Performers have appeared in sex films since the era of photography began. Many "penny arcades" of the early 1900s had hand-cranked films and rotoscope (Holmes-style Stereoscope) glasses that featured nudity. These penny arcade attractions depicted topless women, full frontal nudity, and even sexual coupling. Performers in these early photograph and film recordings usually chose to remain anonymous to avoid legal sanction and social approbation.Linda Lovelace, an American pornographic actress of the early '70s, is often seen as the first modern porn star with appreciable name recognition outside her genre. Lovelace starred in the 1972 feature Deep Throat. It was Casey Donovan who starred in the very first mainstream pornographic hit, Boys in the Sand in 1971, nearly a year before Deep Throat, but it was the success of Deep Throat that encouraged the ascension of more such stars and the production of more such films. Examples include Marilyn Chambers (Behind the Green Door), Gloria Leonard (The Opening of Misty Beethoven), Georgina Spelvin (The Devil in Miss Jones), and Bambi Woods (Debbie Does Dallas).
Porn star Tera Patrick
The 1970s have been called The Golden Age of Porn, a time when pornographic films were shown in public theaters and accepted (or at least tolerated) for public consumption This "golden age" lasted from the 1970s through the late-70s or early 1980s. Sex films of this era had specific storylines, plots, and promotional budgets. Performers became celebrities. Such performers include Peter Berlin, John Holmes, Ginger Lynn Allen, Porsche Lynn, Desiree Cousteau, Juliet Anderson ("Aunt Peg"), Lisa De Leeuw, Veronica Hart, Nina Hartley, Harry Reems, Seka, and Amber Lynn.
Once people could watch adult movies in the privacy of their own homes, first on VCR and later on DVD, a new adult market developed that far exceeded the scope of its theater-centric predecessor. More recently, the Internet has served as catalyst for creating a still-larger market for porn, a market that is even less traditionally theatrical.
There are hundreds of adult film companies today, releasing tens of thousands of productions, recorded directly on video, with minimal sets. Of late, web-cams and web-cam recordings are again expanding the market. Thousands of pornographic actors work in front of the camera to satisfy pornography consumers' demand.
