Miss Nude America

This film is somewhat amateurish, but it gives an interesting view of American attitudes to nudity and sex. To European eyes it is not particularly lewd or pornographic. There are some amazing shots, the parade of the candidates all holding a little white balloon and he two officers opening the cortege. But the most remarkable views are those of fully clothed overweight middle class males making snapshots at maximum speed without (I presume) caring for background or composition. Although beauty parades in some European nudist camps do occur, they are more casual and everyone is naked not only the competing women and a few freakish hirsute males. In short this documentary gives an amusing view of puritans going to the dogs and so it would be a good item in a film showing amusing American habits.

If you are not a nudist, or do not at least have an open mind about nudism, then you will probably not like this movie. If so, then you will probably find it interesting. I sure wish it would come out in VHS or DVD. I don't think Dick Drost's Naked City is still in business, but it sure makes for some fond memories of those days. The whole thing seems to be built more around him than the resort or the contest. Here is one tip though. If you are just seeing it for the nudity, then you will probably be disappointed. As I said before, you have to be at your best open mindedness for this to make any kind of sense to you, as it is a documentary type of flick, not a porno! Enjoy.

This film gives an interesting view of the eagernes of American males to see women in the nude. It's amazing to see and hear them working the shutter button at maximum speed, not caring for composition or background. Most of the girls are reaonably handsome, the naked men are either to fat or to hirsute, but most males, nearly all very obese stay happily clothed. The editing of the film is amateurish to put it friendly. Still this is an instructive view of puritans gone to the dogs. HJE

This film began as a documentary produced by students and instructors at two Ivy League universities in the early 1970s. Its conceptual models were the documentary films of the Mayles Brothers (Grey Gardens, Gimme Shelter,. etc.) and the "New Journalism" of Tom Wolf, Hunter Thompson and other writers on American culture and the "media" like Marshall McLuhan. Regarding Naked City, Indiana--it's long-defunct. Dick Drost's role models were closer to James Bond and Hugh Heffner than anyone else. He was always a controversial figure in the "nudist/naturist" movement, because of the sexy/Playboy overtones. Larry Flynt (The People vs. Larry Flynt) for example, started out running a nightclub in Indiana, and Hustler Magazine was just their newsletter when it started. The traditional "real" Miss America contest--hosted by Bert Parks, etc. --is now mostly a memory. But from the 1950s-into the 1980s it was a huge American cultural icon. Satirized by Wood Allen and protested by the 1970's feminists of MS. Magazine fame. This movie was some kind of ironic comment on its more wholesome Miss America predecessor. Most of the contestants in the Miss Nude America film have some connection to the "adult entertainment" industry.--Not porn stars but strippers. All hoping for their "big break"--(This was the same era when Andy Warhol predicted that "in the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes."--A very "fame" and media-conscious era.)

In the late 1960s and early 70s the nudity/glamor industry was somewhat akin to the "dot-com" bubble of the 1990s--a field where people might aspire to sudden wealth and fame. The 1980's movie "Star 80" is a melodrama that shows what happened to a (sort-of famous) playmate of the month.) This documentary is in some was a rather subtle exploration of this phenomenon and its expression in the lives of some people in small town northern Indiana. As a business endeavor the Miss Nude America film was a complete flop. For a "serious" documentary it was too sexy and had too much frontal nudity to be shown in the local mall theaters. As a "skin flick"--it had very limited erotic appeal: --a portrait of a guy in a wheelchair with life-long MS who runs a nudist camp. --Today this could be the subject of a David Lynch movie--with lots of added weird fictional subtext. But in the early 1970s it just wasn't hot enough to compete with, say, 'Deep Throat' or 'The Devl in Miss Jones.' Sometimes this movie is available on VHS--through a Canadian distributor maybe. If you are serious about having a "fair use" DVD of it, drop me a line. --B2