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Xavier Williams, manager at Toy Lair in Cedar Rapids, sits behind the counter as customers browse shelves packed with games, toys and collectibles. M.T. Bostic / Little Village

XXX

An enduring Waterloo business attracted swingers, protesters and those who like to watch. 26

Off-Campus

The cool Coe College kids hang out at these accessible hotspots.

Actor, Trump nemesis and sandwich destroyer Tom Arnold returns to Iowa.

Little Village (ISSN 2328-3351) is an independent, community-supported news and culture publication based in Iowa City, published monthly by Bayleaf, LLC, 623 S Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA 52240. Through journalism, essays and events, we work to improve our community according to core values: environmental sustainability, affordability and access, economic and labor justice, racial justice, gender equity, quality healthcare, quality education and critical culture. Letters to the editor(s) are always welcome. We reserve the right to fact check and edit for length and clarity. Please send letters, comments or corrections to editor@littlevillagemag.com. Subscriptions: lv@littlevillagemag.com. The US annual subscription price is $120. All rights reserved, reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. If you would like to reprint or collaborate on new content, reach us at lv@littlevillagemag.com. To browse back issues, visit us online at issuu.com/littlevillage.

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February Contributors

Candice Smith, Eylül Doğanay, Genevieve Trainor, Jessica Cline, Jessie Kraemer, John Busbee, Katie Roche, Kembrew McLeod, Kristian Day, Kylie Buddin, Lauren Haldeman, Lee Keeler, M.T. Bostic, Nichole Foxhoven, Ramona Muse Lambert, Rob Brezsny, Sam Locke Ward, Sarah Elgatian, Sara Williams, Tom Tomorrow

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Issue 349

February 2026

Cover illustration by Eylül Doğanay

In this issue, enjoy a brief history of dirty theaters, interviews with unapologetic entertainers, and Dear Kiki questions on coming out ace, exploring non-monogamy and canoodling as new parents.

Meet this month’s contributors!

Candice Smith has been librarianing for over 20 years, and is currently the Adult Services librarian at ICPL.

Eylül Doğanay is a translator and visual artist trying to figure it out. Attempts can be seen on Instagram (@avare.art).

Jessica Cline is a Leadership and Character Scholar at Wake Forest University where she studies American politics and religion.

Jessie Kraemer is a writer and artist living in Iowa City. Follow her on Instagram (@jkraem).

John Busbee produces The Culture Buzz, a weekly arts and culture radio show on kfmg.org, covering Iowa’s arts scene with an inclusive sweep of the cultural brush.

Katie Roche lives in Iowa City and spends her time making music, writing and fighting for public libraries.

Kembrew McLeod is a founding Little Village columnist and the chair of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa.

Kristian Day is a filmmaker, writer and host of the long-running radio show and podcast, Iowa Basement Tapes. Keep up with him on Instagram (@kristianday) or at kristianday.com.

Kylie Buddin has been a member of the Iowa City music scene as a creator and engineer since the early ’80s. He has a passion for supporting young people’s creative expression, empowering them to make the community a better place for all through their art.

Lauren Haldeman is a graphic novelist and poet, she has received an Iowa Arts Fellowship, a Sustainable Arts Foundation Award and fellowships from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Lee Keeler is a film professor for the Des Moines Area Community College. He is a regular contributor for Boing Boing and spins records at Black Sheep in downtown DSM. He co-founded Green Gravel Comedy in 2014.

M.T. Bostic is a photographer, musician, emerging writer and U.S. Army recruiter residing in Coralville with his wife and four children.

Nichole Foxhoven is a youth librarian for DMPL, striving to bring energy and heart to every program using stories, play and creativity to spark joy and build community.

Ramona Muse Lambert makes art and music. Sometimes she’s in charge of dinner too. Buy her art at ramonamuselambert.com.

Sam Locke Ward is a cartoonist and musician from Iowa City. He self publishes the comic zines Voyage Into Misery and ’93 Grind Out and has put out over 50 music albums.

Sarah Elgatian is a writer, activist and educator living in Iowa. She likes dark coffee, bright colors and long sentences. She dislikes meanness.

Sara Williams is a multidisciplinary artist who was raised in Bondurant, Iowa. She currently resides near Amana. Culture writers, food reviewers and columnists, email: editor@littlevillagemag.com. Illustrators, photographers and comic artists, email: design@littlevillagemag.com

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Interactions

LV encourages readers to submit letters to Editor@LittleVillageMag.com. Please include your name, city of residence and any relevant job titles or affiliations. Letters may be edited for accuracy and style. To be considered for print publication, letters should be under 500 words. Preference is given to letters that have not been published elsewhere.

Born to draw Batman, Iowa City kid Norm Breyfogle sketched his way into pop culture history (Jan. 5)

Gotta say, Norm’s Batman is like... THE Batman to me. I didn’t know until this article that he was from Iowa City! —The Doomcast

Norman was my creative partner as we broke new grounds with “Archie,” debuting him for the first time in his own ground-breaking and successful slick magazine, “Life with Archie.” Proof positive as to the diversity of Norm’s styles and works of four color wonder. —Michael Uslan

Rob Sand announces $9.5 million fundraising total for 2025 (Jan. 8)

Are they going to buy Rob a new truck to lean on in a new ad with all that money? —E.D.

I’m voting for this guy. He’s the breath of fresh air we really need in Iowa. It’s going to be a ton of work to undo what Reynolds did to Iowa, but I think he’s a good start. —Edward K.

The fact they had to specify that the total doesn’t include money from his in-laws lmao. —Giada M.

‘Fear travels fast,’ but didn’t stop hundreds in Iowa City from protesting ICE, remembering Renee Good on Sunday (Jan. 12)

It makes me happy there are some GOOD people in the state I live in!!!! —Shelley R.

HAVE AN OPINION?

The Goods are remembered well here in Iowa City, they were a great family and still are. It’s tragic what has happened to them but what is even worse is this foul mouth crap filled president destroying them again and again and again. —Joe K.

1,2 ice is coming for you. —Clifford W.

3,4 you’re a cvnty wh0re CLIFFORD. —Chandra M.J.

Don’t believe she is murdered, definitely a tragedy. She just needed to get out of the g****** car. [sic] —Wayne N.

ICE has no authority over US citizens. None. Good did not have to get out of her car at their demand; neither do you. Use your freedom. —Teresa B.

Pretty sure not getting out of her car is not punishable by death. And she was asked to leave and she was

PUBLIC NUISANCE

SARA WILLIAMS

Who are you spending Valentine’s Day with?

Friend(s) 12%

Partner(s) 71%

Me, myself and I 17%

Stranger(s) 0%

PERSONALS

Who needs a box of chocolates when you can have a Zebra Cake? Possibly a Catahoula Leopard Dog mix, this 7-month-old has a beautiful brindle coat that’s neither zebra nor leopard—it’s a pattern all her own. Iowa City Animal Center staff report she’s confident, eager to learn and grateful for any and all toys she can get her paws on. Want to wake up to puppy eyes this Valentine’s Day? Inquire about Zebra Cake at 319-356-5295.

CENTraL IOWa, JaN. 9

To the young woman who parked at Kwik Star in Mitchelleville the night before the last big snow storm and proceeded to take a young black cat and a handful of cat food out of her car and place them both on the ground before driving away….how could you be so cruel? That poor cat was confused, scared and trying to hide under cars and trucks in a very busy parking lot. A simple Google search or post for help on your socials would have proven to you that there are a dozen ways to re-home an unwanted animal. This isn’t one of them. Make an effort to be a better human next time.

Submissions may be edited for clarity and length, and may appear in print or online. Think you’re the subject of one? reach out: littlevillagemag.com/missed-connections

trying to do that. He shot her three times in the face. What do you think his intent was? It was to kill her because she didn’t obey him. —Kirstin E.S.

Wayne, I’ve parked in no parking zones, not handicapped, in Iowa City since 1972. I’ve received several warnings and pricey tickets as I deserved, but I never had an IC law enforcement official put a gun in my face and fire three fucking times. There needs to be some real soul searching. Always thought you had better critical thinking skills. Sorry. —Debbie B.S.

Comply or die is an odd thing to say for a ‘free’ country. —Chelie B.

Ashley Hinson blames Renee Good for being shot and killed by ICE agent (Jan. 15)

Spoken like someone who hasn’t breathed tear gas while standing on a public sidewalk lately. —Jake B.

If they say get in the boxcar—get in the boxcar. —Gary S.

“If you don’t want to die, just don’t ever be alive,” is the vibe I’m getting. Send her up to Minneapolis. We’ll try to take her to some cool places where she can observe ICE “doing their jobs”…which is watching them beat & harass people. —J.R.

“Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority.” —Joe L.

“Well we all are going to die...” could have come from Hinson just as well. —Scott P.

to be clear, the only way to follow ashley hinson’s advice in minneapolis right now would be to lock yourself inside and starve. and actually that’s not a guarantee either because they’ve been raiding homes. —F.F.

To live in Minneapolis now is to be “in the way of ICE agents” everywhere we eat, sleep, & live... It’s impossible to care for our neighbors & not recognize this as the most racist federal policy in modern history. —David H.

Just make sure you vote. —Wayne H.

Omg I want to go ahead and give Ashley Hinson a shamanic blessing, I bless her with her immediate karmic return, and so it is! —Xandra G.

That baby that was tear gassed riding home with his family from a sporting event needs to get on board, right? That woman trying to get to her doctor appointment, too. —Kendra Z.

ACCOLADES

Four Iowa restaurants—one in Iowa City, three in Des Moines—are semifinalists for 2026 James Beard Awards, among the most prestigious culinary honors in the U.S. IC’s Deluxe Cakes and Pastries is one of 20 semifinalists in the category Outstanding Bakery, while The Contrary in Des Moines’ East Village is up for Best New Bar. Nick Hanke and Phil Sires, chefs at Masao (also in the East Village), are semifinalists for Best Chef: Midwest, along with Ian robertson of Oak Park, on Ingersoll. Finalists will be announced on March 31, and the winners honored on June 15 in Chicago.

The Iowa Restaurant Association has named Sam Gelman its 2026 Chef of the Year. Gelman is head chef and co-founder of The Webster and Paper Crane Ramen Shop and Cocktail Lounge, both located on North Linn Street in Iowa City. Other honorees include Best Restaurateurs bob rand and Lorrie Luense, sibling co-owners of Archie’s Waeside in Le Mars, and Emerging Leaders Jason Krull and Cephus Wright, co-owners of Aura Restaurant and Lounge in Clive.

The Center for afrofuturist Studies, a residency program within the Iowa City nonprofit Public Space One, has received a three-year grant from the Ruth Foundation for the Arts in Milwaukee. “This will allow us to continue our fully funded artist residencies, our Iowa City reading room, and other initiatives that support arts practices revolving around Black futurity,” CAS said in a statement.

INTERACTIONS

Worth a Rewatch: ‘The Thing’ finds normal people resisting a violent invasion of their snowy home (Jan. 20)

Every year I attend and I think to myself “Do I really need to see this movie again? Is it gonna be boring this time around?” And almost immediately that turns into “omg I’m so glad I’m here this is the greatest movie ever”. —Colin U.

One of the best films ever made. We wrote a song in tribute called, “It’s In The Blood.” —Poly Mall Cops

Iowa Senate Republicans advance bill to eliminate possibility of reopening Iowa City State Historical Society research center (Jan. 21)

At this point I have to wonder what information is in the archives that would be inconvenient and therefore must disappear under

their exclusive control. —Randy P.

Republican lawmaker pushes Iowa’s private universities to require courses in U.S. history and civics for all students (Jan 26)

My god, the irony is astounding. —Marissa A.

Iowa middle schools (grades 5-8) require social studies each year and high schools require 6 semesters for a diploma. All this includes American history, civics and government. If that’s not enough, why make students pay for more? A WPA for history departments. Why not go back to requiring 4 semesters of World Language? This is the lack in humanities education. —Mary M.

Every college student should take history classes, if only to prevent another fascist regime. —Monique K.

In Case You Missed It

Catch up on LV’s top arts stories from January.

Film critic and UI grad Jason England explains why he found this Oscar frontrunner ‘extremely goofy’

By Ariana

Jan. 12

Worth a rewatch: ‘The Thing’ finds normal people resisting a violent invasion of their snowy home

By Ariana

Jan. 20

Worth a rewatch: a black american filmmaker shook up the French New Wave with 1967’s ‘The Story of a Three-Day Pass’

William Lowell, Jan. 26

Martinez,

Fully Booked: Recommendations from Local Librarians

Food Reads to Inspire a Cooking Spree

Books and recipes share a secret: both are meant to be savored.

I’ve always loved reading cookbooks, treating them almost like memoirs, full of a chef’s memories, family traditions and tiny windows into their lives. Recipe books and food-forward stories invite you to linger, imagine and taste your way through someone else’s experiences. That love inspired programs at the East Side Library, including a series called Book Bites, where families read a picture book together and then cook a simple recipe inspired by the story.

Titles like Fry Bread by Kevin Noble Maillard and Bee-bim Bop! by Linda Sue Park celebrate food as culture, memory and connection, each ending with a recipe that keeps the story going. These books invite participation, and that joy pushed me to bring more story and food moments into our programming.

During Book Bites, we steamed bao buns, fried bread and flipped pancakes, with kids leading the way. It was never about perfect measurements or gourmet results. It was about exploration, togetherness and getting a literal taste of another person’s story.

When I’m browsing shelves, I’m always on the lookout for books that include recipes or spark food-based learning. Here are a few recent favorites perfect for anyone who wants to read and cook from a story:

• Ramen for Everyone by Pat Tanumihardja (2023) — A vibrant story about creativity, flavor and honoring family heritage.

• Pockets of Love by Yamile Saied Méndez (2024) — A tender tale of recreating a cherished family recipe with a secret ingredient.

• Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala (2021) — A cozy Filipino food mystery rich with humor, family drama and delicious dishes.

• Murder by Cheesecake by Rachel Ekstrom Courage (2025) — A culinary whodunnit with big flavors, bold suspects and Golden Girls-level sass.

So, the next time you come across a tasty dish in a book, don’t just read past it, try making it. Let the story spill into your kitchen. Whether you’re cooking solo, with friends or with a little one by your side, those mixed, measured, joy-filled moments are where the real magic lives.

—Nichole Foxhoven, Des Moines Public Library

Help

Yourself to Self-Help Books

I’ll start by saying, we’ve all been there. We’ve all had to ask for a little help at one time or another. While the library can’t make your stressors disappear, we do have some resources on our shelves that might be of use to you. I’m talking about the old reliable 150s, the self-help and psychology section!

This is a fairly wide subject area, encompassing topics like building esteem, navigating relationships, love and happiness, working through trauma, finding motivation and inspiration, creating the life you want, and building a mind-body connection. Accordingly, there are a lot of books on the shelves in this range, so there’s a lot to choose from!

Most of the authors writing today go out of their way to use a very approachable style, so don’t worry about being verbally browbeaten or made to feel guilty for not doing something in a particular way: they honestly intend to help their readers and go to lengths to provide accurate and useful information and tools. At the same time, don’t worry that all these books are so reserved in tone that they aren’t enjoyable: you’re going to find the Ph.D. who is, and sounds like, a therapist, but you’ll also find the reputable life coach who shows you how to determine what type of personality traits you have and how to make them work for you. Many books in this area have been bestsellers in the last few years, and with good reason. So, the next time you’re looking for a little help, reach for your friends at the library!

Some of the more popular recent titles from the last year include It Begins With You: the 9 Hard Truths About Love That Will Change Your Life by Jillian Turecki; The Purpose Code: How to Unlock Meaning, Maximize Happiness, and Leave a Lasting Legacy by Jordan Grumet; The 5 Types of Wealth: a Transformative Guide to Design Your Dream Life by Sahil Bloom; Life in Three Dimensions: the New Science of a Good Life by Oishi Shigehiro; and Gentle: Rest More, Stress Less, and Live the Life You Actually Want by Courtney Carver.

If you’re ready to let a little of the woo-woo into your self-help planning, check out Aligned Abundance: Release Expectations, Become Magnetic, and Manifest the Life of Your Dreams by Emma Mumford and Enneagram in Real Life: Find Your Type, Understand Who You Are, & Take Steps Toward Growth by Stephanie Hall.

—Candice Smith, Iowa City Public Library

Come In, Stay Awhile

Waterloo’s Mini Cinema 16 was the last of its kind in Iowa, withstanding antiporn crusades, the advent of VHS and internet, and raucous swinger parties.

by KrISTIaN Day

When my friends and I turned 18 in the early aughts, we decided we were tired of our parents’ basements. We found our new hang on the north side of Cedar Rapids.

Sure, Adult Shop North was the place where people in town picked up their lubricants, toys and triple-X movies, but it also had a back rec room area with a pool table and a high tolerance for indoor smoking. We were regulars every Friday night and sometimes even Saturday nights, too. I’d get off work at Bishop’s Buffet at 9:30 p.m., and by 10 p.m. we were showing our IDs to the stoner 28-year-old working the overnight shift. Inside, we were surrounded by every type of pornography that could be legally sold in the United States. None of it interested us as much as the pool table, which we’d occupy as late as 4:30 a.m.

Individuals and couples of all orientations would pass through our room to access a pair of private viewing spaces, referred to in the biz as “adult arcades.” The later the hour, the busier they got.

It was all a little overstimulating, but it planted in me an interest in adult films of the 1970s and 1980s, posters from which covered the walls of Adult Shop North. A few of the posters still had the local marketing graphic taped on, including one that read, “See it at Danish Book World – XXX

Theater – Cedar Rapids.” Those films were time capsules of a different era; many actors looking for supplemental income would take roles, rolling the dice to see if they would still have a place on Broadway when it was over.

Porn shops aren’t exactly rare in the Midwest, and there are still plenty of billboards advertising adult superstores along the interstates. Many still have private viewing rooms, including the Romantix locations in Des Moines and Iowa City, and, of course, Adult Shop North, which remains open in Cedar Rapids, along with its counterpart Adult Shop South on the opposite end of town. Both were established in 2002.

Adult theaters, however—the kind that allow a group of strangers to come together and watch a pornographic movie or three on the big screen— are few and dwindling. Before the internet and home video, erotic films attracted audiences of all stripes. Everywhere adult theaters sprouted, they met opposition from local authorities; whether or not they endured, they usually succeeded in clarifying the limits of free speech in a particular municipality. The same can be said of sex-positive bookstores, especially of the feminist and LGBTQ-affirming variety, many of which also faced the full force of local planning and zoning commissions.

To the best of my knowledge, Iowa’s last adult cinema closed shortly after I visited it for the first time, some three and a half years ago. I wouldn’t learn why until this week, when I had the chance to talk to the theater’s longtime owner.

“I really hated to let the place go,” said Earl Baugh, who retired to Arizona. “It was my Cheers.”

X X X

One early fall morning in 2022, I traveled from Des Moines to Waterloo for a meeting at Morg’s Diner on Mulberry Street—a greasy spoon that’s lived up to its name since 1960. Afterwards, I noticed a small, aged storefront across the parking lot with no windows and a pair of sports cars parked outside. It was labeled “Cinema 16 Theater,” though the onestory brick building hardly looked like a cinema.

Another sign read, “THEATER, ADULT ARCADES & RETAIL STORE,” and a neon “OPEN” sign buzzed above a three-foot red Playboy bunny logo. Taped-up fliers declared, “Special 3-Day Pass for only $22,” “Male & Female Enhancement Pills,” “WE CARRY novelties, DVD’s, Arcades, Oils, Lotions, Games, Fetish Kits and Love Swings.”

Another sports car pulled up, and I watched an

The back entrance to Cinema 16 in Waterloo.

Kristian Day / Little Village;

Illustration by Kellan Doolittle / Little Village

bleach spray, Resolve, everything harsh—the type that burns your nostrils to reassure you the chemicals are doing their job. The retail room inside Cinema 16 was no different.

Spinning racks were stocked with sex toys. A shelf full of VHS tapes included both hardcore pornography and a few Disney titles in clamshell cases. Magazine stock looked like it dated back to the mid-1990s. A customer with messy hair and a large brown raincoat was flipping through the piles while having a chummy conversation with the large man behind the counter.

I approached, asking if there really was a movie theater in here. The employee confirmed it. “We got six single arcade viewing rooms, one double with a third-party watch window, and the big room in the way back.”

He said his name was Bear. He looked to be around 40 years old, with a beard and long hair. Behind him were stacks upon stacks of dusty papers, DVD cases and what looked like a takeout container from Morg’s next door, with leftover sausage and pancakes inside. On the wall was a photo of the owner, Earl Baugh, smiling next to former Iowa governor Terry Branstad. I’d later learn Baugh was given a business award from Branstad for his successful line of dry cleaners—and not, sadly, for the Cinema 16.

I asked Bear what movies they showed; there was no schedule displayed, no “Behind the Green Door opens on Nov. 1” type notices. Rather than the

vintage porn-chic classics I imagined, Bear said they typically marathoned DVD compilations with titles like Super XXXtreme Volume 18. He’d hit play and let it run for hours on the theater’s high-powered video projector. Patrons could pay $15 and spend the whole day in the theater. There were usually six to 10 people at any given time. Today, there were five.

The place “gets crazy” during private parties, though, the messy-haired gentleman chimed in. Waterloo has a strong swinger community.

“They have swinger parties here in the big theater. We can easily get 40 to 50 people in there and they rent the whole room out,” Bear explained. “They will sometimes run out and grab some toys off the shelves to take back to the room. I would just keep a tab on a legal pad and charge them at the end for everything they took.”

Bear stepped out from behind the counter to show me the place. First, he took me into the arcades, built out of cheap particle board with glued-on door handles. The six single-occupancy rooms were the size of portable toilets, sliding-bolt locks on the inside. A chair—plastic with metal legs, like you’d find in a classroom—sat directly in front of a screen about the size of a laptop, with a coin deposit to activate. On the concrete floor by the chair leg was a roll of toilet paper and a small trash receptacle.

The seventh room was double in size to facilitate voyeur/ exhibitionist pairings. A second chair behind a sliding glass window offered a backseat view of the first occupant as they did their thing.

Bear led me past makeshift walls with cleaning sprays hanging from retail hooks. With one arm, he pushed open a particle-board door. I wasn’t prepared for what I saw.

Movie theaters are typically designed with entrances in the back, so when people are coming and going they don’t let the outside light in or distract the audience. This was not the case at Cinema 16. The door opened to the right of the screen, and as I entered, I made eye contact with every person in that small auditorium, including the man who’d walked in right before me. I slunk back out.

X X X

Cinema 16, also called Mini Cinema 16, first debuted in 1970 with a screening of 1969’s The Divorcee. An advertisement for the grand opening boasted “plush seating,” “beautiful carpeting,” an “intimate adult atmosphere” and “the ultimate in adult film flair.”

Ads for adult films playing at Mini Cinema 16, published in The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier in 1978 and 1979. Fair use

The original location was west of the Cedar River at 624 Commercial St, opened by Des Moines cinema magnate and film producer Richard L. Davis. Around the same time, Davis was fighting the Ames City Council to open the Studio III adult cinema, which proved short-lived, and the Mini-X in Des Moines in 1971, which survived until the ‘90s. At every turn, he faced opposition from local officials characterizing porn films as “obscene.”

In 1970, Waterloo Mayor Lloyd Turner argued a 1939 city ordinance allowed him to refuse to license Cinema 16 in defense of “public morals.” A district court judge ruled the ordinance was unconstitutional, amounting to government censorship. That didn’t stop the next mayor, Leo Rooff, from citing it again seven years later to fight Cinema 16’s relocation from Commercial Street to its final home in the Franklin Gateway Neighborhood, on the same block as Morg’s. Rooff attempted to persuade the city council to vote NO on Cinema 16’s license renewal.

“The Mayor and I both fought in World War II to protect our freedoms,” Rooff’s ally Freeman Moser, Jr. wrote to the Waterloo Courier in March 1977. “If the Supreme Court hadn’t smiled at the porno issue, the mayor and council would have had an easier job shutting down a business that does nothing but harm our community. God is against this business. Many chapters in the Bible are devoted to what he did to people who engaged in such activities as are depicted on the screen of Mini Cinema 16.”

The campaign failed, though Rooff went on to become one of Waterloo’s longest-serving mayors.

Cinema 16 moved into the century-old building at 315 E 4th St, with a 700-square-foot addition built for good measure.

Similar battles were fought in Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Ames and Mason City over the following few decades as the “golden age of porn” reached Iowa. Even the small town of McGregor briefly saw their local cinema turn into the “Strand Adult Theater,” showing XXX double features, in 1974. (The Strand wasn’t new to showing provocative films; it opened as a silent film cinema in 1916, long before the 1934 Hays Code.)

A crackdown on morality during the Reagan presidency put adult theaters and other fruits of the sexual revolution in the culture-war crosshairs. These included sex shops, sex-positive bookstores and gay bathhouses, all framed as hotbeds of perversion and HIV/AIDS transmission.

Infamously, Pee-wee Herman actor Paul Reuben was arrested for indecent exposure inside a porno theater in 1991. The only adult theater in the sleepy city of Sarasota, Florida, South Trail Cinema had just finished showing a triple-feature of Catalina Five-O Tiger Shark, Nurse Nancy and Turn Up the Heat when a handful of undercover sheriff’s deputies descended on Reuben.

This incident did little to elevate the entertainer’s reputation, nor that of adult picture houses, which were generally regarded as antiquated and seedy. Those that remained were regularly targeted by politicians, police stings and robberies.

While closing up the Waterloo theater around midnight on Aug. 6, 1997, Cinema 16 manager Larry Casto was confronted by burglars and killed by a single stab to the chest. The 46-year-old’s body was found the next morning. Neighbors remembered him in the Waterloo Courier as a friendly comic book enthusiast. A Des Moines man, Sean Castine, was charged with the crime.

The last owner of the Mini Cinema 16 bought it shortly after Casto’s murder.

X X X

Earl Baugh moved from Ottumwa to Waterloo with not a penny to his name in the 1960s. He lived in his car for three weeks before he could save enough money to get a place of his own.

His dad told him he needed to get a trade, so Baugh got a job at a dry cleaners making $40 a week. He worked his way up to management, and by 1968 the owner offered to sell him the place for $22,000. In three weeks, he got the money to buy it. Baugh would own and run the business until 2023, opening numerous dry cleaning locations around Waterloo and Cedar Falls.

One Sunday night back in the early 1990s, Baugh caught a 60 Minutes episode on hotels selling porn to guests. Intrigued, he traveled around the country scouting out different XXX entertainment purveyors before he decided to open one of his own.

“I always did what worked for me,” Baugh told me. “I asked my parents what they thought about me getting into the porn business. My mom said, ‘Go do it, but don’t tell the whole world.’ My dad said it was probably less competitive than the dry cleaning business.”

He first looked into building an adult cinema just off of Highway 20, but the lot turned out to be too close to a bike trail, and local zoning required he be at least 600 feet from parks, churches or playgrounds. Baugh had a good rapport with the city, however, and officials tipped him off to another prospect: Cinema 16.

“They said, ‘Well, that store, if you can get it bought, we won’t take it over.’”

Baugh reached a deal with owner Dick Marble, who had previously bought the Mini Cinema from its founder (and another Dick), Richard Davis. Unlike his predecessors, Baugh faced little opposition for operating a den of vice—though he did recall that when the store reopened, a group of women in black dresses came out and prayed in front of the building.

He stocked six months’ worth of merchandise ahead of time, storing the stacks of dirty magazines and tapes in his family’s home. Baugh realized it would cost him nearly $30,000 to update to a new film projector—16mm and 35mm projection were passé in porno theaters, and video projection

The front page story in The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier on Aug. 7, 1997 details the murder of Mini Cinema 16 employee Larry Casto. Fair use

was in. Baugh’s niece suggested he go down to Crossroads Mall and pick one out that could play VHS and eventually DVDs. They also replaced the old theater seats with loveseats.

Baugh’s loved ones didn’t balk at the nature of the new business. “You know, my family always worked together,” he said. “My wife and daughters worked at the dry cleaners. We belonged to a church in town. We always worked hard, and to be honest, I never mixed business with politics.”

One of the first things Baugh noticed about his new customers was their discomfort upon entry, hats down and coat collars raised. So with the help of his brother Larry, Baugh flipped the layout and moved the main entrance to the back. The neighboring businesses liked the idea, offering up their back parking spots after they closed around 4 p.m.

“A lot of people would come in and say hello to me. I loved talking with people. They came in and talked with me on their way to work,” Baugh said.

“The place was a safe place for those in the swinger community, the gay community and those who were lonely.”

X X X

Adult cinemas may not have been centers of high culture, but they did give average joes a local place to gather outside of work and, incidentally, test the fringes of their First Amendment rights.

In 2026, dozens of state and local

governments have worked to make attending a drag or burlesque performance, checking out an erotic book from the library, or simply being transgender in public more legally dubious and socially taboo than getting caught with your pants down in a dirty theater. None of these behaviors, of course, pose any real danger to children, no matter what their proponents claim.

The ACLU has compared modern anti-porn legislation, including the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act, to anti-jazz laws in the 1950s spurred by reactionary and racist conservatives. The future internet may follow the example of South Dakota, which now requires internet users attempting to access adult websites to verify their age by uploading ID photos or bank information. You may also need to consent to invasive biometric scans—such as AI billionaire Sam Altman’s iris-scanning “digital identity system,” Tools for Humanity—while government officials assume broad authority to determine what’s “appropriate” for people to see. This “risks censoring everything from jokes and hyperbole to useful information about sex ed and suicide prevention,” according to Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel at the ACLU. “Safety doesn’t need to come at the cost of free speech.”

After 50 years in Waterloo and two decades with Earl Baugh at the helm, Cinema 16 ceased to be a cinema shortly after my visit. Baugh sold it on contract in 2022, and the new owners closed the theater side, rebranding as an adult gift shop called Romeo and Juliet. It was short-lived, and Baugh officially sold the property off in 2024. As of October 2025, it was boarded up.

Content in retirement, Baugh looks back fondly on the enterprise. “It made me money and I went out with a bang.”

“Porn will always make money and the world needs it,” he added. “Everyone needs love.”

Earl Baugh, former owner of Cinema 16 in Waterloo. Courtesy of Jonene Baugh; Illustration by Kellan Doolittle

Contact buzz

Singers Can’t Lie

by JOHN bUSbEE

Celebrated for her warm, welcoming personality as well as her rich, vibrant singing, Tina Haase Findlay has been inducted into two Iowa music halls of fame. Little Village talked with Findlay about reconciling her interests with the biases of others, retaining gratitude throughout her career and what piece of advice she shares with all of her vocal students on their own musical journeys.

Can you talk about your musical roots? I sang my first solo in church at age 3 in my hometown of Algona, Iowa, where I was a mixed-race child raised in the only Black family in an all-white town. My singing ability was an obvious superpower which, evidently, God knew I needed to assist in navigating the challenges of my upbringing and racial identity as a “twist-cone.”

“I’M

THaNKFUL THaT WHaT I ONCE VIEWED aS a CUrSE— bEING raCIaLLy MIXED— HaS rEVEaLED ITSELF TO bE SUCH a bLESSING FOr ME aS a VOCaLIST, TO bE OPEN TO aLL DIFFErENT STyLES aND TraNSCEND LIMITING DUaLITIES bOTH ON aND OFFSTaGE.”

People tried to make me sing “Black,” saying “that’s your music.” I’d say, “No, it isn’t.” My favorite singers to this day are Stevie Nicks, number one by a mile, followed by Olivia Newton-John and Barbra Streisand. I have come full circle from those days, now routinely performing soul and urban styles, regular tributes to Aretha and Natalie Cole and all kinds of beautiful superstar soul sisters. I’m thankful that what I once viewed as a curse—being racially mixed—has revealed itself to be such a blessing for me as a vocalist, to be open to all different styles and transcend limiting dualities both on and offstage.

What are some of your other inspirations?

My very first and best inspirations were my vocal teachers. You know it’s a special relationship when you stop by your teacher’s house on your bike rides! I was a special case, a gifted little misfit full of desire and potential as an artist, yet uncertain on how to live that out. My curiosity led me way beyond the limited music I was being fed by school and culture. I was, and still am, obsessed with the library as a vast adventure of inspiration. I found a community by listening to my faraway music friends that surpassed any kind of connection with real-life friends.

In my roles as a vocal coach, director or producer, I encourage people to cast their nets widely. I wish for us all to be super authentic in expressing ourselves without moral compromise, and super compassionate and mindful of what the world is calling for at this moment. A quote I love is, “Avoid where you are tolerated and tolerating, and go where you are celebrated and celebrating.”

Speaking of being celebrated, can you talk about the variety of venues and events you’ve performed at? I know I’m not financially rich or famous, but I am one of the most musically and artistically wealthy people I know. And at a time where it’s literally being taught in colleges that women should expect to retire and slow down their singing at age 60 due to vocal cord decay [during menopause], I’m still going strong, singing higher and longer and more diverse notes than most singers. I am very humbly thankful. I’ve sung for crowds of 10 to over 100,000 [Fourth of July Pops], at trailer parks to Terrace Hill.

your Halls of Fame recognitions are special. Can you share your thoughts about them? It is truly an honor to be one of only two women who are in both the Iowa Blues and

Tina Haase Findlay performs in a one-night-only live recording of songs from The Babel Kind on Oct. 19, 2025.

Iowa Jazz Halls of Fame [the other being the late great Janey Hooper]. It is a bittersweet yet proud thing to be one of only a select few women in both of those groups. It has always been “me and the guys” my entire career. I am in a weird age group, in that everyone is either older or younger than me, not too many my same age, which is now 60. I do enjoy being around our elder musical statesmen because very early on I became like the little sister, and that is how it has remained.

are there any major revelations you’ve had over the course of your career? I tell all my students that their vocal sound wave is nothing but a tiny picture of exactly who they are at any given moment. The act of singing is incapable of lying, which makes it endlessly fascinating. The answers for how to improve your singing are really always found in how to improve you, in body, mind, heart and soul—in all of life offstage and how you are living in the very deepest parts of who you are. These are the things I care way more about than how you can get gigs or how you can get rich or famous.

Photo by Michael S. Banks, courtesy of Tina Haase Findlay

Space

Havens off 1st Ave

Campus life is different in Cedar Rapids. Here are four solid spots to find community near Coe College. by JESSICa CLINE

from

Lair, 1239 1st Ave SE Suite

and collectibles fill a glass display case inside

stands behind a Coe College monument sign; The former location of Brewed Awakenings at 1271 1st Ave SE, across the street from the Coe College campus; Customers check out groceries inside Hornbill Asian Market at 1445 1st Ave SE; Arthur

of Toy Lair, stands in front of the shop’s sign; Snow dusts the plaza outside Cedar Rapids Public Library, 450 5th Ave SE; Rows of books come into view through architectural details inside the Cedar Rapids Public Library.

Third

Clockwise

top left: Lego sets, figures

Toy

3; Stuart Hall

“Art” Liebich, owner

M.T. Bostic / Little Village

Aborn-and-raised Cedar Rapidan, I spent the majority of my childhood in the Wellington Heights Neighborhood on the southeast side of town. Wellington Heights sits on 1st Avenue, opposite from the historic Mound View neighborhood, where you’ll find Coe College.

As a result, I’ve had a lifelong front-row seat to the dilemma faced by young folks living in the area. Two things are true at once: Cedar Rapids has some great opportunities for higher education—Coe College, Kirkwood Community College and Mount Mercy University—and the “college town experience” couldn’t be more removed from the one found just down the road in Iowa City.

The fact the University of Iowa is a large, public school in the Big 10 certainly accounts for some of this cultural difference. But the separation between campus and walkable local community in south Cedar Rapids also poses plenty of challenges. Getting from building to building is simple enough— at least in the traditional ways we think about accessibility—but getting to and from campus isn’t so pedestrian-friendly.

Because Coe College is situated on 1st Avenue, traffic in the area is non-stop and often treacherous to traverse on foot or bike, even with crosswalks. Students get free access to the Cedar Rapids city bus with their student IDs, but it’s not as robust as a dedicated campus transit system. As a result, many students feel compelled to take a car to class, adding to their financial burden and creating a deeper divide between campus and college town. In cars, folks may also encounter fewer “third spaces”—spots outside of work, class and home to relax, eat and socialize.

As a result, I wanted to take a look at the local infrastructure and offer some ideas for students, faculty and townies looking to ground their feet in the southside CR community.

The closing of the Hy-Vee at 1556 1st Ave NE resulted in what could fairly be considered a food desert in the area. It was easily the closest and most accessible grocery store to many neighborhoods in this part of Cedar Rapids, and the fallout folks experienced from its closing was, and remains, palpable.

While the Gazette recently reported that the city is working on efforts to draw another grocer to the building left by Hy-Vee, the community, as of December 2025, has been newly served by the Hornbill Asian Market (1445 1st Ave SE).

The market offers everything from TikTok viral treats to an extensive produce section. It fills a need in the area, and even better, allows the community to spend their dollars locally when stocking up on necessities for the week.

When it comes to off-campus study spots I want to offer two suggestions: First, the downtown branch of the Cedar Rapids Public Library is only a little over a mile from the Coe campus. Anyone is free to use the library for a welcome change of scenery, but it’s also worth noting that anyone—not just permanent

residents of Cedar Rapids—can get a library card and access all of the resources that come with it.

Via the Cedar Rapids Public Library: “Quick Library Card: Three checkouts and five holds. Quick cards are available to anyone, including people without a current ID or proof of address, and those without a physical address.”

During my own college experience, trading the campus library for the local branch provided me with that same quiet and focus I needed to get through my to-do list, but without the persistent vibe of academic pressure found in collegiate facilities. In short, my favorite hack for college students in need of a third space is to become a regular at the local library—you are both welcome and wanted there.

Second, I would encourage folks to keep an eye out for updates from Café Allez—a local “coffee, bakery, and espresso bar” that is set to be moving into the space that housed Brewed Awakenings Coffeehouse for many years (1271 1st Ave SE, directly across the street from Coe). Right now, Café Allez operates with more of a pop-up model on Mt. Vernon Road. Still, they are already immensely popular and will offer the area a much-needed alternative to chain coffee houses.

At 1239 1st Ave SE, across the street from Coe, you can find Toy Lair. The collectors’ shop just moved into a bigger space (right next door to where you used to find them!) and houses affordable collectors’ items and retro toys. I am a frequent customer there myself and am always amazed by the variety of fandoms you can find items related to. Batman? Ninja Turtles? My Little Pony? Star Wars? Hot Wheels and Match Box Cars? Nintendo games? Lego? They have it all and the list keeps going.

IF yOU’rE LOOKING FOr a PLaCE WHErE yOUr INNEr NErD WILL NOT ONLy bE WELCOME bUT CELEbraTED, yOU’D bE HarD PrESSED TO DO bETTEr THaN TOy LaIr.

The folks who run Toy Lair have always cut me great deals, and their shop is more physically accessible than most (with ramps to both the entrance and within the store). It’s also clearly welcoming to women—something that is not always a given in these kinds of spaces due to the strong connection some draw between being a collector and boyhood. In short, if you’re looking for a place where your inner nerd will not only be welcome but celebrated, you’d be hard pressed to do better than Toy Lair.

Ultimately, one’s experience in Cedar Rapids is dependent on their willingness to find and foster the gems of the neighborhood.

Third Space

Poutine on the Ritz

From flaky walleye to decadent s’mores, this West Des Moines supper club could make a Midwesterner out of anyone.

by CHUy rENTErIa

Food, like all cultural exchange, is relative. One person’s adventurous meal out of their comfort zone is another person’s daily staple. An example: even though I’m born-and-raised Iowan, I had never heard of a supper club before dining at West Des Moines’ Guesthouse Tavern + Oyster. “Oh, is it like a book club for foodies?” is a question I may or may not have asked my LV colleagues.

Turns out that the supper club is a classic Midwestern affair. “A Taste of the Northwoods” is how the Guesthouse describes itself, the Northwoods a region covering Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and parts of Canada. A thread on the Des Moines subreddit had my favorite comment on the Guesthouse’s vibe: “I felt like there was an urban outdoorsman dress code. I don’t have a puff vest and all my trucker hats aren’t expensive enough.”

Though I didn’t know the specific history (and had left my trucker hat at home) the ambiance was familiar and welcoming. Owners Pete Faber and Chef Derek Eidson shucked the sterile trappings that plague so many other modern restaurants; it’s all about warmth and comfort. Even though its layout is open, the space wasn’t a cavernous void of concrete and metal. Our table could actually hear one another!

There are vintage posters for regional beers adorned on knotty pine walls. A canoe sits above the bar, the lights are kept low, and I swear there was the faint smell of a campfire wafting in and out (more on this later). It felt like going to a friend’s house for the first time and getting to join in on their Sunday dinner.

Speaking of dinner—one glance at the appetizers on the menu and I knew what I had to try for the first time: that oh-so-exotic and almost mythical “mess” of a dish known as poutine. I felt connected to my Canadian brethren as I noshed on the plate of crispy French fries and raw Wisconsin cheese curds topped with an in-house gravy and chives. The dish was kept stripped-down and classic. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine a lesser restaurant trying to over-complicate and “put a modern twist” on something like poutine. Look at me, fitting in with the locals, already pissed at the idea of some dorks in the big city subbing the gravy for something like an emulsified garlic aioli.

Lobster mac and cheese.

Chuy Renteria / Little Village

Guesthouse Poutine.

Chuy Renteria / Little Village

Guesthouse S’more. Chuy Renteria / Little Village

Crab-stuffed shrimp.

Chuy Renteria / Little Village

That’s not to say that Chef Eidson and co. are averse to changing things up when it makes sense. An example is the salt and vinegar fries that accompanied the fried walleye. Instead of dousing with malt vinegar, which could lead to soggy, uneven spuds, the Guesthouse’s signature side mixes a vinegar powder with their salt, like a salt and vinegar potato chip. To the uninitiated, that may seem like a small tweak, but the result is a perfectly seasoned and flavored fry. It’s one of those quality-of-life gamechangers that has you asking, “Why doesn’t everyone make them like this?” Pair this with the flaky walleye, fried crisp but not greasy, and you have a dish worth coming back for. (Lowkey the fries alone got me jonesin’ for round two.)

In true Midwestern fashion, my party ended up going family style, divvying up our plates. There wasn’t a bad bite in the bunch. The lobster roll and crab-stuffed shrimp were delicious counterarguments to the “you can’t get good seafood in a landlocked state” naysayers. (Fresh seafood is flown in multiple times a week.)

Particularly impressive was the lobster mac and cheese, as it managed to win over my picky 4-year-old. We only had to field a few dozen questions (“Because it’s a different type of cheese, it’s a fancy cheese called Gruyere. That’s just corn. You like corn, remember?”) before she decided she liked it.

In contrast, the toddler had no questions for the Guesthouse S’more, the signature dessert that capped off our night. Our server brought the treat under a glass cloche. The s’more consisted of a smoked chocolate tart and toasted marshmallow, topped with salted caramel, graham cracker crumble and berries. They lifted the glass, releasing the smoke and revealing the source of the smokey campfire smells.

Whether the capstone to our meal was in keeping with supper club tradition matters less than the consistent tastiness and comfort the Guesthouse Tavern + Oyster provided throughout our meal. Next time, I’ll make sure to bring the flannel and trucker hat.

Walleye with salt and vinegar fries.

Chuy Renteria / Little Village

Soe Heartlesz accepts the 2025 Iowa Music Award for Female Rapper of the Year. Courtesy of Hannah Parkins / HLP Productions; Illustration by Kellan Doolittle / Little Village

Sister of Everyone

The rap president of Peoria found her persona after a high school breakup. by KEMbrEW

Quad Cities emcee Soe Heartlesz—“The Gorgeous Gangsta”—is a 36-year-old mother of five who recently won the Iowa Music Awards Female Rapper of the Year. After performing on dozens of stages around the Midwest over the past two decades, she’s maintaining her momentum with Cardiac Arrest, a mixtape that drops on Valentine’s Day (a.k.a. “Heartlesz Day”).

“S-o-e stands for Sister of Everyone,” explained the artist, who has five real-life siblings—four sisters and one brother. “And then Heartlesz is spelled with an s-z instead of an s-s because I’m not a coldhearted person. I have a really big heart, but I have to make sure it is taken care of properly so that it’s not mishandled.”

Brittnie Vaughn’s hip-hop journey began when she started writing poetry in 6th grade. In 10th grade, she graduated to putting her rhymes to a beat. After experiencing a big breakup sophomore year, she poured her heartbreak into her lyrics. Once she got going, there was no holding Soe Heartlesz back.

MCLEOD

“I ended up getting a lot of friends based off me knowing how to rap, you know, like being able to rap to different people in the hallways. I became a sister of everyone, because I was gaining a lot of friends from rapping, and then I used ‘Heartlesz’ just because I wasn’t out there looking for another boyfriend after that. I was just out there trying to regain myself, so it all worked out.”

Soe’s passion for music was originally sparked by her involvement in church, where she sang in the junior choir and was involved in the youth ministry. She would write poems for Easter and Christmas programs, and she also helped out on the music side of things during those services. Some of her early hip-hop influences came from her older sisters, who were into MC Lyte, Yo-Yo, Roxanne Shante and Lauryn Hill.

“Like, real throwback hip hop,” she said. “Their flow is what got me into rapping, and I was really inspired by those ’80s and ’90s rappers.”

After sharpening her skills in her high school hallways, Soe began recording songs around age

“IT’S rEaLLy LIKE MOrE OF aN arT TO ME. LITEraLLy, LIKE WHEN THEy Say ‘rIDE THE bEaT,’ I WILL Grab THE STEErING WHEEL aND TaKE OFF.”

17. On her 21st birthday, she attended her first open mic night at a bar and decided to take a stab at rapping onstage.

“I just was intrigued, like, ‘Damn, they’re doing the thing,’ you know what I’m saying? I wanted to do that, too! From there, I just started performing. I performed on all the stages in the Quad Cities. I performed on all the stages in Des Moines, I performed on most of the stages in Iowa City, and I’ve been pretty much around the Midwest map, performance-wise.”

Growing her family hasn’t slowed Soe down in the slightest—she keeps writing, rapping, recording, rocking shows and organizing rap showcases for teenage girls. How does she pull all this off?

“I go through school days selecting and writing my material,” she explained, “studio sessions on the weekends, and at least two times a month I get booked for or schedule a performance in various cities. I just stay prayed-up and try to keep my brain sharp

Lauryn Hill (Eddy Rissling, CC BY-SA 4.0) and MC Lyte (Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0), some of Soe Heartlesz’s early hip-hop influences. by Kellan Doolittle / Little Village

Prairie Pop

so that I can deliver the material that I imagine in my head to come out in the microphone.”

When it came time to submit her work to the Iowa Music Awards, she had her eye on the ball. Soe spent about $15,000 on her career last year, playing shows, making the Cardiac Arrest mixtape, and shooting a video for her new shit-hot single “Lay ’Em Down.”

“It really paid off,” she said of the IMAs. “There was a lot of exposure, and then I dropped the ‘Lay ’Em Down’ video right afterwards. So, if you see the video, it has a lot of footage from the Iowa Music Awards, because it was all hand in hand.”

The “Lay ’Em Down” beat comes from one of her favorite songs, “Adios” by Lil Boosie, but she flips it in a way that makes it her own, lyrically. “I’m heartless, but I’m still a lady,” she explains. “I’m a little rough around the edges, but I clean up real nice. You know what I’m saying? I still got manners.”

Soe Heartlesz is a lady, but she comes hard and has something to say.

“It’s really like more of an art to me. Literally, like when they say ‘ride the beat,’ I will grab the steering wheel and take off. I’m a beat rider, so I feel like that’s where my flow developed. I’m really precise about my words, and when I started rapping, it made my delivery even more valuable because I can speak. You know, I can pronounce all my words, use correct grammar, so my words sound compassionate, with emotion.”

Soe is currently focused on the Feb. 14 release of Cardiac Arrest, produced by Gregory Cauthen. Many of the songs on this mixtape are covers of classic hip-hop songs that she customizes and puts her own spin on, like Public Enemy’s “911 Is a Joke.” She selected each track to show off all of the different flows she has in her arsenal, putting her own lyrical spin on originals.

“I want to make something spiritually uplifting,” she said. “That’s my number-one purpose behind everything, you know, with my music starting from the church. I know that everything that I say, it has to be genuine, and it has to be something that isn’t steering somebody in the wrong direction. If I’m clowning somebody, it’s for a purpose and it’s not at the expense of anyone else. It’s about what you have to do to get through, and I’m just encouraging my listeners to get through it, whatever it is.”

Hey, Tom Arnold!

The comedian and four-time divorcé describes his “craziest” ex, his favorite Iowa stuff and the time he challenged his father to a fight.

by LEE KEELEr

Tom Arnold is among the rarest of Iowans, having survived both the Razzie Awards and the kill floor at Hormel.

There’s a generation of us who may have first met him via Roseanne, but the man has spent decades showing up in wonderful places: Austin Powers, True Lies, The Simpsons, The Best Damn Sports Show Period. He’s the chili dog of famous people; you may not see him everywhere, but you’re damn glad when you do.

Fans will get a chance to see him live on Friday, Feb. 6 when Arnold takes the stage at the Englert Theatre. This homecoming show marks the midpoint of a rigorous tour for America’s uncle, who bares his soul on everything from sobriety to Sons of Anarchy The guy is notorious for sticking around post-show to connect with his people, so prepare for after-hangs.

To gear up for the ’Glert, we sat down on Zoom to talk about fatherhood, Trump Tapes and detasseling corn.

How is the tour going so far? It’s going very well. It’s been hectic, sometimes I’ll be in one state one night, then another state the next night, so there’s a lot of traveling. Sometimes you’re back in the car because there’s no airport between shows.

Photo by Robbe Rees,

of Lee Keeler

later, he had us booked on a bunch of nights. It went so well that a big agency saw this and got involved. So now Max and I are out here because of what he started.

Max Meisel, who opens up for me and is a trainer, put this all together. He opened for me in San Diego a year ago and said, “How do I get on more shows for you?” I told him to book a tour, line up all of the travel and take care of all of the money. Three or four days

There seems to be more of a storytelling element to this tour, more like a one-man show. I wanted to figure out a way to talk about my life now with sobriety and being a single dad with a 12-year-old, a 10-year-old and four ex-wives.

This is my chance to talk about trying to be a great father, for other great fathers out there. It doesn’t get talked about much, especially by men. It’s OK to talk about. My dad was a single father, too. There are a lot of shit fathers taking us down, too, but this is for the good ones.

This tour is called “My Crazy X-Wife.” you’ve been divorced four times. are you just talking about one? Most people think that’s about Roseanne, but she’s not even close to being my craziest ex-wife because we didn’t have kids together. That last one was a doozy; she SWAT-ed us five times. We went into court 30-some times. It’s painful to hear and it’s all public record. To make that funny, it took a couple years of going out to the Comedy Store and the Improv to workshop it.

We did a show at the Improv! Do you remember doing the Green Gravel show? [Full disclosure: I once booked Tom as the headliner on an all-Iowa comedy night at the Hollywood Improv in 2015.] That was such a fun night. There’s just a shorthand if you tell someone you’re from Iowa.

Hey, detasseling was my first job. How old were you?

I was 14. It’s amazing. You go down to the church parking lot and get on a bus with adult drifters, basically, who travel the country doing this. And your parents don’t think that’s a problem. You get out in the field, and if you’re 14, your boss is 16. And older boys are a-holes, so they might just fire your whole crew and you have to hitchhike home 20 miles. It’s hot, it’s sweaty. I remember the crop duster came over and sometimes they just left us in the field. I’m sure it was toxic stuff.

yeah, I don’t remember Curry Seed following child labor laws to the letter. But you got paid and that felt good. I’m glad I did it. I don’t want to do it anymore, but we can always tell people that we know what a real job is.

It seems like being a dad is your favorite job. any tips for new fathers?

I’ve done a lot of fun things. Travel. Drugs, booze, sex. Now that’s all over. Now it’s all about the kids and I genuinely get more satisfaction out of being a father to them. And shockingly, I make good decisions. And I make mistakes, but I don’t do them again and again. To see your kids have success, academically, with sports, is very satisfying.

I had a friend tell me you were a coach on his kid’s flag football team. I love coaching. My kids have always played team sports. I played football when I grew up, but I never pushed them into it. So my son cycled through all of the sports: tee ball, soccer, football and then basketball. Now he’s 6-foot-2, weighs 245, size 14 shoe in the sixth grade

Woah! He loves getting chesty with dad. It reminded me of the time I got chesty with my own dad when I was 15. I’d had it because he had so many rules about cutting my hair and working in the field for free. So finally I said, “Me and you are gonna go out back and settle this man to man.” He said, “OK, Tommy. I just gotta do this one thing first,” and he slowwwwly extended his arm until his knuckle was just barely touching my chin. And I remember how just the texture of the skin on his knuckle hurt, it was so rough. I said, “We’ll take a raincheck.”

you didn’t become a dad until you were what, 54? That was the right time. I thought I was going to become a father at 18 when I worked at Hormel. My girlfriend told me that she was pregnant and I was trying to figure out how to make that work. I could see people around me at work who had figured this out: Hormel was their job, it wasn’t their life. So I just said, “Forget about my dreams of Hollywood, this is it.” And I went down to Queen City, Missouri, and her dad was this 6-foot-6 farmer who hated me already, and I had to ask him if I could have Tammy’s hand in marriage.

He wanted to murder me, but he gave me permission. But then I found out that she was lying. And I thanked God that it wasn’t true, and kept thinking, I’ve got another chance.

and now you’re one of the Hollywood Squares. [Laughs.] Yes. The only time we ever heard our dad laugh, I mean really laugh, was when there was a Bob Hope special on. He’d have beautiful women with him and tell double entendre jokes, which he loved. And I remember thinking, “Whatever Bob Hope does, that’s what I want to do.” So one of the first things I did when I worked in Hollywood was get on a Bob Hope special. Couldn’t have been nicer. And my

Tom Arnold performs at the Hollywood Improv in Los Angeles, California in 2015.

courtesy

dad, sitting in the same chair, watching on the same TV, got to see Bob Hope standing next to his son.

you once had a show called The Hunt for the Trump Tapes, trying to expose the racist outtakes of the president when he was on The Apprentice. Do you still believe those tapes exist? I know they’re out there, and I know they’ve done everything they can to protect him. Early on, I saw Mark Burnett and he said, “I’m not gonna give those tapes to anyone,” then he showed me a picture of his son as Trump’s ringbearer at his wedding.

by this point, it seems like it wouldn’t matter if they came out. You might be right. I think I could’ve been in Trump’s cabinet, or at least been an ambassador. I still knew Trump by the start of the first time around. But then I would have sold my soul.

any rituals when you come back to Iowa?

I’m a loyal Hawkeye. When Caitlin Clark was playing for the team, I stayed with the coach [Lisa Bluder]. She’d make me waffles, I’d give a pep talk to the team, then I’d go to a football game, see those guys. I love being there.

I also go back to Ottumwa. There’s not a lot to do, but there’s a restaurant called The Canteen that does loose-meat sandwiches. They were there before MaidRite and it’s about 30 feet by 40 feet. And the same women are working there, stirring the meat. I only eat three now, but I used to eat eight. It’s so good. I had Roseanne’s character work in a loose-meat place because of that spot.

you said online that your old friends are coming to the Englert show. I have to see my friends who I went through school with. It’s good for people to have some old friends because you need someone to bail you out of jail naked, no questions asked.

Wait, did that actually happen? [Laughs] Oh yeah!

At the Hollywood Improv in Los Angeles, California on May 13, 2025.

Photo by Mike Falzone, courtesy of Tom Arnold

February a-LIST: FILM

DES MOINES

Opens Feb. 5, M – an OLLI Screening, Varsity Cinema

Sat, Feb. 7, 12 p.m., My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow, Varsity Cinema

Thu-Sat, Feb. 12-14, The Star City Film & Theater Festival, Varsity Cinema

Opens Feb. 13, Wuthering Heights, Fleur Cinema, Varsity Cinema

Opens Feb. 13, The Moment, Varsity Cinema

Opens Feb. 20, Midwinter Break, Fleur Cinema

Opens Feb. 27, 2026 Oscar Nominated Short Films, Varsity Cinema

Opens Feb. 2, Iron Lung, Fleur Cinema

IOWA CITY

Wed, Feb. 4, 10 p.m., Late Shift at the Grindhouse: Sugar Rot, FilmScene

Thu, Feb. 5, 7 p.m., Twin Peaks: Season 2 - Episode 21 + 22, FilmScene

Sat, Feb. 7, 4 p.m., Last Year at Marienbad, FilmScene

Sat, Feb. 7, 10 p.m., Being John Malkovich, FilmScene

Mon, Feb. 9, 7 p.m., The Cat Lands

on All Fours: Some Moving Image Works by Kerry Laitala, FilmScene

Tue, Feb. 10, 7 p.m., Querelle, FilmScene

Wed, Feb. 11, 7 p.m., Last Year at Marienbad, FilmScene

Wed, Feb. 11, 10 p.m., Cemetery Man, FilmScene

Thu, Feb. 12, 6:30 p.m., Something in the Water: Afrofuturist Short Films, FilmScene

Fri, Feb. 13, 10 p.m., Late Shift at the Grindhouse: Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, FilmScene

Sat, Feb. 14, 4 p.m., Suzhou River, FilmScene

Sat, Feb. 14, 10 p.m., The Lovers on the Bridge, FilmScene

Sun, Feb. 15, 4 p.m., Jury of Her Peers, FilmScene

Mon, Feb. 16, 7 p.m., TCB: The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing, FilmScene

Tue, Feb. 17, 10 a.m. & 1 p.m., Inside Out 2, FilmScene

Wed, Feb. 18, 10 p.m., Late Shift at the Grindhouse: Premiere of BLEEDERS short film + Evil Dead, FilmScene

Thu, Feb. 19, 7 p.m., The Untamed (2016), FilmScene

Sat, Feb. 21, 11 a.m., Ice Age, FilmScene

Sat, Feb. 21, 10 p.m., I Like it Like That, FilmScene

Sun, Feb. 22, 10:30 a.m., autism Society of Iowa Sensory Friendly Screening Ice Age, FilmScene

Sun, Feb. 22, 11 a.m., Ice Age, FilmScene

Sun, Feb. 22, 4 p.m., The Untamed (2016), FilmScene

Tue, Feb. 24, 7 p.m., Agatha and the Limitless Readings, FilmScene

Wed, Feb. 25, 10 p.m., Late Shift at the Grindhouse: Anything That Moves, FilmScene

Thu, Feb. 26, 3:30 p.m., Ice Age, FilmScene

Fri, Feb. 27, 7 p.m., Toxic, FilmScene

Sat, Feb. 28, 12:30 p.m., Stories of Community Winter 2026, FilmScene

Sat, Feb. 28, 10 p.m., Y Tu Mamá También, FilmScene

Mon, Mar. 2, 7 p.m., The Cruz Brothers and Miss Malloy + Back Inside Herself, FilmScene

Wed, Mar. 4, 10 a.m. & 1 p.m., SpiderMan: Into the Spider-Verse, FilmScene

Wed, Mar. 4, 10 p.m., Late Shift at the Grindhouse: Red Sonja, FilmScene

QUAD CITIES

Opens Feb. 3, Send Help, The Last Picture House, Davenport

Opens Feb. 12, Wuthering Heights, The Last Picture House, Davenport

Fri, Feb. 13, 7 p.m., Time Travelers

VHS Cinema: a 1980 Savini

Double Feature: Friday the 13th + Maniac, rozz-Tox, rock Island

Thu, Mar. 5, 6:30 p.m., Filmsofia: Memento, rozz-Tox, rock Island

MUSIC

DES MOINES/AMES

Sat, Feb. 7, 8 p.m., Tommy Doggett & Seth Hedquist, xbk annex

Sat, Feb. 7, 7 p.m., Carson Parker: Progression of the Trio, Noce

Sat, Feb. 7, 7:30 p.m., Cupid’s Lounge w/ ramona & The Sometimes, xbk Live

Sun, Feb. 8, 6 p.m., TV buddha / astro brat / Move Move, xbk Live

Fri, Feb. 13, 8 p.m., The Last revel w/ Casey Joe & The Foxes, xbk Live

Sat, Feb. 14, 9 p.m., Gran Noche De San Valentin, Wooly’s

Sun, Feb. 15, 6 p.m., SosMula w/ ricky Hil, xbk Live

Wed, Feb. 18, 7 p.m., Dan Tedesco w/ ghostwives, xbk Live

Wed, Feb. 18, 6:30 p.m., The browning, Wooly’s

Thu, Feb. 19, 7:30 p.m., Dylan Gossett, Val air ballroom

Fri, Feb. 20, 8 p.m., bayker blankenship, Wooly’s

Sat, Feb. 21, 8 p.m., She’s Crafty: Chicago’s all-Female beastie boys Tribute, Wooly’s

Sat, Feb. 21, 6 p.m., Jinnouchi Power album release, xbk Live

Sat, Feb. 21, 7:30 p.m., The black Jacket Symphony Presents Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Hoyt Sherman Place

Sun, Feb. 22, 2 p.m., Mosher / Macbrehon w/ bridget bell and Sarah Tonin, xbk Live

Sun, Feb. 22, 7 p.m., bryce Vine, Wooly’s

Tues, Feb. 24, 6 p.m., Camping in alaska w/ widaparte and human ant farm, xbk Live

Thu, Feb. 26, 7 p.m., Kahmari, Wooly’s

Fri, Feb. 27, 8 p.m., Klazik w/ Entre Luche, rahlan, Kay & More, xbk Live

Fri, Feb. 27, 7 p.m., Pecos & The rooftops, Wooly’s IOWA CITY

Thu, Feb. 5, 7:30 p.m., Dan Padley - a Tribute to bill Frisell, The Englert

Fri, Feb. 6, 7 p.m., Sweetie & The Toothaches featuring Chase Garrett, Wildwood

Sat, Feb. 7, 7:30 p.m., Jackson Churchill, James Theater

Sat, Feb. 7, 8 p.m., The Cactus blossoms, Wildwood

Sat, Feb. 7, 9 p.m., Good Habits, TV Cop, Early Girl & Savage Little Suckers, Gabe’s

Wed, Feb. 11, 7 p.m., burlington Street bluegrass band, Wildwood

Wed, Feb. 11, 7:30 p.m., Matteo Mancuso, The Englert

Thu, Feb. 12, 7:30 p.m., The Milk Carton Kids & Sierra Hull, The Englert

Fri, Feb. 13, 7 p.m., Laundry Day - The Time of your Life Tour, Gabe’s

Sat, Feb. 14, 6 p.m., yesterday’s Wine II ft. Slim Chance & The Can’t Hardly Playboys, Wildwood

Tue, Feb. 17, 6 p.m., LIFE rIGHT NOW, Gabe’s

Tue, Feb. 17, 6 p.m., Fat Tuesday w/ Dandelion Stompers & Swampland Jewels, Wildwood

Thu, Feb. 19, 9 p.m., Lip Critic, Gabe’s

Fri, Feb. 20, 9 p.m., Jacoozy with Under High Street, Gabe’s

Sat, Feb. 21, 6 p.m., rivers of Nihil, Wildwood

Sat, Feb. 21, 7:30 p.m., Elizabeth Moen, The Englert

Thu, Feb. 26, 6 p.m., First Fleet Concerts present Kolby Cooper, Wildwood

CEDAR RAPIDS

Sat, Feb. 7, 7:30 p.m., Cadence String Quartet, Opus Concert Cafe

Fri & Sat, Feb. 13 & 14, 6:30 p.m., amy Friedl – Heart Strings, Paramount Theatre

Fri, Feb. 13, 6 p.m., Love Bites: Seduction After Sundown, Ideal Theater

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MUSIC

Sat, Feb. 14, 7:30 p.m., Valentine’s Day with Carson Parker feat. Hannah Goodwin, Ideal Theater

Sun, Feb. 19, 7 p.m., Ideal Idol Vol V: Semi Finals, Ideal Theater

Fri, Feb. 20, 7:30 p.m., Ladies First, Opus Concert Cafe

Sat, Feb. 21, 7:30 p.m., Petrock, Paramount Theatre

Mon, Feb. 23, 8 p.m., Joe bonamassa, Paramount Theatre

Thu, Mar. 5, 7 p.m., Leslie Mendelson, CSPS Hall

CEDAR FALLS/ WATERLOO

Fri, Feb. 6, 8 p.m., Jason Christensen, Octopus, Cedar Falls

Sat, Feb. 7, 8 p.m., riley Jane: From the Vault w/ rJ and braden Sabin, Octopus, Cedar Falls

Fri, Feb. 13, 8 p.m., bagel Steak & I Think So Too, Octopus, Cedar Falls

Fri, Feb. 20, 8:30 p.m., Jazz alumni after Party, Octopus, Cedar Falls

Sat, Feb. 21, 8 p.m., Ego Death, Dave Helmer & braen Sabin, Octopus, Cedar Falls

Fri, Feb. 27, 8 p.m., Glasscock, Octopus, Cedar Falls

Sat, Feb. 28, 8 p.m., The rumours & 3 Finger betty, Octopus, Cedar Falls

QUAD CITIES

Sun, Feb. 1, 6 p.m., autumn academy w/ Hyperdose, raccoon Motel

Wed, Feb. 4, 6 p.m., Jenna Paulette w/ Liv McNair, raccoon Motel

Thu, Feb. 5, 6 p.m., Texas Chain Store Managers w/ Father Sunn & ready rev, racoon Motel

Fri, Feb. 6, 8 p.m., Now or Never (Or Maybe Later) w/ Lucas berns, rozz-Tox, rock Island

Fri, Feb. 6, 7 p.m., Pretoria, raccoon Motel

Fri, Feb. 6, 8 p.m., Touch of Trey - Phish & Grateful Dead Tribute, Common Chord

Thu, Feb. 12, 6 p.m., basic, raccoon Motel

Sat, Feb. 14, 4 p.m., Sun Centauri w/ Jack Lion, raccoon Motel

Sat, Feb. 14, 7 p.m., Grown Folks affair r&b Show with Dinner, Common Chord

Wed, Feb. 18, 6 p.m., Laid back County Picker w/ Noah Guthrie, raccoon Motel

Thu, Feb. 19, 6 p.m., Dear Maryanne w/ Cheem, raccoon Motel

Sat, Feb. 21, 7 p.m., Savage Master w/ Starved & Frontal assault, raccoon Motel

Sun, Feb. 22, 6:30 p.m., Kerosene Heights w/ Excuse Me Who are you? & Gunk Lung, raccoon Motel

Sat, Feb. 21, 8 p.m., Chromesthesia w/ Marc Hans Showalter, rozz-Tox, rock Island

Fri, Feb. 27, 7 p.m., The Other brothers w/ Katie & The Honky Tonks, raccoon Motel

Fri, Jan. 23, 8 p.m., HalfwayHomeless,

Common Chord DUBUQUE/ MAQUOKETA

Fri, Feb. 6, 9 p.m., Coolzey, The Lift

Fri, Feb. 13, 7 p.m., Jazz Night w/ ron Tegler Jazz Trio!, Maquoketa brewing

Fri, Feb. 20, 9 p.m., Laid back Country Picker, The Lift

Fri, Feb. 27, 7:30 p.m., Weary ramblers, Maquoketa brewing

THEATER & PERFORMANCE

DES MOINES/AMES

Opens Feb. 6, agatha Christies The Mousetrap, Des Moines Playhouse

Fri, Feb. 6, 7 p.m., Naughty Nerds Cabaret presents: Nerdstravaganza, xbk Live

Tue, Feb. 10, 7 p.m., Final act Ensemble: Valentines Show, Des Moines Playhouse

Feb. 12-14, various times, The Naked

Fri, Feb. 13, 9:30 & 10:45 a.m. & 1:30 p.m., adventure Clubhouse: Snow White, Des Moines Playhouse

Mon, Feb. 16, 6:30 p.m., National Geographic Live: Life on the Move, Des Moines Civic Center

Tue, Feb. 17, 6 p.m., Rewired

Live: an Intimate Evening of Live Coaching, xbk Live

Opens Feb. 20, Des Moines young artists’ Theatre: Winnie the Pooh, Stoner Theater

Sun, Feb. 22, 7:30 p.m., runaway Twain Improv, Des Moines Playhouse

Opens Feb. 24, The Outsiders, Des Moines Civic Center