MP3:
The Academy Dramatic Players – Side 1 (22:03)
The Academy Dramatic Players – Side 2 (19:18)
Decades before Janet Jackson's halftime wardrobe malfunction sent parts of America into fits of moral outrage, people had to score their righteous indignation at the expense of the publishing industry. The arrival of D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover on American shores was one of the more famous cases, complete with postal inspectors seizing copies of the pernicious filth and hauling those who would dare sully the fine moral standards of the community by keeping it in their homes off to jail.
The publishers sued to stop this nonsense (and to stay out of jail themselves), leading to a landmark ruling by New York District Court Judge Frederick van Pelt Bryan that defended the book, and all future works with naughty words and adult situations, on the grounds that it had literary merit. America could now freely enjoy the works of Lawrence without fear of their neighbors turning them in to the local police.
What better way to celebrate than with a record dramatizing the novel's steamiest scenes, complete with orchestral accompaniment? Unless you consider “phallus” and “sex” to be obscene words, you'll find yourself quaintly charmed by the idea that this once caused an uproar, even though the anonymous actors do their best to sell the sex with breathless, melodramatic readings.
Both the jacket and the album feature the notation, “Vol. 1,” on all sides, suggesting that this was the first in a series. As the album covers the entire plot of Lady Chatterly's Lover, I must assume that they never found another piece of adult-oriented literature worthy of adaptation.
- Contributed by: Derek Gerry
Images: Front Cover, Back Cover
Media: 33 1/3 RPM 12" album
Album: Love Scenes Adapted from D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterly’s Lover (Uncensored edition) Vol. 1
Label: Premier Albums
Credits: Music by The United Philharmonic Orchestra
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