Linda Lovelace - Ordeal

Linda Lovelace became a household name in 1972, when Deep Throat became the first pornographic movie ever to cross over into the mainstream. Due to the success of Deep Throat, she appeared in Playboy, Bachelor, and even Esquire between 1973 and 1974. Soon after, Lovelace joined in with anti-pornography feminists led by Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon, and she testified before Attorney General Meeses Commission on Pornography in 1986. She died in Denver on April 22, 2002, due to severe injuries from a car accident.

Journalist and former syndicated columnist Mike McGrady (Newsday, Los Angeles Times) has written many books, and he was the chief catalyst for the bestselling novel Naked Came the Stranger.

All this seems far away. Today, after finishing this, Im going to clean my house. Ive borrowed a vacuum cleaner for the afternoon and the thought of doing that gives me a great deal of pleasure. Im a cleanliness nut, and if my little house isnt spotless, I get very upset.

My vices arent much to talk about these days. When we can afford it, I like nothing better than a beer while Im watching a football game on television. Sometimes I think Ill drive my husband nuts, the way I like sports.

Im not so hard on myself these days. Maybe its because Im so busy taking care of a three-year-old son, a husband, a house, and two cats. I look back at Linda Lovelace and I understand her; I know why she did what she did. It was because she felt it was better to live than to die.

Sure, I could have not done a lot of things. But I would have been dead. Or my parents would have been dead. And I didnt want anyone to die. I knew that God would one day show me the way to get away from Traynor. And thats what kept me going and accepting all the things that had happened. I just put my faith in God and got through it.

Twenty-five years have passed since the controversial 1980 publication of Ordeal. For Linda Lovelace this period was hardly less of a roller coaster ride than the preceding years, and it was to end only after her life came tragically, even eerily, full circle.

With two children and with a husband struggling to get a drywall business off the ground, the 1980s found Linda speaking out against the evils of pornography on behalf of the feminist movement, culminating in her 1986 testimony before the Meese Commission on Pornography. The same year saw publication of her second autobiography, Out of Bondage (introduction by Gloria Steinem) and a series of health catastrophes. During a double mastectomy, necessitated by complications from silicone injections more than a decade earlier, it was discovered that her liver was on the verge of collapse due to a severe case of hepatitis C contracted from a blood transfusion after her 1970 car accident. A successful organ transplant followed, but so did a lifelong dependence on expensive antirejection drugs.

The ensuing years brought more travail and controversy. After the failure of her husbands business, the family moved from Long Island, New York, to Denver, where Linda worked a variety of jobs before embarking on a new round of antipornography lectures. The mid-nineties saw Ron Howard buy film rights to Ordeal and a divorce finalized between Linda and Larry Marchiano (on grounds that he was a physically and emotionally abusive alcoholic husband and father), while the new millennium began with a pictorial for the adult magazine Leg Show. Explaining what appeared to be an ideological about-face, Linda asserted that theres nothing wrong with looking sexy as long as its done with taste.

Having become a grandmother in 1998, Linda spent her last few years living alone and working a series of day and night jobs. On April 3, 2002, Linda sustained severe injuries when her SUV rolled over. On April 22, surrounded by her two children and Larry Marchiano, she was taken off life support. Lost on no one was the coincidence that it was also an auto accident that began her life as Linda Lovelace.

As a coda to the Linda Lovelace story, 2005 saw the hit release of the documentary Inside Deep Throat, which looked back at the heady days surrounding the release of Deep Throat and revealed just how far the porn industry had come. But perhaps most poignantly, it gave the world one last chance to commune with the woman who was at the center of it all.

Ttulo original: Ordeal

Linda Lovelace & Mike McGrady, 1980

Editor digital: Titivillus

ePub base r2.1

Many of the names in this book have been changed to protect bystanders. The following names have not been changed: Chuck Traynor, Leonard Campagna (a.k.a. Lenny Camp), Philip J. Mandina, Xaviera Hollander, Bob Wolf, Gerard Damiano, Harry Reems, Lou Peraino (a.k.a. Lou Perry), Vinnie, Tony Peraino, Michelle, Al Goldstein, Jim Buckley, Sammy Davis, Jr., Andrea True, Hugh Hefner, David Winters, Mel Mandel, Marilyn Chambers, Rex Harrison, Arthur Marks.

Good Girl. Obedient Wife. Porn Slave.

Deep Throat Was Only The Beginning

Linda Boreman was just twenty-one when she met Chuck Traynor, the man who would change her life. Less than two years later, the girl who wouldnt let her high school dates get past first base was catapulted to fame she could never have imagined in her wildest dreams or worst nightmares. Linda Boreman of Yonkers, New York, had become Linda Lovelace, international adult film superstar. The unprecedented success of Deep Throat made porn popular with the mainstream and made Lovelace a household name. But nobody, from the A-list celebrities who touted the movie to the audiences that lined up to see it, knew the truth about what went on behind the scenes.

Enslaved by the man who would eventually force her into marriage so that he could control her completely, Linda was beaten savagely with regularity, hypnotized, and raped. She was threatened with disfigurement and death. She was terrorized into prostitution at gun and knifepoint. She was forced to perform unspeakable perversions on film. She made Deep Throat under unimaginable duress.

Years later, Linda would come out of hiding to relate her side of the story a modern horror tale of humiliation, betrayal, and violence that would rock the porn industry and put its teller in fear for her life Ordeal.

Linda Lovelace & Mike McGrady

ePub r1.0

Titivillus 05.01.2020

My name is not Linda Lovelace. Not these days. Linda Lovelace is the name of a woman who was much younger than I am now, much more trusting and naive and innocent. Linda Lovelace disappeared from sight several years ago. If I had my way, the name Linda Lovelace would have vanished at the same time and neither you nor I would ever hear of it again.

But the world wont let Linda Lovelace rest in peace. Today I still cant go to a supermarket or a bus station or a high school basketball game without the risk the whispers, the pointed fingers, the stampedes.

I havent been able to escape Linda Lovelace, but I have been able to make peace with her. I understand her and what happened to her. Ive written this book so that others will also understand.

My particular concern is with my three-year-old son, who will someday have to learn that his mother was once this woman named Linda Lovelace. He will surely hear one side of the story, the side that comes with a sneer and a dirty laugh. I want him to know the rest of the story. I want the record set straight. This is for him, and its the truth, the story of what really happened.