Tag: herschelsavage

Posted on

Seeing Old Friends at Herschel Savage’s Memorial Service

When I attended the memorial service for Herschel yesterday, I had no idea who I might run into. I had a feeling there’d be old friends and colleagues reuniting after many years. The passing of such a well-liked person is guaranteed to bring people together. And that’s exactly what happened.

I went with Joanne Cachapero – the talented author who served for 16 years as Director of the Free Speech Coalition, and we met up with Mara Epstein. Two of the smartest women I’ve ever met. And it was great to catch up.

image 10

If that weren’t already icing on the cake, I then got to spend a little time with two absolute adult male performer legends. None other than T.T. Boy and Peter North! I think we’ve all held up pretty well. Love you guys!

image 11

I also ran into Lisa Michelle, Veronica Hart, Luke Wylder, Alexandra Silk and a few friends who worked behind the cameras. Most importantly, though, I got to have a moment after the service with Harvey’s family to share condolences.

As is often the case, when old friends come together to mark the loss of someone mutually near and dear to them all, a silver lining appears. It was great to see everyone in spite of the sad occasion. Herschel – we miss you already!

Posted on

Memories of Working with Herschel Savage on 1985’s “Trashy Lady”

It’s a challenging industry, even back in the golden age of porn, but sharing scenes with Herschel Savage was a better experience than anyone would imagine possible in the world of adult cinema.

image 7

The History of “Trashy Lady”

“Harvey” was always the consummate professional. Showing up with his lines learned, often already in character and ready to rehearse lines to perfection with his costars. His process taught me in my earliest days the importance of always taking (even the smallest) roles seriously.

He was always so filled with humor, which made every movie set a better place to be working. Breaking the ice and making me feel like I was performing with a best friend. Even when years would elapse between seeing each other, when I’d run into him at events the time in-between our scenes together would immediately melt away.

When Herschel auditioned for the part in Trashy Lady, Jamie Gillis wanted the part too. Because it was a role opposite Harry Reems, costarring me, and at the time Jamie and I were engaged to be married and living together! Nevertheless Jamie loved Herschel so much that he was more than happy to not be chosen for the part.

The Making of a Classic Adult Film

“Trashy Lady” was a classy period piece with a decent budget behind it. The costumes were inspired and Steve Scott was a real-deal director who required no less than everything his actors had to give to their roles. The end result was beautiful, and remains a movie everyone involved with are all proud of to this day.

As just reminded by IMDB, the movie was shot in two days, every exterior scene was shot guerilla-style without proper permits, and Harry’s character name of “Dutch Siegel” was obviously a clever combination of Dutch Shultz and Bugsy himself.

Steve pushed me especially hard in my role of Rita. He wanted her to be trashier and more hard-boiled than I initially wanted to portray her. I was concerned about it being too over the top and way over-acted, but push me he did. That set was where I learned that we are there to become more than our own interpretations of a script, and must trust our director to take us to new heights we may not realize on our own.

I am grateful to have gotten this role, and am proud of the work we all did. Herschel, you will be missed.