Paris’ Lone Porno House Keeps Fighting The Good Fight

Once Giuliani got his grimy paws all over Times Square and turned it into the sanitized, "family friendly" place it is now, the porno house went from endangered species to virtually extinct. Even in Europe, the most sexually liberated continent on earth, the porno house is all but dead, save for one cinema in Paris that continues to fight the good fight.

Reuters UK (link below) recently profiled "Le Beverly," Paris' lone porno cinema plays a mix of 35mm classic prints as well as more modern porn.

Owner Maurice Laroche has run the theater for 30 years and remembers the heyday of sex cinemas, when Paris's Grands Boulevards area was full of competitors.

But with the Internet and on-demand pornography, Laroche has seen numbers plummet with 1,000 fewer customers passing through the poster-lined hall every week than they did 15 years ago.

It's understandable in this day and age that people want porn to be more of an individual thing, but Laroche says that it's the sense of community that makes his cinema the place to be.

"Those clients meet others in the cinema who they've known for some time, and who they've got along with. Quite a few meet up at midday for a little lunch before heading to Le Beverley to let the food go down," he said.

Some 700, almost exclusively male, customers return weekly and Laroche puts the average age at about 60.

So yeah, if you're looking to just be cool and hangout the next time you're in Paris, head on over to Le Beverly.

Via Reuters UK