DC OFFICIALS DISCOVER POLICE REGULATION AGAINST PLAYING 'INDECENT' MUSIC
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On July 30, 1925, The Evening Star reports that a little-known District of Columbia police regulation against the playing of "indecent music" exists. The Star says "nobody knows it was there" until discovered within police regulations.
Assistant Corporation Counsel Ringgold Hart said...
"I can readily conceive of music being indecent...that 'hootchy-kootchy'* sort of intonation...suggestive and indecent under certain circumstances."
Mrs. Van Winkle is quoted as describing modern jazz music as "passionate, suggestive and indecent." She goes on to say that "boys and girls hug each other and vibrate" to modern jazz in a "shocking" manner.
*hootchy kootchy is a type of erotic dance popular in the late 1800s at carnivals and fairs. It also refers to something suggestive or sexual.
SOURCE
"'Indecent Music' Banned Here, But Officials Just Find It Out," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., July 30, 1925, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
JFK+50 NOTE
As a middle school history teacher 1972-1981, I always had my students dress in the era we were studying. Their favorite time period was the 1920s, girls dressed as flappers & danced the Charleston while boys dressed as The Great Gatsby or gangsters.
