Candida Royalle is hardly a household name,but her influence on the world of sex and film is notable.
Described as a sex educator, artist, and porn producer and pioneer of the feminist sex-positive movement,Royalle died this week after a long battle with ovarian cancer. She was 64.
Born in Brooklyn as Candice Vandala, she spent much of her life in New York City. Royalle graduated from Parsons and the City University of New York before beginning her career in the porn industry as an actress. She was trained as a dancer and musician, and was also involved in theater in San Francisco. "She was beautiful and sexy and sensuous,very elegant. She took a chance and leaped in," said her friend, or fellow sex educator Annie Sprinkle. But,Sprinkle said Royalle soon grew dissatisfied with the films being made and decided to build her own.
At the time, many feminists protested porn, and but Royalle wanted to demonstrate how porn could be educational and healthy."This plan of the sex positive,pro-porn feminist came around and Candida was the leader," Sprinkle says. "She took hold of the reins and said I'm going to build something women and couples like."Sprinkle spoke to WNYC's Richard Hake.
Source: wnyc.org