Evening star., 1935-12-01
Film Effect
On Youth Is
Called mil"
Social Survey Shows
Moral Behavior by
Groups.
By E. de S. MelCher.

N N interesting 04SpdUCn AS ocAt uo
"a from st. Louis by Writer Hal
Boyle. It concerns youth and the
movies and Mr.. Boyle starts out as
follows:
'The national alarm over what the
movies are doing to the younger gen.
eraticu is Just SO much wasted worry.
q Washington University social survey
indicated today. For, if the findings
of q QUESTIONABLE, sent to 600 high
school students here, can be accepted
as conclusive, the effect of motion
picture attendance on their moral be-
havior is practically nil.
1.-The results tend to disprove the
theory that movies ruin" the younger
generation said DR.. Theodore F.
Lentz, jr., professor of education and
director of the Character Research In
stitute. ON the other hand, they also
tend to disprove the theory that mo-
tiou pictures are a broad avenue to
culture
However, by comparing the high
school groups answers to 524 carefully
phrased queries, Miss Elizabeth
Nichols, research assistant, who con-
Quoted the survey, found marked diff
ferences between the habitual film
goers and those who attend only
occasionally.
she found, for example, that stu
dents who attended movies two or
three times q week were better ad-
justed and more popular with fellow
students than those who went only
that many times a year.
"'THE movie fans also had a slightly
higher average intelligence quo
tient, although the difference was too
slim to be meaningful.
"'If anything, the minded
group was less puritanical than the
other Miss Nichols said On such
matters as feminine smoking and
personal drinking habits they showed
a much more tolerant attitude They
were also less girl-shy or boy-shy.'
But while the cinema patrons were
more socially adjusted the fireside-
loving group was distinctly more So
cially minded
1.-The movie-attending students ad-
rnitted they we're used to having their
own way Miss Nichols explained, and
their answers showed they generally
believed in unrestricted personal free
dom.
1.-The film-shunning students, how
ever. saw reasons why millionaires
shouldn't build 30-room mansions, why
the Government should provide med
ical and dental service, and why
citizens ought to do jury duty even if
they are busy with their own affairs.
They also thought universities
should spend more time and energy
trying to make their students more
kind and honest than in making them
intelligent.
WOULD rather be a writer than
an actress" writes Miriam Hopkins
IN an article which she prepared be-
tween scenes of "Splendor." People
are eternal variations of the dog in the
manger. Each one of them has always
wanted to be that which he is not.
Lawyers have yearned to be doctors,
engineers to be actors, bookkeepers to
be sea captains, accountants to be
Indian chiefs and Indian chiefs to be
lawyers.
II want to write. There is nothing
new in the idea of an actress wanting
to become writer. Several of us
have done it already ELISA Landi has
published four books which have
gotten an enthusiastic press. Mary
Pickford's Why Not Try God and her
recent 'Demi- Widow are still active
sellers some time after their first ap-
pearance on the book lists
There is nothing should better
like to do than shove aside by makeup
kit and the nerveracking ordeal of
facing the cameras 300 days year for
the more peaceful, if no less strenuous
task of creative writing. realize
that writing is no sinecure. know
Of the anguish that accompanies the
intense concentration that writing re-
quires. Writers have met-success-
full ones-tell me that they, too, ex-
perience the same pangs each time
they sit down to their machines.
Despite all this, though, the desire
remains within me to be an author
rather than an actress. The satisfac-
tion in turning out piece of creative
writing far exceeds that of any other
endeavor know-and that includes
turning in fine performance before
the cameras. Think, for example, of
Rachel Crothers' satisfaction after
having turned in such piece of writ
ing as the screen story 'Splendor.' In
which I have just finished working
with Joel McCrea!
my desire to write is no sudden |
whim. All my schooling, all my train
Ing, was undertaken with the determi-
nation to equip myself for writing.
Acting was probably the most remote |
OF my ambitions. But capricious fate |
decided otherwise. At the end of my
sophomore year at Goddard Seminary
In Vermont, permitted myself in a |
weak moment to be drafted into a |
play. From then on
! was doomed. I was to become an
actress whether I wanted to or not,
first in amateur shows as a dancer,
and then Broadway and Hollywood.
But my interest in writing has
never abated. It has been stored, so to |
speak, in my subconsciousness. And at |
times it has taken active form in at
tempts to assist In the preparation Of
my scripts, though I have always been
cautious, hesitating to express my
opinions in Difference to more expert
enced and wiser heads. In the few in
stances where my suggestions were
acted upon the results were quite sat
me at any rate.
IT believe that the Importance Of a
script cannot be estimated too highly.
every picture I have ap-
peared in has had great story-Rob- |
bert Louis Stevenson's Or. Jekyl and |
Mr.. Hyde Thackerayis Vanity Fair
Noel Coward's Design For Living
rTiI1ia -, Eiay,IIrx, ay,e :, nf,. WV IyAnI,%