Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-10-26
MOVIES, THEIR cENSoRS
AND THEIR END IN LIFE
And Why Regulation, as II 10 Estab-
iished In Pennsylvania, 10 Not
Wholly Bad Thing

censorship, which Is brought again into
the foreground by Governor Sprouts rcor-
eanization of the board Of censors and the
retirement Of DIR. Oberhotzer from the post
OF high authority, is complicated by the fact
that the children Of the state are the stead
lest and most enthusiastic patrons Of the
film theatres.
1t Is impossible not to like the movies and
admire them even while the highbrows rave
and wiring their hands. There are times
when the lamp in the mystical coop over
head Is more wonderful than Aladdin's. 1t
makes a stage of the whole, wide world.
There are the sunlit curls, of course, and the
hurled pie and the homes Of wealth uphol-
stored as If by madmen and the stare of
spurious innocence that has made tons Of
money for more than one ingenue of the
screen--things that are as painful to
sensitive eye as hot cinder. They are
passing, praises be. And as atoncment there
are the moments when It seems that some
unsung Raphael or Rembrandt or Whistler
or Monet or Millet is turning the crank upon
a vivid cross section of moving life.
The movies are striving nobly enough for
better things. And IL there is need for cen
sorship-and there is-it is because all pro-
duccrs are neither good business men nor
good artists. The true gcniuscs of the
moving picture world learned long ago what
all theatre managers learn In the course of
timc-that dirt, veiled or unveiled, doesn't
really pay in any form of drama. The con-
spicuous failures Of recent seasons on the
conventional stage were the Broadway plays
intended to dramatize the atmosphere OF
boudoirs and sleeping rooms.
When the kaiser's government fell in Ger
many its successors abolished all censor
ships to show how free and modern minded
they were. T!e movies were left to the de-
vices of the proftcers. And they went down
hill to n great smash through riot Of vul-
garity and suggestivcness. A great many
producers failed and the cinema business was
for q time in almost complete eclipse Now
the German censorship IL working again
and the movies are coming back.
1t is chargcd-py the Rev. DR.. Grammer
and others-that moving picture producers
and a good many of the exhibitors in this
state are working forward slowly in an effort
to abolish Aim censorship altogether or to
strip the board of almost all its authority.
That may be. But it is hard to believe
that the picture men are really bent upon
an effort so full Of danger for themselves.
For II must be apparent to any one familiar
with the present status of the industry that
an intelligent censorship--not n fussy md
ignorant system OF interference-offers the
best protection that the films can have.
There have been raiders and get rich quick
promoters in the world of the movies in the
past. and few of them are still busy. They
had a perverted notion of the public taste.
They circulated pictures that were deliber-
atcly suggestive, and, when these were
stopped by the Censors, they turned out
wholly undesirable films with the pretcnsc
Of quasi scientific or moral purpose. Such
subterfuge was transparent to every one. and
the ADLER men among the producers long ago
recognized the danger involved in that prac.
tcc for the entire moving picture industry.
1t has been said often that the public
ought to be the censor Of screen plays, as it
Is the censor of the written and spoken
drama. But In n final analysis the question
Of children and Juveniles who crowd the film
theatres every day inevitably arises.
The movies are enormously prosperous be-
cause they have been kept clean. As the
alternative for n board of censors, il i'm
proper pictures were sent into big and little
theatres there would almost certainly be q
law to restrict the attendance of children at
the cnemas. And a theatre that advertised
for the patronage of adults only would not
survive long enough to be noticed
What moving picture producers must
learn and what most OF them are learning
Is that their responsibilities to the com
munity are almost identical with those that
rest upon the editors Of newspapers. 4 bot
ter general appreciation of this simple and
obvious fact will. in the course of time. sug.
gcst a sort of regulation at once broader and
more liberal than that which now rks few
Of the leaders in the business. That sort of
regulation may come through an accepted
aud hOnored code Of ethics devised by the
producers and exhibitors themselves or IL will
come in the form OF state and federal laws.
More than the taint of immoral sugges =
tion will be eliminated from the Aims. II
will be necessary, for example. to view the
movies as an extraordinarily powerful
agency OF sound or unsound opinion
Nowadays the editor and publisher of a
newspaper or Of books or magazines accept
| and must accept-responsibiity for the
| views they present and promulgate They
are identified clearly for the world Of their
readers. What they print is marked clearly
| to indicate it's source. Propaganda of the
sort devised for ends not clearly stated does
not gel into well edited newspapers. And
as a result, groups and individuals and even
the representatives Of governments who re-
aIize the immeasurahle potentiality of the
|
studios with a view to finding a swift and
direct means to make opinion"
That Is a trend which producers and ex,
| hibitors anxious TO maintain the integrity
| of their business will have to watch. SpeCia
| pleading can not be conducted anonymously
| in the press. Nor docs any reputable news
paper longer disguise advertisements as news
There are good business rules as well al
ethical considerations to justify such re.
| strictiOns.
The movies are at their best as mirror
of life and a medium of dramatic expression
And 1t Is safe to assume that those who arr
trying hard to put them to other uses will b.
checked In one way or another. Advertise
ments and propaganda ought to be marked
In the pictures--in the interest of the ar
itself, first of all, and in the interest Of tn,
public afterward.
| When the producers have had lttl
more time in which to profit by the example
/ "a A.. a.. xash In hay haa,