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There hasn't really been a real sex star in Great Britain. It is a country that has always shunned hardcore pornography and preferred to keep the subject under covers and behind closed doors. The longest running farce on the London stage was - tellingly - called "No Sex Please We're British." (A tale of chaos caused when a delivery of dirty books is wrongly delivered to a bank. It was later turned in to a little-seen film.) The only exception to the above is Mary Millington whose rose briefly to the top, found it all too much, and killed herself while still in her early thirties. Yet she is not ammunition for the anti-pornography brigade in the UK - she was a radical opponent of the infamous "Obscene Publication Act." She was tailor made for the British tabloid press - blonde, sexy, open and controversial. The kind of the girl of which anything could be said and have some air of believability. Many of her problems had nothing to do with the sex business and she probably would have had legal problems if she had remained in her former profession - that of a low paid veterinary nurse. (She often said that her pets were her only real friends and she left her estate to animal welfare groups.) The story is cliched, but true. She was discovered at a bus stop by a photographer (who we will leave unnamed here) who took the "step ladder" approach by offering her teenage fashion work. Naturally he knew that the big money was in stroke photographs that sold by the thousand in the back streets of Soho. At under five foot Millington was not ideal fodder for fashion. Slim, small breasted with a natural smile Millington was soon in demand for photographers all over London. However she soon became over exposed and resorted to ever more extreme photographs - occasionally using household objects - which was about as far as even the most adventurous photographer would go unless they had contacts overseas. Soon she was making short, scriptless stag films which either featured solo masturbation or real sex, but without close ups. Whether this was for self-censorship reasons or whether the cameraman was simply too lazy to move the camera is not known. In the pre video seventies these 8 mm loops have rarely been seen. A UK documentary on the life of MM shows they followed very predictable patterns. The next important man in her life was David Sullivan who became a genuine friend and confidant, as well as a sexual and business partner. Publisher Sullivan made his money by walking the unpainted white line of British censorship - occasionally slipping and falling. A man with little personal charm he is known by friends and foe alike as "the slug." However few would begrudge him his ambition and nerve - defending himself on television and even launching the national newspapers The Sport and The Sunday Sport which are the last word in UK yellow journalism. With MM as something of a underground star he backed her in a film called "Come Play With Me" which was aimed at normal cinemas and was the mix of daft plot, soft sex and comedy. This barely watchable film broke box office records and set up poor Mary as Britain's Number One Sex Star. A series of cheap follow-ups were quickly ordered which required little more than to disrobe. In one film she is asked - in role - whether she can act "well I open my mouth a words come out don't they?" Through the films she came across as natural, gentle and fun. The girl next door type rather than a nymphomaniac. Her real life bisexuality occasionally showing through. Even quoting from her close friends Mary had a schizophrenic lifestyle. A self admitted kleptomaniac she would steal anything that wasn't nailed down and often stole things that she had no immediate need for. Simon Sheridan, a friend and occasional co-star, claims she would work over Oxford Street in London - walking out of stores with items large and small. It was shop lifting for kicks rather than for profit. Unsubtle she was caught many times. MM never found a real partner in life and drifted apart from Sullivan and, it has to be said, good sense. She had a sex shop in London and to make extra money she sold under-the-counter hardcore porn. She said that cashing-up at the end of the day "was better than sex." It was alleged that she was also a high price prostitute, a professional party thrower (sic) and occasional desperation drug trafficker. She got hooked on cocaine that was rare and high priced in London - Sullivan later blamed her jet-set friends for getting her started. By 1979 she was facing problems on a number of fronts. Deserted by her friends and facing tax, theft and obscenity charges on top of a drug habit she took the easy way out. She spoke on the phone to her agent the night before her suicide and seemed matter-of-fact about her predicament and her chosen solution. "I'll speak to you tomorrow," her agent had said. "There will be no tomorrow...." was her chilling reply. There wasn't. Sullivan took advantage of her death to launch a series of "tribute" magazines and even funded a short film where he used her death to promote his own cause, "it is more like Russia than the United Kingdom today" the multimillionaire said to camera. Twenty years later Simon Sheridan wrote a book about her life. I include an unabridged version of the press release below. The Life and Films of Mary Millington by Simon Sheridan 'Mary's story is the British 'Boogie Nights'!' 1999 is the twentieth anniversary of the suicide of Britain's best known pornographic model - Mary Millington. The girl next door who became the sex superstar of the 1970s, Mary's rise was meteoric, controversial and scandalous. For the very first time her remarkable story can be told. Glamour model, cover girl and hardcore porn actress, Mary was a fervent campaigner for the abolition of the Obscene Publications Act, and a forthright bisexual who promoted her ideals of sexual openness and equality. Mary starred in numerous British sex comedies including Come Play With Me (which holds the record for the longest-ever theatrical engagement in British cinema history!). She is still the single most famous sex star Britain has ever produced. Simon Sheridan's book revisits the Seventies cycle of celebrity excess and casual sex that would eventually lead to Mary's downward spiral through prostitution (she counted PM Harold Wilson and Diana Dors as lovers), kleptomania, a celebrated trial at the Old Bailey, and cocaine abuse, to her tragic death at the age of 33. Funny, touching and informative, Come Play With Me - The Life and Films of Mary Millington reveals the truth behind the myth. Unprecedented access to the Millington archive and exclusive interviews with her friends, colleagues and family make the book compelling reading. Twenty years on Mary Millington and her films still enjoy massive cult status. Mary Millington was recently the subject of a highly acclaimed Channel Four documentary - Sex and Fame. The 60 minute tribute was repeated within four months of the original broadcast, securing twice as many viewers second time around and rewarding the channel with one of its highest ever viewing figures for a documentary! This year sees the first TV showings of Mary's movies - including her most famous, Come Play With Me. The films have recently been reissued on video in the UK. This book contains the largest collection of Millington movie memorabilia ever seen together in print. As well as hundreds of photographs from her modelling career, the book reveals never-before-published shots from her family photo album. the author: Simon Sheridan is a world authority on Seventies British porn. He recently contributed to the Channel Four documentary Sex and Fame - The Mary Millington Story.
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