1966: Founding of AB Beta Stockholm       In 1966, there were only 3 or 4 titles all over the world of explicit porn movies in color. Nothing fancy, only some unimaginative, badly-photographed 8mm reels of about 10 minutes each. Standing the prohibition, color was difficult to develop and very risky to duplicate. In that time there were hardly any market for porn movies. The sale of 8mm cameras and projectors was only starting to take off. Consequently, there were no hardcore flicks besides about 15-to-20 old titles of B/W 8mm home movies and the about 3-to-4 titles of color stuff. They were hardly available even in small quantities in Northern Europe, and they were ridiculously few and unexciting to create any real interest in the market.       Well aware that a drastic change was necessary, LB starts a movie company called AB Beta Film in Stockholm. Immediately, he begins producing short shocking porn movies in color, later called loops in the USA. They were about 8-to-15 minutes each, first shot in Super 8mm and then in 16mm. These loops (all together about 80 titles mostly produced from 1968 to 1977,) made Lasse Braun's fame as the first signature filmmaker, synonymous with the best explicit porn movies ever seen. First "loops"        The first of his loops, titled "Golden Butterfly", is a self-portrait, which he shot in 1966 in Montecarlo with a girlfriend. She was dressed up as a Japanese (Madame Butterfly) and Braun as a naval officer (Pinkerton). By placing the small 8mm camera on a tripod, changing its positions to switch angles, and activating the long cord of the remote control from behind his back, LB succeeded in shooting a brief encounter of the two famous lovers. But in this 10-minute porn movie in color, which LB edited by himself, instead of singing Puccini's melodies, they did the unthinkable: they made love in her boudoir without hiding anything of what makes sex so luscious and irresistible.       Now confident that his well-photographed, uncensored sex films will indeed unleash a true, uncompromising sexual revolution, Braun shots more loops by picking up girls in the discos of the Swedish capital city. Gorgeous young women who, in those days, didn't even know the meaning of the word "pornography." They had sex in front of a camera mostly for the sake of cheerful exhibitionism.       Among Braun's first titles are: "Blow-up '70," "Chains of Eroticism," "Sex on the Motorway," "Susie la Blonde," "Dream of a Nymphomaniac," as well others. Through his Swedish company AB Beta, LB distributed these products with his logos: Eros Film and Ciro's Film. In 1968, since the demand for his illegal porn loops was growing everywhere in Europe, LB purchases the necessary equipment to set up his own color film lab. He built it in the suburbs of Stockholm and operated it in association with a Swedish technician--a nice, capable man called Rejo West. That was the world's first modern movielab exclusively dedicated to the mass-production of pornography. The world's first "Adult Only" mail order business       Meanwhile, Braun also organizes a mail-order business for his products, and succeeds in advertising his Swedish AB Beta Film on various European magazines, by creating the expression "adult only," which no one had ever used before to indicate sex products. In 1968, he's charged by Italian and French judicial prosecutors with a number of obscenity crimes.       After getting a visit from Swedish Interpol in his offices in the elegant Oestermalm quarter of Stockholm, he officially adopts the name Lasse Braun, which he purchased from his Swedish carpenter who was remodeling his office in Stockholm when the police showed up.       Having obtained immunity from prosecution in Sweden, LB invades the international market with a number of pornographic products, such as books, magazines, German-made dildos, and with his colorful, well-shot loops, based on brief, often satirical stories.       Moreover, each individual title was packaged for the first time in elegant boxes, designed by LB, instead of being simply wrapped in cheap envelopes as customary in those years. These attractive four colors boxesÑanother of Braun's innovationsÑdefinitively announced to the world that pornography was coming out of the closet, proudly challenging the old laws and hitting the system regulators right in their ugly faces. More LB Photographs