He never saw any affection between his parents. The Kinsey Institute video collection is available for qualified researchers for on-site viewing only. It came out in 1953, the war was over, and the Cold War had begun. Most Students, even those already engaged, knew next to nothing about what to expect on their wedding nights. Julia Ericksen: Kinsey thought if he got enough cases, he'd be able to represent everybody and he'd be able to say how often all of these kinds of things occurred in the population... Narrator: To gain access to large numbers, Kinsey hit upon a novel idea: what he called 100% groups. And I looked at that picture and I thought my god, it's a picture of me. And boy, and that was the kiss of death. Eddie Marritz No support after that, he was on his own. James Jones: Naturally, as word of what was transpiring in that class filtered to the larger academic community, people came out of the woodwork in opposition. I am a girl, 20 years old, and I love another girl very much and she also loves me; and I know that that isn't right I am at my wit's end. And Kinsey was brave. Hardy: The female report is made complicated by the moment at which it came out. Kinsey: I want to emphasize, however, before we finish, it is the history of science that wherever we fill in a gap in our knowledge, mankind ultimately may profit. Your support will help ensure the historical preservation of our library and collections and also give a diverse field of researchers continued access to the resources they need to make new discoveries. Woman Interviewed, Archival: I think it's a good thing. Dianne Koronkiewicz "The scientist who observes and describes...reality is attacked as an enemy of...faith," he declared. Narrator : Whatever students had hoped for from Kinsey's course, few imagined what they would actually witness. James Jones: Clara adored her husband and I think she wanted to be close to him and close to his work. Eugene Brancolini, Production Assistants Narrator: Kinsey returned from Chicago flush with excitement. Ericksen: Cochran, Mostello and Tukey, these were all men who had spent their life doing statistics you know. And I knew very well that they would find Kinsey's books on the shelves, and I knew very well that they would wait until I was out of the house and turn the pages and browse and check the index, and I felt that's a reasonable way for two young women to learn these things. Clara had long known the personal costs of her life with Alfred: "I always realized that his work would have to come first, " she once said. "It was heart warming to see you settling into what I supposed will be your real life's work, " and old friend wrote him. Roger Holliday They're lining up the next group of contact people. Greg Shea There are reports that Kinsey Institute research has been subsidized by sex industry businesses that … He wanted men who -- like himself -- would be conservative in appearance, but liberal-minded about sex. When Clara wasn't appearing on camera herself, she helped make others comfortable. People suddenly felt all right. Caroline Harting, Research Assistants Then he started getting the building and grounds people. Clara Bracken McMillen Kinsey (1898-1982), The Sex Researchers of Kinsey's Inner Circle, Alfred Kinsey's Life, and Sex Research and Social Policies in America. John Gagnon: You couldn't study sex without taking a risk. If she has to serve milk and cookies in her house in something that's not a tea party, it's still her house, it's still the work that she supports and she's going to be part of it. Within several months, more than 200,000 people bought a copy. For those which require a viewing copy be made, patrons may pay for a video to video transfer when copyright restrctions do not apply. "To get data," Pomeroy said later, "Kinsey would have made a deal with the devil.". His classmates called him 'the next Darwin'. Narrator: Implicit in Kinsey's report was a controversial but simple principle: when it came to sexual behavior, there was no good or bad, normal or abnormal. Narrator: For the third member of his team, Kinsey had to look no further than his own backyard: Clyde Martin an earnest IU student who did yard work for the Kinsey's on weekends. Lauren Prestileo, A Production of Twin Cities Public Television/TPT He just simply did not believe that that was something that was likely to be successful. Man reading Kinsey's words: "My Dear Voris: we shall have a joyous time just the two of us. When he finally delivered the manuscript that Fall, it topped out at more than 700 pages. It became her obsession too. From Executive Director, Dr. Justin Garcia. Some said the cause was overwork; others, a deep sense of failure. Narrator: The existence of Rex King remained a well-guarded secret for many years, but a number of critics found plenty else to take issue with. Jim Morris and Family I said, I think they should print five thousand. John Gagnon: He would say, how old are you? The Kinsey Institute video collection consists of approximately 4000 titles ranging in date from 1970 through today. Even more revolutionary, the book argued that human sexuality didn't fit into neat categories. Now he threw himself into his work, spending months out in the field collecting insects and hour upon hour holed up in his lab. George Platt Lynes Collection By the time I knew him it was definitely painful. Voice reading Billy Graham: Doctor Kinsey's one-sided report is an indictment against American womanhood. In most cases, titles are available for viewing. Narrator: Though professor Kinsey's course was restricted to seniors and married students, hundreds lined up to register. Gebhard: As he once pointed out, he said it, you have to be careful about masochism because the threshold always rises, you need more and more stimulation. Most of my knowledge of sex was gained in the back seat of a '26 Chevy. In fact, he wanted people who were not as he said, sex shy. And he always referred to me as Gebhard. The film also stars Laura Linney (in a performance nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress), Chris O'Donnell, And this is what it looks like," and I think that's what caused the huge reaction. Oh we'll have a gabfest". Hardy: One of the things he explored was the conjunction between pain and sex. Now just because the guy is a pedophile and it's illegal activity, you don't throw away valuable data. Bob Bayer: There was a lot of braggadocio, but uh, no, that was all bluff. Crazy Credits At the end of the film (following the main cast credits), a montage featuring Kinsey Institute footage of the mating habits of various animals is accompanied by "Fever" by Little Willie John. John Tebbel: Right from the beginning his main objective was to get as many people as possible in as many different levels of social strata as he could penetrate. Kenneth Anger: Kinsey had an amazing ability to put you at ease. I'm all right. Clyde Martin, Kinsey Associate: He emphasized that I always ought to wear a condom, uh, which I remember rather shocked me, I'd never thought of uh, trying to have sex before marriage. Narrator: Kinsey also recruited Wardell Pomeroy, a young prison psychologist whom he had met in 1941. They were very stigmatized. Kinsey pushed them hard -- fourteen hour days, six days a week. Group by group, Kinsey planned to construct a picture of American sexual behavior. This, this was a lesson that, that fascinated him. The collections are grouped into the following categories: Historical Stag films; Peepshow; Sex Education; Animal Sex Behavior; Swedish Erotica and Art, Exploitation, and Pornographic feature films. And I said I haven't heard of him, uh, what did he write? And so they would sit out there. By 1953, having poured over hundreds of hours of footage and nearly 18,000 interviews, he began writing the female report, the much-anticipated follow-up to the male volume. Hardy: He had a family tree of thirty-six and he'd slept with seventeen of them. and Twin Cities Public Television, Inc. Jones: She is not going to be left out, she's not going to be excluded. It will cause children to doubt the fidelity of their parents and will lead to various types of moral abuses. Narrator: Word of Kinsey's class spread quickly through conservative Bloomington. Nature gives Alfred Kinsey an area which he can define himself. And then suddenly this world burst on him, this homosexual underworld, which astonished him. If he'd have been more diplomatic in, in the way that he approached this then he actually might have achieved more. Please answer me, sir, please help me. James Jones: There is a cataclysmic confrontation with his father that takes place in the driveway of their home...he doesn't recognize the son who's in front of him, this is the kid who's supposed to be dutiful, this is the kid who's supposed to do his father's bidding. Catherine Johnson Rhoer But most of all, the narrow view of sexuality was at odds with his belief in the boundless diversity of nature. He gradually over the years built up a very close conjunction personally. Narrator: Driven by scientific and personal curiosity, Professor Kinsey set out for Chicago to find and interview gay men in rooming houses and underground bars. Suddenly the conspiracy of silence is shattered in a society that had been tapped down, and really things will never be the same again. Ericksen: He talks about how many women have had sex before marriage and gone on to have normal marriages. Indiana University Taking on women's sexuality, Kinsey knew, was far more explosive than reporting on men. Getty Images Narrator: Masturbation was a consuming worry not just in the Kinsey household. Though his work was groundbreaking and up-ended established ideas about sexual practices in America, his own sexual orientation and personal beliefs almost certainly shaped and biased his findings. Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy: He used to send Kinsey out to buy cigarettes, aged eleven, which you weren't allowed to do then any more than now. Eric Garabrant, Post Production Anya Bourg The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction and Fox Searchlight Pictures present a special screening and gala reception in celebration of KINSEY, the motion picture that examines the life of Alfred Kinsey. George Shafnacker, Camera Assistants Pomeroy was handsome enough to be a movie star. Narrator: After office hours, Alfred and Clara hosted students in their home, offering tea, biscuits, and advice about the facts of life. Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy: So Kinsey walked out. Kinsey was, above all, a taxonomist, specializing in the "classification of organisms in an ordered system that indicates natural relationships." Penny MacDonald He suffered from rickets, rheumatic fever, and finally a case of typhoid. James Jones: I think Kinsey at a very early age began to understand that his sexual identity is complicated and that he is interested in members of the same sex. By the end of their training, Kinsey's men had become infused with his sense of purpose. But on scouting trips, he found relief from the suffocating pressure of his home life. What kinds of sexual behavior did women engage in? Jared Ray Man: Are you a member of the Communist Party? Instead Kinsey argued for a sliding scale from zero to six to reflect the many shades of sexual behavior. John Gagnon: As he went from prisons to gay communities, to just everyday folks, what really I think moved him was the massive amount of ignorance in the society about sexuality. University of South Carolina, Newsfilm Archive He made sort of a joke about it, he said, well some people curl their toes and some people don't. You know it was with the pencil poised you know, as we expected it. "The book is a triumph of sanity and reason," declared the New Republic. A fierce advocate of academic freedom, Wells was determined to defend his faculty's research no matter where it might lead. Man reading Kinsey's words: Dear Madam: Your question is a fair one -- if love is extolled by poets and teachers, then what can be wrong with it in any form that remains fine and real. Julia Ericksen: He realized that in the 1930s, the prisons were full of working class men who'd been unemployed and drifting from town to town and eventually got themselves locked up. Narrator: By 1946, the team had completed more than 8,500 interviews. Suddenly you could talk about sex because Kinsey had. What was emerging from their data, they all knew, was a revolutionary picture of American sexual diversity. Despite their admiration for Kinsey's efforts, they concluded that he had made serious errors in his sampling. Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy: Kinsey at this time was showing slides of penis entering vagina and Thurman Rice was a burly person at the medical school was turned on by this. John Bancroft: The homosexual communities at that time were, very much under threat. Kinsey’s pornographic auto-documentaries apparently remain under lock and key at Indiana University’s Kinsey Institute, which publicly promotes a much more conventional portrait at its founder on its low-key website. He decided to use them in the study. James Jones, Biographer: In boardrooms, in barbershops, at the ballpark, people standing on the corner. Nature is getting out of the house. So by the time that I married my husband I was full of recrimination self-recrimination and guilt and shame and felt very isolated. Chicago had confirmed his long-held belief that the principle of variation he had observed in nature also applied to human sexuality. Consuelo Lopez Morilla and Family For example, anything entered in this column had to do with premarital intercourse. Jones: In boardrooms, in barbershops, at the ballpark, people standing on the corner, they talk about Alfred Kinsey's data, what does it mean, are we to believe it? Paul Gebhard: It was agonizing. And the moment the shopkeeper had, uh, sold the cigarettes, Kinsey's father would pounce, he'd report him to the authorities and of course that made him unpopular. Narrator: On January 5, 1948 Sexual Behavior in the Human Male was released. Sheffield: I think women failed to have any pleasure in it, possibly no orgasm or just it was badly done, one way or the other, thought it was their own fault. "You can't ask a man to give up what is the driving force of his life because he is your husband. Narrator: This was to be the inner circle: Martin, Pomeroy, Gebhard, and Kinsey. Uh, and I remember being uh, shocked and horrified for months. Paul Gebhard: The code sheets were divided up into a series of rectangles. The only answer I can give is that homosexuality happens to be out of fashion in the society thru which you have to move. Gee, the world really isn't the way those people think it is, it's really this way, cause I've been out there in the world and it is this way. He made you feel that he you were as scientific as he was. Laura Beatty, Re-recording Mixer The ignorance, the anxiety, the pain which had been created by the lack of knowledge must be got rid of. It dispatched three world-renowned statisticians to Bloomington. Paul Gebhard, Kinsey Associate: The household was certainly asexual. At Indiana, the student newspaper had begun to clamor for a real course on sex. American womanhood masturbating? Tom Williams Kinsey had done what no one had dared do before: Interview thousands of Americans about their sexual experiences. You know he, you tried. And the kid who's standing in front of him is defiant and he's independent and he's asking his father in an angry voice for independence. About the Kinsey Institute: On April 8, 1947, Dr. Alfred Kinsey and his research team incorporated as the Institute for Sex Research. You begin to see, there's a very strong person here, a person with enormous willpower. I think it's a good thing. But their wedding night did not go well. These videos cover the following areas: Heterosexual and Homosexual Erotica, Sex Education and Therapy, Transgender, and Sadomasochism/Bondage. They were all different. In most cases, original prints are not available for viewing. (Enter your ZIP code for information on American Experience events and screening in your area.). Having sex before marriage; adultery was illegal; in some states oral sex was illegal even within marriage; and certainly anal sex was... Narrator: Kinsey was disturbed that sexual acts he regarded as perfectly normal had been criminalized, especially homosexuality. With his crew cut and bow tie, he seemed the very embodiment of the straight-laced professor more at home in his biology lab than in the classroom. Insidious too is the worldview underlying the film. Gebhard: He was lying on his bed, and he wanted to say something to me, so I went over and leaned over him. Variety therefore, became, um, fundamental to his thinking. Well then he learned how to do it and the two histories said okay, I'll ask X and Y. Reading, Alfred Kinsey : It is ideas as to what is proper and what is not which interferes with the consummation of marriage. And the basic interview was a little over 300 questions, so you had to memorize 300 questions. Video access copies are available for many of these titles. Narrator: Kinsey's experiments with masochism had started years before, but as his depression deepened, they became more intense. Paul Gebhard: Kinsey commiserated with him and said, oh yes, it's a terrible thing you know, it's...I suffer from it too, we must fight it and the kid said, well what do we do? Boyle: There is no moralizing in what he's doing. The Kinsey Institute Good Housekeeping gave the book it's seal of approval and called it, 'the most important report of its kind ever attempted." And I'd say from that point on I think his homosexuality became more apparent. The collections contain a variety of formats including super 8, 8mm, 16mm and 35mm. The results that began to emerge were striking. The man behind the inflammatory reports seemed at first glance an unlikely "revolutionary." Paul Gebhard oversaw the analysis while Clyde Martin hand-drew dozens of charts. Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy: One of his troop was called Kenneth Hand. "I knew this was untrodden territory, " recalled Pomeroy. He liked being famous you know he enjoyed it. Men reached their sexual peak at the age of 19. Narrator: Kinsey, who had always played a strong role in the lives of his circle, from how they dressed to where they lived, now pushed into their sexual lives as well. Anger: I could tell he was tiring more than when I first met him. Tebbel: He seemed like a different man. Kinsey is a 2004 American biographical drama film written and directed by Bill Condon. Narrator: A frequent film subject was Kinsey's own wife. Julia Ericksen: Kinsey was trained as an entomologist as an entomologist he wanted to see all the varieties of the gall wasps that he studied. Julia Ericksen: Most of the writers with few exceptions up to this point have thought society needed to repress sexuality because sex unbounded is a bad thing. And I think that slowly built sort of the fires of the reformist in him. I know my sister wouldn't, I'm quite sure my mother wouldn't. He would need as many as 100,000 sexual histories from men and women, old and young, black and white, rich and poor. Morris & Alice Binkley: I knew about the penis. To be told that it's perfectly normal to sleep with another man if you're a man, its perfectly normal to want to sleep with another woman if you're a woman, this made a huge difference. Kinsey immediately founded The Institute for Sex Research at Indiana and set about finding a staff of interviewers. Narrator: What soon became known as "The Kinsey Report" spawned scores of cartoons and popular songs. And Pomeroy was of inestimable value in demonstrating this, so Kinsey could watch and take notes. T. C. Boyle, Novelist: When was the first time they were ever aware that there was a difference between the sexes? It would focus on men. Miriam Hecht, Kinsey Associate: Are you kidding? James Jones: They get on a train, or they get on a plane and then they start taking histories. And the last one that I remember who didn't really want to go in had to be coerced pretty much, because once they told her it was scientific research she went. Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy: He would walk, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five miles a day and you can sense this release. John Bancroft, Sex Researcher: He literally collected millions of specimens and was interested in how you know each gall wasp was always a little bit different from the next one. One of them in particular caught his attention, a handsome young entymologist named Ralph Voris. Use of the film archive is by appointment only. Gebhard: We made it easy for people by assuming they'd done everything. It really was a non-event as far as I'm concerned. But that Alfred loved Clara and that Clara loved Alfred I have never doubted. He could be passionately sitting forward in his chair. And they must have had to come to terms with the fact that he wanted to sleep with men. This isn't true. You could see in his face this terrible stress he was under; he was really aging before your eyes. Narrator: "The present volume is a progress report from a case history study on human sex behavior...", "this study will fill a gap in our knowledge", "14 percent of males have had contact ...", "26%", "94%, "these histories represent scientific fact divorced from social customs..." By the summer of 1947 Kinsey had begun writing the first in a planned series of nine volumes on human sexuality. Mac took me aside and said she was worried about his heart. Narrator: By 1938, Kinsey had been talking and reading about sex for more than ten years. Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy: Shortly after Gebhard arrived, he began to have an affair with Clyde Martin's wife, Alice, and very quickly, Alice began to fall in love with Gebhard. By 1943, they were averaging 300 interviews a month. Fox Movietone NewsUCLA Film and Television Archive Ken Preis Alex Esber, On Camera Actors Kinsey was a sickly child. As publication neared, he became even more secretive insisting that trash cans at the Institute be numbered and checked, doors triple locked, drafts of the book kept in a safe. Foremost among Kinsey's critics was Thurman Rice, a professor of medicine who had decided to drop in on the marriage class. An appointment is required for viewing. And I guess that was the problem. And, and it would begin to flow from there. Prelinger Archive The majority of the collection is cataloged in The Kinsey Institute Library's catalog. And so I do believe that Clara, despite her protestations to the contrary, became lonely. Emma Ketteringham It is prudish ideas that do more than any other single factor to undermine the home. And I recommended people in my rooming house, and they all contributed histories. He would invite them to come after class for a personal conference, then urge them to reveal their sexual histories. New York Public Library Martin Duberman Papers Narrator: By the mid-1930's, Kinsey had painstakingly measured, labeled, and pinned tens of thousands of insects.