Thursday, May 13, 1999
Videos still readily available
BY TANYA BRICKING
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Adult videos may be cleared from shelves at Larry Flynt's Hustler News & Gifts downtown, but for those who want them, X-rated movies are as close as a computer — or a step outside Hamilton County.
Barbi Tomaino and her husband run VIP Video Sales stores in Millville and Hamilton — among about a dozen stores in Butler County that sell adult videos.
The store has its own case of pandering obscenity, with trial scheduled for July.
Mrs. Tomaino and Mr. Flynt share the same lawyer but not the same style. Mrs. Tomaino sees herself as a down-to-earth mother of two boys who wants to protect them from material meant for adults.
She had hoped the Flynt case would go to trial. She wanted it to bring up the topic of “what is obscene,” because that's not what she considers the pornography in her store.
“I'm not ashamed,” she said. “I'm not embarrassed. I think the product is delightful. It's not for everybody.”
Protecting the “everybodys” who want pornography pushed out of the Tristate is the reason Kathy Fondacaro kept up with the Flynt case. Even without the videos, she considers the Hustler store dangerous.
“The ripple effect we may see with Larry Flynt sticking around is we may see more pornographers targeting Cincinnati,” said Ms. Fondacaro, director of communications for the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families, a nonprofit group in Springfield Township.
“If Larry Flynt can come in and keep his shop open, it makes it safe,” she said.
Anti-porn crusaders say the Flynt case was about more than a store or a dirty video. Ms. Fondacaro had hoped the county would be forced to decide its community standards.
But with wide availability of adult material, all that may not matter, said Bill Margold, a spokesman for the Free Speech Coalition, a West Hollywood, Calif., organization that promotes the adult entertainment industry.
“What Cincinnati has done by taking the videos off the shelves is to send them into the black hole of adult expression,” he said, one easily accessible and not about to disappear.
Fountain News, a newsstand near the Hustler store, said the Flynt agreement with prosecutors would not sway it to start selling the magazine. “We don't think it would be such a good idea to sell such a bad magazine,” said store employee Hiral Patel.
But Hustler sales are brisk in Cleves at a small drive-through called Wayne's World. “They're impossible to keep in stock,” store owner Wayne Fideli said.
Phil Pina contributed to this report.
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