The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-05-07
Kansas Governor in New York
Tells of His s.vice..
Declares Public Able To Do It's
Own Picture Censuring.
NO KICKS ON WESTERNS
But Would Rather See West
? Pictured Gas Is"
Claims Much Trouble Made for
Themselves by Producers.

New York, May Henry J. Allen.
governor of Kansas, is such a movie
fan that when he came east last week
to address the Actors Fidelity League.
a club at Harvard and a military
school in New Jersey he declined two
dinner invitations in order that he
might indulge in his favorite recrea-
ton.
"Out home I go to the movies at
least once a week.. and frequently
oftener,'' he told a reporter, and 1
see no reason why I should be de-
prived of this pleasure when 1 am
away. 1 consider motion pictures the
devised.
Public Is Own Censor.
1.-THE greatest source of encourage
ment to the producer, it seems to me-
the governor went on, "is the fact that
more and more the public is demon
strating its ability to be its own cen
sor. There probably will be more Of
fetal censorship before there is less
but ultimately the people at large will
be recognized as competent to decide
what they shall and shall not see.
Then all the picture men will give
their patrons what they want, which
! is clean. wholesome. but entertaining
films. The trend today is in that di-
rection undeniably and it will con-
tinue. Exhibitors are finding that
unworthy offerings do not pay and it
will not be long before the few pro-
wholesome pictures will have change
of heart.
MY favorite picture star? Charles
Ray. I am not one of those who are
satisfied with pictures that are merely
clean. To satisfy my taste they must
contain also meat and action and
Ray supplies these ingredients. His
, productions invariably are both enter
tanning and artistic and he is at once a
real man and a genius.
No Kicks on westerns,
"As westerner [ may be expected
to protest against the so-called West
ern' picture. but am disposed to do
nothing of the sort There is much
to commend in scenes depicting the
| Virile life of the plains and the noun
| tains, tho these will be more whole
| some and more faithful to present day
| conditions when less stress is laid on
| the vanishing mining camp dance hall
rand less glorification is paid the al
most extinct desperate.
| The time has not yet come when
| censorship should be abolished utterly,
but 1 am willing to concede that cen
sors often make mistakes. One error
/ into which official boards sometimes
! fall is the belief that every picture
should be educational with the result
that when sitting in judgment on a
picture they consider only its value as
an aid to instruction. Unquestionably
some films. such as Rays The Old
| Swimmin'-Hole which has been
adopted for use in the New York
schools. can be used to decided ad-
vantage in furthering education, but
it is unfair to judge every one by that
test. The first purpose of the motion
picture obviously is to entertain.
Optimistic For Future.
"At times producers make trouble
for themselves by adopting names or
incorporating sub-titles which work an
injustice to the picture itself. Censors
have rejected entirely unobjectionable
films because their titles or adver-
tisements carried an unworthy sex APP
peal. Such producers are learning
gradually that the public is neither
illiterate nor vicious. and that, fan
from proving of box-office value, sug-
gestfve lnisnomers actually keep peo-
tple away from the theaters.
i But, considering the phenomenal
growth of the industry in a few years
and the huge output of productions
the mistakes made have been remark
ably few and they are becoming YET
more rare. 1t is a gratifying sign OF
the times that the public gives its
patronage most enthusiastically to the
highest class of pictures and that pro-
ducers are exerting themselves as
never before to satisfy this demand