Ginger Allen - LF
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Ginger Lynn
Ginger Lynn Allen was porn's Video Queen, perhaps the leading porn star of all time. The 5'4" blonde eventually quit porn in 1986 and went on to play in two dozen B-grade movies.
The general consensus of porn critics is that Marilyn Chambers, Seka and Lynn are biggest porn stars of all time.
Actor, coke-head and woman-beater Charlie Sheen dated Lynn for almost two years from 1990-92. "He's the only man I've ever truly been in love with," says Lynn. "I never once cheated on him."
Born 12/14/62, Allen lives in Southern California but strips at clubs across the nation. On March 31, 1996, she gave birth to a son who she named Sterling Wayne Robert Allen. Her inseminator, Steve Hirsch, co-owner of Vivid Video, pays Lynn $20,000 a month child support. Ginger hopes to have several more children whom she'll support by selling the shirt off her back.
I received this email report in September 1997. "Last night a friend and I went to DeJa Vu's in Ypsilanti, MI. where she was appearing. At one point she was "auctioning" off her panties. That seemed funny enough but when she claimed that proceeds from the panties were going for her son's future education, I had to ask what did she do with the money from 69 movies and she also said that she gave it up because after doing it for 27 months straight she was 'tired.' I felt why? You're not that tired to still dance and charge people for everything. Hell, even joining her fan club is EXPENSIVE."
"Luke Ford, you ignorant slut," writes Ginger in her June, 1997, Diary page on her internet site GingerLynn.com. "How dare you write about who you think may be the father of my son, much less even mention my son. The only people on this earth who truly know who is the father of my child are me, the father and my father�. who should kick your misinformed, wimpy little ass for being so IGNORANT."
Ginger displays an ambivalent relationship with porn. She trashed the industry in several interviews.
"Which article," writes Ginger, "in what and where exactly do I trash the industry? My attitude is� I did it. I liked it, so what? I do not have an ambivalent relationship with porn."
The blonde porn star criticized porn in the 6/86 Mademoiselle, as well as in interviews on the TV shows Entertainment Tonight and Hard Copy, where she said "they gave me drugs to do things."
Lynn: "I did love the business. Certain people gave me drugs to help persuade me to do things I was uncomfortable with [anal sex?]. At times I did feel as though I was being used. Most things are neither completely black nor white. Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't."
Lynn operates a fan club and a website where she sells her X-rated videos. "My website is classy, personal, sweet and sassy, not just a place where I sell my films."
Born and raised in Rockford, Illinois, Ginger's father, Wayne Allen, was 18 when she was born. Her mom, Marilyn Allen nee McBride, was 19.
As of 1991, Ginger's parents had divorced. According to 1991 court documents in Ginger's sentencing for tax evasion and drug use, Wayne Allen worked as a dock supervisor for an aerospace company, and Marilyn worked as a switchboard operator. She was very ill after a double masectomy in 1990. Ginger's sister Kari Ann Pyzinski, born in 1966, lived in Rockford. Kari Ann has a history of mental instability.
Ginger's family background was in some respects typically "working class". She was born and raised in Rockford, Illinois, an industrial town of approximately 200,000 population. Neither of her parents had any education beyond high school, and neither has ever held employment beyond "blue collar" level. There was a strong religious element in the home, as her mother was raised Southern Baptist, and "lived by religious doctrine," according to Ginger. However, from all accounts, family dynamics in the Allen household ranged from dysfunctional to pathological.
Ginger's mother, Marilyn, was born in Tennessee, the illegitimate child of a prostitute. Marilyn was adopted by the family of the putative father, who was the son of a Baptist minister. She was brought to Rockford, Illinois, as a teenager. Ginger recalls that her mother made sure that, even as a little girl, she was aware of this somewhat sordid background. The dark quality surrounding this one aspect of her life is suggested by Ginger's one memory of her maternal grandmother, which comes from a visit she made with her mother and younger sister to Georgia, when she [Ginger] was twelve years old.
"For some reason I expected my mother's mother to be pretty and elegant like Miss Kitty in 'Gunsmoke.' Instead, she was this poor, ugly, deformed woman with a crippled arm. Her house was an awful mess. There were little piles of dust and dirt just sitting around on the floor and the carpet. It smelled awful. It was creepy."
She concludes, 'We heard a few years later that she'd died in a mental institution."
Ginger's father, Wayne Allen, was the son of a Rockford police officer. Wayne was an alcoholic, a "blue collar brawler sort of a guy," and a woman chaser. He was apparently highly intelligent, extremely volatile, and largely irresponsible.
"Ginger states that her mother was eighteen and still living at home with her "holy damnation Baptist parents" when she met Wayne Allen, who was seventeen and in the Air Force. She says, "My mother decided she wanted out. So she got herself pregnant by my father and then got him to marry her. He didn't really want to. He wanted to keep chasing women."
The coercive nature of the marriage and the individual characters of her parents created a highly dysfunctional home situation almost from the beginning. Ginger recalls that her parents fought constantly because of her father's drinking and "womanizing." She says: "My mother was always screaming about my father running around with whores. They'd have their fight, my father would hit my mother, and then she'd take it out on me."
Physical abuse was a regular part of Ginger's childhood. This was primarily by her mother. Ginger remembers, "She mainly hit me with a belt or one of those big wooden kitchen spoons. Sometimes I could tell it was coming, but mostly there was no way to predict it." Ginger also recalls occasional assaults by her father when he was "drunk and mean." She notes, "One time he hit me so hard, my back is still dislocated because of it." However, she adds, "Usually when my father was sober, I could go to him to keep my mother from beating me up. I usually didn't get hit when he was around."
Ginger's father left her mother when Ginger was six years old. Although he was "in and out of the house" during the next several years, he was effectively a non-factor in Ginger's life after this time. Ginger's situation with her mother deteriorated after her father left, as her mother then turned all of her anger on Ginger.
Ginger remembers that her mother might be "as sweet as you could want" at one instant and "a raving lunatic" the next. By Ginger's description, Marilyn Allen appears to have been frighteningly unstable. She recalls having her mother come into her bedroom and while she slept and "chopping chunks out of my hair with scissors." The verbal abuse Ginger received from her mother was degrading and gratuitous.
She says: "My mother used to scream at me how ugly I was, and she'd tell me I was evil, and talk about how she was going to send me to reform school... I see my mother as having always been very detached. I remember her being very racist, filled with hate. Everything to her was ugly. She saw no beauty in the world."
It was after her father left home that Ginger began to spend more time with her paternal grandparents. She recalls many occasions when she ran to her grandparents' home to escape her mother's anger and abuse. She recalls, "My grandparents were everything to me. They loved me and told me nice things. They gave me hope and encouragement." However, Ginger's contact with her grandparents was regulated by her mother and used as a mechanism of control.
Evelyn Allen recounts: "Ginger's mother was very abusive towards her. She was forbidden to come to our house when she was little. It was a way for her mother to hurt me. I guess because of the problems with her and my son. When I would see Ginger, she could never tell me anything that was going on at home. She was scared to death of her mother and what she might do. Ginger was a shy, sweet, adorable little girl. We knew what was going on but there was nothing we could do about it."
Ginger began to create her own world. This had some elements of a healthy exercise of imagination, but was more indicative of a frightening level of emotional retreat in a young child. She says: "I got to the point where I used to try to make myself believe that my mother wasn't my real mother, and the life I had wasn't my real life. I would pretend that reality was just my imagination, and I would create plays and shows and pretend that was my real life."
Her grandmother, Evelyn, remembers that Ginger would have imaginary playmates when she was very young. She notes that these playmates were very real to her and that it went on for some time.
Ginger was in elementary school when she first began putting on performances in the garage and charging her friends a few cents admission. She says: "I used to make up little plays, or shows where I'd sing and dance, and I'd charge the kids in the neighborhood to come and watch the performance. It was the greatest feeling in the world when the kids would like my shows. It gave me the feeling I was worth something."
Ginger states that she attempted suicide when she was twelve years old. She took more than a dozen prescription sleeping pills which belonged to her mother and, according to her recollection was "out for about three days." Ginger remembers: "I didn't quite die, I just laid there. My mother didn't do anything to help me, no food, no doctor, nothing. I remember walking into a wall at one point when I was half-conscious. Eventually I just came out of it."
It was not long after this that Ginger's grandparents took her out of her mother's home for good. Ginger relates: "My mother had given me a terrible beating with a belt. My grandfather called for some reason, and I just started screaming. He came over and saw the welts on my back and called the police. The police didn't do anything, but my grandfather took me. He filled a paper bag with all of my clothes that would fit and took me home. The next day my mother told my grandfather that she would let them have me if they would give her $500. They gave her the money and I stayed with them from then on."
Ginger states that she had virtually no contact with her mother for eight years after this.
Ginger developed serious addiction problems by her early adolescence.
Ginger says: "On the 'lower class' side [of Rockville] where I lived, it was normal for kids to drink and use drugs. We spent a lot of time hanging around outside the school or in the park getting high. A lot of the teachers and parents knew and nobody did anything."
Ginger states she was soon drinking substantial amounts of alcohol, smoking marijuana regularly, and was also using "acid, PCP, muchrooms, everything there was to do."
Ginger also developed what appears to have been an almost addictive need for male relationships. Ginger says, "I felt a really desperate need to feel that people liked me, that they wanted to be with me. I was willing to just about do anything to feel like I could be assured of that."
By the time Ginger was 13, she had her first serious boyfriend. This was an older boy whom she had met while "hanging around in the park." Ginger says: "This guy always had a lot of drugs - stuff like acid and pot and mushrooms. I first got into drugs with him. He was the first guy ever had sex with. I'd been going with him a couple of years and I was pretty serious. I had planned on us getting married. I even had a piggy bank that I used to save money for us to get started with."
Ginger became pregnant at age 13 and had an abortion. She says, "My grandmother realized that I was having sex and she got me started on the pill.
"I never thought of myself as pretty. My mother used to tell me I looked like a witch. I never even wore makeup. My life became focused around doing drugs and being with my boyfriends. I felt like if someone thought I was pretty and I could please them, that made my life all right. I mostly went out with older guys, not guys from school. They had cars and money, and they made me feel grownup. I really had no goals for the future. As long as someone would make me feel like I was worth something, that seemed like enough."
Ginger's friend Patte Hughes remembers: "Ginger was pretty much controlled by guys throughout high school. She was petite and had an attractive figure, and guys liked her. Most of the guys she went with were creeps. Some of them were really abusive. I remember one guy coming to my house loooking for her and dragging her away down the street. Ginger was really true to these guys, but most of them were terrible to her."
Ginger graduated from high school in 1980. She moved out of her grandparents' home and shared an apartment with a girlfriend. She started working at a Musicland location and soon became assistant manager. She was also working as a waitress in a bar at night. Her problems with drugs and alcohol continued to develop during this period.
Ginger's description of her first serious relationship... after finishing high school...is symptomatic of desperation and lack of direction... She says: "I started living with this guy named Woody. He was another one involved with drugs, and he was bad news. He was physically abusive, but I never even gave it much thought."
Ginger's grandparents had moved to California by 1982 and were living in the Lucerne Valley. Ginger states that in September, 1982, she received a call one night while she was at work informing her that her grandfather had suffered a heartattack. She says, "I left for California that night, and I never went back to Rockford except for visits."
The death of her grandfather was emotionally devastating for Ginger. She says, "I didn't know what to feel. I was so lonely and scared, and I was angry at him in a way for leaving me." Patte observes, "Ginger was a mess when her grandfather died. To this day it's very painful for her. Her grandfather was the only positive male figure in her life, and her grandparents were the only people who really loved and cared about her."
Ginger decided to remain in California.
A boyfriend from Rockford came to California to join Ginger. Ginger recalls the man, Brian, was "the first nice boyfriend" she had ever had. However, Brian was unemployed, had car payments to make, and did little to contribute to their mutual support. Ginger recalls, "It was tough paying all the bills, because I had to support both of us."
Ginger answered an ad from the World Modeling agency in September, 1983. She states that she was asked during the first interview if she would pose for Penthouse Magazine, and that within a week she was made a "wall girl," models who were looked on as stars in the business. She says: "I was really thrilled theyy thought I was pretty enough to put in magazines. It made me feel special and popular. I was happy they thought I was attractive enough that people would want to see my photos.
"The first time I say myself in a magazine in a convenience store, I was so excited I ran around the store showing people these nude pictures of myself. I didn't even think about being embarrassed about it. I just thought I looked pretty. As far as I knew no one from Rockford had ever been in a magazine before. I was proud of it. I always had a dream about being famous."
Ginger states that she enjoyed the glamour and the sense of being special that modeling brought her. However, she felt "she was not good enough" to consider "mainstream" modeling. She felt she was not "pretty enough for that." And even despite her success in nude modelling, she retained a sense of her "real self" not being "good enough."
Despite Ginger's positive recollections of the pleasure she found in being prized as a model, it is also clear that a part of the appeal came from the same almost addictive need for approval and validation which she sought in her relationships. Ginger felt that her primary gift or appeal was her sexuality and her ability to please her boyfriends. She did not have any sense that her boyfriends valued traits such as intelligence, loyalty, and her gentle nurturing nature. Similarly, in her modeling and then in films, it was her sexual appeal that won approval.
Ginger's work in Pornographic films started within a few months after she began modeling. She states that when she was first contacted about doing "commercial films" she did not even understand the term. She continues: "When I found out what they wanted me to do, I refused. I didn't see myself as that kind of girl. But then one day I walked into my agent's office and saw this woman who was elegant and beautiful sitting there reading a porno script. I thought, if this kind of woman can do these films, maybe they ain't so bad."
Ginger states she asked the woman to have lunch with her and "picked her brain." The woman told her that she made her own rules about what she would do in films, told her to never do anything she wasn't comfortable with, and "convinced me I could do it." Ginger says, "I always trusted women more than men. I never trusted men's motives. But I was really in awe of women who kept their own strength and independence."
Ginger made her first Pornographic film in December, 1983. She recalls that she had her 21st birthday while she was on the set of the film in Hawaii.
Ginger states that she had little contact with cocaine up to the time she started modeling. In the entertainment field, cocaine was the "drug of choice" for many. Ginger began using cocaine at this point and became a heavy user almost at once.
Ginger's career skyrocketed while her life went into a major decline. She states she made 40 of her 69 Pornographic films during 1984. She was also binging on cocaine regularly. She says, "I really don't remember a lot of what happened for a couple of years. I was at the time and really going at an incredible pace. A lot of it is just a blur." Ginger also states, "By the end of 1984, I reached the point where I had to do drugs in order to make a film."
Patte Hughes remembers clearly the sense which Ginger has described of the difference between the "Ginger Lynn" part of Ginger's life and her reality as Ginger Allen. She says: "I was really kinda surprised when Ginger first told me about being in Pornographic films. But it really seemed like two different worlds. I would see Ginger when she would come back to Rockford for Christmases with her grandmother and father. And she was the same Ginger."
Ginger's grandmother Evelyn says, "When I first found out Ginger was involved in making Pornographic films, I was shocked. But I learned to accept it, because whenever I talked with her or saw her, she was still the same Ginger. That was the most important thing to me."
By 1985, Ginger had decided to take more control of the films she was making. She says: "I started to get involved with writing some of the scripts. I really wanted to get out by that time and try to get into mainstream acting. But I felt I wanted to have some solid skills to take with me when I left."
Patte remembers: "I had been in touch with Ginger all the way along. At first she'd been really excited about the modeling and films. She had this instant stardom, getting all this attention when she'd never had anything before. It was incredible to her. But then...she'd told me she'd decided to get out of Pornographic films. She seemed to have matured by that time and gotten more confidence in herself."
Ginger made her last Pornographic film in February, 1986. She states she had her first role in a legitimate film in 1987. She says, "At first I was getting slashed in every bikini slasher film there was. I didn't want to keep doing that, because I think that kind of thing in films is harmful to women. But at least it got me into the mainstream arena."
Ginger soon began to obtain lead roles in low budget films, and began to have some opportunities in major films. She recalls being called for an audition for the film "Beverly Hills Cop II." She says: "It was the biggest thrill of my life. But when I got there, I found out they wanted me to strip in the film. They wanted me to play a slut. I walked out."
Ginger eventually moved up to small roles in major films and appeared in episodes of two television series, "Hardball" and "Sunset Beat." She has also become a recurring character in a children's series "Superforce."
Within the past two years, Ginger has won roles in major feature films. She appeared in "Young Guns II" in 1990, and has recently completed a film with noted director Ken Russell in which she costars with Theresa Russell.
Ginger is currently acting in a film called "Meantime" in which she also has the female lead. This is a film which, in Ginger's words, "is about betrayal, battered women, and friendship."
Clinical psychologist Dr. Nancy Kaser Boyd notes that test data "very much reflect her life history of physical and verbal abuse from her mother, and a number of incidents during adulthood which I would describe as sexually abusive.
"Though Miss Allen often presents herself as having been in control of her career as an actress in pornographic films, hearing some of the incidents...causes me to feel that she was often sexually exploited. In addition, she also experienced a frightening rape.
"Both clinical interviewing and psychological testing suggests that Ginger, though of at least average intelligence, is quite childlike in her psychological structure. She prefers to be passive and dependent, or taken care of. This, in my opinion, has made her ver vulnerable to individuals who wish to exploit her."
In this vein, one test result showed a marked elevation...indicating "widely-fluctuating self esteem, from feeling of weakness to those of extraordinary strength and specialness." On another test, the Rorshach, results indicated "feelings of overwhelming helplessness" and "a strong tendency to withdraw into fantasy and have difficulty facing the tasks of daily living."
Ginger discusses the circumstances around the tax charges and her state of mind at the time she worked in Pornographic films during the period from the end of 1983 until 1986.
"I had no one in California to talk to about my decisions. I was using drugs and alcohol heavily. All I wanted to do during the years 1983 to '86 was to forget. When the police came to my house to read me my rights in November 1986, I had no idea that I was under investigation. I was already out of the business by then and trying to start my life over. When I was told to get a lawyer, I didn't know what to do. I knew nothing about the courts or criminal lawyers."
Ginger entered the Sunrise Center for treatment of her cocaine addiction in April, 1989. The program is 12-step oriented. She remained sober for more than a year, but suffered a relapse in late 1989. Ginger says, "I took one drink and just lost everything I'd gained." She renewed her efforts in recovery in August, 1990, this time with actor Charlie Sheen, whom she had met during the filming of "Young Guns II."
Mr. Sheen writes: "On August 6, 1990, I entered a local treatment center to finally put to rest the demons of alcohol and drugs that were trying to end my life. During these 32 days, Ginger was there for me every step of the way. Her presence both physically and emotionally proved to be one of the major reasons I was successful in that most turbulent journey. Ginger decided to join me on the path to sobriety, and to this day we've yet to set foot off the path. I am forever thankful to Ginger in her efforts to test her own will as well as mine. It is moments such as these when the definition of 'friend' is truly realized."
Ginger has been involved with two programs aimed at helping children who are suffering their own special forms of abuse. One is the Save the Children program...
The second program in which she is active is a Los Angeles-based program called "Children of the Night." This program aims to provide crisis intervention, shelter, food, clothing, and skilled counseling for teenage runaways. Many of these young runaways become involved in prostitution and pornography in order to survive on the street.
Ginger Lynn writes to Judge Ronald Lew (I excerpt):
Your honor, I don't want to make excuses for taking roles in Pornographic films. I would just like to make clear that at the time this was presented to me, I was 20 years old, and had absolutely no idea of what I was getting into. As I became more and more involved with the films, I used more and more drugs and alcohol. ...[A]s time went on, I couldn't stand what I was doing. I started using cocaine as a way to escape and a way to cope with what I was doing at the time and was convinced that I would die young anyway. I guess I wanted to.
By 1986, I was completely out of the Pornographic film business. I had reached a point where I couldn't do it anymore. I went into a deep depression, sometimes hiding in my apartment for weeks. I would reward myself after each film by getting high on drugs.
Your honor, I have been out of the Pornographic film industry since 1986 trying to make a new life for myself. I still live under that shadow. I wouldn't make those same choices today. I am scheduled to begin working on a film on September 23rd for ABC Productions, "Meantime." The film is about battered women. The role is very important to me. I feel that I can make a contribution to helping women who have been abused.
....................
Ginger left her home town for the first time at age 19 to visit her ailing grandfather in California. She decided to stay. Lynn managed the Musicland store in Redlands, living in a tiny trailer in one of the worst parts of town. "I had a normal life, a boyfriend, and a decent job, but I wasn't making enough money, so I answered this ad [9/83] which I'd looked at for months." It sought attractive female models for work that paid between $150 and $2500 a day. That same day she received an offer to pose for Penthouse. "I'd always thought Playboy and Penthouse were neat; they were always around the house because my father read them. They didn't seem wrong. I thought the girls were all pretty and that boys liked these kind of girls. I never imagined I could be one of them. But in the day after I'd been to the agency, I did some test shoots for Penthouse, which were accepted, and I shot for the next 17 days straight for different magazines." (Mademoiselle 6/86)
Ten years earlier it might've stopped there, but by the '80s, the magazine and porno industries overlap. X-rated films advertise the centerfold status of their leading ladies and sex magazines like High Society advertise the best videos of their models. As good as $150 a day was, after three months, Ginger wanted to make more money. "In the beginning, you don't want to do any of it. But you get pulled in. Your first photographers are nice good looking men [like Ron Vogel]. You feel this isn't what I thought. Penthouse is nice, but I don't know if I want to do that magazine [Hustler]. Hustler was probably the second or third magazine that came to me. I said ok. They took me to a leather store and they bought ropes and spikes and things to pinch... I went home and broke down in tears and called my agent and said "I can't do this."
"But the more shoots you go on... the money keeps coming and you get pulled into it. Things you thought were bad at the beginning seem less bad. I did a layout with another girl, a simulation. Then I did one with a boy. People asked me to do hardcore stills, so I asked my boyfriend what he thought. He said "Let's do it together." So we did." (Ibid.)
Ginger soon split from her boyfriend because he couldn't handle her new direction.
She considered doing porn videos and talked to some female performers. "They tell you there are cute guys and you have a script and you're an actress and you make $1000 a day.
"I figured I'd do it. I got offered a lot of money to go to Hawaii for 14 days. It was hard the first night. I told my leading man I can't do this. But he was a good actor and good with people and he made it easy." (Mademoiselle 6/86)
The man was Jerry Butler. Ginger and Jerry worked in several movies together over the next ten days.
Jerry remembers seeing Ginger for the first time. "Boarding the plane to do Surrender in Paradise in Hawaii, I noticed a pretty blonde wearing little red shoes. One look at Ginger Lynn and I told myself, "This is the girl you're going to be with for the rest of your life."
"She had done only one film before this, a short loop for Suze Randall.
"Ginger, nervous and shy, sat on her hands through the flight." (Jerry Butler's book Raw Talent)
Jerry and Ginger had sex at their hotel and became close. Ginger worried before the shoot for she'd never acted before. She had particular problems with a rape scene in A Little Bit of Hanky Panky. The script called for Jerry to chase Ginger across on a motorcycle. Ginger couldn't muster the proper emotion so Jerry played an acting trick on her.
According to Ginger, the most important person in her life was her grandfather, who'd recently died. So Butler told Ginger that old people should be left to die. She became angry, and then Jerry gave her the script and said, "Do the scene that way."
"Ginger and I made love after that. She screamed louder than any girl I've ever been with and she came three times in fifteen minutes. It was pure heaven. I didn't even wash until the next day because I wanted to feel her on me." (Raw Talent)
Later that night, Jerry, Ginger and Ron Jeremy went to the beach. Ron had his eye on Ginger. Jerry swam out to sea and when he turned around he saw Ginger giving Ron a blowjob. Though he later joined them for a threesome, Jerry felt hurt and ignored Ginger for several days. They later made up and talked about moving in together even though they had only known each other for six days.
Jerry left the islands early to work on Taboo 3. A few days later, he bought a small pre-engagement ring, wrapped it in a seven-foot box and then drove to the airport to pick Ginger up. She wasn't on the plane and that was the end of their romantic story.
During her stay in the islands, Ginger made A Little Bit of Hanky Panky. "Filmed in Maui, this is one of the first appearances for both Stacy Donovan and Ginger Lynn. Jamie Gillis and Ron Jeremy partake of R&R with the girls. While camping on a seemingly deserted island, Ron stumbles across a private retreat which specializes in sex games. From that point on, all hell breaks loose." (AVN)
Gentlemen prefer Ginger. "In some of her pictures, she delegates sexual missions to others, generally saving herself for a tour de force finale. In Gentlemen the star is everywhere. Her character juggles husband lovers with the skill of a circus performer. Wait till you see her demonstrate Zen Sex and the Art of Motorcycle Making It." (AFW 3/87)
"Ginger coaxes a burnt-out porn actor into a personal best effort. What follows is as close to a love scene as any in any X-rated picture, ending with the girl crying, "Don't pull out!" Though you don't see the spurts, the spasms say it all." (AFW 3/87)
The World According to Ginger. "Early on, she appears with Francois Papillon in a Garden of Eden sketch, offering him her ripe 'apple' while wearing nothing but flowered wreaths, her long blonde tresses falling softly all the way to her twitching ass. They fuck gloriously, two perfect bodies in an ecstatic exhibition that you might call 'gymnastic,' if it didn't look so effortless. Finally, she turns her face up to his climax for the radiant finish to a fabulous fuck." (AFW)
Other good Ginger Lynn flicks include L'Amour, A Coming of Angels, Dance Fever, Trashy Lady, Some Kind of Woman. She had sex on camera with a black man once - Tony Elay - in Undressed Rehearsal.
The Ginger series was the most successful line of shot on video productions of the 1980s. Scotty Fox made the first three editions, Bruce Seven the next eight and Henri Pachard the final two. Henri's Blame It On Ginger is the best of the series according to Holliday. Bruce directed several hot editions - The Ginger Effect, Gentlemen Prefer Ginger, Project: Ginger and The Poonies. Raven Touchstone wrote all 13 videos emphasizing feminine stories.
"It's exciting in the beginning," says Ginger about working in porn. "A crew, a director, a camera, a script. They're paying you all this money and everyone's nice to you. If you want M&Ms, they go buy you M&Ms.
"Before you go on camera, your heat beats fast. I'm an exhibitionist." (Mademoiselle 6/86)
During the blonde's first nine months in porn, she made 45 sexvids.
Ginger says she's not a prostitute. "A prostitute takes money from the man she's having sex with. She's there to turn him on. I don't care if I turn on the person I work with. I'm turning on my audience. I'm selling the same thing as any actress - a performance. I am not a porno star. Porn is animals and children. I'm an erotic film actress. I'm there for a good purpose, not for sick people." (Ibid.)
Ginger fools herself. Pornography is not defined by the use of animals and children. According to the Oxford American Dictionary, pornography "is writings, pictures or films etc. that are intended to stimulate erotic feelings by description or portrayal of sexual activity."
Are performers prostitutes? According to the above dictionary, a prostitute is a person who engages in sex for payment. So yes, porn performers are prostitutes, though legally they are not prostitutes but rather actors. But in reality, few performers if any could make it in mainstream acting. Overwhelmingly they have no sense of the acting craft.
As far as being a porno star, the word "star" is used cheaply in Porn Valley. A female who takes her clothes off and has sex in front of the camera a couple of dozen times, and lands on several boxcovers becomes a "star."
Was Ginger's work "for a good purpose?" By the tone of her comments, she has her doubts.
And finally, the matter of sickness. Ginger seems to regard bestiality and pederasty as sick. Many persons regard Ginger as sick for having performed sex on camera. Many homosexuals regard incest as sick while many persons regard homosexuals as sick. In America today, the word "sick" is frequently used for what someone doesn't like, notes Dennis Prager. Many persons I know dislike pornography, and therefore call it "sick."
There's no inherent reason that murderers, rapists, pederasts, necrophiliacs, homosexuals, porn performers or any other unpopular group are psychologically sick. Rather, certain of the above activities such as murder and rape are evil. Other activities, from a religious perspective, are unholy to varying degrees. Holy means Godlike, and according to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, we should not act like animals but rather like God. Animal-like behavior such as promiscuous sex is unholy. Performing or viewing pornography, writes Dennis Prager, taints the image of the divine in the model, the photographer and the consumer.
Ginger Lynn claims that women who enter porn rarely come from stable homes. "My parents divorced when I was 13. I had a lousy childhood. Every girl in the business I know has been beaten or sexually abused. The reason they get into this is they want to be needed, to be loved." (Mademoiselle 6/86)
Were most porn stars abused as children? I expected to find that but in my interviews with over 100 performers, I found that at least half said that they had normal upbringings without sexual or physical abuse.
As for the theory that females do porn for love - try hiring one with a promise of love but no money. Men may do porn out of love - love for sex. Women do porn primarily for the money. The love Ginger and other women believe they receive from performing is more lust than love. And it's accompanied by large amounts of hate and disgust from both those within and without the industry. Some women enjoy performing sex but many don't. Porn focuses on male orgasms, not female ones because they're more difficult to see.
Ginger: "I always thought I was ugly when I was little. My mother told me I was a stringy-haired witch... bad, evil and going to hell.
"I enjoy it [performing]. I get excited. But I enjoy the exhibitionism more than the sex." (Ibid.)
Sport fucking usually appeals more to males than females.
Ginger says she was disowned by her parents when they first found out about her X-rated work. "I freaked out for three months. It's the same path most girls go through. If you start doing well, your parents find out." (Mademoiselle 6/86)
Ginger and her parents later reconciled. Most pornographers say that while their parents may accept them, they rarely approve. I've yet to encounter one performer who had a good relationship with his parents before entering the biz that then changed to bad.
Ginger says it's hard for a porn actress to find lasting love. "No man wants his lady with someone else." And if she finds a man, she may discover that her feelings about sex have changed.
"I don't go out much," says 20-year old Laura Lee, a pale thin woman who's been in porn nine months. "If a man finds out what you do, he's going to expect something. And after working, the last thing you want to do on a date is to go bed." (Mademoiselle)
Porn gives many women validation of their desirability and some Hollywood glamour, thus attracting many females with low self-esteem. If they already felt good about themselves, they'd less need the questionable validation porn gives, such as limousine rides to movie premiers, fan letters, autograph seekers, and film crews catering to their every whim. Happiness and inner peace do not come from receiving letters from lonely men in prison eager to buy your soiled panties.
"They might come in and crank out a dozen films and get burned out," says porn veteran Kay Parker. "There's a certain percentage who get into drugs. There are women in the industry who come in for psychological reasons. They'll fuck their little hearts out for a dozen or so films, then you'll see them no more because they've cracked inside." (Mademoiselle 6/86)
"I would never advise any girl to get into the business," says Ginger Lynn. "It changes your whole life. Even if you're a good person it doesn't matter because everyone out there is thinking, "God, you're a porno star."" (Ibid.)
In early 1985, Ginger fell in love with one of the nice photographers who gets girls started in the biz. But he didn't want his own lover appearing in porn.
"Every time I shoot, it's hard on the relationship. All these things come up - his friends say, "Oh Ginger Lynn, I hear she can come 400 times a day!" or "I stayed in a motel and I saw the future mother of your children on cable in my room."" (Ibid.)
And many men feel contempt for the women who inspire their fantasies. Pornographers are hated by about a third of the persons with whom I bring up the subject.
By working in porn, Ginger says she's hurt nobody, except possibly herself. "If I had to do it again, I wouldn't. My choice of men has narrowed down to one because of what I've done. It's made my life difficult. I'm going to have to tell my kids. No matter where I go, there will be people who recognize me. If I get a job as a real estate agent, there's going to be Joe Shmo sitting next to me who's watched all my films.
"Only the strong survive, and I've learned to be strong. I've learned from my mistakes. This has been a mistake I made a lot of money at. Once I get out of the business, I'll be happier." (Mademoiselle 6/86)
Ginger left the business in 1986 but didn't get any happier. She was high on cocaine for much of 1985-88.
Many persons in porn believe the industry is the source of their miseries, but when they leave it, they find that life is tough all over.
Twenty seven months after beginning her porn career which included 69 sexvids, Ginger quit in January, 1986, after making Blame It On Ginger and Ginger and Spice. "I didn't feel good about it. I started doing a lot of drugs, stopped answering my phone, and would go to the mall and spend $10,000."
She then enrolled in acting class and got her first break from an ex-porno director making the action flick Wild Man. "I'm horrible in it, but that led to Vice Academy 1, 2, 3, which put me into the direct-to-video arena and brought me a whole new group of B-movie fans. I got my SAG card doing Skin Deep. Director Blake Edwards picked me out of a whole group of extras. He said he and his wife (Julie Andrews) enjoyed my work. Imagine! Mary Poppins liked my work!"
Ginger appeared in the straight-to-video flicks Bound & Gagged: A Love Story and Buried Alive as well as mainstream pics Young Guns II and Whore, and the interactive film for CD ROM - Wing Commander III.
Ginger hopes to move past the hooker and stripper parts she's usually offered, to "Meg Ryan-type" roles.
Around 1991, Ginger Lynn spent 17 days in prison for violating parole through drug use. She spent three months in a halfway house.
Ginger told CourtTV.com: "The day that I was supposed to turn myself in, my grandmother was there. My father had come out from Illinois. And he and my girlfriend that I live with had gone to the bank to clear out all my funds. My attorney was coming over and I was supposed to turn myself in at noon. About nine in the morning my phone rang and I answered it. It was my probation officer. And he said, 'Are you home?" I said yes, and he hung up. So I go back to sleep. My grandma is in the living room watching "The Price Is Right" [TV show] and there's someone banging at the door within 20 minutes. And they said it was the federal marshals.
"I'm trying to figure out how to climb down a three story wall and get out of there. I call my attorney and he's in court. I'm stalling, waiting for my father to get back. They're trying to take the door off the hinges. I finally let them in. We're waiting. I say that I really want to say goodbye to my father. There are two guys and they've got the handcuffs and the belly shackle and my father gets back.
"My father was in my car with my girlfriend and they were pulled over when they left. The way they figured out that my girlfriend wasn't me was that I have a tattoo on my ankle. They had her take her boots off and then said, ok, you're not Ginger.
"I say goodbye to my father and girlfriend. They take me out in handcuffs and shackles down to MDCLA. I was put in a holding tank for 15 hours. There was urine all over the floor. There were three other women in there. There was a woman who was about five months pregnant and had tracks all over her arms. She was going through withdrawals. There was a big hispanic woman and a little asian woman. I was scared to death. I was crying. I'm using a toilet paper roll for a pillow. Jethro, the guard, knows who I am and he's telling me in detail what he likes about my films. Trying to be a nice guy, he brings me McDonalds. Now the other girls aren't getting their McDonalds, I am. So I instantly make all these enemies.
"Eventually, after 15 hours, you get to know people. It turns out the hispanic and asian woman became my caretakers when I got to the ninth floor. MDCLA has nine floors. The women are on the top. It's maximum security. There's one television. Contrary to popular belief, it's not plus. You don't have carpeted rooms and TVs in every room. And every single night I was on TV. Hard Copy, the Wall Street Journal. I was not popular. I learned to make friends with the right people quickly. I was cellmates with the only other caucasian girl.
"They say people get rehabilitated in prison. I learned how to tie her off, and mix and fix for her and shoot her up, because if she got caught, I went to the hole. I learned to light a cigarette with a pencil and a pair of nail clippers. I learned what floors to get chocolate on, what floors to get whatever you wanted. I met people who were weapons dealers. There was one woman caught with 30 kilos of cocaine. She told the judge she thought it was flour. And they sent her home to Colombia. And I do four months and 17 days.
"I saw a callgirl who snitched get her eye put out and be sodomized with a toilet brush. I learned to assume the position quickly. I didn't get raped. I didn't get hurt. I learned how to make a weapon quickly. I had weapons.
"And I had never had a parking ticket. I'd never done anything. And to find yourself in that position was so frightening.
"The government was looking for someone who was very involved in the industry. I think they targeted me for several reasons. One because I was Ginger Lynn. I was very popular. They thought here's a woman. She'll be an easy target. She knows a lot of people. She's going to buckle, she's going to fold. She's going to give us what we want. It made no sense, for $2087.04. And I lost everything that I ever made in porn. And I still didn't go back [to porn] for 14 years.
"I don't think the government ever intended to shut down the Pornographic film industry. I think they wanted to look good. They make too much money. All the taxes that are paid. It's a multi-billion dollar industry. More Pornographic films are rented and purchased than any other type of film."
Ginger appeared in about 20 B movies and numerous exercise videos such as 1993's Ginger Lynn Allen's Superbody. "Though her days as a porn princess have long been over, Ginger Lynn Allen, looking more fit and trim than ever, still has the capacity to make dicks rise with the mere mention of her name. This exercise video has the diminutive doll going through a 45-minute routine that works all parts of the body - particularly your prostate. Sure, it has its intended benefits, but the people who made this also know how to turn on couch potatoes yanking it at home. Ginger is dressed in a skimpy leotard that seemingly is folded into her crack, exposing her finely-toned ass. Since this focuses on low-impact aerobics and yoga, that means there's loads of hip-rolling and leg-spreading angle, with plenty of leering close-ups of her erogenous zones. Although she has two workout partners, the focus is almost solely on Ginger, and a large portion of the exercises are shot in slow-motion, so there's plenty of opportunity to work up a solid stroke. Backed with a beguiling music score, this excursion in erotic exercise makes you realize how much you missing seeing this legend in action." (HEVG)
In 1994, Ginger Lynn Allen's Lingerie Gallery made it to number six on the Billboard sales charts.
"She was sweet like the girl next door, but she did everything the girl next door won't do," says Ginger's agent Charles Clay.
A year 2000 check on public records indicates that Ginger Lynn owns a home in Woodland Hills with an assessed value in 1998 of $615, 499. She paid $580,000 (loan for $435,000) on 12/06/95.
On 11/21/96, Ginger Lynn sold a parcel of land in Culver City, for $279,000.
Hyam writes: "BTW, it looks like Ms. Lynn has about 200K of equity in her house, and had enough $ in 1995 to buy it for $580K. That's not bad for a single mom. What do you think--is it an upper middle class neighborhood? Or would you say that it's an upper class neighborhood? It sounds like from a purely economic standpoint, she's been making rational decisions. I don't think she'd be living there if she had spent the last 10 years flipping burgers or typing memos. I also wonder what she put down on her loan application under "occupation"?"
In December 1997, Roger P. Tipe of www.rogreviews.com wrote: "When Ms. Lynn appeared at a SoCal club, I decided to make a night of it. She has put on a few years, added a couple of tattoos, but still looks amazing and knows how to work an audience. After her set, I talked to her a bit and although she did not have the time for a full interview, I did get a few nice pieces of info to share with you. Ginger has a nineteen month old son, but is still single, so take heat guys, there is still a chance. Although her Pornographic film career lasted only twenty six months, Ginger did no less than sixty nine films. No wonder she was ready to retire. She says she loved working with Tom Byron and Peter North, and dislike Ron Jeremy. (Shock.) The ladies she most enjoyed were Christy Canyon and Barbara Dare. (Because they have real breasts.) What of Traci Lords? No comment was the best I could get, but I think we all know what these two think of each other. As for the biggest question, will she be making an X rated comeback, sadly the answer is, "No, never.""
In her June 1997 diary posted on her internet site www.gingerlynn.com, Ginger writes:
"I can't say that I personally scan the internet very often, but some of my fans do, and I want to address something that I have seen on the internet written by Luke Ford
"The author of this piece of trash should be ashamed of himself. First of all, if you're going to write a piece on something-do your homework! From what I have read I can't find one single item that is a full truth. You don't have a f----ng clue.
"Luke Ford.....YOU IGNORANT SLUT!"
"In regards to what you have said about Traci Lords: (1) Traci began making films in the early 80's not the mid 80's. (2) If she really was under age which she did not seem to be when I worked with her, then she would have been the princess of porn not the queen. (3) If Traci weighed 90 pounds when she was arrested, then I weighed 84 pounds. (4) If Traci only made a handful of films and all the rest are compilations, then she must have made the whole handful with me as I did five films with her. (5) You claim that a couple of pornographers spent about $100,000 together to defend themselves from charges of sexually exploiting a minor. You have touched only the icing on the cake. I alone ended up spending almost $400,000. Your facts are a little OFF.
"Now lets get down to me. I'm going to explain a few things. I will try to type slowly so that you will be able to keep up ----"
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