Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-11-29

QI6u dCCOTuIuS 10 LllSlr NATURE
And this is fact: The American people
are obsessed with a mania for amusement
and pleasure eeking as pronounced as that
which was prevalent among the Romans in
the period Immediately preceding the decline
and fall of the Roman government. The vast
sums expended by our people on cheap,
shoddy and demoralzing spectacles are as
great as the amounts which the Roman
rulers squandered on similar exhibitions In
their day. What huge expenditures are made
to maintain the debasing "movies!" We may
judge of this enormous waste by considering
the sums paid the sorry actors who make
the films!
Some months ago "The Federal Trade
Commission" was investigating this matter,
and the testimony elected in the investigation
was amazing. Some of it was reported in
press Dispatch which was sent out from New
York, and read as follows:
"Well-knoWn motion picture stars receive
from 500, 600 to $3.50, 1000 for each picture
they work in, it was revealed Tuesday by
John D. Williams, organizer of the First Ma
tional Exhibitors Circuit, Inc, who testified
at the federal trade commission hearing as
to whether the Famous Players-Lasky cor
poration and it's subsidiaries constitute
trust.
WILLIAMS told of the salaries paid the
stars after challenge of his testimony, that
the Famous Players controlled sixty per cent
of the leading film men and women in 1916.
81, OOO,O 900 in 1917 to. produce eight pictures,
while between 1917 and 1918, Mary Pickford
had received $4,000 for each of three pic
lures. Norma Talmadge, he said, first re-
ceived $4,000 each with share in the
profits of eight pictures, and later had been
engaged at $500 for each of twelve more
pictures.
constance Talmadge appeared first in
twelve pictures at $4,000 each and later
had received $150,000 each for second
dozen.
katherine Mcdonald had received $780,
600 for six pictures.
few days later came dispatch from Chi
cago to this effect:
Larry Semon, the movie comedian. will
soon be working for $1,000,000 a year
ga three-year contract for this somewhat
attractive salary was signed here Tuesday
by Semon and M H. Hoffman general man
ager of the Trust Film corporation, it was
anQounced.'' :
Who pays these enormous salaries? Not
the film corporations, which make immense
profits on their films. The American people
who patrOniZe the movies" pay both the
salaries of the players and the profits of the
film corporations. The ancient Romans never
paid so much for their shows in their worst
days
The movies" like the Roman comedies,
have driven out any higher type of theatrical
exhibitions. They have debaSed the drama to
the lowest possible level, and the products
which come from Hollywood come dripping
with Vileness. =
Meanwhile. the brutal contests of the
prize ring are patronized at vast cost by very
many of the same people who enrich the
movie makers. The two brutes who staged
recently an indecent exhibition of that kind
were paid above 100000 for pummeling one
another during the space of less than an
hour. Of course, the money came out of the
pockets of the spectators, together with larg
err amounts which the promoters of the exhi
bition received.
The two brutes who engaged in the combat
were not famous as fighters in the World
stake. Oh, no, they and their supporters were
rather slack then.
The movies" and the prize ring are not
all the forms of paganism which our pleas
ure-mad people are patroniZing at great cost.
Sports are costing them billions Of dollars
annually while the cries Of a broken-hearted
world go unheeded by them.
Worst of all, our devotees of pleasure are
pushing their mad follies into the spheres
of religion and education. They wish the
churches to supply them with amusement on
Sunday, and they order musicians and pulpit
actors to suit their taste.
Our schools and colleges, with few excep-
tions, are being subjected to the same per-
nicious influence. They are called upon to
furnish games for our pleasure-loving
pagans and right willingly faculties and
students yield to the demand This subsection
of educational institutions to the demand of
pleasure-loving gamesters is a debasement
which goes a bow-shot beyond anything re-
corded of the pagans of ancient Rome.
Where will it all end? In utter ruin.
Nothing but widespread revival of re-
ligion can avert the destruction to which our
pleasure-mad people are rushing.