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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024 Issue 4 - Renton Takes Aim At Smut, The Nation Follows.pdf10 TEMPESTS IN TEAPOTSNEWSMUSEUM REPORT An earlier version of this story appears on HistoryLink.org.The Renton Civic Theatre is a performing-arts venue located in an old movie theater on South 3rd Street in the heart of downtown Renton. Since its founding in 1987 it has presented plays, musicals, cabaret, and stand-up comedy. For a brief period in the early 1980s, however, the old theater offered up a different type of entertainment -- hardcore pornography. The resulting ruckus led to changes in the city’s zoning laws and, ultimately, to a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. On February 25, 1986, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a decision affirming the right of local jurisdictions to regulate the location of adult-entertainment venues. The case, City of Renton vs. Playtime Theatres, Inc., became a benchmark for local governments seeking to curb adult entertainment and its secondary effects. Let’s take a look at the events leading up to the Supreme Court’s decision. Also In This Issue... Continued on page 5 2 THE SEARCH FOR A LOST BURIAL113 RENTON HISTORICALSOCIETY & MUSEUM Fall September 2024 Volume 55 Number 7QUARTERLY RENTON TAKES AIM AT SMUT; RENTON TAKES AIM AT SMUT; THE NATION FOLLOWSTHE NATION FOLLOWS By Eleanor Boba 2 | RENTON HISTORY MUSEUM LAST DESCENDANT OF ERASMUS SMITHERS DIES Ada Lou Wheeler, the last direct descendant of Renton founder Erasmus Smithers, died on Sept. 12, 2023, aged 98. Ada was the daughter of Jeannette Smithers Thorne, granddaughter of Erasmus and Diana Tobin Smithers. Educated at Garfield High and Whitman College, Wheeler founded a one-woman advertising and publicity agency in the mid-1960s, a time when the fields were dominated by men. She continued her business until she retired in 2003. She was an early supporter of the Renton Historical Society, assisting with fundraising and documentation events. HARDING FAMILY REUNION This summer the Renton History Museum had the honor of serving as a venue for the Harding Family Legacy Project’s reunion of family members. After a visit to the family plots in the cemetery, the Hardings hosted a light lunch and an educational afternoon in our north gallery, sharing new discoveries in their genealogy and connections to Renton. Descended from Marcus and Elsie Mae Harding, some of the earliest Black settlers in the Renton area, the Harding family is dedicated to ensuring that the youngest members know their history. Mr. and Mrs. Harding arrived in King County in the early 1900s, and he worked his way up from coal miner to steel worker. They lived in Kennydale for over 30 years, where they were founding members of the local church. “TINKER TOY” STREETLIGHT RETURNS A new fixture on the corner of Williams Ave. S. and S. 3rd St. is one of Renton’s midcentury “tinker toy” streetlights, refurbished and dressed up with color-changing LED bulbs. So-called because of their resemblance to the kids’ building toy, these lamps were installed in Renton in the 1960s and later removed because of the difficulty of maintaining them. The new one was donated by the Cugini family and the Renton Municipal Arts Commission, then improved by Western Neon, the company that also restored our neon Roxy sign. MUSEUM REPORT QUARTERLYSUMMER 2024 I’m excited to showcase the work of two local researchers in this newsletter. Eleanor Boba is the team leader for the Museum’s Oral History Team and she is a researcher and writer in her own right, having published articles on Historylink and for many other newsletters and journals. Most recently, she wrote about the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train in our December 2023 issue. Her article in this newsletter about an important Supreme Court case, Renton v. Playtime Theatres Inc. (1986), is a topic we have wanted to explore for a long time. This historic court case established guidelines for cities wishing to legally zone and regulate adult entertainment in ways consistent with the First Amendment and their community values. It is one of Renton’s claims to national fame, and Eleanor’s article definitely does the topic justice. Robin Adams’ piece in our occasional series, “Real World History,” describes her search for the grave of one of the 1894 Franklin mine disaster’s victims, John H. Morris. Robin is a tireless researcher, using documents and newspapers, but also getting out and searching out geographical features on the landscape that help explain the lives of our ancestors. You can find the fruits of her research on her blog, “Crows of Arroyos,” at https://batgurrl.net/, and she is also a frequent commenter on our Facebook posts, for the good of all. We are lucky to work with a community of people who are passionate about local history and willing to share their research tangents and insights. We benefit from their esoteric questions that help us build up our body of knowledge; as we try to help them with their particular topics, we learn more about Renton history and the people who made it. And then that knowledge finds its way into our exhibits and publications, sparking more questions in a feedback loop that benefits everyone. That is how local history works best: with enthusiastic people pursuing their own unique queries and then telling others what they find out. It’s never really done and there’s always room for one more researcher, one more question, and one more mystery. by Elizabeth P. Stewart, Ph.D. Museum Director RENTON HISTORICAL QUARTERLY Pritchard Design Graphic Design & Layout Karl Hurst City of Renton Print & Mail Services MUSEUM STAFF Elizabeth P. Stewart Museum Director Stephanie Snyder Museum Office Aide RENTON HISTORY MUSEUM 235 MILL AVENUE S RENTON, WA 98057 P (425) 430-6440 F (425) 255-1570 E rentonhistorymuseum @rentonwa.gov HOURS: Tuesday - Saturday 10:00am - 4:00pm ADMISSION: $5 (Adult) $2 (Child) Members always FREE Elizabeth P. Stewart Director Cover photo: In 1963 the Renton Theatre was one of two downtown move theaters, showing family-friendly films. Southcenter Mall changed all that. (#1992.136.10575) SPRING QUARTERLY, 2023 | 3 4 | RENTON HISTORY MUSEUM RENTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY MESSAGE An Update on the Transition Timeline Over the last two months, Renton Historical Society has built a strong foundation of administrative infrastructure. Operating from a fully functional office space, new RHS leadership is connected with critical partners to facilitate continuity of services. One of RHS’s most consistent historical partners has been 4Culture, which has funded RHS efforts through their Heritage Sustained Support grant. Over the last several years, this relationship has been managed by Dr. Elizabeth Stewart of the Renton History Museum, and we are grateful to her for her efforts and commitment to supporting RHS as we take over this responsibility. RHS is focused on developing new partnerships as well and we have grown our relationship with the downtown Renton branch of KeyBank to ensure RHS can securely accept donations and remit payments. Critical to the transformation of RHS into an independent, sustainable non- profit is the development of policies, procedures, and statements of purpose that define the organization’s guiding principles and workflow. RHS is in the process of refining these documents, which live in a new digital shared drive designed for ease of use and security. New emails for RHS leadership are associated with this shared drive, and you can now reach us at president@rentonhistory.org and treasurer@rentonhistory.org. Currently, RHS is sorting and organizing the data within the RHS artifact digital catalog. Once prepared, the data will migrate from a local copy at the Renton History Museum to a cloud-based format accessible remotely. Meet Our Director of Collections Leigh Gath is a versatile professional with a rich background in the theatre arts, ancestry, and museology. With a Masters’ of Library and Information Sciences with a specialization in Museum Studies from Kent State University, Leigh combines expertise in managing information and curating artifact collection to offer a unique perspective in the field. In addition to her professional museum achievements, Leigh is a dedicated parent to two children, Katie and Arden, and a proud dog owner of Lilly Belle. Leigh's creative side shines through in her role as the theatre director for the International School in Bellevue, where she brings stories to life on stage and contributes to the vibrant arts and youth communities. You can reach Leigh at leigh.gath@rentonhistory.org Mission Moment RHS remains committed to showcasing Renton’s rich history, and, along with the City of Renton’s Community and Economic Development Department and the Renton Municipal Arts Commission, we’ve pledged a substantial donation to the preservation of the ghost murals present on the side of the 230 Main Ave S. building facing the Veterans Memorial Park downtown. We look forward to supporting local artists in their efforts to beautify our city through historic art! The Renton The Renton History Museum History Museum acknowledges we acknowledges we are on the unceded are on the unceded traditional land traditional land of the Duwamish of the Duwamish people. A people people. A people forced to relocate, forced to relocate, but who have but who have persevered.persevered. The Museum views the history of Renton to include since time immemorial to today and is committed to exploring that through its partnerships, exhibits and programs. FALL QUARTERLY, 2024 | 5 from each other on South 3rd Street in what was then the heart of the city's commercial district.2 Shortly thereafter, Forbes announced his intention to screen adult films at The Renton.3 The new ordinance, titled “Adult Retail and Entertainment,” prohibited placement of adult theaters within 1,000 feet of a church, park, or residence, and within a mile of a school. The school restriction was lowered from a mile to 1,000 feet in a 1982 amendment to the ordinance. Nonetheless, the restrictions effectively outlawed adult films in the business district and in all residential neighborhoods. Defenders of the law pointed out that there was a zone on the outskirts of town, approximately one square mile in the industrial area south and east of Longacres Racetrack, that would do just fine for adult entertainment.4 Roger Forbes and his longtime attorney, Jack Burns, were aware of the Renton ordinance and prepared to fight for their rights. Before any film was shown, they filed suit in U.S. District Court challenging the constitutionality of the ordinance with arguments based on the First Amendment (the right of free speech) and the 14th Amendment (the right not to be deprived of property without due process). Jack Burns summed up their position: “If such ordinances can be imposed any time city officials find a threat of ‘moral degradation,’ they could well try to ban the tabloid magazines that are sold at grocery store counters. Most cities show no regard for the First Amendment when it is politically expedient.”5 Taking It to the Streets With encouragement from City Hall and Renton Mayor Barbara Shinpoch, a group of residents banded together to protest the incursion of adult entertainment into the Renton core. Led by a young mother and community organizer, Kathy Keolker, Citizens for a Quality Community (CQC) held rallies, picketed the theater, circulated petitions, collected letters of support, and kept the issue in front of the media. Keolker remembered later that, “Anytime the city was doing any action legally, we showed up at City Hall and we continued to support them. We testified at City Hall all the time. We just kind of kept the pressure on the city to keep going because there were some city council members who were getting kind of tired of the issue and the expense.”6 Their secret weapon? “We had a phone tree,” Keolker said. “That was before email. We could get the phone tree going and we could easily get 100 people at a meeting within 24 hours if we needed it.”7 Regulating Porn In 1981, the small but growing city of Renton (population 32,000 at the time and home to a Boeing airplane plant and other manufacturing) took a look at the landscape of adult entertainment. It was, by some accounts, the “golden age of pornography,” during which professionally produced films such as Behind the Green Door (1972) and The Devil in Miss Jones (1973) were discussed openly and, of course, making tons of money. With home video still in its infancy, adult movie theaters began cropping up around the country. The outcry against porn came from religious conservatives, in the shape of Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority, some (but not all) feminist groups, President Ronald Reagan, and many ordinary citizens. Others viewed porn as free speech, perhaps even sex-positive. Many jurisdictions found themselves dealing not only with community disapproval of obscenity, but with what were termed the “secondary effects” of adult entertainment: blighted areas of adult bookstores, dance clubs, peep shows, and other unsavory establishments, which lowered property values and increased crime or the perception of it.1 In some cities, including Seattle and Boston, the solution was to circumscribe the area in which such activities would be allowed. (In Seattle it was 1st Avenue downtown.) In others, notably Detroit, authorities opted to require that such facilities be dispersed throughout the city. The Detroit ordinance was defended successfully before the Supreme Court in 1976, the Court’s first recognition of zoning laws. That case, Young v. American Mini Theatres, Inc., would become key to the argument for the Renton ordinance. Renton decided to get out in front of the problem; City Ordinance No. 3526 was passed on April 13, 1981, before any adult movies were shown in the city. Perhaps there had been rumors. Perhaps it was coincidence that by the end of the year porn mogul Roger Forbes and his business, Playtime Theatres, Inc., had acquired the use of two vacant movie houses, The Renton and The Roxy, across the street Continued from page 1 Renton Theatre marquee advertising adults-only movies. (#1993.127.0062a) Continued on page 6 6 | RENTON HISTORY MUSEUM Folks were drawn to the movement for a variety of reasons. Some were religious conservatives; some business owners were concerned about property values. Others were concerned about the effects on children who might pass the theater on the way to nearby schools. Some feminists saw porn as exploitation of women. Keolker had to work to keep the focus on zoning as the issue in question. Taking It to the Courts The fight over adult movies in Renton unfolded on two tracks: the city, with the help of the CQC, took a stand on its zoning ordinance, insisting that the issue was not one of limiting free expression, but rather one of protecting the interests of the community from the secondary effects of pornography. This was the city's stance as the Playtime case wound its way through the federal courts. Parallel to the federal court case, when Roger Forbes defied the ordinance by showing films like Debbie Does Dallas (1978) and Deep Throat (1972), the city went to King County Superior Court in the spring of 1984 seeking an injunction against him. Superior Court: Judging Obscenity Unlike the federal case, the Superior Court case turned on the definition of obscenity. A decade earlier in Miller v. California (1973) the majority in the U.S. Supreme Court had formulated a three-part test for identifying obscene materials: if they appealed to a “prurient interest,” if they “depict[ed] or describe[d], in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct,” and also lacked “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”8 The exact interpretation of this test was left to local jurisdictions. Larry Warren was the city’s lead attorney at the time. Later he recalled how the city's request for an injunction turned into a full-blown obscenity trial when Superior Court Judge Nancy Ann Holman decided to seat an advisory (non-binding) jury. If the jurors found the films obscene, the movies would not be entitled to First Amendment protection, or so the argument went. To make the determination, the Roger Forbes posed in front of the Renton Theatre, 1984. (Photo by Mark Morris, Renton Reporter Collection, #2019.007.287) City Attorney Larry Warren later recalled that he and Renton Mayor Barbara Shinpoch “spent a lot of time talking tactics on how to handle lawsuits… and the appeals.” (Renton Reporter Collection, #2019.007.009) FALL QUARTERLY, 2024 | 7 jurors were treated to a full viewing of ten pornographic films in Roger Forbes’s catalog.10 Warren vividly remembered the spectacle: “The jurors were taken down by bus and they parked over at the old City Hall parking lot. They walked down to The Renton Theater and were met on the way by television cameras, and they were hiding their faces. I took note of that because it became a key part of my final argument, and then we went into the theater and they had to watch the ten movies. It took three and a half days. “They filed into the theater just as if they were going into a jury box. And after the first movie they scattered: the older ladies went as far away as they could into one corner. The younger men went one direction. The older men went in another direction. There was a couple that hovered in the middle who didn't know who they wanted to be with, which I thought was telling.”11 Having slogged through 10 blue movies and reviewing the definition of obscenity as outlined in Miller v. California, the advisory panel found four of the 10 obscene. Judge Holman went one better and declared that, as there was little difference in the films, all were obscene. Her judgment, in March 1984, became the basis for an injunction against Forbes that was granted that May.12 A Federal Case Meanwhile, back in federal district court, Judge Walter T. McGovern ruled the Renton ordinance constitutional in February 1983, but it was a short-lived victory for the city. A year later Roger Forbes won a hearing before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Larry Warren argued the case for the city, inviting his wife and son to watch. It was, he said, a “bloody slaughter.”13 The three-judge panel, sitting in Seattle, struck down the ordinance on November 28, 1984, questioning Renton's motives for wishing to ban adult movies. Stung by the defeat at the Ninth Circuit, the city turned to the court of last resort, submitting a petition for a writ of certiorari, or a request to review, to the Supreme Court of the United States. Of thousands of such requests made each year, the Supreme Court agrees to hear approximately two percent. Renton made the cut; oral arguments were scheduled for November 12, 1985. Larry Warren and his team made a decision to hire a Washington, D.C.-based attorney experienced in arguing before the high court, E. Barrett Prettyman, Jr.14 Arriving at the Supreme Court Building, Warren found it filled with would-be spectators. Kathy Keolker and representatives of CQC were in attendance, as was Roger Forbes. In accordance with standard procedure, each side was given half an hour to make its case, with the city, as the petitioning party, going first. Prettyman argued the city’s case and Jack Burns laid out the case for Forbes. The justices focused a great deal of attention on the possibility of Kathy Keolker was a wife and mother when this issue launched her involvement in local government. (Record- Chronicle, 9 November 1982.) After an anti-pornography rally at Renton High School, nearly 100 people picketed Forbes’s theaters in Renton in January 1982. (Published in the Record- Chronicle, 29 January 1982.) 8 | RENTON HISTORY MUSEUM alternative siting for an adult theater. Jack Burns responded by suggesting that Renton was jumping to conclusions about the effects of a single theater in the city and that specific problems, such as traffic or transients, could be dealt with if and when they occurred. “I think we have to ... solve these problems that deal with First Amendment concerns by the least intrusive means,” Burns argued. “You do not take a sledgehammer when a scalpel will do.”15 Warren recalled the moment he believes the case turned in Renton’s favor: “Burns said that we were talking about the negative secondary effects of these films, but [he argued] that there really were no negative secondary effects. ‘You know, the people who go in to see those movies are really no different than you or I,’ and two or three of the Justices said ‘Oh no, not me!’ And he just totally lost them right there. “We knew we’d lost [Justices] Brennan and Marshall before we ever went into court, because they always voted the most expansive way they could on the First Amendment. So we had to get five of the remaining seven. And we're counting people. And I said, ‘I think we got six.’ And somebody said, ‘We might even have gotten seven.’”16 “Time, Place, and Manner” In fact, the Court’s decision, handed down on February 25, 1986, was split, with six in favor of Renton’s case, one concurring, and two opposed—in effect, a seven-to-two decision.17 The constitutionality of the ordinance was upheld and the right of municipalities to regulate the siting of adult entertainment was affirmed. Justice William Rehnquist penned the majority opinion. Citing the 1976 Detroit case, Rehnquist wrote: “The Renton ordinance, like the one in American Mini Theatres, does not ban adult theaters altogether ... [It] is therefore properly analyzed as a form of time, place, and manner regulation ... [Such] so-called ‘content-neutral’ time, place, and manner regulations are acceptable so long as they are designed to serve a substantial governmental interest and do not unreasonably limit alternative avenues of communication.”18 The Court’s majority agreed with the city’s arguments that the ordinance was not an assault on free speech since there were alternative locations where adult films could be shown, i.e. the industrial area on the outskirts of town. The ordinance was “designed to serve a substantial government interest” in preserving the quality of life for residents. It was “content-neutral,” because it targeted the “secondary effects” of adult theaters on the surrounding community, not the films themselves. Further, the Court Renton’s reputation as a wide-open city sometimes conflicted with its desire to attract families and workers. Bars like Toodie Twill’s advertised “topless go-go girls” and “exotic dancers,” ca. 1973 – 1974. (#2023.003.013) Kathy Keolker, then-Coordinator of Citizens for a Quality Community, cautiously rejected theater-owner Roger Forbes’s gift of chocolates, to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. (#1993.127.0031) FALL QUARTERLY, 2024 | 9 affirmed that Renton need not have conducted studies of secondary effects, but could rely on such studies conducted in other places. As Warren predicted, Justices William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall disagreed with the majority, contending that the ordinance was not “content-neutral,” but, in fact, targeted a specific form of speech. Larry Warren heard of the Court's decision when he was contacted by a reporter at home in the wee hours of the morning. Asked for a statement, he replied “Well, my statement is: I’m very pleased!”19 The Aftermath As news of the city’s victory spread, a number of other jurisdictions called upon Warren and his staff for advice on moving forward with ordinances of their own. Local cities, including Des Moines, Kent, Everett, Redmond, and Bellevue, had kept a close eye on the case.20 Roger Forbes gave up his interest in the Renton and Roxy Theaters but continued his business operations elsewhere, focusing on live entertainment. As of 2018 he was a partner in Déjà Vu, the self-proclaimed “#1 Erotic Entertainment Chain in the World.” He also battled the City of Seattle to be allowed to develop a property he owned on Seattle's 1st Avenue, the historic Showbox Theater, which he planned to sell to a Canadian developer. He retired sometime before 2023.21 The performing arts organization Renton Civic Theatre leased the boarded-up Renton Theater building in 1987, shortly after the Playtime case; the not-for-profit organization purchased the theater in 1993 and restored its art deco lobby. The Roxy is currently being used as a church. Kathy Keolker was elected to the Renton City Council in 1983 and went on to serve as Renton’s mayor from 2004 through 2007. One of her proudest memories is of attending the Supreme Court hearing in 1985: “Getting to see the culmination of all these years of work, it was just such an emotional moment.”22 Larry Warren retired from the city in the spring of 2018 after 43 years of service to Renton. City of Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc. remains on the books and continues to be widely cited. Together with Young v. American Mini Theatres Inc. (1976), Renton v. Playtime established reliable legal guidelines for cities wishing to appropriately zone adults-only entertainment. As long as a city demonstrated a substantial public interest in regulating X-rated theaters, it could rely on other cities’ studies to argue the unhealthy secondary effects of such businesses. The Renton case provided municipalities with tools to address the proliferation in the 1970s and 1980s of adult theaters, bookstores, and live entertainment, while preserving the country’s interest in free speech.23 The city of Renton has tripled in size since the Playtime Theatres case, to a population of more than 100,000. No one has taken up the offer to show adult movies in the unrestricted zone, although one can find other forms of adult entertainment there.24 Meanwhile, adults-only movie theaters have largely given way to home viewing options. From videocassettes to DVDs to online streaming, smut has changed with the times. Larry Warren summed it up this way: “My joke at the end of this all was that the city ended up killing a corpse with a golden bullet, because we spent so much money on [regulating] theaters and by the time we got done, everything was on [video] cassette tapes. Why go to a grimy theater? But by then… you know, the train had left the station and we had to defend ourselves. But still it was… a dead industry.”25 The Supreme Court oral arguments in the case can be heard online.26 1 The notion of the unhealthy secondary effects of adult entertainment would become important to the success of Renton’s ordinance. The concept was based on a study conducted by the Los Angeles Police Department between 1965 and 1975 and published in 1977, showing that crimes such as robbery and prostitution grew much faster in Hollywood than in other areas without adult entertainment. Other cities followed with their own studies. See Britt Cramer, “Zoning Adult Businesses: Evaluating the Secondary Effects Doctrine,” Discussion Paper No. 48, January 2013, Harvard John M. Olin Fellow’s Discussion Paper Series, access at http://www.law.harvard.edu/ programs/olin_center/fellows_papers/pdf/Cramer_48.pdf, 13 August 2024. 2 The Renton and Roxy were venerable theaters built in the 1920s and 1930s. Benjamin Fey’s Renton Theater opened in the Argano Building in early 1925 and at one point was called the Rainier Theater; the Renton showed silent movies, with piano accompaniment. In 1936 Fey opened the newly constructed Roxy Theater across the street. (The Fey family also owned a third Renton theater, the Grand, for a time.) In 1978 son Erwin Fey sold the theaters to Bob and Ella McRae, stipulating no adult films could be shown, but competition from Southcenter Mall, which had opened in 1968, made it difficult to attract shoppers and movie-goers downtown, and movie exhibitors looked for other ways to turn a profit. 3 John Hartl, “Roger Forbes Buys Theater in Redmond,” Seattle Times, 31 December 1981, p.E6. 4 Eric Pryne, “Forbes to Close Renton Adult Theater,” Seattle Times, 12 November 1985, p.A1. 5 Philip Hager, “Important Guidelines Expected: High Court to Rule on Adult Business Zoning,” Los Angeles Times, 22 February 1986. 6 Eleanor Boba interview with Kathy Keolker, 17 October 2018 (Collection of the author). 7 Ibid. 8 Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973). 9 Warren & Kellogg, the law firm of Larry Warren and Dan Kellogg, contracted with the City for attorney’s services during this period. Dan Kellogg also worked on the Playtime case. 10 Tom Kathy, “Jury to View Films Shown at Renton Theater,” Seattle Times, 8 September 1983, p.24; Julie Emery and Dee Norton, “Jury Splits on X-Rated Films in Renton,” Seattle Times, 24 January 1984, p.10. 11 Eleanor Boba interview with Larry Warren, 17 October 2018 (#2018.015.006, Collection of the Renton History Museum). 12 Julie Emery and Dee Norton, “Jury Splits on X-Rated Films in Renton,” Seattle Times, 24 January 1984, p.10; Tomas Guillen, “Renton Wins Suit Against Adult Theater,” Seattle Times, 10 March 1984, p.1; Julie Emery, “Renton to Continue Adult-Film Battle,” Seattle Times, 14 March 1984, p.21. 13 Warren interview. 14 Prettyman Jr. had earned a reputation as a tough talker when negotiating the release of American prisoners from Cuban jails following the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion in 1962; more recently, he had served as the lead attorney in the U.S. House of Representatives investigation of the Abscam congressional bribery scandal in 1981. 15 The entire transcript of the oral arguments can be heard on Oyez.org - https://www.oyez.org/cases/1985/84-1360. This quotation can be heard at the 29:18 mark. 10 | RENTON HISTORY MUSEUM Renton History Museum 235 Mill Avenue South Renton, WA 98057 Phone: 425.430.6440 Fax: 425.255.1570 www.rentonwa.gov/rentonhistorymuseum STAY ON OUR MAILING LIST Name: _________________________________________________________ Address: ________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ Phone: _________________________________________________________ 16 Warren interview. 17 Justice Harry Blackmun concurred with the majority, meaning he agreed with the outcome but for different reasons. 18 City of Renton v. Playtime Theatres Inc., 475 U.S. 41 (1986). 19 Warren interview. 20 Julie Emery, “Renton to Continue Adult-Film Battle,” Seattle Times, 14 March 1984, p.21. 21 Eric Pryne, “Forbes to Close Renton Adult Theater,” Seattle Times, 12 November 1985, p.A1; “X-Rated Movies—Community Judgment Swifter Than the Court’s,” Seattle Times, 26 November 1985, p.A8; Erica C. Barnett, “The Latest Battle Over the Showbox,” Seattle Magazine, 20 June 2019, accessed at https://seattlemag.com/latest-battle-over-showbox/, 8 August 2024. After the arguments were complete, Forbes claimed he would have closed the theaters in 1984 if not for the Supreme Court case, mostly because attendance was too low to make them profitable. 22 Keolker interview. 23 Alan C. Weinstein, “The Renton Decision: A New Standard for Adult Business Regulation,” Journal of Urban and Contemporary Law (1987), vol. 32, p.111-119, accessed at https://journals.library.wustl.edu/urbanlaw/ article/8460/galley/25293/view/, 14 August 2024. 24 Mike Lindblom, “Renton Weighs Establishing an X-Rated Zone,” Renton Reporter, 11 June 1999, p. B1; Celeste Gracey, “Church Group Takes Stand Against Strip Clubs in Renton,” Renton Reporter, 23 March 2010, p.A1. 25 Warren interview. 26 See www.oyez.org/cases/1985/84-1360. You’ve heard of the Boston Tea Party – but that wasn’t the only tea-related event that sparked the American Revolution 250 years ago. In the year or two before the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, all sorts of revolutionary “tea parties” were taking place up and down the Atlantic Seaboard. Join presenter Barbara McMichael at the Renton History Museum on Thursday, September 19, at 4 p.m. for “Tempests in Teapots,” an engaging, interactive history presentation and tea-tasting event that will shed light on how a simple temperance beverage – and all the people who loved to drink it – raised tempers enough to brew a revolution. This event is suitable for ages 13 and up, and it is free. This project is sponsored by a grant from the Renton Municipal Arts Commission, with the support of the Renton History Museum. However, space is limited and advance registration is required. Please register at Eventbrite at https://www. eventbrite.com/e/tempests- in-teapots-at-the-renton- history-museum-tickets- 1004013791277?aff=oddtd tcreator. TEMPESTS IN TEAPOTS WITH BARBARA McMICHAEL FALL QUARTERLY, 2024 | 11 THE SEARCH FOR A LOST BURIAL AT CEDAR MOUNTAIN By Robin Adams A mystery surrounds the last resting place of a miner, John Morris, who died in the 1894 Franklin coal mine accident. Born in Wales in 1850, at his death by asphyxiation, he left a wife, Rachael, and four children. We can find all the other miners’ graves, except his. They are buried in the cemeteries of Franklin, Black Diamond, Renton, Seattle, and Kent. A newspaper article documents where the Franklin disaster miners were buried. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer on August 27, 1894, goes into detail of the funerals and the locations. It states that John Morris was buried at Cedar Mountain and the town turned out en masse to mourn him. The building with the X on the far left (below) is the company store. It is next to the railroad which is now the Cedar River Trail. The row of homes across from the store is where Hwy 169 is located. Every time we use the highway we drive right over Cedar Mountain. Research has brought several theories on where John Morris’ final resting place is. The State of Washington lists the location as unknown. They note that he was likely buried on his homestead by Lake Kathleen. My search has taken me to the one remaining undeveloped area within his homestead. That owner told me he has owned the property for decades and never found a grave. Another issue with this location is how difficult it would be for a horse-drawn wagon to navigate a steep road built in 1887. The other place we have searched is on the west hill above Cedar Mountain. This area was also serviced by a steep dirt road that was built in 1885. Is he up there? The family of John Morris searched for decades to find his grave. Rumor has it they found him in the 1990s. However, that information is now lost in time. Another bit of history is that Mr. Morris’ grandson was one of the “Boys in the Boat” who won the rowing gold medal at the 1936 Olympics. So much history encircles this family. Several of us history researchers continue to pursue new leads and search the old, deserted roads in the woods. The hope is we will one day solve the mystery of where John Morris is buried. Cedar Mountain today is a ghost town with no original buildings left standing. Here is how Cedar Mountain looked in 1889. (Photo courtesy of the Renton Museum.) RENTON HISTORY MUSEUM 235 Mill Ave. S Renton, WA 98057 Citizens for a Quality Community used this map to demonstrate the adult theater’s proximity to residential neighborhoods (blue) and schools and churches (yellow). The theater is outlined in red. (#1993.127.0030)