Off the Bricks

Banned in Boston · STOP 10 · Theater District

Groucho Marx, playing here in October 1929, gave Boston's censorship a one-line review: 'Boston's a pain in the neck.'

In October 1929, with Boston's mayor banning plays and Margaret Sanger, Groucho Marx was on stage at this Tremont Street theatre and told a Harvard Crimson reporter what he thought of the city. The marker Boston put out front has a small problem of its own. Read it slowly, then look up at the marquee.

This is stop 10 of Banned in Boston. Walk it - any two stops are free.

The plate

Quincy's a Sore Throat

Collected on site

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Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors

265 Tremont Street, north of Seaver Place
Directions

1

Groucho's phrase for the ban, per the Crimson in 1929: 'preposterous censorship.' Behind it, he said, were not the Lowells and the Cabots.

More footnotes on the story card, in the app.

Censorship, Wrong sign, Plaque hunt, Works after dark

In these collections: Wrong Signs, After Dark

Near Tufts Medical Center · Near Boylston · Near Chinatown · Near Arlington

Sources (7)