Russ Meyer / Eric Stanton
Smackdown!
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 |
Eric Stanton: freelance artist
"Striparama," above (early 1960s)
RRuss 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 |
| Topless and wearing red books on the right is Kitten Natividad; in the middle is Jennifer Jordan, aka Jutka Goz (wife of Lenny Burtman and former Eric Stanton employer) |
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, Eric Stanton, Irving Klaw
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, 1965First 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? |
Visit Russ Meyer
Visit Eric Stanton
This was Tura Satana as a dancer.
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Bad Girls Have Always Had A Place In History....
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)
Yours now!
Worldwide
U.S.
or
visit:
Dolores & Serena:“Ready-made for Russ Meyer—
assuming, that is, if Meyer was around and still at his peak.”
—Josh Alan Friedman, author: TALES OF TIMES SQUARE, WHEN SEX WAS DIRTY
“They were young and immoral!...”
“The American Baise-Moi!”
—Lynn Breedlove, author: GODSPEED
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)
“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
A youthful bohemian satire, a story of alienated nonconformists, a “girls on the lam” story, a sexploitation and S/M romp, a lampoon of auteur filmmaking, a spoof of cult celebrity and “true-life” tabloid sensationalism.
Welcome to the sordid world of
PERMANENT OBSCURITY
Inspired by the underground sexploitation films of the 1960s, this bold updating of the “roughie” subgenre largely takes place in the East Village (ca. 2006), and it chronicles the rise and fall of a unique and intense relationship.
Dolores and Serena, two chemically dependent, down-and-out artists set out to take control of their lives by making a fetish-noir/femdom movie.
Of course, things don't exactly turn out as planned.
Richar
d
This site is © 2009-2011 Richard Perez
Affectionately
Dedicated to the memory of two outsider artists,
working in the sexploitation medium:
Eric Stanton & Russ Meyer
(Illustration by Eric Stanton)
