This special shop opened
on January 3,1966. and quickly became the streets main hang-out.
The
owner, Ron
Thelan took the original seats from the old Straight Theatre
and set them in the stores front window so you could sit there
and
watch the
parade of hippies outside.
One
day in 0ctober 1967 the police entered the shop and confiscated
The
Love Book "Lenore
Kandel's little book of erotic poetry. and
also arrested Allen Cohen,
Oracle Editor who was working the cash register that day.
The book was banned
as obscene in 1967 by the California Supreme Court and has
been out off print for 36 years although the ban was lifted
in 1973.
Wonderful newly printed edition. The
funny thing is that before the the hoopla over her book, it
had only sold about 50 copies but after the notieriety, the
sales
of
the book went crazy and the writer Lenore Kandel ended up donating
1% of the royalties to the police retirement fund as a way
of
thanking
them for making her book so popular.
Things became so nutsy out on
Haight St. that Thelin set about half of the stores
interior
aside as a mediation room called the Calm Center.
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