Georgina Spelvin heads up this year's list of inductees into the Legends of Erotica www.adultfyi.com/read.aspx?ID=13677

Georgette Spelvin is a fictional name traditionally used as a credit for performances an actress might not want on her résumé, but Dorothy May decided that 'Georgina' sounded better than 'Georgette'.

Georgina Spelvin, born January 3, 1936, suffered from polio as a child, but recovered well enough to become a dancer. She began her career in "legitimate" film, as a chorus girl in Guys and Dolls.

At 21, Spelvin appeared in the raunchy 1957 French film Les Collégiennes, but only in a few lesbian sex scenes added specifically for the film's American release. Under other stage names, she worked as an actress on the legitimate stage, including professional productions of The Pajama Game, Hello Dolly, and South Pacific, but Dorothy May never became famous or particularly successful.

In her mid-30s, broke and alcoholic, and after making several forgettable stag films, she starred in one of the all-time greats of adult cinema after a friend of hers, Harry Reems, introduced her to director Gerard Damiano. The Devil in Miss Jones was the first feature-length porn film to deal with a serious subject matter in a serious way. It is sexy, of course -- downright filthy -- but it also qualifies as art, complete with character development, quality acting, and a very satisfying conclusion.

The film opens with spinster Spelvin's suicide, driven mad by virginity and lustful thoughts. Playing Justine Jones, all of Spelvin's sexual encounters come in purgatory as a series of ghostly men (and women) show her the myriad pleasures she never knew in life. These involve all the usual sex acts, plus fruits in unusual places, a snake, and Harry Reems.

Even decades later, The Devil in Miss Jones still seems fresh and real, especially compared to the wooden performances and repetitive fucking in much of today's pornography. A lot of the credit has to go to the actress. "From the comments I got, you'd think I was Helen Hayes in an Oscar role. They raved about me. The infant X-rated industry had never been exposed to a woman who had any theatrical background or training. So to these people, I was a great actress."

Spelvin appeared in dozens of porn films, and is also known to have worked as Ona Turel [a pun for 'au naturel'], Clit Tores, and other odd names. She won six awards in six years from the Adult Film Association of America, for her performances in Ping Pong, Desires Within Young Girls, Take Off, The Ecstasy Girls, Urban Cowgirls, and The Dancers.

She made her last porn film in 1982, at the age of 47. Her non-porn films include the raunchy horror classic I Spit On Your Grave for which she also served as costume designer. Other "straight" roles were in Police Academy, Police Academy 3: Back in Training, Bad Blood (in which she was billed as Ruth Raymond) and Next Year in Jerusalem.

Bill Margold hosts the annual Legends of Erotica Show, www.xxxdeepthroat.com in Las Vegas which is scheduled tonight at Show Girls, 631 South Las Vegas Blvd.