Naked At Noon: Vintage Nudist Photographs

About the Author:

Jean Le Baptiste is a collector and archivist of populist erotica. He is also the editor of "Paris Pussy" and "Dirty Danish Dolls".

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INTRODUCTION The cult of nudism, or naturism, began in Germany at the start of the 20th century, as part of a mass movement that aimed to bring the German people into closer contact with nature. The first German naturist magazine, Die Schönheit ("Beauty”) was founded by Karl Vanselow in 1902, and was followed in the 1920s by such magazine publications as Lachendes Leben, Urania and Die Freude, books such as Nacktkultur ("Nude Culture”), and films like "Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit - Ein Film über moderne Körperkultur”, which featured a naked Leni Riefenstahl. Not surprisingly, the American nudist movement was started by a German immigrant, Kurt Barthel. In 1929, Barthel joined up with like minds to form the American League for Physical Culture, and in 1932 they opened the country's first nudist colony, Sky Farm, in New Jersey. Meanwhile, the nudist gospel was spread by Frances and Mason Merrill, a couple who had discovered the joys of naturalism whilst vacationing in Europe, with two books, Among The Nudists (1931) and Nudism In America (1932). Nudism really hit the headlines in 1933 when the Reverend Ilsley Boone, a charismatic orator, broke away from Barthel's ALPC to start his own organisation, the International Nudist Conference, and launched a daring new magazine publication, The Nudist. It was in this climate that nudist films like "Elisya, Valley Of The Nudes” came to fruition, followed by the likes of "Unashamed” and Mich Mindin's 1935 film, "This Nude World”, which was inspired by the book On Going Naked by Jan Gay. European nudist films, such as "La Marche Au Soleil” (1932, filmed at a Hamburg nudist colony), also enjoyed American releases during this period. Nudism came under mounting pressure towards the end of the 30s, and was dealt a severe blow in 1941 when the US Post Office, responding to a growing puritanical clamour, outlawed the mailing of "obscene” material. Reverend Boone fought against this law throughout the 40s and 50s, and finally won his case in 1958, when the US Supreme Court ruled that nudist photographs were not obscene, and therefore permitted to travel through the mail system. This led to a rapid resurgence in nudist culture, a new wave of nudist cinema spear-headed by Max Nosseck's "Garden Of Eden”, and a plethora of nudist magazines. Nudist publications of the 1950s and 1960s included: Sunshine And Health, Modern Sunbathing, Journal Of American Nudism, Nude Living, Sun World, American Nudist Leader, Paradise, ........

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