Venus Theatre Film Collection Kicks Off Expanded Digital Download Packages!

Greetings Alternative Cinema Fans!

Over the decades, Alternative Cinema has acquired, restored and released some of the most unique, outrageous and esoteric examples of soft-erotic and adult cinema of the world, working closely with beloved film brands and noted film historians like Lisa Petrucci of Something Weird Cinema, Toronto film researcher, writer and exhibitor Dimitrios Otis, Joseph Sarno and Doris Wishman historian Michael Bowen and celebrated fringe culture writer Heather Drain.

With that in mind, we are excited to announce that we are rapidly expanding our new digital download library assortment and adding new and exciting features such as PDFs of liner notes booklets, interviews and other ephemera wherever available to ensure the most robust download packages for our customers.

We’re kicking off this new initiative today with three unique and note-worthy films from Vancouver’s Infamous Pink Palace, the Venus Theatre. Read on for more information on the first of these incredible time-capsules of ‘70s adult cinema, exclusively from AlternativeCinema.com (and an essay providing historical context by Dimitrios Otis). 

Sincerely,
The Alternative Cinema Team

THE VENUS THEATRE PRESENT VOL. 1:

THE ABDUCTION OF LORELEI / SOUTH OF THE BORDER / TURN ME ‘ROUND

This amazing collection contains three unique and note-worthy films from the golden age of adult cinema that screened at the infamous “Pink Palace”, Vancouver’s Venus Theatre, featuring a roster of beloved adult actors including adult superstar Serena and Jamie Gillis. Along with the three films you’ll receive a full color liner notes booklet with historically relevant and exciting essays by film historians Dimitrios Otis and Heather Drain, as well as an exclusive 2018 interview with Abduction of Lorelei star Serena.

This stunning package is available in two distinct formats: DVD or Digital. Enjoy!

DVD - Abduction of Lorelei Triple Feature Deluxe Edition DVD 

DIGITAL DOWNLOAD - Abduction of Lorelei Triple Feature Deluxe Edition Digital Package

• Abduction of Lorelei (1977) – Superstar Serena stars as Lorelei, a beautiful American heiress kidnapped and held for a 1-million-dollar ransom in this shocking crime-drama from director Richard Rank.  Although initially motivated by money, her captors refuse to release her once the ransom is paid, forcing Lorelei to submit to a series of degrading acts.  A surprising plot twist and Rank’s gritty, realist approach elevate this late 70s roughie.
• South of the Border (1974) – Sharon Thorpe and Jamie Gillis star in this south-of-the-border revenge flick about a trio of bandits who get more than they bargained for when they kidnap three party girls en route to Mexico. Easy Rider-inspired editing and a thrilling climax make this a must-see for fans of grind house cinema.
• Turn Me ‘Round (1975) – When a serial cheater’s games go a bit too far, a swinging couple and his wife plot revenge! Stars John Seeman, Cazander Zim, Val Anderson. Directed by Bob Kirk.
• Liner Notes Booklet by film historians Dimitrios Otis and Heather Drain. Includes 2018 interview with Abduction of Lorelei star Serena

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The Venus Theatre Presents…
By Dimitrios Otis

While a couple dozen adult film theaters were already operating in San Francisco in 1969, Canada was not going to be left behind. The arcade businesses in Vancouver had already combined peep show movies with pinball—most notably at the Movieland Arcade, still running film projectors inside wooden booths to this day. In 1970 a Chinese businessman named Henry Chow decided to turn an abandoned opera house he’d bought into a venue for these new sex movies they were making down south.

In truth, Chow first renovated the cavernous old Imperial Theatre, which had hosted the Marx Brothers as well as Cantonese Opera in its day, to show Chinese movies. But when that didn’t fly the enterprising businessman, perhaps advised by his son-in-law Barry Godfrey, decided to jump into the skin-flick scene. Thus, the Night & Day Theatre was born.

Intriguingly, the first dedicated adult-movie theatre in Vancouver, if not Canada, alternated the films with exotic dancers, But by 1978, when the overly-protective British Columbia film classification branch finally decided to allow explicit sex acts on film to be shown, the owners ousted the live nude girls and debuted full-time porn, re-naming the cinema “Venus” and creating a suitably seductive logo to go with it. Now in retirement, Barry Godfrey recalls that “Venus was like ’Goddess’, something sexy…”

Henry Chow died in 1983 and Godfrey took over. He installed video equipment in the late 80’s, to keep up with the shot-on-video revolution, but kept the EIKI 16mm projectors on standby. Even when he sold out to Mainland China money in 2000 he was still occasionally running the old prints for loyal customers. This is where sentiment preserves history: Godfrey in his fondness for the old days kept a stockpile of 200-plus film prints from the old days, along with hundreds of posters. By the time I came along in 2004 they were sitting in the garage of new owner Dong (yes, real name) Xu. Fate had decreed that an overly-cautious Fire Marshal ordered the films removed from the theatre—clearly, he was uninformed that film stock hadn’t been made out of nitro-glycerine in over 50 years. Once they were piled in the family garage, Dong’s wife and mother of his 2 children wanted them gone. Thus, they landed in my lap, figuratively-speaking, and a unique strata of one porn theatre’s programming over a 20-year period was salvaged.

Ed Wood aficionados may be aware this is where the long-lost print of The Young Marrieds came from. But the 200-print cache, totaling in excess of 300 reels, including a few obscure Cantonese films leftover from the failed Chinese theatre, contains much more in the obscure sex cinema vein. Many of them would be lost films if not for this trove. Indeed, there isn’t even a record of many of the titles.

Thus, we have some very early SF-shot movies of 20-30 minutes, shot on the streets and in local apartments, with local casts. Muni Love Bus, The Hermit’s Tale and The Act of Love are examples. Then there’s a number of “simulated” films, made during that early phase when oral sex was still taboo. The producers were afraid to show any mouth-genital contact but wanted to suggest that transgressive act, so they’d get the typical hippie chick to flop her long hair over the man’s mid-section, covering everything, then swing her head around in exaggerated fake fellatio.

There’s reels exploiting the sex-movie craze but with more sex in the title than onscreen, such as Dirt Bike Bangers. There’s soft versions of films—kind of safety cuts of hardcore movies for questionable jurisdictions—and cable-TV cuts using optical zoom to avoid showing insertions. And there’s plenty of full-on XXX, of course. Barry Godfrey let me in on one trick he used to get questionable scenes such as Vanessa Del Rio’s treatment in Rape Victims past the censor; “You did your own cuts before you took the film in [to the Classification Board], then you just put them back in after.”

So, the Golden Age of Adult Film came and went. Predictably, in the bad days of non-stop video porn, the Venus Theatre slid downhill. It’s “Downtown Eastside” neighborhood had become a notorious zone of open drug use, akin to Baltimore's danger-filled "The Block". Low-rent “Single Room Occupancy” hotels, along with sketchy crack whores and a street market for stolen goods scared away legit business. In the midst of this the Venus and its antiquated corridors and side-rooms became a beacon for cheaply-bought blowjobs and crack-smoking. The Management offered “Couples” rooms by the hour and stopped cleaning up. In 2006, a straight-to-video sex-gore movie was shot in the confines. They really didn’t have to dress the set to convey the horror. Then, finally—mercifully—in 2007 it all got torn down, the seats, projectors, and film screen summarily dumped in a pile before they bulldozed the empty hulk.

But now, the Venus lives again! From the time-capsule of 200 films, Alternative Cinema brings you the best of the Venus Theatre archives, all 16-mm prints lovingly run through those EIKI projectors from as early as 1970 into the millennium. As the logo still says, the Venus Theatre Presents…

Dimitrios Otis is a film researcher, writer and exhibitor of vintage adult cinema across three common formats (8,16 and 35mm) and their respective viewing venues of home, peepshow arcade, “storefront” and regular theatre. Otis is currently compiling a book on the history of adult cinemas in British Columbia.