women in flimsy gowns of gossamer texture, slashed to the hips, with very little besides, made a bewildering pageant whose capstone was the unveiling of a per¬ fectly nude girl whose body had been painted to resem¬ ble marble. Save that it was all designed, and all put through on schedule, it was almost the “limit” to which such exhibitions could go in real life. Its pro¬ moter, of course, was a Jew. As an entertainment it was infantile; the splendor of its insinuations, the daring of its situations, were the fruitage of long study of the art of seducing the popular mind.
It was said when “Aphrodite” first appeared that the police had moved against it, but some held that this was a clever press-agent stunt to excite public interest in the promised pruriency. It was also said JEWISH CONTROL OF THE AMERICAN THEATER 95 that even had the police interference been the genuine result of outraged official minds, the fact that the Jews of New York are represented in the judiciary out of all proportion to their numbers, would have rendered the Jewish producer free from interference. In any event, the piece was not molested. The sale of nar¬ cotics is illegal, but the instilling of insidious moral poison is not.