Whether pseudo-documentary or pseudo-dramatic, these largely plotless and actionless "nudies" were strictly T&A films and never exposed any genitalia.
Wood Jr., burleycue films began to fade by the end of the '50s with the growing popularity of a new kind of titillating movie set in a nudist camp.
Mawra, or the striptease horror/fantasy Orgy Of The Dead (1965), directed by Stephen C. Despite such mid-'60s efforts as The Peek Snatchers (1966), directed by Joseph P. Other burlesque films set their storylines against a grindhouse backdrop, such as the 1954 effort Dream Follies, directed by Phil Tucker and written by Lenny Bruce (who also appears unbilled in the film, playing two comic roles). Klaw also produced and directed the burleycue revue films Varietease (1954) and Teaserama (1955), both with Page, and Buxom Beautease (1956) with Blaze Starr, St. Between 1952 and '57, Page posed for thousands of cheesecake (and bondage and spanking) stills for photographer Irving Klaw, who also filmed her in numerous 8- and 16-mm loops, including Betty's Erotic Dance In High Heels, Betty's Lingerie Teaser Dance, and Cute Betty Dancing In Panties. Cyr starred in the feature Striporama (1953), which also introduced the beloved Bettie Page (often credited as "Betty"). Cyr and Tempest Storm both performers also appeared in the burlesque features Lili's Wedding Night (1952) (aka Her Wedding Night) and A Night In Hollywood (1953). "Burleycue" films were most popular in the early '50s, with such 1952 shorts as Love Moods with Lili St.
Alongside the slowly growing and highly secretive realm of short pornography for anonymous collectors and secret screenings, a new kind of above-ground erotica wriggled onto theater screens by the late 1940s when such films as Hollywood Revels (1946) and Midnight Frolics (1949) featured the routines of strippers and comics from burlesque shows. Some films pretended to teach sex education, like Test Tube Babies (1953), Because Of Eve (1948), or the highly lucrative Mom And Dad (1944), directed by William Beaudine and produced by Kroger Babb, which included an actual scene of childbirth. Melodramas such as Slaves In Bondage (1937) and The Flesh Merchant (1954) depicted young women forced into prostitution Child Bride (1941) looked at pedophilic inclinations among country folk. In the first decades of sound, exploitation films went as far as they could in offering the ticket-buying public sexually-themed films which could still be legally distributed.
The situation remained the same after the arrival of sound: The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930 policed the sexual content of mainstream films, while underground suppliers continued to make pornographic shorts (known variously as "stag films" or "smokers" because they were usually shown at all-male gatherings, such as fraternal organizations and private parties). The Hays Office in Hollywood standardized censorship rules for the industry in 1922, but pornography such as On The Beach (1925) continued to be made, sold, and viewed illicitly throughout the silent era.
One example to have survived the years is A Free Ride (aka The Grass Sandwich), thought to have been made as early as 1915. These "cooch reels" (an allusion to the salacious gyrations of hoochie-coochie dancers) were usually 100-foot rolls for private collectors who had their own projectors. Although they made sure that no general-release film went too far in its treatment of sex, clandestinely shot and screened erotic films already existed. Municipal censorship boards started appearing in America by 1908, and before the end of the teens, state and local censors existed throughout the country. In the brief peep-show films of the early 1900s, scantily-clad women posed, danced, or undressed in such then-daring efforts as Her Morning Exercise and The Pajama Girl. Before the turn of the century, an exotic dancer named Fatima performed her act for the motion-picture cameras - and for at least those segments of the public who saw the film uncensored. The ability to sexually stimulate an audience is one of the earliest distinctions of film.