The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 70 - Obscenity Man Anthony Comstock

Episode Date: March 28, 2015

Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine the arbiter of obscenity, Anthony ComstockSOURCESTOUR DATESREDBUBBLE MERCHPATREON

When you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? You could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it. That in-law sweet guest house where your parents stay only part-time Airbnb it and make some money the rest of the year whether you could use a little extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.ca slash host. You are listening to the dollop each week. I, Dave Anthony, read a story from

American history to my friend. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is about. That's right he doesn't. David you're shouting. He doesn't know anything about it. Dave. Back off. David. Not Gary Gareth. Dave okay. Someone or something is tickling people. Is it for fun? And this is not gonna come to tickling quite good. Okay. You are queen fakie of eight uptown. All hail Queen Shit of Liesville. No. A bunch of religious virgins go to mingle and do a thing. Oh my God. No. I see you done my friend. No. My friend will is. Anthony Comstock was born in 1844 in New Canon, Connecticut. 1844? You heard it. Okay. Comstock was raised in a family of evangelical

congregationalists. Should I just go now because this already is not good. That's never good when we start out with that. Yeah that's strong. They believe that lust, lewdness, and intemperance were the causes of man's downfall. And yet their name was Comstock. It is with an oh it's not with you. Listen I'll pronounce it how I feel. Got you. His father was a prosperous farmer owning 160 acres of land and two sawmills. His mother Polly was a devout congregationalist and she died when Comstock was only 10 years old. But her religious fervor remained alive in her son who clung to the fire and brimstone

faith of his childhood. Why do they all have parents that die when they're ten? They all do. That's part of yeah you mean any dollar person? Yeah that's they all they all had someone die young. That's why they're all nuts. Yeah no this really forms you. At age 12 you're like he seems fine age 18 you're like ah he's ripping off cat's heads. Based on a firm belief that the devils temptations were all seeing Comstock believed that abstinence from all impure thoughts and behaviors secured the faithful path to righteousness. So not just not doing it but getting rid of the thoughts. But that's impossible. No sir.

But you know when like you just don't think it. But you know when like your brain will be a real fucker to you and you'll be like all right don't don't think about that just stop thinking about it and your brain will just kind of be like man maybe think about it you're like no I'm trying to not think about it right now. And then you're masturbating in a park. The next thing you know you're masturbating with the Bible. We've heard it a hundred times. Things did not go well for Comstock's father during the Civil War. He ended up losing the farm. We can only assume because he had impure thoughts right. I mean if he lost the

farm if he pictured some tits there's no more farm. If the causes of man's downfall were lust and lewdness then he yeah yeah yep. Then Anthony's brother died in the Battle of Gettysburg. Also must have engaged in probably thinking about doggy style something like that breasts or whatever yeah Anthony Comstock then joined the Union Army. Okay. He served for a total of 12 months but saw no action. Comstock station is actually or in the army. Probably yeah I would say so. Fair. Comstock was stationed in a relatively peaceful area of Florida removing removed from the the glory of the good

fight. During his time he attended church nine times a week. What? He got it in. Jesus Christ. He got it in. There's no time to think about fucking. There you can you just keep going. Nine times. Nine times. His regimen did not have a chaplain so Comstock decided to step into the void and spent his time preaching to his fellow soldiers. Wait. He was not popular amongst his fellow recruits. I bet. They did not care for his refusal to drink his allotment of whiskey. That's the best but there I love people like that. Fucking don't like you because you're not getting drunk. Well hold on. Oh boy. Because he would pour it on the

ground instead of giving it to someone else to drink. Now I am on their side. Fucking asshole. He had a real hard time organizing prayer meetings and was often ridiculed by his fellow soldiers. He preached against the use of tobacco, alcohol, gambling, and atheism among the soldiers and became an active in the Christian Commission. There is just yeah you could just see why I could not understand hating this guy. What's not to hate? Yeah. There's nothing you should like here. Hey party bummer. Yeah. The commission. Let's get you guys are smoking. You guys smoking? Yeah. Yeah. Well I just want to show you I've got my whiskey allotment here.

Uh-huh. Oh can I have that? Pour that on the ground. Oh god. You guys believe in God? Yeah I know. Don't fuck. What? I'll be in my tent. The Christian Commission was created by the YMCA to keep soldiers moral after it was discovered that publishers were sending obscene books and pictures to soldiers in the army. The commission pushed for a provision in the post office bill of 1865 making it a misdemeanor to send any obscene book pamphlet, picture, print, or other publication of vulgar and indecent character through the mail. What kind of society? In 1864 the act attempted to create a protective shield around the

soldier so that he could not receive erotic materials. Just let him jerk off. They're gonna die. Think about how if your life is just fighting. Can I just see a vagina? Just let him fuck. You should be titties? Yeah. Publicly whack. Publicly whack. Whack away. That's gonna be the name of my magazine. Yeah. When you're in the trench be like I'll move in in a second. I'm just gonna masturbate for the fifth time today. I really hate it here. So Comstock was a bummer and after one year in the army he was either discharged for being annoying or left because he couldn't take all the vise. The closest he'll come to a real

discharge. Comstock then moved to New York City in search of his fortune because if you hate all that shit where else would you go to New York City? You go to the city that never sleeps. He was completely shocked when he came face to face with the center of America's commercialized sex industry. Sex in the 19th century in New York was wide open. The quote waiter girls were uncovering their legs near saloon pianos. Prostitution was blazingly open on major streets, magazines, and newspapers regularly printed lurid and sensational stuff. Newspapers advertised contraceptive devices as well as

abortionist addresses which I did not know. You need an abortion? Come down to Tommy's. Best abortions in town. Two for one. Come get nine. Your tent is on the house. Bring your friend Polly. But there is like, you know, you shouldn't have the free, I mean all those things are things that I believe should be allowed. No, totally fine with that. Pornographic materials in erotica circulated freely around the city. Along with the male working class, a subculture of what were called Sporting Men emerged in the 1930s. Young middle class men living without supervision and with money to spend sought enjoyment after hours. They

found it in games, liquor, entertainment, and commercial sex. Their needs and desires became sources for opportunity in gambling houses, saloons, theaters, brothels, and a network of printers and distributors of erotic literature. These Sporting Men shaped the alternative subculture of leisure in urban America. They created their own set of rules. I like these guys. This is when Comstock started his war against obscenity. Oh, God. What? In 1860- I love when people fight war on, like the war on terror or war on obscenity. If you're even saying the war on, you've already- Yeah, you're not in a good area. Yeah, you're already a dude.

In 1868, a close friend of Comstock's was led down the path of moral decay by reading obscene materials. Poor bastard. After reading the porn, he went to he went to a brothel and picked himself up a little bit of the VD. Okay. Just a touch. Just a little bit, little baby. Comstock was enraged. He went to the bookstore where his friend had bought the book and purchased himself an obscene book. He then marched over to the local police department and returned to the bookstore with a police captain who arrested the store owner and seized all of his stock. What? How did- I don't know. How about the cop? Okay. Comstock then

started making the rounds in New York buying obscene books and having the owners arrested. But what? Okay, so the cops before were like, oh, I guess you do have a good point. It is illegal. Those are titties. I guess this is not legal. So, okay, I'll be okay. We'll go do that. Sorry we let you think that was okay. It wasn't until this fucking noodle, wet noodle here came and told us. Yeah, the barbers here. The Young Men's Christmas Association, the YMCA, had been on the forefront of the fight against obscene things for a while. That 1960, that 1865 law the YMCA had created to save the soldiers was the one Comstock was

using to have book store owners arrested. Next, Comstock wrote a letter to the YMCA asking for their help. He needed money to buy obscene plates and books from the widow of a dead book dealer. And the YMCA was like, this guy is awesome. That's smart. We don't need any more dumbbells. I love that he's also going after the widow of a guy. Yeah, and plates. I don't know if they're actual plates or if they're like plates in the sense of the other like printing plates. But I don't know if they're printing things or if they're actually plates with chicks boobs on them. And I hope they're plates that with chicks boobs. We're like, we're

hoping the same thing. Yeah, you like eat some of the spaghetti and you're like, yeah, look at that pubic. Yeah, all right. That was a good lunch. Comstock then came the attention of the founding member of the YMCA, one of the founding members, Morris Jessup. Jessup then created within the YMCA the committee for the suppression of vice to secretly fund Comstock's efforts. Oh God. In the first two years of Comstock's efforts, he had 106 people arrested, two-thirds of whom were convicted. That's crazy. Now living in Brooklyn with a wife, Comstock was frustrated with what he saw when he walked to church saloons open on Sunday. In

1871, he began a campaign to enforce the law of Sunday closing. No. Which took a dangerous turn when he was threatened by a saloon keeper and forced to defend himself with a revolver. He then went back to fight against erotic material. Yeah, he was like, all right, all right, I get that. You guys like to drink and shoot and stuff. Sunday's fine. I'm gonna go up to the nudies. No more whacking off at plates. I got your point. No more erotic plates. Comstock himself authored a pamphlet in 1872, a quote private and confidential report to the directors of the YMCA in New York, informing them of the baldest facts regarding the

dangerous materials in their midst. Okay. The cover text promised description of quote, a warfare against obscene books, etc. The hundred copies were each numbered, and the name of each person who received one from the secretary was preserved with the number on the pamphlet. So it's like watermarking at studios where you get a script. Like when I get like a Marin script, he would have my name on it. Yeah. Don't let this out. Yeah. Robert McBurney, then secretary of the YMCA, was said to have retrieved the distributed copies and burned them. All right, you got four days to read about the smut, and then McComo set that on

fire. You got that? That's just the way it's working around here. Do the math. It's a lot like an X file script. That's from the future. Although, one remains today, one pamphlet still remains today in the committee files of the Cuts family, YMCA archives at the University of Minnesota. So there's one left. There's one left. In 1872, the committee for this pression of vice was raising funds for Comstock's work. Comstock emphasized the direness of the situation by listing items he had already destroyed. Quote, 30,000 articles made of rubber for indecent purposes. Wait, what? Vibrators and dildos. Oh, he's talking

about dildos. In my head, I just went to con. I just couldn't picture what we're talking about. What were you thinking about, like gloves? In my head, I was sort of picturing like a rubber magazine where it was like, the only magazine you can come on. That's a great idea. Thank you. The prevention of contraception for the use of both sexes, so that's what the rubber was, also dildos, and he put in parentheses that being the trade name. It's just great when they have to write stuff like that. Yeah. This writing, this word is making me angry. The little whiskey scandal was going on and everyone was like, the president's cock. You're like, oh, news, you've never been better.

The dildos are made of stout rubber and in the form of the male organ of generation for self pollution, 5,500 playing cars, which when held to light exhibit obscene pictures, and more than 125,000, 125,000 books known as the writings of Paul Dacock. That's the author, I believe. I mean, he's the best author ever. Paul Dacock? They kept it subtle back then. It's just. It's so great. Well, it's also, mm-hmm. Well, look at what I'm doing. It's French. For the dick. Some of the book titles were Night, Free and Easy, Love's Festivals, Day's Doings, The Delights of Love, and Wedding Night. Hey, you read Wedding

Night yet, man? Man, I cannot wait to get married, man. It really hurt her. Wedding night. A story of deflowering. She was 13 and he was 80. Welcome to Kentucky. Hey. Any reference to France or Paris was a clue that the book was sexual in nature. Wow. Also the words racy, sporting, gay, fancy, and rich. There were all indications that it was going to be naughty. French books, pictures, and rubber goods made up a significant percentage of the material Comstock pursued. In late 1872 and 1873, it was widely reported in the press that Theodore Tilton said he had seen his wife Elizabeth having sex with their

preacher on a quote little red lounge. The preacher was Herr Henry Ward Beecher, one of the most loved preachers in the US. Preacher Beecher? Yeah, preacher Beecher. Okay. One of the most loved preachers in the United States. Bang in one of the parishioners. Theodore Tilton was a writer and a former, so this was big news considering those involved. Yeah. Two women published an account of the fair in their magazine and Comstock lost his shit. Did he ever have it? I don't know. Okay. But he was unable to get the district attorney to prosecute the two women who published the account. So Comstock, using an alias, ordered one by

mail. And when it was sent, he went into action. On November 2nd, 1872, US Marshals arrested Victoria Woodhol for sending obscene literature through the mail. The charge stemmed from the issue of Woodhill and Clair Cleflin's, that's weekly, Woodhill and Cleflin's weekly, that detailed the adulterous affair. So these two ladies were putting out a weekly newspaper thingy. Yeah. A pamphlet, whatever it was. And Victoria Woodhol was part of the new sensibility in America that was upsetting the old Christian type so much. The new belief was that heterosexual intercourse was an important facet of life. Can you imagine that?

Can you imagine someone thinking that fucking is okay? Yeah. Like what kind of time do these people live in? Like you were, they thought you could just go out and have sex with people that you liked. It's disgusting. It's honestly, I can't imagine it. No. No, sir. Not us. Yeah. Not this podcast. No. Thank you. And it was as important for men and women to have sex as it was for men. Oh, now we've gone too far now. Hold on. We've gone too far. And any repression of sexual urges from their natural expression was harmful. Oh, man, this is crazy. At the time, Victoria Woodhol was a major voice pushing this new point of view. She

insisted men. Her name is Victoria Woodhol, H-U-L-L. We're really just dancing a fine line with insinuative names here today. We've got a calm stock in a woodhole. We really are. She insisted men and women had the right to sexual expression unconstrained by law and public opinion. Even. She affirmed women's right to love. And as she put it on the lecture circuit, quote, women have as much as women are as much as men are personalities responsible to themselves for the use which they permit to be made of themselves and they rebel demanding freedom, freedom to hold their own lives and bodies from the

demoralizing influence of sexual relations that are not founded and maintained by love. She thought women should be allowed a bone down. But as a guy, as men, why would men not also want that? Well, they did, but they wanted to be able to control them. Yeah. So they wanted them, you know, to pay for that. It doesn't sound like American history. Victoria was a woman making a living by selling words about sex, but hers weren't gaudy or dirty. She was more like playboy compared to penthouse. Yeah. And she had a point. She did have a point. A bit more taste than the smut one could buy at a dirty bookstore. Nonetheless, in

this battle, woodhole would be wrapped up with all the smut people. So she, because what she's writing, she's done a little something higher, you know, value, but she gets wrapped up with all the, yeah. She fought the stigmatization of this, but eventually gave in. She was a celebrity in 1872. Victoria and her sister, Teni, were the first woman owned brokerage firm on the New York Stock Exchange. Okay. She even ignored the constitutional requirement of age and declared herself a candidate for president of the United States. So she was a fucking kick-ass woman out there knocking down doors and having a good

time. Fucking writing about it, running for president, being good. In one speech, she announced, yes, I am a free lover. And that made her infamous in conservative circles. And America's favorite preacher was one of them. By the time she published the account of his affair, she had had it with the conservatives. On page nine was the revelation title, the Beecher-Tilton scandal case, the detailed statement of the whole matter by Mrs. Woodhill. How was whole spelled? Breaking it down. Yeah. H-O-L. Boom. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Boom. Right in the hole. To secure the arrest of a prominent leader of women's rights and America's most notorious

advocate of free love was a huge coup for Comstock. And they were perfect adversaries for each other. Woodhill and Comstock's battles, it was a public one and it was a battle over sexual oppression in America. So all eyes were on them. And it jettisoned Comstock into the forefront of the battle against obscenity. He became chief watchdog for America's public morals. Yeah. This shit's still going on today. Oh, God. Yeah. Totally. While gathering evidence for the trial, Comstock repeatedly had Woodhill and her sister arrested and had high bail set, putting them into a financial peril. How is he getting all this done?

Well, every time that they would find more stuff, they just have him arrested. So they just keep going through this shit and arresting them. For each case. Fucking nerd. What a hall monitor. What all had a famous criminal lawyer, William F. Howe, who defended her on free speech grounds. Many newspapers defended her because they feared what a conviction might mean for them. But many of her fellow women's right fighters did not support her because in the past year, she had a falling out with the movement and had threatened to publish every woman's sexual histories in her magazine. Oh, Jesus. In an article called tit for

tat. Oh, God, I want I wish. Oh, God, I wish tit for tat was just his own magazine. Oh, God, that'd be the best thing to read in line at the grocery store. Just soak up a little tip for tat. Look at who they're fucking. Holy shit. She's fucking that one. People are fucking. She apparently demanded $500 for silence from each woman, which is about 7500 today. That's a lot of money. She's an entrepreneur. Yeah. The trial began in June, 1873 and came back with a quick verdict of not guilty after the judge ruled that the prosecution of Woodhall under the 1872 YMCA law could not be maintained because that law did

not include newspapers. Oops. Whoopsie, Daisy. Whoopsie. But you wouldn't know it from the post trial results. Victoria Woodhall was ruined. Her career was done. She toured the lecture circuit in front of shrinking audiences and still published her newspaper for a shrinking readership. She finally retreated from public life after divorcing her husband on what was rumored to be money paid by the Vanderbilt hairs for her silence. She and her sister moved to England in 1877 where she married a British banker. She died in 1927. So he drove her out of the country basically. But I can't believe that that like she was you would think

that more people would like that would create that would elevate her. Maybe, but not that. I think there were too many people against this nonsense. She'd be a real Lady Gaga today. There you go. Add a girl. Comstock called the trial an outrage, but it had cemented his long careers of ice hunter. In 1875 an author calling himself James C. Edwards or Ginger published a lengthy and somewhat body poetic account of the affair between the preacher and his wife known as the Little Red Lounge. I love it. The prose was very indecent for the time. There lived in Brooklyn high above the bay a

pastor old with spirit light and gay. Oh how of gentle manners as of generous race. Blessed with much sense true inwardness and grace. Yet led astray by Venus's soft delights. He scarcely could rule some idle appetites. For all we know since Noah and the flood the best of pastors are but flesh and blood. Full soon the sheets were spread and best undressed. The room was perfumed. The Red Lounge was blessed. What next ensued besiems me not to say. Okay so you get it. Honestly, I mean I'm hard. I'm obviously clearly aroused. You're just two grown men who are very very aroused by this, but also can you imagine writing like

that? How fucking old that would get by page four? I'd want to kill myself. He was sick and tired of waiting a while so he took her down missionary style. My god, I can't. I can't. I gotta. I might just write regular. Comstock's sensibilities were provoked on October 27th, 1875. He arrested Hugh McDermott, the editor and proprietor of the Jersey City Herald and his 15-year-old son for selling copies of the Little Red Lounge. And his 15-year-old son? Yeah. Yeah. Okay so down is up. Might as well ruin all the lives. All right. Comstock failed in three different courts to get a judge to take the case.

He nevertheless won the battle. The obscene matter was destroyed leaving the publisher out a good deal of money. This was a common outcome of Comstock's raid so even if he couldn't get the bill convicted he just had all their shit burned. What a cool dude. Those attack on Woodhol had actually resulted in a decline in donations to his YMCA anti-obscenity group. His rich backers were more enthralled and gave him more. The Committee of Suppression Advice then split off from the YMCA and became the New York Society for the Suppression Advice, the NYSSV. Hot. Good show. Good TV show.

Hot acronym. And Comstock brought the NYSSV to the attention of the public. He was finally able to leave his day job as a dry good salesman. I love that during all this. He was a dry good salesman? Dry goods. Yeah so. So just sell like dry stuff. Like bread? Maybe dried out. Blankets? What the fuck is this? Maybe like dried fruit or dried you know beef jerky or whatever. This is so great. Dry stuff. I don't know what dried goods are exactly. I don't either but if it's like dried apricot this guy's hilarious. But he's not selling like wet goods.

That much we know for sure. Like what? Like what? I mean he's not like do you want some gravy? Like it's not that. Oh she's not a gravy salesman. Oh I get you. That would be, I think my ideal job would be to be a gravy salesman. How you doing ma'am? Can I have a minute of your time? Oh I did not bring the buckets. Oh Jesus and sorry this bucket's a little, there's gonna be some hairs in here. I'm sorry about that. Comstock then went to Washington D.C. to lobby for a stiffer obscenity law. Stiffer? The law of 1872 did not give the government the power to confiscate

materials something Comstock saw as a necessary to fight porn. With no floor debate the 1873 federal act for the suppression of trade-in and circulation of obscene literature and articles of immoral use was passed. How was it passed without a vote? They just, they just, they didn't have a debate. They voted, they didn't have a debate. They just wrote up the law and no one wanted to talk about it so they just passed it. I'm glad to see things are different. Now Marshall's had the power to

search for, seize and destroy obscene materials and Congress created a new position special agent in the U.S. Post Office with power to confiscate immoral matter in the mail and to arrest those sending it. The position was created with the understanding that Anthony Comstock would fill it without pay. So he got a mail badge and he got to carry a gun. Wait oh so he he became the yeah he got a special position created just for himself and he got a gun and a badge and and was at the post office like let me

shoot that porno he's a mail cop mail cop mail cop here they come back you're under arrest dildo you're coming downtown and I don't mean the vagina excuse me did you just mail that letter it's over for you what did you write at the end love to step in the car man back in New York Comstock was made the chief agent of the NYSSV which he created it so yeah it's not really shocking but he must have been so shocked when he got there it would have been weird it would have been

weird if it went to Larry he's like wait Larry oh I like porno this is going to be fun I love the porno Larry I love it I'm gonna confiscate it masturbate to it I like it total opposite I can't wait to whack at all this stuff NYSSV I'm in control of I'm in control of fucking and sucking these balls are about to get out of jail the 1870 a 1873 act did not focus on fertility control but was a statute that included birth control and abortion among the long list of commercial obscenities Comstock railed against

contraceptive devices bought and sold in commercial spaces not against natural forms of birth control such as abstinence and the rhythm method used privately in the home so he was for those he was okay with those for the rhythm but he was not for rubbers and and other is the rhythm method just blue balls no the rhythm method is uh when you uh try to figure out the when the the eggs gonna shoot down the pipe and not do it then right so that's I don't I don't think any of those are technical terms no but that you're a doctor

that but it does as an evangelical you were probably like oh man I can't wait let me know in that fucking it balls about to drop inside there honey it's about to be new years oh yeah this one's for god in making this distinction he articulated the views of many victorians who publicly supported family limitation only when it was achieved by dignified ethical means such as they're talking about no rubbers and only by abstinence or rhythm method what comstock found so guess what when I go with the rhythm method yeah

what comes back with found so objectionable was the prominence of contraceptives in the vice trade the comstock act was amended in 1876 to read every obscene lewd or lascivious book pamphlet picture paper writing print or other publication of an indecent character and every article or thing designed or intended for the prevention of contraception or procuring of abortion and every article or thing intended for the adopted for any indecent or immoral use and every written or printed card circular book

pamphlet advertisement or notice of any kind giving information directly or indirectly where or how or of whom or by what means any of the herein before mentioned matters articles or things may be obtained or made and every letter upon the envelope of which or postal card upon which and desolute obscene or lascivious lineations epithets terms or language may be written or printed this a little slower and sexier and hereby declared to be non-mailable matter shall not be conveyed in the mail snore delivered from

any post office or by any letter carry so anything don't mail porn don't mail anything i can shorten that i think don't mail anything is what yeah don't mail anything opponents of the law objected the heavy-handed and deceptive methods used by comstock he requested material under the guise of a distraught husband and when the material was provided he had the provider arrested so he'd be like hey i can't get it up i really need help i want to make love to my wife doctor what do i do and then the doctor would

send a letter back and he'd be like you're all under arrest you go to jail well that it really is why religion is so dangerous because it it's like to fight for the morality of one thing and use immoral methods to you're also talking about two private people doing something private yeah it's got nothing this isn't this is the mail so this isn't shit that's going no uh comstock defended himself by saying quote not one of my opponents has ever been near me or made a single inquiry at my office

for facts without at least an attempt to get into the facts they're not qualified to speak and what they say should be viewed a suspicion and weigh with great care by thinking men thus is defined the true position of the opponents to the above law so he's saying if a guy sends a fucking letter or asks for some porn or whatever the fact that they didn't go to his house and be like are you really who you say you are that that makes them douchebags he's out of his fucking mind yeah yeah like every guy every

playboy is supposed to knock on the door and be like hey uh did you ask for a nudie magazine from us are you really who you are jesus christ he's the worst that really takes away the the whole idea of like why they send it to you and uh yeah it really does yeah and the excuse me i don't want to interrupt this family get together but uh your porn's here excuse me who heard the dildo uh sorry dildo man here did you want to do you did sir also you guys want to buy some gravy in the 1890s comstock began a crusade against

ida craddock a sex therapist who wrote instruction manuals of sex advice for married couples and his first prosecution of ida it was 1899 it was due to a book she wrote called right marital living which was described as a sex manual for clumsy husbands uh i keep trying to put it in the hole it goes into the arm well that was the dog whoops i'm in the dog excuse me scooter honey the medical establishment uh actually backed craddock and and she was found

innocent comstock railed against the 1893 chicago world's fair because of the presence of a hoochie coochie dancer i mean he's really really fucking out of his mind what they're called by most humans belly dancers oh boy there's a lot to love there but uh uh a belly dancer yeah he's upset about belly dancing i mean he's really well the belly was out yeah he's like that's the hole no it's lower dick head that's not the hole i see a vagina hole right in her tummy i only fuck my wife while i'm screaming at her

but i had a craddock wrote a spirited defense of the appearance of the belly dancer known as little egypt craddock pointed out the belly dancing as a kind of sex education often performed at weddings and she was right and comstock was pissed next came her instruction manual wedding night in which craddock advocated a practice known in tantric yoga as coitus reservatis she believed the practice would enhance marital relations tantric yoga which is horrible is based on the idea why is it horrible just

sting does it and it's just that forever it's the forever fucking thing and it's just a you know fucking for nine hours okay without orgasm i mean it's just a fucking okay i mean i don't need it in my life no well you've got this point i've got a lot this point i'm on board with comstock let's just not do the tantric there's somewhere in the middle you know tantric yoga is based on the idea that we not merely physical bodies but that we consist of energy fields tantric practices aim to optimize the interactions of those energy fields

and to minimize the merely physical idac craddock was saying that sex was a spiritual exercise and that the purpose of sex was not necessarily to have babies total horror what a horror how dare she that's disgusting it's almost like people by the way here are my 450 children it's almost like people want to enjoy something that feels awesome it's crazy although she was really fucked up of god to make it fun yeah he should if he if he wanted it just to be for babies then there should be

like thorns in the vagina yeah you should just be like oh i gotta go get i gotta go get marcie pregnant and the dick should have like sandpaper on the outside of it oh it should be horrible although maybe she wasn't the best person to take any advice from her views were unconventional her own family attempted to have her institutionalized more than once one reason was because she said she was married to an extraterrestrial entity known as soft well okay she's who's side are we on now and that

aliens from another universe had well quote told her things such as i don't know she also said soft was the only person or whatever that she'd ever had intercourse with craddock also became a student of religious eroticism and declared herself a priestess and pastor of the church of yoga oh he must have been fucking pissed okay so she was basically insane yes among her sex manuals were heavenly bridegrooms psychic wedlock spiritual joys letter to a prospective bride wedding night and right marital living and so i

fucked an alien yeah i fucked an alien comstock had her arrested because of the wedding night this time a new york jury convicted her her sentence was to spend three months in a city workhouse under terrible conditions as soon as she was released comstock had her re arrested under federal law cheap but a prick is a fucking asshole hey you like your freedom boom get in but this time he offered her a chance to avoid further imprisonment by pleading insanity this she refused refused to do

mostly because she was insane and that's insane people yeah that's an insane people i'd rather go to jail for 30 years to be called that word i'm not insane and i will miss my alien yeah oh yeah put me in jail the marge my marston boyfriend will come get me after the trial the jury made had to take comstock's word for how filthy the manual was because they never got they never got to read it the judge declared that wedding night was so obscene lewd lascivious and dirty that the jury could not be allowed to see it during the

trial this sounds like a hard trial to be a jury member he added that he would submit to the jury only the question of fact did the defendant mail the book what that's bullshit he said you know she admits having mailed the book please render your verdict i'm gonna read you again what he said to the jury all you can all you can judge on was did she mail the book but she admits mailing the book so please please render your verdict

i do not suppose you will care to leave your seats which they did not yeah they were like they didn't go to the jury room they just looked at each other we think she sent it i'm pretty sure she sent it sounds like she sent it it can we see it no okay she's guilty all righty so they convicted her without seeing the evidence and without leaving their seats cool on the morning of october 16th 1902 idocratic was scheduled to be sentenced she was 45 years old and she didn't think she could make it through the

expected five years imprisonment she sat down and wrote a public letter in her home the day before she was to turn herself in the letter explained in a rational persuasive manner what she had written and why and what comstock had done to prosecute her she pulled no punches here's some of it he has not however produced any young person thus far who has been injured through their perusal nor has any parent or guardian come forward who claims even the likelihood

of any young person being injured by either of my books he stated to judge thomas that i hadn't had handed he said to judge thomas that i had even handed one of the books to the little daughter of the janitor's of the building in which i have my office it so happens that there is no janitor's in my building nor is there any little girl connected with the same if the reading of impure books and gazing upon impure pictures does debauch and corrupt and pervert the mind when we

reflect that anthony comstock has himself read perhaps more obscene books and has gazed upon perhaps more lewd pictures than any other man in the united states what are we to think of the probable state of mr comstock's imagination well done yeah the man is a sex pervert he is what physicians term a sadist namely a person in whom the impulses of cruelty arise concurrently with the stirring of sex emotion the sadist finds keen delight in inflicting either physical cruelly

or mental humiliation upon the source of that emotion also he might find pleasure in gloating over the possibility to others at my age i was 45 this last august confinement under the rigors of prison life would be equivalent to my death warrant the judge must surely know this and since he is evidently determined to not only totally suppress my work but to place me where only death can realize me i consider myself justified in choosing for myself as did socrates the manner of my death

i prefer to die comfortably peacefully on my own bed in my own room instead of on a prison cot she then slid her wrists and put her head in a gas stove uh just jesus that i mean doubled down yeah fuck but she but it's isn't amazing the psychological thing yeah nailed him to a t oh yeah back then she fucking had him yeah no that point is that that's such a great point you drove that shit home yeah and then she cut her wrist i mean how do you even logistically cut your wrist well no but i mean you

also have to get in the oven well you go well when you cut your wrist you're still bleed out for a while so you cut your wrist and what do you have double down you know a while before you bleed out it takes a while to bleed out really like how long i don't i don't know i haven't done it yet come on you did it how long all right did it hurt 17 minutes i am a ghost comm sock did not care about her death by the time his career was over he bragged that he had driven 15 people to commit suicide that's so fucked what an asshole

he seems cool yeah he's a cool dude sorry i misspoke now comm sock really concerned himself with performances he barely acknowledged that theater existed but he was dragged into the theater in 1905 oh god who why would anyone take him anywhere during the fall george bernard Shaw's play man and superman was being staged professor ae bostwick of the new york public library withdrew the published edition of the play from 30 or so free libraries and placed it in a closed stack he said he did it because children needed to be

protected from Shaw's corrupting philosophy and that the play would lead to higher rates of juvenile crime Shaw immediately assumed it was comm stock and he attacked quote comm stockry is the world's standing joke at the expense of the united states america like to hear such things oh sorry europe europeans like to hear such things it confirms the deep-seated conviction of the old world that america is a provincial place a second-rate civilization after all

comm stock responded to Shaw first he admitted he not seen or read any of Shaw's plays but then he still attacked the Irishman for believing quote the proper method of curing contagious and vile diseases is to parade them in front of the public wait what what does he mean he's saying that the way to that the that he thinks that the Shaw thinks that putting the stuff on display will help cure society of things that are wrong with that's not even what he's doing

well i'm sorry no but that's correct that's that even seems like a bad angle for him while he's fucking moron yeah quote i had nothing to do with removing that irish smut dealers books from the public library shelves but i will take a hand in the matter now Shaw knows his works can probably do harm to work weak and dishonest people he convicts himself the Shaw's outsider rules take that out rule outsider guy yeah the new york times back Shaw theater magazine didn't

it said theater magazine yeah what the fuck theater magazine where with the other guy who hates theater it said Shaw was too often interested in setting the world on fire merely to see it burn the chicago tribune backed comstock saying literary smut even though it is the product of genius is unfit for general reading what the fuck then the producer of the play up the stakes he announced that he would is the guy's name was andy daily which makes me laugh yeah he announced he would present mrs. Warren's profession and the play

Shaw argued that as long as a male dominated economy kept women poor prostitution was a reasonable career option also society in the play is intellectually and financially dominated by women men are virtually impotent that's great he really doubled down that's awesome when comstock heard the plot he wrote to the producer to warn him against producing quote one of bernard Shaw's filthy products the producer responded by inviting comstock to address rehearsal constock then sent another letter saying that the producer would be arrested

the play was open in new haven connecticut the local paper called it vulgar the mayor of new haven who had not read or seen the play then said it was well written and acted but it was rotten and the city shouldn't license it he didn't see it no cool so the producer returned to new york police commissioner william meccadoo seized a copy of the script took out the lines that were too risqué what the fuck and threatened to close the production if they were spoken so the cops the cop like went through and

crossed out all the shit they couldn't say i mean that's like when they put like a like when someone will buy like a vulgar moot like when scarface will be on the cable or like basic cable yeah what was the what was the name of the big video chain blockbuster used to do that they used to edit all the videos to take out stuff really yeah blockbuster for years was editing movies and people didn't see my planes too back in the back of the day like planes would they'd show the one movie on the big screen and they'd be like they'd edit

them yeah that's crazy but that really is so fucked up yeah um so he sees the copies of the script took out lines that were too risqué and threatened to close the production if they were spoken lake uh huge crowds gathered for opening night traffic was blocked on the surrounding streets billy club wielding cops had to assault their way through the crowd to get the actors to the theater three thousand people turned away at the door wow opening night three thousand Jesus critics and editorial writers though

thought the play was too blunt and shocking the new york times mr. Shaw takes a subject decayed and reeking and analyzes it for the edification of those whose unhealthy tastes find satisfaction in the morbidic suggestion whatever its merits or demerits as a play for the closet or as exposition of the author's views upon a sociological question it has absolutely no place in the theater before a mixed assembly the herald critic labeled to play the

limit of indecency which no amount of editing could purge its filth little harsher the police commissioner who edited the play himself attended even though the lines uh that he cut out were altered by the cast so as not to offend he's still labeled to play obscene so they they changed every single line that he said to change and he still was like nope that's an indictment on him yeah sounds like he's not good at his job yeah i'm gonna rest myself

it's they said the play now probably sounds like bush's vietnam records the police chief ordered it closed and issued warrants for the theater owner the manager the cast and the producer i mean what kind of fucking time is like honestly like god damn you can't fucking put on a goddamn plate by now Anthony Comstock was a household name he and other crusaders always said they were concerned about the effects of this filth on youth and children Comstock's ideas of what might be obscene lewd or lascivious were so broad that even some anatomy textbooks were

prohibited for being sent to medical students by the united states postdoc oh god this dude needs to get dick cancer that's what has to how how to cure the penis oh he really for if only comes thoughts penis got infected with something it would just be sounds like it might have been oh god the the joy at the time it can't be that doctor keep looking at the time the infinite mortality rate in the u.s was around 40 percent that's a normal statistic but maternal mortality was 99 percent higher than it

is today so women dying while giving birth 40 percent of those deaths were caused by infection of which half resulted from illegal or self-induced abortions birth control was to revolutionize women's health so birth control was going to save a shitload of women's lives in 1912 Margaret Margaret Sanger was a nurse living serving poor lower east side women like Sadie sacks a mother of three who had been warned that a no another pregnancy would kill her when Sadie asked the doctor how to prevent pregnancy

he told her to tell her husband to sleep on the roof fair solution she won't get pregnant pregnant again Sadie induced Sadie self-induced so she let him back inside huh yeah I couldn't stick with so great poor pregnant again Sadie self-induced an abortion contracted an infection and died Sanger began to inform women about birth control by writing a sex education column called what every girl should know for the call a socialist newspaper naturally

Comstack couldn't have that no time for jail so in 1914 a warrant was issued for Sanger's arrest she was accused of circulating obscenity through the mail the law defined information about constant contraception as obscenity that's so fucked up and not too distant from where we're at today really I mean there's still a lot of people who share those beliefs want abortion clinics shut down don't believe in fucking birth control and keep in mind we're running out of resources okay and people are still

like let's have more all right take it easy here sorry in place of Sanger's column the call ran an empty box that read what every girl should know nothing by order of the United States Postal that is a better solution that's fantastic right that's a there's a better way to just hide that what every woman should know nothing fuck you well they said it they did everything would say fuck you Sanger was not a woman who was intimidated and published the woman rebel a periodical that

purpose was to challenge Comstock laws directly she then fled to Europe smart Comstock's health began to fade his health had been on the way since 1903 due to some injuries he received during an arrest Comstock had been posing as a common man and corresponding with a Dr. James Daugherty in Chicago after receiving a few obscene letters he decided to apprehend the doctor so he's fucking assing a doctor for sexual advice and the doctor about his dick and the doctor gives it because he's a fucking doctor

and then he goes to arrest the fucking doctor a doctor must feel pretty good oh my god shook out for him Daugherty left a marshal and the sheriff outside and went it alone sorry sorry not Daugherty Comstock left a marshal and the sheriff outside and went it alone to try to get even more evidence so he's going to go inside and try to get the guy to say more shit or get more paperwork of stuff but again it's just clinical yet no it's not because it's about dicks and penises and vaginas and balls but but this is a that's fine

you should be able to talk to your fucking doctor about your cock not anymore or your jine cock or jones once inside cock or jones once inside still posing as a patient the doctor provided plenty of evidence Comstock then revealed his identity evidence yeah which means advice Daugherty grabbed the evidence and tried to run upstairs with Comstock in pursuit so he had a bunch of papers that he let me give a dick files i'm out of here i'm gonna flush him yeah at the top of the stairs Comstock grabbed Daugherty's leg and tripped him

the doctor then turned around and punched Comstock sending him tumbling down the stairs when he reached the bottom of the stairs the doctor leapt on top of him and continued beating the shit out of Comstock yeah Comstock finally managed to get away lurching onto the porch and yelling come as quickly as you can this man is trying to kill me the first time he's ever said come as quickly as you can though Comstock usually held his own in fights on a dozen occasions he was knocked down but got back up and gave back

more to the offender once he was slashed across the face with a bowie knife while making an arrest he continued working as the world's leading vice hunter and lecturing around the country to college audiences one young man who took a keen interest in his work and methods was a young fellow named j. edgar hoover oh boy in 1915 Comstock died of pneumonia at the age of 71 one excerpt from the new york times obituary one of the most discussed of mr. constock raids was upon

art students league in the american society of fine arts building at 15th west 57th street on october 2nd 1906 he caused a police patrol wagon to be backed up in front of the league's doors where it was loaded with about 1000 copies of the american art student a catalog published for students the alleged offense of the catalog was the showing of five nude figures which have been selected by the board of control of league as examples of the work done by its students miss anna robinson bookkeeper of the league was arrested

what the fuck after his death margaret sanger the nurse he had chased off to europe returned now public opinion is he gone see dad now public opinion was swinging her way and she sensed the time was right for action on october 16th 1916 she opened america's first birth control clinic in brooklyn yeah fuck yeah police closed the clinic 10 days later but sanghurt already started a movement she would go on to established planned parenthood federation of america thought that might happen today more

than 90 percent of americans have used birth control yeah so if the fucking satanists that means 10 percent of not well yeah we'll always have the cum stock population cum stock boasted over his life he destroyed hundreds of lewd and lascivious material including 60 000 obscene rubber articles otherwise known as condoms he couldn't even call him condoms no rubber articles it is estimated that he destroyed 15 tons of books 284 000 pounds of printing plates for engravings okay so there you are yeah

four million pictures and initiated 4 000 arrests his influence continued to be felt throughout the 20th century on april 5th 1927 hl menkin editor of the american mercury was arrested for selling obscene literature at issue were two articles in the april edition of his magazine hat track it was a chapter from an upcoming book about a prostitute by herbert ashbury the other other article the new view of sex was an editorial essay written by george nathan and printed in the clinical notes section

menkin was tried and acquitted two days later the day after the trial and after all the april issues were mailed to subscribers the solicitor of the us postal service department hoarse donnelly decreed the issue obscene and unmailable in 1957 the constitution of the federal obscenity statute was first argued before the u.s supreme court sami roth had been convicted on 26 counts of mailing obscene circulars and advertising and an obscene book in violation of federal obscenity statute in roth versus the united states just in

berman stated for the majority we hold that obscenity is not within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press uh-huh yeah that freedoms tasty ain't it it's cool to know looking back in history that the u.s supreme court was constantly full of bullshit yeah fucking stupid well not anymore thank god according to the statistics kept by the post office department the period between july 1966 and january 1967 saw an average of 34 arrests per month under the federal comstock act which is why

comstock got woodstock that was in fucking 67 and 66 right yeah but what was woodstock 68 68 i think and i if you're i might have been later but that but that i think it was 68 but that's like why the stuff like this that just it's like it's like a pot of water on a stove eventually it's just gonna fucking bubble over in 1971 congress deleted the birth control language from the comstock act in january 2004 how you doing real good man sounds like a far it's

it's nice to know that that's close a letter carrier returned the second post card in as many years to danie macintosh president of the washingtonville art society according to macintosh they were returned because they were too graphic the postcards promoting the society's annual exhibit of nude paintings drawing and sculptures featured oh my god charcoal drawing of the back of a nude female and a painting of a nude woman sitting oh no a butt talk

the comstock act itself has never been repealed oh god a modified form of the comstock act remains on the books today though it is extremely difficult to enforce oh god let's just get it america let's just get it out 2004 i love america how great is it that the village people the gayest band of their time yep did a song about the ymca it's pretty awesome they i'm sure they i'm sure that why i don't know i mean i mean i think that um you know

the ymc was against all this stuff but on the other hand they also provided housing to people who are down on their luck and i think a lot of gay people had a hard time well didn't we in life back then so and and wasn't that that that whole that whole thing about the new port sex right started in the ymc that's what i thought yeah yeah so there i think there were two things going on there uh because you can't help people who are down their luck without fucking having a lot of sexual shit happening well you also can't discriminate

on who needs help based on what they're what they i can david i and i will david and that's what this podcast is gonna be about david david anthony no first of all from now on the dollop is about no fucking no and no fucking in uh the bottom holes just the top hole wait a minute are you trying to say mouth i think mouth fucking is what jesus wanted i think you might want to reread your bullshit no i just realized that my wife's

aunt and uncle listen to this um should we give them an official shout out or should we just i don't know anymore well we want to say hi to to them and thanks for listening hey guys we'll see you at dinner