by film archivist Dennis Nyback

Stag films started appearing in the early part of the twentieth century. Almost as soon as people were first filmed, films were made of people having sex. The first film Edison made was “The Kiss.” Stags featured hard core sex, were in black and white and were almost exclusively silent. A friend in Seattle offered to sell me some in the late 1980’s. He let me watch them first. That is a good idea with stags. Most of them are boring. From that friend and from some other sources I was able to buy some outstanding ones. In 1993 I decided to first do a stag film show at the Pike Street Cinema. Even with outstanding stags a program made up exclusively of them will be tedious.

For Stag Party Special I decided to use five great stags and intersperse “naughty” items in between them. The variety in the show is what made it greatly entertaining. Naughty covers a lot of sub genres. Short “tease” films were produced at the same time as stags. Back then possessing a stag film could land you in prison. Tease films were within the limit of the law. They showed no actual nudity, but hinted at is a much as they could get away with. A “nudie cutie” also had no actual nudity, but showed as much skin as possible, usually with humor. Also in the naughty variety were strip tease films. These always featured dancers who would peel down to pasties and a g string. For my program I put in another type of naughty film, Soundies. Soundies were like prehistoric rock videos. They were film performances of a single song. Some were simple, some were involved, and some were naughty. Soundies were played in a sort of juke box called a Mills Pan-o-ram that would play a film instead of record. These machines were found in bars and taverns throughout the land. For a nickle the customer could see a three minute film. The bar owner would order films to play in the machine from a catalog. The naughtiest Soundies were in the back of the catalog in a section dedicated to the ones that were declared illegal to show in certain municipalities. Outside of the areas where they were illegal, they were very popular. For a good, concise article on Soundies go to http://vzone.virgin.net/ian.bayley/ARTICLES/soundies/soundies.htm

When I said that most of them are boring I meant just that. Other than sex not a whole lot happens. I like stags that have a story. For a rule of thumb I like them if the performers are clothed at the beginning. Many stags start with naked people in bed. A better stag will start with a simple plot device that will eventually get them into bed. A good example is the stag “The Further Adventures of Pete The Tramp.” Pete is a bum who knocks on the back door of a house looking for a hand out. The woman of the house is young, attractive and lonely. She invites Pete in. Looking past the homely face, over weight body, ragged clothes and general filth, she finds him attractive. She objects only to the filth. She tries to give Pete a bath before luring him into the bed room. Oddly, Pete just wants a free meal and spurns her advancements. I will leave the rest of the story to your imagination.

It was the extreme illegality of stags that resulted in the great breadth of their charms. They had to be shot in secrecy. Many were made independently. They all knew that a simple sex act was the easiest thing to shoot, so for theirs to stand out they would have to be creative. Some of the things they came up with are simply amazing.

Source:  Stag Party Special