I Was a Porn Star During the Golden Age of Adult Entertainment

Before the internet illuminated the “open 24/7” sign on literally any desire you could hope to satisfy, there was the Golden Age of Porn. In the years between the rise of sexploitation films in the 60s and the mass distribution of hardcore home videos in the 90s, the porn industry had all the glamour and prosperity of Hollywood with none of the legality. 

The “porno chic” era of the 70s established a critical and commercial appetite for erotica with the release of films like Deep Throat and Last Tango In Paris, enabling adult actresses like Annette Haven and Vanessa Del Rio to cross over into the mainstream. In the 80s the industry shifted into turbo mode, transcending the “tasteful” cover of indie cinemas to become a booming market of its own.

Big budget productions, lucrative talent agencies like Jim South’s World Modeling and a flashy, live-fast lifestyle attracted young men and women alike, and by the mid-80s, adult entertainment had become as extravagant and in-your-face as everything else in pop culture. Mammoth studios like Vivid Entertainment became household names while newly minted ceremonies like the AVN Awards gave it a red carpet ritz, putting the sex into the “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll” mantra of 80s excess. 

Despite the champagne-and-cocaine veneer, many adult performers from that time describe the industry as having a family feel. Before the 90s made porn freely available online, flooding the market and slashing production budgets, the talent pool was small and sets were tight-knit. Though Vivid had a billboard of poster-girls on Sunset Boulevard and stars like Christy Canyon and Ginger Lynn were crossing over into the mainstream, there was an outlaw mentality and sense of camaraderie among casts and crew. All plastic-wrapped magazines and three-for-$50 Polaroids at meet and greets, it’s a far cry from today’s era of BJ gifs and Chaturbate tips – though certainly not without its controversies.

To reveal more about the highs and lows of the porn business in the 80s, veteran performer Ginger Lynn spoke to us about her life and career. This “as told to” essay has been condensed and shortened from an interview given to the producers of Sex Before the Internet, a new documentary from VICE.

I never thought I would get into the adult film industry, though. I grew up putting on plays in my garage and singing and dancing. My neighbours were the backup singers and we would charge a nickel to come see our shows. I always wanted to be in front of the camera. I wanted to live in California and I wanted to be a star, but when I saw Vanessa on film, I didn't think I wanted to be like her. I just got turned on by it.

I got into the industry when I was just about to turn 20. I was working 70 hours a week for way too little money. I worked at an aviation company in the mornings from like six till ten, and then from 11 till six I was assistant manager of a Musicland record store, and at night I worked in a bar. I was thinking: ‘I’m cute, I’m in California, I can do something. I can make more money.’ I got out the Orange County Register and there was an ad for figure modelling that paid $500 to $5,000 per day. I called up and a man by the name of Jim South answered, called me “darlin”, and told me to come on in the next day.

Jim South was the owner of World Modeling – he reminded me of a really bad Elvis impersonator, with the big sideburns and the pompadour hairdo. I walked into his office and he asked for my IDs. It was September of 1983. He said, “We need to take some Polaroids” and took me into the side room with the fake panel, wood walls and the shag carpet and this big wicker chair. He asked me to take my clothes off. I had no trouble doing that whatsoever. I was never ashamed or embarrassed. I was always comfortable with my body.

Jim took three or four Polaroids and we went back to his office and he put them in this big three-ring binder, full of pictures of all of these girls in alphabetical order. There were photographs of these beautiful women all around the office on the walls: Marilyn Chambers, Hyapatia Lee… though I didn’t know who they were at the time. Jim looked up and said, “Those are the wall girls” and I’m like, “I want to be a wall girl”. Those were the famous girls, and I wanted so badly to be famous.

We went to lunch and I asked her every question: what's it like, what do you do, what don't you do, how much do you charge? She said: “I get $1,000 a day. I get script approval. I get cast approval. I only do girl/girl and boy/girl regular sex. If it's anything more, I charge more. I charge $5,000 for anal, if I’m not comfortable I’m not doing it.” I'm like, you know what? I can do this.

So I go back to Jim South and ask for all those things… and Jim is on the floor. He's laughing his ass off. He said, “Honey, no! You can't start there. Nobody starts there. This is one of the biggest porn stars in the industry.” And I'm like fine, then I won't do it. 

Two weeks later, a couple – [adult filmmakers] David and Svetlana Marsh – were in Jim's office and they were making two feature films on the island of Kauai with a $250,000 budget. They wanted me to play one of the female leads and I'm like, I'm in. They agreed to all my rules. I wasn't bitchy or snobby, I just had my comfort zone, and as long as I stayed there I knew I would be okay.

One of my favourite moments was before I made that first feature film. We were all on the plane and there were probably 30 of us, cast and crew. It was a big production and I remember looking around the plane and thinking, ‘I'm going to fuck that person, I'm going to fuck this person, I get to suck his dick, I get to eat her pussy’. And it was just this moment of freedom – to know that, sexually, I was going to be able to do anything that I wanted and it was okay.

I was in the industry from September of 1983 until February 1986. I had always anticipated my scenes, my films, my partners, what I was going to do, my dialogue. I looked forward to everything; I woke up one day and I had bought my first house. It was in Beverly Hills: Madonna, Kelly Preston and Dolly Parton were my neighbours. I'm thinking: ‘I am the shit. This is amazing’. But I woke up one morning in this beautiful home that I bought up in the hills, and rather than going ‘yes! I'm going to suck dick today’, I woke up and went, ‘I don't want to do this anymore. I'm done.’ I remembered that girl in Jim South's office telling me never do anything you're not comfortable with, and I got the oogies.

One of my biggest fears when I came back to the industry was that it wasn't going to be as glamorous or as wonderful, because all this time had passed. Girls didn't make films anymore, they did scenes. I've done 483 scenes and there was a difference between the old school and the new school, but I still got the glamour. I had my own trailer, I was treated like Ginger Lynn was at big awards ceremonies back in the day, and everybody was wonderful. The passion was there, but the family element was missing.

The 80s were the golden age of porn. Everybody was treated so well and we were all so close, it was just beautiful. I’ve made 76 films and over 40 of them were shot on 35mm. They were these huge productions with big budgets and real cameras.

The internet took away the joy of watching porn for the first time; taking that VHS or DVD home and putting it in the player. All of a sudden you could watch anything you wanted, anywhere, any time. It became a business – and in the early parts of my career it was a business, but it was more fun than work, and [in the end] it became more work than fun.

Sex Before The Internet airs Tuesdays at 9PM on VICE TV.