Evening star., 1924-10-09
MANHATTAN DAYS AND NIGHTS
BY HERBERT COREY.

! Looks as though there will not be
so much dirtiness on the New York
| stage for awhile. The police censor
! ship has been revived. Bad language
, filth, nakedncss. q profitable disresar rd
| of decency--
You don't really mean that?" aske d
feminine member OF the intelligent
| der. I've just gotten rid of her. She
| went tossing and Whooping through,
the. door.
"A censorship by hatties." she said
scornfully. Just at the moment when
the American stage had thrown off
its swaddlina clothes. When We were
| really 3:>akins our blind way toward
art"
Yep. The censorship by Hattics has
come, and I. for one, am mighty glad
OF II. Another censorship BY hatties
applies the boot to the men who hang
around in dark corners and try to
sell indecent photographs. I saw a
fattie land three times on one of the
devotees OF art last night. Hard.
Maybe Ia take the intcIliEentsia a
little more seriously II they were
personally cleaner. But so many OF
the leading friends OF the sort Of
art they would not stand for down on
the docks arc greasy. And they have
lars that do not agree with those
held by the majority.
\ = = <
Some one had to step in. The New
York stage WAS getting bit too
juicy. A Solomon islander would
blush at the lines in one revue. II he
understood them. BEING fairly
clean minded cannihal he probably
wouldn't
But IT is art" objected my lady
friend Of the intellisentsia. II know
1t Is filthy, but II presents cross
section OF life. We are not children.
to have the truth kept from us
Yet she said the turtivc men who
sell the photographs hitherto referred
TO should be sent TO prison for life.
II the lines in that revue are art their
commerce is likewise art.
Friend of mine took girl to one
show the other night He did not
worry that she would be shocked. for
she makes her living by taking Oft
as much clothing as the managers
will permit and then twisting.
This is too nasty" she said. Take
me out of here
She may or may not be u moral
young woman. Ny friend did not tell.
He admired her taste. which runs, he
said. right along with most of US. The
burlesque wheels send pretty broad
shows out, but they are fairly clean.
Some OF them ask their patrons to
bring grandma along.
But there is a market for dirtincss
and always few who will purvey to
IT, Then a censorship Is inevitable
and along with the censorship Is the
inevitable bonehead play. The SOL
diers in What Price Glory" talk pre-
cisely as soldiers actually do. But
the interest felt by the audience Is in
the drama and not in the dirt AS
play it has been bettered by being
toned down. although it may lose the
business Of those to whom cuss-words
offer a treat.
II is rather too bad that it was in
terfered with. Just as the interfer-
ence fifteen years ago with Mrs
Warren's Profession" was nonsensi-
cal. G.. 3. S. had written a play
which was in no sense pornographic
brilliant croSs-section Of life
though admittedly of unpleasant peo-
pie.
The slush that compelled this most
recent police censorship was model
ed on Partisan lines. Lots of naked
ness. as much verbal filth as the au-
diences would standard they stood
a iot--and insinuations which were
only inteilisible to the supersophisti-