Bare truth

'Skin' films flourish

in theaters here

чат

By Emerson Batdorff

A's the screen gets more and more down to brass tacks in the sex department we find more and more theaters devoted entirely to sex.

This causes neighborhoods no little anguish, but there doesn't seem much that can be done about it.

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You would think that eventually everybody would have seen all the stuff he wanted to see, or could get a maintenance dose from some commercially available X or R rated movie.

BUT apparently not. Social historians of some future century should have a field day:

At first there was only the Standard downtown. It showed movies where, shall we say, the artistic content of the nudity was not the primary feature of the display?

When the law got more and more liberal; movies came out that got more and more men into the Standard. Well dressed men, too. They nip over there during lunch some of them, or maybe make an afternoon of it:

The next thing Cleveland knew, the Paris Art Theater was in operation on the West Side.

"It won't last a month," a knowing theater man told friends who called him to complain. "These are home movies. Some naked girls do a dance, or maybe just roll around on the floor if they aren't talented enough to dance.

"It's photographed silent and someone plays a record player during the show. Who's going to pay $3 to see that?" he askeds:

Well, lots of people. The theater has been in business (changing programs twice a week) for a number of years. When I saw the show around Christmas time the record player was churning out "Jingle Bells," which seemed inappropriate for the blonde on the screen to roll around to. She never stood up at all. Perhaps she was too topheavy.

WHEN the "Tom and Jerry" cartoon came on, all the men got up and left. I suspect that it told them that if they stuck around any longer they would be sitting through the second show. Otherwise they might not know. There's a great deal of similarity to these pictures.

After the Paris Art Theater scored such a dramatic triumph, the Broadvue in Southwest Cleveland changed its policy to skin. The neighbors complained vigorously, but somebody must have gone in to watch because it still is operating.

It sometimes charges $5 a head for what are training films in making love as far as I can tell from the ads.

Films like this also now play at the Continental in East Cleveland. They are doing so well that the theater, which for years has

been open only evenings, now is open noon to midnight.

The manifestation of avid interest in instruction is not limited to Cleveland. "Man and Wife" at $5 a ticket (it only costs $3 at the Continental) is in its 47th week in San Francisco.

There's another patch of sex movie houses at E. 105th and Euclid, if two can be considered a patch.

WE HAVE the Pussycat Cine X a few doors down from the Adult Cinema, where they promise to arrest anyone under 21 who enters their movie house and book store. The Adult Cinema is the former Keith's 105th theater, a proud two-a-day vaudeville house years ago.

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At that, Cleveland is lagging behind the parade; a sex gap has developed. Other cities have movie theaters like this devoted entirely to homosexual films. We don't yet.

There is one bright feature to this otherwise dreary picture. The theaters are all vigorous, as far as I can tell, in keeping young people out. They don't want trouble with the police. Perhaps the only pornography law left in the United States is the one that says you can't contribute to the delinquency of a minor.

Besides, they don't need the young people. They do very well on the dirty-old-man trade.