“LEGITIMATE IN ART”

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18610, 22 January 1935, Page 7

“LEGITIMATE IN ART”

SEX APPEAL

EFFECT ON FILMS

BROADCAST BY G. B. SHAW

LONDON, Jan. 20.

“Sex appeal is a perfectly legitimate element in nfl line arts dealing directly with humanity,” declared Mr George Bernard Shaw during a broadcast.

Mr Shaw added that the Archbishop of Canterbury had referred to undesirable films. There were none. No film studio would spend £50.000 in making a film unless it was very desirable indeed, possibly not to the Archbishop, but certainly to a large section of the human race who were not .archbishops. Continuing, Mr Shaw said: — “Let us cease talking about desirable and undesirable €llllß and consider whether we can extirpate films detrimental to public morals. A censorship involving handing over the job to some frail erring mortal man, making him omnipotent, on the assumption that his official status confers infallibility and omniscience, is silly. “One of the most sacred functions of the theatre is to educate and refine sex appeal, the treatment of which under censorship is often vulgar. Yet the good done by associating sex appeal with beauty, cleanliness, poetry and music is incalculable. ’ ’