"Lovelace": A Guest Writer Reflects on Porn

Amanda = Linda. BOOBS!

This was written by Tom G. 


Yesterday, Aug. 9 marked the American limited release of the film "Lovelace," a biographical sketch of infamous porn star Linda Lovelace (Linda Boreman).  It was in 1972 that Lovelace’s one and only full-length porno movie became such a cause celebre that it brought much of mainstream America to a porno theater for a night.

 Lovelace’s “career” as a porn actress had some parallels to the rise and demise of “porno chic” in the 1970s.  Before she starred in "Deep Throat," Linda Lovelace had made a series of eight millimeter “loop” films, including at least one featuring bestiality and other “kinky” subject material.  After making "Deep Throat," Lovelace made a couple of very bad “R” rated movies- much more crossover success than most porn actresses ever experience.  Compared to most porn stars, she was a huge success. 

Before "Deep Throat," most of the pornography made was of the “loop” variety, with little or no plot around the sex scenes.  After "Deep Throat," a number of “classic pornographic films” were made in the 1970s and early 1980s.  The Marilyn Chambers films "Behind the Green Door" and "Insatiable" and the campy "Debbie Does Dallas" are probably pornographic classics, although none of them aroused the public’s attention, or the legal system’s ire, the way "Deep Throat" did. 

The success of "Deep Throat" changed, for a while, how porno movies were made.  A story line, usually a very silly, very non-substantial story line was now the order of the day. Now we had a reason for those two studs to be at the young lady's apartment; they were plumbers or handymen, of course, and they always had the right “tool for the job.”  The actors and actresses were allowed to show us a small bit of their personality. Ron Jeremy, whose first pornographic picture might have been a drawing on the walls of the Cave of Altamira in Spain, used those glimpses at his personality to augment his pornographic career by playing himself in mainstream movies.

The pornographic movies of the seventies and early eighties were made to be shown at movie theatres or a drive-in. Much like Linda Lovelace left for the siren call of a chance at “mainstream” success, the pornographic industry left the making of films and began producing video cassettes, marketing their films to a larger, more mainstream audience. 

After the immediate failure of Lovelace’s “legitimate” films (hey, one of them had Monkees band member Mickey Dolenz as a costar!) there was no going back for Linda, she spent much of the rest of her life crusading against pornography, claiming to have been the victim of her Svengali-like husband. After the immense success of straight-to-video pornography, there was no going back for porn, plots and story lines were no longer necessary. People watching pornography at home wanted to get to “the good stuff” as fast as possible - the rest was not necessary.

 I am not naïve enough to lament the mob controlled pornographic industry of the "Deep Throat" era as “the good old days.”  There are some that estimate that "Deep Throat" made over 600 million dollars for the mafia. I am not callous enough to overlook the damage done to so many lives, like the damage that was done to Linda Boreman, whether she was a willing participant or not.  But I know pornography has existed since people learned how to put paint onto canvas. I suspect the first night after photography was invented, the inventor said to his wife or girlfriend “hey, how about a more private picture, one just for me." And, I believe there are almost as many home videos of babies being produced as there are of babies being delivered.  

 In a world that has pornography, I prefer mine with a silly little plot or at least an explanation of where I can get a tool belt like those plumbers had, they always had the right tool for the job.