Given that Tonight’s Story invokes the Mann Act, and given that the Mann Act is bar-none the best Congressional Act of 1910 (and I dare you to find a better one. I mean, Chuck Berry was charged with violating the Mann Act. Frank Lloyd Wright too.) Now, I know it’s been a hundred years and the Act’s been amended to reflect the century’s (uh) progress, but I’m wondering if it’s possible for me to get arrested for the Mann Act (enumeration: I mean, could one be charged with a violation in the original more abstract offense of “immoral purposes?” I’m not talking about anything explicitly belle-de-jourish or… childlike…, OK? What I’m asking is: does anybody know any violations of the Mann Act that have to do with immoral purposes other than those defined expressly in wording of the Act? This is what you, the Internet, is for, innit? To help a stranger be creatively immoral?)
I don’t know about any recent applications of the Mann Act, but it amuses me that Charlie Chaplin AND Charles Manson have both been charged with violating it.