“CLINICAL
EXPLOITATIONâ€
By
Raymond Benson
There
have always been what have been termed in the motion picture industry
“exploitation films,†even back in the silent days. The late 1930s and much of
the 1940s, however, saw a deluge of cheap, not-even-“B†pictures made, usually
independently of Hollywood and marketed in guerilla fashion as “educationalâ€
adult fare. You know the type. Reefer Madness. Child Bride. Marihuana.
In
the 40s, especially in the wake of World War II, the Baby Boomer phenomenon was
just beginning, and there was a need for sexual hygiene education for young
people—at least, that’s what the makers of these tawdry movies told the public.
There most certainly was a necessity for Sex Ed in schools—and some legitimate
companies stepped up to the plate to create “clinical†material shown to
gender-segregated classrooms dealing with the facts of life, menstruation, and
venereal disease. I can remember being in fifth or sixth grade in the early 1960s…
all the girls were ushered out of class for an hour for a special screening of
some cryptic film that all the boys were curious about, but of course had no
idea what it could possibly be. Whenever we asked any of the girls what they
had seen, we were met with an emphatic, “I’m not telling you!†This just
made the event even more of a mystery.
In
the 1940s, a producer who was really nothing more than a snake oil salesman—but
a very successful one—named Kroger Babb specialized in making, at the time,
sexually frank and sometimes explicit but so-called educational films that were
really nothing more than exploitative and an attempt to attract an audience
with prurient inquisitiveness. Mom and Dad, first seen in 1945, might
be the most successful of any of these pictures. In fact, it was one of the
biggest box office hits of the entire decade and beyond, as it was exhibited up
until the 1970s.
Babb
and his team would come to town, rent a theater for a week or two, and
distribute promotional materials and place ads in local papers that hawked the
film’s “moral†and educational aspects, and that it was something every young
adult must see (no children allowed). There was, of course, push back from
churches, public officials, and the law. In some territories the film was
banned (the New York State Supreme Court finally allowed it to be shown in
their state after years of being unseen). All this served to boost audience
interest! And if there wasn’t much of a protest, then Babb intentionally created
and distributed his own fake outrage in flyers and such to drum up the
enthusiasm!
Screenings
also featured a lecture during intermission by a “medical specialist†named
Elliot Forbes—who was really a hired actor. This interlude also served as a
chance to sell sexual hygiene literature produced as tie-ins to the film.
Interestingly, in African American communities, the Elliot Forbes role was
taken by none other than Olympic star Jesse Owens (who was most likely
handsomely paid).