Credited with having “opened the floodgates of screen permissiveness” in 1959 with the landmark “nudie” The Immoral Mr. Teas, legendary independent softcore filmmaker Russ Meyer has continued throughout his 30-year career and 23+ films to expand the limits of screen freedom with such genre classics as Lorna (1964), Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1966), and Vixen (1969). Long recognized as an American auteur and honored by numerous international retrospectives of his work, Meyer’s story provides valuable insights into independent filmmaking, the history of the modern sexploitation genre, and cinema censorship.
Researched from underground, popular and film literature, this book also incorporates much of the material contained in Meyer’s own vast archive, to give an in-depth study of the director dubbed “King Leer.”

David K. Frasier is a reference librarian at the Lilly Library at Indiana University Bloomington. He is the author of several books.

David K. Frasier
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 252
Bibliographic Info: 56 photos, indexes
Copyright Date: 1997 [1990]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-0472-8
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8063-0
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments vi
Foreword: Is This Heaven? by Clare Milliner 1
Preface 5
Introduction 9
Part I. My Story 13
1. The Early Years 14
2. The Artist’s Choice 26
3. College, Career and Crash 30
4. Life Interruptus: My Hero’s Journey 43
Part II. Talking ­Old-Time Community 65
Instrument Builders 69
5. Bart Reiter 70
6. Patrick “Doc” Huff 77
7. Pete Ross 84
8. Zachary Hoyt 90
9. Bill Rickard 98
10. William Seeders Mosheim 103
Performers and Teachers 109
11. Rayna Gellert 110
12. David Holt 119
13. James “Sparky” Rucker 129
14. Clare Milliner 140
15. Mac Benford 147
16. Sheila Kay Adams 154
17. Paul Brown 163
18. John McCutcheon 172
Historians and Authors 181
19. Dwight Diller 182
20. Bill Malone 188
21. Dom Flemons 198
22. Tim Brooks 209
Part III. In the Company of Music 227
23. Clifftop 228
24. Why Play ­Old-Time Music? 250
25. How Music Works Magic: A Conversation with Josh Turknett 259
Epilogue: An Invitation to Join the Fun 273
Bibliography 275
Index 277

“truly an exhaustive bibliographic study”—Choice; “a model for this type of reference”—ARBA; “highly recommended”—Film Review Annual; “thorough…documents all the articles, reviews, interviews and other tidbits concerning Meyer, his films and leading ladies that have been published over the years…impressive…detailed…invaluable”—Crimson Celluloid; “a valuable overview…will be welcomed by fans and film scholars”—Filmfax; “detailed and fascinating…. I’m in awe of [Frasier’s] research”—Psychotronic; “a must”—Movie Collector’s World; “comprehensive…extensively researched…an abundance of information”—Sightlines.