 The Exploiter's prediction about our future was wrong, but it still says quite a bit about where we are today. 
Above is a cover of the tabloid The Exploiter, from an issue published thirty-nine years ago today. This is the first time we’ve featured this publication, and you can see, with stories about Christine Keeler and Marilyn Monroe, that it was just as focused on sex and violence as the rest. It also had a regular column from Church of Satan leader Anton LaVey—an advice column, no less. But what we really like here is the story about Danish porn flooding America. In it, a criminologist named Bert Kutchlinski says that though pornography was exploding, it would disappear entirely in the next ten to fifteen years—after serving its purpose of liberating women and educating men—and that “participation will become the order of the day.” Kutchlinski’s predictive powers are like a comedy routine, right? Porn will disappear! Hah hah. Because everyone will be happily getting laid! Bwahaha. But consider the idealism involved. In 1971 tens of millions of Americans still had these utopian dreams. Today? Well, not so much. Wait, who were we just laughing at? Suddenly we can’t remember.
 Double double toil and trouble... 

The Italian shockumentary Angeli bianchi … angeli neri—which translates into English as White Angel, Black Angel—was released in the United States under neither title, but as Witchcraft ’70. The film, which featured Anton and Diane LaVey, purported to be a Mondo Cane-style exposé of contemporary witchcraft, voodoo cults, and pagan rituals shot via hidden camera. But its sonorously narrated segments showing naked exorcism, a nude girl drenched in boar’s blood and other lurid rituals, were staged by veteran italo-director Luigi Scattini. Nevertheless, the film enjoyed a wide release, playing in far-flung locales such as Sweden and Japan. It premiered today in the U.S. in 1970. 
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The headlines that mattered yesteryear.
1930—Chrysler Building Opens
In New York City, after a mere eighteen months of construction, the Chrysler Building opens to the public. At 1,046 feet, 319 meters, it is the tallest building in the world at the time, but more significantly, William Van Alen's design is a landmark in art deco that is celebrated to this day as an example of skyscraper architecture at its most elegant. 1969—Jeffrey Hunter Dies
American actor Jeffrey Hunter dies of a cerebral hemorrhage after falling down a flight of stairs and sustaining a skull fracture, a mishap precipitated by his suffering a stroke seconds earlier. Hunter played many roles, including Jesus in the 1961 film King of Kings, but is perhaps best known for portraying Captain Christopher Pike in the original Star Trek pilot episode "The Cage". 1938—Alicante Is Bombed
During the Spanish Civil War, a squadron of Italian bombers sent by fascist dictator Benito Mussolini to support the insurgent Spanish Nationalists, bombs the town of Alicante, killing more than three-hundred people. Although less remembered internationally than the infamous Nazi bombing of Guernica the previous year, the death toll in Alicante is similar, if not higher. 1977—Star Wars Opens
George Lucas's sci-fi epic Star Wars premiers in the Unites States to rave reviews and packed movie houses. Produced on a budget of $11 million, the film goes on to earn $460 million in the U.S. and $337 million overseas, while spawning a franchise that would eventually earn billions and make Lucas a Hollywood icon.
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