SEXIS WRONG

it is of prime urgency to bring to the immediate
attention of members of THE COLLECTOR’S CLUB
[Marvin’s mail-order Dirty Book of the Month Club]
and our other readers, the latest landmark decision
of the United States Supreme Court, in the field of
so-called pornographic publications and films.
On April 7, 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed
the conviction of a Georgia Citizen, who had been
sentenced to jail for possession of “obscene”
movie films in his home. The Supreme Court
struck down the Georgia statute banning private
possession of material classed as obscene,
declaring it to be in clear violation of the First and
Fourteenth Amendments. The Court’s opinion, as
delivered by Mr. Justice Marshall, stated: “…We
agree that the mere private possession of obscene
matter cannot constitutionally be made a crime…”
and denied “the assertion that the State has the
right to control the moral content of a person’s
thoughts.” [Bravo!]
Inasmuch as Mr. Marvin Miller, President of
COLLECTOR’S PUBLICATIONS, has been in the
forefront of the winning battle to affirm and
preserve the constitutional rights and freedom
of citizens to read and/or view any material they
chose, we have seen fit to print the full text of the
Supreme Court’s epochal decision in these pages.
A noble statement. And completely self-serving, disingenuous,
ultimately grandiose. Marvin Miller never won a criminal
case for any reason whatsoever, much less one involving
First Amendment issues. 34 He couldn’t have cared less about
them unless they helped him in some way. Now, he elevated
himself to defender of the faith. Miller had other reasons for
reprinting Stanley v. Georgia. First, the reprinting saved money.
Located prior to the text in many of his books at the time,
its pagination dovetailed with the text’s pre-existing collation;
Marvin wouldn’t have to spend money to reset the text’s
pagination before photographing it. Secondly, Miller had begun
to get into film—initially for public exhibition but with an
eye toward homes and hotel rooms via closed circuit and the
emerging cable and videocassette platforms.
“He was one of the founding fathers of that part of the business,”
Miller adjutant and self-described “Asst. Everything”
William Landes reports. “He was into everything. He was so
far ahead of the industry it was unbelievable. He was building
an entertainment conglomerate long before we thought of
that kind of business structure.” 35
An unlikely prophet, Miller, in a vision of the future, foresaw
the coming home-entertainment revolution and it was this:
No Postal Service to fuck with him, no distributors or exhibitors
to rob him, no government to make his life miserable.
He could deliver the smut legally into your home if you so
desired.
At this point, Marvin was, for all intents and purposes, out
of the porn-book business. He’d been legally enjoined from
publishing dirty books. The business was being run by his
wife, Jeanine (for legal reasons, the business had been in her
name for some time, but the cops were well aware of who
was in charge and mercifully left her alone), while Marvin pursued
dreams of skin-flick moguldom and coped with his legal
problems, which were consuming his fortune. Mrs. Miller
didn’t much care for the dirty-book business, and much to
Marvin’s chagrin, she allowed it to die on the vine. By 1970,
Collector’s Publications ceased to exist. But Marvin’s story
was far from over.
Deep within the womb of the Adult Education Institute of Covina,
California—an organization that had absolutely nothing
to do with “adult education” and everything to do with “adult”
education—after passing through a series of hymenal security
measures, you reached Marvin’s inner sanctum where,
on this day in late 1969, he was screening rushes from his
newest venture, a skin flick called Man and Wife directed by
Matt Cimber. Shot on a $32,000 budget, it ultimately grossed
over $4.5 million, 36 though his son, Ron, and William Landes
claim the figure to be considerably higher, near $30 million,
in which case it was the highest-grossing skin flick prior to
Deep Throat’s fabulous success. Because he partnered with
Marvin in the closed-circuit/cable/videocassette venture,
Vaudeo Inc., 37 Cimber would eventually become embroiled in
a major fight over money with Marvin.
Marvin converted his backyard barn into a film studio, and the
crew was comprised of amateurs, including his son. According
to Ron, the movie was shot in the barn while his mother
and grandmother sat in the house; embarrassed, Marvin
kept them completely ignorant of the sex circus close by. But
now, the rushes. Marvin was transfixed. He was basically shy
about sex, somewhat abashed by what he was viewing, and,
when all was said and done, was blushing: “That guy was
really hung.” 38
Man and Wife was the first of many skin flicks that Marvin
released. With Cimber directing, Marvin produced Sex and
Astrology, He and She, and Calliope, a production that Cimber
nearly broke the bank with, his visions of art overwhelming
Marvin’s acute sense of commerce. Other films in the
Miller oeuvre include Sex in the Comics, Black Is Beautiful,
and what would appear to be a porn–Marlin Perkins’ Wild
Kingdom/Margaret Mead study of serious anthropological
246 EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT SEX IS WRONG