No Nudes Need Apply - by Robert Robert - In 1966, when I first began casting for Erotic Salad, I ran into a "brick wall" right away. It seems that no newspaper would accept a classified ad calling for actors and actresses to perform nude in a film. This included the supposedly "liberal" newspaper The Village Voice. "It's not allowed", the large stern woman (who looked like Janet Reno) informed me. "Not as long as I'm in charge of classified advertising", she sneered. "In fact, there will be no mention of the word nude in a classified ad whatsoever. Period!" This created an obvious problem. How was I to find a cast of actors willing to perform nude, if the very word itself was banned? So I gave up on the classified advertising route. And eventually, through friends and acquaintances, I was able to assemble a good group of young, attractive non-professionals, most of whom were struggling artists and dancers, who agreed to sign on and were also willing to perform nude. As it turned out, this was the best thing that could have happened. Much better than if I had used "professional" actors. We all became close friends during the filming, and this made the atmosphere on the set very relaxed and amiable. It also made the actual shooting that much easier.