Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story made its World Premiere at New York City’s Tribeca Film Festival on Thursday, June 9.  The lively documentary takes its name from Robin Byrd’s tradition of having all her guests dancing to Ms. Byrd’s recording of the bawdy novelty song Baby, Let Me Bang Your Box, at the conclusion of every show. The Robin Byrd Show aired on New York City’s Manhattan Cable (Channel J) for an astonishing 21 years. But Robin Byrd was more than a public access TV hostess.  Far, far more. As the audience learns in this delicious doc, Byrd was an advocate for freedom of speech, sexual liberation, safer sex practices, and LGBTQ equality– which, given her enduring bond with her gay male fans of all ages, may be her longest lasting legacy so far.  Today, at 70, Byrd finally had her story told, moving from the small screen of Channel J to the big screen with Bang my Box, which is produced and directed by Jyllian Gunther and Stephanie Schwam. In the words of one of the women who introduced the movie, “This is a quintessential New York story.” She couldn’t have been more correct. Remember: Unless you had a friend in Manhattan who would graciously videotape episodes of the show for you, watching The Robin Byrd Show live on Channel J was the ONLY way you could watch Ms. Byrd’s show- even if you lived in the outer boroughs!.  This was, without a doubt, Manhattan’s best kept and sexiest secret.  Today, after a seemingly infinite number of episodes of her show and an equally seemingly infinite amount of notoriety, Ms. Byrd indeed has a story to tell. 

Speaking of stories: Throughout the movie, the audience is treated to anonymous audio bits from Byrd’s most ardent fans, whom she affectionately calls “Byrdwatchers”.  So, before we get to the movie review, here’s own story from an avowed Byrdwatcher: I didn’t grow up in Manhattan, but I knew that Robin’s show was running free late at night. In my senior year of high school, I stayed at the apartment of my sister and brother-in-law. We were planning on going on a tour of colleges the next day. Just as I was about to call it a night and go to sleep on the couch in their living room, my brother-in-law warned me: “You don’t want to watch Robin Byrd tonight. It’s ‘Men for Men’ night!”  Needless to say, that was the WRONG thing to say to the 17-year old me, who was slowly coming to terms with my own sexuality.! Let’s just say that…the couch got “JD Vanced”.  I never told my sister this story– but I did tell Robin Byrd and she LOVED it.

Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story can only be described in one word: fascinating.  Both Byrdwatchers and non-Byrdwatchers alike will be intrigued at the star’s rise from free-spirited college girl to the first woman to bring adult programming to television.  Born and raised in Manhattan, as a young woman Byrd made money by being an artists’ model and then by appearing in adult films– most notably the X-rated classic Debbie Does Dallas.  Later, she became a host of adult film producer Bobby Hollander’s half-hour show Hot Legs.  When Byrd took over the role of producer in 1977, the show was renamed The Robin Byrd Show, which would air until 1998 (!). 

Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story is spiced up with commentary from Byrd’s friends and fellow NYC nightlife gurus such as Michael Musto.  It features a treasure trove of vintage video footage which, despite the miracles of modern technology, can only be HD’d so much.  That said, the old photos and videos in this documentary, grainy as they may be, are no less than riveting, especially when compared with the blindingly sharp recent footage of, for example, Ms. Byrd basking in the sun on Fire Island during the Invasion of the Pines. Even for those who never watched the show, it’s no mystery why Byrd’s show became a hit and scored her legions of fans, both gay and straight.  In many ways, it was and still is decades before its time– and not just for the full nudity and explicit sex talk.  Fans could actually call in and speak to her. Byrd spotlighted such now-legendary adult performers as Annie Sprinkle and Heather Hunter, but through the years she also gave visibility to the young, up-and-coming sexy personalities of New York City counterculture– which, it’s worth mentioning, has always been way more “outré” than the counterculture at large.  Robin Byrd was an unapologetic sexual libertine: a sex-positive feminist at a time when people would be hard-pressed to explain exactly what that meant.  Throughout history, naked bodies have almost always guaranteed that people would tune in– but there was something more about Robin which is still very visible when we see her today, now 70 years old, in her own documentary.  Byrd was funny.  (When one caller asks her “I wanna know: What makes you so hot?!”, Byrd retorts, “All these lights here!”) She was and really gave a damn about her guests and about the issues she spotlighted on her show, whether she was gyrating alongside some of the hottest women and men in the adult industry or giving advice on health and fitness.  Likeise, her love for her fans was and still is very palpable: She reveals in the doc who in the early days, she didn’t make any money.  Her pay, as she reveals in the movie, was the compliments. (The money did come later, in the form of the lucrative 1-800 lines.) The Robin Byrd Show even attracted some mainstream celebrities, most notably her friend Sandra Bernhard, who called Byrd a “cultural avatar”.  It wasn’t long before Byrd received attention from talk shows hosted by the likes of Phil Donahue and Joan Rivers, and was impersonated on Saturday Night Live.  Of course, her unabashed advocacy for sexual freedom didn’t sit well with the would-be censors of the time.  Byrd, however, fought back.  As someone in the documentary noted, “When you start to speak up, they will come after you.”  Without giving too much away, let’s just say that Byrd emerged triumphant.

Byrd took such issues as sex seriously, but overall she maintained and still maintains the same vibe that she had in her show: Let’s have some fun! We see her in her apartment, without makeup and hair pulled back, with 600 videotapes of her show waiting to be archived. Many of these tapes ostensibly haven’t been touched in years: The dust on these videocassettes tapes is so thick that it should be given its own IMdB credit in the movie. As lively and sexy as this documentary is, the provocative aspects of Bang My Box come with her interactions with her charming, funny, and oh-so-loyal husband Shelly, whom Byrd openly reveals is dealing with dementia. Memory issues aside, Shelly steals many a scene with his numerous comebacks, whether they be intentional or not.   As mentioned before, Bang My Box also explores Byrd’s relationship with her LGBTQ fans: Byrd emerged as one of the queer community’s most ardent allies.  IN the days of the AIDS epidemic, she tirelessly advocated for safer sex practices.  Arguably, it may this relationship which ensured her relevance in pop culture today. While many of the younger generations understandably would never have seen her show on Channel J, Byrd remains a familiar and admired figure among gay men of many ages in New York City and Fire Island.

Even if you have never watched a single frame of The Robin Byrd Show, Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story is a fun and fascinating documentary, and it’s also a candid, no-hole-barred look at a particularly lively time in New York City “underground” culture. Be prepared to learn about the history of New York City public access TV.  Be prepared to be titillated. And be prepared for the final scene, whereby a relatively innocent romp on the beach becomes perhaps one of the boldest things Ms. Byrd has ever done, thanks to our ageist society. Robin Byrd proves, once again, that she doesn’t give a damn about those uptight critics! 

The HBO original documentary Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story is directed and produced by Jyllian Gunther and Stephanie Schwam and produced by Sarah Jessica Parker’s Pretty Matches Productions. It debuts June 30 on HBO and HBO Max.