New-York tribune., 1920-05-09

| quickly to the period Of quantity pro-
duction, when star produced from
thirty to fifty-two pictures a year,
when the name Of the star became the
biggest asset of producing company,
and .when, the fiction of giving the
public what it wants" became the
shibboleth OF the motion picture pro-
| ducer and exhibitor.
The mere experience Of seeing doz-
ems OF motion pictures year has made
the regular patrons of motion picture
houses bit wiser every year. They
no longer worship blindly before ia
vorite stars; they no longer swallow the
same old story for each picture; in a
| word, they have become Sophisticated
quite as the first nighter Of New York
becomes sophisticated. To-day the
most important producers and directors
OF the motion picture industry are
making real effort to find out what
the public wants, instead Of proceeding
on the basis of each man giving the
public what he thinks it wants. In
stead of regarding the finished motion
picture as mercantile product sim
liar to coats and suits, they look upon
1t as unit of entertainment, to be
distributed according to it's peculiar
attributes.
The Associated Motion Picture Ad-
vertisers, body made up Of repre-
sentatives of nearly every important
motion picture producing organization
in the country, Is endeavoring at the
present time, for the good Of the entire
industry, to discover the exact relation
between the motion picture public and
the motion picture world, made up of
actors and actresses, directors and
scenario writer's. Does the public that
nj
as keen an interest in the stars that it
sees as the theatergoing public takes
IN legitimate stars? Do the readers of
an average newspaper, for example,
turn as readily to column of gossip
about motion picture people as they do
to column of gossip of the green
room? The A. M. P. <. (the organiza-
ton with the long name) believes that
Dorothy Gish's hobbies are as inter
esting to the average newspaper reader
as Ethel Barrymore's views on the fu-
ture of the American stage; that Doug
las Fairbanks's schedule of setting-up
exercises is as valuable a news item as
the views of distinguished actor on
the immigration question.
To demonstrate this belief to the
newspapers of the country the A. M.
T. A. has engaged field secretary, who
Will tour the country, visiting news
papers with the idea Of showing them
the value Of starting motion picture
departments and columns. The as
sociation has behind It's campaign the
support of figures; it can be conclu-
sively established that more people see
motion pictures in any given week than
see legitimate attractions. 1t cannot
be as definitely proved that the inter
est aroused by the motion pictures is
IN the same proportion to the interest
aroused by the legitimate drama.
But the main effort of the campaign
will be to demonstrate to the news
papers the possibility of cultivating
the large number of readers who see
motion pictures; 1t may be said, for
instance, that for every person who
sees ball game there are two or
three who see motion picture; for
every person who sees a prizehght
there are ten or fifteen who see a
motion picture, and SO on. The field
secretary will not be working for any
one producer or combination of pro-
ducers; he will be working for the good
of the whole industry. The producers
themselves have given up the attempt
TO sell motion pictures by national ad-
vertlsing through national mediums,
and will in the future accompany the
distribution Of motion pictures with
local advertising campaigns.
A second aim of the mission of the
field secretary will be to combat the
several movements now on foot for a
stricter censorship Of motion pictures.
A majority of the producers believe
in and express their belief by submit
| ting their films to the National Board
Of Censorship, a non-legal and unoffi-
cial body, but they are unwilling to see
films subjected to the censorship of
long-haired reformers. But next year
will see more legislatures in bly,
than ever, and at many Of these ses-
sions there will be attempts made to
create official boards of censorship
These movements will be uniformly
fought by the A. NJ. P. A. from the
belief Of the individual members of
the organization that the pictures pro-
duced to-day need no more censorship
than that given them by the informal
National Board Of Censorship, by whose
decisions nearly all producers are
strictly guided. SO that the journey
Of the field secretary Is in more than
g limited sense a Journey of education
for the benefit Of the whole industry
| and its patrons