# Porno movie experiences pre-1980 **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 22, 2002, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porno-movie-experiences-pre-1980/129064 "2002-09-22T01:33:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porno-movie-experiences-pre-1980/129064/21 "2002-09-23T18:11:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by plnnr \* > When I got to college, it was the Lee Art Theater (my first name being Lee, I thought the name was particularly appropriate). I only ventured in once. My shoes stuck to the floor as I recall. Sounds like an ordinary theater to me. I always thought it was the buttered popcorn and spilled soft drinks. It wasn’t? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porno-movie-experiences-pre-1980/129064/22 "2002-09-23T18:28:10Z")
If so, it was the first and only buttered popcorn and spilled soft drinks from which you could have obtained a DNA sample. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porno-movie-experiences-pre-1980/129064/23 "2002-09-23T18:29:34Z")
There used to be an antiques store on Broadway and 10th Street, where they had an actual old Kinetoscope machine, stocked with vintage porn. You’d put your nickel in, crank the handle, and see _The Athletic Girl and the Burglar_ (1905), _How Bridget Served the Salad Undressed_ (1898), or _Airy Fairy Lillian Tries on Her New Corsets_ (1905). Sadly, the store is long-gone, so my porn-watching days have ended. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2002, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porno-movie-experiences-pre-1980/129064/24 "2002-09-23T23:56:38Z")
Well, there were also some pretty interesting GAY porno theaters…a couple in New York were quite interesting…most showed a movie and then some male strippers came out and “performed” for 15 minutes or so, and then a movie would come back on. Often there was a curtain or area where patrons could gather and practice their performance as well. For hetero fun, Germany has it hands down - so to speak. They have large rooms with rows of movie seats in the front, and small, individual tables in the back. There is a big screen showing porno. Skimply clad women come and serve (overpriced) drinks and if you happen to like one of the waitresses, there are rooms in the back where you could go to have private “conversations” for an agreed upon fee. These clubs are in almost every city and village. It is not that odd to see male and female couples go in together. I also knew a woman artist in NY whose job it was to make the sleezly little ads that ran in the newspapers for these theaters. She would snip and cut a few pictures of buxom ladies, positition them in a certain way and then she would invent a title (the titles had to be change as some titles were more graphic than would be allowed to print in the newspaper, even in NYC!) I once said, “those aren’t pictures of the actresses in the porno, and that isn’t the real title of the film” and she smiled, “like any guy going there is going to notice or complain?” ---
**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 24, 2002, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porno-movie-experiences-pre-1980/129064/25 "2002-09-24T00:26:37Z")
First it should be noted that porn of that era that you are asking about was rather innocent porn in comparison to today. When _The Devil in Miss Jones, Deep Throat_ and _Behind the Green Door_ came out they were considered outrageous even among avid followers of adult films. They would almost be considered “R” rated films today. Previous to those films in the theaters, and for that matter contemporary to those, you had films that had naked people together and often they had sex and on occasion there was oral sex, but there was surprisingly little of that, but always it was incredibly bland. I lived just down the street from the Bluebird Adult Cinema in Denver in the era you are talking about and the patrons used to park in front of my place rather than in front of the theater and then walk up the street to the theater and we residents of the block used to sit on our porches and shout crude comments as the customers would walk up to the theater. On the way back, I don’t know how many times I heard the comment “There really wasn’t that much to it.” Now stag films were a whole different kettle of fish. Hard to get, easy to get ripped off trying to get, and generally barely visible when got. But the subject matter rivaled the worst of today’s porn although the participants involved were worth note because they were generally incredibly ugly. Of my two memorable X-rated film experiences in the 60s and 70s (other than in Viet Nam of course) I saw a nude/sex version of Romeo and Juliet that was too silly to get aroused over and to stupid to think was funny. The other was on the island of Guam (an island surprisingly like an isolated smaller version of LA). The theater I went to was a regular cinema during the early part of the evening and showed X-rated films after 11 p.m., so I saw a double feature of _Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory_ and _Behind the Green Door_. As I remember there was a second X-rated film after _Green Door_, but by that time I had fallen asleep and I missed it completely. TV ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porno-movie-experiences-pre-1980/129064/26 "2002-09-24T00:46:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Osiris \* > Porn at drive-ins!?!?! _utter shock_ What was there to keep all the kids from watching the movie from the road? Both of the two porn drive-ins I’ve seen (both now closed, alas) had tall standards of bright lights at just the right height aimed at the road to effectively make the screen unviewable from passing traffic. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porno-movie-experiences-pre-1980/129064/27 "2002-09-24T01:50:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Musicat \* > \*\* > To this day, I can’t listen to “Sloopy” without a Vietnam flashback. > > Can I have my cookie thingies now? \*\* You have GOT to write a book, Musicat! No pun intended, but these stories blow the hell out of M_A_S_H_ and GOOD MORNING VIETNAM. ---
**Author:** ![kevja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/aeb1de/32.png) [@kevja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kevja)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porno-movie-experiences-pre-1980/129064/28 "2002-09-24T02:40:42Z")
I remember going to the XXX Drive-in circa 1970 with 3-4 other guys in the car. They were straight. I wasn’t, and I’m still not. That was a frustratingly exciting time. And they were “turned on” too. This was straight porn, and there was a lot of shifting around in the car to get comforable. There was also a bit of a cool down phase between movies. Nobody could get out of the car right away to go to the snack bar. I mean you couldn’t walk out of the car at full mast. Another time my Spanish teacher was working the ticket booth. He knew we were all 15 and 16 (suppose to be 18), and let us in for free. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porno-movie-experiences-pre-1980/129064/29 "2002-09-24T04:36:18Z")
One fine day in the late 1970s I became 18, therefore a legal adult, and next time I was in the big city (Albuquerque if you must know), I went to an X-rated movie. a) They didn’t publish show times. You just walked in and sat down while the movie was in progress. b) Boring, no plots, not particularly sexy. Never bothered seeing another one. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porno-movie-experiences-pre-1980/129064/30 "2002-09-24T06:36:46Z")
> [@](#): > > When The Devil in Miss Jones, Deep Throat and Behind the Green Door came out they were considered outrageous even among avid followers of adult films. They would almost be considered “R” rated films today. If you think any of those would almost qualify for ‘R’, then you saw edited ‘soft-core’ versions. I saw Deep Throat and Behind the Green Door, and they are as raunchy as any XXX you’d see today. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porno-movie-experiences-pre-1980/129064/31 "2002-09-24T11:53:20Z")
I don’t know if this is still done today, but at one time in porn history I believe it was common to shoot two versions of a flick at once. One was softer-core; tits, but not hard cocks. Writhing and flopping, but no screen-filling closeups of penetration and no cum-shots. The softer versions were shown in more restrictive venues, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porno-movie-experiences-pre-1980/129064/32 "2002-09-24T12:07:31Z")
So that’s why they had they’re hand in all those weird and awkward positions in those old films. They do it today as well. XXX is for video and DVD and the soft core is for pay-per-view. I didn’t think that was why they had their hands there back then though. You know, this is my most informative thread ever. Cool guys! And gals. I really want to see Eve’s old porn. I saw some clips from old French ones from about the same time but they edited them. Color me curious. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porno-movie-experiences-pre-1980/129064/33 "2002-09-24T12:47:28Z")
I saw a few “dirty movies” in a drive-in theater with my ex and another couple—the other guy had a very dry sense of humor, a keen eye for the absurd, and kept us laughing so much that the movies became secondary. I do remember that one of them was disguised as a documentary on cures for impotence–the cures all involved a lot of oral sex on a bald-headed fat guy who never showed any improvement. A couple of miles from our house, there is an antique / collectible shop that has quite a collection of OLD soft-core photographs that go beyond nudity but not quite to the limit. Almost like a RetroRaunch collection. Interesting but very overpriced, IMHO. Whoever commented on the 16mm “stag” movies has obviously seen a few—he describes them just as I remember them. Someone else, I think, was equally accurate as to the abundance of pubic hair. Ah, yes, the good old days. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porno-movie-experiences-pre-1980/129064/34 "2002-09-24T13:04:34Z")
> [@](#): > > I really want to see Eve’s old porn That line is funny enough by itself, but consider that I first read it as “I really want to see Eve’s old poon.” Cleanup on aisle 5! ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porno-movie-experiences-pre-1980/129064/35 "2002-09-24T13:24:32Z")
[glaring through lorgnettes] “Well, _really!_” ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porno-movie-experiences-pre-1980/129064/36 "2002-09-24T13:47:29Z")
Actually My step dad says the scenes in taxi driver where travis bickle goes to a porn film were basically correct in the few hed been to were basicaly old rundown movie theathers As fo 20s and 30s porn nate wests book day of the locust pretty much described it (except they watched it in a brothel) you knew someone who showed it and charged ya so much to see it and generally moved on to the next town or spot before the law caught on [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porno-movie-experiences-pre-1980/129064.md?page=1)