cypher13: I never met or encountered John Holmes, but I have known many who did work with him on both sides of the cameras in the 1970s, the era of "porno chic." In the trade, it was well-known that he was 9.5 or so inches long. One "actress" who did work wih him told me that I was only an inch or so shorter than he was and much thicker, the best estimates of Holmes' circumference being about 5.5 or so. Thus, the relative thinness also enhanced the length, which publicists made to be as long as 15 inches. Al Goldstein claimed he was 12.5 inches long and a Playboy article of the time bills him as 13 inches, which was the figure I most often heard in the hype. He was also quite thin and lanky which enhances the look. In those days - and to an extent now, too - pornographers wanted the men to look emaciated, or so I thought. I don't have the bone structure or dietary habits for that lean and hungry look and so I would no longer be considered for such work, were I to seek it out.
Incidentally, rumor had it that when he became involved with drugs and had done so many films he was never again able to get fully hard and was rarely able to ejaculate inside a woman. This decline took place in a man who could, at one time, cum on a fifteen second cue - something I couldn't do consistently.
Finally, and especially toward the end, he was more liberally endowed with reputation than inches. Even before the HIV rumors, then the confirmation of the rumors, few wanted to work with him because he could be difficult and temperamental. The only reason he continued working after Wonderland is because he had a following of considerable commercial value to the producers. Basically Holmes was a big dick and nothing more. He was not very smart, he was not a good actor and, ultimately, he was not a nice person.
Someone else whom I knew, and actually saw, was the late Marc Stevens. Stevens primarily worked on the east coast, and it was inevitable that our paths would cross. He was billed as 10.5 inches, but he was hardly longer than I am and certainly not quite as thick (though, he was thicker than Holmes).
There were some others who come to mind, but the only ones I can think of at the moment are Butch Williams and Steve York. Butch was the black male half of that (then) controversial interracial Hustler pictorial of the mid 1970s. He was quite aroused at the time of the shoot and when fully erect did not become substantially harder or larger than he was in those photographs. I saw Butch perform live and he was maybe 4" soft and - I am being generous - a tad more than 9" aroused. There is a modified photograph from that shoot making its way around the Internet. He was not nearly as large as he appears there. Steve York primarily - or exclusively (?) - worked in gay porno and he was reputed to be 14" long and 9" around. Again, it ain't necessarily so. Steve is in the John Holmes class, but almost certainly nothing more than that.
We all know the sad fate of John Holmes; Marc Stevens, too, got into drugs and gay porno, contracted HIV from one or the other, or both, and died some years ago, a sad and broken man. I do not know what became of either Butch Williams or Steve York. Stevens was part of the circle that hovered around Mapplethorpe at the Chelsea Hotel and there are many Mapplethorpe photographs of Stevens.
In another thread - I think - someone mentioned a performer in Havana during the Batista era. He went by the name of "Superman" and he performed regularly at the notorious San Francisco brothel. He is mentioned - and more than once - in Graham Greene's "Our Man in Havana." He was, supposedly, 12" limp and unable to get his penis into women unless it was limp - though I can't imagine how that would be done. I tend to think he was large, but legends do have a way of enhancing things.
Someone else sometimes mentioned is "O. K. Freddy," who appeared as an extra in Abbott and Costello films and on the television show. I had occasion to talk with the recently deceased Anthony Caruso - strangely I was buying a car from him and this is how I met him - who appeared on the Abbott and Costello television show and we got to talking. I asked him if he knew Freddy. He said there was always someone on the set with that name, but he did not specifically recall any details about him. I think that if Freddy was really 13" limp and Abbott and Costello really made such a big deal of it on and off the set as, say, James Bacon claims, then Mr. Caruso would have at least remembered Freddy far better than he did.
Well, no one ever said that being a legend necessarily hurts one's reputation.
A
Incidentally, rumor had it that when he became involved with drugs and had done so many films he was never again able to get fully hard and was rarely able to ejaculate inside a woman. This decline took place in a man who could, at one time, cum on a fifteen second cue - something I couldn't do consistently.
Finally, and especially toward the end, he was more liberally endowed with reputation than inches. Even before the HIV rumors, then the confirmation of the rumors, few wanted to work with him because he could be difficult and temperamental. The only reason he continued working after Wonderland is because he had a following of considerable commercial value to the producers. Basically Holmes was a big dick and nothing more. He was not very smart, he was not a good actor and, ultimately, he was not a nice person.
Someone else whom I knew, and actually saw, was the late Marc Stevens. Stevens primarily worked on the east coast, and it was inevitable that our paths would cross. He was billed as 10.5 inches, but he was hardly longer than I am and certainly not quite as thick (though, he was thicker than Holmes).
There were some others who come to mind, but the only ones I can think of at the moment are Butch Williams and Steve York. Butch was the black male half of that (then) controversial interracial Hustler pictorial of the mid 1970s. He was quite aroused at the time of the shoot and when fully erect did not become substantially harder or larger than he was in those photographs. I saw Butch perform live and he was maybe 4" soft and - I am being generous - a tad more than 9" aroused. There is a modified photograph from that shoot making its way around the Internet. He was not nearly as large as he appears there. Steve York primarily - or exclusively (?) - worked in gay porno and he was reputed to be 14" long and 9" around. Again, it ain't necessarily so. Steve is in the John Holmes class, but almost certainly nothing more than that.
We all know the sad fate of John Holmes; Marc Stevens, too, got into drugs and gay porno, contracted HIV from one or the other, or both, and died some years ago, a sad and broken man. I do not know what became of either Butch Williams or Steve York. Stevens was part of the circle that hovered around Mapplethorpe at the Chelsea Hotel and there are many Mapplethorpe photographs of Stevens.
In another thread - I think - someone mentioned a performer in Havana during the Batista era. He went by the name of "Superman" and he performed regularly at the notorious San Francisco brothel. He is mentioned - and more than once - in Graham Greene's "Our Man in Havana." He was, supposedly, 12" limp and unable to get his penis into women unless it was limp - though I can't imagine how that would be done. I tend to think he was large, but legends do have a way of enhancing things.
Someone else sometimes mentioned is "O. K. Freddy," who appeared as an extra in Abbott and Costello films and on the television show. I had occasion to talk with the recently deceased Anthony Caruso - strangely I was buying a car from him and this is how I met him - who appeared on the Abbott and Costello television show and we got to talking. I asked him if he knew Freddy. He said there was always someone on the set with that name, but he did not specifically recall any details about him. I think that if Freddy was really 13" limp and Abbott and Costello really made such a big deal of it on and off the set as, say, James Bacon claims, then Mr. Caruso would have at least remembered Freddy far better than he did.
Well, no one ever said that being a legend necessarily hurts one's reputation.
A
