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{{Short description|Former San Francisco strip club (1969–2000)}}
{{TotallyDisputed|Prostitution_at_the_Mitchell_Brothers_O.27Farrell_Theatre}}
{{Essay-like|date=January 2023}}
{{Infobox venue
| name = Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre
| image = Mitchell-brothers-ofarrell-theater.jpg
| image_size =
| image_alt =
| caption = O'Farrell Theatre in 2006
| address = 895 O'Farrell Street
| city = [[San Francisco]], California
| country =
| designation =
| coordinates = {{coord|37.784877|-122.419295|region:US-CA_type:landmark|display=it}}
| architect =
| owner =
| tenant =
| operator =
| capacity =
| type =
| opened = {{Start date|1969|07|04}}
| reopened =
| yearsactive =
| rebuilt =
| website = {{URL|ofarrell.com}}
}}


The '''Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre''' was a [[strip club]] at 895 O'Farrell Street near [[San Francisco]]'s [[Tenderloin, San Francisco, California|Tenderloin]] neighborhood. Having opened as an [[X-rated]] movie theater by [[Mitchell brothers|Jim and Artie Mitchell]] on July 4, 1969, the O'Farrell was one of America's most notorious adult-entertainment establishments. By 1980, the nightspot had popularized close-contact [[lap dancing]], which would become the norm in strip clubs nationwide.<ref name="sfweekly">{{cite news |url=https://archives.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/lap-victory/Content?oid=2153185 |title=Lap Victory |first=David |last=Steinberg |newspaper=[[SF Weekly]] |date=September 8, 2004}}</ref> Journalist [[Hunter S. Thompson]], a longtime friend of the Mitchells and frequent visitor at the club, went there frequently during the summer of 1985<ref name=history>{{cite web |url=http://ofarrell.com/history/ |title=Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre History |access-date=December 23, 2017}}</ref> as part of his research for a possible book on pornography. Thompson called the O'Farrell "the [[Carnegie Hall]] of public sex in America" and ''[[Playboy]]'' magazine praised it as "the place to go in San Francisco!"
[[Image:Mitchell-brothers-ofarrell-theater.jpg|thumb|280px|right|Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre]]


The club closed permanently in 2020 due to the [[COVID-19 pandemic]],<ref name="sfist.com">{{cite web |date=4 November 2020 |title=RIP O'Farrell Theatre, the Mitchell Brothers' Infamous Tenderloin Strip Club |url=https://sfist.com/2020/11/04/rip-ofarrell-theatre-the-mitchell-brothers-infamous-tenderloin-strip-club/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210817151144/https://sfist.com/2020/11/04/rip-ofarrell-theatre-the-mitchell-brothers-infamous-tenderloin-strip-club/ |archive-date=17 August 2021 |access-date=24 July 2022 |website=SFist}}</ref> after a few years of struggling financially.<ref name="SFChronicle">{{cite news |date=29 October 2020 |title='Where all the lost souls came together': SF's O'Farrell Theatre strip club closes after 50 years |work=SFGate |url=https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/sf-strip-club-closing-o-farrell-theatre-15686757.php}}</ref>
'''Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre''' is a [[striptease club]] at 895 O'Farrell Street in [[San Francisco]], near that city's skid-row district. Opened as an adult movie theater by Jim and Artie, the [[Mitchell brothers]], on July 4, 1969, the O'Farrell is one of America's oldest and most notorious adult-entertainment establishments; by 1980, the nightspot had become a major force in popularizing close-contact (i.e. the dancer sitting on the customer) [[lap dancing]] that would become the norm in strip clubs nationwide.<ref name="sfweekly">[http://www.sfweekly.com/Issues/2004-09-08/news/feature.html Lap Victory. How a DA's decision to drop prostitution charges against lap dancers will change the sexual culture of S.F. -- and, perhaps, the country.] ''[[SF Weekly]],'' 8 September 2004</ref> The late journalist [[Hunter S. Thompson]], a longtime friend of the Mitchells (who was falsely reported to be working as the club's night manager in 1985), once called the O'Farrell "the [[Carnegie Hall]] of public sex in America" and Playboy magazine praised it as "the place to go in S.F.!"


==Operation==
==History==
The O'Farrell is open six days a week and every evening of the year. Customers are charged a comparatively steep admission price ($15 and up, depending on the time of day) and no alcoholic beverages are served. The O'Farrell's main showroom is New York Live, a continuous striptease show where one girl dances on stage while the others offer lap dances by asking each customer, "Want some company?", meaning "Want me to sit on your lap for a few minutes?" Strippers offer these lap dances for a substantial tip ($20 is common) and there are several themed rooms, such as the Ultra Room, a [[peep show]]-type room where patrons stand in private booths watching women perform with various props or [[dildo]]s; the Green Door Room (named for the Mitchells' two films and the principal set of the latter), with semiprivate showers with a selected model, [[heavy petting]] in the “Kissing Room” (although not all dancers make themselves available for private sessions with customers) and live onstage lesbian simulated-sex performances.


The O'Farrell Theatre went through two major phases which reflected a major transition in the Mitchell brothers' business model: first as a movie house to feature their adult films, and later as a cutting-edge strip club which offered customer-contact shows with strippers.<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 41, 79.</ref><ref name=Dougan >{{cite web |url=http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/The-return-of-Marilyn-Chambers-3074822.php |title=The return of Marilyn Chambers |first=Michael |last=Dougan |date=July 25, 1999 |accessdate=28 February 2018 |newspaper=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]}}</ref> Over decades, the events at the O'Farrell Theatre have been as much about the brothers' stubborn persistence in applying legal resources to avoid prosecution by San Francisco's vice squad and district attorney, as they were about their unique innovations for the erotic entertainment industry.<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 53, 78-79.</ref>
==Prostitution==
myRedbook is a web site that helps male customers to hook up with prostitutes working in and around San Francisco.<ref name="sfchronicle">[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/06/MNGR1LGUQ41.DTL SEX TRAFFICKING. San Francisco Is A Major Center For International Crime Networks That Smuggle And Enslave (part 1 of 4)] ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]],'' October 6, 2006</ref> myRedbook specifically facilitates the sale of prostitution services at the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre.<ref name="myredbook">[http://forum.myredbook.com/cgi-bin/dcforum2/dcboard.pl?az=list&forum=DCForumID11&conf=rb myRedbook: San Francisco Bay Area Adult Entertainment Guide] ''[[myRedbook]],'' 2001 - 2007</ref> myRedbook provides a forum where customers talk about the quality of the prostitution services at the O'Farrell Theatre.<ref name=myredbook/> In addition, myRedbook maintains reviews (by the customers) of the sex services (i.e., hand job, blow job, and full-sexual intercourse) provided by the prostitutes who work at the O'Farrell Theatre.<ref name=myredbook/>


===Adult movie theater===
In 2004, the police in San Francisco raided both the New Century Theater and the Market Street Cinema and cited their employees for running a brothel.<ref name="sfexaminer">[http://ainews.com/Archives/Story6811.phtml Market Street Cinema Busted] ''[[San Francisco Examiner]],'' May 20, 2004</ref> The assistant manager at the Market Street Cinema told the police to examine the prostitution business at the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre.<ref name=sfexaminer/>
Brothers Jim and Artie Mitchell began showing [[Hardcore pornography|hardcore]] pornographic films at the O'Farrell Theater in July 1969.<ref name="Allyn 2001">{{cite book |last1=Allyn |first1=David Smith |title=Make Love, Not War: The Sexual Revolution, an Unfettered History |date=2001 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-0-415-92942-4 |page=233 |url=https://archive.org/details/makelovenotwarse0000ally_g9e5/page/233/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration}}</ref>
Before they decided to open for business, the brothers had been making and selling short 15 minute pornographic films called ''loops'', which patrons could watch for 25 cents a minute in small arcades.<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 38.</ref><ref>Ford (1999), p. 39.</ref> But the brothers wanted to go beyond the production of short loops, and move on to making longer features whose distribution and presentation they could also control.<ref name="McCumber 1992, p. 41">McCumber (1992), p. 41.</ref> With the conversion of an old Pontiac automobile dealership on O'Farrell and Polk streets, they built a makeshift soundstage for filming and seating for a movie theater to provide them with that opportunity.<ref name="McCumber 1992, p. 41"/><ref>Ford (1999), p. 40.</ref> At a rate of one per month they churned out ''featurettes'', which were 30 to 60 minute films that could be advertised and then shown at the O'Farrell.<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 41-41.</ref>


But just three weeks after the theater opened, plain-clothed police officers walked in and arrested 25 year-old James Mitchell – still a film student at [[San Francisco State University]] – for production and exhibition of obscene material.<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 45-46.</ref> Not easily deterred, the brothers vowed during a press conference to fight back, and hired a young but fierce lawyer named Michael John Kennedy to defend them against the obscenity charges.<ref name="McCumber 1992, p. 47">McCumber (1992), p. 47.</ref> Kennedy had already started to build a national reputation as a resourceful political activist, and would later represent [[Timothy Leary]], [[Bernardine Dohrn]], [[Cesar Chavez]], and [[Huey P. Newton|Huey Newton]].<ref name=Roberts>{{cite news |last1=Roberts |first1=Sam |title=Michael J. Kennedy, Lawyer for Underdogs and Pariahs, Dies at 78 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/27/us/michael-j-kennedy-lawyer-for-underdogs-and-pariahs-dies-at-78.html |accessdate=20 February 2018 |work=New York Times |date=28 January 2016}}</ref><ref name="McCumber 1992, p. 47"/> With Kennedy and the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]] behind them, the Mitchells tenaciously defied authorities by continuing to show their films while being arrested dozens of times over the coming year.<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 48.</ref>
The city government of San Francisco now tacitly supports the prostitution that occurs at strip clubs like the O'Farrell Theatre. <ref name=sfweekly/> Customers are welcome to buy prostitution services within the strip clubs.


A little more than a year later when the first case made its way to court, the trial became a local media circus as a flamboyant and wisecracking Kennedy irritated the district attorney while he challenged the legal definition of [[obscenity]].<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 50.</ref><ref>Hubner (1994), p. 134-142.</ref> After a long trial, the jury became hopelessly deadlocked and the brothers escaped without conviction.<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 51.</ref> Kennedy believed that the social value of pornography was that it served as a ''shield'' for the rest of art and literature – meaning that if pornography could not be censored, then other forms of art would be protected as well.<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 54.</ref>
==History==
The theater was opened by the [[Mitchell brothers]] on the site of a former two-storey [[Pontiac]] car dealership. Upstairs, they produced and directed the [[pornographic film]]s they showed downstairs. Later, seeing that the Condor Club in North Beach had been a topless bar since 1964 with legal impunity, the Mitchells refocused their business primarily as a strip club by having their resident carpenter build live showrooms, tear them down a couple and replace them with others, but sex movies continue to run at the O'Farrell.


With the adult film ''[[Behind the Green Door]]'' and its premier at the O'Farrell in 1972, the Mitchell brothers made their first attempt at creating a feature-length adult film for mainstream audiences.<ref>Hubner (1994), p. 209.</ref> The stigma of sex in mainstream movies had been breaking down with films like [[Last Tango in Paris]], and the Mitchells decided to invest extra time and expense into the film's making.<ref>Hubner (1994), p. 202.</ref> ''Behind the Green Door'' enjoyed a national marketing coup when it was revealed that its wholesome-looking 19 year-old star, [[Marilyn Chambers]], was the same model who appeared holding a baby on [[Ivory (soap)|Ivory Snow]] detergent boxes.<ref>Hubner (1994), p. 57, 60.</ref><ref>Corday (2007), p. 91.</ref> The film was made for $60,000, grossed $2 million in its first year,<ref>Hubner (1994), p. 237.</ref> and later became the second highest grossing adult film of all time when it made more than $50 million.<ref>Ford (1999), p. 74.</ref> With it the Mitchells became millionaires, opened another ten adult theaters, and had plenty of funds for later experiments at the O'Farrell when it transitioned into a cutting-edge strip club.<ref>Hubner (1994), p. 64-66, 78.</ref>
The hit porn film ''[[Behind the Green Door]]'' premiered at the O'Farrell in 1972, with the Mitchell brothers' parents in the audience.<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0593140/bio Artie Mitchell biography], the Internet Movie Database.</ref> Since 1986 the theatre has a "Green Door Room" (which was where much of the Green Door sequel was filmed); it used to feature lesbian shower shows but the shower has since been removed.


In the early 1970s, the theater would stop its adult features at midnight on a couple nights a week, and then re-open as ''The People's Nickelodeon'', along with a five-cent admission charge and free popcorn.<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 55.</ref><ref>Hubner (1994), p. 271-272.</ref> The midnight shows were a montage of old films, and live [[vaudeville]]-style entertainment provided by the [[Les Nickelettes|Nickelettes]], a chorus line of counter-culture women who would do spunky [[Song and Dance|song-and-dance]] routines.<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 56.</ref><ref>Hubner (1994), p. 268-276.</ref> The audience of young hippies and a few oldsters would see movies such as Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello, Yellow Submarine or other counter-culture favorites, while occasionally engaging in drinking, marijuana, and general carousing. Inspections and disruptions by the fire department and police were common, but the shows usually continued until three in the morning or later.
In the 1980s, newly elected Mayor [[Dianne Feinstein]] walked into the O'Farrell and said, "I want to check this place out." Jim Mitchell, who happened to be in the lobby at that moment, reportedly said, "Sure, if you buy a ticket." Feinstein walked out. Soon after, raids occurred, ostensibly to restore safety and health of exotic dancers and resulted in obscenity charges being filed against the Mitchell brothers. The Mitchells, apparently not lacking a sense of humor, changed their marquee to read, "For showtimes, call..." and put up Feinstein's office phone number. <ref name="sexworkers">[http://www.swop-usa.org/news/WeighingStrippersRights.php In S.F., Weighing Strippers' Rights], ''Los Angeles Times,'' December 19, 2004</ref>


===Strip club===
The theater featured live sex shows until the courts ordered them to discontinue doing so. As well, the dancers in New York Live originally were nude as they sat on men's laps, but a judge instructed the O'Farrell's management to make sure the girls at least wore brassieres and underpants. Lesbian sex acts are still common (many of the dancers are gay or bisexual).


Everything changed for the Mitchell brothers during the second half of the 1970s, when the invention of the [[videocassette recorder]] brought about a proliferation of [[video rental shop]]s.<ref name="McCumber 1992, p. 78">McCumber (1992), p. 78.</ref> First videocassette profits of the brothers' movies began to drop, and then demand for public adult movie screenings began to plummet because customers could now rent movies for one dollar a night.<ref name="McCumber 1992, p. 78"/><ref>Corday (2007), p. 147.</ref> Realizing that they needed a new business model for the O'Farrell Theatre, the Mitchell brothers sent manager Vincent Stanich around the country to explore "customer-contact" shows in bars and strip clubs.<ref name="McCumber 1992, p. 78"/>
On February 1, 1985, the theatre was raided by a dozen police officers during a performance by [[Marilyn Chambers]] (the star of ''Behind the Green Door''); the District Attorney declined to press charges. Police later retaliated against a journalist who had suggested that the raid was carried out to derail an ordinance that would have stripped police from rights to license adult theaters.<ref>Police Motives Questioned in Coast Vice Raid. ''The New York Times,'' Mar 4, 1985</ref>
After Stanich reported back, the Mitchell brothers responded by opening three new rooms in quick succession which featured live shows by strippers: The Ultra Room, The Kopenhagen, and New York Live.<ref>Hubner (1994), p. 306, 311, 314.</ref> In 1977 they opened the Ultra Room which featured live shows of lesbian bondage. It had a floor-level stage which was surrounded by thirty narrow booths that had glass to separate performers from patrons.<ref name="McCumber 1992, p. 78"/> Some months later the booths' glass was taken down and enabled customer-contact shows.<ref>Hubner (1994), p. 309.</ref><ref>Corday (2007), p. 30.</ref> The Ultra Room's shows were very popular, cost $10, lasted for a half-hour, and were sold out on the very first day.<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 79.</ref> Next to open was The Kopenhagen which was a small room with perimeter seating that had live shows in front of, and sometimes upon, a small audience by a pair of naked women.<ref>Corday (2007), p. 46.</ref><ref>Hubner (1994), p. 318-319.</ref>


However the club's most profitable new venue was New York Live! which was a strip club act that had a square stage and theater seating on three sides. Strippers performed three song sets while usually being totally nude for the final song.<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 80.</ref><ref name="sfweekly"/> Most of the other strippers who were not performing on stage were sitting naked on customers' laps for tips.<ref>Corday (2007), p. 22-23, 35.</ref> As the amount of tipping rapidly increased, employees coined the term 'lap dancing',<ref>Hubner (1994), p. 323.</ref> and the lap dance's popularity caused lines of men to regularly appear outside the theater's doors.<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 81, 155.</ref> The Mitchells hired new dancers as fast as they could to keep up with demand, and with the lap dance they pioneered a strip club innovation which gained them international notoriety and generated more money than their current film business.<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 78, 81.</ref>
Over the years, the Mitchells had to defend themselves in some 200 court cases involving obscenity or related charges. They were always victorious, represented by aggressive counsel<ref>[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/e/a/1999/07/25/NEWS12352.dtl The return of Marilyn Chambers]. ''San Francisco Chronicle,'' 25 July 1999.</ref> (Michael Kennedy, then Artie Mitchell's wife Meredith and, following her dismissal, the late Tom Steel and his law partner Nanci Clarence).


Though the O'Farrell Theatre had successfully fought prosecution in the 1970s concerning obscenity in its films, during the 1980s it would face a new kind of threat from the courts about whether customer-contact could be legal during live shows, and if strippers had the right to give lap dances.<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 51, 87-90.</ref> A new mood came to city hall when [[Dianne Feinstein]] became mayor toward the end of 1978 following the assassination of [[George Moscone]]. As a city supervisor Feinstein had been a strident anti-porn voice, and then as mayor she made it clear to her district attorney that he should be aggressive on obscenity and porn cases.<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 88.</ref> In July 1980, less than a year after Feinstein had been elected mayor, fifteen police officers raided the O'Farrell Theatre and arrested fourteen patrons, six performers, and seven employees for charges related to prostitution.<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 90.</ref><ref>Hubner (1994), p. 324-327.</ref> During a press conference Jim Mitchell vowed to fight the charges and stated, "We believe we have a legally protected show under California laws. Fondling a girl's breast is not prostitution."<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 91.</ref> In the first trial originating from that bust, three strippers faced charges of committing lewd acts in public. The trial resulted in mistrial decisions for two dancers and a single conviction for one dancer. This last was to become the only dancer in O'Farrell history who would ever get a rap sheet for simply performing her duties at the O'Farrell{{px2}}{{mdash}}{{spaces|2|hair}}but she would be sentenced to no jail time, and would be burdened with no fine.<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 92.</ref>
In February 1991, the theater's owners were again in the news after the killing of Artie Mitchell by Jim. Michael Kennedy defended Mitchell and convinced the jury that Jim killed Artie because the younger man was psychotic from drugs and had become dangerous (Artie had recently threatened to throw a Molotov cocktail into the O'Farrell; his brother/murderer, in 1996, established the "Artie Fund" to raise money for drug-abuse prevention). Jim Mitchell was sentenced to six years in prison for [[voluntary manslaughter]] and released from [[San Quentin]] after having served half his sentence, in 1997. Today, his daughter Meta, 28, is the O'Farrell's general manager. (See the article on the [[Mitchell brothers]] for details.)


For the next trial of the 1980 bust, the Mitchells went back to the law office of Michael Kennedy and secured his former partner, Dennis Roberts, to represent them. Roberts cleverly found a solution which would derail all the other cases against dancers, by using a little-known statute called the First Offender Diversion Program.<ref name="McCumber 1992, p. 93">McCumber (1992), p. 93.</ref> Under that diversion program, first time offenders could at any time before conviction plead guilty, go into the program, and emerge without a criminal record. When Roberts first mentioned the diversion program in court, a frustrated prosecutor exclaimed: "You can't do that!" However the judge corrected the prosecutor in stating: "Not only can he do that, but it seems to me that what you're going to have if you keep prosecuting these women is a series of cases that are going to drag on for years toward trial, and as soon as you get into trial Mr. Roberts is going to divert these people."<ref name="McCumber 1992, p. 93"/> That trial was the last time any performers from the 1980 bust would face prosecution.
Following the fratricide and its legal aftermath, two Bay Area reporters, David McCumber and John Hubner, wrote books about the Mitchell brothers: ''X-Rated'' (McCumber) and ''Bottom Feeders'' (Hubner). In each book the author portrays the O'Farrell Theatre (up until the early 1990s) as a mirrored, velvet-lined house of sleaze where perfumed, bikini-clad women prowl the aisles, hustling greenbacks from shy, ugly customers who cannot get girls any other way. Upstairs, the offices are a model of inefficiency, staffed by the brothers' childhood friends who play pool and smoke marijuana all day. At one point, the Mitchells' Berkeley-educated business manager (in charge of selling the brothers' videos to rental outlets nationwide) is said to be, out of sheer laziness, two months late in processing orders as his frustrated customers leave phone messages by the dozen.


In the beginning the dancers of New York Live were nude when they sat on customers' laps, but later in the mid-1980s an agreement was reached between the Mitchell brothers' attorneys and the district attorney which instructed the O'Farrell to ensure that the girls wear some minimal amount of clothing while in the New York Live audience.<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 97.</ref>
Originally, the Mitchell brothers paid their dancers a flat fee per shift; in the 1980s, they replaced that fee with an hourly wage (the federal minimum) but allowed the women to accept tips.{{fact}} That practice was discontinued when the O'Farrell's manager, Vince Stanich, changed the dancers' status from paid employees to unpaid "independent contractors" who were required to pay the O'Farrell a "stage fee." Many O'Farrell strippers considered this unfair and perhaps illegal; in 1994, two of them, Ellen Vickery and Jennifer Bryce, filed a class-action lawsuit against the theater (the plaintiffs would ultimately number more than 500), arguing that the theater's classification of dancers as [[independent contractor]]s was incorrect, and that they were owed back wages as well as a refund of the stage fees of $200 per shift. The case was settled in 1998 with the dancers' receiving $2.85 million.<ref>[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1998/07/10/MN11904.DTL O'Farrell Settles With 500 Dancers; $2.85 million includes restitution, legal fees]. ''The San Francisco Chronicle,'' 10 July 1998</ref><ref name="sexworkers" /><ref>Jennifer Reiman: [http://www.journalism.sfsu.edu/www/pubs/prism/jun96/19.html The Naked Truth], Prims Online, June 1996</ref> Similar suits have since been filed against numerous other strip clubs, and both labor commissions and the courts have consistently ruled in favor of dancers and awarded past wages and stage fee reimbursements.<ref name=sfweekly/> To this day, the theater management aggressively opposes all attempts of the dancers to unionize.


The Mitchell brothers supported various cartoon artists, and when the [[1984 Democratic National Convention]] was held in San Francisco, they opened the second floor of the O'Farrell to a group of underground cartoonists covering the convention for the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]].''<ref name=sfc20070721>{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/PORN-KINGS-AND-A-LOT-MORE-For-the-Mitchell-2551692.php |title=Porn Kings, and a Lot More |first=Warren |last=Hinckle |author-link=Warren Hinckle |date=July 21, 2007 |newspaper=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]}}</ref>
During the celebrations for the O'Farrell's 30-year anniversary in 1999, [[burlesque]] star [[Tempest Storm]], by then already in her 70s, stripped on stage. Mayor [[Willie Brown (politician)|Willie Brown]] declared a "Tempest Storm Day" in her honor.<ref>[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1999/07/15/DD78079.DTL Storm Still Packs a Wallop 1950s burlesque icon takes it off again for O'Farrell Theatre anniversary]. ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]],'' 15 July 1999</ref> Marilyn Chambers returned to performed in the theatre on [[July 28]] [[1999]] in what Willie Brown dubbed "Marilyn Chambers Day."<ref name="sexworkers"/>


A final attempt was made to prosecute the O'Farrell under the Feinstein administration in February 1985, when the Cine-Stage was raided by a dozen police officers during a headlining appearance by adult film star [[Marilyn Chambers]]. However the district attorney declined to press charges against Chambers, and a judge refused to issue a critical injunction against the brothers themselves.<ref>Hubner (1994), p. 101.</ref> Also at that time the police department had been receiving protests by media, public, and politicians concerning multiple scandals, like when a police academy graduate received fellatio from a prostitute at a police academy graduation party.<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 101.</ref> Furthering their problems, police officers arrested a local journalist for walking his dog without a leash after the journalist wrote critically of the police department following the Chambers raid.<ref>Hubner (1994), p. 373.</ref><ref name=Turner>{{cite news |title=Police Motives Questioned in Coast Vice Raid |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/04/us/police-motives-questioned-in-coast-vice-raid.html |first=Wallace |last=Turner |author-link=Wallace Turner |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 4, 1985 |accessdate=28 February 2018}}</ref> In the wake of the Chambers raid and scandals by the police, the Board of Supervisors voted to strip the police department of their power to license strip clubs, and that the Mitchell Brothers should be paid $14,000 for damages resulting from the Chambers raid.<ref>Hubner (1994), p. 374.</ref>
In 2004, two similar San Francisco clubs (the New Century Theater and the Market Street Cinema) were visited by undercover policemen and some dancers allegedly propositioned them for prostitution. The dancers were cited for prostitution and the managers for running a brothel. The assistant manager at the Market Street Cinema told the police to examine the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre.<ref name="sfexaminer">[http://ainews.com/Archives/Story6811.phtml Market Street Cinema Busted] ''[[San Francisco Examiner]],'' May 20, 2004</ref> All charges were later dropped, leading to public assumptions that the city government of San Francisco tolerates the activities at these clubs as long as they remain discreet.<ref name=sfweekly/>


Over the years, the Mitchells were the defendants in over 200 court cases involving obscenity or related charges. Mostly victorious, they were represented by aggressive counsel.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/The-return-of-Marilyn-Chambers-3074822.php |title=The return of Marilyn Chambers |first=Michael |last=Dougan |date=July 25, 1999 |newspaper=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]}}</ref>
When San Francisco's Commission on the Status of Women proposed in 2006 to ban private booths and rooms at adult clubs because of concerns about sexual assaults taking place there, several O'Farrell dancers spoke out against the ban.<ref name="ban">[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/05/BAGQEKBSMH1.DTL Adult club private rooms debated]. ''San Francisco Chronicle,'' 5 August 2006. [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/19/BAG2DKLOQ61.DTL Exotic dancers rally at City Hall to halt private-room ban in clubs]. ''San Francisco Chronicle,'' 19 August 2006.</ref>


In February 1991 the theater entered the news after Jim Mitchell fatally shot Artie. Michael Kennedy defended Jim Mitchell, and convinced the jury that Jim killed Artie because the latter was psychotic from drugs and had become dangerous. Later in 1996, Jim established the "Artie Fund" to raise money for drug-abuse prevention. Jim Mitchell was sentenced to six years in prison for [[voluntary manslaughter]] and released from [[San Quentin]] in 1997, after having served half his sentence.
As of 2006, Meta Mitchell continues running the O'Farrell; legal representation is provided by former San Francisco Supervisor and two-term District Attorney [[Terence Hallinan]].<ref name=ban/>

During the celebrations for the O'Farrell's 30th anniversary in 1999, [[burlesque]] star [[Tempest Storm]], by then in her very early 70s, danced on stage. Mayor [[Willie Lewis Brown, Jr.|Willie Brown]] declared a "Tempest Storm Day" in her honor.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/performance/article/Storm-Still-Packs-a-Wallop-1950s-burlesque-icon-2919898.php |title=Storm Still Packs a Wallop 1950s burlesque icon takes it off again for O'Farrell Theatre anniversary |first=Steven |last=Winn |date=July 15, 1999 |newspaper=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]}}</ref> Marilyn Chambers returned to perform in the theater on July 28, 1999, in what Willie Brown dubbed "Marilyn Chambers Day."

When San Francisco's Commission on the Status of Women proposed in 2006 to ban private booths and rooms at adult clubs because of concerns about sexual assaults taking place there, several O'Farrell dancers spoke out against the ban.<ref name="ban">{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/SAN-FRANCISCO-Adult-club-private-rooms-debated-2514654.php |title=Adult Club Private Rooms Debated |first=Charlie |last=Goodyear |date=August 5, 2006 |newspaper=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]}}</ref>

As of 2006, Jeff Armstrong, its longtime business manager, continued running the O'Farrell; legal representation is provided by former San Francisco Supervisor and two-term District Attorney [[Terence Hallinan]].<ref name=ban/>

In June 2010, Jim's daughter Meta Mitchell Johnson took control of the O'Farrell as manager.<ref name=Phelan>{{cite news |last1=Phelan |first1=Sarah |title=The Mitchell Sister |url=http://sfbgarchive.48hills.org/sfbgarchive/2010/05/18/mitchell-sister/ |accessdate=27 February 2018 |work=Bay Area Guardian |date=18 May 2010}}</ref> The club closed permanently in 2020 due to the [[COVID-19 pandemic]],<ref name="sfist.com"/> after a few years of struggling financially.<ref name="SFChronicle"/>

==Operation==

The O'Farrell Theatre was open seven days a week, and nearly every evening of the year. A general admission fee gave access to various themed rooms' live shows within the building, and no alcoholic beverages were served. The O'Farrell's main showroom was New York Live, a continuous striptease show with two song sets on a stage having theater seating on three sides. The Cine-Stage was a 200-seat movie theater with a large raised stage which also presented live shows, comedy skits, and musical performances. There were several themed rooms, such as the Ultra Room, a [[peep show]]-type room where patrons would stand in private booths while watching women perform with various props, such as [[dildo]]s. The Green Door Room was named for the Mitchells' classic film ''[[Behind the Green Door]]'', and served as the principal set for some movies. In the darkened Kopenhagen Lounge, customers used flashlights to watch performances by two nude dancers. All the O'Farrell's male employees, including managers, adhered to a strict dress code of black bow-tie, white shirt, black slacks, and black shoes.

==Labor disputes==
Originally, the O'Farrell Theatre's management company, ''Cinema 7'', paid their dancers a flat rate per shift and allowed them to accept tips, but in the 1980s they replaced that payment with the federal [[minimum wage]] while still allowing the dancers to accept tips.<ref>Hubner (1994), p. 180, 320.</ref><ref>Corday (2007), p. 23, 342.</ref>

In 1988, the O'Farrell's management (Cinema 7) created a separate company, Dancers Guild International (DGI), that would be run by Vince Stanich, and changed the dancers' status from ''paid employees'' to unpaid ''[[independent contractors]]'' who had to pay DGI "stage fees" of up to $300 per eight-hour shift.<ref>McCumber (1992), p. 157-158.</ref><ref>Corday (2007), p. 218, 308.</ref>

Many of the O'Farrell's dancers considered the O'Farrell's new policy unfair and possibly illegal. Two of them, Ellen Vickery and Jennifer Bryce, filed a [[class action|class-action lawsuit]] against DGI (the plaintiffs would ultimately number more than 500), arguing that the O'Farrell's reclassification of the dancers as independent contractors was unlawful, and that they were owed back wages as well as a refund of the stage fees.<ref>Corday (2007), p. 316.</ref> The case was settled in 1998, and the dancers were awarded $2.85 million.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/performance/article/O-Farrell-Settles-With-500-Dancers-2-85-3001787.php |title=O'Farrell Settles With 500 Dancers; $2.85 million includes restitution, legal fees |first=Julie N. |last=Lynem |date=July 10, 1998 |newspaper=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]}}</ref><ref name="sexworkers">{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-dec-19-me-stripper19-story.html |title=In S.F., Weighing Strippers' Rights |first=Lee |last=Romney |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=December 19, 2004}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Jennifer |last=Reiman |url=http://www.journalism.sfsu.edu/www/pubs/prism/jun96/19.html |title=The Naked Truth |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060621225212/http://www.journalism.sfsu.edu/www/pubs/prism/jun96/19.html |archive-date=June 21, 2006 |url-status=dead |website=Prism Online |date=June 1996}}</ref> Similar suits challenging independent contractor status have since been filed against numerous other strip clubs, and labor commissions as well as courts have mostly ruled in favor of dancers and awarded past wages and stage fee reimbursements.<ref name=sfweekly/> O'Farrell's management remained opposed to all attempts of their dancers to unionize.

After the 1998 settlement, the O'Farrell changed the performers' payment structure again: they posted a "suggested" fee of $20 per lap dance and $40 per private performance and set a ''quota'' of $360 per woman per night; the women were allowed to keep half the quota plus all tips.{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}} However, it was recorded that lap dances cost as much as $240 on some occasions. Dancers claimed feeling pressured into paying $180 per night even if they had earned less than that amount, and another 370-plaintiff class-action suit began in 2002. In 2007, a judge ruled in favor of the dancers, declaring the quota system illegal and requiring the O'Farrell to pay any amounts employees could show they paid to fill their quotas, minus any amounts the employer could show the dancers had collected but failed to report. The O'Farrell was also ordered to reimburse dancers for required theme-oriented costumes.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/O-Farrell-Theatre-dancers-win-fight-against-2511780.php |title=O'Farrell Theatre dancers win fight against nightly cash quotas |first=Bob |last=Egelko |date=August 9, 2007 |newspaper=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]}}</ref>

Sometime after the settlement of 2008, the club changed its workers' status from ''independent contractors'' back to being ''paid employees'' who receive a minimum wage, [[workers comp]], and some healthcare coverage.<ref name=Phelan/>


==Location and murals==
==Location and murals==
[[File:Mitchell Brothers OFarrell Theater.jpg|thumb|Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre as seen from Polk Street]]
The theatre is located in the North-West part of the [[Tenderloin, San Francisco, California|Tenderloin District]], at the corner of Polk and O'Farrell street at {{coor dms|37|47|5.8|N|122|25|9.5|W|type:landmark}}, on the same block as the [[Great American Music Hall]].
The theatre is located in the northwest part of the [[Tenderloin, San Francisco, California|Tenderloin District]], at the corner of Polk and O'Farrell street, a few doors down from the [[Great American Music Hall]].
The entire exterior west and south faces of the theater are covered with two large murals. The west wall depicts a rainforest scene, and on the south wall is an underwater scene featuring a pod of whales. These murals were painted in 1976 and 1985 by [[Lou Silva]]<ref>[http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/article.cfm?archiveDate=04-23-04&storyID=18726 Muralist Marks a Vivid Life On Local Walls], Berkeley Daily Planet, 23 April 2004</ref>.
The entire exterior west and south faces of the theater are covered with two large murals. The west wall depicts a fantasy aquatic scene with flying fish, turtles and whales with a silhouette of the San Francisco Bay in the background, and on the south wall is an underwater scene featuring a life-sized pod of whales and dolphins. These murals were painted in 1977 (Lou Silva with Ed Monroe, Daniel Burgevin, Todd Stanton, and Gary William Graham), 1983 (Lou Silva-solo), 1990 by [[Lou Silva]]<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2004-04-23/article/18726?headline=Muralist-Marks-a-Vivid-Life-On-Local-Walls&status=301 |title=Muralist Marks a Vivid Life On Local Walls |first=Richard |last=Brenneman |newspaper=[[Berkeley Daily Planet]] |date=April 23, 2004}}</ref> with the assistance of Joanne Maxwell Wittenbrook, Ed Monroe, Mark Nathan Clark, and Juan "Blackwolf" Karlos, and 2011 by the [[Academy of Art University]]. Notable visitors, while the murals were in progress, included: [[Melvin Belli]], [[Marilyn Chambers]], [[Paul Kantner]], [[Toshiro Mifune]], [[Huey P. Newton]], Hunter S. Thompson, and [[Edy Williams]]. The murals were sponsored in their entirety by Jim and Artie Mitchell.


==Noted performers==
== Notable Dancers ==
* [[Lily Burana]] was involved in the class action suit and wrote about her experiences as dancer at the O'Farrell in her 2001 book ''Strip City: A Stripper's Farewell Journey Across America'' ({{ISBN|0-7868-6790-6}}).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://archive.salon.com/sex/feature/2001/10/09/burana/index.html |title=Strip City |first=Charles |last=Taylor |website=[[Salon (website)|Salon]] |date=October 9, 2001 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090507212924/http://archive.salon.com/sex/feature/2001/10/09/burana/index.html |archive-date=May 7, 2009}}</ref>
* [[John Holmes (actor)|John C. Holmes]], porn star, performed sex shows in the Ultra Room
* [[Nina Hartley]], pornographic film actress and sex educator{{sfnp|McCumber|1992|p=263}}
* [[Marilyn Chambers]], porn star, danced in early-[[1980]]s and returned in [[1999]]
* [[Dana Vespoli]], pornographic performer and adult-video director<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.cltampa.com/news-views/people/article/20753008/getting-inside-dana-vespoli#.UsNSzdJDu8F |title=Getting inside Dana Vespoli |first=Shawn |last=Alff |date=March 4, 2013 |newspaper=[[Creative Loafing]]}}</ref>
* [[Megan Leigh]] danced as ''Eve'' in the mid-[[1980]]s; she later became a porn star and committed suicide in June of 1990
* [[Fallon (porn star)|Fallon]] porn star, danced in mid-[[1980]]s
* [[Blaze Starr]] famed stripper
* [[Tempest Storm]] famed stripper
* [[Edy Williams]] motion picture and television actress
* [[Annette Haven]] erotic actress
* [[Nina Hartley]] porn star
* [[Erica Boyer]] porn star, danced as ''Super Vixen''
* [[Lily Burana]] was involved in the class action suit and wrote about her experiences as dancer at the O'Farrell in her 2001 book ''Strip City: A Stripper's Farewell Journey Across America'' (ISBN 0-7868-6790-6).<ref>[http://archive.salon.com/sex/feature/2001/10/09/burana/index.html Strip City], Salon.com, [[9 October]] [[2001]]. Review of Lily Burana's book ''Strip City: A Stripper's Farewell Journey Across America''</ref>


== External links ==
==See also==
{{Portal|Human sexuality|San Francisco Bay Area}}
*[http://www.ofarrell.com/ www.ofarrell.com], the O'Farrell Theatre's official web site
* [[List of strip clubs]]
* [[Regal Show World]]
* [[Market Street Cinema]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}


==References==
==References==
* {{cite book |last1=McCumber |first1=David |title=X-Rated: The Mitchell Brothers: A True Story of Sex, Money, and Death |date=1992 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |isbn=978-0-671-75156-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/xratedmitchellbr0000mccu/page/n6/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration}}
<references/>
* {{cite book |last1=Corday |first1=Simone |title=9 1/2 Years Behind the Green Door{{dash}}A Memoir: A Mitchell Brothers Stripper Remembers Her Lover, Artie Mitchell, Hunter S. Thompson, and the Killing That Rocked San Francisco |date=2007 |publisher=Mill City Press |location=Minneapolis |isbn=978-1-934248-62-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/912yearsbehindgr0000cord/page/n2/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration}}
* {{cite book |first=John |last=Hubner |title=Bottom Feeders: From Free Love to Hard Core: The Rise and Fall of Counterculture Heroes Jim and Artie Mitchell |publisher=Dell |location=New York |year=1994 |isbn=0-440-21679-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/bottomfeedersfro00hubn/page/n6/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration}}
* {{cite book |first=Luke |last=Ford |title=A History of X: 100 Years of Sex in Film |publisher=Prometheus Books |location=New York |year=1999 |isbn=1-57392-678-7}}

==External links==
*{{Official website|http://www.ofarrell.com/}}

{{Movie theaters in San Francisco}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell Brothers O'farrell Theatre}}
[[Category:Buildings and structures in San Francisco]]
[[Category:San Francisco culture]]
[[Category:Theatres in San Francisco]]
[[Category:Culture of San Francisco]]
[[Category:Landmarks in San Francisco]]
[[Category:Landmarks in San Francisco]]
[[Category:Strip clubs]]
[[Category:Adult movie theaters in the United States]]
[[Category:Sex industry in San Francisco]]
[[Category:Strip clubs in the United States]]
[[Category:1969 establishments in California]]

Latest revision as of 18:59, 22 November 2024

Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre
O'Farrell Theatre in 2006
Map
Address895 O'Farrell Street
San Francisco, California
Coordinates37°47′06″N 122°25′09″W / 37.784877°N 122.419295°W / 37.784877; -122.419295
OpenedJuly 4, 1969 (1969-07-04)
Website
ofarrell.com

The Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre was a strip club at 895 O'Farrell Street near San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood. Having opened as an X-rated movie theater by Jim and Artie Mitchell on July 4, 1969, the O'Farrell was one of America's most notorious adult-entertainment establishments. By 1980, the nightspot had popularized close-contact lap dancing, which would become the norm in strip clubs nationwide.[1] Journalist Hunter S. Thompson, a longtime friend of the Mitchells and frequent visitor at the club, went there frequently during the summer of 1985[2] as part of his research for a possible book on pornography. Thompson called the O'Farrell "the Carnegie Hall of public sex in America" and Playboy magazine praised it as "the place to go in San Francisco!"

The club closed permanently in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic,[3] after a few years of struggling financially.[4]

History

[edit]

The O'Farrell Theatre went through two major phases which reflected a major transition in the Mitchell brothers' business model: first as a movie house to feature their adult films, and later as a cutting-edge strip club which offered customer-contact shows with strippers.[5][6] Over decades, the events at the O'Farrell Theatre have been as much about the brothers' stubborn persistence in applying legal resources to avoid prosecution by San Francisco's vice squad and district attorney, as they were about their unique innovations for the erotic entertainment industry.[7]

Adult movie theater

[edit]

Brothers Jim and Artie Mitchell began showing hardcore pornographic films at the O'Farrell Theater in July 1969.[8] Before they decided to open for business, the brothers had been making and selling short 15 minute pornographic films called loops, which patrons could watch for 25 cents a minute in small arcades.[9][10] But the brothers wanted to go beyond the production of short loops, and move on to making longer features whose distribution and presentation they could also control.[11] With the conversion of an old Pontiac automobile dealership on O'Farrell and Polk streets, they built a makeshift soundstage for filming and seating for a movie theater to provide them with that opportunity.[11][12] At a rate of one per month they churned out featurettes, which were 30 to 60 minute films that could be advertised and then shown at the O'Farrell.[13]

But just three weeks after the theater opened, plain-clothed police officers walked in and arrested 25 year-old James Mitchell – still a film student at San Francisco State University – for production and exhibition of obscene material.[14] Not easily deterred, the brothers vowed during a press conference to fight back, and hired a young but fierce lawyer named Michael John Kennedy to defend them against the obscenity charges.[15] Kennedy had already started to build a national reputation as a resourceful political activist, and would later represent Timothy Leary, Bernardine Dohrn, Cesar Chavez, and Huey Newton.[16][15] With Kennedy and the First Amendment behind them, the Mitchells tenaciously defied authorities by continuing to show their films while being arrested dozens of times over the coming year.[17]

A little more than a year later when the first case made its way to court, the trial became a local media circus as a flamboyant and wisecracking Kennedy irritated the district attorney while he challenged the legal definition of obscenity.[18][19] After a long trial, the jury became hopelessly deadlocked and the brothers escaped without conviction.[20] Kennedy believed that the social value of pornography was that it served as a shield for the rest of art and literature – meaning that if pornography could not be censored, then other forms of art would be protected as well.[21]

With the adult film Behind the Green Door and its premier at the O'Farrell in 1972, the Mitchell brothers made their first attempt at creating a feature-length adult film for mainstream audiences.[22] The stigma of sex in mainstream movies had been breaking down with films like Last Tango in Paris, and the Mitchells decided to invest extra time and expense into the film's making.[23] Behind the Green Door enjoyed a national marketing coup when it was revealed that its wholesome-looking 19 year-old star, Marilyn Chambers, was the same model who appeared holding a baby on Ivory Snow detergent boxes.[24][25] The film was made for $60,000, grossed $2 million in its first year,[26] and later became the second highest grossing adult film of all time when it made more than $50 million.[27] With it the Mitchells became millionaires, opened another ten adult theaters, and had plenty of funds for later experiments at the O'Farrell when it transitioned into a cutting-edge strip club.[28]

In the early 1970s, the theater would stop its adult features at midnight on a couple nights a week, and then re-open as The People's Nickelodeon, along with a five-cent admission charge and free popcorn.[29][30] The midnight shows were a montage of old films, and live vaudeville-style entertainment provided by the Nickelettes, a chorus line of counter-culture women who would do spunky song-and-dance routines.[31][32] The audience of young hippies and a few oldsters would see movies such as Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello, Yellow Submarine or other counter-culture favorites, while occasionally engaging in drinking, marijuana, and general carousing. Inspections and disruptions by the fire department and police were common, but the shows usually continued until three in the morning or later.

Strip club

[edit]

Everything changed for the Mitchell brothers during the second half of the 1970s, when the invention of the videocassette recorder brought about a proliferation of video rental shops.[33] First videocassette profits of the brothers' movies began to drop, and then demand for public adult movie screenings began to plummet because customers could now rent movies for one dollar a night.[33][34] Realizing that they needed a new business model for the O'Farrell Theatre, the Mitchell brothers sent manager Vincent Stanich around the country to explore "customer-contact" shows in bars and strip clubs.[33]

After Stanich reported back, the Mitchell brothers responded by opening three new rooms in quick succession which featured live shows by strippers: The Ultra Room, The Kopenhagen, and New York Live.[35] In 1977 they opened the Ultra Room which featured live shows of lesbian bondage. It had a floor-level stage which was surrounded by thirty narrow booths that had glass to separate performers from patrons.[33] Some months later the booths' glass was taken down and enabled customer-contact shows.[36][37] The Ultra Room's shows were very popular, cost $10, lasted for a half-hour, and were sold out on the very first day.[38] Next to open was The Kopenhagen which was a small room with perimeter seating that had live shows in front of, and sometimes upon, a small audience by a pair of naked women.[39][40]

However the club's most profitable new venue was New York Live! which was a strip club act that had a square stage and theater seating on three sides. Strippers performed three song sets while usually being totally nude for the final song.[41][1] Most of the other strippers who were not performing on stage were sitting naked on customers' laps for tips.[42] As the amount of tipping rapidly increased, employees coined the term 'lap dancing',[43] and the lap dance's popularity caused lines of men to regularly appear outside the theater's doors.[44] The Mitchells hired new dancers as fast as they could to keep up with demand, and with the lap dance they pioneered a strip club innovation which gained them international notoriety and generated more money than their current film business.[45]

Though the O'Farrell Theatre had successfully fought prosecution in the 1970s concerning obscenity in its films, during the 1980s it would face a new kind of threat from the courts about whether customer-contact could be legal during live shows, and if strippers had the right to give lap dances.[46] A new mood came to city hall when Dianne Feinstein became mayor toward the end of 1978 following the assassination of George Moscone. As a city supervisor Feinstein had been a strident anti-porn voice, and then as mayor she made it clear to her district attorney that he should be aggressive on obscenity and porn cases.[47] In July 1980, less than a year after Feinstein had been elected mayor, fifteen police officers raided the O'Farrell Theatre and arrested fourteen patrons, six performers, and seven employees for charges related to prostitution.[48][49] During a press conference Jim Mitchell vowed to fight the charges and stated, "We believe we have a legally protected show under California laws. Fondling a girl's breast is not prostitution."[50] In the first trial originating from that bust, three strippers faced charges of committing lewd acts in public. The trial resulted in mistrial decisions for two dancers and a single conviction for one dancer. This last was to become the only dancer in O'Farrell history who would ever get a rap sheet for simply performing her duties at the O'Farrell‍—  but she would be sentenced to no jail time, and would be burdened with no fine.[51]

For the next trial of the 1980 bust, the Mitchells went back to the law office of Michael Kennedy and secured his former partner, Dennis Roberts, to represent them. Roberts cleverly found a solution which would derail all the other cases against dancers, by using a little-known statute called the First Offender Diversion Program.[52] Under that diversion program, first time offenders could at any time before conviction plead guilty, go into the program, and emerge without a criminal record. When Roberts first mentioned the diversion program in court, a frustrated prosecutor exclaimed: "You can't do that!" However the judge corrected the prosecutor in stating: "Not only can he do that, but it seems to me that what you're going to have if you keep prosecuting these women is a series of cases that are going to drag on for years toward trial, and as soon as you get into trial Mr. Roberts is going to divert these people."[52] That trial was the last time any performers from the 1980 bust would face prosecution.

In the beginning the dancers of New York Live were nude when they sat on customers' laps, but later in the mid-1980s an agreement was reached between the Mitchell brothers' attorneys and the district attorney which instructed the O'Farrell to ensure that the girls wear some minimal amount of clothing while in the New York Live audience.[53]

The Mitchell brothers supported various cartoon artists, and when the 1984 Democratic National Convention was held in San Francisco, they opened the second floor of the O'Farrell to a group of underground cartoonists covering the convention for the San Francisco Chronicle.[54]

A final attempt was made to prosecute the O'Farrell under the Feinstein administration in February 1985, when the Cine-Stage was raided by a dozen police officers during a headlining appearance by adult film star Marilyn Chambers. However the district attorney declined to press charges against Chambers, and a judge refused to issue a critical injunction against the brothers themselves.[55] Also at that time the police department had been receiving protests by media, public, and politicians concerning multiple scandals, like when a police academy graduate received fellatio from a prostitute at a police academy graduation party.[56] Furthering their problems, police officers arrested a local journalist for walking his dog without a leash after the journalist wrote critically of the police department following the Chambers raid.[57][58] In the wake of the Chambers raid and scandals by the police, the Board of Supervisors voted to strip the police department of their power to license strip clubs, and that the Mitchell Brothers should be paid $14,000 for damages resulting from the Chambers raid.[59]

Over the years, the Mitchells were the defendants in over 200 court cases involving obscenity or related charges. Mostly victorious, they were represented by aggressive counsel.[60]

In February 1991 the theater entered the news after Jim Mitchell fatally shot Artie. Michael Kennedy defended Jim Mitchell, and convinced the jury that Jim killed Artie because the latter was psychotic from drugs and had become dangerous. Later in 1996, Jim established the "Artie Fund" to raise money for drug-abuse prevention. Jim Mitchell was sentenced to six years in prison for voluntary manslaughter and released from San Quentin in 1997, after having served half his sentence.

During the celebrations for the O'Farrell's 30th anniversary in 1999, burlesque star Tempest Storm, by then in her very early 70s, danced on stage. Mayor Willie Brown declared a "Tempest Storm Day" in her honor.[61] Marilyn Chambers returned to perform in the theater on July 28, 1999, in what Willie Brown dubbed "Marilyn Chambers Day."

When San Francisco's Commission on the Status of Women proposed in 2006 to ban private booths and rooms at adult clubs because of concerns about sexual assaults taking place there, several O'Farrell dancers spoke out against the ban.[62]

As of 2006, Jeff Armstrong, its longtime business manager, continued running the O'Farrell; legal representation is provided by former San Francisco Supervisor and two-term District Attorney Terence Hallinan.[62]

In June 2010, Jim's daughter Meta Mitchell Johnson took control of the O'Farrell as manager.[63] The club closed permanently in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic,[3] after a few years of struggling financially.[4]

Operation

[edit]

The O'Farrell Theatre was open seven days a week, and nearly every evening of the year. A general admission fee gave access to various themed rooms' live shows within the building, and no alcoholic beverages were served. The O'Farrell's main showroom was New York Live, a continuous striptease show with two song sets on a stage having theater seating on three sides. The Cine-Stage was a 200-seat movie theater with a large raised stage which also presented live shows, comedy skits, and musical performances. There were several themed rooms, such as the Ultra Room, a peep show-type room where patrons would stand in private booths while watching women perform with various props, such as dildos. The Green Door Room was named for the Mitchells' classic film Behind the Green Door, and served as the principal set for some movies. In the darkened Kopenhagen Lounge, customers used flashlights to watch performances by two nude dancers. All the O'Farrell's male employees, including managers, adhered to a strict dress code of black bow-tie, white shirt, black slacks, and black shoes.

Labor disputes

[edit]

Originally, the O'Farrell Theatre's management company, Cinema 7, paid their dancers a flat rate per shift and allowed them to accept tips, but in the 1980s they replaced that payment with the federal minimum wage while still allowing the dancers to accept tips.[64][65]

In 1988, the O'Farrell's management (Cinema 7) created a separate company, Dancers Guild International (DGI), that would be run by Vince Stanich, and changed the dancers' status from paid employees to unpaid independent contractors who had to pay DGI "stage fees" of up to $300 per eight-hour shift.[66][67]

Many of the O'Farrell's dancers considered the O'Farrell's new policy unfair and possibly illegal. Two of them, Ellen Vickery and Jennifer Bryce, filed a class-action lawsuit against DGI (the plaintiffs would ultimately number more than 500), arguing that the O'Farrell's reclassification of the dancers as independent contractors was unlawful, and that they were owed back wages as well as a refund of the stage fees.[68] The case was settled in 1998, and the dancers were awarded $2.85 million.[69][70][71] Similar suits challenging independent contractor status have since been filed against numerous other strip clubs, and labor commissions as well as courts have mostly ruled in favor of dancers and awarded past wages and stage fee reimbursements.[1] O'Farrell's management remained opposed to all attempts of their dancers to unionize.

After the 1998 settlement, the O'Farrell changed the performers' payment structure again: they posted a "suggested" fee of $20 per lap dance and $40 per private performance and set a quota of $360 per woman per night; the women were allowed to keep half the quota plus all tips.[citation needed] However, it was recorded that lap dances cost as much as $240 on some occasions. Dancers claimed feeling pressured into paying $180 per night even if they had earned less than that amount, and another 370-plaintiff class-action suit began in 2002. In 2007, a judge ruled in favor of the dancers, declaring the quota system illegal and requiring the O'Farrell to pay any amounts employees could show they paid to fill their quotas, minus any amounts the employer could show the dancers had collected but failed to report. The O'Farrell was also ordered to reimburse dancers for required theme-oriented costumes.[72]

Sometime after the settlement of 2008, the club changed its workers' status from independent contractors back to being paid employees who receive a minimum wage, workers comp, and some healthcare coverage.[63]

Location and murals

[edit]
Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre as seen from Polk Street

The theatre is located in the northwest part of the Tenderloin District, at the corner of Polk and O'Farrell street, a few doors down from the Great American Music Hall. The entire exterior west and south faces of the theater are covered with two large murals. The west wall depicts a fantasy aquatic scene with flying fish, turtles and whales with a silhouette of the San Francisco Bay in the background, and on the south wall is an underwater scene featuring a life-sized pod of whales and dolphins. These murals were painted in 1977 (Lou Silva with Ed Monroe, Daniel Burgevin, Todd Stanton, and Gary William Graham), 1983 (Lou Silva-solo), 1990 by Lou Silva[73] with the assistance of Joanne Maxwell Wittenbrook, Ed Monroe, Mark Nathan Clark, and Juan "Blackwolf" Karlos, and 2011 by the Academy of Art University. Notable visitors, while the murals were in progress, included: Melvin Belli, Marilyn Chambers, Paul Kantner, Toshiro Mifune, Huey P. Newton, Hunter S. Thompson, and Edy Williams. The murals were sponsored in their entirety by Jim and Artie Mitchell.

Noted performers

[edit]
  • Lily Burana was involved in the class action suit and wrote about her experiences as dancer at the O'Farrell in her 2001 book Strip City: A Stripper's Farewell Journey Across America (ISBN 0-7868-6790-6).[74]
  • Nina Hartley, pornographic film actress and sex educator[75]
  • Dana Vespoli, pornographic performer and adult-video director[76]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b c Steinberg, David (September 8, 2004). "Lap Victory". SF Weekly.
  2. ^ "Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre History". Retrieved December 23, 2017.
  3. ^ a b "RIP O'Farrell Theatre, the Mitchell Brothers' Infamous Tenderloin Strip Club". SFist. 4 November 2020. Archived from the original on 17 August 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  4. ^ a b "'Where all the lost souls came together': SF's O'Farrell Theatre strip club closes after 50 years". SFGate. 29 October 2020.
  5. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 41, 79.
  6. ^ Dougan, Michael (July 25, 1999). "The return of Marilyn Chambers". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
  7. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 53, 78-79.
  8. ^ Allyn, David Smith (2001). Make Love, Not War: The Sexual Revolution, an Unfettered History. New York: Routledge. p. 233. ISBN 978-0-415-92942-4.
  9. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 38.
  10. ^ Ford (1999), p. 39.
  11. ^ a b McCumber (1992), p. 41.
  12. ^ Ford (1999), p. 40.
  13. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 41-41.
  14. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 45-46.
  15. ^ a b McCumber (1992), p. 47.
  16. ^ Roberts, Sam (28 January 2016). "Michael J. Kennedy, Lawyer for Underdogs and Pariahs, Dies at 78". New York Times. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  17. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 48.
  18. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 50.
  19. ^ Hubner (1994), p. 134-142.
  20. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 51.
  21. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 54.
  22. ^ Hubner (1994), p. 209.
  23. ^ Hubner (1994), p. 202.
  24. ^ Hubner (1994), p. 57, 60.
  25. ^ Corday (2007), p. 91.
  26. ^ Hubner (1994), p. 237.
  27. ^ Ford (1999), p. 74.
  28. ^ Hubner (1994), p. 64-66, 78.
  29. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 55.
  30. ^ Hubner (1994), p. 271-272.
  31. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 56.
  32. ^ Hubner (1994), p. 268-276.
  33. ^ a b c d McCumber (1992), p. 78.
  34. ^ Corday (2007), p. 147.
  35. ^ Hubner (1994), p. 306, 311, 314.
  36. ^ Hubner (1994), p. 309.
  37. ^ Corday (2007), p. 30.
  38. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 79.
  39. ^ Corday (2007), p. 46.
  40. ^ Hubner (1994), p. 318-319.
  41. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 80.
  42. ^ Corday (2007), p. 22-23, 35.
  43. ^ Hubner (1994), p. 323.
  44. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 81, 155.
  45. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 78, 81.
  46. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 51, 87-90.
  47. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 88.
  48. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 90.
  49. ^ Hubner (1994), p. 324-327.
  50. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 91.
  51. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 92.
  52. ^ a b McCumber (1992), p. 93.
  53. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 97.
  54. ^ Hinckle, Warren (July 21, 2007). "Porn Kings, and a Lot More". San Francisco Chronicle.
  55. ^ Hubner (1994), p. 101.
  56. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 101.
  57. ^ Hubner (1994), p. 373.
  58. ^ Turner, Wallace (March 4, 1985). "Police Motives Questioned in Coast Vice Raid". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
  59. ^ Hubner (1994), p. 374.
  60. ^ Dougan, Michael (July 25, 1999). "The return of Marilyn Chambers". San Francisco Chronicle.
  61. ^ Winn, Steven (July 15, 1999). "Storm Still Packs a Wallop 1950s burlesque icon takes it off again for O'Farrell Theatre anniversary". San Francisco Chronicle.
  62. ^ a b Goodyear, Charlie (August 5, 2006). "Adult Club Private Rooms Debated". San Francisco Chronicle.
  63. ^ a b Phelan, Sarah (18 May 2010). "The Mitchell Sister". Bay Area Guardian. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  64. ^ Hubner (1994), p. 180, 320.
  65. ^ Corday (2007), p. 23, 342.
  66. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 157-158.
  67. ^ Corday (2007), p. 218, 308.
  68. ^ Corday (2007), p. 316.
  69. ^ Lynem, Julie N. (July 10, 1998). "O'Farrell Settles With 500 Dancers; $2.85 million includes restitution, legal fees". San Francisco Chronicle.
  70. ^ Romney, Lee (December 19, 2004). "In S.F., Weighing Strippers' Rights". Los Angeles Times.
  71. ^ Reiman, Jennifer (June 1996). "The Naked Truth". Prism Online. Archived from the original on June 21, 2006.
  72. ^ Egelko, Bob (August 9, 2007). "O'Farrell Theatre dancers win fight against nightly cash quotas". San Francisco Chronicle.
  73. ^ Brenneman, Richard (April 23, 2004). "Muralist Marks a Vivid Life On Local Walls". Berkeley Daily Planet.
  74. ^ Taylor, Charles (October 9, 2001). "Strip City". Salon. Archived from the original on May 7, 2009.
  75. ^ McCumber (1992), p. 263.
  76. ^ Alff, Shawn (March 4, 2013). "Getting inside Dana Vespoli". Creative Loafing.

References

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