A long time ago; The History of P*rnography

The first cinematographic film was shown in December 1895, the first erotic films are considered to have been made in 1896. In 1897, traveling cinemas traveled throughout Europe showing these films on “Gentlemen’s Nights”. Now when I say erotic movies, you or I in 2025 have a much more extreme idea of ​​what that could mean. When I started researching this blog, I shared the clips with my friends gushing about historical porn (Unfortunately, being my friend means I can send you 19th century porn at 10am without so much as a greeting.). Much to the disappointment of my friends, the 1896 examples barely show the clavicle, much less what can be found today in a given Hub. But you have to remember that this was 130 years ago, in the Victorian era, things were much more conservative (at least in public).

Bedtime for the Bride (1896)

The wedding sunset (Bedtime for the Bride) began life as a popular theater production in Paris. The film features the original cast, starring Louise Willy as the Bride, who acts at risk (Not by our standards, but imagine you’re a Victorian gentleman who stiffens at the sight of an ankle.) striptease for the audience and her new husband who watches from the side. The film was originally around 7 minutes long, but tragically the reels suffered irreparable damage at some point while it lay forgotten in the depths of the French film archives; It was not discovered again for an entire century, until 1996. Just under 2 minutes of the footage survives today. A testament to how popular this show was and a great way to confuse modern sexperts researching the history of porn, there appear to be 2 versions of this movie with the same name, one from 1896 and one from 1907 (Will we ever be free of the film industry and its love of remakes?)

Bedtime for the Bride (1907)

1896 release:

1907 version:

At the turn of the century, we began to see more and more so-called “bachelor films” as producers created production companies. One such company is the Austrian production company Saturn Film Production, founded by Johann Schwarzer in 1906. This short-lived company specialized in erotic films, which were not necessarily PORN (by our standards), but NOT NOT porn, if that makes sense. These short films were often quite artistic and typically featured young women completely naked; as one of my friends said “… wooing in a field“I think this evokes an elegant classical Greek nymph in the forest setting, but I’m not sure. As with so many good things, this company was shut down by puritanical conservatives. One politician wrote that the films were “filth like I have never seen in half a century traveling to all corners of the world”. The one specifically complaining apparently showed two men dressed as monks doing *horrified gasp*gay things. In late 1909, the police raided the production company, and a vexing, poorly documented court case resulted in the destruction of all of its film and photographic material. They also discovered that the monk video they were talking about in the first place was not even made by this production company! Fortunately, some copies were saved by private collectors and can be seen today.I haven’t found the monk’s, but Here are some of my favorite shorts.. (If anyone finds the video of the monk hidden among his great-grandparents’ things, please let me know)

Jugendspiele also known as Youth Games (1906) Johann Schwarzer

In an effort to avoid the EUDespite strict censorship laws, smut filmmakers moved to Argentina, where they were able to make SIGNIFICANTLY more explicit material than what the Saturn film company was making. Around 1907 we have El Satario (The Satyr/The Devil) and now this is definitely PORN. Once again we see some girls in a field with a nefarious satyr stalking them, then he kidnaps one of them and it’s ON. We see close ups of genitals, 69ing, penetration and it ends with a great internal ending *ahem*. Can look at the whole thing shemy. german film I Am Abend (1910) american film A paid trip (1915-1917) and also fight for the top spot like the first hardcore movies. So everything we’ve seen has been straight. The first queer hardcore film we know of came from France in 1920: The Modern House of Madame Butterfly. In this we see very bisexual behavior. Tragically, it’s also pretty racist and most of the actors have yellowface, which, yk… not great, but not unexpected for the time. But you can see it here!

The Modern Cleaning of Madame Butterfly (1920) Fun fact! This guy on the right, Bernard Natan, is believed to be the director.

The Stag Film era ended around the 1960s with the sexual revolution and home movie technology becoming available. From 1969 to 1984 we obtain the ‘golden age of porn. This era more or less specifically refers to pornography made in California, where Pornos with full cinematic releases really hit the mainstream. Andy Warhol’s Blue Movie (1969) shows explicit sexual relations, but it also has a real plot and scenes that are not just about people having sex; It’s all about the Vietnam War.

I really hate the name Golden Age of Porn. It really implies that the industry was somehow ethical when at this stage it REALLY wasn’t. Major popular releases of the time, such as Deep Throat (1972), abused and coerced their performers, as there were no regulations surrounding the industry. I could really get on my soapbox here and go into a lot of detail, but I won’t. But I know I have thoughts. Fortunately, porn production is more regulated these days, but it’s still worth keeping in mind where you’re watching. Speaking very generally; If you pay for it, artists are more likely to be treated ethically.