Xaviera Hollander is a Dutch former call girl, madam and author. She is best known for her best-selling memoir The Happy Hooker: My Own Story.
Lynn Rachel Redgrave was a British-American actress. She won two Golden Globe Awards during her career.
Lady Sings the Blues is a 1972 American biographical drama film directed by Sidney J. Furie about jazz singer Billie Holiday, loosely based on her 1956 autobiography which, in turn, took its title from Holiday's song. It was produced by Motown Productions for Paramount Pictures. Diana Ross, in her feature film debut, portrayed Holiday, alongside a cast including Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, James T. Callahan, and Scatman Crothers. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards in 1973, including Best Actress in a Leading Role for Diana Ross.
Prick Up Your Ears is a 1987 British film, directed by Stephen Frears, about the playwright Joe Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell. The screenplay was written by Alan Bennett, based on the 1978 biography by John Lahr. The film stars Gary Oldman as Orton, Alfred Molina as Halliwell, Wallace Shawn as Lahr, and Vanessa Redgrave as Peggy Ramsay.
The Happy Hooker: My Own Story is a best-selling memoir by Xaviera Hollander, a call girl, published in 1971. It sold over 20 million copies. Robin Moore, who took Hollander's dictations of the book's contents, came up with the title, while Yvonne Dunleavy ghostwrote it. In an interview published in 2019, Hollander said Dunleavy "was the one who wrote the book. They taped me, simply asking questions about my life and had the chapters spewed out in about three months. She wrote it, he edited it. He tried in vain to write a chapter, it was a piece of shit".
The Purple Rose of Cairo is a 1985 American fantasy-romantic film written and directed by Woody Allen, and starring Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, and Danny Aiello. Inspired by the films Sherlock Jr. (1924) and Hellzapoppin' (1941) and Pirandello's play Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921), it is the tale of a film character named Tom Baxter who leaves a fictional film of the same name and enters the real world.
Theresa Lynn Russell is an American actress whose career spans over four decades. Her filmography includes over 50 feature films, ranging from mainstream to independent and experimental films.
Sylvia Miles was an American actress. She was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performances in Midnight Cowboy (1969) and Farewell, My Lovely (1975).
Madame Rosa is a 1977 French drama film directed by Moshé Mizrahi, adapted from the 1975 novel The Life Before Us by Romain Gary. It stars Simone Signoret and Samy Ben-Youb, and tells the story of an elderly Jewish woman and former prostitute in Paris who cares for a number of children, including an adolescent Algerian boy. The film required a transformation in Signoret's appearance as Madame Rosa.
Working Girls is a 1986 American independent drama film, written, produced and directed by Lizzie Borden working with cinematographer Judy Irola. Its plot follows a day in the life of several prostitutes in a Manhattan brothel.
Last of the Mobile Hot Shots is a 1970 American drama film. The screenplay by Gore Vidal is based on the Tennessee Williams play The Seven Descents of Myrtle, which opened on Broadway in March 1968 and ran for 29 performances.
Getting It Right is a 1989 British-American comedy-drama film starring Jesse Birdsall, Jane Horrocks, and Helena Bonham Carter. The tagline is: "Gavin is 31... and a virgin. One wild night and three women later, he's finally... Getting It Right."
The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood, released theatrically in the UK as Hollywood Blue, is a 1980 American comedy film directed by Alan Roberts and starring Martine Beswick, Adam West, Phil Silvers, Chris Lemmon, Edie Adams, and Richard Deacon.
Lucius David Syms-Greene, known as David Greene, was a British television and film director, and actor.
Walk on the Wild Side is a 1962 American drama film directed by Edward Dmytryk, and starring Laurence Harvey, Capucine, Jane Fonda, Anne Baxter and Barbara Stanwyck. It was adapted from the 1956 novel A Walk on the Wild Side by American author Nelson Algren. The film was scripted by John Fante.
Gaily, Gaily is a 1969 American comedy film directed by Norman Jewison. It is a fictionalized adaptation of a 1963 memoir of the same name by Ben Hecht and stars Beau Bridges, Brian Keith, George Kennedy, Hume Cronyn and Melina Mercouri.
The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington is a 1977 American comedy film directed by William A. Levey. It is the sequel to The Happy Hooker, which was released in 1975. Joey Heatherton replaced Lynn Redgrave as the lead character of Xaviera Hollander.
The Ballad of the Sad Café is a 1991 Southern Gothic drama film directed by Simon Callow in his directorial debut, and starring Vanessa Redgrave, Keith Carradine, and Rod Steiger. Its plot follows Amelia, a moonshiner in rural 1930s Georgia whose lonely life is interrupted by the arrival of two men: First, her long-lost cousin, and later, her former husband recently released from prison.
The Life and Times of Xaviera Hollander is a 1974 American pornographic comedy film produced and directed by Larry G. Spangler. Based on the memoir The Happy Hooker by Xaviera Hollander, the film stars Samantha McLaren as Hollander, a Dutch immigrant who became a well-known call girl and eventual madam.
