Erica Gavin is, in her own words, "a real trip". Born and raised in
Hollywood, she was, at the age of 19 working as a topless dancer at a club
called The Loser's where her colleagues were "FASTER PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL!"
stars Haji and Tura Satana. She couldn't have cared less about being an
actress. "I was a stoned out hippie," she says. "Movies? PLEASE!! I was
living in Laurel Canyon and tripping my brains out going to Acid Tests."
One day while at her dentist's office thumbing through a copy of Variety she
spotted a casting notice looking for "technically interesting" girls for a
new Russ Meyer film.
The film was 1968's VIXEN, the first mainstream X-rated film where husbands
would actually bring their wives. Pre-DEEP THROAT, pre-BEHIND THE GREEN DOOR and the new wave of porno-chic, the satirical softcore romp about a rural nymphomaniacal housewife played every major American market, received surprisingly favorable reviews and became a box-office smash. Gavin's ferocious performance in the title role made her an instant poster-girl for the sexual revolution - even facing off with Betty Friedan on a Chicago talk show - and launched what should have at the very least been a solid B-movie career. Yet apart from outrageously memorable leads in BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS (1970) and Jonathan Demme's directorial debut CAGED HEAT (1973), Erica Gavin virtually disappeared. What ended her career? What happened to a Russ Meyer girl who was on her way to the top in the swinging early 70's?
Still looking gorgeous, today she is Hollywood's best kept secret. She jokes
that people often talk to her about her without even knowing that it is her.
At a recent anniversary retrospective screening of VIXEN at the Egyptian
theatre, the audience marvelled at the women who challenged the censors by
taking her clothes off at a time when nudity in films was not only something
women didn't do, but was also illegal. With twenty years worth of stories
inside of her, she has been recently working as a stylist and finally
reentering the business she abruptly left behind.
