Las Vegas Cinema

dallasmovietheaters on July 22, 2025 at 11:34 am

During the porno chic era of theatrical exhibition, the city had a number of adult cinemas. The Las Vegas Cinemas opened in 1972 by Investors Production Inc. playing unrated “XXX” adult films. They were a difference maker as the established “X-rated” cinema house, Cinema 21, decided to change to what it termed “XX” and “Super-X” (unrated, as well) adult films in a strength test. So the Las Vegas Cinemas upped its strength label to that of “XXXXX” films. Comical, in a way.

In the milieu of the Supreme Court’s high profile Miller v. California decision, the laughs were gone as Colorado Springs decided to take action and charge film operators with obscenity. There were several approaches taken by local adult cinemas. Cine-Twin was charged and opted to have their charges completely dropped in exchange for leaving the industry. The former X-rated Studio 21 had shifted to unrated “XX” and “Super-X” titles and decided to return to more acceptable at the time X-rated fare having its charges dropped. But the stakes were much higher over at the Las Vegas Cinema where five weeks of sold out audiences for “Deep Throat” were bringing in serious cash in April of 1973.

Owner Samuel Tabron was arrested three times in succession. First was Deep Throat on April 11th. Next was “The Green Door” followed by “The Artful Lover.” A jury found him guilty in the first charge which began to have serious consequences as the other two charges were being examined so he fought to the Colorado Supreme Court. There, not only was “Deep Throat” not going to be found to be obscene but the entire Colorado statute defining and regulating obscenity was found unconstitutional under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. It was a jackpot for Tabron’s Las Vegas Cinema and for First Amendment legal interests. And Tabron’s “Green Door” and “Artful Lover” cases were also thrown out.

rivest266 on April 3, 2021 at 7:07 am

Grand opening ad posted.