In the 1920s they were called stags, smokes, or blue movies; today it's adult films. But until now, apart from brief summaries in film histories and scholarly articles, there has been no complete history of the pornographic film industry. That gap is filled by this lively and insightful book that provides commentary on individual movies and traces the evolution of film styles and storylines through nearly a century of  X-rated material. All the research for the book is based on viewings of the movies—many of the oldest are now archived on DVDs—and on interviews with living actors and producers. Tracing an arc from the masks and dim lighting of the earliest days to the realism and absence of trick photography in the 1920s and 1930s, the account then ponders the obsession with close-ups of body parts in later decades. The overview ends in the late 1970s, when the advent of home videos changed adult entertainment completely.

Dave Thompson's profile page

Dave Thompson is the author of more than 80 books, including Cream: The World's First Supergroup, Go Phish, Moonage Daydream, Never Fade Away, and Smoke on the Water. In 1998, he was ranked one of rock's five foremost authors in Mojo magazine. He lives in London and Delaware. 

"Definitely enlightening, and entertaining."  —The A.V. Club

"The book is effective and moving."   —Alarm

"If you have any kind of rock'n'roll reference library, chances are you own at least one book by Dave Thompson"   —Paper magazine

"In a series of chronological chapters, [Thompson] takes a scholarly look at an industry for which there is little mainstream archive or history."  —Rambles.net

"Thompson tells the story behind milestones in the genre's history . . . cultural historians will delight in Thompson's tale."  —Playboy.com

"A comprehensive historical view of adult cinema."  —The Hornet