If you ask any veteran pornographer who worked in the 1980s to say the first word that comes to mind when you mention the name “Traci Lords,” he/she might respond with “bitch” or “hate” or something worse. After all, it was Lords whose revelation that she was underage during her entire reign as porn’s number one queen that almost sank the porn industry. Yet when I think of the word “love” in relation to porn, it is a scene I shot with Traci Lords that comes to mind.
Her co-star in the scene was Tom Byron, one of the finest gentlemen ever to bare all on a porn movie set. Now, there have been many real-life partners who worked together in porn, and their on-screen sex usually looked professional and well-rehearsed. But the real expression of their love lives came later, when cuddling at home in their beds. Tom wanted to do that with Traci, but he couldn’t.
He had been her real-life boyfriend before Traci relegated him to the status of sex-scene favorite, and nothing more. Byron wanted desperately to return to their previous relationship. His pining after Lords had become an ongoing industry chuckle. On the set of my video feature Physical II, he pursued her naked rear over a tangle of power cables, beseeching, “Traci, for the last time, will you marry me?”
She laughed and rolled her eyes. “Not again…”
After exhibiting his usual expertise with the delightful pixie, Cara Lott, Byron waited patiently for his scene with Traci—a scene that would turn out to be unique among the many I’ve witnessed. Usually, in a boy/girl porn scene, everything caters to the male’s ability to perform. Women complain about being left “high and dry (or ‘wet,’as it were).” This scene was the opposite. As detailed in SKINFLICKS: The Inside Story of the X-Rated Video Industry, Byron didn’t just have sex with Traci, he made love to her. The scene ended with a totally satisfied Traci Lords sinking down on top of Byron, so that her hair obscured their features, while he nuzzled her neck. I let the shot hold long. Finally, Byron raised his head, blinked and asked, “Do we have anything else?”
“Yes. Your come shot.”
“Oh, yeah!” An unlikely oversight for a veteran stud.
Years after the Lords fiasco (described in SKINFLICKS), I ran into Tom Byron at a trade show. “What’s Traci up to these days?” I asked him.
Byron shrugged. “Who the hell cares?”
The word “love” associated with Traci Lords in the porn industry ends with the bitterly ironic title of the only porn movie she made while of legal age: the 1987 release of Traci I Love You. Lords went on to become one of the few porn stars to enjoy success in the so-called “legit” film industry.
Tom Byron continued his Hall of Fame career, and shifted to the other side of the camera to produce and direct award-winning videos. A man of many interests, Byron also became an entrepreneur in fields as diverse as music and pro wrestling.
Skinflicks 