After working on Mamie Van Doren's campy Voyage to the Planet of the Prehistoric Women and directing the Boris Karloff cult classic Targets, filmmaker Peter Bogdonavich announced himself as a world-class talent to be reckoned with upon the release of The Last Picture Show.

The luminous leading lady of this Texas-set, black-and-white period piece also took the world by storm nude. Her name was Cybill Shepherd.

The Last Picture Show opened in theaters on this date in 1971.

Based on a novel by Larry McMurtry, Picture Show weaves together mid-20th-century lives in a small town where the one movie theater is about to go out of business. Its most nakedly compelling moments hinge on a teenage skinny-dipping party during which young Cybill Shepherd peels on-camera before taking a plunge.

Here’s a tit-bit of trivia: Cybill Shepherd had the option to back out of going nude. She conceded after consulting three female costars -- Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn, and Eileen Brennan. They gave her the thumb’s up to take her clothes off, and the rest of us are forever indebted.