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Ypsilanti’s Art 1&2, and the archeology of porn

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A while back, I saw that someone online had shared this old photo of Washington Street, and, thinking that someday I’d have the time to look at it more closely, I tucked it away in a file. Well, this evening, as I was just looking through my files for a photo of former CIA director John Brennan for a post I was thinking about writing, I stumbled across it again. And, this time, I actually spent a little time looking it, first wondering whether or not I might be able to date it, based on what could be seen, and, second, thinking about what, if anything, of historical importance might be gleaned from this single photo. [If you’re curious, a larger version of the photo can be found here.]

While I didn’t get too far on the question of what might be interesting to record from an historical perspective, I think, based on the movies listed on the marquee of the former Martha Washington Theater, which had become the Art 1&2 in 1971, I have a rough idea of when the photo may have been taken.

According to my research, Frankie and Johnny were Lovers and Hot Channels came out in 1973, and Pleasure Masters and The Devil Below (the actual title was Angel Above – The Devil Below) came out in 1974. [As I just discovered, all of these films can be found streaming online. The previous links, however, are all work-safe.]

Here, if you’re curious as to the plots, are the descriptions I was able to find online. And, no, I didn’t watch any of them… at least not yet.

Frankie and Johnny were Lovers: “American folklore goes nutty and smutty with Frankie and Johnnie Were Lovers, and, ‘Oh Lordy, how they could love!’ Especially since Frankie is played by everyone’s favorite pouty-cheeked sex starlet, Rene Bond, and Johnnie is her frequent co-star and then-paramour, Ric Lutze. As the trailer proclaims, ‘Lovers in real life, they give the performances of their careers!'” [note: I can’t read the phrase, “Oh Lordy” without thinking of former FBI Director James Comey, and, because of that, I can’t help but imagine that he’s the author of this review.]

Hot Channels: “Husband Davy Jones is in the market for sex, since wife Darby Lloyd Rains doesn’t seem interested. He invests in a Mark III Sensulator, which costs, in 1975 dollars, about the price of an expensive new car. But all he has to do is load up a tape(!), put on the headset and be transported into a virtual world (before anyone ever called it that) of babes who want to have sex with him. Darby discovers the gadget, tries it out – there’s a setting for women as well – and buys one for herself.” [note: Could this be among the first explorations of virtual reality in popular culture? According to Wikipedia, the first movie to depict virtual reality was Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Welt am Draht, which was also released in 1973, but it is possible that Hot Channels came out first?]

Angel Above – The Devil Below: “While reading the Necronomican one night, a teenage girl accidentally calls up the Devil. When he tries to have sex with her, she rebuffs him. As punishment, he sees to it that her vagina not only has a mind of its own, but can speak it, too.” [“She paid the ultimate price for her curiosity,” says the poster.]

Pleasure Masters: “No matter what you’ve heard about oriental girls, you’ll flabbergasted by young Kikko!,” says the poster. [note: Whose idea was it to use the word “flabbergasted” in an add for a adult film? That seems really odd and antiquated to me, but I suppose it makes sense if you consider that they were going after an audience born in the 1920s. At any rate, I’m fascinated by the use of words like “lordy” and “flabbergasted” in these advertising materials, and I’m wondering, if I look long enough, if I might be able to find early ’70s porn advertising using the phrase, “I swanny,” which is something my grandmother in Kentucky used to say.

When I started researching this post, I was thinking that perhaps a film festival might be in order. Reading these write-ups, though, I’m not so sure how good of an idea that would be. I can deal with Satanism, and talking vaginas, but my sense is that anything with the words “oriental” and “teenage” should probably be steered clear of. But, to be honest, I am interested in investigating Hot Channels further, as I’m curious as to how the filmmaker envisioned virtual reality. Maybe we could watch it somewhere and have a panel of scientists discuss it, or something… Or, maybe, we could just listen to the audio. [I just found the audio for Angel Above – The Devil Above trailer on YouTube, and found it to be quite interesting.] Or, maybe not… I’m sorry, but I just can’t help but churn out ideas. It’s the way my OCD-addled mind works.

OK, so, if I had to guess, I’d say this photo was taken in the late fall of 1974, or early 1975… Can someone who was living here at the time either confirm or deny that based on what can be seen in the photo? And, if you work in some kind of secret government facility where you do photo enhancement work, I’d like to know what the signs say outside the old Spaghetti Bender, and what, if anything, we can determine about the people that can be seen… especially the person at the far right, who seems to be wearing a fur coat… How cool would it be if, working together, we could find one of these four people, and ask them what they might remember about this afternoon. Maybe they could even speak before our international Hot Channels symposium… You just know, looking at this photo, that the guy in the green jacket, striking the bigfoot-like pose, has a story to tell.


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