Personalities who appear in the movie include proto-hippie Gypsy Boots, stripper Jennie Lee, S&H Green Stamps heir Lewis Beach Marvin III, celebrity hair stylist Jay Sebring (later murdered by the Manson Family), psychedelic pioneer Richard Alpert (later known as Ram Dass), singer Bobby Jameson (with his then-girlfriend Gail Sloatman), housekeeper Estella Scott, actors Margaretta Ramsey, Theodore Charach and Valerie Porter, fashion designer Rudi Gernreich, artist Vito Paulekas, surfer Dale Davis, skydiver Jim Arender, and beautician Sheryl Carson.

Other individuals shown briefly in the movie include Frank Zappa, Sonny and Cher, future Manson Family member and convicted murderer Bobby Beausoleil, Alfred Hitchcock, Brigitte Bardot, Jayne Mansfield, Ronald Reagan and several transsexuals.

However, the French government banned it from being shown, stating: This film, in the opinion of certain experts of the Commission [of Control], presents an apology for a certain number of perversities, including drugs and homosexuality, and constitutes a danger to the mental health of the public by its visual aggressivity and the psychology of its editing.

Mike Qualls, editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, stated that "Nothing in the entire 88 minute film could be described as pornographic".

The film was later described as a "cult classic ... [which] captures the underside of Hollywood by documenting a moment in time ... when an inquisitive trust in the unknown was paramount, hope for the future was tangible and life was worth living on the fringe."