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Show The Original Mad Max — Feeling the Wrath of the Deseret News Then and e ; 0 DD i TT EVIE oe _— By Trent Harris ‘ NGlonade ine net. 44 @ had a mind to wire the Mormon @ prophet that if he made me any madder that I’d come back there and steal the Angel Moroni right off the main steeple ...” So said businessman and entrepreneur Free ticket drawing at www.ucdt.com The Utah Contemporary Dance Theatre in... Max Florence in 1911, from his suite at the Imperial Hotel in New York City. Max was mad all right. The Mormon church had accused him of stealing pictures of the inside of the Salt Lake City LDS Temple. White Slave Traffic! Hard To Get Facts from Followers of Joseph F. Smith!”- _ The big day rolled around, and on Saturday, Nov. 11, 1911, Max opened the - doors at the Bijou and presented his lecture (complete with photos) on the Salt Lake City LDS Temple. Only two people showed up and one of them was a reporter from the Deseret Evening News. The reporter wrote this about the show: “The delivery was Four World Premiere Pieces! Stunning visual effects and amazing pyrotechnics! The Haunting of Kingsbury Hall Experience the tragic tales of the people who perished on this historical site and their ghosts Kingsbury Hall that now haunt Kingsbury Hall. Sure, Max had 68 photos detailing the inner- And, as Always most sanctum of the temple, and sure, he was a few Surprises! trying to weasel $100,000 out of the church, asking it to pay in order to keep the sacred images from being published; but that didn’t mean he’d stolen the photos. Like any good Oct 25th-28th at 7:30pm and Oct 29th-30th at 7:00pm and 10pm. For tickets call the Kingsbury Hall box office at 581-7100 businessman, Mad Max had simply paid - or by calling Artix at 355-ARTS some other guy to sneak in and take the shots. On Sept. 17, The Salt Lake Tribune reported on the uproar Max’s business proposal had caused. The paper wrote, “It was for Music oan change you es a vicher persah. Changing your used CDs ta cash is as easy as bringing them to CD Warehouse. It’s all the trading and selling at CD Warehouse that keeps our selection changing. So aside from. the extra cash and hot new ‘releases, you never know what you might find. | 6661 ‘vl YIGO100| ZL ame at Check out www.cdwarehouse.com, or visit us at E rrr T) bl Carrer 967-7044. aad 21 ea rr 700 483-2966 ore hours almost the sole topic of conversation on the streets and mightily stirred the authorities of the Mormon church.” Being _ mightily stirred, the church refused to pay Max for the photos. Then they went on the counter-offensive. The LDS Church-owned Deseret Evening News printed a front page banner proclaiming, “Max Florence Fails to Scare the _ Church” and then, as a pre-emptive strike, the paper printed seven of Max’s pictures that he’d sent them as proof that he had the goods. The paper then wrote, “Max Florence is well known in Salt Lake, especial- absolutely unintelligible and for Sunday’s show he was supplanted by a professional lecturer who could speak English.” The reporter went on to say, “The whole affair was a dismal failure and another day will see the close of the show.” | At this point, | believe it is important to say that | too have felt the wrath and power of the Deseret News. Upon the opening of my classic film, Plan 10 From Outer Space— a sci-fi epic about Mormonism that | wrote and directed—Deseret News movie critic Chris Hicks wrote, “Harris has a dry sense of humor ... in fact some might say parched.” He also said my masterpiece was silly, weird and downright dumb. “Harris’ off-kilter sense of humor is an acquired taste (if the word “taste” can be applied at all).” Hicks then went on to warn his readers that if they were unfortunate enough to see my film, they better be prepared for “rear male nudity.” | think that one backfired on the D-News, because we sold 10,000 tickets in Salt Lake City and I suspect many of the people that came were anxious to see rear ly to the police and in saloon circles ... ” They also said Max had run a “skating rink male nudity. and other attractions of questionable nature.” The paper even proclaimed Max nee owned a bar in Salt Lake City where “men and women congregated tighty in drunken debauches.” Max hit back by renting the Bijou Theater in New York City where he hoped to stage a “tell-all” extravaganza designed to attract throngs and embarrass the Mormons. His advertising posters screamed, “Worse Than closed immediately and a few years later he found himself back in Utah, convicted of illegal liquor trafficking, and sentenced to three years in Leavenworth. In any case, to be on the safe side, | have sworn never. again to drive to Evanston, Wyo., and bring back 6 percent beer. | have also decided to make my next film about a positively | astounding movie critic by the name of Chris Hicks. | - But alas, Max wasn n't $0yucky His show |