Boys in the Sand 1971

Seminal in more ways than one, Boys in the Sand was the first triple-X film of any orientation to bill its director and actors (thereby launching the career of [Casey] Donovan, gay porn’s original superstar); it remains the only adult flick ever reviewed in The New York Times. It even began the phenomenon of porn titles spoofing mainstream fare, mocking William Friedkin’s 1970 sissyfest, The Boys in the Band. After opening at the 55th Street Playhouse in December 1971, its notoriety began to attract hetero couples, eager to see what the fuss was about. “A couple of times when women had to go to the bathroom, we had to make sure there were no guys in there,” [director Wakefield] Poole recalls. By the time Gerard Damiano’s Deep Throat opened the following year, “the egg had cracked,” Poole says, and ’70s porno chic began.