Mae West and Charlie McCarthy

On 12 December 1937, Mae West appeared on the Chase and Sanborn Hour with ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his monocled knee-pal (dummy), Charlie McCarthy. Stars of stage and screen and airwaves, Bergen and McCarthy had a huge following, and West was keen to promote her latest film, Every Day's a Holiday. She appeared in two sketches, including "The Garden of Eden" with Don Ameche, and a flirtatious banter with McCarthy. The announcer introduces the meeting as "the romantic battle of the century", a contest of seduction which the dummy might just prove strong enough to resist. There follows a blistering back-and-forth, during which West describes Charlie as "all wood and a yard long". This was too much for many listeners (though the studio audience found it hilarious), especially on a Sunday, and the Federal Communications Commission deemed it indecent. NBC banned West (you couldn't even mention her name) from all their radio stations. She didn't appear on radio until January 1950.