ACTRESS AND CAST ARRESTED ON STAGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 552, 3 January 1929, Page 7

ACTRESS AND CAST ARRESTED ON STAGE

SALACIOUS PERFORMANCE The stage censorship has been initiated in New York, and hardly a voice is raised in disapproval. A drama of Miss Mae West, called “Pleasure Man,” was stopped by the police. After the first New York City performance, 55 persons, including all the members of the cast, and Miss West, were arrested. Th next day she obtained an injunction preventing police interference, and the performance was given, but the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court cancelled the injunction, and in the midst of the third performance police officers stepped on the stage and ordered the curtain to be lowered, arresting 47 members in the cast. Some of the actors tried an appeal to the audience against “police tyranny,“ but they were forcibly removed. The play deals with degeneracy in a flippant, sordid manner. The Mayor. Mr. James Walker, who was personally responsible for the police activity, issues a statement that he was determined to “put an end to this kind of salacious performance in violation of law.” ; He added: “This is a community i of liberal people, and the Mayor is liberal and always has been, and will be a patron of the theatre. But any- , thing so offensive to the decency and morality of the citizens of this community cannot continue while I am Mayor.” Miss West some months ago served . a term for her activities in writing, I producing and appearing in another : play called “Sex.” A third piece from i her pen, “The Drag,” was stopped by . | the police in several provincial cities | and never reached New York.