Mitchell brothers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the British music group, see The Mitchell Brothers

The Mitchell brothers (James "Jim" Lloyd Mitchell, born November 30, 1943, and Artie Jay Mitchell, December 17, 1945–February 27, 1991) were active in the pornography and strip club business in San Francisco and other parts of California in the 1970s and 1980s. They owned the O'Farrell Theatre, which opened in 1969 as a porn movie theater; they gradually added live entertainment as a strip club with about 30 dancers. The Mitchells' notoriety significantly increased when Jim killed Artie in February of 1991. The late journalist Hunter S. Thompson, a friend of the brothers and a frequent visitor of the club, was even falsely reported to be doing a stint as the club's night manager in 1985.

Contents

[edit] Movie making and the O'Farrell

The Mitchells' father, an "Okie," had been a professional poker player in the Midwest. He and his wife, Georgia Mae, settled in Antioch, near San Francisco, and provided an uneventful childhood for Jim and Artie (although the two boys were moderately popular and made friends who, years later, would become important members of the Mitchells' porn empire). Coming of age, Jim pondered his career options; Artie chose to do whatever Jim did. Jim, a part-time filmmaking student in the mid-1960s, saw a potentially lucrative market for still pictures and movies of nude women, and Artie wanted to become his business partner. In 1969, with the help of Artie's Boston-born wife Meredith Bradford, they fulfilled their ambitions by leasing a two-storey building at 895 O'Farrell Street, which they converted into the O'Farrell Theatre, a downstairs movie theater with an upstairs film studio. (Their films ranged in quality from mediocre to atrocious; Jim Mitchell once quipped, "The only Art in [porn] is my brother.") They opened it on the Fourth of July and were confronted almost immediately by the authorities. They would open other X-rated movie houses in California over the years, spending much time in court and money on lawyers to stay open as indignant locals and officials tried to shut them down.

They became incorporated as the Mitchell Brothers Film Group and in 1972 produced one of the first successful feature-length pornographic movies, Behind the Green Door, starring then-Ivory Snow girl Marilyn Chambers in her porn debut. The Mitchells themselves made a brief appearance in the movie (as the kidnappers of Marilyn Chambers). The movie, produced for $60,000, grossed over $25 million.[1] The Mitchell brothers went on making porn movies and would be inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame.

In 1985, the Mitchells made the long-awaited (and -postponed) sequel to Behind the Green Door. They hired cabaret singer and frequent movie collaborator Sharon McNight to direct it and, uncharacteristically, chose to cast the film exclusively with un- or little-known performers; they auditioned everyone who responded to their advertisements. A handful of O'Farrell dancers were selected for small roles; one stripper, a beautiful Puerto Rican named Diana Manetti (who in 1992 would go to jail for trying to have another dancer murdered), asked to be considered for the starring role of Gloria (played by Marilyn Chambers). While the Mitchells and McNight considered Manetti, Artie Mitchell's ungainly girlfriend Missy cast herself in that crucial part. Filming of the sequel occurred mainly in the O'Farrell Theatre; Missy, overweight and utterly experienced in acting and public sex, reportedly had much difficulty performing oral sex on her partners; the set was so tense that at one point Jim Mitchell loudly harangued one of his managers in front of everyone because the catered lunch was inadequate. This was also the world's first safe-sex film, in which all the men wore condoms and self-protection advice was given by one of the characters. Highly overbudget and featuring no familiar porn names, the sequel, according to adult magazines, was one of the worst porn pictures ever made. Missy promoted the film and called herself "the Republican Porn Star." She posed nude for Playboy magazine and revealed that she was Elisa Florez, a former aide to Republican Senator Orrin Hatch.

In the mid-1970s, organized crime began to bootleg the Mitchells' movies, and the brothers fought back in the courts. When one judge ruled that obscene material did not enjoy copyright protection, they appealed and eventually prevailed in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals[2], leading to the FBI copyright warnings now found at the start of videotapes.[3]

The O'Farrell Theatre was frequently raided on obscenity and related charges, leading to over 200 cases against its proprietors. They were defended, always successfully, by maverick attorney Michael Kennedy.[3]

The Mitchells were well connected in San Francisco's diverse society. Their friends included San Francisco politicians, the late Black Panther Huey "Doc" Newton, journalists Hunter S. Thompson, Warren Hinckle and Herb Gold and the rock band Aerosmith.

[edit] Killing of Artie

In his biography "Bottom Feeders," author John Hubner characterizes the Mitchells as frequently quarreling with each other (and everyone else), alternately stingy and profligate, as well as abusive and misogynistic, with Jim dominating alcoholic, cocaine-addicted Artie.[4] Both men had intimate relationships with O'Farrell dancers; Jim had three children and Artie had six (ironically, Artie's first wife was Meredith Bradford, an upper-crust Bostonian).[1]

By 1991, Artie was psychotic from drugs, even threatening to throw a Molotov cocktail into the O'Farrell Theater; the demands for Jim to do something about his brother became louder. Jim drove to Artie's house one rainy evening with a rifle and shot him to death; O'Farrell stripper Julie Bajo (Artie's lover at the time) immediately called 911 and the police arrested Jim minutes later. Marilyn Chambers spoke at Artie's funeral[3] and he was buried in Lodi Memorial Cemetery.

After a highly publicized trial (in which the defendant was represented by his old friend and lawyer Kennedy, by then a prominent Park Avenue attorney), the jury rejected a murder charge and found Jim Mitchell guilty of voluntary manslaughter. Before Jim's sentencing, numerous people spoke on his behalf (presumably appealing for clemency), including former Mayor Frank Jordan, Sheriff Michael Hennessey and former Police Chief Richard Hongisto.[1] Mitchell was sentenced to six years in prison. After having served three years in San Quentin he was released in 1997 and returned to run the O'Farrell Theatre. One of the results of Jim's trial is that the California Courts allowed, in a precedent-setting decision, a virtual reality reenactment of the murder to be entered into evidence. This virtual reality reenactment showed the positions of Jim, Artie, and the path taken by bullets as they entered Artie's body. (In his final argument before the jury, Michael Kennedy mocked the virtual-reality reenactedment, reportedly making some of the jurors giggle.)

Jim established the "Artie Fund" to collect money for a local drug rehabilitation center and the rescue team of the San Francisco Fire Department (in 1990 Jim, Artie and Artie's son Storm had to be rescued in the waves off Ocean Beach). Artie's children have denounced the fund, claiming it is intended to whitewash Jim's murder. On their website, they further accuse Jim of keeping some of Artie's inheritance money that was intended for the children, and claim that the depictions of Artie in the books and movie are inaccurate.[5]

[edit] Books and movies

Biographies of the brothers include X-Rated by David McCumber (1992, ISBN 0671751565) and Bottom Feeders: From Free Love to Hard Core by John Hubner (1993, ISBN 038542261X).

In 2001, their story was dramatized in the movie Rated X starring the brothers Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez as Artie and Jim, with Estevez also directing. The film, oddly, was shot in Vancouver.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Porn King Jim Mitchell Walks Out of Prison Today. San Francisco Chronicle, 3 October 1997
  2. ^ Mitchell Brothers Film Group v. Cinema Adult Theater, 604 F.2d 852 (5th Cir. 1979)
  3. ^ a b c The return of Marilyn Chambers, San Francisco Chronicle, 25 July 1999
  4. ^ The Mitchells: From Peep Show to Porn Empire. The San Francisco Chronicle, 31 January 1993.
  5. ^ artiefund.com, website of Artie's children, accessed 13 November 2005

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../m/i/t/Mitchell_brothers.html"