In the early 1970's,
Russ Meyer changed
direction in his movie making. Gone was the "roughies" like "Faster
Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" Now Meyer was going back to basics--sex
films. This was the time just before "porn chic," where stag-club humor
was still marketable.
Meyer, being king of dirty old men,
was the master of this genre and always on the lookout for new talent.
In the mid 70's, go-go dancer/stripper Kitten
Natividad was introduced to Meyer via fellow Meyer
girl Shari Eubanks (of "Supervixens" fame).
Meyer
used Natividad in his next move, "Up!" (1976) as a sort of
Greek chorus (albeit a naked chorus). Her fiery energy and overt sexuality
helped make "Up!" into the cult film it is. During this time Natividad
and Meyer
became an item. (Their affair would last for the
next dozen years.) Her next movie was as the star of Meyer's
"Beyond the Valley of the Ultravixens" (co-written by film critic Roger
Ebert). Even though this was another cult favorite, the era of
Sexploitation was coming to an end. Adult movie theaters were giving way
to XXX videos. Meyer stopped making movies and focused on
marketing his movies on video (RM Films
International). Natividad went back to modeling and stripping.
Her strip sets (of which there a few on video) are very reminiscent of
classic Burlesque theater: themed and heavily propped. For example, one
of her big acts was to bathe in a giant champaign glass.
Natividad remains active making
today movies and traveling the burlesque/pin-up/cult film convention circuit.
She even runs her own website called "Kitten
Klub" (warning: adult content).
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