Wednesday, May 22, 1974
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Threee
Memory of 1967 Flaming
eatures7 bust still lingers
By GORDON ATCHESON
Seven years ago, an experimental -
some people say obscene - film had its
Ann Arbor premier cut short by the
city vice squad which quite literally
walked off with the show.
A heavy-set cop with a crew-cut, ac-
companied by a few cohorts, attended
the Architecture Aud. screening of Flam-
ing Creatures on a frigid January eve-
ning in 1967.
BUT IT WASN'T the policeman's night
off. If it were, he wouldn't have spent
his time watching an avant-garde movie
in a cramped, dingy theatre.
He came to do a job. After 15 min-
utes he confiscated the movie for its
allegedly lewd content.
The cop is gone. Lt. Eugene Stauden-
meier retired to the sultry Florida beach-
es several years ago. The trial of four
Cinema Guild members who were ar-
rested for violating state obscenity sta-
tues by showing the movie is over.
NONETHELESS, Flaming Creatures
has not been forgotten by those who
were here then and many people who
have subsequently heard the story sur-
rounding the bust.
In many University circles, the movie's
title has become something of a "Re-
member-the-Alamo" slogan against cen-
sorship and outside interference with the
student-operated, on-campus motion pic-
ture societies.
However, the current fracas between
the Board of Regents and the film
groups over the showing of blue movies
is pretty tame stuff compared to the
lengthy, well-publicized battle concern-
ing the creatures and their antics.
IRONICALLY, the content of Flaming
Creatures pales or more appropriately
blushes compared to the likes of Behind
the Green Door, The Devil in Miss
Jones and Deep Throat - all of which
have been shown on-campus this semes-
ter.
Banned in New York and Amsterdam,
Flaming Creatures in its most explicit
scenes featured total male and female
nudity, simulated sexual intercourse, and
an orgy interspaced with language be-
fitting a Marine drill sergeant.
Such things have now become pret-
ty standard fare for many contemporary
"R" rated motion pictures and bear-only
a fleeting resemblance to the graphic gy-
rations of Linda Lovelace.
"TODAY YOU could almost show the
movie in a local theatre with a Walt Dis-
ney feature and nobody would get up-
set," commented English Prof. Hugh
Cohen, then faculty advisor to Cinema
Guild, yesterday.
But in 1967. Marilyn Chambers of
Green Door fame and fortune was still
in high school and the University cam-
pus had not exploded into the full-blown
radicalism that would characterize the
subsequent half decade.
"The movie was shown on the fore-
front of the 'new morality' wave and
See 'FLAMING', Page 8
Ci to mark
150th birthday
on Saturday
By ANDREA LILLY
It's Ann Arbor's birthday. This fair
town will be 150 years old, and this Sat-
urday, May 25, there will be a city-wide
celebration of the landmark event.
According to Lila Green, coordinator
of the sesquicentennial celebration,
"This is strictly a birthday party, we
are discouraging sidewalk sales and so-
liciting of any kind."
BUT THIS WILL be a birthday party
in grand style! As the sayng goes it
will offer something for everyone.
There will be big bands, a review of
musical theater in America entitled "Re-
gards to Broadway," circuses, old-fash-
ioned swim meets, square dancing, farm
crafts and countless other attractions.
Green has gotten permission from the
Board of Health to have sidewalk cafes
outside local restaurants throughout
town.
She points out that a car is not neces-
sary for these events and is probably
to be discouraged since the Jaycees will
provide free bus service from all over
the city to the various events.
AP Photo
Sticks her neck out
Being a giraffe is not always as easy as one might think, and Twiggy, a five-
year-old camelopardalis from a zoo outside San Francisco tells her story to the
press during a recent interview.
Guru Maharaj ii weds secretary
DENVER 01}- Guru Maharaj Ji, the The wedding was followed by an ela- The guru has achieved fame in the
16-year-old'perfect master" who claims borate reception at tie guri's $ t,000 U.S. during the past year with several;
six million followers, has married his house in a fashionable Denver neighbor- appearances around he country and a
24 year-old secretary - after receiving hood Monday night. Olman said the number of run-ins with authorities.
special permission froz a juvenile court party included music and "Christmas
judge. lights" adorning the htue. THE OWNER of a whi e Cadillac, re-
Barry Ollman, a spokesman for the
short, cherubic guru, said about %O per-
sons attended the notdenominational
wedding Monday night.
MAHARAJ JI is spiritual leader of the
Divine Light Mission. He says his pur-
pose is to bring world peace by impart-
ing "the knowledge," which his follow-
ers say cannot be adequately described
in words.
The guru wore a dark tuxedo to the
wedding. The bride, Marolyn Lois John-
son, wore a white and red gown.
Maharaj Ji, who has recently begun
sporting a sparse mustache, met his
blonde bride about a year ago. Ollman
said her parents, Mr. and Ms. D a I e
Johnson, traveled to fhe .eremony from
their home in San Diego, Calif.
OLLMAN described the bride as "a
very beautiful, humble person." Other
devotees said she played the role of a
stewardess in a film made for the mis-
sion entitled "Who is Maharaj Ji?"
. "It's all happened so fast," Oilman
said, "We're all spinning."
A HUGE cabin cruiser nounted on a
trailer and decorated with yellow ribbons
- apparently a gift to the guru - re-
mained on the lawn yesterday afternoon.
A silver Maserati sports car was parked
in the driveway, and "Just married" was
written in whitewash on the tear win-
dows.
Maharaj Ji needed a court order from
Juvenile Court Judge Morris .Cole to
obtain a marriage license because Col-
orado law requires men to be 18 to be
married without parental permission.
The guru's father is dead and his
mother lives in India.
MAHARAJ JI claims mre than 30,000
followers in the United States and six
million worldwide. The Divine Light Mis-
sion, which is the guru's spiritual organ-
ization, is based in Denver.
Born in India, the Maharaj Ji reigns
-over a million-dollar business mission-
ary corporation that includes activities
such as film production, educational pro-
jects and the Cleanliness is Next to
Godliness Janitorial Service,
portedly another present from his fol-
lowers, Maharaj Ji was stopped by cus-
toms officials last summer when ne tried
to carry a suitcase full of jewelry and
other gifts into India without declaring
it.
A visit the guru paid to Detroit's Coisi-
mon Council brought him big coverage
later in the summer when a reporter for
the underground paper the Fifth Estate
hit the guru in the face with a cream
pie.
Rennie Davis, former anti-war activist
and Chicago Seven defendant, came to
Ann Arbor last spring to gain converts
to Maharaj Ji's faith. Davis told a cur-
ious Hill Aud. audience, "If you knew,
what I know, you'd crawl around the
world to kiss his toe."
Davis is not the only new left figure
who has come over to the Maiiaraj Ji,
leaving old friends and political suIs-
porters mystified. He says working for
the guru is another way to strive toward
the same goal - world peace - that-he
espoused in the anti-war movement.
THE BRIDE of Guru Maharaj Ji, for-
merly Marolyn Lois Johnson of Sass
Diego.