BROOKE GLADSTONE: Now roll back the time machine a few more decades to the 1940s. Teens were in peril then too -- not necessarily from sniffing angel dust, but definitely from breathing in each other's pheromones. It was a nervous time, and a perfect time for sex educator slash snake oil salesman Kroger Babb. His magic potion was a movie, disarmingly titled Mom and Dad. And, unlike the later after school specials, it was not designed to reassure kids but to titillate and terrify their parents. This was tough love for grownups, intended to expose the horrible consequences of sexual ignorance. [CLIP FROM MOM AND DAD PLAYS] [PLAINTIVE MUSIC UNDER]

MRS. BLAKE: Who was the boy? I'll have him arrested.

MAN: They didn't tell me his name, and I didn't ask. After all, why blame the boy?

MRS. BLAKE: But you wouldn't blame such a scandalous thing on an innocent young girl like Joan?

MAN: No. I wouldn't blame her any more than I would the boy.

MRS. BLAKE: Well, then who would you blame?

MAN: I'd blame you, Mrs. Blake -- you and every parent who neglects the sacred duty of telling their children the real truth.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Joe Bob Briggs is an author, erstwhile TV movie host and a columnist for UPI. He wrote about Mom and Dad and Kroger Babb for Reason magazine in 2003, when we spoke to him.

JOE BOB BRIGGS: If you lived in a small town in the '40s or '50s or even the '60s -- 'cause this movie ran for 30 years, sooner or later a publicity man would show up in town and ads would appear, and a debate would occur, and there would be letters to the editor in the paper. You would get all the ballyhoo leading up to the one-week-only screenings of Mom and Dad. Kroger Babb billed himself as "America's Fearless Young Showman," and he had a, an army of these Mom and Dad road show units that went all over the country -- at one time as many as 40 of them on the road at-- all at the same time.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And as part of his advance strategy, he would sometimes write the angry letters to the editor, wouldn't he?

JOE BOB BRIGGS:Oh, yeah, absolutely. He was the master at writing fake letters to the editor posing as a pastor in another town that had already had Mom and Dad and saying never let this film show there. [LAUGHTER] They would, they would also occasionally try to get court injunctions filed against their own film, [LAUGHTER] you know and, and one time they were successful. And then they had to go [LAUGHS] into court and argue against their own injunction. [LAUGHTER] But yeah, anything to create controversy about the film.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And so, when the projector rolled, what exactly would the audience see?

JOE BOB BRIGGS:The whole first hour is devoted to showing how this sweet, pretty young girl has her life ruined because she goes to a local dance and she's swept off her feet by a handsome and worldly pilot who steals a kiss, and then he overwhelms her, after that, in his roadster on Lover's Lane and convinces her that two people as much in love as they are should definitely go all the way. Slow fade. Okay? [LAUGHS]

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Right.

JOE BOB BRIGGS:Shortly thereafter, he leaves town on business. Then, she gets a letter that he's been killed in an accident on the same day that she discovers she's "worried about her hygiene." [LAUGHTER]

BROOKE GLADSTONE: In other words she is in trouble, in trouble, in trouble.

JOE BOB BRIGGS: Yes.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: That phrase is used throughout the film. The "P" word, however, is never invoked.

JOE BOB BRIGGS: Never used the word pregnancy in the entire film.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:Now, the truly titillating material, though -the stuff that everybody was really there to see, was actually tucked deep in the show and arrives in the form of a film within a film?

JOE BOB BRIGGS: Yeah. In one of the clumsiest segue ways ever, one of the teachers at the high school says "We need a class in social hygiene. So these things [LAUGHTER] don't happen again," and-- somebody mentions "Oh, I know this specialist, Dr. Ashley." So, in the next scene you see Dr. Ashley talking to a high school class of girls, and he shows a film called The Facts of Life. And it looks, you know, just like a normal film about the menstrual cycle, and it has some drawings of the genital organs, and then whap! -- suddenly, without warning, graphic footage of a live birth. [LAUGHTER] Then you haven't quite recovered from that, and they show a second film called Modern American Surgery that has an actual Caesarean section on camera. Then two scenes later, just when you think you've seen all you can see, there's a third film within the film called Seeing is Believing, and this is the coup de grace of the whole thing. It's, it's every teenage boy's nightmare. It's got all these syphilis victims with their rotting teeth and their bodies with open sores, and all these silent movie style captions that say "The Price of Ignorance," "Self-Styled Moralists Would Like to Keep These Facts a Secret," things of this nature.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:You know, what's interesting about Mom and Dad is that it allowed moviegoers to get off on images of "pickles and beaver," as they were known, and yet, still walk away with their sense of moral integrity intact. [CLIP PLAYS - MOVIE MUSIC]

MAN: And now, friends, you've seen the entire production. If you agree that these pictures have been bold and shocking enough that you've learned a very worthwhile lesson from 'em, I wish you'd show the management your appreciation at this time by your applause. [LAUGHTER]

JOE BOB BRIGGS: Notice that he says two things that are contradictory. He says "If you believe these things are bold and shocking, and if you believe these things are educational, show the management by your applause." [LAUGHTER] And of course, that was the genius of the promotion -- that you could appeal to a, a man's baser instincts, and yet let him justify seeing this footage by his educational mission.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Well, Joe Bob Briggs, thank you very much.

JOE BOB BRIGGS: Okay. Thank you.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Joe Bob Briggs is the author of Profoundly Disturbing: The Shocking Movies that Changed Cinema. [THEME MUSIC UP & UNDER]

BOB GARFIELD:58:00 That's it for this week's show. On the Media was produced by Megan Ryan, Tony Field, Jamison York and Anne Kossef, and edited-- by Brooke. Dylan Keefe is our technical director and Jennifer Munson our engineer. We had editing help from Arun Rath. Our webmaster is Amy Pearl. Katya Rogers is our senior producer and Dean Cappello our executive producer. Bassist/composer Ben Allison wrote our theme. You can listen to the program and find free transcripts, MP3 downloads and our podcasts at onthemedia.org -- and email us at onthemedia@wnyc.org. This is On the Media, produced by WNYC. I'm Brooke Gladstone.

BOB GARFIELD: And I'm Bob Garfield.