Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-01-08
O'BOLGER RAP.S MOVIES
As VULGAR MASS
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Continued from Page One
gambling. general licentlousness and
cheap bravura.
y IL think / may say beforehand what
the remainder will be: First, exaggerated
husks, either wealth raised to the nth
power by means OF limousines and costly
looking people in costly looking clothing
and surroundings, or poverty generally
depressed to the sorriest nadir, for in the
world of moving-picture fortune all is
extremity; moderation means death to
the class of story and acting involved.
In the second place, there will be left
half rabble of grotesque figures TO
NIL these husks. men and women i'll
conceived and ill-portrayed living a life
or frenetic passion, going and coming at
all times at a degree of tension that would
have solomon a lunatic and Sandow o
wreck within month.
THE situation. however, Is by no means
all stysian blackness; not even the NOV
ing picture can practice its affairs without
learning something about life Ii has
learned, among other things, that there
Is quality OF public interest that is not
necessarily prurient or dense. IL has
found that It is possible TO interest the
populace in stirring events other than
those promoted by the whisky bottle. the
hypodermic syringe, the cigarette case
and the teapot. There is no doubt that
the influence OF scenes of stirring action,
OF highly accelerated motion. of pictures
of vessels at sea and engines OF all kinds
in ingenious motion is tonic to the nerv-
Gus system and to the blood 1t Is unques-
tionable that the public sense of the look
OF the world in strange, lttle-visited
quarters has been mildly educated but
l am afraid that the pedagogue inclines
10 overrate the beneficial influences of
such glimpses OF Pathe's weekly world
as are granted us.
Were a palace today to offer an un-
varied bill OF such pictures to it's patrons.
1 am afraid IL would be out of favor By
next week. The moving picture by its
abuse of the hysterical and far-fetched
in action, motive and sentiment has so
debauched the popular interest that it
wants only screamers and thTillers in
the f1sld of the tragic and the pathetic
and the grotesque in the field of the
comic (which Is, indeed all that ii is
capable of handlingD. The public suffers
the edueatlvs flm rather than desire it.
The bulk OF the interest is of the
scream order.
In conclusion the speaker said:
IF our schools were rightly equipped
with good teachers of elocution and with
physical courses that would make the
carriage OF the children a beautiful thing
instead OF the brutal thing Of the modern
football arena We might then have plays
by young people that would bring parents
and friends into the presence of better
things With this might be combined a
play by ambitious young people of the
neighborhood In which good local talent
would find representation, and the COM
munity would find interest and education
In this way the best ambitions Of the
stage might be revived. creative and re-
productive talent encouraged. a helpful
use made OF our school rooms ana a
healthy counter-lnnuence exerted against
me poor service OF the moving picture
world. The cost would not be great: the
proht IN the circumstances, looking at
proht in the larger sense Of a care FOR
what might be done OF benefit for US all.
weuld be tremendous.
s'Meantims. outriders like the Society for
the Extension Of University Teaching are
ia the saddle. They are trying to pro-
dnce even II under Gripping conditiOns)
semethlnS that viii exert wholesome