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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio, Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that raises the curtain on everyday history and

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Speaker 1: lets it take about. I'm Gabe Bluesier, and in this

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Speaker 1: episode we're talking about an eventful day in the life

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Speaker 1: of May West, an actress, performer, and playwright who proudly

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Speaker 1: climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong. The day

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Speaker 1: was April nineteen, nineteen seven. Stage actress May West was

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Speaker 1: found guilty of crimes of obscenity and sentenced to ten

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Speaker 1: days at a women's prison in New York City. At

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Speaker 1: the time, midway through the Prohibition era, the city was

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Speaker 1: still in the throes of a moral panic. By ninety seven,

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Speaker 1: the NYPD's Municipal Vice Squad had begun cracking down on

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Speaker 1: other forms of immoral behavior in society besides alcohol. Even

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Speaker 1: the stages of Broadway were targeted, which is how May

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Speaker 1: West wound up in the vice squads crosshairs. For ten months,

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Speaker 1: she had starred in a play she'd written herself, the

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Speaker 1: provocatively titled Sex. The show's lengthy run had attracted a

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Speaker 1: large audience and not much controversy. It was a bit

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Speaker 1: surprising then, when on February ninth seven, the New York

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Speaker 1: Vice squad rated the theater and placed may West and

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Speaker 1: her fellow cast mates under arrest. The same thing happened

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Speaker 1: to two other supposedly indecent plays that night. In all

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Speaker 1: three cases, the producers were given the chance to have

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Speaker 1: the charges dropped if they agreed to close their shows.

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Speaker 1: Two shows to that deal, but may West refused to

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Speaker 1: close hers. She accepted the charges and was eventually convicted

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Speaker 1: for them. That was all fine by her, though in fact,

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Speaker 1: it was all part of a plan to take her

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Speaker 1: career to the next level. Although she later became one

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Speaker 1: of the most famous stars of Hollywood's Golden Age. Mary

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Speaker 1: Jane West began her career in vaudeville in nineteen oh seven,

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Speaker 1: when she was just fourteen years old. She later performed

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Speaker 1: at burlesque shows and then moved to Hollywood to become

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Speaker 1: a stage actress. She had a tough time landing decent roles,

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Speaker 1: so she made a bold move and decided to write

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Speaker 1: one for herself. In nineteen twenty six, at the age

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Speaker 1: of thirty three, may West mounted the production of Sex,

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Speaker 1: a play she wrote under the pen name Jane mast.

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Speaker 1: It opened at the Daily Theater on West sixty third

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Speaker 1: Street on April nineteen twenty six. In the show, West

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Speaker 1: play a sex worker named Margie Lamont. In the play,

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Speaker 1: the character is torn between two prospective husbands, a young

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Speaker 1: man who has no idea what she does for a

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Speaker 1: living and an older man who knows and accepts her situation.

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Speaker 1: The title of the play was controversial, likely on purpose,

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Speaker 1: but the story itself was fairly tame. It didn't even

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Speaker 1: have much to do with the act of sex. Instead,

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Speaker 1: it dealt with complex social issues like the power dynamics

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Speaker 1: between men and women. Most critics weren't impressed by the show,

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Speaker 1: but for whatever reason, audiences were drawn to it. Over

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Speaker 1: the next ten months, about three hundred and twenty five

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Speaker 1: thousand people turned out to see the show. It was

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Speaker 1: performed three hundred and seventy times, making it the third

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Speaker 1: longest running show in Broadway history up to that point.

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Speaker 1: But all that came to a sudden end on the

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Speaker 1: night of February nine. When May West left the stage

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Speaker 1: that evening, she was immediately confronted by members of the

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Speaker 1: municipal Vice squad. She and several other cast members were

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Speaker 1: placed in black police vans and driven to night court

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Speaker 1: on charges of obscene exhibition and contributing to a common nuisance.

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Speaker 1: The actresses spent a rough night in the Jefferson Market

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Speaker 1: Women's prison, but made bail the following morning. Nearly two

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Speaker 1: months later, on April five, May West was indicted by

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Speaker 1: a grand jury after it was determined that her show

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Speaker 1: quote tended to corrupt the morals of youth and others.

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Speaker 1: Outside the court house, hundreds of people had gathered that day,

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Speaker 1: hoping to hear a statement from West, and maybe to

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Speaker 1: get her autographed too. One reporter asked her what she

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Speaker 1: expected to happen at her upcoming trial. Aware that her

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Speaker 1: newfound publicity was worth more than a not guilty verdict,

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Speaker 1: West simply replied, I expect this will be the making

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Speaker 1: of me. Two weeks later, May West was found guilty

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Speaker 1: of obscenity and behavior intended to corrupt the morals of youth.

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Speaker 1: She was sentenced to either a fi fine or ten

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Speaker 1: days in a workhouse on Welfare Island now known as

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Speaker 1: Roosevelt Island. West chose prison, knowing that it was sure

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Speaker 1: to garner more attention in the press. She arrived there

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Speaker 1: the next day in the back of a limo and

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Speaker 1: with a bouquet of white roses in hand. As expected,

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Speaker 1: the press was waiting for her, and she made sure

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Speaker 1: to smile for plenty of pictures before heading inside a

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Speaker 1: server sentence. During her stay on welfare Island, West reportedly

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Speaker 1: dined with the warden and his wife, and she later

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Speaker 1: said her only real complaint was that she had to

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Speaker 1: wear cotton underwear. In the end, the actress was released

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Speaker 1: two days early, an outcome she described her reporters as

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Speaker 1: quote the first time I ever got anything for good behavior.

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Speaker 1: Once released, May West capitalized on her notoriety by staging

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Speaker 1: three new risk ay plays over the next few years.

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Speaker 1: They were Drag, later renamed The Pleasure Man, Diamond Lil,

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Speaker 1: and The Constant Center. Like her first play, these efforts

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Speaker 1: were met with audience acclaim, social controversy, and tepid critical reviews,

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Speaker 1: but that was enough to catch the attention of Hollywood producers,

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Speaker 1: and soon after West signed a five thousand dollar a

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Speaker 1: week contract with Paramount Pictures. That's about eighty five grand

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Speaker 1: a week in today's money, and within three years, the

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Speaker 1: in demand actress was making even more than that, so

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Speaker 1: much in fact, that she became the second highest paid

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Speaker 1: person in the country, second only to newspaper mogul William

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Speaker 1: Randolph Hurst. West's massive salary was a testament to the

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Speaker 1: box office draw she'd become by nine five, and it

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Speaker 1: was all the more impressive when you consider that she'd

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Speaker 1: didn't launch her movie career until she was thirty eight

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Speaker 1: years old, with her star continuing to rise well into

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Speaker 1: her forties. That wasn't the norm for actresses in Hollywood,

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Speaker 1: and unfortunately it still isn't. But there wasn't much about

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Speaker 1: may West that conformed to the status quo. Even the

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Speaker 1: control she wielded over her career was unprecedented. She managed

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Speaker 1: to negotiate a deal with Paramount that allowed her to

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Speaker 1: write and rewrite many of her own lines. This arrangement

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Speaker 1: led to many of the one liners, double entendres, and

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Speaker 1: clever innuendo that made her character so memorable in movies

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Speaker 1: like Night After Night, I'm No Angel, and My Little Chickadee.

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Speaker 1: If you're unfamiliar, here are a few of her funniest lines. Well,

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Speaker 1: when I'm good, I'm very good. But when I'm bad,

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Speaker 1: I'm better. Haven't you ever met a man that can

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Speaker 1: make you happy? Sure? What kind of husband did you

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Speaker 1: think I should get to take a single man leave

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Speaker 1: as was alone? Are you were wonderful? Denied? I'm always

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Speaker 1: wonderful at man, aren't you forgetting that you're married? I'm

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Speaker 1: doing my best. You certainly know the way to a

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Speaker 1: man's heart. It's funny too, because I don't know how

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Speaker 1: to cook. Great town of St. Louis, you were born there. Yes, what,

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Speaker 1: young lady, are you trying to show contempt for this court? No,

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Speaker 1: I'm doing my best to hunt. West faced off with

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Speaker 1: sensors again after Hollywood adopted the Haze Code in the

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Speaker 1: mid nineteen thirties. Suddenly profanity, sex and violence, and movies

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Speaker 1: were scrutinized and regulated like never before. The restrictions presented

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Speaker 1: a new challenge from may West, who had built a

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Speaker 1: career on being both a champion of sexual expression and

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Speaker 1: a notorious tester of societal limits. But as always, the

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Speaker 1: actors saw the challenge as an opportunity for further success.

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Speaker 1: I believe in censorship, she once said, After all, I

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Speaker 1: made a fortune out of it. I'm gay, bluesier, and

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Speaker 1: hopefully you now know a little more about history today

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Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up

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Speaker 1: with the show, you can always follow us on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at t d i HC Show. You can

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Speaker 1: also send us your comments or questions by writing to

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Speaker 1: This Day at I heart media dot com. Thanks to

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Speaker 1: Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank you for listening.

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Speaker 1: I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another Day

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Speaker 1: in History class