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NOTE: Below this note, this page remains as it appeared in 2004.

A legend, a lady: MARILYN CHAMBERS

Baseball had its Babe Ruths and Ty Cobbs. Rock 'n roll had Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry. Television had the Milton Berles and the Jack Bennys. As far as adult films are concerned, the name immediately associated with them - the pioneer, the legend, the greatest shining star in a galaxy of shining stars - is MARILYN CHAMBERS - who almost single-handedly delivered an air of respectability to the adult film industry, helping to blast it into the mainstream and propel it into the multi-billion-dollar industry it is today.

The new arena at the moment is politics, and Marilyn, who may have contributed as much as any person alive toward advancing First Amendment rights, is "speaking up" for freedom of speech as the Vice-Presidential candidate of the Personal Choice Party.

Marilyn, a native of Providence, Rhode Island, who grew up in Westport, Connecticut, began her professional career as a model, doing work for high-profile advertisers such as Pepsi and Clairol. But it was her short stint as cover girl on an Ivory Snow box that drew the most lasting attention. Though she posed for Ivory Snow at the age of 18, it wasn't until three years later that the box found its way onto supermarket shelves. And coincidentally, that same week came the release of the most celebrated X-rated movie of its time - Marilyn's adult film debut in "Behind the Green Door". The horrified Ivory Snow people, fearing a national backlash, pulled the box from the shelves almost immediately, touching off a firestorm of controversy that is still much talked-about to this day.

Actually, "Behind the Green Door" marked a departure from the work Marilyn had been doing in films. For example, while still in high school she was able to land a part in the hit comedy "The Owl and the Pussycat" which starred Barbra Streisand. But parts in "legitimate" films were hard to come by, and Marilyn did not want to fall victim to the "casting couch" syndrome. So she was willing to take whatever acting job she was able to get at the time, and that led to the fateful 1972 meeting with the equally controversial Mitchell Brothers, operators of the O'Farrell Theater in San Francisco, who produced "Behind the Green Door".

Miss Chambers, along with the Mitchell Brothers, made several follow-up pictures which were instant hits, including landmark films such as "The Resurrection of Eve", "Insatiable", "Insatiable II", "Up 'n Coming" and "Marilyn Chambers' Private Fantasies", each of which set box-office records, as well as new standards of excellence in the adult film industry. And her special brand of charm and elegance further entrenched Marilyn as the most unique performer in all of filmdom; indeed, the undisputed queen of adult films. And that's not all. Marilyn was the first adult film star who was successfully able to transcend her industry and move into other fields of entertainment. She has done many theater productions, such as Neil Simon's "Last of the Red Hot Lovers" at the Union Plaza in Las Vegas; "Sex Surrogate", a one-woman show at the Jolley Trolley Hotel/Casino, also in Las Vegas; "Le Bellybutton", an Off-Broadway production; "Sex Confessions", which was performed to rave reviews in London, and "Mind With the Dirty Man", which, at 52 weeks, was the longest-running play in the history of Las Vegas. Marilyn also received the keys to the city from the mayors of Las Vegas and San Francisco, symbolic of her legendary status. Upon returning to the O'Farrell Theater on July 28, 1999, "Marilyn Chambers Day" was declared in San Francisco.

The multi-talented Marilyn also fronted her own country-western band for a time, playing nightclub dates across the country, and actually sang the title song to "Insatiable" and one of her R-rated features, "Party Inc.". She also had a disco single, "Benihana", which hit the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1976.

In 1977, she played the lead in the "mainstream" cult classic "Rabid", produced by Ivan Reitman, directed by David Cronenberg, and recently re-released on DVD. And Marilyn starred in director Wes Craven's first feature film, "Together", which was released in the U.K. in 1971.

On television, Marilyn starred in the critically-acclaimed soap opera, "Love ya Florence Nightengale" for 28 episodes on the Playboy Channel. She made a one-year foray into her own cable television venture, "MC-TV", where she hosted and produced her own talk show. She appeared quite frequently on running mate Charles Jay's radio program in Miami in 1996 and 1997, co-hosted another show called "Taboo Talk", and of course has also appeared on virtually every major television and radio talk show in the United States.

Marilyn has also been a mainstay in the adult magazine industry. For 17 years, she penned the sex advice column "Marilyn Chambers' State of the Nation" for Club Magazine, and appeared on its cover twice per year. For five years she was also retained by Genesis Magazine for the column "Private Chambers". She has been on the covers of the Australian and Japanese versions of Playboy and did a ten-page special celebrity layout in Playboy in the States. She was ranked by Adult Video news as one of the top ten adult film stars of all-time and by Playboy as one of the top 100 Sex Stars of the 20th Century.

Miss Chambers has written two books, "Marilyn Chambers: My Story" and "Xaviera Meets Marilyn Chambers" (co-authored with Xaviera Hollander), both of which were published by Warner Communications. She returned in 1999 to make "Still Insatiable", followed by "Dark Chambers" and "Edge Play" before retiring again from adult films.

Though no longer appearing in adult films, she currently does R-rated specials that air regularly on HBO, Showtime and Cinemax, and lives in Southern California with her 15-year-old daughter. She also makes appearances at autograph shows and collectors' conventions throughout the United States, where she meets and greets thousands of ardent and adoring fans.

And make no mistake about it - no one in the adult film world has as many fans as Marilyn Chambers. For any legitimacy the adult entertainment industry enjoys, no one is owed a bigger debt. And along the way, she has become an important cultural figure, as her presence has, directly or indirectly, given Americans more freedom in what they can see, hear, and read.

In a career of accomplishments, that's a tremendous accomplishment, in and of itself.

A legend, a lady: MARILYN CHAMBERS