Hartford, Connecticut- Art Cinema on Franklin Ave. doesn't look like an X-rated theater. The name, kitschy logo, art-deco facade and lack of a marquee don't jibe with the popular vision of a dirty moviehouse. From the street, Art Cinema looks like, well, a theater that plays "art" movies. However, the cinephile expecting an Antonioni retrospective would no doubt be surprised when encountering the fare offered there.
For many pornophiles, the simple existence of a porno theater is a surprise. Nationwide, porno movie theaters are four-leaf-clover-rare, having been decimated first by VCRs and private booths, then CD-ROMs, DVDs and the Internet.
"VCRs killed porn theaters, as John Waters once said, because of the simple fact that people are too embarassed to masturbate in public," writes John D'addario, on his porn news site Fleshbot.com.
Manhattan, portrayed as the Mecca of porn theaters in Taxi Driver and Midnight Cowboy , now has no adult movie theaters -- but that's more do to with former mayor Rudy Giuliani than technology. According to J.R. Taylor, editor of celebrity website Mr. Skin, "The theaters lasted for longer than anyone expected. Everyone thought that VHS was going to be the revolution. Ultimately, though, it was regulation that really killed them in NY, at least."
It's a similar situation in other cities, with porn consumers forced by default to masturbate in private. The Palm, one of the last X-rated theaters in San Francisco, was shuttered last February. Miami's notorious adult theater, the Pussycat Club (AKA Club Madonna II and Black Gold, and At the Boulevard) has been converted into a strip club.
The era of the porn theater is over, it seems. That might be a good thing, as people can't help getting into trouble at the ones that remain: Real World Miami cast member Daniel Renzi was arrested for pulling a Pee-Wee Herman at a Kansas City theater in May. "Once you get past the porno chic period, the main reason people went to the theaters was the promise of elicit activities," Taylor says.
Art Cinema has been showing porn movies since the early '70s. How has it managed to thrive? I checked out Art Cinema one recent night at 8:30 p.m., assuming that would be porno prime time. Unfortunately, and surpringly, it was closed. I shook my head, thinking that only in Connecticut would a porn theater close at 8. I returned the next afternoon at 2.
The lobby was long, with sparsely decorated walls. Two movie-poster-sized frames advertised the movies sharing the double bill -- Street Meets and Size Does Matter . At the end of the lobby, a gentleman with salt-and-pepper hair and a collared shirt sat next to a concession stand advertising $1 sodas and $2 popcorn. Elementary school photos of children and unframed family portraits were densely cluttered on the wall behind his head. A sign said it was $8.50 to watch the movie, but I was charged $9. The 50 cents, I was told, was due to tax. I asked for a receipt and he smiled, saying, "I haven't got anything for you."
Inside the auditorium, there was a distinctive, wet, warm musky smell. Despite the overlit video glare shining off the screen, the seating area was too dark to navigate. I walked to the middle of the aisle trying to find a row I was sure no one was sitting in. There were about 10 men in the theater, spread as far away from each other as possible. The last four rows were taped off and the balcony was closed.
Street Meets, about a guy walking around Southern California with a video camera trying to convince women to have sex with him, was playing. The shot-on-video reality porn was jarring on the big screen. The whites were unnaturally white and details like implant scars and overdubbed moaning were obvious. And, after a lifetime of seeing hardcore graphic images either in person or on TV, watching 30-foot-tall heaving giants took some getting used to.
Once my eyes adjusted to the light, I became acutely aware of offscreen sounds: squeaking chairs, breathing, the rattling of keys and occasional groans. The crowd was mostly older, rounder white guys, but there was a black guy, a young guy and a skinny guy. I couldn't study their behavior too closely. The audience members seemed acutely aware that they were being watched and would stare back, panicked and hostile. For a while, one gentleman stood in the back of the theater. At first, I wasn't sure if he was a guard or just a voyeur particular about his viewing angle. Still, as I left, one of the old guys was comfortable enough to joke with the manager, saying that he shouldn't be watching TV.
The gentleman behind the counter was Ernest Grecula Jr., the owner and manager of Art Cinema (and, incidentally, the pictures on the lobby wall are of his family). He's managed the place since inheriting it from his father, Ernest Grecula Sr. Under Sr.'s stead, the theater transitioned from offering high-art European movies to playing adult fare in the mid 1960s. As audiences for moody European art films and low-budget American experimental movies (Art Cinema hosted Martin Scorcese's first feature, Who's That Knocking at my Door? in 1969) became outnumbered by Linda Lovelace, www.xxxdeepthroat.com, fans, the theater dropped the experimental cinema and became a full-time adult cinema location, playing smut classics like Behind the Green Door and Deep Throat.
"We've been playing adult films, pretty much since they were invented in the mid-'60s," Grecula says. "Business has declined over the years since the onset of VCRs."
Despite being well past the peak years of the '70s, Art Cinema modestly thrives. "We get a wide variety of folks, from couples to businessmen to retired gentlemen," Ernest says. "They come here for the ambiance of a theater setting and the large screen."
Are atmosphere and full-screen presentation the only reason people come to Art Cinema? The cover of darkness and the X-rated theme could easily make the theater a home for prostitution and other sexual misadventures. Grecula vehemently denies this and seemed shocked that the possibility would even be proposed. "Oh, no," he says. "We haven't had any problems like that. Anyway, the theater is monitored by cameras. Not in the auditorium, but we keep an eye on the patrons."
There hasn't been any community reactions to the theater "in decades." And it looks like it'll be there for decades to come. "We're not going anywhere," he says. Maybe, in a couple of years, one of the kids in the pictures will take his place behind the counter.
