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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.
Legs McNeil is the coauthor of Please
Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, a book
widely hailed as a classic of its kind. A founder of the seminal
magazine that gave punk its name, he is a former editor at
Spin and Nerve, and wrote Marilyn Chambers's
comeback film, Still Insatiable. He lives in Pennsylvania.
Jennifer Osborne is a journalist
and researcher who lives in Los Angeles.
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