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The Grindhouse Era, Part 4: The First Nudie Musical
Grindhouse movies that claimed to show the
nudist lifestyle did not start with Russ Meyer’s The
Immoral Mr. Teas. Pretty sure there are many more
examples, but the earliest I have come across is a short
from the 1940’s titled Lil
From Brazil, which stars Margie Harrison, a future
Playmate. (1)
But we can be sure the first nudist musical was
Goldilocks and the Three Bares (1963). The first
half of the movie is a stage show captured on film with
some dialogue about something and some singing about
something else, but the second half is a nudist
extravaganza with water skiing and yachting and
horseback riding (yikes!). That second half starts
with Allison
Louise Downe getting into the correct attire for
this nudist sort of thing.
and then proceeds to show her and maybe a dozen women
posed so as to keep their furry bits hidden.
One BIG exception to that rule - no furry bits - is the
scene in which Allison gets on her horse. Shot
from a distance, it nevertheless reveals parts of her
that would rile any censor.
In the second of Allison’s clips you will see veteran
nudist movie star, Dolores Carlos, in a swinging
hammock. That’s it - the sum total of her
contribution to the movie, swinging topless, in a
hammock, back and forth a half-dozen times.
Oscar-winning stuff.
One clip with neither hide nor hair of Allison is
supposed to be funny, as some doofus in a fake mustache
uses binoculars to spy on nudists five feet away from
him. Perhaps he was a dermatologist, in search of
suspicious moles. The actor playing this part has
the subtle range of a warthog in heat. Anyway, he
spies Maria
Stinger frolicking in a nearby pool and thereby
proving to one and all that she need never worry about
drowning.
Maria was a glamour model for
magazines of the time.
 
She was also a frequent sight to see in nudist movies,
as you can see in the Funhouse archives, where you will
find her in a
legendary cinematic performance as nudist #3 in 1961’s
Diary of a Nudist, as captured by Oz.
The credits say another veteran grindhouse actress,
Ginger Hale (or Hall), appears as a nudist somewhere in
this film but I’ll be darned if I can find her.
Truth be told, this movie almost broke me. I gave
up one evening after capturing images that were blah,
just blah and despaired of finding a way to piece them
together. (Like these
random images of nudists by the pool.) The movie
was no fun at all to watch and was hell to work
with. In a ten-tiered system of movie fun that
ranges from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade at the
top and Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull at the
bottom, this one sleeps with the Skull.
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(1. Scoop's footnote: The
otherwise obscure Margie Harrison is famous for one
thing - her appearances in Playboy. To begin with, she
became the FIRST Playmate when she appeared in the
second-ever issue of the Bunny-oriented publication. You
all know that the legendary Marilyn Monroe appeared in
Playboy #1, but they never applied the term "Playmate"
to her. MM was the "Sweetheart of the Month." Margie was
also the first Playboy centerfold because Marilyn had
appeared in the main body of the magazine. Finally,
Margie was also a two-time Playmate, as she graced both
the January and June issues in 1954.)
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