Tracey Adams was born Deborah Blaisdell, on 7 June 1959. She grew up in a small town near Baltimore, in Maryland, on the East Coast of the United States and came from a middle class family with liberal ideas, admitting: “I was not brought up a prude”. She experienced her first orgasm by accident as a child: “I was a little kid wrestling with another kid. We had all our clothes on. I didn’t even know what was happening. This feeling came over me – it was the most intense thing. There wasn’t even genital contact, but I had been pinned down. At that moment, I just felt an explosion; it was incredible.” Despite this, she was not sexually adventurous as a teenager, eventually losing her virginity when she was nineteen.
After school she attended community college and became a radio disc jockey. In the hope of moving beyond provincial radio stations she relocated to California in 1981. There she attended broadcasting school and worked for a number of small stations, including the midnight to six AM stint at the University of California in San Diego. It was around this time that she also had her first lesbian experience. “I was twenty-two when I did it with a girl for the first time. We met at a lesbian bar. When I found out she was a total virgin, I just knew I had to have her. I figured that since she had never been with another woman before she wouldn’t have anyone to compare me to, so I just went for it and started hitting on her. Needless to say, I got what I was after.”
Hoping to make more money, Tracey took acting lessons, found an agent, and appeared topless in the B’ movie ‘Lost Empire’ (1983) using her real name. To pay the bills though, she found herself doing a number of jobs: “I did everything from straight modelling in print ads to selling mobile homes to driving a limo.” Despite having a boyfriend at the time, Tracey had been having casual sex with women since her first lesbian experience two years earlier. “I used to be a limousine driver… one night, I picked up people from all parts of L.A., and dropped them off at a club in Hollywood. When I was sure they were all out, I parked down this side street. I was listening to the radio and reading a book when all of a sudden, the centre divider went down in the car. It scared the shit out of me. I turned around really fast, and found one of the girls was still in the car… She invited me into the back. I was wearing a pink tux with tails. She was in a flowing dress with spaghetti straps. She was starring at me and exuding sex. She was just complimenting me, and the compliments kept getting more personal. All the signals were there. It was getting hot, and I started to take off pieces of my tux. Then she helped me undo a few buttons. I soon found out she was wearing a garter belt and no panty hose. It was nice. We made love a couple of times, had a few drinks, talked, kicked back and watched TV, and waited for her friends to come out of the club.”
By 1984 she was modelling for men’s magazines while also going to music school. “I completely saturated the skin magazines. I’ve been in all the European magazines and most of the American magazines. The readers had seen me enough. My hair had been three different colours; there’s only so much you can do. And the Screen Actors Guild wasn’t really paying the bills.” “I was finally asked by a photographer to do a movie because I was going to MIT, the music school in Hollywood. I had run out of money for my tuition. When I was approached to do this [porn] movie, I said, ‘No way!’ I didn’t think I would ever come anywhere near it, even though I was on the fringes by doing the magazines.”
Although Tracey’s boyfriend didn’t mind her appearing nude in magazines, he did not want her appearing in porn films. At the time though, their relationship was falling apart. “I was living with this guy before I entered the industry and I told him, ‘I’ll make you dinner tonight. I have to go to the supermarket, it might take me a while because I have a few things to pick up.’ Our relationship was deteriorating at this point anyway. In the supermarket, my intentions were so pure. But then, who do I see? A guy I had been watching and in love with for a long time. We’re talking, and we get to the parking lot, and he asks me if I want to get in his van. It was so obvious that we both wanted each other so badly. I put my groceries away, got in his truck, and we left. We went to this park, got into this grand make-out session, and one thing led to another. We had a really good time. He drove me back to the parking lot, and who is parked and waiting next to my car? My boyfriend. That was a tough thing to explain.”
Nevertheless, Tracey was still hesitant about moving from soft core to hardcore as at the time she thought pornography “was just dirt.” But she needed to pay for her musician’s course. “I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to be in an adult movie. In fact, I debated it for so long that the movie had already been filming for a few days when I finally decided to do it”. “When I drove up to the house in the middle of the desert to make the video, I was ready to drive away. Then Jerry Bronson, the director, came out and said very warmly, ‘Tracey, I’m so happy you could show up.’ I went inside and everybody was so nice… I had reservations about a lot of other people being in the room, watching. Well, I overcame that real fast because everybody was just doing their job.”
“It was very tame compared to what I expected. However, before my first sex scene I was still very nervous. After all, it was going to be my first time having sex in front of an audience. Yes, sex is natural, but it isn’t natural to have a bunch of strangers standing around watching you do it. You know what though? I grew to love the exhibitionist element. It’s a major turn-on.” “It just felt good. It felt right. I felt that I was in complete control. I mean, there’s a whole bunch of people telling me what to do, but I looked at it merely as suggestions, because no one ever demanded anything of me. If I was ever asked to do something that I didn’t want to do, I certainly didn’t do it.”
“The two days I spent making the video were the most fun two days I’d ever had. It was just so neat! All my beliefs about the porn industry were dispelled… Then, when I got paid, I said, ‘Wow, I had such a good time and you’re paying me for this?’” “That movie got me a tremendous amount of recognition… They were able to work me into two sex scenes, and I was such a hit, they put me on the box cover.”
Despite the success of her first porn film, ‘Make My Night’ (1985), Tracey admits, “I didn't think I was going to do any more after that, but I have to say that money was the culprit here. You never know how long you can continue to make money like this – it could be stripped out from you just like that.” She has always been very candid about her involvement in porn, and admits her main incentive has always been: “The money. A girl who says anything else is lying. All the other things that go along with being a porn performer are incidental. Sure, you get to have sex with great looking guys who are very adept at getting a woman off, but the bottom line is the money. For me porn was just another physical thing I did.” Nevertheless, Tracey was also very professional, and her attitude was that if she were being paid to have sex in front of the camera, she would do a good job of it. She was realistic about the industry: “In this business, you’re forced to be intimate with people who you might not be intimate with in your private life. As a result, you make compromises with yourself. I feel it’s an important thing to do. For a lack of a better word, I’d say it humbles you a little bit.” She also set down certain ground rules though, "Otherwise people take advantage of you. I will only do one sex scene a day. I don't want to be sore or exhausted. I insist that my partner be healthy and clean. When you put it simply and firmly, producers abide by your conditions. They are not uncaring, just busy.”
Despite her realistic attitude towards the industry, Tracey admits: “I like it a lot. I've made better friends in the time I've been in this business than in my whole life. Which is not to say that I haven't met a few assholes, as well… there's an empathy felt amongst people in the business. It's like we're all sort of outlaws, so to speak, and were all supporting one another. Our friendships are based on having to do this thing that normally would be a big secret in our lives. And were doing it in front of everybody. We're bonded together by what we do.”
Tracey quickly became one of the top porn stars in the industry. She was reliable, professional, attractive and by porn standards, a good actress. “I was brought into this business so gracefully. I came from legitimate movies, cable movies, so I was very familiar with the dialogue… I'm stressing acting because it's important to note that we are actors and actresses. Those people who have been in the business for five years or more, most of them come from the point of considering themselves actors or actresses, from a professional standpoint, from the guy being able to maintain an erection, to the girl being able to keep up with him… There's one [scene] that I did with Paul Thomas. We had a really hot scene because he was pissing me off to the max. He was throwing stuff into the dialogue that he knew, on a personal level, I really hated. I was getting mad, and I just kept going with it. After the dialogue he turned to me, smiled, and said, ‘I love it when you're mad’. And then I realized that he was doing it just to get me going.”
“I didn’t become famous for sexual prowess. I don’t think I did any sex acts deemed unusual. I stayed on the straight and narrow, so to speak… Nothing too wild. So I think one of the main things I did become known for was my acting ability… One of the other keys to my success was that I had a certain look that caught on. There were a couple of adjectives, like elegant, ladylike, and classy, that followed me around for years, which I found somewhat hilarious. Basically, I was the first in a line of women in porn that could be the girl next door.” Fellow porn actor Jerry Butler would later remember her as having “a really beautiful, classy womanliness.”
As Tracey’s fame within the porn industry grew, her parents soon became aware of what their rebellious daughter did for a living. Although they never approved of it, they decided that the best approach was to simply ignore the issue. They never lost contact with her, but they never discussed her career either.
Things were different with her boyfriend though, and they split soon after her first porn film. After that Tracey tried to keep her distance from serious relationships. “I really don’t want a relationship… it would be dead weight. I date when I go to different cities because I travel a lot. So, you know, I might get a date in here and there and, you know, I take care of myself.” “There are times when I want to go out, pick up the first guy who appeals to a certain indescribable sense in me, and take him to bed. That doesn’t happen every day – maybe just once every three weeks… I don’t feel the need to go and get emotionally fulfilled. I find fulfilment in other places – I don’t need a boyfriend to do that for me… I think back on the relationships I have had and I see how much they sedated me and how much I didn’t accomplish as a result of them. Relationships are like drugs: even when you know they’re not good for you, you stay in them. If you have other goals, relationships can be a detriment.”
According to fellow porn star Sharon Mitchell, though, actor Warren Beatty did have a relationship with Tracey Adams, “who he kept for a while.” Mitchell also claims “Tracey had a gay relationship with the same woman for years.” Tracey admits: “I do enjoy women. I really believe it’s important in this business. It’s vital and fun… The first woman I had to be with on film was Amber Lynn. Herschal Savage was the guy in the scene. It was a great scene. I really enjoyed myself. It was obvious Amber knew what she was doing and was not repulsed by the idea. It was a really even, smooth-flowing three-way.”
Regardless of her private life, when it came to having sex on camera, “I'm more apt to like a scene with a guy better… I've never had a real bad experience in a scene with a girl. Nothing has turned me off to it. I like doing scenes with people like Jeanna Fine – she's a lot of fun. Nina Hartley, she's got to be one of the best in the business. My next-inline good buddy, I really like her a lot, is Amber Lynn.” “I like working with Tom Byron because he has a very subtle sense of humour, and comes off convincingly as a nerd or kid… [People] who would be included in my fantasies: John Leslie, Paul Thomas and Eric Edwards – the veterans. They’re more mature. You can look at them and see that these guys know what they are doing. They’re sexy because they’ve been around and they’re smooth.” Generally, Tracey Adams considered herself bisexual: “I liked being fucked from behind while eating pussy. Straight up, give me a little doggy action with a pussy in my face and I’d come every time. I’m easy to please.”
Jerry Butler, however, would later recall, “Tracey acts like she’s involved in the sex. She’ll lie on her back, open her legs, moan, and pant like crazy. But as soon as the camera stops rolling, it’s like, ‘Makeup! Where’s the coffee? Can I have some ice for my pores? My face is opening up.’ She’s a real businesswoman. If you ask her to do anal, she’ll say no. Until you pull out your wallet, that is. Then it’s, ‘Should I use the Fleet enema now?’ Tracey’s one of the most professional women in the business and treats pornography like a career.”
Just as most European porn stars failed to make an impact in the US adult industry, most Americans also failed in Europe. Although Serena was successful in the late 1970’s, Annette Haven and Desiree Cousteau were not. During the mid-1980’s Amber Lynn and Jeanna Fine also attempted to make the transition, but only Tracey Adams established herself as a major star within the European market. “My first trip to Europe was in 1986 to accept an award. An Italian producer brought me and another girl over there, all expenses paid, for a whole week. Our only obligation was to show up for the awards programme. While I was in Italy, I got asked to do a move, and seeing firsthand how popular porn was in Europe, I readily accepted. So I came back a few months later, this time all by myself… I spent two weeks there that first time and networked with a lot of the top European performers and directors.”
Over the next four years Tracey worked in Germany with Terressa Orlowski, in Italy with Cicciolina, and in France for legendary director Marc Dorcel. It was in France that she really established herself, and she appeared in almost a dozen Dorcel films, alongside established European porn stars such as Rocco Siffredi, Tennesy and Laura Valerie. Tracey would later state: “Over there people have a lot more respect for porn. It’s treated like a legitimate form of entertainment by the mainstream media because Europeans don’t have their heads so far up their asses about sex and pornography like we do. The working conditions are splendid, if not downright elegant. Instead of some dumpy little studio, they shoot out of places like castles and mansions. The movies are generally shot on big budgets, so they have car and helicopter chases and lots of action.”
By 1990 Tracey’s voluptuous yet firm body had changed. She had put on weight, and her breasts had increased in size, leading to rumours that she had had implants. “When a lot of fans think of me now, the first thing that comes to mind is my boobs – which, despite the rumours, are natural. Because I didn’t have big tits when I started in porn, a lot of people thought that I got implants at some point. The truth is that I just got bigger everywhere as my career progressed, and I’m not ashamed to admit that.”
Nevertheless, she remained popular, and after seeing a clip of Tracey on her hands and knees with her ass stuck high in the air legendary porn maverick John Stagliano was inspired to create his character Buttman. "The shot only lasted a couple of seconds," Stagliano later said, "but I knew then what I wanted to do." According to Tracey, “John said something about it being heart shaped at a certain angle.”
As is the case with most porn actresses, Tracey often toured the US strip club circuit. In 1991 though, things began to change. “I go on the circuit dancing around the country but I can’t do this more than once a month because I have a knee problem I have to take care of, plus, I love to be home. I really love the home life. So I don’t want to be out on the road. I’ve had enough of that.” She also began to slowly retreat from porn movies. “I did disappear, probably because I really didn’t like what was happening in the business… Walk into any video shop and the first thing you’re met with as an average consumer, is just a sea, a swarming, seething sea of material. It’s very confusing, very intimidating. You pick up a box and you like what you sea on the box. You get it home and maybe it has nothing to do with what’s inside. It’s all so deceiving… Also there’s a lot of star attitude on the sets when after a few years of being in Europe and being treated so royally, I would come back, walk on a set here in the States and you get a girl who’s done maybe two or three movies, maybe she’s been on the box cover of all three. But, in her mind – and somebody told her – she’s a mega star.”
Despite retiring from hardcore, Tracey did agree to appear in a number of fetish films, but was unable to take them seriously. “It was definitely something different. I had already retired from porn features when I was approached to start doing fetish films. I naturally look dominant, so that’s the roles they cast me in most of the movies. I look great on the box covers, but if you actually watch the movie you’ll see that I’m basically a non-participant either standing in the background or just dictating to people what to do. Most of the scenes are really silly… Everyone else is all into it and I’m just standing there giggling.”
In late 1993 Tracey eventually decided to return to hardcore porn films. “One of the last movies I did was ‘Starbangers 4’ (1993), and it was probably the wildest movie of my career. In fact I came out of a two and a half year retirement to do that movie because John T. Bone [the director] is a good friend of mine and I dig the hell out of him. Over the years I worked with him on a lot of projects where he poked fun at the diminishing porn movie budgets. We did a series of movies called ‘Bimbo Cheerleaders from Outer Space’ (1988) and ‘Sex Sluts in the Slammer’ (1988) that were deliberate jabs at how cheap porn was getting… Anyway, John approached me about doing a gangbang and the idea intrigued me. Having sex with eight guys was something everybody in porn thought I would never do.”
Tracey soon realised, however, that the porn industry had changed since she originally retired, and it was slowly becoming extremely corporate. This was reflected in the people entering the business. “I was just over in Europe to accept their version of he Hall of Fame award… What I noticed about some of the American girls over there gave me every indication that something is seriously wrong with the type of people who are attracted to porn nowadays. There were three girls who were all up for Best New American Starlet, and I was staying in the same hotel, so we ended up hanging out together a lot. Right away I detected a tension between them. Before the show we were all sitting around a bar and they pledged to buy a bottle of champagne and celebrate for whichever one of them won the Starlet award. However, the girl that ended up winning was thought by the other two to be the least deserving because she only did girl-girl scenes. As the night went on and the booze flowed, true feelings came out. They told the girl to her face that because she doesn’t suck dick and fuck men she doesn’t deserve the award. Further words were exchanged, tempers flared and things escalated to the point of a small riot. The next day the damage was tallied at 2,000 dollars… That kind of shit never happened back in the eighties when it was Ginger, Amber, Nina and myself headlining.”
“I just thought, ‘Look at the kind of girls coming into porn! More than that, look at how much these awards mean to them… At the last awards show here in the States, one of the girls went on and on with a big acceptance speech thanking ‘all the little people.’ I couldn’t believe how dramatic she was being. Come on honey, it’s only porno. Don’t take yourself so seriously. She had tears in her eyes like she just won a freaking Oscar, and there she was accepting an award for something like taking the biggest dick up her ass… Some of these girls walk around with such big chips on their shoulders and inflated opinions of themselves you’d think their careers effect world peace. It’s ridiculous. They need to lighten up!”
“I guess the other thing is all the boob jobs nowadays. The size of the tits on some of these girls is mind-boggling. I don’t think it looks very good either. They have tiny, tiny little bodies and these mega-monster mammaries. It’s like a freak show. I guess they think it’s erotic, but I equate it to the bearded lady at the circus.”
By 1994 Tracey had decided she had had enough, and retired permanently from the adult industry. “Unlike some performers, at least I knew towards the end that it was time to move on and let a new generation take over. I look at some of the girls from my era who are continuing to do movies and I feel sorry for them. I just want to go up to them and say: ‘Give it up’. They are peeking in on forty and it is obvious to everyone but themselves that their prime has passed.”
In a 1996 interview Tracey said: “I take voice, acting and writing classes. As far as my future, I’d love to be able to stay involved in some form of entertainment, but I’ll just have to wait and see how the wind blows.” She continued to live in West Los Angeles, and despite being in a long-term lesbian relationship, admits to still occasionally having sex with men. It has also been rumoured that she currently escorts for €1,000 an hour. Having appeared in over 300 porn films between 1985 and 1994, she remains one of the most popular stars of her day. “Porno was very, very good to me. I had fun while it lasted, but I’m ready to move on. No more movies; no more dance tours. Tracey Adams is history. The fat lady has sung.”
Real Name: Deborah Blaisdell
Date of Birth: 07/06/1959
Place of Birth: Maryland, USA
Height: 1,70m/5’7”
Stats: 37-26-36
Film Career: 1985-1991, 1993-1994
Hair: brown
