All language subtitles for S01E02 - Sex Taped

-Southern California
in the 1980s.

The epicenter
of porn's golden age.

The sun, beach, palms, and money

lured women
from across the country,

all of them looking to make
a name for themselves.

But there was one name
bigger than them all.

- Traci Lords.
- Traci Lords.

-Traci Lords was one of
the biggest stars

of all time
in the adult film industry.

-Every movie that came out
with her on the cover

was a major bestseller.
- She was as big as big gets.

-Until one day, a secret
is revealed

that would upend
the entire adult film industry.

-We realized the danger
that we were in.

-A secret that would lead
to arrests and indictments.

-I get a knock on the door.

It's a woman and a man from
the district attorney's office.

-I didn't feel culpable.
I mean, I had no idea.

-Traci's secret would cause some
people in the industry millions.

-If you had movies with her,

you had to destroy them
or cut her out.

-So we shredded all
the material,

and we ran around town,

dumping it
in different trash cans.

-It left many questioning
what was true...

-Nobody knew her lies
and her web

that she had spun ran so deep.

- ad who stood to gain.

-But she then pulled off
the ultimate... scam.

♪♪

-Well, let's take them on a
little stroll down memory lane.

-1984. It was morning
in Reagan's America.

"The Terminator"
dominated the box office.

Madonna's "Like a Virgin"
was in heavy rotation

on recently-launched MTV.

1984 also marked a new day
in the porn industry,

as film production moved west,

stepping out of the dark, grimy,
mobbed-up sets of New York City

and into the light
of a bright California sun.

-If you've seen the porn from
the '70s, like in New York,

they're miserable.
Those movies, they're unhappy.

-I found the whole New York
porn scene dark,

sleazy, with a lot of people

that you would never want
to associate with.

The women I worked with were
generally theatrically based,

wearing wigs,
trying to hide the fact

that they were in the industry.

-But by the 1980s,

that shifted to Southern
California in Los Angeles.

There's all kinds of reasons
for that,

one of which really simply
is just the weather.

It's a little nicer to live
in Southern California

and make movies there.
Outdoor locations are easier.

-Los Angeles was also filled
with actresses

seeking fame and fortune.

Some found their way into porn

after failing to find success
in mainstream Hollywood.

-I never thought that porn was
how I was going to be famous.

-And as adult movies began being
shot with the much cheaper,

newly-invented video cameras,
those opportunities multiplied.

-One of the things "Boogie
Nights" really gets right

is the notion
of speed of production.

-Just keep shooting.
This is video, where we shoot

and then we deal with it later.

-"Boogie Nights", the 1997 film

starring Mark Wahlberg, Burt
Reynolds, and Julianne Moore

encapsulated the story
of the porn industry

grappling with this
rapidly changing world.

-Alright, everybody.
Here we go.

-You have more and more people
coming into the adult industry

because there's a higher demand

and it's also easier
to produce the content.

And so, we start to see
the adult industry

expanding pretty rapidly.

-1984 was also the year a
mysterious and beautiful wannabe

actress would arrive
in California...

Traci Lords.

-The first thing
that comes to mind

was how charismatic she was.

You'd walk into a restaurant
with her in Mexico

and everybody'd stand up
and clap.

They didn't know who she was.
They didn't know what she did,

but they could just feel
that sexual charisma.

She was amazing.

I did photograph Traci Lords
more than anybody.

She was my favorite.

-What really caught my eye here
was the title.

"Meet the Ladies
behind those nasty skin mags."

And of course, it features you.

- [ Chuckles ]
- "Nasty skin mags."

Like, there's so much
stigma attached to that.

-Nasty's good.
We got lots of press.

-I'm Holly Randall.
My mother is Suze Randall,

who's one of the pioneers,
I think, for women

working behind the camera
in the adult industry.

-I worked for
"Playboy", "Penthouse"

"Hustler",
fought with all of them,

and worked for myself.

-Suze Randall
originally shot Traci

for a "Penthouse" centerfold.

I do remember the first time
I met Traci Lords.,

because she came
to our house with

her mother's boyfriend,

which now, thinking back,
was kind of weird.

-Because what no one knew
at this point

was that Traci
was harboring a dark secret.

-Traci was born Nora Kuzma
in 1968 in Ohio.

When she was 12 years old,

she moved with her mother
and her sisters

and her mother's boyfriend
to Southern California.

-Foreshadowing accusations about
her possible ulterior motives

years later, Traci wrote
about seeing California

for the first time in her book,
"Underneath It All",

believing that Hollywood would
become her ultimate destiny.

Traci claimed in her book
that her mother's boyfriend,

who she calls Roger,

began sexually assaulting her
when she was just 12 years old,

and that it started almost
immediately after the family

moved in with him.

As is common with many victims,
Traci said

she kept the traumatizing
sexual abuse a secret,

hiding it from her mother,

writing in her memoir...

Nora claimed that sex
with a high school boyfriend

led to pregnancy.

She needed money to pay for an
abortion, but only 15 years old,

she was too young to get a job.

She later wrote
that Roger had a solution.

He introduced her
to a family friend

who gave Nora
her birth certificate.

Nora explained that she took the
birth certificate

to the DMV,
had her photos and prints taken,

and walked out as 22-year-old
Kristie Nussman,

Nora Kuzma behind for good.

She claimed it was Roger

who then took her to Jim
South's World Modeling Agency,

one of only two adult agencies
at the time.

-We're modeling.

-All the girls went to
Jim South.

-Jim South was very well
regarded in the industry.

-He discovered
all of the big names.

-Jim South was profiled
in a documentary about

the adult industry
called "Fallen Angels",

which gave a raw, candid,
and sometimes depressing view

of what the porn industry
was like in the early '80s.

Ginger Lynn and Christy Canyon
were also signed to Jim South.

-Jim said to me, "We need to
take some Polaroids."

And I remember he took me
into the side room

and he asked me to get naked
and I took my clothes off.

I had no trouble
doing that whatsoever.

-We feel that it will get her
a lot more work

if I circulate
some of these Polaroids.

-He takes the Polaroid.

-Give me a smile.
Okay, one more.

-Click, click.
[ Imitates printing ]

The Polaroid
comes out. "Turn around.

Let's get a side view.
Let me see your fanny."

And that's when I was like.

"Oh, God, is he gonna
like, pull his dick out?"

No. He was like...
You know, I turn around,

he's like fanning them out,

waiting
for that Polaroid to dry.

There was nothing gross
about it.

There was nothing, like,
tawdry at all about it.

-He was very professional.
He was always there for them.

He wanted the best for them.

-Okay, now, you guys, we're set.

-He was not sleazy or cheesy.
He was great.

-Traci had a different
impression of Jim South,

who she calls
Tim North in her book,

alleging in vivid detail that he
gave her cocaine and champagne

during her first encounter
with him.

Those allegations
would be argued over

by other porn stars
signed to Jim South

in the years to follow,

saying this was proof
that Traci was lying.

But many say that
in their experience,

Jim South always checked that
the women were of legal age...

-Do you have legal ID
showing your age?

No, no.
Legal ID,

like a birth certificate,
a driver's license.

-...including Traci Lords.

-So I went into this agency
with the fake ID

that we's just discussed,
and, you know, they said,

"Are you 21?"
And I went, "Uh-huh."

-They asked for my IDs.
I gave them my IDs.

It was September of 1983.

I was 19 years old,
turning 20 in December.

-At that time, I never suspected
anybody else was underaged,

because we all had to have ID.
Mine was real.

I didn't even think
somebody would get a fake ID.

-Later on, I found out that many
young women in the industry...

I'm not going to name names...
Started at 17 or 16

and no one ever found out.

-Still in school, Traci starts
posing nude for spreads

in several porn magazines,

where she drops the name Nora
Kuzma to become Traci Lords.

She took the last name Lords
because she was a huge fan

of Jack Lord from the TV
series "Hawaii Five-O".

-Book 'em, Danno.

-Traci's memoir reveals that
she was self-aware enough

to recognize that,

while she knew
what she was doing was wrong,

she got a thrill from it, too.

And that thrill seemed
to outweigh everything else.

But then a boy at Traci's
high school

recognizes her in a magazine

and shows it to her
in front of her classmates.

For all of her previous bluster
about being found out,

when it actually happens,

it turns out
to be devastating for her.

Traci writes about
how horrifying

the moment is in her book.

She heads to Hollywood,
just a few miles,

but a world away from her mom's
house in nearby Redondo Beach.

Still only 16,

but armed with her
DMV-issued fake ID,

Traci's career
in the porn industry takes off.

-Every movie that came out
with her on the cover

was a major bestseller.

-She entered the business
in 1984,

and by the time
she was 16 years old,

she's one of the most successful
and highly paid

performers in the industry.

-You might call Ginger Lynn,
Traci Lords,

and Christy Canyon

the Charlie's Angels
of the porn industry.

-And there was a fierce
competition for the spotlight,

with Traci frequently
taking center stage.

-Traci was the only person
in the adult industry

that I ever felt
that I had any competition with.

She had more confidence
than I did.

She had more sex appeal
than I did.

She had bigger tits than I did.
That only added fuel to the fire

of my not liking her
immediately from the beginning.

-I would assume that when you
are a top female performer

and somebody new comes up

and starts getting
all the attention,

you're not happy about that.

-Ginger may be best known
for "Kinky Business",

a play on the Tom Cruise
classic "Risky Business".

But Ginger's version starts
with a much different

kind of stress dream.

-That's a hard-on.
I'm going to tell my mother.

When I did
my first couple of films,

I got back home and I was like,
"You know what?

I think I'm going to do
more movies.

I'm making bank.

I'm having a great time."

Tastes good, too.

And so, I became very popular
very quickly and worked a lot.

Christy Canyon's star begins
to rise by headlining movies

like "Erotica Jones".

In that film,
she plays a repressed housewife

who calls handymen
and handywomen...

-Ouch!

- to service her every fantasy.

-Why don't you come in?

I was just there now,
having fun,

banking a couple bucks,

learning the most amazing things
about sex on camera.

Like, I'd never been
with two guys before.

I had never been
with a girl before.

-But it was Traci that emerged

as one of the most desired
performers in the industry.

-Here's the thing.
I loved working with her.

She and Ginger were my two
favorite girls to work with

for completely opposite reasons.

Ginger and I were these fun
little school girls,

whereas when you worked
with Traci,

she was like this porcelain doll
in a way.

She was very cold.
She was very calculating.

But it was kind of fun,
and she was in charge.

I had no doubt in my mind that
she was truly a superstar.

-She was as big as big gets.

I think she dwarfed Christy
and Ginger at the time.

She was so big,
so fast, in so many movies,

on so many box covers.

-Traci was well known for
her energetic,

exuberant performances,

and especially for her loud,
wild vocalizations

during sex scenes.

-You can hear those
vocalizations

in "Traci, I Love You".

-[ Moaning ]

-Her noises were stupid.

-But those noises were
a smart way for Traci

to get the only thing
that seemed to matter

to her... people's attention,

as she wrote in her book.

Traci and the rest
of the industry

would soon get
the attention she craved.

But it wasn't
the kind anyone wanted.

-I don't know
what the true story is.

Everything she has said
has been a lie.

-We realized the danger
that we were in.

-By the mid-1980s,

making money was at the center
of American culture,

as Gordon Gekko said

in this iconic moment
in the movie "Wall Street".

-The point is, ladies
and gentlemen, that greed,

for lack of a better word,
is good.

-And that certainly seemed to be

a driving motivation
in the porn industry.

-I was making anywhere between
$500 to $1,200 a day.

Women could generate twice that,

at least $1,200 to $2,000
a scene.

-I have made 76 films
in the adult film industry.

-But quantity didn't
replace extravagance.

-Back in the '80s,
it was literally like working

for MGM or Paramount.

They had wardrobe,
they had hair, they had makeup.

They had crews come in
to cook you three meals a day.

I thought that
it was very glamorous.

I thought that it was beautiful.

I felt proud
to be on a porn set.

-Traci Lords was one of

the highest
paid performers on those sets.

-She had the reputation
of being a diva,

but so did mainstream
Hollywood stars.

I'm sure she got $1,000 a day,
but producers were probably

making
$1 million off of that scene.

So they put up with her.

"You don't want Thai food?
Great. What do you want?

We'll get... We'll get you
three different things."

They did anything to make all of
us happy, but especially Traci.

They were willing to bend
over backwards for her

because
100,000 pieces out the door.

Don't forget, in the mid-80s,

those VHS
tapes were going for $89.

They were making friggin' bank.

-But as Traci Lords explained
to Larry King,

just because her face was
on almost every VHS box cover

didn't mean she was getting paid
for all of those movies.

-You make one film in one day

and they edit it
into 50 different ones

with different titles
and pictures,

and all of a sudden,
they think that you made 50.

There were maybe 20 films
over... over three years,

as if that's not enough.

You know, the entire...
That whole three year period,

you know, I maybe made $40,000.

-No matter how much Traci and
her fellow actors

actually earned,
money in the '80s,

often brought one thing with
it... temptation.

-I got caught up in
the party crowd

and I got caught up in cocaine
and champagne and limousines.

-Everyone was doing drugs.

-Drugs were a problem
in the industry. That's true.

We never got into cocaine.
That's a terrible, terrible drug

because it makes you
feel like you know everything

and you're really important

and you become
the center of attention

because you've got the cocaine,
not because anybody likes you.

A lot of girls, I had
to resuscitate, get into rehab.

I was quite good at that sort of
thing, playing the nurse thing.

-One of the girls Suze rescued
was Ginger,

whose addiction
grew to be so bad

that she became
barely recognizable

and very few wanted
to shoot with her.

-My reputation had gone down.
Everybody knew

that I was thin, I was on drugs,

that I wasn't doing well,
and Suze Randall...

this is one of my most
special moments in my life...

Suze came in and she said,

"You can be a drug addict
all you want, if you want,

or you can get your shit
together. You make the choice.

What do you want to do?
Which way do you want to go?"

And... I didn't know,

but I knew I didn't want
to be a drug addict.

I had my values. I had my rules.
I had my confidence.

I had all of these
wonderful things

that my father
had instilled in me.

Had it not been for Suze
coming over that day

and telling me
to get my shit together,

I don't think
I would be here today.

I mean,
I was on a really bad path.

-Traci Lords says she also got
caught up in the whirlwind

of porn's party scene.

But drugs weren't the only thing

Traci sought out when
the cameras stopped rolling.

-I remember working with
Traci Lords on "Kinky Business".

I had this blowjob scene
in the shower with Tom Byron,

and I'm sucking his dick,

which I actually won an award
for... Best Blowjob.

My grandma was so proud of me.
I ended the scene,

and I looked out the window.
Traci was on the diving board.

Someone from the crew.
She was extremely sexual.

She was slutty. She was sexy.
She was just... She exuded sex.

-While Traci acknowledged
this perceived promiscuity,

victims of sexual abuse
may see sex as the only way

to get love or attention
from those around them.

She explained her experience
in her book.

Traci also told stories on set
that left her co-stars

wondering if her polluted mind

could no longer tell truth
from fiction.

-I remember on one of the sets,
she said to me,

"You know, Christy,

I was a virgin until I got
in the porn business."

And I was thinking, "God, I just
saw two guys piledrive you.

Like, you learn
pretty fast on the job."

But then, like a month later,
I remember Traci Lords saying,

"You know, in high school,
I... the whole football team."

And I thought,

"You told me you were a virgin
before you got in the business."

-I never really had a lot of
conversations with Traci.

We did not communicate
well at all before,

during, or after scenes.
She would just say

different things
nonchalantly that you just went,

"That doesn't sound right."

-"Huh, she sure lies a lot,
and boy,

they're such opposite lies."

But I just...

Again, at 18, you just don't
really give a shit.

So I just went along
my merry way.

-There was never a smile
or an honesty

or reality with Traci Lords.

There was always this...
Something was off.

I didn't believe anything
that she said.

-But in the porn business,
the bottom line

is often all that matters,

and Traci Lords was one of the
industry's biggest moneymakers.

She was so popular
that photographer

Suze Randall thought
Traci could go beyond porn.

-She was a great model.
She was a great mover,

and I thought she should explore
other avenues.

-So Suze shot her for
the prestigious

Lamb's Navy Rum calendar,
popular in the UK,

but on a promotion trip
to Britain,

Suze learned you can take
an actress out of porn,

but maybe not the porn
out of the actress.

-They flew us over to London

for the presentation
of the calendar.

All she did was give the agent's
son a blowjob in the dark room.

She wasn't really interested
in modeling.

-When they returned to the US,

news about Traci's past
would mark

the end of anyone's interest
in making Traci more mainstream.

-I got a sniffling of it
when we got off the plane

coming back from London

and all the press was around us,
paparazzi,

and they were
murmuring something.

-A young woman,
widely publicized

under the name of Traci Lords,

may legally be just a child.

-I was shocked.
I mean, I had no idea.

-I'm at my house
in Beverly Hills.

I get a knock on the door.

It's a woman and a man from
the district attorney's office.

We sit down at my table

and she starts asking me
questions about Traci Lords.

-We realized the danger
that we were in.

-I was watching some TV show.

I'm probably, like,
cleaning my apartment

and just... it was kind of,

you know,
"Entertainment Tonight",

and I remember, you know, like,
doo-doo-doo, cleaning in here.

"Underage porn star
Traci Lords."

And I just remember saying,
"She was how old?!"

It was a shock. At no point
did I think she was under 20.

She carried herself really well,
really confident.

I was 18 and I had
a 10th of her confidence.

I don't know how she was so
confident, but... [whistles]

-Police sources say the star of
adult movies was legally a child

when she made most of them,

that she began in sex films
as a 16-year-old Ohio runaway.

-The news shook
the California-based

adult entertainment industry.

It had implications
for performers,

photographers, producers,
and production companies,

even that member of the crew

Traci allegedly had sex with
on set.

Most everyone in
that world remembers

where they were on
July 18th, 1986.

-Well, that was a terrible day.
Very scary day.

I went, "Oh, my God,
that sounds like Traci."

I don't think
she meant any harm.

She would never have wanted
to harm me.

But it scared the shit
out of the whole industry.

-I was in Philadelphia when the
Traci Lords "scandal" happened.

I knew Traci. I interviewed her
along with my business partner

at one of the trade shows

when she was supposedly
a young new starlet who was 18.

I didn't know her age.
- I was shocked.

I wasn't scared.
I didn't feel culpable.

I mean, I had no idea.
Had I known, of course,

I wouldn't have done
anything like that, you know,

nor would 95%
of the people I know.

They would have just backed off.

You know, I mean, they...
You know, wait 'til she's 18.

-And it was like,
"Who could I call first?"

Alexis, the makeup artist.
And of course, that was 1986,

so I don't even think they have
call waiting back then.

So, like, I get a busy signal,
I'd be like,

"Operator, can I make
an emergency call?"

Because we used
to make emergency calls

in the day, right?

We were just like,
"Oh, my God, she was underaged."

-It's funny when you think of it
now, about how fast news travels

these days with social media
and the Internet and everything.

But back then, you know,
obviously, you got your news

from people
calling you on the phone

and seeing it on the 10:00 news.

My initial reaction was,
"I don't believe it.

I don't believe she's underaged.

There's no way this little vixen
can be an underaged person."

-Later, in her Larry King
interview,

Traci talked about
how she was able

to work in the porn business
even though she was underage.

-If you said you were
old enough,

people kind
of went, "Yeah, okay, sure."

-My reaction to Traci
as a seasoned performer

was somebody who was
totally in charge,

directing the action like that.

You're like... she was...
She was...

To me, she was not a victim.

But the reality is, if you're
15 years old, you are a victim.

-But Traci, as the victim, is
not how law enforcement saw it

when the story first broke.

She even wrote about
how she felt

like a criminal at that moment.

-She herself was taken into
custody.

-Once she was found
to be under age,

all the retailers
had to return the movies,

the distributors had
to return the movies.

If you had movies with her,
you had to destroy them

or cut her out of the movies.

-Instantly, any X-rated videos

featuring Traci Lords became
illegal child pornography.

-The industry began sweeping
its shelves of Lords' movies.

-The whole industry is extremely
shocked and they're frightened.

They don't know
which way to move.

-This wiped out millions of
dollars in inventory

for those stores and really sent
the home video industry

and the adult film industry
into a tailspin.

-There was a lot of grumbling
from the uppity-ups

in the industry, that they were
losing so much money.

But I was also in some ways
pleased

that some of the scumbags
in the industry

got... financially.

I mean, I know
that doesn't sound

like a real home team player,

but there was so many assholes
in the industry,

I was happy they lost money.

-When I found out that Traci
was underage, I wasn't afraid

for me,
I was afraid for my friends.

If I remember correctly,
one of my friend's fathers,

one of the photographers,
had shot Traci all the time

and they were trying
to get rid of everything.

Half of his catalogue
was Traci Lords.

I was told that he ended up
having to go in

to a mental health facility
for a while after this happened.

-It really was a huge earthquake
in the adult business.

No one wanted to get caught
for underage talent.

-It's really remarkable to me

that there's this whole piece
of adult film history

featuring one of the biggest
stars, most successful

that's been all but erased
from this history.

-My best friend, Tina Marie,
was like,

"Yeah, my husband's
pulling all of her footage."

Ron Vogel, his daughter, Alexis,
was like,

"Oh my God, my dad's there.
He's pulling all of her stills.

We're burning everything."
Like, it was huge news.

-Photographer Suze Randall
was in a state of panic.

She now faced
potential prosecution

for taking hundreds of naked
photographs of a minor.

-We realized the danger
that we were in.

-There was an article about it,
like,

"Comes to light... Traci Lords,
underage porn star."

And my dad was just like,

"Oh, shit."

-So we shredded all the material
and we ran around town

dumping it
in different trash cans.

-I think I had about five trash
bags full of Traci Lords'

pictures and drove around
the various supermarkets,

looking for ones
with empty bins,

because you didn't want to throw
them on top of

because it might get out.

-Bye-bye, Traci.

-I was seven years old.

I sort of knew what my parents
did for a living,

but I didn't have
a full understanding of it.

So all they could really tell me
was, "Cops might come

and take Mommy and Daddy
away to jail.

If this happens,
you need to call these people

and they're going to
take care of it

and everything's going
to be alright."

-I did warn Holly that if we
went to jail to call my lawyer

who lived down the street,

-I don't understand
why my parents would go to jail.

My parents were good people.

-Some of the adults who had sex
with the underage Traci

would become targets
of the investigation as well.

-They wanted me to testify
on Traci Lords' behalf

against 64 adult film producers.

And they said to me
very specifically,

"If you don't help us with this,

we are going to make
your life very difficult.

-I'm at my house
in Beverly Hills.

[ Knock on door ]
I get a knock on the door.

It's a woman and a man from
the district attorney's office.

We sit down at my table

and she starts asking me
questions about Traci Lords.

And I looked down
and she had a little bag,

a little purse type deal,

and there was
a tape recorder running.

I called my attorney and said,

"I've got these people here from
the district attorney's office."

And he said,
"Shut up," and I did.

-Ginger had a right to be
scared.

She had engaged in sex with
legally underage Traci Lords

during the filming of the aptly
titled "Those Young Girls".

-I remember the guy
I was dating.

He had produced or he
distributed "Those Young Girls"

that had Ginger Lynn,
Traci Lords, Harry Reems,

John Holmes.
They went after that.

-"They" were
the Attorney General's

Commission on Pornography,

headed up in 1986 by
Ronald Reagan's AG, Edwin Meese.

-And as you can imagine,
of course,

their conclusions
in the end were,

"Yes, porn is harmful to
society.

Yes, porn degrades women,

promotes violence"
and stuff like that.

Overall, it was, you know,

designed to try to take down
the porn industry.

-The Traci Lord stuff that was
happening around

the same time
really contributed to that

because now the industry is seen
as dangerous and out of control

and not even knowing
who's working in it.

-People were really worried
that the government

was going to come in
and shut down the golden goose.

No one wanted to go to jail
for pornography,

let alone underage pornography.
So people were really worried.

-The Meese Commission's inquiry
into pornography

dragged on for years.

-They wanted me to testify
on Traci Lord's behalf

against 64 adult film producers.

They said to me
very specifically,

"If you don't help us with this,

we are going to make
your life very difficult."

So I go before the grand jury

and they showed me photographs
from "Kinky Business",

and they're asking me
who the different people

in the photographs are,
and I'm like, "I don't know.

That's Bob."
Everybody was Bob on the set.

You know, a lot of people
weren't as open and honest

about what they were doing
in there,

and in their film careers
at the time,

a lot of the crew
kind of people.

-The surveillance-type photos
authorities show Ginger made her

even more wary of the
investigation's true intentions.

-They had photographs of
Traci...

Why did anyone allow her
to continue if,

in fact, she really
was underage at the time?

It made absolutely
no sense to me whatsoever.

When I refused to testify,
that was it.

-Well, not quite.

Ginger was not charged
in connection with Traci Lords,

but she believes
she was still punished.

-It kind of ended,
until five years later,

to the day.
I was in Malibu.

I was dating Charlie Sheen
at the time,

and my attorney called and said,
"You've been indicted

for willfully subscribing to
a false tax return."

I was facing six years
in federal prison.

I spent close to half a million
dollars defending myself

for a crime I didn't commit.

And it turned out I got
750 hours of community service,

mandatory drug testing,
and... and fines and fees.

I completely felt
that this was retribution for me

refusing to testify against
all of these porn producers.

-Two producers from "Those
Young Girls" were indicted.

-These two schmucks that had
nothing to do

with the porn business.

They were like
comedian directors.

They directed comedies,
and... but they were like,

"Okay, let's try porn."
The one porn that gets busted

called "Those Young Girls"
is what they did.

-One distributor, who sold
Traci's underage tapes

after her true age
was revealed, was charged

with three counts of
trafficking child pornography.

The distributor appealed
the case all the way

to the Supreme Court
on the grounds

that certain federal statutes
about child pornography

were unconstitutionally vague.
But his conviction was upheld.

He served one year
and was fined $100,000.

Since Traci's mom and mom's
boyfriend weren't involved

in Traci's films,

neither were charged
in the underage scandal,

and Traci never reported
the boyfriend

for allegedly abusing her.

But ironically,
it was her mom's boyfriend

who ended up being responsible

for protecting a lot of people
in the porn industry

when he helped 15-year-old Traci

acquire her government
issued fraudulent ID.

-She had fake IDs that were
apparently professionally done.

So no one knew
and no one questioned it.

-This was also how she allegedly
got a passport

when she traveled to London
with Suze Randall.

-Traci got her passport
like everybody else does,

by going with your IDs,
but her IDs were fake.

-What saved a lot
of these people...

She had a government ID.
So do you sue the DMV?

It's not their fault that
it slipped through the cracks

at the DMV and the United States
passport office.

Like, if you could fool
the government,

why can't you fool
some pornographers?

-Because of this, charges
were dropped against Jim South.

- We're modeling.
- Years later,

on "Larry King Live",

Traci Lords admitted
to lying about her age.

-Yes, I lied about my age,
but honestly,

nobody really seemed
to care that much.

They wanted to make money.

-People were angry because
they felt like she had put them

in this dangerous situation
and it wasn't their fault.

It's hard to hold
her accountable for her actions

because she was a minor,
but also, the people

who filmed her
did not know she was a minor.

So how could they be held
accountable for their actions?

So it was a very muddy case.

-But Traci's own actions helped
make the situation

even cloudier.

After she legally came of age,

but right before
the scandal broke,

Traci Lords created
her own production company.

One of the movies she made as
part of the Traci Lords company

was called "Traci, I Love You".

-I want you to press your
hot body up against me.

-[ Speaking French ]

-The important thing about
"Traci, I Love You"

is that it was shot two days

after
Traci Lords' 18th birthday,

making it the only film

that is legally allowed to be
owned in the United States.

-The film telegraphs themes
which would later become part

of Traci's story about herself.

She plays a sex worker

who tries to make it
as a mainstream actress,

but ends up being used
by her agent

and can only book roles
in erotic films.

-I don't understand.
Pleasure is love.

-That's right.
The only Traci Lords film

we can show
you is owned by Traci Lords.

-Traci owned the rights
to the royalties on

"Traci, I Love You",
the only legal film,

and all the other films
had to be destroyed.

-To my knowledge,
nobody knew how deep her lies

and her web that she had
spun ran so deep.

But if she didn't pull off
the ultimate... scam.

-"Traci, I Love You"
became one of the best-selling

porn tapes ever,
and it fueled speculation

about who tipped off the FBI
in the first place.

-I know who did it.
Some smart person.

And I'm not going to say,
but you can guess, can't you?

-After Traci Lords left
the adult film industry,

she kept the name Traci Lords,
which is a way for her

to capitalize
on the fame she had achieved.

She tried to cross over into
the mainstream film industry.

She actually had some success.

She was in John Waters'
"Cry Baby"...

-Dad, would you just
just leave me alone?

- she appeared
in a "MacGyver" episode...

-Don't you forget me now,
you hear?

-...she had a small part
in the movie "Blade".

-[ Laughs ]

- So, where are we going?
- It's a surprise, baby.

-She even had a hit
music single.

-And in place of the loud
vocalizations from her videos,

most of Traci's songs
featured her using her voice

in a sultry whisper instead.

- ♪ Let me kiss it ♪
- ♪ Let me kiss it ♪

- ♪ And make it better ♪
- ♪ And make it better ♪

-But she did not really achieve

that kind of crossover success
that she had hoped.

-Nearly 20 years
after the scandal broke,

Traci Lords' tell-all book,
"Underneath It All",

came out in 2003,
but not everyone agrees

with how she characterized
her time in the adult industry.

-Shame on you, Traci.

In your book, you called
our agent, like, Tim North.

Oh, you're so uncreative.
And in the book, she lied.

He fed her champagne.
He fed her cocaine.

Right then, I'm like,
"Okay, it's a lie.

Why did he not feed anyone else
champagne and coke?

Why are you
the magical, mythical creature

that he decided to trap?"

But I think in her own mind,

I think she believes this.
That's the scary part.

I think she really believes
that she was forced to do it.

But then I go,
"If it was that bad,

why are you using
your fake name?

Go back to Nora Kuzma
from Steubenville, Ohio,

where no one gives a shit
about you."

-The book continued to fuel
the mystery at the center

of the Traci Lord story

and prompted Larry King
to ask the key question.

-Why the FBI raid?

-I don't know if it started
from the initial reports

that my mother made of me
as a runaway or if they...

how exactly they received
the information that they did.

I don't know that I'll ever know
the answer to that.

-The book presents
a few theories.

A jilted ex-boyfriend

or a politically
motivated investigation.

-There's a lot of people
who believe that she was

the one that tipped off the feds

to the fact
that she was underage.

-One piece of speculation
was that Traci herself

had tipped off the authorities

to increase the royalties
on that one legal tape.

-In her book, Traci seems
to roll her eyes at this notion.

-She's obviously never admitted
to that.

That would be an incredibly...

I mean, for someone that young,

that would be a pretty...
That's a long game.

So who knows?

Ultimately, this is kind of like
one of those great mysteries

that I feel like
we'll never fully know.

Only Traci is going to ever
really know that answer.

-She got away with...

She... She had
the perfect pornography career.

She did a thousand films
and none of them were released.

[ Chuckles ]
I wish that was my fate.

Everything I've ever done,
every ugly moment in my life,

is there for all to see.
Please enjoy yourself.

-In the long run, it was good.
It made everybody conscious

of getting the IDs,
which nobody did,

everybody was really
sloppy about.

So it changed the industry
for the better.

-Since the Traci Lords scandal,

there was one other significant
instance

of a performer discovered
to be underage

in the mainstream
adult film industry.

Alexandra Quinn,
a Canadian performer

who came to the US
with a falsified passport.

When her true age
was discovered in 1991,

her previous movies
were all destroyed.

-Take two.

-I can tell you now,

we need two forms
of government issued ID.

One of them has to be
a photo ID.

None of them can be expired.

You also have to fill out
a 2257 form,

where you sign that you
are of age,

put in all your details,
your Social Security number,

all that kind of stuff,
as well as the model release.

We take photos of your IDs.

We take photos of you holding
the IDs up to your face.

We take a video of you
holding these IDs

up to your face saying,
"This is who I am.

This is how old I am.
I want to be here today.

I am not under the influence
of drugs or alcohol.

I know what I'm doing.
I'm of sound mind."

We take a video after the scene

where you say,
"Everything went fine today."

Assuming, of course,
that it did.

"I still am not on drugs,
and here is my check.

I was paid and I'm happy
and I'm going home."

-Recently, Traci began appearing
in the web series "EastSiders",

playing against type
in the role of a prudish mother.

- I love you, honey.
- Love you too.

-Keep your pants on and your
wits about you. Goodbye.

-I still love Traci.

I mean, I forgive her for all
the troubles she's caused,

but trouble's her middle name.

-So far, Ginger and Christy
haven't forgiven Traci,

but they have maintained a close
friendship throughout the years.

-We've been friends now
for nearly 40 years.

I talked to Christy two
or three times a day.

We never run out
of things to say.

We set up last night and talked
for like 4 hours straight.

You'd think that we would
run out of stuff,

but we still don't.
There's just a bond

and something special
about our friendship

that I've never had
with anyone before.

-I haven't seen this movie
since we filmed it.

-Did you miss me? I missed you.

- Is that you? Oh, my God.
- [ Laughs ]

-That's me. Look at my hair.

- That was the style.
- Oh, my God.

You just popped in.

-See, I thought... in my memory,
I did the Jeannie move.

-I was such a co-star.
We had the best of everything.

Made the best dancing days.
We had the best video days.

What an amazing journey
we've had together.

-I love how everybody just
coupled up.

Boom, boom.
- Me, too. And you got me.

-And I got you.

-What would I say to Traci?

I would say, "You probably had
a pretty hard life,

and I'm sure that you had
reasons

for doing what you did,

and you were underage,

and I'm sure
that you didn't go into it

with the intention
of hurting people

in the way that you could have.

So I forgive you."

-Years after the scandal,
Traci told Larry King

how she turned the pain
from her traumatic journey

through the porn business
into something good,

by working with an organization

to get child prostitutes
off the streets

and into a stable environment.

-But these girls,
they're all Traci Lords.

You know, they all have been
molested in some way or another.

But the one thing that
they have all said to me is,

"Wow, you're okay now."
That's their dream.

You know how some people aspire
to go to Harvard

or "When I... When I grow up,
I'm going to be a doctor.

I'm going to be this.
When I grow up,

I'm going to be okay.

♪♪