Pure: The Sexual Revolutions of Marilyn Chambers

Book Review by Mark Slade

Most people of a certain age have heard the name, but they will not admit to seeing her films.

Marilyn Chambers. An Icon of ‘70s Adult films just like John Holmes and Linda Lovelace, she found fame by starring in the film Behind the Green Door. Yet, there was so much more to Chambers than people gave her credit for.

But would she have successfully transitioned to regular Hollywood films?

Jared Stearns explores this theme as he does with many more in his riveting Biography of Marilyn Chambers. He took what could have been a terrible, tell-all junk, and with the help of Chambers daughter, friends, family, and acquaintances, Stearns put together the puzzle that was Marilyn Chambers life.

He starts with her childhood and upbringing in New Hampshire. Believe it or not, it was a normal, happy childhood and her parents, though not exactly loving, or caring (as I read it). That life didn’t exude any real trauma on Marilyn Biggs, nor her Sister Jann or brother David. Marilyn though wanted so badly to get the approval of her Father, an ad exec, she would do just about anything.

Her Mother was a Nurse, who took separate vacations from the Father, going to Europe to visit Art Museums. Her Father went on vacations without the Mother to golf. The children were not invited. No family vacations.

That does seem odd.

Marilyn was an athlete, excelling in diving and gymnastics. Bringing home several awards and was touted as an Olympic hopeful. Still, her Father was not impressed. Her Mother also rarely praised her or the siblings.

And this craving for attention and approval may have spurned Marilyn to become a performer, acting in school plays, creating neighborhood performances, and again gaining attention for her abilities.

Marilyn wanted desperately for someone to tell her she was loved. 

She became a model at fifteen with no help from her ad exec Father, who in turn told her she was too ugly for modeling. That only made her want to succeed more. 

Eventually she did get a part in a Barbara Streisand film and a huge modeling gig: as the young mother holding a baby on the cover of Ivory Snow detergent boxes. So famous is that photo, Proctor and Gamble still uses it to this day.

Getting the lead part in the pornographic film Behind the Green Door made Marilyn Biggs infamous as the 24-hour sex kitten Marilyn Chambers. A part she fell into via answering an ad, and misunderstanding a question. Even asking for more money didn’t deter the Dark Brothers, directors of the film.

Chambers could never shake the sex kitten image, possibly she didn’t want to; yet mainstream Hollywood didn’t want to invite into their motion picture/television conglomerate world. But one director and producer took a chance on her.

Ivan Reitman, mostly known for directing Meatballs and mega-hit Ghostbusters produced the strange, twisted horror film Rabid directed by David Cronenberg. The plot centered on a man and woman badly injured in a motorcycle accident. They are taken to an experimental plastic surgery facility. The man heals, the woman, becomes a carrier of a virus that craves blood, as do all others infected by her.

Marilyn was cast as one of the leads. Cronenberg originally wanted Sissy Spacek. The movie company Cineplex didn’t like Spacek’s freckles, nor her Texas accent. Reitman knew of Chambers and her desire to become a “legitimate” actress. Cronenberg had seen her in the low-budget sexploitation film Together, directed by Sean Cunningham (Friday the 13th fame), who had been a neighborhood friend of Chambers. Cronenberg was impressed what has seen of her in the film.

By this time, Marilynn had wed Chuck Traynor, who had been married to Linda Lovelace, and managed her as well as Marilyn. Cronenberg spoke to Stearns only because he enjoyed working with Chambers.

As Cronenberg told Stearns:

“Chuck was going to be watching over her… but he was also very supportive of her—-he was kind of a tough guy, just not my kind of guy, but he was part of the package deal. He was very supportive of the film. He was professional… she (Marilyn ) was very shrewd, she was very tough. She and I got along very well…”

Immediately the film was a hit, and has remained a cult film favorite. 

Marilyn was forever grateful for the chance to do a film like Rabid. Yet, those chances were far and few in between, and X-Rated films became her main priority with everything that comes with that profession. And Chuck Trainor was not exactly a good situation for her.

Of course she ran into various problems. Drug addiction, arrests, physical and mental abuse, lived with missed chances and shattered dreams. Yet Chambers carried on Independently raising her daughter, starred in plays, worked  in Vegas, and was a recording artist. She lived an extraordinary life.

It’s difficult to compress someone’s life into a few paragraphs. Fortunately, Jared Stearns talent as a writer could tell the story of Marilyn Chambers in a 348-page book.

This is a spectacular biography. It reads like a novel, and Stearns writing is an easy flow of information about Marylin Chambers. I look forward to his next book.