 The most famous madame of ‘the world’s oldest profession,’ author, Penthouse columnist, legend, performer, raconteur and theatrical entrepreneur.
Biography
Hollander was born June 15, 1943 Xaviera de Vries in Soerabaja, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), to a Dutch Jewish father and a French-German mother. She spent the first two years of her life in a Japanese internment camp.
where her father, a psychiatrist, was head of a hospital.The family returned to Holland after the war and the young Xaviera showed literary acumen, by not only writing but also editing the school magazine. After taking a secretarial course, she won a contest organized by Manpower Agency and was hailed as "Miss Tick", Holland's Best Secretary.
In her early 20s, she left Amsterdam for Johannesburg, South Africa, where her stepsister lived. There she met and became engaged to John Weber, an American economist. When the engagement was broken off, she left South Africa for New York.
New York years
In 1968, she left her job as the secretary of the Dutch consulate in Manhattan to become a call girl, where she made $1,000 a night. A year later she opened her own brothel called Xaviera's Happy House and soon became New York City's leading madam. In 1971, she got involved in a massive Police Corruption Scandal called the Knapp Commission after she was arrested on several occasions for prostitution by New York police.
In 1971 Hollander published this memoir, The Happy Hooker: My Own Story, that she co-authored with Robin Moore and Yvonne Dunleavy. The Knapp Commission affair was obviously one of the subjects she covered. The book was notable for its frankness by the standards of the time, and is considered a landmark of positive writing about sex. Hollander details in the book her life as a liberal and open-minded girl. She states that during the start of her career she did not ask for cash in exchange for sex, but her partners voluntarily gave her money and other presents. Shortly after the book had come out and became an instant bestseller Xaviera was forced to leave the U.S, not until she had done a nationwide book promotion tour.
Penthouse column
In 1972, Xaviera agreed to write a monthly sexual advice column for Penthouse, "Call me Madam". In the 20th Anniversary issue, she was proclaimed their most popular columnist: she also has contributed special columns for the Dutch, German, Spanish, Australian and even South African issues.
The Happy Hooker has grown up. She still loves to communicate by email until the early hours.
By the way, you can reach Xaviera at xie@xavierahollander.com
Being able to speak half a dozen languages, Xaviera appears on TV talk shows in London and Paris as well as in Belgium and Holland, gives lectures to universities and other groups, like the World Congress of Sexology in Mexico City and Jerusalem. She is in constant demand as a lecturer and TV personality, a welcome guest to such hosts as Larry King, Sally Jesse Raphael, Selina Scott, and the popular BBC show: Hard Talk.
Not just one book
She wrote seventeen books subsequent to "The Happy Hooker", both fiction and non-fiction, which have been translated into 14 different languages.
She has recently in 2008 published the first in a series of sex tips books with her new co-author and business partner, Katje van Dijk. The first in the series is for men, titled "The Happy Hookers Guide to Sex: 69 Orgasmic Ways to Pleasure your Woman". The book takes Xaviera's best tips for men from 32 years as a Penthouse adviser, and wraps it around Robert Sherwood's theory of the triple clit: the brain clit, the heart clit and the body clit.. They have had such good response to the book that they are currently working on the second in the series, titled "Men Have Brain Clits Too". Katje and Xaviera have more books planned.
Both in Canada as in Holland and some other European countries Xaviera Hollander gave lectures a.o. about the "do's and don'ts of sex" or according to her latest pocket book Xaviera's 69 tips on "how to become a better lover:" based on the best letters from her Penthouse readers.
Spoken word books and movies
In the early 1970s, she recorded a primarily spoken-word album titled Xaviera! for the Canadian GRT Records label (GRT 9230-1033), on which she discussed her philosophy regarding sex and prostitution, sang a cover version of The Beatles song, "Michelle", and recorded several simulated sexual encounters, including an example of phone sex, a threesome, and a celebrity encounter with guest "vocal" by Ronnie Hawkins. On my web shop you can find not only her books as well as a spoken version of the Happy Hooker but also a compilation of all these songs in a new cd called "Naughty songs from the seventies" by Xaviera Hollander.
In 1975 she starred in the somewhat autobiographical movie My Pleasure is My Business. As far as films are concerned. She has only given her consent to the Happy Hooker version with Lyn Redgrave. All the other films except My Pleasure is my business and her own documentary XAVIERA HOLLANDER, "THE HAPPY HOOKER": PORTRAIT OF A SEXUAL REVOLUTIONARY.
www.thehappyhookerdocumentary.com have nothing to do with her.
Relationships
Hollander says she "turned gay" around 1997, establishing a long-term relationship with a poetess/writer in Amsterdam named Dia. Then she expressed that she was in fact turning into a closet heterosexual again and fell in love with a handsome Dutch man, ten years her Junior and with all the characteristics she wanted: caring, considerate, creative, funny and faithful. In January 2007 they got married. His name is Philip de Haan and they travel the world together while still managing the various businesses like theater producing and rental of their houses.
From Happy Hooker to Happy Hostess
Xaviera owns two magnificent residences, one villa in Marbella, Spain and the other is her favorite spot to socialize: her magnificent 3 story house in Amsterdam's Gold Coast. This place is a true center for artists, writers, musicians and friends from all walks of life.
Xaviera happy house
Her elegant yet bohemian style Happy House Bed and Breakfast in Amsterdam's Gold Coast is a pleasant refuge for the creative, eccentric and colorful seasoned travelers... Having been a sex worker and still a great friend of pioneers of the sexual revolution like Annie Sprinkle via google, Candida Royale, Tracy Quan, Betty Dodson and Veronica Vera, she receives all sorts of birds of different feathers (businessmen, married couples, artists, musicians, movie stars, masochists, squirters, swingers, gays, drag queens and fetishists - you name it she has had them) in her Bed & Breakfast, or Xaviera's Happy House, which she jokingly refers to as her Bed and Brothel... Except now she sells beds without bums and in the Happy Hooker days the girls came with the bed.
Villa Caprice in Marbella
In 2007 Xaviera has totally renovated her magnificent villa in sunny Marbella, so that she can offer no less than 6 bedrooms to friends and interested people who want some fun and sun. Her house is in the Costa del Sol of Southern Spain and is located in a secluded area where guests can even frolic around in the nude if they wish. If you want to find out more about her Villa Caprice, be free to go to her website. |
