HOME



More Traci Lords

Born 5/7/68, Nora Louise Kuzma moved to Redondo Beach in Southern California with her mother and sisters in 1980, fleeing abuse by Nora's alcoholic father. Mr. Kuzma was a Jewish immigrant from the Ukraine while Nora's mother, Patricia Briceland, was of Scandinavian descent.

"Black-and-white and one-dimensional," is how Traci recalled her upbringing in a 6-17-93 interview with Newsday. "It was the classic case of mind abuse and mind games."

Kuzma's parents separated when she was twelve and she moved with her mother and sisters to Redondo Beach, California. Nora soon lost her virginity, got pregnant, and despite her boyfriend's offer of marriage, had an abortion.

In 1983, at age 15, Kuzma ran away from home to Los Angeles. She lived with a man in his 40s, who posed as her stepfather when they visited Jim South's World Modeling agency on Van Nuys Boulevard in Sherman Oaks. Nora showed Jim a California Driver's License and a birth certificate. They carried the name Kristie Nussbaum, born 11/17/63.

South told Traci to strip in a separate room for Polaroids, the normal procedure at his office for newcomers. While she removed her clothes, her "stepfather" regaled South with tales of porno stars he knew. Then he said to South: "This girl will do anything you want in porn movies."

World Modeling first sent Traci to a shoot simulating sex. But the photographer had to stop the proceedings because Traci took it past simulation.

Lords made her video debut in 1984's What Gets Me Hot. She earned $200 a day doing bit parts in her first productions. In Joys of Erotica, Traci sits on a sofa with porn actress Raven. They talk about men.

"I'm sick of men in my life," says Raven.

The 15-year old Traci agrees. "They all have ego problems. Every one of them thinks they have the golden jewel. The best cock around. You have to sit there and play with them, like little toys to make sure they feel they're the best."

Traci and Raven have sex.

"I thought I was gay," says Traci, "even though I never had sex with women outside movies."

Also while 15, Traci appeared in Penthouse. Jerry Butler beat off incessantly to her image. "I'd never seen a prettier pinup, but in real life Traci was another cup of tea. When I met her, I wasn't impressed. Traci was hyped so well because she had the innocent girl-next-door quality that porno companies loved. The girl most likely not to do it. Porky and lazy, her balloon tits didn't do much for me. Then she started to make these orgasmic sounds - before I even pulled down my zipper. It was like f---ing a voice-over."

By contrast, Susie Bright says, "The reason Traci Lords made such a splash in X-rated cinema is that she made great responsive sex noises when was getting f---ed."

Butler: "Traci's a sexual billboard. Billboards look expensive and expansive. They demonstrate, but they never move or feel. Like Shauna Grant, Traci mastered that cliched sexy look for the camera."

A scared baby-fat brunette, Traci kept glancing sideways at the camera during her early performances. Her hands shook.

"Traci Lords sat naked on the couch where that cat is now," Bill Margold remembers. "It was 1985 and my wife Drea and I were going to do a movie called Portrait of Lust. I said to Drea that there's something wrong with this girl. She sat there looking like a lump, a wet looking, unformed lump. She wasn't formed properly. She had these conical tits, baby fat and the dullest look I have ever seen on a female. And I couldn't put together that this was an underage female. If I had caught her, think of the misery that I could've prevented. I keep reliving that day. Obviously, something stopped me from asking her if she was under 18. Maybe the hell-bent rush to disaster mentality of the industry, maybe its deathwish, exists within me as well."

"It was different in the '80s," Christy Canyon told journalist David Aaron Clark. "I did one film called Little Girls of the Street and Kissing Cousin. The titles were more alluring. Now that's illegal. You can't have any incest in the title. You can't say 'little girl.'

"Traci Lords was great. [Christy and Traci turned in several epics scenes.] I turned 18 in June of '84 and I started the business in September of 1984. She was fun. I used to always catch her in lies. I worked with her in about 30 movies. I remember that on one set she would say that she was a virgin until she was 18 - we didn't even know that she wasn't 18 - and then on another set she said when she was in high school she did the whole team. Lots of little weird things like that. We all thought she talked like that because she wanted attention. Certainly no one ever thought she was duping everyone on her age." (Spectator magazine)

With months of entering the industry, Traci transformed herself into a tough blonde who battled her male counterparts. Margold describes the time Lords did Jamie Gillis. "When the camera went off, Traci was still f---ing Jamie, while screaming "Come on, mama wants it hotter!" She had the sexual precocity of a 40-year old. Still, she was exceptionally mechanical. Like a cash register. She never gave too much on screen."

Paul Thomas is nicknamed PT or The Postman, because he always delivers. "She was one of the few actresses who wouldn't stop having sex after the camera was off. She wanted to show she could f--- just as good as porn stars like me. I met her on the set of Sex Fifth Avenue in 1984. She was as cute as can be. A nasty little girl who enjoyed being bad. I just wanted to f--- her."

Porn consumers around the world adored Traci. She got mobbed in Tokyo and Paris. At domestic adult video conventions, male fans waited hours get her autograph.

Earning over one million dollars from porn, Traci raised her own financing, produced her own films, wrote her own scripts, starred in her own projects and marketed the resulting product. She formed Traci Lords Productions with her "manager" and boyfriend, a man in his late 30s that South describes as a "snake." They got video companies to pay Traci $10,000 a month and furnish her with an apartment and a Mercedes. Shortly after she turned 18, Traci raised between $25,000 to $50,000 from a video distributor to make a porno in Paris. Though she went to France, she told the distributor she never made the movie.

On a Saturday afternoon in May 1986, shortly after she returned to California, federal agents arrested Lords for being under the 18-year old age of consent when she made 77 X-rated flicks. Video stores pulled all her movies within hours of the news and porn distributors destroyed millions of dollars worth of tapes.

Traci claims she can't remember her porn career because of the large amounts of drugs she ingested. But she is sure that she made only a handful of films and that producers took clips from those few to display her in 77 titles. Traci says she made less than $50,000 in porn and spent most of it on drugs. In short, she claims she was a victim of drugs, unhappiness, and most of all, pornographers.

Former Los Angeles County District Attorney Ira Reiner said, "She may well be a hard professional now, but she was 15...when the pornographic film industry got a hold of her. The thrust of our investigation is directed towards the industry that exploited her."

Traci was never charged with a crime. Several pornographers (including Jim South and Rubin Gottesman) spent about one million dollars together to defend themselves from charges of sexually exploiting a minor.

In 1986, "a couple of nice people from the FBI knocked on my door," remembers Ginger Lynn, "and politely asked me to testify on behalf of an actress who was allegedly underage, (let's call her Tacky Fords), and against producers in the adult film industry. I refused. They said "if you don't testify we will make your life very difficult." I testified, but I had difficulty remembering anyone's name. Oops! Shortly after that day the two nice people came back to my home and read me my rights, stating that I was under federal investigation for tax evasion. Those charges were dropped and new ones took their place. Another nice man from the FBI was then paid to watch my movies, look at my nude photos and who knows what else for five years to find out exactly what I may have done wrong… A trial took place. I was facing six years in prison for 'willfully subscribing to file a false tax return' in the amount of $2,078.00. I lost, not only the case, but my home as well, and four and a half months of my life that were spent in prison."

Lynn says she spent almost $400,000 to defend herself from charges arising from Traci's under-age status. "I spent 17 days in federal prison, 30 days in drug rehab, and three months in a halfway house all directly related to the Traci Lords case."

Federal law makes it illegal to hire someone under age for pornography, even if one doesn't know that they're underage. But California state court went easy, and Jim South got off without going to jail though Rubin Gottesman received a one-year sentence. Lords claims she spent thousands of dollars on legal fees but for what purpose is not clear as she was never charged with anything.

Three years after running away from home, Traci returned to tell her mother, "I f---ed up."

"I was never angry with Traci," says her mother, a fledgling Buddhist. "Her sisters were angry for a while. They'd walk to school and kids would call out, "You sister's a slut."

Traci did make a porno in Paris just before returning to California and getting arrested. While condemning porn and claiming "victim" status after her arrest, she sold Traci I Love You to a distributor for $100,000. It's the only porno legally available in America featuring Lords.

"I never saw any of my movies," Traci says. "I don't even remember making them. I was drinking and addicted to drugs."

Those who knew her laugh at this assertion. "Is that what she's claiming now?" asks Jim South. "That's an absolute lie. I never saw the girl take drugs. I would've had complaints. She was always a responsible businesswoman."

In an interview on TV's A Current Affair, in 1988, Traci claimed she left porn on her own. "One day after a shoot, I came home and showered to get the dirt off. But no matter how hard I scrubbed, I couldn't get rid of that dirty feeling. And so I quit."

Theories on who tipped off the FBI about Traci are legion but nothing has yet been established.

After disappearing from public sight for a few years, Lords returned in 1988 as a B-film bimbo and nudie poster girl. Traci says that during the silent years she got her life straightened out by joining Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. Her first mainstream film was a remake of the Roger Corman sci-fi picture Not of This Earth. Traci did two nude scenes.

"I was eighteen and out to prove to the world they were wrong about me."

By 1989, Traci had an agent - Don Geller. And she decided to quit doing nude scenes. She's lived up to her word, turning down numerous movie offers.

Lords began lecturing on college campuses about her experiences and working with the organization Children of the Night. "I don't preach. That's not my style. I'm totally against any kind of censorship. I think people should be able to watch anything they want to."

Traci claims she has never seen a porn film, not even one of her own. "Just the thought of seeing one of my own is absolutely horrible." (Newsday)

"Someday," said Bill Margold when the Traci Lords scandal broke in 1986, "Traci will wind up as the cornerstone of a bank building. I will not be unhappy when Traci gets knocked off. When you create a sea of lies, you drown in your own lies. I think Traci's going to get hit by a wave that she can't ride out. The X-rated industry was overwhelmed by Traci and caught off-guard because all it did was give to Traci and take nothing back. When people begin to forget about Traci, she's going to disappear because the people she's hurt, do not forget.

"Traci has gotten along in this world by lying convincingly to enough people. Somebody is going to retaliate and she will get exactly what she deserves. There are many ways to handle evil but sometimes evil has to be eradicated."

Traci the porn star slept with many of the industry's leading producers and directors but the new Traci says she won't sleep with someone to get a part. "Just because I'm young and pretty doesn't mean I'm bait. I'm not for sale. I don't believe in f---ing fat stupid Jewish producers to get a role.

"One writer at a national magazine spent the first three paragraphs talking about the way my lips were wrapped around the straw in my Coke. It was so slimy. I read it and thought, 'What does his wife think when she sees this?'

"I think it's very funny that people give me that kind of power. If they want to, then by God, hand it over." (Newsday 6-17-93)

In 1990, Lords played a tough-talking sex kitten in John Water's 1990 film Cry Baby, opposite Johnny Depp. On the set she met John's nephew, Brook Teaton, a prop maker whom she married for five years.

They lived quietly in a San Fernando home, hoping that their neighbors didn't find out that Traci Lords lived next door. "Brook is not a normal person. Divine [the late actor who appeared as a female in most of his films] was his godfather...or god-mother. Up until the age of ten, my husband thought that men and men were supposed to be together, and women and women. He thought that his parents were the exception."

The couple hung a faxed receipt, signed by serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, for the purchase of a freezer, and a postcard from Traci's pal Paul Reubens, who also earned a bad reputation for being seen in triple-X movies.

Lords divorced Yeaton in 1995 and the next year became engaged to a more successful actor, John Enos, who appears in the 1996 film Bullet. They broke up.

Traci starred in a straight-to-video mainstream movie for Columbia director Ivan Nagy who helped Heidi Fleiss run her call girl service.

"To have to have that [porn] be a part of you as an adult is really bizarre," she said in 1996.

AP 2-9-98: "Now, Ms. Lords' desire to put her early celebrity behind her is surpassed only by her determination to succeed as a legitimate performer, as singer and actress. …As she entered her 20s, she managed to forge a new career. There were calendars, posters and more acting jobs, including a juicy part on the 1993 television mini-series "The Tommy Knockers," based on the Stephen King novel.

"A physical fitness devotee, she has twice appeared on the cover of Muscle & Fitness magazine under her real name. She also made an exercise video in 1992.

"Years of voice lessons paid off in 1995, when Radioactive Records released her first recording, a techno-dance album called ''1,000 Fires.'' One catchy single, ''Control,'' reached No. 2 on the Billboard chart in February 1995; it was featured in the film, ''Mortal Kombat.'' Last season, NBC used another tune, ''Good and Evil,'' in promotions for ''Profiler'' before she landed a role on the show.

"She has rejected several offers to write an autobiography, saying the idea mortifies her. But she doesn't shy from tackling other new tasks, including producing a film. She expects ''Extramarital,'' in which she also will star, to be released in movie theaters next summer."

Though she doesn't surf the Internet, Traci knows of several Web sites devoted to her history. She says she's "really dating for the first time in my life" after breaking off an engagement to actor John Enos.

Nora sings in such albums as Little Baby Nothing by the Manic Street Preachers and Somebody To Love by the Ramones, acts in B movies such as Nowhere, Blood Money and Skinner, and turns up occasionally on TV programs such as Melrose Place.

"If you're sexy, everybody will love you," Kuzma said in 1995. "That's what I wanted - for everybody to love me."

Porn tapes featuring Lords sell in such places as Europe, Quebec and New York. In 1996 Sheldon Ranz browsed through a video shop in Times Square New York that featured a modest selection of illegal Traci tapes. "A pair of uniformed cops entered the store... They checked out the Traci boxes among others, laughed, and left the store. Even general video stores throughout New York stock Traci tapes." (RAME)

In November 1991, distributors destroyed 60 titles featuring Canadian actress Alexandra Quinn who was under 18 when she performed in them. Born 3/25/73, her real name is Dianne Stewart.

The busty blonde began stripping at age 15 to get attention and money from men. When she saw the lust and dollars directed towards Erica Boyer on a strip appearance, Stewart decided that she too wanted to do porn. Erica introduced Dianne to Jim South who checked her identification.

"When I was in high school," Stewart told Hustler Erotic Video Guide, "I did a lot of cutting and pasting with my birth certificate, using the copy machine. I made my own ID. It wasn't good enough to get into bars but they let me do movies with it.

"I flew down from Canada with just enough money to pay for a couple of meals. My first movie was for Video Exclusives [now Leisure Time Entertainment]. That was a scene with two guys and two girls. I'd never been with a girl before or with a group, so that was strange."

After a few weeks in the industry, Alexandra began freebasing cocaine. "Los Angeles is wild. Back home, people are more laid back. I was hiding a big secret from everybody and I didn't know how to handle it. That made me feel alone and that feeling got me doing drugs."

Alexandra made about 60 videos before turning 18. One day on set she forgot her fake ID so she used her real ID figuring no one would notice. Wrong.

Quinn condemned the industry on the TV show Hard Copy and was blackballed by many pornographers. "For a long time I was angry. All the people I thought were my friends turned their backs on me. I felt I was owed something after all I'd been through. I decided to return to the industry because I like to show off my wild side and make money at it."

Several porn companies paid Alexandra to reshoot her scenes upon turning 18, including A.F.V. Releasing which created Alexandria, I Love You.

In the pro-am Gang Bang Pour Salopes Dechainees, Lydia Chanel, who started in France, admits she did 15 pornos before turning 18. Other performers who've done the same thing include Tabatha Cash, Rene Summers, Kristara Barrington, Ali Moore, Nikki Charm and Christiana.

Many countries, such as Australia, use 16 as the age of consent. In Holland, it is 13 with parents' permission. In Judaism, a child becomes an adult at 13.

More Traci Lords

On March 8, 2001, on their weekend edition, Entertainment Tonight profiled porn stars who've done mainstream TV.

Host: There were a few adult film stars up to the challenge and they set their sights on primetime.

Traci Lords: "I went and did it all. The drugs, the sex, everything. It was a horrible combination. I want younger people who might think X-rated films... well look at Traci Lords, she made it because she did that. I want them to understand what really happened to me. There's so many things that led me to do that and there was very little help when I wanted to get away from it."

Narrator: Traci Lords was an X-rated star who got caught up in the business as a minor.

Traci: "I never thought I was going to live to be 20. I thought 20 was old."

N: When she decided to turn her back on the adult film industry and make it in mainstream films and television, she found nothing but problems.

Traci: "It isn't easy. It's been so difficult. Are you kidding me? I just don't think it is right when someone tells you that you can't have something just because of something that you did when you were younger or you just made a mistake..."

N: But Traci persevered and that iron will paid off. We caught up with her doing a guest spot on McGyver. And then with a recurring role on Melrose Place. She remembers when she got that first call for a mainstream role.

Traci: "I just said, 'Can you hold on for a second?' And I put the phone down and screamed 'I got it.'"

N: Traci's also currently on the sci-fi channel series First Flag. But her success story is unusual. Many other X-rated stars have had trouble making that jump to primetime.

Jenna Jameson: "I think it is only a matter of time until I crossover and become the biggest star anybody's ever seen."

N: Jenna Jameson has high hopes and she did win two guest spots on Nash Bridges. But so far the mainstream has eluded her.

Marilyn Chambers of Behind The Greed Door fame made some R-rated cable movies but hasn't been able to move beyond that.

Marilyn: "My phone has not been ringing off the hook with a remake of Gone With The Wind or anything. I'm settling for middle of the road stuff and hoping that it will lead to other things. Of course. But I am not going to hold my breath."

N: Ginger Lynn Allen managed to make some feature films and did guest starring roles on Silk Stockings and NYPD Blue. But found it hard to achieve mainstream stardom.

Ginger: "I do feel that there are people who aren't willing to take a chance with me or to give me opportunities. I feel very confident with my abilities today. I've studied hard. I've worked hard. I take my craft seriously. So hopefully else aside from me will take me seriously."

N: The latest X-rated star to go for primetime is Alisha Klass. After 20 adult films, she got a non-speaking role on Melrose Place and a featured part on Showtime's 1999 series Hooplash. But she still faced the X-rated stigma when she won a role in the film Cruel Intentions that ultimately ended up on the cutting room floor.

Alisha: "He goes, 'Fine, you can come down here to read today. But don't come down here looking like a porn star.'"

N: Unlike other adult stars, Alisha intends to keep making X-rated films while pursuing her mainstream dreams.

Alisha: "What you put your mind to and what you put your heart to, will come true."

  1. Image:38011
    Traci Lords

  2. Image:38012
    Traci Lords

  3. Image:38013
    Traci Lords

  4. Image:38014
    Traci Lords

  5. Image:38015
    Traci Lords

  6. Image:38016
    Traci Lords

  7. Image:38017
    Traci Lords

  8. Image:38018
    Traci Lords

  9. Image:38019
    Traci Lords

  10. Image:380110
    Traci Lords

  11. Image:380111
    Traci Lords

  12. Image:380112
    Traci Lords

  13. Image:380113
    Traci Lords

  14. Image:380114
    Traci Lords

  15. Image:380115
    Jenna Jameson

  16. Image:380116
    Jenna Jameson


  17. Image:380117
    Marilyn Chambers
  1. Image:380118
    Marilyn Chambers

  2. Image:380119
    Marilyn Chambers

  3. Image:380120
    Ginger Lynn Allen

  4. Image:380121
    Ginger Lynn Allen

  5. Image:380122
    Ginger Lynn Allen

  6. Image:380123
    Alisha Klass

  7. Image:380124
    Alisha Klass

  8. Image:380125
    Alisha Klass

  9. Image:380126
    Alisha

  10. Image:380127
    Ginger Lynn