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ON THE EVENING of 3 March 1964, at the New Bowery Theatre in the East Village, New York City police detective Arthur Welsh observed what he considered an “indecent, lewd and obscene film” and, acting in his capacity as an officer of the court, arrested four people on the charge of obscenity. The film was Jack Smith’sFlaming Creatures, and those arrested included two ticket takers, Garry Sims and Florence Karpf; the projectionist, filmmaker Ken Jacobs; and Jonas Mekas. In Welsh’s initial report of the incident he listed Mekas first, as the defendant who “did supply and distribute [the] lewd

IT LOOMED ALMOST as large as the Statue of Liberty, and its symbolic significance was, in a certain sense, comparable to that homage to freedom. TheNew York Timesdescribed it as a “Red-Blonde Beauty with 75-Foot Legs.” What was it? “Why,” theTimesdeclared, “it’s Baby Doll of Times Square!” Throughout most of the fall of 1956, artist Robert Everhart had constructed a billboard for an upcoming steamy Hollywood movie entitledBaby Doll. The lead actress and main attraction of the film was a movie starlet named Carroll Baker. Director Elia Kazan had the idea to create an advertising

The biography is ''The American Pope: The Life and Times of Francis Cardinal Spellman'' by John Cooney, published by Times Books. It is a sharply critical account of the Roman Catholic prelate who, as New York's Archbishop from 1939 to 1967, was one of the most influential men of his era. The publicity release accompanying the book describes it as tracing ''the use and abuse of poilitical power by a religious leader who did more than any other to destroy the wall separating church and state in America.''

''We feel we have a responsibility not to publish damaging allegations which cannot be substantiated or which are based on hearsay,'' said Joseph Consolino, president and publisher of Times Books. ''With regard to [John Cooney]'s biography of Francis Cardinal Spellman, the author has done a vast amount of fact checking and we have done extensive editorial review, which is continuing.'' Mr. Cooney said that he did speak with one first-hand source, who is not mentioned in the book. ''He is a fairly prominent person and he claims he had an affair with [Francis Joseph Spellman],'' Mr. Cooney said. ''It was fairly well known that the two were close.'' As to why mention of that incident does not appear in the galleys, the author replied: ''It just didn't seem important to me at the time. I did not like dealing with the whole topic.'' Mr. Cooney, formerly a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, and author of ''The Annenberg Legacy,'' said he was convinced that the allegations about the Cardinal were true. ''I talked to many priests who worked for Spellman,'' he said, ''and they were incensed, dismayed and angered by his conduct.''