Mobile
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Boomer with Attitude / News 'Dirty Book Guy' for mayor?
Posted By John Grooms on Thu, May 28, 2009 at 2:09 PM
I realized recently that many current Charlotte residents don't know too much about one of the candidates for mayor. In the interest of voter education, then, let me introduce you to Republican candidate Martin Davis, also known as No. 8 on Creative Loafing's 2001 list of "10 Scariest People In Charlotte." Davis, who is also known as "the Dirty Book Guy," recently requested that the County Commission censor the play Southern Rapture, which dealt with the 1997 controversy in Charlotte over another play, Angels In America.
Around 1997, Davis began to raise hell about the content of some of the books at the library, particularly selections of gay fiction. When he was unsuccessful in attempts to get the library to ban the books, he ... well, I'll just quote from the "10 Scariest People" story: "Martin then appointed himself Charlotte's official moral watchdog, and began reading excerpts from certain books during televised County Commission meetings, ostensibly to shed light on what he claimed to be lewd and objectionable material. Finally, [then]-Commission Chairman Parks Helms had enough of Davis' sex-filled readings, and ordered police to eject him from a commissioners' meeting" before he had a chance to start reading choice excerpts from a book called Women On Top.
"Before he started his one-man crusade to rid our libraries of dirty books, the UNC-Chapel Hill graduate was a struggling actor in New York, where he apparently indulged in plenty of debauchery and promiscuity. Eventually he tired of New York's party scene and his failing acting career. He moved back to Charlotte in the mid-1980s, found Jesus, cut out his wild ways, joined the NRA and started picketing abortion clinics." Soon afterward, he was browsing through the library one day, and, as they say, the rest is history.
So if you're looking for a mayoral candidate who combines obsessive fixations on gay pornography in public libraries with the views and temperament of say, the Church Lady mixed with Sean Hannity (Dirty Book Guy was a prototype of today's Teabaggers when, in 2001, he ranted in the Observer about the evils of the New Deal), then Martin's your candidate.
Just thought you'd like to know.
Speaking of...
Latest in The CLog
More by John Grooms
-
Toxic T's?
Avoid them by supporting local businesses.
-
Live review: Demi Lovato, Time Warner Cable Arena (2/23/2014) 3
Former Disney star shows maturity beyond her years at Charlotte show.
-
Question the Queen City: How did a train end up in Freedom Park? 6
The antiquity - placed, oddly enough, in a city park - boasts a rich history
