King of the Sex Roadshows

In the forties and early fifties, low-budget film producer Kroger Babb was the king of the sexploitation film genre. His films, however, weren't shown at the illegal "stag parties" typical of the time. They were shown in the open at movie theaters across the country masked as sex hygiene education lectures. His film "Mom and Dad", a title benign enough not to arouse suspicion, was the centerpiece of Babb's most successful "roadshows" (as he called them).

Roadshows

Unable to get traditional Hollywood film distribution deals, Worthington, Ohio-based producer Kroger Babb used an unusual distribution method known as "fourwalling", where he'd rent out non-chain independent movie theaters in towns across America and show his films for limited time period. Babb would then pay for the film's local advertising and promotion, and set up his own theater marquee and lobby advertising. Each town's showing was treated with the same kind of sensational glitz as a carnival sideshow. This was highly daring promotion, to say the least. Babb eventually began billing himself as "America's Fearless Young Showman."

Eventually the success of Babb's town-by-town roadshow led him to setting up several roadshow unit franchises.

"Mom and Dad"

At each town, Babb promoted "Mom and Dad" in the same way that grade-B horror movies were promoted, to shock not titillate. While the film freely showed full-frontal female nudity, it also included a baby birthing scene and graphic shots of venereal disease. Also, a 20-minute live sexual hygiene lecture by Professor Elliot Forbes accompanied each screening. In many ways, Kroger Babb's roadshows were reminiscent of 19th century medicine shows, a combination of titillation, horror, and quackery.

His film "Mom and Dad" was written by his wife, and directed in six days by William Beaudine, a legitimate Hollywood B-movie director best known for directing "Bowery Boys" movies. Released in 1944, the film's innocent title didn't draw any initial controversy. However, at the height of Babb's popularity, his roadshows were facing 400 court cases.

Elliot Forbes

Lecturer Elliot Forbes was introduced to audiences at each screening as a "professor of sex hygiene." Of course, Forbes was no professor at all. In fact, at the height Babb's roadshow success, there were 26 "Elliot Forbeses" touring the country. In most cases, the "Forbeses" were former vaudeville comics, who were often accompanied onstage by two "nurses."

At the end of each "lecture", "Forbes" would then hawk sex hygiene paperbacks titled "The Secrets of Sensible Sex." These books were subtitled "important books to be read in the privacy of your home."

If there was a real message for Kroger Babb's roadshows, it was a decidedly liberal one that promoted sex education.

One notable showing had Olympics star Jesse Owens replace "Professor" Forbes, and deliver the hygiene lecture to an audience at a theater in an African-American neighborhood.

Kroger Babb

Babb's other roadshow films included "Street Corner", "Because of Eve", and "The Story of Bob and Sally."

By the early fifties, Babb's titillating sex hygiene films faded. They were replaced by even more titillating burlesque stripper shorts.

Kroger Babb died in 1980 in Palm Springs, California.

SOURCES:

"Kroger Babb's Roadshow", Joe Bob Briggs, Reason

John Waters interview, Guardian

"Shot in glorious sexploitation", John Windsor, Guardian