Souls for Sale

“Lindvall’s Souls for Sale is written with style and wit. At the same time that it explores the relation between religion and the movies in the early twentieth century, it shows how, for novelist and director Rupert Hughes, the art of the movie was itself sacred. The book is a pleasure to read and illuminates a too-little-known period of American filmmaking.”


—Theresa Sanders, associate professor, Theology and Religious Studies, Georgetown University





“Terry Lindvall’s fascinating Souls for Sale shines a spotlight on the changing Hollywood scene in 1922—the year writer Rupert Hughes’s satirical treatment of traditional Christianity became a motion picture. Who better than Rupert Hughes, already notorious for his outspoken atheistic opinions, to mock Middle America by suggesting that Hollywood, the new film capital, had replaced the church as its most sacred place. . . . This book provides a fascinating background to the beginnings of censorship by the Production Code Administration. . . . I warmly welcome Lindvall’s new book, which explains how the culture wars began in Hollywood in the roaring twenties; it is an easy read.”


—Andrew Quicke, Professor of Film, Graduate School of Communication and the Arts, Regent University