Marilyn Chambers, 1981: Home on the Range

Marilyn Chambers, 1981: Home on the Range

In 1982, ten years after her starring role in the ground-breaking Behind The Green Door (1972), adult film legend Marilyn Chambers and her then-husband, Chuck Traynor, opened The Survival Store, a gun shop in Las Vegas.

To publicize the opening, they arranged for Marilyn to appear in a photo shoot.  The shoot took place in August 1981, but most of the photos never saw the light of day and have remained unpublished ever since. We recently came across the negatives to the shoot just before they were about to be thrown away.

The Rialto Report is pleased to present the Survival Store photographs here and offer an insight into Marilyn’s life at this point.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Marilyn Chambers and The Survival Store

Bob Irwin was a gun designer and manufacturer who had moved to Las Vegas in 1971.

Ten years later, as Irwin tells it, Chuck Traynor showed up at his gun-smithing shop one afternoon in 1981 with Traynor’s then-wife, the porn star Marilyn Chambers. Traynor proposed a partnership in which he would put up the money and Irwin his gun expertise.

At Chuck’s suggestion they opened a retail gun shop and shooting range, The Survival Store, in 1982, located at 3250 Pollux Avenue, south of Las Vegas.

Traynor encourage Chambers to pose for a ‘machine gun and bikini’ image to promote the store.

Irwin remembers, “Christmas parties were interesting. Chuck’s friends were bikers, porn queens and mob people. Mine were mostly police.”

Traynor and Irwin bought a second store shortly after before splitting up in 1988; Traynor kept The Survival Store, and Irwin kept the other location, The Gun Store.

By then Marilyn and Chuck had divorced after 11 years of marriage—reportedly after she agreed to give Traynor, who allegedly owned half the royalties from her films, her half as well. According to her family, she never had a lot of money after that.

Somehow though, the former couple remained friendly. In the late ’90s, Chambers, who was by then in her late 40s, called on Traynor for support as she prepared to make a comeback in pornography, eventually making three new films. “When Marilyn came back she specifically asked if Chuck could be on the set,” says Mark Kernes, senior editor of Adult Video News, who saw them on the set of 1999’s Still Insatiable. “He gave her confidence. It was a friendly face. She asked him there for moral support. When there were breaks she would go up to talk to him. They still had a connection even though they weren’t married.”

Chambers continued to pose with an Uzi in her hand for a billboard promoting The Survival Store, and remained friendly with Traynor’s widow, Bo, after his death.

Traynor died in 2002, and Chambers passed in 2009. Bob Irwin, their former business partner is still alive. He has run as a Republican candidate for the Arizona state assembly. A bumper sticker on his desk reads: “Defend Freedom. Defeat Obama.”

 

Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers

*

 

  • Posted On: 17th April 2016
  • By: The Rialto Report
  • Under: Photos

18 Comments

  1. ozzy · April 17, 2016 Reply

    Great pics! Marilyn was one of the sexiest women alive! R.I.P. Gone way too soon

  2. Charles Tatum · April 17, 2016 Reply

    Another chapter in Chambers’ life I had no idea about. Kudos to whoever saved the pics!

  3. Fonzie Fan · April 17, 2016 Reply

    Marilyn Chambers and Vanessa Del Rio were my all time favorites. Marilyn made films in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, what a career! I think my all time favorite Marilyn Chambers scene was the one she did in 1984 with the late Jack Baker, I couldn’t believe Marilyn was having sex with Sticks from Happy Days

  4. Fonzie Fan · April 17, 2016 Reply

    Also, Wow! Marilyn has no fat on her body at all and great muscle tone, she looks like she could have given he 1982 Miss Olympia a run for her money

  5. Tony F · April 17, 2016 Reply

    I have been waiting for RR’s first piece on Marilyn and these pictures definitely do her justice. She had a wholesome and sometimes even tomboyish beauty. I always loved how she looked in the driving/countryside scenes in The Resurrection of Eve. So glad you saved these captivating and fun pics from destruction. Kudos to both Ashley and April for presenting them. I anxious await the usual (see – incredible) in depth treatment from the RR on Marilyn. This really just whet my appetite for more. Can only imagine the great memories Howie Gordon has 🙂

  6. J. Walter Puppybreath · April 17, 2016 Reply

    Tits-N-Targets. Interesting.

  7. John · April 17, 2016 Reply

    Stockholm Syndrome.

  8. Glen · April 19, 2016 Reply

    Just when I thought The Rialto couldn’t become more influential, you make the most refreshing contribution to the gun debate I’ve seen so far.

    Vote Rialto for President!

  9. PIpipopo · April 19, 2016 Reply

    Murica! Land of the free! 😉

  10. Sly · April 20, 2016 Reply

    Chuck Traynor ??? Surprised to see him seemingly friendly with Marilyn even after they separated. Isn’t this the same guy who used to beat up / coerce his then-partner Linda Lovelace?

  11. Brian · April 20, 2016 Reply

    Marilyn at her peak. Many thanks to whomever saved these pics from the trash. Wonder how many pics from different photographers, sites, or events like her appearance at the 1977 Miss Nude America contest have simply been tossed, or sit gathering dust in an attic.

  12. Sam · April 24, 2016 Reply

    Speaking of Jack Baker…would love to have a show speaking to those who knew him. How did he go from Sid & Marty Croft to Happy Days to New Wave Hookers???

    • History Jones · April 30, 2016 Reply

      I believe Hollywood mainstream work dried up for him so he turned to a career in porn. His character in Happy Days didn’t catch on so they wrote him out after a couple of episodes. He was in Good Times, and had cameos in Kentucky Fried Movie and as a mugger in Love at first bite but that was about it, the next time he popped up was in New Wave Hookers. He was a much better character actor in porn than a performer, FM Bradley had to stunt cock for him in several films.

  13. James · April 27, 2016 Reply

    Another awesome post!

  14. Rob · May 8, 2016 Reply

    Fascinating stuff! So good the photos were saved. Marilyn looks in terrific shape!

  15. capt.carl · April 21, 2022 Reply

    2022 April – Happy Birthday ! Marilynn!

Leave a reply

Verified by MonsterInsights