A Veil Is Drawn Over Guam’S

‘Skin-Flicks’ And Girlie Books

Three months after new ob scenity codes have taken effect, Guam businesses engaging in “adult entertainment” remain in legal confusion, Dan Gibson writes from Agana.

A new set of criminal codes took effect here on January 1, replacing codes enacted as early as 1953 based on Califor nia codes from 1923.

The effect of the revision was to liberalise laws governing many activities. But it also attempts to bring Guam ob scenity law into line with recent

rulings by the US Supreme

Court.

Obscenity, according to the

new codes, is “any act, per formance or material which, when applying contemporary

community standards, appeals

primarily to prurient interests,

goes beyond customary limits of candour, or is utterly with

out redeeming social import

ance.”

Such guidelines are very broad generalities. Whether specific acts or materials are to

be adjudged obscene depends

upon many factors. First, it will depend upon the whims of police officers not armed with specific guidelines who are to make the arrests. Then it de pends upon the prosecutors.

Finally it depends upon the tastes and values of individual jurors who must vote for con viction.

And, in multi-cultural

Guam, finding an acceptable

definition for “community” may be difficult, yet alone determining a set of acts and materials offensive to it.

The uncertainty has chilled many activities. Fewer X-rated films are shown, a number of major national men’s maga zines are no longer available, and many nightclubs have had to dilute their stage perform ances.

The law, thus far, has caused the major businesses to shy away from obscenity issues.

The owners have said the small amount of income involved isn’t worth the potential for bad publicity and legal woes that could result.

Meanwhile, the small businessmen who make their living in adult bookstores and

nightclubs have proved more

willing to challenge the law.

The new code has thrust ob scenity issues upon three gen eral kinds of business

enterprise.

The Agana Theater, the only unit in a chain of theatres that showed X-rated films, no longer shows them.

“We aren’t qualified to be censors and we don’t think the police are,” said Leo Slotnick of Universal Pacific Theaters.

“Right now, we don’t know what we can show in any of our theatres.”

The theatre chain is tied to wealthy businessman Paul Calvo, a candidate for the Re

publican Party gubernatorial

ticket later this year.

“Frankly, they can censor us

by saying they might raid us,”

Slotnick said.

The theatre closed tem porarily when the law first took effect, then reopened with gen eral films. In late January, it announced that In The Realm Of The Senses, a blockbuster X-rated film would start that week. As of late March, it had not been shown.

The Johnston Theater, the

only indpendent theatre on

Guam, has continued to show X-rated films. It has not been raided.

The effect in this sector of business has been bizarre.

While reputable national magazines have been frozen from the market, the more explicit adult bookstores have gone unchecked.

Immediately after the new codes took effect, J&G Dis tributors, part of the largest local corporation, announced it would no longer sell or dis tribute such nationally-known

(and internationally-known)

magazines as Playboy and

Penthouse. Several other titles also were discontinued.

At present, the only places those magazines are available are in military exchanges and in transient shops for tourists.

“These magazines are

national magazines; they’re

not smut,” said one business man who now intends to assume distribution for the

magazines.

None of the adult bookstores has been raided. But on March 13, police confiscated 36 maga zines and 10 films from a music shop sidelining in adult read ing. The owner was issued a criminal citation for trafficking

obscenity.

Police officers issued formal notices to massage parlours

and nightclubs, warning that

the new codes would be en forced. But the notice did not specifically define what would constitute violation of the law.

“We’re making the assump tion that they are legitimate businessmen and we’re giving them the chance to clean their acts up,” said one police official.

So far one conviction has resulted from eight arrests

involving nightclub dancers

and owners. Lady Scorpio,

whose legal name is Mary Gary, was found guilty on March 20 on obscenity charges.

Police arrested her on February 2 for inserting a

lighted cigarette into her geni

tal area on stage.

She was fined $3OO. She faced maximum penalties of a $1 000 fine and a year imprison ment. The jury reached its ver dict in about 90 minutes. The conviction was the first to result from the new obscenity codes.

Some bar owners have said they are losing as much as 70% of their business because of the new codes. Without the wilder forms of entertainment, the customers find it cheaper and just as entertaining to stay closer to home, the owners con

tend. Massage parlours and

bookstores have also reported substantial drops in income.

While the uncertainty con tinues, Guam Acting Attorney- General Phil Jacobsen has agreed that some people have over-reacted to the new codes which, he said, are actually less stringent than the former law.