Barely Legal 75: Stacks of nudes spotted in Sunland

Six (sometimes seven) barely post-pubescent women swapped “my first time” tales on Erica McLean’s poolside set of Barely Legal 75. Many of the stories involved a friend of the character’s father.

What was interesting was that these scripted stories were often less compelling than the most mundane of real-life stories involving friends of the performers’ dads.

Jenny Hendrix, 21 and the movie’s pool party hostess, said this on film:

“My father’s friend was visiting, and he was naked by the pool. One thing led to another … ”

Jenny Hendrix, 21 and the woman who made me a drink called a Liquid Panty Remover which consisted of Fuze Slenderize and vodka, said this in person:

“My father’s friend was a lawyer and I was dating his son. His dad came into the strip club I was working in and I gave him a lap dance. I knew he was going to tell my father anyway, so I made sure he’d remember it.”


Hendrix is from Florida, where she began her adult career as a dancer three years ago. She left the business for a year and has returned, sealing the deal with an apartment in Woodland Hills. I was sad that I hadn’t met Jenny before, which is the way I feel about most people who make me drinks. I think that the amount of time I didn’t know the person had become somehow less meaningful.

As I age (I’m now 23), 18-year-olds seem smaller and smaller. Oddly enough, most of the 10-year-olds I see hanging out by the Krispy Kreme near Gram Ponante Towers, Aviary, Apiary, Sanatorium, Sanitarium, and Yurt are bigger than the porn performers eight years their senior.

The women hanging around the pool seemed so tiny, especially Alexis Love and Faye Runaway (my favorite porn name this week). Maybe they appear bigger on film. They made Joanna Angel look like a Mississippi steamboat (which would make me want to be today’s Tom Sawyer).

I have never, ever met a porn performer who I didn’t like better in person than on film. (Imagine, then, how bad the movie is on the set of which I was assaulted). As the sun went down over the Angeles Forest that is the back yard of the McLean ranch, and the crew waited to shoot the night-time pool scene, the cast and I hung around.

Also in attendance were forces of XBiz and AVN; the XBiz kids eager and happy, the AVN contingent unsmiling and leaving early. I was eager when I was at AVN, and I was often unsmiling when I was at XBiz. I am a non-conformist. In both jobs, however, I was happy to leave early.

I arrived around 3 and spent maybe 15 minutes apologizing for the actions of another independent porn writer.

“Are you like (that other guy)?” someone asked me warily. “He creeps me out.”

Sometimes I feel otherworldly, but I never feel like I’m s0meone else. “No,” I said.

“That guy asks the same three questions over and over about disgracing my family,” I was told.

“There, there,” I said. “I’m here now.”

Barely Legal began in 1999. It was the project of Clive McLean, Hustler’s senior photographer and a long-time friend of Larry Flynt. In addition to a comprehensive portfolio, McLean’s savvy and good fortune resulted in his being one of the only adult directors to receive a portion of the profits of his films. Like his contemporary Suze Randall, McLean chose a ranch in the hills (Randall’s is in Malibu Canyon).

McLean died in March, 2005 and Barely Legal passed to a series of directors, including Andre Madness and McLean’s widow, Erica. Barely Legal 75, which is scheduled for release in October, is both characteristic of and a departure from the series.

For example, as this title is a special event, there are extra girls. Aurora, Jenny Hendrix, Alexandra, Faye Runaway, Alexis Love, McKenzee Miles, and (for a time) Evelyn Lin were on hand for the all-girl orgy scene. Clive McLean had also had a Barely Legal orgy scene with episode 50, which featured Belladonna, Kimberly Kane, and Monica Sweetheart.

But while Barely Legal might be an established brand now, inspiring numerous spinoffs within Hustler and imitations at other companies, it is an example of a niche that became mainstream. Now it is axiomatic that companies want the newest girls, and “barely legal” is shorthand for that.

The idea of a performer having just turned 18 not only signifies her legal ability to perform but also suggests a time when she wasn’t, which is why Barely Legals, especially in the early years, were topheavy with older man/younger woman setups. If a Barely Legal is indistinguishable from any other high-end gonzo movie now, it is only because the concept was so compelling that Barely Legal became an industry standard.

Erica McLean, a former model, was the Girl Friday on her late husband’s sets. She did everything from cooking to costuming and line producing before she picked up a camera, so she knows what she’s doing and that is one of the reasons the set was so comfortable. Another reason was the pack of five ancient dogs that flopped around the open house.

Other than still and candid photos, there was no porn happening for the five hours I was there. In any other set and for any other director, this would have resulted in tears, screeching, burritos flying, and broken thermoses. Most movie sets are about waiting, but McLean made sure she booked her talent for the day; there were no other gigs her cast had to run off to.

Plus, McLean is quite serene and soft-spoken. If the orientalist David Aaron Clark had, like Sybil, several distinct personalities, Erica McLean might be the upbeat, lithe, Native American jewelry-wearing one.

I complimented her on the peacefulness of the set and the drama-free environment.

“That’s Clive,” she said. “He’s here now. He’s watching.”

In the guest house, the cast was posing with underwear at various heights on their legs, then without underpants, then locking arms, then back to back, always symmetrical. They were so small they seemed like flesh-covered Tinkertoys one might have sex with. Six individual personalities reduced to action figures.

People who don’t work in the porn industry often lose patience with me when I attempt to explain the business as more than the paragraph above, but if it is what they see and what the mill chooses to churn out, can you blame them?

That is why my value to the world is in taking the time to drink with as many porn performers as possible.

“Clive loved women,” Erica said. “And they loved him. That is why it’s so comfortable.”

I think Barely Legal 75 should be released along with a free bus trip to the McLeans’ house; but would that shatter the fan fantasy of geometric stacks of girls in underpants?

Previously: Barely Legal’s spirit stick; Barely Legal Jungle Fever (fleshbot); Nine falls on the Cold Valley
See also: Hustler

About Gram the Man 4399 Articles
Gram Ponante is America's Beloved Porn Journalist

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