Mae West and the Trial of Sex

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Extra! Extra! Provocative Playwright Mae West Runs Afoul of Broadway Censors, Her Popular Play SEX Raided for Obscenity. Tammany Hall claims it was necessary to prevent West’s new homosexual drama, THE DRAG, from corrupting the youth of New York. The sultry starlet faces time in the slammer if she doesn’t amend her immoral ways and stop SEX at once!

Mae West and the Trial of Sex draws from court documents, newspapers, and West’s own plays to explore the overt sexuality and curious queerness of her rise to fame. Playwright John Heimbuch uses Mae West’s legal battle over censorship to show how queer representation became criminalized on stage and screen, cutting LGBTQIA+ people off from their past.