Playmate Theatre – Billings Gets Sexed Up in 1971 at the World Theater

7-23-71, Billings – The World Theater in Billings had a long history dating back to 1924 as Myrick’s Egyptian Theatre with incarnations being names the Lyric and the Dolly. Facing a change in the movie-going scene, it developed a late night program called Playmate Theater in order to boost up the business. This small chapter which went from Summer ’71 to Summer ’72 needs to be chronicled as one of the many attempts to go adult in the Early 70’s that came and went at a fast pace before the Adult Movie industry turned into a solid business through the decade.

The theater would close in Nov. 1978.

7-13-71 – Mac Ahlberg’s Nana, the last of two films released by “Distinction Pictures” was one of the first in the series.

Although in many areas, the age limit for X was 18, but here it was 19, which cut off a lot of the potential audience who were waiting for birthday #18 to arrive.

8-3-71, Russ Meyer might have struck out with The Seven Minutes, but constant re-plays of classics like Vixen still kept his name alive. It was a perfect match for the late night crowd, who I’m convinced were around to see it back when it was one the most talked about films of the day. By this time, it looked quaint compared to the Adult scene of the day, but then again Russ made movies and not flicks for storefronts that looked like the Director just put film through a camera in a hotel.

8-6-71 – The hit Without a Stitch makes it’s way to Billings

11-6-71 – Going Swedish with Ann and Eve starring Marie “Inga” Liljedhal and Gio Petre. The Chevron release did well for a couple of years, and it was a natural for late nights and Drive ins.

12-31-71 – A New Year’s showing of The School Girls was clearly the sign of the times where films like this could get played for years in the mainstream. This first US release of the many School Girl Report films from Germany was certainly a hit back in the day, although I’m sure there are those would like to see these erased from history today.

12-24-71 – Although Dandy could not stop with the good night kiss, the World had to stop showing it on Christmas possibly due to some “No to Naughties on Christmas” pressure.

Exploitation legend John Alderman is in this flick.

1-7-72 – Performance with Mick Jagger and James Fox seriously has to be seen. The film made in 1968 and finally unleashed in 1970 did fair business in it’s first run, but turned into a well-respected Midnight show and re-issue through The 70s.

1-14-72 – Wow! It’s Cindy! On the road to being a tramp, a tale we all know.

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1-21-72 – The eccentric mind of Fredrick Hobbs made his best known film in Roseland, released by Boxoffice international Pictures. A counter-culture Cult hit right out of the gate, the Something Weird Video release kept it’s reputation alive.

2-28-72 -Not just focusing on Sexploitation fare, the Playmate Theater program also brought in films like Ginger.

5-19-72 – The eerie Don’t Just Lay There was a minor cult sensation that was inspired by the Zodiac Killer. It was actually re-promoted later in the decade to go with the interest in the real-life crime spree still alive and exploitable.

5-12-72 – The Godson was another Boxoffice International release that hit Billings.

6-2-72 – While the series was a small sized success that had a mainstream appeal, there was pressure to stop it all together. I’m sure that this ad for Farouk University featured a special important message to censors, do gooders, and other repressed species.

6-23-72 – The Naked Wytche (no relation to the Larry Buchanan film) might have been the final Playmate Theater show, but a Mini-Kota theater called the Studio 1 was about to creep into the Billings movie scene. I can see she has that kind of magic!

5-24-74 – While “Playmate Theatre” had to end, the World still had the urge to play some wicked films every once in a while. This ad is a very tasty way to say FU to censors and the Anti-Porn leagues that were trying to shut the scene down. To show that the good old days were just as “bad”, a showing of Roadshow classics played thanks to New Line’s re-issues of these classics. A Firesign Theater short also joined in the fun.

~ by screen13 on May 15, 2018.