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PHOTOGRAPHY BY Clive McLean

Her heart races as she feels the boa's muscles contracting around her, muscles that could crush the life from her yet cradle her almost lovingly. Isn't this the fulfillment of every woman's fantasy: to be swaddled in the power of the serpent?

That was a portion of the text accompanying an April 1983 pictorial titled Shana: Snake Charmer. Little did we know at the time that our model, who danced topless at L.A. strip joints, was an aspiring actress who'd ultimately fulfill her fantasy of stardom on the silver screen.

Originally from the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, Jewel Shepard briefly bared her moneymakers in Zapped! (Embassy Pictures) and My Tutor (Crown International Pictures), then in Christina spent most of the 90-minute European film au naturel, even freezing her ass off in front of the Eiffel Tower. Ooh-la-la!

Next came a string of B-movies, notably Hollywood Hot Tubs, Return of the Living Dead, Party Camp (in which she momentarily found herself immersed in pig poop), The Underachievers and Going Undercover. For 1994's Caged Heat 2: Stripped of Freedom, legendary producer Roger Corman shipped Jewel to the Philippines to portray yet another damsel in distress.

By then Jewel was already a published writer. She interviewed more than a dozen of her fellow scream queens for Invasion of the B-Girls, which sold like hotcakes, and followed that up in 1996 with her autobiography, If I'm So Famous, How Come Nobody's Ever Heard of Me?

Now that we've dug up this incredible layout from our archives, Jewel Shepard's huge cult following will only grow larger.