Westgate Galleries Celebrates the Art of the Porn Poster

LOS ANGELES—Remember XXX theaters? Of course not; you're too young—well, most of you, anyway. But the few who do remember them probably were fascinated by the creativity that went into creating an advertisement for a movie that could only be shown in certain reasonably liberal cities—and whose posters had to be both sexy and intriguing enough to attract moviegoers while at the same time tame enough to be displayed on marquees that could be seen by the public. One company that specializes in making those old XXX posters available is Westgate Gallery, a website that carries so many XXX posters, both domestic and some foreign, that it had to split the S's into "S-Sm" and "Sm-Sz." But believe us, it's well worth the look for titles you may only have heard about but are not available on DVD (such as an old favorite, Beach Blanket Bango with Rene Bond, pictured). But for those who'd like to see some of these classic posters IRL ("in real life"), Westgate is having a gallery showing of them this Friday, May 15, at the Lethal Amounts Gallery (1226 W. Seventh St., downtown Los Angeles, 90017). The gallery show will open at 8 p.m., so plan to arrive early, as there's sure to be a crowd. After all, who doesn't like classic movie posters? H/t to Steve Javors for the info.