Word: lewdness
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Sponser Doncaster said the law would awaken people to the need for control over the lurid editions that feed the newsstands. Patrick A. Tompkins, State Commissioner of Public Welfare, supported:". . . there is a crying need for review and restriction of the publication and distribution of such obscene and lewd publication peddled in most corner stores...
...business." So reported a special House committee last week, after investigating what it called an "incredible volume" of "cheesecake girlie magazines," "salacious" pocket-size books, and "flagrantly misnamed 'comics.' " The committee, headed by Arkansas Democratic Congressman E. (for Ezekiel) C. Gathings, found a big increase in "lewd magazines" and in the number of "obscene" books among the 200 million pocket-size books sold in 1951. In addition, the committee declared that of the 70 million comic books sold last year in the U.S., many (e.g., "war horror comics") are not only unfit for children but have even been...
...Novelist Alberto (Woman of Rome) Moravia. Throughout the hearings the committee showed a disturbing fuzziness over what it meant by "objectionable matter." Since the committee itself could not decide, it seemed dangerous to recommend that existing federal laws be strengthened making it an offense for private carriers to transport "lewd, obscene or lascivious" books and magazines in interstate commerce. This could mean that a motorist might be arrested for carrying a book by Steinbeck. However, publishers and readers alike could agree with the committee's suggestion that the publishing industry try to clean out the dirty corners...
...warned" works something like this: after a complaint from a group of private citizens has been received by the police, an officer, usually a plain clothes man, will visit the bookstores carrying the supposedly obscene piece. The officer will call the attention of the book-seller to the "lewd" parts in an attempt to discover his intent in selling the book...
...next approach, according to Ready, is to ask the dealer, "Have you got any children?" The reply is often "Yes." "Would you like to have them reading this stuff?" "Nine out of ten dealers." Ready said, "don't know when a book contains lewd sections. They answer "No" to the last question and take the book off the shelves...