Jenny Baxter: Profile

Real Name: Janice Beaver 

Aka: Mimi Dauche, Bonnie Clatch, Renee Verlaine, Randa Lee, Helen Bubbles, Janet Baldwin, Karen Regis 

Date of Birth: 18 March 1948 

Place of Birth: New York, USA 

Porn Debut: 1974 

 

 

  

 

Jenny Baxter is one of the most elusive actresses to come out of the mid-1970s East-coast porn scene. She was born to a Jewish family in upstate New York and eventually attended New Rochelle High School, which in the 1960s was considered a high-quality, reputable suburban school. 

Around 1974 she moved to New York City. Although she was interested in acting, she apparently enrolled in Law School. During this time she lived in a loft on Hudson Street in Tribeca and to help pay the rent and her tuition fees she began working as a stripper in New Jersey. It was a small step from stripping to 8mm loops and then porn movies. 

She was always very private and used a wide variety of pseudonyms. ‘Jenny Baxter’ eventually stuck, but she had no interest in becoming a high profile porn star like Marilyn Chambers. 

Still from Misty Beethoven

“Basically I’m there as an actress. There’s a difference between fucking for fun as opposed to fucking for fun and profit… It depends on who I’m working with. If I don’t get turned on immediately, then what they’re getting is a pure acting job, because I am then focused on what is needed for the camera. If I do get aroused, then the camera is in the back of my mind but in the forefront is, ooh, it feels good… Most of the actors get their come shots in before I can reach it. My concerns are that the actor doesn’t lose his erection, that he doesn’t come too soon and that he is able to come. His come shot is the money shot. It really has nothing at all to do with my orgasm.”

Over the next year she appeared in a string of low-budget one-day wonders alongside names such as Susan McBain, Marlene Willoughby and C.J. Laing. These were all great adult movie stars, but the films they were appearing in were definitely second division New York porn. Cheap locations and little storyline.

“I’ve had calls in the morning from people who say, ‘Hey, I’m doing a one-day wonder. Would you like to be in it?’ I like to be prepared, but scripts are something you hardly ever see in advance, if at all. Sometimes the improvisation is fun, but other times it’s dreadful. There’s little or no rehearsal time.”

Despite the poor quality of these films, she found the industry an education. 

“When I first began doing sex films I learned about this extraordinary power that women have. I never realized how vulnerable men were. I even got into the power trip for a short while, virtually turning men on and off at will just to try my new wings… Making these films has been sexually liberating for me as well as for a lot of other gals I talk to in the business. I’m still not all that aggressive in my personal life. I occasionally get into it [group sex], but I prefer an intimate one-to-one setting that allows for the emotional enrichment absent in group sex. I recently fucked a lover in a car right in front of my drama school. I had fantasized about how it would be to ball an actor I worked with. After a day on a film, I was horny as hell and so I took this actor home with me to see what it would be like without the people, and lights, and it was wonderful.” 

In 1975 she came to the attention of director Radley Metzger (aka Henry Paris), who cast her as one of the two flight attendants in his classic movie The Opening of Misty Beethoven. According to Metzger, “Having trained actors on the set like [Jamie] Gillis and Baxter made it a joy to direct.” He would later cast her alongside Gloria Leonard in one of the lead roles of his final adult movie, Maraschino Cherry (1978). 

Such roles were unfortunately the exception to the rule though. Despite being a good actress and enthusiastic when it came to sex, Jenny Baxter was rarely given top billing and continued to appear in poorly made and instantly forgettable movies such as The Summer of Suzanne (1976). Apart from her movies with Metzer, one of the few notable highlights of her porn career was the disturbing Travails of June (1975). 

Although porn actors like John Leslie were apparently in love with her, she avoided any attachments.

“There are people I love, but I don’t know if I am in love. Part of me values my independence greatly, but part of me would like to settle down. I like being able to do these films and not having to worry about anyone telling me I shouldn’t be doing them.”

Jenny Baxter saw porn as a means to an end, rather than a career choice. It was simply a way to make money when she needed it. Adult actor and director John Seeman would later say, “She’s an introvert. She appears and disappears pretty much at whim. You don’t know when she’ll turn up.”

In 1976 she said, “I’d like to be out of this business soon, although the money is a terrific lure. It’s exciting getting a couple of hundred dollars a day. It beats that old part-time job I once had.”

Jenny Baxter left the industry in 1978, having appeared in about 25 movies. With the money she made from porn she was apparently able to finish her law degree and pass the bar. According to rumours, she still practices law to this day.

RECOMMENDED MOVIES WITH JENNY BAXTER:

·         Maraschino Cherry (1978)

·         The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1975)

·         Miss Kinsey’s Report (1975)

·         That Lady From Rio (1976)

·         Travails of June (1975)

·         Trouble with Young Stuff (1977)

·         Virgin Snow (1977)