By LINNEA QUIGLEY, RICHARD DRISCOLL (River First Publishing; 1991)
My exploration of the literary output of the 1980s scream queen Linnea Quigley continues with THE LINNEA QUIGLEY BIO & CHAINSAW BOOK, her first publication. It’s a large format paperback that, as the title portends, functions as a (quirky) biography, with 47 pages of text divided into three parts.
Part one features a personality profile and two previously published magazine interviews. The latter were done to promote Linnea’s 1989 opus SEXBOMB, which she describes as “a real fun one, a look behind the scenes on a very low-budget horror movie. It’s taken to the extreme, which makes it funny.” We also learn that for a time she went by just Linnea, that despite all the onscreen nudity she’s done she had (until 1991, at least) never been completely naked in a film, that regarding her appearance in DON’T GO NEAR THE PARK (1979) “I threw up just going to the screening!,” and that “The only thing I’d like to tell people is support animal rights.”
In part two we hear from Linnea’s parents and two longtime friends. These portions may be inelegantly written, but they aren’t long enough to cause much offense. As you might guess, all these people are impressed with Linnea and her commitment to animal rights, with several amusing childhood anecdotes offered, although about her filmography little is said.
In part three Linnea tells her own story (which forms the nucleus of her later book I’M SCREAMING AS FAST AS I CAN: MY LIFE IN B-MOVIES). She writes of growing up in Davenport, Iowa and moving to LA at age eighteen, where she became a Hollywood extra and played in several punk bands before finding her calling in B-movies. Her credits, as listed here (there was no imdb in 1991), include SAVAGE STREETS, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, CREEPAZOIDS, NIGHT OF THE DEMONS and LINNEA QUIGLEY’S HORROR WORKOUT, the filming of which was apparently “a nightmare.”
Rounding out the book are 32 pages of photos, consisting mostly of movie stills and behind-the-scenes pics (with Linnea’s breasts unsurprisingly getting a fair amount of exposure). Is this book worth perusing? Yes, given the revealing portrait it paints of the late eighties exploitation film scene (the object of much renewed fascination these days) and one of its most prominent players. But is it worth the insanely inflated prices currently being charged online? Most definitely not!