Above is a cover of the tabloid The Exploiter, from an issue published thirty-nine years ago today. This is the first time we’ve featured this publication, and you can see, with stories about Christine Keeler and Marilyn Monroe, that it was just as focused on sex and violence as the rest. It also had a regular column from Church of Satan leader Anton LaVey—an advice column, no less. But what we really like here is the story about Danish porn flooding America. In it, a criminologist named Bert Kutchlinski says that though pornography was exploding, it would disappear entirely in the next ten to fifteen years—after serving its purpose of liberating women and educating men—and that “participation will become the order of the day.” Kutchlinski’s predictive powers are like a comedy routine, right? Porn will disappear! Hah hah. Because everyone will be happily getting laid! Bwahaha. But consider the idealism involved. In 1971 tens of millions of Americans still had these utopian dreams. Today? Well, not so much. Wait, who were we just laughing at? Suddenly we can’t remember. 

The Italian shockumentary Angeli bianchi … angeli neri—which translates into English as White Angel, Black Angel—was released in the United States under neither title, but as Witchcraft ’70. The film, which featured Anton and Diane LaVey, purported to be a Mondo Cane-style exposé of contemporary witchcraft, voodoo cults, and pagan rituals shot via hidden camera. But its sonorously narrated segments showing naked exorcism, a nude girl drenched in boar’s blood and other lurid rituals, were staged by veteran italo-director Luigi Scattini. Nevertheless, the film enjoyed a wide release, playing in far-flung locales such as Sweden and Japan. It premiered today in the U.S. in 1970.