This collection consists of 15 short films distributed through the Movie-of-the-Month-Club, which was created by Joe Bonica in 1946. Bonica distributed films through the mail under several different company names, including Movie News Reels, Movie-of-the-Month, 8 MM Movie Club, and Movie Club. These films represented a range of topics: educational shorts, industrials, travelogues, music shorts, and erotic shorts. The latter led to a legal dispute in California in 1954 over whether Bonica's business had distributed "obscene, lewd and lascivious" material through the federal mail (19541122_0000048.CCA - Joe Bonica v. Otto K. Olesen, United States District Court, Southern District of California, Central Division Dated: November 22, 1954).
Although Bonica's distribution company distributed many different kinds of short films, this collection principally includes music and erotic shorts. The music shorts are staged performances of individual songs. Several feature women dancing and some cross over into erotic "cheesecake" material. Performers featured include: Virginia Rees, Gertrude Niesen, Rudy Vallee, Elvira Pagan, Bonnie Campana, and Ioana Ouhestin.
The shorts are not pornographic in nature; rather they use settings like swimsuit revues, underwater ballet, and musical numbers to highlight what was known as "cheesecake" material. Performers include: Frances Vorne, Nancy Marlowe, Bonnie Nolan, Leslie Charles, Jean Brown, Nini Shipley, Marilyn Buferd (Miss America 1946), Mary Lou Bennett, and Dorothy Van Nuys.
One reel includes a short titled "Filmagazine No. 1," which is a compilation of shots of celebrities on studio lots or about town. It includes: Lois Andrews, Guy Madison, Joan Leslie, Ceasar Romero, Jane Withers, Jackie Cooper, June Haver, Jack Beutel, Hedda Hopper, Red Skelton, Alan Ladd, Tom Brown, Pat O'Brien, Ann Jeffries, Nancy Guild, Fred Astaire, Lana Turner, Rob Hutton, Maria Montez, Gene Tierney, Evelyn Keyes, Cary Grant, Olivia de Haviland, Rory Calhoun, Beverly Taylor, Celeste Holm, Atwater Kent, Dave Rose, Jane Powell, Frank Morgan, Ben Blue, Edgar Buchanan, Ann Miller, The Wilde Twins, and Van Johnson. The short also includes a section titled "Screen Stars Golf Tournament," which includes Bob Hope, Wayne Morris, John Carroll, Myrna Dell, William Lundigan, Mickey Rooney, and Guy Kibbee.
All the reels in this collection are 16 mm prints with sound, in black-and-white. The visual quality of these prints is good overall although the quality differs between individual reels.
