Willard said at the time that he thought porn theaters no longer existed.
In the 1970s, Los Angeles teemed with dozens of porn theaters. Now only two remain: the Studs and the Tiki. They sit at opposite ends of Santa Monica Boulevard — the former in West Hollywood, the latter in East Hollywood, framing the city in an unseen porno-magnetic field. Both beckon with promises of titillation and, in the case of the Studs, a tag line that reads, “Come explore, relax, and take a load off.”
This was the era of “Deep Throat,” the smash 1972 porn film starring Linda Lovelace and Harry Reems that inspired the nickname of the FBI leaker who brought down Richard Nixon. It was when porn made casual appearances in Hollywood films, such as the scene in “Taxi Driver,” from 1976, when takes Cybill Shepard to see a Swedish porn documentary at an adult movie house in Times Square. And it was a period when even The Times ran advertising for porn theaters. (Sample ad: “Hungry Girls — Erotic! Bizarre! Smashing! The essence of erotic fantasy!”)
For a time, it was a formula that worked. “Deep Throat” played for a decade in Los Angeles at various Pussycat Theaters — along with a host of the era’s other popular porn films, including “The Opening of Misty Beethoven” and “Behind the Green Door.”



















