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12/17/2004: "CHIEF JIMMY WHITE MOCCASINS GOES TO HAPPY HUNTING GROUND"
Jim Holliday has died due to complications arising from type II diabetes. According to what I've heard, he had been in failing health for over a year, but resolutely avoided taking care of himself. If that's true, it was a typical Holliday move.
Jim was a unique individual, to say the least. I first spoke to him back in 1993 when I had just started working at Hustler Erotic Video Guide. I had turned in my ballot for the XRCO Awards, and Jim called to tell me that I had "got it." What that meant was that my votes met with his approval. Or something like that. It was hard to follow because, over the course of that conversation, Jim ping-ponged from subject to subject like a tweaker with ADD. One minute he was talking about the XRCO, the next he was nattering on about early '60s rocker Del Shannon. And he was relentless. He just kept talking. For over an hour. Still he was entertaining. A real character.
A couple of Jim's movies were reviewed in HEVG around that time, and received positive ratings...opinions not shared by the reviewers at Hustler. Jim would call and rail about the "pinheads" who didn't understand his "fun and fluff" epics. He had a particular dislike for Hustler Editorial Director Allan MacDonell, claiming he'd "bitch slap" Allan if he ever saw him and that Allan only kept his job thanks to Holliday's benevolence. According to Jim, he could have "anybody fired at any time."
Holliday also had a habit of calling at all hours, usually identifying himself by one of his many nicknames: Jimmy White Moccasins, The Velvet Hammer, The Golden Ghost, etc.
But then Holliday took exception to a couple of reviews and comments that appeared in the magazine, and added me to his list of perceived enemies. Oh, well. What are you going to do?
Some things I'll remember about Holliday: Sitting in the bar at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas during CES with Holliday, David Christopher, Bobby Hollander, Howard Levine and others and listening in horror as Holliday rattled on about the Holocaust. "I'm not saying it didn't happen...I just question the numbers." This to a table of mainly Jewish dudes. Oh, and Holliday never bought a round. "When I'm in Vegas, I'm America's guest."
Another year, and another CES show, following the AVN Awards, I bought a few "coke and ryes" for an already drunken Holliday who spent his time buttonholing passers-by and asking them if they knew the name Jim Holliday. Most did not. Holliday was convinced that these midwestern housewives and such were all lying. I don't think they were.
Holliday liked to boast, and he certainly came up with some doozies. According to him, he was once the youngest head basketball coach in the NCAA. He "invented" the trend of wearing painter's pants. He wore sunglasses at night before anybody else did. He had a cult following that numbered in the "hundreds of thousands." He was a certified "genius." He could walk into "any diner and go home with any waitress" to which he took a liking. And on and on he'd go for as long as anyone would care to listen.
Most of Holliday's rap was pure bullshit, but it could be entertaining bullshit if one was in the right mood to hear it.
But, like I said, Holliday was a character. A real character. Even at his most obnoxious, he was entertaining as only a true character can be. Later, Chief. May your white moccasins tread easy on the happy hunting ground.
