SPENCER — The Tivoli Theatre was at the center of its own drama 40 years ago this month.
The theater stopped showing R-rated movies after receiving a warning from the Owen County prosecutor. At issue was whether the theater’s owner had violated an Indiana code involving the dissemination of material harmful to minors.
Theater owner Bob Thomas found himself in the prosecutor’s spotlight for allowing minors to view R-rated movies without an adult present.
“If the parents send notes with their children, or if they just accompany them to the door and tell us that it's OK their children see this, we’ll let them in,” Thomas said.
It was a practice that drew the ire of Owen County prosecutor, Allan Fountain, who warned the theater’s owner that the practice could violate the law.
To appease the prosecutor, Thomas rolled out a new policy that happened to coincide with the release of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “The Terminator” in February 1985. It stated that no minor would be allowed to attend an R-rated movie unless they were accompanied by an adult at all times.
“If my mom comes over here and pays our way in, can we come in and watch it,” a boy named Brad asked a theater employee.
To Brad’s dismay, the employee informed the boy a parent had to be present at all times. Brad wasn’t the only potential moviegoer disappointed with the new policy.
“If you have your parent’s permission, that should be it,” another girl told WRTV.
That girl claimed to have a written permission slip from a parent.
At the time, Thomas told WRTV reporter Tracy Horth he was considering legal action with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Indiana.
