I'm getting a lot of mail about the Jerry Lewis Mini-Cinema fiasco. I thought this message from Buzz Dixon was worth bringing to your attention…
The reason two people could run a Jerry Lewis Theater was because the films arrived preloaded in large cartridges like the way airlines used to show movies. They were pre-threaded and easy to rewind with little chance of jamming (if the Jerry Lewis Theaters had stayed in business and the equipment gotten more wear and tear, that might not have been the case). The plan was that Person A would handle the box office while Person B would run the concession stand, Person B would pop up into the booth to start the trailer cartridge then return to the concession stand, Person A would close the box office and go up to supervise the projectors and keep an eye on the audience from the booth (Person B would try to cover both the box office for late arrivals and keep an eye on the concession stand), Person A would come down to cover the box office while Person B went to keep an eye on the audience and cover the concession stand, etc. The cartridges, while large and bulky, could be handled by an average adult, and switching reels consisted of little more than lifting one catridge out and dropping the other in.
The scheme had a single company — the Jerry Lewis Theater franchise, whatever the actually name of the company was called — controlling both the means of distribution and the means of exhibition, but not the means of production, thus making it okay under the Paramount, et al, ruling back in the forties. Since they owned the projector/cartridge system, and since they were relying on Mom & Pop operators who had no real experience in running theaters or projectors, and since the whole pitch was that they would show only G or M rated films (I believe they went under before M morphed into GP then PG), I think it would be unlikely that they would schedule R or X rated films. Further, the projectors could not run regular film reels so the theaters could not be easily/cheaply converted to run conventional films, thus guaranteeing their white elephant status to their investors and franchisees.
The biggest technical problem was not jamming, as one might expect (the franchise owners were trained in making emergency splices) but in focusing the lenses. Arc projectors throw out an enormous amount of heat and the lenses literally expand, thus throwing their focal length off. Competent projectionists (i.e., union) are constantly adjusting/readjusting the focus so subtlely that the audience isn't aware of it (though we've all had our chances to shout, "Focus!" at those who get caught napping). This, a lack of adequate brand management (some of the theaters were allowed to get quite dirty and sloppy due to inattentive regional supervisors), and changing movie going habits among the American people (basically families stopped going to the movies together) pretty much put the kibosh on the Jerry Lewis Theaters.
Was it a bad idea? Well, even now on paper it looks workable, and maybe it could have worked if they had relied on trained personnel instead of Mom & Pop owner/operators and been more flexible in their scheduling. In a way, you might say it was the right idea but the wrong technology: By the late 70s/early 80s Mom & Pop were running video stores, which was another cartridge technology, and instead of bearing the cost of operating a theater they just let the customers take the tapes home for the evening.
So the mystery of the Which Way To The Front?/Deep Throat double-feature continues. Unless somebody can produce an ad or a photo confirming it, it remains speculation. To add to the confusion, there was an R-rated sequel — Deep Throat, Part II — starring the same cast that played in non-porn houses (this may have actually been the original Deep Throat with the hardcore footage removed and new bridging material…uh…inserted).
Well, I still don't think it's a mystery. I think Jerry was wrong or confused or something. The notion that a Jerry Lewis movie might be paired with Deep Throat II makes a tiny bit more sense but I still think it's unlikely. The Internet Movie Database has this to say about the R-rated sequel, which received extremely limited release in 1974…
Filmed as triple-X porn, Deep Throat Part II was released only in a heavily-edited, R-rated version in hopes of avoiding the legal troubles plaguing the original Deep Throat (1972). The hardcore footage was then stolen and never restored.
And can we think of a movie for which there would be less of a market than Deep Throat without the sex scenes? Anyway, a bit of research yields the fact that the Jerry Lewis movie theater business collapsed in 1973. In that year and the few immediately preceding it, there weren't very many movies out there that people wanted to see which would have met the requirement of being "G" or "PG." The top three movies of 1972, for example, were The Godfather, Cabaret and Deliverance — all "R-rated." I also seem to remember some sort of accusation at the time that Disney would not rent its movies to the Jerry Lewis chain because they were planning to launch a network of Disney Theaters using a similar business model. Either way, there wasn't a whole lot Jerry's franchisees could show. Add in the problems mentioned earlier about bad locations, and it's not difficult to see why the enterprise failed.
The movie ratings started in 1968 with "G," "M", "R" and "X." The "M" stood for "mature" and it was supposed to denote movies that were more adult than "G" but still suitable for young adults. Unfortunately, the Motion Picture Association of America (which set all this up) discovered that much of the public thought "M" meant an adults-only movie, so in 1969 it was changed to "GP" (General, but with Parental Guidance) and then almost immediately to "PG" (Parental Guidance). So at the time of the Jerry Lewis Theaters, "PG" had already been invented.
Say, while I'm rambling, here's something I bet a lot of people don't know. The M.P.A.A. no longer has an "X" rating. They had one initially and the idea was that it would denote adult films that weren't in the realm of sex and exploitation. Midnight Cowboy, for instance, was X-rated. But the M.P.A.A. couldn't control the application of the label. It passed rapidly into the vocabulary and sex filmmakers began gleefully dubbing their product "X-rated" or even "XXX." In 1990, the M.P.A.A. changed their "X" rating to "NC-17," which only they can bestow. (Another change was that in '84, they split "PG" into two levels — "PG" and "PG-13," the latter denoting a slightly higher chance of seeing nudity or bloodshed. They're currently mulling over a "PS" rating which will caution moviegoers that the film may contain Pauly Shore.)