Whitey Schafer - Thou Shalt Not”: A 1940 Photo Satirically Mocks Every Vice & Sin Censored by the Hays Movie Censorship Code - 1940
“Thou Shalt Not”: A 1940 Photo Satirically Mocks Every Vice & Sin Censored by the Hays Movie Censorship Code. The code…..”states the considerations which good taste and community value make necessary in this universal form of entertainment.” No picture, for example, should “lower the moral standards of those who see it,” and “the sympathy of the audience shall never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.” There was also “an updated, much-expanded list of ‘don’ts’ and ‘be carefuls,’ with bans on nudity, suggestive dancing and lustful kissing. The mocking of religion and the depiction of illegal drug use were prohibited, as were interracial romance, revenge plots and the showing of a crime method clearly enough that it might be imitated.” A. L. “Whitey” Schafer (photograph) “shows, in one fell swoop, many things producers must not do,” or rather must not depict: the defeat of the law, the inside of the thigh, narcotics, drinking, an “exposed bosom,” a tommy gun, and so on. Few of us today would feel so titillated, let alone morally corrupted, by Schafer’s image, but as filmmaker Aislinn Clarke recently demonstrated on Twitter, it may offer more pure entertainment value than ever - Open Culture
Size: 2327px × 3000px
Photo credit: © photo-fox / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: alamy, antique, archival, archive, background, black, bygone, classic, collection, commandments, creative, cultural, culture, days, exhibition, gallery, heritage, historic, historical, image, lives, murder, nostalgia, nostalgic, photo, photo-art, photo-fox, photo-portrait, photograph, photographic, photography, picture, portrait, poster, print, retro, satirical, schafer, shalt, stock, thou, vintage, white, whitey
