This relates a bit to a recent thread on a discussion of the Golden Age of Porn but not precisely, so I thought I'd start a new one.  
I'm old enough to have vague recollections of porn from the late 70s onward. I am curious if any here recall if there was a different ethic in the porn industry in earlier years about combining it with escorting. It appears now the two are deeply intertwined and many porn actresses, even in the top tier, rely more heavily on escorting than they do dancing or acting for their livelihoods.
How was this interconnected back in the so-called "Golden Era?" Were some of the grand names of the 70s, 80s and 90s escorting? Of course, we also have to consider communication and promotion are ever more advanced now. Before the internet, about all we had were the classified ads in print newspapers and few magazines.
Really interested to read what veterans know or experienced in the "good old days."

There is a HBO show called the Deuce that covers the beginning of the porn industry as we know it.  According to the show, the first porn act tresses were escorts. The show was written by the same guy who did the Wire so i tend to believe it,

Say what? I haven't seen the Deuce and haven't read the plot material or anything else about it but how far back do they go? The 1800s? There was porn (photographs of nekkid ladies) going back to the 1800s. Those who posed might have been prostitutes.  
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However, if you're talking about the late 1960s-1970s and the beginning of the Golden Age of porn, I had read that many of the early actors and actresses were unemployed wannabe main stream actors, not escorts. Many of them were recruited from NYC.  In fact, part of the success of plotted porn in the Golden Age was that the actors and actresses were actually trained in theater and film. After the Golden Age came Gonzo Porn and the end of acting in plotted porn. The gonzo plots were all the same: suck, fuck, suck, CIM / COF / COB. NEXT!  
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That's my opinion as an observer, not a professional historian with lots of documentation.  

Much of it was spot on true. I moved to NYC in the late 70's and had a walk up apartment in Hell's Kitchen, a short walk to Times Square. My building was known as the "Hooker" building, which in my naivete thought was its real name. You can imagine what it really meant.  Two of the woman that were working women there lived next door and we all became friends. They were not only working through an agency, and street work, but doing porn gigs. I remember when one all excitedly told me she was doing a Chuck Vincent picture -- A level porn work back then. (Later I met Vincent and would rent his studio LIC for low budget work I was doing).  

By 1980 porn was really cranking in NYC and they were working always. Even got invited to a cast party at a Westie Bar on West 49th and 10th.  Porn and other film making crossed paths back then. We used the same mixing studio, labs for processing, legit crew secretly did porn and perpetually out of work actresses did as well.  

I kept up with the two next door neighbors for a while after I moved to SoHo. I know one's life didn't  end well. She wound up back home in Pennsylvania broke and addicted.  The other one just vanished.

From reports and old post here -I believe that pornstars always escorted but it was a taboo subject until I believe Sunset Thomas started doing it openly at the Bunny Ranch - old timers talk about a legendary place Silver Lake where several pornstars would escort for apparently very reasonable rates - you are right though the internet made it much more public and open and lucrative - so small underground places like Silver Lake are mostly out of business

Porn stars of the Golden Age did escort, although with the lack on the internet it was more of a challenge to meet them. As an example, Victoria Paris was known to escort and the best way to book her was while she was on tour at strip clubs; book a private dance at the club and ask for a private later that night or the next day. Similar with some other gals in the 1980s. Back then going rate was about $300/hr and if it was a late night after the strip club thing that $300 typically got a lot more time than an hour so tipping was always a good idea.

TER has pornstar reviews starting in 2002.

I became an escort in 1995 because it was safe and I got to meet gentlemen who were truly looking for the full service experience..  

Which included:  Great Conversation - No Rush - Repeats..

I do it because I truly enjoy what I do..  

I got interested in porn in the early 80's and used to dream about seeing Vanessa Del Rio, Linda Shaw, Ebony Ayes, etc... In 2000, I met this guy at CES/AVN and we became good friends, porn buddies and he used to tell me how his older brother used to be a low budget porn film producer in California. Well, low and behold one day I met him and you won't believe the stories he told me about the mainstream actresses in there early years who was escorts... and the pornstar hook ups that occurred at those mainstream producer parties. I kinda didn't believe it until I met Nina Hartley and Keisha,  they have always been available.