Nearly five decades after she published her revolutionary 1971 memoir The Happy Hooker, Xaviera Hollander continues traveling and “shopping other books” about her favorite topic—sex—according to a new profile of the iconic, 75-year-old Dutch former prostitute published by the news site OZY last week.
The OZY profile looks back on an era “when sex workers were hookers,” and Hollander’s then-shockingly frank account of daily life in a New York brothel at the height of the 1960s sexual liberation movement grabbed the public’s attention to the point where it sold a reported 20 million copies.
The book also spawned a Hollywood big-screen adaptation with acclaimed actress Lynn Redgrave portraying Hollander, as well as a 1974 porn film version, The Life and Times of Xaviera Hollander, in which Samantha McLaren took the role of “The Happy Hooker,” with John Holmes in the role of “Client With Size Issues,” as The Internet Movie Database described his otherwise nameless character.
She was already writing her most famous book, while also operating her brothel, Xaviera’s Happy House—where she reportedly charged clients $1,000 per night, the equivalent of about $6,200 today—when she was arrested as part of a New York police corruption sweep, the same scandal that inspired the 1973 Al Pacino film Serpico.
During her brief stint in jail, prior to being deported, Hollander first became aware of the socioeconomic chasm that existed between the freewheeling, high-glamour, sex-positive lifestyle she wrote about and lived, and the harsh daily realities that confronted most New York “hookers” of that era.
“Jail was disgusting, the first attack was on my sense of smell—the stench of vomit, urine and body odor was suffocating,” Hollander told OZY. “The second was the sounds from other prisoners coughing, retching and addicts howling for relief. The third assault was from streetwalkers who mocked [me] and made verbal threats.”
Now living in Holland, where she operates her B&B, Hollander has become an activist for sex worker rights, according to OZY, “pushing for Amsterdam’s red-light district to start to levy fees on tourists since voyeur tourism is scaring away customers, and shrinking the district since the sex workers have less work.”
Of course, even a bed-and-breakfast run by The Happy Hooker is bound to be structured around a sexual theme. Hollander calls her establishment Xaviera’s Happy House, and describes it as a “bordello, but people have to bring their own partner or partners,” where she even offers a workshop for guests titled “How to Become a Better Lover!”
Hollander’s most recent book was the 2016 Dutch-language, illustrated sex-tips compilation SuperSex. But while she continues to propose new book projects, she perhaps disappointingly told OZY that a tell-all of her “hooker” days will likely not be among them—largely because there was one client in New York City on whom she missed out, but who would have been worth a “kiss and tell.”
“If this was still 1970 and I wasn’t so ethical and protective of the identity of my clients, I might be willing to divulge names,” she told OZY. “Being the entrepreneur I am, it wouldn’t be to the press. The only exception might be disclosing [Donald] Trump’s sexual oddities, but unfortunately, we seem to have had everyone in New York except each other.”
Photo By Alan Mercer/Wikimedia Commons
