Efrain "Carlos" Tobalina (1925 – March 31, 1989), also known as Carlos Tobalina and often credited as Troy Benny, was a Peruvian-born filmmaker and actor known for his work on

pornographic film Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, and 18+ films are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse and satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include erotic ...

s. He directed such films as '' Infrasexum'' (1969), '' Jungle Blue'' (1978), ''Three Ripening Cherries'' (1979), ''Sensual Fire'' (1980), and '' Flesh and Bullets'' (1985). He became the owner of several

adult theater An adult movie theater is a euphemistic term for a movie theater dedicated to the exhibition of pornographic films. Adult movie theaters show pornographic films primarily for either a respectively heterosexual or homosexual audience. For the patr ...

s, and was involved in court cases related to

obscenity laws An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be use ...

. In 1989, he was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head at one of his houses in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

Early life

Tobalina was born in 1925 in Peru, and emigrated to Brazil and then to the United States in the early 1950s. He arrived in California in 1956, and over the next few years, he worked as both a car salesman at a number of car dealerships and a Spanish-language announcer.

Career

In 1964, Tobalina founded C. Tobalina Productions, Inc., his film company. He made his debut as a film director and actor with the 1969 film '' Infrasexum''. By the autumn of 1971, Tobalina had become the owner of the Mayan Theater in

, California after purchasing it for around $300,000. Throughout the decade, Tobalina and his wife Maria Pia Palfrader took ownership of a small number of

s, including the X Theater on

Hollywood Boulevard Hollywood Boulevard is a major east–west street in Los Angeles, California. It begins in the east at Sunset Boulevard in the Los Feliz district and proceeds to the west as a major thoroughfare through Little Armenia and Thai Town, Hollywo ...

and the Star Theater in La Puente.

Obscenity cases

As early as 1969, Tobalina hired lawyers to defend himself and his films from

of the time. ''Infrasexum'' was brought to court in the state of Colorado on the charge of being "obscene material", but the court ultimately sided with Tobalina. After the case, Tobalina filed a

counterclaim In a court of law, a party's claim is a counterclaim if one party asserts claims in response to the claims of another. In other words, if a plaintiff initiates a lawsuit and a defendant responds to the lawsuit with claims of their own against th ...

against the prosecution, which included the mayor, state attorney general, and governor of

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...

. In 1970, a screening of ''Infrasexum'' in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

resulted in the arrest of a theater manager and a projectionist on account of allegedly violating city ordinances regarding obscene material. In September 1971, the Los Angeles County Superior Court declared Tobalina guilty of violating a

California Penal Code The Penal Code of California forms the basis for the application of most criminal law, criminal procedure, penal institutions, and the execution of sentences, among other things, in the American state of California. It was originally enacted ...

regarding the exhibition of obscene material for screening the 1971 film ''Januarius''. Tobalina then hired lawyer Stanley Fleishman to appeal the ruling; appeals were made to the

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is th ...

appellate court, which upheld the ruling, and the

California Supreme Court The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacra ...

, which declined to review the case. Fleishman then petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court. By 1973, after an increase in pornography-related court cases similar to those Tobalina was involved in, the U.S. Supreme Court redefined its definition of "obscenity" with the decision '' Miller v. California'', from "utterly without socially redeeming value" to that which lacks "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value"..

Personal life

Tobalina married a bookkeeper named Maria Pia Palfrader in 1964, becoming a stepfather to her young daughter Gloria. Two years later, in 1966, he and Maria had a daughter named Linda.

Death

On March 31, 1989, Tobalina's wife Maria found him lying unresponsive in the enclosed back patio of one of his houses in the neighborhood of

Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles Pacific Palisades is a neighborhood in the Westside region of Los Angeles, California, situated about west of Downtown Los Angeles. Pacific Palisades was formally founded in 1921 by a Methodist organization, and in the years that followed be ...

. He was discovered with a

.38 .38 caliber is a frequently used name for the caliber of firearm A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). Th ...

caliber

Smith & Wesson Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. (S&W) is an American firearm manufacturer headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. Smith & Wesson was founded by Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson as the "Smith & Wesson Revolver Company" in 18 ...

revolver in his right hand, and was declared dead from a gunshot wound to the head. He had written a

suicide note A suicide note or death note is a message left behind by a person who dies or intends to die by suicide. A study examining Japanese suicide notes estimated that 25–30% of suicides are accompanied by a note. However, incidence rates may depen ...

which explained that he was suffering from terminal

liver cancer Liver cancer (also known as hepatic cancer, primary hepatic cancer, or primary hepatic malignancy) is cancer that starts in the liver. Liver cancer can be primary (starts in liver) or secondary (meaning cancer which has spread from elsewhere to th ...

Partial filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tobalina, Carlos 1925 births 1989 suicides Peruvian film directors Peruvian male film actors Peruvian pornographic film directors Suicides by firearm in California 1989 deaths Immigrants to Brazil Peruvian emigrants Brazilian emigrants to the United States