Winston Churchill's Cigar Airbrushed From Picture (Stalinism Alive & Well)

The Telegraph ^ | 15 Jun 2010 | Nick Collins

[nickcarraway]

A photograph of Winston Churchill giving his victory salute has been airbrushed to remove his signature cigar.

In the well-known original image, Churchill makes a "V" shaped symbol with his fingers – while gripping a cigar in the corner of his mouth.

But in a reproduction of the picture, hanging over the main entrance to a London museum celebrating the wartime leader, he has been made into a non-smoker through the use of image-altering techniques.

It is unclear who is responsible for doctoring the photograph, with the museum – The Winston Churchill's Britain at War Experience – claiming not to have noticed the cigar was missing.

John Welsh, manager of the museum, admitted he was shocked to learn of the alteration, but declined to reveal who was responsible for the display and for enlarging the image.

He said: "We've got all sorts of images in the museum, some with cigars and some without. We've even got wartime adverts for cigarettes in the lift down to the air-raid shelter, so we wouldn't have asked for there to be no cigar."

Don Robinson, who owned the museum before passing it to a charitable trust 20 years ago, added: "If we'd known we would have said: 'No, it stays as it is.' Everything we do we try to do accurately and the cigar symbolises Churchill."

[nickcarraway]

[Genoa]

Why try? He wouldn't have been holding his mouth like this if there were no cigar. Looks like a stroke victim.

[library user]

Ban nudity from museums. I can’t stand nudity. Especially fat naked paintings.

[Grunthor]

“Looks like a stroke victim.”

Or Benny Hill.

[Faith]

How ridiculous. It would be like showing Obama without his teleprompter.

[ozzymandus]

“England is a fag country”-Archie Bunker

[library user]

Looks like a stroke victim.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLHc-yIAPbg

Don't worry - it's just a song. :O)

[lovecraft]

Or a little like Benny Hill...

[library user]

ROTLF!!

[donna]

For those who believe the truth just isn’t good enough.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Years ago in Oklahoma there was also an attempt to airbrush out the pipe shown in the paintings of Sequoiah, the inventor of the Chrokee alphabet.

This reeks too much of Russian and Chinese commie propaganda in which various people disappear in the official photos over time.

[FreeAtlanta]

lol!

[swain_forkbeard]

“For those who believe the truth just isn’t good enough.”

Or for those who believe the truth is what the party says it is.

Winston Smith enjoys job security.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

This is the kind of stuff Stalin did.

Kill one of your political rivals, then airbrush him from state photographs.

[jesseam]

If that phony in the White House had anything to say about it he would have removed Churchill’s image totally. When he returned the bust of Churchill which was NOT his to give away, he insulted one of our most valued allies. What a f—n loser we have been saddled with. I trust he would not have returned a bust of Stalin.

[Seaplaner]

When he returned the bust of Churchill which was NOT his to give away, he insulted one of our most valued allies...

If the GOP is awake (and this is uncertain) reminding voters of THAT action (one of Mister Obama's first priorities in office!) will make a nice addition to some clever election-year advertising in 2012.

.

[libertarian27]

Might as well airbrush his signature “V” for Victory hand gesture too and call it a day.....

[texanyankee]

Seems to me that this has also taken place with FDR...

Sickening.

[SES1066]

Nothing different from what has happened here in the US. I reference the Washington DC Monument to FDR, completed in the Clinton Administration. According a Washington Post story of the dedication;

The memorial has simmered in controversy over whether it had bowed to "political correctness." Animal rights activists were credited with keeping the trademark fox fur off the statue of Eleanor Roosevelt; anti-smoking activists were credited with having FDR's trademark cigarette holder removed.

There is history and then there is 'adjusted history' according to ones biases and prejudices! Remember that history is written by the victors, even if they are biased academics or polemics writing years after the fact!

[ConservativeDude]

you know what is especially shocking about this, is that more than one biographer has noted that Churchill actually RETURNED to his office the day of to get his cigar before the speech...he apparently forgot it, and then turned around and went back and got it, because he didn’t want to be without the cigar for this historic moment.

incredible.