Jim South

James Marvin Souter, Jr. (September 17, 1939 - August 28, 2020), known professionally as Jim South, was an American recruiter and agent in the pornography industry. Early life South sold insurance in Dallas, Texas for a few years and moved to Los Angeles, California in 1968. He opened a fashion modeling agency first, then formed World Modeling Talent Agency in Sherman Oaks, California in 1976. The agency represented many performers and models who worked in adult movies and magazines. Career World Modeling became infamous for unknowingly representing a then underaged Traci Lords. Through South's agency, 15-year-old Lords started nude modeling; she had introduced herself with a fraudulent identification card in the name Kristie Elizabeth Nussman, which falsely showed her age as twenty two years old. Lords became the September 1984 Penthouse "Pet of the Month," for which she earned $5,000, and first performed in pornographic movies in 1984. Following the May 1986 revelation that most of Lords' porn work was illegal, South was arrested on March 4, 1987, and was among those later charged by the U.S. government with pandering and child pornography. The charges were eventually dismissed after the discovery that the government had issued Lords a passport under the name Kristi Nussman.