Sexplosion: From Andy Warhol to A Clockwork Orange-- How a Generation of Pop Rebels Broke All the Taboos Kindle Edition

SEXPLOSION recounts the story of the turbulent years between 1967 and 1973, when many of the sexual taboos preventing the free expression of ideas in film, theater, television and literature came crashing down. Author Hoffer constructs the book as a series of parallel narratives, including the first performances of THE BOYS IN THE BAND, HAIR! and O! CALCUTTA! on Broadway; the filming and reaction to groundbreaking movies such as MYRA BRECKINRIDGE, CARNAL KNOWLEDGE, WOMEN IN LOVE, THE DEVILS, DEEP THROAT and A CLOCKWORK ORANGE; the furor surrounding the public television series AN AMERICAN FAMILY, with its real-life portrayal of an openly gay character; and the reaction to sexually explicit books such as COUPLES.

Some of the stories are especially entertaining. I enjoyed reading about the docu-soap AMERICAN FAMILY, that focused on the real-life exploits of the Loud family; its struggles to stay together; and the way in which it viewed the fact that the eldest son Lance was openly gay. The family themselves had no problem with this; but the media at the time reacted in an hysterical manner, prompting the Loud family to appear on THE DICK CAVETT SHOW in order to defend themselves. As Hoffer tells it, they were the victims of a deliberate campaign of distortion by the mainstream media, as well as the show's producers.

The book describes the lives of some larger-than-life characters, notably the British actor Oliver Reed, who tried to film the famous nude wrestling scene with Alan Bates in WOMEN IN LIVE while drunk. Eventually director Ken Russell had his way, and Reed was forced to do it sober. The actor found it difficult to get on with costar Glenda Jackson, and for his love scenes he deliberately chewed garlic, so that Jackson would thoroughly dislike the experience of kissing him. In THE DEVILS Reed initially objected to having his eyebrows shaved, but only agreed to do so if he could take out an expensive insurance policy on them. Likewise Jack Nicholson made headlines, not only for his performance in CARNAL KNOWLEDGE but for his openly sexist comments made in the media about his love for "pussy."

And herein lies the book's principal argument. While the late Sixties and early Seventies were certainly a time when censorship laws were relaxed, that did not necessarily lead to a redefinition of gender roles. Most of the pioneers at that time were men; while some women (notably Gloria Steinem) achieved prominence, the majority were still treated as sex-objects. Many of the films - DEEP THROAT being a prime example, or LAST TANGO IN PARIS - showed women as the victims of male sexual fantasies, while writers such as Norman Mailer openly criticized Second Wave feminists such as Germaine Greer on the public stage. It seemed that the so-called "Sexual Revolution" had to be accomplished on masculinist terms, by reinforcing the kind of gender discrimination that had dominated American cultures ever since the end of World War Two. Women were expected to act in subordinate roles.

Sometimes the author becomes a little too fond of his own rhetoric; he is particularly critical of Kenneth Tynan, for instance, with his penchant for wearing outrageous clothes. There are also some errors in the text - the Royal Court Theatre is in Sloane Square, not Sloan Square, as the author claims. Nonetheless SEXPLOSION is worth reading as an evocation of a turbulent period in American popular cultural history; a period which now seems faraway in terms of its views of sex and gender, but one which at the time inspired moral panics amongst the media and government representatives alike.

This is a compendium of everything that was culturally/sexually controversial in the late 60s and early 70s. Movies, books, plays-- if it ruffled prudish feathers, it's here. Hofler's thesis is that this was a time of particular revolutionary ferment, and he walks through about five years of censored and uncensored challenges to propriety with a light touch and considerable humor. Is it fun? Yes. Hofler does us the favor of compiling all of these gossipy goodies in one place. I enjoyed it.

That said, it's a hodgepodge that seems somewhat perfunctory. You get four or five pages on dozens of controversial films and novels and plays hooked together in a slapdash fashion. If you're really interested in this stuff, just Googling any one would yield much the same info.

TERRIFIC TALES
“I really enjoyed this one. This is a very entertaining read, even more fun that Hofler’s last book The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson. Especially provocative are the stories about Carnal Knowledge, Last Tango in Paris and Deep Throat, three films that appeared to lead the way to triple-x fare in mainstream movies. But court cases involving those films stopped that trend dead in its tracks. We’ve had to wait almost half a century to see that trend play out with films like Nymphomaniac, Interior Leather Bar and Blue Is the Warmest Color.

Howard Rosenman

For better or worse, we are not surprised to see nudity or sexual activity on the screen or even in the theater now. Such things had been forbidden, and then in the 1960s, when there was tumult about so much else, things changed. I was growing up at the time and was crazy about movies, and I found _Sexplosion: From Andy Warhol to A Clockwork Orange - How a Generation of Pop Rebels Broke All the Taboos_ (It Books), by Robert Hofler, full of memories of how the screen got liberated. For those who are younger, this will seem like a history from some distant time and some bizarre culture. Hofler is a senior editor at _Variety_, and so plenty of his stories involve Hollywood, but Broadway and Off-Broadway are here, as well as liberating blows from England; he has also covered the books with sexual themes that were bestsellers, and even has a little to say about television. For those who can get all the porn they want by pressing a few buttons, or can join with millions of readers in _Fifty Shades of Gray_ or are more offended by the way capitalism is corrupted in _The Wolf of Wall Street_ than in the orgy scenes, _Sexplosion_ will provide an entertaining chronicle of the years around 1968 to 1973 when the walls got busted down. The leaders in the movement, in Hofler’s view, may have been motivated by artistic expression, but there was also a strong motivation of rebellion. Gore Vidal remembered about writing his transsexual extravaganza _Myra Breckinridge_, “I hadn’t even made up my mind about the sex change at that point. I heard this voice in my head. Absolutely like Joan of Arc, telling me to liberate my native land.”

Other leaders included Gerome Ragni and James Rado, lovers who wrote the musical _Hair_ that got its premiere off Broadway in 1967. The show did raise enough issues that about a dozen lawyers were on retainer to keep it going in its different national venues, and the Supreme Court had eventually to declare that it must go on. The other Broadway work covered here at length is _Oh! Calcutta!_, a nude review in which the actors did not stand still. Kenneth Tynan dreamed up the idea of putting frank sexuality on the boards, and requested that famous authors contribute a sketch to his avant-garde review. Gore Vidal and Jules Feiffer almost did, but instead brought forth _Myra Breckinridge_ and _Carnal Knowledge_, respectively. _The Boys in the Band_ by Mart Crowley was the first play to be written by a homosexual about openly homosexual characters, some of whom fit stereotypes that offended other homosexuals at the time. When Ken Russell’s faithful adaptation of D. H. Lawrence’s _Women in Love_ came out in 1969, people tut-tutted over its depictions of forced sex and especially the spectacular scene of Alan Bates and Oliver Reed performing nude wrestling in front of a fireplace. John Schlesinger’s 1971 _Sunday Bloody Sunday_ was the follow-up to his equally ground-breaking _Midnight Cowboy_ and was based on an episode in his own life, involving an older man and a woman who are both in love with the same young man. It got good reviews but not from Princess Margaret, who at the premiere exclaimed (within earshot of the director), “I thought it was horrific. Men in bed kissing!” This got the rejoinder from her husband: “Oh Margaret, shut up.”

Television of the time, relying on broadcast networks, made fewer waves. However, _All in the Family_ had an episode in which Archie and Edith returned early from church only to find that their daughter and son-in-law were upstairs having sex. Archie dealt with that, but in another episode could not stomach that an old friend, a seemingly macho ex-professional linebacker, was a homosexual. Moralist-in-Chief Richard Nixon couldn’t take it, either, and said, “I turned the goddamned thing off.” In a little story that Hofler enjoys telling because it shows how far we have come, President Barack Obama was happy to meet Jesse Tyler Ferguson who plays a homosexual father on _Modern Family_, telling him, “Michelle and my daughters love that show.” The influence of the taboo-breakers of forty years ago has been undeniable, and this history of the turbulence is vivid, funny, and thorough.

The stories in this book about Gore Vidal, Jane Fonda, Natalie Wood, Stanley Kubrick and many other well-known people in movies, theater and publishing are lots of fun to read. And very lurid in their gossipy detail.