Arlene Elster papers, 1970-1976 (bulk, 1970-1972).

ArchivalResource

Arlene Elster papers, 1970-1976 (bulk, 1970-1972).

The Arlene Elster Papers capture the climate of San Francisco during the 1970s when the city was prominent in the adult film industry. Most of the collection is comprised of Elster's papers from the Sutter Cinema and the First International Erotic Film Festival and newspaper articles and clippings chronicling the struggle between adult filmmakers and legislators who were trying to close the theaters. The majority of articles and clippings within the collection are from the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner, but the Berkeley Barb, Daily Californian, Enterprise Record, Independent, L.A. Times, and Washington Post are also represented. People, organizations, and institutions represented in the collection include: Marilyn Chambers, Dianne Feinstein, Maurice Girodias, Paul Lawrence, Tom Lynch, Phyllis Lyon, the Mitchell Brothers, Lowell Pickett, Mary Rexroth, Margo St. James, the Adult Film Association of America, COYOTE, Olympia Press, the Psychedelic Venus Church, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and the Sexual Freedom League.

2 boxes.

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 8175800

Related Entities

There are 12 Entities related to this resource.

Feinstein, Dianne, 1933-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fz823q (person)

Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein (born Dianne Emiel Goldman; June 22, 1933) is an American politician who has served as the senior United States Senator from California since 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, she was mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988. Born in San Francisco, Feinstein graduated from Stanford University in 1955. In the 1960s, she worked in local government in San Francisco. Feinstein was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1969. She served as the bo...

Girodias, Maurice

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67h2tg4 (person)

Maurice Girodias was born in 1919, the son of Jack Kahane, who came from a well-established Anglo-Jewish family in Manchester, and his French wife whose family had made their fortune building railways in Argentina. Jack Kahane set up in business in Paris as a publisher and founded the Obelisk Press which produced the work of writers prevented by censorship laws from being published in their own countries, such as Henry Miller, as well as more conventional pornography. The young Maur...

Lyon, Phyllis

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qr5w9m (person)

St. James, Margo

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z61v7f (person)

Sutter Cinema.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sv4ksf (corporateBody)

Coyote (Organization)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gv0qmj (corporateBody)

COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics) is a prostitutes' rights organization that was founded by Margo St. James on Mother's Day in 1973. From the description of [Videotape collection] [videorecording]. 1980-1983. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 122408113 Coyote (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics) is an organization founded by Margo St. James, based in California, and concerned with the rights of prostitutes and others. Calling for the decriminalization ...

Adult Film Association of America.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69h2hxv (corporateBody)

Chambers, Marilyn, 1952-2009

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65f38c7 (person)

Rexroth, Mary

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6n88sbh (person)

Olympia Press (Paris, France)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6vf3vdx (corporateBody)

Elster, Arlene.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63z2qwh (person)

Arlene Elster owned and operated the Sutter Cinema in San Francisco between 1970 and 1975. She was the first, and possibly only, woman to operate an adult theater. Elster was trained as a medical technologist and holds a degree in Biological Science from the University of Texas. She grew up in Port Arthur, Tex., eventually making her way to San Francisco where she worked in the research department of the Irwin Memorial Blood Bank. She met Lowell Pickett while doing volunteer lab work at the Haig...

International Erotic Film Festival (1st)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tj5hs6 (corporateBody)