I am too young to truly remember when Marilyn Chambers was queen of 1970′s porn. I mean, I do recall the hubbub surrounding “Behind the Green Door” and “Resurrection of Eve” from listening to my parents whisper and discuss, and from seeing ads in the mainstream newspaper, forever making me curious about what this thing was. Today has been one year since her passing, and the porn world still remembers her passion.
Everyone in the industry, smut peddlers and fans alike know the legendary story. Marilyn became the spokesperson and box-cover girl for Procter & Gamble’s laundry detergent; Ivory Snow, a HUGE brand in America’s white bread utopia. Her squeaky clean, girl-next-door image was seen on supermarket shelves, tv commercials, newspaper ads and store windows. Then in 1972 Marilyn landed the starring role in “Behind the Green Door,” a X rated feature with wide theatrical release that captivated the world. The detergent marketing blitz and movie nearly hit our consciousness at the same time, marking one of the greatest dualities in pop culture history. Not to mention quite the conundrum for Proctor & Gamble.
I actually remember her more for scaring the living shit out of me in “Rabid,” David Cronenberg’s 1977 horror masterpiece about a woman (Chambers) who, after surviving a car crash that requires a new kind of plastic surgery, suddenly craves human blood from unsuspecting suiters…i mean…victims, and gets it from a weird little spikey-tonguey thing that shoots out of her armpit during a close embrace. This, like most bizarre and unexplainable phenomenon, leads to zombie-ism across the country.
Chambers, whose real name was Marilyn Ann Taylor, was found unresponsive at 8:51 p.m. at her residence in the 16000 block of Vasquez Canyon, Los Angeles, on April 12th 2009. The cause of death were the effects of a cerebral hemorrhage and aneurysm related to heart disease. She was 56.
The 2000 SHOWTIME attempt-at-a-movie “Rated X,” featuring brothers Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen documents the “Behind the Green Door” period with actress Tracy Hutson taking on the role of Marilyn Chambers. But if you want to pay tribute justly, give her due diligence by checking out any one of her 36 hardcore titles.
And stay away from chicks with weird armpits.
Tags: Death, hardcore, Marilyn Chambers, Porn, X-Rated