New Britain herald., 1916-01-14
1S1 Main Street THE REXALL STORE

prospectus from the Moving Picture Weekly of November 20, 1915, page 13, in which President Laemmle of the Universal Film company gives straight from the shoulder talk which Is, in part, as follows:
 Several weeks ago 1 published a straight from the shoulder talk en- titled, Which do you Want?' asking the exhibitors of America to state whether they preferred clean. whole some pictures or smutty ones.
 Instead of finding that 95 per cent favored clean pictures, I discovered that at least half, and maybe sixty per cent, wanted the pictures to be 'risque, which is a French way of saying 'smutty'.
 Exhibitor Brutally Frank.
 Exhibitors who favored this kind of picture stated quite frankly that while they personally would prefer clean stuff, they found their patrons were more willing to pay more money to see an off-color play than a decent one. One very successful exhibitor, who runs chain of theaters, was brutally frank. He said, in part
 What's the use of kidding our selves? People are people the world over. They've got the same kind of red blood running through their veins that you claim to have in yours. Look back over the record of successes on the stage during the past few years and you will see that the biggest hits were those which contained tickish situations. You honestly believe that you are right in adopting the highly moral ground that you don't care to yo hut to consider others than yourself You've got to consider thousands of exhibitors and it is your duty and com mon sense to give them the stuff that will bring them the most money The theatrical manager who follows the public taste instead of trying to lead it the way he wants it to go is the one who comes out on top. The nov ing picture magnate who tries to play the pioneer or go against the current will come out the little end of the horn
 Letters Piled In.
 If only few such letters had come in answer to my query, I would not have thought much about it. But they piled in. One after another said that it would be wise to listen to the public demand for vampire pictures Others stood out uncompromisingly for clean, decent pictures.
 Personally l am against them from soda to hook, but if the demand for them is so overwhelmingly great, we will bow to the superior wisdom of the majority. If the time comes when we depend solely on such pie lures I will gladly get out of the pic ture business and strike the street commissioner for job sweeping streets"
 Report of Committed Dr. Crafts submitted that the re- port of the committee and the two documents quoted above were suf- ficient to "show' conclusively even "the man from Missouri that addi- tional censorship is needed He said that the unofficial National Board of Censorship" and various city and state boards had no doubt mitigated ii evils in the movies and will he needed to some extent, even when federal censorship is provided for local and state work at least for a while, but as practically all the films have a nationwide circulation the federal governments alone is able to do the main part of the job.
 The firm editors, manufa cturers, eA- hibitOrS, and their attorneys occupied the second half of the evening with arguments in part against all censor ship and in behalf of free eXpres- sion" in pictures, no less than in the press; and in part in favor of volun- tary or state or local censorship as preferable in their opinion to federal censorship. The unofficial National Board of Censorship" of New York city, also opposed the bill.
 Tonight the film people have first innings. and the advocates of censor ship will have a double portion of argument to rebut. On Monday and Tuesday Canon William Sheafe Chase, of Brooklyn, N. Y.. associated with Dr. Crafts in the origiration and promo ton of the bill, will have charge in behalf of it's proponents; the speak CTS for the bill will include preachers of many denominations, representa- tives of young peoples societies. 70 form bodies, womens clubs, and many welfare organizations.