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Marilyn Chambers, RIP
In 1972, a movie called Behind the Green
Door proved that ordinary Americans would sit through a
feature-length experimental art film with vague intimations of the
occult, if it meant they got to watch Marilyn Chambers having sex.
This was back when the porn industry was in effect
cross-subsidizing the avant-garde film community, thus
demonstrating its redeeming artistic
merit and staying—sometimes—on the tolerant side of the law. In
this case, the results were memorably strange: Chambers' picture
was based on a piece of folklore, but—as
with the street poem that inspired another classic of lowbrow '70s
surrealism, Dolemite—it wasn't the sort of folktale that
ordinarily appeared on a movie screen.
Before that career-defining role, Chambers was best known as the model on the Ivory Snow soap box (advertised as "99 & 44/100 percent pure"). She went on to appear in David Cronenberg's cult horror picture Rabid and a host of X-rated movies, and in 2004 she ran for vice president on the Personal Choice ticket, a spinoff of sorts from the Libertarian Party. She was later involved in the Boston Tea Party, another Libertarian offshoot, and in some states she served last year as the BTP's vice-presidential candidate.
This past weekend she died of causes unknown, a week shy of her 57th birthday. She was, in her way, one of the cultural icons of 1970s America, and I hope she rests in peace.
Joel|4.13.09 @ 4:06PM|#
The Ivory Snow lady was Marilyn Chambers? The porn star?
Seriously?
It's true what they say. "Not only stranger than you imagine, but
stranger than you can imagine.
Cool.
Paul|4.13.09 @ 4:09PM|#
This weekend she died of causes unknown, a week shy of her 57th birthday.
Hmm...
|4.13.09 @ 4:12PM|#
Any chance she'll appear in the memorial montage at the 2010
Oscars? I won't hold my breath, but I bet she makes the This
Week memorial next Sunday.
Happy trails, Marilyn.
|4.13.09 @ 4:16PM|#
I am so sad to learn this. She was a trail blazer who deserves
to be remembered. She will be missed.
Joel,
Aspartame is pulling your leg. So what rock have you been hiding
under the past thirty five years anyway?
Jesse Walker|4.13.09 @ 4:18PM|#
Warren beat me to it.
Behind the Green Door would have been EXTREMELY illegal if
it starred the baby...
|4.13.09 @ 4:23PM|#
I and some of my club Brothers were lucky enough to have met
Marylin and her ol' man Doug Trayner at the L.A. Bike show in the
early 80s. I still have a pic of me & another Bro, with us both
hanging tongues close to each of those perfect nipples.
She was a free spirit and deserves to be held in the same esteem as
Bettie Page, Marylin Monroe, etc...
RIP Marilyn.....it was a pleasure to meet you and a memory I'll
always enjoy.
|4.13.09 @ 4:23PM|#
She went on to appear in David Cronenberg's cult horror
picture Rabid
Rabid is
great. It's Cronenberg's first "real" film (Shivers and
Stereo/Crimes of the Future don't count) and was a jumping
point for his mutation/flesh thing. Great stuff.
|4.13.09 @ 4:24PM|#
Sorry, Joel... I couldn't resist.
Although, I've never heard the second option before (from
wiki):
Some urban legends claim that either Chambers herself or Brooke
Shields posed as the baby; neither rumor is true.
Oat Willie|4.13.09 @ 4:26PM|#
Behind the Green Door would have been EXTREMELY illegal if
it starred the baby...
I think the dingo ended up eating the baby.
|4.13.09 @ 4:29PM|#
When I saw it, it was called They Came From Within, and while entertaining, it was a first effort. Sort of like Bad Taste for Peter Jackson. Watchable, but the training wheels are still on.
Joel|4.13.09 @ 4:30PM|#
Aspartame is pulling your leg. So what rock have you been
hiding under the past thirty five years anyway?
A very nice one, thank you. It's got, like, hanging lichens and
stuff.
And may I take this opportunity to join the chanting chorus of
"Curse you, Sugarfree!"
|4.13.09 @ 4:31PM|#
Yeah, Epi, I saw it under that title as well. Night of the Creeps totally ripped it off.
|4.13.09 @ 4:31PM|#
And may I take this opportunity to join the chanting chorus
of "Curse you, Sugarfree!"
It only makes me stronger.
|4.13.09 @ 4:33PM|#
Crimes and Stereo count, heteronormative fags!
I'm going to take some Percodan today. Just because it's
Monday.
|4.13.09 @ 4:35PM|#
Shivers, Percodan...
Movies I haven't seen and opiates I haven't taken. Will you boys
let me play too already?
|4.13.09 @ 4:41PM|#
Will you boys let me play too already?
Of course. Girls are always welcome...as long as you put out.
|4.13.09 @ 4:43PM|#
Maybe you should lighten up on the Oxygen and Lifetime specials, NutraSweet. I think your estrogen levels are already too high.
|4.13.09 @ 4:46PM|#
What the hell is wrong with you people?
Is that all the remembrance for the great Marilyn Chambers we can
muster?
I couldn't give two shits for some second rate Canadian.
Marilyn was a champion of freedom.
|4.13.09 @ 4:47PM|#
Lifetime original movies are an opiate all on their own. God
bless Judith Light and Keri Russel.
I took a Lortab this weekend, but then got too drunk to appreciate
it. What a waste.
Epi, are you drinking at Starbucks, listening to grunge music, and
protesting the WTO? Like right now?
robc|4.13.09 @ 4:48PM|#
SugarFree,
Are you like a Women's Studies professor or something? Between the
Lifetime movies and the feministing links, you seem to follow that
kind of stuff way too much.
|4.13.09 @ 4:49PM|#
Epi, are you drinking at Starbucks, listening to grunge
music, and protesting the WTO? Like right now?
He's putting together a couch from Ikea.
|4.13.09 @ 4:51PM|#
Are you like a Women's Studies professor or
something?
No, when I encounter something stupid, I file it away until I have
a chance to make fun of it. Hopefully I be able to forget the
Moment of Truth movies even exist.
|4.13.09 @ 4:51PM|#
God bless Judith Light and Keri Russel.
(tries to process this statement, fails)
Epi, are you drinking at Starbucks, listening to grunge music,
and protesting the WTO? Like right now?
I'm sleepless, writing to a woman over the internet. I may go stand
in front of certain landmarks at certain times as well. And I used
to be on Busom Buddies--you know, back when I was funny
and not a "serious" actor.
(Christ, just writing that as a joke made me feel dirty)
Paul|4.13.09 @ 4:51PM|#
Rabid is great. It's Cronenberg's first "real" film (Shivers
and Stereo/Crimes of the Future don't count) and was a jumping
point for his mutation/flesh thing. Great stuff.
Everytime I see a Cronenberg film, I can't help but wonder what
kind of fucked up sexual kinks that guy has bottled up...
|4.13.09 @ 4:52PM|#
I've been hoping ProLib would surface. I'm going to be in Fla
most of the week and need some of Mrs Libertate's vittles.
And I mean that in a respectful way.
|4.13.09 @ 4:52PM|#
He's putting together a couch from Ikea.
You're dorking up my vibe, asshole. Thanks a lot.
|4.13.09 @ 4:53PM|#
back when I was funny and not a "serious" actor
The back of the VHS copy of Bachelor Party in my basement
calls Hanks "the next Bill Murray". Good stuff.
Paul|4.13.09 @ 4:55PM|#
Moment of Truth: Why My Daughter?
Hmm, sounds like the exact same thing that "sex worker rights
activist" in that documentary about the strippers unionizing said
when she found out her daughter was a stripper there. Laughs all
around.
|4.13.09 @ 4:57PM|#
At least in the early 70s some porn stars were not bad looking. Chambers was very good looking when she started out. Now of course all porn stars go for the methed out, fake boobed skank look that seems to be so popular among the unwashed masses (see e.g. Pamela Anderson and Jenna Jameson). Chambers sort of points to a different era when pinup and stag models looked like good looking women that you might actually see in public versus some silicon enhanced skank monster.
|4.13.09 @ 4:59PM|#
Sorry, FrBunny, I'm submerged, waiting for the convoy.
Episiarch,
Going to Starbucks is gauche in Seattle. You have to go to some
family-owned coffee shop that has some sort of direct tie to Mao.
Or maybe Pol Pot.
The first Starbucks is in the Pike Place Market somewhere. It's
gauche, too. It would be cool if they'd throw coffee the way the
fish place throws fish, but no, they're too corporate for such
things.
Paul|4.13.09 @ 4:59PM|#
The back of the VHS copy of Bachelor Party in my basement
calls Hanks "the next Bill Murray".
When in reality, Murray is becoming the next hanks.
|4.13.09 @ 5:01PM|#
The back of the VHS copy of Bachelor Party in my basement
calls Hanks "the next Bill Murray".
I knew he was heading down the path of evil after I saw Nothing In
Common on HBO...about 1000 times. When he finally becomes
a Scientologist, the cycle of evil shall be complete.
|4.13.09 @ 5:01PM|#
"The first Starbucks is in the Pike Place Market somewhere. It's
gauche, too. It would be cool if they'd throw coffee the way the
fish place throws fish, but no, they're too corporate for such
things."
I am not sure that scalling your customers is a very good business
model. I know poser hipster dufuses of the ilk that hang out in
Seattle will put up with a lot, but scalding?
Paul|4.13.09 @ 5:02PM|#
Going to Starbucks is gauche in Seattle. You have to go to
some family-owned coffee shop that has some sort of direct tie to
Mao. Or maybe Pol Pot.
So say tens of thousands of Seattlites as they sip their
Starbucks...
Paul|4.13.09 @ 5:03PM|#
Murray is becoming the next hanks
And the whole world loses.
I disagree, I see it as a kind of win-win.
|4.13.09 @ 5:03PM|#
Paul,
I see you understand the paradox that is Seattle. It's also a boom
town. A bust town. A boom town, a bust town.
|4.13.09 @ 5:04PM|#
ProL, I tried to buy some huge sea scallops at the market yesterday, but the fish-throwing retards aren't open on Easter Sunday, it seems. They're probably papists or something equally evil. My new apartment is just a few blocks from it.
|4.13.09 @ 5:06PM|#
"OK, how about Tylenol 3 and Moment of Truth: Why My
Daughter?"
Lifetime movies love hookers and women in prison. The plot summary
of that movie says a woman's daughter gets inadvertantly sucked
into Prostitution. How do you inadvertantly become a hooker? Forced
to become a hooker maybe. But inadvertantly as in accidentily? "Oh
I just thought he was being kinky and got off on me sleeping with
all those guys. I didn't know he was charging them. Oh my!!"
Paul|4.13.09 @ 5:06PM|#
I see you understand the paradox that is Seattle.
I've officially lived here long enough to qualify for near-native
status.
|4.13.09 @ 5:06PM|#
The height of 70s mainstream porn was Alice in Wonderland: An
X-Rated Musical Fantasy (1976) starring Playmate Kristine DeBell, who went
on to be one of the counselors in Meatballs. Porn got
within inches of being respectable, but VHS made it more accessible
and coarse at the same time.
Although, porn should be fairly crass.
Paul|4.13.09 @ 5:07PM|#
My new apartment is just a few blocks from it.
Pick me up some Seville Oranges, would you?
|4.13.09 @ 5:07PM|#
Seatlle is a beautiful city. It must have been paradise or near to it before the hippies fucked it up.
|4.13.09 @ 5:09PM|#
Crikey, SF, that movie is "up 1420% in popularity this week" according to the link! Have you been pitching it on other blogs too?
|4.13.09 @ 5:10PM|#
"The height of 70s mainstream porn was Alice in Wonderland: An
X-Rated Musical Fantasy (1976) starring Playmate Kristine DeBell,
who went on to be one of the counselors in Meatballs. Porn got
within inches of being respectable, but VHS made it more accessible
and coarse at the same time."
It kind of did in the 80s. Movies like The Hunger or Henry and June
that would have been X-rated porn in the 1960s were respectible
movies. We just didn't call it porn anymore. We reserved that term
for low rent VHS tapes with nothing but money shots.
|4.13.09 @ 5:10PM|#
Episiarch,
I was a downtown Seattle resident for about six weeks in 2001. I
enjoyed it, though that was the late summer with all of its
advantages.
There are a few decent restaurants in downtown, though the only one
I can remember off the top of my head is Wild Ginger. I didn't buy
much in the way of groceries in the city--there was some grocery
store out near the university, but I can't remember the name. Lots
of salmony stuff.
|4.13.09 @ 5:11PM|#
who went on to be one of the counselors in
Meatballs
I am ashamed to admit that I watched Meatballs recently.
It made me feel...funny. Kind of like when NutraSweet touches me
down there and tells me he's a doctor.
Paul|4.13.09 @ 5:11PM|#
Seatlle is a beautiful city. It must have been paradise or
near to it before the hippies fucked it up.
Hippies actually kind of made Seattle great. Then they got elected
to public office and keep trying to codify "great" into law and are
subsequently fucking it up. They'll never understand that greatness
comes from the bottom up, not the top-down.
BTW: I hate Nickels.
|4.13.09 @ 5:13PM|#
Good point Paul. I don't mind living next door to hippies. They are generally nice people and make the place interesting. But when the neighborhood hippie runs for city council, the best course is to shoot him or just move away because things are going to go downhill quick.
|4.13.09 @ 5:16PM|#
BTW: I hate Nickels.
I just saw that bloated pig-eyed sack of shit on TV talking about
what he wants to ban next. Fuck him and the three horses he rode in
on.
|4.13.09 @ 5:16PM|#
Damn, I'm getting old. RIP Marilyn.
BTW, this is one of the rare occasions I agree with John. Marilyn
Chambers was a very attractive woman. With or without
attire.
Paul|4.13.09 @ 5:22PM|#
I just saw that bloated pig-eyed sack of shit on TV talking
about what he wants to ban next. Fuck him and the three horses he
rode in on.
The guy's like fucking Jabba the Hutt, but without the charm.
|4.13.09 @ 5:22PM|#
"The height of 70s mainstream porn was Alice in Wonderland:
An X-Rated Musical Fantasy (1976) starring Playmate Kristine
DeBell, who went on to be one of the counselors in Meatballs. Porn
got within inches of being respectable, but VHS made it more
accessible and coarse at the same time."
The height of respectable port was 9 1/2 Weeks
|4.13.09 @ 5:24PM|#
Sounds interesting. Of course, my WaMu days are behind me, so I may not be back in Seattle for a while.
|4.13.09 @ 5:24PM|#
"The height of respectable port was 9 1/2 Weeks"
Henry and June,
The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover
The Hunger
I the Jury
Tie Me Up Tie Me Down
Angel Heart
There were a whole litiny of respectable porn movies made during
the 80s.
Paul|4.13.09 @ 5:24PM|#
The height of respectable port was 9 1/2 Weeks
Ugh. I thought I had exorcised that movie from my memory, and now
you do this...
Paul|4.13.09 @ 5:26PM|#
There were a whole litiny of respectable porn movies made
during the 80s.
I'm old fashioned. I don't want my porn respectable.
Paul|4.13.09 @ 5:27PM|#
WaMu days are behind me, so I may not be back in Seattle for
a while.
WaMu's days are behind WaMu.
|4.13.09 @ 5:27PM|#
i thought 91/2 Weeks sucked to. First, Bassinger really didn't show the goods, which was monumentally disapointing. Second, the book apparently was some serious S&M kink which didn't really make it to the movie. Third it had Mickey Rourke in it. It was a huge disapointment.
Orange Line Special|4.13.09 @ 5:29PM|#
I have some questions:
1. Why do many starlets have the same last name? Are they
related?
2. Is there a couch/highheelshoe/saxophone museum somewhere?
3. Do the big studios employ squeegee men to clean up?
4. Could their "Make pr0n available to all anywhere no matter any
other circumstances" be the LP's back road to victory?
|4.13.09 @ 5:31PM|#
It is on Drudge that Spector is guilty of second degree murder. Crazy fucker deserved to go down. What a wasted life.
|4.13.09 @ 5:39PM|#
Alice in Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Fantasy is probably the
best made porn film of all time.
That or TeenCumSluts #13.
SIV|4.13.09 @ 5:43PM|#
Rabid is great. It's Cronenberg's first "real" film (Shivers and
Stereo/Crimes of the Future don't count) and was a jumping point
for his mutation/flesh thing. Great stuff.
Shivers doesn't count? WTF?
It's the same damn movie Cronenberg has made every single time
since then.
I've never seen the "student" films.
|4.13.09 @ 5:46PM|#
"Alice in Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Fantasy is probably the
best made porn film of all time.
That or TeenCumSluts #13."
I beleive the definitive list of best porn movies ever is as
follows:
Whisper in the Wind,
To Each His Own, Put it Where It Doesn't Belong,
My Pipes Need Cleaning,
All tit-Fucking, Volume Eight,
I Need Your Cock,
Ass-Worshipping Rim-Jobbers,
My Cunt and Eight Shafts,
Cum Clean,
Cum-Gargling Naked Sluts,
Cum Buns Three,
Cumming in a Sock,
Cum on Eileen,
Huge Black Cocks with Pearly White Cum,
Slam It Up My Too-Loose Ass,
Ass Blasters in Outer Space,
Blowjobs by Betsy,
Sucking Cock and Cunt,
Finger My Ass, Play with my Puss,
Three on a Dildo,
Girls Who Crave Cock,
Girls Who Crave Cunt,
Men Alone Two-The K.Y. Connection,
Pink Pussy Lips,
All Holes Filled with Hard Cock.
Oh, and...
Happy Scrappy Hero Pup
|4.13.09 @ 5:51PM|#
I wouldn't call any of those 80s movies porn. Up-scale erotica, maybe. But without penetration shots they aren't porn. Romance and 9 Songs dance the respectable porn line much better. Discernible plot, dialogue, decent actors and penetration. There's quite a few movies in this sub-genre at this point.
|4.13.09 @ 5:51PM|#
I'm having fond memories of her "making love" with the gardener on the pool table in Insatiable. I feel sorry for the old folks that came of age without Beta/VHS. Maybe that just made them appreciate it more later.
Orange Line Special|4.13.09 @ 5:54PM|#
5. What's that on your chin? Are those mine?
6. Where does Reason fit into an actress' career arc? Is it just
before or just after doing midget stump scat leather bondage
videos?
7. Google lydia hairy.
Joel|4.13.09 @ 6:01PM|#
John,
If those are actual porn movie titles - and if you can actually
list them as you just did - you have just got to get a
life. Though at least it's clear you don't spend all your time in
front of the computer, and I guess that's something.
Derek Ashworth|4.13.09 @ 6:10PM|#
Marilyn Chambers, Harry Kallas, and now Mark "The Bird" Fidrych. The trifecta is now complete, somewhat, and a sad RIP to all.
BakedPenguin|4.13.09 @ 6:13PM|#
I haven't see anyone mention Catherine Breillat
Joel, I think John was doing the skit from "Clerks". I could be
wrong - it's been years since I saw that.
Also, RIP Marilyn.
|4.13.09 @ 6:18PM|#
I haven't see anyone mention Catherine Breillat.
[cough]
SugarFree | April 13, 2009, 5:51pm | #
Up-scale erotica, maybe. But without penetration shots they aren't porn. Romance and 9 Songs dance the respectable porn line much better.
BakedPenguin|4.13.09 @ 6:20PM|#
Oops. I should read better. I also should have known better than to question your pr0n knowledge, SugarFree...
ChrisO|4.13.09 @ 6:26PM|#
Behind the Green Door certainly has to qualify as one of the weirdest porn films of all time. And, apart from the lovely Ms. Chambers, one of the least titilating, as well. There was a lot of "WTF?" in the room when a bunch of us teenagers watched it for the first time.
|4.13.09 @ 6:27PM|#
BP,
It's OK, it was sort of buried there. But no mention of Catherine
Breillat would be complete with a link to Roxane
Mesquida, dead-eyed cutie extreme.
Paul|4.13.09 @ 6:37PM|#
That or TeenCumSluts #13.
I thought 12 was way better... that was really where they should
have ended the franchise.
|4.13.09 @ 6:38PM|#
marilyn was a friend of mine, as is her daughter a friend of our family and her ex husband.. she blazed the trail for all the porn stars of the last 3 decades..they should all thank what ever they beleive in for marilyn's life...she gave them all much opportunity...she may have paid the ulitmate price for that life..but she was a good person with a great heart...a great mom ...i 'll miss her..jc
Happy Jack|4.13.09 @ 6:39PM|#
I'm having fond memories of her "making love" with the
gardener on the pool table in Insatiable.
I'm having wincing memories of her taking it up the ass from John
Holmes in Insatiable. Yeeouch!
Robert|4.13.09 @ 7:04PM|#
The Ivory Snow lady was Marilyn Chambers? The porn star? Seriously?
Yes, but for only a brief period. She'd recently replaced a dark
haired model, and then when it got to be known that the blonde on
the soap box was also a porn actress, they switched to yet another
dark haired model. And before the portrait style it was a snowy
cartoon without the snow man, and before that it was the same scene
with the snow man.
Orange Line Special|4.13.09 @ 7:40PM|#
I'll be in the third booth down the hall if anyone wants to give me a hand.
|4.13.09 @ 7:45PM|#
happy jack, didn't marilyn do an A2M with John Holmes in Insatiable 2? On the weight lifting bench IIRC?
Lester Hunt|4.13.09 @ 8:34PM|#
So sad. RIP.
You guys who are bantering back and forth should find a more
appropriate forum.
|4.13.09 @ 8:54PM|#
You guys who are bantering back and forth should find a more
appropriate forum.
You don't think that bantering about porn ('twas her career)
interspersed with compliments to the edceased is appropriate?
It seems like most memorial services I've attended. Marilyn would
likely be honored that a political website exists that neither
condemned nor pitied her life choices, celebrating and joking about
it instead.
Lighten up, Francis.
Jesse Walker|4.13.09 @ 9:02PM|#
I have some questions
Good for you, Chris. How about answering mine
first?
Jesse Walker|4.13.09 @ 9:08PM|#
(In fairness, the line about porn stars having the same last name was pretty funny.)
Taktix®|4.13.09 @ 9:35PM|#
Good for you, Chris. How about answering mine
first?
Jesse,
Answering you would be AdmittingDefeat, because the question
WasWritten by the MexicanMafia in their GrandCollusion with
NAFTASupporters. To repsond would make YourQuestion
legitimate.
Or he just doesn't have TheStones...
Kolohe|4.13.09 @ 9:37PM|#
There were a whole litiny of respectable porn movies made
during the 80s.
To pick a nit, some of those were from the nineties.
And The Cook, The thief, etc was less pornographic than it is was
just outright gross. (although the line the female lead gives at
the end about 'you know where it's been' was very funny)
T|4.14.09 @ 12:00AM|#
And The Cook, The thief, etc was less pornographic than it
is was just outright gross.
Yeah, probably the my personal worst first date movie ever.
My Porn Scene Experience|4.14.09 @ 12:55AM|#
I dated a girl years ago for a long time who was the daughter of a famous 80's porn star, her family also worked for the NY mob that Good Fellas was inspired by. She was beautiful and great person but she had a tough life. She witnessed all kinds of violence and sex and drugs by the age of ten when she ran away that most people will never see in their whole life. I've also been friends with Vietnam vets and other mafia kids but none of their stories were as insane as the growing up in the porn scene.
|4.14.09 @ 3:53AM|#
Jesse Walker-
Behind the Green Door would have been EXTREMELY illegal if it
starred the baby...
Only because you're not a "true libertarian"...
(Drink!)
edna|4.14.09 @ 6:40AM|#
wikipedia says she was known for "bukkake" too.
is that kurosawa? i missed that one.
|4.14.09 @ 9:14AM|#
i
think how sad her daughter found her,in her trailer,to be that
popular and living in a trailer,things could not of been that
good,
|4.14.09 @ 9:46AM|#
I use to wank to her videos in my youth, must have cummed around 1000 times to her, what a waste.
|10.17.09 @ 5:42PM|#
Met her in NYC provided transportation for her to and from JFK "what a friendly beautiful person" so sorry
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