Who was Linda Lovelace?

Linda Lovelace is credited as being the first global porn star and the first female porn star to get international recognition. She was the star of possibly the most well-known vintage porn movie, Deep Throat, but later changed her stance on the porn industry.

She’s become a legend in the porn industry, both for her work and her later disavowal of what she did and the people she did it with. Why is a porn website talking about one of the industry’s harshest critics? Linda Lovelace is both an icon and a warning to those in the industry to do things right.

There are lessons to be learned from Linda – both how to make porn that transcends the genre and how to keep control of your work. We’re going to look at both sides of the Lovelace story, covering:

• Linda’s early years and how they led her to porn
• Some of the famous porn films that she starred in
• How Deep Throat became an international sensation
• What happened to Linda Lovelace after porn

Linda Lovelace: The early years

Linda Lovelace was born Linda Boreman on January 10, 1949 and was raised in The Bronx, New York City. In her autobiographies she’s said that her childhood wasn’t happy – her dad was a police officer always out at work and her mum wasn’t engaged with the family.

Throughout her childhood, Linda went to Catholic schools and was raised with Catholic morals. She was so into her religion that she was even know as “Miss Holy Holy” in high school.

This wasn’t to do with her letting anyone into her holes, rather she kept a metaphorical bible between her and her dates.

When her dad retired from the police, the family moved to Florida but she was still attracted to the Big Apple and moved back there for school. At the age of 20, she was involved in a car crash in New York and moved back to her parents to rest up.

That move back to her family was a seminal moment in her life. In Florida, she met Chuck Traynor, her future husband, manager, and pimp. He convinced her to move back to New York and took Linda in the sex industry.

The pornography of Linda Lovelace

In the city, porn was becoming more acceptable, it was the Golden Age of Porn, after all. Anything was possible and porn was getting more and more mainstream attention.

Linda didn’t start off mainstream, though. Some of her early porn films included:

• Dogarama – a 1969 bestiality porn film. Linda Lovelace denied every being involved in the film but her co-stars and the person behind the camera said she was indeed there.
• Piss Orgy – released in 1971, this film was all about golden showers. Linda can be seen peeing on other people.

Next in her list of film credits came Deep Throat, filmed over six days and released in 1972. Not only did the hardcore porn movie gain international notoriety, it even coined the term “deep throat” where you take the whole dick so far into your mouth that it hits the back of your throat.

The film ended up getting reviewed by the New York Times, being played daily for over a decade at Pussycat Theaters in California, and was the first porn film to get an official video release. It’s grossed $600 million to date, so why was it so popular?

What made Deep Throat so special?

As a porn film, Deep Throat was a departure from the bad acting, terrible scripts, and awful production values. Kind of. The bar wasn’t exactly too high before the film was made.

The porno did stand out from the rest of the porn being made at the time, mainly because it had a script. The story goes something like this:

• A woman can’t have orgasm
• She goes to sex party to try to have orgasm and fails
• Next, she visits a doctor who she sucks off
• During the blowjob, she finds that her clitoris is in the back of her throat
• She goes off and gives lots of head so she can get off

We’re not exactly talking Good Will Hunting-level of scripting, but compared to what was being done at the time, this was a departure.

The production values were better too, with steady cameras and – relatively – high-quality film.

What happened to Linda after Deep Throat?

Following the release of Deep Throat, Linda Lovelace became an internationally-known star. In 1973, she posed for:

• Playboy
• Bachelor
• Esquire

And in 1974 filmed Deep Throat II. That movie wasn’t as well-received and wasn’t successful. Linda even claimed it was recycled cut scenes from the original Deep Throat, although fellow actors and crew refuted that.

She was booked to star in the softcore porn film Forever Emmanuelle but was booted from the set for being too fussy and refusing to do sex scenes. This was in 1976, when Linda had already turned to Christianity and had become anti-porn.

After her time in porn, Linda Lovelace tried to become a stage actress but her career never worked out. She wrote books about her time in porn and her feelings about Deep Throat.

She wrote that she was beaten by her husband at the time of filming Deep Throat and the he forced her into prostitution, too.

Lessons from Linda Lovelace, the first global porn star

When you read Linda’s account of her time as a porn actress, it’s easy to understand why she spoke out against the industry. The big lesson here is for studios to ensure that their actors and crew consent to everything that’s happening and that amateur creators keep control of their work.

In terms of making successful porn, Deep Throat hit the cultural zeitgeist and was relevant. Making content that’s different from what others are doing and with a nod to pop culture is one way to gain traction as a creator for a site like SinParty.