History of the Stag Film - MoSex - Manhattan (NSFW)

[Daniel D. Teoli Jr.]

Museum of Sex in NYC has a show on the history of the stag film.

https://hyperallergic.com/510521/stag-porn-history-museum-of-sex

My archive has a huge collection of stags going back from 1919 to the 70's. But most of it is pre 1960's to 1930's. I may be working in NYC at Christmas, don't know. But hope to go to the show. I was there a while back for their Araki show.

Here are some blog posts on MoSex and the Araki show. You will have to sift through the posts to find them, but they are all on one page. It gives you an idea of the Museum and layout.

nsfw

https://photographyshowarchive.art.blog/

If you can't get to the show, here are some samples of what they have in their installation. The French stags from the 1920's are the rarest of the rare when it comes to stags. Eveready Harton is the first animated stag film made. Read the history on it, fascinating. Again, you will have to sift through a few items to find the stags. The only thing rarer than early French stags were synched dialogue early stags.

nsfw

https://archive.org/search.php?query=stag film teoli

8mm stags had some interesting box art and illustrations. But the film IQ was usually pretty bad.  

strong nsfw

https://danieldteolijrarchivalcollection.wordpress.com/2018/01/29/selection-from-8mm-artists-book/

16mm had nothing for art. Here are some labels off the old stag films.

https://archive.org/details/VintagePornographic16mmFilmLabelsD.D.TeoliJr.A.C.

Reels and cans of stags, mixed in with non-stag material.

https://archive.org/details/SmallGaugeFilmReelCanArchiveD.D.TeoliJr.A.C.1

I was lucky to get some oral history from an old guy in his 90's selling off his film collection. I bought most of his stags. He said he donated a lot of non-stag films to UCLA Film Archive. 

Here is how he acquired his stag films, when they were illegal, as told to me in relay by the agent disposing of his film collection:

“I bought most of these films from a Camera Store in Tijuana, “Ramone Ramiez’s Camera Store” on the main drag and you had to ask for them. They would have a sheet of paper with the titles and you would choose from that list. Then they would go in the back room and put your package together with no titles on the can or sleeve in case the border police would check your bags. On average, I never paid more then 15.00 each in the late 1930 and 1940’s for a 400 foot reel.”
 

(Quote was condensed for brevity)

 

Another guy told me that lodges and fraternal orders used to have stag librarians that would be in charge of the groups stag film collection and show stags to the all male groups. I don't know if he was speculating or not. But seems plausible. All this history is being lost.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraternal_order

 

The reason I like to collect ancient stag films is…no copyright issues and usually affordable.  Plus they are historical and fit in my interests of social documentaries. Finally, subject matter is agreeable. Even so, YouTube still bans me over content.  So whether it is copyright or content, there are problems.

 

Here are some of the categories that film collectors work in:

 

Cartoons
Underground Films
Trailers
Commercials
Feature Films
Silent Films
Comedies
Short Subject
Documentaries
School / Library / Educational
Newsreels
Stag / Porn Films
Musical / Soundies
TV Shows
Home Movies