For A Few Extra Bucks

Ed Rawson was in a bit of a bind. He had just one semester left to finish his MBA and his cash reserves were dwindling. He was going to have to pay for that final semester in just a month and after scholarships and loans, he was still $1,000 short … and the crappy part time job he had barely earned him enough money to eat and pay his rent.

Ed had always been a good student and had managed to get through college on a swimming scholarship. He was in excellent shape and a good swimmer, but not good enough to make the really big money by making the Olympic swim team. He had saved enough living in the athletics dorm and eating on the athlete’s plan, but now he was short. It was a damned shame to get this close and just miss the prize. An MBA would have been a great starting point for a promising business career and he was desperate to find a way to make it happen.

He was the type of person who set goals and doggedly pursued them, which is why he excelled in swimming despite realistically having only average talent. So, sitting down with the Sunday newspaper classified ad section, Ed decided to open his mind and embrace whatever he could find to raise the cash he needed in a short period of time.

As he scanned the “want ads”, he ruled out the typical help wanted jobs: they were no better than the job he currently had. He knew he could teach/coach swimming, but that didn’t pay very well and he did not have time to develop a body of students. Then he saw the ad.

“Fit young man needed for on-screen film project. Must be athletic, between ages 21 – 29, willing to work hard and accept direction. An open mind is essential.” A phone number was listed and to his surprise his call was answered even though it was Sunday morning.

The lady on the other end of his call seemed pleasant, asked a few questions to ensure he met the minimum qualifications and dismissed the fact that Ed had never acted in his life. “Not to worry,” she said confidently, “you’ll have all the motivation you need to come across on screen as very authentic.”

He couldn’t wait and she didn’t want to wait, so Ed cleaned up and drove to a downtown office that afternoon for his initial interview. The office building was dark and other than the security guard at the door, seemed totally uninhabited. Ed was directed to the 15 th Floor where a very statuesque woman greeted him at the elevator.

“Hello,” she said pleasantly, extending her hand to shake his. “You must be Ed Rawson. Who else would be here at this time? I am Joan Jansen and we spoke on the phone.” They chatted amiably as she led him down the hallway to her office. The door read, “Joan Jansen, CSA”.

As she directed him to a chair opposite a large desk she remarked, “I must say you DO look to be in fine form.” She then sat behind the desk in a large leather chair.

Ed smiled sheepishly, explaining, “It’s from years of swimming.” She nodded.

“I need to confirm a few things, Ed, before I can put you on the set,” she said earnestly. “First, you said you had no reservations about being filmed nude.” He nodded, but with a slight blush that silently pleased Joan. “Well, let’s see,” she said waggling a finger at him.

Momentarily taken aback, Ed reminded himself that she had mentioned a minimum of a thousand dollars for an afternoon’s worth of work, so he gamely stood and stripped off his clothes. He told himself it wasn’t all that much different than standing in front of hundreds of people in only a Speedo.

Joan made a twirling motion and Ed made a slow circle in place so she could check him out both front and back. “Very nice, Ed,” she said, “Your physical appearance alone makes you perfect for the part, but you need to know more. Have a seat.” Ed started to pick up his clothes and was starting to put on his shirt when he heard, “No, no. Sit down naked. I need to see how comfortable you are with this.”

Another endearing blush and this time Joan could not hide a slight smile. Ed sat down, nervously crossing his legs and putting his hands on his lap for some bit of modesty. Joan watched with curiosity and amusement and simply sat quietly appraising Ed’s level of discomfort.

“Very well,” she said. “I am going to ask you a few personal questions. In normal employment circumstances these would be way out of line, but in this case we need to determine your appropriateness for the job. Will that be alright with you, Ed?” He said it was, nodding and wondering what she was driving at.

“Have you ever been spanked, Ed” she asked, catching him off guard.

“Well … uh … y ..Yes,” he stammered in reply, the cute blush spreading fully across his face.

“Please tell me about it … or them,” smiled Joan.

“As a kid my mom would pop my butt a few times for minor things, but if I did something really bad, she would take this wooden spoon and spank my bottom until I cried,” he said, now looking down with embarrassment.

“On your pants or on the bare,” asked Joan?

Another wave of hot flushing and Ed replied, “If it didn’t start bare bottom, it always ended that way.”

“OK,” she acknowledged, “how about your father? Did he spank as well?”

“I avoided those at all costs!” exclaimed the young man. “He’d make me take down my pants and lay on my bed with my butt in the air and he’d lay into me with his belt. God, did that hurt!”

“I’ll bet,” agreed Joan, “But how about now … as an adult? Ever experience spanking?”

This brought out the full bloom of blushing the Ed tried to suppress, but couldn’t. “Only once,” he said sheepishly. “I had this crazy girlfriend for a while who pestered me about wanting to spank me. I let her do it once and she used a hairbrush. I was bruised for days!” Ed then grinned broadly.

“What?” asked Joan?

“Well, after she blistered my butt we had some of the best sex ever. She was a real tiger after that.” The look on his face indicated it was a stirring memory and the shifting in his seat indicated the same. “But we broke up shortly after that. She was really crazy in many ways and that was just another to add to the list.”

By this time, Ed knew this line of questioning was all leading somewhere, so he decided to get to the point. “I am guessing my role in the scene you are going to film involves a spanking.”

Joan smiled and said, “Yes, it does, but it is much more involved than a simple spanking.”

Ed took a deep breath and looked Joan in the eyes. He had figured something weird was up when he answered the ad, but he also sensed an opportunity to get the cash to finish his MBA. “Look,” he said with his eyes locked earnestly on hers, “Why don’t you just tell me straight out what is involved? I haven’t run screaming from your office, yet, and I AM sitting here buck naked.”

“Fair enough,” replied the casting director. She stood up and came around to the front of the desk where she sat on one hip on the edge of her desk. The short tight black skirt rose up a bit and seemed even tighter as she sat on the desk’s edge. “The script revolves around a farm girl and a traveling salesman. Yes, that’s so cliché’ I don’t know where to start, but that is the basis,” explained Joan. “There is an older brother in the film, but we only hear of him as he is always working. You see, the two kids are being raised by a single mother on the farm.”

Joan paused, noted that Ed was quietly appraising her form, and then continued. “The son does something – honestly, I don’t recall what in the script – and he earns the legendary ‘Trip to the Woodshed’, where his mother punishes him. This even foreshadows later events in the film. You understand what I mean by ‘foreshadow’?”

“Yeah,” tersely replied Ed. “So just how serious is this trip to the woodshed?”

“It will be very real, Ed,” Joan confided. “It will be painful and you will cry out and struggle and be in some terrific pain. BUT,” she hastened to add, “You will have no really serious damage done to you. There will be a doctor and a nurse on set who will be monitoring the activity all the way.”

Ed screwed up his face with concern. “So, you’re telling me that I’m going to have to take a real wood shed whipping? With what?”

“We’ll try a number of things, Ed. I want you to know what to expect right from the start,” Joan told him. “It’ll start with a hand spanking and you’ll be strapped and switched and maybe even paddled.”

“There’s no way I could do all that with multiple ‘takes’ or whatever you call it,” noted Ed, clearly thinking through the situation. “It would have to be done once, because there is no way it could be done twice if you plan to whip my ass for real.”

“Exactly!” beamed Joan. “We have to push the limits all in one shooting. We have a terrific film editor who can take all the camera angles and blend them together to make it even more substantial than it was in real time.” Then her voice softened and concern could be seen in her eyes. “But it will be very real and you will be in pain. You can’t act your way through it and the woman who will be playing your mother is experienced at this sort of thing. It’s gonna hurt, Ed.”

He thought about it then looked up and asked, “Exactly, how much does this pay?”

“$1,500,” replied Joan.

“Make it $2,500 and it’s a deal,” countered Ed.

“Are you sure you haven’t done this before,” smiled Joan? “But, done!”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Once they had the key actor, what became known as “the spanking scene” setting progressed and Ed was given an address well out into the countryside. He had to report early in the morning and though he had some difficulties finding the remote location he arrived on time. There was a trailer set up just for make-up and another for wardrobe. He was told to go to wardrobe first. His stop there quick as his entire costume consisted solely of a plaid shirt and denim overalls.

Then he was asked to go to the scene location to do a “walk through” with the Director. The Director was a real piece of work: a tough neo-Nazi feminist type who was in charge and made sure Ed and everyone else on the set knew it. He was awed by the number of people on set with four camera crews (the Director had said there were five, but he couldn’t find the fifth), sound people, lighting and a bunch of others running around like their pants were on fire. There also seemed to be a few folks, mostly female, who were just hanging around for no apparent purpose.

Suddenly Ed wondered about taking a real beating with all these people watching and it took all of his mental reserve to overcome a severe case of cold feet and second thoughts. Even aside from the number of people, lenses, microphones, and lights, the set was intimidating: it was a real woodshed that had one wall removed and was now surrounded by heavy tent walls to preserve the dark feel that the inside would have had when it was fully intact.

The walk through was simple: he just had to do exactly as the actress playing his mother told him. He also had to take the beating she would dish out. At one point, he would be ordered by “Ma” to go cut some switches. There would be rolling cameras to follow him along a path and the plants were pointed out to him (and marked low and out of sight of the cameras with red ribbons.) “It’s simple,” explained the neo-Nazi feminist version of Cecil B. DeMille, “Strip, take it, shake it, you’ll shed real tears and it’s OK to cry, but don’t ever look at a camera. Got it?” Ed assured her he got it.

Make up was a trip. He wore more makeup than any girl he ever dated and it was professionally applied, but it all came after his body hair was removed. “Wax or razor?” asked a completely disinterested make up girl. Shocked he would be losing all his body hair and completely unfamiliar with the process, Ed shrugged.

“What do you suggest?” he asked.

“Wax,” she said. “Razor stubble is a bitch, though pulling the hair off with wax can be painful. But, considering what you’re about to do, I am guessing that’s not a problem.”

It turned out to be a huge problem, especially the hair being pulled from those oh-so-tender areas that are not normally seen in polite company. It took a couple of hours for the redness to dissipate and it probably took every minute of that for Ed’s heart rate to settle back to the normal range, too. Ed had actually dozed off while waiting, but was awakened by an assistant director who told him, “We’re ready for you in about ten minutes. You might want to use the toilet now.”

Ed did as was suggested and waited nervously to be fetched to the set … for his trip to the woodshed.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The actress who played his “Ma” in the film was anything but imposing on first sight. She was a petite woman wearing a full, but plain, skirt and blouse and looked as though she might weigh all of 90 pounds. She was a woman who could be described as “handsome” rather than pretty as she was attractive in a very down to earth manner. Ed had difficulty guessing her age and eventually gave up trying.

“So you’re ‘Billy’,” said the ageless actress with a smile. “Nobody wants this scene done in a single take more than you, so let’s shoot for that, OK?” He felt unnerved when ‘Ma’ called him by his character’s name, ‘Billy’, and was even more unnerved as she casually, but obviously, checked him out. “And I’m sorry,” she said with too much twinkle in her eyes, “when it comes to spanking, I may be small but I know what it is all about.

You’re gonna be hurtin’ for certain!” Then suddenly they were called to their positions.

Ed stood before the woman inside the woodshed wearing his bib overalls as people scrambled madly about them. Lights blazed on, boom mics hovered and there seemed a collective inhale on the set as all attention was focused on the two actors facing each other.

The number of watching faces had numbed Ed and even the director’s sharp bark of “ACTION!” did little to shake him from that torpor. But when “Ma” started her lines, his situation became very real, very fast.

“Git them britches off, Billy” snapped Ma. “I told you I wouldn’t take no sass and now you’re gonna find out I’m mean business.” Ed/Billy fumbled for the clasps of the bib overalls and started to blurt out an excuse … it just happened automatically, but came out only as “but … but … but …”

“That’s right,” barked Ma, “your butt across my lap and it better be now!” Just as the word ‘now’ slipped from her lips, the bib overalls slipped to the floor and this time there really was a collective gasp from the onlookers: years of swimming were evident in Ed’s fully visible bubble butt of finely sculpted bottom flesh. It would be noted later that when the video was run in slow motion, even “Ma’s” eyes widened in appreciation.

But in that moment, Billy was suddenly whisked off his feet by his diminutive mother and that marvelously sculpted male bottom was suddenly upended and the perfect target for a punishing hand. Ma didn’t hesitate either, and her hand rose and fell with alarming power and regularity as she hand spanked “her son” between bits and pieces of adlibbed dialogue. But her made up lecture must have been drawn from real life experience as Ed felt as foolish as Billy … and just as regretful for whatever he must have done.

As the spanks rose and fell, their sharp retorts spiking the equalizers in the sound truck, all eyes were glued to the scene. Ed had a world class spankable bottom, not only in form, but in reaction. His white bottom slowly colored and though it was clearly muscular and firm, the bottom flesh bounced and jiggled in response to the spanks. “Ma” seemed mesmerized and bent to her task with a religious fervor. Those on set would later argue over drinks about which was the most impressive: Billy’s ability to absorb those spanks or Ma’s hand for dishing them out.

By the end of the hand spanking Ed had a slight sheen of perspiration covering his body and his forehead positively dripped with sweat. Ma stood up the recalcitrant young man, pointed to a corner and said, “You wait in that corner, Billy, and don’t you dare move a muscle. I’m gonna fetch a strap and then you’ll be hurtin’ for certain!” Ed quickly went to the corner like the whipped puppy he was and was relieved to hear the director yell for the filming to stop.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The break in filming was planned so that the strapping scene could be set. It was also an unintended kindness to the actor whose bottom was now throbbing and glowing. As camera’s were moved, Ed noticed the prop girl bring out a heavy leather strap that looked like it had been used for years solely on bad boy bottoms. But, that wasn’t the unnerving part.

With all of the activity around him, some of it came from a couple of makeup girls who first dried him off then touched up his makeup. All the while they jabbered about how “awesome” he was and how “incredible” it was to see him take that spanking. It seemed so clinical to Ed that it was almost unreal.

Then an assistant director came over and reminded him about avoiding eye contact with the camera, and he hammered home that he was to call the actress “Ma” if he said anything at all, and made a few comments about trying hard to avoid getting … well … hard. “An innocent glimpse of a penis while you’re being spanked is OK,” he said, “actually it’s very marketable … but a raging hard-on would make this a porno flick which it isn’t. OK?” Ed assured him that an erection was the furthest thing from his mind even as the two makeup girls giggled at the conversation.

Neo-Nazi-feminist-bitch-director had a few observations and requests as well and Ed struggled to refrain from commenting. He only nodded in understanding when she told him, “It would be great if you could make the strap marks really light up for us. You know, make them stand out so we might actually see them without making them up.” How the hell was Ed supposed to do that?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Back in the corner, the makeup girls spritzed him with water to regain the perspiration sheen and Ed wondered why they dried him off if they were going to do that? He didn’t have long to muse over that conundrum as the director yelped, “ACTION!” Footsteps quickly followed in the woodshed and Ed suddenly felt a pain in his left ear as his “Ma” grasped it and pulled him from the corner, dragged him by the ear to a saw horse and roughly guided him over the saw horse in preparation for his strapping.

Nervously, Ed looked behind him and twisted over both shoulders. He managed to avoid looking into any camera but one close up shot of his face would later become cult film legend. Ed took in the full picture: Ma menacingly tapping the heavy strap against a palm; Ma’s wild eyed desire to tear into his behind etched across her face; dozens of onlookers gaping at his bent over and naked bottom, all lusting for the horror that was about to be done to it; the cameras, lights, mics and the eerie quiet with so much going on … well, that look of comprehension, apprehension and resignation that was captured on Ed’s face would later speak to thousands (millions?) of spankees around the globe as that singular moment each spankee knows full well … that moment when they KNOW they are about to get it good and can’t do a damned thing about it.

Only the sound guys had any idea what Ma was saying as she lectured Billy and some of them were as clueless as the others. The actress was perfectly clear, but the scene was too riveting to acknowledge anything but the clarity of intent on Ma’s face, the menace of the strap in her hand, and the vulnerably quivering target of man bottom that awaited her wrath. Ma seemed to skip into the first stroke which left a wide livid red stripe across the center of Billy’s bottom.

Ed’s back arched away from the strap as it landed, his head snapping back as his hands gripped the legs of the saw horse with white knuckled fury. And he groaned with earnest pain. Ma lectured, swung the strap and repeated the simple process. Ed/Billy struggled to stay in place though his body writhed within a tightly confined area he had determined was “still in place.”

His right foot lifted after one nasty stroke and it caught Ma’s attention. The heavy leather strap next laced his right thigh and this made Ed/Billy howl. The sound technicians had to scramble to keep the recording from spiking into distortion and had to use some post production wizardry to cover the distortion of the next howl: this time when Ma laced the left thigh with that strap and the end of it wrapped around and bit into the sensitive inner thigh.

It was a mix of confused emotions that clouded Ed’s brain when he heard Ma order him, “Git back into that corner whilst I decide if you’ve had enough!” He scrambled quickly to his place, sniffling back tears of pain that were suddenly mixed with tears of relief. He had made it! The director called for filming to cease and he realized it again: He had made it!

Then, as the makeup girls began swarming around him, Ed remembered there was a switching scheduled and he nearly fainted.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The first part of the switching was both the easiest and hardest for Ed. It was easy considering there would be nothing landing on his well striped and throbbing bottom … the first shots did not involve any corporal punishment.

What was difficult was that the scene was of Ed/Billy leaving the woodshed with knife in hand to cut switches in the woods. The track had been laid out for him, the crew had walked him through it and Ed had been able to identify the various shoots and branches he was to cut. All that was simple. It was actually doing the scene that was hard.

Ed, by necessity of the scene’s circumstances, would be naked and his freshly whipped bottom would be on display. It was now mid-afternoon and the contrast between whipped bottom and the rest of his white flesh (even though it was deeply tanned from all the swimming) was painfully obvious. Ed had to traipse through the woods to cut the switches, naked, in broad daylight, with what felt like hundreds of people watching him. It was unnerving.

And for some inexplicable reason it was suddenly very exciting and that excitement was obvious. His male appendage stuck out like a divining rod and no matter what he thought or told himself, it only seemed to get worse … and apparently permanent.

Now Neo-Nazi-feminist-bitch-director was really upset as this rookie “actor” was eating into her carefully crafted schedule. She had known it was going too well to continue, but it still it pissed her off having to work with amateurs. She had wanted one of the Baldwin boys for the part … they were professional and wouldn’t have this type of problem, but the producer had balked at the expense and the director was left to work with this amateur. All-in-all she was pleased with what she was working with, but these amateurish distractions got under her skin.

“Everybody take five!” the director barked and then she suddenly turned to one of the makeup girls and said, “Everybody but you, Amy.” The makeup girl, Amy, looked up at the director wondering what she had done. The director’s eyes bored into Amy’s eyes as she pointed in the direction of Ed’s groin and snarled, “YOU have five minutes to take care of THAT.”

Amy knew any reticence on her part would ruin her budding career in films so she turned to pull Ed into one of the makeup trailers and shooed everyone away. Ed was momentarily confused at what was going on, but once Amy knelt between his legs and relieved the excitement that disrupted the filming, Ed understood.

A capable professional, Amy completed her task well within the five minutes and the switch cutting scene was completed quickly after. Aficionados of what would become a cult classic would discuss the out of place look on Billy’s face as he is cutting the switches about to be used on his backside. It seemed as if he were happy … maybe satisfied … how could that be at that moment? One Doctoral candidate centered his dissertation around this scene, drawing in the “single individual” philosophy of Soren Kierkegaard. Advanced academics never considered it was a simple blow job.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ed/Billy held out a handful of freshly cut switches to Ma as “ACTION!” was barked. Ma inspected the switches quickly and thoroughly, then nodded her approval. She said nothing, but simply held out her left hand. Meekly, Billy gave her his own left wrist as he sullenly lowered his head. They were now positioned inside the woodshed with plenty of swinging room for Ma’s right arm.

SSWWIISSHH … CRACK!

Ma suddenly let fly with one, then another and another cuts of the switch and Billy twitched and jerked with each nasty cut. She wielded the switch so hard that it only lasted six strokes before she picked up the next one. As she swung the second switch, Billy yelped, and as discussed prior to the scene filming, Billy began to dance in place. This motion quickly became a little parade around Billy’s Ma as she thrashed his backside.

Ed skipped, yelped and howled, all in honest reaction to the painful switching. He absorbed the nasty stinging cuts and felt real tears slipping down his cheeks. “Almost there, almost there,” he kept telling himself even as he mumbled, “I’m sorry, Ma!” out loud.

The on-set doctor tapped the director’s arm who then directed Ma to stop the switching. With disgust, Ma tossed the switch to the floor of the woodshed and stood directly in front of the sniveling Ed/Billy. “Let that be a lesson, Billy,” she snarled, arms akimbo. “Any more sass and you’ll get twice that! Now get back to your chores!”

“CUT!” barked the director, adding, “That’s a wrap!” There was a sudden flurry of activity as cameras were rolled away, tents folded up, cables rolled and everyone went on about their business. Poor Ed just stood there … naked, well whipped and trying to recover from the shock of a lifetime. Everyone seemed oblivious to him, even the merciful makeup girl, Amy.

Finally, one guy came up to Ed with a blanket and said, “Here, let me help you find your stuff.” They went to a trailer where Ed stood naked for a few minutes as the unknown man went to retrieve Ed’s clothing. He came back with clothes and the doctor who inspected his wounds. The doctor applied a little antiseptic to some of the minor cuts, advised Ed to apply ice when possible and pronounced him, “In a bit of pain, but otherwise OK.”

A week later, Ed’s check arrived in the mail and he was able to finish his Master’s degree.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

About a year after the film was completed, Ed received another check. It was considerably smaller than his original check and he contacted Joan Jansen the Casting Director. “That’s a residual check,” laughed Joan. “As money is earned on the film you get a tiny, tiny percent.”

“I had no idea,” said Ed.

“If possible,” explained Joan, “I try to include it where I can for everyone I place in a film. You see, I get a little extra on every one of those residual payments, too.”

It made sense to Ed … later it made dollars, too. Every year Ed received a residual check and every year the checks got just a little bit bigger. They weren’t anything to count on, but they did give Ed an excuse for a small vacation or splurge when they came in.

The checks got bigger each year because the film became a cult favorite … sort of a ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW phenomenon. It was a wonderful extra benefit to Ed’s sacrifice so that he could complete his Master’s degree.

Seven years later it became an issue … just as Ed was being considered for his first Vice President position. But, that’s another story.