Russ Meyer versus Eric Stanton! + a question I once asked Tura Satana.... You be the Judge!

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Russ Meyer

1.  Both emerged from Burlesque culture 2.  Both were veterans of World War II 3.  Both were abandoned by their biologically fathers earlier in life 4.  Both had willful mothers that they admired 5.  Both idolized strong, powerfully-built, imposing women

Eric Stanton

6.  Both chose sexploitation early on as their medium of expression 7.  Both can be regarded as fetish artists! 8.  Both were essentially self-employed, self-reliant, self-distributing artists 9.  Both created their own unique, eccentric, private worlds 10. Both were outsiders, never renouncing their life-choice as artists

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Eric Stanton: freelance artist
"Striparama," above (early 1960s) 




Russ Meyer: freelance photographer, 1959
(model: Virginia Bell)

“According to frequent collaborator and longtime lover Kitten Natividad, Meyer's love of dominant women extended to his personal life, and he was almost always in a tumultuous relationship.” —McDonough, Jimmy, Big Bosoms and Square Jaws 2004.chap14-16

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Feeling No Pain, Eric Stanton, 1967

First Niter Book, FN 245

 

From Russ Meyer's
Common Law Cabin (1967)

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Eric Stanton, Exotique #17, 1957




Russ Meyer, Black Snake, 1973

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"Keeping Down The Jones" Eric Stanton, early '60s




Varla (Tura Santana) in Faster Pussycat! Kill!... Kill! (1965)

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Wicked & Depraved, Eric Stanton, 1965

First Niter Book, FN 110A

Faster Pussycat! Kill!... Kill! (1965), Russ Meyer

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Stantoons, Eric Stanton + Steve Ditko,
Originally published early 1960s




Tura Santana again, in Faster Pussycat! Kill!... Kill! (1965)


A Question I once asked Tura Satana:

RICHARD: Y'know, Eric Stanton was collected by Howard Hughes, Frank Sinatra, Elvis. Were you or Russ Meyer ever influenced by fetish artist Eric Stanton? The character of Varla from Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill! seems incredibly close to his ideal.   TURA: Since Russ is deceased, I can't ask him but to answer—I can't say whether Russ knew of him, but I had never heard of Mr. Stanton. I had a habit of always wearing black because it is one color that has always been favorable to me. As for the leather gloves, I started wearing those when I was around 12 yrs, old when I was the leader of an all girl vigilante gang. It kept me from messing up my hands when we would break up fights and stop guys from attacking other girls in the neighborhood like I had been. This way, I didn't scrape my knuckles or break of nails. RICHARD: Eric Stanton passed away in 1999, but did you ever meet him while he was alive? Any connection to him at all? TURA: No, I have never met Mr. Eric Stanton, that I know of. The clothes that I wore in FPKK were mine, the only thing that Russ bought was another pair of black jeans so that I would have a change of clothes after the fight scenes. I could have met Mr. Stanton when I was a dancer, but I could not swear to it. It is possible that he created his female character after seeing me somewhere?

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Visit Russ Meyer
Visit Eric Stanton

This was Tura Satana as a dancer.

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“Richard Perez has the ears of the angels—lend him yours.”
—Barry Gifford, author: WILD AT HEART, PERDITA DURANGO


“Perez's is an exciting talent and his work goes far beyond most of what is published today.”
—Henry Flesh, author: MICHAEL and the Lambda Literary Award-winner,
MASSAGE

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Yours at --------> AMAZON!

PERMANENT OBSCURITY: Or a Cautionary Tale of Two Girls and Their Misadventures with Drugs, Pornography and Death by Dolores Santana (as told to Richard Perez)

IS THIS NOVEL RIGHT FOR YOU?

~ Visit:  PermanentObscurity.com

PERMANENT OBSCURITY: what is it?

Buy now Worldwide >> PERMANENT OBSCURITY available here

Permanent Obscurity:  Or A Cautionary Tale
Of Two Girls
And Their Misadventures
With Drugs, Pornography
And Death

by
Dolores Santana
(as told to Richard Perez)

***********************************

Russ Meyer, All American Outsider & Padre of Sexploitation Cinema!

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Russ Meyer, you gotta love him. When you're talking about true outsider artists or demented "auteurs" in American film culture, he's near the top. No question about it. This is because he not only directed movies his own way, he also cast, produced, shot, edited and distributed them (and to this day his family still owns all the film rights)! Maybe the only person in film history you can compare him to—in terms of complete ownership and control and productive individualism—is John Cassavetes.

Russ Meyer, of course, was a sexploitation filmmaker. That was his medium—and how he chose to express his creativity. So his films are always deeply rooted in sexuality—some might say twisted sexuality (as if there might be any other kind) -- the battle between the sexes, issues of masculinity—or the lack of it (as in Lorna, Common Law Cabin, even Beyond the Valley of the Dolls). Often dissatisfied, uncontrollable, if not overbearing, women were at the center of some disruption. The male terror of being ineffectual, upended, cuckolded, and shamed often loomed large. In Russ Meyer films, amply endowed (and often over-sexualized) actresses were cast as the stars. The men—regardless of how large they were, or how hard they tried assert their manhood—always seemed to be diminished, to be rendered helpless in the presence of these haughty, intimidating females.

His first success, The Immoral Mr. Teas (1959), launched a subculture—a sexploitation subgenre—"nudie-cuties." And soon other filmmakers and producers would join in, contributing their own variations (while also cashing in), including Hershel Gordon Lewis, David F. Friedman, and Doris Wishman. Sexploitation cinema would find its strongest auteur in Russ Meyer, whose films were always gorgeously shot and energetically (some might say kinetically) edited. As artifacts of cinematography his films could be appreciated as museum-worthy art—and his films have had retrospectives at institutions like M.O.M.A. in New York City.

Nearly all of his films were self-produced and self-financed. This is important in understanding the creative bubble that Russ Meyer lived in and the eccentricity of his work. He was an outsider and operated far from mainstream Hollywood and the European art film leanings of NYC. After the success of The Immoral Mr. Teas (which was shot for 24K and would gross over 150K), he was able to bankroll his own projects with little outside interference.

Now was this a blessing or a curse, artistically? Some might suggest that living in a state where no one challenges creative decisions is not always the optimal situation. Great artistry, it might be argued, often emerges through give and take, through conflict and creative friction —sometimes even from negotiating compromise. A strong independent producer—just like a committed book editor—can help in contributing a fresh, outside perspective in shaping and defining a project—allowing for a work of narrative art to be the truest manifestation of itself. The fantasy of a lone, inspired genius taking dictation from God, producing fully mature and polished first drafts—is mostly that: a fantasy.

 Russ Meyer's narratives are not always the most linear and coherent. Even he was honest enough to admit to that. Writing and structure were not his strong suit. And he often employed a number of screenwriters to contribute to his films while he busied himself with the look of the movie. The most famous of these writers, of course, was tabloid film critic, Roger Ebert.

 

Ebert (often using a pseudonym, so as not be associated with films that were rated X) and Meyer would actually work on four of his most over-the-top projects—each more progressively demented—Beyond The Valley of The Dolls (1970), Up! (1976), Who Killed Bambi? (1977; never completed), and Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens (1979).

In his life, Russ Meyer had the opportunity to produce two studio films (both for 20th Century Fox), which included Beyond The Valley of The Dolls and the rarely seen The Seven Minutes (1971). After that he was no longer welcome by studio heads who openly disparaged their association with Meyer, this pornographer-cum-pervert (while, of course, perfectly happy to collect any cash he made for the studio.)

Was Russ Meyer a pervert? He would admit to such in an interview with John Waters, saying it was "easier" just to answer yes to that question. Was Russ Meyer a pornographer? Not by post-'70s sex film standards: he never made a true porno.

The era of commercially viable "sexploitation" came to a close after the first real XXX feature appeared in 1971 with Howard Ziehm's Mona. The final nail in the coffin for '60s-style sexploitation was the surreal success of Deep Throat, which signaled in the "porn chic" era. And while many sexploitation filmmakers—including Radley Metzger, Doris Wishman, Roberta Findlay—slid into hardcore, Russ Meyer resisted, even though he could've made huge money. In some ways—much like other sexploitation figures of his day, most notable fetish artist Eric Stanton—he was a product of a different time, emerging from the era of burlesque, where larger-than-life voluptuous women and the "tease"—as well as the unspoken "promise" of sexual pleasures to come—played a big part.

  
Also of Interest: 
Bad Girl Cinema!

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Did you enjoy this blog?

Support this author by purchasing his work: here.



“Richard Perez has the ears of the angels—lend him yours.”
—Barry Gifford, author: WILD AT HEART, PERDITA DURANGO


“Perez's is an exciting talent and his work goes far beyond most of what is published today.”
—Henry Flesh, author: MICHAEL and the Lambda Literary Award-winner,
MASSAGE

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yours at --------> AMAZON!

PERMANENT OBSCURITY: Or a Cautionary Tale of Two Girls and Their Misadventures with Drugs, Pornography and Death by Dolores Santana (as told to Richard Perez)

IS THIS NOVEL RIGHT FOR YOU?

~ Visit:  PermanentObscurity.com

PERMANENT OBSCURITY: what is it?

Buy now Worldwide >> PERMANENT OBSCURITY available here

Permanent Obscurity:  Or A Cautionary Tale

Of Two Girls

And Their Misadventures

With Drugs, Pornography

And Death

by

Dolores Santana

(as told to Richard Perez)

***********************************