The Groundbreaking Porn Film That Upset the Supreme Court [View all]

These days, people can speak openly of adult actors and actresses, the utility of OnlyFans, and all that it offers those on both sides of the screen. Some titillating viewing. A way to indulge exhibitionist tendencies. A side-hustle. A means to procure extra cash, finance a vacation, or even find and build community. There was once a time, however, when you had to all but don a trench coat and fake mustache and duck into a dark theater to see explicit sex on screen.

Let us return to an era when a number of filmmakers made a daring push to bring porn to mainstream America. Behind the Green Door, released in 1972, hails from the Golden Age of Porn, spanning 1969 to 1984. Movie-wise, those first few years stand out. You had filmmakers who were consciously trying to make artistic statements beyond the bounds of the money shot. Among these pictures were the likes of Debbie Does Dallas, Deep Throat, and The Devil in Miss Jones, titles that became a part of the cultural conversation.

As an adult, I’ve returned at intervals to Behind the Green Door, which was directed by a couple of brothers named Artie and Jim Mitchell, who were in the striptease club business and knew their way around the porn world. They remained at it, in some form or other, until 1991, when Jim, in response to complaints about Artie’s rampant drug use from their friends, went to the house of his younger brother and killed him with a .22 rifle, receiving only six years behind bars (serving three).

I’m not sure what to make of any of that. America, in 1972, didn’t know what to make of the film’s breakout star Marilyn Chambers—real name Marilyn Briggs—who became a sensation unto herself. She was born in 1952 in Providence, Rhode Island, and raised in a middle-class family in Westport, Connecticut. Her brother was Bill Briggs, keyboardist of the fine Boston rock band The Remains, who opened for the Beatles on their final U.S. tour in 1966. Chambers worked as a model selling Ivory Soap, and had a small role in the 1970 film The Owl and the Pussycat, where she was credited as Evelyn Lang. Her film-publicity travels for that project brought her to California, and into the orbit of the Mitchell brothers, who thought she resembled the very-big-at-the-time actress Cybill Shepherd.

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