Porn Mogul Jim Mitchell Dies at 63

Jim Mitchell, the pioneering pornographer who was convicted of killing the brother with whom he built the Mitchell Brothers skin flick empire, has died, according to the Sonoma County coroner's office. He was 63.

Mitchell, who along with his late younger brother, Artie, produced "Behind the Green Door" and other classic porn films during the 1970s, died Thursday night at the ranch near Petaluma where he lived quietly since his release from San Quentin State Prison in 1997.

The cause of death was not immediately known, but foul play was not suspected, according to Sonoma County Sheriff's Sgt. Mitch Mana. Paramedics who were called to Mitchell's home on Thursday night tried to revive him but were unsuccessful, Mana said.

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In 1969, the Mitchells opened a still-running adult movie theater on San Francisco's O'Farrell Street that would later serve as the launching pad for the duo's comparatively highbrow productions, which included "Resurrection of Eve" and "Sodom and Gomorrah: The Last 7 Days."

The pair, who faced multiple arrests on obscenity charges, ultimately produced hundreds of films.

In all, the brothers would produce hundreds of films, face and beat more than 100 arrests on obscenity charges and help pave the trail for what has become a multibillion dollar adult movie industry.

Jim dropped out of S.F. State's film program in the late 1960s, offended by a professor's criticism of his student work. In 1968 film censorship had officially died (the industry Production Code was replaced by the self-policing ratings regimen of the MPAA) and the mainstream barriers against sexually explicit film began dropping as rapidly as a porno actress' bluejeans. While there was not as yet any hardcore feature-length films, the liberalization was felt in the fringes of the grindhouse circuits by the transition from softcore forms featuring discreet nudity and then full-frontal nudity to hardcore porn loops and ten-minute shorts featuring actual intercourse, the so-called "Tijuana" stag flicks, since hardcore porn until that time time could only be seen -- outside of a gentleman's "smoker" -- in a "legitimate" theater in outposts such as that Mexican city across the border from San Diego.

The films were shot on the cheap with student-caliber 16mm cameras. Jim and his associates created grindhouse nudies and hardcore cinema with the pretensions of student filmmakers, but when Artie partnered with Jim, the pretensions to art were dropped in favor of churning out product like sausages for their O'Farrell Theater, which was opened on Independence Day, 1969, located on the site of an old Pontiac automobile showroom.  The San Francisco Police Department raided the theater shortly after it opened, and obscenity charges were filed against the Mitchell Brothers, but there were many left-wing lawyers ready to defend them and their First Amendment rights in late 1960s San Francisco.

In the sybaritic confines of the O'Farrell Theater, the Mitchell Bros. pushed the envelope on what was acceptable fare for exhibition and were arrested for obscenity numerous times. It was a much more liberal era, and the courts generally leaned toward expanding adults' rights to view films of their own choice. Beating the raps made them well-known in California and gave them a countercultural allure they reveled in, as well as making them rich. By 1971 they decided to make a feature film and show it at their own theater (for the auteur Jim, a feature film also was a logical next step). Behind the Green Door (1972), one of the classics of the genre, is based on an anonymous GI novella that used to circulate in barracks after WWII (and was the subject of a hit song in the 1950s that non-military types did not understand). Arguably the best reviewed porno film ever, the movie was dreamed up by ex-GI Artie and shot by Jim on a $60,000 budget.