Everingham - Madam Lash

To Gretel
For taking me to the outer reaches of your spirit

Gretel Pinnigers scandalous life of sex, art and bondage

SAM EVERINGHAM

First published in Australia in 2010

Copyright Sam Everingham 2010

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.

Allen & Unwin
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Australia
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ISBN 978 1 74237 001 9

Typeset in 12/16 Minion by Midland Typesetters, Maryborough
Printed and bound in Australia by Griffin Press

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

Australians have been touched by the Madam Lash legend in many wayssome merely by living in Sydney through the 1970s and 80s, others more recently because of involvement in the fashion industry, the creative arts, the gay and lesbian community, or performance and fetish scenes. There are thousands to whom Gretel Pinniger remains a fascinating enigma. How does she live, they wonder. What fantasies are brought to life behind the thick sandstone walls of her Palm Beach mansion?

On the other hand, some who have come closest to Gretel have been burnt irreparably. Some of her oldest friends now want nothing to do with her. The writer David Marr started on a biography over three decades ago, before walking away nonplussed.

I was introduced to Gretels story through an acquaintance, Flash, once her close friend, who quietly engineered the creation of the notorious Madam Lash persona from the early 1970s. He wanted nothing to do with a book on that subject, but I persisted. There were bound to be other sources. Gretel, too, at first declined to cooperate, pointing out that her livelihood depended on her discretion. It would be two years before we reopened the discussion, solving the delicate matter of the confidentiality documents she had signed by agreeing not to reveal the identity of her mysterious patron.

As I began interviews for the book, many warned me to be careful. In their mind I was exposing myself to a woman whose eccentricities would drive me mad. She will never let you go, some foretold. Im glad Im not in your shoes, others sighed.

I soon found that life with Gretel never goes to plan. During one of my first interview attempts, I set the kitchen on fire. (The stainless-steel kettle I set on the stovetop was in fact electric, with a rubber base.) By the time I returned with the tea bags, molten rubber was dripping onto the floor as flames leapt towards the ceiling. Luckily Gretel was in the bath. By the time she emerged I had doused the fire and secreted most of the evidence. I owe you a new kettle, I confessed.

To my partners alarm, I agreed to chaperone my subject to Sydneys annual Rubber Ball, held at the University of Sydney. For Gretel, fetish events of this kind were a terrific excuse to squeeze into the full-body rubber outfits she now seldom wore. Despite being the oldest woman there by at least a generation, Gretel quickly had a gaggle of young disciples lapping up her stories.

Weeks later, I was due to interview one of Gretels ex-lovers in suburban Sydney. Instead I received a call. Gretel had checked herself into hospital overnight to have a nipple on her prosthetic breast tweaked. She was ready to leave, but the doctors were saying she couldnt drive for another twelve hours. Could I pick her up? When I arrived at her bedside, Gretel was entertaining the nurses with accounts of just how she had acquired the 928-series Porsche that was parked out the front.

The subjects of my first three biographies were all dead by the time I discovered them. Gretel, by way of contrast, was larger than life. Her story is a strange cocktailof extraordinary luck, controversy and tragedy. Gretel has consorted with killers, prostitutes, lords and priests. Having survived a mind-boggling array of adventures, mishaps and disasters, she remains a healthy, high-spirited woman with boundless curiosity and a magical sense of fun intent on tackling life head-on. She gives new meaning to the term resilience. I have tried to peel back the many layers that make up her complex portrait, and in doing so to reveal something of the psychology of celebrity, madness, desire and the forces that bind us together.

ACT
ONE

SCENE 1
A Fractured Family

Gretel, you have a mouth on you like a chooks bum.

Gretels uncle Kelvin McGarrity

As Clyde Packers housekeeper cleared away the plates, the discussion turned to luxury. Clyde puffed on a fat cigar and asked Gretel what rare and costly things turned her on. Days before, she had spotted an adorable three-quarter-length mink coat in the window of a store. She mentioned it now.

Would you like to come upstairs and earn it? Clyde smiled like a crocodile at dinner time.

Gretel did not hesitate. Although her two-year-old Madam Lash strip act had cloaked her in notoriety, she was not quite sure what dominance and submission was all about. That was about to change.

Upstairs, Clyde told her to pick an outfit she liked. He pointed her to a bathroom whose walls were papered with images of nuns. Then he ushered her into a room that contained a bed covered in whips, chains, spankers and cats o nine tailsa mind-boggling display.

Clyde explained the game. We are going to play The GreatTemptation, he said, referring to the popular TV show. Were playing for a white mink coat. Gretel was to nominate the dollar value of each stroke to be received and he would choose an appropriate implement with which to mete out the agreed value.

We were to keep going like this until I either earned my mink or begged for mercy, Gretel recalls. I learned what it was like to be on the bottom of an S&M scene and also what it was like to have a measure of control over it.

The twenty-seven-year-old found herself incredibly aroused. Here was a powerful man, completely focused on her. A man ready to share the choicest instruments of painful pleasure while allowing her to control the game. Gretel recalled the excitement and desire that had flooded her years before as she read Pauline Rages The Story of O. She was discovering her untapped masochistic tendenciesa craving to be guided, controlled, perhaps even owned by another. By the end of the day, she had earned not only her mink coat but a return ticket to Los Angeles and spending money.

To Gretel, Clyde Packer and men like him stood for a world of possibilities.