Mae West Banned


(3 stars; 1 reviews)

Infamous December 12, 1937 episode of The Chase & Sanborn Hour. Arch Oboler's sketch "Adam and Eve" featured Mae West as an unrepentant Eve (with Don Ameche's Adam). It got Mae West banned from NBC radio and she didn't appear on radio at all again until 1950. Time Magazine said NBC received 1,000 complaint letters & the FCC ruled the skit was "indecent." http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758999,00.html (behind a paywall but you can see part of it). The skit seems tame by today's standards. A writer, Jane Storm, also sued NBC and Oboler, claiming that part of the script was taken from her play. (Judge ruled against her.) Newspaper articles regarding the incident @ Google news: http://tinyurl.com/9ed2tyy

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.

Chapters

Mae West 55:55

Reviews

Judgement on Mae West ban


(3 stars)

Just listened to the « Adam & Eve » sketch that banned Mae West. I agree that by today’s standard this parody ain’t crude and I even wonder if it really was then. What gets me is that just like Eve took the blame for the expulsion of Humanity from the Garden of Eden, Mae West took the blame for the whole sketch. I guess the writer Arch Oberler here represents the snake who told Mae West to take the Apple (the Part). The FCC got carried away with the number of complaints and the NBC used it’s mirror to blame Mae West for her part in the ruled indecent sketch. A nice way it was then for blaming Women for Man’s mistakes…