 |
| This week, Greg explores the loop Girl on a Bike. |
As we continue exploring Ed's involvement in the world of silent 8mm porn loops here at Ed Wood Wednesdays, it's worth glancing back at the first 19 Swedish Erotica loops to level-set by considering a loop that is generally agreed to have been made by Ed himself. Swedish Erotica loop #8, "Girl on a Bike "(circa 1973) is also subtitled by Ed.
Below is my transcription. Any mistakes in the character attribution of lines are all mine.
GIRL ON A BIKE
Boy : HI THERE
Girl: HI THERE YOURSELF
Boy: WHERE ARE YOU GOING
Girl: HOME. I LIVE IN THE BIG HOUSE ON THE CORNER
Girl: WHY DON'T YOU COME OVER AT EIGHT O'CLOCK
Boy (his knuckles): KNOCK, KNOCK
Boy: SIT DOWN
Boy: BOY, WHAT A GROOVY PLACE
Girl: THANK YOU, IT IS MADE FOR COMFORT
Boy: COME OVER HERE
Boy: GET UP
Girl: OHH, BABY THAT FEELS GOOD
Girl: OHHHHH, HONEY
Girl: OHHHHHHHHHHHH
Girl: LICK, BABY, LICK
Girl: OHHHHHHHHHH
Girl: NO MORE, NO MORE
Boy: SUCK, RED, SUCK
Girl: PUT IT IN
Girl: DEEPER, DEEPER
Boy: LIFT UP
Boy: RIDE IT RED, RIDE IT
Boy: SUCK IT OFF
Boy: OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Girl: UMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Boy: SEE YOU LATER
With only 26 lines totaling 88 words, this is one of the sparest sets of subtitles I've yet transcribed. Against the aggregate average of about 4 words per line, we here have a mere 3.38. The subs were, no doubt, meant to be nearly invisible, an accent, their simplicity easy to digest without distraction. In "Girl on a Bike," there's even a line ("KNOCK, KNOCK") that constitutes a sound effect and not dialogue.
Many of the signatures of the Bloom loops are present. Tina keeps on her black stockings and garters throughout, and we have small colored circular pillows strewn about a fuzzy-blanketed mattress. Artistic tropes includes dissolve edits, camera pans (including worshipful handhelds in medium close-up POV of the camera'eye travelling up and down's Tina's body) and even overhead shots. By the then current demands of the genre, the early Bloom-produced loops are positively ostentatious. So much is that the case, in fact, that the sex can sometimes get lost in it, here as often an inordinate amount of time spent on foreplay and the camera gliding about.
Boy (his knuckles): KNOCK, KNOCK
Boy: SIT DOWN
Boy: BOY, WHAT A GROOVY PLACE
Girl: THANK YOU, IT IS MADE FOR COMFORT
Boy: COME OVER HERE
Boy: GET UP
Girl: OHH, BABY THAT FEELS GOOD
Girl: OHHHHH, HONEY
Girl: OHHHHHHHHHHHH
Girl: LICK, BABY, LICK
Girl: OHHHHHHHHHH
Girl: NO MORE, NO MORE
Boy: SUCK, RED, SUCK
Girl: PUT IT IN
Girl: DEEPER, DEEPER
Boy: LIFT UP
Boy: RIDE IT RED, RIDE IT
Boy: SUCK IT OFF
Boy: OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Girl: UMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Boy: SEE YOU LATER
The End
With only 26 lines totaling 88 words, this is one of the sparest sets of subtitles I've yet transcribed. Against the aggregate average of about 4 words per line, we here have a mere 3.38. The subs were, no doubt, meant to be nearly invisible, an accent, their simplicity easy to digest without distraction. In "Girl on a Bike," there's even a line ("KNOCK, KNOCK") that constitutes a sound effect and not dialogue.
Many of the signatures of the Bloom loops are present. Tina keeps on her black stockings and garters throughout, and we have small colored circular pillows strewn about a fuzzy-blanketed mattress. Artistic tropes includes dissolve edits, camera pans (including worshipful handhelds in medium close-up POV of the camera'eye travelling up and down's Tina's body) and even overhead shots. By the then current demands of the genre, the early Bloom-produced loops are positively ostentatious. So much is that the case, in fact, that the sex can sometimes get lost in it, here as often an inordinate amount of time spent on foreplay and the camera gliding about.
The more loops I see, the more I even recognize little signatures of Ed's like lengthy close-ups of tongue-kissing (also present in his written words). And we get one of the most characteristic moments of all, uniting hundreds of loops artistically right at the outset: Tina breaks the 4th wall and rides her bike right into the camera, into extreme close-up then blackness.
For a handful of years ranging roughly from 1972 through 1977, all manner of loop series produced and distributed by Noel Bloom often contained the aforementioned subtitles. In Girl on a Bike, lines are often recycled (we've been at "groovy places" before), and the U'MM's and O'HH's are ubiquitous (even more HH's on the end of the O'HH's here than typical).
For a handful of years ranging roughly from 1972 through 1977, all manner of loop series produced and distributed by Noel Bloom often contained the aforementioned subtitles. In Girl on a Bike, lines are often recycled (we've been at "groovy places" before), and the U'MM's and O'HH's are ubiquitous (even more HH's on the end of the O'HH's here than typical).
Other characteristic loop subtitle signatures include triadic lines (SUCK, RED, SUCK and LICK, BABY, LICK) and plenty of repetition (DEEPER, DEEPER and RIDE IT RED, RIDE IT). Red, of course, is not the girl's name, but Ed often referred to redheads in the Bloom loops as "Red" in the subtitles. The characters in the larger family of loops are seldom named, "Big John" or 'Long John" Holmes being the common exception. Though likely unintentional, the lack of names has the effect of reinforcing the casual hookup narratives with a "no names necessary" sensibility.
To advertise the loops, though, on loop box-covers - also doubling as catalogs, sometimes inserted in the box and sometimes affixed to the outside of the box with the catalog open to the relevant page - Ed did include names, curiously. Perhaps personalization was deemed a selling point. The summary for Girl on a Bike identifies the female is Tina:
Tina loves riding her bike after class. Meeting new people is her thing, so hop on while she shows you what love and sex is all about. Leaving nothing to the imagination, this spicy film is a must for your collection.
The man is unnamed on both the box-cover summary and in the loop. He is Keith Erickson aka Luther Worth, a prolific performer in early '70s Hollywood-shot porn. A capable actor at times, he was especially prone to mugging and overacting. He was, along with John Holmes, the most ubiquitous performer in the Bloom family of loops (they even appear together in numerous loops, with an easy onscreen chemistry suggesting they knew each other well). In Girl on a Bike - though balding in reality - he wears a ridiculous-looking toupee and tries to look cool. He doesn't. The lines Ed supplies him in the subtitles are, most often, demands made of Tina, with nary a courtesy statement.
Tina looks bored much of the time, her expression blankly inscrutable. The pair have little sexual chemistry. The female performer has previously remained unidentified (my post in a private forum a few weeks back the sole exception) until now.
She is the wonderful Margie Lanier, a mostly-softcore actress with a scant list of known credits. Among them is a lead role, Dee, in the Wood-scripted/Stephen Apostolof-directed Fugitive Girls. Fugitive Girls debuted in the summer of 1974, approximately shot around the fall of 1973. Girl on a Bike carries a copyright of 1974 on existing box-covers, but the Swedish Erotica series made its bow in 1973 (and many Bloom loops show evidence of being shot a year or two earlier than currently-known copyright dates from existing box-covers). In other words, the loop is another film starring Margie and "written" by Ed, and the two films could very well have been shot around the same timeframe.
Loops like "Girl on a Bike," now an artifact from a dead medium, may be lost on audiences today, but were among the first instances of filmed hardcore to penetrate the culture as a mass consumer object. And in the nexus a new and socially defining moment, a sociological change whose importance is now easily forgotten, there was Ed Wood, blazing trails.
Note: In this small cauldron of the burgeoning porn industry, Margie Lanier also worked twice with Jack Descent, who shot the gone-missing Operation Redlight, starring and written by Ed. And Margie often appeared in films with her friend Tallie Cochrane (also in Fugitive Girls, as the incredible Kat), who met her future husband on set performing at the Talmadge Mansion, in a sex scene from, you guessed it, Operation Redlight.
To advertise the loops, though, on loop box-covers - also doubling as catalogs, sometimes inserted in the box and sometimes affixed to the outside of the box with the catalog open to the relevant page - Ed did include names, curiously. Perhaps personalization was deemed a selling point. The summary for Girl on a Bike identifies the female is Tina:
Tina loves riding her bike after class. Meeting new people is her thing, so hop on while she shows you what love and sex is all about. Leaving nothing to the imagination, this spicy film is a must for your collection.
 |
| Keith Erickson |
Tina looks bored much of the time, her expression blankly inscrutable. The pair have little sexual chemistry. The female performer has previously remained unidentified (my post in a private forum a few weeks back the sole exception) until now.
She is the wonderful Margie Lanier, a mostly-softcore actress with a scant list of known credits. Among them is a lead role, Dee, in the Wood-scripted/Stephen Apostolof-directed Fugitive Girls. Fugitive Girls debuted in the summer of 1974, approximately shot around the fall of 1973. Girl on a Bike carries a copyright of 1974 on existing box-covers, but the Swedish Erotica series made its bow in 1973 (and many Bloom loops show evidence of being shot a year or two earlier than currently-known copyright dates from existing box-covers). In other words, the loop is another film starring Margie and "written" by Ed, and the two films could very well have been shot around the same timeframe.
Loops like "Girl on a Bike," now an artifact from a dead medium, may be lost on audiences today, but were among the first instances of filmed hardcore to penetrate the culture as a mass consumer object. And in the nexus a new and socially defining moment, a sociological change whose importance is now easily forgotten, there was Ed Wood, blazing trails.
Note: In this small cauldron of the burgeoning porn industry, Margie Lanier also worked twice with Jack Descent, who shot the gone-missing Operation Redlight, starring and written by Ed. And Margie often appeared in films with her friend Tallie Cochrane (also in Fugitive Girls, as the incredible Kat), who met her future husband on set performing at the Talmadge Mansion, in a sex scene from, you guessed it, Operation Redlight.
