Heights Theater, 1941
On the film's opening night, the Cleveland Heights Police raided the theater, seized the film, and arrested manager Nico Jacobellis, who was subsequently convicted of obscenity charges in Cuyahoga County Court. He appealed the case all the way to the United States Supreme Court, which overturned his conviction in 1964, ruling that the movie could not be considered obscene and was thus protected under the First Amendment. Justice Potter Stewart gave the most famous quote from the ruling. Certain that Les Amants was not pornographic, but unable (or unwilling) to define exactly what pornography was, he insisted that "I know it when I see it," which came to be an oft-repeated catchphrase..
| Date: 1941 | Source: Cleveland Heights Historical Society