The posters, LPs, books and spin-offs from the most notorious and popular adult film of the 1970s and its controversial star.
Deep Throat and its star Linda Lovelace will forever be shrouded in mystique. She was the face of sexual liberation in the 1970s and then became the anti-porn symbol of the 1980s, renouncing her past and claiming that she was forced into porn by her controlling husband Chuck Traynor. The truth, as with many things, is more nebulous than anyone would like to think, and we’ll never know for sure. Linda certainly seems to have been used throughout her life – by Traynor, by assorted celebrity friends who then dropped her when hanging with porn stars no longer seemed glamorous (especially when they claim that their porn career was an unwilling one) and by feminist campaigners, who made careers on her back and then dropped her when she was no longer useful. At the end of her life, Linda was posing for Leg Show and happily signing copies of Deep Throat at memorabilia conventions. It seemed that perhaps she had come to terms with her past – but she was killed in a car accident in 2002, leaving too many questions unanswered. Maybe somewhere in her several autobiographies, the truth can be found.
We’ll be bringing you the definitive story of Deep Throat and Linda Lovelace in a future print edition of The Reprobate. But for now, here’s an extensive gallery of Throat/Lovelace memorabilia to enjoy, starting with Linda’s five autobiographies.
As the first porn film to go mainstream, Deep Throat spawned more merchandise than any other XXX movie – and still does. There were novels based on the film and its misguided sequel – neither bearing much similarity to the films (Deep Throat hardly has enough plot to sustain a novel, after all) – and the softcore comedy Linda Lovelace for President. And other writers have sought to cash in on the film’s fame with books that push their own agendas, or simply steal the title. Linda also appeared on magazine covers – fewer than you’d expect for someone so famous, though it was less of a celebrity culture back then.
And Deep Throat spawned a soundtrack LP – consisting of the entire film, dialogue and music. First released as a theatre giveaway. Since then, it has been issued several other times, along with the sequel’s score.
Then, there are the film posters, VHS/DVD sleeves, press ads, theatre playbills and lobby cards. There are a few that are a bit too ‘ripe’ to share here, but here is a selection of those fit to publish.
There are the later sequels (made in the late 1980s to mid-1990s), Gerard Damiano’s Throat – 12 Years Later, and assorted imitators, rip-offs and copycat titles (some of them not even for erotic films):
We’ve also had the documentaries and Lovelace biopic – which includes a mock-up Deep Throat poster featuring Amanda Seyfried as Linda – as well as the aborted Inferno biopic, which went through two stars including Lindsay Lohan before collapsing, and the stage play The Deep Throat Sex Scandal.
Linda Lovelace for President also had some election flavoured promo material in the form of a badge and bumper sticker:
And of course, there are Deep Throat lubricants and oral sprays:
but what must be the oddest piece of Throat merchandise is one of the most recent – the Deep Throat Energy Drink, produced by rights holders Arrow Films (no relation to the British cult movie label).
And then, there is the Deep Throat pinball machine – seen in the horror movie Mongrel. Has anyone played this?
There were, of course, the protests, the theatre displays and the public appearances…
And finally, the shameless advertising sloganeering that you just can’t imagine flying in the modern age, but which shows just how much the film had penetrated the mainstream culture:
This is by no means a complete collection of Lovelace and Throat merchandise. If anyone has any other official memorabilia (bootleg T-shirts and the like are not really of interest), let us know.
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