8Ī legal showdown began and continued into April of 1974.
Gay Paree swung a third time, and continued showing the film - this time at $10 per ticket. The three bonded out, though, and “Deep Throat” resumed showing at Gay Paree Cinema the same night 7 - with an increased ticket price of $8, “to cover court costs.” That copy of the film was also seized, and the three cinema workers were arrested again. A local official watched the very first screening of “Deep Throat.” Soon after, law enforcement seized the reel and arrested the owner, the projectionist, and the tickettaker for breaking state obscenity and public nuisance laws. Gay Paree wasn’t shy about its plans, and boldly advertised its screenings of “Deep Throat” in The Atlanta Constitution. 4Ī 2005 documentary entitled “Inside Deep Throat” captured the marquee of Gay Paree Cinema when it showed “Deep Throat.” 5 It was also straight pornography with a real plot - if you consider a woman finding a clitoris in the back of her throat to be a “real plot.” Theaters that dared to show “Deep Throat” stood to rake in record ticket sales, but they also risked being shut down for running afoul of obscenity laws.
Starring Linda Lovelace, “Deep Throat” was without question pornography. That’s when Gay Paree Cinema became the rebellious Southern belle among Atlanta’s growing XXX theater scene. Located at the corner of Walton and Cone streets in Downtown Atlanta, 3 Gay Paree Cinema advertised gay XXX films regularly in the daily Atlanta newspapers and operated seemingly without incident until Labor Day weekend in 1973. Gay Paree Cinema opened in the site of the former Walton Street Art Theatre by 1971.