Censorship, Class, and Culture

Abstract

The development of the popular arts in the first part of the century had been all about negotiating entrepreneurial ambitions vis-à-vis the will of talent and the constrictions of society. Entrepreneurial ambition had largely succeeded because it had driven the will of the talent underground, into subversion and code, while accommodating demands of reformers. However, reformers, once in the chicken house of popular entertainment, were not so easily dislodged. Even at a time when vaudeville had been more or less accepted, Progressive reformers cast eyes across the rest of the entertainment landscape and found much to worry them. The worry was most attached to perceptions of women, their protection, their proprietary, and their roles, and few cultural products in the period could avoid the impact.

You are going far away

But remember what I say,

When you are in the city’s giddy whirl

From temptations, crimes and follies

Villains, taxicabs and trolleys.

Oh,—Heaven will protect the working girl.

—“Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl,” Edgar Smith, lyrics, A. Baldwin Sloane, music

It is in the interest of social progress itself, that hard-won liberties must be restrained by the demonstrable needs of society.

—Jane Addams, in Christopher Lasch, ed., The Social Thought of Jane Addams