Pam cinema

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PAM cinemas were a German sex cinema - franchise .

background

A reform of Section 184 of the Criminal Code passed by the German Bundestag in 1974 , which came into force on January 27, 1975, made it possible to show porn films , which had been banned until then , provided that they did not count as illegal hard pornography . However, the law forbade the showing of pornographic films as the main purpose of a cinema company, stating that it would be a criminal offense to:

"... shows in a public film screening for a fee that is wholly or predominantly required for this screening".

The PAM cinemas

Typical newspaper advertisement for a PAM cinema, here for the studio in Lübeck (1975)

The Dortmund film distribution company Bauer KG used the long-prepared new version of Section 184 to develop a porn cinema concept at an early stage, which corresponded to the wording of the law and was nevertheless aimed exclusively at the lucrative showing of porn films: the cinemas were licensed as pub operations . The guests paid an entrance fee of 10 to 12 D-Marks , of which roughly 60% was nominally accounted for by the drink that the cinema-goer could choose. In this way it was guaranteed that, at least mathematically, most of the income came from the bar, but not from showing the films.

Bauer KG acquired the rights to a large number of porn films shot in the USA , the showing of which was now legal in Germany and which were far more explicit in their depiction of sexuality than the already permitted and well-known soft sex films from German and Swedish production. Bauer KG only lent these sought-after films to cinemas whose operators had licensed the franchise known as PAM cinema from them. In order not to oversaturate the market, Bauer KG did not issue more than one license in any city - only the major cities of Hamburg , West Berlin and Munich were exceptions.

Since the advertising of pornographic films was still prohibited with an express reference to their pornographic character, notices and advertisements in the PAM cinemas did not mention the film titles. Instead, it was customary to use the phrase film sensation from the USA with the note that the title could be requested at the box office. Also because of the ban on advertising pornography, it was not made known what the three letters PAM stood for. The PAM cinemas themselves were advertised as gastronomy + cinema in order to bring the company's alleged main gastronomic purpose to the fore.

As possibly the last former franchise , the Passau PAM cinema closed in 2015. It had existed since the mid-1970s (at the last location, with only twelve seats, since 1990), the operator was 85 years old at the time the business was closed. Most recently, entry including a drink was € 5.

swell

  1. ^ Regiowiki Niederbayern: PAM cinema

literature