PURGING AMERICAN STAGE.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue 86, 13 April 1927, Page 1

PURGING AMERICAN STAGE.

TOO MANY SEX PLAYS. POLICE CAMPAIGNING AGAINST PRODUCERS. SAN FRANCISCO, March 17. For the last few months the American stage has degenerated consider- i ably in consequence of the large num- ; her of “sex” plays which have fea- ' tured the programmes, more particu- ; larly in New York, where the ques- . tionable stage showings has at last ; called for public denunciation. j Efforts have now been initiated to 1 endeavor to clean up the theatre in the United States, the New York police having begun a campaign against those producers who have j been presenting plays he.d to be unfit , for public performance. FORTY ARRESTED.

Forty actresses, actors, producers and managers, arrested in three Broadway theatres in New York for participation in alleged immoral productions, were placed under bond pending further hearings. It was stated that repeated arrests would be made each night the plays were produced, according to acting Mayor Joseph McKee. “Police wilß.be on hand to make arrests if there is any repetition of these alleged crimes,” he said. “We are determined to clean up this situation on the New York stage, and 1 hope that other producers will take notice. I include musical comedies and cabarets, against which we will take similar action if investigation shows they are violating the penal code.” “Sex,” “The Captive,” and “The Virgin Man” were the plays raided on the first night of the crusade. Mae West, star of “Sex,” Basil Rathbone and Helen Menken, of “The Captive,” and Don Dillaway and Dorothy Hall, of “The Virgin Man,” were remanded in 1000 dollars bail when they were arraigned in Night Court. No testimony was taken at the arraignments. “The Captive” and “Sex” were recently acquitted of immorality or indecency by a citizens’ play jury, sponsored by District Attorney Barton, who had pledged acceptance of their verdicts. “Sex” has been running eleven months. “The Captive” was in its fifth month, and “The Virgin Man” was in its third week. The plays were in progress when the police arrived, but the arrests were not made until after the final curtains fell. Preparations for the crusade bad been under way for several days, and the District Attorney and the Police Commission had had representatives at the theatres recording lines, action, and costumes that might “tend to corrupt the morals of youth and others.”

NEW TACTICS. Shortly after the launching of the crusade Broadway lost its worries, at least for a time, with _ temporary injunctions prohibiting interference with the three objectionable plays—the first objective is the official house-cleaning of the stage—in effect. Stage authority greeted official ‘ ‘ thou shall nets” with the claim that the fickle bright light district was reforming itself. Stage nudity was losing favor, revue producers asserted, and draped figures returned to popularity. The stir created by the arrest

of the forty subsided as the shows continued under the protection of the Supreme Court injunctions. On the surface everything ran according to schedule, but back-stage, in the manager’s offices, at the City Hall and the Public Prosecutor’s office, new attacks and counter-attacks were being planned. The stage committee of nine divulged its plan for a censorship without ‘‘ outside interference. ’ ’ A play jury of seven, five to be selected by the American Arbitration Coommittee and two appointed by the Theatrical Super-vision Board, would pass on the productions under this plan. John Haynes Holmes, pastor of the Community Church, championed “The Captive,” raided despite the District Attorney’s promise to abide by the decision of the citizens’ play jury, which passed the play several months ago. “The District Attorney has forfeited public respect and thus wrecked his campaign at the outset by disturbing such a play,” Dr. Holmes asserted.

The last note in the crusade recorded a blanket order being issued placing every policeman on whose beat in New York there was a theatre in the position of a stage censor. The order instructed the “man in blue” to make arrests whenever, in his judgment, public morals were endangered. This rule applies to night clubs and other'places as well; in fact, any place where paid entertainers perform.