In a career spanning 75 years, he has owned, leased, or operated more than 70 theaters, cinemas, and nightclubs across the United States, dating from the burlesque era of the 1950s to the present.

During burlesque's heyday, Griffith was a prolific producer of live stage shows featuring showgirls, strippers, comedians, vaudevillians, and other stars of the era.

His business endeavors in the adult entertainment industry have, for decades, put him at odds with restrictive municipalities, and he has taken legal action, often successfully, to defend his constitutional rights and be able to operate his establishments.

[1] "In those days," Griffith recalled in a 1993 interview, "they had probably 30 people in the cast, a chorus line, an orchestra, two comics, a singer, a vaudeville act, and then five exotic dancers.

A June 1955 Billboard magazine column noted that the 23-year-old "Leroy Griffith, concession manager at the Folly [Theater], Kansas City, Mo., is now the owner of the Missouri Coffee Shop with an enlarged dining room and a new air-conditioned system.

After a limited operation of a Kansas City, Missouri, restaurant and another period of short-term employment with Markovich, he opened a theater in Detroit, Michigan.

Among the countless burlesque performers hired by Griffith were Candy Barr, Virginia Bell, Ann Corio, Dixie Evans, Lili St. Cyr, Blaze Starr, and Tempest Storm.

[9] When finally the genre ceased to be a popular and profitable attraction, one of its last remaining producers adapted to changing tastes and times, converting his burlesque houses to adult film theaters and strip clubs.

[14][15] Griffith produced the sexploitation films Bell, Bare and Beautiful (1963), Lullaby of Bareland (1964), The Case of the Stripping Wives (1966), Mundo depravados (1967), and My Third Wife, George (1968).

The Mayfair Burlesque (now Sony Hall) was previously Billy Rose's popular Diamond Horseshoe nightclub, located in the basement level of the Paramount Hotel in Times Square.

"I used to do [benefit] shows at the Carib, which seated over 2,000 people," Griffith recounted in a 1993 interview, "and donated the theater, staff, advertising, and helped get talent.

"[32]In January 1961, Griffith was fined $500 for exhibiting "an indecent, immoral or impure picture" when he showed B-Girl Rhapsody at his recently-opened Parsons Follies theater in Columbus, Ohio.

"[35] Later in 1961, a grand jury refused to indict Griffith on a charge of displaying "obscene, lewd or lascivious" pictures based on photos placed in the Parsons' lobby.

Outcry from neighborhood residents led to intense scrutiny from city officials and the local newspaper, resulting in the arrest of the show's star and Griffith on indecency charges and the confiscation of 15 film reels in a June 1962 raid.

[37][38] Fear of Love, Emile A. Harvard's avante-garde "educational" and "provocative comedy in two acts" with "graphic demonstrations of marriage behavior," was staged live at the Roxy in Miami Beach in 1970.

The play, according to a synopsis of a previously-produced film adaptation, was "an accurate presentation of married people having sexual difficulties and the unique, progressive approach in which a modern marriage counselor tries to solve them" and based "on actual cases.

"[39][40] Griffith told The Miami Herald's entertainment editor in a Sept. 10 column that he anticipated no legal harassment over his production, pointing to a California court ruling that "nothing in a play on the stage is obscene.

"[42] Though the city's vice squad officers and the chairman of Dermer's advisory committee to combat pornography branded the play pornographic, a municipal judge ruled that it was not obscene.

"[42] On Sept. 29, a grand jury indictment was unsealed; vice squad officers raided the Roxy that evening, arresting Griffith and his cast as they left the stage following a performance.

"[32] By 1988, as a Times-Picayune columnist noted, the city's only remaining adult theater was Griffith's Cine Royale on Canal Street, which was protected by a restraining order as it challenged the constitutionality of state obscenity laws.

[32] Miami Mayor Maurice Ferré, bent on keeping "indecent" sex films off cable television in his city, sponsored a non-binding straw vote to ban them.

"[2] The day after opening, in a pre-emptive strike, Griffith's lawyers sued the city, charging that a Hialeah zoning ordinance banning porn cinemas within 500 feet of residences was unconstitutional.

Efforts by the county to charge him with a felony for screening two obscene movies within 5 years collapsed when Griffith's attorney pointed out that too much time had elapsed between incidents.

[2] Griffith's attorneys filed suit in November 1987 against Hollywood, Fla., asking a Broward County judge to declare the city's ordinances banning nude dancing unconstitutional.

"[2] The suit followed a series of incidents in 1985 in which police raided Griffith's Cine 1 & 2 Theater a dozen times, dismantling projectors and arresting employees on obscenity charges.

"[2] The imminent debut of the Gold Club, whose owners had intended to introduce nudity and alcohol in their new building on 5th Street, spurred the City Commission to pass local legislation prohibiting such a mix.

[2] Griffith announced that if the Gold Club was allowed to open with liquor and nudity, he would move his hard-core films from the Gayety Theater to the Roxy, which then was showing second-run movies for general audiences.

[58] Griffith's son Charles was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison after the 1985 mercy killing of his three-year-old daughter, who had been in a months-long coma in a Miami children's hospital following a freak accident.

[59][60]  Charles Griffith later published an addiction recovery magazine and opened a sober house for women transitioning from substance rehab, both dedicated as memorials to his late daughter.

"[63] Theaters he has owned and operated, been an ownership partner in, leased, and/or managed include these: Note: Click the "sort" icon at the head of each column to view data in alphabetical order.