May I venture another possibilty? The coat of arms of the city of Amsterdam, Netherlands includes the three crosses of St. Andrew (a photo is available here at http://www.kroonlantaarn.nl/akc/pics/kroon/wapen.jpg).
Porn shops and movie theatres in Europe in the early 70’s would market the wares as the ‘strongest’ available, something like “Movies from Amsterdam - XXX” or “XXX - From Amsterdam”.
The way I understood it was this:
In 1969, the Motion Picture Association of America was slapped together to provide ratings for films. The original ratings included G, PG, R, and X.
There have been other ratings, as well – GP was in there, once, and recently, NC-17.
Due to some kind of legal loophole, though, at one point, if you KNEW the film in question was going to be rated X (due to heavy adult content), you could simply hang the X on there yourself, and spare yourself the $3000 fee the MPAA would charge you.
You can’t do this any more; the MPAA owns the rights to their ratings now… (except X, for some reason).
Now, keep in mind that X used to be a perfectly respectable rating, and did not automatically mean “porn.” Midnight Cowboy, with Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, was the first and only X-rated movie to win an Oscar. The animated Fritz The Cat was rated X due to its hilariously filthy subject matter, although both these films would likely be rated R today, due to their lack of hardcore sex.
However, some folks, when they go out to take in a movie of an evening, know exactly what they want. And it ain’t Midnight Cowboy.
Certain theatres, then as now, specialize in porno movies. Naturally, these theatres make a point of advertising to their audience, as do the films themselves. And, back in the day when newspapers would still take ads for porn films, it was advantagous to advertise a film as “Double X!” or “TRIPLE XXX!” to distinguish one’s serious hardcore pornography from that of other theatres offering doubtful Jayne Mansfield movies, or award-winning performances by Dustin Hoffman, y’know?
That’s basically right.
Also, combine with the fact that X has traditionally been used to indicate strength in beer, hence the Australian XXXX beer. In the UK, hard-core porn has traditionally been called “strong.” Of course, it’s only been quite recently that hard-core porn has even been available in the UK. For a long time, everything had to be censored. Then they lightened up on oral sex and almost immediately on vaginal sex, and anal sex came a couple of years later.
The original 1968 MPAA system was G, M, R, and X.
M (for “Mature”) confused people, so it was changed to “GP” in 1969.
“GP” confused people, too, so it was changed to “PG” in 1970.
“PG-13” was added in 1984 after complaints about “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”.
“X” was replaced by “NC-17” in 1990, because people assumed that “X” meant straight-up porn.
Actually, when the MPAA devised the rating system the G, M, and R ratings were registered (or trademarked or whatever the legal term is) so that in order to receive one of these ratings a movie had to get it through the MPAA. The MPAA used X to to designate movies with adult content, but also allowed it to be used without MPAA permission. The original theory was that X could also mean “unrated” and could be used for movies which had not been submitted to the MPAA for review for whatever reason. What happened, of course, was that X became synonymous with “adult” in the public mind, which led to the porno theater use of “XX” and “XXX” to indicate really adult movies.
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I’m working from memory here, and memory can be a tricksy thing, but I believe that “XXX” to designate sex-flicks and peep shows was used BEFORE the MPAA ratings. That is, the MPAA ratings probably picked “X” because it was already in popular use as XXX.
Note that the other ratings all were initials – G for General Audience, M for Mature, R for Restricted, and X for… ? Well, X for XXX, methinks. So, I’d vote that the X-rating came AFTER the notion of XXX, and not before.
I don’t think you need to look to Amsterdam to find the use in the early 1970’s. By 1971, the term XXX-rated was used in mainstream US newspapers, and advertisements for XXX-rated movies were in the same mainstream papers by 1972. I have no doubt that alternative newspapers, especially NY, would show XXX well before 1972.
The US probably took its cue from the British, who in 1950 came up with a certificate rating system, and an X-certificate was for adult films.
Let us not forget that the USA isn’t the world. The X rating had been around in the UK since 1951.
In the UK, at least, X being used to determine an Adult film before the 18 rating my guess is that the use of the mostly self-certificating XXX was a kind of hype and marketing ploy by the porn film makers to entice. (was there ever a XX certificate? Don’t think so.) ie whatever you have seen this stuff is stronger. Whether it was actually always hardcore , I don’t know. I doubt it. Few people are going to complain to trading standards in an often illegal and unregulated market.
The actual law on pornography was less clear, the police could seize material but I believe they had to get a jury to convict and agree that the material “was liable to deprave and corrupt” from the old archaic definition of obscenity and this was open to interpretation.
Recently licensed “sex shops” could sell R18 for Restricted material but this could still be censored. It’s correct that it is only relatively recently that hard core material has been legally available in the UK. However, It’s supposed to be an offfence to sell videos that haven’t been passed by the Film Classification Board or are considered exempt for various reasons.
I wonder also, if the term “Blue” for adult material , in the UK at least, comes from the blue pencil used by the early censor whether the “X” comes from the crossing out of an image by a censor to indicate it is to be removed.
In West Lafayette, this has led to some unfortunate confusion. There is a diner on the hill up to campus (if you know what I mean, you know where it is) called “XXX”. It is named for the brand of root beer they served (now defunct). This place has been in business for decades, long before the movie rating system was implements. They have had to make sure to designate themselves as “XXX Family Restaurant”.
Add me to the list of people who recall “X” denoting adult materials prior to the MPAA rating system. That’s where the MPAA got the idea of using “X” after all! (And also might explain why they didn’t trademark it.)
My understanding is that PG-13 was added because of the movie Gremlins and the fairly violent/icky scenes involved.
You’re both right. Newspaper accounts at the time said that both movies were blockbuster hits and both led to the new rating, and for the same reason. They fell in between the cracks. The movie industry itself was perhaps in favor of such a rating, permitting them to make movies which showed fantasy-violence without getting an R rating. Follow the money.
