Have you ever wondered what life was like in Jacksonville half a century ago? It was a different era of history, culture and politics but there are often parallels between the kind of stories that made headlines then and today. As interesting as the differences may be, so are the similarities. These are some of the top stories from this week in 1961. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• The Board of County Commissioners decided to seek ways to prevent the showing of the film “Poor White Trash” at two drive-in theaters.
Commissioner Lem Merrett, at the advisement of County Attorney J. Henry Blount, made a unanimously approved motion to confer with Circuit Judge Marion W. Gooding on any possible means of banning the motion picture.
Gooding was consulted because while he was serving as Juvenile Court judge, he monitored a performance by Elvis Presley at The Florida Theatre to ensure there was “nothing harmful to minors” in Presley’s show.
Merrett said he had been deluged by complaints from constituents in his area of the county, protesting handbills that had been distributed to promote the film.
Included in the four-page tabloid-size handbill was the outline of a nude woman silhouetted against a window shade. The advertisement stated that no children would be allowed to view the motion picture.
Merrett made his motion on the grounds that showing the movie at the Normandy Twin Drive-in and the Midway Drive-in would be detrimental to the youth of the county.
Following an investigation and after examining the evidence, Gooding enjoined and restrained further distribution of the handbill and directed that all existing copies be turned over to the sheriff’s office.
During the inquiry, it was learned that “Poor White Trash” was a re-issue of a film entitled “Bayou,” which was shown in Jacksonville in 1957 at the Imperial Theatre without much attention.
When the manager of one of the drive-ins was ordered to produce his license to exhibit the movie, he provided a document issued by the film review board of the Board of Education of New York State.
County Solicitor Edward M. Booth said he made a telephone call to the director of the New York board, who confirmed that the film was a re-issue and was licensed in 1961 for exhibition. The director, Lewis Pesce, said the review board did not order any elimination of footage.
In a telephone conversation, Dr. W.T. Weathington, chairman of the Port Arthur, Texas, Board of Censorship, said the movie had been shown there in September 1961.
The board, composed of a Catholic priest, the wife of a Jewish physician, a judge’s wife and a businessman, reviewed the film and found that it was “not obscene or objectionable or interesting,” Weathington said.
“We did not ban the picture. We found that it was a poor movie, with poor acting, poor plot and poor photography. In fact, we noticed audiences were staying for about 10 minutes of the picture, then buying bags of popcorn and leaving,” he said.
The ban of the advertising materials remained in force due to the objections raised by some members of the public and because the material was “the type which should not fall into the hands of children,” according to officials.
County Commission Chairman Bob Harris said he would “advocate strongly” for the passage of a law creating a Florida board of motion picture review that would have sole authority to license movies for exhibition in the state.
• A keynote speaker at the North Florida District Conference of Rotary International said Americans had to stop taking “federal handouts that could be dealt with on the state and local levels” if the United States was to remain strong.
Dr. Harvey Hahn, a minister from Dayton, Ohio, said Communist theorists had predicted that England would out-expand itself, that Germany would out-arm itself and that America would outspend itself.
“Two of these have been fulfilled and we are doing our level best to make them look good on the third one,” Hahn said.
The annual conference culminated at a meeting at the Robert Meyer Hotel the day after Hahn’s address. The highlight of the final gathering of district club members was an hourlong tribute to the outstanding leadership of S. Kendrick Guernsey, a Jacksonville Rotarian who had earned state, national and international fame.
The tribute came on Guernsey’s 70th birthday and congratulations to both him and his wife, Edith, came by telegram, telephone and speeches by fellow Rotarians, lawmakers and Gov. Farris Bryant.
Telegrams came from Florida Sens. Spessard Holland and George Smathers and U.S. Rep. Charles E. Bennett.
Bryant personally telephoned from Tallahassee to pay tribute to Guernsey’s service to others. The telephone call was amplified and heard by more than 300 Rotarians and guests at the meeting.
Bryant cited Guernsey’s service to the state as a member of the Board of Control of State Institutions and for other public and civic leadership.
“Your service has been an inspiration and a source of great comfort to me,” Bryant said.
“Florida is so fortunate to have a citizen of your quality and a man of your stature,” he said.
Guernsey’s Rotary career started in Orlando, when he was secretary of a club formed there in May 1920.
He became president of the club the next year and in 1923 was governor of District 39, which encompassed all of Florida and Georgia and half of Alabama.
In 1927, Guernsey became a director of Rotary International. He later became a vice president and in 1947-48 served as president of the international organization.
The Rotary Fellowship Foundation, which sponsored an international university student exchange program, was inaugurated by Guernsey. He served as its president in 1949-50 and served as director of the foundation for five years.
Guernsey had served on the State Road Board, the Judicial Council, the Council on Industry and Commerce, the Citizens Committee on Education and was president of the Children’s Home Society.
He also was a governor and president of the Jacksonville Area Chamber of Commerce and a director of the Florida State Chamber of Commerce.
Guernsey held several honorary doctorates, the French Legion of Merit and similar honors from the former government of Cuba, from Brazil and the Dominican Republic.
Guernsey was presented with a birthday cake, a proclamation from Mayor Haydon Burns declaring “Ken Guernsey Recognition Day” in Jacksonville, a framed resolution by the board of governors of the chamber of commerce and a plaque from his fellow Rotarians in the district.
Following the presentations, Guernsey paid tribute to his wife for her understanding and assistance in making his private and public career possible and recalled an anecdote about President Theodore Roosevelt.
Guernsey said when heroes were presented to Roosevelt for honors, the president would impatiently wait for the accolades to conclude and then ask, “What did he do the next day?”
Guernsey said he appreciated the recognition given him. “I’ll try to do something the next day.”
• Criminal Court Judge William T. Harvey sentenced a former Jacksonville police officer to a six-month term in the County jail, the maximum penalty, for assault and battery.
Execution of the sentence for Hugh G. “Red” Knight, 53, who had served 20 years on the police force before retiring in May 1961, was deferred for two days so Knight could put his affairs in order before surrendering at the jail.
After deliberating for 38 minutes Feb. 2, a jury had found Knight guilty of aggravated assault on a 76-year-old man.
Aggravated assault, defined as assault with a dangerous weapon but without intent to kill, was a felony while assault and battery was a misdemeanor.
Harvey granted a motion by defense attorney Dan Stubbs Jr. for a new trial on the lesser charge and Knight waived further jury trial. Harvey considered the case based on evidence brought out at the jury trial and found Knight guilty of assault and battery.
At the trial, the victim, Henry Neal, said he and Knight had been drinking together July 18 at two bars along Dunn Avenue. About 6 p.m., Neal said, Knight hit him in the head with a screwdriver after demanding his money.
Knight said Neal falsely accused him of taking his money and he hit Neal in self-defense when they fought.
In granting the motion, Harvey said he was motivated solely by the fact that Knight would lose his pension if convicted of a felony, but not in the case of a misdemeanor.
Harvey cited testimony by Knight’s former wife that loss of the pension would mean that she and Knight’s 14-year-old daughter would lose their home.
“You had to contribute monthly to get that pension,” Harvey told Knight. “I don’t think it’s right that you be deprived of it. It would just be punishing your wife and daughter.”
Harvey said he undoubtedly would be subjected to complaints from unspecified quarters because of his decision, but in view of the circumstances, he had no regrets.
• Members of the Garden Club of Jacksonville hosted a mortgage-burning ceremony at their center along Riverside Avenue.
The 4-year-old, $100,000 mortgage went up in smoke in a brass brazier owned by Mrs. Fred Noble. It was the same vessel used in the original mortgage-burning service, June 2, 1950, when the first garden center, which had become the clubroom, was cleared of debt.
Rabbi Sidney M. Lefkowitz of the Jewish Temple told members that the presence of the structure should be a constant reminder that they could continue to achieve more.
“We live in a city in which we are having a cultural explosion. We need one thing more – an expression in the area of beauty. We think in terms of vast distances and faraway places. How could this be brought to us better than by a showing of the horticulture of these places?” he said.
Lefkowitz closed his talk with a Hindu passage to commend club members for their “love and dedication.”