By 1969, with the advent of X-rated porn films, Holmes moved into the movie business. Another story is that in 1967 Holmes was frequenting a men's card playing club in the Los Angeles suburb of Gardena when a photographer for an underground magazine noticed his large 'member' while standing next to him at a restroom urinal and gave Holmes his business card, telling him he could get plenty of work in still photo magazines. Unfortunately, his first check bounced and, after that, he always insisted on payment in cash. One story was that a female neighbor was making porno loops and advised Holmes he could make good money. In the late 1960s he gravitated to the underground porno industry. After his discharge he moved to Los Angeles in 1964 where he married a young nurse, and worked odd jobs such as taxi driver, door-to-door salesman, postal clerk, temp worker, coffee vat attendant, ambulance driver and forklift driver.
He was a bible student, but at the age of 16 dropped out of school, left home and enlisted for a hitch in the US Army, where he was stationed in West Germany for three years. Born John Curtis Estes on August 8, 1944, in rural Pickaway County, Ohio, the youngest of four children, porn legend John Holmes was raised by a religious fanatic mother named Mary and an abusive alcoholic stepfather named Harold Bowman.
