Pornology

A Timeline on Pornography in the United States (continued)

August 1977 - All charges against Harry Reems are dropped. This comes after he is granted a new trial.

Jan. 8, 1978 - The Devil in Miss Jones trial set to begin in Memphis, Tenn.

June 1978 - Women Against Pornography, a New York based group, moves into its Times Square office. The group argues that there are good, humanitarian reasons to be against pornography, and conducts tours of the local peep shows and porn stores. It also presents slide shows to visitors illustrating the brutal and violent nature of pornography

1979 - 800,000 US homes have  VCRs

April 1979 - The New York Times reports that 50 times the number of adult videos are sold than any other prerecorded tape. Deep Throat, The Devil in Miss Jones, and Behind the Green Door are top sellers. It is estimated that more than 100 titles are available.

June 1979 - In Minneapolis, a drive-in theater operator is convicted of exhibiting an obscene film.

July 18, 1979 - Susan Brownmiller, co-founder of Women Against Pornography, appears on the Phil Donahue Show.

Oct. 20, 1979 - Women Against Pornography lead march on Times Square. Thousands attend

Oct. 26, 1979 - Linda takes a polygraph test, which Lyle Stuart (publisher) demands she do prior to releasing her book, Ordeal

1980 - VCRs hit a million units sold in the United States. The number of adult film theaters estimated at 1,500, which will fall to 700 in 1985 and then to 250 in 1989.

Jan. 31, 1980 - Linda appears on the Phil Donahue Show to promote her book, Ordeal, where she claims that she was coerced into performing in the film Deep Throat

Feb. 14, 1980 - At noon, 400 FBI agents sweep into porno movie theaters, warehouses, retail stores, and offices in 13 major US cities, arresting many of the biggest names in porn on federal obscenity and racketeering charges. Known as the MIPORN (for Miami pornography) seizure. Among the 58 persons arrested (33 from California) are brothers Louis and Joseph C Peraino. They are charged with interstate shipment of obscenity in the form of hardcore videos titled Candy Stripers, Liquid Lips, His Master's Touch, and Hollywood Cowboy

April 1980 - Quincy House, a resident college at Harvard, shows the film Animal House at the Science Center.  During the screening someone throws a beer bottle at the screen, which damages it.  The film society decides to host a fundraiser to pay for the $400 screen repair

May 1980 - Quincy House members plan to show Deep Throat to raise money for the $400-worth of damage

May 9, 1980 - Deep Throat scheduled to play at 10 PM, but a meeting between film society officials and four women results in the cancelation of the screening on the grounds that it is "offensive to community standards"

May 11, 1980 - Quincy House Committee votes 35-14 to permit the showing, but also decide to poll House residents on whether the film should be shown

May 14 & 15, 1980 - The poll shows that three-quarters of House residents are in favor of the showing, but also that women in the house oppose the screening by 49 percent. It is decided they will show the film.  Feminists against the screening  meet to plan an organized opposition to the film

May 16, 1980 - Superior Court Judge Charles R Alverti responds to a complaint filed by two women in the Quincy House. He views the film and refuses to ban the showing. The film plays at 8 PM, after which two students, Carl Stork and Nathan Hagan (co-president's of the films society), are arrested for disseminating obscene literature

May 27, 1980 - Linda and Gloria Steinem appear on the Today show with Tom Snyder

May 31, 1980 - Women Against Pornography hold press conference with Linda in Times Square

July 4, 1980 - Linda gives birth to her second child, Lindsay
 
Aug. 7, 1980 - All charges dropped against Stork and Hagen for showing Deep Throat on Harvard's campus

April 4, 1981 - Linda appears on Saturday Night at the Mill

Dec. 6, 1981 - A federal jury finds five men guilty in the FBIs MIPORN investigation into the distribution of sexually explicit films in southern Florida

Joseph and Louis Peraino Sr., brothers from New York City and Michael Balsamo and Vince DiStephano of Los Angeles are found guilty on one count of conspiracy to transport obscene films across state lines and six counts of interstate shipments of pornography by common carrier

Dec. 12, 1981 - Deep Throat closes after its 10th year of playing at the Pussycat Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. The picture is taking in $11,000 a week during peak season and $7,000 weekly on average. Variety says that for longevity it was impossible to come up with a film to match it

March 22, 1982 - Lou Peraino Sr. enters the Allenwood Federal Prison Camp in Montgomery, Pa, to begin serving a six-month sentence for his conviction in the Memphis Deep Throat trial

Aug. 2, 1982 - Time magazine does a cover story on herpes, titled "The New Scarlet Letter"

Sept. 30, 1982 - Harry Reems puts his handprints in cement at the TomKat Theater on Santa Monica Boulevard

Dec. 12, 1983 - Linda appears before the Minneapolis City Council in support of a proposed ordinance that would provide civil remedies for pornography, which would hold distributors, producers, and consumers of sexually explicit material liable for prosecution in regard to any crime committed by someone under the influence. The legislation is drafted by Catherine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin

1984 - Ronald Reagan announces his intention to set up a commission to study pornography. The goal is said to obtain results more acceptable than those produced by the 1968 Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography

1985 - Number of adult theaters falls to 700

Spring 1985 - Attorney General Edwin Meese appointed to a panel comprised of 11 individuals to study pornography

1986 - 13 million VCRs sold in the United States. The sale and rental of X-rated videos is said to consume 20 to 25 percent of home video business

March 13, 1987 - Linda has a liver transplant
    
July 9, 1986 - The Meese Commission releases its findings. In news reports, Meese is shown holding the Commission's two-volume, 1,960-page report standing in front of the Spirit of Justice statue, a half-clothed female figure

1987 - Harry Reems moves to Park City, Utah

1987 - For their conviction in the MIPORN case, Lou and Joey Peraino receive five years probation and are ordered to not be involved with any hardcore pornography

1988 - 52 percent of U.S. homes have a VCR. By the spring of 1988, it is estimated that 65 percent own them. 1,250 new adult titles released on video, compared to 510 theatrical releases

June 13, 1989 - Arrow spokesperson Leonard Weinstein tells the Los Angeles Times that at least 75 foreign countries had paid as much as $20,000 for seven-  to nine-year contracts.

July 1, 1989 - Harry Reems' sobriety date

1989 - The number of adult film theaters falls to just 250

1990 - Linda moves to Denver after husband Larry's drywall business collapses

Nov. 10, 1990 - Harry Reems marries Jeannie.  The Peraino's company, Arrow Film and Video, began shipping porn films to a Nevada company that was a front for an undercover FBI agent.

1992 - Lou Peraino Sr. arrested in Los Angeles. Joseph Peraino arrested in New York for violating their probation set as a result of their conviction in the MIPORN case. A year later, their probation is revoked and they surrender themselves  to serve prison sentences

Feb. 26, 1993 - Entertainment Weekly celebrates the 20th anniversary of the NY trial and Tyler's decision. When asked if he would do anything different after viewing the film today, he tells the magazine that given the same situation, he probably wouldn't have ruled that way

1994 - Rentals from Deep Throat  total $20 million

1994 - Damiano's last movie, Naked Goddess 2

1995 - Louis and Joseph are arrested as a result of shipping obscene material from California to Las Vegas

Aug. 1, 1996 - Lou Peraino Sr. sells Arrow Films to Raymond Pistol

August 1996 - Linda and Larry divorce after 22 years of marriage

September 1996 - Anthony Peraino dies in Los Angeles

Aug. 31, 1997 - Linda's daughter, Lindsay, gives birth to her first son, AJ

1999 - Lou Peraino Sr. dies in New York

Spring 2001 - Eric Danville publishes The Complete Linda Lovelace. He first approaches her about the book and she blows him off. Once he is nearing completion of the book, in 1999, he approaches her again. Linda requests that Eric and she meet face to face, after which he flies to Denver

April 22, 2002 - Linda dies at the Denver Health Medical Center after a car crash on April 3

- Ashley York

Pornology

A Timeline on Pornography in the United States (continued)

Sept. 18, 1975 - Patty Hearst arrested by the FBI, ending a 19-month search.

Nov. 3, 1975 - In a reorganization of his cabinet, President Ford announces that George Bush will succeed William Colby as CIA director

December 1975 - A motel manager in Pasadena pleads guilty to showing Deep Throat over closed circuit TV

Dec. 16, 1975 - Louis Peraino Sr. slaps NY Post writer Dick Brass with a 40K lawsuit for linking him to the Mafia in two articles dated Oct 13 & 14, 1975

1976 - Linda marries Larry Marchiano

1976 - Top TV shows for the 74-75 season were All in the Family, Sanford and Son, Chico and the Man, The Jeffersons, and M*A*S*H

1976 - Deep Throat opens in Danbury, Conn

1976 - The Hite Report on Female Sexuality is published. Written by Shere Hite, the book demonstrates that most women need clitoral or exterior stimulation for orgasm; that orgasm is easy and strong for women, given the right stimulation; and that most women have orgasms most easily during masturbation or clitoral stimulation by hand. The book is published in 17 languages

January 1976 - Deep Throat finally arrives in Greece, resulting in riots when theater patrons realize they have been given Deep Throat II

March 1, 1976 - Memphis trial begins. Judge Harry Wellford presides. The prosecutor is Larry Parrish, who was affectionately known as "Mr. Clean." The indictment charges 117 persons (including four corporations) with 77 "overt acts" in a nationwide conspiracy to create an obscene film and to distribute it throughout the United States.  Defendents include Hary Reems, Louis Peraino Sr., Anthony Joseph Peraino, Michael Cherubino, Joseph Peraino, Mel Friedman, Ronald Kay, Carl R Carter, Anthony Arnone, Anthony Battista, Robert DeSalvo, Mario DeSalvo, Bryanston Distributors, Gerard Damiano Film Productions, AMMA Corporation, and Plymouth Distributors.

March 2, 1976 - During opening statements, Parrish comments that he will "take them on a journey" to show them how the allegedly obscene movie Deep Throat was developed and distributed across the country"

March 3, 1976 - Ron Wertheim, Deep Throat's production manager, testifies. Gerard Damiano testifies the next day that the movie is "artistic"

March 13, 1976 - Andrea True's "More, More, More" debuts on the Billboard charts at #98. The song stays on the charts for 25 weeks

April 1976 - A Danbury, Conn, theater owner sentenced on two obscenity charges for showing Deep Throat

April 20, 1976 - Linda gives birth to her first biological son, Dominic

April 26, 1976 - Defense attorneys rest their case in Memphis after the judge bars testimony from four Academy Award-winning actors. Tony Bill is allowed to testify

April 30, 1976 - The Memphis jury, eight women and four men, deliberate a total of five hours and 25 minutes before convicting 16 defendants (including Reems) of conspiring to nationally distribute Deep Throat. Parrish presented 76 government witnesses and the defense presented 16. The trial lasts nine weeks

May 1976 - Harry Reems meets First Amendment attorney, Alan Dershowitz, for the first time in a Harvard parking lot to discuss his appeal

June 1, 1976 - Chuck Ashman and Rod McKuen host a benefit for Reems at the Swiss Connetion on Wilshire Boulevard. The event is held to raise money for Reems' legal defense fund. Among the 400 people to show are Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, and Gregory Peck.

June 29, 1976 - An invitation-only fundraiser for Reems is held at Ted Hook's Backstage Café. It is hosted by Coleen Dewhurst, Ben Gazzara, Mike Nichols, and Stephen Sondheim

July 4, 1976 - America's 200th birthday

July 12, 1976 - Insisting it can't measure pre-Miller conduct by post-Miller standards, the Department of Justice asks the Supreme Court to order a new trial for an exhibitor convicted of showing Deep Throat in Newport, Ky. This ultimately helps to reverse convictions in the Memphis trial

July 19, 1976 - Another benefit hosted for Harry Reems in Chicago. Approximately 200 people attend, including Christine Hefner.

Aug. 23, 1976 - The word ME fills the front cover of New York magazine for Tom Wolfe's influential article, "The Me Decade"

Sept. 3, 1976 - Reems appears on the Phil Donahue show in Chicago.

Oct. 9, 1976 - Justice Department urges the Supreme Court to order a new trial for theater owners convicted of showing Deep Throat in Newport on the grounds that the defendants are victims of a shift in court standards on obscenity

Oct. 20, 1976 - Walnut Film Society hold a benefit for Reems in Philadelphia

Oct. 21, 1976 - Julie Newmar hosts fundraiser for Reems in San Francisco

Nov. 2, 1976 - In the Newport, Ky, trial, Judge Bork argues that the district trial court judge and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals made errors that denied the defendants their constitutional rights. Bork asks the Supreme Court to overturn the convictions

Nov. 15, 1976 - Reems fundraiser at Elaine's in New York sponsored by Dick Cavett and George Plimpton

Nov. 18, 1976 - Reems fundraiser at Together Disco in Boston. Scheduled to attend with Reems and Dershowitz are Richard Dreyfuss and State Representative Barney Frank

Dec. 6, 1976 - Shirley MacLaine hosts benefit for Reems at Sergio's Le Club in Beverly Hills. Kathleen Nolan and WGA president David Rintels also host

Dec. 8, 1976 - Reems speaks at Harvard Law School about his case

Dec. 13, 1976 - Firing Line with Reems and Dershowitz airs, hosted by William Buckley.

1977 - Deep Throat becomes available on video, selling more than 300,000 copies by 1982.  Retails at $100 each

1977 - Looking for Mr. Goodbar is argued to be one of the films that exploits the vulnerabilities and anxieties of the sexual revolution for young women. Diane Keaton plays a repressed young schoolteacher who hits the singles bars, sleeps with a few guys, and finds herself reborn as a sought-after disco babe

Feb. 10, 1977 - The Continental Baths closes. Re-opens as Plato's Retreat

March 1, 1977 - The U.S. Supreme Court overturns the conviction of five defendents in the Newport, Ky, Deep Throat case. The high court rules that the standards established in the 1973 Supreme Court ruling - Miller v California - should not have been used in the Deep Throat case. This decision ultimately leads to the overturning of Harry Reems' conviction in the Memphis trial

May 1, 1977 - Federal District Judge Harry W. Wellford sentences eight men - to prison terms ranging from three months to one year - who were convicted in the Deep Throat obscenity trial. Fines up to $10,000 are also imposed. Harry Reems' conviction is overturned, but Michael Cherubino, Anthony Novello, Joseph and Louis Peraino Sr., Carl Carter, and Mario DeSalvo are sentenced. Plymouth Distributors are fined $10,000

- Ashley York

(To be continued)

Pornology

A Timeline on Pornography in the United States (continued)

Oct. 17, 1973 - OPEC begins its oil embargo against the West

Oct. 18, 1973 - Judge Wolf declares mistrial in the Deep Throat case in Beverly Hills trial after jury deliberates for four full days. The jury says it is "hopelessly deadlocked"

Oct. 19, 1973 - In Beverly Hills, Judge Wolf refuses to dismiss the case and sets a new trial date of Jan. 21.  In Newport, Ky, a jury in a US District Court in Covington convicted all five defendants in Deep Throat obscenity trial

Oct. 29, 1973 - After three hours of deliberation, a Denver jury finds Deep Throat obscene. The movie had played since February 1973 when an estimated 80,000 people saw it

November 1973 - Deep Throat opens in Lincoln, Neb. Erica Jong's book, Fear of Flying, sells more than six million copies

Nov. 14, 1973 - Linda scheduled to testify as a government witness in the Tucson trial, but she is doing her hair and the judge would not wait 

Damiano testifies there are about 100,000 copies of the film and calls it the "most bootlegged film in the world."  An attorney argued that in its seven-month run it had been seen by 54,000 people in Tucson, a statistic very indicative of the community standards in Tucson

Nov. 15, 1973 - Tucson jury finds John Jacobs guilty of transporting an obscene film.  Jacobs faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $5K fine 

December 1973 - In Riverside, Calif, theater employees plead guilty to conspiracy to commit an act injurious to public morals by showing the film

Dec. 6, 1973 - Gerard Ford becomes the first unelected vice president of the United States

Dec. 17, 1973 - National General Pictures and 20th Century Fox executive, Ira Teller, named vice president of advertising/publicity of Bryanston Pictures

Dec. 21, 1973 - Linda puts her hands in cement outside the Pussycat Theater on Santa Monica Blvd

Dec. 26, 1973 - The National Tour of Pajama Tops, starring Linda Lovelace, debuts in Philalelphia

1974 - Emmanuelle, the first soft-core "free love" European film, is banned. Bryanston Pictures releases The Last Porno Flick. Joe Semas starts the Harry Reems Athletic Club. He, along with three friends, have been passing out membership cards ever since. The club has more than 40,000 members

The book, Open Marriage, by Nena and George O'Neil, explores the idea that there are alternatives to traditional marriage

January 1974 - Carl Bernstein testifies before the grand jury

Jan. 15, 1974 - During the on-going Watergate hearings, court-appointed experts announce that the 18.5 minutes of missing audio on the Watergate tapes was erased

Jan. 31, 1974 - Linda Lovelace and her boyfriend, David Winters, are arrested at the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas and charged with two counts of possessing cocaine

Feb. 22, 1974 - Linda Susan Boreman slips into LA Superior Court to change her name officially to Linda Lovelace

Feb. 28, 1974 - Deep Throat opens at the Studio One Theater in Sioux Falls, SD

March 18, 1974 - The OPEC oil embargo against the United States ends

April 15, 1974 - The Patty Hearst bank robbery

May 1974 - Deep Throat opens in Sacramento

May 22, 1974 - Linda Lovelace and David Winters arrive at Heathrow Airport as part of a European tour

June 11, 1974 - Linda and David attend the Royal Ascot races

July 7, 1974 - Harry Reems arrested in New York when FBI agents wake him with a warrant requiring his presence in Memphis, Tenn. He is indicted (with 116 others named as unindicted co-conspirators) by a federal jury

July 16, 1974 - Gerard Damiano and Georgina Spelvin arrested by the FBI

July 25, 1974 - Drug charges against Linda Lovelace are thrown out as a result of the search warrant not being invalid. Frank Sinatra's lawyer helps prove it was a set-up

July 29, 1974 - A judge upholds the banning of an edited version of Deep Throat

Aug. 14, 1974 - Deep Throat seized from a downtown theater in Los Angeles

Sept. 5, 1974  - Harry Reems and Gerard Damiano report to Memphis for booking

October 1974 - Deep Throat opens at the Strand Theatre in Akron, Ohio

Oct. 30, 1974 - Variety lists six Bryanston projects: Deep Throat Part II with rentals of 500K, Chinese Hercules with rentals of $640K.  Upcoming releases are: Andy Warhol's Dracula, Devil's Rain (financed by Bryanston), Sidney Beckerman's Tomb (co-produced by Bryanston), The Last Castle (which turned into Echoes of Summer)

November 1974 - Deep Throat opens in Baltimore

Dec. 24, 1974 - Variety reports the following films are in production for Peregrine Film Productions, a LA unit of Bryanston: The Devil's Rain, The Human Factor, and Lord Shango

1974 - Top TV shows of 73-74 season were All in the Family, The Waltons, Sanford and Son, M*A*S*H, Hawaii Five-O, and Kung Fu

Jan. 1, 1975 - Nixon henchmen HR Halderman, John Erlichman, John Mitchel,l and Roger Mardian are convicted in the Watergate conspiracy

Jan. 6, 1975 -  Additional project being sought by Peregrine Productions is the praised festival film, Dark Star, which was produced and directed by John Carpenter.

Jan. 8, 1975 - Watergate figures John Dean, Herbert Kalmbach, and Jeb Magruder released from prison

Jan. 16, 1975 - Women's Wear Daily reports that the Peraino family, tired of questionable patron counting, develops a prototype turnstile, complete with computer interface to keep track of the number of people that pass into movie houses.  Ticket Security Systems is a company Joseph Peraino lists as owning

Jan. 31, 1975 - Linda introduces Kiss at a concert at Nassau Coliseum

March 1975 - A Concord NH trial ends in acquittal for mother-and-son theater operators. The film opens in Bethlehem, N.H. at the Colonial Theatre.

March 10, 1975 - Bryanston has breakfast at ShowWest '75 and announces its projects: A Man Called Horse, Echoes of Summer, Power (produced by Sidney Beckerman), Tilt (with Jeff Bridges and MacKenzie Phillips), and The Great Scout and Cat House Thursday (with Lee Martin and Racquel Welch)

March 27, 1975 - Linda introduces Led Zeppelin at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, Calif

May 30, 1975 -Bryanston hosts huge bash at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel

June 13,1975 - Indictment filed in Deep Throat Memphis trial. Twelve individuals and four corporations are charged with the conspiracy to transport an obscene film

July 31, 1975 - Jimmy Hoffa, former president of the Teamsters, is reported missing in Detroit

(To be continued)

Pornology

A Timeline on Pornography in the United States (continued)

Feb. 26, 1973 - Carl Bernstein, co-author of All The President's Men, goes to see Deep Throat in an attempt to avoid a subpoena.

February 1973 - A special agent from Louisville, Ky, and a US Magistrate preside at an adversary hearing, deem Deep Throat to be obscene and issue a search warrant

Feb. 27, 1973 - Federal agents seize the film Deep Throat at the Cinema X Theater in Newport, Ky

March 1973 - Deep Throat opens in Toledo, Ohio, where a theater manager is charged with presenting an obscene film. Also opens in Chicago at the Towne Theater

March 1, 1973 - Deep Throat is found obscene in NYC by Judge Joel Tyler. Following the decision, handed down at 11 a.m., police enter the World Theater and seize a print of Deep Throat. Judge Tyler declares Deep Throat to be "indisputably obscene by any measure"

March 23, 1973 - Deep Throat opens in Tucson, Ariz, at the Cine Plaza Theater.  John A Jacobs is hired as projectionist and is promoted to manager four days later after the current manager quits

March 30, 1973 - Federal grand jury returns one indictment and hears testimony related to Deep Throat in Newport, Ky, trial

April 1973 - Dallas federal judge declares Deep Throat obscene. In Memphis, Variety reports that Deep Throat is playing to full houses daily at the PussyCat Theatre in midtown.

April 28, 1973 - In Newport, Ky, defendants Harry V Mohney, Stanley Marks, and Guy Weir are convicted by a federal court jury for showing Deep Throat and Swing High in addition to previews for five other films. All the films are judged to be obscene.

April 30, 1973 - Nixon henchmen H.R. Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman, and Attorney General Kleindienst resign while Nixon fires John Dean as White House counsel

May 1973 - Washington Post wins a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein on the Watergate coverup

May 11, 1973 - FBI Agents swarm into the Cine Plaza Theater in Tucson shortly after 5PM.  John Jacobs asks for his files and is told they are not going to confiscate the film or close the theater.  But is ordered not to alter the film or ship it anywhere. They confiscate pads of paper, shipping boxes, air freight tags, and Deep Throat posters

May 17, 1973 - Senator Sam Ervin's Watergate hearings begin

May 31, 1973 - John J Monaghan interviews Harry Reems at his apartment, located at 433 W 23rd St, in Greenwich Village

June 1973 - Deep Throat opens at the Capitol Theater in St. Paul, Minn

Summer 1973 - The Devil in Miss Jones, directed by Gerard Damiano, opens. The movie centers around a virgin who takes her own life, only to have the Devil send her back to live her life again, this time around consumed by lust

June 1, 1973 - Three-hour Tucson preliminary hearings before US Magistrate Raymond T Terlizzi. The defense calls Methodist minister Rev Robert T McIlvenna, chairman of the National Sex Forum and member of the President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, who defends Deep Throat as having "redeeming social value."  He says, "Nothing is wrong in being interested in sex.  When we decide sex is obscene, we're in trouble." The prosecution called FBI agent Robert McNeil, who viewed the film on April 4th and observed several explicit sex acts

June 4, 1973 - Newport, Ky, mayor announces plan to clean up area

June 21, 1973 - Supreme Court rules in Miller v California. The case provides the legal definition of obscenity (repudiates the standards set forth in Memoirs v Massachusetts) The new definition contains three parts: "Material is legally obscene only if (1) the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest; (2) the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable law; and (3) the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

June 24, 1973 - Police dept plans to monitor Times Square area with videotape cameras and to disband stake-out squad.  NY ACLU executive director, Ira Glasser, sees cameras as concentrated attack on privacy

June 26, 1973 - Deep Throat has been running for 30 weeks at the Pussycat Theater on Santa Monica Blvd, passing the World Theatre in New York for the highest gross. It has made $1,483,975 to date

July 1973 - Deep Throat opens in San Francisco at the Presidio Theater. Grosses $9,500 in the first week

July 9, 1973 - Jury selected for Beverly Hills trial. Twelve jurors and two alternates are picked from a pool of 40

July 19, 1973 - Beverly Hills trial officially begins but is halted the next day because the constitutionality of California's obscenity law is in question

July 20, 1973 - John Jacobs arrested by FBI agents in Tucson for interstate transportation of obscene material

Aug. 8, 1973 - Detroit police receive a warrant and pick up Deep Throat from The Pussycat Theater on Telegraph Road

Aug. 28, 1973 - Salvatore Maiorino, a Beverly Hills resident, testifies that the showing of Deep Throat is a public nuisance to the neighborhood

Aug. 30, 1973 - Coca Cola considers suing Damiano Films for copyright infringement for the use of a jingle similar to Coke's in the movie Deep Throat

Sept. 1, 1973  - A judge in Little Rock, Ark, rules Deep Throat obscene. In Atlanta, the movie is seized three times, prompting tickets sales to reach $10 each

Sept. 7, 1973 - Linda introduces Elton John at a Hollywood Bowl performance where Elvis and the Beatles are in the audience

Sept. 17, 1973 - A jury in the Beverly Hills trial boards a red fire truck and travels to Hollywood's PussyCat Theatre. While the jurors are watching the film, Judge Leonard Wolf gives a press conference in the theater lobby

Sept. 20, 1973 - Larry G Spanger signs agreement with Bryanston Pictures to produce four features:  A Knife for the Ladies, a mystery set in 1880; Free Again; Gospel Singer; and Adios Amigos

Sept. 27, 1973 - Linda files for divorce in Santa Monica Superior Court, citing "irreconcilable differences."  Petition stipulates Chuck Traynor to stop "annoying, harassing, bothering, molesting, or striking" her.  She asks for no alimony.

Oct. 9, 1973 - Newport, Ky, federal trial begins

Oct. 10, 1973 - Spiro Agnew resigns as Vice President of the United States after pleading nolo contendere to a count of tax-evasion

In the Newport, Ky, trial, Linda testifies (as a government witness) that Deep Throat is educational

In the Beverly Hills trial, Zev Wanderer testifies for the defense saying that Deep Throat has educational value. He had used the movie as therapy for his patients. A week before, Phillip Swihart says that the movie has "no social value" and could be "destructive"

Oct. 15, 1973 - Jury deliberations begin in the Beverly Hills trial

- Ashley York

(To be continued)

Pornology

A Timeline on Pornography in the United States (continued)

June 28, 1972 - Variety reruns Deep Throat review

July 11, 1972 - Damiano signs agreement to end his connection with Gerard Damiano Film Productions.  The agreement says he will sell his one-third stock in Damiano Film Productions to Louis Peraino Sr. for $15,000. The payment plan is for Damiano to be paid $800 (and change) per month until paid in full. While the agreement includes that Peraino can keep the name Gerard Damiano Film Productions, it is changed to Beaumont Productions Inc

August 1972 - Deep Throat plays at the Strand Theatre for three weeks in Binghamton

August 1972 - Deep Throat seized from the Plaza Theater in New Orleans

August 1972 - NYC Mayor Lindsay looks for ways to boost tourism and income.  Discouraged by the rundown condition of Times Square and the type of people/business it attracts, he encourages the Theatre Development Fund to sell same day theater tickets at a discount (Tkts)

Aug. 11, 1972 - New World Mature Theater's manager and cashier are arrested while Deep Throat continues to roll.  The arrest warrants are dated incorrectly and as a result don't stick

Aug. 16, 1972 - Variety reviews Behind the Green Door

Aug. 17, 1972 - NYC Patrolman of the Public Morals Division, Mike Sullivan, seizes a print of Deep Throat from the World Theatre. The print is returned the next day when a judge discovers that a Federal Court of Appeals ruling requires an adversary hearing before any seizure can be made

Aug. 21, 1972 - Matthew Vitanza issues a warrant ordering Deep Throat seized from Cinecom's Strand Theatre in Binghamton, where it had been playing for three weeks. Police charge Michael Sabal, the theater's manager, and Binghamton Theaters Co. with second degree obscenity

Aug. 23, 1972  - The Strand Theatre obtains a second copy of Deep Throat and shows it again. Police seize it before it ends

Aug. 26, 1972 - Eleven Israeli athletes and coaches murdered by Arab terrorists at the Summer Olympics in Germany

Aug. 29, 1972 - Over a period of three hours, beginning just after 1pm, police in plainclothes and uniform raid three theaters in Times Square:  the World Theatre, the San Francisco Theater, and the Paree.  While they pull down signs, make arrests, and in one case seize equipment, they don't seize a film, because films cannot be seized without a prior hearing.  The police seize the signs to use as evidence in court that the venues are promoting obscenity

The next day all three theaters are in business, the signs mostly replaced.  According to the NY Times, this raid is the latest phase of Mayor Linsday's campaign to clear the theater district of "undesirable persons and enterprises"

Sept. 1, 1972 - Women's Wear Daily  article, "Linda and her Magic Larynx" by Rosemary Kent, hits newsstands.  The magazine's review of the film is favorable and notes the set design and costumes

Sept. 6, 1972 - ACLU's Ira Glasser denounces Mayor Lindsay's campaign against Time Square movie houses that show allegedly obscene films as a "flagrant violation" of the Constitution and an "outrageous waste of police and judicial resources"

Sept. 28, 1972  - Deep Throat opens at the Prince Theater, a first run theater in Princeton, NJ.  Mercer County prosecutor Bruce Schragger goes on record saying he does not contemplate any legal action against the theater.  He's a "firm believer" in freedom of speech and says that his office has more serious problems to handle

Oct. 19, 1972 - Hollywood Reporter reports Bryanston Distributors, Inc is formed.  Louis Peraino Sr. is the president and Philip Parisi is vice president 

Nov. 13, 1972 - Box Office reports Bryanston has branches in LA & Dallas

Nov. 14, 1972 - Dow-Jones Industrial Average reaches 1,000 for the first time

Nov. 17, 1972 - Despite arrests across the country, Deep Throat opens at the Pussycat Theater at 7734 Santa Monica Blvd

Nov. 22, 1972 - The New Jersey governor calls Mercer County prosecutor, Bruce Schragger, asking him to close down the theater. Schragger refuses, saying that irrespective of how bad or disgusting the film may be, people should have a right to choose to see what they wish. Schragger is one of few prosecutors to not shut down the film

December 1972 - Art Sommer approaches Phil Parisi and Lou Peraino Sr. seeking permission to obtain a copy of Deep Throat for exhibition at the Sheraton Theater in Miami Beach, Fla.

Dec. 7, 1972 - Variety reports "Bryanston topper Lou Peraino Sr. travels to Rome"

Dec. 11, 1972 - Obscenity trial involving Deep Throat starts in Binghamton, NY

Dec. 11, 1972 - Apollo 17 lands on the moon

Dec. 13, 1972 - As part of the trial, Binghamton jurors, judge, and attorneys go to Strand Theater to watch Deep Throat

Dec. 14, 1972 - Variety reports,"In a blow to midtown's sexploitation exhibitors, NY Criminal Court Judge Joel J. Tyler ruled today that a summons to a corporation did not constitute an 'arrest' and thus rejected a motion to dismiss 25 cases against nine theatre owners alleged to have shown obscene films"

Dec. 16, 1972 - On Saturday night, after three hours of deliberation, the six-man jury finds the operators of Binghamton Theatre the Strand not guilty of exhibiting obscene material for showing the film Deep Throat 

Dec. 18, 1972 - NYC trial begins in a screening room at Loew's offices at 666 Fifth Ave, where the judge and jury watch the film

In Beverly Hills, Deputy Sheriff Ralph Kenealy writes the Pussycat Theatre's owner and manger, Vincent Miranda and Stephen Hagen, a citation for showing Deep Throat in Beverly Hills

Dec. 19, 1972 - Variety reports "Deep Throat stays healthy with $20,070 in its 27th at the World."  NASA's Apollo mission ends with the splash-down of Apollo 17, its astronauts the last of that century to walk on the moon

Dec. 20, 1972 - In the NYC trial, Professor Arthur Knight of the University of Southern California testified that Deep Throat had redeeming social value because it might encourage people to expand their sexual horizons

Dec. 21, 1972 - In the NYC trial, Professor Dr. Ernest van den Haag testifies that Deep Throat is "obscene" and without redeeming social value

Dec. 22, 1972 - Deep Throat reopens at the Strand Theatre in Binghamton, NY

Dec. 29, 1972 - Dr Edward Hornick testifies in the NYC trial that Deep Throat is well within the bounds of normal behavior and that viewing it would lighten the load of guilt and shame often associated with sex

Top TV shows in 72-73 season were All in the Family,  Sandford and Son, Hawaii Five-0, Maude, Bridget Loves Bernie, and Sonny and Cher

Deep Throat II, directed by Joe Sarno, opens

Linda and Chuck get divorced

Criminal district judge in Ft Worth, Texas signs order to authorize officers to seize a print of the film

Jan. 2, 1973 - Dr John Money is the fifth and final expert witness for the defense in the NYC trial

Jan. 3, 1973 - Last day of the NYC trial. Judge Tyler requests a complete transcript of the expert testimony, which is reported to run more than 1,000 pages

Jan. 10, 1973 - Variety reports record-breaking grosses at the World Theater with diverse theatergoers

Jan. 11, 1973 -An American Family premieres onTV. The crew spend seven months studying the lives of the William C Loud family in Santa Barbara, and amass 300 hours of film

Jan. 15, 1973 - Time magazine reports that Deep Throat has grossed $3 million and has played in more than 60 US theaters

Jan. 15, 1973 - Deep Throat  banned at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis just 24 hours before the screening

Jan. 17, 1973 - Deep Throat opens at the Franklin Theater in Syracuse, NY

Jan. 20, 1973 - Nixon is inaugurated for second term

Last Tango in Paris stars Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider are indicted in Bologna, Italy, for obscenity (the sodomy scene is cited)

Jan. 21, 1973 - Ralph Blumenthal's article "Porno Chic" graces the NY Times

Jan. 22, 1973 - Supreme Court case Roe v Wade says that women must be allowed the choice of having a safe and legal abortion. All state laws preventing a woman's right to an abortion during the first three months are ruled unconstitutional

Jan. 23, 1973 - Cease-fire agreement between the US and Vietnam is announced in Paris

Variety reports "Deep Throat zowie $55,560 in World 32nd"

Variety reviews It Happened In Hollywood and lists the new release as a pornocomedy.  This is a Screw film release, produced by Jim Buckley and edited by Wes Craven.

Jan. 26, 1973 - Variety reports "Deep Throat wham $38,200 in first four of World 33nd."

Jan. 30, 1973 - U.S. Catholic Conference year-end report says the US public's preference for sex-slanted pix is ebbing but "receptivity to violence-laden films is rising sharply"

Variety headlines "Sex-Slanted Pix Continue Best Draws In New York First-runs," "Deep Throat goes through the roof at World," "Deep Throat zowie $77,695 in World 34th"

Deep Throat opens at the Sheridan Theater in Miami Beach

February 1973 - Deep Throat opens at the Cinema X Theater in Newport, Ky., the Studio E Theater in Denver, and in theaters in Detroit and Oklahoma City. In Boston, the district attorney warns that any attempts to show Deep Throat will be met with court action

February 1973 - The Playhouse Cinema in Southfield, Mich, is put on two-year probation for showing Deep Throat. In Detroit, police raid the Playhouse Cinema, arresting three people

February 1973 - Esquire magazine article by Nora Ephron hits the stands. In the article, Ephron interview Linda Lovelace

Feb. 1, 1973 - Last Tango in Paris opens in the United States

Feb. 2, 1973 - Variety reports "The biggest news on the first run front is the sensational 33nd week biz registered by the hardcore Deep ThroatŠ.the World Theatre hit an astounding $77695, more than $20K over any previous stanza and more than $45,000 over the opening frame for the pic last June"

Feb. 6, 1973 -  Variety reports "Deep Throat whammo $70, 915 in World 34th and ditto $22,990 in first four days of first at Trans-Lux 85th St"

Feb. 8, 1973 - Judge Jason Berkman orders Arthur Sommer arrested, but releases him on recognizance.  Deep Throat is later ruled obscene and Arthur Sommer fined

Feb. 9, 1973 - Variety reports "Deep Throat zowie $70,910 in World 34th and $36, 390 in initial at Trans-Lux 85th St"

Feb. 26, 1973 - Carl Bernstein, co-author of All The President's Men, goes to see Deep Throat

- Ashley York

(To be continued)

Pornology

A timeline on pornography in the United States

April 22, 1970 - First-ever Earth Day celebrated

April 30, 1970 - Nixon announces U.S. troop movements into Cambodia

May 4, 1970 - Four students shot dead at the Prentice Hall parking lot at Kent State University.  Students are shot by National Guardsmen during a protest against the US invasion of Cambodia. The students were Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder

May 14, 1970 - Two black students, Phillip Gibbs and James Earl Green, killed and 15 people wounded at Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss.

June 16, 1970 - Kenneth Gibson becomes the first black mayor of a major Eastern Seaboard city

June 22, 1970 - New law gives 18-year-olds the right to vote in federal elections

June 29, 1970 - Army announces the movement of the last U.S. ground troops out of Cambodia

Aug. 3, 1970 - Military announces the first successful underwater firing of a Poseidon missile

Sept. 6, 1970 - Four passenger jets bound for New York are hijacked by Arab terrorists; three of the four land in the Middle East, while the fourth lands in London

Sept. 18, 1970 - Rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix dies at age 27

Sept. 30, 1970 - The Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography submits its final report

Oct. 4, 1970 - Rock singer Janis Joplin dies at age 27

Oct. 12, 1970 - Nixon announces that 40,000 troops will be withdrawn from Vietnam by Christmas

Oct. 13, 1970 - Nixon (and a majority of the Senate, by a vote of 60 to 5) rejects the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography report

Oct. 24, 1970 - President Nixon disavows the commission's findings, saying that pornography is "a nuisance, not an evil." He says, "Smut should be outlawed in every state in the union."

Nov. 12, 1970 - State University of New York biologists announce the first artificial synthesis of a living cell

Dec. 11, 1970 - Nixon announces that George Bush will succeed Charles Yost as the US Delegate to the United Nations

1971 - All in the Family premieres on CBS.  The Flip Wilson Show, Marcus Welby, MD, Gunsmoke, Sanford and Son, and The Courtship of Eddie's Father are among the other popular TV shows

1971 - Start of blaxploitation era begins when Marvin Van Peebles' Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song premieres

1971 - Gloria Steinem helps launch and becomes editor of Ms magazine

1971 - Xaviera Hollander's The Happy Hooker is published and sells more than 16 million copies. The book, made into a movie in 1975, stars Lynn Redgrave as the Manhattan madam

January 1971 - Linda meets Chuck Traynor

Jan. 1, 1971 - All cigarette advertising on TV and radio ceases. The last cigarette commercial (for Virginia Slims) is broadcast on Johnny Carson's Tonight show at 11:59 PM

March 5, 1971 - Damiano Film Productions is formed. Damiano signs a stockholder's agreement with Louis Peraino Sr.. It is agreed that Damiano will produce and direct and that Louis will handle distribution and financing.  Profits will be divided one-third Damiano, two-thirds Peraino.  Prior to this, Peraino and Damiano had made a verbal agreement. It isn't until March that they put it in writing

April 24, 1971 - 200,000 peaceful protestors gather in D.C. to protest the war

May 5, 1971 - More than 12,000 people arrested during a three-day anti-war protest in DC

June 1971 - The article "Cocksucker" appears in the first issue of FagRag magazine. The article explores the political significance of fellatio

Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation by Dennis Altmas discusses the political and theoretical issues raised by a sexual liberation movement created by homosexuals

July 1, 1971 - 26th Amendment (to give 18-year-olds the right to vote) is ratified

Sept. 4, 1971 - Linda and Chuck Traynor are married in Valdosta, Ga.

Sept. 13, 1971 - More than 1,000 state troopers storm and take back the state prison in Attica, NY, leaving 10 hostages and 30 convicts dead

Nov. 13, 1971 - Mariner 9 becomes the first space probe to orbit another planet as it encounters Mars

Dec. 10, 1971 - William Rehnquist becomes the fourth Nixon Supreme Court appointee to be confirmed by Congress

1972 - Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex but Were Afraid to Ask, directed by Woody Allen, opens. Gene Wilder stars as a psychiatrist who falls in love with a sheep

1972 - Landmark year for sexual disease:  2.3 million new cases of gonorrhea, 100K new cases of syphilis. "VD is for everyone" public service announcements appear on TV

Time and Newsweek produce cover stories on herpes. The gay male community is swept by waves of gonorrhea, syphilis and, Hepatitis B

1972 - The Joy of Sex by Alex Comfort is published. The book devotes two pages to "mouth music" aka oral sex aka fellatio aka cunnilingus. It is only a few decades since genital kisses, or rather the taboos of them, were cause for divorce on the grounds of perversity, cruelty, etc.

January 1972 - Deep Throat is shot over six days at the Voyager Inn on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami, Fla. Harry Reems earns $100 a day and Linda Lovelace is paid a total of $1,200

February 1972 - Nixon becomes the first president to visit China

1972 - Women first began living in Harvard's residence houses

March 22, 1972 - Equal Rights Amendment is passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. The amendment dies in 1982 when it fails to achieve ratification by a minimum of 38 states

April 1972 - Burt Reynolds is the Cosmopolitan centerfold

April 1972 - Louis Peraino Sr. pays Damiano approximately $15,000 for his interest in Gerard Damiano Film Productions, Inc.

April 12, 1972 - First erotic animated film, Fritz the Cat, opens

April 15, 1972 - Bombing of North Vietnam by the US begins again

May 3, 1972 - J Edgar Hoover dies after serving 48-year reign

May 11, 1972 - The Godfather opens

June 5, 1972 - Screw magazine's review of Deep Throat hits stands.  Publisher/writer Al Goldstein, who gives himself credit for starting the buzz that helped make Deep Throat a national sensation, gives the film the highest rating possible on the Peter-Meter.

June 12, 1972 - Deep Throat premieres at the New World Mature Theatre in Manhattan

June 16, 1972 - Variety favorably reviews Deep Throat

June 17, 1972 - Watergate break-in at the Democratic National Headquarters

(to be continued)

Pornology

A timeline on pornography in the United States (continued)

1969 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Stanley v. Georgia that people can read and look at whatever they wish in the privacy of their own homes. The case is a result of law enforcement officers, under the authority of a warrant, searching a man's home pursuant to an investigation of his alleged bookmaking activities. During the search, the officers find three reels of 8mm film. The officers view the films, conclude they are obscene, and seize them. Stanley is then tried and convicted under a Georgia law prohibiting the possession of obscene materials

1969 - The first documentary containing hard-core pornography shows in a San Francisco public cinema. The documentary, Censorship in Denmark, explores Scandinavian pornography

1969 - Gerard Damiano's We All Go Down and All Women Are Bad are released. A film by Paul Mazursky about the curiosity of couple-swapping, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, is released

1969 - Jim Morrison is arrested for obscene behavior at a concert after je pulls on the front of his weather-worn leather pants and threatens to produce his penis for the crowd

March 1969 - I Am Curious (Yellow) opens in New York

March 25, 1969 - NYU Students for Democratic Society lead a rally calling for open admission to blacks

April 2, 1969 - Members of the Black Panther Party are indicted on charges of conspiring to blow up five department stores and a police station

April 30, 1969 - "All They Talk About is Sex, Sex, Sex" by Tom Buckley published in the New York Times magazine. Buckley visits the Kinsey Institute and the research center in St. Louis where Virginia Johnson and William Masters are working

May 31, 1969 - Denmark becomes the first nation in the world to rescind its obscenity laws, an act taken after much deliberation and study. As a result, the demand for pornography eventually undergoes a long and steady decline in that country. A few years after the decline begins, a survey of Copenhagen residents finds that most Danes came to regard pornography as "uninteresting" or "repulsive"

July 14, 1969 - Easy Rider premieres

August 1969 - Woodstock is held in upstate New York

Oct. 9, 1969 - Jackie Onassis kick-flips Max Finkelstein of the NY Daily News while he is taking photos of her as she leaves a NYC showing of the film I Am Curious (Yellow) - a film that goes on to be the subject of obscenity cases in 23 cities and 13 states (including Maryland and Massachusetts)

Oct. 13, 1969 - Students for a Democratic Society initiate a National Action in Chicago. Two days later, Vietnam Moratorium Day is observed nationwide

1970 - Top five TV shows: Marcus Welby MD, The Flip Wilson Show, The Lucy Show, Ironside, and Gunsmoke. Other popular shows are Green Acres, The Carol Burnett Show, The Mod Squad, Love, American Style, The Odd Couple, Bewitched, The Ed Sullivan Show, and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In

1970 - Linda seriously injured in a car accident on the Taconic State Parkway in New York. Shortly after the accident, she moves in with her parents at their home in Florida

Jan. 14, 1970 - The Supreme Court rules that six southern states must integrate by Feb. 1

1970 - Hollywood Blue, another history-of-porn movie, directed by Bill Osco, includes the usual vintage film footage and ends with modern, full-closeup hardcore

Pornography in Denmark, directed by Alex De Renzy, is banned in New Jersey in 1971.  The documentary illustrates the sort of pornography that became available in Denmark following its legalization

Sexual Freedom in Denmark, directed by Alex De Renzy and described as a semi-documentary of sexual practices, is banned in New York in 1971

Black is Beautiful is narrated and is a study of sexual customs in Africa. The LA Free Press reports the film takes in $48,000 in one week at an LA Theater and that while it is exploitative, the majority of the audience is black

American Sexual Revolution, directed by John William Abbott, is an amusingly dated documentary which wraps a number of hardcore sex scenes within the protection of a pompous but fairly serious look at changing attitudes of sexuality

Wide United States release of Censorship In Denmark and History of the Blue Movie.  Censorship is made for $15,000 and grosses $2 million.

Teenie Tulip, is Gerard Damiano's highest budgeted film until Deep Throat

Mona, directed by Bill Osco, is the first full-length adult feature

Sex USA, directed by Gerard Damiano, features some of porn's earliest stars, from shapely Tina Russell to leggy Darby Lloyd Rains and incorporates "doctors" offering instruction as to what fucking is all about.  Hard-core action is often inset with overall frame, playing on screen within the film, or in background.  This was done so producers can escape prosecution for obscenity

1970 - "The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm," written by Anne Koedt, is published

1970 - Jerry Bruckheimer helps coordinate the first Erotic Film Festival in San Francisco

1970 - Electro Sex 75, is the first porn feature to be advertised in a New York newspaper

1970 - First peep-show machines arrive from Copenhagen and are installed in Times Square. The machines were invented by Lasse Braun, who was known as the "King of the Euroloops."

Feb. 18, 1970 - The Chicago Seven are acquitted on charges of plotting to incite riots

April, 1970 - Paul McCartney confirms that the Beatles have broken up

April 1, 1970 - Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act signed by Nixon after approval from House and Senate

April 11, 1970 - Apollo 13 launched. Returns to Earth on April 17, 1970

(to be continued)

- Ashley York

Pornology

A timeline on pornography in the United States  (continued)

1967 - Executive Order 11375 expands President Lyndon Johnson's affirmative action policy of 1965 to cover discrimination based on gender

1967 - Two movies are released containing the word "fuck": Ulysses and I'll Never Forget What's'isname

October 1967 - The US Congress votes in favor of the creation of a Commission on Pornography and Obscenity

Oct. 17, 1967 - Hair premieres on Broadway

Nov. 13, 1967 - "Anything Goes: Taboos in Twilight," an article about how society had lost its consensus on major moral issues, like pre-marital sex, birth control, and sex education, is published

1968 - Russ Meyer's Vixen, a soft-core film known as the first "nudie" to show sexual acts, debuts

Linda Boreman graduates from Marina Regina, a Catholic high school

1968 - Lyndon Johnson appoints Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography

1968 - Damiano's Changes is released. Damiano said of the film, "Changes was a pure documentary about the sexual life style, which was a film about the people engaged in various forms of the new freedom, but had no sex in and of itself, if I make myself clear, it was about sex but it had no sex in it." Some time later, some explicit scenes were added and it became known as All About Blank

April 1968 - Judge Joel Tyler is named criminal court judge by Mayor John Lindsay. Prior to this, he was a license commissioner

May 1968 - Swedish import I Am Curious (Yellow) is seized by New York customs officials.  It is ruled obscene because it includes an erection and full frontal nudity, both male and female. The Court of Appeals overturns the ruling, calling it an "intellectual effort"

1968 - Robert Kennedy announces candidacy for presidency. President Johnson renounces bid for re-election

April 4, 1968 - Martin Luther King Jr assassinated

April 23, 1968 - Columbia University shut down by student strike

April 26, 1968 - NYU International students and faculty strike to bring troops home

June 4, 1968 - Robert Kennedy assassinated

August 19-25, 1968 - Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia while anti-war protesters and police battle in Chicago during Democratic National Convention

September 1968 - Miss America protest in Atlantic City. This event is credited as being the first media event to bring national attention to the emerging Women's Liberation Movement

September 1968 - Screw magazine founded

Sept. 19, 1968 - The Continental Baths opens for business

Oct. 30, 1968 - Youth International Party sponsors a "Come Curse Nixon" demonstration in Washington Square Park

Nov. 1, 1968 - Motion Picture Association of America institutes its rating system

November 1968 - Richard Nixon defeats Hubert Humphrey by the thinnest margin in history

(to be continued)

- Ashley York

Pornology

A timeline on pornography in the United States

1934 - The Hays Code, a Catholic code established to combat sexuality in motion pictures, becomes official. A film would be marked "condemned" if an inch of thigh was showing.

June 16, 1940 - Louis "Butchie" Peraino Sr. born

Jan. 5, 1948 - Alfred Kinsey publishes Sexual Behavior in the Human Male.

Jan. 10, 1949 - Linda Boreman (aka Lovelace) born

1950 - Burlesque films are born, with pasties and fishnet stockings

1951 - In The Sexual Revolution, Wilhelm Reich elaborates on the relationship between social repression and sexual repression by examining how the family and conservative sexual morality stifle political freedom

1951 - Smart Aleck, starring Candy Barr is made. Known as the first blue movie, it is sometimes referred to as the Deep Throat of its day

1953 - Playboy founded by Hugh Hefner after he was reportedly inspired by the 1948 Kinsey Report on male sexuality

1953 - Alfred Kinsey publishes Sexual Behavior in the Human Female

1954 - Garden of Eden, filmed in a nudist camp, is barred from New York and taken to court on the grounds of "unwholesome sexually alluring positions"

Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, approaches Gregory Pincus, a gynecologist, about the necessity of a birth control pill

1956 - Gregory Pincus, along with two other doctors, successfully conducts the first trials of an oral contraceptive with 60 female volunteers

1957 - Judge rules in favor of the Garden of Eden, saying "nudism in itself, and without lewdness or dirtiness, is not obscenity in law or in common sense"

1957 - Wilhelm Reich dies. A protégé of Freud's, Reich explored how social institutions limited sexual fulfillment, saying that the complete orgasm was the sign of health

1959 - Russ Meyer directs The Immoral Mr Teas, a movie about a hero who is cursed with the ability to mentally undress any woman that crosses his path

Late 50s - Norman Mailer begins writing The Time of Her Time, a work in which he seeks to capture the historical moment about to emerge. "Coming out of the orgy of the war," Mailer wrote, "our sense of sex and family was torn in two."

May 9,1960 - US Food and Drug Administration approves the first oral contraceptive for women

1960-62 - More topless comedies released: Nude On The Moon, The Monster & the Stripper, Goldilocks and the Three Bears. and BOING-G-G-G

1962 - Sex and the Single Girl by Helen Gurley Brown becomes a bestseller. The book offers candid advice on fashion, sex, love, career, and entertainment. The most controversial aspect of the book is not only its stress on the positive aspects of unmarried life, but on the importance of sex

1963 - The Feminine Mystique, written by Betty Friedan, is published

March 22, 1963 - Gerard Damiano's hair parlor opens in Queens, NY

1964-1966 - Kinky (mild S&M) movies, like Satan in High Heels, give way to "roughies" like The Defiler and Love Camp 7.

March 1964 - The first public screening of Andy Warhol's Blowjob takes place at Ruth Kligman's Washington Square Gallery.

1964 - "The Second Sexual Revolution," an article defining the first sexual revolution as happening in the years following World War I, is published

June 25, 1964 - The Vatican issues a condemnation of the birth control pill

1965 - The Rolling Stones song "Satisfaction" hits the radio

1965 - Helen Gurley Brown appointed editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan

1965 - "America's Best Kept Secret" (from The Erotic Revolution by Lawrence Lipton) explores couple swapping. The book argues that a minority of people have broken out of the "Old Morality" and that the New Sexual Morality was changing the way people live, conduct courtships, marry, and divorce

1966 - LSD becomes illegal. It gains popularity in the late 1960s, though usage in the United States will peak in the mid 1970s. Some studies suggest that 7.2 percent of US high school seniors report using it at least once a year.

1966 - "The Female Orgasm" (from Human Sexual Response by William Masters and Virginia Johnson) is published. Their research demonstrates that women could achieve sexual fulfillment independently of sex with men, and that women are capable of many more and deeper orgasms.

1966 - Mondo Freud (The World of Freud) released. The film is banned in Tennessee in 1967

September 1966 - Lou Peraino Sr. is arrested for the first time at All-State Film Lab.  Charges were later dismissed because of "insufficient evidence to warrant search and arrest."

-Ashley York