Jacobs Jewelers sold, Maness hears obscenity case
Have you ever wondered what life was like in Jacksonville 50 years ago? It may have been 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 similarities may be, so are the differences. These are some of the top stories from the week of Oct. 26-Nov.1, 1959. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• Jacobs Jewelers, Inc. was sold at an undisclosed price to Fine Jewelers Guild of America. It was reported that I. M. Sulzbacher would remain head of the long-established Jacksonville firm. Founded in 1890 by V.E. Jacobs, the store had been at its location at 204 Laura St. for 26 years.
“The new association will not only permit us to continue to serve our customers with the store’s traditionally fine lines of merchandise but will permit us to cut our own diamonds and manufacture our own rings and diamond watches through the facilities of the Guild,” said Sulzbacher.
• Mayor Haydon Burns’ prospective gubernatorial campaign got a boost when nearly 900 people overflowed the Windsor Ballroom at the Robert Meyer Hotel to pay tribute to his 11 years of service as Jacksonville’s chief executive. The affair, billed as a “Haydon Burns Appreciation Dinner,” featured tributes to the mayor from 10 leaders in various fields of community life.
After speeches were made and Burns received a solid gold cigarette case, a plaque and a spinet organ from those present, he took the floor to minimize his own personal role in Jacksonville’s progress during the previous decade.
“It’s been the greatest privilege I have ever had to continue to serve as the captain, sometimes the quarterback, sometimes the fullback and sometimes the blocker for Jacksonville, the greatest team in the world,” said Burns.
• A $1,827 payroll was stolen from a parked automobile while a shipping company employee was inside a supermarket.
William Lawrence of Kaufmann Shipping Company told City police the thief broke into his locked car and forced open the locked glove compartment in order to get the money. He said he went inside the store to purchase some cigarettes, returned to the car a few minutes later and drove away. After Lawrence had gone about half a block he noticed the vent window had been broken and the glove compartment entered.
• The first all-jet commercial aircraft ever to land in Jacksonville touched down at Imeson Airport.
A Delta Airlines DC8 powered by four jet engines and carrying 117 passengers landed despite the fact the runway was 500 feet short of the minimum required by the Federal Aviation Agency (now Administration). The aircraft was bound from Miami to Atlanta but when it reached its destination, rain and overcast brought the ceiling down to 400 feet and visibility to one mile. The plane was ordered to fly to Jacksonville for an emergency landing.
The passengers were sent to Atlanta by train and the plane remained in Jacksonville until the weather cleared.
• Duval County deputies investigated damage caused by vandals at two barber shops owned by the same man. J.E. Holland, operator of the Boulevard Barber Shop on Cesery Boulevard and the Lake Lucina Barber Shop on Merrill Road, said damage was estimated at $300 after jars of white paint were thrown on the shops. Holland, a nonunion barber, said he had increased the price of haircuts a few days earlier.
• It was reported the Duval County solicitor might find himself on a legal merry-go-round in his court battler to have 26 periodicals declared obscene.
With legal prohibitions against declaring future issues obscene the solicitor might have found that by the time a court ruling was obtained against the current issues of magazines, they likely would have been replaced by later issues and a brand new lawsuit would have to be filed.
The legal point came to light in the first round of hearings on a suit filed against Jake’s Newsstand at 116 Julia St. The complaint had been filed Sept. 11 by County Solicitor Lacy Mahon Jr. as the first test of the new obscene literature statute enacted by the 1959 Legislature.
Circuit Judge William H. Maness denied a defense motion to dismiss the suit but ruled that the magazines were to be made a part of the court record. He also ordered Mahon to give defense attorney Arthur Gutman a list of the particular issues which were alleged to be obscene.
Gutman said the U.S. Supreme Court had held that “Nudity is not obscenity per se.” If it were, Gutman added, “We would have to close every art museum in the country.”
Assistant County Solicitor Hans Tanzler said the suit referred not only to nude photos but to the content of the magazines as a whole. He said the solicitor wanted to show that the magazines were mainly devoted to obscenity and have future issues declared obscene. Tanzler conceded, however, that might not be possible.
The law under which the suit was instituted allowed the solicitor to seek a court determination of whether material was obscene. If it had second class mailing privileges then he could not prosecute without such a determination. If such a ruling ws obtained the possession of such matter became a misdemeanor and its sale a felony.
Maness gave the defense 15 days after receiving a copy of a more definite statement to file further pleadings. He observed that since the constitutionality of the law was not being attacked the court was put in the position of a censor.
• The first tenant of the new five-story headquarters of the Florida Baptist Convention moved into the building at 1230 Hendricks Ave. The Baptist Book Store would occupy a ground floor wing after closing its Church Street store for two days in order to move merchandise to the new location.
• Nineteen Jacksonville area residents were among 190 candidates who passed the state bar examination. The successful candidates would be sworn in by the court Nov. 6 in Tallahassee.
The local men were James L. Ade, T. Edward Austin Jr., J. Tracy Baxter, Thomas B. Biggs Jr., Donald Mitchell Bolling, Robert J. Boylston, Eugene B. Culberson, Louis Edgar Dana, Otis Emanza Girardeau, John Edward Houser, Harry Katz Jr., Roger Wilson Linville, Roger L. Martin, George Archie McKendree, James Edward Moore Jr., Victor E. Raymos and Edgar Eugene Smith.
Two Jacksonville Beach men, Robert J. Boylston and David Adolphus Bartholf and Ponte Vedra Beach resident Arthur Cary Canaday also passed the tests.