I have been corresponding with Alice, who has moved to New Orleans to strip. When I decide to do my Girdle Gulch video I have Alice in mind and I buy a ticket and send it to her. It is with great anxiety that I meet her plane in Phoenix. Except I do not meet her at the airplane because she was not on it! Heart attack. I have invested all of my money in this film project and the star isn't here! Fortunately there is a message explaining she will be on the next plane. And indeed she is.
When she comes off we immediately drive to a hair and makeup salon and I tell the hairdresser "think Jean Harlow." Alice sits down with medium-length brown hair and three hours later leaves the chair with very short white hair. The local beauty salon thinks I am crazy.
There is still some daylight, so we drive East out of Phoenix toward Holbrook. The sun is going down and the colors are beautiful. I'm uptight that I've spent thousands of dollars and still have nothing on film. On the spur of the moment I pull off the road at a four-way stop and instruct Alice to change into vintage black bra, white girdle, and stockings. It is a similar outfit she wore in Joe's bar the year before. Alice is very moody, which you can see in the photographs (#1). The moon is rising, the sun setting; it is both intimate and public at the same time (#2). The shoot concludes when four police descend upon our car and ask that we desist. I feel a sense of accomplishment. I am relaxed. I like what I've got. The police back off and we get away.
