[pvjd]

Anybody have any thoughts or opinions on the existance and/or closing of the Screening Room?

[leavin_florida]

That the Screening Room exists in a state that bans adult toys is amusing.

[pvjd]

Yeah, it was recently closed down after being open for more than 30 years.

[pvjd]

I started this thread a while back, and was just wondering whether anybody had any opinions on it's existance, or if anybody even knew anything about it. I was surprised when I found out they were closing it, because it had been around for so long and seemed to go unnoticed. Did people know what it was and just ignored it, were they ignorant to it...? I find it bizarre that Alabama is the way it is about sexuality (not all of AL, but you know what I mean), and yet this place seemed to operate in full view for so long. Very intersting.

[Frankie117]

I thought those laws were restricting the stores from being within view of major roads or something like that? When I lived in near Augusta, Georgia those types of stores were permitted as long as they were not in plain sight. I'm quite certain Alabama is the same way, perhaps the law has been misinterpreted.

[cpg35223]

Never darkened the door of the place. Not my bag. But, I have to say, the I just don't understand how this is the business of government.

[Southlander]

Let's see what Harry says. He's a former movie theatre manager, you know. But not the kind of theatre that the Screening Room was! Actually, I thought they rented videos/DVDs.

[pvjd]

Yeah, I thought it was just a rental/sales place myself. Guess not though. Even though it is not really my thing, I am so interested in finding out info about it simply because of the irony of its existance here. There was an article about it in a Black and White last year I think.

[harry chickpea]

I'm ambivalent about X rated theatres. It might come as a surprise to Southlander, but back in the 1970s I worked as a projectionist in an X-rated drive in for a summer. I needed work, and the movie exhibitor community tries to help each other, or at least did back then. The films were about as boring as watching the inner workings of an internal combustion engine for seventy minutes at a time. The place had a policeman on duty, was low-key, and being near the Canadian border had a lot of cross border traffic. If I had had my druthers, I would have worked at a regular drive-in instead, but the pay was good and hours short, and it was the only work in theatres I could find.

What I did learn over the summer was that it appealed to a smattering of young couples, but that the majority of the customers were men with obvious appearance problems and/or disabilities that precluded them from participating in, or being successful at, dating. They had obviously accepted their situations, and the films were an entertainment for them. As such, I think the theatre was actually doing a public service in filling a need in a socially responsible way. The local community never had any problem from the theatre, the police kept the kids out, and it was a non-issue.

There are other theatres, such as the ones that used to line the streets of NYC, where the "theatre" was not much more than a front for men wanting to meet for quick sex with whatever walked in the door. The consequences of that type of anonymous and unprotected sex is something that we've all paid for in higher medical bills, taxes, and so on, so there can be negatives that go far beyond a theatre if it isn't properly run.

I vaguely remember of there being an adult theatre in B'ham back when I worked there in the 1980s, but taking a busman's holiday after a 65 or 70 hour workweek was not on my short list of things to do.

I suspect that most theatres like this have folded because of the recent ease of quietly procuring porn over the net in a streaming format, and the customer having a selection better than at a theatre. If that is the case, the closure of these places is just a changing market condition that was inevitable.

As for Alabama's laws against sex toys, I think those laws are silly, and are eventually bound to be struck down, as they go against the free commerce laws that have their basis in the U.S. Constitution. Community standards have impact on local laws, but the battles against censorship have already been fought. If a Larry Flint type decides to get teeth into fighting the laws, they'll get dropped. There'll be a show battle to protect the politicians, but sex is an industry that ain't goin' to "stay in Vegas."