gold paint, crystal chandeliers, acres of red carpeting, and a grand staircase leading up to the balcony. When you went to the movies there, you felt you were someplace special. My friends and I decided to sit up in the balcony. We figured that, by looking down at Jane, we’d have an advantage over those who were looking straight ahead.

Before long, we were treated to the scene in the stable, in which Jane takes a shot at Billy the Kid and then ends up wrestling around in the hay with him. Perhaps that stable is where she picked up the straw for her posters. Later in the film, Billy gets wounded and develops chills. Although Jane had first tried to kill Billy, her mood changes, and she realizes that the only way to save him is to climb into bed with him to share her body heat with the poor guy.

As Jane bent over to minister to Billy, my friends and I moved to the edge of our seats. Suddenly, the screen went dark, and when the picture returned, Jane was upright, dressed in more proper clothes, and in another room. Every time Jane stooped to adjust her stockings or pick up something from the floor, the screen went black. Eventually, there was an audible groan from the audience. The decency police had struck again. They were not going to let Jane Russell’s bosom corrupt the young minds of Boston, and I’ll bet Billy Graham had a hand in all this, as well.

We returned the pass to my grandfather and headed back to Dorchester. As disappointing as the day seemed at the time, perhaps our ordeal was for the best; it allowed all of us to keep on imagining what we had missed. Not long ago, I rented The Outlaw. It really is a poor excuse for a movie. When I remember the agitation that the film caused in the 1940s, and reflect on what is available to the American public today, I have to smile. If they were still around, the Watch and Ward Society and the Legion of Decency would be busy indeed.