{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,27]],"date-time":"2025-09-27T13:56:55Z","timestamp":1758981415820},"reference-count":26,"publisher":"Elsevier BV","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2004,3,1]],"date-time":"2004-03-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1078099200000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.elsevier.com\/tdm\/userlicense\/1.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Endeavour"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2004,3]]},"DOI":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2004,2,14]],"date-time":"2004-02-14T05:21:53Z","timestamp":1076736113000},"page":"30-35","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["I got rhythm: Gershwin and birth control in the 1930s"],"prefix":"10.1016","volume":"28","author":[{"given":"Paula","family":"Viterbo","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"78","reference":[{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB1","unstructured":"Chesler, E. (1992) Woman of Valor. Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America, p.36, Simon & Schuster; Noonan, J.T. (1965) Contraception. A History of Its Treatment by the Catholic Theologians and Canonists, pp. 438\u2013442, Harvard University Press."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB2","unstructured":"Hartman, C. (1936) Time of Ovulation in Women. A Study on the Fertile Period in the Menstrual Cycle, p. 117, William & Wilkins."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"718","DOI":"10.1016\/S0002-9378(27)90410-4","article-title":"The \u2018safe period\u2019 as a birth control measure. A study and evaluation of available data","volume":"14","author":"Dickinson","year":"1927","journal-title":"Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB4","unstructured":"The birth control debate reached all sections of society through the media, which were divided on the matter. Sampling of popular magazines between 1920 and 1940 shows that the numerous socioeconomic, demographic, eugenic, medical and moral arguments for and against contraception overlapped, making an informed decision whether to use birth control a difficult one. See Viterbo, P. (2000) The Promise of Rhythm: The Determination of the Woman's Time of Ovulation and its Social Impact in the United States, 1920\u20131940, pp. 115\u2013215, Doctoral Dissertation, SUNY, Stony Brook."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB5","first-page":"85","article-title":"Birth control as seen by a mother","volume":"149","author":"McNeely","year":"1928","journal-title":"Outlook"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB6","unstructured":"Knaus, H.H. (1929) Eine neue Methode zur Bestimmung des Ovulationstermines. Zentralbl. Gyn\u00e4kol. 53, 2193; Ogino, K. (1928) Histological studies on corpora lutea, Period of ovulation, relation between corpora lutea and cyclic changes in uterine mucous membrane, and the period of conception. Japan Medical World 8, 147."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB7","unstructured":"The characters and dialogues in this scene are composites, mainly based on an anonymous magazine article, and interviews: (1928) Choosing one's children. Forum 79, 579\u2013586; Interview with Nora Novak and Interview with Mrs B, Library of Congress, WPA Federal Writers\u2019 Project Collection, 1936\u20131940."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB8","unstructured":"John Louis Belford was a pastor at the Church of the Nativity in Brooklyn. There is enough reason to believe his allegiance to conservative Catholic tenets. Belford discouraged black communicants from attending his church, and opposed the asylum of Jewish war refugees. See McGreevy, R.W. (1996) Parish Boundaries: The Catholic Encounter with Race in the Twentieth-Century Urban North, p. 54, University of Chicago Press."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB9","unstructured":"In the 1920s and 1930s, a wide range of birth control products was marketed as \u2018feminine hygiene\u2019, because the sale of contraceptives was illegal. See Tone, A. (1997) Contraceptive consumers: Gender and the political economy of birth control in the 1930s. In Controlling Reproduction: An American History (Tone, A., ed.), pp. 211\u2013232, SR Books."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB10","unstructured":"Dr William Vincent Pascual was chief surgeon at St Mary's Hospital, specializing in gynecological surgery. See Curtis, G. and Elder, B., eds (1938-39) The American Catholic Who's Who, p. 345, NC News Service."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB11","unstructured":"Withdrawal, condoms and douches were the three most popular methods of birth control in the 1930s. See for example, Pearl, R. Contraception and fertility in 4,945 married women. A second report on a study of family limitation. Hum. Biol. 6, 355\u2013401. At least until the AMA approval of birth control in 1937, most physicians were morally opposed to and ignorant about contraceptive techniques. See for example, McCann, C. (1994) Birth Control Politics in the United States, 1916\u20131945, pp. 59\u201397, Cornell University Press."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB12","unstructured":"Cited in Merman, E. (1955) Who Could Ask for Anything More, as Told to Pete Martin, p.85, Doubleday. See also Boehnel, W. (1930) \u2018Girl Crazy\u2019 Makes Hit as Diverting New Show. New York Telegraph 15 October 1930; and Rosenberg, D. (1991) Fascinating Rhythm. The Collaboration of George and Ira Gershwin, pp. 185\u2013193, Dutton."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB13","unstructured":"The characters and dialogues in this scene are based on two magazine articles: Davis, M. (1938) The rhythm. Pictorial Review 39, 18\u201319; and (1934) Medicine: \u2018natural\u2019 birth control approved by survey. News-Week 4, 20\u201321."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB14","unstructured":"Dr Arthur George Miller and his clinic are mentioned in (1938) Periodic continence. Time 31, 56\u201357. See also the report on the Miller Clinic, in Miller, A.G. et al. (1933) The conception period in normal adult women. Surg. Gynecol. Obs. 56, 1020\u20131025."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB15","unstructured":"Latz, L.J. (1932) The Rhythm of Sterility and Fertility in Women: A Discussion of the Physiological, Practical, and Ethical Aspects of the Discoveries of Drs K. Ogino (Japan) and H. Knaus (Austria) Regarding the Periods When Conception Is Impossible and When Possible, Latz Foundation. In the forward, Latz explains how he introduced the rhythm method in the U.S."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB16","unstructured":"The NCWC functioned as the representative body of the American Catholic Church until the National Council of Catholic Bishops was formed in 1966. See Cogley, J. (1973) Catholic America, pp. 83\u201386, Dial Press."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB17","unstructured":"During the 1930s, Margaret Sanger introduced several bills in Congress, to try to legalize birth control. The arguments contrasting natural with artificial contraception played an important role in the debates pitting Sanger's National Committee for the Federal Legislation on Birth Control against NCWC representatives. See Chesler, E. (1992) Woman of Valor. Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America, pp. 328\u2013335, Simon & Schuster."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB18","unstructured":"Although many individual Catholics advocated natural birth control during the 1930s, it was only officially endorsed by the Catholic Church in 1951. See Noonan, J. (1965) Contraception. A History of its Treatment by the Catholic Theologians and Canonists, Harvard University Press."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB19","unstructured":"Statement at the Hearing before the Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate, 20 March 1934, John Augustine Ryan Papers, Archives of the Catholic University of America."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB20","unstructured":"The incident told below is documented in the letters between Gerald Shaughnessy and John Burke, on 13, 14, 21 and 27 February 1935, held in the Archives of the Catholic University of America, NCWC\/USCC Records."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB21","unstructured":"Long after completing this paper, I learned about a Japanese play dramatizing Ogino's discovery of time of ovulation and its application to birth control in Japan: Sanae, I. and Yumi, S. (2000) Rhythm method. In Half a Century of Japanese Theater II, 1990s, Part 2 (Japan Playwights Association, ed.), pp. 287\u2013366. I thank Jan Trembly (Bryn Mawr College) for bringing it to my attention."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB22","first-page":"8","article-title":"Rhythm everywhere","volume":"37","author":"Stoll","year":"1932","journal-title":"Musician"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB23","unstructured":"Greenberg, R. (1998) George Gershwin, p. 114, Phaidon Press."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"116","DOI":"10.1016\/S0015-0282(03)00544-2","article-title":"A new model for ovarian follicular development during the human menstrual cycle","volume":"80","author":"Baerwald","year":"2003","journal-title":"Fert.Steril."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB25","unstructured":"Allen, J. (2003) Ovulation can be more than monthly; a study finds some women release two eggs within a cycle. Los Angeles Times, Part 6, p.3, 14 July 2003; Fox, M. (2003) Study challenges thinking on ovulation. The Seattle Times, p. A7, 9 July 2003."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018_BIB26","unstructured":"Fryer, J. and Fryer, S. (2003) Family planning [letter to the editor]. National Post, p. A17, 12 July 2003."}],"container-title":["Endeavour"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/api.elsevier.com\/content\/article\/PII:S0160932704000195?httpAccept=text\/xml","content-type":"text\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/api.elsevier.com\/content\/article\/PII:S0160932704000195?httpAccept=text\/plain","content-type":"text\/plain","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2019,2,14]],"date-time":"2019-02-14T21:58:41Z","timestamp":1550181521000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/linkinghub.elsevier.com\/retrieve\/pii\/S0160932704000195"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2004,3]]},"references-count":26,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2004,3]]}},"alternative-id":["S0160932704000195"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.endeavour.2004.01.018","relation":{},"ISSN":["0160-9327"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0160-9327","type":"print"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2004,3]]}}}