Together (1971 film)

Production

With the $100,000 profit from The Art of Marriage, Cunningham rented his first office and began looking for another picture to shoot. He started collecting donations from family and friends, who contributed $1,000 each in some cases. Cunningham said The Art of Marriage was good (in terms of starting him off) but "crummy" and wanted to make a better version of the film. Cunningham shot the film Together, which was intended in some ways to be a remake of Marriage. After Together was shot Cunningham hired the struggling Wes Craven, who needed a job, money and was interested in getting into the film business. Cunningham was doing re-shoots for Together and hired Craven to synchronize the dailies from the three- to four-day reshoot. Craven then became assistant editor, and he and Cunningham had to mix under conditions of no money. There was a scene in the film that consisted of Marilyn Chambers and a "very handsome" black man. The scene involved Chambers running a yellow flower down the man's penis. Hallmark Releasing had never seen a scene like this before and wanted to exploit it. They subsequently bought the film for $10,000.

Release

They placed ads in the papers about the film and the theater was flooded with people wanting to see it. The line was said by Cunningham to have gone all the way around the block. The film grossed a lot of money (in Cunningham's words, "phenomenal business") and it was another big film for Cunningham and the first hit that Craven worked on. Cunningham and Craven said to Hallmark that if they wrote them a check, Cunningham and Craven would think of another film to do. Cunningham was offered $90,000 by Hallmark to do a scary film and they would later go on to make The Last House on the Left. The film was re-released in 1973 to capitalize on the notoriety Marilyn Chambers received after it was revealed she was the mother on the Ivory Snow soap box who also was starring in the X-rated hardcore pornographic film Behind the Green Door.