The Lifestyle: Swinging in America; Sex in the Civil War

Meet Wild Bill, a 73-year-old guy who likes to party down with friends: a little potluck, a bit of karaoke, and--oh yeah--an evening of moaning, groaning wife-swapping sex (enhanced, no doubt, since Wild Bill likes to hang weights on his member to add a little more dangle to his wangle). Wild Bill is just one of the many...ahem...colorful characters in filmmaker David Schisgall's controversial documentary examining the swinging lifestyle, reputedly enjoyed by some 3 million Americans. The Lifestyle cuts between interviews with some half-dozen couples and swinging singles (mostly in their 50s and up), amusing footage shot at a swingers' trade show and, of course, the "party" footage (mostly brief snippets of swingers swinging, and one longer explicit sex scene). In fact, the "party" footage should probably give some librarians pause (although, come to think of it, one of the swingers profiled here is or was a Southern librarian)--which is a shame, since the "explicit" scenes are about the most non-erotic sex you'll ever see. What stays in the mind are not the flashes of these middle-aged love machines doing the mechanical nasty, but rather the surrealist touches: the couple seen working out the logistics of where to lay the foam pads for the upcoming evening get-together, the garish red running lights in the carpeted make-out pads that appear to be circa 1960, the after-dinner discussion of the best places to pick up cheap vibrators, and so on. While the documentary raises but doesn't address some of the deeper issues here (the men are almost always the initiators of the "couple's" entry into the swinging world), this oddball slice of behind-closed-doors Americana is definitely recommended for more adventurous collections. Aud: C, P.And, who wouldn't be drawn in by a title like Sex in the Civil War for Masters & Johnson & Robert E. Lee's sake? In this informative and entertaining entry in A&E's History Undercover series, viewers are transported back to the days of the Blue and Gray (in the Red light district), as historians Thomas P. Lowry, Thomas Cartwright, and DeAnne Blanson expound on the sexual particulars of fighting men during America's most divisive war. Believe it or not, there's some genuine educational wheat amongst the speculative chaff here: the slang term "hooker" (in the non-golf sense) entered the language in 1845, based on the rather easy relations between some Washington city women and the men under "Fighting Joe" Hooker. Students of history will also be fascinated by the story of legalized prostitution's brief reign in Nashville, which forced government officials to turn their attention from the War Between the States to the War Between the Sheets, setting up frequent check-ups for the venereal disease ridden local prostitutes. Interwoven throughout this mildly bawdy historical romp is the story of one Annie Jones, a Union army groupie who had a particular fetish for officers (though not gentlemen). Today, where the Washington brothels once stood, the Justice Dept. and I.R.S. buildings continue, Lowry quips, to screw the American people. Although generically packaged, this is still recommended for most collections. Aud: C, P. (R. Pitman)