‘Our Film Orgy’: the Institute for Sex Research, Cinemages, Herman Weinberg, and George Eastman House, 1958–1963

Abstract

This institutional history provides information on how the pursuits of sexology converged with mainstream film pedagogy and preservation in the 1950s and 1960s. Using new research from the Kinsey archives, it details the relationship between Paul Gebhard, John Gagnon, and the Institute for Sex Research with several figures as they attempted to expand their cinematic collections and gain exposure to film history through private screenings: Gideon Bachmann of the New York based magazine Cinemages, famous cultural critic Herman Weinberg, and James Card of the George Eastman House. Not only does reveal the relationship of the ISR with the more ‘respectable’ side of film collection, but it also demonstrates the ways in which their shift towards monitoring mainstream commerce had its roots in late the organization’s 1950s collecting practices.