History of Sex in Cinema:
The Greatest and Most Influential
Sexual Films and Scenes

(Illustrated)

Feature: The Cheerleader Films
of the Mid-1970s



The History of Sex in Cinema

The Cheerleader Films of the Mid-1970s:

The original 1973 film, a soft-core sexploitation classic, led to a three-part series of "Cheerleader" films, forerunners of the high school-based teen sex comedies prevalent in the 1980s. The first film in the group was inspired by the sexploitation, soft-porn 3-D movie The Stewardesses (1969), although now, the profession of the group of females had changed to cheerleaders.

The three films were:

  • The Cheerleaders (1973)
  • The Swinging Cheerleaders (1974)
  • Revenge of the Cheerleaders (1976)
Title Screens
Movie Title/Year and Film/Scene Description
Screenshots
The Cheerleaders (1973)

The sophomoric, drive-in sexual romp by director Paul Glickler was originally rated with a self-imposed X, and predated the similar hard-core porn film Debbie Does Dallas (1978). The film's poster invited the viewer: "Come and Huddle with the Cheerleaders." The narrator on the film's trailer also stated:

"Statistics show that the more active the cheerleader, the more successful the team...It's fair to assume that if three cheerleaders can lead a team to six victories, imagine what six cheerleaders can do...Come huddle with the cheerleaders. They will do anything to make their team win."

Its simplistic tale was about the strategy of the Amarosa High School (known as The Bears) cheerleaders - they planned to sleep with their opponent football team members from Central City High the night before the game, exhausting them so that they wouldn't perform well on the field. The many fake actress' names who portrayed the six cheerleaders were:

  • Bonnie (Jovita Bush), well-tanned
  • Suzie (Sandy Evans/Clair Dia), exhibitionist
  • Claudia (Denise Dillaway), sultry brunette team captain
  • Debbie (Brandy Woods), redheaded, horny
  • Patty (Kimberly Stanton/Hyde), blonde pot-smoking lesbian
  • Jeannie (or Jennie) Davis (Stephanie Fondue), baby-faced, the newest recruit - chosen because she was less apt to get pregnant like the previous squad member
Jeannie's (Stephanie Fondue) Shower Room Initiation

A subplot involved the newest replacement cheerleader Jennie (Stephanie Fondue), a virgin whose initiation into the squad included showering in the boy's locker room, where she tried to accomplish the feat, but was discovered and chased:

Guy: "Hey, who are you?"
Jeannie: "I'm a cheerleader."
Another Guy: "What are you doing here?"
Jeannie: "I'm being initiated."
Guy: "Far out!"

Her biggest challenge was losing her virgin status after numerous botched attempts (she was told: "You must be the last one in California!") The cheerleaders had failed to weaken the opposing football players when they found themselves sleeping with their own team during a wild sleepover orgy scene the night before the game. Their solution was to track down all the opposing team's players and also sleep with them.

The film culminated with Jeannie's successful attempt to bed the fourth string quarterback in Central's locker room during halftime - he hadn't been present and incapacitated the night before - and her efforts won the game.


Jeannie
("Stephanie Fondue")


Bonnie
("Jovita Bush")


Suzie
("Sandy Evans")


Claudia
("Denise Dillaway")


Debbie
("Brandy Woods")

Patty
("Kim Stanton")

The Swinging Cheerleaders (1974) (aka Locker Room Girls, H.O.T.S. II)

Writer/director Jack Hill, already well-known for directing a pair of blaxploitation films, Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974), helmed this R-rated sequel film that progressed from high school to college coed sexual antics. It offered these taglines: "They gave their all for the team," and "Not all the playing was on the football field. They live their fantasies on & off the field."

Compared to the other two entries, this one featured the least nudity and had a more realistic plotline.

Mesa State campus activist/feminist Kate Cory (Jo Johnston) infiltrated the cheerleading squad in order to write and publish an expose in the radical underground campus newspaper about the demeaning aspects of cheerleading. She discovered something more sinister - the fixing of football games by corrupt school officials (including an alumnus, a coach, and a professor).

The Swinging Cheerleaders Squad

Andrea
(Cheryl (Rainbeaux) Smith)

Lisa
(Rosanne Katon - future September 1978 Playboy Playmate)

Mary Ann
(Colleen Camp)

Kate
(Jo Johnston)
 

Revenge of the Cheerleaders (1976) (aka Cheerleaders: The Musical)

This third film in the series of Cheerleaders teen-sex comedies was from director Richard Lerner. It again followed the antics of the cheerleaders - of Aloha HS, this time including disco-dance musical numbers. Sex-crazed Boner (David Hasselhoff in his feature film debut), a star basketball player (who was having sex in a stall of the girl's bathroom with one of the cheerleaders, Sesame, in an early scene), added to the film's notoriety.

The film's tagline was: "It's High School the Way We Remember It ... Although It Never Happened Quite Like This!"

Cutting class, changing into their cheerleader uniform tops while riding in an open convertible, having sex with teachers, and acquiring a bad reputation for the school - these were just a few examples.

The stars (or cheerleaders) included:

  • Gail (Jerii Woods)
  • Heather (Rainbeaux Smith), pregnant
  • Leslie (Helen Lang)
  • Sesame (Patrice Rohmer)
  • Tishi (Susie Elene)

Aloha High School was threatened with closure because of a supposed "morality crisis" - with "sex and drugs rampant." The school board had decided to merge Aloha with its competing inner-city rival Lincoln HS.

[Note: The subplot was the real reason for the consolidation - a greedy developer was planning to build a shopping mall on the school property.]

The cheerleaders sprung into action by stealing drugs and booze from Lincoln HS, and then lacing their cafeteria's spaghetti sauce with drugs (to cause school inspectors to get high). The promiscuous and anarchic cheerleaders also engaged in wacky hijinks - they snuck into the basketball players' locker room, tiptoed into the shower area, and romped in an orgiastic soap-sudsy scene with the athletes. When the Aloha HS principal was replaced, and the new principal 'fired' the cheerleaders, they vowed revenge.

Cheerleader Sesame (Patrice Rohmer) in
Sudsy Orgy Shower Sequence

During a field trip, two of the uninhibited, naked cheerleaders, Sesame and dark-haired Leslie (Helen Lang, future July 1976 Penthouse Pet), wandered off into the woods. They came upon a long-haired, blonde, handsome Boy Scout. All three stripped, and then experienced a sexy threesome.

On their way back (still naked), the two cheerleaders were stopped by a policeman in his squad car. He charged them with "violation of Chapter 8, section 314 of the criminal code." They were ordered to spread their legs after they were led to the side of the car, to facilitate his frisky search for weapons or illicit drugs - although they were completely nude. He said they were guilty of a misdemeanor - they had lewdly exposed themselves to public view - and they were under arrest. Three fellow cheerleaders grabbed the officer, knocked him out against a tree trunk, and rescued Sesame and Leslie. Then, the group stole the police car and drove off. They returned to school in time for the big BB game - between Aloha and Lincoln, and helped to save the school.



Sesame Waking Up
in Tent




Leslie and Sesame
with Boy Scout


Leslie and Sesame -
Nude and Confronted
by Cop
Other "Cheerleaders" 1970s 'Nudie-Cutie' Films

The Pom Pom Girls (1976)

Satan's Cheerleaders (1977)

Cheerleaders Beach Party (1978) (aka California Cheerleaders)

Cheerleaders Wild Weekend (1979)

(aka The Great American Girl Robbery (1979))

H.O.T.S. (1979)

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