Sexual Reform on the American Stage in the Progressive Era, 1900-L9l5
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
SEXUAL REFORM ON THE AMERICAN STAGE IN THE PROGRESSIVE ERA, 1900-1915 BY GARY S. LUTER A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE COUNCIL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1981 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author is indebted to Professor A. F. C. Wehlberg for his guidance and encouragement during the writing of this study. Professors E. James Hooks, Thomas support. B. Abbott and Sidney R. Homan also lent kind Their contributions are equally appreciated. The author also wishes to thank Professors L. L. Zimmerman and Richard L. Green for their thoughtful suggestions during the research phase of this project. Appreciation is also extended to the many librarians in New York, Washington, Gainesville, Tallahassee and Tampa. Their goodwill and kind assistance lessened the burden of gathering research materials. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS , ii ABSTRACT , , iv I INTRODUCTION 1 II BATTLES WITH BLUENOSES 19 Anti-Theatre Sentiment at the Close of the Nineteenth Century,..,.., 19 Three Attempts at Play Suppression. 43 III THE SOCIAL EVIL ON STAGE 82 The Purity Crusade , . 82 When Heaven Protected the Working Girl.,... 92 White Slavery Sensationalism 100 Socialist Propaganda and the Prostitution Play 117 Decline of Red Light Drama 124 IV THE MORAL REVOLUTION AND THE THEATRE 133 Birth Control, Brieux and Eugenic Entertainment. 135 Dramas for Divorce Reform and Satires on Free Love 161 V PORTRAYING THE NEW FEMINISM 176 Rachel Crothers and Feminist Plays 182 Militant Muses and Political Plays., 207 VI CONCLUSION 227 BIBLIOGRAPHY 240 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. .. 258 iii Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Council of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy SEXUAL REFORM ON THE AMERICAN STAGE IN THE PROGRESSIVE ERA, 1900-1915 By Gary S, Luter December, 1981 Chairman: A,F,C, Wehlburg Major Department: Speech The American theatre played a part in the reform move- ment of the Progressive Era (1900-1915) , Plays were written and staged dealing with issues which were making headlines 1 in McClure s , Arena , Masses and other muckraking journals and magazines. Probably the most controversial reform issue depicted on stage was sexual reform. Sexual reform embodied a number of ideas. Reformers including Jane Addams , Margaret Sanger, Dr. Prince Morrow, Moses Harmon, Emma Goldman and Charlotte Perkins Gilman advocated legislation regulating trade in prostitution, enlightenment regarding sex hygiene, eradication of the double standard, and changes in nineteenth century notions of the woman's place in society. Paradoxically the spirit of being "thy brother's keeper" which had initiated reform also retarded the progress of reform. Vice societies and censorship organizations, typified by Anthony Comstock and his agents, sought to keep IV .. the theatre in check as it daringly dramatized such taboo topics as eugenics, free love, prostitution, and venereal disease control. Productions of Clyde Fitch's Sapho (1900), Shaw's Mrs, Warren's Profession (.1905) and Eugene Walter's the sexual double The Easiest Way (1909) , which argued against standard, were censored and suppressed by outraged anti-vice crusaders Progress in the drama, however, did occur. Red-light of Bondage and plays, such as The Fight , The Lure , The House the social problem of The Traffic , although sensationalizing prostitution, opened the stage to further treatments of previously taboo subjects. Brieux's Damaged Goods (1913) and Beulah Poynter's The Unborn (1915), produced under the that the auspices of the Medical Review of Reviews , proved theatre could be utilized as an educational tool by sexual reformers Special interest groups used the theatre for propaganda purposes. Socialists and feminists, like John Reed and Joseph Medill Patterson, Rose Pastor Stokes and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, wrote plays on subjects of moral reform which attacked capitalism and sexual inequality respectively. Suffragists staged Elizabeth Robins' Votes for Women (1909) and other plays and pageants on behalf of their political cause. In fact, dissatisfaction with and rebelliousness toward status quo morality which informed the plays of Progressive Era dramatists continues to be felt in the American theatre today v I INTRODUCTION Writers of American history label the period between 1900 and 1915 the Progressive Era or the Age of Reform. These labels are not historical afterthought. Various agitators for political and social change of the period freely called themselves "progressives" or "reformists," perhaps out of self-aggrandizement, but also because they realized they were living in a time markedly different from the three decades following the Civil War. From the end of the Civil War to the beginning of the twentieth century, America experienced remarkable material growth and rapid urban expansion. Whole industries emerged during this time where none had existed before. Giant corporations came into being and vast personal fortunes were amassed.'*' This new capital required a labor force that was consolidated Impressive statistics documenting American in- dustrial development and urban expansionism have been collected by progressive-era historians. See Richard Hofstadter, The Progressive Movement, 1900-1915 (Englewood Cliffs t N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1963), pp. 2-3; The Age of Reform: From Bryan to F.D.R. (New York: Vintage Books, 1955), pp. 109-120. Frederick Lewis Allen provides an illuminating look at two of the era's wealthiest tycoons. See Frederick Lewis Allen, The Big Change (New York: Harper Bros., 1952), pp. 3-48. 1 2 and urban-centered. Consequently, American cities, especially in the northeast and northern midwest, doubled and tripled in size. As cities rapidly grew in size, urban problems became manifold. Workers and laborers were poorly educated, and their families were forced to live in crowded rows of tenement houses. Disease and crime in the cities accelerated at an alarming rate. City administrators, many of whom were corrupt and uncaring, did little to alleviate the problems. Lives of poverty for the nation's masses at the turn of the century were made even more intolerable because there was no forseeable chance for improvement. In previous decades. Western Expansionism had served as a safety valve, releasing the discontent and disen- franchised city-dweller into the vast, promising open spaces west of the Mississippi. But by 1900, expan- sionism had ceased. The giant land grab following passage of the Homestead Act of 1862 had virtually brought expansionism to a halt within thirty years. As Oscar Cargill points out, the disappearance of America's open lands ended the dream of personal economic advance- 2 ment for most Americans trapped in the cities. Urban conditions became increasingly intolerable and increasingly hopeless. Events were proving true 2 Oscar Cargill, The Social Revolt (New York: Macmillan, 1933), pp. 1-2. 3 what some had long feared, that quick material gain during the Gilded Age had been accomplished at the expense of human values. 3 Aware of the possibility of violent revolution, early reformers sought peaceful amelioration. Henry George and Ralph Bellamy sought change through equitable taxation and commonwealth principles before the end of the nineteenth century. Other enlightened reformers sought strategies for orderly social change. These reformers were concerned with a wide variety of social issues. Labor relations, tenement house conditions, political "bossism," municipal graft, child labor, prison reform, immigration policy, corpo- rate trusts, and women's rights were among the problems confronted by the Progressives. In fact, the collec- tive label "Progressive" often masks the variety of opinions and beliefs held by reformers of the era. Yet the Progressives as a group had a number of traits in common. First, they focused their attention on the cities. The Progressive Movement was essen- tially an urban phenomenon. Second, they were acti- vists. Progressives realized that the accumulated evils of the Gilded Age were not going to remedy themselves. For detailed accounts of economic conditions which led to progressive reform, see Samuel Resneck, "Unemployment, Unrest, and Relief in the United States During the Depression of 1893-97," Journal of Political Economy , 31 (August 1953) , 328-29, 333-35. ^ 4 They sought government intervention to bring about needed change. Third, they recognized a need to regu- late human behavior. Appalled by the unchecked greed and amorality of the Gilded Age, Progressives hoped to restore moral order for America as it entered the twentieth century. The spirit of Progressivism is perhaps best summed up in Woodrow Wilson's First Inaugural Address: Our duty is to cleanse, to reconsider, to restore, to correct the evil without impairing the good, to purify and humanize every process of our common life without weakening or sentimentalizing it. .We had not forgotten our morals, but we were very heedless and in a hurry to be great. Among the various progressive reformers of the era, the most vocal and visible were the social critics and journalists writing for popular magazines. In 1902 and 1903, S.S. McClure, publisher and editor of the 1 successful popular magazine, McClure s , began running a series of exposes on the corrupt practices of municipal governments and corporate finance. Lincoln Steffen's "Tweed Days in St. Louis," an indictment of that city's