Three Plays by Mae West

by Schlissel, Lillian

  Chief Ah—who was that woman?

  (Looks around at those present, DOLORES shrinks back at her husband’s side.)

  Steve The lady present, Chief.

  Toto (Cutting In) Not me, Chief.

  Paradise Nor I.

  Chief (Looking At Them With Scorn) Now, Mr. McALLISTER, tell me—I’ve known of such cases before—Did the husband make any threats? They usually do.

  Steve (Looking Certainly At Randall Who Nods His Head Wearily) Well, Mr. Randall, the lady’s husband, in his rage, threatened to kill Terrill. But Chief, I’ve known Mr. Randall a long time—I—I’d personally stake my reputation on his innocence of any murderous act.

  Chief The hand of murder fits anyone, Mr. McALLISTER. We’re all potential murderers—given a motive, the opportunity and the provocation of fear. (Then to TOTO.)

  Say—you!

  Toto (Jumps) God—don’t be so rough!

  Chief What was your idea in throwing this party?

  Toto Well, Chief, I’ll tell you—You see, I know most of the performers that play at Mr. McALLISTER’s theatre. I used to be a performer myself. And a good one, too. Some say I still am. Now, I inherited quite a lot of money. So I like to spend it on my old friends in the profession when they come to town. Last night I invited the whole bill over for a gay time. I’m so lonesome here.

  Chief I know all that. But what about this man, Terrill? Did you invite him, when he was so disliked?

  Toto Oh, he just floated over all night. He was in and out of this room. In fact everyone was in and out of every room in the house. The place is a mess. I didn’t even see Terrill go upstairs. God knows I don’t follow my guests around, although I know of some persons that do. I remember now that Terrill was around with Miss Dolores most of the time.

  Chief Oh, then she came here with Terrill?

  Toto Really, I couldn’t say. I didn’t see them come in. I only know they were here.

  Chief (To Dolores) You came here with Terrill, didn’t you?

  Dolores Yes.

  Chief Where was your husband?

  Dolores I left him at the theatre. He—well, we weren’t on speaking terms.

  Chief So you came here with the man who tried to attack you? And after your husband had beaten him for it?

  Dolores Mr. Terrill apologized to me. And he seemed so sincere that when he said he would like to be just a good friend—why I believed him. So I came here with him—Tom wouldn’t forgive me—wouldn’t talk to me. Oh, I didn’t know what I was doing. I love Tom, but Rodney—Mr. Terrill, was fascinating. He told me he loved me—and I—I foolishly, I know now, was thrilled at the thought of having made so charming a man care for me.

  Chief Your husband then was not at the party at all?

  Dolores I didn’t see him, but I was told he had come here looking for me. They were afraid he would start a fight if he knew I was here with Mr. Terrill, so they told him I was not at the party.

  Chief Did any of you here see and speak to Mr. Randall when he came in?

  Paradise Oh, we all saw him. He was intoxicated, and he insisted that his wife was here. Finally we got him to go without searching the place.

  Chief What did Mr. Randall have to say?

  Paradise Oh, he called Terrill a rat. And said that he’d get him. Of course he was drunk and didn’t know what he was saying.

  Chief A jury will have to be the judge of that. Mr. Randall, where were you at the time of the murder, which was approximately 2:30 a.m.

  Randall I—I can’t tell you.

  Chief You mean you won’t?

  Randall No—I mean I don’t know—I don’t remember—I was terribly drunk. I just remember coming here to look for my wife. After I left here, I don’t know where I went.

  Chief What were you doing in the garden, where my man discovered you?

  Randall I—I don’t know. I can’t think how I got there. As I just told you, after I left here I don’t remember what happened to me. I must have wandered around—finally coming back here to look for my wife again, convinced that she was here. The next thing I knew, one of your men had seized me and brought me in. I must have just come to.

  Stanley If Mr. Randall killed Terrill, it was no more than the rat deserved. Chief—Terrill was just a Pleasure Man—he used to brag that he was a Pleasure Man. At first I thought he was great—I wanted to be like him—making the dames fall for me. I even imitated sshim. I wanted to be a Pleasure Man too. But now, I see what a snake he was …Why didn’t he leave good women alone…. There are Pleasure Women too…. Why didn’t he pick out his own kind? Oh, Lord, from now on, I’m just going to be myself.

  Chief I don’t suppose you ever studied surgery, Mr. Randall?

  Randall (Surprised) Why no.

  Chief Mr. Randall, I place you under arrest on suspicion of murder of Rodney Terrill.

  Steve But Chief—you have no proof—

  Chief Circumstantial evidence warrants the arrest.

  Dolores (Throwing Her Arms Around Randall) Oh, Tom—you did n’t—you couldn’t—you couldn’t—tell them you didn’t!

  Randall (Wearily Shaking His Head) I don’t know … I don’t know …

  Paradise (Meaningfully) I thought it wouldn’t be long before that brute Terrill got his …striking down a woman like he did Ted Arnold’s sister. I understand the poor girl is dying from the effects of it.

  Chief What’s this? Who is Ted Arnold?

  Stanley He’s the electrician we called in to help out on Dolores’ and Randall’s act. I know the boy well. He’s a fine fellow. I left him at his home looking after his sister, just before I came to the party.

  Chief Oh.

  (Takes up some papers—calls one of his assistants.)

  Here, take my report to the district attorney’s office. (Reads.)

  “Rodney Terrill, actor, was the victim of some person as yet unestablished. Death was due to an operation performed by someone who had a knowledge of surgery and who used instruments which were found, with some degree of surgical skill. Thomas Randall, actor, has been placed under arrest on suspicion, based on circumstantial evidence.

  (The OFFICER takes the report from the CHIEF. STEVE and STANLEY exchange glances—DOLORES sobs quietly. OFFICER enters with TED ARNOLD.)

  Chief What’s this?

  Officer Chief, —I think we’ve got our man. He surrendered himself. I brought him here for further information—

  Steve Good God, Stan.

  Chief What’s your name?

  Arnold Ted Arnold.

  Chief Tell us what you know.

  Arnold (As He Is Handcuffed) I’m willing to tell everything … God! It’ll help me to tell. To-night—what I did—that’s only part of it. For the past two months this thing has been torturing me. Ever since I knew that my sister was used for some man’s dirty sport. I didn’t know who he was—until today. But this morning—from the moment I saw him—I knew. Then I saw my sister’s picture in his dressing-room. And he spoke of her as if she were just one figure in the dirty parade that his life was. Then I found out that it was he who hurt her this afternoon—hurt her so that she may not live. And right from that—as tho’ it were nothing—I knew that he was starting his filth with Randall’s wife—It drove me mad—I was insane—but 1 didn’t think he would die—I didn’t want him to die. I did—what I did—because I wanted him to live—in pain—and in shame—and to know that he could never again use people for his rotten pleasure.

  Steve But, my God, boy—You’re not only a murderer! What you did was obscene!

  Arnold Obscene—obscene—Mr. McALLISTER—when I was in college—in the laboratory—we experimented with rats—with vermin—with poisonous things—we worked on them—so that they could never propagate their own kind—the life I took from that man Terrill—was no higher or better than that of a poisonous beast. Men can fight dirt with dirt, Mr. McALLISTER—and still fight for what’s clean—I was crazed—or I couldn’t have done it—but now I’m not insane—and I know what I did was
right—and I’m glad—glad…. Take me away now, officer. I’m ready to go.

  CURTAIN

  * The Hippodrome. -L.S.

  * Shades of lighting on the color wheel. -L.S.

  THE CASE AGAINST MAE WEST

  The Case for the Prosecution

  Legal Documents Relating to Sex and The Pleasure Man

  In 1873 the U.S. Post Office named Anthony Comstock a special agent. Over the course of his long career, Comstock claimed to have destroyed “sixteen tons of vampire literature/’ and convicted of obscenity “enough persons to fill a passenger train of sixty-one coaches.” The English prosecuted Zola, Flaubert, de Maupassant. Anthony Comstock kept Americans safely ignorant of Balzac and Tolstoy.

  Surprisingly, challenges to the laws concerning “decency” began to come from a small band of young American women. Margaret Anderson started The Little Review in Chicago and published Emma Goldman’s essays on anarchism and “free love.” She moved the review to Greenwich Village, and with jane Heap, began to publish Joyce’s Ulysses, episode by episode, from the first installment through the middle of the book when they were arrested. In 1920 they were tried, convicted and fined one hundred doolars for publishing literature considered obscene. From Paris, Sylvia Beach followed events closely. With a loan of $3000 from her mother in New Jersey, Beach had opened Shakespeare and Company in 1919, and with considerable daring, published Ulysses in 1922. The first printing sold out, and the great game of smuggling Ulysses from Paris into the U.S. and England began. UPI/Corbis-Bettman Mae West at the trial for The Pleasure Man in 1928. Charges against the play were dropped.

  In the United States, the war against books was heating up. Theodore Dreiser’s American Tragedy published in December, 1925, was almost immediately banned in Boston. Donald Friede, Horace Llveright’s partner, went to Boston to make a test case and got himself arrested for selling a copy. Clarence Darrow defended the author, but the jury brought in a guilty verdict and the defense lost its appeal to the State Supreme Court, which dismissed out of hand the “novel” argument that banning American Tragedy violated freedom of the press.” “That contention …requires no discussion.”*

  Mae West at the trial for The Pleasure Man in 1928. Charges against the play were dropped.

  UPI/Corbis-Bettman

  If the suffragettes could go to jail for demanding the vote, if Margaret Anderson and jane Heap could stand trial for defending their right to publish what they chose, Mae West could certainly join that small army of “obstreperous women” and defend her own plays.

  The legal papers in this section come from the Municipal Archives of the City of New York. They are incomplete records of criminal prosecutions of Sex and The Pleasure Man in 1928 and 1930. The documents bear witness to the city’s determination to end West’s theatrical career, and her determination to defend herself in court. These papers have been lightly edited for consistency and clarity.

  Sex opened at Daly’s 63rd Street Theatre on April 26, 1926, and was raided on February 21, 1927, after 385 performances. The District Attorney argued that Sex was obscene and endangered the morals of youth. A jury found West and the other principals guilty. West was fined $500 and sentenced to ten days on Welfare Island. She had herself driven to jail in an open car carrying armloads of white roses, she claimed the warden let her keep her silk underwear, and she gave $1000 to the Mae West Memorial Library in the Women’s House of Detention. “Considering what Sex got me,” she said, “a few days in the pen V a $500 fine ain’t too bad a deal.”

  1. CASE #168495, GRAND JURY INDICTMENT OF MAE WEST, WILLIAM MORGANSTERN, JAMES TIMONY, JOHN CORT, THE MORAL PRODUCING COMPANY AND THE CAST OF ACTORS.

  List of Witnesses:

  Patrick D. Kenneally, 3rd Division

  Frank Keeney

  John J. Byrnes

  Adeline Leidzbach

  Harry Cohen

  Irving M. Feurelicht

  Edward F. Cullebon

  Ralph Pape

  Filed, 2nd day of March, 1927. Pleads not guilty.

  THE PEOPLE vs.

  Clarence William Morganstern Warren Sterling

  John Cort Thomas V. Morrison

  James A. Timony Alfred L. Rigali

  Mae West John Coleman

  Barry O’Neill Mary Morrisey

  Eeda Von Beulow Ida Mantell

  Lyons Wickland Conde Brewer

  Pacie Ripple Ivan jordan

  Gordon Burby Florence Doherty

  David Hughes Pete Segreto

  Daniel j. Hamilton Edward Elsner

  Constance Morganstern 63rd St. Theatres Limited Inc.

  Ann Reader Defendants and Moral Productions Corporation

  Joan H. Banton District Attorney

  COURT OF GENERAL SESSIONS OF THE COUNTY OF NEW YORK.

  THE GRAND JURY OF THE COUNTY OF NEW YORK, by this indictment, accuse THE SAID DEFENDANTS of the Crime of UNLAWFULLY PREPARING, ADVERTISING, GIVING, PRESENTING AND PARTICIPATING IN AN OBSCENE, INDECENT, IMMORAL AND IMPURE DRAMA, PLAY, EXHIBITION, SHOW AND ENTERTAINMENT, committed as follows:

  The said defendants, on the fifth day of February, nineteen hundred twenty-seven, and for a long time prior thereto, and thence continuously to the date of the finding of this indictment, at a certain building and theatre in said county situate and known as Daly’s Theatre, unlawfully did prepare, advertise, give, present and participate in an obscene, indecent, immoral and impure drama, play, exhibition, show and entertainment then and there called “SEX,” a more particular description of which said drama, play, exhibition, show and entertainment would be offensive to this Court and improper to be spread upon the records thereof, wherefore such description is not here given, which said drama, play, exhibition, show and entertainment at all times herein mentioned would and did tend to the corruption of the morals of youth and others, and in such act and acts unlawfully [alone and with] each other the said defendants did then aid and abet; against the form of the statute in such case made and provided, and against the peace of the People of the State of New York and their dignity.

  SECOND COUNT.

  AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuse THE SAID DEFENDANTS of the Crime of MAINTAINING A PUBLIC NUISANCE, committed as follows:

  The said defendants, at the time aforesaid, in the county aforesaid, contriving and wickedly intending, so far as in them lay, to debauch and corrupt the morals of youth and of other persons and to raise and create in their minds inordinate and lustful desires, unlawfully, wickedly and scandalously did keep and maintain a certain theatre and play house there commonly known as Daly’s Theatre, for the purpose of exhibiting and exposing to the sight of any persons willing to see and desirous of seeing the same and of paying for admission into the said theatre, a certain wicked, lewd, scandalous, bawdy, obscene, indecent, infamous, immoral and impure exhibition, show and entertainment, being the same exhibition, show and entertainment described in the first count of this indictment, to which reference is hereby made, and in the said theatre, at the time aforesaid, did unlawfully, wickedly and scan dalously, for lucre and gain, produce, present, exhibit and display the said exhibition, show and entertainment to the sight and view of divers and many people, all to the great offense of public decency, against the order and econ omy of the state and to the common nuisance of all the people; against the form of the statue in such case made and provided, and against the peace of the People of the State of New York and their dignity.

  THIRD COUNT.

  AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuse THE SAID DEFENDANTS of the Crime of UNLAWFULLY PERMITTING A PLACE TO BE USED FOR AN IMMORAL PLAY, committed as follows:

  The said defendant, 63rd St. Theatres Ltd., Inc., at the time aforesaid, in the county aforesaid, was a corporation and the owner and manager of the building, place and theatre commonly known as Daly’s Theatre, mentioned and described in the first count of this indictment, to which reference is hereby made; and then and there unlawfully, as such owner and mana
ger, the said defendant corporation unlawfully and knowingly did lease, let, permit and assent to the said building, place and theatre unlawfully to be used for the purpose of the said wicked, lewd, scandalous, bawdy, obscene, indecent, infamous, immoral and impure exhibition, show and entertainment called Sex, being the same exhibition, show and entertainment mentioned and described in the first count of this indictment;

  And all the other said defendants were then and there unlawfully concerned in the commission of the said unlawfully permitting a place to be used for an immoral play, and crime by the said defendant, 63rd St. Theatres Ltd., Inc., in the manner and form aforesaid, and did then and there unlawfully aid and abet the said defendant, 63rd St. Theatres Ltd., Inc., in the commission of the same in the manner and form aforesaid, and did then and there unlawfully counsel, command, induce and procure the said defendant, 63rd St. Theatres Ltd., Inc., the said unlawfully permitting a place to be used for an immoral play, and crime, in the manner and form aforesaid then and there to do and commit; against the form of the statute in such case made and provided, and against the peace of the People of the State of New York and their dignity.

  JOAB H. BANTON,

  District Attorney.

  [Norman Schloss, Mae West’s attorney, attempted to have the charges dismissed and then to have the case moved. Both efforts failed, and then he filed to have the case heard by a jury rather than by a three judge panel. The court agreed and the case was heard by a special jury in general sessions. With a flair for theatricality and comedy equal to Mae West’s, Schloss defended Sex as a work of art comparable to A Tale of Two Cities, Hamlet and the Bible. —L.S.]

  2. DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S MEMORANDUM IN OPPOSITION TO DEFENSE MOTION FOR TRANSFER OF THE TRIAL TO ANOTHER COURT’S JURISDICTION.

  SUPREME COURT: NEW YORK COUNTY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

  -against-

  CLARENCE WILLIAM MORGANSTERN, MAE WEST, BARRIE O’NEAL, EEDA VON BEULOW, LYONS WICKLAND, PACIE RIPPLE, GORDON BURBY, DAVID HUGHES, DANIEL j. HAMILTON, CONSTANCE MORGANSTERN, ANN READER, WARREN STERLING, THOMAS V. MORRISON, ALFRED L. RIGALI, JOHN COLEMAN, MARY MORRISEY, IDA MANTELL, CONDE BREWER, IVAN JORDAN, FLORENCE DOHERTY, PETER SEGRETO, EDWARD ELSNER