Nawy (1970) and Winick (1970a) both noted that black and SpanishAmerican customers tend to be younger than the white customers in both bookstores and movie houses.

ARCADE PATRONS

Two pilot studies of adult film arcade patrons have been made (Massey, 1970; Nawy, 1970). Both of these indicate that females are not allowed in these arcades.

Massey (1970) observed 236 persons entering an adult film arcade in a single day's complete coverage. He concludes that, "the general type and characteristics of consumers observed in the bookstores continued to be seen in the arcade."

Nawy (1970) observed a total of 367 patrons in all six of the known adult film arcades in San Francisco. The characteristics of these customers were similar to those of the patrons of the bookstores and the movie houses: white, middle aged, middle class, married males. Chinese were less often found in the arcades than in the movies. During business week lunch hours and around 5:00 p.m., three out of four patrons of the arcade were dressed in suit and tie.

INTERVIEW AND QUESTIONNAIRE STUDIES OF CONSUMERS OF EROTIC MATERIALS

Several investigators (Goldstein, et al., 1970; Massey, 1970; Nawy, 1970; Winick, 1970b) have attempte; to study patrons of adult bookstores and adult movie theaters. All have reported a great deal of difficulty in securing the cooperation of members of these potential subject populations. Customers in adult bookstores appear more reluctant to participate in a study than patrons of adult movie houses. The response rates in the successful studies were all less than 50%. This low response rate may introduce an undetermined bias into the results because those who agree to filling out the questionnaire or to the interview may be different in some other way from those who do not agree to participate. The distribution of demographic data on the people who participated in the more intensive studies is very similar to that found for the larger samples of observed customers, however; this would suggest that the other data may be fairly representative, too. The fact that data from three independent investigations are consistent with each other lends additional support to the possibility that the findings are representative.

Winick (1970b) conducted informal "discussion interviews" with 100 patrons of adult movie theaters. These interview subjects were selected so as to have a distribution on a variety of externally observable demographic characteristics similar to the distribution of these characteristics among a larger sample of adult movie patrons (Winick, 1970a). Fifteen percent of the sample reported attending such movies once a week or more; 37% attended less than once a week but more often than once every two months; 23% reported attending occasionally; 18% did not see such movies on a systematic basis; and no information was obtained from 7%. Regular customers of adult movies usually have been attending such films for several years and have well developed consumer patterns. Many of the theater patrons also referred in the interviews to other types of erotic materials, with the suggestion that they are familiar with several forms of erotica.

The most common response to the movies made in the interviews was a critical and comparative evaluation of adult movies from the viewpoint of the connoisseur. Sixty-five percent of the patrons commented along these lines; these people tended to be older and fairly frequent movie goers. Fifty-six percent of these viewers identified aspects of information as significant elements in adult films. Fantasy reactions to the movies, usually sexual and often humorous, were commented upon by 56% of the interviewees. Thirty-nine percent of the subjects mentioned the social context of viewing the film. The majority of these expressed positive sentiments regarding the sharing of an experience with others even though the sharing was very impersonal - indeed the impersonal aspect appeared to be essential. The minority of negative and ambivalent aspects of the social context specifically referred to the need to remain alone and separate from the others. Approximately one-quarter (27%) referred to the sexual stimulus value of the movies. The kind of content which acts as a stimulus to these people is the literally and explicitly sexual, with novel or forbidden fruit providing a further

increment.

Nawy (1970) administered questionnaires to two samples of patrons of adult movie theaters, using two different methods. In one case, questionnaires were left at an accessible place in the theater to be filled out and returned; of 800 questionnaires, 190 or 24% were returned. In another case every third person leaving the theater was approached and requested to complete the questionnaire; 44% of those approached complied with the request, and this resulted in 61 completed questionnaires. The distribution of demographe variables was very similar and the two samples were combined for analysis. The distribution on demographic variables for this combined sample was not statistically significantly different from the total sample of over 3,000 patrons observed.

Nawy (1970) found that the patrons of adult movies generally lead active and varied sex lives. Ninety-three percent have a regular partner; most have intercourse twice a week or more often and most report having had intercourse with more than one person during the past year. Most of these viewers of adult movies say that their sex partners are aware of their interest in sex films. Fifty-four percent report that sex is more enjoyable since they have been viewing sex films and less than one percent report that attendance at such films has had a negative effect on their sexual relations. Seventy-nine percent report that the films have motivated them to introduce new variety into their sex lives. This variety was within fairly circumscribed limits, however, for these people were overwhelmingly heterosexual; only one of the respondents indicated an interest in experimenting with sadomasochism, and none indicated a desire to engage in bestiality or pedophilia.

Thirty-six percent of these patrons report attending adult movies once a week or oftener. They do not feel guilty about such attendance. Their reported reasons for attending these movies are: for entertainment only, 45%; to get new ideas, 36%; viewing is satisfying in itself, 35%; to pass time, 24%. Seventy-one percent of the movie patrons have purchased material at adult bookstores. Forty percent of these people report having spent more than $100 in the past year on erotic materials.

These customers of adult movie theaters manifest a good deal of upward

socioeconomic mobility. Consistent with this upward mobility is that they report larger percentages delaying first intercourse experience until after high school years than does a national sample of men generally (Kinsey, 1948) or a national sample of college students (Berger, et al., 1970a).

Goldstein and his colleagues (1970) interviewed 52 volunteer customers of adult bookstores and adult movie theaters using standardized clinical interviews of approximately two and one-half hours length that inquired intensively into history of experience with erotic materials, attitudes toward sex, and sexual history. The responses from this sample are compared with responses from 53 control subjects to the same interview. The two groups are fairly similar in terms of a variety of demographic variations except that the consumers of erotic materials are better educated and have higher level current occupations.

The buyers of erotic material tend to report more parental permissiveness when they were growing up regarding nudity around the home and exposure to erotic materials than do the controls, but there were no differences in the amount of either erotica around the house or conversation about sex. The two groups report essentially the same source of sex information, but the buyers of erotica tend to have been less likely to have had a sex education course in school.

The buyers are more likely to have had their first sexual intercourse after age 18 than are the controls, and they report less experience with erotica during adolescence.

As adults, the buyers of erotica report frequencies of intercourse fairly similar to that of the controls and a similar degree of enjoyment of intercourse. They are more permissive toward a variety of sexual practices, feeling that every individual should be free to decide for himself what to do in the sexual realm. In practice they also are more likely to have extramarital sexual experience and more often to achieve orgasm through nonintercourse means. The buyers of erotica differ from the controls most in the amount of experience that they have had with pictorial and textual erotic materials; they do not differ, however, in exposure to live erotic shows.

Most patrons of adult bookstores and movie houses appear to have had less sexually related experiences in adolescence than the average male, but to be more sexually oriented as an adult. This high degree of sexual orientation in adulthood encompasses, in addition to pictorial and textual erotica, a variety of partners and a variety of activities within a consensual framework. Activities most frowned upon by our society, such as sadomasochism, pedophilia, bestiality, and nonconsensual sex, are also outside the scope of their interests.

REFERENCES

Abelson, H., Cohen, R., Heaton, E., and Slider, C. Public attitudes toward and experience with erotic materials. Technical reports of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, Vol. 6. Washington, D.C.; U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970.

Annual report of the postmaster general, 1969. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970. Athanasiou, R., Shaver, P., and Tavris, C. Sex. Psychology today. July, 1970, pp. 39–52.

Berger, A., Gagnon, J., and Simon, W. Pornography: High school and college years. Technical reports of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, Vol. 9. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970. (a)

Berger, A., Gagnon, J., and Simon, W. Urban working-class adolescents and sexually explicit media. Technical reports of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, Vol. 9. Washington, D.C.:

ment Printing Office, 1970. (b)

Bestsellers. January, 1969 – July, 1970.

U.S. Govern

Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. 1967 census of business. (Preliminary Report) Washington, D.C.:, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970. (a)

Department of Commerce, Business and Defense Services Administration. U.S. Industrial Outlook, 1970. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970. (b)

Elias, J. Exposure to erotic materials in adolescence. Unpublished manuscript, Commission files, 1970. Fersch, E. The relationship between students' experience with restricted-access erotic materials and their behaviors and attitudes. Unpublished manuscript, Commission files, 1970.

Finkelstein, M.M. Traffic in sex-oriented materials, Part I; Adult bookstores in Boston, Massachusetts. Technical reports of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, Vol. 4. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1970. (a)

Finkelstein, M.M. Traffic in sex oriented materials, Part II: Criminality and organized crime. Technical reports of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, Vol. 2. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970. (b)

U.S.

Goldstein, M.J., and Kant, H. Exposure to pornography and sexual behavior in deviant and normal groups. Technical reports of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, Vol. 7. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1970.

International motion picture almanac, 1969. New York: Quigley Publications, 1969.

Knight, A., and Alpert, H. The history of sex in the cinema, Part XVI: The nudies. Playboy, June, 1967, p. 124 ff.

Kutschinsky, B. Pornography in Denmark: Studies on producers, sellers, and users. Technical reports of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, Vol. 4. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970.

Laven, F.D. APDA survey of secondary publishers. Unpublished manuscript, Commission files, 1970.

Lynch, T., and O'Brien, C. A report to the California legislature on Obscenity: The law and the nature of the business. Unpublished manuscript, Commission files, 1967.

Magazine industry newsletter. December 9, 1969.

Massey, M.E. A market analysis of sex-oriented materials in Denver, Colorado, August, 1969 – A pilot study. Technical reports of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, Vol. 4. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970.

Nawy, H. The San Francisco erotic marketplace. Technical reports of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, Vol. 4. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970.

Paperback books in print. New York: R.R. Bowker, 1970.

President's Commission on Postal Organization. Towards postal excellence. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968.

Propper, M. Exposure to sexually oriented materials among young male prison offenders. Technical reports of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, Vol. 9. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970.

Publisher's weekly. May 25, 1970. (a)

Publisher's weekly. June 29, 1970. (a)

Randall, R.S. Censorship of the movies. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1968.

Randall, R.S. Classification by the motion picture industry. Technical reports of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, Vol. 10. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970. (a) Randall, R.S. Gross receipts for MPAA – rated and unrated films. Unpublished manuscript, Commission files, 1970. (b)

Roach, W.J., and Kreisberg, L. Westchester college students' views on pornography. Technical reports of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970.

Sampson, J.J. Commercial traffic in sexually oriented materials in the United States, 1969-1970. Technical reports of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, Vol. 3. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970.

Smith, A., and Locke, B. Response of police and prosecutors to problems in arrests and prosecutions for obscenity and pornography. Technical reports of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, Vol. 2. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970.

Sonenschein, D. Pornography: A false issue. Psychiatric opinion. February, 1969.

Sonenschein, D., Ross, M., Bauman, R., Swartz, L., and Maclachlan, M. A study of mass media erotica: The romance or confession magazine. Technical reports of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, Vol. 9. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970.

Valenti, J. Testimony before the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, May 12, 1970. Technical reports of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, Vol. 11. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970.

Variety, January 7, 1970. (a)

Variety. June 17, 1970. (b)

Wallace, D., and Wehmer, G. Contemporary standards of visual erotica. Technical reports of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, Vol. 9. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970.

White, D.M. College students' experience with erotica. Technical reports of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970.

Wilson, W.C., Horowitz, B., and Friedman, J. The gravity of the pornography situation and the problems of control: A survey of prosecuting attorneys. Technical reports of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, Vol. 2. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970.