Ticket 2 Ride

In 1974, I was a Lawrence High School student when part of the softcore film, Linda Lovelace for President was filmed in my town. That was almost 50 years ago and times for a bit different. I seriously doubt the University of Kansas would now approve for the production to use Jayhawk Boulevard for a parade or Potter’s Lake for several scenes.

The reason for this blog was the mention of the film at a gathering of high school friends recently at a wedding celebration. One of my friends admitted to taking a date to the X-rated version of the film when it played in Lawrence, back in 1975.

To be fair, Linda Lovelace for President was no sex-romp, it was part of her attempt to cross over to mainstream entertainment. The film was released in various versions from PG to X, but even the X was softcore and would hardly bat an eye today. There was no real sex being performed, just a scene of simulated fornication and a bit of nudity – tame stuff for the Deep Throat actress, but certainly more than enough for the religious right to perceive a communist threat to the American way of life.

First, a quick revisit to the early 1970s. Linda Lovelace was an adult film star and Deep Throat was the first mega-hit X-rated film. Now, there is a difference between a Hollywood studio X-rated film and hardcore, independent films like Deep Throat. The X-rating is part of Motion Picture Producers Association official rating of films produced by their member studios. The X-rating was given to films like Midnight Cowboy more for mature subject matter than actual graphic content. Hollywood films typically avoided the X rating because newspapers and television wouldn’t advertise an X-rated film. The adult entertainment producers branded their films X-rated, or XXX-rated to distinguish their films as hardcore sex films. Sometimes they would release a softcore version under an X-rating which would play in neighborhood movie theaters instead of being relegated to the porno theaters that showed the hardcore films. Deep Throat (1972) blurred the theatrical filmscape. Upon release, word of mouth (pardon the pun), made this film a huge hit. Produced for under $50k, the film would earn somewhere between $30m to $50m during it’s release. That’s an estimate because of the unofficial reporting and the nature of the film’s financing (mob money). The film became a must-see item and conversation topic even in middle America. Linda Lovelace (not her real name), became famous and wanted to crossover into more legit entertainment to enhance her earnings and career, rather than a flavor of the month.

So, Linda Lovelace for President was intended to capitalize on her new fame. It was a thin plot that referenced her “talents” and was supplanted by a lot of B-list Hollywood comic actors delivering terrible jokes. Familiar faces included Mickey Dolenz (that’s right, the Monkee), Stanley Myron Handleman, Scatman Cruthers, Val Bisoglio, Jack DeLeon, Marty Ingels, Roy Stuart, Art Metrano, Chuck McCann and Joe E. Ross. The film was directed by Claudio Guzman (I Dream of Jeannie), an Emmy winner.

The reason that Linda Lovelace for President was must-see for my friends from Lawrence, KS is for the parts that were filmed there. I recall the hoopla when production took place in 1974, and the bit of controversy regarding filming. The city initially approved, then refused permission to hold a parade and to film a gathering at a downtown park. The school district also refused permission for the high school marching band to be included.

“I think it was just that we decided the city didn’t want to have any role in a porn film,” then-Mayor Jack Rose said in an interview with the Lawrence Journal-World. “I remember it being more of a humorous matter than anything else,” Rose said.

The university felt otherwise, that the campus was open for a diversity of speech and assembly, so the parade went down Jayhawk Boulevard, the main street on the Lawrence campus, and permission to film around Potter’s Lake, located between Jayhawk Boulevard and the football stadium. The producers even sent the University a check for $3,272 to cover costs.

“I told them it was OK,” John Conard, who was assistant to Chancellor Archie Dykes, said. “I said it was a free and open campus. We didn’t have any guards posted to keep them out.”

I remember sitting in the audience thinking, this film sucks (pun intended). Certainly, it poked fun at politics and elections, but it was cheaply done and frankly the best parts were the local landscape. I was even embarrassed for Mickey Dolenz and the sad state of his career.

Linda Lovelace’s popularity had peaked and she became a cultural footnote. Sadly, the rest of her life involved a liver transplant, several divorces, and a serious automobile accident that ultimately claimed her life. She had denounced porn and contended that she had been forced into the sex industry by her first husband.

Sex and politics are not strangers. Just ask Stormy Daniels.