Every day brings a new story. And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books.
Today is the story of April 19th
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It is the 109th day of the year, leaving 256 days remaining in 2022.
The reporting of, and the noteriety of, a woman being jailed on an obscenity charge helped West's career. She was a little known playwright at the time, and the resulting publicity gave her attention and recognition as a "bad girl."
Still, while the the critics had panned Sex, it had played to sold-out crowds on Broadway and was the most popular play of its time. It was West's first starring role, and she was also the show's director. But conservative and religious critics enventually forced police to raid Daly's 63rd Street Theater and charge West with corrupting the morals of youth.
After her days in jail, West continued to write and star in Broadway plays about sexually liberated and independent women. Her plays were popular with the public, but continued to receive mostly scathing reviews from the male-dominated critics of the day.
Later, she turned to the silver screen, continued her feminist persona, and became one of the movies' more popular and bawdy female stars, as well as a top screenwriter. By the 1930s, she was one of the biggest movie stars in the country, although her movies continued to be heavily edited by the censors.
She is credited with writing 19 plays and at least seven movies, including My Little Chickadee, with W.C. Fields.
West died in 1980 in Los Angeles.
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