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Born June 17, 1966 in Pasadena, Italian-American Christy Canyon (Melissa Bardiz Bania) grew up in the San Fernando Valley. She got kicked out of Providence High School before graduating from North Hollywood High.

Christy's older sister writes on the internet under the name Carla Sinclair. Author of The Happy Mutant Handbook and Signal To Noise, she publishes her husband's magazine bOING, bOING. Hubby Mark Frauenfelder edits Wired magazine. They have a daughter Sarina, named after the aunt in Bewitched.

"When Christy was in second grade," Carla told Axcess magazine, "she coerced all these girls into drawing their own Playboy [style] magazines…to sell to all the boys. And because she was the ringleader, she got sent down to the principal's office.

"We used to watch our step dad undress. We'd rush home and he'd let us watch him undress and change. I got to see almost all my friend's fathers…"

When the girls were eight and ten years of age, their mother took them to see the Warren Beatty movie Shampoo. "She used to drive us down Hollywood Boulevard to look at the hoookers…

"When Christy was thirteen and I was fifteen," says Carla, "we used to go into this nightclub where you were supposed to be 18. But the owner liked her…"

Carla dressed her younger sister in tight angora sweaters. "I'd tell her to keep her mouth shut because she had braces but her body was so cute. We'd go to this club called Seven Seas. It was all sailors and transsexuals."

At age 16, Canyon lost her virginity to a tender Thai who knew little about sex. "He was adorable. He was gorgeous. I really loved him but he taught me nothing about sex. It was just five-minutes-and-its-over type thing… I didn't know a girl was supposed to enjoy sex as much as a man.

"Dad really got mad when he found out… My parents never talked about sex nor did my older sister. My boyfriend never expressed his feelings. He was not creative."

At age 17, Canyon ran away from home with a "murderer… I think he had a warrant or ten out on him…"

A few months later, Christy dated actor Robin Williams. "He could never get it up because he was so high on coke. He stank so bad we had to fumigate after he left." (Axcess magazine)

Performer Greg Rome spotted Christy fresh out of high school, strolling down Sunset Boulevard. He stopped the auburn-haired beauty and asked her if she'd like to star in a movie with him. She said yes.

"…This little surfer blonde guy pulls up in a White Trans-Am, with the gold eagle on the hood, with the sunroof, the whole thing, and we just started talking.

"And I'm very personable -- and at eighteen I'd talk to anyone pretty much -- so anyway, he came up to me and said, "Oh, what kind of work do you do, you're so pretty! You should do modeling and tapa-tapa-tap."

Well, at the time, I felt really ugly about myself. I had just graduated high school, moved out on my own, wasn't talking to my family.

"It's a whole personal long story starting with divorce. It had gotten to the point where my parents, no longer married to each other, were fighting with their [new] spouses. And I was caught in the middle, no matter what house I went to. I was getting the blame from everyone. How could a seventeen-year-old cause the divorce of everyone?

"So, anyway, GREG ROME -- the little blonde surfer guy -- is saying all these nice things and I thought, "Wow, it's really nice of the guy to think I could be a model, and da-da-da!"

I'm working two jobs now and I can't pay my bills, so he gave me a card for a modeling agency. And it said, "figure modeling." So I asked Greg what was figure modeling? And he said, "Oh, just a little nudity."

"So, anyway, I think I went out with him a few times, just to dance clubs and stuff, and then he kind of bored me after awhile. I don't like that real blonde look. I like darker, and I'm not into those real muscle builds and young guys. I've never been attracted to that. I've always liked older men.

"But I still had that card that he gave me, and I looked at it once and I thought, "No, I'll never do figure modeling" -- but I put it away. I just always kept it in a little drawer. And one night I was down to, like, five dollars in my wallet, another five in the bank -- and my car insurance was due, my rent was do, I mean EVERYTHING was due. My phone had like 24 hours, then they were going to cut it off. So I called up this number. From that day on I worked the whole eight months."

Canyon says she had sex with Greg once. "And it was because I wasn't experienced with sex at all. I was barely eighteen. I hadn't been with too many guys, and he would say, "Well, if you do get into the video part eventually, do you know what doggie style is, and do you know what spoon is, and all?" Well, I know what a fork is. I mean I really didn't know the different positions.

"Yeah, egg beater, or you know. I'd always been with guys who were just into themselves getting off, and not pleasing me.

"…Just laying me down and doing their thing. Whereas, until I got into the business, I had never had a guy do, like, four different positions in one night, you know. Or last more than five minutes.

"So to me it was really exciting, and felt like, "Well, I'm not really enjoying this, Greg, but I think I should learn it [she erupts with laughter]." But I was, like, scared because I thought, "Oooo, this guy's been with all those pretty girls and here, you know, I don't know what I'm doing."

"But he liked it, because he thought he was like Mr. Macho for teaching me. And for the full eight months I was in the business, he used to always say to me, [mimicking a little boy's voice] "If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have all that money," you know. It was like, "Shuddup -- you got your fifty dollars commission."

At last word, Greg Rome, when not in jail, was hustling guys on Santa Monica Boulevard. Sex Net's Clete McCabe saw him one morning "wearing just a tank top and tight shorts -- and clutching one of his Boy/Girl videos, with him on the cover. Guess it helps him to get a higher fee from the trade he picks up."

CHRISTY: "That's like the bottom of the barrel. So, it's too bad because Greg was basically a nice person. His only problem with me, though, was when I got really big, and famous, he wanted all the credit.

"And it was like, "Hey, Greg, you introduced me, you got paid for it, I requested you in my first twenty-nine thousand videos, you know. I mean you made money off of it, not only from the agent, but me wanting to work with you, so don't give me any of this s---."

McCabe: He basically was a pleasant guy -- but, no, he wasn't the brightest guy.

CHRISTY: I don't think a lot of the people [in the business] are. Not to be mean -- but even when I was in it, I wasn't playing with a full deck. I was a little screwy at the time, I think. Eighteen!?! I didn't know what to do with all this money, with fame, you know.

"When I started, I didn't know how to give a guy head. Ron Jeremy had to teach me… He'd hold my head down and say, 'No, Christy, you have to do it longer than ten seconds,'" (Adult Video News, 1991)

"I've got two different sides. Maybe it's because I'm a Gemini. Actually, I've got like three sides: I've got the Little Girl side of me still, where I like to stay up with my girlfriends, and giggle, and drink hot chocolate and smoke cigarettes all night.

"Then I've got my side that's more a loose side. When I know I can be like that, it's real easy for me to turn that on, to work, that whole thing. And then I've got a conservative side [which demonstrates itself with her finances]."

At the beginning of her career, Canyon lived on the wild side. "I lived on the corner of Franklin and Orchid, at the Holiday Apartments. It was a holiday, all right, everybody there was on a trip, except for me.

"But you know what -- I loved it! Now that I look back, and even at the time, I had fun. It was fun there. But it's something I could never do again. I was there for five months.

"I must have, like, a guardian angel. Because some of the things that I survived in that area -- oooohhhhh, boy! I mean Twilight Zone.

"There were Pimps across the street. There were Pimps up above me, there were gays up above me, there was a drug addict next to me, there was a totally loony guy next to me, across the hall, and all day he'd go "blah-blah-blah, motherf---er, blah-blah-blah" -- I mean ALL day.

"I'd wake up, there were Bums outside my window. I got to know them, ummnnn, you know, breakfast every morning.

"There was a transvestite down the hall, who used to feed me dinner every night. I mean nice people, but just totally whacked out loony-bins. It was like that movie, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. And I was like the sane person.

"I was living alone, on the bottom floor, in the back unit, and there was no light in the dirt area for parking outside my window. God knows how I survived without one thing scratching or scarring me.

"…The windows were paper thin, the doors were cardboard, I know I must have a guardian angel. I mean I've been through some situations that are scary when you think back -- but I'm glad I did it because it was really fun." (Sex Net)

Canyon debuted in Night of Living Dangerously, doing Peter North and Ginger Lynn. "It was my first time with another girl and Ginger was great. She showed me what to do."

The Mohammed Ali of porn, Christy has three big comebacks to her credit. She first quit in 1985 at the request of her boyfriend. Christy worked as a receptionist and bookkeeper for her father before returning in '89. After quitting in 1993, she returned to Vivid in 1995.

"When I burn out on it, I quit because I never want it to become like a job. In the meantime, I dance.

"You don't always get good meals [in porn], and if you get them you have to fight for them. And there were some people who treated you like you were just a Porno Person.

"Yeah, even some of the directors. Like MIKE CARPENTER, and JACK GENNARO, those types of people. They really treated you like you were the bottom of the barrel. They treat you like s---.

"I remember Mike Carpenter once said to the make-up artist, "Put on that cocksucker red!" I mean, couldn't he call it, say, "British Red," or "Really Red," you know?

"I mean, what a phrase to use for a lipstick. Whereas everybody else, pretty much, treated you -- you know -- with respect. The best ones I worked for were Video Exclusives, Alex deRenzy, and Bob Wolfe in San Francisco.

"So now it's nice, for the next years, working for just the one company [Vivid]-- you don't have to deal with all the riffraff.

"I like what I'm doing. I was never -- and will never -- be one of the types that wakes up, dreads the shoot, and says, 'Goddammit, I don't want to go, blah-blah-blah, I'm just doing it for the money.'

"But I always enjoyed going to work. I always liked the people, ninety percent of the time, excluding the Gennaros, etc.

"I always liked being around the cast and crew, who were usually very nice. And I always liked being in the atmosphere. There's something about it -- maybe because it's so taboo, and it's supposed to be so shady -- that it's fun in a way. Maybe it's because I want to live dangerously... " (Sexnet)

"It seems like it [burnout] always happens when I'm dating a guy and it becomes serious. They pressure me, and I almost feel guilty for doing it when I'm with them and I figure if I quit, I can always come back. I never quit thinking, "I'm never going to do this again." It's usually out of respect for the person I'm dating - the person I happen to love. And a lot of the time when I get back in, it's because I want to rebel.

"I'm the little black sheep, the rebellious person of the family. I hope I will always be this way.

"The first time was scary. Then the second time I did it, I got into it. I like what I do, but it's a rebellious thing for me. I love going against the norm. But just with work, because in my day-to-day life, I don't rebel." (HEVG)

Though one of the original Vivid Girls, Canyon didn't let it spoil her. Those below her in social status, such as production assistants and make-up artists, say she's courteous and humane.

"This erotic legend has a formidable body, with big juicy breasts and a well-rounded backside," writes Adam Film World editor Jeremy Stone, Christy's husband. "She's a great beauty, with long sleek legs and a face so innocent it deserves a halo. Christy ignites in fits of orgasmic fireworks during her sex acts, panting and squeaking with ardor... She left the X-rated industry in 1993, returning to work for Vivid Video in 1995. Seems this perennial porn superstar can't get enough... Maybe it was being inducted into the XRCO Hall of Fame that helped her find her way back. Whatever the case, we're glad to be launching loads to new Canyon titles again. Seems this perennial porn star can't get enough... "

Christy's hits include Night Breed, Sex Secrets of a Mistress, Doctor Desire, Dirty Letters, Wild Things, Hollywood Starlets, Little Girls Of The Street, On Golden Blonde, Sex 5th Avenue and Like A Virgin.

The Coming of Christy appeared in 1991. Canyon plays the frustrated wife of a movie mogul who wants recognition for her thespian talents. "This feature fills with hot sex and plenty of Christy getting crammed. Mike Horner as her husband bones his secretary Renee Foxx. Christy welcomes her director and casting agent Wayne Summers and Madison to her home, and they have a lesbian link that precedes a satisfying triad… Production values are high, the performers are motivated and Christy doesn't come off like a two dimensional piece of porn meat. Leave Christy Canyon in simple, sex-filled videos and she shines." (AFW)

In Vivid's Comeback, we see "how unsexy and calculated the wild porn lifestyle can Be... This is a straight read on porn, blemishes and all. Christy overplays her part, but she's supposed to be a superstar, so that means overacting in the tradition of many porn queens before her. She decides to come back, but can't get up the nerve..." (AFW)

When fornicating before the camera, Canyon thinks first about camera angles. "I visualize how the scene should turn out and make sure the cameraman can shoot everything…"

Canyon's 1995 marriage lasted five weeks. After spending four years with a man who wouldn't marry her until she quit stripping and porn, she decided to marry a stranger.

"I got married and found, "Oh f---, why don't I just go back to my therapist [boyfriend]?

"Thank God I had a prenuptial agreement."

Canyon says her work always becomes a problem with her lovers. "The guy I was with for four years had a production company, so you'd think he'd understand it more than most people. But he didn't. The guy I was married to didn't know - he'd never seen one of my movies... I usually end up dating people in the business because they understand it more. At first, they're always understanding, but slowly it starts to change."

"I don't like it when guys treat girls in the business like porn girls. I don't like the mentality of someone who thinks: "She's a porn star, I can f--- her for nothing."

A triple Gemini, Christy enjoyed comedic roles. "I like expressing myself and changing personalities. I don't understand those f----me doll roles. Bimbo roles are degrading…" She gets mental orgasms from buying a new outfit.

"I once had this guy who bit my clit. I got really mad. How would you feel if I squeezed hard on your balls? When it comes to playing with my clit, pussy, tits or nipples, don't bite, pinch or hurt. Because I'll turn around and slug you. I like it when guys tease me. They lick me and back off, they slip a finger or two inside… I like it when they're conscious of my feelings… I don't like it when guys just dig to China.

"I like clean guys. I'm not into bodybuilders. I want a little softness in a guy. I wanna be able to squeeze on some love handles. I'm not into working out. I'm lazy. I couldn't handle a boyfriend who worked out because he'd be going, 'Come on, let's work out.' And I'd say, 'No. Bring me home a Snickers.'"

Christy says men become possessive because they want to be the breadwinner. "They either resent you for doing it and making more money than they do, or they have this notion that they're going to latch onto the money that you're making. What they make is their money, and what I make is mine. But what happens is that I end up paying for dinners more than they do.

"If I want to get laid, I just pick up the phone and say, "I'm ready to work." Being in this business has desensitized me to the one-night stand... I'd rather make a movie and get paid than sleep with some guy I don't know.

"Men always try to change me. They want to make Christy dependent on them. They get this feeling, "Poor Christy has to make these f--- films." I've had several boyfriends say all of a sudden, "Oh, Christy, I'm sorry you have to do this. You'll never have to do it again." Don't f---ing tell me what I can or have to do or don't have to do. Relationships don't work for me."

Christy loves reading trashy novels by Jackie Collins and Danielle Steele. "I want to improve… I bought some Tolkien novels but I haven't read them." (HEVG)

In late July 1996, Canyon married Adam Film World editor Jeremy Stone (who loves to work out) and retired from porn. She supposedly earns about half a million dollars a year from stripping in clubs

5/22/00

Aurore Dupin [adupings@hotmail.com] late of NightMoves Philadelphia, writes:

In line with Luke's extensive reporting on the diminishing returns of pornerdom, "Dead Porn Stars" and the decline of many players amid dim future prospects, I HAD to report my going to see Christy Canyon Friday May 19 in New Haven. Christy has gone in and out of porn often, mainly @ VIVID. Her checkered past seems to have caught up with her BIG TIME.. She looked dreadful, pained, ill, wrinkled, emaciated. She dyed her hair a bizarre red-brown. Her legendary "Who Needs Implants" equipment shriveled and dried up. She looked so unlike the last time I saw her 2 ½ years ago that I briefly wondered if it was the same person, but the remains of her face and her patented very indifferent unskilled style of dancing gave her away. .While I have absolutely no facts or basis to justify saying so, her look and presence gave an experienced observer of such doings a loud wail "It's Got to be Drugs."

That tableau suggests a sad end to a sad story that seems both inevitable and avoidable. Christy has to rank as one of the all time great disappointments and lost opportunities. My first source in the industry [a minor VIVID actress] gave me a list of players, and a list of videos to preview to get my feet wet. The ones of Christy made a great impression of great vigor and awesome looks. But when I first tried to interview her I starkly met her famous BAD ATTITUDE equally as large and legendary as her breasts. My compliment about her appearance got me "O you're just a fan, why should I interview with you?" underscoring a colleague's lament that, too often lately, No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.

Oddly, Christy still drew a big crowd in New Haven. At first I marveled how stupid they seemed for their loud cheering for someone who obviously belonged nowhere near a stage; but midway through the third song, many started to walk out in threes and fives with very disappointed expressions, murmuring.

Her once great looks and VIVID's great marketing indeed built her a large base of fans, but she often seemed determined to do her worst to lose them. She consistently refused to do so much as sign her name without a price tag attached. She made derisive comments about her fans to me when I tried to interview her again with Tori Welles's help. The legendary BAD ATTITUDE turned off many industry players who spoke ill of her to me. Bill Margold called her "passe"; Nina Hartley called her "a bitch."

Mainly I went to see her to ask if she had any news of Tori Welles. Christy used to operate Tori's fan club and assist with her Web Site [now seemingly defunct.] By contrast, Tori had always proved as great a friend, source and human being as Christy proved the reverse. Three years ago, though, Tori seemed to start a massive tailspin, calling herself to me "a very dysfunctional person." At CES in 1999 VIVID brass icily wrote her off as having "massive personal problems" and in the same breath oozed "but now we have Taylor Hayes".

Luke's recent reports of Taylor's alcohol problems and bad dance gigs underscored the vapid "Nothing Upstairs" image she made on me; and confirms that VIVID and its ilk have gotten exponentially faster at using up and spitting out "talent." Jeanna Fine, Tori's other great porn gal friend, gave me some info at 1999 CES and connected us, sort of. Tori missed the gig, sick in San Diego County after a car accident. Steve Chase of Lee Network and countless house dancers had told me of Big Problems for Tori at dance gigs. Tori then said that she had reluctantly given up dancing and worked every so often as a cocktail waitress. XXX wrote Luke a few months back of Tori appearing at a porn event in early 2000 but looking dreadful; another source wrote Luke that Tori sometimes PAed on VIVID shoots. Last I saw her Tori looked stressed and a bit bedraggled, but yet quite attractive if extra dykey; but nowhere near as wasted and thrashed as Christy Canyon on Friday.

Concerned writes: I was saddened to read of Christy Canyon's apparent decline. I saw her dance at San Francisco's Crazy Horse back in 1990. Afterwards I went back for the requisite Polaroid and found her to be quite personable. I remember asking her jokingly if she got paid extra for her sex scenes with Ron Jeremy and she laughed, "I pay him!" She went on to say that Ron was a great guy, but admitted that many fans give her hell about f---ing him. That was ten years ago and in "porn star years" that was ten life times ago. Jenna, Juli, Serenity, ... and the rest learn from Ms. Canyon's mistakes. Make your money. Invest it wisely. Get the f--- out!

Kid Quick writes: Aurore Dupin must be still pissed about getting "snubbed" by Christy years ago. He was either drunk or on crack when he wrote the article posted on your site Sunday. I pulled these pictures off the Christy Canyon newsgroup today and she is still smokin' in my book, tell me you wouldn't do THAT!

Pic 2 Pic 3

10/29/00

Please Rush Your Facial Weight Gain Secrets To Christy Canyon

Whenever Luke gains weight, it goes straight to his puffy face. JustMrT writes: While debating whether to venture out into the rain to see Christy Canyon in S.F., I surfed over to alt.fan.christy-canyon. Yikes! (see attached photo, posted by slavering fan boy "noynac" from Argentina). Supposedly her appearance is the result not of misbehavior, but rather of a fitness regimen (which may well be true, owing to the fact that her abdomen and lower body appears toned and healthy in other posted pics). The various glowing testimonials and professions of undying adultation from her a.f.c-c coterie all somehow avoid acknowledging that she looks like a crackhead from the tits up. Luke, what combination of protein bars and other quasi-foodstuffs have you found to maximize the Luke F-rd chipmunk cheeks phenomenon Do you have any idea whether it might also have beneficial effects on hooters which appear to have had all the life wrung out of them.

Luke: I recommend milkshakes and Jamba Juice mango smoothies. And lots of pizza.

Curious writes: Give Christy a break! Her bra size has always been a 38 long. And as for her face? Well, time marches on. Here's a scan of Christy and I way back in 1990. Sadly, the photo was taken back before my chronic acne had cleared up.