Bumped Off

When Wine, Women and, Song opened on Broadway last September at a $1.65 top, critics belted it as the shoddiest kind of fourbit burlesque. Commissioner of Licenses Paul Moss slapped it with a court summons charging indecency. Business immediately boomed.

When Wine, Women and Song went on trial for its life last week, the defendants --producer, managers, etc.--wanted the jury, consisting of seven men who confessed they had been to burlesque and five women who were not asked, to see the show. The judge said No. The defendants also suggested a performance in court. Again the judge said No.

Instead, a city magistrate reported clinically on its bumps and grinds.* Then some of the cast took the stand. Said famed Strip-Teaser Margie Hart, wearing woolen underwear beneath a purple ensemble: 'T hold the curtain around me, sort of tease-like." Some of her further guarantees of decorum: a G-string, rubberized stockings, three safety pins, a "victory garden" of two strategically placed flowers.

Said petite Chinese Fan-Dancer Noel Toy ruefully: "When I am dancing, the fans fly apart. I cannot help that." Said Miss Hart: "I have never done a bump or a grind in my life." Said Miss Toy: "Neither have I. It's vulgar." Added Miss Hart: "I slink."

The seven men who had seen burlesque and the five women found the defendants guilty.

*Bump: a sudden forward projection of the pelvic region; grind: an unabashed rotation of the same.

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