         |
        |
 |
|
|
|
 | ||
  | ||
|  |
|
Golden Butterfly Braun began making underground 8mm short, silent sex films in the fall of 1966 when he hadn't yet changed his French-Italian name AGF into the Swedish name Lasse Braun. The first of his short, silent movies (later called "loops" in America) was titled Golden Butterfly. It was shot in Montecarlo with an intriguing French girl playing the role of Madame Butterfly while AGF played the role of her lover, screwing her on her large golden chair in front of a mirror. Since Super 8mm film was still unavailable, AGF shot his first sex movie with a small 8mm hand-rewinding camera, on color 8mm film, using a tripods and a remote wire-shutter, without anyone else involved besides the girl. He edited it into a 12'-minute colorful show of love & sex; then he began looking for a way to make copies and creating a mass market for it. AB Beta Film - Stockholm By 1967 AGF went for a month to Stockholm and incorporated his first film company, which he called AB Beta Film. In a large local lab, he found a technician, Mr. Rejo W, who agreed to duplicate a small number of copies during his night shift. As pornography was still illegal in Sweden and everywhere else in the whole world, Rejo's private job with Golden Butterfly had to be done in absolute secrecy. ADULTS ONLY Back Back in Italy, AGF found the way to get his first ads for his Swedish company published in the beginning of January, 1968, on two magazines MEN and KING, promoted as magazines for men only because they both portrayed semi-nude girls---still no nipples and no pubic hair allowed. Having no chance to get any ad which could openly reveal the explicit sexual character of his films---the one he had, Golden Butterfly, and the ones he planned to shoot in the future---AGF came up with the formula ADULTS ONLY, which in that time wasn't publicly used or known as a label for sex items, since there were none. The AB Beta Film ads sounded like the company was "looking for Collectors of Swedish 8mm movies, ONLY FOR ADULTS." The Adult Collectors could order the program of the company by mailing cash money equivalent to $5.00 in today's value, to the Swedish address of the company. Despite this mysterious request, almost 2000 people mailed the money for the program within a couple of weeks. AGF quickly printed a small catalogue with Golden Butterfly and FOUR new 8mm titles of various length, which had not yet produced, priced from $100 to $250, with the full collection of five titles for $1,000. He mailed it to the requesting folks and waited for the results. A Gift of Eros The ads, the program and the catalogue were very successful. Advance payments began pouring in for almost $100,000 before AGF could begin producing the FOUR new films and get Rejo W. to manufacture the first copies of the FIVE total titles during his nightshift at the Swedish lab. As AGF considered those funds as a gift from Eros, the God of Life, Love and Sex, he would never betray the Collectors who trusted him without guarantee. He even printed a short "manifesto" in honor of Eros, calling his movies EROS FILMS. In that occasion, AGF promised that for the rest of his life he would try to take sex out of the gutter where it was dumped by its numerous enemies---not only the clerics of sexophobic religions, the judges and the police, but also the common merchants and pimps who exploit sex for the sake of vile money. New Productions Back In the early spring of 1968, AGF moved to Sweden, permanently. Shortly thereafter, he began looking for some attractive sex performers, male and females, foreigners and nationals, approaching various prospects in discos and bars. Being pornography still virtually unknown in any part of the world, they hardly knew anything about explicit sex movies. But since AGF made it look as a fun thing to do, and even offered some drinks and paid them a small amount of Eros money, several boys and girls agreed to do it. Most of them had sex in front of the camera, following AGF directions without inhibitions. So, the man behind AB Beta Film produced/directed/edited the FOUR new titles. See List of Original LB Loops. Pushing Rejo W. to the limits, AGF was finally able get the FIVE films copied and mail them to the Collectors who trusted the Swedish company with their money. The First Porno Lab in the World Despite the dangers of dealing with pornography, AGF couldn't possibly rely on under the counter duplication. With Rejo's advice, he purchased new modern lab equipment in Italy. Whereupon, as soon as the machinery arrived in Stockholm, the Swede quitted his job and became the technical director of AGF's new lab---the first lab in the world specialized in the development and duplication of uncensored, still highly illegal, sex movies. Meanwhile, AGF began selling his short, colorful, sex movies under his own various labels mostly to private clients, through the very successful mail order division of his company AB Beta Film, Stockholm 3---the first company ever to promote and openly sell hardcore sex movies in the whole world. He published his ADULT ONLY ads in several countries such as France, England and Germany. AGF Becomes Lasse Braun In the end of 1968, as various criminal cases had been initiated against him as publisher, producer and distributor of "obscene" material, that is "material against the common morality" (sic!) AGF changed his name into Lasse Braun aka LB, which he acquired from his Swedish carpenter in charge of remodeling his new offices in central Stockholm. In the Sex Year 1969---the year when pornography was legalized in Denmark, the first nation in the world to do so---at the peak of activity, LB's Swedish mail order employed a dozen people busy with packaging and mailing an average of 200 parcels a day. By year end, LB was able accumulate $1M tax-free in his Swiss bank accounts. He dedicated this additional Gift of Eros to the worldwide promotion of real sex and to the legalization of pornography in all western countries. Read LB Biography to know more on LB's involvement in the legal strategy to legalize pornography in Northern Europe. Tropical and Other LB Series In the fall of 1969, LB traveled to Trinidad-Tobago in the Caribbean. With native club girls and strippers, he shot the first of his 3-title Series, called Tropical. Then he permanently moved his main offices to Copenhagen. He set up a graphic design division of his Danish company, Golden Rose Center, with an Danish art-director and four assistants. The daily work was the design of LB catalogues and boxes, another innovation of Lasse Braun. For the first time in the world, instead of wrapping porn movies in envelopes or small, blank boxes with a hand-written titles and a picture glued on the cover, the reels of LB Super 8mm sex movies were now packed in lavish 4-color boxes, printed for each title separately. Along with the creative, hard-erotic content of Braun's movies and his highly original idea of shooting and marketing his products in a variety of 3-title Series, the packaging in his colorful, well-designed boxes contributed to the success of his productions. As pornography was legalized in Denmark since the late spring of 1969, shooting sex movies became a little easier. LB afforded to cast attractive young women with some class, clean face, no fake tits, and untrimmed pubic hair. They became LB's trademark along with the fact that he always provided for more than ordinary sex. In a short time LB completed the first catalogue of TEN 3-title SERIES, which was hugely successful all over the world. (See First Catalogue of LB Loops.) Quantity buyers were paying for LB titles the double they paid for any bulk pornography item, in advance. All orders had to be placed on the waiting list, for LB's Stockholm lab couldn't produce more than 2000 copies a day. The marketing of LB's 3-title Series provided for the automatic sale of three times more than ordinary porn movies made by the champions of bulk pornography. LB Moves to Holland By character and education, LB was opposed to increase duplication and mass-production of sex at lower prices and lower erotic quality, like others did and still do. He considered sex movies as an art form on their own, and not as a mean to become rich, for he was already "rich" to start with. Until pirating became a major issue, with bootleggers hawking pirate LB copies at the half of the official prices, Series such as Top Secret, Nymphomania, The Vikings, Casanova and others, deserved not only admiration but high prices because demand was high and supply was kept under control. In 1972, LB moved his main offices to Breda, a tranquil town of southern Holland. He continued shooting short movies even after he began producing/directing his first feature films, French Blue and Sensations. Some Rough Numbers Back All together, from 1968 to 1977, LB shot about 80 loops. See List of Original LB Loops. In Europe, his Swedish lab and other labs produced about 2 million authentic LB copies. The number of pirated copies was probably higher. In the USA, since 45 of LB titles were intensively used in peep show Super8 projectors, no copy lasted for more than a week average. In the four years from 1972 to 1976 it was reckoned that about 12 million LB copies had been duplicated in the USA, mostly to feed the 60,000 peep show machines operated within Rueben S. American sex empire. For more info on the successful business relationship between LB and Rueben S. read Sensations The Full Story. Then, despite the fact that LB's inter-negatives were duplicated over and over again in order to produce more and more copies from each of them, all LB's inter-negatives run out of duplicating power for too much consumption. |
| Loops Included with LB DVDs First Catalogue of LB Loops |
