Cora Emens
On april 8th 2022 Netflix airs the new Dutch series ” Dirty Lines” internationally. The serie is telling a rather fictionalized but still recognizable (for those who knew what really took place) story of the first years of Value Added Telephone Services (Partylines, Adult- and servicelines), all paid per Minute. And gives us a good idea about the the wild times in Amsterdam, when everything was possible and done.
I was one of the first quality adult voice talents, but more than that, I created one of the highly successful live adult 06-lines for the “fictional” company portrayed in this series.
In a very short time the company earned millions a month. So parties, Porches and Ferraries…
Let me tell you how I became involved…
The Problem Line with advice
Teleholding came our way and before we knew it we had signed a contract for 2 years with a generous salary …. (not millions but well paid) to set up a sexual problem line with advice. During my health studies I had realized how important sex is for health. However, there were only three problems that men called, so that quickly became monotonous.
Sexy Radio Play Line
Our line then became a radio play line, in which I made men ejaculate in short pieces of 3 to 4 minutes. That had to be timed exactly because no one listened for more than 4 minutes. Most men came in those few minutes. This was recorded and people could then call in to listen in for a fee.
Pirate Radio 100 Amsterdam
Willem de Ridder, my partner at the time, and I were initially asked to write stories for the sex lines. At that time we had a radio program at the pirate radio station “Radio 100” in Amsterdam, in which we played everything from experimental music to radio plays. After a broadcast of an SM radio play, the listeners wanted more and Willem (radio maker and magazine maker) convinced me to have live sex on the radio. That was super exciting to do and a lot of phone calls were made. Years later when I was a sex coach in a TV show of a well-known Dutch, daughter of a well-known actor, I won’t name names, she confessed that as a young girl she always secretly listened in bed and had also called me once. Like I said, anything was possible in those days…
Cora & Willem Line
The step to a sex line was quickly taken. No written stories, everything improvised. After all, Willem also had the radio play academy, so making radio plays was our job anyway.
But with a photo on a billboard I didn’t like, so it became a drawing.
Willem de Ridder and I as we really looked at that time.
picture Wink van Kempen
@ our Homestudio Amsterdam less than 10 minutes walk to our “work” for the sex line.
How we met is another story that begins with Willem saying to me before I even spoke a word: “You have the sexiest voice I’ve ever heard”. That was because he had first heard me sing and played my music in his then program “De Radiola Salon” at the VPRO, where everything was possible and I was soon deployed to make announcements.
This was the first song of mine ever played on the radio. Coincidentally, it’s about the “Telephone”. I was quite afraid of the phone when I was young because I couldn’t see people. While we were improvising in John Zandijk’s home studio, the telephone rang….. It brought a storm of reactions at the VPRO. And now 45 years later my music is in the sound archive of the Allard Pierson museum in Amsterdam. And was released in 2021 as a double LP “CORA”
On Talkshow ” Eva Jinek” on Dutch national TV
A conversation at Eva Jinek’s table followed with the crew of the series “Dirty Lines”.
See the broadcast here. Show nr 31. The part about “Dirty Lines” and the RoXy starts at 44 minutes.
I tell her, among other things, that Willem had convinced me and Eva responds with a laugh with: “then he could do that well”. And yes, Willem de Ridder had created the longest traffic jam in the night at the end of the 1970s with his “De Grote Oto Derby”, in which he persueded thousands of cars and many more people to go to a point in the Netherlands during a live radio broadcast. He can convince like no other. The next day there were questions in parliament about how a broadcast could get so many people moving.
Meeting the Crew
It was nice to meet the actors and especially to discover some similarities between myself and the lead actress Joy Delima both as a character in the series and personally. I tnink she plays her part really well.
The RoXy
Nice that attention was also paid to the RoXy where I performed on House music for the first time in the Netherlands. I still have the cassette tape with the house music that DJ Eddy le Clercq recorded for me so that I could come up with a performance at home.
I used to want to join the circus as a trapeze artist and I saw my chance. I had a horizontal bar built and came down from the top of the high hall, smoke screen and all. Nude, painted gold with a giant self made feather mask on and a chain from a ring in my labia to the horizontal bar. I told you….anything is possible! I got the hang of it and more followed….
Do you also want to see the photos? take a look at my photo gallery. See pictures.
All in all, an interesting look back at a great time in my life. And the start of my career as a sex coach in the Netherlands.