A public hearing on the proposal amendment to the city code which would empower the Commissioner of Licenses to revoke the license of any motion picture theatre showing a file which maligns, ridicules or give offense to any racial or religious group was held Friday before the General Welfare Committee of the Board of Aldermen. The proposed ordinance is sponsored by Aldermanic President Joseph V. McKee.
The ordinance, according to its terms, prohibits all motion pictures which “disparage or hold up to obloquy any race, creed or nationality or are calculates to arouse racial national or religious prejudices, or to give offense to a considerable number of any race, creed or nationality.”
The motion pictures which had particularly aroused the indignation of the Irish-American representatives at the hearing were “The Cailahans and the Murphys,” “The Shamrock and the Rose” and “The Garden of Allah.”
Charles T. Rice and James McHugh represented the United Irish-American Societies of Greater New York. Louis Jacobson, a Brooklyn attorney declared he believed the amendment should be adopted in the interest of all races and creeds.
The motion picture men, who had been expected to offer strong opposition to the proposal, were not represented. After the proponents of the measure had spoken, Alderman Francis D. McGarey of Brooklyn, who presided, adjourned the hearing without date.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
