He was a physician (maybe), a clergyman (of his own denomination). He churned out and published book-after-book. Simon M. Landis also wrote plays and starred in them, while dodging a variety of missiles thrown by the audience.Mostly, the good doctor is a footnote in Philly history because he wrote a sex manual in 1870 which got him tossed into Moyamensing Prison for obscenity.
The verbose Landis was pardoned by the governor after serving less than five months of a one-year sentence. He immediately published the transcript of his trial and a second book about his thoughts while in prison.
Neither his books, plays nor his obscenity trial are very interesting. Most of the trial transcript is taken up by Landis’ lawyer making windy speeches and a grumpy judge refusing to allow any part of the sex book to be read in court.
Defense attorney John G. Kilgore declared: “The book shows how to generate a new race of men and women that will be beautiful and healthy and pure instead of criminal and diseased persons.” The lawyer said Dr. Landis “has gives us instruction…to produce moral and holy offsprings.”
Apparently, the good doctor had some new sexual positions that produced these healthy, holy kids.
The book warns against “coffee, tea or other artificial beverage that will steam heat, irritate and excite the organs.”
Landis writes about the “magnetic attraction” between ovum and sperm. However, he has a “special demagnetization technique” to avoid conception.
As far as the judge was concerned, the book was pure smut that might fall into the hands of children and the jury agreed.
Landis was the pastor of something called the First Progressive Christian Church. During the trial it emerged that Landis had no church building but rented meeting halls where he packed in 1,000 or more Philadelphians to hear him preach. Some referred to it as “The Love Church.”
At one point he proposed establishing a church in Reading, Pa. The Reading newspaper suggested Allentown as the proper location for Landis since “they still believe in spooks and hobgoblins etc.”
We only know bits and pieces of the life of S.M Landis, M.D. D.D, from a few newspaper clippings. Why he gave up medicine for a life in the theater is never clear.
We have a fascinating front page clipping from 1888 when 1,200 came to see Dr. Landis and his troupe performed a play Landis wrote called, “Dick Shaw.” There was a net in front of the stage to protect Landis from “the howling mob without chivalry or mercy hurled volleys of missiles. . .. eggs, potatoes, oranges, lemons, beans and small baseballs.”
When the audience exhausted their supply of fruits and vegetables, “one of the worst mobs ever gathered within the four walls of a Philadelphia building" smashed the chairs and hurled the pieces at Landis.
There were several cops in the theater to protect the actors, but an enraged Landis shook his fists at the crowd and finally quit the performance.
The article does not explain why Landis was so hated. Interestingly, the news article claims the violent audience was composed mostly of ruffians from “Port Richmond, Manayunk, Southwark and Grays Ferry.”
Landis tried bringing his act to other cities. A New York newspaper critic wrote: “He came to New York last winter after inflicting himself on long-suffering Philadelphia until there was signs of riot and revolt in the air.”
The New York writer goes on to say that Landis “astonished and for a time amused audiences."
But his attempts at Shakespearian tragedy were so terrible that he tried "a burlesque tragedy which seemed to be his strong point.
“In it, he killed everyone in the cast at least once and was himself killed four times. Multitudes would have rushed with fond anticipation and delight to witness the proceedings had one of the four times been real.”