1978: gloria leonard, gloria todd and ming toy in “all about gloria leonard”

title: all about gloria leonard, scene 2
performers: gloria leonard, gloria todd, ming toy
production credits: joe sarno, gloria leonard (dir.)
studio: evart enterprises | running time: 23:40

release date: 1977 | purchase

gloria todd, gloria leonard, ming toy

"hey ladies," gloria leonard feebly protests as the go-go dancer and the waitress she's been fascinated by all night usher her into bed, "i'm into guys."

nothing they subsequently do disproves that statement, which would categorize this scene as a monumental failure by the standards of contemporary girl/girl, but in 1978 this was some of the hottest, most vivid girl/girl sex on film. it's helped by a long slow-burn lead-up: the premise of the all about gloria leonard showcase is that its heroine, after four years of adult-industry superstardom (1974's the opening of misty beethoven was her debut, at the advanced age of 34) is recounting memories of some of the hottest encounters she's had; this tale is triggered by a perfumed scarf. we see gloria leonard in a heavy fur coat find a seat in a dim nightclub: gloria todd is dancing, mostly nude, on stage to some sick disco-funk. gloria watches her in fascination, and ming toy, the asian waitress, watches gloria. when gloria l. approaches ming to try to meet gloria t., ming tears up the note and says she'll bring them together after closing time.

the apartment she brings her back to is heavy with incense, and gloria leonard's head is swimming with alcohol as an excuse for the subsequent lesbian tryst. there's a subtle but unmistakable thread of orientalism to the gloria todd/ming toy ménage, a participation in the long-standing colonialist expectation that non-white women are more sexually available, more decadent, even more predatory than white women. this  scene doesn't push hard on the line, but it's there, and if that's the price i have to pay for seeing such gorgeous black and asian performers shot in rich 70s noir lighting, i'll take it.

the sex itself is relatively banal: gloria todd seems to know what she's doing, but the others don't particularly, although there is a mild erotic charge towards the end when gloria leonard uses a rose and the silk scarf on ming. still, it will be years before orgasms (simulated or otherwise) become a focal point of girl/girl, and in fact watching antique porn like this next to modern-day porn is a lot like watching olympic athletes from fifty years ago compared to now: the bar has been raised so much higher, the training regimens are so much stricter, the distances so much further, the stamina so much greater, the outcomes so much stronger that it's hard to say they're playing the same sport. but this is only true about the sex: in scripting, filming, lighting, and so on, the old stuff has so much more atmosphere and flavor. digital, and overproduction, smooth everything out to near-meaninglessness.

gloria leonard is credited as co-director with joe sarno, and although that was apparently standard practice for him with his star showcases, she did go on to direct more porn, working for adam & eve in the 80s and vivid in the early 90s. i'm not sure how gloria leonard has not appeared on my radar before doing this project, but it's a knowledge gap i'm happy to fill in: one of the shrewdest, savviest, and diversified figures in the sex industry (she invented the phone sex industry as a sideline while publishing high society magazine!), her elegance and poise are magnetic. gloria todd and ming toy (both san francisco-based sex workers, back when the industry was mostly in new york and san francisco) were new to me, but extremely lovely.

1978 runners up:

annette haven, c.j. laing and gloria leonard in maraschino cherry, scene 13

mature pictures (dir. henry paris), 8:27

annette, gloria, c.j.

an absolutely insane playlet from radley metzger's final porn extravaganza, shot in cinemascope almost like a real movie. c.j. laing is a submissive to madame gloria leonard, and annette haven, gloria's new lover, wants to push her limits: so she lights up a hot plate beneath c.j., has her lean over and balance two glasses of scotch on the backs of her outstretched hands, and threatens to push her face into the burner if she spills a drop, all while gloria lubes up c.j. and stuffs a dildo in her ass, as erica havens and suzanne mcbain leer on. the bizarre, comedic imagination of the porn industry pre-internet, before everything was codified into acceptable fetishes and genres, is genuinely thrilling and a little disturbing to witness; even though it ends well, none of this would never fly with the credit card companies today.

desiree cousteau and dorothy lemay in a formal faucett, scene 8

gail films (dir. fred lincoln), 7:35

dorothy, desiree

i'm acknowledging this scene here primarily as a tribute to desree cousteau, the breakout starlet of 1978, whose bouncing breasts, flapper bob, and delightfully ditzy portrayal of the candide-like title character in pretty peaches add up to probably my earliest favorite porn performance. but the only girl/girl action in that film is nonconsensual, so her encounter with dorothy lemay, playing a similarly picaresque role in a formal faucett, is here instead. by modern standards the scene would be considered marred by the fact that a man is watching the two girls from a closet and jacking off, but without him it's the sweetest girl/girl scene in desiree's ouevre, at least where features are concerned; peepshow loops are a world i have not investigated.

georgina spelvin and jesie st. james in easy, scene 9

cal vista (anthony spinelli), 10:10

georgina, jesie

by her own accounting, georgina spelvin was deep in the bottle by this point, but she could still pull out a firecracker performance when whe cared to: this scene from jesie st. james' debut showcase features spelvin as the mother of a student that teacher st. james has seduced, all sweetness and light until she gets her foot in st. james's door, when she turns into a wildcat and has her inevitable way with her, in a scene that could not be filmed today no matter how hard companies pretend to feature non-consent. both women were too competent actors to remain in the industry much longer; with the 80s right around the corner, the clock was ticking down on the golden age of porn.

also noteworthy:

scenes

• catherine ringer and gilda arancio in body love, scene 2 | love (lasse braun)
• bethanna and susaye london in chorus call, scene 3 | evi (antonio shepherd)
• bethanna and paula morton in high school bunnies, scene 3 | vcx (john christopher)
• brigitte lahaie and karine gambier in je suis à predre, scene 3 | alpha blue (francis leroi)
• nina fause and susan fuentes in jungle blue, scene 2 | hifcoa (carlos tobalina)
• jenny cole and talia smith in the last sex act, scene 2 | s&l (richard mailer)
• brigitte lahaie, jenny feeling and mandarine in la perversion d'une jeune mariée, scene 5 | alpha france (burd tranbaree)