Traci Lords: Underneath It All

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Underneath It All

Traci Lords: Underneath It All (ISBN 0-06-050820-5) is the name of the 2003 autobiography of American actress Traci Lords. The title was published by HarperEntertainment, an imprint of Harper Collins. Lords recounted her life that started in Steubenville, Ohio to her 2002 marriage to her third husband Jeffery Gruenewald. Most notably, she recounted her mainly underage tenure in porn that brought her notoriety and fame.

The book has 58 chapters.

[edit] Table of contents

  • 1 The Ohio Valley
  • 2 The Curse of the C cups
  • 3 Hazy Days
  • 4 Route 66
  • 5 Hollywood, California
  • 6 Two Butch Palms
  • 7 Junior high
  • 8 School Daze
  • 9 Porn Again
  • 10 Angel is the Centerfold
  • 11 I, Traci Lords
  • 12 No One Rides for Free
  • 13 House Pets
  • 14 Hell is for Children
  • 15 The Skin Trade
  • 16 Strippers, Tippers, and Pony Clippers
  • 17 Crash and Burn
  • 18 Checkout Time
  • 19 Paris
  • 20 King Harbor
  • 21 A Man Named Meese
  • 22 Running On Empty
  • 23 My Hero
  • 24 Dynamite
  • 25 A Few Wise Guys
  • 26 Lucky Star
  • 27 Top Billing
  • 28 Not of This Earth
  • 29 Pencil-thin Mustaches
  • 30 Cool Waters
  • 31 Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
  • 32 Just a Kiss Away
  • 33 The Lipstick Trick
  • 34 Cry Babies
  • 35 The Wrap Sheet
  • 36 Home Sweet Home
  • 37 Dancing in the Dark
  • 38 Press Junk
  • 39 Film Misses and the Mrs.
  • 40 Father Waters
  • 41 Patio in Tow
  • 42 Have Your Cake ‘n’ Eat It 2
  • 43 Shed My Skin
  • 44 The Orange-haired Fairy
  • 45 Shades of Blue and Green
  • 46 Star Saúte
  • 47 Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines
  • 48 Sweet Meat
  • 49 Flesh Wounds
  • 50 A Spot of Tea
  • 51 Pretty on the Inside
  • 52 Control
  • 53 Broken China
  • 54 The Onion Effect
  • 55 Bullet Proof Soul
  • 56 A New Wave
  • 57 Jeff
  • 58 Underneath It All

[edit] Notes from Underneath It All

  • The following disclaimer is placed in the book:

Certain names have been changed to protect the guilty. My attorneys say it has to be that way. Funny how life works.

However this is not the case with famed sex-industry agent and recruiter, Jim South, who is referred to as "Tim North". In an interview, Lords said she did not intend to protect South's identity, but to protect people from him because "he is a foul human being."1Lords first started nude modeling for magazines through his World Modeling Talent Agency and became the Penthouse "Pet of the Month" in the September 1984 issue, which included a controversial pictorial with Vanessa L. Williams. According to Lords, South gave her a $5,000 check for the appearance.

  • According to Lords, her first on-camera sex scene was an unplanned and spontaneously filmed kitchen encounter with Tom Byron. He had a disarming "sweet, dopey, puppy-dog thing". It was during production of the movie, What Gets Me Hot! There have been accounts that she had a personal relationship with Byron, but nothing suggesting that was written in the book.
  • Lords believes jealousy is the reason for the mutual dislike between her and former porn rival Ginger Lynn. She believes Ginger saw her as competition and was the cause of Lynn's bad attitude when they first met. She wrote about being on the set of her second adult movie with Lynn:
“ I was pissed off and disgusted by the thought of the upcoming lesbian scene I was supposed to have with this bitch on wheels. The thought of kissing her grossed me out, but I guess it's better than having to fuck a fleshy hair-ball like Ron Jeremy, I reasoned, feeling less than lucky. ”
  • Describes gay porn actor Jeff Stryker as "handsome but rather dumb-looking" the first time she saw him backstage at a fashion show in Paris, giving her hostile looks. Lords was one of the models for Thierry Mugler. Stryker was supposedly talking bad about her, telling people that he could be a bigger star since she had gotten so far in Hollywood with little talent.
  • Lords said she only made about 20 adult movies, but some of her unused scenes were re-edited for "new" films. Others argue that the reverse is true, that there are over 80 "originals" and only 20-something compilations. (The IAFD Internet Adult Film Database) , for instance, reflects these claims.) Others also question her estimation that she made only about $35,000 from porn.
  • Lords accused the news media and the porn industry of hypocrisy during the ensuing scandal after her true identity was revealed in May 1986. First, the media that seemed to condemn her used edited scenes from her illegal films in their TV reports. Secondly, adult movie producers--contrary to complaints at the time of lost profits because of legal pressure to destroy her underage tapes--got richer from the media attention. Both these, according to Lords, made her further exploited.
“ The massive amount of media attention I got needled me on a daily basis and I was so vulnerable to the cruel titles with which seemingly intelligent reporters crowned me. I was called a porn queen, a naughty Lolita, the princess of pornography. Hypocrisy runs deep in our society, so it's no surprise that the same news channels that reported on the teenage runaway victim Traci Lords now followed that story with nearly nude images from my porn films. The media frenzy drove the price of the now illegal tapes up, and while those in the porn industry complained bitterly that I had cost them a fortune, in reality they became richer than ever. Thanks to the news coverage they were given a free advertising campaign and I was further exploited, left to gather the broken pieces of my life. It was hard not to be bitter. ”
  • Traci argues against popular claims that she had turned herself in to the FBI. She wrote about being told by the federal agents that they monitored her for 3 years. Lords said she didn't incriminate others to the Feds, and that they appeared annoyed when she couldn't provide the true identities of people in the porn business.
  • She described getting arrested along with then boyfriend/business partner "Scott Bell" (aka Stephen Cartier) during the raid. On IMDb, Bell's other pre-porn credits are listed under his real name, Stewart Dell. Dell directed movies for the Traci Lords Company as well as in non-sex productions.
  • Traci, I Love You is Lords' only legal porn movie in America. The movie is a source for suspicions among critics, because she owns and sold the rights to it. She explained why she temporarily sold the rights to the film :
“ I sold that fucking movie for a period of ten years and with it bought myself some shelter from the storm. It was an agonizing decision, and one that made me a harder person, but it had to be done. I hated the fact that I made it possible for someone to go into a video store and rent it. But selling that film gave me some control over my life. ”
  • Why she legally changed her name to "Traci Elizabeth Lords":
“ I chose to stop running from it. Instead, I won it, legally changing my name to Traci Elizabeth Lords. That's who I was, and that's who I was going to be. ”
  • Traci hired prominent attorney, Leslie Abramson, after the scandal. She credits Abramson for saving her life.
  • Wrote of marriage to first husband Brook Yeaton, who she met during production of the John Waters film, Cry-Baby. Their relationship was strained because of her frequent travels for acting work. She mentioned an unconfirmed rumor she heard that he was having an affair with an actress from the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer where he worked as property-master.
  • There was no mention of her relationship with or second marriage to Ryan Riel Grainger.
  • She ended her engagement to ex-fiance John Enos after his two pitbulls killed her cat (Mr. Steve) when he mistakenly left one of the house windows open.
  • A few pages were written about her third and present spouse, Jeffery Lee (Jeff Gruenewald) whom she married in February 2002.
  • Accepts not having a relationship with her father, Louis Kuzma. There is hardly a mention of him, after Traci and her family left Ohio for the final time and moved to Redondo Beach, California.
  • Traci's attitude about pornography she compares to watching an episode of Jerry Springer: "I just can't stomach it," and that women who say porn is liberating are "irresponsible".

[edit] Links

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