‘Once Upon a Time…in the Valley’, a new podcast series co-produced and co-presented by Vanity Fair’s Lili Anolik and The Rialto Report’s Ashley West, continues today with the eighth episode.
Episode 10: Who Ratted Out Traci?
The mystery is (maybe) solved. And we hear directly – and at length – from 1985 Traci, in a never-before-aired interview.
If you thought you knew the Traci Lords story… think again.
Download wherever you listen to your podcasts. New episodes will drop every Tuesday throughout the series.
Download wherever you listen to your podcasts. New episodes will drop every Tuesday throughout the series.
________________________________________________________________
Praise for ‘Once Upon a Time… In The Valley’:
Harper’s Bazaar: 15 Sex Podcasts to Listen to Right Now
CNN: ‘Noir At Its Finest’
*
Tremendous … and the discussion about the theories is brilliant and smart.
Last episode, next week………. say it ain’t so….. this has been the best adult film podcast ever.
That gem of an interview with Traci from 1985 shows her to be ambitious, cool, calm, and calculating. I hope The Rialto Report can get their hands on the actual F.B.I. documentation and interviews with Traci. I’m interested to see if they had her cooperating with them prior to the July 1986 encounter.
The unheard Traci interview gave me the chills… hearing her own voice… back in the day… wow – that was an amazing twist.
And it’s certainly not consistent with her story / narrative in the years since then.
Another fascinating listen. I wonder if anymore footage of that interview exists, it was quite an eye opener. can’t believe we’re near the end already.
It is too bad you didn’t speak with Jim Wynorski, who directed Lords in her first “mainstream” film, “Not of this Earth.” He has said Lords told him, during the filming of the aforementioned film, that she was the one who blew the whistle on being underage to the authorities.
Of course, this could be Lords playing fast and loose with the truth again with Wynorski, like she has so many other times.
Liam:
Traci wasn’t the only one who said that. Tom Byron (and others in the industry) were pretty sure she ratted herself out, and it’s the theory I’ve always subscribed to (and I’ve not even listened to this yet).
Byron once said when she told her of her aspirations to go ‘legit’ and he told her that she wouldn’t be able to crossover (because of the porn), she told him “all that porn shit” isn’t going to matter. He said he didn’t give it another thought at the time, but in retrospect, it made sense to him that if she blew the whistle on herself. Immediately, all her incriminating product ‘goes away’, and then conveniently sells the one legal video she owns (for $50k plus per-copy royalty, as I recall).
Ginger Lynn even said she thought the feds knew about her from ‘almost the beginning’, because when they were putting pressure on her, she was shown surveillance photos from porn location shoots. She figured Traci was working for the feds all along, while they gathered evidence, and she thought maybe they were the ones who gave her the very convincing fake IDs….
Wow is she hot! There is a punk rock song about her called Come Back Traci.
The vids are hard to find due to the age issue but R.R. comes through like a champ with info and hottness.
T.Y.
Great podcast with informative new information. The interviews with Troy were especially interesting as they gave a fuller picture of that period of time and differ from Traci’s presentation of events.
If you have an extra episode, perhaps you could confirm whether Traci told Wynorski that she had blown the whistle on herself. Also if you could post the full 1985 interview that would be great. And If he would agree, perhaps even Troy’s photo of Nora that you describe as very beautiful. Thanks.
The first few episodes I barely recognized Ashley. It was as if Lili Anolik had given him a good wash with Teen Vogue bubble bath. Gone was the New York grit and grime we get from his writing in the podcasts.
Gillis might not have even recognized you Ash.
It got really good about Ep 7. Most of the story before that I knew.
Hopefully many new viewers have found their way to this website.