The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-03
Birmingham, April 2e, 1914.
Dr. Eayes on Picture Plays

To the Editor of The Age-Herald
 Writing in your issue of Sunday last under the caption Three and a Half Centuries of Shakespeare" that most puissant critic of men and things. the Rev. George Eaves, delights his read CTS with d beautiful philharmonic to the immortal bard
 l thought while reading that surely the doctor is in fine fettle today. The valley of dry bones for once shall remain undis- turbed. nor will the Eavonian scalpel flash and scissel on this day of peace. for 10! a Briton is chanting the virtues of clansman. But I should have known better. The doctor had scared but a scant column and a half when his well known antipathy to things in general got the best of him, and to earth he came With a shuddering thud. Someone must pay Tor that peaceful glimpse of his ex- cellency's pathological flower garden, and in this instance he chose as victim the humble nickel photoplay Hear him:
 By the million we are sending our chill dren to watch impossible deeds portrayed by pretended photograpns, miles upon miles of film that lie aad islander and delude with flying feet Murder and adultery and deception and ribald false hood crowd out the sane and wholesome things of life and make the minds of young lads and virgins hospitabe to un- clean spirits, because they feature rog- uery and not heroism, and not reality"
 admit that the man who gets his thrills at photoplay hlust possess a somewhat vivid imagination, but in charging that murder and adultery and deception and ribald faisehood' crowd out the wholesome things of life the doctor shows at once that he is not il patronAof the nickel shows, and therefore. Wots not whereat he strikes These plays are rfgidly censored against the very thlngs he charges, and that is more tha n can be said of the Legitimate" stage The scenic value of the photo drama and the current event films IS one of the greatest educational assets of the age The greatest actors of all countries are today plying their talents before the cam era man, and but for this invention mill Hons would never have had an oppor tunity of seeing them I have been a patron of this cheap amusement since it's introduction in Birmingham and can truthfully say that l have never viewed an obscene or adulterous play in that time
 Ninety out of hundred films portray. powerful sermons on morality, played bv the worlds leading actors and passed py a nauonal board of censorship. l be- lleVe this form of entertainment possesses in a greater degree the essence of nor aiitv and education than any other available to the masses of today.
 IT Dr. Eaves and his small but select cortege can find naught worth while save or Shakespearean origin l am sure no one VIII raise hue and cry to stop them bu1 our reVerened and erudite iconoclast should keep before him the fact that there are millions among the great un- washed whose skulls are not equipped to follow him. and others whose estimate of the immortal William is that he was either the town drunkard or an escape rom a madhouse. Pending the arrival of something better, 1 hope the doctor will take second thought and spare lis the picture shows
 WILL H. WYNN
 l720 Jasper street
 Birmingham. April 27, 1914.