Birth of the Pearl (1901)
Article 5640 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 2-26-2019
Directed by F.S. Armitage
Cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: Early adult film

On a stage, a woman rises from the shell of an oyster.

This is classified as a fantasy on IMDB, and insofar as women don’t grow in oyster shells, I suppose it is. But obviously the fantastic content isn’t the selling point here; the fact that the woman is wearing a skintight leotard that makes it look like she might be naked is. I suppose this is called “erotica”, which I usually take to mean it’s like sexploitation, only artier. It may have been hot back then; today it’s just a curio.