# Sexual firsts in film history **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 26, 2007, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-firsts-in-film-history/401800 "2007-04-26T23:30:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-firsts-in-film-history/401800/1 "2007-04-26T23:30:45Z")
The “what actresses would have appeared nude?” thread made me wonder. A Wiki article states that [this image (which obviously contains nudity and may not be work-safe)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudity_in_film) of Audrey Munson in 1916 is the first nude scene for an actress in a mainstream film. The 1925 _Ben-Hur_ had some moments of nudity including an obviously nude but obscured [Ramon Novarro](http://silentgents.com/Nudes/NudeNovarro.jpg) and a pair of breasts. Rhett carrying Scarlett up the stairs in 1939’s _Gone With the Wind_ and her reaction the next day lets you know they had a night of wild and (at least for her) enjoyable sex. Would that have been the most graphic “sex scene” for the day (nothing was shown, but she’s clearly basking afterwards and you know exactly why he’s taking her upstairs)? What about a sex scene to involve nudity? French kissing? Thrusting? Gay sex? Oral? (Again, I’m talking about mainstream, not porn or novelty films [like nudist colony reels].) Or even sexual issues such as abortion, unwed pregnancy, birth control, etc… Any replies appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-firsts-in-film-history/401800/2 "2007-04-26T23:41:40Z")
Hasn’t Evil Captor already done this thread a dozen times? Seriously, do a search. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-firsts-in-film-history/401800/3 "2007-04-26T23:42:31Z")
I might be wrong, but I think that [Women in Love](http://imdb.com/title/tt0066579/) had the first scene featuring extensive male frontal nudity in a mainstream film. Oliver Reed and Alan Bates wrestling nude in front of a blazing fireplace. Wow. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-firsts-in-film-history/401800/4 "2007-04-26T23:45:27Z")
The first couple shown sharing a bed was on Mary Kay and Johnny, a show that ran in 1947. [snopes article.](http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/marykay.htm) ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-firsts-in-film-history/401800/5 "2007-04-26T23:56:49Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] Rhett carrying Scarlett up the stairs in 1939’s _Gone With the Wind_ and her reaction the next day lets you know they had a night of wild and (at least for her) enjoyable sex. Would that have been the most graphic “sex scene” for the day (nothing was shown, but she’s clearly basking afterwards and you know exactly why he’s taking her upstairs)? [/QUOTE] In America, yes. In Czechoslovakia in 1933, however, Hedy Lamarr (then Kiesler) pretty clearly has an orgasm onscreen in _[Ecstase](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022867/)_. [QUOTE=Sampiro] What about a sex scene to involve nudity? French kissing? Thrusting? Gay sex? Oral? (Again, I’m talking about mainstream, not porn or novelty films [like nudist colony reels].) Or even sexual issues such as abortion, unwed pregnancy, birth control, etc.. Any replies appreciated. [/QUOTE] Not sure on any specifics on the rest of these. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-firsts-in-film-history/401800/6 "2007-04-26T23:56:55Z")
[Capone](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072761/) (1975) first female spread legged shot in a mainstream film. Not sexual, but genital- Ebert IIRC once wrote that Point Break (the good one) (1967) was the first film to show a guy getting punched in the crotch- and probably the only film that showed a punch (as opposed to kick). ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-firsts-in-film-history/401800/7 "2007-04-27T00:01:39Z")
[QUOTE=Antinor01] The first couple shown sharing a bed was on Mary Kay and Johnny, a show that ran in 1947. [snopes article.](http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/marykay.htm) [/QUOTE] You most certainly mean on television, and even then that’s only notable because it was the first and last show where a couple shared a bed on TV for a long time, since TV programming isn’t much older than 1947. But if you think that’s the first time a couple was shown sharing a bed ever in the mainstream media, you sound stooooooopiiiiiiid! ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-firsts-in-film-history/401800/8 "2007-04-27T01:38:37Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] French kissing? [/QUOTE] That’s not really French kissing, but I’d like to mention Edison’s [May-Irwin Kiss](http://www.archive.org/details/Irwin-RiceKiss) (1896) as being the first on-screen kiss. Looking at it 110 years later, I get a strange porno vibe from the way she looks at the camera. Nagisa Oshima’s [The Realm of the Senses](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074102/) probably has a number of firsts (and onlys) for a mainstream release. I’m thinking of eggs and shiitake mushrooms for instance. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-firsts-in-film-history/401800/9 "2007-04-27T02:02:09Z")
First pair of puppets having sex - Team America:World Police ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-firsts-in-film-history/401800/10 "2007-04-27T02:11:19Z")
[QUOTE=cmkeller] First pair of puppets having sex - Team America:World Police [/QUOTE] Peter Jackson’s [Meet the Feebles](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097858/) (1989) had puppet sex (and much more) way before Team America. As a matter of fact I think it was the first time a walrus and a kitten were shown having sex in a mainstream movie. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-firsts-in-film-history/401800/11 "2007-04-27T02:20:39Z")
[QUOTE=jovan] That’s not really French kissing, but I’d like to mention Edison’s [May-Irwin Kiss](http://www.archive.org/details/Irwin-RiceKiss) (1896) as being the first on-screen kiss. [/QUOTE] But for the truly kinky, there was already “Fred Ott’s Sneeze” (1894). ---
**Author:** ![Your\_Ad\_Here](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b2d939/32.png) [@Your\_Ad\_Here](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Your_Ad_Here)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-firsts-in-film-history/401800/12 "2007-04-27T02:26:34Z")
[QUOTE=jovan] Peter Jackson’s [Meet the Feebles](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097858/) (1989) had puppet sex (and much more) way before Team America. As a matter of fact I think it was the first time a walrus and a kitten were shown having sex in a mainstream movie. [/QUOTE] There have been subsequent times? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-firsts-in-film-history/401800/13 "2007-04-27T02:29:43Z")
[QUOTE=cmkeller] First pair of puppets having sex - Team America:World Police [/QUOTE] No, that would be the _Charlie McCarthy & Mortimer Snerd in BROKEWOOD MOUNTIN’_ short of 1938. Charlie claimed it was his evil twin, Mortimer swore he was drugged, and Edgar Bergen had to return to Sweden for several years until he agreed to produce Candice in the OSS Breeding Service. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-firsts-in-film-history/401800/14 "2007-04-27T02:29:48Z")
[QUOTE=Muffin] But for the truly kinky, there was already “Fred Ott’s Sneeze” (1894). [/QUOTE] And for the boys, there was the [[http://ia310131.us.archive.org/3/items/dicksonfilmtwo/DicksonFilm\_High.mov](http://ia310131.us.archive.org/3/items/dicksonfilmtwo/DicksonFilm_High.mov)]Dickson Experimental Sound Film, sometimes erroneously referred to as “The Gay Brothers.” ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-firsts-in-film-history/401800/15 "2007-04-27T03:18:29Z")
The first of the firsts would be Eadweard Mubridge’s stop-action animal locomotion plates that he started making in 1884, and which were instrumental in his developing the zoopraxiscope. (He’s the fellow who made the stop-action photos of a galloping horse in 1877.) Many of those Victorian animals were very human and very naked. ---
**Author:** ![Southpaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@Southpaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southpaw)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-firsts-in-film-history/401800/16 "2007-04-27T03:30:13Z")
Dang! That Ramon Navarro picture is hot! > [@Sampiro](#): > > Or even sexual issues such as abortion, unwed pregnancy, birth control, etc.. Several years ago TCM showed a silent movie about abortion. IIRC, one of the main characters was a married woman who used abortions as a form of birth control. I _think_ the movie was _Hypocrites_ by [Lois Weber](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Weber). According to the Wiki article, it was made in 1915. ---
**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:** [April 27, 2007, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-firsts-in-film-history/401800/17 "2007-04-27T04:14:54Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] Hasn’t Evil Captor already done this thread a dozen times? Seriously, do a search. [/QUOTE] Only once, actually, back in 2005. Here’s a link: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=332835&page=1&pp=50](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=332835&page=1&pp=50) Some useful resources listed, but clearly this thread is coming up with new info not in the older thread, so it is hardly redundant. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-firsts-in-film-history/401800/18 "2007-04-27T04:54:47Z")
[QUOTE=Southpaw] Dang! That Ramon Navarro picture is hot! [/QUOTE] He was a beautiful man in his prime. Unfortunately, like Sharon Tate, I can’t enjoy a picture of him without thinking of that gruesome murder (and the SOBs both eventually walked free). ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-firsts-in-film-history/401800/19 "2007-04-27T05:14:02Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] He was a beautiful man in his prime. [/QUOTE] Not as hot as [George O’Brien](http://www.briansdriveintheater.com/westerns/georgeobrien/georgeobrien5.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-firsts-in-film-history/401800/20 "2007-04-27T05:16:12Z")
Does underage marriage count? If so, 1938’s [Child Bride](http://imdb.com/title/tt0029989/) might count. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexual-firsts-in-film-history/401800.md?page=2)