evans' book four times. He used to f--- everything that walked. He tried to f--- Sharon Stone but she hates his guts. She didn't make it in Hollywood until she was 28 years old. I read in the tabloids how he took her girlfriend up to his house and doped her up and f---ed her all night and threw her out on the street. Sharon Stone said he tried to do the same thing to her.

"Melissa was smart. She knew her way around Hollywood but she could never make it big in the movies.

"Too bad you can't get in touch with Alexandra Quinn. She used to f--- a lot of movie stars including Tony Curtis. She knew many producers.

"Bob Evans used to come up to my studio. He was nice but not over-nice. He was a big shot. He said I should be in the movies with my face. I could play a lot of tough guy roles. I used to shave my head then.

"I wonder if Melissa ever runs into my old sidekick Patricia Apollonia Kotero (Appolonia) [who stars with Prince in Purple Rain]. That's when Tommy [Sinnopoli] and his goon friend paid me a visit. They were working for the mob and the mob sent them after me to get those pictures of Patti Tertero.

"No matter how much I try to forget about Alexandra Quinn, I can never forget about her because I had such wonderful times with her. She just grew on you. She had that kind of personality. She did the same thing to a friend of mine. He had her over and he put her up for a couple of days and he fell in love with her. She's just a funny girl. She does strange things to guys. She's got a certain kind of personality.

"She made a lot of money tricking. I had a lot of sex with her and it was really great. She was kinky but she wouldn't do any pissers. She used to turn down tricks who wanted her to piss in their mouth. She'd come home and say, 'He offered me $200 but I wouldn't do that kind of crap.'

"What happened to Marc Goldberg [Wallice]?"

Luke: "He's working in the business as an editor."

Johnny: "I'm glad to hear that. At least he's working. I always liked Marc. We were good friends. We made a lot of money together. I made a lot of money with Julio [Tony Montana]. I broke him in. He used to clean my pool. Then I took pictures of him and got him in the business. He f---ed me over. He's a cocky guy.

"I miss talking to a lot of the people. I'm so surprised at the girls they're shooting today. They're unbelievable. The girls are beautiful. I'm saying to myself, Jesus Christ, where were all these girls when I was shooting? And they're doing hardcore pornography. They don't give a sh-- what they do. And they're beautiful. Is this the way the world has changed? It's a downer. I see these beautiful girls that come from good homes and they're doing hardcore pornography. Jesus Christ, what kind of homes do they come from? It seems like every other girl in California is doing pornography. Even if they become Miss Universe, the next thing you know, she's doing hardcore.

"When I was in Hollywood and I had my big studio, Ron Vogel and Mario Kasil (shot more Playmates than anyone) used to come up. Mario brought Dorothy Stratten to my studio. We used to sit around and drink coffee and nice wine. I knew all the producers. One producer would call me and say, 'Hey Johnny, I've got a real nice one I'm going to send you over. She needs some headshots. Maybe you can work a deal out with her. You know what I mean? Work a nice deal out?'

"I knew right away what he was talking about. She'd give you a blowjob. I'd ask who has she seen and he'd name off two or three producers she'd seen that day. That means she's already sucked two guys off... This was an every day thing in Hollywood. They used to pass the girls around like they were nothing. I'd be second or third on the list. But I didn't always get a blowjob. But some of them were beautiful girls...

"There was this agency by Polly Peluso. She used to send me a lot of girls. She'd come right on the phone and say, 'Hey man, for a $100, you could have a really good time with this girl.' The next thing I knew, she was the head of the Playboy [talent] agency.

"A week ago, I'm reading the Las Vegas paper and there she is. She's 74 years old and living in Las Vegas.

"She was with this Chinese guy, Milton Schoong (his father founded Chinatown in San Francisco), who used to own Cosmopolitan Agency, who was secretary of state of California. She could tell you stories. Milton hated my guts.

"She worked at the Lenz Agency in Las Vegas."

Johnny Castano Phones
2002-11-10 22:08:04
Johnny Castano called: "Alexandra Quinn was married to an American. I knew her husband well. He was an Italian weightlifter who managed a night club in Hawaii. He managed her career. Got her into weightlifting. Then she divorced him. Then she got on drugs so bad he couldn't handle it anymore. He's close to her parents in Canada. She owns her own home in Canada and her parents live in it.

"She had a bad drug problem (cocaine) in the last few months and went to Sharon Mitchell to get help. When she was with me, she used to smoke crack cocaine all the time. It pissed me off because the apartment used to stink all the time. We had a lot of fights over that.

"She'd told me that she was all through with doing black guys. And then I find out she's back doing a lot of blacks now. I'm glad you didn't really get to know her because once you do, you can't forget her. She's like a growth on you.

"I introduced her to Buck Adams' dentist Tom LaGotta and she lived with him for a couple of weeks. All the girls loved Tom. He was doing all the girls in the porno industry. He's a helluva dentist. He's a Harvard graduate. Buck Adams used to shoot big movies funded by him at his big home in Encino.

"Viking Press came to me a few years ago. They wanted to do a book on my life. I didn't go along with it. What a mistake that was.

"I've never liked Gene Ross since the day he stood up for Jay Ashley. I stuck a gun to Jay Ashley's head [in 1997]. They took advantage of the girl. They made her do some bad things. She was just a young innocent girl [Chantelle aka Marina] who didn't know any better.

"She wanted to do porno. I begged her not to. She said, 'Please take me there. I'll pay your way and we'll have a good time.' She made $6000 in three days.

"I brought her to Zane. They shot her and made a movie with her. When we got home, I got a call from Jay Ashley, who was working for Zane. 'Hey, Castano, if you bring her back here, we'll pay her $2500 and shoot a full length movie on her. She has to do anal and DP.' I said, ok, I'll bring her.

"She said she'd pay me $300 to take her and she would pay the hotel. We stayed at the Carriage Inn on Sepulveda Blvd. She started at 8AM. She wanted me right next to her. They were shooting and they start fist f---ing her. I got bent out of shape and I stopped the shoot. She came out and said, what's the matter? I said, listen, you don't have to do sh-- like that. I don't want them fist f---ing you. He came out fighting. I grabbed him and threw him against the truck and stuck a gun in his mouth. I had a 9mm. I carried it with me all the time. I had a permit to carry it. I said to Jay, 'That was not the deal, man.'

"The shoot stopped for an hour. Chuck Zane came. 'Johnny, what are you doing?' He asked us to stay. She said to me, 'Johnny, I will be all right, please.' So I stayed outside. If I had gone in, I would've shot that prick. She came out at 10PM. She was crying. That was the last movie she did."

Luke: "Why was she upset?"

Johnny: "They did a lot of sh-- with her. They put two dicks in her pussy at the same time. Shawna Edwards told me about it. Shawna lives in Las Vegas now. She's a sick puppy. She's an alcoholic. She only weighs about 80 pounds.

"Shawna told me about what they did to Chantelle. Everybody was trying to shoot her because she was so beautiful. We got home and Chantelle said to me, 'Johnny, that's all. I don't want to do this sh-- no more.' I don't know what happened to her.

"Regan Senter got her about $6000 in a few days. I didn't give a f--- that he f---ed her. What's the big f---ing deal in him f---ing girls, man? They all f--- girls. He was broken hearted she quit.

"Jay Ashley told Gene Ross and Gene called me. 'What's with you pulling a gun on this guy?' I told him the whole story on the phone. Gene never talked to me again after that. He was upset with me."

Gene Ross says: "Castano called me originally with the story and I called Ashley. However, because I worked for AVN where stories are beautiful all the time, there was no place for it in the magazine."