The Exotic Ones: That Fabulous Film-Making Family from Music City, USA - The Ormonds

by Jimmy McDonough

Overview

June. Ron. Tim. Together they were the Ormond Organization, a Nashville mother-father-son trio who cranked out a wild bunch of movies, from Lash LaRue westerns to the stripper-gore-musical outrage The Exotic Ones, then finally... Baptist extravaganzas. The Ormonds plunged into every area of showbiz, from vaudeville to drive-in movies to Christian filmmaking. They did it all on a shoestring – by themselves, with no studio to back them.

Theirs was a glittery world like no other. Populated by inebriated cowboys ... spook-show mentalists ... non-acting country stars ... UFO testifiers ... men in gorilla suits ... egocentric magicians ... fire-breathing, mud-wrestling ex-strippers ... sweaty preachers ... rockabilly monsters ... pint-sized evangelists. Not to mention a con artist or ten.

At the height of their frenzied career Ron and June experienced a spiritual awakening after their private plane crashed on the way to a premiere. The Ormonds turned their back on secular show business to make a series of shocking, surreal religious pictures, including an unbelievable trio of films for Baptist preacher Estus Pirkle – such as The Burning Hell, which made millions without ever being shown in an actual movie theater. The inside story on the three Ormond-Pirkle religious pictures has never been told – until now.

Forensic biographer Jimmy McDonough interviewed June Ormond extensively and she revealed things she told no other soul. June was the guiding force of the family, a woman who held her own in the cutthroat male-dominated world of low-budget independent film. Her commentary is hilarious, brutally honest and at times heartbreaking.

Presented by Nicolas Winding Refn, The Exotic Ones is a landmark work by Jimmy McDonough, and a beautifully designed feast for the eyes.

Oversized format quarter-bound hardcover with gilt edged pages, presented in a stunning gold embossed, textured laminate slipcase with bellyband.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781913051181
Publisher:	FAB Press
Publication date:	08/24/2023
Series:	Nicolas Winding Refn Presents
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	12.20(w) x 13.90(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Jimmy McDonough is a biographer and journalist. He has written biographies of Neil Young, Tammy Wynette, Al Green, Russ Meyer and Andy Milligan. TIME magazine declared his Milligan biography The Ghastly One "a masterpiece" and John Waters repeatedly names it one of his all-time favorites. McDonough has also authored profiles on Jimmy Scott, Gary Stewart, Hubert Selby, Jr. and Link Wray.

Read an Excerpt

This is a Story of Family

I wish you could’ve met June. Petite, pear-shaped, with a shock of blonde hair. And always swathed in some outrageous ensemble – loud kaftan, fake medallions, clacking jewelry, wearing huge glasses that emphasized an owlish face sporting punch-line expressions. What a firecracker. All these years later just thinking about June makes me smile. And her laugh, forget it. She cackled like Burgess Meredith playing the Penguin, so you had to, too. She had opinions on everything – some wise, some crackpot. June never stopped talking. “June was a force of nature,” said her pal Andy van Roon. “You know how some people are like a light switch, on and off, or have dimmer switches? June’s light switch was always on.” Nearly all of her palaver was showbiz related. June knew everything showbiz. Vaudeville, movies, acting, singing, dancing, she’d done it all.

We did most of our yapping in a booth at the Shoney’s at 3415 Murphy Road in Nashville, Shoney’s being the chain famous for its round, pompadour-haired mascot, Big Boy. Once a great cook – son Tim would tell me she made a fabulous curry – all June’s meals were now taken at the restaurant, Tim in tow. And it was where much Ormond business was done. “They were the only people in the world that I knew that had a running tab at Shoney’s,” said Rita Faye Sinks, Ormond actress and dear friend. June would hold court at the restaurant like a mafia don in a mumu. June. She was indelible, incredible and indefatigable. I loved her.

The story of the Ormonds is a secret history of American entertainment. June and husband Ron started in vaudeville. They broke into the film business making Westerns – Ron writing, producing and directing, June coproducing and choreographing. They went independent, making low-budget exploitation pictures for the drive-in crowd, among them Untamed Mistress, Please Don’t Touch Me, Forty Acre Feud, The Exotic Ones.
Ron manned the camera, June distributed, then son Tim got into the action, working all aspects of production. All three Ormonds acted in their movies, and Tim even belted out a song to a monster in one (since mostly cut due to his embarrassment). They were an entertainment triumvirate like no other. A movie-making family from Nashville, Tennessee.

When their private plane – piloted by Ron – crashed on the way to one of their premieres in October 1967, Ron and June experienced a religious epiphany, and decided to make pictures exclusively for the Lord.