But with the widespread adoption of cheap VHS technology in the 1980s, the bulk of porn production companies moved to Los Angeles suburbs, where real estate was cheaper. Some niche, boutique porn - specifically of the gay and kink varieties - is still being produced in San Francisco. Unlike many of today's bottom-line-obsessed porn moguls, San Francisco pioneers like De Renzy, the Mitchell brothers and Lowell Pickett made highbrow, artistically interesting films, Stabile and Rubin agree. Even though politicians like then- San Francisco Supervisor Dianne Feinstein lambasted the local explosion of porn, cops didn't harass San Francisco shoots as frequently as the cops did in Los Angeles, Stabile says. San Francisco authorities routinely busted theaters, but they often turned a blind eye to productions. Typically men were paid $75, while women could hope to get $150 for a short feature, according to Rubin. "The Summer of Love meant that there was a huge model pool," says Stabile, referencing the city's influx of free-loving hippies and broke UC Berkeley students just across the bay. Then the countercultural revolution of the 1960s hit. And neighborhoods like the Tenderloin were replete with adult theaters, ranging from big-screen cinemas to cramped storefront operations. There were plenty of independent film labs willing to turn a blind eye as they developed legally questionable material. Downtown San Francisco experiences near record low temperatures as cold weather pattern persistsĪside from its history, San Francisco's infrastructure facilitated the burgeoning porn industry.2 people who died in Marin Headlands small plane crash identified.These counties have the worst commutes in California.'Buy now, pay later' is sending the TikTok generation spiraling into debt, popularized by San Francisco tech firms.Tourist sues Hawaii resort after visiting recommended state beach.Smith calls out Warriors' Klay Thompson and he might actually be right Nancy Pelosi just went after Gavin Newsom.You had the burlesque dancers in North Beach." "First and foremost, San Francisco has always had a sex culture, going back to the Barbary Coast. San Francisco was an ideal location for producing and peddling smut. "I think that San Francisco in 1970 was probably sort of like how San Francisco was for tech in 1996." "It became like a Gold Rush," says Stabile, who took his documentary to the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year. By 1971, pornography was so widespread in the city that the New York Times magazine decreed San Francisco "the porn capital of America." Other filmmakers quickly mined the moneymaking combination of coitus and celluloid. Alex de Renzy, "Pornography in Denmark" went into wide release, grossing $2 million on its minuscule $15,000 budget. In the wake of the landmark decision in the People v. He's curated a collection of shorts that YBCA will show on Aug. "This really has been my life's work," says Rubin, who has amassed a huge collection of San Francisco porn circa 1969 to 1981. Rubin, a 22-year-old amateur expert on vintage San Francisco porn, conned his mother into buying an X-rated film for him when he was 8 years old. "It was hard to write it off as smut because it was a serious documentary," says Joe Rubin about "Pornography in Denmark," which YBCA will screen on July 21.
Social valueĪ California judge decided that even though it depicted penetration, "Pornography in Denmark" had redeeming social value, in keeping with the Supreme Court edict that draws the line between what constitutes free speech and what constitutes obscenity. In 1969 the documentary, which examined Denmark's decision not to censor pornography, became entangled in a high-profile court case. San Francisco director Alex de Renzy's explicit "Pornography in Denmark: A New Approach" catalyzed the legalization of porn.