peep show

A short soft-core porn exhibition. To enjoy “forbidden” glimpses of naked female flesh, a man went to an arcade in a sleazy neighborhood, paid his dime or quarter, entered a booth, and stared through a peep hole at a partially or fully unclothed woman. The “show,” which lasted for no more than five or ten minutes, began when a shade or other obstruction over the peep hole was raised and ended when it was lowered. Instead of “live models,” some peep shows featured short films shown on individual viewing machines. Peep shows became less and less commercially viable as movie houses (and now the Internet) showed more explicit fare.