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Chapter 10 The Guild Art Theatre This is what The Guild looks like now. There was no neon to spell out the name originally, just peeling silver paint. There were no plastic letters to spell out “CINEMA.” There was no outside box-office window originally. The poster window in front by the sidewalk is new. The front door was solid, not glass. There were no murals or decorations of any kind. I don’t remember the outer walls being stucco. I remember them being interlocking grooved steel, painted more or less that same brown. The marquee is new. The original was sort of like that of Don Pancho’s. Here, let me show you via a terribly exaggerated, inaccurate, and not-to-scale sketch: The interior as it looks now. The original was much duller and much darker. See that little round light on the ceiling? There were two others, in the middle and near the rear of the auditorium, and you can barely see the glow from the middle one at the top of this photograph. That was the entire house lighting back in the day. The other lights are new. I don’t recall that the floor was green. Maybe black with a worn red carpet down the aisle? The curtains are gone. The surround speakers are new. The masking here is set at about 1:1.85. In the old days, it was usually lower, almost to the stage floor, 1:1.66. The nameplates on the backs of the seats are new. Somewhere behind that screen there was a sink, a legacy of the building’s previous incarnations. Back in April 1978, out of curiosity, I visited UNM’s Zimmerman Library to look through the old city directories. Well, that’s my memory, anyway. Perhaps I visited the Downtown Library. Whatever. This is what I discovered: 1952 3403–5 Central E Chinese Garden Restaurant 1957 3405 Central E B&G Sup. Co., beauty-shop sups. 1961 3405 Central E VACANT 1966 3405 Central E The Guild Art Theatre It was hard to know exactly what to make of that. The Albuquerque Journal indicates that at least parts of this row of buildings actually date to about 1941. 3403 and 3405 are definitely separate buildings. One was not an extension of the other. Yet they were combined during the days of the Chinese restaurant. A few years later, 3405 was again a separate business. It is unfortunate that the Albuquerque Planning Department kept so few records. We may never be able to figure out who built these edifices, when, why, to what purposes. Let’s go back a few years. We know for certain that this entire part of town was vacant in 1919. A colleague just sent me snippets from the 1945 and 1949 city directories: 1945 City Directory: 3405 is vacant. 1949 City Directory: 3405 is vacant. I do not have any further city directories at hand and so I do not know when the building was constructed or by whom, nor do I have the full history, but I can do a little more digging now, because we have tools that had not yet been invented in 1978. Let’s see what happens when we make queries on Newspapers.com: So, it had been a store for a while. What kind of store? This was not John Field Simms Sr. or Jr., was it? Really, though, I suspect this was a typographical error. This requires more research. Can the Sanborn Maps help us? In 1942, this lot was empty. The newspaper above indicates that some structure was here in 1944, but, if so, it was gone by the time of the next Sanborn survey, which seems to have been in early 1950 and which was published in February 1951. We see that in early 1950 the 3403 and 3405 lots were once again empty. We discover below that by August 1950, the lot at 3403 was operating as a restaurant! The rags-to-comfortable-income story (possible then, impossible now) of Mr. Wing Ong, born in 1901 in Canton, China. Somebody should write a book or make a documentary about him someday, yes? At some time, I would guess around 1951 or 1952, somebody build a shop or office at 3405, but who did that, and precisely when, and why, well, we just don’t know. What we do know is that, pretty soon, Wing Ong purchased 3405 and stitched it to 3403 to enlarge his restaurant. No idea why Wing Ong closed and sold the Chinese Village restaurant. He was infinitely more interesting than this brief obituary could hope to hint. Once Wing closed the Chinese Village, 3405 had a rough time, and had several short-term leases. I assume that it was the New Mexico Barber College, Inc., that put on that odd new front, but I do not know for certain. Whatever the case, the Barber College was not a success. Does anybody know the story? The Guild, 150 or 153 or 148 seats (I never counted them, and the reports vary), 3405 Central Ave NE. It’s a seedy building, inside and out. It was seedy when I first visited in 1972, and it remains seedy. The architect made sure that it would look hopelessly seedy, and he (I’m certain it was a he) ensured that no amount of decoration or remodeling would ever be able to help. Oh how I wish I knew who that architect was! Oh how I wish I knew who the contractors were! One thing we can be sure of: The Roxy had frequently sold out, and so C & D realized that they needed a venue that was slightly larger, but only slightly. That is why they wanted a microscopic auditorium with only a handful of seats, because they knew that anything larger would be a waste in a one-horse town like Albuquerque. That is why they were searching about for a tiny little dump that nobody else wanted, and so they waited until the price of the building at 3405 dropped almost to nothing. Further, they wanted their building to look seedy inside and out. I do not know what the building sold for, nor do I know what the conversion cost. This much I can figure out, though: The selling price was the cheapest on Central, and the conversion price was lower than any other conversion. The Guild opened on Wednesday, 16 February 1966, with the severely abridged version of Red Lanterns (85 minutes), because the full version (132 minutes, available here, though slightly overspeeded to 129 minutes) has never been released in the US, which is an ongoing crime against cinema. Also, to the best of my knowledge, the US saw only an English dub, not the Greek original. Egad, that must have been dreadful! The original, full-length Greek version is wonderful. Yes, it’s just a dumb soap opera, but my heavens does it drip atmosphere! The music by Σταῦρος Ξαρχάκος is out of this world, and the acting, especially by Τζένη Καρέζη, will just knock the wind out of you. Great stuff. Love it. (That’s what I love most in any form of entertainment: atmosphere. Well, atmosphere or belly laughs — or flamboyance, too. Story is secondary. Intelligence is secondary. Skill is secondary. Sense is secondary. If it’s totally wacky, absurdly and ridiculously unreal and wild; or if it’s got the right hypnotic, dreamlike trance-inducing moody atmosphere; or if it makes me laugh so hard that I literally fall onto the floor, I’m a fan. So, yeah, Larry Semon’s The Rent Collector and Ken Russell’s Lisztomania, both widely reviled, are two of my very top favorites. Ditto with Red Lanterns. I don’t pick apart the countless faults. Yes, I see all the faults, immediately. They scream out at me, but I don’t care about the countless faults. I just get sucked in and have a whale of a time.) C & D Enterprises followed Red Lanterns with a Jeanne Moreau movie unfortunately (and sleazily) retitled Eva, the Devil’s Woman. That’s when the partners decided, apparently, that these two forays into classy cinema did not do well, and so they switched to the nudie cuties, “where the money is.” Italian poster on the left; sleazy American poster on the right. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Look at that poster on the left. Guidarino Guidi was an assistant? Unbelievable. Who else was involved? IMDb says: John R. Pepper, Gianni Di Venanzo, Claudio Maielli, Pasqualino De Santis — AND part of it was filmed at Harry’s Bar. Okay, my head is spinning. Why is my head spinning? Because they were all associated in some way, at one time or another, with Tinto Brass! I need to watch the Blu-ray. (Oh. Just saw it. Not my kind of flick. Just a bunch of shallow people making each other miserable. Tinto remains unknown in the US. If you want to get a tiny taste of his work, here is a snippet from his first feature film. Yummy! And here’s another clip for good measure. Enjoy!) Here are the day’s three ads, all clustered together, to give you an idea not only of the fare being promoted, but how it was being promoted. Caressed, Dr. Strangelove, and Eva were by no means hot or racy, and yet they were advertised as such. Before you leap to conclusions, click on the links below. Much of what once passed for “adult fare” would now almost be suitable for prime-time television. These were cheapo offbeat flicks, routine programmers, made only to fulfill contracts, filmed usually in a day or two, often in the director’s apartment. A few were amusing, a few were rather good, most, though, were downright bloody awful. When we look through the YouTube clips, we see that, with only the rarest exceptions, there was absolutely no sincerity in these productions. (Admittedly, most movies have no sincerity at all. Think about it: movies of monsters rampaging cities, ever more westerns with gun fights, Abbott & Costello flicks, Billy West, spaceships with noisy lasers, I mean, come on. Those were the works of hacks fulfilling contracts. They were not from the heart. There was no love. There was no sincerity. None. In that sense, these dreadful nudie-cuties were no different, no better, no worse.) The writing served only as an excuse to expose film, the direction seemed drunk, and the performers should have chosen different professions. Some of the lighting and camerawork was competent, or even quite good, though. The joyless clips from the Joe Sarno flicks reveal an undeveloped, untrained talent who should have done much better. The Guild toned down the hotter titles for the newspaper ads. Surprisingly, a few of these were NOT nudie-cuties or exploitation films. I have rendered those titles in bold. Perhaps they were booked in error. Then, of course, there was Mudhoney, which has a little bit of nudity, yes, and which was released solely for the exploitation circuit, but which is brilliant beyond all description, easily one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. I wish it had gotten released to regular cinemas rather than to hole-in-the-wall joints. I would love to have seen some audiences who attended The Guild. Who were they? Who would attend? Who would sit all the way through these one-hour movies and not walk out? Except for three titles that were not supplied, here is the entire list of films shown at The Guild under C & D: Wed 16 Feb 1966 Red Lanterns (1963) Wed 23 Feb 1966 Eva: The Devil’s Woman (formerly Eve, 1964) Fri 4 Mar 1966 Lollipop! (aka Asfalto Selvagem, 1964) Thu 10 Mar 1966 Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1964) Young, Willing & Eager (aka Rag Doll, 1961) Fri 18 Mar 1966 Lorna (1964) Eve and the Handyman (1961) Fri 25 Mar 1966 Days of Sin and Nights (actual title: Days of Sin and Nights of Nymphomania, aka Mellem venner, 1963) Wed 30 Mar 1966 My guess is that this is The Hot Bed (1965), or maybe a Doris Wishman film, perhaps The Sex Perils of Paulette. I would need to see the full sets of press books to be sure. If you can solve this mystery, please let me know. Thanks! Wed 06 Apr 1966 Wild Gals of the Naked West (1962) The Immoral Mr. Teas (1959) Wed 13 Apr 1966 The Secret Society (1965) Tue 19 Apr 1966 The Erotic Touch (aka La baie du désir, 1964) Tue 26 Apr 1966 Notte Erotique (aka Le concerto de la peur, 1963) Tue 03 May 1966 Hollywood’s World of Flesh (1963) Tue 10 May 1966 Rent-a-Girl (1965) Wait a minute! Front window? As far as I know, there was no front window in those days! Maybe this refers to the poster window by the front door? Tue 17 May 1966 The Pink Pussycat (actual title: The Pink P****: Where Sin Lives, embellished edition of Acosada, 1964) Tue 24 May 1966 The Exploiters (actual title: The Sexploiters, 1965) Tue 31 May 1966 Europe in the Raw (1963) Heavenly Bodies (1963) Fri 3 Jun 1966 Mudhoney (1965) Tue 14 Jun 1966 The Twisted Sex (1966) Tue 21 Jun 1966 The Girls on F Street (1966) Tue 28 Jun 1966 The Evil Pleasure (1966) Tue 05 Jul 1966 Love Is a Four-Letter Word (1966) Tue 12 Jul 1966 Wife Swappers (1965) Tue 19 Jul 1966 London in the Raw (1964) Tue 26 Jul 1966 House on Bare Mountain (1962) Raw Weekend (1963) Tue 02 Aug 1966 The Naked Fog (1966) Tue 09 Aug 1966 Promises... Promises! (1963) 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt (1964) Tue 16 Aug 1966 SINderella and the Golden Bra (1964) Strange Compulsion (1964) Tue 23 Aug 1966 Flesh and Lace (1965) Tue 30 Aug 1966 Fatal Females (aka Lonesome Women, 1959) Tue 06 Sep 1966 Orgy of the Golden Nudes (aka Honeymoon of Horror, 1964) The Carousel Strippers (1966, no info) Tue 13 Sep 1966 Mondo Freudo (1966) Tue 20 Sep 1966 The Agony of Love (1966, world première) Tue 27 Sep 1966 Hentai (Means Abnormal) (1966) Tue 04 Oct 1966 Not Tonite, Henry (1960) Kiss Me Quick (1964) Tue 11 Oct 1966 The Worst Crime of All (1966) Tue 18 Oct 1966 Wild, Wild Girl (1965) To Bed on a Bet (1965) Tue 25 Oct 1966 The Velvet Trap (1966) Tue 01 Nov 1966 Okay. Wait a minute. I know that plotline. This was a mediocre movie by Ντίνος Δημόπουλος called Ἀμόκ (1963), which in the US was obnoxiously retitled The Rape. Sheesh. Any cheap way to sell tickets to desperate DG’s. Demoralizing. Here’s some music from the movie, composed by the great Σταῦρος Ξαρχάκος. Great music. Great lighting. Gorgeous cinematography. The script, though, oy vey. Tue 08 Nov 1966 Gutter Girls (1963) Tue 15 Nov 1966 The Love Feast (1966) Tue 22 Nov 1966 Notte Erotique (aka Le concerto de la peur, 1963) REPEAT FROM TUE 26 APR 1966 The Beautiful the Bloody and the Bare (1964) Tue 29 Nov 1966 Orgy of the Dead (1965) Tue 06 Dec 1966 The Silence (1963, CROPPED; premièred at Don Pancho’s 14 May 1964) A Stranger Knocks (1959) Tue 13 Dec 1966 Just Once More! (1962) Tue 20 Dec 1966 Blaze Starr — Busting Out (1962) Pistol-Packin’ Nudist (1965 reissue of Wild Gals of the Naked West! [1962]) Belly Roll (1965) Tue 27 Dec 1966 The Love Merchant (1966) Tue 03 Jan 1967 The Secret Society (1965) REPEAT FROM WED 13 APR 1966 Tue 10 Jan 1967 The Girl with Hungry Eyes (1966) Tue 17 Jan 1967 The Swap and How They Make It (1966) Tue 24 Jan 1967 London in the Raw (1964) REPEAT FROM TUE 19 JUL 1966 Tue 31 Jan 1967 Mondo Bizarro (1966) Tue 07 Feb 1967 The Wonderful World of Girls (1965) Tue 14 Feb 1967 Heat of Midnight (1966) Tue 21 Feb 1967 Love Is a Four-Letter Word (1966) REPEAT FROM TUE 05 JUL 1966 Tue 28 Feb 1967 The Evil Pleasure (1966) REPEAT FROM TUE 28 JUN 1966 special co-hit (no info) Tue 07 Mar 1967 Mondo Freudo (1966) REPEAT FROM TUE 13 SEP 1966 Tue 14 Mar 1967 Honey (1966) Tue 21 Mar 1967 Naked Fog (1966) Tue 28 Mar 1967 Scream of the Butterfly (1965) Tue 04 April 1967 The Festival Girls (1961) Surfside 77 (1962) Tue 11 Apr 1967 Flesh and Lace (1965) REPEAT FROM TUE 23 AUG 1966 Tue 18 Apr 1967 Banned (1966) Tue 25 Apr 1967 The Agony of Love (1966) REPEAT FROM TUE 20 SEP 1966 Tue 02 May 1967 Night Women (1964, dir. Claude Lelouch) Tue 09 May 1967 Wife Swappers (1965) REPEAT FROM TUE 12 JUL 1966 Nudes on Credit (1963) Tue 16 May 1967 Mundo Depravados (1967) Tue 23 May 1967 Massacre of Pleasure (1966) Tue 30 May 1967 Violated Love (1963) Tue 06 Jun 1967 The Girl from S.I.N. (1966) Tue 13 Jun 1967 Oddo (1967) Tue 20 Jun 1967 Misconduct (1966) Tue 27 Jun 1967 Cool It, Baby (1967) Tue 04 Jul 1967 Always on Saturday (1966) Tue 11 Jul 1967 The Tarts (1965) Tue 18 Jul 1967 The Girl with Hungry Eyes (1966) REPEAT FROM TUE 10 JAN 1967 Woman of Pleasure (actual title: Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, 1964) REPEAT FROM THU 10 MAR 1966 Tue 25 Jul 1967 A Taste of Flesh (1967) Tue 01 Aug 1967 The Raw Ones (1965) Tue 15 Aug 1967 The Slave (1967) Tue 22 Aug 1967 Red Roses of Passion (1966) Tue 29 Aug 1967 The Love Statue (1965) Tue 05 Sep 1967 The Adolescent (1967) Tue 12 Sep 1967 Hot Nights on the Campus (1966) Tue 19 Sep 1967 Love + Fear = Torment (1967) Tue 26 Sep 1967 The Sex Cycle (1967) Tue 03 Oct 1967 The Forbidden (1966) Tue 10 Oct 1967 Diary of a Swinger (1967) Tue 17 Oct 1967 Venus in Furs (1967) Tue 24 Oct 1967 Pain and Pleasure (1967) Tue 31 Oct 1967 Mondo Freudo (1966) REPEAT FROM TUE 13 SEP 1966 AND TUE 07 MAR 1967 Mondo Bizarro (1966) REPEAT FROM TUE 31 JAN 1967 Tue 07 Nov 1967 Free Love Confidential (1967) Tue 14 Nov 1967 Little Girls (1967) Tue 21 Nov 1967 Mini-Skirt Love (1967) Tue 28 Nov 1967 Housewives on Call (1967) Tue 05 Dec 1967 The Play Pen Girls (1967) Tue 12 Dec 1967 Whip’s Women (1967) Tue 19 Dec 1967 The Love Robots (1966) Tue 26 Dec 1967 The Bed and How to Make It! (1966) Tue 02 Jan 1968 Women of Desire (1967) Tue 09 Jan 1968 My Body Hungers (1967) Tue 16 Jan 1968 Scarf of Mist Thigh of Satin (1967) Tue 23 Jan 1968 Bed of Violence (1967) Tue 30 Jan 1968 The Singles: Love via the Computer (1965) Tue 06 Feb 1968 Skin Deep in Love (1966) Tue 13 Feb 1968 Devil in Velvet (1968) Tue 20 Feb 1968 Touch of Leather (1968) Tue 27 Feb 1968 The Bite (1966) Tue 05 Mar 1968 Confessions of a Dirty Pair (1967) Tue 12 Mar 1968 A Piece of the Action (not the true title, unidentifiable) Well, make a liar out of me. UNM’s New Mexico Lobo printed the uncensored display ad: A Piece of Her Action (1968) Tue 19 Mar 1968 Oddo (1967) REPEAT FROM TUE 13 JUN 1967 The Tarts (1965) REPEAT FROM TUE 11 JUL 1967 Tue 26 Mar 1968 The Animal (1968) Tue 02 Apr 1968 I Want You (actual title: I Crave Your Body, 1961) (Is this a lost film? Link. Link. Link.) Tue 09 Apr 1968 Whip’s Women (1967) REPEAT FROM TUE 12 DEC 1967 Tue 16 Apr 1968 Cinema Verité (1968) Tue 23 Apr 1968 A Good Time with a Bad Girl (1967) Tue 30 Apr 1968 Ursula (1968, no info) Tue 07 May 1968 Massacre of Pleasure (1966) Night Women (1964, dir. Claude Lelouch) REPEAT FROM TUE 02 MAY 1967 Tue 14 May 1968 Cargo of Love (1968) Tue 21 May 1968 Brigitta (1967) Tue 28 May 1968 The Raw Ones (1965) REPEAT FROM TUE 01 AUG 1967 The Aqua Sex (1962) Tue 04 Jun 1968 The Spoiled Darling (1968) Tue 11 Jun 1968 The Forbidden (1966) REPEAT FROM TUE 03 OCT 1967 Heat of Midnight (1966) REPEAT FROM TUE 14 FEB 1967 Tue 18 Jun 1968 Sappho ’68 (1968) Tue 25 Jun 1968 Raw Love (1965) Pardon My Brush (1964) Tue 02 Jul 1968 Motel Confidential (1967) Tue 09 Jul 1968 The Satanist (1968) Tue 16 Jul 1968 Supersensual (1967) Tue 23 Jul 1968 The Naked World of Harrison Marks (1966) Tue 30 Jul 1968 She Mob (1968) Tue 06 Aug 1968 Hot Spur (special roadshow engagement, 1968) Tue 20 Aug 1968 Chantal (1968) Wed 28 Aug 1968 College Girls (1968) Tue 03 Sep 1968 Hip, Hot and 21 (1966) Tue 10 Sep 1968 Suburbia Confidential (1966) Tue 17 Sep 1968 Vicious Blondes (1968) Tue 24 Sep 1968 Office Love-In (1968) Tue 01 Oct 1968 Kitten in the Cage (1968) Fri 04 Oct 1968 Suburban Pagans (1968) Mon 14 Oct 1968 Kept (1968) Tue 22 Oct 1968 How to Do Anything at All with Girls (1968) Tue 29 Oct 1968 A Sweet Sickness (1968) Tue 05 Nov 1968 Unusual Requests (1968) Tue 12 Nov 1968 The Head Mistress (1968) Tue 19 Nov 1968 The Specialists (1968) Tue 26 Nov 1968 Four Kinds of Love (1968) Tue 03 Dec 1968 Darling, Are You Bored with Men? (1968) Tue 10 Dec 1968 The Defilers (1965) Tue 17 Dec 1968 His Way! (actual title: She Did It His Way!, 1968) Tue 31 Dec 1968 The Lustful Turk (1968) Tue 07 Jan 1969 Brand of Shame (1968) Tue 21 Jan 1969 Playgirls of Frankfurt (1966) Tue 28 Jan 1969 A Smell of Honey a Swallow of Brine! (1966) Tue 04 Feb 1969 Space Thing (1968) Tue 11 Feb 1969 A Sweet Sickness (1968) REPEAT FROM TUE 29 OCT 1968 Tue 18 Feb 1969 Thar She Blows (1968) Tue 25 Feb 1969 The Ramrodder (1969) Tue 11 Mar 1969 Invitation to Ruin (1968) Tue 18 Mar 1969 Love Camp 7 (1969) Tue 01 Apr 1969 You (1968, lost film; if you know where a copy is hiding, please let me know. Thanks!) Tue 08 Apr 1969 Hot Spur (1968) REPEAT FROM TUE 06 AUG 1968 The Animal (1968) REPEAT FROM TUE 26 MAR 1968 Temple of Eros (1968, tagline was “A Picture beyond Description,” no further info) Sin-Phony (1967, featurette, no further info) Tue 15 Apr 1969 Return of the Secret Society (1968) Tue 22 Apr 1969 The Pleasure Machines (1969) Tue 29 Apr 1969 2069 AD (1969) Tue 06 May 1969 It’s All for Sale (1969) Tue 13 May 1969 The Pick-Up (1968) Tue 20 May 1969 Felicia (1969) Tue 27 May 1969 Ready for Anything (1968) Tue 03 Jun 1969 Ragina’s Secrets (1969) Tue 10 Jun 1969 Sisters in Leather (1969) Tue 17 Jun 1969 Space Thing (1968) REPEAT FROM TUE 04 FEB 1969 Tue 24 Jun 1969 Ride a Wild Steed (actual title: Ride a Wild Stud, 1969) There is no question but that The Guild, up to now, had been successful. The evidence? No direct evidence, only circumstantial evidence: Jay C. Battershell and Mike Wersonick opened a rival cinema just a few blocks away, the Mini Vue, with essentially identical programming. A minority shareholder was a brand-new Hollywood porn producer by the name of Daniel B. Cady, a/k/a William Dancer, and I wish I could elaborate upon that. Who was this Cady guy? How/why did he get involved? (I discover only now that the Mini Vue just afterwards branched out and became a chain, boasting some 32 outlets across 14 states. Do I want to know the story? Probably not.) At exactly the same time, Commonwealth Amusements also jumped onto the bandwagon and reopened El Rey under a new name, Reel Art. The Reel Art must have cut into The Guild’s business, which, I suppose, is why, beginning on Tuesday, 7 October 1969, The Guild took over the booking of the Reel Art by creating some new entity called CINEMA “X” Company. Both cinemas played the same movies, but on different weeks. Could anybody please elucidate? Please? The partnership crashed to a definitive end three weeks later. Tuesday, 28 October 1969, was the final day. Then, the next morning, the Reel Art was closed again. Some of The Guild’s programming also popped up at the Tesuque Drive-In, the Cactus Drive-In, the 66 Drive-In, and even at the KiMo, all of them booked by Commonwealth at the time. Then things got worse, when porno houses began sprouting up all over the city like mushrooms, all playing the same repertoire. In a heartbeat, The Guild was no longer the only game in town. Not only did Commonwealth fire up four direct competitors, there were also now the Hut, the Eros 1, the Eros 2, the Eros 3, the Back Door, and El Toro all showing the identical movies. Ten competitors. Worse, there was an eleventh: Don Pancho’s down the street was also muscling in. The Guild was overwhelmed by competition, and the exchange(s?) began to send it the same movies repeatedly. All in all, that is almost certainly why Coleman & Dunham gave up and leased the place out in early 1971 and sold it sometime afterwards. My guess, and all it can be is a guess, is that Battershell had introduced his brother-in-law Pat Baca to the business. Baca perhaps got his training at the Mini Vue and quickly went on to build up a little Albuquerque empire. He soon came to be quite feared and he soon came to have an almost total lock on Albuquerque’s porn business. Perhaps that was another reason why C & D decided to close up shop? (I think Baca lost control after eight years or so, since he was not disciplined. He was a party animal, not a businessman.) Tue 01 Jul 1969 Like Mother Like Daughter (1969) Tue 08 Jul 1969 Women for All Reasons (1969) Tue 15 Jul 1969 Dominique (actual title: Daughters of Lesbos, 1968) Tue 22 Jul 1969 Notorious Big Sin City (1969?) Tue 29 Jul 1969 Slaves of Love (1969) Tue 05 Aug 1969 Wild Family Robinson (actual title: Sex Family Robinson, 1968) Tue 12 Aug 1969 The Secret Lives of Romeo and Juliet (actual title: The Secret Sex Lives of Romeo and Juliet, 1969) Tue 19 Aug 1969 Weekend Lovers (1969) Tue 26 Aug 1969 Going Down the 3rd Time (1969) Tue 02 Sep 1969 Love Camp 7 (1969) REPEAT FROM TUE 18 MAR 1969 The Pleasure Machines (1969) REPEAT FROM TUE 22 APR 1969 Tue 09 Sep 1969 Snow Job (1969, IMDb confuses this with the 1972 film) Around the World in 80 Ways! (1969) Tue 16 Sep 1969 Lila (1968) Tue 23 Sep 1969 The Wildest (1969) Tue 30 Sep 1969 Teach Me How to Do It! (1967) Tue 07 Oct 1969 The House Near the Prado (1969) Tue 14 Oct 1969 The Calico Queen (aka The Hanging of Jake Ellis, 1969) Tue 21 Oct 1969 The Fabulous Kid from Chicago (actual title: The Fabulous Bastard from Chicago, 1969) Tue 28 Oct 1969 Swingin’ Swappers (1969, not 1973) Tue 04 Nov 1969 Monica’s Thing (1969) Tue 11 Nov 1969 Starlet! (1969) Little Girls (1967) REPEAT FROM TUE 14 NOV 1967 Tue 18 Nov 1969 School for Love (actual title School for Sex, 1969) You (1968, lost film; if you know where a copy is hiding, please let me know. Thanks!) REPEAT FROM TUE 01 APR 1969 Tue 25 Nov 1969 Daisy C. (actual title: The Daisy Chain, 1969) 2069 AD (1969) REPEAT FROM TUE 29 APR 1969 Tue 02 Dec 1969 The Ribald Tales of Robin Hood (1969) Brick Dollhouse (1967) Tue 09 Dec 1969 Erika/One (1969) Suburbia Confidential (1966) REPEAT FROM TUE 10 SEP 1968 Tue 16 Dec 1969 Office Love-In (1968) REPEAT FROM TUE 24 SEP 1968 The Pick-Up (1968) REPEAT FROM TUE 13 MAY 1969 Tue 23 Dec 1969 College Girls (1968) REPEAT FROM WED 28 AUG 1968 It’s All for Sale (1969) REPEAT FROM TUE 06 MAY 1969 Tue 30 Dec 1969 The Acid Eaters (1968) The Ecstasies of Women (1969) Tue 06 Jan 1970 Wild Gypsies (1969) Lust Weekend (1967) Tue 13 Jan 1970 Mid Day Mistress (1968) Royal Flesh (aka The Undercover Scandals of Henry VIII, 1970) Tue 20 Jan 1970 Acapulco Uncensored (1968) Ready for Anything! (1968) REPEAT FROM TUE 27 MAY 1969 Tue 27 Jan 1970 The Divorcee (1969) One Shocking Moment (1965) Tue 03 Feb 1970 House of the Red Dragon (1969) Tue 10 Feb 1970 Lady Godiva Rides (1968) Tue 17 Feb 1970 Her Odd Tastes (1969) Tue 24 Feb 1970 The Master-Piece! (1969) Tue 03 Mar 1970 Pleasure Plantation (1970) FEATURETTE: Pornography “Copenhagen Are You Offended ” (actual title: Pornography: Copenhagen 1970, 1970) Tue 10 Mar 1970 Odd Tastes (1968) Dominique (actual title: Daughters of Lesbos, 1968) REPEAT FROM TUE 15 JUL 1969 Tue 17 Mar 1970 Teenie Tulip (1970) The Hang-Up (1969) Tue 24 Mar 1970 This Sporting House (1969) A Smell of Honey (actual title: A Smell of Honey, a Swallow of Brine, 1966) REPEAT FROM TUE 28 JAN 1969 Tue 31 Mar 1970 S.O.S. Club (1969) Love: My Way (1966) Tue 07 Apr 1970 Sweet Bippy (Blue) (1968) The Bushwhacker (1968) Tue 14 Apr 1970 Linda and Abilene (1969) The Office Party (1968) Tue 21 Apr 1970 The Affairs of Aphrodite (1970) The Satin Mushroom (1969) Tue 28 Apr 1970 Yvonne from 6 to 9 (1969) The Title of the Second Feature is defined as unprintable... but the Movie is enjoyable (no info) Tue 05 May 1970 Bunny & Clod (1970) Precious Jewels (1969) Tue 12 May 1970 Do Me! Do Me! Do Me! (1969) Motel Wives (1968) Tue 19 May 1970 Marsha (actual title: Marsha: The Erotic Housewife, 1970) The Satanist (1968) REPEAT FROM TUE 09 JUL 1968 Tue 26 May 1970 The Detention Girls (1969) And Five Makes Jason (1969) Tue 02 Jun 1970 Starlet! (1969) REPEAT FROM TUE 11 NOV 1969 The Ribald Tales of Robin Hood (1969) REPEAT FROM TUE 02 DEC 1969 Tue 09 Jun 1970 Return of the Secret Society (1968) REPEAT FROM TUE 14 APR 1969 Fanny Hill Meets Lady Chatterly (1967) Tue 16 Jun 1970 The Kill (1968) Hedonistic Pleasures (1969) Tue 23 Jun 1970 Initiation (1970) Girls in the Saddle (1969) Tue 30 Jun 1970 Franchette (actual title: Franchette: Les Intrigues, 1969) Marriage Dropouts (1969) Tue 07 Jul 1970 Bang Bang (actual title: Sex Club International, 1967) Kiss-Off (1968) Tue 14 Jul 1970 Sandra: The Making of a Woman (1970) Gun Runner (1969) Tue 21 Jul 1970 The Captives (1969) Erika/One (1969) REPEAT FROM TUE 09 DEC 1969 Tue 28 Jul 1970 Diamond Stud (1970) The Fabulous Kid from Chicago (actual title: The Fabulous Bastard from Chicago, 1969) REPEAT FROM TUE 21 OCT 1969 Tue 04 Aug 1970 The Muthers (1968) Excited (1970) Tue 11 Aug 1970 Yellow Bird (1970) To Turn a Trick (1967) Tue 18 Aug 1970 Kiss Me Mate (1969) Donna & Lisa (1969) Tue 25 Aug 1970 The Swappers (1970) Ruined (1968) Tue 01 Sep 1970 Watch the Birdie... or Die! (1968) All the Way Down (1968) Tue 08 Sep 1970 Fanny Hill Meets Dr. Erotico (1969) The Game People Play (1967) Tue 15 Sep 1970 The Harem Bunch... or War and Piece (1969) The Daisy Chain (1969) REPEAT FROM TUE 25 NOV 1969 Tue 22 Sep 1970 Come One Come All! (1970) Teenie Tulip (1970) REPEAT FROM TUE 17 MAR 1970 Tue 29 Sep 1970 Judy (1970) Invitation to Ruin (1968) REPEAT FROM TUE 11 MAR 1969 Tue 06 Oct 1970 Little Sister (1970) Private Arrangement (1970) Tue 13 Oct 1970 Lisa’s Folly (1970) The Bite (1966) REPEAT FROM TUE 27 FEB 1968 Tue 20 Oct 1970 The Joys of Jezebel (1970) The Pleasure Game (1970) Tue 27 Oct 1970 Melissa: The Total Female (1970) Royal Flesh (aka The Undercover Scandals of Henry VIII, 1970) REPEAT FROM TUE 13 JAN 1970 Tue 03 Nov 1970 Ride Mister? (1969) Key Club Wives (1968) Tue 10 Nov 1970 Dixie (1970) Family Robinson (actual title: Sex Family Robinson, 1968) Tue 17 Nov 1970 Sweet Taste of Joy (1970) Norma (1970) Tue 24 Nov 1970 Love Thy Neighbor (1970) Turn Me On (1968) Wed 02 Dec 1970 The Slave (1967) REPEAT FROM TUE 15 AUG 1967 Campus Heat (1969) Wed 09 Dec 1970 Any Body... Any Way (1968) Bar Maid (1970) Wed 16 Dec 1970 Hot Lips and Hot Heads (1970) San Francisco Cowboy (1969) Wed 23 Dec 1970 The Affairs of Aphrodite (1970) REPEAT FROM TUE 21 APR 1970 Split Lovers (1969) Tue 30 Dec 1970 Computer Game (1969) How Many Times (1969) Wed 06 Jan 1971 Linda and Abilene (1969) REPEAT FROM TUE 14 APR 1970 The Screentest Girls (1969) Wed 13 Jan 1971 Fandango (1970) Sweet Trash (1970) Wed 20 Jan 1971 Who Killed Cock Robin? (1970) Love Camp 7 (1969) REPEAT FROM TUE 18 MAR 1969 AND TUE 02 SEP 1969 Wed 27 Jan 1971 Ride Hard Ride Wild (1970) Hot Spur (1968) REPEAT FROM TUE 06 AUG 191968 AND TUE 08 APR 1969 Wed 03 Feb 1971 Eleana (1969) Pleasure Plantation (1970) REPEAT FROM TUE 03 MAR 1970 Wed 10 Feb 1971 The Last Step Down (1971) The Captives (1969) REPEAT FROM TUE 21 JUL 1970 Wed 17 Feb 1971 The Kill (1968) REPEAT FROM TUE 16 JUN 1970 S.O.S. Club (1969) REPEAT FROM TUE 31 MAR 1970 Wed 24 Feb 1971 The Very Friendly Neighbors (1971) Linda and Abilene (1969) REPEAT FROM TUE 14 APR 1970 AND WED 06 JAN 1971 Wed 03 Mar 1971 Touch of Leather (1968) REPEAT FROM TUE 20 FEB 1968 The Very Friendly Neighbors (1971) REPEAT FROM WED 24 FEB 1971 Wed 10 Mar 1971 Zero in and Scream (1971) The Adolescent (1967) REPEAT FROM TUE 05 SEP 1967 Wed 17 Mar 1971 Joys of Georgette (1969) Vibrations (1968) Wed 24 Mar 1971 The Outrageous Unbelievable Mechanical Love Machine (aka The Very Friendly Neighbors, 1971) REPEAT FROM WED 24 FEB 1971 AND WED 03 MAR 1971 The Harem Bunch... or War and Piece (1969) REPEAT FROM TUE 15 SEP 1970 Jeff Berg, in his booklet, Historic Movie Theatres of New Mexico, further writes: The [Guild] theatre, prior to Henley’s ownership, was open as early as 1963, probably as an arthouse venue as well, as it first screened the Oscar-nominated Greek film The Red Lanterns. A post on one website opines that the theatre was for adult fare, which is not accurate. The Guild later became a revival house and had the same owner as the Don Pancho, but it closed in 1977, opening its doors again in 1979 as a true arthouse cinema.... Yes, I love Jeff Berg’s booklet, but that is not quite right, as we have seen, and as we shall see some more. The film equipment was definitely purchased used. Where it had originally been installed, heaven only knows. Monaural only. Super Simplex picture heads, Simplex SH-1000 sound heads, Peerless Magnarc carbon-arc lamphouses, 2,000' magazines, manual change-overs, enclosed Goldberg rewinder, Ciro 5-perf splicer. As for the rest of the equipment, sorry, I can’t remember. The booth was so small that an overweight person would not have been able to squeeze behind the projectors to get to the other side of the room. The two rectifiers were scrunched between the two projectors, right under the port glass. Had you entered the pin-cushion-sized booth at The Guild, you would have been confronted by a pair of projectors almost exactly like this. • Simplex 2,000' magazines • Super Simplex picture head • Simplex SH-1000 sound head • Simplex base • Peerless Magnarc lamphouse There were two machines, of course, since each machine could hold only about 20 minutes of film. I stole this image from kinemaman, his eBay listing 312541349757, on 12 July 2019. The machines at Donald Pancho’s were similar, but minus magazines, which were removed and replaced by longer 6,000' arms, and the lamphouses were painted entirely wrinkle grey and were converted to xenon. Below is what the back side of the machine looks like, but with the SH-1000’s cover removed and the sound-drum’s flywheel missing. The take-up belt is missing, too. The Guild ran undercut 1:1.66, undercut 1:1.75, undercut 1:1.85, and undercut 1:2.00, each filed out to .800" width, rather than the proper .825". The anamorphic apertures were undercut 1:2.35 (about .715"×.780"). Instead of wider ratios getting wider, the height got smaller, for the bottom masking was raised by hand, behind the closed curtain. No need for propping in the middle, because the bottom masking dangled from a solid 2×4. The result was pathetically small. At both Donald Pancho’s and The Guild, we had to crank the projector bases up and down between formats, which is, come on now, not the right way to do it. By the way, at any other cinema on the planet, the projectionist stands, which is really best. At Donald Pancho’s and The Guild that was impossible. The projector lenses (about stomach-level) were even with the auditorium ceilings, which is why we had to squat or sit on small chairs in order to run the films. Bizarre. Why would two cinemas, only 1.2 miles apart, both have this identical structural compromise? Well, they were both built by someone named Dunham, and I suspect that Dunham copied what Scheer’s construction company had improvised for Don Pancho’s. The Roxy also surely used the same technique, and I would love to see photos and blueprints and plans. Unfortunately, the Planning Department kept almost no plans or blueprints. Nearly everything was tossed. Also, any other projection booth in New Mexico and all places east out to the Atlantic Ocean uses foot pedals to change over the picture. Because we had to sit in low chairs to operate the machines, foot pedals were out of the question. Someone squatting in one of those tiny chairs simply would not have enough leverage to operate a foot pedal. That is why the picture-change-over switches were little buttons on the wall, right underneath the porthole windows, the same system universally used in Los Ángeles. When I first started there, I thought that was normal. It was not until I began visiting other booths and studying the topic that I realized the set-up at Donald Pancho’s and The Guild was aberrant. It worked, yes, but it was terribly strange. I remember that a few years later I visited the booth at the Coronado 4. The projectionist mentioned that he had gotten a job at The Guild some time earlier, but that once he saw the booth, he yelled, “You can have this m_____f___er!” as he walked out, never to return. I had to check. Yes, The Guild was playing its usual mindless softcore, but Donald Pancho’s had completed a run of Persona, followed by The King of Hearts, which had just finished and was replaced by Lars Görling’s Guilt. All three were advertised as “An Adult Theme” or “Adults Only.” No idea why. Times change, I guess.

Is this our Tom Coleman or some other Tom Coleman?

Yes, Never on Sunday was the NBC “Saturday Night at the Movies” on 11 May 1968,
and the NBC “Tuesday Night at the Movies” on 22 April 1969.

Just before giving up, C & D Enterprises tried one more trick, one of the oddest I have ever seen in this business: That was the end. C & D leased the building to its new manager, a young, enthusiastic guy who had a background in promoting rock concerts. This new manager thought that porn was no longer the way to make money, since there was now far too much competition. He had a better idea. He set himself up a DBA (I think), which he called Movie, Inc. First, though, time-out for something I find interesting. Continue to the next chapter. Text: Copyright © 2019–2021, Ranjit Sandhu. Images: Various copyrights, but reproduction here should qualify as fair use. If you own any of these images, please contact me.