I find it really shocking that the barber shop was open on a Sunday morning. Even if those guys weren't going to be in church, I would expect the business to be closed on Sunday. It is a small town in Mississippi in 1949!
shareI didn't see all of it last night and missed this. I'm pretty sure that Mississippi had "blue laws" forbidding businesses to be open on Sunday. West Virginia had them when I was a kid in the 60s and I was living in Virginia in the mid to late 80s when they finally did away with their blue laws.
shareExactly! Even New York State had blue laws up until the 70's.
shareBlue Laws, or Sunday Closing Laws, did not forbid all business on Sunday. Although each state (and sometimes counties or even towns within the state) had different priorities, most likely Mississippi law prohibited certain retail activity, like alcohol sales, car dealers, etc.
Allowing certain service activities, such as a barbershop open to allow folks to look good for church, could very well be allowed, even if some of the customers did not go to church.
I also suspect that William Faulkner, who wrote the novel on which the movie was based, probably knew a little about Oxford, Mississippi and the laws on the books there.
Not to be argumentative but rather to give the perspective of a southerner, I live in South Carolina and have all my life. Malls and most retail and service shops other than restaurants and gas stations are rarely open till after 12-1:00 on a Sunday. I've never seen a barber shop open! That really struck me as odd. Hair salons close on Sunday and Monday. Alcohol is only served after church hours and only in larger cities. Mississippi was and probably still is just as strict as South Carolina. It's just a fact here that we've all worked around and watched relax slowly, and I mean slowly, in the last 10-20 years if at all. I'd have to find and check the novel, but that struck me as completely ridiculous and a Hollywood fabrication just to drive the story along.
Respectfully,
AB:)