Marilyn Chambers has died. [LAT has a better obit.] She was not only an important pioneer* in the film industry, but received 946 votes for vice president on the Personal Choice party in 2004 (she was a back-up choice in 2008). The Wikipedia page notes their logo is a smiley face. [Which also btw is an amusing Anna Faris movie.] Thus, Sarah Palin should not get all the credit here. [To forestall confusion, that adult movie involving an Alaskan being neighborly to Russians was a parody with a Palin look-a-like.]
She even had a role in a bit of a First Amendment struggle involving a NYC fireman. As noted in this 1990s account:
The Fire Department Bureau of Investigations and Trials is probing Bresnan's film foray, in which he plays a restaurant critic seduced by Chambers after sampling a vegetarian menu. ... Bresnan is a fourth-generation firefighter who won a medal for a rescue during the World Trade Center bombing. His great-grandfather, a Fire Department battalion chief, was killed in the line of duty in 1894.
As noted in the article, this was but one of many controversies involving police or fire personnel getting in trouble for their desire to um branch out. Seriously, I found then and find now the controversy rather stupid. There is a stronger case to be made when the person involved in some fashion uses the symbols of their profession, even if not the specific insignia of their particular department. But, when someone does a film without that (and even there, I'd like to see the situation), it should not be an issue.
Perhaps, renting Bikini Bistro will be deemed a suitable way to honor her. I will admit to watching this on cable -- it was honestly an amusing trifle with soft core porn nudity and so forth. Though others might wish to rent Rabid, where she is involved in an accident, gets plastic surgery, and develops a desire for human blood. You know, one of her more mainstream ventures. Leonard Maltin said it was good of its type.
Again, seriously, she was an important figure in the porn world, and her continual ability to live off her glory days is to her credit really. She deserves a nod. Don't know if the death was by unfortunate causes, but either way, good wishes to her teenage daughter and the rest of her family/friends.
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* Update:
Though Chambers herself went on to bush shaving and breast augmentation, it's her earliest images she'll be remembered for -- the casual, genuine beauty and the warm, open sensuality that remain in sadly short supply both in and out of adult entertainment. She transcended boundaries, genres and even eras, with an unbridled enthusiasm that made being dirty look like so much good clean fun.
― Mary Elizabeth Williams
I did not grow up during the heyday of porn, when reviews by major critics such as Roger Ebert were par for the course. Recall that naming a source after a porn movie was seen as perfectly fine (some probably don't even know the other meaning of "deep throat"). Given how violence and teen male type sexuality (think American Pie or the latest Seth Rogen brand) is promoted these days, it wouldn't be too bad if there was a place for mature sex other than late night cable or the like.
Anyways, I saw the clip of Rabid linked by the LAT piece and you can see what Williams is getting at, there in a non-porn role. You can see the Ivory Snow flavor of her charm plus some sign of presence and talent too -- the idea that such things might even be necessary in this sort of thing suggests why Chambers is still remembered after all this time.