by Ben Suroeste
CHATSWORTH, Calif. – When legendary adult performer Jerry Attrick first got started in porn, the filmmakers he worked for weren’t associated with “studios” and their titles didn’t have “street dates”; in fact, at the time it wasn’t clear porn was legal in this country at all.
“It was so fly-by-night, we used to pay a guy to stand outside the buildings where we were shooting to give us a warning if the cops rolled up,” Attrick said, holding a DVD copy of recently digitized version of the 1966 stag film Cherry the Curious Cheerleader, one of the first productions in which he appeared. “This was before the Miller case, so we operated like a bunch of spies. Of course, back then being a spy was all about drinking martinis, driving cars that could go underwater and nailing really hot foreign broads, so it was a pretty good life — even though I never got one of those submarine cars and the broads I nailed were all from Brooklyn.”
Now quickly closing in on his 78th birthday, Attrick toiled for years in total obscurity, occasionally dropping by a theater in New York City’s Times Square to appreciate his own work — and to wonder where all the money was going.
“I don’t figure anybody was getting super rich, but I wasn’t making nothin’,” said Attrick, forming a zero shape with his thumb and forefinger. “After I’d do a scene, they’d slide me $50, maybe every once in a while a case of Schlitz as a bonus, and tell me to get lost. The girls always got a lot more, just like they do today: $75 and a fifth of Ballantine’s.”
At that time, Attrick was performing under the name “Talbot Stratford,” a moniker he’d come up with after reading an article about British nobility while sitting in a waiting room at the Mayo Clinic suffering “a downright nasty bout of the clap.”
“I thought the name sounded high-class, and back then I was naïve enough to think when people watched porno, they wanted something high-class,” Attrick said. “But nobody gave a shit. The directors would call me ‘Strat’ for short, which don’t sound too royal unless you’re a guitar player.”
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Miller v. California, when a true porn “industry” suddenly became a possibility, Attrick decided he needed to make some changes in order to break through to the next level.
“I took almost a year off from doing movies to work on my physique, my stamina and my overall performance,” Attrick said. “I cut back to half a pack of smokes per day, swore off drinking beer before lunch and starting jogging every other weekday morning. It was tough, a real slog, but well worth it.”
Attrick announced this week he intends to retire at the end of the year, bringing to a close a career that has spanned more 50 years, three names, four continents and countless STDs.
One of the benefits of Attrick’s training was a novel new ability — and along with it, a new name, new location and renewed optimism that he might achieve his dream of hitting it big in the porn world.
“I worked and worked until I was able to cum three times in each scene,” Attrick said with evident pride. “So, that was the end of Talbot Stratford and the start of Jerry Hattrick.”
Attrick worked feverishly under his new moniker, performing in more than 15 films in 1975 alone. Although most of the films in which he appeared never achieved the success of the bigger productions of the day, like the legendary series The Demon in Ms. Johnson or the breakthrough hit Below the Green Bruise, Attrick’s mid-70’s work developed a kind of cult following, especially among young men who envied his ability to multiple-ejaculate.
“It wasn’t just the number of Jerry’s money shots, it was the volume,” said retired porn director and long-time Attrick friend Nicky Spinoza. “It actually caused a few problems along the way, because some of the camera equipment of the day was very sensitive to moisture, so you had to be careful where you stood when Jerry was ready to blast off.”
At the height of his career, Attrick again changed his name, albeit in a minor way, dropping the H from his last name to arrive at the name he uses to this day. In this case, however, the change wasn’t voluntary.
“It turned out some Canadian hockey player named Jerrold Ostremski had been calling himself Jerry Hat-Trick for years, and he wasn’t too happy about someone in porn getting famous under the same name,” Attrick explained. “He threatened to take me to court, and even though my lawyer thought we could beat the case, I just didn’t want the hassle. So, I dropped the H, he dropped the lawsuit, and everybody lived happily ever after — until that poor bastard Jerrold got run over by a Zamboni during between-period warm-ups in ’82. No more hat tricks for him after that, obviously.”
Attrick announced this week he intends to retire at the end of the year, bringing to a close a career that has spanned more than 50 years, three names, four continents and countless STDs.
“It’s just time,” Attrick said wistfully, looking out his condo’s window across the landscape of the San Fernando Valley below. “I’ve done everything, and everybody, I wanted to do in my life, so it’s time to ride off into the sunset — or off into Florida, at least.”
For his final hurrah, Attrick said he’s spending every waking hour in the studio, shooting a bevy of scenes for his signature series, Jerry Attrick’s Fucket List. A true celebration of his career, vision and performing longevity, Fucket List features talent new and old, pairing Attrick with fresh-faced newcomers and experienced veterans alike.
“I wanted my last work to represent who I am as a person, as a performer and as an artist,” Attrick said. “A guy who has always stuck to his guns, steadfast in his commitment to fuck anything that moves — and if I’m totally honest here, more than a few things that didn’t.”
