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

Graves of City's Founders May be Terminal Site

From The Indianapolis Times, Monday, February 26, 1923: “I’m the last member of the Nowland family, and I certainly do regret to see the memory of my ancestor and the other pioneer citizens of Indianapolis desecrated in this way,” Edwin Nowland said in response to an Indiana state senate bill which provides for the confiscation of historic Greenlawn Cemetery for the site of a freight terminal for the traction companies. Overgrown with weeds, cluttered with junk and the city’s refuse, the graves of pioneers receive no attention from the citizens of the city which these men and women founded. The names of many families prominent in the early history of Indianapolis appear on broken slabs and markers in the dilapidated cemetery. “It is an outrage. The people should make this a beauty spot. Their memory should be respected,” Nowland declared.

“Graves of City’s Founders May be Terminal Site,” The Indianapolis Times, 26 February 1923, p. 2:2

Mayor Favors Idea of Radio on Autos

From The Indianapolis Star, Tuesday, February 20, 1923: Last night, Mayor Lew Shank approved a plan to install a radio receiving set in each police automobile so that when a crime is reported to headquarters the information could be immediately broadcast to every police officer in an automobile in the city. When Patrolman Franklin Bensley presented the proposal six weeks ago, a radio transmitter set would have been installed in police headquarters, but the police chief thought the cost of such a radio system would be prohibitive. However, since then Francis Hamilton, who operates a sending station at 2029 N. Alabama, has developed a plan to connect a direct telephone line to police headquarters so when a crime is reported the information can be immediately relayed to the radio operator who would then broadcast the information to each police car.

“Mayor Favors Idea of Radio on Autos,” The Indianapolis Star, 20 February 1923, p. 8:3