, was sent bundle of movie memorabilia in the post. Amongst the photos and posters was a black-and-white still from an obscure 1963 movie, of “a very voluptuous dame leaning over a guy without a shirt on,” says McDonough, speaking from his home in Portland, Oregon. “The guy has a ‘Myrtle’ tattoo on his arm, and she’s lighting a cigarette.” The words “and after the cigarette, we’ll …” ran across the image. “It looked very seamy,” says McDonough.
After a near fatal light aeroplane crash in 1967, the family found their own calling, making a series of outrageous films in collaboration with Southern Baptist preacher Estus Pirkle, which marshalled bad taste in the service of the Lord. He learned that Ron and June were both showbusiness veterans. A former vaudeville child star, June was a dancer who had shared stages and screen time with Bob Hope and Milton Berle, while Ron was steeped in stage magic, hypnotism and the psychic arts. By the 1950s, they had moved seamlessly from stagecraft to screen, churning out cheaply made, lurid pictures, often stitched together from cannibalised footage.
The 1967 plane crash, during a family flight to a film premiere in Louisville, Kentucky, caused the Ormonds to radically reevaluate their life choices. Shortly after takeoff, the engine stalled. Averting disaster, Ron, an experienced pilot, managed to land the plane in a tiny field. Tim pulled his parents, both with broken backs, clear of the wreck. Two years later, Ron received a call asking if he’d like to make a film for preacher Pirkle. It seemed preordained.