It doesn’t seem possible but it’s been 50 years since the release of Behind The Green Door. It was the first hardcore, a pornographic movie that was widely distributed in the United States.  The movie was directed by brothers Artie and Jim Mitchell.

Prior to Behind the Green Door, most of the Mitchell Brothers’ 200 or so adult films had only been shown in their O’Farrell Theater.

Made with a budget of $60,000, it achieved a nationwide theatrical release which earned over $1 million. However, the movie would ultimately gross over $50 million including its video release, which was controlled exclusively by the Mitchells out of their headquarters in the O’Farrell Theatre, San Francisco.

Have you ever wondered just what “Behind The Green Door” actually refers to? Well, the most popular theory is that it refers to Gateways, London’s first lesbian club, which had a green door. It’s a reference to the 1956 hit song “Green Door”, whose lyrics describe being denied entry to a raucous nightclub with a green door.

This movie literally wrote the book on obscenity. The Supreme Court’s 1973 Miller v. California decision adversely affected the mainstream release of porn films, including Behind the Green Door.

The Miller decision redefined obscenity from that of “utterly without socially redeeming value” to that which lacks “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value” and substituted contemporary community standards for national standards, as some prior tests required. Miller continued to hold that obscenity was not protected by the First Amendment, which gave leeway to local judges to seize and destroy prints of films adjudged to violate local community standards.

You might have previously heard me talking about how pornography is leal, but obscenity is not. Well, that’s where this saying comes from.

The movie is less about sex and more about new experiences for the star Marilyn Chambers. Though the movie’s main focus was on Marlyn Chambers, she didn’t have any actual lines.

Marilyn Chambers was barely out of high school when she modeled for the Ivory Snow package. At the same time, she was beginning her career in porn.

Marilyn Chambers died “in relative anonymity in a trailer park, surviving on porn residuals, Comic-Con appearances, and a job at a car dealership.” But, a close friend told the Daily Beast, “She was a classy lady.” She planted gardens for her neighbors.

“I do know that the thing she was most proud of was being a mother to her daughter” (McKenna Taylor, from her 3rd marriage), Daryl Coates Manning — a longtime Westport friend — said. Marilyn was cremated the same day McKenna went to her senior prom.

I should say I don’t know how true that is – the part about living off of porn residuals. I don’t know of anyone who gets residuals from acting in pornos. Not back then and not today.  It’s just now how porn works. She did perform in about 30 movies during the span of her career, which includes 10 non-sex cameo roles in the early 2000s for Devil’s Film.

Marilyn Chambers was born on April 22, 1952, and died on April 12, 2009. She died of a cerebral hemorrhage, caused by an aneurysm related to heart disease. She was ten days short of her 57th birthday.  Her ashes were scattered at sea.

Behind The Green Door is still available to this day. You can even get it on DVD in the Fleshbot store.