09 Aug Heart of the Beholder

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Mike and Diane Howard were a typical young couple with dreams of raising a family and starting a business of their own. They opened the first videocassette rental store in St. Louis in 1981. With hard work, their company grew into a multi-million dollar chain of video stores. It was then that the Howards’ were visited with increasing frequency by a group of religious people called the Citizens For Decency, who insisted they remove movies from their stores that they felt were “obscene,” films such as Taxi Driver, Agnes of God and Blazing Saddles. When Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ, was released on video, the Howards’ were the only video stores in St. Louis unafraid to offer the film for rent. The CFD declared war and the Howards’ received death threats against their daughter. A corrupt prosecuting attorney was in the pocket of the CFD by fear of being exposed for sexual indiscretions. Alleging they had ties to organized crime, the Howards’ were shunned as social outcasts. Ultimately, they won their case in court, but the negative publicity and legal fees bankrupted their business and destroyed their family. Shortly thereafter, a chance encounter with a woman reveals the truth about the CFD and the attorney and the Howards’ get their ultimate payback.