Reception
In New York, an adult theater showing the films was successfully enjoined from showing the film by the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders under the Lanham Act (trademark). The case was The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders v. Pussycat Cinema. Judge Van Graafeiland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for Southern New York described the movie as "a gross and revolting sex film". The Cheerleaders successfully argued that their uniforms were mimicked by the film's producers and used in advertising. The theater argued that uniforms are strictly functional items, but in affirming the district court, the Second Circuit explained "It is well established that, if the design of an item is nonfunctional and has acquired secondary meaning, the design may become a trademark even if the item itself is functional." The decision has been criticized on free speech grounds, but the Seventh Circuit has cited it for the proposition that "confusion about sponsorship or approval, even when the mark does not mislead consumers about the source of the goods," may be sufficient to state a claim under Lanham Act 43(a).
In another 1983 court case in New York, United States v. Various Articles of Obscene Merchandise found the film not to be obscene.
The 1986 publication of the Meese Report contained graphic descriptions of the film's sex scenes and uncensored excerpts of dialogue, which may have contributed to the report becoming a best-seller.
By 1995. 50,000 videocassette copies had been sold.
Read more about this topic: Debbie Does Dallas
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“Aesthetic emotion puts man in a state favorable to the reception of erotic emotion.... Art is the accomplice of love. Take love away and there is no longer art.”
—Rémy De Gourmont (1858–1915)
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)