The 1970’s saw quite a few family friendly theatres and cinema landmarks turn to pornography as a means of financial survival. However, few know that Knott’s Berry Farm’s Independence Hall replica once held a two day adult film “festival”. Yes, the home of world famous fried chicken, fruit preserves, and “America’s first theme park”, was host to eight hard core films and two of adult cinema’s most notorious impresarios.Controversy? Well, not exactly. The actual screening was far less salacious in nature than my introduction implied. In October of 1978, Knott’s Independence Hall was utilized in the second Orange County obscenity hearing, involving the Mitchell Brothers’ Santa Ana theatre. Lacking an appropriate site to screen 35mm prints of the films in question (the Mitchell Brothers had decline to use their own theatre), Knott’s allowed the court to temporarily convert Independence Hall in to a screening room. The screening was not open to the public, nor was the “event” publicized, but, for two days, a superior court judge and his staff viewed tittles, such as “Deep Throat” and “The Devil in Miss Jones”, in a place better known for wholesome family fun than titillation.
While it almost seems befitting for a free speech case to involve a replica of Independence Hall, one has to chuckle at the idea of Knott’s Berry Farm screening adult films. At least it didn’t take place in their “Good Times Theater”.
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