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115 Iwas discussing this book with a colleague and mentioned that I was writing a chapter that included horror and gangster movies. He was taken aback. He wanted to know: “What do these movies have to do with disability?” As I show, people with both feigned and actual disabilities are central to horror and gangster genres as well as to other types of films featuring murderers and other perpetrators of violence. In this chapter, I focus on disabilities and film. Killers and other evildoers are the main topics of discussion, but I end with a brief look at other movie images of disability (Bogdan et al. 1982).1 From their beginnings, the movie industry’s studios produced photographs to publicize their films. Some were posed portraits of the star actors, but most were taken on the sets of the production 1. For an extensive and comprehensive look at cinema depictions of people with disabilities, see Norden 1994. Also see Chivers and Markotic 2010. 8 Movie Stills Monsters, Revenge, and Pity 8.1. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, starring Lon Chaney as Quasimodo, 1923. Universal Pictures. 116  Picturing Disability itself or were printed from actual frames of the film. They were referred to as “stills.” These photos , usually eight by ten inches, were sent with press releases to newspapers, given to theaters to use in advertising, and incorporated into the designs of printed posters. Their most common use was as come-ons set into display cases outside movie houses designed to lure moviegoers into the show. Stills emphasized the most striking aspects of the production and showed leading actors in the most compelling poses. Photographic images from the stills were used to manufacture half-tone printed posters that were also displayed outside movie theaters. The still shown in illustration 8.1 was produced in conjunction with the release of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. This 1923 film was the most popular pre-Disney adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel. It was Universal Studio’s jewel of that season, its most successful silent film. The still shows Lon Chaney in the role of Quasimodo, a stooped-over, half-blind, barely verbal, deaf, persecuted bell ringer of the famous Notre Dame Cathedral. With him is Esmeralda, a beautiful Gypsy. Quasimodo had kidnapped Esmeralda earlier in the film and is being whipped for that transgression. In the still picture, Esmeralda, showing pity for Quasimodo , is bringing him water. The film presents a sympathetic portrait of the leading character, but his daunting disability nevertheless estranges him from others and eventually results in his death. Moviemakers produced stills and posters for the same reason they created movies: for monetary gain. The movie industry was first and foremost a business, and its publicity favored hype and misrepresentation over accuracy. Hundreds of thousands of studio stills were produced, and although they are not as collectible as other forms of photography , some movie fans bought and kept them. They provide a source to examine visual depictions of people with disabilities in movie promotion and correspondingly in the movies. In this chapter, I concentrate on stills from the early years of the movie industry. Horror Films The term monster is most commonly used today to refer to strange and frightening creatures that injure and kill. In scientific terminology, it means an animal with a congenital deformity. In the language of medicine, it designates a fetus or infant with a severe disability. These different definitions overlap in stills as well as in movies; the dangerous characters commit appalling and ghastly acts, but they are also scarred, deformed, maimed, and mentally impaired and have other physical and mental disabilities. Movies link physical and mental differences with murder, terror, and violence. Nowhere is this more evident than in horror films. Horror films—movies that strive to stimulate fear, terror, shock, and disgust in viewers by featuring ugly, dangerous creatures who kill and maim people—appeared in the late 1800s at the start of the film industry. The earliest examples were short-subject scary movies shown at dime museums and on the midway at expositions and fairs (Dennett 1997). The midway varieties were organized in much the same way freak shows were: an outside talker and ticket seller lured patrons into the show tent. From the first horror films to modern-day renderings , physical and mental disabilities signify murder, violence, and danger.2 The connection is vividly shown in transformation scenes during 2. The association of disability with violence in images did not start...

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