Debbie Does Dallas@40

Or: Debbie didn't do Dallas -- Bambi bonked Brooklyn. 

The movie Boogie Nights, made in 1997, is a nostalgic look at the late 1970s "Golden Age" of adult film. The basic premise of the movie is that porn was on the cusp of becoming respectable -- that these could be movies and not just prurient recordings of sex.  At one point in Boogie Nights an established porn director, played brilliantly by Burt Reynolds, talks about how he wants to make movies that people will remember, that people will want to see as much for the story and characters as for the "boinking", that porn will take its place in the firmament of cinematic art. "I'm a filmmaker!" he exclaims defiantly at one point. 

Then, as the movie shows, the 1980s and videotape (plus Ronald Reagan and AIDS) came along and ruined it all. 

Of course, this was never really the case. Porn movies were never really going to become mainstream cinema, people weren't really going to watch them for the story/characters, there were never any such movies (even classics like Deepthroat or Behind the Green Door) that could even remotely be called "good movies" (as opposed to "good porn movies"). All videotape did was put them in their proper place -- to be watched comfortably at home instead of embarrassingly in theaters. 

That said, some adult movies are certainly better and more memorable than others. Some craft a legacy. And probably the last Golden Age movie was 1978's Debbie Does Dallas, a movie that's now forty years old. For some reason, this one's remembered. Perhaps it's the alliterative title. Perhaps it's the plot (a bunch of cheerleaders try to raise money to send Debbie to try out for the "Texas Cowgirls" cheerleading squad). Perhaps it's because the star, Bambi Woods, made very few movies and then vanished. Whatever the reason, it's one of the few, very few adult movies that people have heard of even if they've never seen it.

And here's where it gets interesting: Debbie Does Dallas wasn't made in Dallas at all but in NYC -- specifically, in Brooklyn. 

It was filmed (mostly and covertly) around the campus of Brooklyn College. It's a New York production from start to finish, and its secret filming caused great controversy when revealed. It also stars NYC natives like Robin Byrd, giving it a distinct New York flavor. It has nothing to do with Dallas at all.

For whatever reason, this movie has become perhaps one of the most "respectable" porn movies ever made. When I was in college (actually, just before I arrived on campus) it was shown by the student film society. It was a big hit in 1978 and generated sequels. People have even gone back to find the original places in Brooklyn where it was filmed. It has, for whatever reason, endured beyond its merits as a film.

I'm not going to link to this movie for obvious reasons but you can find it on the interwebs. It fell out of copyright (it was lost for some reason) so it's free to all. 

What I find most interesting about Debbie Does Dallas and the Golden Age movies like them, and what makes them historic (if not "great") movies, is that we will probably never see their likes again. They tried, and in some cases succeeded, in being cinematic if not necessary "good" movies. Thanks to the short-attention span immediacy of the Internet, porn today is no longer cinematic in any regard -- even 1980s and 1990s videotaped movies look like Bergmanesque masterpieces compared to what's being produced today -- so Debbie Does Dallas, its Golden Age brethren, and the filmmaking community that produced it is yet another NYC scene that has vanished forever. 

So, when you watch Debbie Does Dallas, you're watching yet fascinating kind of cultural and NYC history -- and that's worth remembering.