Porn Valley- Suitcase pimps and self-respecting strippers, mobster auteurs and quixotic FBI men: These and hundreds of other figures -- some major, some minor, all unforgettable -- hurtle through the pages of this raucous and revealing oral history of the birth of the adult film industry. In an age when porn-inspired imagery dominates our culture (and the business itself pulls in billions of dollars a year), The Other Hollywood peels back the candy coating to let the true story be told -- by the stars, moviemakers, and other industry players who lived it.
And what a story it is. Through hundreds of original interviews, contemporary newspaper accounts, police reports, court testimony, and more, Legs McNeil and Jennifer Osborne trace the progress of three groups in constant collision: the actors, directors, and others who made the films; the shady underworld figures who financed and distributed them; and the FBI agents who struggled for decades to bring the industry to heel. The tales captured here are by turns epic, hilarious, absurd, and moving -- from the mob associates who produced and directed Deep Throat to the entrepreneur who got the Pam Anderson sex tape onto the Internet; from porn star John Holmes 's violent downfall to starlet Savannah's self-destruction; from the untold story of undercover investigators Pat Livingston and Bruce Ellavsky to the unlikely love story of John Stagliano and Tricia Deveraux.
And, through the voices of characters such as Marilyn Chambers, Fred Lincoln, Dawn Schiller, Ron Jeremy, Ginger Lynn, Ruby Gottesman, Reuben Sturman, Jill Kelly, Tim Connelly, and the inimitable Sharon Mitchell, The Other Hollywood lends the porn industry the one thing missing in all previous accounts: a vivid, tragicomic, irresistible humanity.
