Mae West: Sex on Trial

On 15 February 1927, Mae West's obscenity trial began.
• • Police inspector James Bolan was called as a witness for the prosecution in West Side Special Sessions Court. "He produced a sheaf of yellow paper, adjusted his eyeglasses and read in a solemn tone that suggested a church service," went one newspaper account of the courtroom's activities published on 16 February 1927. "The inspector's lean, grave face ministered to the effect."
• • At the beginning of her trial, Mae West was still shuttling back and forth from Jefferson Market Court on Sixth Avenue in the daytime to Daly's 63rd Street Theatre in the evening to perform onstage in "Sex" — — eight times a week — — as usual. But there was nothing "usual" about this.
• • "Playing the publicity angle for all it was worth, the producers and the cast of 'Sex' applied for, and were granted, a jury trial instead of a trial before three judges in Special Session," wrote Emily Wortis Leider in Becoming Mae West. "In early March (1927) the grand jury returned an indictment against the management and part of the cast. Mae West and the other indicted cast members entered their plea: Not guilty."
• • Mae West's popularity was undiminished by the trial. During the same week as the police raid, the junior promenade committee of the Washington Square College of New York University invited the actress to attend their prom. The coeds did stop short of bestowing the title "Prom Girl" on the Brooklyn bombshell — — an honor accorded each year to only one girl among all those present — — insisted the student administration.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West 's trial • • West Side Special Sessions Court, 1917 sketch • •
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Mae West.