Paul Reubens, who captivated audiences with his man-child character Pee-wee Herman, died Sunday, July 30, at the age of 70, after a private battle with cancer. The conversation around his more controversial behavior has been revived following the news of his death.
“Last night we said farewell to Paul Reubens, an iconic American actor, comedian, writer and producer whose beloved character Pee-wee Herman delighted generations of children and adults with his positivity, whimsy and belief in the importance of kindness,” a statement on his official Instagram account read.
Reubens was best known for his iconic character who broke social norms. A 2016 profile on Reubens in The New York Times wrote, “One of the greatest achievements of Pee-wee’s Playhouse was that it created a place where desires are not policed, otherness is not demonized, gender roles are juggled and erotic energies attach where they will: Pterri the Pterodactyl ogles Miss Yvonne’s breasts, Conky the robot enjoys a robot-nudie magazine, Pee-wee play-acts a date with Cowboy Curtis.” But this onscreen subversiveness led to problems in Reubens’ personal life, which was marred by numerous sex scandals.
Paul Reubens’ indecent exposure arrest
Reubens was arrested on the evening of July 26, 1991, while visiting family in Sarasota, Florida, as he was leaving the adult movie theater XXX South Trail Cinema. After allegedly catching the actor fondling himself during a triple feature of Catalina Five-O: Tiger Shark, Nurse Nancy, and Turn Up the Heat, undercover officers hauled in the 39-year-old Reubens—and two other men—on charges of violating Florida State Statute 800.03 (Exposure of Sexual Organs).
At the time of his arrest, Reubens allegedly offered to perform a children’s benefit for the sheriff’s office if the charges were dropped. However, he wasn’t charged with attempted bribery; a department spokesperson said there wasn’t enough evidence at the time.
“Well, obviously I wasn’t thinking. You know?” Reubens later said in a 2004 interview with NBC News. “I certainly wasn’t thinking to myself you’re a children’s show host. Your show is still on television. I wasn’t making those lists. I felt like they were insinuating like, well, I was sitting in, you know, a darkened movie theater, in my Pee-Wee suit … That didn’t seem like a crime to me. It didn’t seem like anyone’s business but my own.”
Although Reubens released a statement denying the charges, he ultimately pleaded no contest to avoid having the charge on his record. Citing Reubens’ creative genius, the judge ordered him to pay a $50 fine, make an anti-drug video, and said that she hoped to never see him in her courtroom again, according to a report in the Seattle Times. Under the terms of the plea deal, he was also obligated to complete 75 hours of community service, including producing and financing two anti-drug public service announcements.
The 1991 incident significantly impacted Reubens’ career, although it wasn’t the performer’s only brush with the law related to his enjoyment of adult films. In 1971, Reubens was arrested in the same county in Florida for loitering and prowling near an adult theater, though the charges were ultimately dropped. He was also arrested and placed on two years of probation for marijuana possession in 1983. Unlike his earlier arrests, the 1991 arrest affected his career: Disney-MGM Studios in Florida removed a video from its studio tour in which Herman explained how voiceover tracks are produced, and Toys “R” Us removed Pee-wee Herman toys from its stores. In addition, CBS, which had been airing reruns of the five seasons of Pee-wee’s Playhouse, decided to cancel all show broadcasts only three days after the actor’s initial arrest on July 29, 1991.
Reubens’ arrest was widely covered, with the actor and his character Pee-wee becoming the subject of ridicule. “He was no longer just a comedian—he was a scandal, an outcast, a late-night-talk-show joke,” reported US Weekly.
“It was kind of like a mortifying kind of situation, where I felt like, you know, people are laughing at me,” Reubens told NBC News in 2004. “I’m a professional comedian. I’ve never claimed to be able to take it as good as I dish it out, ever. I mean, I’m just sensitive.”
Despite the negative publicity, many who knew Reubens voiced their support for the comedian, including Annette Funicello and Valeria Golino. In August 1991, Golino came from Italy to play Herman’s girlfriend in Big Top Pee-wee and told Entertainment Weekly, “Paul Reubens is why I am in America. He is a gifted and sensitive man with a great sense of humor. I find it very hypocritical. They have these porno movies … and they put police in the theaters? I don’t understand this. I don’t care if he did it or not—he’s a great guy.”
Cyndi Lauper, who sang the Pee-wee’s Playhouse theme song, also came to Reubens’ defense, calling his behavior a “victimless occurrence,” per The New York Post.
Fans also came out in droves to support Reubens, with outlets like WWOR-TV New Jersey declaring the event “Pee-weegate.” A Current Affair, a syndicated TV news program, received “tens of thousands” of responses to the show’s July 31, 1991, Herman telephone survey, in which “callers supported Reubens 9 to 1 with recorded messages,” according to an Entertainment Weekly retrospective on the incident.
Herman fans also organized rallies outside of CBS television studios in Hollywood, California, and New York City, New York, to protest the network’s cancellation of Pee-wee‘s Playhouse three days after the actor’s arrest. The Los Angeles Times reported, “During the 90-minute curbside demonstration [in Hollywood], fans deplored what they called the network’s hasty judgment and condemned the media for branding actor Paul Reubens a pervert before conviction in a court.”
Paul Reubens’ obscenity charge in 2004
The 2004 charges against Reubens stemmed from an investigation that Los Angeles police said started a year before the arrest, with accusations from a 17-year-old boy tied to the child pornography case against actor Jeffrey Jones.Â
Ultimately, Reubens turned himself into the police and was charged with a misdemeanor under California Penal Code Statute 311.1(a), misdemeanor possession of material depicting a child under the age of 18 engaged in sexual conduct. CPC Statute 311.1(a) is a “wobbler” offense, meaning that it can be charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony. The LA district attorney who investigated the actor’s “vast and valuable historical collection of artwork, kitsch memorabilia and adult erotica” found no grounds for bringing felony charges. Out of more than 30,000 pictures and 650 hours of film (including Rob Lowe’s 1988 sex tape) that police found when they searched Reubens’ home, authorities found offending images in one book, 25 magazines, and one film, reported BBC News in 2003.
Reubens’ lawyer Blair Berk argued that because some of the material was made decades before California’s child pornography laws were passed in 1989, the actor’s charges should have been dropped. The prosecution labeling the images as pornographic “mischaracterizes the art collection seized,” Berk told TODAY, noting that the collection included pieces like a “black-and-white tintype from 1901 with a young man of indeterminate, 17- to 19-year-old age, laying on the beach after having gone skinny-dipping.”
“It was clear from the start that we, along with the many distinguished art experts supporting Paul’s art photography collection, vehemently disagreed with the city prosecutor’s view of what constitutes art,” Berk continued.
In March 2004, Reubens pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of possession of obscene materials with the intent to distribute. He was fined $100, agreed to enter counseling for one year, received three years of probation, and had to agree to register as a sex offender for the duration of his probation. As a registered sex offender, he also wasn’t allowed unsupervised contact with minors during the probation period. Once Reubens’ probation was done, his case was eligible for an expungement—and since I can’t find any official records of the case, it seems that’s what happened.
“The moment that I realized my name was going to be said in the same sentence as children and sex, that’s really intense,” Reubens told NBC News in 2004. “That’s something I knew from that very moment, whatever happens past that point, something’s out there in the air that is really bad.”
He continued, “One thing I want to make very, very clear, I don’t want anyone for one second to think that I am titillated by images of children. It’s not me. You can say lots of things about me. And you might. The public may think I’m weird. They may think I’m crazy or anything that anyone wants to think about me. That’s all fine. As long as one of the things you’re not thinking about me is that I’m a pedophile. Because that’s not true.”
Sex-negative culture, homophobia, and Paul Reubens’ career
Even though Reubens never came out as gay, he became a queer icon.
Most Pee-wee Herman fans assumed the character’s creator was gay. Yet, in the public record, there is no evidence that he was. In fact, it appears that he was straight. He was briefly married to Doris Duke heiress Chandi Heffner as an impromptu publicity stunt, and he was engaged to actress Debi Mazar, whom he credited with helping him with his depression after the 1991 arrest. It’s always possible that these women could have been beards, allowing him to conceal his sexual orientation to protect his Hollywood career.
Either way, the damage was done. Reubens dared to transgress social norms with his campy character, so when he was caught enjoying himself at an adult theater in 1991, the media was ready to make him the target of its jokes. Reubens became a target for late night TV hosts as well, and the subject of numerous exposés that played on conservative prejudices and fears.
It wasn’t until the 2000s that Reubens was able to recover from these controversies. Though he never stopped acting, Reubens became less prominent in the years following the scandals. In 2011, he finally returned to the character who made him a household name with a revival of Pee-wee’s Playhouse, and in 2016, he starred in Pee-wee’s Big Holiday—which turned out to be his final film role.
(featured image: HBO)
