Additional info: I was born and raised in Vancouver, BC., Canada. I have only
one sister, and she is 5 years younger than me. I got started
in the adult entertainment business at a very young age; 18
years old almost. I was living on my own, working at
MacDonald's, trying to support myself. But as we all know
that was not enough. So, in the evenings I would enter into
the wet t-shirt contests, or naughty nighty contest to try
and make extra money. At first I was nervous, and a little
scared, I had never done that sort of thing before. In fact,
the first 8 contests I went into I lost. The contest were
bare as you dare. The more you took off the more the other
girls would take off until they were naked. The guys of
course would cheer you on, until all the girls were naked. It
took me about 8 times before I did, then there was no
stopping me. I won every time I entered, until I ran up
against this beautiful girl named Linda. We would either tie
or beat each other. So one day we got smart, and exchanged
phone numbers, then we would call each other and tell each
other were we were planning on going to so we could avoid
each other and win.
After a few months of that I ran into an old girlfriend who
insisted she take me in for an audition down at the local
strip club there in down town Vancouver; The Drake Hotel.
Apparently she had become a dancer since the last time I saw
her. So she talked me into it, and picked me up one morning
before I had to go into work at MacDonald's. There I was
11am, before the bar opened, in a borrowed costume, and at
the mercy of whatever music the DJ was to play for me. I was
so nervous! But after I was done they hired me right away. It
was a few weeks before I was working what they called the "A"
clubs in town, back then that was quite an honor. ( Around 8
month into my dancing career, The Drake Hotel hosted a
contest called the Vancouver Exotica. There were two
categories. One for the All Stars, which was for girls that
had been dancing for a year and a half or more, and then
there was the New Stars, and that was for a year and a half
and under. I ended up winning the New Stars division,
retaining the title of Miss Nude Vancouver Exotica 1984 . I
remember how happy I was. I won a trip for two to Palm
Springs, and a beautiful crystal trophy.
It was shortly after that when a girl named Leanne Lee came
through Vancouver from Toronto to work a few weeks in our
clubs. She had appeared in Penthouse Magazine. I remember
sitting down with her and asking her how she got in. She was
so nice and helpful; she gave me all the information I needed
to send my photos in. So I did and about two weeks later I
got a call from Earl Miller, Penthouse staff photographer.
With in two weeks I was on my way to Los Angeles to shoot my
centerfold pictorial, June 1985. How exciting that was. When
I got back every one new that's where I went, and I never
told anyone, just because I feared that what if I went down
to shoot and then never made it in. But I did, and four
months later there I was on the stands!
During the time of the magazine being out, my agent Tom
suggested that I have 500 small 20x24 black and white posters
made to sell and then autograph to the guys that came in to
see me. I remember what a brilliant idea that was. I sold out
of them with in two weeks! They sold like crazy! I stayed
headlining in Vancouver for a few months until a club owner
from Toronto flew out from Toronto just to meet me, and asked
me to come out and headline in his club. He was offering
twice what I was making in Vancouver. Needless to say I
packed up and went. I stayed out there working for several
months, the jobs were endless, I was only one of four
Penthouse Pets in Canada to ever grace the pages of Penthouse
Magazine. Eventually my travels brought me to Windsor,
Ontario, Canada to a little club on the River called
"Cheetahs on the River". That is where I met my American
Agent, Frank Bane, from Continental Entertainment. It was
then that I realized that my dual citizenship had a purpose;
it allowed me to work freely across the United States! And
let me tell you how great that was. At the time the Canadian
dollar was at an all time low, not as bad as it is now, but
at the time it was at 1.28. So I was coming home from the
States and making 28 cents on the dollar, ye haw! That helped
me get ahead financially in a big way.
By February 1987, I had made my second appearance in
Penthouse, 'Birds of a Feather", and had purchased my very
first home. Because I was still so young at the time, my Dad
had to cosign for me. : ) As the years pasted, the magazine
appearances started adding up as I built a relationship with
Penthouse and several of the photographers in LA. I was going
up there twice a year to shoot, keeping my magazine credits
current. That was the most important thing of all, keeping
them current. I still continued to dance across the US
circuit every week.
I was living in Toronto when I made 12th and 13th appearance
in Penthouse Magazine, the February and August 1990 editions.
"Lisa Reilly, and Romancing the Stars". That was also the
year my mother became ill with breast cancer. I quickly moved
back to Vancouver, BC to spend time with her, but it wasn't
long before it got the better of her, she died October 23,
1990. I'll never forget the amount of flowers and cards that
were sent from all over the country from friends, clubs, and
dancers. The funeral was held in a small little town where
she grew up, in Forest Grove, Oregon. I eventually went back
on the road to work. It was Labor Day weekend in Panama City
Beach, FL, at a huge beach club called Club LaVela where I
met my husband. We ended up living and traveling together for
about two years, and then got married on the spur of the
moment in Reno Nevada. He traveled with me on the road for a
few years then decided it was time we started another
business. This would be the Baskin Robins Ice cream store.
The first one was in Toccoa, GA, and the second in
Lawrenceville, GA. In May 1993, I appeared in Penthouse yet
again with a friend of mine Vanna Lace; we appeared inside
the issue that featured Mike Tyson on the cover. In July 1994
I shot again with Earl Miller my "Melissa Revisited"
pictorial, in addition to my duo pictorial with Janine, which
appeared in January 1995. In 1995 the wave of the Internet
was also underway. I had an idea to put my fan club online. I
hooked up with some computer geniuses but that never really
took off. It was they that decided it would be lucrative to
bill members like magazine subscriptions. So we did and
became partners in what was known as www.centerfolds.com. In
1998 I was asked to appear in an on command performance
during the 1998 Miss Nude Atlanta pageant where I was awarded
the Life Time Achievement award by Gelardi South Enterprises
and the Exotic Dance industry.
Things were moving right along; we had paid off our first
house, and were building another, the house of my dreams,
what I had always worked for. I was having a blast building
it from the ground up. I had been cutting out pictures from
magazines for years and saving them all for this. In April of
99 we closed on the house. Some of you might have seen it in
some of the movies that I appear in. Dream Witch, Glori makes
the made Two, and Booby Trap was all filmed in my house.
Eventually the Baskin Robbins franchise began starting up
combination stores to help boost sales, Dunkin
Doughnuts/Baskin Robbins. That was a great idea but not if
you had one already beside you! Eventually the competition
moved in, and due to lack of support from corporate when
trying to sell the store, we eventually had to close it. This
and other things created a lot of stress for my husband, and
inevitably we ended up in beginnings of divorce.
It was during the Exotic Dancer Convention 2000, where I was
awarded the Hall of Fame award by Exotic Dancer and the Adult
Entertainment Industry. I have to say with all the horrible
things that had been going on in the past few months, my
divorce, and everything else, that had to be one of the
happiest days of my life. I dedicated the award to my mother,
who would have been proud of me.
Since then I have been busy trying to rebuild centerfolds.com
as melissa-wolf.com. Centerfolds have been sold, and now we
are trying to get this site up and running in the best way we
know how.
What are my plans for the future? Well, so far it is to dance
for a few more years, get my site running well and
profitable, and to start an agency of my own booking feature
entertainers. I want to provide a service to the girls that
will help them build a long-term career for themselves that
will be as successful and lucrative as mine has been over the
years.
Thanks for your support, Melissa Wolf
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