Lights, Camera, Sex!
by Christy Canyon
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Book Summary Information
Author: Christy CanyonEdition: Paperback
Published: 2003-03
ISBN: 0972747001
Number of pages: 314
Publisher: Canyon Publishing
Book Reviews of Lights, Camera, Sex!
Book Review: The Porn Business Reported by a Winner
Summary: 5 Stars
Among the jobs you don't want to tell your parents you got is porn star. In a way this was easy for Christy Canyon. At eighteen, she wasn't speaking to her parents anyway, and she had left them to get on her own. Nonetheless, one of the themes that even the most conservative will approve of in _Lights, Camera, Sex! An Autobiography_ is that Christy loved her family, as disrupted and misguided as her parents may have sometimes been, and wanted to be back with them and accepted. It won't be giving anything away to say that she got her wish. After all, among the generous three pages of dedications at the front of the book are loving notes to her mom and dad, and especially to her sister who during some periods had to act as her ambassador to them. Among the other dedications is one to her producer at Vivid Video, the last studio she worked with, thanking her lucky stars that "... you spoon-fed me all those years under contract and never asked me to do anything you knew I wouldn't do anyway." Even when as close as she could get to family was her cast and crew making sex films, Christy found supportive friends, and it seems she remains sweetly grateful. It is impossible to say how representative her experience in porn was. However, it is hard to say she was taken advantage of when she was making deliberate decisions to promote and protect herself, and she was able to get out of many uncomfortable situations and assignments. It might be a little surprising that there is so much self-examination in her book and so much reflection on family matters, but it can't be surprising that she has some good stories to tell, and it isn't at all surprising that she is uninhibited in telling them.
One surprise is that she tells the stories in an unexpectedly sophisticated way. She has not told the chronological story of her life. The first pages deal with her first appointment in Hollywood at World Modeling in 1984, but throughout the book, a memory will lurch her back into some experience from her past. On one page, there might be intercalated sentences of memories alternating with events of the moment. She was tricked into going to her first movie shoot, which she thought would be merely the nude still modeling she had been doing. Her agent said it would be a piece of cake: "It's nothing that you haven't done in your personal life. It's one quick sex scene." He even assured her it could be in her favorite position. Canyon was remarkably inexperienced in sexual matters for one who had rebelled against her parents and hit the road, but to help her agent out, she agreed just this one time; the pay for the day's work being $1,500 was one of the advantages. She froze on the first shoot, but eventually got to enjoy doing scenes. She realized that with the few men she had been with in her personal life, she was inhibited: "I never wanted the guy to think I was some sex-crazed maniac" so she had reined herself in. On camera, though, nobody minded "how loud I moaned and groaned... I realized how much fun it was just to enjoy sex." She learned she enjoyed sex when it was with another woman, or with more than one person, and she did not at all mind getting paid for it.
Not everything went smoothly. Canyon developed a coke habit, which she later shook, and she had to fend off unwanted advances from some sleazebags. She had to deal with lots of criticism from strangers, some of whom would write her to say that if she only had faith, God would save her from the business she was in. "I was always perplexed by how these types acquired my fan club address as it was only printed in porn magazines." She got burned out on making films and went to work for her dad's accounting business, but came back to porn with a renewed business sense and also an interest in her paychecks funding her education. Years after she left home, she was even accepted back by her mother and dad, even while she continued her chosen profession; her book makes clear that for all she has managed to do for herself, regaining the love of her parents was the accomplishment she valued most. _Lights, Camera, Sex!_ is a unique look at one woman's experience in the porn film industry. It is unpolished; there are spelling and punctuation errors throughout, but while this would be a difficulty in other works, it is part of the book's charm that Canyon wrote it all herself without hiring an editor or an "As Told To". When a company expressed interest in publishing the work, but wanted to change it around, she published it herself. Look elsewhere if you seek a confessional from a porn star as victim; this is a story by a victor.
Summary of Lights, Camera, Sex!
Christy Canyon's flamboyant debut into the world of adult video in 1984 rocked the porn industry like never before. Selling millions of copies, her videos quickly established her as the world's leading porn star. Take a ride on the wild side with her in this new, explosive tell all autobiography. Loaded with juicy behind the scenes details, Canyon describes her adventures and misadventures with other porn stars such as Traci Lords, Ginger Lynn, Ron Jeremy and Peter North, just to name a few. She also blows the lid off of her encounters with mainstream celebrities.Go behind the scenes in this explosive autobiography!!
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