The woman who helped legitimize porn is gone. Linda Lovelace died from massive trauma and internal injuries suffered after an April 3 automobile accident. Her ex-husband/best friend, Larry Marchiano, and their two adult children were at Denver Health Medical Center when she was taken off life support yesterday. She was 53.
Linda Boreman, famous for her starring role as Linda Lovelace in the 1972 fellatio how-to film, Deep Throat, later acquired fame for her anti-porn advocacy. She claimed in her 1980 autobiography, Ordeal, and in her congressional committee pornography investigation testimony, that her first husband forced her into porn at gunpoint. Further, their relationship was rife with violence, rape and prostitution. She sensibly divorced this, and I use the term loosely, "man" in 1973. Boreman never earned one red cent from her work in Deep Throat. Her ex earned $1250. The film is reported to have grossed $600 million.
Renouncing her porn career, Boreman hopped the Porn Is Bad band wagon. This decision cemented her membership in the Bad People of the Future Hall of Fame. Subsequently, porn industry conditions improved, but not by much.
She was beautiful and gracious, and the first woman to become famous for having sex on film. So, let's all shout out a big Thank You to Linda Lovelace for not only teaching us how to suck cock, but for shedding light on heinous violations committed during the embryonic phases of an industry that should be all about the love.
