I remember sneaking in the back exit door with some of the other little rascals from the south end of Enfield Avenue to watch movies for free at the Encino Theater. In 1953, “The Moon is Blue” was featured there, but received a “C” rating (for “condemned”) from the Catholic Legion of Decency. The nuns and priests at nearby Our Lady of Grace school told us that we were forbidden to watch this immoral film. Which, of course, made a lot of the parishioners want to see this film all the more — especially my fellow horn dogs in the 5th grade at Our Lady of Grace school. The priests even tried, without success, to persuade the theater owner to shut down the film. In fact, the theater owner welcomed these objections to “The Moon is Blue” because the greater the protests, the more people thronged to sample this forbidden fruit. I didn’t see the film until it was aired on TV about 30 years later. Unedited, because it was so tame (and lame), with nothing more controversial than a woman being called “a professional virgin.” Very disappointing indeed.
I remember sneaking in the back exit door with some of the other little rascals from the south end of Enfield Avenue to watch movies for free at the Encino Theater. In 1953, “The Moon is Blue” was featured there, but received a “C” rating (for “condemned”) from the Catholic Legion of Decency. The nuns and priests at nearby Our Lady of Grace school told us that we were forbidden to watch this immoral film. Which, of course, made a lot of the parishioners want to see this film all the more — especially my fellow horn dogs in the 5th grade at Our Lady of Grace school. The priests even tried, without success, to persuade the theater owner to shut down the film. In fact, the theater owner welcomed these objections to “The Moon is Blue” because the greater the protests, the more people thronged to sample this forbidden fruit. I didn’t see the film until it was aired on TV about 30 years later. Unedited, because it was so tame (and lame), with nothing more controversial than a woman being called “a professional virgin.” Very disappointing indeed.