The above advertisement for porn films appeared in a Lykens Valley newspaper in October 1970. The films,The Mercenaries, Fuego, and The MinX, were shown at the Halifax Drive-In Theatre in Halifax, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, on the weekend of 30 October to 31 October. The films were rated “X” and therefore those “under 18 [were] not admitted.” The leaders for the films stated:
THREE ADULT HITS
They sell death to the highest bidder!
“THE MERCENARIES”
(showing first at 7:30) starring Jack Palance
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FUEGO
starring Isabel Sarli
“ISABEL SARLI MAKES RAQUEL WELCH LOOK LIKE TWIGGY STANDING BACKWARD”
A Haven International Pictures Release
No One Under 18 Admitted!
ADULTS – $1.75
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“The Minx makes Curious Yellow look pale.” THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
ADULTS ONLY
The MinX – exactly what you think she is
A CAMBIST FILMS RELEASED In COLOR
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Marvin Troutman, ran the Halifax Drive-In as a sideline to his undertaking business. Marvin, and his wife, Doris R. [Hoover] Troutman, decided they liked the movie theatre business better than undertaking, and moved full-time into it with the purchase of the Millersburg Colonnade Theatre, Gratz Sky-Vu Drive-In and the Halifax Drive-In. Shortly afterward, they formed Martro Theatres, Inc., and by 1972, they formed the Cinema Supply Company, which supplied necessities to the theatres.
The soft-porn films that were shown at this Halifax outdoor theatre were part of the “sexual revolution” that began to take place in the late1960s. There is no evidence to indicate that the Martro Theatres, in these early years of operation by the Troutman’s, showed anything but pornography. But without a market for this type of entertainment in the Lykens Valley, the Troutman’s would have never made the decision to run a chain of porn theatres. It was unfortunate though for the residents of the Lykens Valley that in order to see a non-X-rated film they had to travel a good distance from their homes – or stay at home and watch a movie on TV. Where once, many communities had a “movie house,” a social gathering place, by the late 1960s, nearly all of these theatres, such as the ones in Lykens and Elizabethville, had closed.
See also:
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