Rob Hardy is a book reviewer for The Commercial Dispatch in Columbus, Mississippi, and a practicing psychiatrist for Community Counseling Services in Columbus.  Mr. Hardy is also a top reviewer for Amazon.com, where a condensed version of this bio review can be found.  The following review is for The Dispatch.

Size Matters by Rob Hardy

“John Holmes had an enormous penis. It would be unfair to say that this fact is the only interesting thing about him, but it really was the only remarkable thing. It was also the thing that determined how his life was going to go. It was what got him into pornography and made him a nationally-recognized star, and that in turn got him involved in drugs and crime and AIDS. If there were nothing to his life besides his record-breaking anatomy, Jennifer Sugar and Jill C. Nelson would not have had much to compile in their book _John Holmes: A Life Measured in Inches_ (BearManor Media). They have, however, dug so deeply into what was written about the man during his career and what people remembered afterwards that this surely will be the definitive biography. It is almost 600 pages long, although that includes 150 pages of filmography at the end of the book, a list of all the known loops and films Holmes was in, along with a list of reviews of his more famous movies. The text of the book is not a traditional biography. It consists of quotations from many articles, books, and documentary films, as well as from interviews the authors conducted themselves. These are arranged chronologically, and if there is a lack of analysis in this biography, it is made up by the immediacy of the words from Holmes himself, his costars, directors, business partners, prosecutors, wives, and godchildren.

Well, first things first. The book’s subtitle makes plain that inches were the measurement of the man. How big was it? Well, big. No one who has seen a Holmes film will deny that; even his costar and competitor Ron Jeremy admitted himself to be second best in the size department. The problem with penis measurement is that even the anatomists have not come up with a foolproof, standardized way to measure a penis, and then there are all sorts of variables like temperature and degree of tumescence. There are no films of Holmes close to a ruler, but there are reports that he approached the fourteen inch mark, and such reports will not be incredible to those familiar with his films. In the films, too, it is obvious that Holmes’s erections were different from those of other men, and not just by size. His erection would not point upward; that’s just a matter of gravity. But also, his erection didn’t have the sort of firmness that typifies a tumescent penis of ordinary size. There was a standing joke that Holmes never got a full erection, because it would take so much blood he would lose consciousness. Annette Haven starred with him in several features, and found that Holmes’s erection collapsed down; it was “kind of squishy when erect, so actually it wasn’t that uncomfortable… it was like doing it with a big, soft loofah…” However, Ginger Lynn, who was lowered onto Holmes while hanging from a bar in the film _The Grafenberg Spot_, said that being in labor and having a child was easier than getting Holmes inside her.

Holmes, however, is given accolades for being a gentle lover. One star after another (girlfriends and wives, too) say that he knew he might cause some discomfort, and was always solicitous, saying things like “Is it okay? Do you want to stop?” Unlike many well-endowed men, he realized that there was a great deal more to lovemaking than just presenting a large package, and he is praised in these pages for his skill at different forms of foreplay. (He is also praised for an unusual skill which was useful for the directors he worked with: he was able to have an orgasm on cue. Annette Haven said, “He was a professional; got it up, got it off, and got the hell out of your hair.”) Many people make remarks on how nice a guy he was, consistently affable and helpful at least before the drug years started. A male costar remembers, “He would help carry equipment in from the truck and help set it up. He was almost an extension of the crew. You’d never see that today.” He enjoyed being a star, and was gracious with fans and fellow performers. Costar Richard Pacheco had his picture taken with Holmes and had Holmes sign it; the inscription shows some of Holmes’s graciousness and humor: “To Richard Pacheco, who taught me everything I know.” A surprising source of praise comes from the children of Bill Amerson, an adult talent agent and film producer. Sean and Denise Amerson were made Holmes’s godchildren, and Holmes was caring to both of them even during his bad years. Sean here tells a hilarious story of when he was called to the principal’s office, and since his father was not available, Holmes was called. The principal asked Sean beforehand, “That’s not _The_ John Holmes, is it?” and got confirmation. Holmes was serious about Sean’s infraction, discussed recompense and punishment sensibly, and everyone walked away satisfied. “Incidentally,” says Sean, “I was famous in high school from that day on.”

Holmes had two downfalls. One was cocaine, which he started using in the mid-seventies. He had been a Scotch drinker and casual pot smoker, but cocaine, often freebased, took over. Some of his most famous movies are from this time, before the cocaine began to be a problem, but eventually he was stealing props from his sets and selling them, or stealing from fellow actors, breaking into cars, or ripping off luggage at the airport. It isn’t a unique pattern, but it was grim. He worked for a drug supply gang, and stole drugs and money from them. His involvement led to his presence at the horrific revenge murder of the Wonderland Gang in 1981. Holmes was eventually charged with the four murders, but he was acquitted. He thereupon went relatively straight, and any use of drugs became just a recreation, not an obsession. He was able to make a happy comeback into his industry. He had been married, almost secretly, for nineteen years, when his first wife had had enough and sought divorce in 1983, but he formed a strong and supportive second marriage with his comeback costar “Misty Dawn”, a.k.a. Laurie Holmes. He was doing well until he contracted AIDS, the second downfall. It is not clear how he got it, but the knowledge that he had the disease propelled him back to using drugs. He also had unprotected sex with other performers during his final years, including the Italian actress (and member-to-be of the Italian parliament) Cicciolina in 1986, but there are no indications that he passed the disease to anyone. He made public appearances and autograph stops thereafter, but his physical appearance and abilities deteriorated. He died in 1988, aged 43.

Sugar and Nelson have not just given an account of Holmes’s unique life, although they have done that in astonishing detail. They have not been obsequious in praise of “The King,” nor have they neglected to detail his many flaws without excusing the questionable morality of some of Holmes’s off-screen actions (whatever you think of his on-screen ones). This is a look at a time when pornographic movies were going mainstream, an epoch before straight-to-video movies and before the internet. The time included not only Holmes’s first film (1970) in the famous _Johnny Wadd_ series, filmed in one day for $750; but also films with close-to-mainstream production values like the final in the series, The Return of _Johnny Wadd (1986). It’s the period of time covered by the wonderful Holmes-inspired movie, _Boogie Nights_, and any fan of that movie, of adult films, or of Holmes himself will be impressed by the thoroughness of this volume and its, uh, size.”

“Jennifer Sugar and Jill Nelson are the co-authors of John Holmes: A Life Measured in Inches, the definitive biography of the porn legend who was best known for his extra-large penis.  Sugar and Nelson interviewed 35 people who knew and worked with Holmes, then compiled a lengthy filmography of some of the more than 2,500 loops and movies he is thought to have appeared before his death in 1988 of AIDS-related complications.” ~ Chip Rowe 

The full interview is now available in two parts at you tube as a vignette, in addition to the ‘audio only’ version located at this website found under the “Goodies” header.  To view the you tube version click on: Part One and Part Two.  You may also access the videos via our Inches on You Tube page.

This past weekend, well-respected actor, director and adult film legend, Jamie Gillis, passed away from cancer.  John Holmes and Jamie Gillis first met in 1973.  Gillis, who had granted Inches co-authors a rare interview for their biography, is the fourth adult performer of status (the two authors spoke with) to have passed on since the book was published.  Other notable interviewees who are deceased since the publication of A Life Measured in Inches are: Buck Adams, Marilyn Chambers and Juliet Anderson (”Aunt Peg”) respectively.   Please read reflections of Jill Nelson’s interview with Mr. Jamie Gillis in 2007, and his thoughts on John Holmes:  RIP Jamie Gillis  “Happiness, too, is inevitable.”

Widerscreenings.com Essay on INCHES

Australian writer and critic, Robert Cettl, recently reviewed A Life Measured in Inches for his website, widerscreenings.com.  The complete essay is now available at widerscreenings.  Below is a generous excerpt!

John Holmes: a Life Measured in Inches

(a book review by Robert Cettl)

John Holmes: A Life Measured in Inches is the first book by authors Jennifer Sugar and Jill C. Nelson and is a work of considerable scope, ambition and importance in its chosen field.  Indeed Sugar and Nelson have taken a subject inherently problematic – the history and scholarship of the adult film – and rendered it lucidly accessible to all, whether fans of adult material or not and whether male or female.

Sugar and Nelson have researched their subject considerably and it is evident on every page – John Holmes: a Life Measured in Inches is the distinctive Holmes biography, sorting through Holmes’ tendency to fabricate the truth in his own accounts of his life with actual biographical fact and first-hand accounts of the man and his life presented uncut in the actual words of those who knew and interacted with him – from Sharon Holmes (the wife he kept secret to his adult industry business partners) to Bob Chinn (the Chinese-American UCLA graduate turned pornographer who in tandem with Holmes would birth West Coast US porn in the Johnny Wadd series of films, meticulously described in the comprehensive filmography which closes this remarkable book).

Nelson and Sugar arrange their book chronologically in the manner of a traditional biography but with unedited interview extracts punctuating the factual account to give a portrayal of both Holmes the man himself, his developing legend and the way in which he was seen, considered and judged by those who knew him best.  This demythologizing journey through the life of porndom’s most famous male star (with apologies to Ron “the Hedgehog” Jeremy it is Holmes who will be forever known as “the King”) begins with Holmes’ troubled childhood (he was neglected and brutalized).  Here, authors Nelson and Sugar devote just enough time and targeted interview extracts to suggest the psychological pressures – including the need for attention – which would shape the adult Holmes’ dealings with and attitude to women.  However, the authors do not attempt a full psycho-analytical portrait of Holmes – their intent is fact-based oral history and they present both the necessary information and a variety of first-hand accounts to enable the reader to assess the behavioural factors that shaped the humanity of porn’s biggest (literally in terms of penis size – how big was it?) icon.

Holmes’ early relationships, friendships and business contracts soon segue into an account of his life with wife Sharon Holmes (a frequent contributor to the extracted interview material) and his developing working relationship with Bob Chinn.  Indeed, Nelson & Sugar have here done the astonishing (and even taboo) thing – interviewing a pornographer and rendering his perspective with both the authority and intelligence it deserves.  What emerges is a fully detailed account of the birth of the porn industry, the methods, distribution and business structure of the industry and Holmes’ relationship to it.  Importantly, this exploration of the industry that he helped popularize and establish is balanced with the continuing and evolving biographical account of Holmes as a person.  Thus, the book frankly describes his relationships with his co-workers, with his wife (whom he tried to keep as separate from his work as possible) and his relationships with younger women – from Dawn Schiller through to Laurie Holmes in the latter stages of his life.  Contributions from such adult industry veterans as Candida Royalle, Bill Margold, reporter Jim Holliday and Paul Thomas coalesce for a distinctive picture of the man, fully representative of the adult industry that grew up around him.  As such, John Holmes: a Life Measured in Inches is both a biography and a valid social document exploring an epoch which has never gotten its full attention due to the hypocritical moral quagmire that still surrounds any objective account of the adult film industry and the people who live it.

Continuing through his porno movie career Nelson and Sugar next chronicle Holmes’ increasing drug use and the toll – physical and emotional – that it took on him.  The authors make no attempt to glamorize this drug use but nor do they condemn it on either legal or moral grounds.  Indeed, as a work shorn of moralistic judgment, John Holmes: a Life Measured in Inches is exemplary, transgressive even.  But the reality of drug use in the 1970s is covered and the disastrous effect on Holmes’ personality (turning a gentle lover into a violent pimp) is commented upon by – most importantly – the women in his life directly affected by his behaviour.  Yet, in this too Holmes emerges as something of an enigma: as a Godfather to his friend Bill Amerson’s children Holmes was incredibly protective and as devoted as if he were their father yet was quite prepared to pimp out his girlfriend when the need for drugs arose.  This humanist moral relativism distinguishes Holmes’ life making it impossible to judge him in terms of moral absolutism – his life and the industry he helped establish remain unaccountable to absolutist good or bad judgement.  There is no good and evil here, just humanity – which is not to say that Holmes was not spiritual: as one astonishing revelation contained in the book explores, Holmes indeed developed a special relationship with a Christian police officer with whom Holmes jointly prayed and refused to let be cross-examined by his defense attorney when he was on trial for murder / conspiracy.

Rounding out the book’s chronological development are Holmes’ fugitive from justice period and his re-entry (so to speak) into the adult industry, through to the facts surrounding his death from AIDS after knowingly having sex on film when HIV positive and risking infecting his partners (who included Italian porn star later turned politician Cicciolina).  Speculation abounds as to where and when Holmes contracted the fatal disease (linked to his one appearance in a gay film) but Nelson and Sugar balance this with a clever look at how the adult industry in general responded to the AIDS crisis (thanks in no small part to Sharon Mitchell) as much as an account of the disease’s toll on Holmes.  Significantly, the book does not shy away from the debate surrounding Holmes’ decision to continue working (revealed in the book) even at the risk of infecting his on-screen sexual partners.  To many, this point alone is enough to demonize and dismiss Holmes forever as a mere immoral “lowlife”: however, Sugar and Nelson clearly explain Holmes’ reasoning and, again without judgment, explain and account for the situation (again through expertly juxtaposed interview testimony) so as to if not excuse Holmes’ actions then at least explain them within the biographical account of his life.

Nelson and Sugar are the first biographers / oral historians to compile a work shorn of the (either Patriarchal Christian or radical feminist) morality which automatically discredits any and all adult film as “pornography”.  In stripping away any accountability to the imposed morality of those who demonize pornography and its participants what emerges is, as the book slowly segues from the vice squad anti-porn activities to the Wonderland investigation, a simultaneous exploration of the moral hypocrisy of those American authorities who have traditionally demonized pornography and sought to have it deemed illegal and suppressed as a form of either fantasy or generic discourse, both of which it inherently is.  The ramifications of the investigation into Holmes’ possible involvement in murder (or conspiracy to commit murder) reveal a cross-section of legal implications ranging from sloppy investigation to – in the decision to hold Holmes in contempt of court when he refused to testify (for fear of his life) against Eddie Nash for involvement in the Wonderland murders – the outright violation of both the US constitution and essential human rights guaranteed by the UN (to which the US Constitution is accountable).  In this, John Holmes: a Life Measured in Inches carries the broader frame of moral hypocrisy towards the suppression of the adult industry so well documented in The Other Hollywood and re-locates it from the macrocosm of the porn genre in total to the microcosm by focusing specifically on Holmes.

As mentioned at the outset, John Holmes: a Life Measured in Inches is the debut work for authors Sugar and Nelson.  It is a responsible balance of objective historical scholarship, biography and oral history which not only demystifies the adult industry and the legend surrounding Holmes but raises ethical and moral questions regarding American culture’s legal and moral treatment of pornography as a genre.  Although Nelson and Sugar keep their own voices and insight constrained to historical and journalistic accountability, they speak with an authority that should bode them well for subsequent books should they continue to explore adult industry related material.  In that, the filmography that rounds out this book (feature films, loops, compilations) is astonishing for the research involved, the detail and – most interestingly – a film by film account of Holmes’ career from the perspective of two talented, intelligent women able to see through the smoke of anti-porn feminism to acknowledge the genre’s appeal for both men and women.  The filmography alone, with synopsis, critical comment and credits, is enough to make John Holmes: a Life Measured in Inches the definitive Holmes biography and encyclopaedic Holmes reference book.  The back cover to the book boasts a review from critic Dick Freeman who describes the book as “undoubtedly the best porn bio ever written, and will set standards”.  This is one case where the book well and truly does live up to the hype: outstanding by any measure of the term.  wider screenings essay