Calling on you porn historians out there: Facials have been a staple of porn probably forever, and at least since I started watching XXX movies in the mid-70s. As I review material from my porn-formative years, however, something stands out: Despite their appeal to raincoaters, erotic enthusiasts, and pervs, facials were nowhere near as common 30 years ago as they are now. Back then, you were as likely, if not more likely, to see the guy pull out and spurt all over his partner's ass, pussy, stomach, or tits. One notable exception was the gorgeous Loni Sanders, who seemed to delight in getting her face pasted, and did it fairly frequently. Sometime between then and now, the facial came to dominate porn. I'm not complaining, although I do wish there were fewer target-practice and hungry-birdie scenes, and more female completion. But I am curious as to how the evolution occurred. Were the women, in general, less willing? Were directors trying to more "erotic" and less "pornographic"? Did some light bulb come on in someone's head? A slow day at work, so I thought I'd ask and see what happens.
[Link]
Len801 Deactivated User
754 Posts 9/07
Posted - Dec 15 2009 : 5:59PM
Perhaps the people who worked in the golden age (from performers to moview crews, directors/producers) may be able to provide some professional/personal insight. Porn produced in the golden age until the advent of video was plot oriented. Sex scenes barely lasted 5-7 minutes at most from beginning to end. Color film stock was probably quite expensive and to catch a cum shot was not easy with those clunky 16mm cameras. Perhaps filmmakers did not really want to turn off the general public and did not not want anti-porn groups think that it was really all prurient stuff that was being shot. So while cum shots existed from very early on in "stag movies" of the early century, ejaculation on the face, open mouth was rather rare. With the advent of cheap and mass produced porn (shot on video) from the mid-1980's, it was easier and cheaper to shoot porn movies (outdoors, sunnier climate in California, etc). Producers were pushing the enveloppe more and more with all kinds of things (anal, DP, facial cum shots, etc). People were no longer content just seeing the guy, after screwing for 10-15 minutes, just dump his load on the woman's ass or stomach.
I have always thought that the facial was a director's favorite that caught on with viewers. In the earliest days of mass produced porn there seem to have been a big set up for the cum shot. The shoot was halted as camera and lighting were arranged and the most efficient way to capture the shot was to have the guy jerk off. All the female has to do is be available and have a pretty face. The facial could be done anytime with minimum chance that the camera would miss the moment. No need for a full crew and the cum shot could added to the finished product. I seem to remember there was a lot of cut to facial. Edited by - ntfighter on 12/15/2009 11:33:52 PM
[Link]
nietzsche Deactivated User
5470 Posts 8/03
Posted - Dec 16 2009 : 1:52AM
I strongly suspect porn makers in the 70s simply didn't *know* that viewers wanted to see facials. How would they? Only the internet--boards like this one in particular--have made that knowledge obtainable.
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son. 1048 Posts 7/04
Posted - Dec 16 2009 : 3:23AM
And shortly after that Anabolic began their Gang Bang Girl series and that was all facials/oral cum shots. I remember reading an interview with Trixie Tyler and she said that type of cumshot was very important. Also Rodney Moore came along around then and his modus operandi was the monster facial.
Why so many porn scenes end in facials, lists up there with where all the lost pens go, in the great mysteries of the universe... The only thing worse than facials, in my book, are when he cums in her mouth and she swallows it immediately. Give me a spectacular cum-on-tits, cum-on-belly, or creampie, any day.
Not all people like to see facials - I would really like some diversity, and for the performer's personal preferences to shine through. It's sexier that way.
[Link]
Len801 Deactivated User
754 Posts 9/07
Posted - Dec 20 2009 : 10:17AM
In the early days of porn the "cum shot" (ejaculation) was important to show that the performers were not faking and going through the motion. Very few of the golden age porn movies involved facials or even in-mouth cum shots. When it (facials) became that pervasive is a bit tricky to pin down. Certainly some early examples have been pointed out: the Anabolic gang-bangs, the Stagliano movies, Rodney Moore, perhaps the sloppy throating and gagging by Max Hardcore. And then of course in porn (as in everything else involving entertainment) when one or two people do it, then everybody has to get in on the action. Then came the swallowing, the cuming in the mouth for a while but the girl ending up spitting it out. I don't think it will ever go back to just cum shots on belly and breasts and ass, since the "facial" has become THE "staple" of any porn movie produced anywhere in the world. However there is a certain activity that is prevalent. For instance, you can be sure that in a big/huge-bust movie, most of the cum shots will land on the woman's breasts (along with the tit-fuck). I agree that some diversity now and then would be welcome, and nto seeing a guiy banging the girl for 35 minutes then all of sudden breaking off the girl falling quickly to her kneels while the guy jerks off (sometimes for several minutes) and she squats there with her mouth gaping open waiting for the "final delivery". It really looks fake and contrived, and not really part of the sex act or action. In essence it comes off as a "solitary" action, it's all about the male having an orgasm and he usually finishes himself off with no assistance from the woman. To a certain extent the "creampie" may look more "natural" as it seems like a natural progression of the sex act.
While preferences vary among viewers, I'm of the opinion that the purpose of porn is primarily to depict cum-loving beauties get to indulge their addiction. The more cum, the better. And always in the mouth and on the face.
[Link]
Ida Lupino Deactivated User
429 Posts 11/08
Posted - Dec 20 2009 : 6:01PM
It's strictly to watch guys jerk off. If JM made a vid that showed 100 guys jerking off on a mannequin, it would be a huge seller.
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” - Kierkegaard 2684 Posts 8/09
Posted - Dec 20 2009 : 6:16PM
^ Amen. Jerking off is one thing we guys are all experts at. It's really not that special. Facials are so boring (since they are mandatory at the end of every scene for many years). What is even more annoying is the increasing use of fake semen. Either that or male stars have mutated balls that produce exceedingly white cum that looks like Elmer's Glue, on a all too frequent basis. Do they really think we consumers are that dumb and can't put the 'two shots in one scene from one guy' + 'blindly white semen' together? Pathetic part is that it apparently is profitable enough as consumer demand still for fake jizz in mainstream is holding strong!
I'm thinking that Peter North's spectacular cumshots gave rise to the demand for facial cumshots. You can almost see a direct correlation to the popularity of the facial cumshot, to the "pre-North era" vs. the "North era" forward. Also, I'm thinking that the migration of porn, from the movie theatres into the home, had something to do with changing tastes. For example, could you imagine BJ Only/Facial movies (e.g. Dr. Fellatio, Shut Up and Blow Me, Blowjob Fantasies, Cock Smokers, etc.) playing in the old porn movie houses? Once the audience took control of the movie from playing in real-time in the theatre, to holding the remote with their free hand, most of the genres and lines we know today became possible. As was said earlier, everybody woke up to the fact that most porn consumers like facials. And, if you didn't, there is a genre/line more to your liking (e.g. creampies, tit lines, etc.). Me? I love the "Facial Era."
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son. 1048 Posts 7/04
Posted - Dec 20 2009 : 10:39PM
I think you've been watching too many "Freaks Of Cock/Insane Cock Brothers" scenes. They and one or two other internet sites are big proponents of fake cocks squirting pina colada mix on girls' faces.
pornography wasn't sex but fantasies of an impossibly hospitable world 12377 Posts 9/07
Posted - Dec 21 2009 : 9:17PM
I think it's always difficult to disentangle what porn consumers 'like' and what they are provided with. Certainly a lot of posts on this forum suggest that a lot of viewers are not satisfied with what they are being given in porn. Facials are so overdone that I find them very, very boring. Even in big tit or big butt lines they'll often have facials, so that claim doesn't wash.
I'm not sure that the directors of 15-30 years ago didn't know that facials were stimulating to a lot of guys. For one thing, they captured the facial pops often enough that they must have had some reason for doing so besides the camera being in the right place at the right time. For another, I remember Annette Haven drawing criticism in some porn-movie mags for being a cum-dodger; ditto PJ Sparxxx a generation or so later. I'm more inclined to think that the transition from film to video has quite a bit to do with the rise of the facial to its ubiquitous state; on the other hand, I just don't think that that explains it all.
[Link]
Len801 Deactivated User
754 Posts 9/07
Posted - Dec 30 2009 : 5:05PM
It is difficult to ponder, and guess and second guess why there was so little of the facial cum shot in the early days of porn. I wish we would have some comments from of the porn performers of the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's, as well as the camera crew-producers-directors of that era. I can only repeat some conjectures, like bulky camera and lighting equipment that made it difficult to capture properly a facial, perhaps an unwillingness to perform such acts by actresses of the day, the position and approach taken by directors-producers who did not wish to alienate the anti-porn crusade by staging such "crude" acts at such an early stage of porn movie production. With the viability and general acceptance of adult movies, cheaper production methods and larger talent pool, certain directors who became more and more independent in their ways pushed the envelope even more towards facials, anals, IR scenes, all-black. It did not all happen overnight, it took time for these genre to develop to the extent we see it today, as was the case of "cum facials". And here we are talking about cum-dodgers in regular adult movies, when in gay films facials were/are even rarer than straight adult films. So why is it that gay male actors seem to be even more chronic cum dodgers than their female counterparts? Edited by - Len801 on 12/30/2009 5:07:20 PM
At the end of the day, it is what it is. 629 Posts 12/09
Posted - Dec 30 2009 : 7:39PM
Obviously, like so many things in porn, it became more popular as time went on. 30 years ago, they introduced people to facials. Then it incrementally grew on the porn consuming public.
Just another bare bum in the shiower 1739 Posts 12/04
Posted - Dec 30 2009 : 10:53PM
I can remember magazine articles from 30 years ago when the lack of facials was regularly discussed, and it just seemed at the time to come down to the fact that most female stars did not want to do it back then. Female stars of the 1970s and early 1980s had a lot more influence over a scene than now - there were much fewer of them around for starters and the very attractive ones (like Annette Haven) were in a strong position to call the shots. That is why it was such a coup to get a gorgeous girl like Marilyn Chambers to take a facial at the end of Behind the Green Door. But then the Director got all arty farty and really fucked the whole shot up.
I suppose if she's particularly gorgeous and the scene's chemistry is right, then the facial can be a great ending... but in today's gonzo-formula world, I don't think it works as well as just blowing the load on her tits and not messing up her makeup. Besides, being a breast-man, I'm a sucker for huge cumshots on great racks. I'm also a fan of the even older-school pull-out-from-missionary-and-shoot from the "three point line" (above her pussy) and see how far up her body you can soak... sprinkles in everything from her bush to her long hair... Call me old-fashioned, but I do detect a bit of potential for degradation of the girl in a facial, and I'm not into that -- I'm more into exultation of the female form -- and sometimes a facial can do that, but many times it doesn't bother trying.
I think you're on to something. In other words, they didn't have to do it to have a successful career. Nowadays, it's exceedingly rarer for a 'dogder to last more than a few scenes -- if she doesn't make like a glazed donut, there are a dozen more who will. I don't think that as a percentage of performers there are more women who really enjoy getting their faces plastered, but the percentage who accept that they'll have to do it is certainly higher.
[Link]
Len801 Deactivated User
754 Posts 9/07
Posted - Dec 31 2009 : 10:56PM
Well the female talent pool was definitely smaller. To some extent they may not have been too willing to do facials, as with other "extreme" stuff like anal, DP and such. The movie formats did not allow much of that content either. Adult movies in the early days of porn were rather brief in length (many did not go over 80 minutes or so). A sex scene lasted only a few minutes and there were so many sex positions or activity that you could show in such a brief time. The movies were plot driven, there was no all-sex gonzo at that time, and the movies had to move along. Color film stock was expensive and it was difficult enough to have male talent come (anywhere over the girl's body) on cue within the budget that was allocated. There were porn magazines in the early days that specialized with facials, and even the early Private/Color Climax/Rodox mags showed facial cum shots (whether faked or not), but they seem to have been at a premium, and not something "ordinary". As time evolved, with growing talent pool, cheaper shooting methods and smaller cameras, girls and guys willing to be a little beyond the beaten track, and films less dependent on heavy plot lines, facials became more and more prominent as with other acts (anals, DP's IR's, preggos, midgets, twins, etc). It's like trying to figure out how car chases became the norm of most mainstream action movies. They were there in Keystone Cops early silent comedies, Saturday matinee serials of the 1940-1950's, and such but BULLIT (1968) really opened up the floodgates. So it was with the facial cum shots. They were there in the beginning, but they evolved with time due to a variety of factors. Edited by - Len801 on 12/31/2009 11:05:58 PM
So the ultimate American movie would be Johhny Depp cumming on Reese Witherspoon's face while in a car chase with some huge explosion in the distance. Actually, we're getting pretty damn close that with those Crank movies starring: Jason Statham and Amy Smart. Have you guys checked out Amy Smart Phat White ass? Damn!
Great Thread I love facials (watching them and giving them - rarely nowadays) I always thought coming on a girls tummy or tits was a waste ! (we did it in real life back then to avoid getting the girl pregnant) But I think that some of you are on the right track. It is just that it was not done much in real life in the early days. I remember that if a girl let you give her a pearl necklace (coming on her neck) then she was pretty hot. When I went to school we had never even heard of guys coming on a girls face ! And I think in the early days of porn (eg the 70's) not many starlets would let the guys do it, even if the directors wanted it. Then I think it became more popular in porn and in real life and now as you guys all say, it has become the norm and any girl starting off in porn knows she will have to take facials and swallow cum. Just as she knows that nowadays she will have to take it up her arse ! (which once again was hardly ever done in real life back in the 50's and 60's and hardly ever done in porn in the 70's) Showing may age arn't I
^ I might say the same thing. But it isn't about the way it feels. It's about the way it looks. I can't feel an internal cumshot in a porn movie. I think seeing a woman's face drenched with cum is about the most amazing thing in the world. Edited by - randomprecision on 1/3/2010 1:44:40 AM
