Journal of the National Film and Sound Archive, Australia Volume 2, No.3, 2007 http://www.nfsa.gov.au/docs/NFSAJournalVol2_No3_web.pdf accessed 25/10/08

melodramatic fictions? Would the picture last chaos of technology, performance and BLUE MOVIES for two minutes or 10, or three hours? spectator response even begin to settle into standard patterns. Historians have been able !e third type of movement was that to identify in the early 1920s the emergence IN AUSTRALIA: stimulated by moving pictures in those who watched them. A famous anecdote from the of what is called the classic paradigm A PRELIMINARY early days tells of audiences becoming anxious, of moving pictures: a respectable adult fearful, even panicking and fleeing the theatre moviegoer sitting in rapt silence with family HISTORY as a train projected on to the screen appeared or friends in the dark of a comfortable and 1 well-regulated theatre, watching a tasteful Jill Julius Matthews to thunder towards them. More generally, early moving pictures provided shocks, thrills, and morally judicious narrative produced by In the 1890s, for the first time, shudders, as well as quiet contemplation, a major Hollywood studio, photographed pictures began to move. !eir edification, and aesthetic delight. !ey on 35mm cellulose nitrate film projected movement aroused excitement, awe moved audiences to tears, to thought, to at 16fps on to a screen. !ere was a minor – and fear – among scientists and laughter, to sexual arousal. paradigm available for children, involving a cultural elites as well as ordinary different time of day – morning or afternoon While the first two forms of movement, rather than evening – and a different story people. For their first decade, no one involving the technology and content of knew exactly what moving pictures content – with more action but without moving pictures, have attracted much moral ambiguity. With slight adjustments were capable of, what they could attention and research by scholars and fans, (including those for talking pictures), become. !ere was a wide diversity the third form has only just begun to have the dominance of these paradigms was of practices and responses. ‘Moving a scholarly presence. In this paper, I shall be maintained well into the 1960s. Dominant, focusing on that third form. I shall suggest pictures’ meant many things: science, but not all-encompassing. !roughout that an understanding of the audiences who magic, the end of civilisation. It all the 20th century, a diversity of alternative were moved by what is generally considered depended on which sort of movement practices co-existed. one emphasised. What preposition a marginal form of cinema has a significance mattered most: of, in, or by? that reaches well beyond the concerns of I want to sketch the outline history of one traditional film history and give us a unique of those alternative practices – adult cinema !e first type of movement was of the insight into the shifting contours of Australian – and to make the case for the importance of pictures themselves. Here, the emphasis society throughout the 20th century. its inclusion within film and cultural history, was on the way new technologies created From the beginning of cinema, audiences and in the collecting policies of the National visual illusions so that, to the eye, a sequence Film and Sound Archive (NFSA). It can only of static images appeared to be a single were as diverse as the modernising societies from which they were drawn, and their be a sketch at this stage, reliant on vignettes seamlessly moving picture. Inventors around and extrapolation, because the dominance the world engaged in feverish competition mode of spectatorship ranged from private to public, individual to companionably or of the classic paradigm has until recently to create the machines and film medium dissuaded scholars from broader research that would become the standard technology exuberantly collective. In the face of such and obliterated much of the evidence. of the future. Would the film width be 8, heterogeneity, defining and regulating 28, 35, 63 or 70mm? Would the pictures the appropriate cinematic experience I use the word ‘cinema’ to indicate a field be photographed at 12.5, 16, 18, 24, or was the subject of intense debate among considerably wider than just ‘film’. Cinema 46 frames per second (fps)? Would they moralists, cultural elites, regulatory officials certainly includes film as a material artefact, be displayed in a peepshow machine for and spectators themselves – all seeking and as an aesthetic and narrative form, individual viewers, or projected on to a to control the cinematic experience for but includes as well the set of economic, screen for a crowd of spectators? their own preferred futures. Who was the organisational, social and cultural relations acceptable movie spectator: child or adult; between and associated with producer/ A second type of movement was in the male or female; black or white; working or pictures. Here, the emphasis was on content. creator, distributor, exhibitor, viewer and middle class; individual, couple, family or 2 Scientists, showmen and artists competed regulator. More specifically, by ‘adult community? What was the acceptable range cinema’ I mean a general and historically to produce the type of moving pictures of such spectators’ intellectual and emotional that would command the imagination of shifting phenomenon, encompassing the responses and behaviours? audiences. Would their pictures capture set of relations involved in the exhibition and re-present the movement of real world Not until the second decade of the 20th of moving images to adult audiences, events, an aesthetic ideal, magical tricks, or century did this creative and competitive specifically excluding children. !e types of

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films, the types of venues in which they were were enjoying penny-in-the-slot peepshow which have been identified in the programs exhibited, and the types of people involved machines: of early Australian picture theatres as well as were multiple and varied. For my purposes, Watching the public at the Mutoscope displays. !e erotic pictures seem ‘adult film’ covers all films deemed not generally to have been of the tease variety, Mutoscopes came to the conclusion suitable for children on grounds of sex.3 with titles promising more explicit sexuality that the machines labelled “High More colloquially, these are called ‘blue than was ever delivered. As Wongim Kicking”, “Peeping Tom”, “Maiden’s movies’. Pornographic films are a sub-set reported: of adult or blue, not its full definition. Midnight Romp”, etc, would soon In “Sylvia Undressing”, “Peeping Eric Schaefer’s definition usefully break down through overwork, Tom”, “Who owned the Corset”, summarises the range: whilst those entitled “Riding with Kitchener,” “Coronation Scenes”, etc, etc, the spectator who has invested “adult film” [encompasses] a wide will probably die of starvation. As I a penny is just thinking he is going range of moving images designed to possessed a penny at the time, had a to see something shocking when the be shown to adult audiences. Such look at one of the first-mentioned, and light goes, and the penny, which had material is shot and distributed was shocked. When I have another been acting as a joint in the circuit, commercially on film (35mm, 16mm, penny am going to get shocked again.5 falls down into the cash box with a 8mm) and video and can be hard- sound like a fat chuckle.11 core (featuring non-simulated sex !e first Australian audiences to experience acts) and soft-core (featuring nudity the magic of the moving pictures saw them !e erotic peepshow films were made by the and provocative situations up to and same, reputable, film companies that made in direct film viewers, or peepshows.6 Edison including the simulated presentation the other films. Georges Méliès made at Kinetoscope machines were introduced of sex acts). !e term “adult film” least two versions of Peeping Tom before the in 1894, and toured the country over the encompasses early exploitation movies turn of the century. Charles Musser, in his next few years. Despite the introduction of (nudist films, sex-hygiene pictures, discussion of Edison’s Kinetoscope pictures, projected pictures in 1896, the peepshows and so on) designed to be shown for indicates that the company produced a sustained their popularity, even enhancing “adults only”, as well as soft-core substantial number of films of coochee- sexploitation, foreign films with some it with the introduction of Mutoscope 12 7 coochee dancers, and High Kicking could be sexual content that played in art machines from 1903. !e peepshow’s an 1894 Edison film of the pioneer modern houses and grindhouses, as well as competitive edge came from the superior dancer Ruth St Denis who was known in 4 hard core stags, shorts, and features. quality of image and absence of flicker, which her vaudeville days as “the Champion High plagued cinematic projection. A further, Kicker of the World”.13 Musser also suggests Such films were made from the beginning of ambiguous, advantage was that, while it was that there was “a body of Edison films [that] cinema in 1895 until the early 1980s, when a public entertainment, it could be viewed by were circulated more or less clandestinely”.14 household video machines became available only one person at a time. !is meant that and dramatically changed the quantity and there was a sense of false privacy about the !e salacious content of the peepshow has content of sexual representations and the viewing experience – a bit like our experience passed into folklore, indelibly associated with place and experience of their viewing, as well of the mobile phone. striptease, burlesque scenes and suggestive as the economic and regulatory relations nudity. Indeed, in England, Mutoscopes were surrounding them. Initially as they rolled out across New known generically as ‘What the Butler Saw South Wales, peepshows were set up in Machines’ and some arcades were labelled My sketch history will concentrate on adult relatively prestigious venues. Contemporary ‘For Gentlemen Only’.15 But, in these early cinema in Australia up to the 1980s, while newspaper sketches show well-dressed men days, neither producers nor exhibitors of the recognising both its transnational and more and women peering into the machines films wished to control the circumstances of local contexts. As with mainstream film, at a Kinetoscope parlour. We know that, their exhibition. However, others did. most adult movies were made overseas and elsewhere, peepshows initially attracted imported into this country. !ey were subject In 1904, Melbourne police prosecuted women as well as men, middle as well as to – or had to circumvent – Commonwealth Frederick Wilson for “having obscene working class, and children.8 Yet, as Wongim censorship at point of entry, after which pictures in his possession”16 and exhibiting they were distributed around the country. makes clear, from their beginning in Sydney, them for gain in his Mutoscope Parlour.17 Between the various States and regions the peepshow machines displayed an !e Temptation of St 9 !ey seized four reels: they were subject to significantly different indiscriminate mixture of topical, theatrical Anthony, Why Marie Blew the Light Out, 10 conditions of exhibition, regulation, and erotic pictures, moving their viewers Peeping Tom, and Behind the Scenes. !e and public response. to carnal amusement as well as patriotic offence was proven, largely because the pride. Mutoscope exhibitors, like early wrong sort of people had been allowed to cinema exhibitors, seem to have felt there was look at the show. “!e worst feature of the THE BEGINNING OF nothing either improper or incongruous in place was that to enable children to look BLUE: THE PEEPSHOW, such a combination. at the pictures a small platform for them !e film companies proliferating to stand on had been built in front of the CENSORSHIP AND 18 internationally from the mid-1890s made a machine.” CONTROL variety of films for a variety of technologies, !is seems to be the first Australian Such qualifications declared, let me venues and audiences – from the family- prosecution of moving pictures for obscenity, begin the story in Sydney, in early 1903. centred to the exclusively masculine. Films and it set the pattern of reaction to adult ‘Wongim’, a theatrical correspondent for of the latter sort covered such topics as cinema across the century. A moral guardian the Bulletin magazine, described the scene boxing, dog and other animal fights, and of the city, possibly acting on information at an amusement arcade where people sexually suggestive burlesque turns, all of from his parishioners, complained to

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CHRONOLOGY OF 1916 Appointment of first State Censor 1953 First Film Festival near Melbourne. Board in NSW. AUSTRALIAN FILM 1956 Introduction of television. 1917 Commonwealth Censorship Board Establishment of the Film CENSORSHIP established under the Customs Act, Censorship Board. with power to refuse to register any film “which in the opinion 1894 First commercial exhibition 1965 Campaign by Sydney Film Festival of the Board of Kinetoscope [peepshow film loop for imported festival films to be movie viewer]. (a) is blasphemous, indecent exempt from censorship. or obscene, or 1896 First theatrical screening of 1971 Appeal Censor replaced by a Cinematographe [film projection]. (b) is likely to be injurious to five-member Cinematograph morality, or encourage or Films Board of Review. 1902 First commercial exhibition of incite to crime, or Mutoscope [peepshow flip card Recommended classification movie viewer]. (c) is likely to be offensive to any scheme: R (persons between Ally of Great Britain, or 6-18 years not admitted), M (15 1904 First successful legal case against years or older), NRC, G. “obscene pictures”: Melbourne (d) depicts any matter the exhibition Mutoscope Parlour’s exhibition of of which, in the opinion of the 1972 Censorship function transferred Why Marie Blew the Light Out, A Board, is undesirable in the from Customs to Attorney- Peeping Tom, Behind the Scenes, public interest.” General’s Department. !e Temptation of St Anthony. 1929 Revised regulations established a 1984 Introduction of X18+ classification 1908 First explicit legislation for the Commonwealth Censorship Board for the sale/hire of videotapes health and safety of cinema and an Appeal Board. in the Territories, but banned audiences: NSW !eatres in the States. and Public Halls Act. 1930 Informal agreement by distributors to include G symbols in advertising 1988 Creation of the Office of Film and 1912 Regulations prohibited of films deemed suitable for all ages. Literature Classification (OFLC) as an independent non-statutory body. (i) scenes suggestive of 1932 Appeal Board replaced by immorality or indecency, a single Appeal Censor. 1995 (Commonwealth) Classification (Publications, Films and (ii) scenes of debauchery, low habits 1943 Informal agreement between NSW of life, or other scenes such as Computer Games) Act 1995 Government and exhibitors that: (#e Classification Act). would have a demoralising at children’s matinees films or effect on young minds, trailers classified “for adults only” 1996 Beginning of National Classification (iii) executions, murders or not be screened, and performances Scheme. Advisory categories: G other revolting scenes, not exceed two-and-a-half hours; (suitable for all ages), PG (Parental all advertising clearly indicate the Guidance recommended for (iv) successful crime, such as classification of the film. persons under 15 years), M15+ bushranging, robberies or other (Recommended for mature 1948 Total ban on horror films. acts of lawlessness which might audience 15 years and over); Legally be reasonably considered as 1949 Uniform legislation allowing the Restricted categories: MA15+ having an injurious influence Commonwealth to act as States’ (persons under the age of 15 must on youthful minds. delegate in censorship matters be accompanied by a parent or 25 films banned in the first (initially Qld, WA and Tas). adult guardian), R18+ (Restricted year of regulation. to adults 18 years and over), X18+ New advisory classification scheme: (Applies to videos only – contains 1914 introduced SOA (Suitable only for Adults), War Precautions Act consensual sexually explicit material. military censorship. NRC (Not Recommended for Restricted to adults 18 years and Children), G (General). 1916 Extensive lobbying against over. Available only for sale or “vicious and demoralizing” 1951 Censorship of privately hire in the ACT or NT), RC films and plays in NSW. owned films. (Refused Classification).

the State Premier that indecent moving sought out and enjoyed such “demoralising We are paying huge sums of pictures were being shown. !e authorities and disgraceful” displays, it was the court’s money yearly for the maintenance “recognised how far art could go in a matter responsibility to protect the vulnerable from of a body of huge men to keep a of this sort”, but it was a matter of “the corruption. Newspaper reporters, as great watchful eye on us and see that deepest regret that any company should believers in freedom of expression, presented we don’t drop a penny in the slot have thought such an exhibition would have counter views ridiculing the authorities and to have a peep at a picture that been tolerated in Melbourne”.19 While it declaring their actions heavy-handed and can make a policeman blush, was unfortunate that there were adults who the offence trivial: whilst our houses are robbed

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and garotters [are] allowed to status, “melodramatic but fundamentally class men is not itself a stable and singular roam about at large.20 benign”,24 was not achieved once and for category, but has changed substantially over all, and constantly had to be re-negotiated. the 20th century. !e burgeoning field of the !e fourth party to the occasion, the !e interactive game of censorship history of masculinity is beginning to detail public, had a divided response, writing was perpetually in play, re-establishing the many expressions of masculinity at any letters of moral outrage but also treating boundaries, drawing new lines in the sand. moment, as well as through time.27 Second, the prosecution as an advertisement for a there are a few contemporary studies that From the end of the First World War till sensational show. “!e suggestive always alert us to the probability that significant the 1970s, Hollywood produced well over attracted people, and in this case great numbers of women have been members three quarters of the feature films screened crowds were attracted.”21 !e exhibitor, of the various audiences for adult films in Australian picture theatres. On arrival Mr Wilson, had his conviction and fine of throughout the 20th century. Adult industry in Australia, these already self-censored £10 in lieu of ten days jail quashed on appeal, films were subjected to further scrutiny surveys have documented the popularity of and his business continued profitably. X-rated videos among couples and female by Commonwealth censors. As the films 28 !e interaction between these players moved across the continent, more localised customers; and an audience study by Brigid – moral guardians, state authorities, social sensibilities came into play, banning the Cherry of female viewers of horror films, an commentators, paying audience, exhibitors, exhibition of films that might be acceptable analogously assumed ‘male only’ genre, has and sometimes producers – as well as the elsewhere. !e self-censorship strategy of the reported that there are considerable, if largely hidden, numbers of women who enjoy such moving pictures themselves, constituted the studios was duplicated by their Australian 29 very meaning and dynamic of cinema as it distribution companies, who formed an pictures. Historically, there have also been developed across the century. !e content industry regulator and lobby group in significant numbers of women among the of movies, the forms of exhibition, the 1926, the Motion Picture Distributors entrepreneurs of the adult industry and, of course, many women have performed in the composition of audiences, and the emphasis Association of Australia (MPDAA). Until 30 of cultural criticism, were all shaped by the the rise of civil liberties groups and film diverse range of adult films. practice and threat of censorship. societies in the 1960s, the MPDAA was a key !ird, film scholars are increasingly (although behind-the-scenes player) in the recognising that there is more to cinemagoing !e first Australian legislation explicitly censorship game, representing the interests enacting censorship of the content of movies than watching films and that the “context of the motion picture industry “before of viewing” is as important to study as was passed in New South Wales in 1908. Government Municipal Local Departmental 31 Regulations under the Act banned the the “object of viewing”. !roughout the authorities (including Censorship and century, different cinemas offered different screening, among other topics, of “scenes Customs) and public bodies and associations cinematic experiences, based on the theatre’s suggestive of immorality or indecency”, 25 and the officials thereof”. !e industry locale and architecture, its self-presentation, and “scenes of debauchery, low habits of they protected comprised the Australian its personnel and their attention to patrons, life, or other scenes such as would have operations of American producers and their and the nature of the whole show. At least a demoralising effect on young minds”. local subsidiary distributors, and Australian in major cities, individuals could choose the In 1912, the first year of operation, 25 films exhibitors. !e interests of the latter were not type of experience they wanted and visit the were banned. !e other States and soon always congruent with those of the former. appropriate cinema, while exhibitors could the Commonwealth followed suit, and the Even less compatible were the interests of the solicit a specific audience. Consequently, legislative regime of Australian censorship Australian producers, who were also subject neither the meaning of any movie nor of any began its fraught and tortuous career that to censorship, but were not represented by audience was fixed. !e same film would be would span the century and beyond. any strong or long-lasting lobby group. understood differently depending on where Its central points of operation were the Ina Bertrand, in her pioneering work, and to whom it was screened: a smut film in entry of imported films, and complaints Film Censorship in Australia, has traced the Sydney’s Kings Cross could be an art film over exhibition. interactions of these various institutional in Paddington (eg Russ Meyer’s 1966 film, Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!). !e application of censorship to film players and the major films that tested the 26 production was more transnational, and alignment of forces across the century. So, who went to see Peeping Tom in the occurred predominantly offshore. In 1915, a But there is one player whose story is still Mutoscope arcade? Who went to see Passion’s United States Supreme Court ruling denied little understood: the audience. Who were Slave, screened by the eminently respectable moving pictures the protection of freedom the people who liked to look at sexual Clement Mason Cinematographe Co., of speech that was afforded “artistic” work representations, who liked to go to adult before it was prohibited from exhibition in as well as the press.22 In response, the major pictures? While the shifting boundary New South Wales by the Chief Secretary Hollywood studios determined to forestall between obscene and pure films has been in October 1911?32 Who was the regular official censorship by self-censorship and in well described, we know little of the audience at the theatres showing the films shifting boundary between corrupt 1922 formed the Motion Picture Producers of “[v]ulgar rubbish and degrading comics” and pure audiences. and Distributors Association of America (particularly the Keystone movies starring to run their strategy. Hollywood sought to For too many critics, there has been an easy Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle) that avoid all political and social controversy in its assumption that sexual movies appealed !eatre Magazine fulminated against in products and among its personnel. Historian to the same type of people throughout the 1915?33 From scattered evidence, it would Lee Grieveson argues convincingly that, as a century: men only, particularly young, seem that with the coming of moving consequence of this strategy, “[m]ainstream working-class, heterosexual men, and pictures, with their mass production and cinema became, in part at least, a self- ‘perverts’. But given the range of film types ubiquitous exhibition, sexual representations referential space, purposively disconnected and exhibition venues embraced by the could be said to have become democratised, from other forms of discourse and from term ‘adult films’, this assumption cannot cheaply available to everyone regardless of social relevance”.23 But this self-contained stand. First, the category of young working- gender, age, class or race. Such availability

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resulted in complex practices of censorship, From photography’s beginnings in the which in turn resulted in two audience 1840s, pictures of naked women, sometimes effects: first, the consolidation of an engaging in explicit sexual acts, circulated alternative and disreputable masculine among a select clientele within the half cinema culture; and, secondly, the formation world, the traditional elite consumers of of a new type of mixed-sex audience for pornography. !ere is evidence that such risqué content. erotic or ‘filthy French’ postcards circulated in Australia among elite men. Artist Norman Lindsay recounts in his autobiography that a CLANDESTINE BLUE young friend, Until the early 20th century, access to returned from the Grand Tour of Europe, bringing back with him some sexual representations was restricted to male French postcards, designed in a key of audiences. Order in the Victorian world the skittish pornographic, and those was maintained by multiple segregations: of supplied subject-matter for some of men and women, youth and age, middle and my ribald drawings and saved me the working class. In this world, the enjoyment nuisance of thinking up a gag of my of sexual spectacle was the preserve of own that could raise a laugh.36 men alone. Katherine Snyder and Howard Chudacoff have recently alerted us to the An older member of Sydney’s cultured existence in America of a specific urban elite, David Scott Mitchell, shared similar subculture of men, a “bachelor culture”, interests. After his death in 1907, librarians whose peak years were between 1880 and at the New South Wales Public Library 1930.34 My own critical reading of a large were scandalised to discover that the number of magazines published in Sydney magnificent collection of over 50,000 books, during those years suggests that there was pictures, manuscripts and maps that he had a similar subculture in that city too, one bequeathed was a true “gentleman’s library”, French Postcard, early 20th century. that mixed together upper- and lower-class containing a considerable number of erotic (Private collection) men who engaged in a particular practice items, including “hundreds of photographs, of masculinity. It called itself a ‘sporting many very explicit, from England, France, Japan, India and Germany”.37 culture’. It comprised men of the cultured pioneer cinematographer who worked in elite, sportsmen, theatricals, journalists, and Erotic photographs and postcards, of a much Melbourne from 1907 till his death in petty opportunists. !e bachelors and sports cheaper quality, similarly circulated at the 1930, filming for the major companies of such ‘half worlds’ retreated from family opposite far end of the social hierarchy, Pathé Frères, Australasian Films, Lincoln- life, at least for a time, into the company among lower-class men on the margins of Cass Productions and Herschells. He of other men, with whom they enjoyed society who were also members of the half shot newsreels, short dramas, features gambling, smoking, drinking, prize-fighting, world. Before the First World War, !e and documentaries. Did he also shoot blood sports, variety theatre, and non- Sydney Morning Herald was reporting that pornography? !ere is a well-established marital sex. It is not yet clear to historians visiting sailors arrested for drunkenness tradition of crew members on mainstream how ‘sports’ related to ‘bohemians’ or to “were often found to have their pockets full films borrowing equipment on their days off ‘clubmen’, or to the fraternity of journalists of revolting postcards”.38 When pictures to make erotic films for limited circulation. who are now historians’ chief source of began to move, sexual activity was an Or is this a fragment of a film made evidence for the cultural modernisation obvious candidate for representation. elsewhere? !e four frames are reminiscent of Australia at the beginning of the 20th !e erotic postcard prepared the way for century, including evidence of censorship and accompanied erotic moving pictures. of a genre of early films made in Europe battles. It is also not yet clear how this Audiences as well as performers and sets involving scenes of women disrobing, oriental Playboy were shared between live variety theatre, tableaux, naked women dancing or bathing, subculture related to the bachelor 41 cult of the 1950s and 1960s.35 In both photography, the peepshow and the screen. and scenes with artist and model. !e earliest has been identified as Douche après periods, however, men of the subculture In his 1975 book, !e Australian Screen, le bain, made by Louis Lumière in 1897.42 congregated together, creating homo-social Eric Reade reproduced a small photograph Such films shared a common inspiration enclaves in clubs and pubs. !ey attended of four film frames showing a naked woman various sporting and entertainment events with a classic hourglass figure taking a camp – and common producers – with the – boxing, racing, theatre, burlesque, smoke shower in a secluded suburban garden. Mutoscope films mentioned above. !ey concerts. And it is likely that at least some of !e caption reads: were also related to more explicitly sexual films made as extensions of the legal brothel them enjoyed the camaraderie of watching “Porno” films of the silent era – which business in pre- and post-First World War sexual movies together when the opportunity goes to prove that the modern age Europe,43 which in turn were related to the arose. In all these places, even in the isn’t so progressive after all. !e only ostensibly ‘male only’ places, women were change is in the “shape of things”.39 photographs and films of the avant-garde always present, to serve and entertain the surrealists, including Luis Buñuel and men, as the objects of male pleasure. !e film is attributed to the “Maurice Man Ray.44 But, since there were neither Such women were the stars of the half Bertel collection”.40 !ere is no other legal brothels nor many surrealists in world’s visual culture, both as live mention of pornography in the text. inter-war Australia, for whom did performers and in representation. Born in France, Maurice Bertel was a Bertel screen his film?

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!e same question is raised by a film donated !e production, distribution and exhibition the 1920s, amateur filmmaking became a to the NFSA in the 1980s during its Last of such movies were all prohibited virtually popular hobby for many, especially men. Film Search. Identified in the catalogue as an everywhere in the world. Al Di Lauro and Film cameras and projectors turned suburban “American semi-pornographic film c.1935”,45 Gerald Rabkin suggest that they were made living rooms and back sheds into movie it was one of five cans of film, the others in only a few countries: France, Germany, theatres for family and the neighbourhood. containing home movies of planes flying and Italy, Latin America, Japan, and the United Centre for Scholarly and Archival Research landing, a family picnic and family games. States, essentially as a highly localised cottage (CSAR) Fellow Michelle Baddiley has It is without title or credits, but has a simple industry. !e films had limited national let found little evidence of erotica in the NFSA humorous plot involving a fortune-teller, an alone international reach.49 So how did such collection of home movies up to 1930.50 English lord and four women who strip and films come to be in Australia, which prided However, from the 1940s, presumably cavort naked in and around a swimming itself on having one of the strictest censorship because of the cheaper availability of 8mm pool. !e intertitles exploit the ambiguity regimes in the world? And how were the two equipment, the number of amateur films between afternoon teas and strip tease. !is fragments related? Such questions become involving strip tease and naked women film could perhaps be designated “skittish insistent as more such films are discovered by posing increases. A recent donation to the pornographic” in the same vein as Lindsay’s NFSA archivists. NFSA of some 70 cans and reels came from French postcards. In its 1962-63 Report, the Commonwealth the back shed of a suburban house previously Film Censorship Board stated that privately owned by a projectionist. !e films were While such films would now be considered a mixture of newsreels, advertisements merely risqué, they would certainly have been imported and owned 16mm and 8mm films, many “poorly produced” and containing and erotic fragments cut from Hollywood banned from entry to Australia by Customs features, along with home movies, several censorship had they been discovered. Other “objectionable material”, increased in number from the 1930s into the 1960s. We do not of which involved women undressing films donated to the NFSA from suburban and posing topless.51 In one film, ‘Ultra collections are more explicitly hard-core know whether a single negative of A Free Ride was privately imported into Australia by an Ray: Woman Semi-Naked Dancing and pornographic (ie showing explicit sexual Undressing in a Studio’, the camera lingers acts), and they too illegally avoided detection. otherwise respectable film exhibitor who then made copies, one of which turned up on the on composed shots of body parts as shapes One, a nitrate negative, was part of a donated – hand, elbow, fingers, thigh – as well as collection from the estate of a film exhibitor, junk heap. It is just as possible that each film was independent of the other, part of two on the movement and play of light on a most of whose other films were newsreels. 52 distinct smuggling, copying and distribution flimsily gowned and naked female body. Another was found on a junk heap. Both Presumably this work was understood by fragments seem to be of the same film. !e operations. Given the reported increase in importations, we can hypothesise that there its maker as an art film, even avant-garde. NFSA Catalogue suggests that they were Other amateur films in the collection are made around 1925 or 1928. !e notes read: were numerous clandestine networks, each illegally importing films from America dramatic narratives, and here too there is Australian Silent Pornography or Europe, and copying them for limited adult content. For example, Arthur Browne Film, c. 1925. A short extract of distribution around a local network. !ere was a professional sound recordist and pornography including two settings. is, as yet, no evidence as to the nature or prize-winning amateur filmmaker. His films !e first setting involves a man and extent of these networks, or whether were predominantly short dramas acted by two young women, and the second they were linked. family and friends and screened annually at involves three women. In the first the local church hall. But one of his earliest series of scenes a man urinates in the Nor do we know much about the audiences films, Ants in Her Pants from the late 1930s, bush watched by two women. !e that gathered through these networks. In is a chase comedy involving near nudity and trio then engage in explicit sexual Europe, the audience for blue movies in the suggestiveness.53 activities on the ground in the bush. inter-war period largely comprised brothel customers and upper-class collectors. In While films of nudity per se were declared In the second setting, three nude to be not indecent by the New York Court women engage in sexual activities on a America, from the 1920s, men belonging to voluntary social organisations and residential of Appeals in 1957, such subject matter was bed in a room. – General notes: !ere banned from importation into Australia.54 is no evidence to suggest that this is college students organised stag shows. For Australia, oral history informants, as well It was, however, relatively easy to make. But necessarily Australian, although the as police vice squad reports, suggest that were the actors professional models, or wives bush setting does carry some credence during the 1950s, in hired halls and licensed and girlfriends? Victorian Vice Squad raids and the fact that the car is right-hand clubs across the Australian suburbs, blue in 1958 discovered extensive evidence of drive. Original footage unknown, movies were screened for a male audience local models, both male and female, willing surviving footage 498 feet of 35mm recruited by word of mouth – an audience to pose nude for artistic photo shoots, with (7 mins @ 18 fps).46 type descended from the masculine some prepared to pose “in a suggestive attitude”.55 Just as erotic postcards and blue Both film fragments, in fact, are from the subculture discussed above. But there are movies were related, so too were painted, American film, A Free Ride (a.k.a. !e Grass also suggestions that there were screenings photographed and filmed life art studies Sandwich), dated 1917-19 by the Kinsey in more domestic settings, in private homes, of nudes. !ey all belonged to a broad and Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and and that women also watched. longstanding visual culture that considered Reproduction and claimed as the earliest Blue movies are not renowned for their the naked female body simultaneously extant stag film.47 Another donated film, cinematic quality, and the description of beautiful and sexually arousing. ‘Girls Do You !ink It’s Big Enough: Silent the business as ‘a cottage industry’ suggests Pornographic Film, 1929’, originally from a related dimension of adult cinema in However, some of the home movies stored the small collection of the donor’s friend’s Australia – locally made home movies. in back sheds were less an appreciation of grandfather, is similarly graphic, and With the development of less cumbersome, the female form and more a record of sexual probably similarly illegally imported.48 cheaper and safer film and equipment from performance. ‘Amateur Pornographic Film

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Featuring People Wearing Sunglasses’,56 was donated by someone who thought that Hybrid films revealed that there were now it was a “slightly blue” 1930s film that “a friend’s grandfather had in the war.” In fact legitimate exhibition spaces available and a it is amateur footage of a very explicit sex clearly profitable market. The next step was to party involving two men, two women and a cameraperson, with the style of the sunglasses bring the products of the masculine underworld worn as disguise by the performers indicating the fashion of the 1950s or early 1960s. Such fully into the public domain. a film would presumably have been intended for private viewing by the participants. Many more films of this sort continued to be made, for broadcast by ATN7 in Sydney, but was contained substantial numbers of women. and while few have found their way into the withdrawn at the last minute. Subsequently !e R classification was followed in 1984 by NFSA’s collection, the existence of those few expanded, it screened “with considerable a specifically video classification, X, which provides evidence of a cinematic culture that commercial success” in small independent granted persons over the age of 18 access to would otherwise remain merely anecdotal. theatres, including those regularly screening depictions of explicit genital sexual activity European films.60 between consenting adults.70 !e illicit men-only subculture had thrived on its outlaw Such hybrid films revealed that there were HYBRID BLUE status, so in the face of the public acceptability now legitimate exhibition spaces available of viewing sexually explicit representations, In terms of more public exhibition, by and a clearly profitable market. !e next step its membership seemingly dissipated. the 1970s blue movies returned to their was to bring the products of the masculine beginnings in the peepshow. A new adult underworld fully into the public domain. At this point, then, we need to leave the industry, which would grow exponentially US West Coast producers began making story of the traditional masculine audience in both size and respectability in the 1980s, hard-core feature movies. !e first was Bill and turn to a parallel history: the mixed-sex made its first public appearance in adult or Osco’s Mona (1970).61 But the most famous audience for blue content. Both histories sex shops in Sydney’s lower George Street, was Deep !roat (Gerard Damiano, 1972). begin in the same space: the contained Darlinghurst and Kings Cross. At the back Made for $25,000 it grossed more than $600 late 19th century masculine subculture in were small cubicles in which loops of 8mm million, and screened in mainstream theatres which sexual representations were produced films – often imported from ‘permissive’ to respectable audiences across America.62 and consumed. While the segment of that Sweden and Denmark – were projected on Some 10 years later, Australian producers world I have been following so far remained to a wall. Patrons saw rather more graphic entered the market with hard-core features:63 relatively sex-segregated and hidden during footage than What the Butler Saw, and put Dennis Huntley’s Down Under (1983),64 the 20th century, another portion moved considerably higher denomination coins in Greg Lynch’s Lusty Afternoon (1986),65 slowly towards a greater openness and even the slot, but the principle was the same. !e followed by John Lark’s more extensive respectability. One crucial determinant viewer watched these loops as an individual, ‘Down Under’ series of 23 made-for-video of the divide was film itself. titles,66 and Lynch’s Arigato Baby (1990).67 rather than as part of an audience, and by all !e 19th century men-only subculture accounts the viewers were inevitably male. By that time, who was watching adult movies was disreputable, but also filled with Meanwhile, in America, beginning in the and where had changed dramatically. In spectacle, which was the essence of early late 1950s and spurred by the greater moral 1970, the Commonwealth Government filmmaking. Prize-fighting, blood sports, liberality of the 1960s, soft-core sex films, eg established a new scheme of film variety and burlesque turns had more long Russ Meyer’s !e Immoral Mr Teas (1959), classification which permitted the public term entertainment value than moving and then hard-core pornographic movies exhibition of films dealing with matters trains, waves and street scenes. Curiously, began to emerge from the underworld of the of sex in a manner “unsuitable for perusal when captured on film and made available stag show into down-market but nonetheless or viewing by minors”. In other words, beyond the confines of the subculture, such public theatrical release. !e transition adults and those under 18 were formally spectacles tended to be regarded as naughty, between the underworld and more public separated in terms of what they could see. rather than taboo. Charles Musser argues respectability was first hinted in two films But representation of genitally explicit that, at least at first, performances on film from 1970 which drew inspiration and sexual activity remained banned. While were more acceptable than on stage or in the audiences from both domains. Both films New Yorkers would soon see Deep !roat ring because of “the absence of presence” investigated and graphically displayed the in a mainstream theatre, it would never – that is, precisely because they were newly decriminalised pornography industry have a legal screening in Australia. Instead, representations – and so women got to see in Denmark.57 John Lamb’s Sexual Freedom Australians saw the British film Percy (Ralph into the masculine world. He writes: in Denmark (1970) and Alex de Renzy’s !omas, 1971), the first movie classified R. Because this performance culture Pornography in Denmark (1970) – a title It was an “[e]xcruciating comedy” filled with had been reduced to representations, “nudge nudge images” and “every phallic gag quickly changed to Censorship in Denmark: 68 women could, for instance, more A New Approach in order to be acceptable for known to schoolboy smut”. It played to full freely view [body builder] Sandow’s newspaper advertising – combined hard-core houses for several weeks. almost naked body. And they sexual representation with documentary Subsequent R releases drew similarly large were allowed to see two perfectly travelogues.58 Within two years, a soft-core audiences for the first few days, and then conditioned male fighters, stripped variant had been produced in Australia. An tapered off to become “a normal part of the down to their togs. Female voyeurism Essay on Pornography (1973) was originally film scene”.69 While some in those audiences was unexpectedly mobilized, within a a report on the pornographic film industry were undoubtedly also patrons of sex shop socially acceptable framework…!ey made for television.59 It was programmed cubicles, as a ‘normal’ film audience it also gained access, however limited, to the

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male homosocial world from which men. Effectively, sexual representation used to promote screenings. Without the they had been excluded or kept at and adult cinema, underwent a shift from vast resources of the Hollywood studios the periphery. Motion pictures thus ‘men only’ to ‘over 18’. to encourage brand loyalty among cinema contributed to the breakdown of two audiences, the independent producer/ discrete and complimentary [sic] distributors took their films from city to city, realms – that of rugged masculinity MAINSTREAM BLUE drumming up audiences with sensational and feminine domesticity – by pulling advertising ploys. !at audience transition took place the veil from the former and haphazardly from the 1920s till the !e leading historian of exploitation films, exposing it to the latter. 71 1970s, driven by the play of censorship. Eric Schaefer, makes a distinction between films subjected to this treatment and the Films offered everyone, including women and In terms of films that sought public, not low-budget films made by Poverty Row children, visual access to previously hidden subcultural, exhibition the line between independents and Hollywood B studios, movement – of semi-naked male boxers and sexual representation that was acceptable designed for the lower half of the double bill scantily clad female dancers. !e potential and that which was indecent or obscene program.81 While this distinction is valid effect of such spectacle was to make available was under constant negotiation. As for the producers/distributors, it is not clear to everyone, not just men, the involuntary mentioned above, the majority of feature films screened in Australia during these that it is relevant for the audience, especially thrill of physical (sexual) response. In 82 decades were Hollywood products that had far away from the source of production. other words, a new social grouping was Few independent American producers had being constituted: a vulgar but nonetheless already been subjected to the rigours of the Production Code process. Australian the interest or resources to enter the export relatively respectable mixed audience with a market: the risk of rejection was too high for mutual interest in sexual titillation. public opinion, which the censors were required to interpret, vocally demanded the likely profits. Australian censors explicitly A mixed audience for sexual representations a higher standard. On occasions, as the allowed their judgment to be influenced by was not unique to moving pictures, but was censors regretted, Hollywood “smartness and the style as well as the content of any film, so coming into existence more generally in the sophistication stepp[ed] over the borderline the poor production values of many of these field of visual culture. For example, while into suggestiveness and indecency”.76 Scenes non-Hollywood films saw them roundly 83 the market for postcards of the most sexually from major studio productions were cut, and condemned and banned. !is meant explicit sort moved further underground, some entire films were banned.77 Trends and Australian audiences saw a limited range of access to bawdy images passed beyond disputes over the banning and cutting of films known variously as exploitation, B, and such restricted circles. Following technical feature films, both star vehicles and B grade, trash. !ose few were severely cut on entry, developments in both photography and have been at least partially documented.78 and tracking their exhibition is difficult, printing, a new audience was generated We know the fate of Mae West, Jane Russell, in part because of the common practice of for mass-produced sexual representations: and Jane Fonda; Flaming Youth (John Francis changing titles for local release, and in part working-class women, children and Dillon, 1923), Golddiggers of 1933 (Mervyn because Censorship Reports did not publish Indigenous subjects became consumers LeRoy and Busby Berkeley, 1933), and the names of films until the 1970s. in addition to their more traditional role Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962). What is less Nonetheless, there is evidence that some as the objects of such representations.72 well known is the fate of two other types of the early sex films were well received in Sexualised postcards were soon as easy of film that sought exhibition in Australia: Australia, with the pro-contraception/anti- to buy as they were to understand. !ey exploitation films and European art films.79 abortion film, Where are My Children? (Lois became an increasingly taken-for-granted Weber and Phillips Smalley, 1916), and the During and after the First World War, accompaniment to working-class leisure and white slave film, Traffic in Souls (George contemporary sexual behaviour was openly communication: think of all those racy ‘wish Loane Tucker, 1913), having “outstanding displayed in a number of European and you were here’ holiday postcards that are success”.84 Others did not fare so well, American ‘social conscience’ features which with us still. with Damaged Goods (Alexander Butler, sought to overcome sexual ignorance and 1919) banned in Victoria where its subject As Australia moved into the 20th century, educate audiences about homosexuality, of venereal disease made it obscene by there were many among the cultured the white slave trade and sexual hygiene. definition. !e new wave of exploitation elite who insisted that social and cultural !ese metamorphosed in the 1920s and films after the Second World War also order could only be sustained through the 1930s into ‘exploitation’ movies: films received some success: traditional segregations of the Victorian in “bad taste” dealing with “forbidden” world. But mass commercial culture in the subjects.80 Ostensibly warning of the dangers Crowd Out of Hand. Rush modernising world increasingly blurred of promiscuity, narcotic drugs, abortion, To See Picture. those boundaries.73 !e ideal of “Victorian and child marriage, such films increasingly Six hundred young men tried to repression” faced an irresistible onslaught.74 emphasised sensation, titillation, the exotic force their way last night into the In particular, the older ideal of woman and bizarre, and added more vice, violence Savoy !eatre, where a sex picture as mother increasingly broadened to and horror, and more naked flesh to their was being shown. accommodate woman as wife and sexual minimal and improbable plots. !ey were partner.75 Women began to define themselves produced on low budgets by independent !ree policemen who were on duty at as denizens of a sexualised world, but no directors working outside the Hollywood the theatre were unable to cope with less respectable for that. On screen, stage system, and were distributed independently them, and reinforcements were sent and radio, in recorded songs, magazines and and exhibited in theatres not affiliated from Phillip Street police station. postcards, sexual material was a staple – from with the studios. !e term ‘exploitation’, !e picture, “Secrets of Life” was vulgar jokes and innuendo to romantic although apt for the motivation of many first shown last Friday, but last temptation and steaming passion – and in the business, related specifically to the night was the first time the crowd women laughed and were thrilled as well as advertising techniques such independents became unruly.85

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of them drew their films from non- Hollywood sources as well. In particular, they screened ‘Continental’ films, attracting both European immigrants and the Anglo cultural elite. For example, the Bridge !eatre in Sydney catered briefly for the first Film Society of Australia in the early 1930s, screening German Expressionist, French Surrealist and Russian Realist films, all made outside the constraints of the US Production Code.93 Neither theatre nor Society was able to sustain itself for long. More successful was the Savoy !eatre, which switched from live to filmed performance in 1937, and began a longer career screening Continental and other independent films. !e boundary between art, exploitation and foreign- language film became blurred in such a venue. !e near-riot over Secrets of Life occurred at the Savoy. !ere was also a Savoy !eatre in Melbourne. Its programs introduced a new audience to the post-war renaissance of European cinema, but its reputation was risqué. Crowd outside the Paramount !eatre in Bundaberg for a screening of Secrets of Life Leading film advocate and producer, Phillip during the 1950s. !e film was advertised as an experience not to be missed, with Elliot Forbes’ commentary a key attraction. State Library of Queensland, image no. 64547 Adams, remembers seeing the Swedish film, One Summer of Happiness (Arne Mattsson, 1951) which had caused a minor international scandal for its scenes of a young Secrets of Life was, in fact, the retitled Mom of classical Hollywood ended, and the couple swimming naked and embracing in and Dad (William Beaudine, 1944), the most classic paradigm of moviegoing changed the grass. “It took a lot of courage to go to well-known and most polished American with it. !eatres diversified and their the Savoy for the first time… We went to exploitation film. Made by Kroger Babb for bookings loosened up, with more openings the Savoy as smutty little boys and came about $65,000 and shot in a week, it was for independent films; films which were out as lovers.”94 !e reputation of European reputed to have earned $100 million during increasingly made for and exhibited to films remained dubious for the next several its lifespan of over 30 years.86 Its fortune was differentiated audiences. In this climate, the decades. American hard-sell exploitationeers made as a roadshow package rather than a public exhibition of films with sexual themes recognised and encouraged this by taking mere film. Babb had multiple units playing and scenes began to flourish. up their distribution. Joe Burstyn added small town circuits across America. Each sex to his promotion of Italian neo-realist unit consisted of the film, an “Eminent Concurrently, in Australia as well as the films in New York, advertising Roberto Hygiene Commentator” named Elliot Forbes United States, suburban sprawl and the baby Rossellini’s Rome, Open City (1945) as “sexier who made an in-person appearance at every boom shifted the market demographics than Hollywood ever dared to be”, while for performance to reveal the “secrets of sensible supporting local theatres, while television Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle !ieves (1948) his sex”, one or two women in nurses uniforms, and drive-ins engaged them in immediate posters showed a buxom woman astride a advertising material, and large stocks of competition. !e first Australian drive- bicycle – “neither the scene nor the character two 64-page books titled Man and Boy and in opened in 1954, with well over 200 existed in this film”.95 Kroger Babb, of Mom Woman and Girl.87 An advertising blitz operating around the country by the end and Dad fame, distributed Ingmar Bergman’s 91 preceded each local stand, especially focusing of the decade. Initially attracting families Summer with Monika (1953) after editing on the sex segregation of the performances. with young children, by the early 1960s it from 97 to 65 minutes and retitling it One of the “Elliot Forbes” was an Australian almost three quarters of their audiences Monika: !e Story of a Bad Girl.96 magician, Card Mondor, who secured the were aged between 15 and 24. Lured by the Exhibition of the few post-war European Australasian rights for Mom and Dad, and opportunity for unsupervised dating and films that passed Australian censorship began employed the same exploitation techniques hanging out with friends, this audience forging a new hybrid audience, mixing local with apparently the same success.88 appreciated blue movies, along with horror and assorted trash.92 intellectuals, migrants and smut seekers. From the 1950s, a series of changes in Members of newly resurgent film societies the American film industry had flow-on Small independent city theatres also took on flocked to independent theatres in the capital effects on cinema culture in Australia, a new lease of life. Until the collapse of the cities, then created film festivals in order with significant consequences for adult Hollywood system of vertical integration, to import and screen films which would exhibition.89 In particular, Hollywood these theatres had had a hard time. !eir not – or could not – receive commercial underwent long-term restructuring in the supply of films and their ability to advertise release.97 One commercial distributor, wake of the Paramount decrees of 1948,90 and attract an audience were constrained. writing in support of censorship, described and in response to the 1968 introduction !ey were compelled to exhibit Hollywood such efforts as “purveying under the of a formal classification scheme. !e era films well after their first release, so many camouflage of ‘artistry’, an unprecedented

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these films rejoiced in sexual transgression and were banned.102 Above ground, 1 See Stephen Bottomore, ‘The Panicking Audience? from the early 1970s, the combination Early cinema and the “train effect”’, Historical Journal of of the R classification with government Film, Radio and Television, 19:2, 1999, pp.177-216. funding for the film industry resulted in 2 Cf. Thomas Elsaesser, ‘The New Film History’, Sight and Sound, 55:4, Autumn 1986, p.248: “To do the encouragement of local commercial film history today, one has to become an economic filmmaking. Among the earliest titles were a historian, a legal expert, a sociologist, an architectural number of ocker and sex comedies that had historian, know about censorship and fiscal policy, no pretensions to European-style eroticism read trade papers and fan magazines, even study 103 Lloyds List of ships sunk in World War One to let alone philosophy: Stork (1971), !e calculate how much of the film footage exported to Adventures of Barry McKenzie (1972),104 Alvin Europe actually reached its destination.” 105 106 Purple (1973), Alvin Rides Again (1974). 3 I am excluding from consideration films deemed ‘adult’ By now, the audience for this range of locally on grounds of horror, violence, or other non-sexual produced and European films was a fully extremes. respectable, mixed-sex hybrid, with multiple 4 Eric Schaefer, ‘Dirty Little Secrets: Scholars, Archivists, and Dirty Movies’, The Moving Image, 5:2, Fall 2005, motivations for enjoying blue content. pp.81-82. !ere is much more we need to know about 5 ‘At Poverty Point’, The Bulletin, 6 August 1903, the history of the production, distribution, p.30; see Ina Bertrand, Film Censorship in Australia, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1978, p.12. exhibition, regulation and reception of 6 This account of the Kinetoscope and Mutoscope is sexually explicit moving pictures in Australia. based on Chris Long, ‘Australia’s First Films’ Parts1, 2 Let me finish this preliminary survey by & 18, Cinema Papers, 91, January 1993; 92, March emphasising both the importance of such 1993; (with Bruce Klepner) 109, April 1996; Dan research to Australia’s cultural and social Streible, ‘Children at the Mutoscope’, Cinémas, 14:1, Autumn 2003. history, and the importance of the National 7 The Kinetoscope machine ran a continuous loop of Film and Sound Archive to that research. As 35mm film at 40 fps; the Mutoscope system involved Briony Behets and Graeme Blundell I mentioned at the beginning, cinema history a sequence of photograph flipcards displayed at the in a still from the feature Alvin Rides embraces a great deal more than a collection rate of some 80 per second. Again (Robin Copping, Tim Burstall of films as artefacts or texts. Cinema has been 8 Streible, ‘Children at the Mutoscope’. and David Bilcock, 1974); NFSA an integral part of over 100 years of social 9 The compilation Federation Films, made by Chris Long Collection, title no. 628799 interaction, defining the meanings of cultural for the NFSA, contains footage based on surviving creativity, business conduct, technological Mutoscope reels of topical events. NFSA Collection, title no.65162: Federation Films, (videorecording), Dir. development, moral values, leisure activity, Chris Long, Prod. National Film and Sound Archive variety of sensually exciting themes of and gender identities, all played out in the (Australia), 1991. lust and violence”.98 Inevitably, such films arena of public interest and opinion. Sexual 10 The American Biograph company produced erotic were cut, often clumsily, which in turn led activity and its representation have been films until it discontinued Mutoscope production in traditionally defined as outside that arena, 1909: Tom Gunning, ‘From the Opium Den to the festival boards and members into a persistent Theatre of Morality’, in Lee Grieveson and Peter campaign against censorship, beginning but their exclusion creates the very shape Krämer (eds), The Silent Cinema Reader, Routledge, in the mid-1960s.99 !ey achieved two and condition of the existence of the public Oxford, 2004, p.149. successes: first, in 1971, the introduction sphere. I would argue that understanding 11 ‘At Poverty Point’, The Bulletin, 11 April 1903. of the R classification meant that a class of Australians’ changing engagements with 12 C harles Musser, Edison Motion Pictures, 1890-1900: film that would previously have been cut blue movies is as central to our history An Annotated Filmography, Smithsonian Institution or banned was now available for exhibition as understanding our engagement with Press, Washington, 1997, p.132. to adults. Relatively few films have been gambling, the Returned & Services League 13 The 2006 Pordenone Silent Film Festival screened this (RSL), religion or cricket (and is, of course, recently rediscovered, 42 ft., 22.5 seconds Edison cut since then although a small number of film: [‘Ruth Dennis’], Prod: W K L Dickson, Prod. feature films have been refused classification, related to all of them). Edison, 1894. with notable public controversies erupting 14 Musser, Edison Motion Pictures, p.132. in the early 2000s over Romance (Catherine Jill Julius Matthews is a Professor of History 15 Mutoscope Manufacturers Extraordinaire, http:// Breillat, 1999), Baise Moi (Coralie Trinh at the Australian National University. She has mutoscope-manufacturers.co.uk/history/what- !i and Virginie Despentes, 2001), and Ken written extensively on the history of sexuality, victorians-did.asp?adapt=true&cd=32&ww=983&rel oad=1 (accessed 10 August 2007). Park (Larry Clark and Edward Lachman, gender, modernity and popular culture. Among 2002).100 A second success of the campaign her books are Good and Mad Women: 16 ‘Improper Pictures’, The Age, 12 March 1904. was the granting of formal exemption from !e Social Construction of Femininity in 17 This account is based on Chris Long and Bob Klepner, Twentieth Century Australia (Allen & Unwin, ‘Morals and the Mutoscope’, Cinema Papers, 109, censorship to film festivals, allowing films April 1996; and Bob Klepner, ‘The Mutoscope in a singular screening for an exclusive, 1984), Sex in Public (edited collection, Allen & Australia’, unpublished manuscript. I am grateful to Bob adult audience. Unwin, 1997), and Dance Hall and Picture Klepner for providing me with a copy of this paper. Palace: Sydney’s Romance with Modernity 18 ‘Mutoscope Pictures’, The Argus, 12 March 1904. A further, earlier, result of the energy of (Currency Press, 2005). She was the winner of 19 The Age, 12 March 1904. the film societies and festivals was the the Film and History Association of Australia 20 Ballarat Courier, 23 April 1904, p.2, quoted in Long encouragement of an underground film and New Zealand’s inaugural Research and and Klepner, ‘Morals and the Mutoscope’, p.54. production movement. Like the 1960s Writing Awards for Best Monograph and Best 21 T he Argus, 12 March 1904, p.16, quoted in Long and counter-culture of which it was a part, and Essay in 2006. She is currently a Research Fellow Klepner, ‘Morals and the Mutoscope’, p.54. like the European surrealist movement at the National Film and Sound Archive’s 22 Mutual Film Corp. v. Industrial Commission of Ohio, from which it claimed descent,101 many of Centre for Scholarly and Archival Research. 236 U.S. 230 (1915).

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23 Lee Grieveson, ‘Woof, Warp, History’, Cinema 43 T he Good Old Naughty Days (Polissons et no.525443: Aussie Maid in America, 1990; NFSA Journal, 44:1, Fall 2004, p.120. Galipettes), (DVD), Dir. Michele Reilhac, 2002. Collection, title no.513556: Australian Connection, 24 Ruth Vasey, The World According to Hollywood 1918- 44 Jennifer Mundy (ed.), Surrealism: Desire Unbound, 1990; NFSA Collection, title no.525355: Dick Tracer, 1939, University of Exeter Press, Exeter, 1997, p.226. Tate Publishing, London, 2001; John Baxter, ‘Man 1989; NFSA Collection, title no.525378: Phone Ray Laid Bare’, Tate Magazine, 3, www.tate.org. Sex Girls Australia, 1989; NFSA Collection, title 25 NFSA Collection, title no.484386: Motion Picture no.513565: True Blue, 1990. Distributors Association of Australia, Memorandum uk/magazine/issue3/manraylaidbare.htm (accessed and Articles of Association, 1926, S3(c). August 2007). 67 NFSA Collection, title no.539688: Arigato Baby, Dir. Greg Lynch, Prod. Greg Lynch, 1990; see 26 I na Bertrand, Film Censorship in Australia, University of 45 NFSA Collection, title no.12013: [Australian Silent Pornography Film c.1928]. also, Andrew King, ‘Reconciling Nicci Lane: the Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1978. Insofar as they are “Unspeakable” Significance of Australia’s First 46 NFSA Collection, title no.8010: [Australian Silent still extant, the Australian-made feature films subjected Indigenous Porn Star’, Continuum, 19:4, December Pornography Film c.1925]. to cuts and bans are part of the collection of the 2005, pp.523-543. NFSA. Collections of footage cut from imported films 47 This date is disputed by Kevin Brownlow, Behind the 68 John Pym, (ed.), Time Out Film Guide, 14th edition, have recently been discovered by Archivists at the Mask of Innocence, Jonathan Cape, London, 1990, Time Out, London, 2005, p.1020. National Archives of Australia. p.28. The claim to be the oldest stag film is disputed 27 Michael Flood, The Men’s Bibliography, 15th edition, by Linda Williams, Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and 69 Bertrand, Film Censorship in Australia, pp.189-190. 2006, http://mensbiblio.xyonline.net/ (accessed the Frenzy of the Visible, University of California Press, 70 Every State subsequently banned the classification, so August 2007). Berkeley, 1989, p.62. that X material is legally available only in the Federal 28 Yasmin Element, ‘Adult Sales Go Through the Roof…’, 48 NFSA Collection, title no.47145: [Girls Do You Think Territories, excluding the proscribed areas of the Eros, 6:1, 2005; Catharine Lumby, Katherine Albury It’s Big Enough: Silent Pornographic Film, 1929]. I Northern Territory. and Alan McKee, The Porn Book, Melbourne suspect the film is somewhat more recent than this 71 Musser, Edison Motion Pictures, p.36. University Press, Melbourne, forthcoming. date. 72 S ee Lisa Sigel, Governing Pleasures: Pornography 29 Brigid Cherry, ‘Refusing to Refuse to Look: Female 49 Di Lauro and Rabkin, Dirty Movies, p.52. and Social Change in England 1815-1914, Rutgers Viewers of the Horror Film’, in Melvyn Stokes 50 Michelle Baddiley, NFSA Centre for Archival and University Press, New Jersey, 2002. and Richard Maltby (eds), Identifying Hollywood Scholarly Research 2007 Research Fellowship Project: 73 Jill Julius Matthews, Dance Hall and Picture Palace: Audiences, BFI, London, 1999. ‘1899-1930 Home Movie Actualities from Early Sydney’s Romance with Modernity, Currency Press, 30 Women have traditionally been brothel owners and Australia: Mapping the Memory Grid’. Sydney, 2005. managers and, since the efflorescence of the adult 51 NFSA Collection, title no.70397: [Woman in a bikini 74 Christina Simmons, ‘Modern Sexuality and the Myth industry from the late 1980s, have been owners and strikes various poses on rock formations by the sea, of Victorian Repression’, in Kathy Peiss and Christina managers of sex or adult shops. c.1960]; NFSA Collection, title no.703150: [Woman Simmons (eds), Passion and Power, Temple UP, 31 David Morley, Television, Audiences and Cultural semi-naked in various poses and surroundings, Philadelphia, 1989, pp.157-177. c.1950]. Studies, Routledge, London, 1992, pp.157-158. 75 Jill Julius Matthews, Good and Mad Women: The 32 T he Theatre, 1 October 1911, p.13. 52 NFSA Collection, title no.703323: [Ultra Ray: Woman Social Construction of Femininity in Twentieth Century semi-naked dancing and undressing in a studio, 33 ‘ Censorship of Moving Pictures: Urgent Need for Australia, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1984. c.1950]. United Action’, Theatre Magazine, 1 February 1915, 76 Commonwealth Film Censorship Report, 1931. 53 NFSA Collection, title no.714337: Ants in her Pants, p.50. 77 Eric Williams, ‘Cultural Despotism: Film Censorship. Dir. Arthur Browne, c.1940. 34 Katherine Snyder, ‘A Paradise of Bachelors’, Prospects, Appendix: A Select list of Banned Films’, in Geoffrey 23, 1998, pp.247-84; Howard Chudacoff, The Age 54 In re Application of Excelsior Pictures Corp. v. Regents Dutton and Max Harris (eds.), Australia’s Censorship of the Bachelor, Princeton University Press, Princeton, of University of New York State. (App. Div., 3d Dept., Crisis, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1970, pp.70-76. NY Sup. Ct.) (2 A. D. 2d 941.) Nov. 14, 1956. 1999; see also, Timothy Gilfoyle, City of Eros: New 78 Bertrand, Film Censorship in Australia; Ina Bertrand York City, Prostitution, and the Commercialization of 55 Cockington, Banned, pp.122-128. and Diane Collins, Government and Film in Australia, Sex, 1790-1920, Norton, New York, 1992. 56 NFSA Collection, title no.47821: [Amateur Currency Press, Sydney, 1981. See also, Australian 35 Barbara Ehrenreich, The Hearts of Men, Doubleday, Pornographic Film Featuring People Wearing Government Classification Website, New York, 1983; Kevin White, The First Sexual Sunglasses]. www.classification.gov.au/special.html; ‘The State Revolution, New York University Press, New York, of censorship: Australia’, http://libertus.net/ 57 In 1969, Denmark decriminalised visual pornography, 1979. (accessed August 2007). except child pornography, for adult consumers. 36 Norman Lindsay, My Mask, quoted in James Sweden followed suit in 1970, West Germany in 79 Deb Verhoeven of RMIT is currently conducting a Cockington, Banned: Tales from the Bizarre History 1973, with both countries imposing some restrictions major research project on European films in Australia. of Australian Obscenity, ABC Books, Sydney, 2005, on violent pornography. 80 Eric Schaefer, “Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!” p.5. 58 Jack Stevenson, ‘And God Created Europe’, in Jack A History of Exploitation Films 1909-1959, Duke 37 Richard Hall, ‘Revealed: Mitchell’s Library of Dirty Stevenson, (ed.), Fleshpot: Cinema’s Sexual Myth University Press, Durham, 1999; Annette Kuhn, Books’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 June 1994, Makers and Taboo Breakers, Headpress, Manchester, Cinema, Censorship and Sexuality, Routledge, London, Spectrum, p.7A. 2000, pp.45-47; Williams, Hard Core, pp.97-98. 1988; Brownlow, Behind the Mask of Innocence. 38 Peter Coleman, Obscenity, Blasphemy, Sedition, 59 NFSA Collection, title no.4482: An Essay on Porno- 81 Schaefer, “Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!”, p.2; see Jacaranda Press, Brisbane, n.d.[1974], p.157. graphy, Dir. Christopher Cary, Prod. Chase Films,1973. also, Lea Jacobs, ‘The B Film and the Problem of Cultural Distinction’, Screen, 33:1, Spring 1992, pp.1- 39 Eric Reade, The Australian Screen: A Pictorial History of 60 Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900- 13. Australian Film Making, Lansdowne Press, Melbourne, 1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Revised 1975, p.60. Edition, Oxford University Press, Melbourne,1998. 82 Schaefer himself acknowledges “the public’s inability to distinguish between films made by the organized, 40 Eric Reade died in 1978, and I have not been able to 61 Jack Stevenson, ‘Blue Movie Notes: Ode to an Attic mainstream companies and those made by the find any other trace or mention of the Bertel Collection. Cinema’, in Stevenson, (ed.), Fleshpot, p.15. independent exploitation producers”. Schaefer, “Bold! 41 Michael Achenbach and Paolo Caneppele, ‘Born 62 Richard Corliss, ‘That Old Feeling: When Porno was Daring! Shocking! True!”, p.145. Under the Sign of Saturn: The Erotic Origins of Cinema Chic’, Time Magazine, 29 March 2005. in the Austro-Hungarian Empire’, Griffithiana, 65, 83 Bertrand, Film Censorship in Australia, p.130. As well 63 I am grateful to Craig Brittain for providing me with a 1999, p.129. as sex-based films, the exploitation genre of horror film copy of his unpublished manuscript, ‘Brief History of in particular fared badly, with a more or less blanket 42 See Al Di Lauro and Gerald Rabkin, Dirty Movies Australian X’. ban imposed on their importation in the 1940s and (ed.): An Illustrated History of the Stag Film, Chelsea 64 NFSA Collection, title no.513582: Down Under, Dir. 1950s. James Sabine (ed.), A Century of Australian House, New York, 1976, p.43; Joseph-Marie Lo Kelly Nichols, Prod. Dennis Huntley, 1983. Cinema, Mandarin/Reed Books/AFI, Melbourne, Duca, L’Erotisme au Cinéma, 3 Vols, Pauvert, Paris, 1995, p.74. 1958, 1960, 1962; also Projektionen der Sehnsucht. 65 NFSA Collection, title no.513432: Lusty Afternoon, Dir. Saturn – Die erotischen Anfänge des österreichischeb Greg Lynch, Prod. Victoria Goodwin, 1986. 84 NSW Inspector-General James Mitchell, 1916, cited in Kinematografie (videorecording), Filmarchiv 66 For example, NFSA Collection, title no.525413: Bertrand, Film Censorship in Australia, p.93. Austria, 1999. Aussie Exchange Girls, 1990; NFSA Collection, title 85 T he Sydney Morning Herald, 8 April 1949, p.4.

NFSA JOURNAL Volume 2, No 3, 2007 11 BLUE MOVIES IN AUSTRALIA: A PRELIMINARY HISTORY

86 Schaefer, “Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!”, Melbourne Film Festivals (1952-1958)’, Screening 101 Danni Zuvela, ‘The Ubu Moment: An Interview with pp.197-198; Felicia Feaster and Bret Wood, the Past, 19, March 2006, www.latrobe.edu.au/ Albie Thoms’, Senses of Cinema, 27, July-August Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation screeningthepast/19/sydney-melbourne-film-festivals. 2003, www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/03/27/ Film, Luminary Press, Baltimore, 1999, p.9. html#fnB6. albie_thoms.html. 87 David F Friedman, A Youth in Babylon: Confessions of 98 Herbert G Hayward, ‘Through a Sewer in a Glass 102 For example, Aggy Read’s Boobs A Lot (1968), Albi a Trash-Film King, Prometheus Books, Buffalo, 1990, Bottomed Boat’, Masque, 1:5, May/June 1968, in Thom’s Rita and Dundi (1966), and David Perry’s p.29. Bertrand, Cinema in Australia, p.312. A Sketch on Abigayl’s Belly (1968); see NFSA 88 F riedman, A Youth in Babylon, p.36; ‘Card Mondor’, Collection, title no.411740: Sydney Underground 99 40 Years of Film: An Oral History of the Sydney http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_Mondor Movies. Ubu Films 1965-1970, (video compilation), Film Festival, 1993; see also, NFSA Collection, title (accessed August 2007). 1997. no.309943: [No Sex Please – We’re Australian. 89 Richard Maltby, ‘“Nobody Knows Everything”: Sydney Film Festival Film Forum 1982], (sound 103 NFSA Collection, title no.1770: Stork, Dir. Tim Burstall, Post-Classical Historiographies and Consolidated Prod. Bilcock & Copping Film Productions, 1971. Entertainment’, in Steve Neale and Murray Smith recording), 1982; Williams, ‘Cultural Despotism: (eds), Contemporary Hollywood Cinema, Routledge, Film Censorship’. 104 NFSA Collection, title no.159: The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, Dir. Bruce Beresford, Prod. Phillip Adams, London, 1998. 100 ‘Refused Classification: Film Classification in Australia’ 1972. 90 These were issued under an anti-trust action, ordering provides details of non-hard-core films that have the major studios to divest themselves of tied theatres, been banned or cut since 1970: www.refused- 105 NFSA Collection, title no.4: Alvin Purple, Dir. Tim which effectively broke their vertical integration of classification.com/ (accessed August 2007); see Burstall, Prod. Tim Burstall, 1973. production-distribution-exhibition. also, ‘The Chopping List: Banned and Censored 106 NFSA Collection, title no.410: Alvin Rides Again, Dir. 91 Ina Bertrand, ‘ “Bring[ing] Family Life into the Movies in Australia’, www.cosmos.net.au/~hologram/ Robin Copping, Tim Burstall and David Bilcock, Prod. Theatres”: The Drive-ins of Western Australia’, chopping/list_home.html (accessed August 2007). Tim Burstall, 1974. Screening the Past, 19, March 2006, www.latrobe. edu.au/screeningthepast/19/drive-ins-WA.html; Ben Goldsmith, ‘“The Comfort Lies in All the Things You Can Do”: The Australian Drive-In – Cinema of Distraction’, Journal of Popular Culture, 33:1, Summer 1999, pp.153-164. Films offered everyone, including 92 Kim Newman, ‘Exploitation and the Mainstream’, in Geoffrey Nowell-Smith (ed.), The Oxford History of World Cinema, Oxford University Press, Oxford, women and children, visual access 1996, pp.509-515. to previously hidden movement – 93 Matthews, Dance Hall and Picture Palace, pp.235-238. of semi-naked male boxers and 94 Phillip Adams, ‘The Happiest Summer of All’, The Age (Melbourne), 9 October 1982, reprinted in Ina Bertrand, (ed.), Cinema in Australia: A Documentary scantily clad female dancers. The History, UNSW Press, Sydney, 1989, p.191. potential effect of such spectacle 95 J ack Stevenson, ‘And God Created Europe’, in Stevenson, Fleshpot. was to make available to everyone, 96 J ack Stevenson, ‘And God Created Europe’, in Stevenson, Fleshpot. not just men, the involuntary thrill of 97 Cathy Hope and Adam Dickerson, ‘“Films for the Intelligent Layman”: The Origins of the Sydney and physical (sexual) response.

NFSA Journal Journal of the National Film !e NFSA Journal is published quarterly. and Sound Archive, Australia If you would like to subscribe, please contact Volume 2, No.3, 2007 us at [email protected]

ISSN 1834-0970 Editor – Paolo Cherchi Usai © Australian Film Commission Editorial Board – Meg Labrum, and Jill Julius Matthews Ann Landrigan !e National Film and Sound Archive Curatorial Advisors – David Boden, is part of the Australian Film Commission Matthew Davies, Sonia Gherdevich, !e National Film and Sound Archive is Elizabeth McNiven, Graham Shirley a member of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) and of the Technical Advisors – Glen Eaves, International Association of Sound and Mick Newnham, David Watson Audiovisual Archives (IASA) Design – Zoo Design www.nfsa.afc.gov.au Production – AFC Communications 0 8 1 1 3

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