Speaker 1: Both my parents know I'm in the business, and my
Speaker 1: mom thinks it's great because I make so much money.
Speaker 1: Savannah performer.
Speaker 2: My dad subscribed to the Playboy channel, and when I
Speaker 2: saw her in a movie one night, she took my
Speaker 2: breath away. I couldn't get over the fact that a
Speaker 2: woman who was so gorgeous she seemed untouchable, would ever
Speaker 2: do adult movies.
Speaker 3: Jenna Jamison, Welcome to Jenna World. Welcome back to Jenna World.
Speaker 3: I'm your host, Mollie Lambert. This is episode five Savannah.
Speaker 3: The San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, nineteen eighty seven, porn
Speaker 3: is fully legal in America for the first time. It
Speaker 3: no longer has to be shot secretively because it's been
Speaker 3: ruled art protected by First Amendment free speech laws. So
Speaker 3: the porn business continues to boom unstoppably, raking in an
Speaker 3: alleged seven hundred and fifty million dollars a year. There
Speaker 3: are thirty seven production companies, major and minor, across the
Speaker 3: San Fernando Valley. Despite the hard won legality and constant
Speaker 3: demand for new product, the Reagan era crackdown still has
Speaker 3: some instant cooling effects. In nineteen eighty eight, a company
Speaker 3: called Essex Video is busted by FEDS using these report
Speaker 3: tactics that focus on interstate distribution of pornographic materials. Essex
Speaker 3: Video has been bringing in ten million dollars a year,
Speaker 3: but it's the EO. Jeff Steinmann has been constantly harassed
Speaker 3: by the FEDS for shipping porn movies like Flesh Dance
Speaker 3: and I Want to Be Teased across state lines from
Speaker 3: California to Tennessee, where porn is still restricted. All the
Speaker 3: money Essex Video put into extravagant production costs didn't stop
Speaker 3: some of its films from flopping anyway. Legal fees from
Speaker 3: defending themselves against me's influenced obscenity suits have drained their
Speaker 3: coffers and essex Video goes bankrupt. Jeff Steinmann keeps emphasizing
Speaker 3: that essex is a film distribution company, not a studio.
Speaker 4: I don't make movies.
Speaker 5: Essex Video was never a production company.
Speaker 6: Jeff Steinmann Essex Video.
Speaker 3: Jeff Steinman has also just bought a five bedroom, five
Speaker 3: bathroom mansion for almost one million dollars in Santa Clarita's
Speaker 3: Canyon Country neighborhood. Worried that they wouldn't sell it to
Speaker 3: a porn maven. He lied to the former owners that
Speaker 3: he was rich off of construction business. The deal for
Speaker 3: the mansion has just closed. When essex video goes belly
Speaker 3: up within the adult industry, folks start to worry that
Speaker 3: the porn market is becoming oversaturated with content. Adult videotapes
Speaker 3: are becoming less valuable because there are so many studios
Speaker 3: making them cheaply. Now there are also people making pornography
Speaker 3: who truly don't care if the content is any good
Speaker 3: at all. They are just trying to constantly flood the
Speaker 3: market with new product. Meet Mark Curtis of Video Exclusives.
Speaker 4: My mother used to tell me all women are whores
Speaker 4: and sluts, and she was wry. Mark Curtis Video Exclusives.
Speaker 3: Mark Curtis aka Mark Carrier is a guy from Alabama
Speaker 3: who starts a mail order VHS company in nineteen eighty
Speaker 3: that becomes Video Exclusives, which moves into the Valley neighborhood
Speaker 3: of Canoga Park. Video Exclusives cuts script lengths and shooting
Speaker 3: times in half, shooting scenes fast and dirty at single locations.
Speaker 4: I came up with the idea that instead of shooting
Speaker 4: over two or three days, you could just do it
Speaker 4: in one day, and instead of a thirty page script,
Speaker 4: you'd use a fifteen page script. And if you don't
Speaker 4: move to different locations, well, you know that cuts costs tremendously.
Speaker 3: By nineteen ninety one, Curtis's sales figures have risen from
Speaker 3: three million to thirty million dollars a year. He invests
Speaker 3: the profits back into a West Valley sound stage with
Speaker 3: sets for standard porn setups like a hospital, as well
Speaker 3: as a styrofoam ice cave. Mark Curtis buys a Bentley,
Speaker 3: a Porsche, a Ferrari, and a vintage Corvette. He is
Speaker 3: hated within the porn industry for his cost cutting techniques,
Speaker 3: which he compares to Japanese car makers undercutting American ones
Speaker 3: with cheaper, better cars. While his pornos are cheaper, they
Speaker 3: are definitely not better. Flooding the market with shitty but
Speaker 3: plentiful content like Mark Curtis is doing, is making the
Speaker 3: value of all porn content go down.
Speaker 4: I'm always looking to cut corners to cut people out
Speaker 4: of the picture.
Speaker 3: When the technology is brand new, porn videotapes go for
Speaker 3: as much as one hundred dollars a pop. By the
Speaker 3: late eighties, products like Video Exclusives tapes sell for five bucks.
Speaker 3: Mark Curtis is also obsessed with building the perfect girl
Speaker 3: to fit his own sexual fantasy. Video Exclusives hires contract
Speaker 3: girls like an Australian blonde named Kelly Blue, and pays
Speaker 3: for them to have plastic surgery like nose jobs and
Speaker 3: breast enlargements. He also pays for professional makeup for his
Speaker 3: girlfriends even when they're not on set. People joke about
Speaker 3: the girls that Mark built.
Speaker 4: We make the stars instead of waiting on them to
Speaker 4: come to us.
Speaker 3: The IRS starts keeping an eye on Mark Curtis, and
Speaker 3: in nineteen ninety one they bust him for misreporting his
Speaker 3: income to evade taxes. Whenever customers pay for their tapes
Speaker 3: in cash, Video Exclusives has been putting that cash into
Speaker 3: a secret safe and not reporting that money to the government.
Speaker 7: Right now, isn't a real good time for these people,
Speaker 7: Sergeant Donald Smith LAPD.
Speaker 3: By the late eighties, thirty of the San Fernando Valley's
Speaker 3: foremost adult companies have been searched by the Los Angeles
Speaker 3: Police Department and the FBI. The FEDS are specifically going
Speaker 3: to more conservative states and filing obscenity charges against pornographers
Speaker 3: in California, a practice called venue shopping. Hoping to rile
Speaker 3: up the folks in red states against adult films, The
Speaker 3: film companies get lawyers to fight back against the onslaught
Speaker 3: of new lawsuits. In nineteen eighty nine, undercover fed set
Speaker 3: up a fake video store in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. The
Speaker 3: Feds order porn tapes for the fake video store from
Speaker 3: Calvista Video and Van Nis. They receive four films on
Speaker 3: vhs Backdoor, Lust, Awesome, Sorority Pink, and Sorority Pink Too.
Speaker 3: Then they try the pornographers on obscenity charges in Oklahoma,
Speaker 3: assuming the venue shopping will help get them a conviction
Speaker 3: from a more culturally conservative jury than in California. Instead,
Speaker 3: they get a hung jury who can't decide if the
Speaker 3: tapes are obscene. Sydney Nikerk of Calvista is threatened with
Speaker 3: a two million dollar fine for shipping pornographic materials to Oklahoma.
Speaker 3: He gets off with one hundred thousand dollars fine after
Speaker 3: promising to shut down Calvista and its subsidiaries. He doesn't
Speaker 3: have the one hundred thousand dollars left after being bankrupted
Speaker 3: by legal fees. The Mese reports suggested tactics are working.
Speaker 3: Golden Age porn stars like Nina Hartley and Ron Jeremy
Speaker 3: see this as a conservative pushback against the sexual revolution.
Speaker 8: It's a lot safer than a woman who abstains a
Speaker 8: month than gets so desperate she goes out to a
Speaker 8: bar and picks up a guy. Life is a risk,
Speaker 8: Nina Hartley, performer.
Speaker 5: Part of my defense is it's a very honest business.
Speaker 5: It's exactly what it is. I don't have a problem
Speaker 5: with the Lord above, who do I hurt. I do
Speaker 5: the same thing you do, except I do it on film.
Speaker 5: Ron Jeremy, performer.
Speaker 3: As the Reagan era tries to put porn back in
Speaker 3: the VHS box, the HIV retrovirus that Reagan refuses to
Speaker 3: acknowledge is also tearing through the adult industry. John Holmes,
Speaker 3: who returns to performing in the eighties and continues to
Speaker 3: struggle with drug addiction, contracts HIV in nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 3: Holmes then shoots two movies in Italy without telling producers
Speaker 3: or co stars about his HIV status while shooting unprotected
Speaker 3: sex scenes. Holmes continues to claim his health issues are
Speaker 3: colon cancer until nineteen eighty seven, when he finally tells
Speaker 3: friends he has AIDS before dying from complications in nineteen
Speaker 3: eighty eight at the age of forty six. Two of
Speaker 3: seventy's porn's biggest stars, John Holmes and Linda Lovelace from
Speaker 3: Deep Throat, are held up as cautionary tales against the
Speaker 3: idea that porn can ever be ethical or safe for participants.
Speaker 3: After several HIV scares, the porn industry starts to require
Speaker 3: monthly STD and AIDS tests from performers. A former adult
Speaker 3: performer named Sharon Mitchell starts a nonprofit called Adult Industry
Speaker 3: Medical Healthcare Foundation to oversee STD testing. Mitchell has a
Speaker 3: PhD in sexology from an unaccredited facility in Sanvardzion that
Speaker 3: is not recognized by any university or college. She acted
Speaker 3: in a thousand adult movies directed twenty and appears briefly
Speaker 3: in The Deer Hunter and Tutsie. The model for STD
Speaker 3: testing in the porn community originated from another West Coast tradition, communes.
Speaker 3: Because of the free love aspect of communes, group BESTD
Speaker 3: testing was first practiced in communes like Resniche Peram. The
Speaker 3: Oregon Commune founded by Osho, as well as the Morehouse
Speaker 3: Commune in Lafayette, California, and the Korista Commune, a polyamorous
Speaker 3: intentional community founded by a World War Two veteran named
Speaker 3: John bro Jed Presmont after he heard voices telling him
Speaker 3: that he was the founder of the world's next great religion.
Speaker 3: Koristans formed fidelitous groups called b f I c's Best
Speaker 3: Friend identity clusters rotating sleep arrangements. There was some political
Speaker 3: friction at Kurista when bro Jed turned out to be
Speaker 3: pro war in the Vietnam era, the adult industry comes
Speaker 3: together to debate mandatory condom use. Some think requiring condoms
Speaker 3: will ruin the fantasy that porn sells of raw spontaneous sex.
Speaker 3: Others think it's not worth the risk of shooting without them.
Speaker 3: Everyone has to grapple with the new reality.
Speaker 7: I'm hoping that the talent will band together and look
Speaker 7: out for themselves and each other.
Speaker 9: I don't think we've ever had a better.
Speaker 7: Idea Shane performer and a head of Shane Enterprises.
Speaker 10: By incorporating these things, we're making a statement to the public, like, hey,
Speaker 10: it's okay to use condoms. I think it's good for everybody.
Speaker 10: Deanna Lauren Vivid Video Contract Girl.
Speaker 3: While adult tapes led the way into the video rental revolution,
Speaker 3: they are no longer the top sellers. Some think the
Speaker 3: novelty of easily being able to watch people have sex
Speaker 3: has simply worn off. Maybe it's the influx of amateur
Speaker 3: sex tape shot on home camquarders. It's possible the porn
Speaker 3: industry has flooded the market with too much easily available content,
Speaker 3: and now nothing is appointment viewing. There's also increasing globalization.
Speaker 3: You can now watch porn made all over the world.
Speaker 3: Between nineteen eighty eight and nineteen eighty nine, porn tape
Speaker 3: rental numbers start dropping. In nineteen ninety eight, Ginger Lin
Speaker 3: Allen is indicted for two counts of tax fraud, probably
Speaker 3: direct retaliation from the FEDS for her refusal to testify
Speaker 3: in the Tracy Lord's Fake ID case. Two years earlier,
Speaker 3: Charlie Sheen and his father, Martin Sheen, write a letter
Speaker 3: to the judge asking for leniency in the case. Ginger's
Speaker 3: defense includes a psychologist who brings up her traumatic childhood
Speaker 3: and calls her need for sexual validation from men pathological,
Speaker 3: which I don't know that there's any other kind. After
Speaker 3: a week long trial, Ginger Lynn Allen is convicted on
Speaker 3: one count of tax fraud for failing to disclose a
Speaker 3: measly eight thousand, five hundred and eighty dollars to the
Speaker 3: United States government that she made in nineteen eighty three
Speaker 3: during her first few months in porn. In nineteen ninety one,
Speaker 3: she's making thirty thousand dollars a year stripping and a
Speaker 3: measly twenty five thousand dollars a year from mainstream acting,
Speaker 3: much less than she got paid to perform for Vivid.
Speaker 3: She stars in Vice Academy three and asks for ten
Speaker 3: thousand dollars and a personal trailer, but she shows up
Speaker 3: late and hungover to set and then fucks up her lines.
Speaker 3: In nineteen ninety two, she fails a court ordered drug
Speaker 3: test and is sentenced to forty five days in rehab.
Speaker 1: I love sex, and I love sex with rockets is
Speaker 1: more than anything else.
Speaker 3: But even with dark clouds gathering over the San Fernando Valley,
Speaker 3: a new starlet arrives to shine brightly in the pornographic firmament.
Speaker 3: She's a rocker bad girl for the new decade. The
Speaker 3: nineteen nineties She's platinum blonde with blunt betty page bangs,
Speaker 3: poudy lips, and a penchant for dating famous rock stars
Speaker 3: and comedians. She has dark clouds inside of herself too,
Speaker 3: and the media loves to watch a beautiful woman self destruct.
Speaker 3: Her stage name is Savannah the Future. Savannah is born
Speaker 3: as Shannon Michelle Wilseie in Hawthorne, California, in nineteen seventy
Speaker 3: on October ninth, an apple cheeked, dirty blonde libra. Her
Speaker 3: mother is Pamela, a seventeen year old teenage runaway who
Speaker 3: meets her father, eighteen year old postal clerk Michael Wilsey.
Speaker 3: Her parents are hippies who meet in nineteen sixty nine
Speaker 3: and have a whirlwind romance that ends after the birth
Speaker 3: of their daughter. According to pam when the child is born,
Speaker 3: Mike Wilsey says he wanted a boy and that he
Speaker 3: doesn't believe he's the father. Nevertheless, Pamela and Mike Wilsey
Speaker 3: get married when Shannon is eighteen months old and split
Speaker 3: up three months later. Pamela moves to Justin, Texas with
Speaker 3: Shannon and gets a job at a grocery store. She
Speaker 3: marries a clerk at the store named Joe Longoria, who
Speaker 3: has four kids from his first marriage. Shannon, a toddler,
Speaker 3: is told by her mom that Joe Longoria is her father,
Speaker 3: but she's never formally adopted because Mike Wilsey won't agree
Speaker 3: to it. Ham and Joe have three more children, for
Speaker 3: a grand total of eight kids, and Shannon figures out
Speaker 3: how to get some attention in her big family by dancing.
Speaker 11: I listened to a lot of music, and she did too,
Speaker 11: and danced all the time when the music was on
Speaker 11: Pam Wilsey.
Speaker 3: The family moves to Haltam City, Texas, and Shannon attends
Speaker 3: grade school. Her teachers say she was cute, well liked
Speaker 3: by classmates, and an a student. By age twelve, Shannon
Speaker 3: is telling everyone she's going to move to Hollywood and
Speaker 3: become a movie star. At thirteen, she's told she can't
Speaker 3: enroll in middle school as Shannon Longoria because she's not
Speaker 3: really a Longoria. This is how Shannon finds out that
Speaker 3: the man she thinks is her dad is really her stepdad.
Speaker 3: This upsets her entire worldview. Her personality changes from a
Speaker 3: bubbly child to an angry teenager. She starts talking back
Speaker 3: to her stepfather, skipping school, smoking pot, and climbing out
Speaker 3: of her bedroom window at night. Pam Wilsey decides to
Speaker 3: ship her daughter off to Mission via Ho, California, to
Speaker 3: live with her great grandparents and uncle, a guy named
Speaker 3: Mike Winnitt. Mike Winnett becomes Shannon's legal guardian, but she
Speaker 3: finds trouble there too and gets sent back to Texas.
Speaker 3: She's moved around between homes in Texas and California, where
Speaker 3: she experiences a traumatic sexual assault. At age sixteen, she
Speaker 3: moves in with her birth father, Mike Wilsey, in Ventura, California,
Speaker 3: but he too has other kids and Shannon once again
Speaker 3: gets lost in the shuffle. She goes back to her
Speaker 3: uncles again and confesses to him about how she was molested.
Speaker 3: Her mother steadfastly denies that Shannon was sexually assaulted, possibly
Speaker 3: because it was by somebody close to the family. Then,
Speaker 3: at thirteen, she goes back to her mom in Texas
Speaker 3: until she's allegedly found on her stepfather's lap, then back
Speaker 3: to Mission via Ho, where she becomes a high school cheerleader.
Speaker 3: She starts dressing provocatively and asks her uncle to walk
Speaker 3: six feet behind her She is sixteen years old when
Speaker 3: she meets Greg Alman of the Almon Brothers outside his
Speaker 3: tour bus at a hotel in San Juan Capistrano. He
Speaker 3: is forty years old. She asks him on a date
Speaker 3: to a club called the Coach House. He even meets
Speaker 3: her uncle, says he plans to take good care of Shannon,
Speaker 3: and then offers him coke.
Speaker 12: I was like, well, you know, it's cocaine. It's not
Speaker 12: that bad. It's okay, And then we all did some cocaine. Ah,
Speaker 12: Mike win it. Savannah's uncle.
Speaker 3: Uncle Mike says in retrospect he was not doing a
Speaker 3: good job parenting his niece. Next thing, Uncle Mike knows
Speaker 3: he's receiving a phone call from his niece with some news.
Speaker 1: I'm on the road with Greg Almon.
Speaker 3: Shannon Willseye drops out of high school to joined Greg
Speaker 3: Alman on tour from nineteen eighty six to nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 3: Now you know, I'd love to do five hours of
Speaker 3: stuff just about Almond Brother's band lore, but I have
Speaker 3: to keep it moving. So here are the bullet points.
Speaker 3: Greg Almond snitched on his friend during a coke bust
Speaker 3: in the seventies and the rest of the Almond Brothers
Speaker 3: band stopped talking to him afterwards. He was married to
Speaker 3: Share for nine days until he pulled a knife on
Speaker 3: her on their honeymoon in Jamaica. When All Men meets Shannon,
Speaker 3: he is at the peak of his alcoholism, drinking a
Speaker 3: fifth of vodka a day. Greg Alman allegedly introduces his
Speaker 3: underage girlfriend to hard drugs, including heroin. Shannon gets an
Speaker 3: ankle tattoo that says Greg in all caps, she liked the.
Speaker 11: Fact that he bought her expensive things that we never could.
Speaker 3: Isolated in Greg Alman's luxury high rise apartment in Nashville
Speaker 3: or on the bus with the band, Shannon starts to
Speaker 3: yearn for her old teenage life. Greg dumps her when
Speaker 3: she turns eighteen, and she moves back in with her uncle.
Speaker 3: Shannon realizes she's pregnant with Greg Alman's child, then has
Speaker 3: a miscarriage. She moves back in with her father, Mike Wilsee,
Speaker 3: and Ventura and tries to return to a normal California
Speaker 3: teenage girl's life. She goes to the beach, gets a
Speaker 3: job at a clothing store, and works on getting her ged.
Speaker 3: At night school, she subscribes to Guitar Player magazine and
Speaker 3: puts posters of her favorite rock stars on her wall
Speaker 3: at home.
Speaker 1: My favorite thing in my little life is rock and roll.
Speaker 1: My ambition is to marry rock star.
Speaker 3: When Jenna World returns, Shannon Wilsey moves to La and
Speaker 3: becomes Savannah Oh my Gosh, Welcome back to Jenna World.
Speaker 3: After being a rock star's girlfriend on the road, Shannon
Speaker 3: gets easily bored in the small beach town and starts
Speaker 3: seeking out local thrills, strolling the strand in song bikinis
Speaker 3: and dyeing her hair platinum blonde. She enters a local
Speaker 3: bikini contest in Ventura. At the bikini contest, she meets
Speaker 3: Racal Darien, a penthouse pet, who wins. Shannon comes in
Speaker 3: third place and throws a fit. She meets a photographer
Speaker 3: there who takes her first topless shots and becomes her
Speaker 3: next boyfriend. She steals his prescriptions and passes out on
Speaker 3: his couch. She starts trawling LA's rock clubs with her friends,
Speaker 3: dressing sexy and trying to get backstage passes from Rhodie's.
Speaker 3: She goes to every show at the Ventura Theater. A
Speaker 3: musician named Billy Sheehan spots Shannon from the stage. She
Speaker 3: Hann is a road dog bassist who's toured with Post
Speaker 3: Van Halen, David Lee Roth. He's now in the band
Speaker 3: Mister Big, who are about to tour with Rush. They
Speaker 3: have sex.
Speaker 13: Babe, you're a fucking star, Billy she head musician.
Speaker 3: Shannon decides to pursue acting and gets cast in some
Speaker 3: B movies. She shacks up with Billy Sheehan in La
Speaker 3: and speeds around town in his red Corvette while he's
Speaker 3: on tour. She seems to have no fear behind the wheel,
Speaker 3: even after she gets charged with drunk driving and placed
Speaker 3: on probation. A few weeks after her night in jail
Speaker 3: for drunk driving, she totals the corvette.
Speaker 1: I need an a to graduate, and I'd be willing
Speaker 1: to do anything.
Speaker 3: She gets her first speaking role in a movie called
Speaker 3: The Invisible Maniac, where she's credited as Shannon Wilsee. Although
Speaker 3: it's a slasher comedy, she is mortified at the movie's
Speaker 3: August nineteen ninety premiere when the audience keeps laughing at
Speaker 3: her lines. She feels like they're laughing not just at
Speaker 3: her character Vicky, but laughing at her personally in her acting.
Speaker 3: Feeling ridiculed, she decides to give up on pursuing mainstream acting.
Speaker 3: She sends a love letter to Greg Allman with a
Speaker 3: picture of herself that's returned to her by another woman.
Speaker 3: Out of acting work and low on money, Shannon decides
Speaker 3: to do nude modeling and shoots with her photographer X.
Speaker 3: She and Billy Shehan reconnected to Denny's after the rush tour.
Speaker 3: Sheehan dumps Shannon when he sees her on the cover
Speaker 3: of an adult magazine giving a blowjob. She goes out
Speaker 3: on the Sunset Strip that night and picks up allegedly
Speaker 3: Billy Idle. Ready to fully jump into doing porn, she
Speaker 3: gets booked to do her first scene with Raquel Darien
Speaker 3: under the name silver Kine and shows up to set
Speaker 3: two hours late. She demands somebody find her some heroine,
Speaker 3: and when nobody obliges, she settles for five volumes. She
Speaker 3: is so wooden that the production has to loop in
Speaker 3: sex noises. She isn't very interested in movies or even sex,
Speaker 3: but she has one goal. She wants to be a star.
Speaker 3: Shannon Wilsey signs a contract with Video Exclusives The Shitty
Speaker 3: Low budget porn company run by Mark Curtis. The contract
Speaker 3: is for twenty five movies at two hundred and fifty
Speaker 3: bucks a scene doubled for box covers. Shannon takes her
Speaker 3: stage name Savannah from a nineteen eighty two family comedy
Speaker 3: called Savannah Smiles, based on John Renoir's La Grande Delusion,
Speaker 3: about a six year old girl who runs away from
Speaker 3: her rich father with the help of two escaped convicts.
Speaker 3: Men have telling Shannon she's beautiful enough to be a
Speaker 3: movie star. Her whole life. Now a Savannah, she will
Speaker 3: video exclusives, buys her a Mustang and rents her a cheap,
Speaker 3: shitty apartment in Hollywood. She dubs her new place the
Speaker 3: hell Hole and leaves it unfurnished. Savannah thinks her boobs
Speaker 3: are too small for porn, referring to them as tater tots,
Speaker 3: so Mark Curtis, builder of dream Girls, arranges for her
Speaker 3: to get decup saline implants from a plastic surgeon in
Speaker 3: Beverly Hills. She also gets hooked up with a crooked
Speaker 3: dentist who prescribes her unlimited percocets. She moves into a
Speaker 3: nice place in the hills of Universal City, overlooking the
Speaker 3: San Fernando Valley. The new place is furnished with black
Speaker 3: leather couches, a walk through closet, and a glass coffee table.
Speaker 3: On the walls, Savannah hangs beautiful, glossy pin up pictures
Speaker 3: of herself naked. In nineteen ninety one, Savannah's contract with
Speaker 3: Video Exclusives ends, she moves up in the porn world,
Speaker 3: joining the more prestigious ranks of the Vivid Girls. By
Speaker 3: the early nineties, Vivid Video is signing six Vivid Girls
Speaker 3: a year, who each make movies that are budgeted at
Speaker 3: one hundred thousand dollars. As a Vivid Girl, Savannah gets
Speaker 3: to work less for more money. She only has to
Speaker 3: do eight movies for Vivid each year. Just as they
Speaker 3: built the Ginger series around Ginger Lynn Allen and the
Speaker 3: Brat series around Jamie Summers, Vivid Video builds a film
Speaker 3: franchise around Savannah called On Trial. Directed by Paul Thomas.
Speaker 3: On Trial is a four part series about a porn
Speaker 3: star obscenity trial that cashes in on the popularity of
Speaker 3: the new cable TV channel Court TV, which broadcasts trials
Speaker 3: live from the courtroom. While Savannah doesn't like to work.
Speaker 3: She does like the acting part of her job.
Speaker 1: Do you think I should like make my voice catch
Speaker 1: right as I'm saying this?
Speaker 3: Having instant access to a lot of money is not
Speaker 3: great for Savannah's impulse control. She spends her contract earnings
Speaker 3: compulsively on designer clothing, drugs, fancy food from the william
Speaker 3: Sonoma store, and a fish tank filled with exotic tropical
Speaker 3: fish for her expensive hillside rental. The heroin use Greg
Speaker 3: Allman introduced her to as a teenage girl has become
Speaker 3: an entrenched habit. She spends two hundred dollars a day
Speaker 3: on Mexican tar heroine that she cooks in a spoon.
Speaker 3: She carries her junkie gear in a makeup bag and
Speaker 3: ties her arm off with a pair of tights.
Speaker 1: I don't want ugly bitches like this. In a scene
Speaker 1: with Me, Savannah.
Speaker 3: Starts to get a bad reputation for showing up drunk, high,
Speaker 3: and late, if at all, carrying her heroin works in
Speaker 3: a leather mini backpack. Other girls don't like her because
Speaker 3: she's bitchy and unprofessional. She gets nicknamed the ice Queen
Speaker 3: behind her back. Her drug use makes her a liability
Speaker 3: on set and off Normally porn stars make big bucks
Speaker 3: doing feature dancing at clubs, but Savannah is too unreliable
Speaker 3: to tour well. She runs out of drugs on the
Speaker 3: road and freaks out, sending strip club owners out on
Speaker 3: a quest to find them for her locally.
Speaker 1: If that god Nampa doesn't get me my coffee in
Speaker 1: two minutes, I want him fired.
Speaker 3: Despite the bad word of mouth about her diva behavior,
Speaker 3: her constant disrespect for the film crews that made her
Speaker 3: into a star, and her refusal to put any work
Speaker 3: into getting better at performing on screen, nobody can deny
Speaker 3: that Savannah's movies are selling better than any other new starlets.
Speaker 3: It makes other performers crazy that Savannah works so much
Speaker 3: less hard yet makes so much money. She's a beautiful woman,
Speaker 3: but she's a dead fish on screen. During sex, she
Speaker 3: refuses to pretend to enjoy it. She just lays there
Speaker 3: and waits for it to be over with One time,
Speaker 3: she gets so bored while getting pounded doggie style that
Speaker 3: she starts playing with a houseplantl.
Speaker 4: Come on, Savannah, say fuck me or something, suck.
Speaker 1: Me or something.
Speaker 9: I'll get right away.
Speaker 3: Once she becomes Savannah, she flips out if she's addressed
Speaker 3: as Shannon, She saves tabloid articles that mention her, but
Speaker 3: crosses out any mention of Shannon Wilseie and them with
Speaker 3: a pen. Savannah lives hard and fast on screen and off.
Speaker 3: She allegedly dates the string of eighties rock stars, including
Speaker 3: Billie Idol, David Lee Roth, and Vince Neil from Motley Crue,
Speaker 3: all riding out the last dregs of MTV eras success
Speaker 3: before Grunge destroys hair Metal. She is also spotted with
Speaker 3: Mark Wahlberg, Axel Rose, and Slash, not all at the
Speaker 3: same time. She spills to a tabloid that she fucked
Speaker 3: both Axel and Slash, and Slash was better. Slash gives
Speaker 3: her the pet name Savvy, like Charlie Sheen with Ginger
Speaker 3: Lynn Allen, the A listers that Savannah goes out with
Speaker 3: dangle the possibility of mainstream fame before her, or at
Speaker 3: least her dream of being a rock star's wife. Savannah
Speaker 3: lives up to her wild girl image by having public
Speaker 3: sexit bars with rock stars and slipping off with them
Speaker 3: into their limousines. Mark Marky, Mark Wahlberg takes her to
Speaker 3: the Grammys as his date. People Magazine alleges that Savannah
Speaker 3: got caught quote engaged in full hilt whoopee with Slash
Speaker 3: from Guns N' Roses at a New York club called
Speaker 3: the Scrap Bar. Star Tabloid reports that she's engaged to
Speaker 3: Slash and wearing a three carrot diamond engagement ring he
Speaker 3: gave her, but Slash won't publicly claim Savannah as his girlfriend.
Speaker 14: If she was carrying a torch for Slash, it was
Speaker 14: completely one sided.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's what Rose even knew her.
Speaker 3: It's rumored the engagement ring Savannah wears is a gift
Speaker 3: from one of her rich old sugar daddies. Savannah dates
Speaker 3: her way through la married strip club owners, noncommittal Hollywood guys,
Speaker 3: and a dude from the glam metal band Rat. She
Speaker 3: moves in with one boyfriend, only to have him stolen
Speaker 3: by her best friend. The rock stars and rich guys
Speaker 3: only want Savannah for public sex and as red carpet
Speaker 3: arm candy. They aren't interested in getting to know her deeply.
Speaker 3: She finds the real emotional connection she's been looking for
Speaker 3: with a woman she meets at an adult film convention
Speaker 3: in nineteen ninety one, another porn star named Gina Fine.
Speaker 14: I was totally completely in love with her.
Speaker 11: Gena Fine performer performer.
Speaker 3: Born Jennifer Payson in New York City, Gena Fine is
Speaker 3: a five foot nine libra who starts doing porn at
Speaker 3: age twenty one. An eighties punk rock girl with a
Speaker 3: bleach blonde, spiked up mullet, she stars in movies like
Speaker 3: Dream Genes and a Fatal Attraction parody called Fatal Erection.
Speaker 3: Gena Fine is known for her rough, aggressive sex scenes,
Speaker 3: part of an influx of punk performers that will become
Speaker 3: the genre Nona's alternative porn. In nineteen ninety, she rebrands
Speaker 3: into a raven haired pin up wearing latex body con
Speaker 3: fetish dresses. She does sex work on the side, charging
Speaker 3: one thousand dollars for out calls as a dominatrix. Savannah
Speaker 3: and Gena Fine meet on a set and click instantly.
Speaker 3: They become the Glimmer twins of porn, partying together NonStop
Speaker 3: and showing up to work fucked up and late or
Speaker 3: not at all, jeopardizing both of their hot careers. They
Speaker 3: have a long on and off romantic relationship and do
Speaker 3: a lot of heroin together. Gina Fine knows how to
Speaker 3: handle Savannah and her ever changing moods, how to treat
Speaker 3: her like a full human being as a fellow woman
Speaker 3: in the industry. Gina clocks immediately that Savannah's whole hot
Speaker 3: diva bitch persona is masking a traumatized girl who's insecure
Speaker 3: about her appearance and just wants to be truly loved.
Speaker 3: Gina fine lets Savannah confide in her and validates her feelings.
Speaker 3: Gina sees that Savannah is a wounded soul she sees
Speaker 3: Shannon wilseye. Gina takes care of her. She makes Savannah
Speaker 3: feel comfy and safe, providing her things she really wants,
Speaker 3: like pink lace, flowered fabrics, and fuzzy bedroom slipper. She
Speaker 3: makes her her favorite meal, Kraft mac and cheese. Gina
Speaker 3: sees that Savannah gets fucked and fed. Savannah can be
Speaker 3: whiny and moody and irritable, but Gina loves taking care
Speaker 3: of her.
Speaker 1: Anny I'm getting pissy. Oh feed me, do me buy me?
Speaker 14: Savannah National Anthem.
Speaker 3: Gina and Savannah are each other's red carpet dates for
Speaker 3: the ninth annual nineteen ninety two Adult Video News Awards
Speaker 3: in Las Vegas on Trial One in Defense of Savannah
Speaker 3: is nominated for five awards, including Best Feature. Savannah is
Speaker 3: nominated for Best New Starlet.
Speaker 8: As usual, the parade of stars attracted every hot body
Speaker 8: in Vegas, much to the approval of a horny audience.
Speaker 11: Hot videos illustrated.
Speaker 3: At Bally's Hotel and Casino where the Avens are taking place.
Speaker 3: The mood is tense. Everyone knows Savannah is the favorite
Speaker 3: in her categories, including Best New Starlet, but there's a
Speaker 3: general feeling among those in the industry that she should
Speaker 3: not be rewarded for her bad behavior. It's one thing
Speaker 3: to have a bad girl image on screen. It's another
Speaker 3: to show up late to a shoot and waste a
Speaker 3: film cruise, time in studio, money on stage. Drag Queen
Speaker 3: porn director Chee Chi LaRue breaks the tension in the room.
Speaker 11: Where's that bitch, Savannah?
Speaker 2: She needs a spanking.
Speaker 1: Chee Chee LaRue.
Speaker 3: Director Gina Fine wins Best Actress. On Trial sweeps its categories,
Speaker 3: and Savannah wins the most coveted award for a girl
Speaker 3: role that recently debuted in the industry, Best News Starlet.
Speaker 3: Taking to the podium, Savannah addresses her critics and haters
Speaker 3: head on.
Speaker 1: I know a lot of you don't like me, but
Speaker 1: that's tough. I got mine award.
Speaker 3: At the Avian Awards. Savannah spots Gina making conversation with
Speaker 3: a performer named Amberlin. Amberlin is a blonde from Orange,
Speaker 3: California who survived a very hard childhood and moved to
Speaker 3: LA where she became part of the bikini modeling scene
Speaker 3: on the Sunset Strip. She is a pioneer in the
Speaker 3: practice of feature dancing, where porn stars double their money
Speaker 3: by touring strip clubs nationally as headlining exotic dancers. Amberlynn
Speaker 3: was also one of the performers who unknowingly worked with
Speaker 3: John Holmes when he was HIV positive. She tested negative
Speaker 3: afterwards and got involved with the Youth Aids Foundation of
Speaker 3: Los Angeles, which provides social services to teenagers with HIV.
Speaker 3: In nineteen ninety two, Amberlin holds the porn industry's first
Speaker 3: official humanitarian fundraiser.
Speaker 11: All of us could take a moment and look within
Speaker 11: ourselves and reach out and do anything that we can,
Speaker 11: regardless of who we are or what our occupation is.
Speaker 11: Not only can we raise awareness, we could make people responsible. Amberlin,
Speaker 11: performer for.
Speaker 3: Her twenty eighth birthday. Amberlin hosts the benefit at the
Speaker 3: Bellage Hotel in West Hollywood to raise money for the
Speaker 3: Youth Aids Foundation, whose board members include Tory Spelling. In
Speaker 3: a black fishnet catsuit, Amberlin hosts a seventy five dollars
Speaker 3: a plate benefit dinner with prominent adult industry figures, including
Speaker 3: Larry Flint. The birthday benefit gets press coverage in the
Speaker 3: New York and LA Times. Amberlin uses her porn stardom
Speaker 3: to draw attention to LA's desperate need for free social services,
Speaker 3: particularly for those who are already living on the fringes
Speaker 3: of society for various reasons. In nineteen ninety two, LA's
Speaker 3: deep issues around class and racism are elevated to an
Speaker 3: international media stage because of the LA Riots, also known
Speaker 3: as the LA Uprisings. LA's housing crisis and related homelessness
Speaker 3: issues have been escalating NonStop since the Reagan presidency. The
Speaker 3: coverage of Amberlin's birthday party might be the first time
Speaker 3: the mainstream media ever gives the porn industry any positive press.
Speaker 3: It's a story that doesn't focus on anyone dying or
Speaker 3: suggests that they're being exploited somehow. It's a little shady
Speaker 3: in the way of The New York Times writing about
Speaker 3: anything deeply Californian, but it focuses on the reality that
Speaker 3: women who have fantasy sex on camera for work are
Speaker 3: real people who have interests outside of that. But Savannah
Speaker 3: doesn't care for Amberlin.
Speaker 1: I don't want to hang out with amber This is
Speaker 1: my night.
Speaker 11: What's your name, Shannon, Savannah? Come over here, sit down,
Speaker 11: let me talk to you a minute.
Speaker 1: Good NINETEENA.
Speaker 3: Savannah storms off and goes upstairs to her room at
Speaker 3: the Valley's Hotel. She snorts some coke, drinks some whiskey,
Speaker 3: and sprawls out on the King Size bad alone.
Speaker 6: She became Savannah. She became her character who was into
Speaker 6: drugs and needed reassurance all the time. She forgot who
Speaker 6: Shannon was. That's the main thing in this business. Don't
Speaker 6: become your character. Polly Shore comedian.
Speaker 3: In nineteen ninety two, Savannah gets into a serious relationship
Speaker 3: with comedian Polly Shore. Much like Charlie Sheen, Polly Shore
Speaker 3: is a privileged, second generation showbiz kid. His mother, Mitzi Shore,
Speaker 3: runs the Comedy Store club on the Sunset Strip, and
Speaker 3: he grows up in outrageous comfort. In Beverly Hills. His
Speaker 3: stand up persona The Weasel, where he emulates the drawling
Speaker 3: surfer dudes from Malibu you meet growing up in la
Speaker 3: helps him land a hosting gig on MTV. Polly Shore
Speaker 3: is smitten with Savannah as his star briefly rises high.
Speaker 3: He takes her on a vacation to Hawaii, to the
Speaker 3: MTV Music Video Awards, and to the premiere of Catherine
Speaker 3: Bigelow's Point Break As his date. They allegedly make private
Speaker 3: sex tapes and discuss marriage. Polly Shore says Savannah used
Speaker 3: heroin throughout their relationship and her porn career. He says
Speaker 3: he gave her an ultimatum that he would marry her
Speaker 3: if she stopped using heroin. While she allegedly did stop
Speaker 3: using heroin, she couldn't curb her coke problem. When Jennal
Speaker 3: World returns, Savannah goes off the rails. Oh my God,
Speaker 3: Welcome back to General World. Polly Shore and Savannah break
Speaker 3: up at the end of nineteen ninety two. The same year,
Speaker 3: he co stars An Encino Man, a weed free stoner
Speaker 3: comedy about unfrozen caveman hunk Brendan Fraser set in the
Speaker 3: same valley. Suburbs, where Savannah makes porn. Encino Man is
Speaker 3: a surprise hit and helps make Polly Shore a box
Speaker 3: office draw for a short stretch in the nineties and
Speaker 3: a critical punchline for years after that. While Polly Shore
Speaker 3: blames Savannah's drug use for the relationship deteriorating, he also
Speaker 3: says he didn't want to commit, especially at the moment
Speaker 3: when his career is taking off and he can suddenly
Speaker 3: pick up random girls all over the country at his
Speaker 3: comedy shows.
Speaker 6: It just gets to a point where they either move
Speaker 6: in or you break up. I didn't want to get
Speaker 6: any deeper into quicksand.
Speaker 3: Savannah collects her fan letters and personally answers her hate mail.
Speaker 1: Sticks You don't know me, and you never will. All
Speaker 1: you know is what you see on my movies, which
Speaker 1: you have obviously taken this time to see in your pathetic,
Speaker 1: terrible life. You know you could never be with someone
Speaker 1: like me. I am the best, classiest woman to ever
Speaker 1: be in this business. You should feel lucky just to
Speaker 1: have seen me fuck on film. Get a fucking life, asshole.
Speaker 1: Save your hand for jerking off, not writing stupid letters.
Speaker 1: You worthless piece of shit, Savannah.
Speaker 3: She sends presents home to her mom in Texas. She
Speaker 3: told her mother once about her heroin addiction, but her
Speaker 3: mom just dismissed it. Her father writes her letters and prays.
Speaker 13: Please don't think I don't care. I do very much.
Speaker 13: I hope you can talk to me more. I'd like
Speaker 13: to have your phone number. Mike Woolsey, Savannah's father.
Speaker 3: In nineteen ninety two, Savannah is dropped by Vivid Video
Speaker 3: for her erratic behavior, lack of professionalism, and drug use.
Speaker 3: Two years into her contract as a Vivid girl, she
Speaker 3: often leaves big budget Vivid film shoots halfway through the
Speaker 3: day to meet up with her rock and roll boyfriends
Speaker 3: and never returns. Savannah's ongoing on and off relationship with
Speaker 3: Gina Fine ends once and for all during a disastrous
Speaker 3: trip with a rich benefactor where they get in a
Speaker 3: huge fight over the thirty bags of heroin and Savannah's possession.
Speaker 3: Savannah refuses to give Gina any of the heroin, while
Speaker 3: Gina with Savannah sadistically parades another woman past her in
Speaker 3: the lobby of their Palm Springs hotel. Gina Fine breaks
Speaker 3: up with Savannah because she knows they're toxic and codependent.
Speaker 3: She can't let Savannah's self destructive streak destroy them both.
Speaker 3: Savannah gets new thirty four double deep breast implants. She
Speaker 3: thinks they're botched, they hang weird. She goes back to
Speaker 3: Mark Curtis's company Video Exclusives and signs a new contract
Speaker 3: with them to do twenty five sex scenes at four
Speaker 3: thousand dollars a pop. In nineteen ninety three, Savannah decides
Speaker 3: she wants to get off heroin. She goes cold turkey
Speaker 3: on heroin, but takes bike it in volume second Hall
Speaker 3: in Xanax with a bottle of whiskey. She spends a
Speaker 3: week with drawing on the floor and re emerges staying
Speaker 3: clean of all substances for the next few months. She
Speaker 3: books a feature dancing tour and gets out on the
Speaker 3: road again, where she breaks sobriety Cain to get hyped up,
Speaker 3: volumed to sleep, and whiskey to loosen her up enough
Speaker 3: to strip. She gets offered nine thousand dollars to do
Speaker 3: a gang bang scene for Fantastic Pictures in a movie
Speaker 3: called Starbangers one without the haze of Heroine. Savannah shows
Speaker 3: up on time, is polite to the cast and crew,
Speaker 3: and finally turns in a great performance on screen. The
Speaker 3: girl who always just laid their complaining is now at
Speaker 3: last emotionally present, acting passionately in a movie, and being
Speaker 3: kind to the other cast members and film crew, showing
Speaker 3: that she does care.
Speaker 1: Really.
Speaker 3: She goes to a tattoo parlor to get a cover
Speaker 3: up for the Greg Allman Greg tattoo she's had on
Speaker 3: her right ankle since she was sixteen. She gets a
Speaker 3: new tattoo done over it, an angel.
Speaker 1: I wanted to shock people because I know people would
Speaker 1: never ever think that I would do anything like that. Next,
Speaker 1: I'm going to do my first anal.
Speaker 3: In January of nineteen ninety four, Savannah appears on the
Speaker 3: cover of Adult Video News touting her comeback, but it
Speaker 3: is short lived. She doesn't make good on her promise
Speaker 3: to do an anal scene. Instead, she tours strip clubs
Speaker 3: for five thousand dollars a week and spends the money
Speaker 3: as fast as she gets it. She blows it all
Speaker 3: on a new two thousand dollars camquarder, thousands of dollars
Speaker 3: worth of new stripper costumes, and cocaine, mostly cocaine. She's
Speaker 3: also months behind on rent. Savannah is deeply depressed about
Speaker 3: her various breakups and in debt from her lavish overspending,
Speaker 3: she owes the irs eleven thousand dollars. Two years after
Speaker 3: her Vivid Girl contract ended, she's been reduced to mud
Speaker 3: wrestling at the Tropicana nightclub in Hollywood for a measly
Speaker 3: nine hundred dollars. She punches a guy in the face
Speaker 3: at a prize fight for calling her a porno bitch.
Speaker 3: She is twenty four years old.
Speaker 7: Just hold on, You'll do the next gig and you'll
Speaker 7: have money again. Nancy Nemo para Savanna's manager.
Speaker 3: She has one friend left in the industry, a woman
Speaker 3: named Nancy Para, who directs porn films under the name
Speaker 3: Nancy Nemo. She also directs under Nancy Fellini, Nancy Scorsese,
Speaker 3: and Nancy Animo. I am taking a shot in the
Speaker 3: dark hair that she might be Italian. Nancy Nemo is
Speaker 3: in her fifties when she meets Savannah, and like many
Speaker 3: before her, she feels compelled to both take care of
Speaker 3: Savannah and maybe profit a little off of being involved
Speaker 3: with her. Nancy Nemo becomes Savannah's new personal handler. She
Speaker 3: is willing to take the chance to cash in on
Speaker 3: Savannah's name brand, despite her terrible reputation. She calls Savannaanna Savvy,
Speaker 3: the same pet name that Slash had for her. Nancy
Speaker 3: makes sure Savannah eats and hangs out with her when
Speaker 3: she's too depressed to get out of bed. She also
Speaker 3: helps her score drugs whenever Savannah needs more money, which
Speaker 3: is always. Nancy books a set to shoot with one
Speaker 3: of the few male performers who will still shoot with Savannah.
Speaker 3: Nancy nemo directs and edits the scenes herself and personally
Speaker 3: makes sure Savannah doesn't flake out. Savannah thinks that she
Speaker 3: has a stalker. She claims a watch and a hair
Speaker 3: brush have disappeared. She finds flowers trampled by her sliding
Speaker 3: glass doors. One night, she comes home to find all
Speaker 3: the electronics on it full blast. Her cat's Winnie and
Speaker 3: Willie didn't help, so she gets a Rottweiler and names
Speaker 3: it Daisy May and a Beretta gun that she also
Speaker 3: names Daisy and keeps by her bed. Even though she
Speaker 3: can still rack up five thousand dollars a night doing
Speaker 3: feature dancing, Savannah blows off herd gigs to party in
Speaker 3: La Instead. She feels isolated and paranoid in her Universal
Speaker 3: City apartment, decorated with all the pictures of herself. Nancy
Speaker 3: Nemo is her only friend. Savannah constantly looks for reasons
Speaker 3: to go out and party. On the night she's booked
Speaker 3: to start doing a week of feature dancing shows at
Speaker 3: a strip club called Lace in Nyack, New York, she
Speaker 3: goes out partying in Los Angeles instead with a member
Speaker 3: of the entourage for the Irish American Pride rap group
Speaker 3: House of Pain. House of Pain are confusingly not from
Speaker 3: Boston but from LA's West Valley. Savannah's latest crush is
Speaker 3: Danny Boy from House of Pain. She has moved on
Speaker 3: from rock stars to rappers. She met the rap group
Speaker 3: at a music video shoot. Danny Boy, also writing the
Speaker 3: peak of his House of Pain fame, is not interested
Speaker 3: in commitment either, but Savannah is already so him, and
Speaker 3: so she keeps chasing, calling, and coming around. She lurks
Speaker 3: him at a club called Hell's Gate, which is allegedly
Speaker 3: co owned by Danny Boy and Mickey Rourke. Danny Boy
Speaker 3: has a personal assistant named Jason Swing, who answers the
Speaker 3: black cordless phone for his bosses and takes messages at
Speaker 3: the literal House of Pain, their party house in the valley.
Speaker 3: Jason Swing is a twenty two year old club promoter
Speaker 3: from Encino. He is part of what Savannah's explaing Mark
Speaker 3: Wahlberg's famous television show Entourage will immortalize with the titular Entourage,
Speaker 3: a bunch of guys who hang out with famous guys
Speaker 3: and get runoff sex. But Jason Swing doesn't need his
Speaker 3: famous friends to pick up girls. Girls swoon over him
Speaker 3: naturally because he is a rich, six foot tall, dark
Speaker 3: haired nineties babe from Encino with sideburns, a goatee, and
Speaker 3: a backwards baseball cap. His father is an interior designer
Speaker 3: who decorated the Spielberg's house, and his mother is an agent.
Speaker 3: He is by all accounts, hot, nice, and well connected,
Speaker 3: with a rap obsessed suburban white kid's love of using
Speaker 3: black vernacular. Monday Night in Los Angeles on July eleventh,
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety four, Savannah is feeling lonely and bored. She
Speaker 3: calls around fishing for invitations, but everyone says they're busy
Speaker 3: or staying home because it's Monday night. Danny Boy is
Speaker 3: her fourth phone call of the night, but the phone
Speaker 3: is picked up by Jason Swing.
Speaker 1: Hello, it's me.
Speaker 4: Was up.
Speaker 1: Is Danny there?
Speaker 9: He's on tour of Europe.
Speaker 1: He's gone already.
Speaker 9: Yeah, he left like a week ago.
Speaker 1: Oh what are you doing tonight?
Speaker 3: Jason Swing is going to an actor's birthday party and
Speaker 3: says Savannah can come with him a party.
Speaker 1: Really.
Speaker 3: Savannah shows up to the House of Pain in overalls
Speaker 3: and tennis shoes, with her gigantic dog, Daisy May, and
Speaker 3: a bunch of her porn merchandise, which she gives to him.
Speaker 1: What are these a little present? It's me.
Speaker 3: Jason Swing didn't know Savannah was a porn star. He
Speaker 3: just thought she was another one of the many beautiful
Speaker 3: women with fake breasts who go out clubbing in Los
Speaker 3: Angeles and want a date rich and famous guys.
Speaker 9: I guess we should roll.
Speaker 1: I need to take my dog home first. Want a
Speaker 1: cruise with me? Jason.
Speaker 3: She takes him back to her place and shows him
Speaker 3: around the gallery of glamour photos of herself.
Speaker 1: My boots look pretty good here. I just had my
Speaker 1: second operation. That's when I shave for a film. You're
Speaker 1: so cute, You're blessing.
Speaker 3: They end up chilling in her living room talking until
Speaker 3: four am, when she tells him she's not actually trying
Speaker 3: to seduce him, at least not yet. She's also still
Speaker 3: trying to date his friend Danny Boy.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't mind you sleeping over, but it's like our
Speaker 1: first night we've actually hung out. I don't think it
Speaker 1: would be a good idea. People get the wrong idea.
Speaker 1: That's cool, I'll drive you home.
Speaker 3: Savannah rings Jason's swing up again on a Sunday night.
Speaker 3: He and his friends are getting a stretch limo to
Speaker 3: go out clubbing. She shows up drunk on white wine
Speaker 3: in a black leather mini skirt, a crop top and heels.
Speaker 3: The club is dead that night, so they end up
Speaker 3: just going back to the House of Painhouse for a
Speaker 3: kickback to listen to music and talk. Savanna really likes Jason.
Speaker 3: He's hot and nice, he listens to her. He doesn't
Speaker 3: act like he expects sex from her.
Speaker 1: SELI guys I go out with, you know, friends of people.
Speaker 1: They always try to get on me and stuff. It's
Speaker 1: cool that you're a gentleman. You don't treat me like
Speaker 1: a pornostar.
Speaker 3: She asks Jason if he wants to come back to
Speaker 3: her place again for a nightcap, he is down. At
Speaker 3: twelve thirty am, Savannah is driving herself and Jason Swing
Speaker 3: to her Universal City Hills palace. She is whipping around
Speaker 3: the winding canyon curves insanely fast in her white Corvette.
Speaker 9: Slow down, Slow down, slow down.
Speaker 3: I'm fine, kids out, crashing into a picket fence and
Speaker 3: hitting a tree. She goes through the windshield. The car
Speaker 3: is all fucked up, so is her face. Her head
Speaker 3: is bleeding. Jason tries to calm her down, but she's
Speaker 3: completely flipping out over the lacerations to her face.
Speaker 2: Oh god, oh god, hold on, Oh I think my
Speaker 2: nose is broken.
Speaker 3: She sees herself in the mirror, covered in blood and tears, unrecognizable,
Speaker 3: and nearly faints.
Speaker 15: My face it's ruined.
Speaker 3: How am I gonna do my show?
Speaker 9: Come on, get up? Why don't you take it to Kuzzie.
Speaker 1: I have to call Nancy. Can you please go and
Speaker 1: take Daisy out and check the accident. I've just had
Speaker 1: a horrible car accident. I wrung my nose, it's bleeding
Speaker 1: really bad, and I've been my ass. You have to
Speaker 1: think mean it as but.
Speaker 3: All Nancy Nemo says she'll come over and help take
Speaker 3: care of Savannah. Jason returns from walking Daisy May. The
Speaker 3: jacuzzie tub is bubbling, surrounded by candlelight, but Savannah didn't
Speaker 3: get in. He finds her crouched on the concrete in
Speaker 3: the garage. It is two thirty in the morning at this.
Speaker 9: Point, Shannon, Savannah, can you hear me? My car?
Speaker 1: My car is ruined.
Speaker 9: Don't worry. You have insurance. You can get another one.
Speaker 1: I was gonna go look at vipers with Danny. Boy.
Speaker 9: Listen, I'm gonna go turn off the jacuzzie so it
Speaker 9: doesn't flood. I'll be right back. Okay, everything, okay, I'm
Speaker 9: so sorry. Oh she did not just do that. Dude.
Speaker 9: This isn't happening. This isn't happening. This isn't happening.
Speaker 3: By the time Nancy gets there, it's too late. She
Speaker 3: finds a traumatized Jason Swing out front, throwing up on
Speaker 3: the lawn, and Savannah's body lying in a pool of
Speaker 3: blood in the garage.
Speaker 7: It looked like she had a big flower on the
Speaker 7: side of her head.
Speaker 3: Nancy calls nine to one one. When the cops show up,
Speaker 3: Jason Swing freaks out and lies at first that he
Speaker 3: was still out walking the dog when Savannah shot herself.
Speaker 3: He feels incredible guilt for being there and not being
Speaker 3: able to stop her. He also doesn't want to implicate himself.
Speaker 3: Nancy knew Savannah had bought the gun three weeks earlier
Speaker 3: and that she'd been sleeping with it under her pillow.
Speaker 3: Savannah survives the gunshot wound to her head somehow, but
Speaker 3: falls into a coma. Her dad, Mike Wilsey, sees her
Speaker 3: at the Burbank Hospital for the first time in four years.
Speaker 3: After eleven hours with no improvement, he's told there's no
Speaker 3: chance of recovery and takes her off of life support.
Speaker 7: This hard wild veneer was constructed to cover a very
Speaker 7: vulnerable and lonely young woman who never felt pretty.
Speaker 3: The La Times, tabloids, and True Crime TV jump on
Speaker 3: Savannah's death to narrativise it into a trend story about
Speaker 3: adult stars committing suicide. They bring up Shanna Grant, another
Speaker 3: porn star who lived fast and died young after her
Speaker 3: drug issues got in the way of her ability to
Speaker 3: show up to work, and a performer named Megan Lee,
Speaker 3: who committed suicide with a gun at age twenty six
Speaker 3: in nineteen ninety, mainstream media still mainly reported on porn
Speaker 3: whenever something really bad happened, in order to villainize pornographers
Speaker 3: and portray performers as victims. A vivid girl named Tory
Speaker 3: Wells gives comment to the press about how the media
Speaker 3: only spotlights porn when bad things happen and never talks
Speaker 3: about the more mundane reality of the industry's day to
Speaker 3: day operations.
Speaker 15: You know, I get pissed off at these talk shows.
Speaker 15: Victim victim, victim, abuse, abuse, abuse. They use it to
Speaker 15: explain away everything. The real abuse comes when you let
Speaker 15: it rule your life. You just have to work through it.
Speaker 15: You have to help yourself however you can. Tory Wells.
Speaker 3: Performer Al Goldstein's Screw magazine runs a genuinely offensive story
Speaker 3: about Savannah's death with a picture of her with exes
Speaker 3: drawn over her eyes.
Speaker 1: Dang dong, the bitch is dead.
Speaker 11: Everyone knew that she was an airhead, and now she's
Speaker 11: got a hole in her.
Speaker 4: Down to prove it.
Speaker 13: Al Goldstein Screw Magazine.
Speaker 3: Another performer says the industry bears no culpability for turning
Speaker 3: Savannah into a diva.
Speaker 16: I don't blame the industry for mistreating her. If anything,
Speaker 16: they spoiled her rotten. They put us on such a
Speaker 16: high pedestal, the limos are sent out. Anything I want
Speaker 16: is pretty much done for me. Sometimes it makes the
Speaker 16: real world hard to deal with. Danielle Cheeks performer.
Speaker 3: But it's clear that star treatment doesn't affect everyone the
Speaker 3: same way. Savannah's ex girlfriend Gina Fine, is clear headed
Speaker 3: about what one needs to survive in porn.
Speaker 14: The advice I give to any girl getting in this
Speaker 14: business is you better have a real strong family network
Speaker 14: around you and have some idea of who you are
Speaker 14: before you get involved. You get built up to be
Speaker 14: a big star here, but out in the real world
Speaker 14: you're a prostitute. And when you get out there and
Speaker 14: try to mingle with the regular public and be a start,
Speaker 14: they'll shut you down pretty quick. It can be an
Speaker 14: overwhelming feeling, so you better have your family and real
Speaker 14: friends there for you.
Speaker 3: After the brief flashbang of porn chic in the nineteen seventies,
Speaker 3: mainstream media turns its back on the adult industry again
Speaker 3: in the eighties and early nineties, portraying it as sleazy
Speaker 3: and morally corrupt. Critical coverage of porn also allows publications
Speaker 3: to run pictures of the sexy young women whose deaths
Speaker 3: they are making an exploitative buck off of, while claiming
Speaker 3: porn exploited them. The moral panic over porn is on
Speaker 3: some level a panic overgiving young women money. It insists
Speaker 3: they don't deserve any money at all, which you see
Speaker 3: recycled in recent panics over OnlyFans. Doing porn is portrayed
Speaker 3: as a stupid idea for stupid women that can only
Speaker 3: lead to their ruin. The posthumous Savannah narratives drive people
Speaker 3: in the industry crazy because Savannah had been blacklisted out
Speaker 3: of porn for her lack of professionalism. The industry may
Speaker 3: attract some wild, impulsive girls, but it's hard, mostly dull work,
Speaker 3: and requires a high level work ethic. You can never
Speaker 3: start thinking you're bigger than the apparatus of the porn industry.
Speaker 3: You cannot start becoming the fantasy image that they are
Speaker 3: selling of you, because it is not real. Don't become
Speaker 3: your character. In the early nineties, the media is still
Speaker 3: trying to make doing porn out to be a career
Speaker 3: that is only for people with serious personality disorders. What
Speaker 3: line of work doesn't contain people with serious personality disorders.
Speaker 3: Have you met surgeons? There are survivors of rape and
Speaker 3: abuse in every line of work. There are people with
Speaker 3: addiction issues and mental illness in every industry street especially entertainment.
Speaker 3: There are plenty of alcoholics, addicts, and mentally ill people
Speaker 3: in comedy, but nobody ever says we have to ban comedy,
Speaker 3: Except for me ban comedy. Painting all sex workers as
Speaker 3: victims deprives them of agency for their choices. It enforces
Speaker 3: a strict narrative that women who have been sexually abused
Speaker 3: are damaged in some way, and that only someone damaged
Speaker 3: would show strangers their naked body for money. Women get
Speaker 3: into the adult industry for all kinds of reasons, to
Speaker 3: explore personal fantasies, to process trauma, to make movies, but
Speaker 3: also often just to make good money. It's certainly better
Speaker 3: than working minimum wage at the mall like ginger Lan Allen,
Speaker 3: or having a lung collapse working in a meat freezer
Speaker 3: like John Holmes. Putting the blame and focus entirely on
Speaker 3: porn conveniently allows no further questions to be asked about
Speaker 3: why the material can conditions of American life suck so
Speaker 3: fucking bad. The mental health risks associated with being a
Speaker 3: human being living in the USA are staggering, and everybody
Speaker 3: should get free psychological counseling for trying to put up
Speaker 3: with it. The media shamed Savannah for openly courting sexual attention,
Speaker 3: and then shamed her for being affected by their constant
Speaker 3: shaming of her. When she takes her own life, she
Speaker 3: is fulfilling a narrative they've already written for her that
Speaker 3: women who profit off their sexuality must die.
Speaker 13: Of course, people ask me if pornography is wrong, I say,
Speaker 13: you can judge a tree bites fruit.
Speaker 4: Porne didn't do this. Paul Fishbeine Adult video News.
Speaker 7: She was very discriminated against because she was so big.
Speaker 7: She made big money. She knew her value.
Speaker 5: She was a real bitch, a selfish, selfish bitch.
Speaker 9: She reveled in putting people down.
Speaker 11: She didn't like giving of herself in any way, shape
Speaker 11: or form.
Speaker 1: She was irresponsible and flaky and selfish and stupid.
Speaker 3: While he blames porn first, even Shannon Savannah Wilsey's father,
Speaker 3: Mike Wilsey, understands on some level that the real villain
Speaker 3: here isn't porn. Her family are the ones who let
Speaker 3: her drop out of school and get on that tour
Speaker 3: bus with Groom and Greg Alman.
Speaker 13: Where was I when she was dating Greg Almon when
Speaker 13: he was twenty five years older than she was. Where
Speaker 13: was I when she was doing Heroin? Where was I
Speaker 13: when she started doing porno movies?
Speaker 3: Now, Savannah was a troubled, traumatized person. All she really
Speaker 3: wanted was to feel special and be loved. She was
Speaker 3: self destructive because she was concers nsumed with self hatred
Speaker 3: about her appearance in a culture that makes women feel
Speaker 3: worthless unless they fit certain strict beauty ideals, and then
Speaker 3: makes them feel worthless for aging out of the youthful
Speaker 3: beauty ideal. She had people who cared for her unconditionally,
Speaker 3: like Gina Fine, and she pushed them away because her
Speaker 3: self hatred was so deep and her self destructiveness so
Speaker 3: out of control. Gina Fine calls out all the famous
Speaker 3: men who dated her friend and talk down on her profession,
Speaker 3: all the rock stars who talked trash about the porn industry,
Speaker 3: as if the music business isn't actually the most disgusting,
Speaker 3: exploitative business.
Speaker 17: In the world.
Speaker 3: All the men who treated her misunderstood, beautiful, sensitive girlfriend
Speaker 3: like a disposable blow up sex doll.
Speaker 14: Her famous friends always trash the porn industry, but the
Speaker 14: whole reason they were with her was because she was
Speaker 14: a porn star.
Speaker 3: Savannah's funeral is held two days later for friends and family.
Speaker 3: The only one of her famous ex boyfriends to attend
Speaker 3: the funeral is Polly Shore.
Speaker 6: You know it just went down, don't you. My ex girlfriend,
Speaker 6: the porn star, just killed herself. She was the nicest,
Speaker 6: most beautiful girl I ever met. It was a very
Speaker 6: dramatic thing for me.
Speaker 3: Savannah's body is cremated and her ashes handed out to family.
Speaker 3: Her father places the jar of ashes in his home
Speaker 3: on a table surrounded by pictures of her, a makeshift
Speaker 3: altar to his daughter.
Speaker 7: Savvy would have wanted a Marilyn Monroe funeral. Zillions of
Speaker 7: flowers riding in the sky lying in state at Forest Lawn.
Speaker 3: Adult industry spokespeople agree that performers need a mental health
Speaker 3: support network that understands the specific challenges of the job.
Speaker 3: They know that the main stream media will jump on
Speaker 3: any opportunity to condemn the porn industry and attempt to
Speaker 3: shut it down again.
Speaker 17: We recognize the need for a twenty four hour crisis
Speaker 17: hotline for performers. So it's going to happen in the
Speaker 17: name of Savannah and Shawna and the others. William margled
Speaker 17: Free Speech Coalition. The helpline is still in the formative stages,
Speaker 17: but it's happening.
Speaker 3: Whatever progress performers like ginger linn Allen, and Amberlin might
Speaker 3: have made for the idea that porn stars could be
Speaker 3: content with their lot in life has been backpedaled by
Speaker 3: the tabloid true crime reporting around Savannah's fast life and
Speaker 3: sudden death. But the porn industry isn't shutting down no
Speaker 3: matter how loud its critics get. There's too much money
Speaker 3: being made in the sand Fernando Valley, and it's all legal.
Speaker 3: As the media is once again writing off the whole
Speaker 3: porn industry as a cesspool, a new starlet is entering
Speaker 3: the valley who's a disciple of Savannah's work. She will
Speaker 3: change the trajectory of media narratives about porn stars forever,
Speaker 3: make more money than any contract girl who came before her,
Speaker 3: help invent Egirls with her website, and become bigger in
Speaker 3: the American cultural mainstream than any porn star in history.
Speaker 3: Even John Holmes, her name is Jenna Jamison. Next time
Speaker 3: on Jenna World, episode six, Jenna Jamison goes on Howard
Speaker 3: Stern and her adult film career, Rockets Sky High. Jenna
Speaker 3: World is an iHeartRadio production executive produced by Anna Hosnier
Speaker 3: and Becca Ramos, supervising, produced by by Wang, produced by
Speaker 3: Victor Wright, script editing by Jonathan Mill, engineered by Graham Gibson,
Speaker 3: and edited by Rory Gagan. Today's episode of Jenna World
Speaker 3: featured Jesse Mourner Ritt as Savannah, Laurens ser Video as
Speaker 3: Jenna Jamison, Hayes Davenport as Jeff Steinman, Whitmer Thomas as
Speaker 3: Mark Curtis, Andrew T as Sergeant Donald Smith, and Billy
Speaker 3: Sheehan Coriina Longworth as Nina Hartley, and Hot Videos Illustrated,
Speaker 3: Victor Wright as Ron Jeremy Sriah Subgadia, Shane Dylan Rupert
Speaker 3: as Diana Lauren, Anna Hostnier as Pam Wilsey, Rax Will
Speaker 3: as Mike Winnett, Jason Walliner as Paul Thomas, know Me
Speaker 3: Fry as Brynn bridenthal And as Sarah, Gina as Gina
Speaker 3: Fine Raft as chie Chi LaRue Kyle Mazzono as Amber, Lynn,
Speaker 3: brad Evans as Polly Shore, James Kim as Mike Wilsei
Speaker 3: Sarasapsi as Nancy Nemo Para, Chris Thayer as Jason Swing,
Speaker 3: Aiden Arrata as Tory Wells, Bethy Squires as Danielle Cheeks,
Speaker 3: and John Levenstein as Al Goldstein.
Speaker 9: Oh my god,