Arabian Dance

In March of 1913, Comstock arrested French actress Stacia Napierkowska for doing an “Arabian dance” at the Palace Theater. Speaking of a woman’s body, he noted, “seen on the stage, it has a tendency to corrupt the morals of minds open to such influences…. Such a sight enters one of the portals of the mind—the eye—and excites the reproductive facilities of the intellect, the reason and the imagination.”

After returning to France, Napierkowska said, “Really, I have not brought away a single pleasant memory from the United States. What a narrow-minded people they are – how utterly impervious to any beautiful impression!”