![]() ![]() The cluster of pornographic bookstores and theaters attracted men from all over the Twin Cities. But these Lake Street storefronts would serve as the core of what one newspaper called their "empire of smut." They owned a string of businesses across the state. The Alexanders enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the distribution of pornography in Minnesota. ![]() An adult entertainment district began to take shape on Lake Street. Soon a bookstore opened next to the theater. Once a destination for family moviegoers, the theater began screening movies like Deep Throat. ![]() In 1969, the brothers bought the Rialto Theater on Lake Street. In the late 1960s, a pair of Minneapolis entrepreneurs named Ferris and Edward Alexander sensed opportunity. MacKinnon and Dworkin wrote a controversial amendment to the city's expansive civil rights ordinance that defined pornography as a violation of women's civil rights. In 1983, after years of unsuccessful protest, these activists sought help from nationally known feminist theorists Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin. In 1977, residents of South Minneapolis mobilized to fight the expansion of adult entertainment businesses along Lake Street. ![]()
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