Dan Erdman - Lets Go Stag!: A History of Pornographic Film from the Invention of Cinema to 1970

Lets Go Stag!

Global Exploitation Cinemas

Series Editors

Johnny Walker, Northumbria University, UK

Austin Fisher, Bournemouth University, UK

Editorial Board

Tejaswini Ganti, New York University, USA

Joan Hawkins, Indiana University, USA

Kevin Heffernan, Southern Methodist University, USA

Ernest Mathijs, University of British Columbia, Canada

Constance Penley, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

Eric Schaefer, Emerson College, USA

Dolores Tierney, University of Sussex, UK

Valerie Wee, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Also in the Series:

Disposable Passions: Vintage Pornography and the Material Legacies of Adult Cinema, by David Church

Grindhouse: Cultural Exchange on 42nd Street, and Beyond, edited by Austin Fisher & Johnny Walker

Exploiting East Asian Cinemas: Genre, Circulation, Reception, edited by Ken Provencher and Mike Dillon

The Politics of Nordsploitation: History, Industry, Audiences, by Tommy Gustafsson and Pietari Kp

The Mad Max Effect: Road Warriors in International Exploitation Cinema, by James Newton

Lets Go Stag!

A History of Pornographic Film from the Invention of Cinema to 1970

Dan Erdman

Dan Kanemoto came up with the title of this book, so its only appropriate to put him at the head of the queue here. Thanks, Dan. A far greater number helped in some way with the stuff in between the covers, and I will mention them here.

My editors at Bloomsbury, Johnny Walker, Austin Fisher, and Erin Duffy, have done yeomans work in getting all of this into readable shape; if this book makes sense at all it is due to their efforts. Thanks to them for their diligence and patience.

This project originated as my masters thesis at New York Universitys Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program. I received invaluable advice, criticism, and direction from my advisor Howard Besser, and an equal measure of the same from Ann Harris, Mona Jimenez, and Dan Streible. I was very lucky to have the classmates that I did during those years, and will always remember the indispensable moral support they gave and continue to give. Here are their names: Chris Banuelos, Laurie Duke, Rebecca Fraimow, Kathryn Gronsbell, Kelly Haydon, Julia Kim, Federica Liberi, Kristin MacDonough, Pawarisa Nipawattanapong, Shira Peltzman, Juana Suarez, and Erica Titkemeyer.

Researching this book led me to make the acquaintance of many scholars whose primary field of study is adult films; getting to know them has been an unexpected but happy consequence of my work. Thanks to all of these for their expertise, advice, and fellowship: Peter Alilunas, Brandon Arroyo, Robin Bougie, Michael Bowen, David Church, Lynn Comella, Finley Freibert, Elena Gorfinkel, Kevin Heffernan, Laura Helen Marks, Ryan Powell, Joe Ruben, Eric Schaefer, Russell Sheaffer, Whit Strub, and Tom Waugh. I must make a special mention here of Casey Scott, whose tenacious research on and advocacy for adult films have been personal inspirations; I doubt I would have even begun this project absent his example.

Many others have left their mark on this work, even if they didnt realize thats what they were doing at the time. Julian Antos, Snowden Becker, Brian Belak, Douglas Charles, Liz Coffey, Sebastian del Castillo, Stefan Elnabli, Skip Elsheimer, Stacey Jones Erdman, Walter Forsberg, Rebecca Hall, Genevieve Havermeyer-King, Dan Kanemoto (him again!), John Kostka, Japeth Mennes, Matt Messbarger, Yuki Nakamura, Lars Nilsen, Bono Olgado, Stephen Parr, Samuel Prime, Katie Risseeuw, Jay Schwartz, Bobby Smiley, Bill Stamets, Albert Steg, Jackie Stewart, Dwight Swanson, Steven Toushin, Andy Uhrich, Robert Vazari, Nancy Watrous, Anne Wells, and Bryan-Mitchell Young have all favored me with their insights, film recommendations, reference suggestions, willingness to share PDFs, and conversation. Ive learned a lot from all of you.

Special thanks to Sara Chapman and Tom Weinberg at Media Burn Archive (my real job) for many, many things, the most relevant to the present purpose being their tolerance of my periodic truancies for research trips and writing marathons. The reader is strongly urged to visit mediaburn.org at their earliest opportunityyoure not up to anything right now, are you?and lose yourself in our collection of thousands of documentary videos created by artists, activists, and community groups, from the 1970s to the present day. A fascinating alternative record of the last fifty years awaits you!

Speaking of research trips, I was fortunate to be the recipient of a Moody Research Grant from the LBJ Foundation, which was a great help to me when I went down for an extended visit to Lyndon Baines Johnson Library in 2016; I very much appreciate the Foundations generosity, and the extensive use I have made of materials from the Librarys collection in the pages that follow attest to that trips importance to my project. Thanks also to the archives staff at the LBJ Library, particularly Brian McNerney, for making the visit a fruitful and fascinating one (and thanks to Clay and Marijane Billington for hosting me at their place!). I also made several trips to the Kinsey Institute during my work on this book, and their staff went beyond the call of duty to answer some truly obscure requests for material. And, speaking of writing marathons, thanks to Tom Colley and Ann Hruby for letting me sequester in their remote wilderness cabin for a week while I willed myself into writing a first complete draft.

It is surely the dream of every parent to find their names in their sons book about the history of pornographic films; this happy moment has arrived at last for Tom and Barb Erdman. Because of them I know how to read, write, research, and revise; they are my first and best teachers.

I can hardly imagine where Id be, or who Id be, without Kristin MacDonough. Her kindness, encouragement, and love have made all of this possible.

On Friday, February 5, 1954, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Hayloft Tavern would play host to an uncommonly rowdy screening.

Spectators began gathering by the scores at 8:00 p.m. for the show, which was scheduled for 9:00 p.m. Most bought drinks at the first floor bar before going to the second floor dance hall to sit around tables covered with blue checkered cloths.

The audience ranged from grandfathers, some near the tottering stage, to pink cheeked youths. Some wore expensive camel hair overcoats, some overalls. As the hall filled, latecomers took seats in balconies at each end or hung over the railings. A small space in a corner near the piano was left clear for the entertainers.

A balding man bustled about, collecting tickets. If spectators had none, they paid $5 apiece. Managers of the affair began pinning red-checked curtains over the frosted windows.

The cops could never raid this place, one customer confided to a companion. How would they ever haul everybody away?

At 9pm the audience began clapping and stamping for the show to start. A male singer with a guitar appeared and opened with: I know you didnt come here to see me.

You aint kiddin! somebody yelled.

Bring on the women! another shouted.

The projectionist, who confided to a helper that he had brought some of his own equipment tonight, called for lights out.

Two indecent films were shown with obscene dialog added by spectators. One film involved two women and a man. The man had a hole in one sock. The women had dirty feet. The second film starred a couple cast away on a Pacific island.

Five years in the navy, a man yelled, and I never saw anything like that on an island!