John Holmes was to the adult film industry what Elvis Presley was to rock ‘n’ roll. He simply was The King. — Cinematographer Bob Vosse in the documentary Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes.
Holmes began his pornographic movie career in the late 1960s while he was unemployed and recovering from his collapsed lung. He frequented a men’s card playing club in Gardena where on one evening, he allegedly met a photographer while standing next to him at a restroom urinal who gave Holmes his business card, telling him that he could find work in the underground adult film business. From 1969, Holmes did nude modeling for underground adult magazines as well as occasional stag films.
In 1971, Holmes’ career began to take off with an adult film series built around a private investigator named Johnny Wadd, written, and directed by Bob Chinn. The success of the film Johnny Wadd created an immediate demand for follow-ups, so Chinn followed up the same year with Flesh of the Lotus. Most of the subsequent Johnny Wadd films were written and directed by Chinn and produced by the Los Angeles-based company Freeway Films.
With the success of Deep Throat (1972), Behind the Green Door (1972) and The Devil in Miss Jones (1973), porn became chic even though its legality was still hotly contested. Holmes was arrested during this time for pimping and pandering, but he avoided prison time by reputedly becoming an informant for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). Holmes’ “handler” during his time as an informant was LAPD vice detective Thomas Blake. Of his involvement with Holmes, Blake said, “It was a pleasure working for him.”
By the late 1970s, Holmes was reputed to be earning as much as $3,000 per day as a porn performer. Around this time, his consumption of cocaine and freebasing were becoming an increasingly serious problem. Professionally, it affected his ability to maintain an erection. To support himself and his drug habit, Holmes ventured into crime, selling drugs for gangs, prostituting himself to both men and women, as well as committing credit card fraud and various acts of petty theft. In 1976, Holmes met 15-year-old Dawn Schiller, whom Schiller later claimed he groomed, abused, and forced into prostitution to support his drug habit.
In the 1981 biographical feature documentary Exhausted: John C. Holmes, The Real Story, from director and Holmes confidante Julia St. Vincent, Holmes claimed during an interview segment that he had had intercourse with over 14,000 women. The number had in fact been invented by Holmes on the spur of the moment to help salvage his waning image. The true number of women (and men) with whom Holmes had sex during his career would never be known. After his death, his ex-wife Sharon came across a footlocker, plated in 24k gold leaf, which contained photographic references to Holmes’ “private work” and which she burned. Holmes’ performances included at least one homosexual feature film, The Private Pleasures of John C. Holmes which was filmed in 1983,
Holmes’ signature asset in the adult film business was his exceptionally large penis. No definitive measurement or documentation verifying his penis’ length or girth exists, leaving its exact size unknown. Holmes was uncircumcised.
“When an actress did her first scene with John Holmes, this was the moment where she learned if bigger was better or not. There was no other test.” — Actor/raconteur Richard Pacheco in the documentary Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes.
Veteran porn actress Dorothiea “Seka” Patton has said that Holmes’ penis was the biggest in the industry. In the documentary film Exhausted, she described oral sex with Holmes as similar to fellating a telephone pole.
Holmes’ first wife recalled his claiming to be 10 inches (25.4 cm) when he first measured himself in her presence. On another occasion, Holmes claimed his penis was 16 inches (40.6 cm) long and 13 inches (33.0 cm) in circumference. Holmes’ long-time friend and industry associate, Bill Amerson, said, “I saw John measure himself several times; it was thirteen-and-a-half inches [34.3 cm]. The head was the size of an apple.”
“We’re talking about a dick from my elbow down” (gesturing to his outstretched arm) — Adult industry historian Bill Margold in the documentary Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes.
So celebrated was the size of Holmes’ penis that it was used as a promotional tool for films in which he did not even appear. The film Anyone But My Husband ran a promotional tag line of: “Tony ‘The Hook’ Perez has a dick so big he gives John Holmes a run for his money.” At the height of his career, Holmes had his penis insured by Lloyd’s of London for US$14 million. Holmes reveled in claiming he was insured “for $1 million an inch”.
“To think that he walked among us with that massive tool, like a dinosaur with that thump, thump, thump! But it wasn’t his feet hitting the floor. It was his balls hitting the floor, it was his DICK hitting the floor!” — Adult industry publisher and commentator Al Goldstein in the documentary Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes.
Another controversy was regarding whether Holmes ever achieved a full erection, although much of his early work clearly revealed he was able to achieve a substantial erection. A popular joke in the 1970s porn industry held that Holmes was incapable of achieving a full erection because the blood flow from his head into his penis would cause him to pass out. Fellow film actress Annette Haven stated that his penis was never particularly hard during intercourse, likening it to “doing it with a big, soft kind-of loofah”.
“‘How big is it?’ My fans would scream. ‘Bigger than a payphone, smaller than a Cadillac’ was my reply.”— Actor John C. Holmes in his posthumously-released autobiography, Porn King.
After Holmes’ death, the length of his penis continued to be used to market Holmes-related material. For example, at the premiere of the film Wonderland (2003), patrons were given 131⁄2-inch rulers as gag gifts. When Los Angeles-based S&M Bikes debuted its first extra-long bicycle frame for BMX racing in 1989, the new model was dubbed the “Holmes” as a tribute to the actor.
On March 13, 1988, John Holmes died at age 43.
Awards
February 14, 1985 – First inductee into the X-Rated Critic’s Organization (XRCO) Hall of Fame
2008 XBIZ Award – Lifetime Achievement – Male Performer