The Nudist Story Uncovered

The Nudist Story (1960) 

 

It's gay! It's charming! It's beautiful! It's the picture about altogetherness! 

 

 

I. 

 

One of my favourite Carry On films - and I suspect one of everybody's favourite Carry On films - is Carry On Camping (dir. Gerald Thomas, 1969). 

 

But my favourite scene, however, is not the one in which Dr Soaper leads an outdoor aerobics session, during which Babs's bikini top flies off and he famously instructs Matron to take them away!  

 

No, I think my favourite scene is the opening one set in a local Playhouse cinema where Sid and Bernie have taken their girlfriends, Joan and Anthea, to see a film entitled Nudist Paradise about the joys and benefits of naturism [1]. 

 

And it was this scene that I was reminded of when watching an entertaining British movie directed by Ramsey Harrington and starring Shelley Martin and Brian Cobby, that has been described as the Citizen Kane of nudist films ...    

 

 

II. 

 

The Nudist Story (1960), released in the US with the title Pussycats Paradise (1967) [2], is essentially 85 minutes of naturist propaganda - it was produced by the Danzinger brothers [3] with the co-operation of the British Sun Bathers Association [4] - masquerading as a romantic drama written by Mark Grantham (under the name Norman Armstrong). 

 

The film also gives us two song and dance numbers, as well as more naked breasts and big bottoms bobbling about all over the screen than you can shake a stick at. Despite all one may have seen, nothing quite prepares you for this film; Carry On Camping's Sid Boggle would love every minute; Joan and Anthea less so. 

 

The plot - and there is a plot - involves an uptight businesswoman called Jane Robinson (played by Shelly Martin) who pretty much inherits the entire estate belonging to her very wealthy but somewhat eccentric grandfather, including the Avonmore Sun Camp where naturists like to get their kits off and relax or play sports in the altogether.     

 

Jane does not approve of Avonmore - her prudish attitude to nudism similar to that of Joan Fussey's in Carry On Camping - and so she decides to sell the property in order to raise funds to pay the inheritance tax owing on the estate.   

 

However, persuaded by handsome lawyer and camp director Bob Sutton (Brian Cobby) to at least visit the place and meet some of the sun-bronzed campers, Jane soon falls in love with him, with the place, and, indeed, with the naturist philosophy. Thus, before long, she's as naked and free as nature intended and has changed her mind about selling Avonmore. 

 

However, Miss Robinson is to discover there's a snake in paradise in the form of Gloria (played by Jacqueline D'Orsay); an extremely jealous young woman in love with Bob who does what she can to cause trouble for Jane. 

 

Happily - and I don't really think it necessary to issue a spoiler alert as I'm sure everyone can predict the ending - Gloria's scheme to break up Bob and Jane and see Avonmore sold after all is frustrated thanks to the good work of Jane's Aunt Meg (played by Natalie Lynn) and Bob's sister-in-law Carol (played by Joy Hinton). 

 

Thus, all's well that ends well.    

 

 

III. 

 

I think the reason I like this film is that it has a proto-Lynchian feel to it, by which I mean an almost surreal and unsettling style; nothing too dark or threatening - there are no severed ears to be discovered in the grass - but the normalised and Technicolor nudity in mundane settings leaves one feeling a little disoriented, so that one hardly knows where to look at times.   

 

And, what's more, the unscrupulous and devious character of Gloria illustrates that there remains a powerful sexual element hidden beneath the apparent innocence of life at Avonmore and Tony Crombie's all-too-jaunty somewhat irritating musical score.  

 

Many critics dismiss The Nudist Story as just another film in a genre of moviemaking which, as mentioned, is more about the promotion of a healthy lifestyle (without clothes), rather than the production of great cinematic art [5]. 

 

But I would encourage readers to watch it - unembarrassed and unashamed - so as to make up their own minds: and you can do so by simply clicking here. 

 

But, if watching it au naturel, just be careful you don't drop your ice-lolly in your lap ...    

 

Brian Cobby (as Bob Sutton) & Shelley Martin (as Jane Robinson) 

having decided to see a lot more of each other in The Nudist Story 

 

 

 

Notes

 

[1] Carry on Camping can be watched in full and for free on daily Motion: click here. The scene I refer to in the cinema is at 1:40 - 4:51. Readers will note that I borrow some of the lines and phrases spoken here in the post that follows. 

 

[2] The film was later re-released in the UK with the title For Members Only (as seen in the poster reproduced above). 

 

[3] Edward J. Danziger and Harry Lee Danziger were American-born brothers who produced many British films and TV shows in the 1950s and 1960s. And when I say many, I mean many; "their pervasive presence forming a part of virtually every British filmgoer's and television viewer's experience during those years", as Tise Vahimagi writes in his profile of the Danzigers on the BFI Screenonline website: click here. 

 

[4] The BSBA was formed in 1943 and soon became recognised as a national federation of nudist clubs. By 1951, they had over fifty member organisations. 

 

[5] Nudist films first appeared in the early 1930s, often as narrated documentaries rather than dramas. During the 1940s, interest in making and watching such films significantly declined, but then really took off in the '50s and early 1960s, with the arrival of colour and changes in the law governing censorship. Doris Wishman was perhaps the most prolific producer and director in the genre, with eight nudist films to her credit between 1960 and 1964.  

      Despite the best intentions of some filmmakers devoted to the naturist cause, most nudist movies were largely made for titilation and real members of nudist camps were often replaced onscreen with younger and more attractive models. Obviously, the nudity remained strictly non-sexual and whilst there were plenty of bare breasts and backsides on display, genitalia was discreetly concealed by the angle of shot or a strategically placed prop.    

      As for the acting and technical production standards, well, as stated, no one was chasing an Academy Award. Gradually, as explicit sex scenes and nudity became a regular aspect of many major films in the late 1960s and 70s, the market for nudist films dwindled away until production ceased altogether.   

 

 

Readers interested in naturism might like to see earlier posts published on Torpedo the Ark which touch on this subject: click here.  

 

 

Vexillophobia: You Can Wave Your Coloured Rag All You Wish Ms Dodsworth, But I'll Not Be Flying the Flag

Brooke Bond Tea Card Album: Flags & Emblems Of The World (1967) 

Dead dreams, dead dreams flying flags / Flapping in the breeze, wave your coloured rags [1]

 

I.

Surprisingly, the exact origin of flags - and the etymology of the word itself - is unknown, but peoples all over the world have been waving their coloured rags (as identifying symbols) for many thousands of years. 

The Roman legions, for example, loved their imperial standards topped with eagles and stamped with the letters SPQR, but they were by no means the first people to fly flags; in all likelihood this honour goes to the ancient Chinese and, during the medieval period, it was silk from China that allowed a number of other peoples, including the Arabs and the Norsemen, to design flags of their own. 

Just like the Muslims and Vikings, Christian Crusaders also loved to wave banners and flags and the English Cross of Saint George - red cross on white background (although originally the other way around) - dates to this period (12th century).

 

It wasn't until the late-18th and 19th centuries, however, that people - not just soldiers and sailors - began to collectively identify with nation states and their symbols, including flags. 

And today, thanks to Europeans colonising significant portions of the world and exporting ideas of nationhood, citizens in every country on earth who think of themselves as patriots have to have their own bit of cloth to run up the flagpole and salute. 

Indeed, there are now so many fucking flags that one has to be a professional vexillologist to keep up!

II.

As might be apparent by now, I'm no vexillophile. 

Although, funnily enough, back in the early '70s I was one of the children who used to like collecting those little illustrated cards - usually fifty in a series - that were given away with packets of Brooke Bond tea and apart from the one with British Butterflies (1963), my favourite was the set entitled Flags & Emblems of the World (1967).   

 

But that was a long time ago. And today, I hate flags; flag bearers; flag wavers; and flag lovers. Today, whilst I wouldn't use the term, I might best be described as a vexillophobe - that's certainly the word Laura Dodsworth chooses to use (and claims to have coined) ...

 

III. 

 

Writing in an article on her Substack, Ms Dodsworth extolls "our beautiful Union flags" [2], hanging on her local high street, as on so many local high streets at the moment, as part of Operation Raise the Colours; a 2025 campaign promoting the flying of the English flag (and Union Jack) in public places [3] and giving us all a wee taste of what it's like to live in Northern Ireland - no wonder I have a song by Stiff Little Fingers running through my head whenever I step outside! [4]

"Bright red, white and blue cut through the drizzle like fireworks", writes Dodsworth; and it's true sectarianism can be dazzling (just as fascism can be fascinating and awfully pretty to look at - all those colours and sexy symbols).  

The flags, says Dodsworth, are a reminder that she's at home - making me wonder if she's not a touch demented; does she really need such reminders to know her whereabouts?   

Anyway, for the record: I don't "recoil in horror at bunting" and nor do I "start to twitch at the sight of a fluttering Union Jack"; the sight of the St George's cross doesn't provoke "maximum fear and outrage". But, on the other hand, neither do I wet myself with joy and excitement at seeing the English flag raised above the local chippy [5].     

 

Vexillophobia, dear Laura, is not "a form contorted self-hatred" - it's actually a sign of intelligence and maturity. One can appreciate the aesthetic design of a flag - "the thrilling colours and elegant geometry" - without wrapping oneself up in the bloody thing, or learning to stand tall and salute.  

 

 

Notes

 

[1] Lyrics from the song 'Hard Times', by Public Image Ltd., on the album Happy? (Virgin Records, 1987): click here. The track, along with all seven others on the album, is credited to Dias, Edmonds, McGeoch, Lydon, and Smith. I don't like the song, but do appreciate the phrase 'wave your coloured rags'.  

 

[2] Laura Dodsworth, 'The Rise of Vexillophobia: fear of the flag is this nation's greatest malady', The Free Mind (31 August 2025): click here. The article is partly tongue in cheek, which is - for me at least - its saving grace.  

[3] The campaign began in August 2025 and involves tying flags to lamp-posts and painting the St. George's Cross onto mini-roundabouts, with the aim of promoting national pride and patriotism (and not of intimidating anyone or pissing off vexillophobes like me). The campaign has put me in a slightly strange position, as I despise both the people on the far-right who support it and the people on the far-left who oppose it (though I'm happy to accept that there are many supporters and opponents who don't belong to either political extreme).        

[4] The song I'm referring to is 'Fly the Flag' (written by SLF and Gordon Ogilvie) and found on the Stiff Little Fingers album Nobody's Heroes (Chrysalis Records, 1980): click here.  

[5] Push comes to shove, I suppose I'd rather see a British flag on top of the local town hall than, for example, the black flag of the Islamic State, the blue flag of the European Union, or the so-called pride flag of the LGBTQ+ community in all its rainbow-coloured garishness. But, ideally, I'd bin 'em all.  

King Mob Echoes

Print from a copper engraving showing rioters 

setting fire to Newgate Prison in June 1780

 

 

I. 

 

Without wishing to echo those who, like Professor David Betz, predict that the UK is now almost certainly heading for civil war [1] - perhaps not in the old sense, but something widespread and very nasty all the same - I would certainly agree that the future isn't looking particularly rosy.  

 

Like many other European states, we seem to have created the perfect conditions for mass social unrest (at the very least). Falling living standards, ethno-religious tensions fuelled by unprecedented levels of immigration, and loss of faith in the authorities, all add up to a feeling that things can't go on as they are and that something has to change. 

 

As Yeats would say: things are threatening to fall apart; the centre cannot hold; anarchy is about to be loosed upon the world [2] - and not in the romantic and radically chic manner fantasised by some.  

 

 

II. 

 

Perhaps it is the last of these things mentioned above - loss of faith in the authorities - that should concern us most. For as Betz says, insurgency is always rooted in a crisis of legitimacy. If governments and judicial systems lose not only the support but the trust of the people, then that's an extremely serious matter.  

 

In brief, break the magic spell that holds a nation together and things get very real very quickly and citizens - who desire stability and a sense of justice - begin to take matters into their own hands.    

 

And this is why it's so profoundly stupid and politically dangerous for the present government to have effectively put themselves in opposition to the British public by openly declaring that the rights of asylum seekers take precedence over the concerns of the native population [3].

 

 

III. 

 

Funnily enough, the current state of affairs in the UK puts one in mind of the situation in 1780 when a week of rioting in London was triggered by anti-Catholic sentiment and security concerns following the passing of an Act which was intended to reduce discrimination, but perceived as privileging a religious minority over the Protestant majority [4]. 

 

Trouble began on June 2nd, when a huge crowd - estimated to be around 50,000 strong - assembled and marched on Parliament. Many carried flags and banners, as mobs are wont to do. Having failed to force their way into the House of Commons, people grew increasingly angry and the situation quickly got out of hand; members of the Lords were attacked as they arrived and a number of carriages were vandalised and destroyed. 

 

Although this crowd was eventually dispersed by soldiers without further violence, this was not the end of the matter; that same night, Roman Catholic chapels were attacked in several foreign embassies. When it was discovered that protestors who had been arrested were being held in Newgate Prison, this was stormed and largely destroyed, allowing a significant number of prisoners to escape.   

 

On June 7th, things reached a climax when the mob decided to target the Bank of England. Finally, the government called in the army to restore order using deadly force; having been ordered to fire upon groups of four or more rioters who refused to disperse resulted in hundreds of casualties. 

 

Of the 450 people who were arrested, some twenty or thirty were tried and executed. Lord George Gordon who led the original mass protest (and lent his name to the riots that followed) was charged with high treason, but acquitted. 

 

Those who would like to know more are encouraged to read Dickens's historical novel Barnaby Rudge (1841), which provides a long and detailed (if fictionalised) account of the Gordon Riots and features Lord George in a prominent role [5]. 

 

IV. 

 

Whilst parallels between then and now can be drawn, they're limited in what they might teach us due to differing socio-historical contexts and circumstances. And Tommy Robinson is no Lord Gordon.  

 

However, we witnessed last year how rapidly situations can deteriorate and how quickly trouble can spread (especially in an age of social media) [6] and one suspects - fears - that if the political climate continues to heat up and the social fabric continues to come apart, then King Mob [7] may once more find its figurehead and assert its sovereignty.   

 

 

V. 

        

Having said all this, Betz may, of course, be mistaken in his analysis and anarchy in the UK may not be an inevitablity. There are those - including individuals in positions of power - who simply don't believe that prolonged and widescale mass violence (let alone civil war) is probable (or even possible); they have an unshakeable faith in the goodness and common sense of the British people. 

 

As one commentator notes:

 

"The UK Government's resilience website lists hazards ranging from severe weather to terrorism, but makes no mention of civil unrest [...] Perhaps politicians realise that any mention of civil war in an official publication would be a PR catastrophe. Or maybe they view Western citizens as simply too cosseted, too biddable. People raised amid relative plenty and security are simply not likely to erupt in significant numbers." [8] 

 

So perhaps we can continue to sleep tightly in our beds at night and wake up full of fresh hope in the morning. 

 

Or perhaps not: for after speaking with Betz, this same commentator concludes that even if the latter is only right in part, then still our lives will be transformed "utterly and for the worse", as we suddenly find ourselves living in a "smaller and more brutal world" [9].     

 

Notes

 

[1] Betz is Professor of War in the Modern World at King's College London: click here to visit his homepage. He has been in the news and all across social media for the last couple of years offering his expert analysis of current events and predictions about the future. See this recent interview, for example, on YouTube with Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster of Triggernometry: click here. 

 

[2] I'm referring of course to Yeats's famous poem 'The Second Coming' (written in 1919). The poem was originally published in The Dial (November 1920), but included also in his collection of verses Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921). To read on the Poetry Foundation website, click here.  

 

[3] I'm referring to the case surrounding the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, which has been at the centre of recent protests against the use of hotels to house asylum seekers at tax payers expense and without consulting the local people, following an alleged sexual assault of a 14-year-old schoolgirl by one of the residents. 

      In brief, a temporary injunction granted earlier this month by a high court judge that would have blocked migrants from being housed at the above hotel was overturned on appeal after Home Office intervention (the argument being that there is an obligation for the government to uphold the European Convention on Human Rights). And this has only further raised tensions in the area. A full hearing of the case is expected in mid-October.

 

[4] It should be noted that there were other factors and grievances; political and economic rather than religious in nature. It has been suggested, for example, that many rioters were more concerned about falling wages and rising prices - or the UK's involvement in various foreign wars - than their Catholic neighbours and, as is often the case, these blended together into a general feeling of angry discontent.   

[5] See also Christopher Hibbert's King Mob: The Story of Lord George Gordon and the Riots of 1780 (Longmans, 1958), which provides another colourful reading of the historical record.  

 

[6] I'm referring to the (allegedly far-right) anti-immigration protests and riots that occurred in England and Northern Ireland from 30 July to 5 August 2024, following the Southport stabbings in which three young girls were murdered. The large scale disorder resulted in over 1,800 arrests and many people being handed harsh prison sentences (famously including one woman, Lucy Connolly, for posting a tweet which she deleted soon afterwards). 

 

[7] According to Christopher Hibbert's book on the Gordon Riots, rioters daubed the slogan His Majesty King Mob on the walls of Newgate Prison, after gutting the building. 

      In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a radical group based in London - influenced by (but excluded from) the Situationist International - called itself King Mob. The group, consisting of six main members, published five issues of a journal entitled King Mob Echo as well as many posters and leaflets which mightily impressed a young art student by the name of Malcolm McLaren who, it's claimed, took part in an action at Selfridges in December 1968, that involved freely distributing toys from the store's toy department to children (one of the members - not McLaren - was dressed as father Christmas). 

      Several commentators on the Sex Pistols have asserted the influence of King Mob on the band and McLaren, fascinated by the Gordon Riots, included a punk reimagining of the latter as the opening sequence of The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (dir. Julien Temple, 1980).       

 

[8] Alexander Poots, 'Is civil war coming for Britain?', on the news and opinion website UnHerd (25 April 2025): click here. 

 

[9] Ibid.