The Rialto Report recently celebrated our fourth birthday, and so we thought it would be a good moment to take a brief step outside of the bubble of golden age XXX films, and look at what was happening to the depiction of sex in mainstream films over the same period.
Who were the sex stars of the 1970s? How seriously was their work being taken? And how well do their films measure up today?
Starting in 1969, Playboy magazine ran an annual article every December selecting the ‘Sex Stars’ of that year.
The series was enlightening on two fronts:
Firstly, it chronicled the increased sexual permissiveness in mainstream films, with films like ‘Last Tango in Paris’ (1972) receiving more and more attention with the general public.
But secondly, the articles also treated explicit sex films side by side with their Hollywood counterparts, thus fueling the idea that the two streams would perhaps eventually merge into one. Jamie Gillis, Serena, Jennifer Welles, and Harry Reems shared the same space as Raquel Welch, Warren Beatty, and Jack Nicholson.
Interestingly however, as the decade moved forward, the Playboy articles started cooling on this notion, with the initial enthusiasm for XXX films waning and being ultimately replaced by a blissful ignorance of the existence of hard core movies.
Ironically this coincided with a time when some of the best adult films were being made, by filmmakers such as Radley Metzger, Alex de Renzy and Anthony Spinelli. With hindsight it seems as if the novelty of the concept of real sex on film was perhaps more interesting to the world than the actual quality of the films.
(As a bonus we’ve also included the October 1971 article from Playboy, ‘The Porno Girls’ – one of the first detailed portrayals of the emerging sex film industry in a high-circulation magazine.)
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(click on cover to view article)
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Playboy – Sex Stars of 1969: Including –
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Playboy – Sex Stars of 1970:
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Playboy – The Porno Girls – 1971:
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(click on cover to view article)
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Playboy – Sex Stars of 1971:
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(click on cover to view article)
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Playboy – Sex Stars of 1972:
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(click on cover to view article)
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Playboy – Sex Stars of 1973:
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(click on cover to view article)
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Playboy – Sex Stars of 1974:
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Playboy – Sex Stars of 1975:
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Playboy – Sex Stars of 1976:
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Playboy – Sex Stars of 1977:
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(click on cover to view article)
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Playboy – Sex Stars of 1978:
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Playboy – Sex Stars of 1979:
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Fascinating context to the rest of the materials on this much-loved site.
It’s interesting to see who seriously adult films were taken in the beginning…….
Love the flip-books – any chance of further magazines being added to this collection>??
Never get enough of seeing the vintage magazines. Another great job by all at the Rialto Report. Thanks for posting
Some familiar faces here and it’s interesting to see them when they were considered SEX STARS!
e.g. Karen Black, Cybil Shepard
Of course I have a copy of the 1975 with the one ☝️ & only true godness of the 70s Barbara Bourbon
Just excellent! Thanks!
Really like that pic of Linda Lovlace – very sexy!
I have just finished listening to the Jennifer wells interview what a great story and the life she`s had . This is real closer for her fans out there. This is all we want to hear from stars out there is they are happy and doing well. Thats way after all these years the fans just want to whats happen to the gold ages stars they may have known are just getting to know now with web sites like this one . Thank you guys for all the work you put into this. I am still waiting on some news anything on Taylor and Brooke young the teenage twins they should be in their late 50`s now
I remember buying the last two on the list over the counter….