On this page you'll find information about Hole-related things that you might not have known, plus my personal beliefs about certain things.


Please don't steal this concept... It's one of the nowadays really few original sections on my site, and if everyone started putting all this info on their sites, this part of my page wouldn't be very special anymore.
Thank you.




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SHORTCUTS:


Album art:
* The front and back art on 'Live Through This'
* The cover art of 'My Body, The Hand Grenade'
* The art on the second last page of the 'My Body, The Hand Grenade' inside folder
* The back art of the 'My Body, The Hand Grenade' inside folder
* The car wreck picture on the 'My Body, The Hand Grenade' cd
* 'Celebrity Skin' symbols
* The back art of 'Celebrity Skin'


References:
* The Anne Sexton reference in 'MissWorld'
* The Anne Sexton reference in 'Plump'


Dedications:
* Joe Cole
* "My two beautiful lions"
* All the stolen water of Los Angeles and anyone who ever drowned


Other:
* The Band Name
* Velut Inter Ignis Luna Minor
* Sat Nam
* Hester Prynne
* Anne Boleyn
* The real Althea Flynt
* The songs heard in 'Starbelly'
* The album title 'My Body, The Hand Grenade'



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THE FRONT AND BACK ART ON 'LIVE THROUGH THIS':

The beauty queen on cover picture of 'Live Through This' is, contrary to popular belif, not Courtney Love herself. It's a model named Leilani Bishop.
The girl on the back of 'Live Through This', however, is Courtney at the age of 8 or 9, on New Zealand (I think).

Click on the thumbnails for larger images.






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THE COVER ART OF 'MY BODY, THE HAND GRENADE':

Alot of people have been wondering what exactly the cover of 'My Body, The Hand Grenade' is meant to symbolize. The answer can be found in an interview with Courtney in a 1997 issue of Melody Maker:

Q: The artwork shows a dress you wore in the early Nineties as a sort of museum piece. Is it really in a museum?
A: The dress is still very current. People still design off that silly dress. The truth is I used to wear those dresses more than slips, but those dresses never got as famous as slips and I wanted them to have their due.

Click on the thumbnails for larger images.





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THE ART ON THE SECOND LAST PAGE OF THE 'MY BODY, THE HAND GRENADE' INSIDE FOLDER:

This is part of a painting of Anne Boleyn, who also appears in the lyrics for the song 'Old Age', found on 'My Body, The Hand Grenade' and the German 'Violet' import single, among other things. The lyric are as follows: "No one knows she's Hester Prynne, someone please tell Anne Boleyn, chokers are back in again."

Anne Boleyn (born: 150?) was one in the long line of Henry VIII's (born: 1491, died: 1547, King of England between 1509 and 1547), many wifes. While still married to his first wife, Catherine of Aragón, he fell in love with Anne and soon announced that he wished to divorce Catherine, because the marriage had failed to produce a son. The divorce didn't go through, for some reason, which frustrated both Anne and Henry a great deal. Anne's hot temper and sharp tounge got quite famous after several agruments with the King, right infront of the rest of the King's court.
Finally, after several years of waiting, in January, 1533 Henry and Anne were secretly wed. Anne was crowned queen shortly after Thomas Cranmer, Henry's archbishop of Canterbury, declared Henry's marriage with Catherine void, and Henry's and Anne's marriage valid. This was the same year as Anne gave birth to hers and Henri's only surviving child: Elizabeth (later Elizabeth I).

With time, Henry grew bored of Anne, and wanted to remarry, and in 1536 Anne was charged with treason (plotting to murder the King), adultery and incest (with her own brother... I think), due to plots made by the King's court, imprisoned in the Tower of London, convicted of high treason, and on May 19th, Henry had her beheaded.

What's interesting though, is that shortly before her execution, the marriage with Henry was dissolved and declared invalid. One does wonder how she could be convicted of adultery, if she was indeed never legally married to the King.

I've heard that supposedly, Anne had six fingers on her left hand, which deepens my interest in her, as I myself was born with six fingers on my left hand. Wether or not Anne's sixth finger really existed though, is unknown.

She was considered "moderately pretty" with dark brown thick hair, dark olive-colored skin and very dark brown eyes, often appearing black. These eyes were one of her few (?) fascinating features, and she supposedly used them to her advantage, whenever given the opportunity.
Another feature was her long elegant neck.

I haven't been able to find the exact same painting that the artwork is taken from, but I have managed to find one that looks very much like it, and you will find it below aswell.

Click on the thumbnails for larger images.





See also The car wreck picture on the 'My Body, The Hand Grenade' cd.



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THE BACK ART OF THE 'MY BODY, THE HAND GRENADE' INSIDE FOLDER:

This one had me wondering for a great while. I just could NOT figure out who was on that portrait. But finally, with the help of two Swedish girl (Kajalflickan och antigrrrl) I found out.
The woman on the painting is French queen Marie Antoinette. In fact, this seems to be one of the most famous portraits of her. What's even more interesting (to me, as I'm Swedish), is that there's another connection with Sweden here (see my theory on Erics 'Celebrity Skin' symbol above). I was informed that this actual painting is hanging in the National Museum in Stockholm (the capital of Sweden), and that it was supposedly ordered from France by king Gustav III.

Now, the story of Marie Antoinette can easily be made very long, so in order for me to just keep it short, I have to leave out a great deal.

Marie Antoinette of Hapsburg-Lorraine was born on November 2, 1755, the youngest and supposedly most beautiful daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I. Before she was even a teenager, plans of marriage with the French crown prince, Louis XIV, were made.
In 1770, when Marie was just 15 years old, and Louis was just 16, they were wed, and four years later, after the death of the current king, Louis' father, they were crowned King and Queen, only 19 and 20 years old.

Marie was never popular, not even liked, in France. Not within the palace walls, and certainly not outside them. They people were not at all happy to have a foreign queen, and Marie's loyalty to Austria didn't exactly make it better, nor did the fact that it took her 11 years to produce the first heir. She did have a child before that (a daughter, Madame Royal, in 1778), but since it was a girl, it didn't really count in the eye of the public. She later also gave birth to yet another daughter who died in infancy, and in 1785 she had a second son, who was to become crown prince, after his older brother died in 1789.

In the fall of 1789, after several important events took place, the royal family was forced from Versailles to Tuileries Palace in Paris where they were virtuel prisoners for about two years. During this time, Marie secretly tried to negotiate with foreign powers, for the safety of her husband. In 1791 she arranged for the family to flee from Paris, to the eastern border, and eventually into Austria, but during their flight from Paris, they were caught, and brought back.

In 1793, on January 21, King Louis XIV was convicted of treason, and beheaded on the guillotine.
On October 14 Marie was tried, and the charges included unnatural sexual practices and treason. Every day of the trial she sat listening to the testimonies given against her, mostly by paid witnesses, disgruntled servants and drunken soilders, her head held high and proud, even though any normal person would have been a wreck in her situation. Her children had been taken away from her, and her best friend, Princess de Lambelle, had been killed and her head put on a pole and paraded in front of Marie.

The last day of the trial lasted 20 hours, and the jury only took one hour to deliver the verdict: guilty.

October 16, 1793, was the day when her execution was set to take place. Her hair was cut and her hands were tied, and for 3 hours she was driven around in an open cart for the public to boo at, spit on, and throw things at. She was then taken to the guillotine, and executed without real proof of the crimes she was accused of having commited.


Click on the thumbnails for larger images.





See also The car wreck picture on the 'My Body, The Hand Grenade' cd.



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THE CAR WRECK PICTURE ON THE 'MY BODY, THE HAND GRENADE' CD:

There have been discussions among Hole fans what this picture symbolizes, and what car wreck it is. Alot of people have mentioned believing it's the car that acress Jayne Mansfield died in, but after some research, I've come to the conclusion that it's not. The car in the picture on the cd and on the picture behind the cd, is dark, the car Jayne Mansfield died in was light.
I've included pictures below.

Now, what this picture symbolizes... As you might know, it's said that in this car crash, Jayne Mansfield was beheaded (although I've heard she really wasn't, but that she was simply wearing a wig that came off in the crash, and was then laying by itself, making some people who didn't get a closer look, believe it was Jayne's head). This fits the theme of the album art: Marie Antoinette was a famous woman, and was beheaded. Anne Boleyn was a famous woman, and was beheaded. Jayne Mansfield was a famous woman and was beheaded.

Courtney commented on this theme in a 1997 interview with Melody Maker, in which she explains the entire artwork theme of the album:

Q: The artwork also has a car wreck and a picture of Marie Antoinette. Why did you choose them?
A: We actually show Anne Boleyn too. She was Henry VIII's wife who had her head chopped off. When I was little, I used to see these pictures of her with this necklace that had a B on it. I always had a fascination with ancient history, Roman especially, and early English, and I kept imaging her getting her head chopped off, for my whole life. Then, I told my friend Joe, who did the art. He always had an obsession with Marie Antoinette too. She was also decapitated. We also thought about Jayne Mansfield, just the idea of a woman having her mouth and eyes and ears taken away from her. And, hand grenades, the top comes off. You just pull out the pin and it explodes. So, if you take away someone's mouth and their eyes and their senses and their brain, they explode. I saw a grenade in my head, I saw taking out the clip, and then I thought of a human body and what happens if you take out the clip.


Click on the thumbnails for larger images.






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'CELEBRITY SKIN' SYMBOLS:

As you might have noticed, each person that helped write the songs on 'Celebrity Skin' is represented in the lyrics-sheet by a symbol. Here is my take on why a particular symbol was selected to represent a particular person.

Courtney Love - The burning (?) heart: Well, I'm not all too sure about this, but someone (Lexa W) told me this symbol has something to do with Cancer (the zodiac sign), and if it does, then the explanation for it is simple: Courtney's a cancer.
Also, the symbol looks alot like a symbol often seen in Catholic scriptures and such: the sacred heart of Jesus Christ (shown below). The only difference is that the sacred heart has a ring of thorns around it, and the symbol in the 'Celebrity Skin' folder does not. On the other hand, the shirt that Courtney wore during one of the 'Celebrity Skin' promo shoots, does. You can see the shirt on one of the pictures below.
Someone (Mistica) told me that the heart on the images of Jesus is also called "The Flame Of Holy Love", which also makes alot of sense.

Click on the thumbnails for larger images.





Eric Erlandson - The crown: I'm not too sure about this one either. Some people have said that since Eric is the only male in the band, he's kind of "King Of The Castle". My thought about the symbol, is that Eric's partly Swedish, and the crown is the Swedish national symbol... or whatever I should call it. It is also the name of the Swedish currency.

Melissa Auf Der Maur - The maple leaf: Well, as we all know, Missy's Canadian, and what do you find on the Canadian flag? A maple leaf.

Patty Schemel - The star: The last I heard, Patty had two star-tattoos. One on her hand, and one on her shoulder.

Billy Corgan - The swan: Courtney has said she first considered giving Corgan a pumpkin (since he's in the Smashing Pumpkins... Makes sense), but then decided to be nice, and give him a swan, to represent "my good, old friend... The graceful, beautiful person he usually is".

Charlotte Caffey - The cat: Don't have much on this, but I read somewhere that Caffey got this symbol because some of her face features make her resemble a cat (see picture below).

Click on the thumbnail for larger image.





Jordon Zadorozny - The satre: I've heard this was just meant as a joke... That's all I know about this one.






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THE BACK ART OF 'CELEBRITY SKIN':

Like I've mentioned above, the painting on the back of the 'Celebrity Skin' album, portrays Ophelia, from Shakespeare's 'Hamlet', who commited suicide by drowning herself.
The painting was made by Paul Steck.


Click on the thumbnails for larger images.






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THE ANNE SEXTON REFERENCE IN 'MISS WORLD':

I'm Miss World
Somebody kill me
Kill-me pills
No one cares, my friend


These lyrics from the song 'Miss World' seem to have been inspired by Anne Sexton, who, after overdosing on Barbiturates-Nembutal, called the pills "kill-me pills".



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THE ANNE SEXTON REFERENCE IN 'PLUMP':

I'm eating you
I'm overfed


These lyrics from the song 'Plump' seem to have been inspired by a poem written by Anne Sexton.
See the very last couple of lines:

Anne Sexton - The Ballad Of The Lonely Masturbator

The end of the affair is always death.
She's my workshop. Slippery eye,
Out of the tribe of myself my breath
Finds you gone. I horrify
Those who stand by. I am fed.
At night, alone, I marry the bed.

Finger to finger, now she's mine.
She's not too far. She's my encounter.
I beat her like a bell. I recline
In the bower where you used to mount her.
You borrowed me on the flowered spread.
At night, alone, I marry the bed.

Take for instance this night, my love,
That every single couple puts together
With a joint overturning, beneath, above,
The abundant two on sponge and feather,
Kneeling and pushing, head to head.
At night, alone, I marry the bed.

I break out of my body this way,
An annoying miracle. Could I
Put the dream market on display?
I am spread out. I crucify.
My little plum is what you said.
At night, alone, I marry the bed.

Then my black-eyed rival came.
The lady of water, rising on the beach,
A piano at her fingertips, shame
On her lips and a flute's speech.
And I was the knock-kneed broom instead.
At night, alone, I marry the bed.

She took you the way a women takes
A bargain dress off the rack
And I broke the way a stone breaks.
I give back your books and fishing tack.
Today's paper says that you are wed.
At night, alone, I marry the bed.

The boys and girls are one tonight.
They unbutton blouses. They unzip flies.
They take off shoes. They turn off the light.
The glimmering creatures are full of lies.
They are eating each other. They are overfed.
At night, alone, I marry the bed.



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JOE COLE:

In the folder for 'Live Through This' there is a dedication to Joe Cole (shown below). Joe Cole was a roadie for the band Black Flag and was good friends with Hole (or just Courtney?). In 1991 or 1992 Joe and a friend of his were mugged, and Joe was shot to death.






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"MY TWO BEAUTIFUL LIONS":

You may have noticed these words in the liner notes for 'Celebritry Skin'. Although I have no evidence supporting this theory, I (and alot of other people aswell) think Courtney's referring her daughter Frances, and her boyfriend at the time: actor Edward Norton, since they are both Leos (the zodiac sign), and even share the same birthday: August 18.






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ALL THE STOLEN WATER OF LOS ANGELES AND ANYONE WHO EVER DROWNED:

On the 'Celebrity Skin' cd case, you can read the following:
"This record is dedicated to all the stolen water of Los Angeles and to anyone who ever drowned." (shown below)

Let's begin with the "stolen water" part.
When Los Angeles was first built, all the water was pumped in from surrounding lakes (?) and such (which in time caused these areas to become deserts). This way, the water of Los Angeles was "stolen".
Something like that. I know I've got a quote from Courtney explaining this laying around somewhere, but right now, I can't seem to find it.


Then there's the "anyone who ever drowned" part. My view on this is that those words refer to the following people (among others) for the following reasons:

* Jeff Buckley - A friend of Hole's. Drowned a couple of months (I think) before the album was released.

* Kristen Pfaff - Was found dead in her bathtub, her death caused by a heroin overdose.

* Althea Flynt - Drowned in her bathtub.

* Nick Auf Der Maur - Melissa's father, died from lungcancer a while before the album was released (I think), which has been described as drowning, in a way.

* Ophelia (in 'Hamlet') - Portrayed on the back of 'Celebrity Skin' (see below), committed suicide by drowning herself.


Click on the thumbnails for larger images.






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THE BAND NAME:

Here is a quote by Courtney, explaining the band name:

"Okay, the name, it came from my mom. She's like a therapist and I said, "I had a really fucked childhood" and she said "Well Courtney, you can't walk around with a big hole inside yourself about it." Then I realized that a lot of different kinds of anger and stuff came from inside my hole, this hole that needs to be fed, that angst inside a person is like their hole... Like when you feel that human emptiness and you have to feed it... We're trying not to be obscene, we're trying not to be gross. We're trying not to be anything, we're just a vapor of fucking hell that passes through your hole and out the other side, and if it leaves a fucking impression then it's fucking great."


And another quote, also from Courtney:
"It's about the abyss inside."



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VELUT INTER IGNIS LUNA MINOR:

I know alot of people have been wondering what the latin words at the end of the text for 'Northern Star', and on the 'The First Session' means. Well, in an issue of the UK magazine 'Select', it says that Velut Inter Ignis Luna Minor means 'Like A Small Moon Between Fires".






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SAT NAM:

There's been alot of discussing (and even arguing) about what Courtney said at the end of Hole's 1998 MTV Video Music Awards performance. Someone think she said "Suck numb", which to me makes absolutely no sense. Some think she said "Sat nam", and I'm willing to agree, since Courtney is a known Buddhist, and "Sat nam" is a buddhist phrase that means "I am truth".



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HESTER PRYNNE:

In the song 'Old Age', found on 'My Body, The Hand Grenade' and the German 'Violet' import single, there is a reference to Hester Prynne: "No one knows she's Hester Prynne, someone please tell Anne Boleyn (see below), chokers are back in again".

Hester Prynne is the main charachter in the novel 'The Scarlet Letter', by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and is probably the most famous adultress in American litterature.
If you haven't read the book, or seen the movie (starring Demi Moore as Hester Prynne), and don't want to know what happens, then this would be a good time to stop reading.

Since I've only seen the movie, and I've understood that there are quite a few things that are different in the book, I won't go into any details.
A newcomer in town, Hester Prynne awaits the arrival of her husband, and while doing so, she befriends Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. There is an immediate attracktion between the two, and when Hester recieves news that her husband most likely died during an indian attack, she and the good Reverend waste no time. However, they have to be together in secret, since Hester is "in mourning", and it expected to be so for 7 (?) years. But after a couple of months she can't hide the fact that she's pregnant, and there is trial held against her, where she admits to having committed adultery, but not giving the name of her lover.
She's kept in a cell until the child is born, and is then released, but forced to wear the letter 'A' in scarlet cloth, on her bosom, for everyone to see and be aware of the crime she's committed.



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ANNE BOLEYN:

As most of you know, Courtney makes a reference to Anne Boleyn in the lyrics for 'Old Age', found on 'My Body, The Hand Grenade' and the German 'Violet' import single, among other things. The lyric are as follows: "No one knows she's Hester Prynne (see above), someone please tell Anne Boleyn, chokers are back in again."

Anne Boleyn (born: 150? was one in the long line of Henry VIII's (born: 1491, died: 1547, King of England between 1509 and 1547), many wifes. While still married to his first wife, Catherine of Aragón, he fell in love with Anne and soon announced that he wished to divorce Catherine, because the marriage had failed to produce a son. The divorce didn't go through, for some reason, which frustrated both Anne and Henry a great deal. Anne's hot temper and sharp tounge got quite famous after several agruments with the King, right infront of the rest of the King's court.
Finally, after several years of waiting, in January, 1533 Henry and Anne were secretly wed. Anne was crowned queen shortly after Thomas Cranmer, Henry's archbishop of Canterbury, declared Henry's marriage with Catherine void, and Henry's and Anne's marriage valid. This was the same year as Anne gave birth to hers and Henri's only surviving child: Elizabeth (later Elizabeth I).

With time, Henry grew bored of Anne, and wanted to remarry, and in 1536 Anne was charged with treason (plotting to murder the King), adultery and incest (with her own brother... I think), due to plots made by the King's court, imprisoned in the Tower of London, convicted of high treason, and on May 19th, Henry had her beheaded.

What's interesting though, is that shortly before her execution, the marriage with Henry was dissolved and declared invalid. One does wonder how she could be convicted of adultery, if she was indeed never legally married to the King.

I've heard that supposedly, Anne had six fingers on her left hand, which deepens my interest in her, as I myself was born with six fingers on my left hand. Wether or not Anne's sixth finger really existed though, is unknown.

She was considered "moderately pretty" with dark brown thick hair, dark olive-colored skin and very dark brown eyes, often appearing black. These eyes were one of her few (?) fascinating features, and she supposedly used them to her advantage, whenever given the opportunity.
Another feature was her long elegant neck.

Hole also make another reference to Anne in the album art on 'My Body, The Hand Grenade', that being the painting below; the female neck with a neckalce with the letter 'B' (as in Boleyn). That picture is just a part of a bigger painting. I haven't been able to find that exact painting, but I have managed to find one that looks very much like it, and you will find it below aswell.

Click on the thumbnails for larger images.






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THE REAL ALTHEA FLYNT:

In 1996, Courtney played Althea Leasure (later Althea Flynt) in the movie 'The People Vs. Larry Flynt'.
I've heard other Hole fans express their curiousity about the real Althea Flynt, who seems to be a difficult person to find info on. Alot of fans have wondered what the real Althea looked like. Well, here you go. I've managed to find some pictures of her, and an article about her and Larry's relationship.

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From Entertainment Weekly January 10, 1997

LARRY'S HIGHER LOVE
The real Althea Flynt

by Alanna Nash

In 1970, 17-year-old Althea Leasure walked into Larry Flynt's Columbus, Ohio, girlie bar to take a job as a go-go dancer. Flynt took one look at the runaway with her voluptuous figure and scarred psyche and saw, as friend Roger "Ollie" Brooke remembers, that she was already "something special to him." Still, neither could guess that the meeting would spawn one of the most unconventional and tender love stories in tabloid history.

That relationship, captured in The People vs. Larry Flynt, brought out the best and worst in the couple, who were married 11 years before Althea's AIDS-related death in 1987 at age 34. "The initial attraction was physical," remembers Brooke, a former Flynt bodyguard who also ran his clubs. "Then they found out how much they had in common. She was the love of his life."

Yet for the free-spirited Althea - who was eight when her father shot her mother and then himself, leaving her to be shunted between relatives and finally placed in an orphanage - Flynt, fresh from his third marriage, represented even more than someone to love. "I said to myself, 'He thinks big,'" she later recalled. "'On top of it, he's a renegade, like me.'" As Flynt often says, "She was a true soul mate."

When Flynt started Hustler in 1974, he named his wife, who posed for the magazine's first life-size centerfold ("Name's Leasure, rhymes with pleasure"), copublisher. Friends credit Althea, who eventually drew an annual salary of $1.6 million, with saving the blue book when Flynt wanted to revamp it during a brief 1977 religious awakening. Privately she cracked, "God may have walked into his life, but $20 million a year walked out."

It was the bisexual Althea - as a wedding gift, Flynt treated her to a woman at a New York brothel - who came up with some of Hustler's most outrageous concepts ("I always liked the sick stuff," she said). To keep her husband happy, Althea procured sex partners for him, getting upset only if he kissed them. "Had she tried to stop that part of his life," says Brooke, "she knew she'd have lost him."

"She was very determined to be her own person,"says Althea's sister, Sherry Maynard, a Columbus stockbroker. "I don't think she or Larry really cared which label you put on them, as long as they were okay with how they felt about themselves. Althea was against prejudice. And if anything drove her, it was that she would prove to the world not to be judgmental."

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From Cinemania Online

THE REAL ALTHEA
Her sister and a bodyguard recall the woman behind The People vs. Larry Flynt

by Alanna Nash

Milos Forman's The People vs. Larry Flynt, now available on home video, portrays the famed pornographer (played by Woody Harrelson) as an outrageous rebel, and his doomed mate, Althea Leasure Flynt (played by Courtney Love), who succumbed to an AIDS-related death in 1987 at age 34, as his equal. The fiery, dark-haired Althea may have been a 17-year-old stripper who had just blown her $10,000 inheritance on clothes and drugs when she walked into Flynt's Columbus, Ohio, girlie bar in 1970, but within eight years, she was savvy enough to oversee his $100 million empire.

Here, Althea's older sister, Sherry Maynard, a stockbroker, and Roger "Ollie" Brooke, the bodyguard who ran Flynt's nightclubs, recall the real Althea in all her complexity.

CINEMANIA: Sherry, you've said in the past that your sister "worked so hard. She wanted so desperately to be somebody, to distinguish herself in some way." How do you think she'd feel about having a movie made about her life with Larry?

SM: I think Althea would enjoy it very much. It was a real struggle with Larry, and with the First Amendment. Althea believed in the rights of the individual to pursue life as you choose it. And she went through a great deal. So I think a movie telling a lot of the story would make her very happy.

CINEMANIA: She ran Larry's businesses for seven years while he recuperated from his shooting and dealt with his addiction to painkillers. She also talked him out of shutting down Hustler magazine during his brief religious conversion in 1977, saying, "God may have walked into his life, but $20 million a year walked out." Roger, you were around for some of that.

RB: Yeah, she didn't think it was good business sense, and she told him that if he shut it down just because he had enough money to live on, that he would be hurting all the families and people that depended on him for money. Larry is a very caring person, so he understood that. Althea was highly intelligent. She was the magazine's first life-size centerfold. She was 5'6" and very well built, with a voluptuous type of figure. Now, she could be vindictive. She was dominating, not actually of Larry, but of other people under her. I don't know if you want to say "clever" or "cunning," but she was unbelievably sharp. The job that she did-she didn't do it because she was Larry's wife. She did it because she did it very, very well. She had more ability than she thought. Larry educated her.

CINEMANIA: Sherry, what drove her, you think?

SM: I think she just wanted to prove some things to the world-how things are not exactly what they are, herself included. She was against the prejudice and stereotypes, and if anything drove her, it was that she would prove to the world not to be judgmental. We were allowed a lot of freedom as children, and our mother encouraged us to be all we could be. Even in the worst of circumstances.

CINEMANIA: What was Althea like, growing up?

SM: She was a very determined child. She almost died of pneumonia when she was two, and she became very precious to us. She was tiny, but very spirited, and always very strong. She was going to be her own person.

CINEMANIA: What was it about Larry Flynt that appealed to her?

SM: His strength and sense of humor. He's very based in reality. And he understands people. I think Althea was basically like that herself.

CINEMANIA: Were they soulmates?

SM: Absolutely. He loved her very much. Althea had a difficult disease, and he was very loving and tolerant, and wanted her just to have the best of everything. He was very sweet to her, and he coped very well with that.

CINEMANIA: Roger, what was the initial attraction there, you think?

RB: The initial attraction was physical. Then they found out how much they had in common. She was the love of his life. There was never any love in his life other than her. He had [three] other wives, and he did kind of love them, but when he first saw Althea, he knew that she was something special to him. That relationship was so complicated and intertwined. I mean, she used to get women for him. That was a fact.

CINEMANIA: Why would she do that?

RB: She understood how Larry was. I would say Larry was as close to a male nymphomaniac as you can get. I've known him to have sex with four women in one day, repeatedly. I never got over his sexual prowess. There were a lot of parties where there would be four, twelve, fifteen people involved. And had she tried to prevent that, she would have lost him. It was a way of life. Quitting would have been like stopping breathing. I distinctly remember one time, she was pouting and upset, and Larry was laughing. He'd been having sex with this other girl, and he'd kissed her too much like it was a personal kiss. Now, Althea didn't mind him having sex, but she did mind him kissing her like he meant it. Because that was too much like real intimacy.

CINEMANIA: Do people generally have the wrong idea about Larry and what he's about?

SM: Oh, I don't know. He's such a complex and brilliant person, as was Althea, that I don't know if they do or not. Because he has his light and dark side, and with people like that, it's really hard to put them in a box and label them. And I don't think they really cared which label you put on them, as long as they were OK with how they felt about themselves.

CINEMANIA: Sherry, Althea was eight when your father killed your mother in a domestic dispute. After that, she was shuffled between relatives and orphanages. How did that event shape her personality?

SM: It was a horrible tragedy. But it's been sensationalized, and articles always represent us as these poor, illiterate people. I've had to sort out a lot of things, myself, about my parents. I look at them now, and I see that my father was very handsome and charming-just a brilliant man. He definitely had problems-his upbringing wasn't the best. And my mother was a wonderful, nurturing spirit, very strong. Of course, our father leveled the ultimate abuse. But she had a sense of tremendous perseverance against all odds, to take care of her children with an abusive husband, and still be nurturing to us. So they gave us a lot. Althea got her intellect from our father. She was also extremely creative. You can judge the way she used that creativity, but our mother was, as well.

CINEMANIA: What went wrong that day?

SM: It was a long time coming. Today, we would call it codependency, and alcoholism. My father was a very authoritative person, and he wanted to control my mother in every way. Finally, the very thing he feared happened: He lost her. She no longer wanted to be married to him. She had matured. She grew. And she said, "I don't have to do this any longer." And he couldn't handle it. Just like with O.J. Simpson. [Nicole] was crying out for help, as my mother did many, many times. And it just wasn't there.

CINEMANIA: Has the press exaggerated Althea's lifestyle, or made her out to be something she wasn't?

SM: Probably not that much. You know, when we live outside ourselves, we reach out for a lot of things. I don't think she ever truly owned her own magnificence.

CINEMANIA: In 1985, Althea got sick with AIDS. Flynt believes she contracted the disease from a blood transfusion during a 1983 hysterectomy, insisting she always used fresh needles in shooting drugs. He also says she was faithful to him during their marriage. But Angie Bowie, David's ex, disputes that.

RB: I don't know. Her maiden name was Leasure. She used to say, "It's Althea Leasure-rhymes with pleasure." And the reports about her bisexuality are certainly true. You've got to remember, we lived a different life back then. And Larry thought that was great. For her 21st birthday, he took her to a big whorehouse in New York and treated her. She got a woman for herself for her birthday. And I think he would like to watch her with another woman.

CINEMANIA: Was Althea's bathtub death an accident, or was it more conscious than that?

RB: Everybody wants to say that she drowned. But I think it was just heart failure. The doctor said she wouldn't have lived through another month anyhow.

SM: I think it was an accident, although philosophically, I don't know if it was or not. She was dying of AIDS, and she was in a very weakened condition. She weighed only 80 pounds, and had a lot of different drugs in her body. She was worn out, and I think she just gently left us. That's about all I can say. Except that we miss her.

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Click on the thumbnails for larger images.






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THE SONGS HEARD IN 'STARBELLY':

In the song 'Starbelly', on the album 'Pretty On The Inside', you can hear clips of two other songs, fading in and playing for a couple of seconds, and then fading out again. The first song is 'Rhiannon' by Fleetwood Man, and the other is a really old version of 'Best Sunday Dress', from Courtney's days in Sugar Babydoll.



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THE ALBUM TITLE 'MY BODY, THE HAND GRENADE':

In an interview with Melody Maker in 1997, Courtney explained the choice of title, like this:

Q: How did you choose the title?
A: We were going to call it 'Use Once And Destroy", it was too much of a drug reference, too rock. But that was for a different record, one that never happened. I wanted to tell the truth of what this collection of songs really is and I just wrote it one day on a piece of paper. I was going through a lot of new Hollywood stuff about, all of a sudden, people caring what I looked like, more than ever in my life, and not being important to the film community, and that pissed me off. The truth is, I can go around and be a movie star all I want, but I'm kinda, like a punker. I just got pissed off and wrote it. It summed up the feeling of 'I'm going to explode!'



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