‘Once Upon a Time…in the Valley’, a new podcast series co-produced and co-presented by The Rialto Report’s Ashley West, launches today with the first three episodes.

Episode 1 – T-R-A-C-I

Episode 2 – Wanted: Figure Models

Episode 3 – We Kinda Made it Hardcore

Download via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RADIO.COM and everywhere podcasts are available.

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Press Release:

C13Originals Launches Season One of its new Documentary Series, ‘Once Upon a Time… in the Valley’: The Traci Lords Scandal

A real-life mystery and porno-noir created and written by acclaimed Vanity Fair writer and literary iconoclast Lili Anolik, featuring Ashley West, consultant on HBO’s The Deuce.

Before there were sex tapes, there were sex tapes…

C13Originals, the Peabody Award-nominated documentary studio division of leading premium podcast company Cadence13, announces Once Upon a Time…in the Valley, the real-life mystery and porno-noir podcast series created and written by Vanity Fair’s Lili Anolik, featuring Ashley West.

Before there were sex tapes, there were sex tapes. Before there was Paris or Kim, there was Traci. The first, the best, the O.G. Hardcore since ’84.

In the roaring 80’s porn world, Traci Lords reigned supreme. No one questioned her right to sovereignty. Only, it turned out, the biggest star in adult films was, legally speaking, just a child. As America would discover in July 1986, when the FBI busted down her door. Traci Lords was really Nora Kuzma, who’d entered the industry as a 15-year-old high school sophomore. Traci, the victim, was saved. And the industry, the villain, was very nearly destroyed. But what if the victim here was also the villain; the villain, also the victim?

As Anolik cautions, “Put your condoms on, get that safe word ready” because she and Ashley are going in hard and deep. It’s the San Fernando Valley. It’s the mid-1980s, the moment the industry is exploding: moving from New York to L.A., from film to video, from the shadows to the spotlight. Traci may be the series’ focus, but its setting and supporting players—Ginger Lynn, Christy Canyon, Tom Byron, to name but a few—are so dynamic, they’re constantly threatening to upstage her. (Not that she’ll let them.)

“It’s the story I’ve wanted to tell more than any other,” says Lili Anolik. “Just imagine Boogie Nights, if Boogie Nights had a three-way with Gone Girl and A Star Is Born—and it let Gone Girl be on top.”

“Lili’s instincts for storytelling, and her brilliant writing style are on full display in this franchise,” said Chris Corcoran, Chief Content Officer, Cadence13. “The launch of ‘Once Upon a Time…in the Valley’ marks the continued expansion of the C13Originals slate, and the boundary-pushing, and thrilling ways we can tell compelling cultural stories with the best storytellers.”

Once Upon a Time…in the Valley was created and written by Lili Anolik in collaboration with, and produced by Peabody-Award nominated C13Originals, a division of Cadence13. The series is Executive Produced by Corcoran and Anolik; produced by West; directed by Zak Levitt; edited and mastered by Chris Basil, Bill Shultz, Perry Crowell, and Ian Mandt; with theme music and original score by Joel Goodman.

Lili Anolik is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. Her work has also appeared in Harper’s, Esquire and The Paris Review, among other publications. Her latest book, the Los Angeles Times bestseller Hollywood’s Eve: Eve Babitz and the Secret History of L.A., was named one of Esquire’s Best Books of 2019.

Ashley West is the creator of The Rialto Report, a web and podcast channel that documents the Golden Age of Porn (1969-1984). He’s worked as a consultant on HBO’s The Deuce, and has published numerous pieces on the adult industry in The Daily Beast, several of which have been optioned for film and television.

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