# Earliest nudity and sex in mainstream TV/movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 1, 2005, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581 "2005-09-01T14:04:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581/21 "2005-09-01T17:29:58Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > I know I saw enough titties in DeMille’s 1920s BEN HUR on TCM. [nitpick]Just about everyone in Hollywood _except_ De Mille directed the 1925 [Ben Hur](http://imdb.com/title/tt0016641/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxxPUJlbiBIdXJ8bXg9MjB8bG09NTAwfGh0bWw9MQ__;fc=4;ft=20;fm=1): Fred Niblo, Charles Brabin, Christy Cabanne, J.J. Cohn and Rex Ingram.[/nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581/22 "2005-09-01T17:35:24Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Hahaha! I’m stoopid! > > An Officer and a Gentleman. He didn’t go frontal in that one. Maybe you’re thinking of _American Gigolo_. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581/23 "2005-09-01T17:36:23Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > [Sex in Cinema: The Greatest and Most Influential Erotic / Sexual Films and Scenes](http://www.filmsite.org/sexinfilms.html). Oh, that is an EXCELLENT resource. I’ll definitely check it out at length. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581/24 "2005-09-01T17:47:02Z")
Robert Forster and Verna Bloom had frontal nudity in _Medium Cool_ (1969). Sweden’s _I Am Curious (Yellow)_ (1967), released in the U.S. in 1969, also had male and female frontal nudity. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581/25 "2005-09-01T17:49:17Z")
> [@furt](#): > > Does anyone else find this very creepy? No, not at all. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581/26 "2005-09-01T17:51:44Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > [nitpick]Just about everyone in Hollywood _except_ De Mille directed the 1925 [Ben Hur](http://imdb.com/title/tt0016641/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxxPUJlbiBIdXJ8bXg9MjB8bG09NTAwfGh0bWw9MQ__;fc=4;ft=20;fm=1): Fred Niblo, Charles Brabin, Christy Cabanne, J.J. Cohn and Rex Ingram.[/nitpick] Eve, is that all you have? A nitpick? ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581/27 "2005-09-01T17:52:39Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > He didn’t go frontal in that one. Maybe you’re thinking of _American Gigolo_. Nope, I distinctly remember very early in the movie, Mayo getting his dad out of some whore den or something. His dad’s pubes and dongle a clearly visible for a beat or two. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581/28 "2005-09-01T18:43:45Z")
I have read that Georges Milie (sp unsure, the guy who made that pic of the “From the Earth to the Moon” with all the early special effects) made hundreds of films before 1920. I’ll bet there were a lot more filmmakers out there doing the same. I’ll also bet, especially in European cinema, that the distinction between porn and mainstream stuff was a lot murkier when the medium was just starting out – for one thing, it started out as a hobbyist kinda thing, there wasn’t any “mainstream” element to it. That’s where those “educational” white slavery films came from, I bet. Anybody know anything about that? ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581/29 "2005-09-01T18:53:07Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Female nudity in _Hypocrites_ (1915) (allegorical Naked Truth), _Intolerance_ (1916) (Babylonian orgy), _Ben Hur_ (1925) (triumphal parade), _Napoleon_ (France, 1927) (party scene), _Metropolis_ (Germany, 1927) (fembot is topless w/pasties), _Tabu_ (1931) (island women), _Ecstasy_ (Czech., 1932) (Hedy Lamarr runs through woods), _Eskimo_ (1933) (woman breastfeeding baby), Tarzan and His Mate (1934) (Jane’s nude swim). > > Male nudity in _Dante’s Inferno_ (Italy, 1912) (damned boarding boat), _Ben Hur_ (1925) (slave on ship), _The Big Parade_ (1925) (outdoor shower), _Wings_ (1927) (army induction), _Kameradschaft_ (Germany, 1931) (workers’ shower room), _Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty_ (Germany, 1938) (athletes in sauna). You forgot _Purity_ (1916), _Two Arabian Knights_ (1928), and quite a few others (I’ve seen it claimed as over 100) from the silent/early sound era. \*_Evil Captor_: It’s Melies. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581/30 "2005-09-01T18:56:39Z")
> [@Evil Captor](#): > > I have read that Georges Milie (sp unsure, the guy who made that pic of the “From the Earth to the Moon” with all the early special effects) made hundreds of films before 1920. I’ll bet there were a lot more filmmakers out there doing the same. I’ll also bet, especially in European cinema, that the distinction between porn and mainstream stuff was a lot murkier when the medium was just starting out – for one thing, it started out as a hobbyist kinda thing, there wasn’t any “mainstream” element to it. That’s where those “educational” white slavery films came from, I bet. Anybody know anything about that? [Georges Méliès](http://imdb.com/name/nm0617588/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxsbT01MDB8ZmI9dXxwbj0wfHE9R2VvcmdlcyBNZWxpZXN8aHRtbD0xfG5tPTE_;fc=1;ft=20;fm=1). As far as real early porn, there were Kinetoscope fims such as [Airy Fairy Lillian Tries On Her New Corsets](http://imdb.com/title/tt0257379/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxxPUFpcnkgRmFpbHQgTGlsbGlhbnxteD0yMHxsbT01MDB8aHRtbD0x;fc=1;ft=6;fm=1), [How Bridget Served the Salad Undressed](http://imdb.com/title/tt0229461/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxxPVNhbGFkIFVuZHJlc3NlZHxteD0yMHxsbT01MDB8aHRtbD0x;fc=1;ft=12) and [The Athletic Girl and the Burglar](http://imdb.com/title/tt0245732/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxxPUdpcmwgYW5kIHRoZSBCdXJnbGFyfG14PTIwfGxtPTUwMHxodG1sPTE_;fc=1;ft=20), which did involve a certain amount of polite semi-nudity. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581/31 "2005-09-01T19:25:38Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Robert Forster and Verna Bloom had frontal nudity in _Medium Cool_ (1969). > > Sweden’s _I Am Curious (Yellow)_ (1967), released in the U.S. in 1969, also had male and female frontal nudity. I was 16. They played it in the drive-in beside our house (in the middle of a residential district :eek: ) one weekend. All my friends came over to spend the evening in my back yard 😃 . ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581/32 "2005-09-01T19:30:17Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > [Georges Méliès](http://imdb.com/name/nm0617588/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxsbT01MDB8ZmI9dXxwbj0wfHE9R2VvcmdlcyBNZWxpZXN8aHRtbD0xfG5tPTE_;fc=1;ft=20;fm=1). > > As far as real early porn, there were Kinetoscope fims such as [Airy Fairy Lillian Tries On Her New Corsets](http://imdb.com/title/tt0257379/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxxPUFpcnkgRmFpbHQgTGlsbGlhbnxteD0yMHxsbT01MDB8aHRtbD0x;fc=1;ft=6;fm=1), [How Bridget Served the Salad Undressed](http://imdb.com/title/tt0229461/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxxPVNhbGFkIFVuZHJlc3NlZHxteD0yMHxsbT01MDB8aHRtbD0x;fc=1;ft=12) and [The Athletic Girl and the Burglar](http://imdb.com/title/tt0245732/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxxPUdpcmwgYW5kIHRoZSBCdXJnbGFyfG14PTIwfGxtPTUwMHxodG1sPTE_;fc=1;ft=20), which did involve a certain amount of polite semi-nudity. Interesting. I read the IMDB listings and they seemed to imply that they were the kind of “tweener” fare I’m thinking of … stuff that wasn’t exactly something for the headlines, but also not smoker material. As for “How Bridget Served the Salad Undressed” – I recently saw a Laurel & Hardy clip where Stan is working as a waiter at a wealthy home and he’s asked to serve the salad undressed, so he strips down to his boxers and T-shirt. Not nearly as funny or effective as the original. ---
**Author:** ![neofishboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/neofishboy/32/444_2.png) [@neofishboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neofishboy)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581/33 "2005-09-01T21:04:49Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > …Male nudity in _Dante’s Inferno_ (Italy, 1912) (damned boarding boat) … “Yeah, we would’ve seen his dick if not for that damned boarding boat!” ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581/34 "2005-09-02T00:13:55Z")
I am surprised no one has mentioned 1966’s **Blow Up** by Antononi. It was the first mainstream film to show the nether regions of a female and the first to show a star at her peak (sorry about the pun [no - nevermind, I’m not]) topless - Venessa Redgrave. It was also a very intelligent movie - so much better than the remake with Travolta 20 or so years later. For television - The first full nudity I ever saw on the tube (not counting the adventure travel shows like _Seven League Boots_ and the Lowell Thomas thing - “We were cutting our way through the jungle when suddenly a tribe…”) was on PBS. It was a British import called **Candida**. I seem to remember that I-TV was the one who did it in Britian and it was banned (an injunction or something) from being shown. Then the BBC showed all the “naughty bits” on a program explaining why the show was being banned. Obviously, then since everyone who wanted to see the naughty bits had already seen them on the Beeb, the ban was lifted. When I saw it in the states on PBS, I don’t remember the big to-do about it. Speaking of remembering - I just remembered seeing the nude opening scene of the German 1936 Olympic film made by the German Woman buddy of Hitler’s - Full frontal nudity of attractive women standing there throwing a large ball around. Got my attention! And I saw it on television on regular channel. This was before everything belonged to the networks so I think some local programer thought it was just a foreign language documentary. The whole film showed - no sudden break in. I saw the film in the early 60s or late 50s. TV ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581/35 "2005-09-02T00:17:41Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > I know I saw enough titties in DeMille’s 1920s BEN HUR on TCM. You can never see enough titties. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581/36 "2005-09-02T01:03:33Z")
> [@neofishboy](#): > > “Yeah, we would’ve seen his dick if not for that damned boarding boat!” Or to put it more poetically, “We would’ve seen his thingie if it weren’t for that damn dinghy!” ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581/37 "2005-09-02T01:23:21Z")
> [@TV time](#): > > I am surprised no one has mentioned 1966’s **Blow Up** by Antononi. > TV Paging **Little Nemo**! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581/38 "2005-09-02T01:41:06Z")
> [@Evil Captor](#): > > I’ll also bet, especially in European cinema, that the distinction between porn and mainstream stuff was a lot murkier when the medium was just starting out – for one thing, it started out as a hobbyist kinda thing, there wasn’t any “mainstream” element to it. I am something of an expert on early cinema (about 80% of the data in the IMDb for 1890-1903 was put there by me), and I don’t know what you mean by a “hobbyist kinda thing.” Almost all American films before 1902 were made by two companies, Edison and Biograph. There were no amateur gauges of film (16mm, 8mm etc.) back then, and Edison zealously enforced his patents on 35mm. Méliès did make many “stag” films, but they weren’t hard core. For example, a woman undressing as she tries to find a pesky flea. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581/39 "2005-09-02T01:53:18Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > I know I saw enough titties in DeMille’s 1920s BEN HUR on TCM. And there was male “backside” nudity in that one too. In the galley slaves sequence some poor shmuck is chained up standing face to the wall. Totally bareassed naked. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581/40 "2005-09-02T01:53:29Z")
> [@TV time](#): > > I am surprised no one has mentioned 1966’s **Blow Up** by Antononi. > It was the first mainstream film to show the nether regions of a female and the first to show a star at her peak (sorry about the pun [no - nevermind, I’m not]) topless - Venessa Redgrave. How about Fay Wray in _King Kong_ and Maureen O’Sullivan in _Tarzan and His Mate_ (yes, another woman doubled her underwater shots, but those are her own breasts when she surfaces). P.S. The title is _Blowup_ folks, one word, no hyphen. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-nudity-and-sex-in-mainstream-tv-movies/319581.md?page=3)