Gingery Seeks To Retire A Useless Law

Back in the 30s, movies that talked were quite the novelty.  As such, they changed the appeal of the local movie houses attracting more patrons and particularly, a more genteel representation.  That, says State Representative Keith Gingery is what likely led to the passage of a law in 1930 that movie houses that showed talkies were required to have running water and restrooms.  Gingery says people were putting up movie houses where-ever they could, and in all likelihood, the law may have had more to do with pressure brought to bear from women’s groups who maintained movies were becoming more a place for men since there were no provisions for women to attend to their personal affairs. Nowadays, Gingery says building codes see to that necessity and the law is archaic.  He says the law carried a criminal penalty if  a movie house was not adequately provisioned.  This is one of the archaic laws Gingery has discovered as he continues to go through the statutes and find laws that are no longer needed.  Over the years, Gingery says he has gotten quite a few of these old laws off the books.