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I’ve written a little about some of the older porn stars before but mainly focused on the fresh faces and established talent in the business. But I think that there should be some effort put into giving some shine to the classic stars. Besides, it’s good to remember the history of where the adult entertainment industry came from. I know that some of my older readers will appreciate a trip going down memory lane and hearing about the first stars they got off, too.
Plus, I imagine the younger viewers might be interested in discovering a new group of performers. I mean, look at some of these movie recommendations when you’re finished. You might be in for a spicy surprise.
Even if retro porn doesn’t appeal to you, some of the stories you are about to see are sexy, shocking, and downright scandalous. Move over hack drama writers, as we’ll see, reality is stranger than fiction.
Candy Barr
Career timespan: 1951-1982
Career signature: The first Western pornstar with a crazy life story
Noteworthy movies: History of the Blue Movie (1970), Nostalgia Blue (1982)
This woman is the one who is arguably the first true porn star in the world. Behind the scenes, her life is a mix of strange stories worthy of being an HBO series.
Born Juanita Slusher, After a turbulent childhood involving abuse and working as an underage hooker, at the age of 14 (no joke), Juanita married her first husband, Billy Joe Debbs, who seems to have been working as a safecracker.
Did I mention that Slusher is from the American South?
Anyway, hubby number one wasn’t very good at stealing, seeing as the marriage dissolved when Billy Joe got sent to prison. Slusher moved on, working for a bit as a cocktail waitress before her career took off as an exotic dancer.
From there, she started doing underground pornos in the very early fifties. In addition to starring in films, she also worked as a stripper, where she adopted the name Candy Barr which was a reflection of her fondness for Snickers. It was then she also started dying her hair her signature platinum blonde and wearing cowgirl attire, too.
By the way, don’t look up the first couple of years of her career as she started at sixteen. There is also some controversy over why Barr started doing adult films. At first, she told people that she did it for the money, then later claimed she was coerced and drugged.
Perhaps one of the craziest examples of Candy’s escapades was during the mid-fifties when she married her second husband, Troy B. Phillips. After having a child together and getting tired of Phillip’s abuse, Barr shot her husband while he was kicking down a door in their apartment.
Amazingly, Barr was not ultimately charged with any crimes, and Phillips wasn’t seriously wounded. I can’t say I blame her in this case at all, but this was far from the last piece of drama Barr would find herself in.
Barr continued to work in the underground smut scene until finally getting “legitimate” work in 1957 as an aboveboard comedy theater. She continued stripping thereafter in New Orleans and ended up dealing with a lengthy court battle involving her possessing a tiny amount of cannabis.
Then when she moved to California, she temporarily hooked up with a gangster Mickey Cohen, went on a small-time crime spree, and fled to Mexico for a bit. This is the same time she also taught actress Joan Collins who to strip – and remember, this all happened in a two-year period.
In a bizarre twist, Texas Monthly in the 1980s was considered one of the state’s “perfect Texans.” This is a bit weird to me because before, she had a bit of a sordid past with the law, especially by southern standards. For example, in ’68, she was arrested for a second marijuana possession in the Lone Star state.
Half a decade prior, Barr claimed that she dubiously claimed to know more about the John F. Kennedy assassination. To be fair, Candy denied that she knew more than what was reported, but this testimony has fueled all sorts of JFK conspiracies.
And that’s the watered-down version of Candy Barr’s rock and rolling career.
Does it sound like this would make an interesting, if not thrilling, real-life drama series to you? Well, there are other stories further down which could be streamed series in their own right, which are less horrifying and turbulent than this one, but just as exciting in a certain sense.
Casey Donovan
Career timespan: 1971-1987
Career signature: Arguably the first gay porn superstar
Noteworthy movies: Boys in the Sand (1971), The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1976), Other Side of Aspen 1 (1979)
Finally, in the 1970s, it was looking like the regulators were chilling out, obscenity laws were about to be largely ignored in the States, and the creation of improved technology would make adult films easier to do. These factors are probably the most important factors which led to the Golden Age of Porn.
It was an experimental time; it was a simpler time. It was an era when people didn’t believe in cutting their pubes at all or putting on Jimmy caps. What a time to be alive that must have been?
John Culver started his adult career working with an acting troupe in New York by day while also moonlighting as an escort. One of his clients landed him a spot in an elite (non-porno) modeling agency which I think probably helped for what was to come.
After getting good work on stage, Culver, now operating under the alias Casey Donovan, starred in the now-famous epic erotic film Boys in the Sand. Not only did this automatically launch Donovan’s career over the rainbow, but it also set off a revolution in the porn industry.
For one, the film managed to make an impressive number of sales for the time. Further, rather than be sold on 8-millimeter film in private rooms, this movie appeared in theaters all over the place.
Along with Deep Throat (more on that later) coming out a year later, this film helped spark the trend of porno chic. It also set the trend wherein rather than just show off some sexy shots or simple sex scenes porn movies would have an actual plot to them.
Donovan continued to get excellent work in gay porn, and in what may have been an industry first crossed over to doing straight porn as well. He did attempt to get back into mainstream entertainment, but that didn’t last long. Instead, in addition to doing porn, Donovan leveraged his fame to get paid as a high-end hooker.
Tragically, Donovan was never very successful at personal relationships and eventually died of AIDS-related complications in 1987.
By the way, I know I get asked this from time to time, but there is a reason why I don’t focus a whole lot on guy-on-guy porn on this blog. However, there are a few posts of the queer variety you can find on this site and a whole ‘nother one just for dick-centered smut.
Look it up and enjoy.
Annie Sprinkle
Career timespan: 1981-2010
Career signature: Perhaps the first pro-porn feminist
Noteworthy movies: Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle (1981), Sluts And Goddesses Video Workshop (1982)
It’s no secret that I am no fan of the feminist movement in a broad sense. And contrary to what some of them might say, it’s not just because a lot of them want to ban porn.
Sure, given my chosen moniker, that’s obviously going to be a huge deal to me, but there’s more to it than that. Clearly, the rad fem types overall agenda is to police all human sexuality. Between their position on porn, opposition to prostitution, and, in some cases, condemnation of trans people.
And these people claim not to have anything in common with the religious conservatives? **eyeroll**
To be fair, though, there are some people who call themselves feminists who are so sex-positive they even get into sex work. The most well-known example nowadays might be Nina Hartley, but another one who doesn’t get enough appreciation, in my opinion, is Annie Sprinkle.
While not quite on the same level as other superstars, Sprinkle is certainly a pornstar and producer in her own right for a number of reasons.
Contrary to the anti-porn feminists, Sprinkle tried to make her own stamp on adult entertainment through a few different means. For one, she did a good deal of stripping over the years, did pornography, and public sexual performances.
She would plug a speculum into her vag to show off all of her pink goodies in front of entire audiences. Another act she would do included using an electrocardiogram to record her brain waves while having a big O!
By the way, if you like to see a good cooch with some hair on it or are into internal videos, you’ll really want to look up this woman’s work. It may be a little hard to locate, but I’m sure you’ll like what you see.
Needless to say, this rubbed a lot of feminists the wrong way, which is something I can totally get on board with.
Since lesbian action and porn for women is the focus of much of her career in adult entertainment, I feel the need to help you out and promote myself. You can get access to plenty of lesbian porn on this webpage, and I’ve got half a dozen write-ups on porn for women, too.
John Stagliano
Career timespan: 1976-present
Career signature: A pioneer in many things – with a special focus on butt stuff
Noteworthy movies: Adventures of Buttman (1989), Wild Goose Chase (1991), Voracious series (2014)
While his educational background is in music, Stagliano seems to have always been doing some kind of sex work. For instance, when he was a young man, he did softcore modeling and wrote erotic fiction. He started doing hardcore films in ’74 and, over the years, expanded his career to include doing stripper jobs, eventually working as a Chippendale dancer.
Upon turning 30, Stagliano made the big transition from performer to director. Even though he didn’t have any experience when it came to filming, John managed to make quite a name for himself throughout the ’80s.
His most notable production is The Adventure of Buttman, which focused on enjoying and pleasuring the posterior and popularizing the gonzo format. Later installments in the series later brought anal sex scenes into the porn mainstream.
While consumers loved his work, the feds were not too pleased and tried to drag Stagliano into court on obscenity charged in 2008! Fortunately, the charges were dismissed, and John got a chance to gloat in the public eye.
I guess you could say that the US justice system became the butt of its own joke.
After all of this work, Mr. Stagliano is worth a cool eight million dollars or so. That’s not bad if I do say so myself, but it’s still not quite as much as other performers in the industry. To get a ranked list of the richest porn performers and producers, click right here.
Linda Lovelace
Career timespan: 1969-1980
Career signature: Superlative pornstar turned adamant adult entertainment critic
Noteworthy movies: Deep Throat (1972), Lovelace Meets Miss Jones (1973), Midnight Blue 2 (1980)
Spoiler alter: Linda Susan Boreman AKA Linda Lovelace has quite a story that is quite strange and at times challenging. Candy Barr’s story would be on HBO, and Annie Sprinkle’s on Skinamax, Lovelace’s would surely be aired on Lifetime. So, I will be injecting as much lighthearted humor as possible to keep the mood up.
To begin, Lovelace had a pretty normal (albeit possibly abusive) childhood and early adulthood, that is until she got pregnant. Since she was not married, Lovelace’s mother tricked her into giving the kid for adoption. Shortly after that, Lovelace was involved in a car accident that required her to get a blood transfusion.
Sadly, her donation wasn’t appropriately screened and had hepatitis. This would, unfortunately, catch up with her years later. But her string of bad luck and shitty circumstances didn’t end there.
While recovering from her accident, Lovelace began seeing Chuck Traynor, who was one helluva a sociopath. At first, Traynor seemed like a nice guy until he became violent, abusive, and started coercing Lovelace to make loops.
(Loops were sexual 8-mm films used for old peepshows.)
Now husband Traynor continued to get Lovelace to do stuff, which would be considered problematic, to say the least. According to Lovelace, Traynor continued to pressure her into doing sex work and allegedly used threats of violence to control her.
(To be fair, as we’ll see, there is more to the story.)
In 1969, Lovelace even starred in a bestiality film titled Dog Fucker! Yikes, Shaggy, amma, right? And by the way, I do not recommend looking at that example of Ms. Lovelace’s filmography.
It reminds me of a morbid joke. I don’t know which is worse: finding bucket loads of porn on your dad’s computer or finding out that he was in all of them. Then again, I think I know the answer: neither. It’s infinitely worse when you find out you’re in any of them.
Anyway, Lovelace’s career took a turn, which was, for her, relatively normal. For instance, one of her standout roles was one of the first films to feature watersports in 1971, Piss Orgy. Arguably, that one film inspired all of these many, shall I say, not-so-vanilla websites.
Then along came 1972 and with it the famous film of the porn golden age Deep Throat.
Oral sex in porn is nothing new, of course, and people have been pleasuring each other style since the beginning of time. But what made Deep Throat unique was twofold. For once, like Boys in the Sand, this movie featured an actual story and decent-enough acting. It also had a funny, creative gimmick to it. The heroine of the show, Lovelace, is described as having a clitoris located in her throat, hence all of the heavy deepthroating.
In fact, watching this film made me start to really get deep about the character’s personality. For instance, something about this girl suggests to me that her favorite adult beverage is a kind of cocktail. I’d even go so far as to say that it’s a White Russian, specifically.
If you haven’t seen it, I’ll use illustrative language. It’s kind of like what I say when I go to McDonald’s, and they put on too much mayonnaise. The whole thing is loaded up with one epic McCumshot after the other.
After that, Lovelace did more porn work on film, and she even posed for Esquire, Bachelor, and Playboy. However, after self-medicating for a while and starting a family, she dropped out of the business.
Then Lovelace went public with accusations against her first husband and other pornographers. The testimony of key people contradicts Lovelace’s accusations in whole in part, though she did pass a polygraph test.
According to some close to her, Lovelace had a high libido, and there were past statements she had made which proved to be false or contradictory. Another complication is her abusive background, which could complicate figuring out how much abuse she was recalling was from Traynor or her parents.
All things considered, this whole thing is so messy and weird. I’m not sure who to believe, but I suspect everyone is telling the truth and lying a little.
Anyway, Lovelace got a liver transplant in ’87 as a result of her blood transfusion and became a noteworthy evangelical and anti-porn activist.
Christy Canyon
Career timespan: 1984-2019
Personal signature: Multiple award-winning all-around wonderful woman
Noteworthy movies: Comeback (1995), Where the Boys Aren’t 7 (1995), Sex Show (1996)
Now let’s finish up with a lighter, happier tale of making mola by shaking tail.
After being complimented on her looks by porn performer Greg Rome, Canyon considered his advice that she should consider doing porn. After networking with a modeling agency, she soon got work modeling for men’s magazines.
Busting out onto the hardcore adult scene in 1984, Canyon shot films intermittently throughout the ’80s and ’90s as an elusive for the then-young company Vivid. When she wasn’t getting down and dirty on camera, Christy posed for porn-y periodicals such as Swank and Penthouse.
Furthermore, Canyon took advantage of her excellent job position and fucked all of the guys she filmed with off-camera, those lucky bastards!
Even though she’s currently retired, Canyon has done feature dancing, done off-camera work with Vivid, and promoted her beautiful brand.
I can’t stress this enough, this woman’s work is #fire! Look at a few instances of her work, even the early stuff, and I am certain you’ll understand why she’s one of my favorite vintage starlets.
ThePornDude’s vintage recommendation
What a rollercoaster of a ride through the history of hot and heavy entertainment? If you want to see even more retro movies, I’ve got a series of websites where you can go to get classic carnal goodness. If you want exact videos, there is a post on that as well.
Besides all of that, there is at least one website I can think of which has all of the best retro DVDs which you can buy and keep forever. Over the years, I have researched pretty much every adult website, but I do know that there are new domains being built all the time.
So, if you know or own a retro site I haven’t covered, let me know. If I’m impressed, I might give you a shoutout.
Anyway, get ready for even more posts in the future – as I always, I guarantee you’re in for a fun time when my new stuff goes live.
