GOLDEN GODDESSES: 25 LEGENDARY WOMEN OF CLASSIC EROTIC CINEMA, 1968-1985

by Nelson, Jill C.

  She said, “No problem.”

  Then they said, “You’ll have to have sex on camera.”

  She said, “Absolutely not.” She left. That’s when they called her. Before this, she had gotten the Ivory Soap job. Years later, it ended up on the shelves. They hadn’t released it right away, but when they did, it was in sync with Behind the Green Door.

  Behind the Green Door

  While working as a model, Marilyn was photographed holding an infant for an advertisement to be used on the front cover of the now infamous Ivory Snow soapbox for Proctor and Gamble. One year prior to making her adult film debut in Artie and Jim Mitchell’s Behind the Green Door (1972), Marilyn appeared nude in Sean S. Cunningham’s film Together (1971), but the part did not immediately lead to straight roles as she’d hoped. Chambers said that when the Mitchell brothers offered her the lead in Behind the Green Door she asked for an exorbitant salary in addition to a percentage of the film’s gross.

  I did that because I didn’t want to do the film. I thought, “Okay, I’m really going to give them something they’re going to say ‘no’ to.” I said, “I’m from New York. Don’t you know who I am? I’m not going to do that!” They were cool guys and they were very foxy, very sly, you know. They had their shit together for a short period. I loved the Mitchell brothers. I loved Art and Jim and still do today. They’re like brothers. They gave me the opportunity to do something and I thought, “Okay, I’ll do a couple of films for them and then I’ll get out of it, and I’ll be able to do stuff in Hollywood.” I agreed [to do the film] and I got a percentage [of the film’s gross] for approximately ten years, and then it was over. That part of the contract I forgot to look at.

  “Green Door” builds methodically as the story is described by two men in a diner providing an eyewitness account of a specific sexual event during flashback mode. Marilyn Chambers, known in the film only as Gloria, travels down the lonely northern leg of the infamous 101 coastal highway alone. After checking into a hotel, she orders a beer on the patio a few hours prior to being kidnapped by two men (Artie and Jim Mitchell) and whisked away to a private club. Blindfolded at first, Gloria doesn’t appear to be drugged, but she is strangely serenely calm when approached by a female who reassures the beauty dressed in a striking black evening gown (accessorized only by a pair of white pearl earrings) that she will not be harmed in any way. Gloria falls immediately into a hypnotic trance under the woman’s caring words, and is guided through a green door onto a stage. In short order, she becomes a sacrificial sex offering for the expectant group of select guests wearing masquerade masks and costumes. The audience is informed that Gloria will not be harmed, only “ravished” and “loved” in a way she has never before experienced. They are told that she won’t remember a single moment of the event afterwards. Six female attendants appear on stage, and proceed to undress and make love to Gloria, their tongues and fingers wander upon and inside of her orifices as they warm her up for the evening’s entree. The sudden appearance of African American porn star, Johnny Keyes, donning tribal paint and wearing white crotch-less tights, creates a hush throughout the room as he makes his way across the stage toward the overripe Gloria. Keyes picks up where the women have left off, and penetrates Gloria with machismo exuberance, making intense eye contact with his luscious partner until they both reach a spellbinding orgasm. The spectators become increasingly aroused by their lovemaking, and eventually, while Gloria performs oral action to three grateful males, the masturbatory circus is completed by a mass climax.

  What is most astonishing about Behind the Green Door is the fact that Chambers does not utter one word of dialogue, yet she is mesmerizing as the sensuous Goddess, pleasured beyond her will, as she becomes an abstract emblem of erotic power. “Green Door” is artful at times throughout its presentation and also contains some special effects, but it is the volatile, taboo Chambers/Keyes sex scene that leaves its sticky mark considering that interracial pairings were sparse and relegated mostly to loops during the early golden era years.

  MARILYN CHAMBERS: When Behind the Green Door came out, I heard a rumor that my dad’s friends took him to a place where they were showing Behind the Green Door and didn’t tell him. It’s funny, because my parents and I never sat down and talked about my career. I told my parents about the film. I was up front with them, but for me, sex, drugs and rock and roll in the late 1960s and early seventies was “I don’t care what you think. You’re not going to tell me what to do.” They just kind of had to ride out the storm and then we became very close. My dad was always kind of secretly proud of me. One of my uncles would take me to see all his old cronies and he was totally proud of me. My dad’s brother would say, “Here’s Marilyn Chambers. She’s my niece.”

  Despite the culture of sexual and societal liberation cultivated during the 1960s youth movement and enveloped throughout the United States and environs, entering sex films as a performer or in any other capacity in the early 1970s was strongly censured.

  VALERIE GOBOS: Marilyn was so sexual. She really loved sex and she really enjoyed it, and she was a feisty, sexual young girl. She said that sex was such a turn on for her and it was even more of a turn on when the camera was rolling. She loved it, and it really excited her, which is typical of all actors. They love it when the camera is on them. I never heard her say anything about her dreading it or not liking it. She talked about how it was very physically challenging to stay in a position for a long period until they got the shot, but she was an athlete so she was in great shape, and she was strong physically. I think so many women in the straight world are romantics, and so there is that fine line, is it making love or having sex? Women in adult are just having sex and pleasing others. It’s much different from the typical woman who is more about, “I love him. He loves me.” The focus is different. Another thing Marilyn said that I think is interesting and I like is that when she did go out to Hollywood, she found that all of these actresses were sleeping their way to the top, and that Hollywood was so corrupt with these producers and directors saying, “If you want the part, you have to sleep with me.” She decided when she made a decision to get into adult films, that if she had to have sex to become a star, at least she was picking and choosing with whom she would have sex.

  I think the first woman she had sex with looked like Sophia Loren and she talked about this woman in her book. She had gone on an audition and the woman was there and had said, “Hey, you’re really cute. Do you want to come over to my house and meet my boyfriend?” They ended up doing a three-way. It is something nice she talks about in her book.

  Marilyn preferred to become a star having sex on screen instead of doing it only to get a small part, and then move on only to be used and abused. She would rather be in control. She was good at it. I think so when I watch her films. She really had star qualities, for sure. She was lovely. She was trained, she was buttoned-up, and she thought she could crossover. Of course, later throughout the years like so many others, she found out that once you go over there you can’t come back again.

  Marilyn articulated her opinions and her experiences regarding the implications of her decision to star in Behind the Green Door. Like with any other career choice, there are good days and bad days.

  You certainly have to be an exhibitionist as an actor, but in porn films, it has to be to an extreme. [It’s] like “Look at me!” You know I was a junior Olympic diver. I was a gymnast. I did all kinds of things and it was always like, “Look at me, Mom and Dad! Look! Look!” You know how a little kid goes “Mommy! Mommy! Look at me!” I always wanted to be reassured that I was wanted, and that I was doing well. I went way overboard and provided a lot of embarrassment to my parents, of course.

  I never considered myself a prostitute, which was always the big controversy. In the old days, it was like “You’re a prostitute because you take money for sex.” No. I have a contract and I actually get paid before. It was difficult to decipher when I was younger. It was always like, “Whoa, am I a prost
itute? Let’s set parameters here.

  It’s an interesting thing. For a very long time I’ve been obsessed with wanting to write a book or doing a documentary about why people go into the porn business and is there a type of person. Why did they do it? What was their childhood like? If you were getting your master’s in psychology, this would be a great thesis. I have had a lot of questions about my own life, but I had a great childhood. Something interjected in there though, to propel me in that direction whether it was outside forces or inner stuff. There are so many women that it would be very interesting to explore — and guys too. Why or what is the type of person who is able to do this? What drives them to this? It’s a very similar background. It’s a pattern. It would be interesting, but it wouldn’t be pretty. It’s a definite downer. Most of the time, they either wind up loaded on drugs killing themselves or they wind up in terrible marriages, broke. If you look at the volume of people who pass through the adult film world, if you look at the statistics of people there are very few, a very small percentage that are still okay and around. You have to get through it and be a survivor. I’m a survivor.

  A lot of the women who are getting into porn today, I don’t want to say they’re bubble-headed dopes, but look at the statistics, not real good. In the old days, if a girl was going to do a couple of porn films, she was doing it to get herself through law school or whatever, to create a life for herself afterwards. It wasn’t something she was going to be considering for her career. For me, it was considering a career in mainstream, thinking it was a steppingstone because I was looking at stuff like Last Tango in Paris (1972) and this type of a thing, which would have certainly told me that it was a possibility there was a transition that could be done. I was considered for a lot of other things, but when Behind the Green Door came out, it was like, “Oh yeah! Alright, okay.” The pendulum was moving forward, and then all of a sudden, it would swing backwards because everyone went nuts and [later] there was the Meese Commission, and so on.

  According to some reports, Artie and Jim Mitchell, the two porn-trepreneurs and co-owners of the O’Farrell X-rated movie house that opened in 1969 at 895 O’Farrell Street in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, picked up on the resemblance between Chambers and the popular film and television actress at the time, Cybil Shepherd. Cleverly, they used Marilyn’s likeness as a promotional angle for “Green Door” as it dovetailed neatly with the arrival of the new Ivory Soap box that featured blonde, wholesome looking Chambers posing with an infant. In an effort to avoid scandal, Proctor and Gamble quickly terminated Marilyn upon discovering her extra-curricular employment while the Mitchells seized the controversy to further boost ticket sales when Behind the Green Door was released. The cumulative gross for the picture is estimated to be $25 million and was made on a $60,000 budget. Alternate images (such as the one on the previous page) depicting Marilyn holding the Ivory Snow box have been used repeatedly to encourage sales of Chambers’ films and memorabilia. Chambers herself was well aware of the financial benefits of capitalizing on the paradoxical Ivory Snow image.

  In 1973, the Mitchell brothers parlayed the success of Behind the Green Door recasting their fresh new starlet who delivered an above average acting performance, in Resurrection of Eve. Resurrection of Eve (aka The Mitchell Brothers Resurrection of Eve) is a subliminal porn takeoff on the Three Faces of Eve (1957) starring Joanne Woodward, only Eve in the Mitchell’s story doesn’t suffer from Multiple Personality Disorder — although one could argue that her husband does.

  Resurrection of Eve is told in three phases with two young actresses playing the part of Eve during her formative years. In the first act, Eve (Nancy Weich) is sexually abused by an “uncle” before the age of thirteen in a very disturbing manner. In the second act, Eve (Mimi Morgan) survives a horrendous car crash that results after an argument with her boyfriend Frank (Matthew Armon) who accuses her of sleeping with a black male boxer (Johnny Keyes as himself). Eve undergoes complete reconstructive surgery to her face, and Frank (forever the cad) is all of a sudden smitten by his hot “new girlfriend.” After Eve marries Frank, he decides he needs more spice in his life and imposes his will upon Eve to accompany him to orgy parties so that they can swing. Eve is unwilling and uninterested, but slowly she comes around, and eventually, reunites with her old friend Keyes. Frank, the chauvinist boor that he is, isn’t too happy about it.

  Taking into consideration Resurrection of Eve was made in the early part of the seventies decade when women explored their sexuality well beyond the borders of what was previously considered appropriate, it is evident when watching this picture that females still had a long way to go in order to achieve equality inside and outside of the bedroom. Had the storyline focused upon Eve’s pleasure center and “coming out” as the title suggested, rather than Eve as the repressed and subservient partner to her husband and his requests for the majority of the film, the conclusion would have been more satisfying. One redemptive highlight is the presence of beautiful Marilyn Chambers whose sparkle and smile almost make up for any deficits and the underlying message of sexism. In 1975, the Mitchells released Inside Marilyn Chambers consisting of footages from previous collaborations between the two parties.

  Chuck Traynor & Superstardom

  VALERIE GOBOS: Marilyn was dancing at the O’Farrell Club, which paralleled Green Door. It was during the time she was working with the Mitchell Brothers and she loved them. I’m not quite sure which dates she was dancing and doing her films, but I think she was doing them hand in hand because busloads of people would show up at the theatre to see her.

  The O’Farrell Theatre served as a movie house and as a venue for striptease acts and live sex shows since it first opened in the late 1960s. Famous adult film stars that had appeared on stage or performed private sex shows over the years in addition to Marilyn Chambers (who according to Chambers was the theater’s largest drawing card) included John Holmes, Annette Haven, Amber Lynn, Nina Hartley and Erica Boyer. The historic O’Farrell Theatre is currently in operation today as an adult emporium.

  Despite its worldwide reputation for nonconformity that the sexually diverse city of Francisco has become known, during the time of Chambers’ popularity, the Mitchell brothers were charged with obscenity more than once. They fought for their First Amendment rights in court and won. Chambers once recounted how on two occasions in the 1980s she was arrested for lewd conduct and for prostitution while headlining a show at the O’Farrell Theatre. She remarked that the awestruck police officers treated her well, and requested she sign autographs for them as a memento of having had the magnetic star as their special guest in the San Francisco jailhouse.

  Valerie Gobos emphasized the magnitude of Marilyn’s marketability.

  Marilyn also went to Cannes Film Festival. I remember seeing footage of her at Cannes and I’m not sure what she was doing there if it was Green Door or what it was, but my goodness, to be able to be recognized at Cannes Film Festival — she really was a starlet. When Chuck Traynor took her on to manage her; that was his goal he had said to turn her into a starlet with the limos and the fur coats and really make her as glamorous as she could possibly be. He had done the same thing with Linda Lovelace as well. He was just ending his relationship with Linda Lovelace when he met Marilyn.

  Behind the Green Door screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972. It was extremely well received. In an era where the new phenomenon of porno chic was welcomed at the World-class event, budding celebrities in the sexual film world schmoozed with their Hollywood equivalents, and Marilyn was on top of her game.

  In 1975, when Chambers was introduced to her second husband Chuck Traynor (former spouse and manager of porn star Linda Lovelace) she was enchanted. Initially, the union served both parties well as Chambers believed Traynor would be an influential player whose Hollywood connections and experience would expedite her goal of progressing toward mainstream stardom. Traynor was obviously drawn to Marilyn’s star quality, and expected that his own standing within
the entertainment community would be heightened. It is no secret to those familiar with Chuck Traynor’s reputation, he had been much maligned by Linda Lovelace in her 1980 memoir Ordeal. Likewise, staunch anti-porn feminists, the press, and the adult community also criticized Traynor for his apparent brutal physical and emotional abuse of Lovelace during the years they were married and while acting as her manager. Lovelace’s allegations of violence, threats using weapons, sexual abuse and torment on the set of Deep Throat and throughout her turbulent relationship with Traynor have been well documented. Some elements of Lovelace’s claims against Traynor have also been challenged over the years as to their authenticity. Fellow former performers (including Chambers) and those who were present on the set of Deep Throat have contested Lovelace’s charges against Traynor (that he held a gun to her head during filming) and disbelieve accusations that Traynor coerced Linda to commit specific sexual acts on camera. Conversely, in recent years, another performer who was present on the set of Deep Throat has come forward to say she witnessed sounds of Traynor beating Lovelace in a hotel room while on location for filming. Incidentally, there is no love lost between the adult industry and Lovelace who denounced the industry after she left films (and divorced Traynor) after joining an alliance with anti-pornography feminist activists in an attempt to blame the pornographic movie business for the mistreatment and exploitation of women. Joined by ardent supporters such as the late Andrea Dworkin, Gloria Steinem, and Catherine McKinnon, Lovelace and the group cited Linda’s assertions of Traynor’s dominant and reprehensible actions on set and beatings metered out to Lovelace while they were still married, as evidence for their plight. Unfortunately, Lovelace became a sacrificial lamb during the anti-porn campaign. She was discarded by the same group that had adopted her as their so-called spokesperson once she was no longer integral to their mandate. In her 1986 book titled Out of Bondage, Lovelace focused on her life after 1974, but reaffirmed her stance she was threatened by her former husband to perform sex acts on camera.