In 1914, her mother emigrated from a shtetl in Latvia to New York City, planning eventually to send for the rest of the family.
Her aunt Rae came in 1923, but the rest of the family was killed during Hitler's extermination of European Jews, and Mary blamed herself for not being able to rescue them.
[6] She gave her experience in the softcore porn industry in her memoir book Naked in the Promised Land.
She began modeling as a teenager, discovered the gay bar scene, and eventually met her first girlfriend.
Before she graduated from Hollywood High School,[8] she married a gay man much older than herself—a marriage that lasted less than a year.