Deep Throat @ 50: Svengali – The Chuck Traynor Story: Part 2

When Linda Lovelace met Chuck Traynor, it would have profound implications for both of them. And it would impact adult film and popular culture in America. If they hadn’t met, there would be no Deep Throat (1972), no porno chic, no mainstream debate about an adult film in the wake of the sexual revolution.

When Linda and Chuck first met, both were at crossroads in their lives. Chuck had been through three marriages, sporadic work in the sexploitation business, and was awaiting trial on a major drug smuggling bust. Linda was wandering aimlessly between New York and Florida, had lost a child, and was recovering from a horrific car accident.

In many respects, they were perfect for each other at this moment in time: Chuck was growing bored of the high-maintenance bar girls who gave him sassy lip. Owning a successful business had made him more confident; running a drug smuggling operation had made him more cunning. Linda was tired of drifting aimlessly and needing more than the passive, directionless hippie boys she hung out with. She was looking for direction, an identity, her purpose.

In short, Chuck was looking for someone to make an imprint on, and Linda wanted to be imprinted.

This is Part Two of the untold story of Chuck Traynor.

This podcast is 32 minutes long.

Listen to, or read Part One here.

——————————————————————————————

In the previous episode of ‘Svengali – The Chuck Traynor Story’:

Chuck was born in Connecticut in 1937 to a single mother. He was raised by his grandparents amid rumors of his mother’s escorting and involvement with mobsters. Eventually the whole family moved down to Florida. Chuck served in the marines, before working on the fringes of the sexploitation business through his romantic involvement with the pin-up photographer Bunny Yeager. He married three times, but Chuck always wanted more, and in the late 1960s, he owned a biker bar that was a front for prostitution, and then masterminded a smuggling operation, importing marijuana into Florida from the Caribbean. And then in 1970, he was busted for smuggling drugs, and met Linda Boreman – who would later become Linda Lovelace.

*

1. Who was Linda Lovelace?

Linda Boreman was born January 10th, 1949. Her family – parents John and Dorothy and two older sisters, Barbara and Jeanne – lived on the top floor of a five-story walk-up in the Bronx.

It was a largely conventional upbringing. John was a police officer. Dorothy, a waitress. The girls attended Catholic schools where Linda was an average student. According to later interviews, she claimed her only childhood ambition was to become a nun.

Linda Boreman

When Linda turned 16, her father John retired from the police force, and the family moved down to south Florida. John took a job working security for Eastern Airlines. Linda enrolled in Carol City High School, a budding hippie chick.

Outgoing and warm, Linda soon made a friend named Patsy Carroll. Patsy was impressed by Linda’s New York accent and fashion sense. Linda and Patsy got close fast. They went everywhere together, to places like the Cloverleaf Bowling Alley and the municipal auditorium where they watched live music on weekends. They both began dating members of a local band called the Shags. It was innocent, teenage fun.

Then Patsy’s father, a military man, was transferred to Virginia,