Prosecution costs nearly bankrupted the underground film scene in 1964.

Evidence

A decision in the Bruce case was scheduled for the fall. Jacobs and Mekas received suspended sentences. Still the underground nearly went under. Although he continued to show rushes, Smith was unable to complete Normal Love. Having loaned his camera to a fellow underground filmmaker, Paul Morrissey, from whom it was stolen, Jacobs was working in 8mm. Ron Rice had a benefit for The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man, then took off the next day for Mexico with the proceeds and possibly Jacobs’s camera. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 527

Categorization

• XREF: The precarity of artists’ material conditions (stolen cameras, working in 8mm) is exactly the kind of concrete condition the reader wants to test against claims about cultural stagnation.
• SHARE: Ron Rice absconding to Mexico with benefit proceeds and possibly Jacobs’s camera is a delicious piece of scene gossip worth sending to anyone interested in the 60s NYC underground.