Shows at the White City Called "Vulgar and Vicious."
Legal Action Threatened.
Investigating Tour Convinces Ministers Reform Is Urgent.
Source: Chicago Daily Tribune, 17 June 1909, pg. 3.
Four south side ministers and the principal of the Englewood High school, convinced after a visit to the shows that the "Blood dance" and the "Salome dance" are not proper spectacles for young persons who frequent White City, filed a protest yesterday with the president of the White City Construction company, and operators of the amusement resort, threatening criminal prosecution if remedies demanded were not granted immediately.
A letter signed by the committee of preachers declared:
"The admission of children of tender age, the suggestive and indecent talk of the barkers is a disgrace, and the performance itself is vile, vulgar, and vicious.
"Action" to Follow "Defiance."
"We ask that the performers be made to wear more clothing and observe at least a semblance of decency. Failure to comply will be understood by us as a determination on your part to continue one of the nastiest performances which any amusement park has ever dared produce in Chicago. Such defiance will meet with the action which it deserves."
The action of the ministerial committee was brought to the attention of the police in the evening and representatives of the Englewood Law and Order league and the ministerial association of Englewood visited the shows to see if the demands had been complied with.
According to the charges filed after the investigating tour of the preachers, a fifteen foot snake was the chief accessory of one of the most scantily clad performers. Last night a short kilt of Scotch design was added to the attire, and under this protection the show may go on.
Committee of Investigation.
The ministers who made the investigation of the alleged indecent shows were the Rev. M. P. Boynton, pastor of the Lexington Avenue Baptist church; the Rev. R. Keene Ryan, pastor of the Garfield Boulevard Presbyterian church; the Rev. W. O. Shepard, pastor of the Englewood Methodist church; the Rev. S. T. Ford, pastor of the Englewood Baptist church. James F. Armstrong, principal of the Englewood High school, accompanied them.
