Original Climax Films: historicizing the British hardcore pornography film business

ABSTRACT

This article presents findings from my research into the British hardcore pornography business. Porn studies has given little coverage to the British pornography business, with much of the academic literature focusing on the American adult entertainment industry. Recently, there has been a rising interest in the historical framework of porn cinemas both in popular culture and in academic work. This article contributes to this debate, taking both a cultural and an economic approach to explore the conditions that led to the emergence of British hardcore production as an alternative economy in the 1960s. In this economy, entrepreneurs make use of new technologies to produce artefacts that are exchanged for an economic benefit, while circumventing laws to distribute their artefacts. To historicize this economy, I draw on ethnohistorical research, which includes interviews with people involved in the British hardcore business and archival research. I argue that a combination of glamour filmmaking, a relaxation of political and cultural attitudes towards sexuality, the location of Soho, London, and emerging technologies for producing films collectively contribute to the emergence of an alternative economy of British hardcore production. I focus specifically on the practices of two entrepreneurs within this economy, Ivor Cook and Mike Freeman, considering how their actions inadvertently created the British hardcore film business, and played a significant role in the development of hardcore production outside of the United Kingdom.

KEYWORDS:

• British pornography
• ethnohistory
• political economy
• enterprise
• technology

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Simon Fletcher, Mike Freeman, Edward Goodman, and J. J. Marsh of the Erotic Film Society for their contributions to this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Oliver Carter http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1663-0771

Notes

1 It should be acknowledged that there are a number of academic studies that discuss the introduction of the R18 certificate. See Hunter (2014), Petley (2011), and Perkins (2012).

2 See http://vintage-erotica-forum.com/, accessed November 4, 2017.

3 See https://adultloopdb.nl, accessed November 4, 2017.

4 According to Slade (1984), a collector donated a selection of British ‘rollers’ to the Kinsey Institute. My own research indicates that the Sexmuseum Amsterdam Venustempel also has a small holding of 1960s British pornography.

5 Goldstein’s (2005) autobiography reflects on his career as a strip club owner in 1960s Soho, and gives a sense of the zeitgeist of this period.

6 See Wood (2017) and Long and Sheridan (2008) for more detail on Marks’ and Long’s early careers as glamour photographers in Soho.

7 Aidan McManus was interviewed on 8 June 2016.

8 Flat farming was a highly exploitative practice that involved landlords letting flats to sex workers at high rents.

9 All information relating to Mike Freeman is taken from interviews conducted between 3 and 6 April 2016, and the first volume of his autobiography (Freeman 2011).

10 A detailed history of British obscenity law can be found in Robertson (1979).

11 See Taylor (1970).

12 The 8-mm cameras and projectors were regularly advertised in the back pages of tabloid newspapers throughout the 1960s.

13 An article from News of the World (5 February 1967) tells of ‘blue films’ being screened at The Regent Palace Hotel in Piccadilly Circus.

14 According to Mike Freeman, British hardcore porn films were known as ‘rollers’ rather than loops, because of how the 8-mm reels would roll when projected.

15 Di Lauro and Rabkin (1976) estimate that the British hardcore rollers first appeared between 1964 and 1966.

16 Ivor Cooke is referred to.

17 Interview with Dave Wells conducted on 28 October 2017.

18 Interview with Lindsay Honey conducted on 12 September 2017.

19 Pornography: The Longford Report (1972) and Cox, Shirley, and Short (1977) give an insight into the financial aspects of Soho’s pornography trade.

20 See http://climaxstory.com/ (accessed November 4, 2017) and http://www.hmpmovie.dk/ (accessed November 4, 2017) for more information about the development of the Danish porn industry, as well as Nordstrøm (2012).

21 See The News of the World, 21 December 1969.

22 A full account of this investigation can be found in Cox, Shirley, and Short (1977) and Tomkinson (1982).

23 See https://adultloopdb.nl, accessed November 4, 2017.