This blog post was written by graduate assistant Aaron Ramos, a master’s student in the History Department.
Image taken from: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/65302263337321181/.
We are excited to announce that the Lane Denton papers are currently in processing! This collection will be of interest to students and scholars of the 1970s. Denton, an alumnus of Baylor University, witnessed many significant events as he represented McLennan County in the Texas House of Representatives from 1971 to 1977, including Watergate and the end of the Vietnam War. Throughout his time in the state legislature, Denton advocated for transparency in governmental affairs while investing his time and resources into pursuing health and education reforms across Texas. However, a journey through Denton’s papers demonstrates that the realms of policy and legislation constitute more than just writing laws and running campaigns. Denton’s papers also illustrate how the political issues of the day left their mark on the media Americans consumed. This is true today, and it was true back in 1973.
In August 1973, Texan journalist Dana Scott Galloway sent a letter to Denton’s office in Austin. Galloway was concerned over the fact that KLBK-TV, a CBS affiliate local to Lubbock, voluntarily decided to pull a televised broadcast of Joseph Papp’s Sticks and Bones off the air. For Galloway, and many others, this was an act of censorship, and she called into question the legality of KLBK-TV’s actions.[i] Sticks and Bones is an off-Broadway production following a disabled Vietnam War veteran as he grapples with the emotional fallout of his time in Vietnam while trying to acclimate back to civilian life.
Included in Galloway’s letter to Denton was a clipping from The Lubbock Avalanche, where journalist Naomi Caddell stated that Sticks and Bones may have been offensive to veterans, especially since the country was still coming to terms with the Vietnam War. However, Caddell, countered that stations like CBS made no effort to censor the Watergate hearings. Caddell argued that if networks could air the uncensored dirty dealings of the government, then they should also be able to air content that explored the complexities of war and veterans’ mental health.
Denton responded to Galloway, noting a similar incident that took place in Houston where a channel refused to air two episodes of the sitcom Maude. The episodes in question were removed from the air due to their treatment of the topic of abortion.[ii] This was not even a year after the Supreme Court passed Roe v. Wade in January 1973. Readers may be familiar with Maude star Bea Arthur, who later went on to play Dorothy in The Golden Girls.
Poster from the show Maude (1972-1978).
Image taken from: https://www.amazon.com/Maude-Season-1/dp/B0018J8C6G.
Denton was unsure of how he could address Galloway’s concerns regarding censorship, primarily because it was up to individual networks to decide what to air. Denton ended his letter by referring Galloway to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to see if they had specific guidelines for what networks could and could not air. This was five years before the landmark Supreme Court case FCC vs. Pacifica Foundation, which affirmed a legal precedent for the FCC to regulate content deemed “indecent.”[iii]
Lane Denton papers, Accession 112, Problem File: TV Censorship, Dana Scott Galloway, Baylor Collections of Political Materials, W.R. Poage Legislative Library, Baylor University.
This is not the only example of our collections at BCPM addressing the intersection of politics and pop culture. One of my earlier posts: Comic Book Banning in the United States: Days of Future Past touches on similar issues. In that instance, Texan voters were writing to their representatives to prohibit the use of the postal system in sharing indecent material (comic books).
Does the intersection of politics and pop culture interest you? Schedule a research appointment with us at bcpm@baylor.edu and see what you can uncover in our archive!
References
[i] Lane Denton papers, Accession 112, Problem File: TV Censorship, Dana Scott Galloway, Baylor Collections of Political Materials, W.R. Poage Legislative Library, Baylor University.
[ii] Lane Denton papers, Accession 112, Problem File: TV Censorship, Dana Scott Galloway, Baylor Collections of Political Materials, W.R. Poage Legislative Library, Baylor University.
[iii] Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726 (1978).