CLEVELAND – from www.newsnet5.com – Cleveland Mayor Ralph Perk [pictured] captured the attention of the national media many times during his reign in the 1970s and that was the case with his pornography survey.

In an era when Perk’s hair caught fire while cutting a metal ribbon with a blowtorch at the opening of an industrial show or when his wife Lucille passed on an invitation to the White House because it conflicted with her bowling night, the porno survey wasn’t the biggest deal, but it still made headlines.

Years later, Mrs. Perk told me they were being invited to the Nixon White House so often she thought it was time to take a break and used the bowling night as an excuse.

Mayor Perk had Cleveland garbage men deliver surveys to nearly a quarter of a million Cleveland households. The survey was to gauge residents’ opinions on what were our community’s standards.

Perk oversaw a city that he felt had a prostitution and pornography problem. He banned the sale of Playboy magazine at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

The areas near our television station at East 30th and Euclid Avenue, as well as Prospect Avenue closer to downtown, were home to working ladies and adult-themed movie houses. The city had a “smut squad” that would shut down theaters and confiscate the films.

Perk had the police department ramp up the crackdown on those less then desirable activities in the wake of the garbage survey.

The decision-makers in the WEWS newsroom decided to see how the crackdown was going and to that end they sent two of our reporters out to “work” the streets.

Marge Banks and Tappy Phillips were wired up to record encounters. Photographers Bob Wilkinson and Harry Dorsey were perched atop nearby buildings to record the events.

It didn’t take long for the reporters to be approached and for TV purposes things were going well until…. Two men pulled up quickly and put them into the back seat of a car.

After a few moments later a tense situation was eased, the men were undercover Cleveland police officers. You can hear the conversation as the reporters explain who they are but are not carrying any identification.

Tappy Phillips told me they were never arrested or even taken to the police station and eventually released. Whew, that was close.

After their release, they go back to their ruse and just moments later a marked car stops them. This time things go better as one of the officers recognizes Marge.

WEB EXTRA: Our video player contains a very R-rated offering of Burlesque performers and adult theater controversies.

Reporter Fred Debrine interviews a performer named Lola, who is appearing at the Roxy. The Roxy Theater was right downtown on East Ninth Street at Chester Avenue where the National City Bank (now PNC) Building is today.

Next up is Cleveland prosecutor Everett Chandler discussing with our Bob Howick the confiscation of the movie Deep Throat.

Next we get a tour of adult theaters in town.

Judge George White tells reporters why he granted an injunction against theaters showing Deep Throat and the film is confiscated.

The fun continues as The Devil in Miss Jones is taken by the police. A man with the theater says when the police get involved, their business gets better. And so it goes as another film, Teenage Cheerleaders, is deemed to have no redeeming social importance.

Radio station M105 (WWWM now WMJI) hosts an amateur stripper night at the Roxy. Finally, the Roxy is sold and later torn down to make room for what is today the PNC Building.

*See the clips: www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/news_archives/video-vault-mayor-perks-crackdown-on-prostitution-and-pornography