Damon Christian

American adult-film actor/director/producer Damon Christian was born Richard Aldrich in a small, idyllic New England town to hard-working, middle-class parents. He was descended from two families who arrived on the Mayflower, and several family members fought in the Revolutionary War. His childhood dream was to become a mechanical engineer, even though he had little real sense of what that actually entailed. Neither his mother nor his father were particularly religious but the family attended church, as most families did then, on Sunday mornings. He was baptized as a Unitarian (his father's religion) and attended a Congregational church (his mother's religion) during his school years and has fond memories of ringing the huge Revere Church bell after Sunday school classes and being lifted off the floor by the recoil of the rope. He attended public schools throughout his life, graduating from Algonquin Regional High School in Northboro, MA, in 1962. Following a short stint in the US Navy Reserve--during which time he became a member of the Navy Bluejacket Choir--he circumnavigated the globe and spent six months deployed to the Antarctic, participating in "Operation Deep Freeze" (1963-64). He then briefly worked for Sears Roebuck & Co., only to get himself fired for trying to organize a union. He later was employed by Ma Bell. Richard left New England in 1965 and headed west to find fame and fortune, only to wind up getting himself arrested in Denver, CO, during a "flower Power" demonstration for picking a flower from a city-owned flower pot. Released the next morning, he gave up his paisley shirt and hit the road, and not long afterwards found himself broke and down and out in Las Vegas. Securing a temporary job with Proctor & Gamble delivering soap samples door to door, it didn't take him long to realize that he was going nowhere in a nowhere job in a nowhere town, and he packed up and moved to Los Angeles, finding himself temporary residence under the freeway bridge at Figueroa St. and Washington Blvd. in downtown L.A. He quickly found work at a film rejuvenation company, where he specialized in removing the old labels from used steel film cans which his employer, Sol Cohen, would then resell. One day he overhead Sol being asked if anyone in his company could "sync" picture and sound negative; he confidently stated that he could. After work that day he spent the evening at the Ivar St. branch (since torn down) of the L.A. Public Library, finding out just how that would be done. After he figured it out, he went to work at Permafilm of California, which would lead to his being introduced into the world of what was then known as "nudie cutie" films by such icons of the genre as Bob Cresse (who owned Olympic International Films, which produced many of them), Chris Warfield (an escapee from black-and-white TV dramas who was a producer and director of "nudie cuties") and David Friedman of Entertainment Ventures Inc., who was a legend in the field. As a shipping clerk routing film cans around the US containing such memorable classics as Mondo Freudo (1966), It's Hot on Sin Island (1964), Thar She Blows! (1968) and House on Bare Mountain (1962), Richard soaked up knowledge of the "B" movie theater circuit, which at the time comprised over 3,500 mom-and-pop movie theaters and burlesque houses across the country that made their money exhibiting "nudie-cuties" that featured as much of the female anatomy as was then legally possible (mostly bare breasts, usually involved in nudist camp volleyball). Dropping out of college at the beginning of his third year, he soon became Vice President of United Theatrical Amusements, located on the old Film Row in downtown L.A., where he was involved in distribution of theatrical advertising material and soon formed a partnership with Armand Atamian of Freeway Film Corporation, and they produced their first 35mm "epic" titled High School Fantasies (1974). Richard also formed a partnership with an Israeli war veteran named Jaacov Jaacovi (real name Yaacov Yaacovy), with whom he formed Mirage Film Corp. and produced The Maids (1973). During the heyday of his film producing days Aldrich produced a film about the Island of Maui, which he exhibited in his theater in downtown Lahaina. He went on to form many more partnerships with various people in and out of the film business, including the notorious John Holmes of the now infamous Johnny Wadd adult-film series. Aldrich became the President of the West Coast Film Producers Association, where he was responsible for making case law in a major international copyright lawsuit in Canada (Aldrich v. Red Hot). He was on the Board of Directors of The Adult Film Association of America, where he instituted a national advertising campaign stressing the importance of the First Amendment during the period of the Republican administration of President Richard Nixon's attempts to eliminate the adult-film industry, a campaign in which Aldrich was supported by such luminaries as Gore Vidal and Robert Rimmer. Aldrich wrote guest editorials and spoke at colleges on the subject of censorship, freedom of speech and independent filmmaking. He eventually retired from the film business entirely in 1985 and moved to the state of Washington, where he learned carpentry and became a general contractor specializing in Victorian renovations and additions. A decade passed and he returned to Southern California, finished his college education--securing a BS degree in Geology with a minor in Art--and was soon teaching high school math and science. Upon learning that his mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, he moved back to New England, where he resides on a 35-acre farm and raises beef, chicken, vegetables and pork for local markets under the name "The 1780 Farm". He has eight children.