Miss Nude America (1976)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

James P. Blake

Release Date:

September 1976 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Drama | Comedy

Tagline:

The Beauty Contest you will never see on TV!

Plot:

A "Felliniesque" journey into the heart of the insatiable American dream; A slice of quintessential Americana, depicted with candor, pathos and humor.

Plot Keywords:

Beauty Pageant | Beauty | Nudism | Female Nudity | Exhibitionism

Cast

Dick Drost	...	Himself
Harry Reems	...	Himself - Contest Judge

Directed by
James P. Blake

Produced by
James P. Blake	....	producer

Original Music by
Michael Karp

Film Editing by
Michael Karp

Production Management
David Hill	....	unit manager
David Perry	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Theodore J. Spagna	....	assistant director
Theodore J. Spagna	....	location director

Sound Department
Steve Datri	....	sound (as Steve D'Atri)
Herb DiGioia	....	sound
Tom Haneke	....	sound
Charles Meyer	....	sound
Wayne Perkunas	....	sound
Ron Yoshida	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Joe Cosentino	....	camera operator
Sand D'Annunzio	....	camera operator
Steve Davita	....	assistant camera (as Steve D'Avita)
Mark Erder	....	grip
Bill Markle	....	camera operator
Ed Pincus	....	camera operator (as Edward Pincus)
Stephen L. Posey	....	camera operator (as Stephan Possey)
Richard Prokop	....	assistant camera
Martin Purvis	....	grip
Jack Reidel	....	gaffer
Theodore J. Spagna	....	camera operator
David Tipmore	....	gaffer
Sandy Wall	....	assistant camera
Fred Winegardner	....	grip

Editorial Department
Barbara Palmer Dixon	....	editing room assistant (as Barbara Palmer)
Steven Kahn	....	editing room assistant
Oliver Rish	....	editing room assistant
K. Sakai	....	editing room assistant

Music Department
Rainbow	....	music performers
Gordan Wagner	....	composer: songs "Miss Nude America" and "Salute to our Nudist Queen"

Other crew
Nelson Emmons	....	production assistant
Jerry Gross	....	presenter (1980 re-release)
Shana Schlossberg	....	production assistant
Madeline Sullivan	....	production assistant

Thanks
Alan Abel	....	special thanks
Steve Ashley	....	special thanks
Jonathan Blake	....	special thanks
Carol Bruckner	....	special thanks
Ralph Drabkin	....	special thanks
Dr. Irving Falk	....	special thanks
Al Greco	....	special thanks
Al Horowitz	....	special thanks
Theodore Kamens	....	special thanks
Bob MacGowan	....	special thanks
Dianna Masterson	....	special thanks
Peter Miller	....	special thanks
Paul Schindler	....	special thanks
Leigh Sharon	....	special thanks
Seymour Strauss	....	special thanks
Dr. H. Stromeyer	....	special thanks
Bruce Westbrock	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Eroica Productions

Distributors

• Trans-American Pictures Inc. (1976) (USA) (theatrical)
• Jerry Gross Organization, The (1980) (USA) (theatrical) (retitled re-release)
• Ambassador Film Distributors (1982) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Wizard Video (USA) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Preview Theater  special thanks
• The Drosts  special thanks
• Westside Screenings  special thanks

Also Known As:

Miss Nude America Contest (USA) (reissue title)
The Contest

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:R

Filming Locations:

Roselawn, Indiana, USA

Company:

Eroica Productions

Movie Connections:

Referenced in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

a serious documentary--history F Miss Nude America film

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