The brothers
James "Jim" Lloyd Mitchell (November 30, 1943 – July 12, 2007) and
Artie Jay Mitchell (December 17, 1945 – February 27, 1991) were pioneers in the
pornographyPornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
and striptease club business in San Francisco and other parts of California from 1969 until 1991, when Jim was convicted of killing Artie.
They opened the O'Farrell Theatre in 1969 as an adult cinema and at one time operated 11 such businesses; they produced and directed many adult films, including
Behind the Green DoorBehind the Green Door is a 1972 feature-length pornographic film, widely considered one of the genre's "classic" pictures. It was the first hardcore film widely released in the United States. It was the first feature-length film directed by the Mitchell brothers and starred Marilyn Chambers...
in 1972. They were also successful as the defendants in many
obscenityAn obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
cases. The Mitchells' notoriety significantly increased with Jim's fratricide; they became the subject of three books,
X-Rated by David McCumber,
Bottom Feeders by John Hubner,
9½ Years Behind the Mitchell Brothers' Green Door by Simone Corday and one movie,
Rated XRated X is a 2000 film starring brothers Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez, with the latter also directing. It is based on the nonfiction book X-Rated by David McCumber which chronicles the story of the Mitchell brothers, Jim and Artie Mitchell, who were pioneers in the pornography and strip club...
.
Early life
The Mitchells' father, Robert (known to all as Bob), an "
OkieOkie is a term dating from as early as 1907, originally denoting a resident or native of Oklahoma. It is derived from the name of the state, similar to Texan or Tex for someone from Texas, or Arkie or Arkansawyer for a native of Arkansas....
," was a professional gambler. He and his wife, Georgia Mae, settled in Antioch, near San Francisco and, according to the Mitchell brothers' biographers, provided a relatively stable childhood for Jim and Artie; the boys were popular and their childhood friends would become important members of the Mitchells' porn empire.
Jim, a part-time filmmaking student at
San Francisco State UniversitySan Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
in the mid-1960s, aspired to become an "important" director like
Francis Ford CoppolaFrancis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
and
Roman PolanskiRoman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...
, and headed a clique of classmates with similar ambitions. While in school, he worked at the Follies, a cinema showing "nudies" (brief, plotless films featuring naked performers), and observed that each night the theater was filled with "horn dick daddies" (masturbators) who arrived simply for the onscreen nudity. He therefore perceived pornography as a potentially lucrative career opportunity for himself and Artie, who had just been discharged from the
Army.The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
Moviemaking and the O'Farrell
In 1969, with the help of Artie's
Ivy LeagueThe Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
-educated wife Meredith Bradford, they fulfilled their ambitions by leasing and renovating a dilapidated two-story building at 895 O'Farrell Street, which they converted into the O'Farrell Theatre, a movie theater with a makeshift film studio upstairs. They also rented a larger facility at 991 Tennessee Street in which to shoot some of their films; nevertheless, even their fans conceded that Mitchell movies ranged in quality from mediocre to atrocious. Jim Mitchell once quipped, "The only Art in [porn] is my brother."
The Mitchells opened the O'Farrell Theatre on the Fourth of July, 1969, and were confronted almost immediately by the authorities. They would open other X-rated movie houses in California over the years, spending much time in court and money on lawyers to stay open as indignant locals and officials tried to shut them down.
They became incorporated as Cinema 7 (headquartered in the managers' offices at the O'Farrell Theatre), and in 1972 produced one of the world's first famous feature-length pornographic movies,
Behind the Green DoorBehind the Green Door is a 1972 feature-length pornographic film, widely considered one of the genre's "classic" pictures. It was the first hardcore film widely released in the United States. It was the first feature-length film directed by the Mitchell brothers and starred Marilyn Chambers...
, starring then-
Ivory SnowThe name "Ivory" refers to a series of products created by the Procter & Gamble Company , including varieties of a white and mildly fragranced bar soap, that became famous for its pure content and for floating in water. Over the years, the bar soap has been altered into other varieties...
girl
Marilyn ChambersMarilyn Chambers was an American pornographic actress, exotic dancer, model, actress and vice-presidential candidate...
in her porn debut. The movie, produced for $60,000, grossed over $25 million.
The Mitchells rode the porno chic wave, using some of their
Green Door profits to produce fairly lavish hardcore movies including
Resurrection of Eve in 1973 and
Sodom & Gomorrah in 1975. One of their last big-budget movies was
The Grafenberg Spot (1985), featuring the underaged
Traci LordsTraci Lords , also known as Traci Elizabeth Lords and Tracy Lords, is an American film actress, producer, film director, writer and singer...
, who had entered the adult-video industry with fraudulent identification. The Mitchell brothers were the first to transfer film titles to videotape and market them via ads in national sex magazines. The brothers were inducted into the
AVN Hall of FameThe AVN Awards are movie awards sponsored and presented by the American adult video industry trade magazine AVN to honor exceptional performance in various aspects of the creation and marketing of American pornographic movies. They are called the "Oscars of porn"...
.
In 1985, the Mitchells made the long-awaited (and -postponed)
sequel to Behind the Green DoorBehind the Green Door: the Sequel is the sequel to the American pornographic film Behind the Green Door. It was produced by the Mitchell brothers and starred Missy Manners...
. They hired cabaret singer and frequent movie collaborator Sharon McNight to direct the picture and, uncharacteristically, chose to cast the film exclusively with little- or unknown performers, despite the availability of such adult-industry stars as Lady Ashley Liberty, who had just concluded an engagement at New York City's Show World Center. The Mitchell brothers auditioned every newcomer who responded to their advertisements (which appeared in Variety and Bay Area sex tabloids). A handful of O'Farrell dancers accepted small roles; one of them asked to be cast as Gloria, the female lead. While McNight considered her for that part, Artie Mitchell's then-girlfriend Missy Manners cast herself in it. Filming of the sequel occurred mainly in the O'Farrell Theatre, and took only one day.
Missy Manners, overweight and utterly inexperienced in acting and public sex, reportedly had much difficulty performing in front of the film crew; the set was so tense that at one point Jim Mitchell harangued one of his O'Farrell managers in front of everyone, because the catered lunch was inadequate. The Green Door sequel was also the world's first safe-sex film, in which all the men wore
condomA condom is a barrier device most commonly used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy and spreading sexually transmitted diseases . It is put on a man's erect penis and physically blocks ejaculated semen from entering the body of a sexual partner...
s, and self-protection advice was given to the audience by one of the characters.
Highly overbudget ($250,000),
Behind the Green Door: the Sequel, according to adult magazines, was one of the worst porn pictures ever made, mainly due to the absence of a professional cast. Missy Manners promoted the film and billed herself as "the
RepublicanThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Porn Star." She posed nude for
PlayboyPlayboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
and revealed that she was
UtahUtah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
-born and -bred Elisa Florez, a former aide to Republican Senator
Orrin HatchOrrin Grant Hatch is the senior United States Senator for Utah and is a member of the Republican Party. Hatch served as the chairman or ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1993 to 2005...
.
Lawsuits
In the mid-1970s, low-level organized crime began making unauthorized copies of the Mitchells' movies, and the brothers retaliated in the courts. When one judge ruled that obscene material could not receive copyright protection, the brothers eventually prevailed in the
5th Circuit Court of AppealsThe United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* Eastern District of Louisiana* Middle District of Louisiana...
, leading to the FBI copyright warnings now found at the start of videotapes.
The O'Farrell Theatre was frequently raided on obscenity and related charges, leading to over 200 cases against its proprietors. They were defended by maverick attorney Michael Kennedy.
Friends and activities outside of porn
The Mitchells were popular on the fringes of San Francisco's diverse society. Their friends included a who's-who of pornography plus San Francisco politicians, the late
Black PantherThe Black Panther Party wasan African-American revolutionary leftist organization. It was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982....
Huey "Doc" NewtonHuey Percy Newton was an American political and urban activist who, along with Bobby Seale, co-founded the Black Panther Party for Self Defense.-Early life:...
,
Warren HinckleWarren Hinckle is an American political journalist based in San Francisco. As a student at the University of San Francisco he wrote for the student newspaper, the San Francisco Foghorn. After college he worked for the San Francisco Chronicle...
, Herb Gold, the rock band
AerosmithAerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...
, and
Jack PalladinoJack Palladino is a San Francisco-based private investigator and attorney. Born in Boston, he attended Boston Latin School and went on to do his undergraduate studies at Cornell...
(now the world's most expensive private investigator). The late journalist
Hunter S. ThompsonHunter Stockton Thompson was an American journalist and author who wrote The Rum Diary , Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 .He is credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting where reporters involve themselves in the action to...
was a close friend of the brothers, and frequently visited the O'Farrell Theatre. In 1988, the Mitchells made a 30-minute documentary about him,
Hunter S. Thompson: The Crazy Never Die. Thompson claimed in his 2003 book
Kingdom of Fear that he had worked for a while in 1985 as night manager at the club, an assertion repeated by some news articles.
Jim and Artie Mitchell supported various
cartoonistA cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
s,
Dan O'NeillDan O'Neill is an American underground cartoonist, creator of the syndicated comic strip Odd Bodkins and founder of the underground comics collective the Air Pirates.-Odd Bodkins:...
among them. During the
1984 Democratic National ConventionThe 1984 National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party was held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California from July 16 to July 19, 1984, to select a candidate for the 1984 United States presidential election. At the convention Walter Mondale was nominated for President and Geraldine...
, they opened the upper floor of the O'Farrell to a group of underground cartoonists, including
Victor MoscosoVictor Moscoso is an artist best known for producing psychedelic rock posters/advertisements and underground comix in San Francisco during the 1960s and '70s....
,
Robert CrumbRobert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...
,
Spain RodriguezManuel Rodriguez , better known as Spain or Spain Rodriguez, is an American underground cartoonist who created the character Trashman. His experiences on the road with the biker gang, the Road Vultures, provided inspiration for his work, as did his left-wing politics.-Biography:Born in Buffalo, New...
,
Ted RichardsTed Richards is an Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League .He was recruited as the number 27 draft pick in the 2000 AFL Draft from Xavier College...
,
S. Clay WilsonS. Clay Wilson is an American underground cartoonist and central figure in the underground comix movement. Wilson is known for aggressively violent and sexually explicit panoramas of "lowlife," often depicting the wild escapades of pirates and bikers. He was an early contributor to Zap Comix,...
, Bob Crabb,
Gary Hallgren and
Phil FrankPhil Frank was an American cartoonist best known as the creator of the San Francisco-based comic strip Farley and the artist on nationally syndicated comic strip The Elderberries...
, to cover the convention for the
San Francisco Chroniclethumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
.
Jim launched the publication
War News to protest the
first Gulf WarThe Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
; journalist
Warren HinckleWarren Hinckle is an American political journalist based in San Francisco. As a student at the University of San Francisco he wrote for the student newspaper, the San Francisco Foghorn. After college he worked for the San Francisco Chronicle...
was hired as editor,
Robert CrumbRobert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...
designed the logo, and
Art SpiegelmanArt Spiegelman is an American comics artist, editor, and advocate for the medium of comics, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic book memoir, Maus. His works are published with his name in lowercase: art spiegelman.-Biography:Spiegelman was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to Polish Jews...
and
Winston SmithWinston Smith is an artist who primarily uses the medium of collage. He is probably best known for the artwork he has produced for the American punk rock group Dead Kennedys...
were paid contributors. Other contributors included
Daniel EllsbergDaniel Ellsberg, PhD, is a former United States military analyst who, while employed by the RAND Corporation, precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of U.S. government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War,...
,
Michael MooreMichael Francis Moore is an American filmmaker, author, social critic and activist. He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. His films Bowling for Columbine and Sicko also place in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries...
,
Paul KrassnerPaul Krassner is an author, journalist, stand-up comedian, and the founder, editor and a frequent contributor to the freethought magazine The Realist, first published in 1958...
,
Ron TurnerRon Turner was a British illustrator and comic book artist.- Early life and career :Ron Turner became interested in science fiction at an early age, with numerous works across several media: the novels of H.G...
,
Bob CallahanRobert V. Callahan is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He served as a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1985 to 1995...
,
Peter BaggePeter Bagge is an American cartoonist. He is the creator of Buddy Bradley, Hate, Neat Stuff, Martini Baton, and Sweatshop, Apocalypse Nerd and Other Lives. His stories often use black humor and exaggerated cartooning to dramatize the reduced expectations of middle-class American youth...
,
Jim WoodringJim Woodring is a Seattle-based cartoonist, comic book author, artist and toy designer. He also produces fine art works in a variety of other media, including painting and charcoal....
,
Trina RobbinsTrina Robbins is an American comics artist and writer. She was an early and influential participant in the underground comix movement, and one of the few female artists in underground comix when she started. Both as a cartoonist and historian, Robbins has long been involved in creating outlets for...
,
S. Clay WilsonS. Clay Wilson is an American underground cartoonist and central figure in the underground comix movement. Wilson is known for aggressively violent and sexually explicit panoramas of "lowlife," often depicting the wild escapades of pirates and bikers. He was an early contributor to Zap Comix,...
, and
Hunter S. ThompsonHunter Stockton Thompson was an American journalist and author who wrote The Rum Diary , Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 .He is credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting where reporters involve themselves in the action to...
.
Personal lives
Twice-divorced Jim lived for years with Lisa Adams, a former porn starlet and O'Farrell dancer. He and his second wife Mary Jane had four children; one of them, Meta, is now the O'Farrell's general manager. Artie was the father of six, three with his first wife, Meredith Bradford (who retained her maiden name and insisted that their children go by Bradford), and the others with Karen Hassall, whom he divorced in the mid-1980s. Meredith attended law school at her husband's expense and, upon graduating, represented the Mitchells until Jim fired her over a conflict involving his children's manners at her family's Massachusetts vacation home.
Jim's son James was recently convicted of murder.
In
Bottom Feeders, John Hubner characterizes the Mitchells as frequently quarreling with each other (and everyone else), alternately stingy and profligate, at odds with each other and society at large and sometimes
misogynisticMisogyny is the hatred or dislike of women or girls. Philogyny, meaning fondness, love or admiration towards women, is the antonym of misogyny. The term misandry is the term for men that is parallel to misogyny...
. In Hubner's book, the O'Farrell Theatre is a mirrored house of sleaze, filled with bikini-clad predators hustling money from men too insecure or ugly to get girls any other way. The Mitchells' company is a model of inefficiency, with its top members, almost invariably boyhood friends of the brothers, spending their office hours taking drugs, drinking beer and playing pool.
In contrast, McCumber's
X-rated focuses mainly on the personal foibles of Artie Mitchell; indeed, Jim Mitchell is portrayed as surmounting many personal obstacles, such as overcoming drug addiction through voluntary rehabilitation.
Killing of Artie, and trial
In 1991, Jim, in response to friends' and associates' demands to "do something" about alcoholic,
cocaineCocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
-addled Artie, drove to Artie's house one rainy evening in late February with a .22 rifle that he inherited from his father and fatally shot him. O'Farrell dancer Julie Bajo (Artie's lover at the time) immediately called 911, and the police arrested Jim minutes later.
Marilyn ChambersMarilyn Chambers was an American pornographic actress, exotic dancer, model, actress and vice-presidential candidate...
spoke at Artie's funeral, and he was then buried in
LodiLodi is a city located in , in the northern portion of California's Central Valley. The population was 62,134 at the 2010 census. The California Department of Finance's population estimate as of January 1, 2011 is 62,473....
Memorial Cemetery.
After a highly publicized trial in which Jim was represented by his old friend and lawyer Michael Kennedy (by then a prominent
Park AvenuePark Avenue is a wide boulevard that carries north and southbound traffic in New York City borough of Manhattan. Through most of its length, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenue to the east....
attorney), the jury rejected a murder charge and found him guilty of
voluntary manslaughterVoluntary manslaughter is the killing of a human being in which the offender had no prior intent to kill and acted during "the heat of passion," under circumstances that would cause a reasonable person to become emotionally or mentally disturbed. In the Uniform Crime Reports prepared by the...
. Before Jim's sentencing, numerous people spoke on his behalf (presumably appealing for clemency), including former Mayor
Frank JordanFrancis M. “Frank” Jordan is a U.S. politician, foundation executive and former Chief of Police.Jordan was born in San Francisco in 1935 and graduated from Sacred Heart High School in 1953...
, Sheriff
Michael HennesseyMichael Hennessey is the longest serving Sheriff in the history of San Francisco and is currently the longest tenured Sheriff in the State of California. Hennessey was elected in a run-off election in December of 1979 and has been reelected in seven subsequent elections...
, and former Police Chief
Richard HongistoRichard D. Hongisto was a businessman, politician, sheriff and police chief of San Francisco, California, and Cleveland, Ohio.-Early life and education:...
. Mitchell was sentenced to six years in prison.
One of the results of Jim's trial is that the California Courts allowed, in a precedent-setting decision, a
virtual realityVirtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...
reenactment of the murder to be entered into evidence. This 3D forensic computer animation was actually a reconstruction based upon the physical evidence created by crime scene analyst and ballistics expert Alexander Jason. It showed the positions of Jim, Artie, the bullet impact points, and the path taken by bullets as they entered Artie's body. This was the first use of a 3D computer animation in a criminal trial. (In his final argument before the jury, Michael Kennedy attempted to mock the virtual-reality reenactment. However, the success of the method led to its use in other trials.)
After release
After having served three years in San Quentin, Jim was released in 1997, and he returned to run the O'Farrell Theatre.
Jim established the "Artie Fund" to collect money for a local drug rehabilitation center and for the Surf Rescue Squad of the
San Francisco Fire DepartmentThe San Francisco Fire Department provides fire and emergency services to the City and County of San Francisco, California.The San Francisco Fire Department, along with the San Francisco Police Department and San Francisco Sheriff's Department, serves an estimated population of 1.4 million people...
. (In 1990, Artie was caught in a riptide off
Ocean Beach- Places :Australia* Ocean Beach * Ocean Beach New Zealand* Ocean Beach, Hawke's Bay* Ocean Beach, OtagoUnited States* Ocean Beach, San Diego, California, also community* Ocean Beach, San Francisco, California...
, Jim paddled out to help, and the surf rescue squad aided in the rescue of both of them; the squad members received lifetime passes to the O'Farrell.) Artie's children have denounced the fund, claiming it is intended to whitewash Artie's murder. On their website, they describe their father's murder as premeditated and motivated by greed and jealousy, and claim that the depictions of Artie in the books and movie are inaccurate.
Shortly before his death, Jim wanted to change California's nickname to "the Prison State" and design a license plate saying so. He intended to protest the efforts of law enforcement and prison guards to lobby for longer prison sentences.
Death of Jim
Jim Mitchell died at his ranch in western
Sonoma CountySonoma County, located on the northern coast of the U.S. state of California, is the largest and northernmost of the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties. Its population at the 2010 census was 483,878. Its largest city and county seat is Santa Rosa....
on July 12, 2007, from an apparent heart attack. The funeral in Jim's boyhood town of
Antioch, CaliforniaAntioch is a city in Contra Costa County, California. Located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area along the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta, it is a suburb of San Francisco and Oakland. The city's population was 102,372 at the U.S...
on July 19 was attended by 300 people, including Mayor
Willie BrownWillie Lewis Brown, Jr. is an American politician of the Democratic Party. He served over 30 years in the California State Assembly, spending 15 years as its Speaker, and afterward served as the 41st mayor of San Francisco, the first African American to do so...
, ex-District Attorney
Terence HallinanTerence Hallinan is an American attorney and politician from San Francisco, California. He is the second of six sons born to leftist attorney Vincent Hallinan and his wife Vivian....
, and many O'Farrell ecdysiasts. He was buried next to his brother.
Books and movies
Biographies of the brothers are
X-Rated by David McCumber (1992, ISBN 0-671-75156-5) and
Bottom Feeders: From Free Love to Hard Core by John Hubner (1993, ISBN 0-385-42261-X).
In 2000, their story was dramatized in the movie
Rated XRated X is a 2000 film starring brothers Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez, with the latter also directing. It is based on the nonfiction book X-Rated by David McCumber which chronicles the story of the Mitchell brothers, Jim and Artie Mitchell, who were pioneers in the pornography and strip club...
starring the brothers
Charlie SheenCarlos Irwin Estevez , better known by his stage name Charlie Sheen, is an American film and television actor. He is the youngest son of actor Martin Sheen....
and
Emilio EstevezEmilio Estevez is an American actor, film director, and writer. He started his career as an actor and is well-known for being a member of the acting Brat Pack of the 1980s, starring in The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire...
as Artie and Jim, with Estevez also directing. The film was shot in Toronto, Canada, although the entire story occurred in the
San Francisco Bay AreaThe San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
.
In 2001 the TV series
Forensic FilesForensic Files is an American documentary-style series which reveals how forensic science is used to solve violent crimes, mysterious accidents, and even outbreaks of illness. The show is broadcast on truTV, narrated by Peter Thomas, and produced by Medstar Television, in association with truTV...
aired an episode called 'Sibling Rivalry' which documented Artie's murder and the use of forensic animation and sound analysis at Jim's trial.
The 2007 book
9½ Years Behind the Green Door (ISBN 1934248622) by Simone Corday describes the brothers from the perspective of a dancer at the O'Farrell and girlfriend of Artie.
External links
- Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre, includes information about the "Artie Fund"
- Mitchell Brothers - Rotten.com
- Artie Mitchell at the Adult Film Database
The Adult Film Database is a website that attempts to keep records of all pornographic movies and adult film stars. This includes filmographies, partial biographies, reviews, labeled and categorized adult film stills, as well as a regularly updated adult industry blog which features the latest news...
- Jim Mitchell at the Adult Film Database
The Adult Film Database is a website that attempts to keep records of all pornographic movies and adult film stars. This includes filmographies, partial biographies, reviews, labeled and categorized adult film stills, as well as a regularly updated adult industry blog which features the latest news...
- Biography at LukeIsBack.com