Actress Collapses in City Court Trial

From The Indianapolis Star, Thursday, March 8, 1923: The city court trial of Jessie McDonald, a Chicago chorus girl, charged with public indecency, ended yesterday and Judge Delbert Wilmeth took his findings under advisement. McDonald was arrested following a performance of The Mischief Makers at the Broadway Theater after Rev. Charles Winders, Indianapolis Church Federation secretary, said the police chief had failed to prevent indecent shows in Indianapolis theaters. Rev. Winders testified he had attended a performance at the theater last week and that McDonald, although wearing bloomers within an inch of her knee, was “thinly clad and danced in a suggestive manner extending the middle part of her body.” The trial follows a long period during which Rev. Winders has sought to change the character of performances at the theater which are attended by many young boys and women.

“Actress Collapses in City Court Trial,” The Indianapolis Star, 8 March 1923, p. 17:2