BOND . . . RENE BOND

Readers of this blog know I will go to great lengths to find monster and horror-adjacent subjects and that sometimes I find them in some of the oddest and obscure places. Today's post is no exception as I delve into the career of a popular adult film star from yesteryear.

Rene Bond was born to Peter Ronald Bond and June Avalon Small on October 11, 1950 in San Diego, California. While growing up, she and her family lived in several California cities, including Santa Clarita, where she went to high school. After moving to Oxnard, her parents separated. She finished High School in San Pedro and when she was 19, left home and moved in with Ric Lutze, a boyfriend who would become her first husband.

At some point in 1971, she was hired by sleaze producer Harry Novak to make softcore exploitationers such as BELOW THE BELT (1971), COUNTRY CUZZINS (1972) and PLEASE DON'T EAT MY MOTHER! (1973) which later led to her performing in hardcore adult films. "I had some friends who were working in porno, and I needed the money," she once said. "So they said they'd introduce me to some people, and they did. I got used to the money."

Known alternately as "The Sultan of Sexploitation" and "The King of Camp", Novak produced such bottom-of-the-barrel films such as KISS ME QUICK! (1964), AGONY OF LOVE (with Pat Barrington, 1966.), THE TOY BOX (1971), COUNTRY HOOKER (1974) TEENAGE BRIDE (1975) and RATTLERS (1976).

Explaining how she got into the hardcore industry, she said in an interview, "We got to know the owners of a Swinger's Club in Encino and we eventually joined. It was a bizarre experience. Then the owners told us they were making $100 a day as stag film actors." At the time neither she nor her husband were working and both starving, so they gave it a try and ended up working together.

"We used to shoot films called 'one day wonders'", she continued. "I always played the virgin. We usually worked at least 12 hours a day." The cash started piling up and she treated herself to cars, clothes and other luxury items that usually come after someone who suddenly has a lot of money for the first time in their life. Somewhere along the line, she became one of the first adult film actresses to have breast implants.

In May, 1975, Bond began stripping at the Ivar Theater off Hollywood Blvd. After each show, she would sign autographed photos for a dollar apiece. By that time, she had joined the Screen Actors Guild after which she was cast in a bit part for FLESH GORDON (1974).

Like many other entertainers of her ilk, Bond went by various names:

• Alicia Tyler
• Annie Hall
• Diane Lee
• Karen Small
• Lilly Lovetree
• Lotta Rocks
• Mary Lee
• Mary Wendover
• Michelle Combe
• Mindy Brandt
• Paula Schnall
• Priscilla Lee
• Rene Levine
• Rene Ruth Bond
• Renee Bond
• René Bond
• René Lutz
• Renée Bond
• Rosemary Camelot
• Sally Alt
• Sally Martin
• Sila Lean

"I've never felt that what I've done is wrong," she admitted in what was probably her last interview in 1976. "When I started in films, I was inhibited. I hardly even cussed before. But working in those films opened up my life. I am still fairly straight. I don't go in for those kinky things. I had a good experience in films. I had a good time."

Attempting to distance herself from the adult film industry, she started a photography studio called Rene Bond's Studio West, a mail order business where she and her models specialized in "a variety of different styles, from artistic to erotic." She also said she was being harassed by any number of "disturbed men", which forced her to cease appearing in public.

Bond married for a third time, and she and husband Lonnie Levine moved to Las Vegas. Her last screen appearance was on a 1986 episode of the TV game show, "Break the Bank", where she won over $9,000 in cash and prizes.

It may come as no surprise to learn that Bond was a heavy drug user and an alcoholic who apparently managed to hold it together until her last years. She died at the age of 45 on June 2, 1996 in Los Angeles of cirrhosis of the liver.

During the course of her career, Rene Bond made hundreds of adult films, including a few adult horror films. Her first was the obscure 'NECROMANIA': A TALE OF WEIRD LOVE (1971), written from his novel, "The Only House", directed, co-produced and edited by Ed Wood, Jr. It was filmed over 2-3 days on a budget of $7,000. The character of Madame Heles was originally offered to Maila "Vampira" Nurmi, but she smartly backed out of the production, quoted as saying it would have been "professional suicide". The film disappeared soon after it was shot until 15 years later when Rudolph Grey (author of the Wood bio "Nightmare of Ecstasy" and Alexander W. Kogan Jr. (film producer and attorney) discovered a copy of it in a Los Angeles warehouse.

Bond's next feature-length horror film was made in 1971 as THE JEKYLL AND HYDE PORTFOLIO, a slasher film not having much do do with the original story. She played the mustachioed and top hat and cape attired June Gemini along with her then-husband, Ric Lutze. Considered rare at one time, VHS bootlegs commanded very high prices.

The following commentary from the Mondo-Digital website provides more information on this horror film curiosity:

One of the most mysterious, elusive exploitation titles from the early '70s was The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio, a curiosity briefly issued on PAL VHS in the early '80s by the infamous Intervision before disappearing completely. Bootleg copies kept the film's reputation alive despite the fact that it received almost no theatrical play, even with an X rating courtesy of plentiful softcore sex scenes and gaudy gore. Now, here it is back from the dead courtesy of Vinegar Syndrome as part of an unlikely double bill paying tribute to its director, Eric Jeffrey Haims, who only has a small handful of obscure early '70s adult films to his credit.

At the Florence Nightingale Institute for Nursing, foul deeds are afoot. All of the new nurses are forced to wear antiquated dresses with a strict ban on underwear, a young girl has just been pitchforked in the middle of the afternoon while riding a swing, and the leader, Dr. Cabala (The Gay Deceivers' Brook), spends a lot of time slicing up frogs in very bloody, protracted detail and showing off their still-beating hearts. Detective Kincaid (Greer) starts snooping around the place, presumably distracted by the fact that everyone seems to be having sex with each other out of class when they aren't busy staging Grand Guignol shows (featuring Rene Bond in drag!). A vicious knifing of another couple in a barn means the body count will just keep climbing, setting the stage for a melodramatic, psychosexual revelation.

You know you're in for something special when the opening five minutes consist of titles slowly unspooling over drawn playing cards depicting infamous murderers through history, accompanied by narration about "the weird and the profane." That narrator also appears in bookending segments, with the final scene offering one of the weirdest flourishes you'll ever see. On top of that you get a hulking, deformed manservant straight out of an Andy Milligan film, a dimwitted handyman played by Ric Lutze, and a domineering lesbian doctor played by A Scream in the Streets' Maguire for good measure. Though many of the players went on to hardcore (most notably Bond and Lutze as well as Paulsen, one of the barn stabees), this film isn't especially steamy apart from one girl-on-girl scene presumably stuck in the middle of the film to pad out the running time. Still, the mixture of bare breasts and copious stage blood make this one of the weirdest entries in the surprisingly long list of early '70s Jekyll and Hyde-inspired drive-in offerings, which also range from The Adult Version of Jekyll & Hide (also with Bond) to the PG-rated but sleazy Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio. The actual connection to the Robert Louis Stevenson classic is tenuous at best (and not even touched on until the final 15 minutes), but you'll be too entranced by this scuzzy gem to care.

This was followed by THE ADULT VERSION OF DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE in 1972. Another lame attempt at "adapting" Stevenson's story, Bond can be seen sporting her new, enhanced bustline.

In 1973 Bond and her husband were again together in PLEASED DON'T EAT MY MOTHER!. Produced by Harry Novak, it was a raunchy dark comedy/horror spoof of Roger Corman's 1960 horror/comedy gem, LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS.

Last (and maybe least?), Bond was cast in SWINGERS MASSACRE (1975), aka, INSIDE AMY and SUPER SWINGING PLAYMATES. The only other notable feature from this movie is an appearance by the bodacious Swedish mega sex star, Uschi Digard. Disappointing to theatergoers was the odd absence of any nude scenes.

PHOTO GALLERY