The Ivory Snow Girl

Porn legend Marilyn Chambers was found dead in her home in Southern California today. She was one of the first porn stars I can remember watching and knowing through her soft core movies that were shown on Cinemax. I thought we could pay tribute to her today.

Behind The Green Door was Marilyn’s third and her most famous film. Prior to that, she did two films and was a spokesmodel for Proctor and Gamble products; most famously Ivory Snow soap. When she moved to San Francisco, she auditioned for the Mitchell brothers and the rest is history. The film is about a woman who gets abducted into a sex theater and forced to have sex with multiple men for the enjoyment of an audience. When asked how she felt about filming Behind The Green Door at the tender age of nineteen, Marilyn said she was “as nervous as a whore in church.”

Compared to the porn starlets of today, who flood the market with multiple films and Internet appearances, Marilyn made very few films during her heyday. She has 34 film credits on IMDB which spans two decades. Compare that to Jenna Jameson, who has a much longer resume spanning a much shorter time period. Her second best known film is Insatiable.

After taking a break from porn, Marilyn came back in the dreaded “hot older woman” role. But, like her contemporary Nina Hartley, Marilyn had no problem being what we now call a “cougar.” She says, in an interview she gave in 1999:

“I think that a beautiful, sexy older woman is needed. I’m not saying that’s what I am, but if I can bring any kind of portrayal of an older woman who enjoys sex, then I am proud to do so. Maybe I can even help expand the screen life past twenty five. That’s one of the problems with this business. It is scary because usually past age thirty, that’s it. I’ve been very fortunate to have a long career. Having only done six feature adult films in my whole career, I haven’t really over exposed myself. People know who I am because of the other things I have done,. I am constantly doing a lot of publicity and appearing here and there. Still, I am best known for my adult films which makes me very happy because obviously they have been done very well. I think that’s an important factor. If you totally inundate the market with yourself, people will get tired of seeing you. How many movies can you make? How many positions can you be in?”

Marilyn has said that her favorite scene she’s ever done is the pool table scene from Insatiable. It’s rough, sexy and exudes a real passion you just don’t see in modern flicks. Marilyn was a legend for a reason. The combination of beauty and real enthusiasm is a hard one to capture and “it”, whatever “it” is, Marilyn had it. What’s saddest about Marilyn’s story is how resistant mainstream Hollywood was to accepting her. She talks of being black balled in Hollywood after producers were hesitant to work with a porn star. Check out the following interview done in 1977 where she talks about attempting to transition. She’s so sweet, soft spoken and beautiful in this clip, taken from a New York City public access show:

It makes me sad to think of what could have been if Marilyn had been a star now. The truth is, the days of actress like Marilyn Chambers is totally gone. It wouldn’t be feasible for an actress to only do 6 films or to do such (relatively) tame work. It also gives a nostalgia for a past era, perhaps one that never actually existed, of sexual freedom. Behind The Green Door is so compelling because in the end, isn’t that all our fantasies are about: being in a place where anything is possible?

“It’s impossible, it really is. I have done some R rated stuff, late night crap on USA and Cinemax. I mean, it’s fine, it’s good money, but it’s nothing that I consider acting. You can do that stuff with your eyes shut. I would like to do something that takes some actual acting ability. It seems that every time I play a part I am playing myself. I have been offered a lot of stuff that ends up jinxed or turned down because the producer’s wife got pissed off or some famous actor wouldn’t work with me because I did porno films or whatever. A lot of them are afraid because I’m more famous than they are. So, I kind of got the idea that it was never going to happen about ten years ago. I figured I might as well enjoy what I have and not be bitter over what I don’t. I’ve been very happy that my career has gone on as long as it has. If I can go another three years, I’ll be very happy.”