1972 seemed to be the apogee of porn – or at least the kind you did in public, like massage parlors, saunas, lingerie shows, places where women tickle you with feathers, and dancers without tops and/or bottoms.  A surprising number of the latter turned out to be married women with children, if you believe the papers.  A lot of these places were advertised in magazines that were, on the surface, supposed to tell hotel visitors what to watch on TV, but were packed with ads for places much more interesting to watch.

And so we have the Play Pen, which I can’t really do a newspaper search for, but came across in the personals announcing the Grand Opening on November 2, 1972.  “St. Paul’s newest club, exotic dancers.  See it all at the Play Pen, Smith and 7th.”

This soon got out of hand and on the last nerve of City Councils everywhere, so eventually these places went away or were replaced by strip clubs with strict rules.

And now we have the internet, so we can do our  peeping in private.

There you have a very perfunctory history lesson.