Sex is a 1926 play, written by, and starring, Mae West. There were 375 performances before the New York Police Department raided West and her company in February 1927. They were charged with obscenity, despite the fact that 325,000 people had watched it, including members of the police department and their wives, judges of the criminal courts, and seven members of the district attorney’s staff. West was sentenced to 10 days in a workhouse on Roosevelt Island (known then as "Welfare Island") and fined $500. The resulting publicity increased her national renown.