By Zen Buckaroo
When, in the mid 70s, Gern was in California photographing and tweaking nipples of beautiful young ladies; I was stuck in an office on Gay (that’s right…Gay) Street in Columbus, Ohio. Of course when the street was named, the word ‘gay’ had a much different meaning than it does today. But that is where the original hustler Club was and where Larry Flynt launched his ‘most raunchy of men’s magazines.
Because of some very wise business decisions, he had quickly moved his little 2nd classmagazine from unknown into third place behind Playboy and Penthouse. We were growing and needed more room. Larry was always hanging out the carrot of moving to California, but he had just bought a mansion in Columbus (much to the chagrin of the locals it was located across the street from The Columbus School of Girls), so few of us really believed it. Besides, Larry had this philosophy for his editors. He didn’t want us getting any real pussy. He wanted…in his words…Editors who are editing the magazine with hard-ons. He wanted guys who beat off to the magazines not guys who could actually go and get pretty girls. Afterall, that is who his audience was and Larry really knew his audience. So the closest any of us ever got to one of the ‘wild models’ was their photos when they arrived in my office (I was photo editor and in-house photographer).. I did primary edits of the girlie layouts, searched out special photos for ‘serious articles’, and communicated with our staff photographers in Florida (where Larry had rented a mansion to shoot in), and our freelancers who were all in California where it was easiest to get the great nude models. My job which at first seemed exciting, soon became drudgery. Filing photos, long hours on the phone talking to photographers about their shootings. Listening to their stories about how horny the models would get and then jump them after the shoots…etc. etc.
Occasionally I would get an assignment to shoot some dildo or something for Leasure Products. (not leisure…but Leasure after Althea Leasure). I did this in the living room of my apartment. It was a nice respite from editing but was always done after hours on my own time.
Finally after much complaining on my part and the fact that Larry had hired a very offbeat creative guy from Chicago to help create the ads for dildoes, it was decided to turn the old Hustler bar on the first floor, which Larry bankrupt to get the magazine off of the ground, into a studio.
The magazine bought a Balcar power pack and three light heads with some umbrellas. My first shot at using the studio was to do a photograph to accompany an article about ‘breaking cherry girls’ (de-flowering virgins for you guys in Rio Lindo). Best of all it was decided that the photo to illustrate the article would be a Maraschino Cherry next to a REAL LIVE PUSSY!!! I met with Larry and Althea. Larry explained what he wanted and said Althea would be the stylist.
Stylist? Stylist? The girl’s face nor hair would be in the photo. Why a stylist? Only at Hustler in those days was anyone styling pussies. Gern was shooting hairy bushes, with an occasionally shaved girl. In most cases the West Coast photographers shot pussies that had lips lying together like as Larry’s top photographer ( a Frenchman..name withheld…but very sharp)…said…”Looked like a piece of meat. Like the steak on my plate here. He was having dinner with Larry. He made the claim that if Larry hired him he would make pussies like beautiful flowers opening their petals.
So Althea and I went downstairs into the old bar still messy with old chairs, tables etc. all over the room, with a small area with strobes and a paper back ground. Which was really unnecessary for the close up I was doing. Althea told me to set up the lights and she took the girl to the bathroom/dressing room formerly used by Hustler dancers to style her pussy. I was not invited to watch and too shy to sneak back and take a peak. I figured I would see it soon enough anyway.
Althea brought the girl out, we put her in a chair and Althea found a couple of boxes so she could put her feet on and spread her legs. Althea told her, “Now just relax, just think of Zen as a gynecologist . Then Althea brought me right up to her vagina and showed me how she had trimmed her pubic hair, shaved the area next to her labia (lips for you Rio Lindo guys). Then she took some eyelash glue, which is very gentle and comes off easily, and put a few drops on one labia and stretched it and then placed it against her shaved skin. She repeated it with the other. It looked like a butterfly spreading its wings! Or as The Frenchman said “a beautiful flower opening its petals!”
Althea looked at it and decided it looked perfect. Okay Zen, its up to you now. I have a lot of work to do upstairs. Then she spoke to the girl. Your pussy will be much more beautiful if it is nice and pink. Do you mind if Zen licks it and gets you excited a bit? Then the blood will flush it and make it pink.
I was embarrassed. The girl looked at me then at Althea. Well, it is not what my gynecologist does, but ..yeh…its okay.
Then Althea asked her “hey there is a rock concert this Friday. Want to go with me and Larry and then afterwards we can go to the mansion for a party. Just the three of us?
“Sure. Sounds like fun”
I wasn’t invited.
So Althea left and I started the photos I had her hold the cherry next to her vgina and took a shot..then re-lighted it and shot again I changed angles. Shot again.
hen she said…’Is it pink enough? I don’t want to disappoint Althea.
I moved my head in close to it, ready to see if I could make it pinker. Then I saw it. It was a trickle of blood. I thought, “what the hell did I do? I hadn’t even touched her yet.” I told her about it. She said…O wait a minute. She ran to the dressing room and came back with some tissue and no blood.
Sorry about that! She said. My period started yesterday.
Did you tell Althea? I asked.
Yeh…she knew.
That Damn Althea. She knew! What a joker!
Special Note: A lot of the staff didn’t like Althea. They looked at her and her relationship with Larry and her power were a lot of John Lennon fans looked at Yoko Ono. I was not among that group. Like me she had a great sense of humor and we always got along great. I was deeply saddened with her early demise from AIDS. .
Zen (The Whole Truth) Buckaroo
