by Legs McNeil
TOM BYRON: Once the news came out, it was the top story on every channel. I got twenty or thirty calls: “Oh, Tom, you must have known. I mean, you were boyfriend and girlfriend. You must have known.”
LOS ANGELES TIMES, JULY 18, 1986: SEX FILMS PULLED; STAR MAY HAVE BEEN A MINOR: “‘She’s the hottest thing in the industry right now,’ Los Angeles Vice Captain Jim Doherty said Thursday. ‘She’s a really big star, and everything she’s done is against the law.’
“‘Some people say, conceivably if the authorities wanted to push it through enough, they could make real inroads in closing the industry down,’ one source told the newspaper.”
TOM BYRON: When we first started going out, Traci had said, “Look, if someone calls me Nora, that’s just a nickname. It’s like a pet name—an inside kind of joke. Don’t pay any attention to it.” I said okay.
So when people called that day, I said, “Guys, I knew her as Kristie Nussman! I didn’t know any Nora Kuzma!”
LOS ANGELES TIMES, JULY 18, 1986: SEX FILMS PULLED; STAR ALLEGEDLY TOO YOUNG: “District attorney’s investigators last Friday searched Lords’ Los Angeles area home, the Sun Valley offices of Vantage International Productions, a major producer of adult films—and the Sherman Oaks offices of modeling agent Jim South, who is credited with discovering the actress in 1984.”
JIM SOUTH: The cops walked in and said, “She’s underage.” I laughed and said, “Yeah, sure.”
LOS ANGELES TIMES, JULY 18, 1986: SEX FILMS PULLED; STAR ALLEGEDLY TOO YOUNG: “South said that Lords, on seeking employment, provided a California driver’s license, a U.S. passport and a birth certificate, which stated her name was Kristie Nussman and gave her birth date as Nov. 17, 1962.”
GLORIA LEONARD: Somehow Traci must have gotten a birth certificate, and parlayed that into a driver’s license and ultimately a passport. And she certainly looked eighteen—honey, let me tell ya.
LOS ANGELES TIMES, JULY 19, 1986: SEX FILM STAR NOT FACING CHARGES, REINER SAYS: “Los Angeles County District Attorney Ira Reiner said Friday that his office is not planning to file criminal charges against sex film star Traci Lords.”
CHRISTY CANYON: I never would have guessed that Traci was underage, but I did know she was a compulsive liar. One day she would say she was born in New York, the next week she was born in Las Vegas.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, JULY 19, 1986: PORN STARLET OFF HOOK: “‘She may be a professional now, but she was a 15-year-old runaway when the pornographic film industry got ahold of her,’ said District Attorney Ira Reiner. ‘She was, I’m sure, grist for the mill as far as they were concerned.’”
GINGER LYNN: When I heard Traci was saying she was forced into the world of porn, I think I peed my pants, I laughed so hard.
LOS ANGELES TIMES, JULY 19, 1986: SEX FILM STAR NOT FACING CHARGES, REINER SAYS: “Reiner, however, says he would press charges against the pornographic filmmakers who employed Lords, if he could prove that they knew she was not yet 18.”
BILL MARGOLD: There are an awful lot of Traci Lords titles out there. So when all hell broke loose, the industry immediately rushed to get rid of those tapes. Except that certain people thought they could make more money if they kept the tapes and sold them. And those people got busted.
LOS ANGELES TIMES, AUGUST 15, 1986: DISTRIBUTOR INDICTED OVER SEX VIDEOTAPE: “‘A North Carolina video and magazine distributor has been indicted on a charge of the sexual exploitation of a minor for selling and distributing a videocassette that shows porn star Traci Lords engaging in sexual activity,’ authorities said.”
HUMPHRY KNIPE: The laws regarding child pornography are Draconian. So after we found out Traci was underage, everyone was going around in the middle of the night and dumping all the film into the deepest Dumpsters they could find—getting rid of whatever pictures we had of her. Pictures, porn, whatever it was, just destroy it. Because what was so terrifying was that even having a tape in your house was a felony.
LOS ANGELES TIMES, AUGUST 22, 1986: THE REGION: “Federal prosecutors have taken over the investigation of hard-core pornography films and videotapes starring Traci Lords. A spokesman for Los Angeles District Attorney Ira Reiner said the case was referred to the U.S. attorney because it transcends state lines and because under federal law, it only has to be proved that she was underage when the films were made.
“‘Under state law,’ he said, ‘prosecutors would have to prove that those who hired her knew she was under 18.’”
TOM BYRON: Everyone was losing their minds. Bookstores had to pull all the Traci Lords titles and destroy them. Video companies had to take the Traci Lords masters they had and destroy them because they were now child pornography according to U.S. law. It was a completely devastating mess for the industry.
LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 4, 1986: INVESTIGATION OF TRACI LORDS PORNOGRAPHY CASE EXPANDED: “Federal authorities are expanding the case of X-rated film star Traci Lords, to determine whether three other popular actresses were underage when they starred in sexually explicit movies, it was reported Friday.
“Federal subpoenas were issued Tuesday to five distributors, VCA, CBI, Caballero, Western Visuals and Paradise, seeking records relating to Traci Lords and [three other] actresses.”
HUMPHRY KNIPE: We were all terrified. Greg Dark rang me every day, whispering, “Have you heard anything else?”
BILL MARGOLD: The cost of destroying those tapes? Multiple millions of dollars. It crippled people—temporarily.
GLORIA LEONARD: The case was made that she cost this industry millions of dollars because all the films had to be physically destroyed. If anything, she owed this industry. I mean, she took the money. Hello!?
She didn’t repay anybody for the days she worked, you know? Not that that would’ve put a dent into what was ultimately lost, economically.
JIM SOUTH: First they indicted me for child pornography. The state law says that they have to prove you knew she was underage—which they absolutely could not do because nobody is stupid enough to give a girl that young work in pornography.
HUMPHRY KNIPE: Suze produced a Polaroid of Traci holding her ID. We Xeroxed it and sent it to everybody. It was because of that Polaroid that they decided there were not strong enough grounds to prosecute.
JIM SOUTH: We had a meeting in the judge’s chamber after I was indicted. They actually admitted that they believed I did not know. The charges were dismissed, and I breathed a sigh of relief, even though all the postponements had made the whole thing very expensive.
Then the federal government came along and reindicted me.
LOS ANGELES TIMES, MARCH 6, 1987: THREE IN TRACI LORDS SEX FILM CASE INDICTED: “Sex film star Traci Lords’ agent and two producers who allegedly propelled her to blue movie fame at the age of 16 were indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles on Thursday in the first prosecution against commercial film producers under federal child pornography laws.
“James Marvin Souter Jr. (Jim South), 47, the man who allegedly hired Lords through his World Modeling Agency in 1984 for the film ‘Those Young Girls’ is charged with producers Ronald Rene Kantor, 40, and Rupert Sebastian Macnee, 39, with violating the federal law prohibiting the use of minors in sexually explicit films.
“The three men face a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine if convicted.”
HUMPHRY KNIPE: You have no idea what teeth these child pornography laws have—they can put you in jail for ten years for each offense and you’ll bloody rot. One roll of film—thirty-six pictures—can put you in jail for 360 years. Absolutely horrendous; no one would dream of doing it.
JIM SOUTH: They found a law called “strict liability,” which says, if you get a minor work, it does not matter what kind of ID she has, or if both her parents confirm the age—you’re guilty.
You cannot even introduce IDs as a defense. My attorney said, “It’s unconstitutional, absolutely. But do you want to spend a hundred thousand dollars proving it?”
LOS ANGELES TIMES, MARCH 11, 1987: ARRESTS
HINDER THE PRODUCTION OF SEXUALLY EXPLICIT FILMS, POLICE SAY: “Police say they have temporarily blocked the hiring of hundreds of performers for sexually explicit films with arrests at two San Fernando modeling agencies in the past two weeks.
“James Marvin Souter (Jim South) of World Modeling was arrested for pandering on March 4 after sheriff’s deputies raided the business and his Thousand Island home.
“In a separate case, he was indicted under federal child pornography statutes last Thursday for representing porn superstar Traci Lords when she was 16.”
JIM SOUTH: They came after us like the Gestapo. It was unbelievable. They were really on a witch hunt. They were really looking hard.
LOS ANGELES TIMES, APRIL 1, 1987: MAN PLEADS GUILTY IN TRACI LORDS CASE: “James Marvin Souter (Jim South), the man who allegedly lured the teenage Traci Lords into performing sex acts on film, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court to procuring the future porn queen for one of her first blue movies when she was only 16.”
JIM SOUTH: Tommy Byron, Boy Wonder, was dating her. I don’t know for how long. But even he did not know she was underage, I guarantee it.
TOM BYRON: I don’t know if people were mad at me after her real age came out; they probably were. I mean, a lot of people went out of business.
HUMPHRY KNIPE: Was she paying her mother off? Well, that wouldn’t surprise me. I never met her mom. I don’t know who turned her in—or whether she turned herself in.
TOM BYRON: I think Traci turned herself in because of something she said to me one day on the set of Talk Dirty to Me III. She said, “You know, I don’t really worry about any of this shit because one day none of this is going to matter—I’m gonna be working for Paramount.”
RUBY GOTTESMAN: What I think is, Traci told Stewart Dell she was underage. And when she reached eighteen, he made Traci, I Love You with her in France. She got a hundred thousand dollars for it. It was a setup.
JIM SOUTH: I really believe with all of my heart that Traci and Stewart were responsible for dropping the dime on Traci, to make her name absolutely huge. She hustled us.
TOM BYRON: Traci saying that she doesn’t remember any of it, that she was on drugs—that’s her PR people telling her to say that. She’d have to say that for her legitimate career. The world at that time was not ready to accept an unrepentant porn star.
I don’t fault her for that, okay? I mean, she had to do what she had to do to get over—to get into the legitimate film business, which was really her ultimate dream to begin with. I think she had something to do with it. I think it was her plan from day one to turn herself in.
AL GOLDSTEIN: Traci Lords really deceived the industry. But because she denounced the business, Hollywood felt she was a victim, and she now does regular movies, like Cry-Baby.
But it’s a shame. She blames pornography, but it was pornography that was the victim because she lied.
Part 10:
BACK-LASH
1985–1991
The Meese Commission
U.S.A.
1985–1987
GINGER LYNN: When I was making films with Traci, there were a lot of issues with the government and the Meese Commission. I know that the government and the IRS are in a position to do whatever they want, to whoever they want. And when I saw the photos of Traci that came out during that trial—the behind-the-scenes photos, taken during many, many, many films—I don’t know how this possibly could have happened the way everyone claims it did.
TRACI LORDS [FROM UNDERNEATH IT ALL, 2003]: “The federal building in downtown Los Angeles wasn’t as glamorous as I’d seen in the movies. A fat-faced man told me to sit in a yellow plastic chair in the center of the room and I did, crossing my legs extra tight.
“The fat-faced man stepped forward and introduced himself as Detective Rooker. He told me I was part of a sting operation that had something to do with a man named Meese and that they’d been gathering information on me for a while.
“I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. ‘YOU PEOPLE KNEW THE WHOLE TIME?’ I went berserk.
“‘Hey,’ Rooker said, trying to calm me down. ‘What are you crying for? Tomorrow we’re all going to be famous. Isn’t that what you want?’
“I just looked at him, not understanding. ‘Famous for what?’”
GINGER LYNN: How did the government have photos from Traci’s first movie? And if they knew, why didn’t they stop it from the beginning? How did Traci get into this and have all the correct forms of ID if she was sixteen years old? I had a fake ID when I was sixteen. I cut the little piece out with a knife and then I put another number in, but anybody with half a brain can see that. But Traci’s was a real ID—and everything was filled out the way it was supposed to be.
BILL KELLY: The Meese Commission was a follow-up to the original Attorney General’s Commission of 1967–70, which was put together at the request of President Johnson. The original commission consisted of eighteen people, many of whom—especially the leadership—were members of the American Civil Liberties Union, which as you might imagine is not my favorite organization.
TRACI LORDS [FROM UNDERNEATH IT ALL, 2003]: “The FBI was relentless in its disruption of my life. After giving the initial statement at the federal building downtown and never being booked or read my rights, I had good reason to question authority.
“I couldn’t walk outside my apartment without being stopped and served a subpoena to appear for prosecutions around the country, and I saw these prosecutors all over the news talking about the ‘Traci Lords’ case.
“There was no longer any doubt in my mind about why they wanted me to appear. It wasn’t only because I was the most readily identifiable child in porn but also because wherever I went, the media followed.”
GINGER LYNN: Not long after it all came out about Traci’s age, there was a knock on my door, and two people read me my rights; one was a district attorney. I was asked to testify against adult film producers on Traci Lords’s behalf. I refused.
BILL KELLY: That first commission handed in its two-million-dollar report to President Nixon in 1970, and they recommended that all obscenity laws in the United States—unless they involve children—be abrogated, wiped out. They said that pornography was not a large industry, had no real adverse consequences on people, and didn’t even make a whole lot of money.
RICHARD NIXON (PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES): So long as I am in the White House, there will be no relaxation of the national effort to control and eliminate smut from our national life—I totally reject this report.
BILL KELLY: President Nixon read that report, and do you know what he did with it? Put it straight in the circular file. In 1970, the porn business was making about four billion dollars. The report went through a vote in the Senate; only sixty-five senators voted—and sixty of them agreed with Nixon that it ought to be canned.
GINGER LYNN: The U.S. Attorney came in and said to me, “If you don’t testify on Traci’s behalf against”—there were sixty-some-odd film producers—“we will make your life difficult.”
JIM SOUTH: Tommy Byron got a call from Channel Five News asking for an interview. I said, “Tommy, just listen to me. Don’t do it. You’re calling attention to yourself.”
He went down to the Lamplighter restaurant to do the interview in the parking lot. I was there, and the guy turned the camera toward me, and I said, “Get the camera off of me!”
Well, a year later, Tommy was indicted for income tax evasion.
TOM BYRON: I went on television and shot my mouth off about the Meese Commission and the Los Angeles Vice Department. Which probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but that’s the kind of guy I am. I don’t like to hold anything back. I don’t like to bullshit anybody.
BILL KELLY: The Meese Commission was formed in 1985 and, in my opinion, they had a budget that was designed to fail. I don’t think the Justice Department wanted a successful, or a comprehensive, report on pornography at that time because they only gave the Meese Commission four hu
ndred thousand dollars.
GINGER LYNN: They showed me photographs from almost every single film Traci made. Photos taken from behind the bushes, taken from a car, taken from day one of her filming. Photos taken from the parking lot where I met her. These surveillance photos were going on from day fucking one. This was not an accident—I still don’t believe she was underage.
So when I went before the grand jury, I got amnesia and I couldn’t remember anything. They were pissed.
BILL KELLY: The Meese Commission didn’t have any investigators to speak of. So about thirty of us—postal inspectors, FBI agents, me, and one or two other retired guys—volunteered to work for the commission for one year, free of charge. Which we did.
TOM BYRON: You gotta understand the political climate at the time. I mean, President Reagan was bowing down to every whim of the religious right. It was ridiculous. It spawned out of a bunch of holier-than-thou, do-gooder jerk-offs who thought they knew what was good for America. They wanted to deny Americans what they wanted—which was to take a video home and masturbate.