SEXIS WRONG

of Georgia banned Mike Nichols’ film Carnal Knowledge under
the new Miller test. Reviewing the case a year later, the
Supreme Court fortunately instructed the State of Georgia
that they’d gone too far: Carnal Knowledge was legal. 48
The Miller decision remains the law of the land, and obscenity,
as the Court has reiterated time and time again, continues
to lack protection under the First Amendment; it remains illegal.
The Court’s devolution of any kind of federal rule down
to local community standards, however, created a giant loophole
through which Internet porn sped. The Internet makes
local communities irrelevant.
The good news for Marvin Miller, that paragon of publishing
honor and honesty—Carolyn See reports that when she
asked Marvin if there was an honest man in the dirty-book
business, Marvin “stops, looks incredulous. He smiles. His
tiny silver goatee dances on his chin. He looks like Dashiell
Hammett’s description of Sam Spade—a pleasant, blond Satan.
‘An honest man? Why, Carolyn! Why me, me, of course.’
His son, who is listening, falls over laughing” 49 —is that his
name is attached to a pivotal Supreme Court decision of the
twentieth century. The bad news? Marvin Miller went to jail,
sentenced to five years, eight months (for a misdemeanor!).
The Miller decision remains the law
of the land, and obscenity, as the
Court has reiterated time and time
again, continues to lack protection
under the First Amendment.
Fortunately, his lawyer, Burton Marks, sprang him after eight
months.
In retrospect, June 21, 1973, the date of the Miller decision,
was significant as a corollary to the Court’s regressive stand
on obscenity. On that date, the 1960s—a spirit more than a
decade—officially came to a close.
The high hopes of those who expected the porn industry to
wither and die under local assault were ultimately dashed as
local prosecutors found it just as difficult as state and federal
authorities to successfully try obscenity cases. That damned,
pesky Constitution kept getting in the way, and authorities,
always three steps behind the public on social issues, were
surprised to learn that to local juries, with Vietnam, Civil
Rights, Watergate beginning to metastasize, increasing violence,
drugs, economic inflation—the whole laundry list of
American social and cultural concerns of the period—this obscenity
thing was small potatoes, a mere wrinkle in the fabric
of American life. As a culture, we had become inured to literary
and visual depictions of sex. Sex had become an overtly
accepted part of life.
As legal scholar Jeffery Rosen observed, “The exploding demand
for Internet porn and the impossibility of restricting it
to any geographical area makes the Supreme Court’s traditional
tests for defining obscenity [the Miller formula] incoherent.”
50
Sometime later, after his release from jail, Marvin decided to
become a philanthropist. He got involved with the American
Diabetes Association and, in a bid to raise money for the group,
hatched a whacked-out free house giveaway sweepstakes
scheme that got him into trouble once again.
Convicted of securities fraud, grand theft, and
other violations, he spent three years in prison.
Poor guy, he never met a corner he didn’t cut.
He died in 1992, before realizing the enduring
legacy of his legal screw-up in 1969: The Man
Who Made America Safe For Internet Porn.
Endnotes
1. See, Carolyn. Blue Money. New York: David McKay, 1974: 19. I am
deeply indebted to Ms. See for allowing me generous use of material
from this book. 2. Ibid. 3. Ibid.: 21. 4. Talese, Gay. Thy Neighbor’s
Wife. Doubleday, 1980: 408. 5. Ibid. 6. Op. cit., See: 21. 7. Ibid. 8. “The
Millionaire Pornographers.” Adam magazine, Special Report 12, Feb
1977: 58. 9. Phone interview with the author, 29 Apr 2005. 10. Ms. See
is more polite. She reports in Blue Money (p 23) that Miller’s printer
“tattled” to Grove Press. 11. Interview with the author, Aug 2000. 12.
Email to the author, 15 May 2001. 13. Op. cit., See: 24. 14. In the author’s
possession is a paperback titled Moral Decay by T.S. Palmer with Edw.
S. Sullivan’s autograph note: “Printed for Sturman.” 15. According to
his son, Ron. 16. I am thankful to publisher Richard N. Sherwin for this
insight. 17. Collier, Peter. “Pirates of Pornography.” Ramparts, 10 Aug
1968. 18. According to son, Ron. 19. Interview with the author, Sept
2000. 20. Interview with William Landes, 9 May 2005. 21. Op. cit., Collier.
22. Op. cit., See: 24. 23. Ibid.: 22. 24. Op. cit., Collier. 25. Ibid. 26. Ibid. 27.
Ibid. 28. Ibid. 29. Mr. Kunkin’s recollection of this incident differs slightly
from Ms. See’s account in Blue Money. 30. Op. cit., See: 14. 31. Ibid.: 15.
32. Ibid. 33. Ibid.: 13. 34. Grove Press’ suit against Marvin re: My Secret
Life was a civil action. 35. Interview with the author, 9 May 2005. 36. Op.
cit., Collier. 37. An ill-fated venture: right idea, wrong man. 38. Op. cit.,
See: 17. 39. Ibid.: 18. This sounds suspiciously like 1960s porn magnate
Milton Luros, but Ms. See cannot recall her source for this quote. 40.
Ibid. 41. Interview with the author, 11 Oct 2000. 42. Interview with the
author, 16 June 2000. 43. See, Carolyn. “My Daddy the Pornographer.”
Esquire, Aug 1972. 44. Ibid. 45. Elmer Gertz was the author’s great-uncle;
over many years prior to his death he shared as many of his experiences
working obscenity defense cases as he could recall. 46. New York Daily
News, 13 July 1973. 47. Washington Post, 24 June 1973. 48. Jenkins v.
Georgia, 418 U.S. 152 91974. 49. Op. cit., See, Blue Money: 25. 50. Rosen,
J. “The End of Obscenity.” The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology
and Society, No. 6 (Summer 2004)
250 EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT SEX IS WRONG