page_title: The Demi-Virgin
section_title: Broadway production and legal problems
hierarchical_section_title: The Demi-Virgin / History / Broadway production and legal problems
caption_attribution_description: English: William McAdoo (1853-1930)
context_page_description: The Demi-Virgin is a three-act play written by Avery Hopwood. Producer Albert H. Woods staged it on Broadway, where it was a hit during the 1921–22 season. The play is a bedroom farce about former couple Gloria Graham and Wally Deane, both movie actors, whose marriage was so brief that the press speculated about whether Gloria was still a virgin. She attempts to seduce Wally when they are forced to reunite for a movie, but after playing along he surprises her by revealing that their divorce is not valid.
  Because it contained suggestive dialogue and the female cast wore revealing clothes, the production was considered highly risqué at the time. The script alluded to a contemporary scandal involving actor Fatty Arbuckle, and one scene featured actresses stripping as part of a card game. Reviewers generally panned the play as unfunny and vulgar, and local authorities attempted to censor it. A New York City magistrate ruled the Broadway production was obscene, and obscenity charges were brought against Woods, but a grand jury declined to indict him. The city's Commissioner of Licenses attempted to revoke the theater's license, but this effort was blocked in court.
context_section_description: Prior to its Broadway debut, preview performances of the play were staged in several cities. The first was in Pittsburgh, where it began a scheduled one-week run on September 26, 1921. It was closed early on the last day by the local Director of Public Safety, who objected to some of the dialogue. Hopwood was upset by the censorship, but Woods was happy to have free publicity from press coverage of the closure. The tryouts then moved to Stamford, Connecticut and Atlantic City, New Jersey, where they proceeded without incident. The play's Broadway opening was at the Times Square Theatre on October 18, 1921. It ran there for a few weeks until Woods transferred it to his own Eltinge 42nd Street Theatre on November 7.
  On November 3, 1921, Woods and Hopwood were called to the chambers of William McAdoo, the Chief Magistrate of the New York City magistrates' court, to respond to complaints about the play. Woods would not make any changes to address the complaints, so a formal hearing began on November 7. Woods was represented by famed attorney Max Steuer, who was also a co-owner of the Eltinge Theatre. The witnesses against the show included John S. Sumner, executive secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, and Edward J. McGuire, vice-chairman of the Committee of Fourteen. On November 14, McAdoo ruled that the play was obscene, describing it as "coarsely indecent, flagrantly and suggestively immoral, impure in word and action". Woods was placed on bail, and the case was referred to the Court of Special Sessions for a misdemeanor charge of staging an obscene exhibition. Woods successfully requested that the case be transferred to the Court of General Sessions, which provided jury trials and required an indictment by a grand jury. He was accused of violating section 1140a of the New York state penal law, which prohibited involvement in "any obscene, indecent, immoral or impure drama, play, exhibition, show or entertainment". The grand jury heard the case on December 23, 1921, but dismissed it that same day, even though they had heard only witnesses favoring the prosecution.
  As the obscenity case proceeded, the city's Commissioner of Licenses, John Gilchrist, informed Woods on November 22 that he found the play "indecent and subversive of public morals" and would revoke the theater's operating license if the production continued. Gilchrist's effort failed when a New York state appeals court ruled on February 20, 1922 that he did not have the legal authority to revoke a theater license once it had been granted.
  After the Broadway production ended on June 3, 1922, Woods launched four road companies to present the play in other cities. The tour continued through 1923, with productions in cities such as Albany, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Washington.
caption: Magistrate William McAdoo ruled the play was obscene.
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