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Linda Lovelace
The adult film industry considered her a traitor. Anti-porn crusaders used her as their poster child. Over the years, millions of guys have jerked off to her likeness.
Linda Lovelace was born Linda Susan Boreman. She grew up in Yonkers, NY. She went to Catholic school. Her dad was an NYPD cop. Then one day, 21-year-old Linda is subathing by a Ft. Lauderdale swimming pool when she's approached by some guy. Long story short, the guy becomes her husband, gets her hooked on drugs, and pimps her out to do a bunch of stag films. Eventually Linda winds up in the most famous porno of all time. The story of Linda Lovelace revolves around 62 minutes of film called Deep Throat. The producers shelled out $22,500, all of it Mob money. They shot a few days in New York, and another six days in Miami. The film had been conceived and written for Linda. The director had been impressed by her ability to swallow a cock so deep that she only stopped when she bumped into the balls. Its working title was "The Doctor Makes a Housecall."
Then Frank Sinatra got ahold of a print somehow (cough, cough) and screened it in his home for party guests. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew saw it at one of Frank's parties. Sammy Davis, Jr. too. In fact, Sammy got so turned on that later he and his wife got together for a four-way with Linda and her husband. Other celebrities were also taking in the film, including Warren Beatty, Truman Capote, and Jack Nicholson. Jack wasn't enthralled by the film, however, as evidenced in this interview excerpt from Screw magazine:
(Speak for yourself, sir.) According to the manager of the New Mature World Theater, Tonight Show sidekick Ed McMahon was particularly enthusiastic. "He came with six guys and a case of Budweiser and stood out front afterward, chatting about the movie to passersby for half an hour." Deep Throat had legitimized pornography overnight. Despite a $3 million injunction from a New York judge (which was overturned on appeal), the film kept taking in business. In all, more than ten million Americans viewed the film. And then, after all that, Linda Lovelace turned around and declared that she had been forced into doing the film.
When you see the movie Deep Throat, you are watching me being raped. It is a crime that movie is still showing; there was a gun to my head the entire time. In 1980 Linda released an autobiography recounting her victimization. Her husband had forced her to perform sex on strangers. In front of a camera. With a dog. And then Deep Throat happened. It was only after she found the courage to leave her husband that she could come clean. Linda even recounted her horror story for the Meese Commission on Pornography. Nobody in the adult film business bought her act. They were appalled. She had, in their minds, repudiated her past only as a ploy to gain the acceptance of the millions of Americans who hadn't seen her movies. In fact, the porn industry uses the term "Linda Syndrome" to refer to former porn stars who disavow their careers, like Traci Lords. In 2002 Linda died in a Denver hospital after crashing her car into a concrete post. One of her former acquaintances in the porn industry, Al Goldstein, had this to say about her: Good riddance to trash. She was a good cocksucker. She was a piece of shit. Her book Ordeal was a lying piece of shit. She was a hooker, a scumbag, a lying trollop. I'm glad Traynor taught her to suck cock. I dropped several ejaculations down her throat. I want to do a final load, so when she goes to hell my sperm will go with her. Fucked John Holmes in Exotic French Fantasies.
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The film quickly became a phenomenon. It was unprecedented. The FBI later estimated that Deep Throat had probably grossed at least $600 million. It was distributed by the Mob. They leaned on the theater owners, burning down a few cinemas here and there whenever somebody refused to give them their cut (50%). Not surprisingly, the gangsters kept a tight rein on the prints.
