Girls in
Flesh Gordon (1974)

Popular culture of 1979 was post-hippie, but not quite yuppie; post-disco, but not quite New Wave; and post-Star-Wars, but not quite completely infantilized by Steven Spielberg.

At local theaters (which were not quite all multiplexes—yet), Hollywood continued to present movies for adults: mature stories for grown-up people featuring adult themes, adult story lines, and that most quintessentially adult artistic flourish—nudity.

With home video still a few years in the future, grindhouses and drive-ins surged toward a crescendo, showcasing an explosion of exploitation that was also patently adult but not, to be sure, mature.

Let’s look now at some of our favorite nude scenes from 1979—eleven, in total, in honor of the rating Dudley Moore actually awards to Bo Derek in the movie 10.

One of the most popular softcore smashes of all time, Flesh Gordon rocketed into neighborhood theaters across the country on this date in 1974.

Upon touching down in local cinemas, the sexually explicit, cosmically comical Flesh Gordon ran continuously for more than a year.

It then became a reliable re-release and a smash in the fledgling days of home video, before living on as a midnight movie favorite--where Flesh continues to circulate (and titillate) today.

For more on innocent entertainment gone orgasmically orbital during the me(at) decade, launch your rocket after the jump.