Today, it's tempting to drop hints about the identity of the names on [1960's military pimps'] lists. But let me take the coward's route and tell you about three who've died in the interim. The most generous of them all was short, wiry, and black: a multi-talented entertainer who ran with a trend-setting pack of boozers and womanizers-certainly not a public image that included his secret need to bottom for well-hung Marines. He'd rented a "safe house" for his encounters, well away from his wife. And there he'd watch through a one-way mirror as his recruiters' candidates romped naked in the pool. From that vantage point, he'd choose his partners, like picking lobsters from a restaurant tank. The winning candidates, if they could perform, would get $200 a shot.

But, by contrast, many celebs on The Game proved tight-fisted, some preferring to think the pleasure of their company ought to have been payment enough; some struggling to meet the cost of a celebrity lifestyle on declining income. Take the case of a middling-famous character actor, aged about 60 at the time, with a sagging face discolored by drink. His thing was serial peter-puffing-ideally, four or five at one kneeling. But, at home, the man had an unsuspecting wife and two college-age kids to support on an income from his incidental role in a faltering detective series. For him, $15 a pop was the going rate, except when bartering for a truly huge exception. ["Boogie Nights" - era adult film performer and U.S. Marine] Gary Boyd was such an exception, and I can still see the old actor sitting in my living room, his face magenta with fury as [a pimp] whipped Boyd out the door with the excuse that, sorry, he'd been promised, fully loaded, to a hugely successful actor known for his long-running series of courtroom dramas. Later that night (I heard indirectly) my frustrated friend showed up drunk at a straight producer's party for married couples. Spotting a handsome young actor across the room, my friend reeled over to him and introduced himself as the man who gave "the second best blow job in Hollywood." Despite the sudden silence all around, the startled young actor just had to ask, "Who gives the best?"

"Oh, Perry Mason, without a doubt," came the loud reply.