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Pure

The Sexual Revolutions of Marilyn Chambers

The untold story of the world’s most famous X-rated star who rose to fame as the face of Ivory Snow and the star of Behind the Green Door. By Jared Stearns.

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Pure upcoming events

Congratulations JON BLAZE of CANADA, you are the winner of the Marilyn Chambers prize draw!

Author Jared Stearns makes the announcement.

Click here for competition details

***COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED***

Everyone who pre-orders the PURE: The Sexual Revolutions of Marilyn Chambers  paperback or hardback will be entered into a special prize draw. One lucky winner will receive a highly collectable 8″ x 10″ glossy signed by Marilyn Chambers (pictured — minus the watermark and censor block).

The photo was taken in 1982 for Club magazine and used for promotional photos and advertisements within the publication. The autograph is authentic and comes from the author’s own collection, along with a certificate of authenticity.

Competition closes at midnight GMT on April 22, 2024

Marilyn Chambers photo competition thumbnail

Marilyn Chambers patriotic images

The untold story of the world’s most famous X-rated star, who rose to fame as the face of Ivory Snow and the star of Behind the Green Door but struggled to find her true self in a world of sex, scandal, and shattered dreams.

Marilyn Chambers was the embodiment of the free-spirited Seventies, the world’s most famous X-rated star, and an unappreciated talent whose work in adult films hindered her dreams of becoming a serious actress. Raised in an affluent Connecticut suburb, Marilyn catapulted to fame when it was learned that not only had she starred in the groundbreaking X-rated film, Behind the Green Door but was also the model on the box of Ivory Snow laundry detergent (product tagline: “99 44/100% Pure.”)

Marilyn was the first woman known primarily for her work in adult films to cross over to mainstream entertainment. She sustained a versatile three-decade career in entertainment, including roles in dramatic plays, a Broadway musical revue, her own television show, and the lead role in David Cronenberg’s film Rabid. But her success in adult films also proved to be her undoing. Marred by a violent relationship with her abusive husband-manager, Chuck Traynor, she developed the persona of a twenty-four-hour-a-day sex star. In the process, she lost her sense of self and spent much of her life searching for her true identity. With recollections from family and friends, many of whom have never spoken publicly, along with Marilyn’s own words, and never-before-published photos, Jared Stearns vividly captures the revolutionary career of one of the twentieth century’s most misunderstood icons.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Prologue

Chapter 1: The Show-Off

Chapter 2: The Proposition

Chapter 3: “Now Casting for a Major Motion Picture”

Chapter 4: Behind the Green Door

Chapter 5: “99 44/100% Pure”

Chapter 6: The New Marilyn Chambers

Chapter 7: Insatiable

Chapter 8: Up ’n’ Coming, Down ‘n’ Out

Chapter 9: Faking It

Epilogue

Appendix: Filmography

Notes & Sources

Index

  • The first and only authorized biography of cult film star Marilyn Chambers;
  • Never-before-seen photographs covering Marilyn’s life and career;
  • Timely story of a woman’s struggle to overcome sexism and misogyny in showbusiness;
  • Publication on April 22 – Marilyn’s birthday.

Title: PURE
Subtitle: The Sexual Revolutions of Marilyn Chambers
Author: Jared Stearns
ISBN: 978-1-915316-19-6
Street Date: April 22, 2024
Category: Film/Sex & Gender
Retail Price: UK £18.99 / US $23.95
Binding: Paperback
Size: 229mm x 152mm
Pages: 346
Illos: 25 B&W stills and 16 colour plates

As the trade paperback, except this special NO-ISBN hardback is exclusive to this website. Because it carries No ISBN number, this edition of the book is off the grid in as much as it doesn’t appear on any database, in any library, cannot be ordered through mainstream bookshops or online retailers. 

 

Kirkus ReviewKirkus Indie
“Stearns’ passionate enthusiasm for his subject is clear on every page of this memoir, and it makes for a kinetic, page-turning reading experience. […] A heartfelt and absorbing account of one of adult cinema’s first major celebrities.”
Adam GrovesThe Bedlam Files
“First-time biographer Jared Stearns made an excellent debut with this book. The research is thorough, and the highlights of Marilyn Chambers’s life are covered without any judgmental or moralistic excess (rendering PURE a definite outlier amid most modern-day biographies). Stearns tells it like it is, and in a manner Marilyn Chambers herself would have likely appreciated.”
Rod LottFlick Attack
“Jared Stearns is a gifted writer who knows how to tell a story, and it would be difficult to imagine a tale with as many ups and downs (and ins and outs) as Chambers’. From his own interviews and extensive research, he relays her modest beginnings as a ‘show-off’ among in an emotionally cold Connecticut family to a high school model wholesome enough to be selected for the Ivory Snow detergent box […] It’s a hell of a survival story.”
Jeffrey SchwarzFilmmaker, Tab Hunter Confidential, I Am Divine!, The Fabulous Allan Carr
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“Fasten your seatbelts for this long overdue biography of the legendary adult film icon Marilyn Chambers. Meticulously researched, Pure is an empathetic tribute to a woman who defied convention and symbolized sexual liberation on the screen. Jared Stearns has chronicled the triumphs and tragedies of Marilyn’s life for longtime fans as well as anyone insatiable for a great read!”
Vanda KrefftAuthor (The Man Who Made the Movies) and entertainment journalist
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“A touching, insightful, and unvarnished look at the X-rated 'porno chic' subculture of the Seventies and its reigning fresh-faced blonde queen, Marilyn Chambers. Marilyn emerges for the first time as a multi-dimensional woman with both dreams and damage—and surprisingly, as the title tells, as someone who managed to retain a central purity despite the challenges of her world. […] In Pure, Marilyn has finally found the understanding and appreciation that so often eluded her in life.”
Simon SheridanWriter, broadcaster, and filmmaker (Come Play with Me – The Life and Films of Mary Millington; Keeping the British End Up – Four Decades of Saucy Cinema)
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“Jared Stearns' illuminating and addictive biography follows Marilyn Chambers' incredible journey from respectable Westport to the neon lights of Hollywood and exposes the excesses of her short and hedonistic life. Sex, money, drugs, and tragedy, Stearns' book has it all. It is the perfect allegory of the American Porn Dream.”
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Jared Stearns

JARED STEARNS is a San Francisco-based writer. He has written about Marilyn Chambers for publications including Cineaste, The Dark Side, and The San Franciscan. His work has also appeared in The Boston Globe and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is a graduate of Emerson College in Boston and has worked in B2B marketing for more than fifteen years. This is his first book.

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