Broad community support
Dyketactics snuffs out 'Snuff' in protest
Note: the following article was compiled from reports by Denise Keiller, Mark Segal, Keith Clark and Bill Haught of the Gay News staff who covered the two-day Dyketactics protest.
The
PHILADELPHIA Philadelphia-based group, Dyketactics, taking on the Regency Theater and the motion picture "Snuff" in two days of picketing and protest here on February 4 and 5 gained broad community support for closing down the theater and stopping the showing of the controversial film.
Last October rumors began circulating among porno dealers, police
officials and in the press that a motion picture in which an unwitting woman was sexually abused and then stabbed to death and dismembered had been brought into the country from South America. The rumors had it that these "Snuffer" or "Slasher" films were being. shown in New York City at "select, private showings" at an admission price of $200. Law enforcement officials, however, could not locate any such films.
In January, though, Allan Shackleton, president of Monarch Releasing Corp. in New York, an nounced that he intended to release a movie called "Snuff" across the
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The film finally premiered January 16 in Indianapolis with advertisements calling it: "The film that could only be made in South America where life is cheap" and "The bloodiest thing that every happened in front of a
camera.
promoters for the film, however, were quick to say that the killings in the movie had been staged and were not real.
But advertisements for the showing at the Regency Theater at 16th and Chestnut Streets in Center City in Philadelphia gave every suggestion that the killings were authentic. The "selling of the murder of women for entertainment" brought down the wrath of Dyketactics on the Recency in what one gay activist called "the most successful demonstration in Philadelphia by a gay group in the past two years."
Some 25 to 35 protesters began the picketing outside the theater on February 4 at 10 am, an hour before the first showing at 11 am, at any one time during the demonstration there were usually no more than 35 people (mostly women) on the picket lines, but the Gay News counted at least 150 different participants at various times during the two days. Many people joined the picket lines for a few minutes during their lunch breaks or after work in the busy downtown business district
Gay News
wishes to thank the Bayou Landing, Studio Two, Joe Costa, Dennis Cox, Tiffany Jones, Jerry Batal, Doug Mowery, Nick Danger, Eartha Kitt, Twiggy, Vikki Sinclair, Tiffani Middlesexx, Vince and Mary Los, Jack Campbell, Steve Skrobot, David Nighman. Curt, Nancy and all others who lent a helping hand to make the First Annual Ohio East Lambda Awards a smashing success.
Most importantly, we thank the more than 1200 who voted, the nominees, the winners and those not so fortunate, for when there is a display of unity as strong as existed on Monday evening, Feb. 23, there can be no losers.
Join us again in 1977 for an even greater Second Annual Ohio East Lambda Awards!
David Goodenough.
David Goodenough, editor, Ohio East Gay News
Jim Austin
Jim Austin, general manager, Gay News Chain
where the theater is located.
Although Dyketactics initiated and organized the two-day protest, individual members of such diverse groups and institutions as the National Organization for Women, Alexandria's Bookstore, the Philadelphia Gay News, the Metropolitan Comunity Church, and Gay Activists Alliance joined the picket lines at various times.
According to Barbara Lipschutz, a member of Dyketactics, the group tried without success the day before the protest to negotiate with theater manager Bob Levine.
"But it wasn't until three of us got in the projection booth yesterday (February 4) and threatened property damage that he began negotiating," she said. "Polite measures didn't work."
As a result of the protest, the Regency Theater closed down its box office at 6 pm the first day of the picketing. Levine refused to comment on how many people actually saw the film during its abbreviated run on February 4, but one report indicated that "fewer than 10 people" saw the film the first day, and at least three of these
were
movie reviewers from the city's three daily newspapers.
The second day of protest, although it did not result in closingthe theater early, did see a number of victories for the group.
During the first hours of the protest in freezing cold February weather, Dyketactics announced that the Evening Bulletin, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the. Daily News had all refused advertisments for the film and further that it would not be shown at the Regency after February 5 even. though it had been scheduled for a three-week run at the theater. Levine said the decision had been made as a result of the protest.
Even the normally rather. apolitical Drummer, a weekly entertainment paper here, in its February 3 edition called the film's promotion "the sleaziest, most morally reprehensible publicity campaign ever put forward in the history of the motion picture business," and charged that the film "panders to racial stereotyping."
Several women at the protest pointed out the racism in the film's advertising. One black woman said, "If the ads had said, "The film that
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could only be made in Harlem where life is cheap, we'd have burnt the theater down." She expressed disappointment that more Latin Americans weren't protesting the film as well.
A spokeswoman for Dyketactics told the Gay News that several South American students in the city had been contacted about participating in the protest but had failed to show up.
Later during the second day of protest, it was announced that Rep. " Bella Abzug (D-N.Y.) had conveyed her "solidarity" with the group's action against the film.
The protest ended at 10 pm on February 5 following the Regency's. agreement to discontinue showing the film.
Officials from Budco Theaters, which owns the Regency, announced 'that the film was being transferred to the 61st Street Drive-In in Southwest Philadelphia on February 16. Spokespeople from the three daily newspapers indicated they would continue to refuse any advertising for the film. The Philadelphia Inquirer and Evening Bulletin, which both publish daily listings of motion pictures in the area, also indicated they would refuse even to list the name of the film at any Philadelphia theater.
Following the cancellation of "Snuff" at the Regency and its move to the 61st Street Drive-In, Budco Theaters began receiving anonomous phone calls threatening similar demonstrations against the drive-in if the film continued. showing there. A spokeswoman for Dyketactics said the attorney for Budco Theaters had contacted the organization regarding the treats. Dyketactics insisted, however, that
they had no connection with the phone calls. The organization insisted that, although they might support a community protest against the film at the Southwest Philadelphia drive-in, they planned no further action here.
In New York, where the film opened on February 11, lesbianI feminist organizations, encouraged by the widespread community support Dyketactics generated here, were at press time planning a similar protest.
As one Dyketactics hand-out at the demonstration put it, "the murder of women is not entertainment."
No doubt, by this time the Regency and Budco Theaters would agree."Snuff" for them would have been better titled "Snaffu."
OHIO EAST GAY NEWS-Saturday, March 6, 1976-Page A9