Cine-Art Twin Theatre

dallasmovietheaters on July 22, 2025 at 6:34 pm

The Cine-Art Twin launched during the porno chic era of film exhibition on November 18, 1970 showing unrated “underground” 16mm films from around the globe. A true grindhouse showing film continuously from 10a until 11p, the Cine-Art drew the ire of local officials early and often. In fact, it was closed within hours of opening. The reason is that they were showing unrated films that local officials felt were without redeeming value and were, in their opinion, obscene.

Cine-Art Manager Bill Houston hired an attorney who got a 30-day stay but that just made the cases pile up higher against the fledgling adult cinema purveyor especially in 1971. Films deemed potentially obscene were “The Dinnerware Salesman,” “Softie,” and “No Name Sex.” By 1972, there were three major Colorado Springs “extra strength” porn houses in Cine-Art Twin, Pussy Cat 21 Cinema, and Las Vegas Cinema. The options were: 1) go out of business in exchange for dropping the charges - which included jail time and fines; 2) change your programming to rated films (X was okay in COS) or 3) fight the overbreadth of the laws in court.

Houston admitted that the Cine-Art Twin had no long game as attorney fees had zapped the operation. The last day of operation for the venue was on March 8, 1973. On March 9, 1973, the operators closed their doors permanently in exchange for the D.A. dropping the charges. Bachelor’s Paradise, an adult bookstore, opted for that same deal a month later. The Pussy Cat Cinema 21 would roll back to its previous Cinema 21 showing only rated X films to have its charges dropped. (Officials would then successfully go after its original owner on tax evasions charges - another time-honored way to close adult cinemas - which worked for a month until new operators bought it at auction and kept it going for another, oh, 40 years). And the Las Vegas Cinema would take its “Deep Throat” case to the Colorado Supreme Court - a three year process that it won handily on First and Fourteenth Amendment grounds.

The former downtown Cine-Art Twin building has been bulldozed.