Long before Jenna Jameson, there was Radford’s own Seka. In the 1980s, Seka’s star quickly rose as she became the hottest name in the adult film industry.

After her first movie, Carnal Encounters of the Barest Kind, in 1978, she was cast in an array of films that began to make her a legend: Dracula Sucks (1979), Ultra Flesh (1980), Tara (1981), and Beauty and the Beast (1982).

In all, Seka is credited on nearly 180 films, though she says she only performed in 40 to 50 films over the course of her career and the rest of her credits were for films that picked up clips from previous movies, a common practice in adult films. Seka performed in her last film, American Garter, in 1993. (In 1990, she had a small part in Men Don’t Leave, a traditional Hollywood film starring Jessica Lange, Joan Cusack, Chris O’Donnell, Kathy Bates, and Arliss Howard.)

Seka describes herself as “the transition girl.” At 5’8”, athletic, and with platinum-blond hair, she had the fresh face and an on-screen presence perfect for this new market. Now instead of having to go to adult bookstores or adult movie houses, the public could watch its porn in their own living rooms—or bedrooms, or anywhere they had a TV and VCR. Arguably, at least in some circles, Seka is the most famous former resident of the New River Valley, as she is known worldwide as The Platinum Princess of Porn.

Having been born in Radford on April 15, 1954, Dottie Hundley (as she was known then) enjoyed a normal childhood. Her parents were both from large families. Her mom’s family, of Cherokee descent, was from the Radford area while her dad’s family, with Irish roots, hailed from just down the road around Wytheville and Fort Chiswell. She still has several relatives in and around the New River Valley today and said her family has always been very supportive of her and her career choices.

She grew up in the area of Radford she called “backtracks,” which is between the railroad tracks and the river. Growing up so close to downtown, she has fond memories of the place she called home until she was a teenager.

She recalls collecting soda bottles to cash in for money, which she would then spend around town. She loved going to the movies, getting sodas or donuts from the drug store, or buying treats at the grocery store, all an easy walk from her home.

She was a tomboy, playing for hours in the woods and down at the river. “We weren’t supposed to be down there but we were,” Seka said. She enjoyed sports and was very athletic. “We were always outside doing something,” Seka said, as she recalled sledding down the embankments leading toward the river.

As a young teen, she moved to Hopewell, Va., to live with an aunt. It was in Hopewell that groundwork was laid for Seka’s future. Her aunt’s neighbor, who was a hairdresser, wanted to put some streaks into Seka’s almost black hair. Seka was entering a couple beauty contests: “Miss Hopewell High School and they had a Miss Southside Virginia contest or something and [my aunt’s neighbor] wanted me to be in it to show her hairstyling prowess,” Seka said. The streaks didn’t quite work out as anticipated and the decision was made to make Seka a blonde. Seka won both contests.

As for Miss Hopewell High, Seka said that a few of the junior girls dared each other to enter the annual high school beauty pageant. Seka won and her best friend was second. “The girl that everybody thought would win was third,” she said.

Seka didn’t pay much attention to her beauty contest victories because she was more interested in sports, actively participating in softball, basketball, and field hockey. She recalled the junior girls playing the senior girls in a football game, with her team, the juniors, pulling off the upset. “We were all kind of big and kick-ass chicks at the time and we thought the senior girls were too prissy so we wanted to kick their butts,” Seka said, obviously still relishing the victory.

Seka was married before she finished high school in Hopewell and divorced a year and a half later. Her next relationship was with someone who owned adult bookstores, introducing Seka to the industry. She eventually owned seven stores in Virginia and Maryland, most near military bases.

In the back of these bookstores were essentially peep shows: for a quarter you could get watch a bit of 16mm or 18mm adult film. “When the film would break I would have to splice them back together and of course you see a lot of them that way,” Seka said. “I would look at the women in these movies and say, ‘My God, this is horrible.’ It was a horrible representation of women. They had no makeup, dirty feet, dimples on their rear ends, and I said, ‘I think I can do that better,’ and I think I did.”

She recognized her popularity in her new profession early on when at a consumer show in Chicago she was asked to appear at the four-day show and sign and hand out a stack of 500 pictures of herself. “Within an hour and a half they were gone,” she said. “My light bulb went off and I said, ‘I don’t think I’m making enough money.’”

The stars of adult films today, especially the women, should be thankful to Seka. She became a shrewd businesswoman. When Club magazine put her picture on the cover and offered a contest to readers saying the winner could direct a Seka movie, she sued. She and Club settled out of court in a deal that gave her a six-figure dollar amount per year for 10 years to work for Club, being allowed to edit her own photos and maintain the rights to those photos, something that still pays off. Seka has ownership of some 350,000-400,000 transparencies shot during her work with Club.

“I don’t really have any horror stories about the business,” Seka said. “I did what I did because I wanted to. I didn’t work with anyone I didn’t want to work with. And I never did anything I didn’t want to do. And I think I was one of the first people, one of the first women anyway, who would say ‘No I’m not doing that’ and they didn’t like it. And I said, ‘Well if you want me in your movie then that’s what you’re going to have to do.’

“My goal was to make women appear more like real women than what I had seen and gain more respect than they’d had previously in the business,” Seka said. “And I think I did that. And I wanted to make it easier for women in the business to say what they would and wouldn’t do, so I think I accomplished those things.”

Seka was performing with stars of adult films such as John Holmes, Jamie Gillis, John Leslie, Annette Haven, Kay Parker, Aunt Peg (a.k.a. Juliet Anderson), and myriad others. Still considered by many as a golden age of porn, the movies offered plot and at least some character development. “They are very funny when you watch them today,” Seka said.

She played Nurse Betty in Dracula Sucks, an alien temptress in Ultra Flesh, and a burglar in Any Time, Any Place. She said that the movies she made were more fun, had a better production quality, and were less violent than many of the adult films being produced today.

For her industry, Seka enjoyed a long career of about 15 years. She said that certainly she got out of it because she was getting older, but she had bigger concerns. She had seen friends die of AIDS-related illnesses and felt the industry wasn’t doing enough to protect performers against the disease.

After she left the film biz she went on the stripping circuit in Europe, Canada, and the United States, traveling for three to four months at a time.

Seka lives a quieter existence now, but it’s still very active and she’s not too far removed from the industry that offered her fame. Seka has been a resident of Kansas City, Mo., for three years where she works on her Web site and hits the trade show circuit on occasion. She visits events such as the Hollywood Collectors Show and said she does a lot of horror/sci-fi conventions. “How the two (porn and horror/sci-fi) go hand in hand, I don’t know,” Seka said.

She operates www.seka.com, which offers paid memberships. The site also sells an array of Seka merchandise including clothing (used panties anyone?), posters, DVDs, autographed photos, and her new line of lubricant (it’s water based!). The site even offers a series of original oil paintings. And no, you don’t have to be a member of her site to buy the merchandise. Seka is also writing a book that she’s calling Inside Seka.

Despite her still-busy schedule, Seka said she gets back to the New River Valley when she can. In fact, she was in the NRV visiting relatives for a few days in late January. “I don’t get back there as much as I would like, but I do visit when I can,” she said. “It’s an absolutely wonderful place. The people are nice and warm. It’s a nice, wholesome, cool kind of place.”

Tim W. Jackson is the Editor & Publisher of the New River Voice. He would like to wish Seka a happy birthday on April 15!