Today in Labor History April 19, 1927: The authorities sentenced Hollywood star Mae West to 10 days in jail for obscenity, for her play, “Sex.” Billboard called the play "the cheapest most vulgar low show to have dared to open in New York this year." However, it played 375 before the NYPD shut it down and was a commercial success, despite the poor reviews.

West was famous for portraying sexually confident characters and for her use of double entendres. She wrote and performed in numerous plays in the 1910s-1920s and Vaudevillian acts, before becoming a successful film actor, playing alongside such greats as W.C. Fields, Cary Grant. She also recorded several record albums, including some rock and roll. She was frequently associated with controversies over censorship and once stated, "I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it."

#workingclass #LaborHistory #maewest #hollywood #sex #sexism #obscenity #censorship

A quotation from Madeleine L'Engle

Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) American writer
Speech (1983-11-16), “Dare To Be Creative,” Lecture, Library of Congress, Washington, DC

More about this quote: wist.info/lengle-madeleine/832…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #madeleinelengle #obscenity #author #bookbanning #censorship #pornography #writing

Today in Labor History March 25, 1957: U.S. Customs seized copies of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" on obscenity grounds. Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and City Lights manager, Shigeyoshi Murao, were arrested on obscenity charges for publishing and distributing the poem. Howl was inspired, in part, by a terrifying peyote vision Ginsberg had in which the façade of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, in San Francisco, appeared as the monstrous face of a child-eating demon. The obscenity charges stemmed from homophobic responses to his explicit references to homosexuality. Ginsberg’s first experience with LSD, as well as Kerouac’s and Burroughs’s, was with acid provided by the anthropologist Gregory Bateson, one-time husband of and long-time collaborator with Margaret Mead. You can read more about Bateson and Mead’s early experimentation with, and promotion of, psychedelics (and their collaboration with the CIA) in the recent book, “Tripping on Utopia.”

#workingclass #LaborHistory #poetry #howl #lgbtq #allenginsburg #homophobia #lawrenceferlinghetti #citylights #obscenity #censorship #bannedbooks #kerouac #mkultra #cia #williamburoughs #lsd #peyote #margaretmead #gregorybateson #psycheldelics #books #writer #author #poet @bookstadon

Today in Labor History March 24, 1919: Poet and activist Lawrence Ferlinghetti was born. Ferlinghetti is most well-known for his book of poetry, “A Coney Island of the Mind” (1958) and for cofounding City Lights bookstore and publishing, in San Francisco. The authorities arrested him for publishing Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” because they deemed it obscene. However, a jury acquitted him in 1957. Politically, Ferlinghetti considered himself an anarchist. His politics were influenced by Anarchist poet and IWW member Kenneth Rexroth.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #anarchism #IWW #beatniks #Ferlinghetti #obscenity #CityLights #publishing #poetry @bookstadon

"[Trump's obscene gesture and obscene statement to T.J. Sablula] was reported by the mainstream press like a run-of-the-mill wire service item: 'Trump makes obscene gesture,' wrote The New York Times. 'Trump flips-off apparent heckler,' reported NBC News.

That’s it? One would be excused for believing this is a bigger deal than that."

#Trump #Sabula #obscenity #NewYorkTimes #NBC
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