Do you think this industry will disappear one day?
Of course not... It is the oldest profession in history.

This was the answer of one of the actresses in pornographic films when asked about the pornographic film industry, that industry that may seem recent as an organized industry, which promotes a commodity as old as humanity itself. It was permissible and did not know the prohibition for long periods of time, so what we have received from Pharaonic papyri or mosaic drawings from the Roman civilization or Indian heritage books confirm this, but what we are concerned with here in this article is a presentation of the beginnings of the adult industry with the beginnings of the emergence of cinema or shortly before that.

How were the beginnings?

It is likely that the first appearance of a pornographic image, animated or semi-animated; It was through the microscope machine, at the end of the 19th century, that machine that worked in the same way as a folding notebook by moving a number of drawn cards made of cardboard in a certain order in front of a single lens.

The public in England called that machine “what the butler saw,” after a famous case that was public opinion in 1886 when Lord “Colin Campbell” accused his wife, “Gertrude Elizabeth Blood” of treason, and he filed for divorce before the British courts, and during the trial He cited the butler in his house, who confessed that he had witnessed his mistress's infidelity through the keyhole of the door.

Another machine that appeared at about the same time was also famous, which is the “kintoscope”, which was invented by the famous inventor “Thomas Edison” at the end of the nineteenth century, and which worked with a mechanism different from the mutoscope, by moving a tape of images between a bulb and a lens in front of an eye. The viewer at a speed of about 46 images per second, so the result is a moving image that is closer to reality.

As for cinema, or rather, when did the public see a pornographic film for the first time in history?

The oldest films of that era that have come down to us is a seven-minute French short film that was produced in 1896 under the title Le coucher de la mariée or “Bride’s Bedtime”. The rest of it was discovered, which is only two minutes in 1960 by the French Film Archive. It was not a pornographic film in the sense we know now.

The second oldest film, and considered the first pornographic film produced in South America, is the Argentine film El Satario, produced in 1907. Speaking of the United States, the first pornographic film appeared there in the same year as the legendary David Griffith film “The Birth of a Nation” in 1915, which is The movie A Free Ride, a coincidence that calls for contemplation that the two films will appear together in the same year. The movie “Griffith” - which many consider to be the true birth of the art of cinema - may be linked to that pornographic film, according to what was mentioned by the English writer “Dave Thompson” in his book “Black, White and Blue . ” : pornographic cinema from the Victorian era to video cassettes”, where it is likely that Griffith may have been the director of the unknown pornographic film as well, but it is more likely that the film crew members were unknown and appeared under pseudonyms.

Of course, many pornographic films appeared during that period, and they were shown in secret to avoid censorship and societal anger, which expressed rejection of this type of films, and they were shown in brothels or similar secret places.

Certainly, many films appeared during that period, but only a few of them reached us. According to a study conducted at the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research , the number of films produced in the period from 1915 to 1968 amounted to more than 2,000 pornographic films that were shown secretly. Perhaps one of the films that had a different character in terms of the novelty of the idea at the time; The Virgin with the Hot Pants was produced in 1924, as it is considered the first pornographic film to use animated scenes with live film scenes, and as we mentioned earlier, these films were shown in secret and this continued for decades.

But in the late sixties, what was later called the “sexual revolution” emerged, that event that changed many societal standards in separate parts of the world, and resulted in a generation of emancipated youth, which later contributed to radical changes in conservative societies around the world.

The sexual revolution

Sex is the driving force on the planet. We should embrace it, not see it as the enemy.

— Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy magazine.

The term "sexual revolution" appeared for the first time in the early twentieth century, associated with those tumultuous years in the twenties of that century, those years that were called the "Roaring Twenties", those years that witnessed tumultuous events, such as the invention of television and the emergence of sound in cinema for the first time... an era Jazz music, the famous Charleston dance, the discovery of penicillin and the first air crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. Those years also witnessed the empowerment of women to vote and exercise their political rights for the first time in the history of the United States.

It was clear that those years had changed some societal constants in the whole world, which led to more openness and liberation, that openness whose features appeared clearly in the culture of that era in terms of writings, music, films, or even in the form of fashion that was largely liberated from community restrictions.

The term appeared again in the writings of the Austrian psychologist "Wilhelm Reich" in the 1930s, who was very interested in writing about sex and sexual liberation, but the most famous appearance of the term was at the end of the sixties with the outbreak of the youth revolution in May of 1968.

In the fifties of the twentieth century, with the advent of beauties of the silver screen such as Marilyn Monroe, Birgit Bardot and others, the term Sex Symbol was derived as a description of very beautiful and attractive stars. In that period, the American publisher Hugh Hefner also issued his famous scandalous magazine Playboy. Many Hollywood stars appeared on its cover, and it was the real beginning of some porn stars later, whose star shone in the seventies, which was called the golden age of porn.

The golden age of porn

Who among us can forget the scenes of Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) in the famous movie Taxi Driver, while he watches a porn movie in one of the small theaters, and who can remember the name of the movie that Travis invited his girlfriend to watch, who leaves him angry when she realizes that she is watching a porn movie ?

And to refresh your memory, the name of the movie is Sometimes Sweet Susan 1975, directed by Fred Donaldson. Welcome to the bustling city of New York, the city that Travis wished to cleanse of its dirt, and the time is the seventies of the twentieth century, the golden period for pornography not only in the United States, but in most parts of the world.

The term “Golden Age of Porn” or “fashion porn” refers to the period from 1969 to 1984, when pornographic films received widespread attention and spread rapidly. We mentioned earlier that there were many films that were produced in previous periods, but they were not shown to the public on a large scale, until the famous Pop Art artist “Andy Warhol” decided to show his controversial movie “Blue Movie” to the masses in the “Garrick” cinema. In New York City on June 12, 1969, it was the first time in the history of cinema that a movie containing real sex scenes was shown to the general public, marking a date adopted by most cinema historians to be the actual beginning of the era of pornographic films.

Some film critics took the film seriously, to the extent that it received positive praise from the most famous film critic, Roger Ebert. Direct on the most controversial movie "Bernardo Bertolucci" in the history of cinema "Last Tango in Paris", which was starring Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider.

In the immediate following year, the movie “Mona” was shown by the producer “Bill Osco”, and it was more pornographic than the movie “Warhol” and its plot seemed more coherent. A little later, in the late 1970s, Boys In The Sand, a homosexual pornographic film, was released. And with the advent of the year 1972 appeared, which changed the form of the pornographic film industry forever. And it's Deep Throat.

elegant porn

It was a middle ground between crime and art.

— American novelist Norman Mailer, commenting on the middle-class audience for watching the movie.

The beginning was when the young Gerardo Rocco Damiano opened a hairdressing salon for women in New York, years after the end of his military service in the ranks of the US Navy, that young man of Italian origins, who would later become one of the most important directors of porn films in the seventies, was listening to the stories and stories of women About sex while they were in the salon, so he decided at that time to enter the world of making pornographic films, thinking that this field brings a lot of profits. Indeed, he was able to reach a low-cost film producer, which helped him enter the field of filmmaking in general, before he had the opportunity to direct his first films.

Meanwhile, Gerard Damiano was writing a movie script whose story seemed different and funny at the same time. This was the reason why no one was enthusiastic about producing it, but “Louis Piraneo,” the son of a member of the Italian mafia in New York, agreed to produce the film, and indeed they began the journey of searching for the film crew .

Filming began in January 1972 in filming locations between Florida and New York, with a production cost of $47,500. The film was announced in Times Square, the largest and most important square in New York, in a precedent that had not happened before with any film of this kind. The premiere of the film took place on June 12, 1972.

Once again, critical articles are singled out in the most important American newspapers to analyze a pornographic movie, and the movie is mentioned in the most important television programs, which led to an increase in the demand for watching the movie. Audiences were standing in long lines in front of movie theaters to watch the movie, and for the first time in US history, porn theaters attracted conservative middle-class women. The matter did not stop at that, but some stars of American society watched the film, such as the legendary singer "Frank Sinatra", film directors such as "Martin Scorsese" and "Brian De Palma", and Hollywood stars such as "Jack Nicholson" and "Warren Beatty".

The film achieved huge revenues that had not occurred in nearly 20 years, and theaters opened their doors to the public nearly 20 hours a day.

In a famous article written by the young journalist Ralph Blumenthal in The New York Times Magazine in about five pages entitled “Porno Chic”, he described the impact of pornographic films on cinema and how it became acceptable to discuss it publicly, but rather how the matter came to the attention of film critics in it. And he took it seriously, and called that wave the word that remained with it for a long time; It is the name of “elegant porn,” but the winds did not come as the ships desired, and ban campaigns began to expand from one state to another. It was banned in New York, followed by other states, police pursuits of the film increased, and a series of prosecutions for the film began.

Many lawsuits have been filed against the film as spreading obscenity, and it has already been banned in many states, but it continued to be shown in New York. The limits of normal behavior, but the matter did not end there. In March of 1973, Judge “Joel Taylor” issued a ruling banning the film and considering the film obscene. He imposed a fine of $100,000 on the distribution company, which was later reduced after an appeal against the verdict .

In the year following the release of Deep Throat, Gerard Damiano made another film that some considered one of the most important films of that era, which ranked seventh in the American magazine Variety's list of the most revenue-grossing films in 1973, The Devil in Miss Jones. Also during that period, important films such as Behind The Green Door appeared, which saw the first appearance of a black actor in a pornographic film, after American boxing champion Johnny Keyes was persuaded to play an auxiliary role in the film. In that era, the number of films produced increased and porn became a reality, but the years that followed did not bring happy news to the industry .

Miller v. California

Going back a little, specifically in 1971, the state of California witnessed a case that occupied public opinion and had a direct impact on the pornographic film industry, but how was that?

The events of the case began when the owner of a mail-order company specializing in the distribution of pornographic films and magazines named “Marvin Miller” sent to a restaurant in “Newport Beach”, California, a promotional booklet containing illustrations from pornographic films and magazines. Five copies of the booklet were sent to the restaurant by mail. The owner of the restaurant had only to inform the police of the incident, so that Miller was accused of spreading obscenity, and through a long series of trials, the case reached the US Supreme Court, and the court refuted Miller’s claim that the First Amendment to the US Constitution guaranteed freedom of expression for citizens, as it considered that publishing pornography Not protected by the First Amendment, after which the court issued its recommendations, which were later known as the “Miller test” , which is three criteria for testing whether the artistic work is obscene or whether it enjoys the protection of the American First Amendment to the Constitution, and the criteria were as follows:

If the average person, applying the standards of contemporary society, finds that the business as a whole is in the public interest.
The work depicts or describes in an overtly offensive manner sexual behavior or biological functions specifically defined under applicable state law.
If the work as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.
What followed was a watershed event in the history of the pornographic film industry in particular, as a series of prosecutions of pornographic films and their producers followed the court's decision.

In 1976, there was a series of federal cases against Deep Throat. The lawsuits were filed in Memphis, Tennessee, and about 117 people who participated in the production or distribution of the film, led by producer Louis Piranio and actor Harry Reams, were prosecuted for conspiracy to publish obscenity. Linda Lovelace and director Gerard Damiano were considered witnesses in the case.

This was the first time the federal government had prosecuted an actor on obscenity charges, but Reims had a lot of support from Hollywood stars like Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson. Remez was convicted in the case and sentenced to five years in prison, but the sentence was overturned on appeal on the grounds that what Remez had done was a year before the adoption of the "Miller criterion".

By the 1980s and with the advent of video cassette tapes, cinema revenues decreased from the revenues from showing pornographic films, and for the first time the revenues from video sales exceeded the revenues generated from cinemas, and the number of cinemas shrank until it reached 250 theaters in the early 1990s after reaching 2500 houses. Introduced in the mid seventies.

In the mid-1980s, the light of the golden period of pornography faded forever, after the spread of video devices and the lack of people’s interest in watching pornographic films on the cinema screen, as was the emergence of a report issued by the US government on pornography during the era of President Ronald Reagan called the “Missy Report” in relation to the US Attorney General. Edwin Macy”, and the report contained about 1960 papers, which is the summary of a comprehensive investigation conducted by a committee formed by order of the US President to discuss pornography and its impact.

The report revealed most aspects of the pornographic film industry and its harmful effects on society. The report also proved the existence of hidden links between the makers of those films and organized crime in the United States of America.

Thus, the golden age of pornography ended forever, and the page of that era was closed with all its names that reached the sky, including producers, directors, actors and actresses, who formed a large part of the imagination of that generation who lived through that period.