Friday, May 4, 2018

Mischa Richter: Will Hays

Will H. Hays, the first chairman of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, is the subject of Mischa Richter's cover for the New Masses of August 16, 1938. The illustration was prompted by James Dugan's piece on "Challenging the Movie Monopoly." Hays is associated with the so-called Hays Code of 1930, the set of moral guidelines used in the self-censorship of Hollywood movie content.

It's interesting that the Marxist critique of Hollywood seems to be about the movie industry's monopoly rather than movie censorship. Was censorship, widely practiced in Stalin's Soviet Union, a topic of any interest to the New Masses?


Will Hays
Mischa Richter
New Masses, August 16, 1938


Will H. Hays



Image added May 15, 2018


Note:  Can anyone identify the photo or photos likely used by Richter as a reference for this illustration?

Attempted Bloggery seeks scans and photographs of little-known work by Mischa Richter (1910-2001) and other New Yorker artists.


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Mischa Richter

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