Boxoffice-May.31.1971

. Frank
. . The
Ga. High Court Rules
Five Films 'Obscene'
ATLANTA—Georgia's Supreme Court,
in an unanimous decision Thursday (13).
upheld a Fulton (Atlanta) Superior Court
decision that banned showing of five films
that had been adjudged obscene.
The high court, after viewing some of the
controversial films, dismissed challenges
brought by several theatre operators and
said the lower court's finding that the films
were obscene was "amply authorized."
The trial court enjoined the theatre operators
and owners from showing the films
after hearing civil cases brought by Fulton
County solicitor general Hinson McAuliffe
and district attorney Lewis Slaton. The
films in the litigation were "The Runaway
Virgin." "Can Your Daughter Sit Tonight?".
"Zap," "Take Them as They Are" and "Innocent
Nymph. Part II."
Newspaper Ads as 'Vital'
To Exploitation Theatres
ATLANTA—Raymond P. Gauer of Los
Angeles, national director of Citizens for
Decent Literature, a pornography fighting
organization, said here that so-called "skin
flicks" might go out of business if they were
not allowed to advertise in newspapers.
"When a person goes to one of these
theatres, he doesn't talk about it, so there's
no word-of-mouth advertising." Gauer said
at a luncheon meeting of the Executive
Kiwanis Club. "If they didn't have newspaper
advertising, these things would fold."
Gauer insisted he and his organization do
not stand for censorship but for enforcement
of the law. He also reassured the
Kiwanians that he was not against sex but
against pornography. In combating pornography,
he told them, "the law is our best
weapon."
He said he had been encouraged by recent
court actions, which, he believes, indicates
that the judiciary feels "the pornographers
have gone too far."
He referred to recent successful prosecutions
of sellers of obscene literature and
passed around the room a booklet of sex
ads, illustrated with explicit photographs of
nude men and women, as an example of the
Sl.ee ARTOE CINEMA CARBONS'
NO PRICE
INCREASE
/mm x 14 $43.45 9mm x 14 $62.70
8mm x14- $48.95
10mm x 20 $83.05 11mm x 20 $94.60
L« Artnt Alwiys Offerj Full Monty Back
If Not Satisfied.
13.6mm x 18 $93.50
Wt Pay Thi Freight - 100 Lot or Hon
Lee Artoe Carbon Co. 1243 Belmont, Chicago
sort of thing he and CDL are fighting.
Gauer attacked the report of the President's
Commission on Pornography and Obscenity,
which, last year, found that pornography
doesn't seem to harm anyone and
recommended that legal prohibitions—except
for minors—be repealed. Gauer called
the report's findings "outrageous" and told
the Kiwanians that even though it had been
disavowed by many public officials. "I believe
it has done irreparable harm."
Gauer was here to take part in the twoday
Public Forum on Pornography at the
Memorial Arts Center. Another speaker at
the forum, Dr. Victor B. Cline. a psychology
professor at the University of Utah,
charged the Presidential Commission's report
was "rigged or fixed" and should be
subjected to a rigorous review by an "unbiased"
team of scientists. He charged that
it is an "attempt at social activism."
In calling for the repeal of all existing
laws concerning pornography, he said, the
report ignored much of the research financed
by the commission linking high exposure
to pornography with a "variety of antisocial
or harmful outcomes."
He said the 17-member commission was
unaware of the negative findings about smut
and were "at the mercy" of the full-time
stall members who wrote the report.
"The personal biases and social political
philosophies" of the report's authors "apparently
overrode a scientific concern for
the truth."
Cline says the report is "uncritiquable"
unless the academic community is allowed
access to the yet unpublished volumes of research
funded by the commission. (The research
is to be published by the Government
Post Office in ten, 700-page volumes.)
"How can any scientist evaluate the report
if he doesn't have or can't look at the
basic data?" Cline asked. "What definitely
has happened here is that two sociologists,
who wrote most of the report, gave the
commission incomplete and biased data."
he added.
He cited a study in which 254 psychiatrists
and psychologists reported having
cases where "a direct casual linkage between
involvement with pornography and a sex
crime" existed.
TCI to Service Ozoners
For Syndicate Theatres
From Eastern
Edition
ROCHESTER. N.Y.—Theatre Confections,
Inc., a diversified food service concessionaire
with headquarters in Rochester.
N.Y., will operate the drive-in theatre food
concessions for Syndicate Theatres of
Franklin. Ind.
The Indiana theatres involved are the
Columbus Drive-In, Columbus: Elwood
Drive-In, Elwood; 13-24 Drive-in, Wabash;
Ben Hur Drive-In. Crawfordsville, and
Huntington Drive-In, Huntington.
Theatre Confections currently has concession
operations in 14 states, mainly in
the Northeast. The inclusion of Indiana is
part of a planned expansion program into
the Midwest.
ATLANTA
(Continued from page SE-4)
and carried him to safety.
Miraculously, the
child had only a few scratches and bruises.
WOMPI Notes: Bernice Wasson and Opal
Tate, community service co-chairmen, substituted
16 talented square dancers as entertainment
for Highview Nursing Home
residents instead of the regular bingo session.
The troupe, the Single Squares, scored
a tremendous hit with the elderly onlookers,
who cheered them on. Hilda Knight, a
WOMPI and a member of the dance group,
got special applause from WOMPIs on
hand, including president Esther Osley,
Dorothy Gail Hulsey. Polly Puckett. Paillette
Stephens and Martha Morris. Refreshments
were served by the WOMPIs to the
residents after the dance entertainment.
More WOMPI Notes: The club had a
turtle in the recent Turtle Derby sponsored
by Variety Tent 21 and provided cake and
coffee served at the affair to go with sandwiches
brought by Variety Club Women
Lowry. United Artists salesman
who returned recently from the Will Rogers
Hospital at Saranac Lake. N.Y., spoke at
ihe WOMPI Wednesday (26) club meeting
of the care and attention patients receive
at the facility. Hugh Burke jr.. representing
the Georgia Safety Council, in a talk titled
"Women Alert." told WOMPI members
how they can protect themselves in emergencies.
Variety Club Women held a Wednesday
(12) luncheon in a private dining room at
the Midnight Sun Restaurant, with president
Adele Janko presiding. The principal
speaker was Guy Sharpe. staff member of
Storer's WAGA-TV. who has become
known as the "Clown Prince of Weathermen"
and has a large following. A fulltime
Methodist minister before he turned to TV
for added income, Sharpe described his
work with disturbed teenagers in area institutions.
Bob Geurink, Atlanta Constitution movie
editor, chose "The Mephisto Waltz" and
"Bed and Board" as recent movie-of-theweek
selections and had this to say about
the latter: "This picture at Storey's Rhodes
is about Paris newlyweds and a delightful
picture it is . . . It's all light and all skimming
just-married couple is played
.
by lean Pierre Leaud and Claude lade, who
is all noonday vivacity . . .
All-in-all. B&B'
can be a movie of substance—and the
sweetest thing since they invented the bonbon.
(Director) Francois Truffaut has followed
his earlier '400 Blows' and 'Stolen
Kisses' with a product that has all the economy
of a transistor."
Cinema Addition Approved
From Eastern
Edition
TOMS RIVER. N.J.—Newspaper publisher
Joseph P. Milza has received township
approval for a plan to build a 27,000-
square-foot addition to the Mall Cinema.
The theatre is now 7,670 square feet.-
SE-6
BOXOFFICE :: May 31, 1971