World Modeling Talent Agency – Jim South and the Gateway to Adult Magazines and Films

By SexHerald Staff

Born and bred in Texas, devoted husband for 32 years and a father of two sons, Jim South is the owner of World Modeling Talent Agency. His job consists of interviewing beautiful women, taking Polaroid pictures of their naked bodies and sending them out to magazines and film studios. What men (and some women) wouldn't consider themselves in paradise?

World Modeling Talent Agency is based in Los Angeles, California and was first established in 1976, serving the adult industry for 29 years by bringing you the best adult entertainers of the era.

SexHerald spoke with the mogul and found a clever man with an easy-going demeanor and a quick wit that is only matched by his razor-like turn of phrase. His sense of humor is reminiscent of his hometown: earthy, rich and nostalgic of the good ol' days before the West was won. Behind it all, there lies a shrewd businessman who understands more than mere survival, which speaks of his success in the adult industry for nearly three decades.

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SEXHERALD: How does it feel to be the portal to the adult industry?

Jim South: It's fine. It's something that I chose. I actually started out running a modeling school and agency for regular modeling before I got into this. But now, it's fine.

SH: What made you interested in the modeling and/or adult industries?

South: I became interested in it when I was running the chain of modeling schools when I first came out to California from Texas. Most of the time we were selling, training and selling composites, where it took an investment to get somebody started. And I thought it would really be nice to run ads and advertise, not short the girls anything at all and get them started in work with no investment. So, that's why 29 years ago I opened World Modeling.

SH: Now, I bet the women are begging you to place them somewhere in the adult industry.

South: Yeah, the industry has changed a lot in the last couple of years, but we got a percentage of girls that just do magazine stuff - full nudity. You know - no sex. Some do magazines and adult movies; some just do nude modeling for magazines. So, you don't really have to do x to be with us.

SH: What are the criteria for hiring the women?

South: Well, we supply so many different companies and they're all different in what they shoot; meaning some people want to shoot a certain type of girl, some people want to shoot big girls, some people want to shoot little people. I mean, you get everything you could imagine in this business. So, there's not really a criterion of what a girl has to be or look like in order for us to get her work.

SH: What's the most popular type of women these studios request for?

South: Most of them keep saying they want the young girl-next-door.

SH: The innocent look?

South: Yeah. More of an innocent look: 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. That don't mean anything. I've got girls in their late 40s that get work. As far as what some of the companies are asking for, that's kind of it.

SH: Eighteen?

South: Yes, it's 18. I know there was a movement a while back in the adult industry to get the legal age changed to 21. Some of the people in the business felt that at 18 you couldn't really make a decision on something that's going to stick with you for a long time. But, it is still 18.

SH: Why do you think these women want to be in films? Is it the exposure?

South: Well, you get a variety of reasons. It's a good question. Usually, it's because they want to make money quickly. They don't want to go eight to five and punch a clock to work on a regular job. I mean, after all this is a business where a girl works once a week, even as little as twice a week, she's probably going to make more in those day or two of work than she can make on a regular job for two weeks or longer. So, it's a very good way to make additional income where you're not tied up five days a week, no pun intended on the 'tied up.'

SH: What is your preference in women?

South: I'm open to all women as long as they've got ID. It's kind of an equal opportunity thing. If you're asking the type of girl that gets the most work would be a younger girl not under 18 that has that kind of wicked but girl-next-door look.

SH: What about safety? Are they all screened and tested for HIV and STDs?

South: Yeah. World Modeling helped start the testing through AIM and Sharon Mitchell that tests for the entire industry about 15 years ago, give or take. In fact, I set her up in the building that I'm in because there are a lot of directors and stuff in this building. And then finally, she expanded and moved. But, everybody has to get a PCRDNA AIDS test every 30 days and have it with them at all times. They must show the director and/or the photographer the original test, not a copy. They also have to be tested for chlamydia and gonorrhea. And they have to do that every 30 days and have proof of it or they don't work.

SH: It sounds very sterile; actually, very clean.

South: So, really, if you figure this industry put out about 8,000 movies last year. In a movie, the average number of sex scenes is four to five. So if you multiply that out, we're even safer than just the public. Meaning, I think it's much safer for a girl to go on a controlled set and each person showed their current test, and they do their little as we say 'boogie,' than to go to a club, have a few drinks, meet somebody you like and leave with them. I think the industry is a lot safer than that.

SH: Out of the adult magazines and adult film studios, which placement has been the heaviest?

South: Oh by far the adult movies. In the old days, 15 to 20 years ago, I would say 90% of World Modeling's business was magazine shootings. And even car shows, boat shows, things like that - you know, where the girl is standing with a boat. Nowadays, there are so many movies being shot out here, especially in California. I would say for every girl we get magazine work, we probably get at least 30 to 40 girls for movie work.

SH: Which film studio would you say has the most placements from your agency?

South: It really varies. There's so many. There's Vivid, VCA, Metro, Sin City, Wicked and Hustler has their lines. They sort of split it up between it. There are people that shoot a lot more, but a lot of those are smaller companies than the ones that I named.

SH: Why did you start the modeling agency to begin with?

South: I had left a modeling school that I was running. I was running a chain of schools for a while. Then I moved out close to Long Beach to a little city called Alhambra. And I was running a school and agency called Fashion Models. Fashion Models got sold to a group of gentlemen in the Middle East. They came in and it was strictly a school and agency; there was no nudity at all. They wanted me to start handling nudes, and to be honest, for a lot of different reasons, I said 'no.' I said, 'We've got a lot of kids in this school and I know it would be separate, but that's not what we do.' The bottom line was: I would either handle that or they would get a manager that would handle it. So, I made an agreement that we could start running ads, and it was at the time the Free Press, which is now the LA Express. In the old days, if you came in and wanted to book a girl, even if it was a single girl, if you told me if there was any masturbation or any toys that had to penetrate, I'd tell you to get out and leave my office. I didn't get into handling movies for a while.

SH: Is there a certain personality type you're looking for in the girls you hire?

South: I would say, it's between their looks, body, what they're interested in doing and of course, age. So you never know. I've seen women - 30 to 35 - that do really, really, really good. I've seen some 18-year-olds that don't do so good. But, it really varies with the individual, the type of sex scenes they're interested in doing. You have women that come in and only do magazines - single-girl stuff. You have women that come in and that will do single girl, boy-girl, girl-girl just touching, no sex. Then you have girls that come in and will do boy-girl and not girl-girl or girl-girl and not boy-girl, and you have those that come in and will do everything, including anal. So, each case is different. There isn't a set thing that they have to do or a set look that they have to be in order get into the business. The nice thing with us out of the 20 so-called - and I'll be kind - "managers" that call themselves agents is that we're the only license-bonded agency out here that doesn't charge the girl a percentage of her money. We charge an agency fee to the person shooting them totally separate of her money, where most of the managers charge an agency fee to the shooter but they charge the girl anywhere from 10% all the way up to 50% of what they make. I'm just saying they could get into this with absolutely no cost to them at all.

SH: Out of the women that come to you, is there anything you wouldn't allow them to do?

South: There's a lot of stuff I advise girls not to do. Some of the harder stuff: a lot of it being for Europe. To me, I believe it's degrading. And don't take me wrong. I think a guy and a girl can do whatever they want to do and do scenes. I don't think anybody is being exploited. But, some of the smaller stuff that they do, I don't really agree with.

SH: Such as?

South: I knew you were going to ask that. Boy, you're more trouble than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest. Well, the urination I don't care for. The thing of - oh boy, how do I put this?

SH: The feces?

South: Yeah, that's correct. Stuff like that I don't even think it should be in the industry. I know it's easy for me to say because I'm just an agent. I'm not the one shooting and selling the movies but all of this, I think they're really pushing the button here.

SH: Do some of these women have particular preferences that you can't meet for whatever reasons?

South: We get a few that want regular movies and we don't get a lot of SAG union movies, but we get some. I don't know if you remember the movie Boogie Nights, but we had six people in it. We even had Ashlyn Gear and Randy West, who were two superstars. They were in Indecent Proposal with Robert Redford and Demi Moore. But, they cut their scene out of the American version and left it in the European version.

SH: So, you're somewhat mainstream?

South: Well, we do a little. Not as much as we used to. This business is kind of funny. Once a girl gets started, usually the first month or two or three, everything goes through the agent. After that number, things start getting passed around because everybody in the world is a manager or a finder. As long you've got a cell phone, these people call themselves agents.

SH: What would you say are the chances of women being taken advantaged of in your agency?

South: I would say that would be extremely rare. Girls in this business: they have a mind of their own, they really do; even though they're nude and doing X-rated scenes and whatever. You don't hear much, 'Baby, go to bed with me and you've got the part.' You hear that even more on what we call the ' Hollywood side.' You know, the big-record movies. Of course it's happened, but it's extremely rare.

SH: What was it like growing up in Dallas, Texas?

South: It's very, very conservative compared to California. I still have friends in Texas who just cannot believe that I'm in the business that I'm in. That's how conservative it is. Dallas is a pretty good town, pretty good city. God bless the Cowboys.

SH: If people were more open-minded, I suppose the adult industry would be mainstream.

South: Well, we're a lot closer to being mainstream than we were 20-30 years ago. If you look on regular television and the scenes they have, like a couple in bed and a guy or a girl getting out of bed totally naked, a back shot of them walking into the bathroom. You would have never seen that 25 years ago. In the same token, we've had people like Nina Hartley, Ron Jeremy, Ashlyn Gere that have done a lot of work in union movies and a lot more. So, it's kind of like the union and Hollywood took two giant steps towards the adult industry and in turn, we took two giant steps towards them. It's closer.

SH: How do you feel about critics who say the adult industry generally objectifies women and degrades them?

South: The way I feel about that is nobody is making them do it. They can get out of it anytime they want to. There isn't a contract in the world that can make them go have sex for pay in front of a camera. I truly, totally disagree with that. They're making great money. Look at the girls that started out as actresses and are big distributors, shooting other girls what they used to do. So it's kind of like if you climb up the ol' ladder of success, you can do whatever you set your mind to if you've got enough drive to accomplish it and get it done. So I don't think anybody is taken advantage of. Anybody can say or have the opinion they want to have, just like I believe if a girl is of age and she's not drugged or coerced, she has the right to be in a movie, she has the right to rent, buy or view a movie. And if she's against it, she has a right not to be anywhere around it, not to see it in papers or on newsstands or in boxes; that's her right. I think there will always be people who think any of this is degrading for women.