Retro Raunch Revisit

Today marks the 50th anniversary of DEEP THROAT (1972) opening in XXX theaters. DEEP THROAT and Linda Susan Boreman (later Marchiano) aka Linda Lovelace will forever be linked. 50yrs on, to say the movie and her profile have carried over a massive resonation would be an understatement. Lovelace was adult cinema's first true superstar in a huge hit that brought the brief fad of 'porno chic' that saw Hollywood celebs slumming it, and her going on to grace the cover of ESQUIRE magazine. Even before her success in 1972, she had first appeared in loops (1969-71) involving golden showers, anal and most infamously, a dog film for which she had denied being in. DEEP THROAT's very title would spill directly from porn into politics as it would be used as the codename for whistleblower W. Mark Felt, the secret informant who with the Washington Post was a major instrument that unraveled the Richard Nixon/White House/Watergate scandal (Felt went on to be the Associate Director of the FBI and died in Dec 2008). What began with an initial investment of $28,000 (or according to other sources $22,500), the picture went on to make supposedly over $600 million and was backed by the Mafia (Colombo crime family), with Lovelace said to have made only a total paltry sum of $1250.00 who nevertheless became a household name that brought hardcore into the mainstream. With the overnight attention came the Press -- Movie critic Roger Ebert panned DEEP THROAT while Al Goldstein of SCREW magazine gave it a rave review. A judge had fined the producers $100,000 ruling it obscene smut and in that courtroom moment of gavel-pounding condemnation, no one could know the film would go on to be the most popular xxx release of all time, and the very first to be inducted into the XRCO (X-Rated Critics Organization) Hall of Fame in its inaugural year, Feb 1985. In the Pussycat Theatre chain alone, it ran for over 10yrs straight.

But all was not bliss and Lovelace would be shrouded in controversy ultimately more than the film itself. Regarding her private life, she said her marriage to manager/promoter Chuck Traynor was one of emotional distress, submission to complete control, forced prostitution, physical/mental/sexual abuse, and rape. After their divorce he went on to marry Marilyn Chambers who would state she was never mistreated or pimped out by him. (Traynor died in Jul 2002 while Chambers passed away in Apr 2009). When Lovelace later became a born-again Christian, newly feminist, and supported (or used) by Gloria Steinem, she testified at hearings in the 1980's that she more than literally had a gun held to her head during the filming of DEEP THROAT, and that she had not consented to a lot of what appeared on screen but instead was coerced, repeatedly threatened with violence and beaten. She then went on the college lecture circuit denouncing porn but could never entirely separate from her synonymous movie that cast a long shadow. Back in Apr 1978, a New York pirate cable station aired it illegaly with the culprits never identified. When it traveled across the pond to the UK, it was quickly banned which was upheld for a decade. Not until Sept 2000 did it finally appear uncut. The movie was followed by a sequel (DEEP THROAT PART II) in 1974 and then a further 5 unrelated sequels (the last in 1992, and 3 of which were directed by Ron Jeremy). In Feb 2008 in Holland, Dutch TV broadcast DEEP THROAT as part of a porn history theme in relation to youth sex culture. After mostly centrist & conservative members of parliament caused a laughable uproar and failed to have the movie yanked, an estimated 907,000 viewers are said to have tuned in without a single complaint lodged by the watching audience. Linda Lovelace to this day is still viewed in a status of legendary mystique inspite of all the subsequent negativity that followed. Her life has been covered extensively as featured in her 4 autobiographies (2 from 1974 both pro-porn. Then 1980 & 1986 both anti-porn); the 2005 documentary INSIDE DEEP THROAT; 3 stage plays (2004 starring Tina Yothers, 2008 & 2010); the scrapped movie INFERNO (troubled from 2010-13) set to star Lindsay Lohan; and the 2013 film LOVELACE starring Amanda Seyfried. Lovelace died at 53 from car crash-related injuries in Denver on April 22, 2002. R.I.P.