A fight rated ‘X,’ 45 years ago

In early 1974, the La Crosse area had two drive-in theaters…Starlite on the south side, and the North Star near I-90.  The town of Medary had approved an ordinance to ban X-rated movies from the North Star screen, which could be seen by drivers passing on the interstate.  But the Marcus Theater chain vowed to fight the ban in court, arguing that X-rated films were an ‘economic necessity’ for the North Star.  

There were X-rated sights on college campuses in ’74, the year that streaking reached its peak in the U.S.  Two nude runners streaked through a large chemistry assembly class at Cowley Hall on the UW-L campus that spring.  On another occasion, streakers were spotted at the UW-L dining hall…followed later than night by 50 students running naked between two dorms near the stadium.  Plans for the mass streak had been announced to the local media that day.  

Viterbo staged the popular comedy ‘My Sister Eileen’ that semester.  Susan Fox and Colleen Henney played two sisters who moved from the Midwest to New York.  The cast also included UW-L marketing professor William Parks, in 1974, yesterday in La Crosse.