Monday, April 13, 2009

Marilyn Chambers (1952-2009)

A defining pop-culture phenomenon of the 1970s was the rise of hardcore pornography as an avenue to mainstream fame.

Nowadays nobody bats an eye when Katie Morgan does an HBO special, or Heather Hunter makes a hip-hop album, or Jenna Jameson writes a bestselling book.

But before there was Traci Lords and Sasha Grey (who?)... there was Marilyn Chambers. Her 1972 X-rated debut, “Behind the Green Door,” launched the so-called “Golden Age of Porn.”

Ms. Chambers was found dead yesterday in her L.A. County home. She was 56. The cause of death is unknown, according to the Los Angeles Times.

By 1976, Marilyn Chambers had already made inroads into mainstream show business. She put out a disco record called “Benihana,” produced by Michael Zager (who later had a hit with “Let’s All Chant”).

Chambers also starred in the 1977 horror movie “Rabid,” written and directed by David Cronenberg.

Below are the trailer for “Rabid” and Chambers’ 1977 appearance on the adult-oriented cable show “Midnight Blue.”

4 comments:

Dick Stone said...

Damn! That's a shame. She definitely made porn "mainstream" along with Linda Lovelace in Deep Throat.

graham said...

wow. I loved rabid, one of my favourite cheesy horror flicks of all time, I didn't even know she was in porn. Going to have to watch it again, especially after reading this:

http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/83/pornocalypse_now.html

quirkychick said...

I always thought it was strange that Linda Lovelace's abusive first husband married Marilyn Chambers after he and LL divorced.

It's not that strange since they were in the same orbit.

Sad that she died so young and left a 17 year old daughter.

Undercover Black Man said...

I always thought it was strange that Linda Lovelace's abusive first husband married Marilyn Chambers...

Ah... Chuck Traynor, the man with the least flattering Wikipedia entry of all times.

Chambers was the last element of that triangle to pass away.