The Great Speckled Bird May 3, 1971 Vol. 4 #18 pg. 5
Stomp Vamped!
It appears that artists in Atlanta will have to look to the State for approval of their creations or else subject their work to later censorship.
Stomp, a rock musical with social and political content, has been threatened with mass and repeated prosecutions if certain scenes were not taken out of the production.
The people involved in Stomp, known as The Combine, decided to perform two nude scenes in the show with clothes on until they could, along with their ACLU attorney, Morris Brown, decide on an action to take against the Georgia law being used to censor their production.
Jack C. McEntire, Captain of the Atlanta Police Department and William Baer Endictor, Esq., Assistant Solicitor General of the Criminal Court of Fulton County, told Alex Cooley, producer of Stomp, that if an objectionable scene was restored to the show, the Atlanta police would arrest everyone connected with the show, including “the man who cuts the grass,” and all would be prosecuted.
One of the nude scenes in the unadulterated show is “the birth” in which a woman is naked from the waste up. The other scene is “the river.” An actor described the scene as being involved with nature as closely and purely as possible which requires removing clothes. Neither scene is obscene or lewd.
The law threatening Stomp is S26-2105, enacted July 1. It states:
(a) Every person who, during the course of a play, night club act, motion picture, television production or other exhibition, or mechanical reproduction of ^human conduct, engages in conduct which would be public indecency under Code section 26-2011 if performed in a public place, shall be guilty of participation in indecent exposure and upon conviction, shall be punished as for a misdemeanor.
b) Every person who procures, counsels or assists any person to engage in such conduct or who knowingly exhibits or procures, counsels or assists in the exhibition of a motion picture, television production or other mechanical reproduction containing such conduct shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. ” (thus the grass cutter)
The vagueness of this law threatens everyone’s participation in the creation and exhibition of art.
The Combine, believing this law to be unconstitutional and one in a series of political harassments, has begun a class action to enjoin local law enforcement officials from enforcing this law until its constitutionality can be tested. The plaintiffs are: Alex Cooley, producer, Elizabeth Herring, Ronnie MacKey, representing the Combine, and M.E.Johnson, Jr., a private citizen who feels his rights are being denied by the censoring of the play. No hearing date has been set.
Although The Combine performed the nude scenes clothed on Friday night, they had decided to do the scenes naked on Tuesday night. The Combine could be protected temporarily from arrest if they performed the nude scenes by a restraining order or temporary injunction. If they failed to get a permanent injunction, The Combine could be busted on past shows performed with the nude scenes.
The Combine started out in Feb., 1969 at the University of Texas in Austin. They traveled with the show (then Now The Revolution) to Houston, Atlanta, New York and 16 performances in Europe, including the Dubrovnik Festival in Yugoslavia and the Edinburgh Festival in England. The show was televised in Scotland, Amsterdam, and taped in Munich for European distribution. All this without political or social hassle.
After returning to the U.S., the Combine chose to return to the south and play in Atlanta.
On Friday night the main concern of the Combine ‘ was whether or not to do the nude scenes. On Sunday, everything was changed. At 4:57 am, a fire alarm was called in for 3156 Peachtree Rd.—the site of Stomp’s theatre. In about an hour, the building was destroyed. Lieutenant Lester who handled the fire said: it “burned so completely that I can’t tell (how the fire started)—we don’t even know if the fire was lit.” –
Alex Cooley, however, believes that the fire was set. He said that the building was wired by electrical contractors, inspected by the city and approved by a master electrician. He added that the electricity was turned off each night at a master switch; there was no gas in the building. In fact, there was no utility going into the building except water.
He said that the last person left the building at 10:45 pm and it was unlikely that the fire started by spontaneous combustion.
On Monday afternoon, the gutted church was being torn down because it was a “dangerous construction,” Lester said. “It may help us really, when the building gets torn down. . .we will look into it as it’s being torn down.”
Since coming to Atlanta, the Combine has been hassled with dog complaints, health complaints, nudity complaints, the threat of losing children, and have now lost their stage!
All was destroyed in the fire—props, music and instruments, and lighting. And the Combine had no insurance. But they are looking for a place to perform again and will improvise whatever they have to; Then they will take up the fight with the state again.
—Lucia droby